/Her/. Matter both has been born, O son, and it has been [before it came
into existence]; for Matter is the vase of genesis, 1 <#fn_79> and
genesis, the mode of energy of God, who’s free from all necessity of
genesis, and pre-exists.

[Matter], accordingly, by its reception of the seed of genesis, did come
[herself] to birth, and [so] became subject to change, and, being shaped,

p. 27

took forms; for she, contriving the forms of her [own] changing,
presided over her own changing self.

The unborn state 1 <#fn_80> of Matter, then, was formlessness 2
<#fn_81>; its genesis is its being brought into activity.