EN XIa: τὸ σύνθετον ζῷον

Like διαίρεσις νοητῶν (Scholion XXV), the expression ‘a composite animal’ comes from Alexander of Aphrodisias and was taken up by Didymus. It can be traced in Philo, and Justin is the first Christian author to style a human being a σύνθετον ζῷον. It does not appear in Origen, yet the idea is there. Since the designation of man as a ‘composite animal’ (σύνθετον ζῷον) is otherwise almost absent from Christian literature, its presence in this Scholion points to Didymus. The same idea occurs in Pseudo-Caesarius, whom I have identified with Cassian himself. Quaestiones et Responsiones, 174: ἄμφω γὰρ κτιστά, ἥ τε ψυχὴ καὶ τὸ σῶμα καὶ σύνθετα τῇ πρὸς ἄλληλα συναφείᾳ καὶ κοινωνίᾳ· συνθέσει δὲ πάντως ἕπεται διάστασις καὶ διαίρεσις.

A ‘composite animal’ (σύνθετον ζῷον) may also mean an animal consisting of different material ‘elements’ (fire, air, water, dust, etc.), referring not only to humans, but to any animal, even plants.