Apuleius and the Aristotelian De Mundo

Proem(1) While reflecting, and delving deeper, dear Faustinus, it has often struck me before that Philosophy, seeker of virtue and scourge of the vices, shares in things divine. It strikes me especially now, since the interpretation of nature and the investigation of things that are far beyond what we can see is something that Philosophy claims for herself. (2) Others quail at the magnitude of the subject: they think that the work this sort of thing requires is difficult and deep. Only Philosophy does not doubt her own ability, or think herself unworthy, because to Philosophy is granted judgement of things divine as well as human. (3) On the contrary, in fact: she believes that these beautiful sciences, and the work they involve, are becoming to her profession, that such an occupation suits her interests and inclinations. (4) Human beings cannot physically visit the cosmos and its interior, cannot look into those regions from their terrestrial home; but guided by Philosophy and steeped in her discoveries they have dared to travel intellectually through the regions of heaven, taking roads which their own incisive investigation showed them to be passable only in thought and for the wise. (5) So, although Nature wanted our very distance from the cosmos to keep us away from its neighbourhood, our agile thinking gains us an acquaintance with it, with its size and its careering circuits. (6) The soul possesses divine eyes which can easily make out and recognise the well-springs of the cosmos, and the intellect passes this knowledge on to others - [acting] just like prophets who are filled by the majesty of the gods and reveal to everyone else what they alone, thanks to their divine gift, can see.

Proem Consideranti mihi et diligentius intuenti, et saepe alias, Faustine fili, uirtutis indagatrix expultrixque uitiorum, diuinarum particeps rerum philosophia uidebatur, et nunc maxime, cum naturae interpretationem et remotarum ab oculis rerum inuestigationem sibi uindicet. Nam cum ceteri magnitudine rei territi, eiusmodi laborem arduum et profundum existimarent, sola philosophia suum non despexit ingenium, nec indignam se existimauit, cui diuinarum et humanarum rerum disc[r]eptatio deferatur; sed concinere [accidere] tam bonas artes et eiusmodi operam cum ingenuitate professionis suae credidit, et congruere istius modi curam talibus studiis et moribus. Nam cum mundum homines eiusque penetralia corpore adire non possent, ut terreno domicilio <relicto> illas regiones inspicerent, philosophiam ducem nancti eiusque inuentis inbuti, animo peregrinari ausi sunt per caeli plagas, his itineribus quae exploratione acuminis sui peruia sapientiae solis cogitationibus uiderant, ut, cum ipsius interualli condicione a mundi uicinia natura nos secretos esse uoluisset, inmensitati tamen eius uolucrique curriculo cogitationum nostrarum nos pernicitas intimaret; facillimeque ea, de quibus origo eius est, anima diuinis suis oculis aspexit, agnouit, aliis etiam eius scientiam tradidit, ueluti prophetae quidam deorum maiestate conpleti effantur ceteris, quae diuino beneficio soli uident.

Philosophy has often struck me as a godlike and divine thing, Alexander, especially in cases where it alone has risen to the contemplation of the universe, to concern itself with knowing the truth about it. Others kept their distance from it because it is too elevated, too vast. But Philosophy was not afraid of this subject, and did not think herself unworthy of what is more beautiful than anything else. On the contrary, she supposed that she had close affinity with it, and that she was especially suited to learning about these things. It is impossible to reach heaven physically, or leave the Earth in order to inspect the holy country there [10] as the foolish Aloiadai once had it in mind to do. But thanks to Philosophy, the soul, led by the intellect, has been elevated and transported; it has found itself on a tireless journey, and with the mind it surveyed things together that are for the most are set in locations far apart. The soul easily recognises what is akin to it, I suppose, and its divine eye grasps things that are divine and delivered them as prophetic revelation to humans.

Πολλάκις μὲν ἔμοιγε θεῖόν τι καὶ δαιμόνιον ὄντως χρῆμα, ὦ Ἀλέξανδρε, ἡ φιλοσοφία ἔδοξεν εἶναι, μάλιστα δὲ ἐν οἷς μόνη διαραμένη πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὅλων [Lorimer: ὄντων] θέαν ἐσπούδασε γνῶναι τὴν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀλήθειαν, καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ταύτης ἀποστάντων διὰ τὸ ὕψος καὶ τὸ μέγεθος, αὕτη τὸ πρᾶγμα οὐκ ἔδεισεν οὐδ' αὑτὴν τῶν καλλίστων ἀπηξίωσεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ συγγενεστάτην ἑαυτῇ καὶ μάλιστα πρέπουσαν ἐνόμισεν εἶναι τὴν ἐκείνων μάθησιν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ οὐχ οἷόν τε ἦν τῷ σώματι εἰς τὸν οὐράνιον ἀφικέσθαι τόπον καὶ τὴν γῆν ἐκλιπόντα τὸν ἱερὸν [391a10] ἐκεῖνον χῶρον κατοπτεῦσαι, καθάπερ οἱ ἀνόητοί ποτε ἐπενόουν Ἀλῳάδαι, ἡ γοῦν ψυχὴ διὰ φιλοσοφίας, λαβοῦσα ἡγεμόνα τὸν νοῦν, ἐπεραιώθη καὶ ἐξεδήμησεν, ἀκοπίατόν τινα ὁδὸν εὑροῦσα, καὶ τὰ πλεῖστον ἀλλήλων ἀφεστῶτα τοῖς τόποις τῇ διανοίᾳ συνεφόρησε, ῥᾳδίως, οἶμαι, τὰ συγγενῆ γνωρίσασα, καὶ θείῳ ψυχῆς ὄμματι τὰ θεῖα καταλαβομένη, τοῖς τε ἀνθρώποις προφητεύουσα.

(7) There are people who find no shortage of avid readers for their descriptions of the character and qualities of a particular place: the walls of a city, a stream that flows somewhere, the beauty and grandeur of the mountains, and all the many other things described by others. They enthuse about the cliffs at Nyssa, the caves at Corycus, the shrines at Olympus, the steeps of [Mount] Ossa - and so on, each and severally. (8) But I pity them: all their work, and it captures nothing of any size, nothing with the slightest claim on wonder. But it is not surprising that this is how it is with them: they have no inkling of anything greater, and do not attend to anything which a bit more effort would open to contemplation. (9) If they could, just once, contemplate the terrestrial sphere, or the entire cosmos in the same way, it would convince them that the small individual parts which make up the whole were not so worthy of praise. (10) Walking in the footsteps of Aristotle, the wisest and most learned of philosophers, and of Theophrastus, the writer, I shall, then, as far as my thought can achieve it, speak of the entire celestial system: I shall cover the kinds of things it includes along with their functions, and explain why and how they move.

Quare et eos, qui unius loci ingenia nobis qualitatesque describunt, aut moenia urbis aut alicuius amnis fluenta aut amoenitates et magnitudines montium, alia multa descripta ab aliis, plerique studiose legunt: Nysae iuga et penetralia Coryci, et Olympi sacra, et Ossae ardua, alia huiuscemodi sola dumtaxat et singula extollunt. Quorum me miseret, cum tanto opere nec magnis et oppido paucis inexplebili admiratione capiuntur. Hoc illis euenire adeo non est mirabile, cum nihil maius suspexerint neque ad aliquid intenderint, quod maiore diligentia contemplandum esset. Ceterum si terrarum orbem omnemque mundum contemplari pariter aliquando potuissent, minus exiguas eius et singulas partes dignas laudibus credidissent, quibus esset uniuersitas conprehensa. Quare nos Aristotelen prudentissimum et doctissimum philosophorum et Theophrastum auctorem secuti, quantum possumus cogitatione contingere, dicemus de omni hac caelesti ratione, naturasque <et> officia conplexi et cur et quemadmodum moueantur explicabimus.

And it experienced this, as much as it could, because [the soul] wishes to share, without jealousy, everything it values with everyone. This is why some people have laboured to sketch for us the nature of a particular place, or the layout of some particular city, or the extent of a river, or [20] the beauty of a mountain - the sort of thing that people have done before now. Some of them talked about [Mount] Ossa, some Nyssa, some the cave at Corycus, others whatever there happened to be in whatever place. One should pity them for their small-mindedness: they are struck with wonder at anything, and are making a huge deal out of a trivial scene. They experience this because they cannot see what is greater - I mean the cosmos, and the greatest things in the cosmos. If they really knew, they would not ever have experienced wonder at anything of those other things, [391b1] but everything else would have seemed trivial to them, and not worth a thing in comparison to their superiority. So let me speak and, as far as it is achievable, make a theology encompassing all these things, the nature and position and movement of each. And I think it is fitting for you too, as the best of leaders, to engage with an account of the greatest of things, and for Philosophy not to think about anything trivial, but to welcome the best [men] with such gifts.

Τοῦτο δὲ ἔπαθε, καθ' ὅσον οἷόν τε ἦν, πᾶσιν ἀφθόνως μεταδοῦναι βουληθεῖσα τῶν παρ' αὑτῇ τιμίων. Διὸ καὶ τοὺς μετὰ σπουδῆς διαγράψαντας ἡμῖν ἑνὸς τόπου φύσιν ἢ μιᾶς σχῆμα πόλεως ἢ ποταμοῦ μέγεθος [391a20] ἢ ὄρους κάλλος, οἷά τινες ἤδη πεποιήκασι, φράζοντες οἱ μὲν τὴν Ὄσσαν, οἱ δὲ τὴν Νύσσαν, οἱ δὲ τὸ Κωρύκιον ἄντρον, οἱ δὲ ὁτιοῦν ἔτυχε τῶν ἐπὶ μέρους, οἰκτίσειεν ἄν τις τῆς μικροψυχίας, τὰ τυχόντα ἐκπεπληγμένους καὶ μέγα φρονοῦντας ἐπὶ θεωρίᾳ μικρᾷ. Τοῦτο δὲ πάσχουσι διὰ τὸ ἀθέατοι τῶν κρειττόνων εἶναι, κόσμου λέγω καὶ τῶν ἐν κόσμῳ μεγίστων· οὐδέποτε γὰρ ἂν τούτοις γνησίως ἐπιστήσαντες [391b1] ἐθαύμαζόν τι τῶν ἄλλων, ἀλλὰ πάντα αὐτοῖς τὰ ἄλλα μικρὰ κατεφαίνετο ἂν καὶ οὐδενὸς ἄξια πρὸς τὴν τούτων ὑπεροχήν. Λέγωμεν δὴ ἡμεῖς καί, καθ' ὅσον ἐφικτόν, θεολογῶμεν περὶ τούτων συμπάντων, ὡς ἕκαστον ἔχει φύσεως καὶ θέσεως καὶ κινήσεως. Πρέπειν δέ γε οἶμαι καὶ σοί, ὄντι ἡγεμόνων ἀρίστῳ, τὴν τῶν μεγίστων ἱστορίαν μετιέναι, φιλοσοφίᾳ τε μηδὲν μικρὸν ἐπινοεῖν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς τοιούτοις δώροις δεξιοῦσθαι τοὺς ἀρίστους.

Introduction

1(1) The cosmos as a whole consists in the combination of heaven and Earth, and the nature of everything that belongs to either. Here is another [way of defining it]: the cosmos is an ordering adorned by god's generosity and governed under the protection of the gods. (2) Its solid and immobile pivot (that is how I would render κέντρον) is occupied by the Earth, which is mother and nurse of all living things, and whose entire surface, as one can see, is enclosed and wrapped in the fluid air, which is like a vault. (3) Beyond [the air] is the home of the gods, which we call 'heaven'. We can actually see that it is full of divine bodies: those fires of unsurpassed beauty, the dazzling Sun, the Moon, and the other stars. Heaven follows their circular paths through the cycles of day and night, leading the chorus of stars which slip along unceasingly, and will never come to an end for want of time. (4) Since the whole heaven revolves in this way, like a sphere, it has to be held - rooted as it were. Divine craftsmanship has fixed its vertices in just the way that a craftsman holds his wood in pincers when he turns it evenly on a lathe. (5) We call these vertices poles: they are like axle-mounts, and the line which extends between them is called an axis, bisecting the cosmos, and acting as a limit, keeping the Earth's sphere in its centre. (6) The vertices, which, as I said, are fixed, are so positioned that one appears above us, to the north (the Arctic, as we call it), while the other (the Antarctic) is on the other side of the Earth, in a place made humid and languid by the southern vapours.

1 Mundus omnis societate caeli et terrae constat et eorum natura quae utriusque sunt; uel sic: mundus est ornata ordinatio dei munere, deorum recta custodia. Cuius cardinem sic enim dixerim κέντρον robustum et inmobilem genetrix atque altrix animantium omnium habet tellus, supernis omnibus, ut uideri potest, aeris liquiditate ad modum tegminis saeptis et opertis. Vltra deorum domus est, quod caelum uocamus: quod quidem diuinis corporibus onustum uidemus, pulcherrimis ignibus et perlucidis solis et lunae reliquorumque siderum, cum quibus fertur per orbem dierum noctiumque curriculis, agens et stellarum choros intermino lapsu, finem nulla aeui defectione factura. Sed cum omne caelum ita reuoluatur ut sphaera, eam tamen radicibus oportet teneri, quas diuina machinatio uerticibus adfixit, ut in tornando artifex solet forcipe materiam conprehensam reciproco uolumine rotundare; eos polos dicimus, a quibus, ueluti a cardinibus, directio quaedam profecta axis est dictus, diuisor et disterminator mundi, orbem terrae in medietate constituens. Verum hi uertices, quos inmobiles diximus, ita sunt ut supra caput alter adpareat ex parte boreae, qui septemtrionalis uocatur; alter antarcticus humo tegitur, umidus et austrinis uaporibus mollis.

So the cosmos is a system made from heaven and Earth and [10] all the natures [i.e. kinds of being] encompassed within them. Cosmos is used in another sense too, to mean the order and arrangement [diakosmesis] of the universe preserved by god and through god. The life-giving earth, the hearth and mother of all kinds of living things, was given its centre, which is unmoved and foundational. The region above [the Earth], which is entirely bounded by an outermost limit, is the dwelling-place of the gods, and is called heaven [ouranos]. It is full of divine bodies, which we commonly refer to as 'stars'; it is in eternal motion, and dances unceasingly with them all in a revolving circuit they all share. The whole heaven and cosmos is spherical [20] and is, as I said, in continual motion: but there must be two unmoving points, opposite each other, as there are in the case of a ball rotating on a lathe, which remain fixed and hold the ball in place, and its whole mass turns around them. These [fixed points] are called poles: [392a1] if you imagine a straight line connecting them - some call this the axis - it will be the diameter of the cosmos, with Earth occupying the centre and the two poles its limits. The poles are unmoving: one is always visible, because it is over our heads in the northern region: it is called the Arctic; the other is always hidden on the other side of the Earth to the south, and is called the Antarctic.

Κόσμος μὲν οὖν ἐστι σύστημα ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς καὶ τῶν [391b10] ἐν τούτοις περιεχομένων φύσεων. Λέγεται δὲ καὶ ἑτέρως κόσμος ἡ τῶν ὅλων τάξις τε καὶ διακόσμησις, ὑπὸ θεοῦ τε καὶ διὰ θεὸν φυλαττομένη. Ταύτης δὲ τὸ μὲν μέσον, ἀκίνητόν τε καὶ ἑδραῖον ὄν, ἡ φερέσβιος εἴληχε γῆ, παντοδαπῶν ζῴων ἑστία τε οὖσα καὶ μήτηρ. Τὸ δὲ ὕπερθεν αὐτῆς, πᾶν τε καὶ πάντῃ πεπερατωμένον εἰς τὸ ἀνωτάτω, θεῶν οἰκητήριον, οὐρανὸς ὠνόμασται. Πλήρης δὲ ὢν σωμάτων θείων, ἃ δὴ καλεῖν ἄστρα εἰώθαμεν, κινούμενος κίνησιν ἀίδιον, μιᾷ περιαγωγῇ καὶ κύκλῳ συναναχορεύει πᾶσι τούτοις ἀπαύστως δι' αἰῶνος. Τοῦ δὲ σύμπαντος οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ κόσμου σφαιροειδοῦς [391b20] ὄντος καὶ κινουμένου, καθάπερ εἶπον, ἐνδελεχῶς, δύο ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἀκίνητά ἐστι σημεῖα, καταντικρὺ ἀλλήλων, καθάπερ τῆς ἐν τόρνῳ κυκλοφορουμένης σφαίρας, στερεὰ μένοντα καὶ συνέχοντα τὴν σφαῖραν, περὶ ἃ ὁ πᾶς ὄγκος κύκλῳ στρέφεται· καλοῦνται δὲ οὗτοι πόλοι· δι' ὧν εἰ νοήσαιμεν ἐπεζευγμένην εὐθεῖαν, ἥν τινες ἄξονα καλοῦσι, διάμετρος ἔσται τοῦ κόσμου, μέσον [392a1] μὲν ἔχουσα τὴν γῆν, τοὺς δὲ δύο πόλους πέρατα. Τῶν δὲ ἀκινήτων πόλων τούτων ὁ μὲν ἀεὶ φανερός ἐστιν ὑπὲρ κορυφὴν ὢν κατὰ τὸ βόρειον κλίμα, ἀρκτικὸς καλούμενος, ὁ δὲ ὑπὸ γῆν ἀεὶ κατακέκρυπται, κατὰ τὸ νότιον, ἀνταρκτικὸς καλούμενος.

Cosmic Spheres

(7) Heaven itself, and the stars which it nurtures, and the whole sidereal network, is referred to as 'aether' - not, as some think, because it is on fire and burning, but because of its continual and rapid revolutions. Aether is not one of the four elements which everyone is familiar with, but is very different [from them]. It is counted as a fifth [element], but it is first in rank: divine and invulnerable in kind.

Sed caelum ipsum stellaeque caeligenae omnisque siderea conpago aether[a] uocatur, non, ut quidam putant, quod ignitus sit et incensus, sed quod cursibus rapidis semper rotetur, elementum non unum ex quattuor quae nota sunt cunctis, sed longe aliud, numero quintum, primum ordine, genere diuinum et inuiolabile.

We call the substance of the heaven and of the stars aether - not, as some say, because it is fiery and blazes [aithesthai] (they confuse it with the completely different capacity possessed by fire), but because it always rushes [aiei thein] in a circular path: it is an element different from the four [elements], as one that does not mix and is divine.

Οὐρανοῦ δὲ καὶ ἄστρων οὐσίαν μὲν αἰθέρα καλοῦμεν, οὐχ, ὥς τινες, διὰ τὸ πυρώδη οὖσαν αἴθεσθαι, πλημμελοῦντες περὶ τὴν πλεῖστον πυρὸς ἀπηλλαγμένην δύναμιν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸ ἀεὶ θεῖν κυκλοφορουμένην, στοιχεῖον οὖσαν ἕτερον τῶν τεττάρων, ἀκήρατόν τε καὶ θεῖον.

2(1) One group of stars, an uncountably large number of them, moves in the plane of the fixed sphere. Around this runs the band of signs [= the zodiac], which surrounds it at an oblique angle, lit up by its twelve signs. Another group of stars are wanderers: they do not move like those in the first group, and indeed they differ from each other in their courses and speeds. They are set on different globes, and serve what I could call an irregular order; some lie further out, some closer in. (2) The stars whose nature is such that they are not believed to deviate at all are part of an infinite horde, but they form a crown for something single, the back of the aether, with the wonderful and holy beauty of their light. (3) Conversely, the seven [stars] which are distinguished by the names of gods are set on as many spheres, which lie in a nested series so that the highest sphere is also the largest. These [spheres] are connected in sequence by reciprocal bonds, and are contained within the embrace of the so-called fixed sphere. (4) They are: the globe of Phaeno, which we call Saturn; then, second, that of Phaetho, which we call Jupiter; third, that of Pyroeis, which many people call [the star] of Heracles and more still the star of Mars; Stilbo follows next, which some people name [the star] of Apollo and others [the star] of Mercury; fifth is Phosphorus, Juno's star, also reckoned [the star] of Venus; then comes the sphere of the Sun, and last of all the Moon. [The Moon] is the near limit of the towering aether which, as it nourishes the divine and immortal vitality of these [celestial] fires, is consumed and restored by its regular and consistent intake of as much.

2 Iam astrorum innumerabilis multitudo partim labitur cum orbis inerrantis regione, quam circulus ambit signifer, obliqua conplexione circumdatus, et signis XII inluminatus, partim errantibus stellis, quae neque priorum motus habent neque sane inter se similes et aequales, sed adfixae diuersis globis inordinatum, ut sic dixerim, ordinem seruant; aliaeque ultra sunt, aliae citra. Stellae, quae propter naturam eiusmodi nullis creduntur erroribus uagae, et infinitos numero greges ducunt et simplex aetheris dorsum alma et sacrata amoenitate lucis coronant. Septem uero deorum nominibus inlustres, totidem orbibus adfixae sunt et gradatim sibimet superlatae, ut superior inferiore sit maior, ac uicissim mutuis adhaesionibus nexae conplexu illius orbis, qui inerrabilis dicitur, continentur. Hic Phaenonis globus, quem appellamus Saturnum; post quem Phaethontis secundus est, quem Iouem dicimus: et loco tertio Pyrois, quam multi Herculis, plures Martis stellam uocant. Hanc sequitur Stilbon, cui quidam Apollinis, ceteri Mercuri nomen dederunt. Quintus Phosphorus, Iunonia, immo Veneris stella censetur. Deinde solis est orbis et ultima omnium luna, altitudinis aethereae principia disterminans, quae diuinas et inmortales uiuacitates ignium pascens, ordinatis ac semper aequalibus inuectionibus soluitur atque reparatur.

[10] Of the stars that the cosmos encompasses, some revolve along with the whole heaven, without wandering, but keeping to the same places. In the middle of them, the so-called 'zodiac' forms an oblique girdle between the tropics; it is divided into twelve areas corresponding to the signs [of the zodiac]. Other stars, the planets [lit: 'wanderers'], do not move with the same speed as the former, or as each other, but they all have their own circles, so that, among them, one is closer to Earth and another further out. The multitude of the fixed stars is undiscoverable to humans, although they move on the single surface of the whole heaven. But that of the planets has seven members in all, situated on as many circles, which are arranged in sequence [20] so that the higher is in each case larger than the lower. The seven circles are nested in each other, but all are surrounded by the sphere of the unwandering stars. The circle of Phainon, also called that of Cronus, always has the place next in from it; and then that of Phaethon, also known as [the circle] of Zeus; then Pyroeis, known as [the circle] both of Heracles and of Ares. Next is Stilbon, which some call the holy [circle] of Hermes, but others that of Apollo. After that comes the [circle] of Phosphorus, which they call [the circle] of Aphrodite (but others again of Hera); then that of the Sun, and finally that of the Moon, which is the lower limit of the aether [30] which embraces all the divine bodies and the array of their movement.

Τῶν γε μὴν ἐμπεριεχομένων [392a10] ἄστρων τὰ μὲν ἀπλανῶς τῷ σύμπαντι οὐρανῷ συμπεριστρέφεται, τὰς αὐτὰς ἔχοντα ἕδρας, ὧν μέσος ὁ ζῳοφόρος καλούμενος κύκλος ἐγκάρσιος διὰ τῶν τροπικῶν διέζωσται, κατὰ μέρη διῃρημένος εἰς δώδεκα ζῳδίων χώρας, τὰ δέ, πλανητὰ ὄντα, οὔτε τοῖς προτέροις ὁμοταχῶς κινεῖσθαι πέφυκεν οὔτε ἀλλήλοις, ἀλλ' ἐν ἑτέροις καὶ ἑτέροις κύκλοις, ὥστε αὐτῶν τὸ μὲν προσγειότερον εἶναι, τὸ δὲ ἀνώτερον. Τὸ μὲν οὖν τῶν ἀπλανῶν πλῆθος ἀνεξεύρετόν ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις, καίπερ ἐπὶ μιᾶς κινουμένων ἐπιφανείας τῆς τοῦ σύμπαντος οὐρανοῦ· τὸ δὲ τῶν πλανήτων, εἰς ἑπτὰ μέρη κεφαλαιούμενον, ἐν τοσούτοις [392a20] ἐστὶ κύκλοις ἐφεξῆς κειμένοις, ὥστε ἀεὶ τὸν ἀνωτέρω μείζω τοῦ ὑποκάτω εἶναι, τούς τε ἑπτὰ ἐν ἀλλήλοις ἐμπεριέχεσθαι, πάντας γε μὴν ὑπὸ τῆς τῶν ἀπλανῶν σφαίρας περιειλῆφθαι. Συνεχῆ δὲ ἔχει ἀεὶ τὴν θέσιν ταύτῃ ὁ τοῦ Φαίνοντος ἅμα καὶ Κρόνου καλούμενος κύκλος, ἐφεξῆς δὲ ὁ τοῦ Φαέθοντος καὶ Διὸς λεγόμενος, εἶθ' ὁ Πυρόεις, Ἡρακλέους τε καὶ Ἄρεος προσαγορευόμενος, ἑξῆς δὲ ὁ Στίλβων, ὃν ἱερὸν Ἑρμοῦ καλοῦσιν ἔνιοι, τινὲς δὲ Ἀπόλλωνος· μεθ' ὃν ὁ τοῦ Φωσφόρου, ὃν Ἀφροδίτης, οἱ δὲ Ἥρας προσαγορεύουσιν, εἶτα ὁ ἡλίου, καὶ τελευταῖος ὁ τῆς σελήνης, μέχρις ἧς ὁρίζεται ὁ [392a30] αἰθήρ, τά τε θεῖα ἐμπεριέχων σώματα καὶ τὴν τῆς κινήσεως τάξιν.

Air / Atmosphere

3(1) After that part of the cosmos which lies within the bounds of the aether - whose delimitation has been thoughtfully measured out [lit.: measured and pondered] and which is also invariable in its nature - comes the mortal region, closer now to the Earth. The outer parts of this region are somewhat thin and vaporous where they touch the hot lower limit of the aether (to the extent that a tiny thing can be in contact with something enormous, or something sluggish with what moves very fast); (2) but where it is scorched at the edges by the Sun as it makes its circuit, flames which are clearly visible to our eyes can be seen as they are emitted, leap up, and flare. The Greeks call these 'comets', docidae, and bothuni. We often see them streaking by: they light up readily and are even more readily extinguished.

3 Post eam uero partem, quae sancti aetheris finibus coercetur, cuius mensa pensaque distinctio est et natura inmutabilis, regio est mortalis ac iam paene terrena, cuius primae sunt partes tenuiores et uaporatae, quippe cum finitimis aetheris adtingantur ardoribus, quantum maximis parua et quantum rapidis possunt pigriora contingi. Sed ex ea parte, quae curriculis finitimi inuritur solis, se iaculari atque emicare et scintillare flammae quaedam ostensae oculis nostris uidentur, quas Graeci cometas et docidas et bothynos appellant quasque labi et fluere frequenter uidemus, lucere <facile> faciliusque restingui.

After [the region whose] nature is aethereal and divine - which we affirm to be arranged, but also undisturbed, unwavering, and impassive - comes immediately the part which is throughout easily affected and disturbed and, in brief, is destructible and perishable. The first bit of it is the thin and flame-like substance, [392b1] which is ignited by the aether because of its size and the speed of its motion. In the fiery and supposedly chaotic [substance], lights shine out, flames shoot forth, and planks [dokides] and trenches [bothunoi] and what are called comets are frequently ignited and extinguished.

Μετὰ δὲ τὴν αἰθέριον καὶ θείαν φύσιν, ἥντινα τεταγμένην ἀποφαίνομεν, ἔτι δὲ ἄτρεπτον καὶ ἀνετεροίωτον καὶ ἀπαθῆ, συνεχής ἐστιν ἡ δι' ὅλων παθητή τε καὶ τρεπτή, καί, τὸ σύμπαν εἰπεῖν, φθαρτή τε καὶ ἐπίκηρος. Ταύτης δὲ αὐτῆς πρώτη μέν ἐστιν ἡ λεπτομερὴς καὶ φλογώδης οὐσία, [392b1] ὑπὸ τῆς αἰθερίου πυρουμένη διὰ τὸ μέγεθος αὐτῆς καὶ τὴν ὀξύτητα τῆς κινήσεως· ἐν δὲ τῇ πυρώδει καὶ ἀτάκτῳ λεγομένῃ τά τε σέλα διᾴττει καὶ φλόγες ἀκοντίζονται καὶ δοκίδες τε καὶ βόθυνοι καὶ κομῆται λεγόμενοι στηρίζονται καὶ σβέννυνται πολλάκις.

(3) Next to this, the lower air pours in, more turbid in quality. It is suffused with glacial cold: but it also shines under the effect of light from above and its neighbour's heat, and is sometimes cloaked in a purer light. (4) It changes state frequently, as fragile things do: it is compressed into clouds, and then torn apart by gusts [of wind blowing] back and forth, or burst open by violent storms; it shivers with ice when it snows, and suffers a beating when hail pelts down; it becomes tempestuous when gales and typhoons are gusting and whirlwinds attack, but catches fire [when assailed by] lightning and the [rest of the] celestial artillery.

Exin inferioris aeris qualitas turbidior infunditur, cui permixtus est glacialis rigor; sed superioris uicinia claritatis et propinqui caloris adflatu nitescit ac sinceriore interdum luce uestitur. Huius saepe mutabilis conuertitur species, cum sit natura uitiabili: et in nubes cogitur et reciprocis flabris aperitur et nimbis vehementibus rumpitur, niuibus etiam et glacie inhorrescit et praecipiti grandine desuper uerberatur; turbinum flatibus typhonumque conflictu fit procellosa, sed telis fulminum et missilium caelestium iaculis ignescit.

Next to this pours in air, misty and frosty by nature, but illuminated by this [fire above] and even burned so that it becomes bright and warm. It is itself of an easily affected capacity, and it is very mutable, and within it [10] clouds form and showers beat down, there is snow and frost and hail, breaths of winds and of typhoons, and even thunder and coruscations, thunderbolts falling, and storm-clouds colliding in their thousands.

Ἑξῆς δὲ ταύτης ὁ ἀὴρ ὑποκέχυται, ζοφώδης ὢν καὶ παγετώδης τὴν φύσιν· ὑπὸ δὲ ἐκείνης λαμπόμενος ἅμα καὶ διακαιόμενος λαμπρός τε γίνεται καὶ ἀλεεινός. Ἐν δὲ τούτῳ, τῆς παθητῆς ὄντι καὶ αὐτῷ δυνάμεως καὶ παντοδαπῶς ἀλλοιουμένῳ, νέφη τε [392b10] συνίσταται καὶ ὄμβροι καταράσσουσι, χιόνες τε καὶ πάχναι καὶ χάλαζαι πνοαί τε ἀνέμων καὶ τυφώνων, ἔτι τε βρονταὶ καὶ ἀστραπαὶ καὶ πτώσεις κεραυνῶν μυρίων τε γνόφων συμπληγάδες.

Earth and sea

4(1) Connected to the air is the Earth, which carries the seas within itself. It is teeming with animals, clothed in the greenery of the forests, and refreshed by everlasting springs. It conveys cool river streams through meandering landscapes, or pours them into the depths of some sea. (2) It blooms in infinite colours. Mountain heights, level plains, and shady groves give it variety. It curves with sinuous beaches, separates out into islands. It glitters with villas and cities, which the wise species, the human, has constructed to support communities. (3) It has not escaped me that many people who have written on this subject have divided the terrestrial sphere as follows: islands form one part of it, while another part is known as the continent. What they do not realise is that all the immensity of this territory is held in the embrace of the Atlantic sea, so that it is itself just one island alongside the islands within it. (4) The Ocean flows around others just like it, some larger and some smaller. But obviously they are unknown to us, since we cannot even travel all the way around the one that we inhabit. For just as the islands in our [sc. Mediterranean] sea are separated by its waters, so these [continental islands] lie in a global sea, surrounded by channels of water that are all the wider.

4 Aeri terra coniungitur eaque in se suscipit maria. Haec frequentatur animantibus, haec siluarum uiriditate uestitur, haec fontium perennitate recreatur, haec fluminum frigidos lapsus nunc erroribus terrenis uehit, modo profundo in mari confundit; eadem infinitis coloribus floret, altitudine montium, camporum aequore, nemorum opacitate uariatur, sinuosis inflexa litoribus, distincta insulis, uillulis urbibusque conlucens, quas sapiens genus, homo communibus usibus fabricatur. Nec sum nescius, plerosque huius operis auctores terrarum orbem ita diuisisse: partem eius insulas esse, partem uero continentem uocauere, nescii omnem hanc terrenam inmensitatem Atlantici maris ambitu coerceri insulamque hanc unam esse cum insulis suis omnibus. Nam similes huic alias <maiores> et alias minores circumfundit Oceanus, quae tamen merito uidentur ignotae, cum ne hanc quidem, cuius cultores sumus, omnem peragrare possimus. Nam sicut hae insulae interfluuntur, quae sunt in nostro mari, ita illae in uniuerso salo fretis latioribus ambiuntur.

Next to [the region whose] nature is aerial, earth and sea are set. They teem with plants and animals - and springs and rivers, some of which drain into the earth, while others disgorge into the sea. Thousands of plants give it variety, and lofty mountains and thick copses, and cities built by the wise animal, the human. There are islands and continents in the sea. [20] The common account divided our inhabited realm world into islands and continents, but it was unaware that the whole of it is a single island, surrounded by the so-called Atlantic sea. Probably there are many other [such islands] corresponding to this, lying on the other side of it, some larger, some smaller, but all except this one invisible to us. What is true of our islands in relation to the local sea is also true of this inhabited realm in relation to the Atlantic sea (and to the many other such realms in relation to the sea as a whole). These are just large islands washed by large seas. What is by nature [30] moist as a totality covers the surface [of the Earth]; it displays so-called inhabited [regions] where there are mounds of earth, but it, most of all, is the nature [of the region] next to air. Below it, within its depths, at the very centre of the cosmos, all the earth is to be found, compressed and squeezed, unmoving and unshaken - and this is everything in the cosmos that we refer to as 'below'.

Ἑξῆς δὲ τῆς ἀερίου φύσεως γῆ καὶ θάλασσα ἐρήρεισται, φυτοῖς βρύουσα καὶ ζῴοις πηγαῖς τε καὶ ποταμοῖς, τοῖς μὲν ἐν γῇ ἀναλισκομένοις, τοῖς δὲ ἀνερευγομένοις εἰς θάλασσαν. Πεποίκιλται δὲ καὶ χλόαις μυρίαις ὄρεσι τε ὑψήλοις καὶ βαθυξύλοις δρυμοῖς καὶ πόλεσιν, ἃς τὸ σοφὸν ζῷον, ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἱδρύσατο, νήσοις τε ἐναλίοις καὶ ἠπείροις. [392b20] Τὴν μὲν οὖν οἰκουμένην ὁ πολὺς λόγος εἴς τε νήσους καὶ ἠπείρους διεῖλεν, ἀγνοῶν ὅτι καὶ ἡ σύμπασα μία νῆσός ἐστιν, ὑπὸ τῆς Ἀτλαντικῆς καλουμένης θαλάσσης περιρρεομένη. Πολλὰς δὲ καὶ ἄλλας εἰκὸς τῆσδε ἀντιπόρθμους ἄπωθεν κεῖσθαι, τὰς μὲν μείζους αὐτῆς, τὰς δὲ ἐλάττους, ἡμῖν δὲ πάσας πλὴν τῆσδε ἀοράτους· ὅπερ γὰρ αἱ παρ' ἡμῖν νῆσοι πρὸς ταυτὶ τὰ πελάγη πεπόνθασι, τοῦτο ἥδε ἡ οἰκουμένη πρὸς τὴν Ἀτλαντικὴν θάλασσαν πολλαί τε ἕτεραι πρὸς σύμπασαν τὴν θάλασσαν· καὶ γὰρ αὗται μεγάλαι τινές εἰσι νῆσοι μεγάλοις περικλυζόμεναι πελάγεσιν. Ἡ δὲ σύμπασα [392b30] τοῦ ὑγροῦ φύσις ἐπιπολάζουσα, κατά τινας τῆς γῆς σπίλους τὰς καλουμένας ἀναπεφαγκυῖα οἰκουμένας, ἑξῆς ἂν εἴη τῆς ἀερίου μάλιστα φύσεως. Μετὰ δὲ ταύτην ἐν τοῖς βυθοῖς κατὰ τὸ μεσαίτατον τοῦ κόσμου συνερηρεισμένη γῆ πᾶσα καὶ πεπιεσμένη συνέστηκεν, ἀκίνητος καὶ ἀσάλευτος· καὶ τοῦτ' ἔστι τοῦ κόσμου τὸ πᾶν ὃ καλοῦμεν κάτω.

5(1) Mutual bonds are woven between the elements through artfully contrived relationships. Reciprocally bound this way into ordered couples, they form marriages in which lighter [elements] adhere to heavier. Earth contains water within itself (or water, as others think, carries the earth); air arises from water; fire is exhaled from the [relative] density of air. Aether, for its part, along with its fires, is set aflame with the vitality of an immortal god. (2) Ignited by this divine fire, [the stars] burn as bright torches spread throughout the arc of the whole cosmos. This is why the gods on high have the heights for their seats while creatures of the other, lower species occupy places on Earth, where rivers and springs and seas wind along, break out, and bubble up, all having their courses, their channels, and their origins in the bosom of the earth.

5 Elementorum inter se mutui nexus artis adfinitatibus inplicantur, et quinque coniuges copulae his ordinatae uicibus adtinentur, ut adhaereant et grauioribus leuiora: aquam in se habet tellus aut aqua, ut alii putant, uehit terram; aer ex aqua gignitur, ignis aeria densitate conflatur; aether uicissim ignesque illi inmortalis dei uiuacitate flammantur. Huius diuini ignis origine incensi per totius mundi conuexa inlustribus facibus ignescunt. Superna quapropter dii superi sedes habent, infima ceterorum animantium terrena possident genera, per quae serpunt et erumpunt et scatent flumina, fontes et maria, quae meatus et lacunas et origines habent in gremio terrarum.

These five elements [393a1] are disposed in their five places as spheres, the smaller [spheres] surrounded by the larger: I mean earth by water, water by air, air by fire, fire by aether. They constituted the whole cosmos, and marked out the whole of the region above as the home of the gods, that below as home to ephemeral animals. Part of this [latter region] is the moist (we commonly refer to it as rivers and springs and seas), part dry (which we name earth, continents, and islands).

Πέντε δὴ στοιχεῖα ταῦτα [393a1] ἐν πέντε χώραις σφαιρικῶς ἐγκείμενα, περιεχομένης ἀεὶ τῆς ἐλάττονος τῇ μείζονι λέγω δὲ γῆς μὲν ἐν ὕδατι, ὕδατος δὲ ἐν ἀέρι, ἀέρος δὲ ἐν πυρί, πυρὸς δὲ ἐν αἰθέρι τὸν ὅλον κόσμον συνεστήσατο, καὶ τὸ μὲν ἄνω πᾶν θεῶν ἀπέδειξεν οἰκητήριον, τὸ κάτω δὲ ἐφημέρων ζῴων. Αὐτοῦ γε μὴν τούτου τὸ μὲν ὑγρόν ἐστιν, ὃ καλεῖν ποταμοὺς καὶ νάματα καὶ θαλάσσας εἰθίσμεθα, τὸ δὲ ξηρὸν, ὃ γῆν τε καὶ ἠπείρους καὶ νήσους ὀνομάζομεν.

Our continental island

(3) Of those islands which are in our sea, Trinacria [= Sicily], Euboea, Cyprus, and Sardinia, Crete, the Peloponnese, and Lesbos are worth mentioning. There are some smaller ones which are scattered like freckles through the open regions of the sea, and others, called the Cyclades, which face the waves in a denser grouping of landmasses.

Ipsarum uero insularum, quae sunt in nostro mari, digna memoratu Trinacria est, Euboea, Cypros, <Cyrnos> atque Sardinia, Creta, Peloponnesos, Lesbos: minores autem aliae, ut naeuuli quidam, per apertas ponti sunt sparsae regiones, aliae Cyclades dictae, quae frequentioribus molibus adluuntur.

Some islands are large, including [10] (as has been said) this whole inhabited region, and many other such regions surrounded by the great seas. Others are smaller those that we can see within [the inhabited realm]. Some of these deserve mention: Sicily, Sardo [= Sardinia], Kyrnos [= Corsica], Crete, and Euboea and Cyprus and Lesbos. There are lesser islands still, such as the Sporades and the Cyclades; others have other names.

Τῶν δὲ νήσων αἱ μέν εἰσι μεγάλαι, καθάπερ ἡ σύμπασα [393a10] ἥδε οἰκουμένη λέλεκται πολλαί τε ἕτεραι μεγάλοις περιρρεόμεναι πελάγεσιν, αἱ δὲ ἐλάττους, φανεραί τε ἡμῖν καὶ ἐντὸς οὖσαι. Καὶ τούτων αἱ μὲν ἀξιόλογοι, Σικελία καὶ Σαρδὼ καὶ Κύρνος Κρήτη τε καὶ Εὔβοια καὶ Κύπρος καὶ Λέσβος, αἱ δὲ ὑποδεέστεραι, ὧν αἱ μὲν Σποράδες, αἱ δὲ Κυκλάδες, αἱ δὲ ἄλλως ὀνομάζονται.

6(1)The greater seas are the Ocean and Atlantic, which surround our region. (2) From the west, the sea is funnelled in through a narrow opening and flows through some extremely narrow gulfs. After the Pillars of Hercules, it is poured out again, and spreads over an immense area. In places where the land on either side lies close together and forms straits, as it often does, the sea is constricted; but where they give way it is again immense. (3) If you sail through the Pillars [of Hercules], the sea over to the right is at first framed by two large gulfs: the first comprises the two Syrtes, the other is twisting and irregular; but they are divided into the major seas. One of these is called the Gallic, another the African (although Aristotle prefers to call it the Sardinian), the third is the Adriatic sea. (4) To these are joined the Sicilian [sea] and, after that, the Cretan; and to them in turn the Pamphylian, Syrian, and Egyptian seas (although the boundaries between them are indistinct). But before you get to these, there are the Aegean and Myrtoan seas. Pontus is very near them, the largest gulf of our sea: it reaches Maeotis at its furthest extreme; but its source is in the Hellespont. The entrance to it is called Propontis.

6 Maria maiora sunt Oceanus et Atlanticum, quibus orbis nostri terminantur anfractus. Sed occiduarum partium mare per angustias oris artatum in artissimos sinus funditur et rursus a Columnis Herculis refusum, in inmensam latitudinem panditur, saepiusque co untibus terris, ueluti quibusdam fretorum ceruicibus, premitur et idem rursus cedentibus est terris inmensum. Primum igitur a Columnis nauigantibus dextrum latus duobus sinibus maximis cingitur, quorum primus duas Syrtes habet, alter inparibus quidem sinuatur figuris, sed in maxima diuisus est maria, quorum unum Gallicum dicitur, alterum Africum, quod quidem Aristoteles Sardiniense maluit dicere, tertium Adriaticum pelagus. His iungitur Siculum et post Creticum, eo indiscretis finibus Pamphylium, Assyrium, Aegyptium. Sed ante Aegaea <et> Myrtoa sunt maria. His sane uicinus est Pontus, sinus amplissimus maris nostri, cuius extremus recessus in Maeotim senescit; ex Hellesponti fonte concipitur uestibulumque eius Proponti[u]s uocatur.

The sea outside the inhabited world is called the Atlantic and the Ocean : it surrounds us. It comes into [the inhabited realm] from the west through a narrow opening at what are known as the Pillars of Heracles, and flows into the inner sea, as if into a harbour. [20] Gradually, it spreads out, encompassing large gulfs which are connected to each other in some places being confined in narrow straits, in others spreading out again. If you sail in through the Pillars of Heracles, [the sea] is at first said to form two gulfs on your right, the so-called Syrtis Gulfs: one of them is called [Syrtis] Major, the other [Syrtis] Minor. On the other side, no similar gulf is formed, but [the water] produces three seas: what are called the Sardinian, Gallic, and Adriatic seas. Then, across from these, is the Sicilian sea, and beyond this the Cretan sea. Continuous with that are the Egyptian, Pamphylian, and Syrian seas, on one side, and, [30] and on the other, the Aegean and Myrtoan seas. Following the length of these is the Pontic sea, with its many subdivisions. The innermost part is called Maiotis; the outer part, [393b1] towards the Hellespont, is connected by a channel to what is called Propontis.

Πέλαγος δὲ τὸ μὲν ἔξω τῆς οἰκουμένης Ἀτλαντικόν τε καὶ Ὠκεανὸς καλεῖται, περιρρέων ἡμᾶς. Ἐντὸς δὲ πρὸς δύσεις στενοπόρῳ διανεωγὼς στόματι, κατὰ τὰς Ἡρακλείους λεγομένας στήλας τὸν εἴσρουν εἰς τὴν ἔσω θάλασσαν ὡς ἂν εἰς [393a20] λιμένα ποιεῖται, κατὰ μικρὸν δὲ ἐπιπλατυνόμενος ἀναχεῖται, μεγάλους περιλαμβάνων κόλπους ἀλλήλοις συναφεῖς, πῇ μὲν κατὰ στενοπόρους αὐχένας ἀνεστομωμένος, πῇ δὲ πάλιν πλατυνόμενος. Πρῶτον μὲν οὖν λέγεται ἐγκεκολπῶσθαι ἐν δεξιᾷ εἰσπλέοντι τὰς Ἡρακλείους στήλας, διχῶς, εἰς τὰς καλουμένας Σύρτεις, ὧν τὴν μὲν Μεγάλην, τὴν δὲ Μικρὰν, καλοῦσιν· ἐπὶ θάτερα δὲ οὐκέτι ὁμοίως ἀποκολπούμενος τρία ποιεῖ πελάγη, τό τε Σαρδόνιον καὶ τὸ Γαλατικὸν λεγόμενον καὶ Ἀδρίαν, ἑξῆς δὲ τούτων ἐγκάρσιον τὸ Σικελικόν, μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο τὸ Κρητικόν, συνεχὲς δὲ αὐτοῦ, τῇ μὲν τὸ Αἰγύπτιόν τε [393a30] καὶ Παμφύλιον καὶ Σύριον, τῇ δὲ τὸ Αἰγαῖόν τε καὶ Μυρτῷον. Ἀντιπαρήκει δὲ τοῖς εἰρημένοις πολυμερέστατος ὢν ὁ Πόντος, οὗ τὸ μὲν μυχαίτατον Μαιῶτις καλεῖται, τὸ δὲ ἔξω [393b1] πρὸς τὸν Ἑλλήσποντον συνανεστόμωται τῇ καλουμένῃ Προποντίδι.

(5) The Ocean lies in the east, and gives us the Indian and Persian sea. The shores of the Red sea open out from it and, by way of a long, narrow inlet, curve around towards the Hyrcanian and Caspian gulfs. Beyond it there are believed to be seas of enormous depth; (6) then a little further on the straits of Scythia and of Hibernia, and then the sea formed where the encircling Ocean encloses the Gallic gulf and those Pillars at Cadiz, which are the turning-posts of our region.

Ab ortu solis Oceanus est, Indicum et Persicum mare conferens. Hinc patescunt finitima Rubri maris, quae per angustas longinquasque faucis in Hyrcanium et Caspium flectuntur sinus, ultraque profundae uastitatis esse maria creduntur. Deinde paulatim Scythicum et Hibernium freta, et rursum mare, per quod Gallicum <sinum> atque Gaditanas Columnas circumuectus Oceanus orbis nostri metas includit.

Over where the Sun rises, the Ocean flows in again, opens out the Gulf of India and the Gulf of Persia, then straight afterwards marks off and reveals the Red sea. At the other promontory it passes through a narrow and long strait and widens again, setting the bounds of the Hycanian and Caspian seas. Beyond this, it occupies the deep place beyond lake Maiotis; then, a bit further out, beyond the [lands of the] Scythians and Celts, it surrounds the inhabited world towards the Galatic [= Gallic] Gulf [10] and the aforementioned Pillars of Heracles. Outside these points, the Ocean flows around the earth.

Πρός γε μὴν ταῖς ἀνασχέσεσι τοῦ ἡλίου πάλιν εἰσρέων ὁ Ὠκεανός, τὸν Ἰνδικόν τε καὶ Περσικὸν διανοίξας κόλπον, ἀναφαίνει συνεχῆ τὴν Ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν διειληφώς. Ἐπὶ θάτερον δὲ κέρας κατὰ στενόν τε καὶ ἐπιμήκη διήκων αὐχένα, πάλιν ἀνευρύνεται, τὴν Ὑρκανίαν τε καὶ Κασπίαν ὁρίζων· τὸ δὲ ὑπὲρ ταύτην βαθὺν ἔχει τὸν ὑπὲρ τὴν Μαιῶτιν λίμνην τόπον. Εἶτα κατ' ὀλίγον ὑπὲρ τοὺς Σκύθας τε καὶ Κελτικὴν σφίγγει τὴν οἰκουμένην πρός τε τὸν Γαλατικὸν [393b10] κόλπον καὶ τὰς προειρημένας Ἡρακλείους στήλας, ὧν ἔξω περιρρέει τὴν γῆν ὁ Ὠκεανός.

7(1) In another part of [our] region lie the land-masses of the largest islands: these are the two British isles, Labeon and Hibernia, both larger than those we mentioned before. These, in fact, are situated on the borders of the Celtic lands; but there are also some smaller [islands] beyond India: Taprobane and Loxe. (2) And many others too, scattered in a ring, give variety and ornament to this island of ours, that is, this terrestrial region, the one I called the largest [island]; they are strung together to crown it like a sort of garland. (3) The length of the land that we inhabit is 40,000 stades, its breadth 70,000. (4) The lands of this realm are divided into Asia and Europe, and Africa along with them or, as many people say, beside them. (5) Europe's boundaries reach from the Pillars of Hercules to the Pontic and Hyrcanian seas and the river Tanais. Asia goes from the same isthmus, that of the Pontic sea, to the isthmus between the Arabian gulf and the periphery of the inner sea: it is contained by the Ocean's girdle in concert with our [Mediterranean] sea. (6) Other people, though, [define Asia] in a different way, and measure its boundaries from the origin of the Tanais to the openings of the Asian Nile. (7) Africa should be reckoned to stretch from the isthmus of the Red sea, or else from the very sources of the Nile to its end in the region of Cadiz. (8) Most people make Egypt part of Africa, but many make it part of Asia. (Similarly, some people think that islands are to be thought of as part of the lands they are near, while others think they ought to be considered in a category of their own.) (9) That is enough about the sea.

7 Sed in altera parte orbis iacent insularum aggeres maximarum, Britanniae duae, et Labeon et Hibernia, <iis> quas supra diximus [esse] maiores. Verum hae in Celtarum finibus sitae. Sunt minores uero ultra Indos, Probane atque Loxe. Multaeque aliae, orbis ad modum sparsae, hanc nostram insulam (id est hunc terrarum orbem), quam maximam diximus, ornamentis suis pingunt et continuatione ut quibusdam sertis coronant. At enim huius terrae, quam nos colimus, latitudo XL, prolixitas LXX <milia> stadiorum tenet. Sed in diuisione terrarum orbis Asiam et Europam et cum his uel, sicut plures, praeterea Africam accepimus. Europa ab Herculis columnis usque Ponticum et Hyrcanium mare ac flumen Tanain fines habet, Asia ab isdem angustiis Pontici maris usque ad alias angustias, quae inter Arabicum sinum et interioris ambitum pelagi iacent, constringiturque Oceani cingulo et societate nostri maris. Sed alii alio modo, ut quidam ab exordio Tanais ad ora Nili Asiae terminos metiuntur. Africam uero ab isthmo Rubri maris uel ab ipsis fontibus Nili oriri putandum eiusque in Gaditanis locis fines esse. Sed ipsam Aegyptum plerique Asiae, plures Africae adiungunt, ut insularum situs sunt qui cum finitimis locis conprehendunt et sunt qui in alia diuisione eas habendas putant. De mari satis dictum.

The two largest islands are out here, the so-called British Isles, Albion, and Ierne: these are larger than those recounted above, and lie beyond the [land of the] Celts. No smaller than these is Taprobane [= Sri Lanka], which lies beyond India [15], slanting [loxe] with respect to the inhabited region; and also [the island] called Phebol, which is situated in the Arabian gulf. There are also a lot of small islands around the British Isles and Iberia, and they crown this inhabited realm which we have said is [itself] an island, and whose breadth, at the widest part of the continent, is a little less than [20] 40,000 stades, as the best geographers say; its length is as much as around 70,000 stades. It is divided into Europe, Asia, and Libya. Europe is bounded in a circle by the Pillars of Heracles, the inner parts of the Pontic sea, and the Hyrcanian sea where a very narrow isthmus goes to the Pontic sea. (Some, though, have said that [Europe's border] is not this isthmus but the river Tanais.) Asia stretches from the isthmus I have mentioned, that of the Pontic and Hyrcanian seas, as far as another isthmus, which lies between the Gulf of Arabia and the inner sea, and which is surrounded [30] by this [inner sea] and the encircling Ocean. (But some set the border of Asia from Tanais to the outlets of the Nile.) Libya goes from the Arabian isthmus to the Pillars of Hercules (but some think that it stretches to there from the Nile). [394a1] Some people attach Egypt, surrounded as it is by water because of the outlets of the Nile, to Asia others to Libya: and some people accord islands their own status, but others always make them part of the lands they are near. This is how we have come to describe the nature and position of the earth and sea which make up what we commonly know as the inhabited world.

Ἐν τούτῳ γε μὴν νῆσοι μέγισται τυγχάνουσιν οὖσαι δύο, Βρεττανικαὶ λεγόμεναι, Ἀλβίων καὶ Ἰέρνη, τῶν προϊστορημένων μείζους, ὑπὲρ τοὺς Κελτοὺς κείμεναι. Τούτων δὲ οὐκ ἐλάττους ἥ τε Ταπροβάνη πέραν Ἰνδῶν, λοξὴ πρὸς τὴν οἰκουμένην, καὶ ἡ Φεβὸλ καλουμένη, κατὰ τὸν Ἀραβικὸν κειμένη κόλπον. Οὐκ ὀλίγαι δὲ ἄλλαι μικραὶ περὶ τὰς Βρεττανικὰς καὶ τὴν Ἰβηρίαν κύκλῳ περιεστεφάνωνται τὴν οἰκουμένην ταύτην, ἣν δὴ νῆσον εἰρήκαμεν· ἧς πλάτος μέν ἐστι κατὰ τὸ βαθύτατον τῆς ἠπείρου βραχὺ ἀποδέον [393b20] τετρακισμυρίων σταδίων, ὥς φασιν οἱ εὖ γεωγραφήσαντες, μῆκος δὲ περὶ ἑπτακισμυρίους μάλιστα. Διαιρεῖται δὲ εἴς τε Εὐρώπην καὶ Ἀσίαν καὶ Λιβύην. Εὐρώπη μὲν οὖν ἐστιν ἧς ὅροι κύκλῳ στῆλαί τε Ἡρακλέους καὶ μυχοὶ Πόντου θάλαττά τε Ὑρκανία, καθ' ἣν στενότατος ἰσθμὸς εἰς τὸν Πόντον διήκει· τινὲς δὲ ἀντὶ τοῦ ἰσθμοῦ Τάναϊν ποταμὸν εἰρήκασιν. Ἀσία δέ ἐστι τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ εἰρημένου ἰσθμοῦ τοῦ τε Πόντου καὶ τῆς Ὑρκανίας θαλάσσης μέχρι θατέρου ἰσθμοῦ, ὃς μεταξὺ κεῖται τοῦ τε Ἀραβικοῦ κόλπου καὶ τῆς ἔσω θαλάσσης, περιεχόμενος ὑπό τε ταύτης [393b30] καὶ τοῦ πέριξ Ὠκεανοῦ· τινὲς δὲ ἀπὸ Τανάϊδος μέχρι Νείλου στομάτων τὸν τῆς Ἀσίας τίθενται ὅρον. Λιβύη δὲ τὸ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἀραβικοῦ ἰσθμοῦ ἕως Ἡρακλέους στηλῶν. Οἱ δὲ ἀπὸ [394a1] τοῦ Νείλου φασὶν ἕως ἐκείνων. Τὴν δὲ Αἴγυπτον, ὑπὸ τῶν τοῦ Νείλου στομάτων περιρρεομένην, οἱ μὲν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ, οἱ δὲ τῇ Λιβύῃ προσάπτουσι, καὶ τὰς νήσους οἱ μὲν ἐξαιρέτους ποιοῦσιν, οἱ δὲ προσνέμουσι ταῖς γείτοσιν ἀεὶ μοίραις. Γῆς μὲν δὴ καὶ θαλάττης φύσιν καὶ θέσιν, ἥντινα καλεῖν εἰώθαμεν οἰκουμένην, τοιάνδε τινὰ ἱστορήκαμεν.

Atmosphere

Exhalations moist and dry

8(1) Conditions on Earth are like this. Scientists tell us that there are two sorts of exhalation, [both of which are] thin and ubiquitous; that these are barely visible as they rise upwards from the bosom of the land; and that bodies of mist are formed when the vapour is from rivers and springs and this is denser in the mornings. (2) One of these [types of exhalation], the type that is emitted by the earth itself, is dry and rather like flame. The other is humid and warm: the nature of the upper vapour draws it up to itself from liquids. (3) It gives rise to mist, dew, frost, cloud - and showers, snow, and hail. The first type, the one we said was dry, gives rise to the winds, air-currents, lightning, and all the many types of fiery bolts.

8 Terreni uero casus ita se habent. Exhalationes duas physici esse dicunt: tenues et frequentes uixque uisibilis ad superiora minari ex gremio telluris, nebularum agmina halitu amnium fontiumque constare, matutinis temporibus crassiora. Harum altera arida est atque <fumo> consimilis, quae terrenis eructationibus surgit, altera umida et egelida; hanc ex fluentis superioris uaporis natura ad se trahit; et ex hac quidem nebulae, rores, pruinae, nubila et imbres, nix atque grando generantur; de illa superiore, quam diximus siccam, uenti, animae atque flamina et fulmina atque aliae ignitorum telorum gignuntur plurimae species.

Now let us discuss the most noteworthy features within and around [the world], with a summary of the essentials. There are two types of exhalation which constantly rise [10] from it into the air above us: they are fine and completely invisible, except that sometimes at dawn they can be observed rising from rivers and springs. One type is dry and like smoke, and flows from the earth; the other is moist and vaporous, and exhaled from moisture. [15] Mists come from this, and dews and different types of frost, as well as clouds and rain and snow and hail, while from the dry type [come] winds and the various breaths of air, and thunder and coruscations and fire-whirls and thunderbolts and everything else of the sort.

Περὶ δὲ τῶν ἀξιολογωτάτων ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ περὶ αὐτὴν παθῶν νῦν λέγωμεν, αὐτὰ τὰ ἀναγκαῖα κεφαλαιούμενοι. Δύο γὰρ δή τινες ἀπ' αὐτῆς ἀναθυμιάσεις ἀναφέρονται συνεχῶς [394a10] εἰς τὸν ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς ἀέρα, λεπτομερεῖς καὶ ἀόρατοι παντάπασιν, εἰ [τι] μὴ κατὰ τὰς ἑῴας ἔστιν ὅτε ἀπὸ ποταμῶν τε καὶ ναμάτων ἀναφερόμεναι θεωροῦνται. Τούτων δὲ ἡ μέν ἐστι ξηρὰ καὶ καπνώδης, ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἀπορρέουσα, ἡ δὲ νοτερὰ καὶ ἀτμώδης, ἀπὸ τῆς ὑγρᾶς ἀναθυμιωμένη φύσεως. Γίνονται δὲ ἀπὸ μὲν ταύτης ὁμίχλαι καὶ δρόσοι καὶ πάγων ἰδέαι νέφη τε καὶ ὄμβροι καὶ χιόνες καὶ χάλαζαι, ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς ξηρᾶς ἄνεμοί τε καὶ πνευμάτων διαφοραὶ βρονταί τε καὶ ἀστραπαὶ καὶ πρηστῆρες καὶ κεραυνοὶ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἃ δὴ τούτοις ἐστὶ σύμφυλα.

(4) Mist is constituted either from the beginnings of a small cloud or from its remains. It is vaporised exhalation which has lost humidity, is thicker than air but thinner than cloud; it is annihilated by clear air (which is clear simply when it has been purged of darkness and is obviously pure). Dew is nocturnal moisture, which is gently dispersed by clear air. 9(1) We say that ice is moisture which has been compacted by clear air when it is cold: frost is similar, and happens when the soft morning dew becomes white as it freezes.

Nebula constat aut ex ortu nubeculae aut ex eius reliquiis; est autem exhalatio uaporata et umore uiduata, aere crassior, nube subtilior, cui serenitas abolitionem infert. Nec aliud est serenitas, quam aer purgatus caligine et perspicue sincerus. Ros uero nocturnus umor est, quem tenuiter serenitas spargit. 9 Glaciem dicimus umorem sereno rigore concretum. Huic est pruina consimilis, si mollitia roris matutinis frigoribus incanuit.

Mist is [20] a vaporous exhalation which does not produce water, thicker than air but thinner than cloud. It arises as a cloud is forming, or from its remains. Its converse is said to be (and is) clear [aithria], which is just air with no cloud or mist in it. Dew is moisture from clear air, which is carried by it because it is so fine in constitution. [25] Ice is water which is gathered from the cold air and compressed. Frost is compressed dew, and hoar-frost half-compressed dew.

Ἔστι δὲ ὁμίχλη μὲν ἀτμώδης [394a20] ἀναθυμίασις ἄγονος ὕδατος, ἀέρος μὲν παχυτέρα, νέφους δὲ ἀραιοτέρα· γίνεται δὲ ἤτοι ἐξ ἀρχῆς νέφους ἢ ἐξ ὑπολείμματος. Ἀντίπαλος δὲ αὐτῇ λέγεταί τε καὶ ἔστιν αἰθρία, οὐδὲν ἄλλο οὖσα πλὴν ἀὴρ ἀνέφελος καὶ ἀνόμιχλος. Δρόσος δέ ἐστιν ὑγρὸν ἐξ αἰθρίας κατὰ σύστασιν λεπτὴν φερόμενον, κρύσταλλος δὲ ἀθρόον ὕδωρ ἐξ αἰθρίας πεπηγός, πάχνη δὲ δρόσος πεπηγυῖα, δροσοπάχνη δὲ ἡμιπαγὴς δρόσος.

(2) Air, then, which has been made into a cloud thickens the cloud cover - whose density is pregnant with water. A shower is squeezed out when cloud-masses push against one another. There are as many different types of rainfall as there are ways in which air is compressed in cloudy conditions. (3) When a cloud is thin it disperses mere drops; but more forcefully compacted [clouds] pour out larger amounts of water, and what we call showers. (Storms differ, in that a shower is steady rain while a storm is more violent the more sudden it is, its downpour briefer the less it was expected.) (4) Snow is made up of fragments from denser clouds: before the [clouds] can turn into liquid water, they get broken up and shattered; their agitation produces a foam, and soon the congealed moisture gets white as it stiffens. (5) As the clouds are destroyed, this falls thicker and faster to earth, and we call it a snow-storm. (6) We say that it is hailing when water crashes out of a cloud with the weight and speed of a stone: the same force makes it move quickly and also, as the gentle, fluid air gives way, plummet down, and with violent fury pummel the earth. 10(1) This will do for what concerns the humid and watery elements.

Ergo aer actus in nubem nubilum denset et ea crassitudo aquarum fetu grauidatur. Imber exprimitur, cum inter se urguentur nubium densitates; totque diuersitatibus pluuiae cadunt, quot modis aer nubili condicionibus cogitur. Raritas enim nubium stillicidia dispergit, quae concretae uehementius effundunt agmina largiora et eas aquas, quas imbres uocamus, a quibus hoc differunt nimbi, quod <imber> pluuia iugis est, nimbus autem quanto repentinus est, tanto uehementior, et quanto inprouisior praecipitatio eius est, tanto breuiore casu restringitur. Niues autem colligi iactatione densarum nubium constat; nam priusquam in aquam defluant, fractae ac discissae spumas agitationibus suis faciunt et mox gelatus umor rigore frigoris inhorrescit. Haec <cum>, uictis nubibus, crebrior ad terram uenit, eam nos tempestatem ningorem uocamus. Grandinare uero tunc dicimus, cum aqua nubem lapidoso pondere et festinante perrumpit eademque ui et ad pernicitatem incitata et, cedente aeris molli liquore, praecipitata[m] indignatione uehementi humum uerberat. 10 Haec sat erit de iis quae udis elementis aquosisque contingunt.

A cloud is a gathering of thick vapor, capable of producing water. Rain occurs when an especially dense cloud gets squeezed. There are as many types [of rain] as there are types of pressure on the cloud. [30] When [a cloud] is calm, it scatters soft drops, but when violently compressed, thicker ones: this we call a shower, which is heavier than rain, and persistent precipitation carried down to the earth. Snow comes about through the breaking up of thickened clouds, which get chopped up before the change into water: the chopping makes it foamy and white, and the compaction of the water inside (before it has been poured out or rarefied) causes the coldness. [394b1] When it is carried down thickly and in quantity it is called a snowstorm. Hail comes about when a snowstorm is compressed and the compaction gives it weight so that it falls faster. Because of the size of the pieces torn off, their mass and speed increase. These are the derivatives from moist exhalations.

Νέφος δέ ἐστι πάχος ἀτμῶδες συνεστραμμένον, γόνιμον ὕδατος· ὄμβρος δὲ γίνεται μὲν κατ' ἐκπιεσμὸν νέφους εὖ μάλα πεπαχυσμένου, διαφορὰς δὲ ἴσχει τοσάσδε ὅσας καὶ ἡ τοῦ νέφους [394a30] θλῖψις· ἠπία μὲν γὰρ οὖσα μαλακὰς ψεκάδας διασπείρει, σφοδρὰ δὲ ἁδροτέρας· καὶ τοῦτο καλοῦμεν ὑετὸν, ὄμβρου μείζω καὶ συνεχῆ συστρέμματα ἐπὶ γῆς φερόμενον. Χιὼν δὲ γίνεται κατὰ νεφῶν πεπυκνωμένων ἀπόθραυσιν πρὸ τῆς εἰς ὕδωρ μεταβολῆς ἀνακοπέντων· ἐργάζεται δὲ ἡ μὲν κοπὴ τὸ ἀφρῶδες καὶ ἔκλευκον, ἡ δὲ σύμπηξις τοῦ ἐνόντος ὑγροῦ τὴν ψυχρότητα οὔπω χυθέντος οὐδὲ ἠραιωμένου. Σφοδρὰ [394b1] δὲ αὕτη καὶ ἀθρόα καταφερομένη νιφετὸς ὠνόμασται. Χάλαζα δὲ γίνεται νιφετοῦ συστραφέντος καὶ βρῖθος ἐκ πιλήματος εἰς καταφορὰν ταχυτέραν λαβόντος· παρὰ δὲ τὰ μεγέθη τῶν ἀπορρηγνυμένων θραυσμάτων οἵ τε ὄγκοι μείζους αἵ τε φοραὶ γίνονται βιαιότεραι. Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐκ τῆς ὑγρᾶς ἀναθυμιάσεως πέφυκε συμπίπτειν.

(2) But there are other effects [of the exhalations]: winds, which are generated under the impact of colder air. In fact a wind is nothing other than a huge and powerful flow of air that has been channelled together. We call this a breath of air (although that is also a term we use for the breath, drawn in from outside, whose vital and nourishing force gives life to every animal). (3) Dry gusts higher up in the cosmos we call winds, but damp breaths of air breezes. There are two species of wind. Those constituted from vapour [arising] from the earth are called earth-born winds; those which issue from gulfs are what in Greek are called †ενητεδε. (4) [The Winds] which typically emanate from from rivers, lakes, and swamps, or from ruptured storm-clouds, [and blow] through the open sky before being massed together again into the dense kind of cloud should be considered similar to them; as should those which [arise] when a shower rouses up gusts of air which, in Attic [Greek], are called †exopia.

Verum aliae sunt passiones, cum inpulsu frigidioris aeris uenti generantur. Nec enim aliud est nisi multum et uehemens in unum coacti aeris flumen. Hunc spiritum dicimus, licet spiritus ille etiam nominetur, qui animalia extrinsecus omnia [uitalia] tractus sui uitali et fecunda ope uegetat. Siccos et superioris mundi flatus uentos nominamus, auras uero umidos spiritus. Sed uentorum binae sunt species. Qui facti e telluris halitu constant, terrigenae nuncupantur; at illi qui excutiuntur e sinibus ἐγκολπίαι graece sunt nominati. Consimiles his haberi oportet eos qui de fluminibus, lacubus et stagnis uel ruptis nubibus per aperta caeli manare adsolent, rursumque in crassam nubium speciem conglobantur, uel cum imber effusus conciet flabra, quae ἐξυδρίαι Atticorum lingua uocitantur.

Wind comes about from dry [exhalation] when its pushed by the cold so that it starts to flow: it is nothing other than a large body of air massed and flowing. (It is also called a breath [of air]: and breath is used in another sense, as the [breath] in plants and animals, and what pervades all things as an animate and generative substance: but that is not something I need to talk about now.) Breaths which blow in the air we call winds; gusts from moist exhalations are breezes. Winds include terrestrial winds [epigeioi], which arise from damp earth; and bay-winds [enkolpiai], which rush out of bays (and there are some which come from rivers and lakes which have something in common with them). Winds that arise when clouds break apart, and cause their density to be dispersed into themselves are called 'downbursts'; they are called monsoons [exudriai] when they carry water from breaking open the [cloud]-mass.

Ἐκ δὲ τῆς ξηρᾶς ὑπὸ ψύχους μὲν ὠσθείσης ὥστε ῥεῖν ἄνεμος ἐγένετο· οὐδὲν γάρ ἐστιν οὗτος πλὴν ἀὴρ πολὺς ῥέων καὶ ἀθρόος· ὅστις ἅμα καὶ πνεῦμα λέγεται. Λέγεται δὲ καὶ [394b10] ἑτέρως πνεῦμα ἥ τε ἐν φυτοῖς καὶ ζῴοις καὶ διὰ πάντων διήκουσα ἔμψυχός τε καὶ γόνιμος οὐσία, περὶ ἧς νῦν λέγειν οὐκ ἀναγκαῖον. Τὰ δὲ ἐν ἀέρι πνέοντα πνεύματα καλοῦμεν ἀνέμους, αὔρας δὲ τὰς ἐξ ὑγροῦ φερομένας ἐκπνοάς. Τῶν δὲ ἀνέμων οἱ μὲν ἐκ νενοτισμένης γῆς πνέοντες ἀπόγειοι λέγονται, οἱ δὲ ἐκ κόλπων διεξᾴττοντες ἐγκολπίαι· τούτοις δὲ ἀνάλογόν τι ἔχουσιν οἱ ἐκ ποταμῶν καὶ λιμνῶν. Οἱ δὲ κατὰ ῥῆξιν νέφους γινόμενοι καὶ ἀνάλυσιν τοῦ πάχους εἰς ἑαυτοὺς ποιούμενοι ἐκνεφίαι καλοῦνται· μεθ' ὕδατος δὲ ἀθρόον ῥαγέντες ἐξυδρίαι λέγονται.

11(1) Now let us go through the names of the winds and their regions. (2) A wind from the east is a Eurus, one from the north a Boreas, one from the west a Zephyr, and one from the south an Austrus. Between these four there are many other winds. (3) Any wind from the east is a Eurus, but when it comes from where the Sun rises in summer [ENE], it also gets the name Aparktias; but it is called Apeliotes when it is generated [where the Sun] rises half way between [where it rises in summer and winter: due E]; and it is Eurus when it arises and issues forth from the gates of [sunrise during] winter [ESE]. (4) When a Zephyr (known in the Roman language as a Favonius) arises from the region of the summer setting [WNW], it tends to be called by the name Iapygis; (5) but one which comes from nearer an equinoctial [point of setting] [due W] ***; Aquilo comes from the region of the seven stars [NNE]. Here, it has as a neighbour Aparctias; *** towards the south. Thrascias and Argestes are winds from the same region [NNW]. (6) Here is how differences observed in the Austri are named: the one that gusts directly from the Antarctic [due S] is Notus; Euronotus arises between Notus and Eurus [SSE]; coming from the other side [SSW] is Libonotus, combining two [sc. names: Lips and Notus] in one.

11 Nunc nomina exsequemur regionesque uentorum. Euros oriens, boreas septemtrio, occidens zephyros, austros medius dies mittit. Hos quattuor uentos alii plures interfl[u]ant. Nam quamuis eurus sit uentus orientis, idem tamen aparctias accipit[ur] nomen, cum eum oriens aestiuus effundit; apeliotes autem uocatur, cum aequidianis exortibus procreatur; eurus est, quando hiemalis ortus portis emittitur. Zephyrus uero, quem Romana lingua fauonium nouit, hic cum de aestiuis occiduis partibus surgit, iapygis nomine cieri solet; at ille qui propior est aequinoctiali plagae * * * [notus] et aquilo, qui VII stellarum regione generatur, et huic uicinus est aparctias; hic [propior est] * * * ad diem medium. Thrascias et argestes sunt indidem flantes. Austrorum in nominibus illa est obseruata diuersitas: namque cum de abscondito polo flatus adueniunt, notus est, euronotus ille qui inter notum atque eurum medius effringit, ex alio latere libonotus ex duobus unum facit.

A wind which arises regularly in the east has been named a Eurus; one from the north a Boreas; Zephyrys come from the west, and Noti from the south. Euri include the wind which blows from where the Sun rises in the summer [ENE], which is called Kaikias; Apeliotes arises from the region where it rises at the equinoxes [due E]; and Eurus comes from the region where the Sun rises in winter [ESE]. Zephyrs are opposite them: Argestes (which some people call Olympias and others Iapyx) comes from the where the Sun sets in summer [WNW], Zephyr from [where the Sun sets at] the equinox [due W], Lips from [where it sets during] the winter [WSW]. The boreal winds includes Boreas which is in the specific sense the one neighbouring Kaikias [NNE]; Aparktias is the next, coming from the [North] pole in a southerly direction; then Thraskias (some call this Kirkias), next to Argestes [NNW]. Of the Noti, the one which comes from the hidden [i.e. south] pole, opposite Aparktias, is called Notus; Euronotos is between Notus and Eurus [SSE]; on the other side, between Lips and Notus is what some call Libonotus, others Libophoenix.

Καὶ οἱ μὲν ἀπὸ ἀνατολῆς συνεχεῖς [394b20] εὖροι κέκληνται, βορέαι δὲ οἱ ἀπὸ ἄρκτου, ζέφυροι δὲ οἱ ἀπὸ δύσεως, νότοι δὲ οἱ ἀπὸ μεσημβρίας. Τῶν γε μὴν εὔρων καικίας μὲν λέγεται ὁ ἀπὸ τοῦ περὶ τὰς θερινὰς ἀνατολὰς τόπου πνέων ἄνεμος, ἀπηλιώτης δὲ ὁ ἀπὸ τοῦ περὶ τὰς ἰσημερινάς, εὖρος δὲ ὁ ἀπὸ τοῦ περὶ τὰς χειμερινάς. Καὶ τῶν ἐναντίων ζεφύρων ἀργέστης μὲν ὁ ἀπὸ τῆς θερινῆς δύσεως, ὅν τινες καλοῦσιν ὀλυμπίαν, οἱ δὲ ἰάπυγα· ζέφυρος δὲ ὁ ἀπὸ τῆς ἰσημερινῆς, λὶψ δὲ ὁ ἀπὸ τῆς χειμερινῆς. Καὶ τῶν βορεῶν ἰδίως ὁ μὲν ἑξῆς τῷ καικίᾳ καλεῖται βορέας, ἀπαρκτίας δὲ ὁ ἐφεξῆς ἀπὸ τοῦ πόλου κατὰ τὸ μεσημβρινὸν [394b30] πνέων, θρασκίας δὲ ὁ ἑξῆς πνέων τῷ ἀργέστῃ, ὃν ἔνιοι κιρκίαν καλοῦσιν. Καὶ τῶν νότων ὁ μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀφανοῦς πόλου φερόμενος ἀντίπαλος τῷ ἀπαρκτίᾳ καλεῖται νότος, εὐρόνοτος δὲ ὁ μεταξὺ νότου καὶ εὔρου· τὸν δὲ ἐπὶ θάτερα μεταξὺ λιβὸς καὶ νότου οἱ μὲν λιβόνοτον, οἱ δὲ λιβοφοίνικα, καλοῦσιν.

12(1) Winds that blow directly are held to be 'skirmishers'; Caecias is supposed to be one whose direction changes back and forth. (2) Some winds, such as the Noti, are associated with winter; Etesian winds are more common in summer, when a northerly breath mixes with a Zephyr. Spring winds are called Ornithiae: on the basis of the air from which they arise, they form a class of Aquilones; but their currents have less strength and are not so persistent. (3) A tempestuous gust of wind is called a whirlwind: we can think of it as a bit of wind which has become separated off and comes down from the upper part of the heavens; it shakes things down below with its sudden battering. (4) A so-called 'tornado' is a sudden gust of wind which brings confusion to everything. In cases where dry earth is picked up and carried from the bottom of the tornado to the top, its top is referred to as a pine-cone. (5) Anaphusemata are what the Greeks call winds which explode from the depths of the earth or from openings in it and menace the upper regions. When these are even more violently twisted, you get a terrestrial whirlwind which is given the name prester by the Greeks. (6) But when a twister begins to move and drives dense and humid clouds before it, they pile up and it collides with them and there is a noise which makes the heavens resound - just as when the sea, stirred up by winds, makes an almighty racket by smashing its waves on the shore.

12 Excursores uenti habentur, qui directo spiritu proflant; flabris reciprocis caecias putatur esse. Et quidam hiemales habentur, ut noti; etesiae frequentiores sunt aestate, animis septemtrionis ac zephyri temperatis. Veris ornithiae uenti appellantur, aquilonum genus ex aere prosati, minore nisu, nec iugi perseuerantia spiritus perferentes. At enim procellosus flatus cataegis dicitur, quem praefractum possumus dicere, uentus qui, de superiore caeli parte submissus, inferiora repentinis inpulsibus quatiat. Turbo autem dicitur, qui repentinis flabris prosilit atque uniuersa perturbat. Vertex ille est uel, uti dicitur, pinea[s], cum torquetur humus arida et ab infimo erigitur ad summum. Anaphysemata Graeci uocant eos spiritus, qui de fundo uel hiatibus terrae explosi ad superna minari solent. Hi cum maiore ui torti sunt, fit procella terrestris; a Graecis prester nomen accepit. Sed cum tormentum illud ire pergit densasque et [t]umidas nubes prae se agit coactasque collidit, fit sonitus et intonat caelum, non secus ac si commotum uentis mare cum ingenti fragore undas litoribus inpingat.

Some winds are called direct, blowing straight ahead; others turn back on themselves, [395a1] for example the one called Kaikias. Some are more common in the winter, like the Noti, others in summer, like the so-called Etesians, which are a mixture of those that come from the north and the Zephyrs. Some are known as Ornithiae: these are spring winds, but belong to the class of the boreal. [5] Violent breaths of air include the hurricane, a breath of air which suddenly strikes from above. A whirlwind is a violent breath of air which arises unexpectedly; the tornado or cyclone is a breath of air which twists from below reaching upwards; the upward blast [anaphusema] is a breath of air which is carried upwards from the earth where a gorge or fissure opens up. [10] When it gets tightly twisted, it is a terrestrial fire-whirl. When a breath of air finds its way into a dense and dark cloud, and then is expelled through it, violently rupturing the compaction of the cloud, it causes a mighty crack and rumbling, which is called thunder (it is just like when there is an impulsion of air within water).

Τῶν δὲ ἀνέμων οἱ μέν εἰσιν εὐθύπνοοι, ὁπόσοι διεκπνέουσι πρόσω κατ' εὐθεῖαν, οἱ δὲ ἀνακαμψίπνοοι, καθάπερ [395a1] ὁ καικίας λεγόμενος, καὶ οἱ μὲν χειμῶνος, ὥσπερ οἱ νότοι, δυναστεύοντες, οἱ δὲ θέρους, ὡς οἱ ἐτησίαι λεγόμενοι, μῖξιν ἔχοντες τῶν τε ἀπὸ τῆς ἄρκτου φερομένων καὶ ζεφύρων· οἱ δὲ ὀρνιθίαι καλούμενοι, ἐαρινοί τινες ὄντες ἄνεμοι, βορέαι εἰσὶ τῷ γένει. Τῶν γε μὴν βιαίων πνευμάτων καταιγὶς μέν ἐστι πνεῦμα ἄνωθεν τύπτον ἐξαίφνης, θύελλα δὲ πνεῦμα βίαιον καὶ ἄφνω προσαλλόμενον, λαῖλαψ δὲ καὶ στρόβιλος πνεῦμα εἰλούμενον κάτωθεν ἄνω, ἀναφύσημα δὲ γῆς πνεῦμα ἄνω φερόμενον κατὰ τὴν ἐκ βυθοῦ τινος ἢ ῥήγματος ἀνάδοσιν· [395a10] ὅταν δὲ εἰλούμενον πολὺ φέρηται, πρηστὴρ χθόνιός ἐστιν. Εἰληθὲν δὲ πνεῦμα ἐν νέφει παχεῖ τε καὶ νοτερῷ, καὶ ἐξωσθὲν δι' αὐτοῦ, βιαίως ῥηγνύον τὰ συνεχῆ πιλήματα τοῦ νέφους, βρόμον καὶ πάταγον μέγαν ἀπειργάσατο, <ὃς> βροντὴ λέγεται, ὥσπερ ἐν ὕδατι πνεῦμα σφοδρῶς ἐλαυνόμενον.

13(1) But Favorinus, not an insignificant scholar, has the following to say about the winds [= Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 2.22.3-7]:

The world's four sources for wind do not all give rise to the same numbers of winds, because where the Sun rises and sets shifts through three points with the progress of the Sun, whereas south and north are always in the same place. (2) We mark the places where it rises at the equinox and the [summer] solstice and the winter [solstice], and the places where it sets in corresponding intervals. (3) Eurus, then, is the eastern wind that comes from where the Sun rises at the equinox [E]. (Its name has a pleasing derivation: it is ἀπὸ τῆς ἑῴας ῥέων ['flowing from the dawn'].) This [wind] is also called Apheliotes by the Greeks, and Subsolanus by us. (4) The wind that comes from the point of sunrise at the summer solstice [NE] is named Boreas in Greek, Aquilo in Latin. Homer says that this wind is αἰθρηγενέτης ['aether-born'], or calm as one might put it. (Boreas is so-called from ἀπὸ τῆς βοῆς ['shouting'], because the noise it generally makes is not quiet.) (5) A third wind, which comes from the place of sunrise during the winter [= SE], the Greeks call Eurynotus. (6) There are, likewise, three winds which come from the west: Caurus, which is called ἀργέστης in Greek, and answers to Aquilo [i.e. is NW]; Favonius, or ζέφυρος, is opposite Eurus [i.e. is due W]; the third wind, Africus, λίψ, answers Vulturnus [i.e. is SW]. (7) Midday, on the other hand, is always in the same place [S] and has one wind, Auster, i.e. Notus. *** which has the name Septemtrio - although this is called Aparktias in Greek. 14(1) Many of these winds have different names based on places or their resemblance to something or other. The Gauls call one wind Circius from its twisting and whirling; the Apulians talk about the Iapyx which comes from the gulf of Iapygia, i.e. from [Mount] Garganus itself. (2) It is clear that this is Caurus, because it comes from the west. (Vergil mentions it: 'Growing pale with her impending death among the corpses, the Fire-master had her carried off on the waves by Iapyx' [Aeneid, 7.80-10].) (3) Caecias is a wind which Aristotle says draws the clouds to itself, and there is a saying about it: ἕλκων ἐφ αὑτὸν ὥστε καικίας νέφος ['he brings it on himself as Kaikias draws the clouds']. (4) There are the Etesians and the Prodromi, which blow from all directions at that time during summer when the Dog Star [= Sirius] appears. Cato in his Origins does not say 'Circius' but 'Cercius': 'this wind, Cercius, fills your mouth when you speak, and can repel an armed man or a loaded cart.'

13 At Fauorinus, non ignobilis sapiens, haec de uentis refert:

quattuor mundi plagas inparem numerum habere uentorum, eo quod ortus et occasus mutentur terna uice cum solis accessu, meridies et arctos isdem semper regionibus sint notatae. Ortus quippe accepimus aequinoctialem et solstitialem <et> brumalem, quibus occasus redduntur eadem interuallorum ratione conuersa[e]. Eurus igitur aequinoctialis orientis est uentus nec inuenusta nominis eius fictio est, qui sit ἀπὸ τῆς ἑῴας ῥέων. Idem ἀφηλιώτης a Graecis, subsolanus a nostris solet dici. Sed qui ab aestiua et solstitiali[s] orientis meta uenit, βορέας graece, latine aquilo nominatur; hunc αἰθρηγενέτην, quod sit alias serenus, Homerus ait; βορέαν uero ἀπὸ τῆς βοῆς quod non sine clamore soleat intonare. Tertium uentum, qui ab oriente hiberno uenit, Graeci εὐρόνοτον uocant. Item occidui sunt tres: caurus, qui graece ἀργέστης uocatur, is est aduersus aquiloni; item fauonius, ζέφυρος, euro contrarius; tertius africus, λίψ, uulturno reflat. Meridies uero, quoniam eadem semper regione signatur, uno austro, id est νότῳ, flatur * * * et is septemtrio habet cognomentum, qui tamen graeca lingua ἀπαρκτίας dictus est. 14 Horum nomina plerique commutant de loco uel similitudine aliqua, ut Galli circium appellant a turbine eius et uertice, Apuli iapyga uentum ex Iapygiae sinu, id est ex ipso Gargano uenientem. Hunc caurum esse manifestum; nam et ex occiduo uenit et Vergilius eius sic meminit: <Illam inter caedes pallentem morte futura Fecerat Ignipotens undis et iapyge ferri>. <Est> etiam caecias uentus quem Aristoteles ait ad se trahere nubes et est adagium de eo tale: ἕλκων ἐφ αὑτὸν ὥστε καικίας νέφος. Sunt etesiae et prodromi spirantes ex omni parte eo tempore aestatis, quo[d de] Canis oritur. Cato autem in libris Originum non circium, sed cercium dicit. Is uentus cercius, cum loquare, buccam inplet, armatum hominem, plaustrum oneratum percellit.

Lightning &c.

15(1) I will return now to tricks played by the clouds. (2) When a small cloud is broken up and exposes the sky, escaping breaths of air are ignited and a bright light flashes out: this is called a coruscation. (3) The order ought to be that there is thunder first and then coruscation, because it is after one cloud strikes another that it emits light - like stone fire-starters when they are rubbed together. But the brightness reaches our sight more quickly; sounds are only sensed when they make their way to our ears later. So people think that the heavens first coruscate and shortly afterwards thunder; but only because fire moves at scorching speed and stimulates the senses more quickly than speech; sound strikes the air, i.e. is sensed indirectly. (4) A flame which is emitted from friction between clouds, when it is intense and has enough impetus to reach the earth, has the name and intimidating force of lightning. When there is less fire, we call it a prester. If the thunderbolt is not ignited at all, it is called a typhoon. Sceptus is the general name for anything which falls from the clouds.

15 Nunc de nubium praestigiis referam. Quando illa perfracta nubecula patefecerit caelum, ignescunt penetrabiles spiritus, emicatque lux clara; hoc dicitur coruscare. Et ordine quidem tonare prius oportet, postea coruscare. Quippe ubi nubes adflictrix <ignem>, ut ignifera saxa adtrita inter se, dat, obtutus uelocius inlustriora contingit, auditus, dum ad aures uenit, seriore sensu concipitur; ita prius coruscare caelum creditur et mox tonare; tum quod ignes, pernicitate sui claricantes, dicto citius nostrae uisioni conuibrant, sonus, aere uerberato, alterius indicio sentitur. Flamma uero illa, quam nubium adflictus excussit, si robustiore fuerit incendio, inpetu deuehitur in terras et fulminis habet nomen atque formidinem. Presteras uero nominamus, cum flammarum in illis minus fuerit. Sed si ignitum non erit fulmen, typhon uocatur. Sceptos generale omnibus quae e nubibus cadunt nomen est.

[15] When a cloud breaks up, a breath of air that is ignited and gives off light is called coruscation - which we perceive before thunder, although it happens later, since an object of hearing is outpaced by an object of sight: the one is seen even when it is far away, the other [is heard] when it gets close to the hearing. This is especially true when [the object of sight] is the fastest of things, namely something fiery; [sound] is less fast, being of the air, and reaches hearing by [the air's being] struck. What is coruscating and ignited violently and races to earth is called lightning; if it is half-alight, but still forceful and sudden, it is a fire-whirl [prester]; and if it is entirely without fire, it is a typhoon. Each of these, as something bolting downwards to earth, is called a bolt [skeptos]. [395a25] Some forms of lightning are called sooty and smoky ; some quickly darting ones are [called] 'bright'. Forked lightning moves in the form of lines. Anything that bolts downwards to earth is a 'bolt'.

Κατὰ δὲ τὴν τοῦ νέφους ἔκρηξιν πυρωθὲν τὸ πνεῦμα καὶ λάμψαν ἀστραπὴ λέγεται· ὃ δὴ πρότερον τῆς βροντῆς προσέπεσεν, ὕστερον γενόμενον, ἐπεὶ τὸ ἀκουστὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ ὁρατοῦ πέφυκε φθάνεσθαι, τοῦ μὲν καὶ πόρρωθεν ὁρωμένου, τοῦ δὲ ἐπειδὰν ἐμπελάσῃ τῇ ἀκοῇ, καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν τὸ μὲν τάχιστον ᾖ [395a20] τῶν ὄντων, λέγω δὲ τὸ πυρῶδες, τὸ δὲ ἧττον ταχύ, ἀερῶδες ὄν, ἐν τῇ πλήξει πρὸς ἀκοὴν ἀφικνούμενον. Τὸ δὲ ἀστράψαν ἀναπυρωθέν, βιαίως ἄχρι τῆς γῆς διεκθέον, κεραυνὸς καλεῖται, ἐὰν δὲ ἡμίπυρον ᾖ, σφοδρὸν δὲ ἄλλως καὶ ἀθρόον, πρηστήρ, ἐὰν δὲ ἄπυρον παντελῶς, τυφών· ἕκαστον δὲ τούτων κατασκῆψαν εἰς τὴν γῆν σκηπτὸς ὀνομάζεται. Τῶν δὲ κεραυνῶν οἱ μὲν αἰθαλώδεις ψολόεντες λέγονται, οἱ δὲ ταχέως διᾴττοντες ἀργῆτες, ἑλικίαι δὲ οἱ γραμμοειδῶς φερόμενοι, σκηπτοὶ δὲ ὅσοι κατασκήπτουσιν εἰς τὴν γῆν.

Lights and optical phenomena

16(1) I will briefly summarise everything that falls into the class of things which perform tricks for human eyes. Some of these produce only the appearance that there is something there to be seen, but others are not lying at all about what they show. (2) Deceptive phenomena include rainbows and arcs and such things; comets, lights, and the many things like them are real objects of vision. (3) A rainbow, commonly [known as] an arc, is, they say, when a coloured image of the Sun or of the Moon, which cuts its disk off in the middle, is mirrored in a dense cloud which is humid and concave. (4) A rhabdos is similar, but the coloured cloud is extended like a rigid rod. An alusis ['halo'] is a sort of chain of clearer light which turns back on itself and intersects the course of the Sun. (5) Here is the difference between this and a rainbow: a rainbow is multi-coloured and semi-circular in shape, and lies a long way away from the Sun and Moon; the chain is clearer, and encircles stars in an unbroken circle, an evenly-coloured crown. (6) The Greeks call it selas when air is ignited: in many cases, you would think [the light] had been thrown, in others that it is stable. It seems thrown, when the fire arises and then falls at speed which is imparted to it by the movement and impulse of the air; its course is very rapid. A stable light, which they call a sterigmon, is [light] which does not move; or is a long strip of light, a star-stream, liquid fire streaming from a star - which, when it is shaken out into something broader is called a comet. (7) Often these lights arise suddenly and are extinguished immediately; but others remain for a while to show themselves off. There are many phenomena of this kind: the Greeks call them torches, docideae, and pithoi, and bothunoi, naming them after what they look like. Some are more common in the west or in the east. You will very rarely see them in the north or south although none of them reliably arises at one place or time rather than another. 17(1) That is all I have to say about the air.

16 Atque, ut breuiter conprehendam cuncta generis eiusdem, eorum, quae eiusmodi praestigias humanis inferunt oculis, alia sunt quae speciem tantum spectaculi pariunt, alia quae nihil ab eo quod ostenderint mentiuntur. Fallunt imagine irides et arcus et talia; uere uidentur cometae, fulgores et similia pleraque. Irin, uulgo arcum, esse aiunt, quando imago solis uel imago lunae umidam et cauam nubem densamque ad instar speculi colorat et medietatem orbis eius secat. Rhabdos autem generis eiusdem ad uirgae rigorem perlongum colorata nubecula dicitur. Alysis est catena quaedam luminis clarioris, per solis ambitum in se reuertens. Hanc et irida illud interest, quod iris multicolora est et semicirculo figurata proculque a sole atque luna, catena clarior est, astrumque ambit orbe incolumi, corona non discolora. Selas autem Graeci uocant incensi aeris lucem; horum pleraque iaculari credas [alia labi], stare alia. Iaculatio igitur tunc fieri putatur, cum aeris meatu atque inpulsu generatus ignis celeritate sua <adlabitur> cursumque rapidae festinationis ostendit. Statiua lux est, quam sterigmon illi uocant, sine cursu iugis et prolixa lux, stellaeque fluor et ignitus liquor, qui, cum latius panditur, cometes uocatur. Sed plerumque luces istae repentino ortae statim occidunt; <aliae> autem, ut se ostenderint, aliquantisper manent. Et sunt multa eiusmodi imaginum genera, quas Graeci faces et docidas et pithos et bothynos ad eorum similitudines, unde dicta sunt, nominant; et quaedam uespertina <uel matutina> sunt notiora; perrara de septemtrione uel meridie uideas; nihil horum quippe loci uel temporis in nascendo fidem potuit obtin[g]ere. 17 De aere tantum habuimus, quod diceremus.

To speak in summary terms, some atmospheric phenomena exist as reflections, but some as substantial realities. Reflections include rainbows and rods and the like; streaking light, comets and similar things have substantial reality. A rainbow is a reflection of a section of the Sun or Moon in a dark and curved cloud which appears continuous: it is as if it is seen around the edge of a circular mirror. [35] A rod [rhabdos] is a rainbow that is reflected straight. A halo [halos] is a bright reflection coming from the light of a star: [395b1] it differs from a rainbow, because a rainbow appears opposite the Sun or Moon, but a halo appears in a circle around the whole star. A meteor [selas] is the ignition of a mass of fire in the air. Some meteors dart, some are fixed. One that darts is fire sparked from friction as it is carried quickly in the air, giving the appearance of length because of its speed. One that is fixed [sterigmos] is extended but stable, its course like that of a star. When it is broadened out on one side, it is called a comet. Usually, comets either last a fairly long time [10] or are extinguished immediately. There are many other kinds of phenomena to be observed: so-called torches and planks [dokides] and jars [pithoi] and trenches [bothunoi] - named for their similarity to these things. Some of them arise in the west, some in the east, some can be observed in both regions; but they are rare in the north and south. However, they are all transient: it has never been reported than any bit of them is fixed and permanently visible. So much for the atmosphere, then.

Συλλήβδην δὲ τῶν ἐν ἀέρι φαντασμάτων τὰ μέν ἐστι κατ' ἔμφασιν, [395a30] τὰ δὲ καθ' ὑπόστασιν κατ' ἔμφασιν μὲν ἴριδες καὶ ῥάβδοι καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα, καθ' ὑπόστασιν δὲ σέλα τε καὶ διᾴττοντες καὶ κομῆται καὶ τὰ τούτοις παραπλήσια. Ἶρις μὲν οὖν ἐστιν ἔμφασις ἡλίου τμήματος ἢ σελήνης, ἐν νέφει νοτερῷ καὶ κοίλῳ καὶ συνεχεῖ πρὸς φαντασίαν, ὡς ἐν κατόπτρῳ, θεωρουμένη κατὰ κύκλου περιφέρειαν. Ῥάβδος δέ ἐστιν ἴριδος ἔμφασις εὐθεῖα. Ἅλως δέ ἐστιν ἔμφασις λαμπρότητος [395b1] ἄστρου περίαυγος· διαφέρει δὲ ἴριδος ὅτι ἡ μὲν ἶρις ἐξ ἐναντίας φαίνεται ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης, ἡ δὲ ἅλως κύκλῳ παντὸς ἄστρου. Σέλας δέ ἐστι πυρὸς ἀθρόου ἔξαψις ἐν ἀέρι. Τῶν δὲ σελάων ἃ μὲν ἀκοντίζεται, ἃ δὲ στηρίζεται. Ὁ μὲν οὖν ἐξακοντισμός ἐστι πυρὸς γένεσις ἐκ παρατρίψεως ἐν ἀέρι φερομένου ταχέως καὶ φαντασίαν μήκους ἐμφαίνοντος διὰ τὸ τάχος, ὁ δὲ στηριγμός ἐστι χωρὶς φορᾶς προμήκης ἔκτασις καὶ οἷον ἄστρου ῥύσις· πλατυνομένη δὲ κατὰ θάτερον κομήτης καλεῖται. Πολλάκις δὲ τῶν σελάων τὰ μὲν ἐπιμένει [395b10] πλείονα χρόνον, τὰ δὲ παραχρῆμα σβέννυται. Πολλαὶ δὲ καὶ ἄλλαι φαντασμάτων ἰδέαι θεωροῦνται, λαμπάδες τε καλούμεναι καὶ δοκίδες καὶ πίθοι καὶ βόθυνοι, κατὰ τὴν πρὸς ταῦτα ὁμοιότητα ὧδε προσαγορευθεῖσαι. Καὶ τὰ μὲν τούτων ἑσπέρια, τὰ δὲ ἑῷα, τὰ δὲ ἀμφιφανῆ θεωρεῖται, σπανίως δὲ βόρεια καὶ νότια. Πάντα δὲ ἀβέβαια· οὐδέποτε γάρ τι τούτων ἀεὶ φανερὸν ἱστόρηται κατεστηριγμένον. Τὰ μὲν τοίνυν ἀέρια τοιαῦτα.

Earth

(2) The earth not only contains water springs, it also propagates breaths of air and fire. For there are breaths of air hidden underground which blow - exhale - fire out of the earth where they are present. This happens for example at Lipari, or Aetna, and even our own Vesuvius. (3) As to the fires which remain contained within the hidden places of the earth, these heat up any water they encounter. You can tell that the flames are some way off when the result is tepid water: when they are nearby, the water is scalding because of the fire set under it - as is the case with the river Phlegethon, which the poets mention in their stories about the underworld. (4) The breaths of air themselves deserve our admiration: anyone would acknowledge this, observing how they send people into a religious ecstasy in which they do not need food or drink and can intimate the future. (5) This is what happens in the case of the Delphic oracle and others. At Hierapolis in Phrygia, I myself saw a hole, surrounded by a small, thin ridge, open up on the side of a not very steep mountain. (6) The poets would like [such things] to be called the vents of Dis; reason tells us that they are source of lethal exhalations; either way, their poisonous and contagious breath is dangerous to all animals, creeping or flying, and kills them, their head twisting back [as they die]. (7) [And I saw] the eunuch priests themselves, if they dared to draw near, keeping their mouths turned upwards. That is how well they understand this evil poison: the noxious air is denser and thicker lower down and so finds and afflicts lower creature more readily.

Sed non aquarum modo tellus in se fontis habet, uerum spiritu et igni fecunda est. Nam quibusdam sub terris occulti sunt spiritus et flant incendia indidem <et> suspirant, ut Liparae, ut Aetna, ut Vesuuius etiam noster solet. Illi etiam ignes, qui terrae secretariis continentur, praetereuntes aquas uaporant et produnt longinquitatem flammae cum tepidiores aquas reddunt, uiciniam <cum> feruentiores opposito incendio aquae uruntur, ut Phlegethontis amnis, quem poetae [s]ciunt in fabulis inferorum. At enim illos quis non admirandos spiritus arbitretur, cum ex his animaduertat accidere, ut eorum religione lymphantes alii sine cibo potuque sint, pars uero praesagiis effantes futura? quod in oraculis Delphicis est ceterisque. Vidi et ipse apud Hierapolim Phrygiae non adeo ardui montis uicinum latus natiui oris hiatu reseratum et tenuis neque editae marginis ambitu circumdatum. Siue illa, ut poetae uolunt, Ditis spiracula dicenda sunt, seu mortiferos anhelitus eos credi prior ratio est, proxima quaeque animalia et in aluum prona atque proiecta uenenati spiritus contagione corripiunt et uertice circumacta[s] interimunt. Antistites denique ipsos semiuiros esse, qui audeant propius accedere, ad superna semper sua ora tollentes; adeo illis cognitum est uim mali, ad inferiora aeris noxii crassitate densata, inferiores quoque facilius adire atque percellere.

[395b18] As the earth contains within itself sources of water, so it does of breaths of air and fire too. Some of these are below the earth and unseen; but many have places where they are expelled and blasted upwards - as at Lipari and Etna and in the Aeolian islands. They often flow like a river, throwing up fiery masses; but some remain below the earth near sources of water and heat them up, producing warm springs, or [springs that are] very hot, or temperate. Similarly in the case of breaths of air: there are openings in the earth for them in many places. Some of them cause anyone who comes near to be possessed, or, in other cases, to waste away; and some make them deliver oracles, as those in Delphi and Lebadeia do; and some altogether destroy them, like the one in Phrygia.

Ἐμπεριέχει δὲ καὶ ἡ γῆ πολλὰς ἐν αὑτῇ, καθάπερ ὕδατος, οὕτως καὶ πνεύματος καὶ πυρὸς πηγάς· Τούτων δὲ αἱ [395b20] μὲν ὑπὸ γῆν εἰσιν ἀόρατοι, πολλαὶ δὲ ἀναπνοὰς ἔχουσι καὶ ἀναφυσήσεις, ὥσπερ Λιπάρα τε καὶ Αἴτνη καὶ αἱ ἐν Αἰόλου νήσοις· αἳ δὴ καὶ ῥέουσι πολλάκις ποταμοῦ δίκην, καὶ μύδρους ἀναρριπτοῦσι διαπύρους. Ἔνιαι δὲ ὑπὸ γῆν οὖσαι πλησίον πηγαίων ὑδάτων θερμαίνουσι ταῦτα, καὶ τὰ μὲν χλιαρὰ τῶν ναμάτων ἀνιᾶσι, τὰ δὲ ὑπέρζεστα, τὰ δὲ εὖ ἔχοντα κράσεως. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ τῶν πνευμάτων πολλὰ πολλαχοῦ γῆς στόμια ἀνέῳκται· ὧν τὰ μὲν ἐνθουσιᾶν ποιεῖ τοὺς ἐμπελάζοντας, τὰ δὲ ἀτροφεῖν, τὰ δὲ χρησμῳδεῖν, ὥσπερ τὰ ἐν Δελφοῖς καὶ Λεβαδείᾳ, τὰ δὲ καὶ παντάπασιν ἀναιρεῖ, [395b30] καθάπερ τὸ ἐν Φρυγίᾳ.

Quakes

18(1) The breaths of air produced in the earth drift through its hollow parts, but it often happens that they come up against solid earth. Quite often these breaths get into confined spaces where they are unable to find a way out, and as they grow in force they move the earth. (2) Of these movements there are as many different names as there are different ***. Oblique lateral movements at sharp vertical angles hurl everything nearby around: these are called epiclitae in Greek; those where the earth leaps upwards, shaking off everything on it, and then recovers on the perpendicular are called brastae. Those which seem to thrust things away are called hizematiae; those whose force tears the earth open are called rhectae. (3) In some places, these [movements] are accompanied by an escape of gas; elsewhere, rocks or mud are spewed out. Some cause springs to appear in new places, and carve out channels for their waters to travel through. (4) Ostae are movements in which one is merely shaken; palmatiae is the name for cases of trembling where the things that are shaken lean, but are not put in danger of falling, because they are moved straight upwards and remain steady. Mycetia is what it is called when a foul odour is dislodged from the earth. (5) When the breaths of air are not strong enough to move the earth, but *** through openings in the ground where a way through can be found, they emit groans within the earth, and a rumbling is heard.

18 Saepe accidit ut natiui spiritus, per terrae concauas partes errantes, concuterent solida terrarum, saepius ut spiritus, crescente uiolentia et insinuantes se telluris angustiis nec inuenientes exitum, terram mouerent. Horum motuum tam uaria nomina quam diuersi * * * Namque obliquis lateribus proxima quaeque iactantes et acutis angulis mobiles epiclintae graece appellantur; sed qui subsiliunt, excutientes onera et recuperantes directis angulis, brastae uocitantur; illi, qui abstrudere uidentur, hizematiae dicti[s]; quorum inpulsu dissilit tellus, rhectae sunt nominati. His passionibus contingit ut quaedam terrae exspirent halitus, aliae uomant saxa, nonnullae caenum; sunt quae fontes pariunt insolentibus locis, peregrinorum fluminum sulcantes uias. Ostae sunt motus, quibus <semel> solum quatitur; palmatiae uero appellantur, quorum pauitatione illa quae trepidant sine inclinationis periculo nutabunt, cum directi tamen rigoris statum retinent. Mycetias uocatur taetri odoris inquietudo terrena. Audiuntur mugitus, interioribus gemitibus expressis, cum spiritus inualidus ad terram mouendam per aperta telluris inuentis itineribus progreditur.

[30] Often a temperate breath of air which belongs in the earth finds itself displaced from its usual place into pockets within the earth, and causes agitation in many parts. And often, [air] from outside accumulates in [the earth's] caverns and, while it is trapped [35] and looking for a way out, shakes it violently, causing the experience that we commonly refer to as an earthquake. Some earthquakes, [396a1] called leaners (epiklintai), shake sideways at acute angles; surgers (brastai) heave the earth up and down on the perpendicular; sinkers (hizmatiai) cause the earth to collapse into sinkholes; the ones that open up chasms and churn up the earth are called splitters (rhektai). [5] Some emit a breath of air too, some throw up rocks, or mud; others reveal springs that were not there before. Some shift once and topple everything: they call these shovers (ostai). Others, called shakers (palmatiai), rebound and set what they have shaken straight again, as they are made to lean one way and then back again in the opposite direction: the effect they create is a sort of shiver. Then there are rumbling earthquakes, which roar as they shake the earth. Often there is a rumbling within the earth but no earthquake: this happens when the breath of air is not powerful enough to shake the earth, but coils up inside it and is dashed about with resounding force. [15] Breaths of air entering [the earth] are also consolidated by masses of water hidden within it.

Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ συγγενὲς πνεῦμα εὔκρατον ἐν γῇ παρεξωσθὲν εἰς μυχίους σήραγγας αὐτῆς, ἔξεδρον γενόμενον ἐκ τῶν οἰκείων τόπων, πολλὰ μέρη συνεκράδανεν. Πολλάκις δὲ πολὺ γενόμενον ἔξωθεν ἐγκατειλήθη τοῖς ταύτης κοιλώμασι καὶ ἀποκλεισθὲν [ἐξόδου] μετὰ βίας αὐτὴν συνετίναξε, ζητοῦν ἔξοδον ἑαυτῷ, καὶ ἀπειργάσατο πάθος τοῦτο ὃ καλεῖν εἰώθαμεν σεισμόν. Τῶν δὲ σεισμῶν [396a1] οἱ μὲν εἰς πλάγια σείοντες κατ' ὀξείας γωνίας ἐπικλίνται καλοῦνται, οἱ δὲ ἄνω ῥιπτοῦντες καὶ κάτω κατ' ὀρθὰς γωνίας βράσται, οἱ δὲ συνιζήσεις ποιοῦντες εἰς τὰ κοῖλα ἱζηματίαι· οἱ δὲ χάσματα ἀνοίγοντες καὶ τὴν γῆν ἀναρρηγνύντες ῥῆκται καλοῦνται. Τούτων δὲ οἱ μὲν καὶ πνεῦμα προσαναβάλλουσιν, οἱ δὲ πέτρας, οἱ δὲ πηλόν, οἱ δὲ πηγὰς φαίνουσι τὰς πρότερον οὐκ οὔσας. Τινὲς δὲ ἀνατρέπουσι κατὰ μίαν πρόωσιν, οὓς καλοῦσιν ὤστας. Οἱ δὲ ἀνταποπάλλοντες καὶ ταῖς εἰς ἑκάτερον ἐγκλίσεσι καὶ ἀποπάλσεσι διορθοῦντες ἀεὶ [396a10] τὸ σειόμενον παλματίαι λέγονται, τρόμῳ πάθος ὅμοιον ἀπεργαζόμενοι. Γίνονται δὲ καὶ μυκηταὶ σεισμοί, σείοντες τὴν γῆν μετὰ βρόμου. Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ χωρὶς σεισμοῦ γίνεται μύκημα γῆς, ὅταν τὸ πνεῦμα σείειν μὲν μὴ αὔταρκες ᾖ, ἐνειλούμενον δὲ ἐν αὐτῇ κόπτηται μετὰ ῥοθίου βίας. Συσσωματοποιεῖται δὲ τὰ εἰσιόντα πνεύματα καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἐν τῇ γῇ ὑγρῶν κεκρυμμένων.

19(1) There are marine equivalents of all these things: seashores are battered and shaken by the mass of surging waves when they come in, their gulfs as they recede. (2) What is more, the relationship between heaven and sea is evident in the fact that the swell and tides of the sea follow the monthly courses of the Moon.

19 His talibus marina sunt paria, cum fluctuum currentium mole nunc progressibus litora, nunc recursibus sinus caesi quatiuntur. Sentitur etiam caeli marisque cognatio, cum menstruis cursibus lunae detrimenta et accessus fretorum atque aestuum deprehenduntur.

[396a17] There are analogous phenomena in the sea too: chasms appear in the sea, and waves frequently recede and surge forward - sometimes recoiling, but sometimes just moving forwards, as in the reports about Helike and Boura. Often there are spurts of fire in the sea, and water-spouts, rivers poured out and trees sprouting; and currents and eddies analogous to those found in breaths of air too, some occurring in the open sea, [25] others in straits and channels. In many cases, the [sea's] ebb and flow, and the recession of the waves, is said to occur at fixed times in step with the Moon.

Τὰ δὲ ἀνάλογον συμπίπτει [τούτοις] καὶ ἐν θαλάσσῃ· χάσματά τε γὰρ γίνεται θαλάσσης καὶ ἀναχωρήματα πολλάκις καὶ κυμάτων ἐπιδρομαί, ποτὲ μὲν ἀντανακοπὴν [396a20] ἔχουσαι, ποτὲ δὲ πρόωσιν μόνον, ὥσπερ ἱστορεῖται περὶ Ἑλίκην τε καὶ Βοῦραν. Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ἀναφυσήματα γίνεται πυρὸς ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ καὶ πηγῶν ἀναβλύσεις καὶ ποταμῶν ἐκβολαὶ καὶ δένδρων ἐκφύσεις ῥοαί τε καὶ δῖναι ταῖς τῶν πνευμάτων ἀνάλογον, αἱ μὲν ἐν μέσοις πελάγεσιν, αἱ δὲ κατὰ τοὺς εὐρίπους τε καὶ πορθμούς. Πολλαί τε ἀμπώτεις λέγονται καὶ κυμάτων ἄρσεις συμπεριοδεύειν ἀεὶ τῇ σελήνῃ κατά τινας ὡρισμένους καιρούς.

One from many

(3) Indeed, to explain briefly what I think about the cosmos as a whole, the elements of the air, the sea, and the land are in such harmonious relationship with each other that it is no surprise to find that they are affected by the same destructive and constructive factors, by things which bring growth and destruction at the invidual level while ensuring that the cosmos as a whole remains intact from top to bottom. (4) Nevertheless, some people find it amazing that cosmic nature is produced by elements which are not only different but also inimical to each other - hard and fluid, icy and fiery - and that this diversity among them does not undo its life. (5) Here is the simile for them: a city is formed of people who are different from each other and are opposites; it is a multitude of inequalities brought together in harmony. There are rich as well as poor, young people mix with the elderly, cowards with the courageous, the worst jostling with the best. (6) Yet it is exactly the balanced mixture of civil society that is so admirable: that from many is made one. The whole has its own integrity although its parts are dissimilar (7) and it embraces different natural tendencies, destinies unfolding through different ends and outcomes. The fact is that it is in the very nature of opposites to be reconciled, and from dissonant [elements] comes a single unified harmony. 20(1) So it is when male and female join together: they are different from each other, but make from their dissimilarity a similar animal. And the arts themselves, imitating nature, make like things from unlike materials. (2) From clashing pigments, black and white, yellow and red, mixed in appropriate measure, a painting produces images similar to what they are copying. (3) Music itself, which is made up of sounds that are long and short, high and low, yields harmonious consonance from these differing and dissonant sounds. (4) Consider the arts of the grammarians, if you will: they gather together different letters, some of them consonants, some semi-consonant, some vowels, and by their mutual assistance produce syllables; from syllables come utterances. (5) This is how Heraclitus *** in the obscure [lit.: foggy] terms of his deliverances [22 B10 Diels-Kranz]:

Συλλάψιες ὅλα καὶ οὐχ ὅλα, συμφερόμενον διαφερόμενον, συνᾷδον διᾷδον· ἐκ πάντων ἓν, καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντα.

Verum enimuero ut, quatenus possum, de uniuersitate quod sentio breuiter absoluam, elementorum inter se tanta concordia est, aeris, maris atque terrae, ut admirari minus deceat, si illis eadem incommoda soleant ac secunda contingere, particulatim quidem rebus ortus atque obitus adferentia, uniuersitatem uero a fine atque initio uindicantia. Sed quibusdam mirum uideri solet, quod, quum ex diuersis atque inter se pugnantibus elementis mundi natura conflata sit, aridis atque fluxis, glacialibus et ignitis, tanto rerum diuortio nondum sit eius mortalitas dissoluta. Quibus illud simile satisfaciet, cum in urbe ex diuersis et contrariis corporata rerum inaequalium multitudo concordat; sunt enim pariter dites et egentes, adolescens aetas permixta senioribus, ignaui cum fortibus, pessimi optimis congregati. Aut profecto quod res est fateantur, hanc esse ciuilis rationis admirandam temperantiam, cum quidem de pluribus una sit facta et similis sui tota, cum dissimilia membra sint [cum] receptrixque sit naturarum ad diuersa tendentium fortunarumque per uarias fines exitusque pergentium. Et, ut res est, contrariorum per se natura amplectitur et ex dissonis fit unus idemque concentus. 20 Sic mare et femineum secus iungitur ac diuersus utriusque sexus ex dissimilibus simile animal facit; artesque ipsae, naturam imitantes, ex inparibus paria faciunt: pictura ex discordibus pigmentorum coloribus, atris atque albis, luteis et puniceis, confusione modica temperatis, imagines iis quae imitatur similes facit. Ipsa etiam musica, quae de longis et breuibus, acutis et grauioribus sonis constat, tam diuersis et dissonis uocibus, harmoniam consonam reddit; grammaticorum artes uide, quaeso, ut ex diuersis collectae sint litteris, ex quibus aliae sunt insonae, semisonantes aliae, pars sonantes: hae tamen mutuis se auxiliis adiuuantes syllabas pariunt, et de syllabis uoces. Hoc Heraclitus sententiarum suarum nebulis ad hunc modum est <elocutus>:

Συλλάψιες ὅλα καὶ οὐχ ὅλα, συμφερόμενον διαφερόμενον, συνᾷδον διᾷδον· ἐκ πάντων ἓν, καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντα

In a word, the elements are mixed together with each other in air and earth and sea so that it stands to reason that similar effects will be produced [in them]; [these effects] bring local instances of destruction and generation, but ensure the preservation of the whole, which is neither destroyed nor generated. And yet someone might wonder how the cosmos could ever be constituted from opposed principles - I mean from things dry and wet [35], cold and warm - and not have been destroyed and lost long ago. [396b1] But this is like people who wonder how a city could persist although made up of extreme opposites among its tribes - I mean the poor and the rich, the young and the old, the weak and the strong, the bad and the good. They do not realise that this is the amazing achievement of political concord, I mean that one [city] can be effected from many [tribes] and a shared disposition from diverse [dispositions], assimilating every character [phusis] and every fortune. And perhaps nature actually aims for opposites, to effect its harmony out of these rather than out of things similar to each other: for example, it leads the male to the female, rather [10] than each to its own kind, and establishes this primal concord in things that are opposite, not in things that are similar. You can see that art too imitates nature to do this. Painting mixes up different kinds of colours, whites and blacks, yellows and reds, and makes images which harmonize with its antecedent [subjects]. And music brings high together with low, long and short notes, mixing the sounds in different voices to effect a single harmony. Grammar too makes a mixture of voiced and unvoiced letters, and builds its whole art out of them. This is exactly what Heraclitus the obscure meant when he said [22 B10 Diels-Kranz]:

Things taken together whole and not whole, combined divided, consonant dissonant, and from all things one and from one all things.

Ὡς δὲ τὸ πᾶν εἰπεῖν, τῶν στοιχείων ἐγκεκραμένων ἀλλήλοις ἐν ἀέρι τε καὶ γῇ καὶ θαλάσσῃ κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς αἱ τῶν παθῶν [396a30] ὁμοιότητες συνίστανται, τοῖς μὲν ἐπὶ μέρους φθορὰς καὶ γενέσεις φέρουσαι, τὸ δὲ σύμπαν ἀνώλεθρόν τε καὶ ἀγένητον φυλάττουσαι. Καίτοι γέ τις ἐθαύμασε πῶς ποτε, ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων ἀρχῶν συνεστηκὼς ὁ κόσμος, λέγω δὲ ξηρῶν τε καὶ ὑγρῶν, ψυχρῶν τε καὶ θερμῶν, οὐ πάλαι διέφθαρται καὶ [396b1] ἀπόλωλεν, ὡς κἂν εἰ πόλιν τινὲς θαυμάζοιεν, ὅπως διαμένει συνεστηκυῖα ἐκ τῶν ἐναντιωτάτων ἐθνῶν, πενήτων λέγω καὶ πλουσίων, νέων γερόντων, ἀσθενῶν ἰσχυρῶν, πονηρῶν χρηστῶν. Ἀγνοοῦσι δὲ ὅτι τοῦτ' ἦν πολιτικῆς ὁμονοίας τὸ θαυμασιώτατον, λέγω δὲ τὸ ἐκ πολλῶν μίαν καὶ ὁμοίαν ἐξ ἀνομοίων ἀποτελεῖν διάθεσιν ὑποδεχομένην πᾶσαν καὶ φύσιν καὶ τύχην. Ἴσως δὲ τῶν ἐναντίων ἡ φύσις γλίχεται καὶ ἐκ τούτων ἀποτελεῖ τὸ σύμφωνον, οὐκ ἐκ τῶν ὁμοίων, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει τὸ ἄρρεν συνήγαγε πρὸς τὸ θῆλυ καὶ οὐχ [396b10] ἑκάτερον πρὸς τὸ ὁμόφυλον, καὶ τὴν πρώτην ὁμόνοιαν διὰ τῶν ἐναντίων σηνῆψεν, οὐ διὰ τῶν ὁμοίων. Ἔοικε δὲ καὶ ἡ τέχνη τὴν φύσιν μιμουμένη τοῦτο ποιεῖν. Ζωγραφία μὲν γὰρ λευκῶν τε καὶ μελάνων, ὠχρῶν τε καὶ ἐρυθρῶν, χρωμάτων ἐγκερασαμένη φύσεις τὰς εἰκόνας τοῖς προηγουμένοις ἀπετέλεσε συμφώνους, μουσικὴ δὲ ὀξεῖς ἅμα καὶ βαρεῖς, μακρούς τε καὶ βραχεῖς, φθόγγους μίξασα ἐν διαφόροις φωναῖς μίαν ἀπετέλεσεν ἁρμονίαν, γραμματικὴ δὲ ἐκ φωνηέντων καὶ ἀφώνων γραμμάτων κρᾶσιν ποιησαμένη τὴν ὅλην τέχνην ἀπ' αὐτῶν συνεστήσατο. Ταὐτὸ δὲ τοῦτο ἦν καὶ [396b20] τὸ παρὰ τῷ σκοτεινῷ λεγόμενον Ἡρακλείτῳ·

Συλλάψιες ὅλα καὶ οὐχ ὅλα, συμφερόμενον διαφερόμενον, συνᾷδον διᾷδον· ἐκ πάντων ἓν καὶ ἐξ ἑνὸς πάντα.

21(1) As we do with music, so nature has composed the substance of the whole world, the unequal conjunctions of principles, into a harmony which is balanced and not discordant. It has blended dry with wet, flame with ice, slow with swift, oblique with direct, and from all things it made one, and from one it made all, as Heraclitus has it. (2) She adorned the earth and sea and heaven with the disk of the Sun and the sphere of the Moon, and the torches of the other stars as they rise and set. [The whole] is infused with a single power pervading everything: (3) remaining itself pure and distinct from the substance of the elements (fire, water, air, and earth, from which the [whole] sphere, confected from the different qualities of nature), [the whole] was brought to manifest concord, and engineered for preservation by means of it. (4) So the harmony of the elements gave rise to concord within [the cosmos], and the balanced distribution of their various qualities, the fact that nowhere is one suppressed by another by either its disposition or its power, ensured that the mutual friendship between the elements would be permanent. (5) There is equality in the diversity of everything: the heaviest, the lightest, the hottest, the coldest. Nature's own reason teaches that balance brings harmony even to things that are diverse, [that it] produces harmony, beauty, eternity in the all-engendering world.

21 Sic totius mundi substantiam, initiorum inter se inparium conuentu[s], pari nec discordante consensu, natura ueluti musicam temperauit; namque uuidis arida et glacialibus flammida, uelocibus pigra, directis obliqua confu[n]dit unumque ex omnibus et ex uno omnia, iuxta Heraclitum, constituit. Terramque et mare et caelum solis orbe et lunae globo ceterisque orientium et conditorum siderum facibus ornauit, una illa potestate mixta, quam quidem cunctis constat inplicatam, dum inconfusa, dum libera elementorum substantia, ignis, aquae, aeris, terrae, ex quibus huius sphaerae conuexa et disparibus qualitatibus naturae conflata, adacta est fateri concordiam, et ex ea salutem operi machinata. Principiorum igitur consensus sibi concordiam peperit, perseuerantiam uero amicitiae inter se elementis dedit specierum ipsarum aequa partitio, et dum in nullo alia ab alia uincitur, modo uel potestate. Aequalis quippe omnium diuersitas, grauissimorum, leuissimorum, feruentium, frigidorum, docente ratione naturae, diuersis licet rebus, aequalitatem deferre <concordiam>, concordiam omni[a] parentis mundi amoenitatem aeternitatemque repperisse.

In this way a single harmony directs the organisation of the universe - by which I mean heaven and Earth and the whole cosmos - by mixing principles which are extreme opposites [25]: dry mixes with wet, warm with cold, light with heavy, and straight with curved. One power pervading all things has organised the whole earth and sea, aether and Sun and Moon and the whole heaven, crafting the entire cosmos from unmixed and disparate elements (air, earth, fire, and water), organising diametrically opposed natures within the surface of a single sphere, forcing agreement between them, and engineering out of them a way of preserving the whole. What is responsible for this [preservation] is the agreement between the elements, and the fact that each has an equal part in the agreement so that one of them [397a1] is never more powerful than another. Heavy things are balanced by light things, and warm things with their opposites. Nature thus teaches us through these greater matters that equality can preserve concord - as concord does the cosmos, the progenitor and most beautiful thing of all. [5] Indeed, what kind of thing could be greater than this? Whatever you mention is a part of it, and anything that has beauty and structure is named after it: it is said to be ordered [kekosmesthai] after the 'cosmos'.

Οὕτως οὖν καὶ τὴν τῶν ὅλων σύστασιν, οὐρανοῦ λέγω καὶ γῆς τοῦ τε σύμπαντος κόσμου, διὰ τῆς τῶν ἐναντιωτάτων κράσεως ἀρχῶν μία διεκόσμησεν ἁρμονία· ξηρὸν γὰρ ὑγρῷ, θερμὸν δὲ ψυχρῷ, βαρεῖ τε κοῦφον μιγὲν, καὶ ὀρθὸν περιφερεῖ, γῆν τε πᾶσαν καὶ θάλασσαν αἰθέρα τε καὶ ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ τὸν ὅλον οὐρανὸν διεκόσμησε μία [ἡ] διὰ πάντων διήκουσα δύναμις, ἐκ τῶν ἀμίκτων καὶ ἑτεροίων, ἀέρος [396b30] τε καὶ γῆς καὶ πυρὸς καὶ ὕδατος, τὸν σύμπαντα κόσμον δημιουργήσασα καὶ μιᾷ διαλαβοῦσα σφαίρας ἐπιφανείᾳ τάς τε ἐναντιωτάτας ἐν αὐτῷ φύσεις ἀλλήλαις ἀναγκάσασα ὁμολογῆσαι καὶ ἐκ τούτων μηχανησαμένη τῷ παντὶ σωτηρίαν. Αἰτία δὲ ταύτης μὲν ἡ τῶν στοιχείων ὁμολογία, τῆς δὲ ὁμολογίας ἡ ἰσομοιρία καὶ τὸ μηδὲν αὐτῶν πλέον [396a1] ἕτερον ἑτέρου δύνασθαι· τὴν γὰρ ἴσην ἀντίστασιν ἔχει τὰ βαρέα πρὸς τὰ κοῦφα καὶ τὰ θερμὰ πρὸς θάτερα, τῆς φύσεως ἐπὶ τῶν μειζόνων διδασκούσης ὅτι τὸ ἴσον σωστικόν πώς ἐστιν ὁμονοίας, ἡ δὲ ὁμόνοια τοῦ πάντων γενετῆρος καὶ περικαλλεστάτου κόσμου. Τίς γὰρ ἂν εἴη φύσις τοῦδε κρείττων; ἣν γὰρ ἂν εἴπῃ τις, μέρος ἐστὶν αὐτοῦ. Τό τε καλὸν πᾶν ἐπώνυμόν ἐστι τούτου καὶ τὸ τεταγμένον, ἀπὸ τοῦ κόσμου λεγόμενον κεκοσμῆσθαι.

Complexity and order

22(1) For what is greater than the world? Praise any species you can think of: it is a part of the world you are praising; admire any mixture, arrangement, design you want: whatever it is, you will find yourself praising the world when you praise it. (2) I ask you, what can appear ornate and well-ordered that does not imitate the world in its proportions? This is why it has the appellation kosmos in Greek. (3) The Sun, the Moon and the other sidereal lights never change their course; time-periods give way to each other according to a guaranteed pattern which is never disturbed by the introduction of a single error; they are distributed out, and then begin again, and the beautiful and fertile seasons are produced: now the vapours of summer come around, now the frosts of winter. The circuit of days and nights create months; the months weave themselves into years; the years forge a sequence of ages. (4) Our world is immense in magnitude, swift in its movements, bright in splendour, in strong estate and youthful age ***. It has separated out different animal kinds aquatic and terrestrial, and all those with wings. It distinguished the species and fixed laws for living and dying; (5) from it, animals draw the breath of life. It is responsible for those seasonal events which typically arouse wonder, when winds are whipped up in battle against each other, or the clouds are rent and there is lightning in the sky, and wintery tempests blow at each other and clear the sky, fires flash, storms break out - or again, when everything becomes calm, and lovely joy is sown again in the world.

22 Quid enim mundo praestantius? Lauda, quam putas, speciem: portio a te laudabitur mundi; admirare, quam uoles, temperantiam, ordinationem, figuram: hic et per hunc illud quodcumque est inuenietur esse laudandum. Nam quid, oro te, ornatum atque ordinatum uideri potest, quod non ab ipsius exemplo imitat[ur]a sit ratio? Vnde κόσμος graece nomen accepit. Euntibus sole atque luna ceteraque luce siderea per easdem uias, custoditis temporum uicibus nec ullius erroris interiectione confusis, digeruntur tempora et rursus incipiunt pulchraeque et fecundae horae procreantur, nunc aestiuos uapores reuoluentes, nunc pruinas hiemis circum referentes; dierum etiam noctiumque curriculis ordiuntur <menses>, menses texunt annos, anni seriem conficiunt saeculorum. Et hic quidem mundus magnitudine inmensus, cursibus rapidus, splendore perlucidus, ualenti habitudine, pubertate iuuenali [causa]. Hic animalium nantium atque terrestrium, pinnigerarumque cunctarum distinxit genera, species separauit fixitque leges uiuendi atque moriendi. Ex hoc animantia uitalis spiritus ducunt. <Hinc> illi statis cursibus temporum euentus, qui admirationi solent esse, cum uel inter se uentorum proelia ciuntur, uel disiectis nubibus fulminat caelum et tempestates inter se serenae hibernaeque confligunt, micant ignes, imbres rumpuntur, et rursus, placatis omnibus, amoena laetitia mundi reseratur.

And how could any part match the order of the heavens and the movement of stars and Sun and Moon, [10] which move in the most precise measures from one age to the next? What could aspire to such reliability as is observed by the beautiful and fertile seasons of the universe, which bring summer and winter in order, and days and nights to complete a month and a year? It is [15] superlative in size, most swift in its movement, most radiant in its splendour, unwearying and imperishable in power. It separated out the different natures of sea, land, and air creatures, and measured out their lives by its own movements. Thanks to it all animals breathe and have life. Thanks to it even the unexpected and unprecedented come to pass in due order: winds of all kinds are dashed together, lightning falls from the sky, and extreme storms break, and by these means the moisture squeezed out and the fire expelled bring the whole to be established in concord.

Τί δὲ τῶν ἐπὶ μέρους δύναιτ' ἂν ἐξισωθῆναι τῇ κατ' οὐρανὸν τάξει τε καὶ φορᾷ τῶν ἄστρων ἡλίου τε [396a10] καὶ σελήνης, κινουμένων ἐν ἀκριβεστάτοις μέτροις ἐξ αἰῶνος εἰς ἕτερον αἰῶνα; τίς δὲ γένοιτ' ἂν ἀψεύδεια τοιάδε, ἥντινα φυλάττουσιν αἱ καλαὶ καὶ γόνιμοι τῶν ὅλων ὧραι, θέρη τε καὶ χειμῶνας ἐπάγουσαι τεταγμένως ἡμέρας τε καὶ νύκτας εἰς μηνὸς ἀποτέλεσμα καὶ ἐνιαυτοῦ; καὶ μὴν μεγέθει μὲν οὗτος πανυπέρτατος, κινήσει δὲ ὀξύτατος, λαμπρότητι δὲ εὐαυγέστατος, δυνάμει δὲ ἀγήρως τε καὶ ἄφθαρτος. Οὗτος ἐναλίων ζῴων καὶ πεζῶν καὶ ἀερίων φύσεις ἐχώρισε καὶ βίους ἐμέτρησε ταῖς ἑαυτοῦ κινήσεσιν. Ἐκ τούτου πάντα ἐμπνεῖ τε καὶ ψυχὴν ἴσχει τὰ ζῷα. Τούτου καὶ αἱ παράδοξοι [396a20] νεοχμώσεις τεταγμένως ἀποτελοῦνται, συναραττόντων μὲν ἀνέμων παντοίων, πιπτόντων δὲ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ κεραυνῶν, ῥηγνυμένων δὲ χειμώνων ἐξαισίων. Διὰ δὲ τούτων τὸ νοτερὸν ἐκπιεζόμενον τό τε πυρῶδες διαπνεόμενον εἰς ὁμόνοιαν ἄγει τὸ πᾶν καὶ καθίστησιν.

23(1) You can see the earth covered with locks of green hair, and dripping with bubbling springs, and pregnant with bodies of water; giving birth and nurturing, never getting tired in the evening, never aging through time. It is always being pummelled, slowly or quickly, by matter from eruptions; it often gets submerged under flowing waters; parts of it are consumed by voracious fires. (2) But what seems damaging viewed locally works for the preservation of the whole, and helps to restore it. When it is disturbed, it immediately exhales those breaths of air which were the cause of the disturbance when they were trapped within looking for a way to escape; drenched by storms, the earth is not only fattened for the offspring it nurtures, but is also washed clean of disease-bearing contagion; (3) breezes blow and heavier and less pure breaths of air are carried off and purged by their blasts; warmth softens the glacial cold, while the harshness of autumn restores the veins of the earth's innards. (4) Some things are being born, others achieving maturity, the rest are dying, all in their turn; and the lot of the new-born comes to fruition in place of the dead, and the number of those dying opens room for those that are born.

23 Videas et uiridantibus comis caesariatam esse terram et scatebris fontium manantem, et aquarum agminibus concientem, parientem atque educantem, nec occasibus fatigari, nec saeculis anilitari, excussam erumpentibus semper tam pigris quam mouentibus faecibus, aquarum saepe adluuionibus mersam, flammarum per partes uoracitate consumptam. Quae tamen illi cum regionaliter uideantur esse pestifera, ad omnem salutaria sunt et ad redintegrationem eius ualent; et cum mouetur, profecto spirat illos spiritus, quibus clausis et effugia quaerentibus moueba[n]tur, imbribus etiam madefacta non solum ad educandos fetus suos opimatur, uerum etiam pestifera contagione proluitur. Flabris autem spirantium aurarum grauiores et minus puri aeris spiritus differuntur atque purgantur. Tepores frigus glaciale mitificant et brumalis austeritas terrestrium uiscerum uenas remittit. Et pars gignentium, alia adolescentium, cetera occidentium uices sustinent sorsque nascentium obitorum loco pullulat et occidentium numerus nascentibus locum pandit.

Earth bristles with plants of all sorts, has springs bubbling up, and is traversed by animals: it gives birth to everything in due season, and nurtures them and receives them [back], giving rise to thousands of forms and characteristics, and keeps nature consistently ageless. Yet it is also shaken by quakes, inundated by floods, and burned by local conflagrations. [30] But all of these things can be seen arising within it for the good, and serve its preservation over time. [The earth] is shaken, and the breaths of air trapped within are provided with vents in its fissures, as was said above; it is purged by showers, and everything diseased is washed away; breezes blow around it, and what is above and below it is purified. [397b1] Flames soften what is frosty, and frosts relieve the flames. At an individual level things are variously born, mature and die: the births defy the deaths, and the deaths thin out the births. There is a reciprocal displacement by which all things work to the preservation of the whole: by dominating and being dominated in turn, each thing keeps the whole imperishable over time

Ἥ τε γῆ φυτοῖς κομῶσα παντοδαποῖς νάμασί τε περιβλύζουσα καὶ περιοχουμένη ζῴοις, κατὰ καιρὸν ἐκφύουσά τε πάντα καὶ τρέφουσα καὶ δεχομένη, μυρίας τε φέρουσα ἰδέας καὶ πάθη, τὴν ἀγήρω φύσιν ὁμοίως τηρεῖ, καίτοι καὶ σεισμοῖς τινασσομένη καὶ πλημυρίσιν ἐπικλυζομένη πυρκαϊαῖς τε κατὰ μέρος φλογιζομένη. [396a30] Ταῦτα δὲ πάντα ἔοικεν αὐτῇ πρὸς ἀγαθοῦ γινόμενα τὴν δι' αἰῶνος σωτηρίαν παρέχειν· σειομένης τε γὰρ διεξᾴττουσιν αἱ τῶν πνευμάτων παρεμπτώσεις κατὰ τὰ ῥήγματα τὰς ἀναπνοὰς ἴσχουσαι, καθὼς ἄνω λέλεκται, καθαιρομένη τε ὄμβροις ἀποκλύζεται πάντα τὰ νοσώδη, περιπνεομένη δὲ αὔραις τά τε ὑπ' αὐτὴν καὶ τὰ ὑπὲρ αὐτὴν εἰλικρινεῖται. Καὶ [396b1] μὴν αἱ φλόγες μὲν τὸ παγετῶδες ἠπιαίνουσιν, οἱ πάγοι δὲ τὰς φλόγας ἀνιᾶσιν. Καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ μέρους τὰ μὲν γίνεται, τὰ δὲ ἀκμάζει, τὰ δὲ φθείρεται. Καὶ αἱ μὲν γενέσεις ἐπαναστέλλουσι τὰς φθοράς, αἱ δὲ φθοραὶ κουφίζουσι τὰς γενέσεις. Μία δὲ ἐκ πάντων περαινομένη σωτηρία διὰ τέλους ἀντιπεριισταμένων ἀλλήλοις καὶ τοτὲ μὲν κρατούντων, τοτὲ δὲ κρατουμένων, φυλάττει τὸ σύμπαν ἄφθαρτον δι' αἰῶνος.

God

24(1) The most important point of this discourse still remains, which is to say something about the ruler of the cosmos. The thought behind the speech will seem wanting unless, in reflecting on the cosmos, we say whatever we can ***, even if we cannot investigate him so closely. When it comes to the ruler of all, indeed, it is not, as the man says, better to be silent, or to say little.

24 Restat, quod caput est sermonis huius, ut super mundi rectore uerba faciamus. Indigens quippe orationis huius uidebatur ratio, nisi de mundo disputantes, etsi minus curiose, at quoquo modo possemus * * * diceremus. De rectore quippe omnium non, ut ait ille, silere melius est, sed uel parum dicere.

It remains to speak in summary terms (the way we did about everything else) about the cause that makes the universe cohere: [10] it would be a mistake to leave out the most important part of the cosmos, even in an account of the cosmos that does not go into detail but aims to teach in outline.

Λοιπὸν δὴ περὶ τῆς τῶν ὅλων συνεκτικῆς αἰτίας κεφαλαιωδῶς [396b10] εἰπεῖν, ὃν τρόπον καὶ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων· πλημμελὲς γὰρ περὶ κόσμου λέγοντας, εἰ καὶ μὴ δι' ἀκριβείας, ἀλλ' οὖν γε ὡς εἰς τυπώδη μάθησιν, τὸ τοῦ κόσμου κυριώτατον παραλιπεῖν.

(2) The ancient view, which is embedded in the thoughts of all men, is that god is the author of its origin and that god is himself the preservation and continuation of those things which he made. There is nothing so superlatively powerful that its own nature is enough for it, in the absence of his assistance. (3) Following this view, poets have been inspired to the daring claim that everything is full of Jupiter, and that his presence can be grasped not only by thought but by eyes and ears and sensible substance. But the present speech has been composed with due regard to god's power. (4) For that preserver is progenitor of everything which has been born or made for the sake of completing the cosmos as a whole. He did not, however, construct this sphere with his hands as if employed as a manual labourer, but by means of an unwearying providence he reaches everything that is set far away and embraces what is separated [from him] by the greatest distances.

Vetus opinio est atque cogitationes omnium hominum penitus insedit, deum [esse] originis haberi auctorem deumque ipsum salutem esse et perseuerantiam earum, quas effecerit, rerum. Neque ulla res est tam praestantibus uiribus, quae <eius> uiduata auxilio sui natura contenta sit. Hanc opinionem uates secuti profiteri ausi sunt, omnia Ioue plena esse, cuius praesentiam non iam cogitatio sola, sed oculi et aures et sensibilis substantia conprehendit. At haec conposita est pot<estati, non autem mai>estati dei conueniens oratio. Sospitator quidem ille <et> genitor est omnium, qui ad conplendum mundum nati factique sunt; non tamen ut corporei laboris officio orbem istum manibus suis instruxerit, sed qui quadam infatigabili prouidentia et procul posita cuncta contingit, et maximis interuallis disiuncta conplectitur.

There is an ancient account, the heritage of all people, that everything comes from god and is constituted through god, [15] and nothing of any kind is self-sufficient in the absence of him to preserve it. For this reason, some of the ancients have suggested that all these things, which are apparent to our eyes and hearing and every other sense, are 'full of gods' [cf. Thales, 11 A22 Diels-Kranz]. They set out a fitting account of god's power, [20] but not his substance. For god truly is the preserver and progenitor of everything at all that is accomplished in this cosmos - but not because he undertakes the burden of a hard labourer's life: rather, he employs an unwearying power by which he controls things which seem far off.

Ἀρχαῖος μὲν οὖν τις λόγος καὶ πάτριός ἐστι πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ὡς ἐκ θεοῦ πάντα καὶ διὰ θεὸν συνέστηκεν, οὐδεμία δὲ φύσις αὐτὴ καθ' ἑαυτήν ἐστιν αὐτάρκης, ἐρημωθεῖσα τῆς ἐκ τούτου σωτηρίας. Διὸ καὶ τῶν παλαιῶν εἰπεῖν τινες προήχθησαν ὅτι πάντα ταῦτά ἐστι θεῶν πλέα τὰ καὶ δι' ὀφθαλμῶν ἰνδαλλόμενα ἡμῖν καὶ δι' ἀκοῆς καὶ πάσης αἰσθήσεως, τῇ μὲν θείᾳ δυνάμει πρέποντα καταβαλλόμενοι [396b20] λόγον, οὐ μὴν τῇ γε οὐσίᾳ. Σωτὴρ μὲν γὰρ ὄντως ἁπάντων ἐστὶ καὶ γενέτωρ τῶν ὁπωσδήποτε κατὰ τόνδε τὸν κόσμον συντελουμένων ὁ θεός, οὐ μὴν αὐτουργοῦ καὶ ἐπιπόνου ζῴου κάματον ὑπομένων, ἀλλὰ δυνάμει χρώμενος ἀτρύτῳ, δι' ἧς καὶ τῶν πόρρω δοκούντων εἶναι περιγίνεται.

25(1) There is no doubt that he holds the preeminent, highest place; that when the poets praise him they use for his name the titles of consuls and kings; and that his throne is consecrated in the lofty heights. (2) Things draw from his power according to their distance from him: the celestial bodies which border on him get so much the more from god; much less those that are second out from them.The benefits of god's acts of care reach down as far as us here on Earth in proportion to our distance. (3) But although we believe that god permeates everything and that his power reaches to us as well as what is above us, he confers more or less benefit on things as he is more or less imminent or absent. (4) For this reason, the better and fairer way to think of it is this: the supreme power, consecrated in the inner sanctuaries of the heavens, carries the work of preservation to those who are farthest separated from him and to those that are closest with one and the same power; he does this himself, but also by means of others; he does not enter or approach each individual thing, and he does not handle everything, which would be unseemly. (5) To debase himself to such humble work is all the less worthy of his sublime office as it is not even suitable for any human with the slightest sense of dignity. Military officers and leading senators and rulers over cities and houses are, I tell you, never expected to do basic tasks with their own hands, or the things that slaves can do no less readily at the command of their masters. (6) Let me give an example of how this can be.

25 Nec ambigitur eum praestantem ac sublimem sedem tenere et poetarum laudibus nomen eius consulum ac regum nuncupationibus praedicari et in arduis arcibus habere solium consecratum. Denique propiores quosque de potestate eius amplius trahere: corpora illa caelestia, quanto finitima sunt ei, tanto amplius de deo capere; multo minus, quae ab illis sunt secunda, et ad haec usque terrena pro interuallorum modo indulgentiarum dei ad nos usque beneficia peruenire. Sed cum credamus deum per omnia permeare et ad nos et [ad] ultra potestatem sui numinis tendere, quantum abest uel inminet, tantum existimandum est eum amplius minusue rebus utilitatis dare. Qua[m] re[m] rectius est atque honestius sic arbitrari: summam illam potestatem, sacratam caeli penetralibus, et illis qui longissime separentur, et proximis, una et eadem ratione et per se et per alios opem salutis adferre, nec penetrantem atque adeuntem specialiter singula nec indecore adtrectantem comminus cuncta. Talis quippe humilitas deiecti et minus sublimis officii, ne cum homine quidem conuenit, qui sit uel paululum conscientiae celsioris. Militiae principes et curiae proceres et urbium ac domorum rectores dico numquam commissuros esse, ut id suis manibus factum uelint, quod sit curae leuioris fuscioris quodque possint nihilo sequius facere dominorum imperia, ministeria seruulorum. Exemplo quale sit istud intellege.

[25] He occupies the highest and first place, and is called the Most High because of this; he is enthroned, in the words of the poet, at the 'crown and summit' of the whole heaven [Homer, Iliad 1.499 = 5.754 = 8.3]. The body closest to him benefits most from his power, and then the one next to that, and so on until the regions where we are. [30] This is why the Earth and the things on Earth, which are at the furthest remove from god's aid, seem weak and clumsy and full of confusion. Nevertheless, the divine is such as to extend to everything, as far as possible, and reaches the things around us in the same way that it reaches the things above us: but each participates more or less in his aid according as they are nearer or further from god. [398a1] So the better way to conceive things, the way that is fitting and most appropriate for god, is, in a word, that his power, which has its seat in the heavens, explains the preservation of everything, including the things that are furthest away - rather than that it handles things on Earth by pervading and wandering where there is nothing beautiful or seemly. It is not even appropriate for human leaders - I mean, for example, the ruler of an army or the head of a household - to take care of every task whatsoever, e.g. bagging up the bedclothes, or doing some even lowlier job which any slave could do. It is as it is related of the Great King.

Τὴν μὲν οὖν ἀνωτάτω καὶ πρώτην ἕδραν αὐτὸς ἔλαχεν, ὕπατός τε διὰ τοῦτο ὠνόμασται, κατὰ τὸν ποιητὴν ἀκροτάτῃ κορυφῇ τοῦ σύμπαντος ἐγκαθιδρυμένος οὐρανοῦ· μάλιστα δέ πως αὐτοῦ τῆς δυνάμεως ἀπολαύει τὸ πλησίον αὐτοῦ σῶμα, καὶ ἔπειτα τὸ μετ' ἐκεῖνο, καὶ ἐφεξῆς οὕτως ἄχρι τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς [396b30] τόπων. Διὸ γῆ τε καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς ἔοικεν, ἐν ἀποστάσει πλείστῃ τῆς ἐκ θεοῦ ὄντα ὠφελείας, ἀσθενῆ καὶ ἀκατάλληλα εἶναι καὶ πολλῆς μεστὰ ταραχῆς· οὐ μὴν ἀλλὰ καθ' ὅσον ἐπὶ πᾶν διικνεῖσθαι πέφυκε τὸ θεῖον, καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς ὁμοίως συμβαίνει τά τε ὑπὲρ ἡμᾶς, κατὰ τὸ ἔγγιόν τε καὶ πορρωτέρω θεοῦ εἶναι μᾶλλόν τε καὶ ἧττον [398a1] ὠφελείας μεταλαμβάνοντα. Κρεῖττον οὖν ὑπολαβεῖν, ὃ καὶ πρέπον ἐστὶ καὶ θεῷ μάλιστα ἁρμόζον, ὡς ἡ ἐν οὐρανῷ δύναμις ἱδρυμένη καὶ τοῖς πλεῖστον ἀφεστηκόσιν, ὡς ἔνι γε εἰπεῖν, καὶ σύμπασιν αἴτιος γίνεται σωτηρίας, μᾶλλον ἢ ὡς διήκουσα καὶ φοιτῶσα ἔνθα μὴ καλὸν μηδὲ εὔσχημον αὐτουργεῖ[ν] τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς. Τοῦτο μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ ἀνθρώπων ἡγεμόσιν ἁρμόττει, παντὶ καὶ τῷ τυχόντι ἐφίστασθαι ἔργῳ, λέγω δὲ οἷον στρατιᾶς ἄρχοντι ἢ πόλεως ἢ οἴκου, [καὶ] εἰ χρεὼν στρωματόδεσμον εἴη δῆσαι καὶ εἴ τι φαυλότερον ἀποτελεῖν ἔργον, [398a10] ὃ κἂν τὸ τυχὸν ἀνδράποδον ποιήσειεν, ἀλλ' οἷον ἐπὶ τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως ἱστορεῖται.

26(1) Cambyses, Xerxes, and Darius were very powerful kings. Their supreme power was underpinned by their wealth, and they were able to use it to fashion a higher form of living. The second of these was, whether at Susa or Ecbatana, like a holy statue enclosed in a shrine, which does not show its face to just anyone: enclosed in wondrous palaces, whose rooves shone snow-white with ivory, bright with silver, ablaze with gold and electrum. (2) There were thresholds upon thresholds, inner doors were protected by outer entrances, iron gates, and walls of adamantine strength. In front of the doors stood sturdy men and royal body-guards, who took it in turns (chosen by lot) to ensure a permanent vigil. There were men with different duties: there were armed guards in the royal company, and, outside, guards for particular places, door-keepers, hall-attendants. (3) Some of them were known as the 'royal ears' and the 'eyes of the emperor': it was thanks to these classes of official that everyone came to believe that the king was a god, because everything which was done anywhere he found out about through the reports of his spies. (4) He had people to dispense money, tax collectors, financial officers; to other people, and others again, he gave different duties. Some looked after the hunts, some were prefects of houses and cities, and others took constant and painstaking care to oversee other particular things. (5) The Hellespont bounded the Asian kingdom to the west; the people of India were its neighbours to the east. There were governors and satraps and royal slaves stationed everywhere. (6) Among them were runners, who operated day and night, scouts and messengers and people constantly on hand to light beacons. These formed a series of torches set on all the high places of the kingdom, and signalled to the emperor in the space of a single day what he needed to know.

26 Cambyses et Xerxes, et Darius potentissimi reges fuerunt; horum praepotentiam, quam ex opibus collegerant, lenocinium uitae effecerat celsiorem, cum eorum alter, apud Susam et Ecbatanas ut in fano quodam sacratus, nulli temere notitiam oris sui panderet, sed <esset> circumsaeptus admirabili regia, cuius tecta fulgerent eboris niue, argenti luce, flammis ex auro uel electri claritate. Limina uero alia prae aliis erant; interiores fores exteriores ianuae muniebant portaeque ferratae et muri adamantina firmitate. Ante fores uiri fortes stipatoresque regalium laterum tutela peruigili custodiam per uices sortium sustinebant. Erant inter eos et diuisa officia; in comitatu regio armigeri quidam, at extrinsecus singuli custodes locorum erant et ianitores et atrienses. Sed inter eos aures regiae et imperatoris oculi quidam homines uocabantur. Per quae officiorum genera rex ille deus esse ab omnibus credebatur, cum omnia quae ubique gererentur [quae] ille otacustarum relatione discebat. Dispensatores pecuniae, quaestores uectigalium, tribunos aerarios habebat; alios et alios praefecerat ceteris muneribus: alii uenatibus agendis prouinciam nacti, pars domibus et urbibus praefecti putabantur et ceteri, perpetuis magnisque curis, obseruationi singularum rerum adpositi erant. Sed omne Asiaticum regnum ab occidente Hellespontus terminabat, ab ortu gens inchoabat Indorum; duces ac satrapae ubique dispositi et permixta locis omnibus mancipia regalia. Ex eo numero erant excursores diurni atque nocturni, exploratores ac nuntii et specula[to]rum incensores adsidui; tum horum per uices incensae faces, ex omnibus regni sublimibus locis, in uno die imperatori significabant quod erat scitu opus.

Cambyses, Xerxes, and Darius were screened off from the world in a way magnificently arranged to promote their solemnity and supreme elevation. [The Great King], as we are told, had his seat in Susa or Ecbatana, where he was not seen by anyone. He had an amazing royal palace, enclosed by a wall which coruscated with gold, electrum, and ivory. There was a long series of gateways and many porches, built stades from each other, fortified by bronze doors and huge walls. Outside these [walls] were arrayed men of the first rank and honour, [20] some of them armed guards and attendants of the king himself, others guards of the various walls, known as Gate-Keepers and Listeners, who enabled the king himself, named lord and god, to see everything and hear everything. Apart from these, other men were appointed as treasurers and army generals and hunt-masters and receivers of gifts and others given care of the other tasks that needed to be done. And the whole empire of Asia, bounded by the Hellespont to the west, and by India to the east, was divided according to tribe among generals and satraps and kings, all slaves of the Great King; and there were long-distance [lit.: all-day] runners, and scouts and message-carriers and people to take care of the beacons. And things were so arranged, especially in the matter of the beacons, which could be lit in succession from the edges of the empire to Susa and Ecbatana, that the king could know all the news in Asia on the very day it happened.

Τὸ <γὰρ> Καμβύσου Ξέρξου τε καὶ Δαρείου πρόσχημα εἰς σεμνότητος καὶ ὑπεροχῆς ὕψος μεγαλοπρεπῶς διεκεκόσμητο· αὐτὸς μὲν γάρ, ὡς λόγος, ἵδρυτο ἐν Σούσοις ἢ Ἐκβατάνοις, παντὶ ἀόρατος, θαυμαστὸν ἐπέχων βασίλειον οἶκον καὶ περίβολον χρυσῷ καὶ ἠλέκτρῳ καὶ ἐλέφαντι ἀστράπτοντα· πυλῶνες δὲ πολλοὶ καὶ συνεχεῖς πρόθυρά τε σύχνοις εἰργόμενα σταδίοις ἀπ' ἀλλήλων θύραις τε χαλκαῖς καὶ τείχεσι μεγάλοις ὠχύρωτο· ἔξω δὲ τούτων ἄνδρες οἱ πρῶτοι καὶ δοκιμώτατοι διεκεκόσμηντο, [398a20] οἱ μὲν ἀμφ' αὐτὸν τὸν βασιλέα δορυφόροι τε καὶ θεράποντες, οἱ δὲ ἑκάστου περιβόλου φύλακες, πυλωροί τε καὶ ὠτακουσταὶ λεγόμενοι, ὡς ἂν ὁ βασιλεὺς αὐτός, δεσπότης καὶ θεὸς ὀνομαζόμενος, πάντα μὲν βλέποι, πάντα δὲ ἀκούοι. Χωρὶς δὲ τούτων ἄλλοι καθειστήκεσαν προσόδων ταμίαι καὶ στρατηγοὶ πολέμων καὶ κυνηγεσίων δώρων τε ἀποδεκτῆρες τῶν τε λοιπῶν ἔργων ἕκαστοι κατὰ τὰς χρείας ἐπιμεληταί. Τὴν δὲ σύμπασαν ἀρχὴν τῆς Ἀσίας, περατουμένην Ἑλλησπόντῳ μὲν ἐκ τῶν πρὸς ἑσπέραν μερῶν, Ἰνδῷ δὲ ἐκ τῶν πρὸς ἕω, διειλήφεσαν κατὰ ἔθνη στρατηγοὶ καὶ σατράπαι καὶ [398a30] βασιλεῖς, δοῦλοι τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως, ἡμεροδρόμοι τε καὶ σκοποὶ καὶ ἀγγελιαφόροι φρυκτωριῶν τε ἐποπτῆρες. Τοσοῦτος δὲ ἦν ὁ κόσμος, καὶ μάλιστα τῶν φρυκτωρ[ι]ῶν, κατὰ διαδοχὰς πυρσευόντων ἀλλήλοις ἐκ περάτων τῆς ἀρχῆς μέχρι Σούσων καὶ Ἐκβατάνων, ὥστε τὸν βασιλέα γινώσκειν αὐθημερὸν πάντα τὰ ἐν τῇ Ἀσίᾳ καινουργούμενα.

27(1) That kingdom should be compared with the halls of heaven as the supreme and most exalted of gods stands in comparison with a base man of the worse sort. And if it is indecorous for a man, or for any king, to take care of everything, and to do everything by himself, so much more will it be unsuitable for god. (2) God should be reckoned to retain his gravity and majesty by residing in the highest place while dispersing his powers through all the parts of the cosmos and the sphere which is enclosed by the Sun and Moon and the heaven as a whole which take care of the preservation of all earthly things. (3) He does not need to do much to preserve mankind, although their base condition means that they have many needs. Can mechanics not make things which cleverly accomplish a great variety of ends by the turn of a single wheel? (4) Look - even people who control the gestures of wooden puppets, when they pull the string of the part which they want to move, the neck will turn, the head will nod, the eyes will swivel, the hands will be ready to help, and the whole has the graceful appearance of life. (5) Just so, when the celestial power, with understanding and providential care, makes the first move, he communicates the power of his majesty, by immediate contact, from his outer [limit] to the second [sphere], and thence to the next - all the way to the end: one is moved, and its movement is passed on as the origin of the movement of another. (6) Their harmony with the cosmos as a whole comes about not through some single event, but through the diverse, and even contrary, movements of many things. 28(1) But after the first impulse, that simple and initial principle [of movement], the series of impulses described above [follows] so that everything is set in motion - but in the way that a sphere and cube and cylinder and other figures, if someone were to throw them all downhill, would all alike be set in motion, but they would not all move in the same way. (2) Here is another, similar example: if someone were to release a number of animals from their lap at the same time, birds, fish, and land-animals: (3) well, all of them would follow their nature and hurry off to their own [environment]. Some would seek out water; those with something of the tame as well as the wild in them would gather together under their own laws and customs; those to which nature gave the power would trace swift paths through the air. Yet each had one and the same opportunity to leave the human lap. 29(1) The nature of the cosmos is made like this. The heaven as a whole revolves in a simple, circular motion, defined by night and day, and distinguished by various regular measures. Within a single sphere that encloses everything, the Moon signifies measurements of time by becoming fuller [or] by the fading of its light; the Sun illuminates the space of the heaven by a course which it completes in a year, along with its companions, delightful Lucifer and kindly Cyllenius. (2) And Pyrois, the star of Mars, completes its circuit in two years; that of Jupiter, bright and coruscating, takes six times as long for its circuit, and Saturn, still higher up, takes a course of 30 years length. (3) But from them all comes the one cosmic cycle, one complete turn of the sphere; a single harmony and a single chorus of stars is made from their various risings and settings. The jewellery-like beauty of this the Greek language quite rightly refers to as cosmos. (4) Just as in a chorus, when the leader starts to sing the song or hymn, the fellowship of male and female singers, of high- and low-pitched voices, blends and gives out a single harmony: so the divine mind elevates variety in the terrestrial realm to the equivalent of that single consonance. (5) The fixed heaven follows the unwavering course taken by the glowing and shining stars, and those stars rise together with complementary paths. The Sun oversees everything: it spreads out the day when it rises, and brings back night when it sets; and it changes the four seasons as moves through the regions of the cosmos further or nearer [to Earth]. (6) This is the cause of winter tempests and fertile breaths of air, of the nourishing dew, and all things which god wishes for these central parts of the cosmos. Alongside these there are torrential floods and swollen waves, the growth of forests, the ripening of fruits, animal pregnancy - each thing nurtured, and each thing dying.

27 Igitur regnum illud ita conponi oportet cum mundi aula, ut inter se conparantur summus atque exsuperantissimus diuum et homo ignauus et pessimus. Quod si cui uiro uel cuilibet regi indecorum est per semetipsum procurare omnia quae perficere <uult>, multo magis de[e]o inconueniens erit. Quare sic putandum est eum maxime <dignitatem> maiestatemque retinere, si ipse in solio residat altissimo, eas autem potestates per omnes partes mundi orbisque dispendat, quae sint penes solem ac lunam cunctumque caelum; horum enim cura salutem terrenorum omnium gubernari. Nec multis opus est nec partitis hominum conseruitiis, quibus propter ignauiam adpositum est pluribus indigere. An non eiusmodi conpendio machinatores fabricarum astutia unius conuersionis multa et uaria pariter administrant? En! etiam illi, qui in ligneolis hominum figuris gestus mouent, quando filum membri, quod agitari uolent, traxerint, torquebitur ceruix, nutabit caput, oculi uibrabunt, manus ad[que] ministerium praesto erunt nec inuenuste totus uidebitur uiuere. Haud secus etiam caelestis potestas, cum initium sciente et salutifera opera mouerit, ab imo ad secundum et deinceps ad proximum et usque ad supremum adtactu continuo uim suae maiestatis insinuat, aliud alio commouetur motusque unius alteri mouendi se originem tradit. Mundo equidem consentiunt, non una, sed diuersa uia et plerumque contraria. 28 Sed prima remissione ad motum data simplicique inchoato principio, inpulsibus mutuis, ut supra dictum est, mouentur quidem omnia, sed ita ut, si quis sphaeram et quadratum et cylindrum et alias figuras per procliue simul iaciat, deferentur quidem omnia, sed non eodem genere mouebuntur. Nec illud dissimile exemplum uideri oportet, si quis pariter patefacto gremio animalis simul abire patiatur, uolucrum, natatilium atque terrestrium; enimuero ad suum locum quaeque, duce natura, properabunt: pars aquam repetent, illa inter cicures atque agrestes legibus et institutis suis adgregabuntur, ibunt per aeris uias praepetes, quibus hoc natura largita est; atquin una ab humano sinu abeundi facultas concessa omnibus fuerat. 29 Sic natura mundi est constituta. Nam cum omne caelum simplici circumactu uoluatur nocte diuque distinctum, diuersis mensurarum aequalitatibus separatum, quamuis una omnia sphaera concluserit, incrementis tamen globi sui, decisione luminis menstrua tempora luna significat et caeli spatium sol annua reuersione conlustrat eiusque comites amoenus Lucifer et com[mun]is Cyllenius. Stella etenim Pyrois, Mauortium sidus, circuli sui biennio conficit spatia; Iouis clarum fulgensque sexies eadem multiplicat cursibus suis tempora, quae Saturnus sublimior XXX spatiis annorum circumerrat. Verum inter haec una mundi conuersio unusque reuersionis est orbis et unus concentus atque unus stellarum chorus ex diuersis occasibus ortibusque. Hoc ornamentum et uelut monile κόσμος rectissime Graeca lingua significat. At enim ut in choris, cum dux [carmini] hymno praecinit, concinentium uulgus uirorum et feminarum, mixtis grauibus et acutis clamoribus, unam harmoniam resonant, sic diuina mens mundanas uarietates ad instar unius concentionis releuat. Nam cum caelum confixum uaporatis et radiantibus stellis inerranti cursu feratur et reciprocis itineribus astra consurgant, sol quidem omnituens ortu suo diem pandit, occasu noctem reducit conditusque uel relatus per plagas mundi IV temporum uices mutat. Hinc tempestiui [ven et spiritus haud infecundi, hinc alimenta roris et cetera[rum], quae accidere deus his mundi mediis partibus uoluit. His adpositi sunt torrentium cursus et tumores undarum emicationesque siluarum, frugalis maturitas, fetus animalium, educationes etiam atque obitus singulorum.

[398b1] You should consider that the superiority of the Great King is as inferior to that of the god who maintains the cosmos as that of the basest and weakest animal. So, if it would be impious to think of Xerxes doing everything for himself, and carrying out his own wishes and standing over the things he was directing all the time, so much the more unfitting would it be to think this of god. It is more dignified and fitting for him to be seated at the highest place, while his power pervades the whole cosmos and moves the Sun and Moon and drives the whole heaven around and is the cause of the preservation of things on Earth. [10] He is not even in need of the skills and services of others, in the way that rulers among us need a great deal of help because of their own weakness. This in fact is the most divine thing, to achieve all sorts of forms through one easy and simple movement - just as, perhaps, inventors do with machines in which a single trigger results in different operations. Or, similarly, puppeteers who pull on one string make not only the creature's neck and hand move, but its shoulder and eye, and sometimes all of its limbs, with a certain grace. So likewise, [20] by a simple initial movement, the divine nature transmits power from the first thing to those things that are next to it, and from those again to others more distant, until it has passed right the way through everything. One thing is moved by another, and it in turn moves something else in an orderly way. And everything acts in a way appropriate to its own constitution, [25] and there is not a single path for all, but they follow different, heterogenous, and even sometimes contrary, paths - although there was a single first keynote (so to speak). It is as if one should throw a sphere, a cube, a cone, and a cylinder from a jar at the same time: each of them will be set in motion according to its own shape. [30] Or again, it is as if someone should release aquatic, terrestrial, and winged animals from his lap where he had been holding them: obviously, the swimmer would leap into its own habitat and swim away, the terrestrial animal will crawl off to its own customs and laws, and the creature of the air will ascend heavenward from the Earth on its wings: [35] but a single cause gave each its own opportunity. So it is in the case of the cosmos too. [399a1] In a single revolution of the whole heaven defined by a day and a night, the various routes taken by everything emerge, albeit enclosed by the one sphere: some are faster, some more leisurely, according to the distance between them and their individual constitutions. The Moon completes its cycle, waxing and waning and wasting away, in a month; the Sun, accompanied on its course by Phosphorus and [the star] known as that of Hermes, takes a year; Pyroeis takes twice as long, [the star] of Zeus six times that, and finally the [star] known as that of Kronos takes two-and-a-half times as long as the sphere underneath it. As they all sing and dance together across the heaven, a single harmony arises out of one and ends in one [this harmony] rightly giving the name 'order' [kosmos] to the whole, rather than 'disorder'. [15] And just as in a chorus the chorus-master starts off and the whole chorus responds - men and sometimes women too - making one melodious harmony from a mixture of different voices, higher and lower, so it is in the case of god conducting the universe too. The keynote is given from above by the chorus-master, as he might properly be called, and in accordance with it the stars and the whole heaven move unceasingly; the all-illuminating Sun follows its double path, rising and setting to define day and night, but at the same time advancing south or receding north to introduce the four seasons of the year. Storms and winds arise in due season, [25] as does dew and everything else that happens in our environment thanks to the first and originating cause. These in turn lead rivers to flow, seas to swell, trees to burst forth, fruits to ripen, animals to give birth, and their offspring to be reared, to mature, and to die - the constitution of each thing contributing to all this as well, as I said.

[398b1] Νομιστέον δὴ τὴν τοῦ μεγάλου βασιλέως ὑπεροχὴν πρὸς τὴν τοῦ τὸν κόσμον ἐπέχοντος θεοῦ τοσοῦτον καταδεεστέραν ὅσον τῆς ἐκείνου τὴν τοῦ φαυλοτάτου τε καὶ ἀσθενεστάτου ζῴου, ὥστε, εἴπερ ἄσεμνον ἦν αὐτὸν αὑτῷ δοκεῖν Ξέρξην αὐτουργεῖν ἅπαντα καὶ ἐπιτελεῖν ἃ βούλοιτο καὶ ἐφιστάμενον <ἑκασταχοῦ> διοικεῖν, πολὺ μᾶλλον ἀπρεπὲς ἂν εἴη θεῷ. Σεμνότερον δὲ καὶ πρεπωδέστερον αὐτὸν μὲν ἐπὶ τῆς ἀνωτάτω χώρας ἱδρῦσθαι, τὴν δὲ δύναμιν διὰ τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου διήκουσαν ἥλιόν τε κινεῖν καὶ σελήνην καὶ τὸν πάντα οὐρανὸν περιάγειν αἴτιόν τε [398b10] γίνεσθαι τοῖς ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς σωτηρίας. Οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐπιτεχνήσεως δεῖ καὶ ὑπηρεσίας τῆς παρ' ἑτέρων, ὥσπερ τοῖς παρ' ἡμῖν ἄρχουσι τῆς πολυχειρίας διὰ τὴν ἀσθένειαν, ἀλλὰ τοῦτο ἦν τὸ θειότατον, τὸ μετὰ ῥᾳστώνης καὶ ἁπλῆς κινήσεως παντοδαπὰς ἀποτελεῖν ἰδέας, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει δρῶσιν οἱ μηχανοτέχναι, [398b15] διὰ μιᾶς ὀργάνου σχαστηρίας πολλὰς καὶ ποικίλας ἐνεργείας ἀποτελοῦντες. Ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ οἱ νευροσπάσται μίαν μήρινθον ἐπισπασάμενοι ποιοῦσι καὶ αὐχένα κινεῖσθαι καὶ χεῖρα τοῦ ζῴου καὶ ὦμον καὶ ὀφθαλμόν, ἔστι δὲ ὅτε πάντα τὰ μέρη, μετά τινος εὐρυθμίας. Οὕτως οὖν καὶ [398b20] ἡ θεία φύσις ἀπό τινος ἁπλῆς κινήσεως τοῦ πρώτου τὴν δύναμιν εἰς τὰ συνεχῆ δίδωσι καὶ ἀπ' ἐκείνων πάλιν εἰς τὰ πορρωτέρω, μέχρις ἂν διὰ τοῦ παντὸς διεξέλθῃ· κινηθὲν γὰρ ἕτερον ὑφ' ἑτέρου καὶ αὐτὸ πάλιν ἐκίνησεν ἄλλο σὺν κόσμῳ, δρώντων μὲν πάντων οἰκείως ταῖς σφετέραις κατασκευαῖς, οὐ τῆς αὐτῆς δὲ ὁδοῦ πᾶσιν οὔσης, ἀλλὰ διαφόρου καὶ ἑτεροίας, ἔστι δὲ οἷς καὶ ἐναντίας, καίτοι τῆς πρώτης οἷον ἐνδόσεως εἰς κίνησιν μιᾶς γενομένης· ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις ἐξ ἄγγους ὁμοῦ ῥίψειε σφαῖραν καὶ κύβον καὶ κῶνον καὶ κύλινδρον ἕκαστον γὰρ αὐτῶν κατὰ τὸ ἴδιον κινηθήσεται σχῆμα [398b30] ἢ εἴ τις ὁμοῦ ζῷον ἔνυδρόν τε καὶ χερσαῖον καὶ πτηνὸν ἐν τοῖς κόλποις ἔχων ἐκβάλοι· δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι τὸ μὲν νηκτὸν ἁλόμενον εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ δίαιταν ἐκνήξεται, τὸ δὲ χερσαῖον εἰς τὰ σφέτερα ἤθη καὶ νομοὺς διεξερπύσει, τὸ δὲ ἀέριον ἐξαρθὲν ἐκ γῆς μετάρσιον οἰχήσεται πετόμενον, μιᾶς τῆς πρώτης αἰτίας πᾶσιν ἀποδούσης τὴν οἰκείαν εὐμάρειαν. Οὕτως [399a1] καὶ ἐπὶ κόσμου· διὰ γὰρ ἁπλῆς τοῦ σύμπαντος οὐρανοῦ περιαγωγῆς ἡμέρᾳ καὶ νυκτὶ περατουμένης ἀλλοῖαι πάντων διέξοδοι γίνονται, καίτοι ὑπὸ μιᾶς σφαίρας περιεχομένων, τῶν μὲν θᾶττον, τῶν δὲ σχολαιότερον κινουμένων παρά τε τὰ τῶν διαστημάτων μήκη καὶ τὰς ἰδίας ἑκάστων κατασκευάς. Σελήνη μὲν γὰρ ἐν μηνὶ τὸν ἑαυτῆς διαπεραίνεται κύκλον αὐξομένη τε καὶ μειουμένη καὶ φθίνουσα, ἥλιος δὲ ἐν ἐνιαυτῷ καὶ οἱ τούτου ἰσόδρομοι, ὅ τε Φωσφόρος καὶ ὁ Ἑρμοῦ λεγόμενος, ὁ δὲ Πυρόεις ἐν διπλασίονι τούτων [399a10] χρόνῳ, ὁ δὲ Διὸς ἐν ἑξαπλασίονι τούτου, καὶ τελευταῖος ὁ Κρόνου λεγόμενος ἐν διπλασίονι καὶ ἡμίσει τοῦ ὑποκάτω. Μία δὲ ἐκ πάντων ἁρμονία συνᾳδόντων καὶ χορευόντων κατὰ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐξ ἑνός τε γίνεται καὶ εἰς ἓν ἀπολήγει, κόσμον ἐτύμως τὸ σύμπαν ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀκοσμίαν ὀνομάσασα. Καθάπερ δὲ ἐν χορῷ κορυφαίου κατάρξαντος συνεπηχεῖ πᾶς ὁ χορὸς ἀνδρῶν, ἔσθ' ὅτε καὶ γυναικῶν, ἐν διαφόροις φωναῖς ὀξυτέραις καὶ βαρυτέραις μίαν ἁρμονίαν ἐμμελῆ κεραννύντων, οὕτως ἔχει καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ τὸ σύμπαν διέποντος θεοῦ· κατὰ γὰρ τὸ ἄνωθεν ἐνδόσιμον ὑπὸ τοῦ φερωνύμως ἂν κορυφαίου προσαγορευθέντος [399a20] κινεῖται μὲν τὰ ἄστρα ἀεὶ καὶ ὁ σύμπας οὐρανός, πορεύεται δὲ διττὰς πορείας ὁ παμφαὴς ἥλιος, τῇ μὲν ἡμέραν καὶ νύκτα διορίζων ἀνατολῇ καὶ δύσει, τῇ δὲ τὰς τέσσαρας ὥρας ἄγων τοῦ ἔτους, πρόσω τε βόρειος καὶ ὀπίσω νότιος διεξέρπων. Γίνονται δὲ ὑετοὶ κατὰ καιρὸν καὶ ἄνεμοι καὶ δρόσοι τά τε πάθη τὰ ἐν τῷ περιέχοντι συμβαίνοντα διὰ τὴν πρώτην καὶ ἀρχέγονον αἰτίαν. Ἕπονται δὲ τούτοις ποταμῶν ἐκροαί, θαλάσσης ἀνοιδήσεις, δένδρων ἐκφύσεις, καρπῶν πεπάνσεις, γοναὶ ζῴων, ἐκτροφαί τε πάντων καὶ ἀκμαὶ καὶ φθίσεις, συμβαλλομένης πρὸς ταῦτα καὶ τῆς [399a30] ἑκάστου κατασκευῆς, ὡς ἔφην.

30(1) So when the king and father of all things, visible only to our thoughts through the soul's eye, gives orders that the whole mechanism, perpetually bounded in its revolution by laws of its own, bright as it is and shining with stars, with its uncountable features, sometimes visible, often hidden, should be set in motion from what, as I said before, is a single starting-point - this can be thought of as like what happens in a military context. (2) For when the bugle announces a battle, soldiers are roused at the sound: one puts on his sword, another takes his shield; one puts on his cuirass, another puts his helmet on his head or greaves on his legs, brings a horse under control with a bridle, and yokes together a pair to work in harmony. (3) Everyone immediately attends to the duty assigned to him. Skirmishers make sallies, captains move about the ranks, the cavalry stands in front of the wings, others busy themselves with the duties they have been given. But this whole operation takes place in obedience to a single commander, to whom it yields command, who is in charge of everything. (4) We can see that divine and human affairs are governed in just the same way: deferring to a single command, each thing recognises its own task; a hidden power takes care of everything, but no eye can see it, unless it is the eyes by which the mind directs the focus of its light.

30 Cum igitur rex omnium et pater, quem tantummodo animae oculis nostrae cogitationes uident, machinam omnem iugiter per circuitum suis legibus terminatam, claram et sideribus relucentem speciesque innumeras modo propalam, saepe contectas, ab uno, ut supra dixi, principio agitari iubet, simile istuc esse bellicis rebus hinc liceat arbitrari. Nam cum tuba bellicum cecinit, milites clangore incensi alius accingitur gladio, alius clipeum capit, ille lorica se induit, hic galea caput uel crura ocreis inuoluit et equum temperat frenis et iugales ad concordiam copulat; et protinus unusquisque conpetens capessit officium: uelites excursionem adornant, ordinibus principes curant, equites cor[di]nibus praesunt, ceteri negotia quae nacti sunt agitant cum interea unius ducis imperio tantus exercitus paret, quem praefecerit, penes quem est summa rerum. Non aliter diuinarum et humanarum rerum status regitur, quando uno moderamine contenta omnia pensum sui operis agnoscunt curatque omnibus occulta uis, nullis oculis obuia, nisi quibus mens aciem suae lucis intendit.

So when the leader and father of all things, invisible to everything except reason, gives the signal to all the natures carried between heaven and Earth, each moves continuously in circles and within its own boundaries: sometimes we cannot see them, but sometimes we can; from a single starting-point, they manifest thousands of forms and hide them again. [399b1] And it is all exactly like what happens especially in periods of war when the trumpet gives the signal to the army: immediately, on hearing the sound, one person picks up his shield, another puts on his breastplate, another dons greaves or helmet or belt; one puts the bridle on the horse, another mounts a chariot and pair, another entrusts the password; the captain immediately takes himself off to his platoon, the squadron-leader to his squadron, the cavalryman to the wing; the light infantryman runs to his own place. Everything is driven by one signal given at the order of the commanding officer.

Ὅταν οὖν ὁ πάντων ἡγεμών τε καὶ γενέτωρ, ἀόρατος ὢν ἄλλῳ πλὴν λογισμῷ, σημήνῃ πάσῃ φύσει μεταξὺ οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ γῆς φερομένῃ, κινεῖται πᾶσα ἐνδελεχῶς ἐν κύκλοις καὶ πέρασιν ἰδίοις, ποτὲ μὲν ἀφανιζομένη, ποτὲ δὲ φαινομένη, μυρίας ἰδέας ἀναφαίνουσά τε καὶ πάλιν ἀποκρύπτουσα ἐκ μιᾶς ἀρχῆς. Ἔοικε δὲ κομιδῇ [399b1] τὸ δρώμενον τοῖς ἐν πολέμου καιροῖς μάλιστα γινομένοις, ἐπειδὰν ἡ σάλπιγξ σημήνῃ τῷ στρατοπέδῳ· τότε γὰρ τῆς φωνῆς ἕκαστος ἀκούσας ὁ μὲν ἀσπίδα ἀναιρεῖται, ὁ δὲ θώρακα ἐνδύεται, ὁ δὲ κνημῖδας ἢ κράνος ἢ ζωστῆρα περιτίθεται· καὶ ὁ μὲν ἵππον χαλινοῖ, ὁ δὲ συνωρίδα ἀναβαίνει, ὁ δὲ σύνθημα παρεγγυᾷ· καθίσταται δὲ εὐθέως ὁ μὲν λοχαγὸς εἰς λόχον, ὁ δὲ ταξίαρχος εἰς τάξιν, ὁ δὲ ἱππεὺς ἐπὶ κέρας, ὁ δὲ ψιλὸς εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν ἐκτρέχει χώραν· πάντα δὲ ὑφ' ἕνα σημάντορα δονεῖται κατὰ προστάξιν τοῦ τὸ κράτος [399b10] ἔχοντος ἡγεμόνος.

31(1) But this is no obstacle - either to his action, or to our understanding. Let us consider examples from an admittedly inferior point of comparison. (2) A man's soul cannot be seen, but everyone agrees that everything worthwhile that happens through human agency must be due to the soul. It has no quality or shape that the eye encounters, but when it causes things to happen, it is possible to understand its nature and extent. (3) Indeed, everything required to sustain human life is due to its genius: cultivating fields, harvesting fruits; artistic ability and what the arts can produce; the necessities of human life. (4) What about laws, which were invented to domesticate human beings? What about civic institutions, and the usages now common among private associations of people with the savagery of war put to rest and they made gentle in peace? (5) The only person who could possibly [fail to agree with this] would be someone so skewed in their estimation of things as to deny as much to god. A person can [in fact] see that god, with his transcendent powers, majestic appearance, immortal age, is the father of virtues, and virtue itself. (6) It is no surprise, then, if mortal eyes do not capture his appearance, when it is in the effects of divine activity that he is obvious and manifest. 32(1) What is more, we ought to think that god is the source of everything we notice happening in the heavens with our eyes, like air coming about from water. (2) Why not? To him belongs the safekeeping and care of this world. Empedocles wisely expressed his thoughts about him in these words [31 B21.9-11 Diels-Kranz]:

πάνθ' ὅσα τ' ἦν ὅσα τ' ἔσθ' ὅσα τ' ἔσται ὀπίσσω,
δένδρεά τ' ἐβλάστησε καὶ ἀνέρες ἠδὲ γυναῖκες
θῆρές τ' οἰωνοί τε καὶ ὑδατοθρέμμονες ἰχθῦς.

31 Nec tamen hoc uel illi ad moliendum uel nobis ad intelligendum obest. De inferiore licet imagine capiamus exempla. Anima in homine non uidetur et tamen fateantur omnes necesse est huius opera omnia quae per hominem praeclara fiunt prouenire nec ipsius animae qualitatem ac figuram oculis occurrere, sed momentis ab ea gestarum rerum intellegi, qualis et quanta sit. Omne quippe humanae uitae praesidium ingenio eius est paratum: cultus agrorum ususque frugum, artificum sollertia, prouentus artium, commoditates uitae humanae. Quid de legibus dicam, quae ad mansuefaciendos homines inuentae sunt? quid de ciuilibus institutis ac moribus, qui nunc populorum otiosis conuentibus frequentantur, et, asperitate bellorum pacata, mitigantur quiete? Nisi forte tam iniustus rerum aestimator potest esse, qui haec eadem de deo neget, quem uideat esse uiribus exsuperantissimis, augustissima specie, inmortalis aeui, genitorem uirtutum ipsamque uirtutem. Vnde nihil mirum est, si mortales oculi non capiunt eius adspectum, quando diuinorum operum uestigiis sit perspicuus atque manifestus. 32 Ceterum ea, quae uel caelo accidere oculis aduertimus et terra et aqua fieri, dei etiam illa credenda sunt. Quidni? [de] uerum eius cui tutela mundi huius et cura est, de quo Empedocles prudenter his uerbis sensit:

πάνθ' ὅσα τ' ἦν ὅσα τ' ἔσθ' ὅσα τ' ἔσται ὀπίσσω,
δένδρεά τ' ἐβλάστησε καὶ ἀνέρες ἠδὲ γυναῖκες
θῆρές τ' οἰωνοί τε καὶ ὑδατοθρέμμονες ἰχθῦς.

So one must think about the whole: from a single inclination everything is stirred into action and everything that should arise does so. The [inclination] is unseen and out of view, but that neither prevents it from acting or us from believing [in it]. The soul too, by which we live and have houses and cities, [15] is invisible, but is seen in its effects. The whole organisation of [human] life was discovered and is organised and held together [by the soul]: ploughing and planting of the land, artistic inspiration, the use of law, constitutional order, civic affairs, foreign war, peace. This should also be thought about god, [20] who is strongest in terms of power, most attractive in terms of beauty, immortal of life, and mightiest in virtue. He is invisible to anything of mortal nature, but visible through his very works. For all the features that arise in the air and on land and in the water, are, one might say, truly the works of that god who sustains the cosmos. From him, as the physicist Empedocles has it [31 B21.9-11 Diels-Kranz]:

All that was, all that is, and all that will be hereafter,
trees that bloom and men and women,
and beasts and birds and water-raised fish.

Οὕτω χρὴ καὶ περὶ τοῦ σύμπαντος φρονεῖν· ὑπὸ γὰρ μιᾶς ῥοπῆς ὀτρυνομένων ἁπάντων γίνεται τὰ οἰκεῖα, καὶ ταύτης ἀοράτου καὶ ἀφανοῦς. Ὅπερ οὐδαμῶς ἐστιν ἐμπόδιον οὔτε ἐκείνῃ πρὸς τὸ δρᾶν οὔτε ἡμῖν πρὸς τὸ πιστεῦσαι· καὶ γὰρ ἡ ψυχή, δι' ἣν ζῶμέν τε καὶ οἴκους καὶ πόλεις ἔχομεν, ἀόρατος οὖσα τοῖς ἔργοις αὐτῆς ὁρᾶται· πᾶς γὰρ ὁ τοῦ βίου διάκοσμος ὑπὸ ταύτης εὕρηται καὶ διατέτακται καὶ συνέχεται, γῆς ἀρόσεις καὶ φυτεύσεις, τέχνης ἐπίνοιαι, χρήσεις νόμων, κόσμος πολιτείας, ἔνδημοι πράξεις, ὑπερόριος πόλεμος, εἰρήνη. Ταῦτα χρὴ καὶ περὶ θεοῦ διανοεῖσθαι, [399b20] δυνάμει μὲν ὄντος ἰσχυροτάτου, κάλλει δὲ εὐπρεπεστάτου, ζωῇ δὲ ἀθανάτου, ἀρετῇ δὲ κρατίστου, διότι πάσῃ θνητῇ φύσει γενόμενος ἀθεώρητος ἀπ' αὐτῶν τῶν ἔργων θεωρεῖται. Τὰ γὰρ πάθη, καὶ τὰ δι' ἀέρος ἅπαντα καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς καὶ τὰ ἐν ὕδατι, θεοῦ λέγοιτ' ἂν ὄντως ἔργα εἶναι τοῦ τὸν κόσμον ἐπέχοντος· ἐξ οὗ, κατὰ τὸν φυσικὸν Ἐμπεδοκλέα,

πάνθ' ὅσα τ' ἦν ὅσα τ' ἔσθ' ὅσα τ' ἔσται ὀπίσσω,
δένδρεά τ' ἐβλάστησε καὶ ἀνέρες ἠδὲ γυναῖκες
θῆρές τ' οἰωνοί τε καὶ ὑδατοθρέμμονες ἰχθῦς.

(3) Phidias, remembered as an honourable sculptor, fixed the likeness of his own face in the shield of the Minerva who keeps watch in the Athenian acropolis - I have seen this myself. [He did it] in such a way that, if anyone ever wanted to remove the artist's image, and broke the fitting, the safety of the whole statue would be destroyed. (4) God sees to the preservation of the world in a similar way: it is fitted together and bound tight by the power of his divinity. 33(1) If we ask where he is: he is neither right down here in contact with Earth, nor in the middle regions of the turbid air. He is in the roof of the world, what the Greeks rightly call ouranos as something that is the upper limit. (2) They also call it Olumpos by the same reasoning: they see it free of all darkness and disturbance; it is beyond the darkness of the clouds, it is not afflicted with frost or snow, and it is not battered by winds or pummelled by showers. The Poet sang that none of these things could touch Olympus because of its extreme height. These are his words [Homer, Odyssey 5.42-5]:

Οὔλυμπόνδ ὅθι φασὶ θεῶν ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ
ἔμμεναι· οὔτ ἀνέμοισι τινάσσεται οὔτε ποτ ὄμβρῳ
δεύεται οὔτε χιὼν ἐπιπίλναται, ἀλλὰ μάλ αἴθρη
πέπταται ἀνέφελος, λευκὴ δ ἐπιδέδρομεν αἴγλη.

(4) Universal custom and human observation have followed this view, and affirm that the heights belong to god. And in fact it is the custom when people pray that we pray with our hands extended to the heavens. A Roman poet saw it like this [Ennius F134 Goldberg-Manuwald]: 'Regard this blazing height, which all invoke as Jupiter.' (5) So the celestial stars, the lights of the world, which seem and which are superior to everything, occupy those same heights; they can enjoy, for ever, the order appropriate to them; without ever changing position or period they follow the unbreakable law [decreeing] their paths. 34(1) On Earth, everything undergoes change and reversion and finally perishes. The land shakes violently and the ground is broken up - and we have often been aware of cities destroyed along with their inhabitants. (2) We have heard too of whole regions that have been devastated by sudden storms; and of areas which were formerly continents turned into islands by the arrival of unprecedented waves; and of others where the sea was forced back so that it could be crossed on foot. (3) Don't people remember cities that were destroyed by winds and whirlwinds? Haven't fires flashed down from the clouds? Didn't regions to the east perish in conflagration (with the downfall of Phaethon, as some think)? On the western shores, have rivers and floods not brought as much slaughter? (4) Likewise, torrents and rivers of flame once rushed headlong from craters spewing divine fire from the peak of Etna. At the height of this peril, we learned that an outstanding reward was given to piety. (5) There were people who, although terrified at the initial eruption, nevertheless retained their sense of sympathy and pity, snatched up their aged parents and carried them away from the disaster on their own shoulders; and those rivers of flame were divided in two [around them] by divine action, so as to become as it were two rivers flowing from one source. The [rivers] surrounded them benignly, choosing to circumvent the ground where there were good men busy as porters with venerable loads.

Phidian illum, quem fictorem probum fuisse tradit memoria, uidi ipse in clipeo Mineruae, quae arcibus Atheniensibus praesidet, oris sui similitudinem conligasse, ita ut, si quis olim artificis uoluisset exinde imaginem separare, soluta conpage simulacri totius incolumitas interiret. Ad hoc instar mundi salutem tuetur deus, aptam et reuinctam sui numinis potestate. 33 Huius locum <si> quaerimus, neque finitimus est terrae contagionibus nec tamen medius in aere turbido, uerum in mundano fastigio, quem Graeci οὐρανὸν recte uocant, ut qui sit altitudinis finis. <Ὄλυμπον> etiam idem illa ratione eum nominant, quem ab omni fuscitate ac perturbatione uident liberum. Neque enim caliginem nubium recipit uel pruinas et niues sustinet nec pulsatur uentis nec imbribus caeditur. Haec enim nec Olympo, qui est celsitudinis summae, contingere poeta his uerbis cecinit:

Οὔλυμπόνδ ὅθι φασὶ θεῶν ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ
Ἔμμεναι· οὔτ ἀνέμοισι τινάσσεται οὔτε ποτ ὄμβρῳ
Δεύεται οὔτε χιὼν ἐπιπίλναται, ἀλλὰ μάλ αἴθρη
Πέπταται ἀννέφελος, λευκὴ δ ἐπιδέδρομεν αἴγλη.

Hanc opinionem communis mos et hominum obseruationes secutae adfirmant superiora esse deo tradita. Namque habitus orantium sic est ut manibus extensis <ad> caelum precemur. Romanus etiam poeta sic sensit: Aspice hoc sublime candens, quem inuocant omnes Iouem. Vnde illa, quae uidentur suntque omnibus praestantiora, easdem sublimitates regionum tenent, astra caelestia et mundi lumina; ac merito illis ordine licet perpetuo frui nec diuersis spatiis et temporibus obseruantissimam legem suorum aliquando itinerum mentiuntur. 34 Terrena omnia mutationes et conuersiones, postremo interitus habent. Namque inmodicis tremoribus terrarum dissiluisse humum et interceptas urbes cum populis saepe cognouimus. Audimus etiam abruptis imbribus prolutas esse totas regiones; illas etiam, quae prius fuerint continentes, hospitibus atque aduenis fluctibus insulatas, alias, desidia maris, pedestri accessu peruias factas. Quid? qui uentis et procellis ciuitates euersas esse meminerunt? Quid? cum incendia de nubibus emicarunt? cum orientis regiones Phaethontis ruina, ut quidam putant, conflagratae perierunt? in occidentis plagis scaturrigines quaedam ac proluuiones easdem strages dederunt? Sic ex Aetnae uerticibus quondam effusis crateribus diuino incendio per decliuia, torrentis uice, flammarum flumina cucurrerunt. In quo periculi uertice egregium pietatis meritum fuisse cognouimus. Namque eos qui, principio fragoris territi, sensum tamen clementiae misericordiaeque retinebant et grandaeuos parentes ereptos uolucri clade suis ceruicibus sustinebant, illa flammarum fluenta, diuino separata discidio, quasi duo flumina ex uno fonte manantia, locum illum ambire maluerunt obsidione innocenti, ubi erant boni baiuli religiosis sarcinis occupati.

To compare it with something smaller, he is really like those so-called keystones which are set in the middle of vaults and by holding each part to the other preserve the whole structure of the vault in harmony and in order and unmoved. They say that the statue-maker Phidias, when he was making the Athena in the Acropolis, engraved his own face in the middle of her shield, and connected it [400a1] to the structure through some concealed artifice, so that if someone wanted to take it out the whole statue would inevitably be undone and ruined. This is the relationship god holds to the cosmos: maintaining the harmony and preservation of the universe. Only god is not in the middle, which is occupied by Earth and this murky region; rather he resides above, himself pure in a pure place. We call it ouranos true to the fact that it is the boundary above (horon ano), and Olumpos as if the whole of it shines (holoampe). It is far away from all that is dark and unordered in movement the sort of thing that there is with us because of the violent storms and winds. As the Poet said [Homer, Odyssey 5.42-5]:

To Olympus, where they say is always the unerring seat of the gods:
neither is it shaken by winds, nor ever doused by storm
nor threatened by snow but the clear sky
is cloudless, and white brightness goes all about.

[15] And the whole of our life is witness to this, ascribing the upper regions to god: so it is that all men stretch up their hands towards heaven when they pray. This is why the following verse too is not bad: 'To Zeus fell the broad heaven in the aither and clouds' [Homer, Iliad 15.192]. [20] And the visible things we honour most occupy the same region - the stars and Sun and Moon. Because of this it is only celestial things that are organised to the same pattern, and are never altered and changed in the way that things on Earth are easily turned, and are subject to many alterations and affections. [25] Violent earthquakes have torn up parts of the earth; sudden rushing storms poured down; waves surging and withdrawing have often made seas of continents and continents of seas; violent breaths of air and typhoons have sometimes overturned whole cities; fiery flames have come down from the heavens in earlier times, as they say in the case of Phaethon when they burned the eastern parts of the world; others have erupted and gushed forth from the earth in the west, as when the craters were torn open on Etna, and have been carried along the earth like a torrent. In that case, the race of pious people was rewarded by the divine as well: they were surrounded by the flow because they were carrying their aged parents on their shoulders to save them; but when the river of fire got close to them it divided, some of the fire turning one way some the other; so it kept the young men safe along with their parents.

Ἔοικε δὲ ὄντως, εἰ καὶ μικρότερον παραβαλεῖν, τοῖς [399b30] ὀμφαλοῖς λεγομένοις τοῖς ἐν ταῖς ψαλίσιν [λίθοις], οἳ μέσοι κείμενοι κατὰ τὴν εἰς ἑκάτερον μέρος ἔνδεσιν ἐν ἁρμονίᾳ τηροῦσι καὶ ἐν τάξει τὸ πᾶν σχῆμα τῆς ψαλίδος καὶ ἀκίνητον. Φασὶ δὲ καὶ τὸν ἀγαλματοποιὸν Φειδίαν κατασκευάζοντα τὴν ἐν ἀκροπόλει Ἀθηνᾶν ἐν μέσῃ τῇ ταύτης ἀσπίδι τὸ ἑαυτοῦ πρόσωπον ἐντυπώσασθαι, καὶ συνδῆσαι τῷ [400a1] ἀγάλματι διά τινος ἀφανοῦς δημιουργίας, ὥστε ἐξ ἀνάγκης, εἴ τις βούλοιτο αὐτὸ περιαιρεῖν, τὸ σύμπαν ἄγαλμα λύειν τε καὶ συγχεῖν. Τοῦτον οὖν ἔχει τὸν λόγον ὁ θεὸς ἐν κόσμῳ, συνέχων τὴν τῶν ὅλων ἁρμονίαν τε καὶ σωτηρίαν, πλὴν οὔτε μέσος ὤν, ἔνθα ἡ γῆ τε καὶ ὁ θολερὸς τόπος οὗτος, ἀλλ' ἄνω καθαρὸς ἐν καθαρῷ χωρῷ βεβηκώς, ὃν ἐτύμως καλοῦμεν οὐρανὸν μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ ὅρον εἶναι τὸν ἄνω, Ὄλυμπον δὲ οἷον ὁλολαμπῆ τε καὶ παντὸς ζόφου καὶ ἀτάκτου κινήματος κεχωρισμένον, οἷα γίνεται παρ' ἡμῖν διὰ χειμῶνος καὶ ἀνέμων [400a10] βίας, ὥσπερ ἔφη καὶ ὁ ποιητὴς

Οὔλυμπόνδ' ὅθι φασὶ θεῶν ἕδος ἀσφαλὲς αἰεὶ
ἔμμεναι· οὔτ' ἀνέμοισι τινάσσεται οὔτε ποτ' ὄμβρῳ
δεύεται, οὔτε χιὼν ἐπιπίλναται, ἀλλὰ μάλ' αἴθρη
πέπταται ἀνέφελος, λευκὴ δ' ἐπιδέδρομεν αἴγλη.

συνεπιμαρτυρεῖ δὲ καὶ ὁ βίος ἅπας, τὴν ἄνω χώραν ἀποδοὺς θεῷ· καὶ γὰρ πάντες ἄνθρωποι ἀνατείνομεν τὰς χεῖρας εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν εὐχὰς ποιούμενοι. Καθ' ὃν 7όγον οὐ κακῶς κἀκεῖνο ἀναπεφώνηται Ζεὺς δ' ἔλαχ' οὐρανὸν εὐρὺν ἐν αἰθέρι καὶ νεφέλῃσι. [400a20] διὸ καὶ τῶν αἰσθητῶν τὰ τιμιώτατα τὸν αὐτὸν ἐπέχει τόπον, ἄστρα τε καὶ ἥλιος καὶ σελήνη, μόνα τε τὰ οὐράνια διὰ τοῦτο ἀεὶ τὴν αὐτὴν σώζοντα τάξιν διακεκόσμηται, καὶ οὔποτε ἀλλοιωθέντα μετεκινήθη, καθάπερ τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς εὔτρεπτα ὄντα πολλὰς ἑτεροιώσεις καὶ πάθη ἀναδέδεκται· σεισμοί τε γὰρ ἤδη βίαιοι πολλὰ μέρη τῆς γῆς ἀνέρρηξαν, ὄμβροι τε κατέκλυσαν ἐξαίσιοι καταρραγέντες, ἐπιδρομαί τε κυμάτων καὶ ἀναχωρήσεις πολλάκις καὶ ἠπείρους ἐθαλάττωσαν καὶ θάλαττας ἠπείρωσαν, βιαί τε πνευμάτων καὶ τυφώνων ἔστιν ὅτε πόλεις ὅλας ἀνέτρεψαν, πυρκαϊαί τε [400a30] καὶ φλόγες αἱ μὲν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ γενόμεναι πρότερον, ὥσπερ φασίν, ἐπὶ Φαέθοντος τὰ πρὸς ἕω μέρη κατέφλεξαν, αἱ δὲ πρὸς ἑσπέραν ἐκ γῆς ἀναβλύσασαι καὶ ἐκφυσήσασαι, καθάπερ τῶν ἐν Αἴτνῃ κρατήρων ἀναρραγέντων καὶ ἀνὰ τὴν γῆν φερομένων χειμάρρου δίκην. Ἔνθα καὶ τὸ τῶν εὐσεβῶν [400b1] γένος ἐξόχως ἐτίμησε τὸ δαιμόνιον· περικαταληφθέντων γὰρ <αὐτῶν> ὑπὸ τοῦ ῥεύματος διὰ τὸ βαστάζειν γέροντας ἐπὶ τῶν ὤμων γονεῖς καὶ σώζειν, πλησίον [αὐτῶν] γενόμενος ὁ τοῦ πυρὸς ποταμὸς ἐξεσχίσθη παρέτρεψέ τε τοῦ φλογμοῦ τὸ μὲν ἔνθα, τὸ δὲ ἔνθα, καὶ ἐτήρησεν ἀβλαβεῖς ἅμα τοῖς γονεῦσι τοὺς νεανίσκους.

35(1) Finally, what the helmsman is in a ship, the driver in a chariot, the leader in a chorus, the law in a city, the general in an army, this god is in the world - except that, in these other cases taking the reins of office is itself obviously a tiresome and complex business which brings innumerable cares, while for god the care he exercises through his power is neither oppressive nor onerous. (2) Immobile, he leads all around and rules all, giving movement to [things of different] natures and forms in the different regions. [He operates] like the law of a city, which is promulgated once, fixed fast by principles of its application which are not going to change, itself immutable while the minds of those obeying its will are moved and bent to its pleasure and dominion. (3) Due to its decrees magistrates crowd the benches and soldiers their headquarters; the property courts are constituted for judgement, and municipal senators, and others whose business it is to give sentence, publicly convene; (4) one man comes to the Minucian [gate] to collect his stipend, while others learn the date of their trial; the defendant arrives under the necessity of clearing his name, his accuser comes determined to prosecute; here is a man about to die being led to the place of the scaffold, there is a reveller out in the evening to go drinking at a party. (5) There are the paraphernalia of public dinners and holy feasts and festal days, diversions on the stage and diversions in the circus; the gods are sacrificed to, Genii are tended, a libation for the dead is poured out, one person busies himself with one task, another with another and all obey what the law decrees and its universal authority. (6) You can see the city as redolent with the scent of [incense from] Panchaea as with foul-smelling waste, resounding with hymns and songs and canticles, and at the same time with wailing and lamentation.

35 Postremo, quod est in triremi gubernator, in curru rector, praecentor in choris, lex in urbe, dux in exercitu, hoc est in mundo deus, nisi quod ceteris aerumnosum et multiplex et curarum innumerabilium uidetur esse hoc ipsum, alicuius officii principem fieri, deo uero nec tristis nec onerosa est imperii sui cura. Namque inmobilis circumfert et regit cuncta[s], naturas formasque diuersis regionibus commouens, ut est lex ciuitatis semel promulgata, perpetuis obseruationum rationibus fixa, ipsa quidem inmutabilis, at eius arbitrio parentium mentes agitantur nutuque eius et dominatione flectuntur: ex scitis eius magistratus tribunalia, principia milites frequentabunt, recuperatores iudiciis praesidebunt, decuriones et quibus ius est dicendae sententiae ad consessum publicum commeabunt; et alius ad Minuciam frumentatum uenit et aliis in iudiciis dies dicitur; reus purgandi se necessitate, insectandi studio accusator uenit; ille moriturus ad supplicii locum ducitur, hic ad conuiuii repotia [et] uespertinus comisator aduentat. Sunt et publicarum epularum apparatus et lectisternia deorum et dies festi, ludi scaenici ludique circenses; diis sacrificatur, Geniis ministratur, obitis libatione profunditur aliusque alio fungitur munere parentque omnes iussis legum et communis imperii. Videasque illam ciuitatem pariter spirantem Panchaeis odoribus et graueolentibus caenis, resonantem hymnis et carminibus et canticis, eandem etiam lamentis et ploratibus heiulantem.

In general, what a helmsman is in a ship, a driver in a chariot, the chorus-leader in a chorus, the lawgiver in a city, the leader in an army, this is what god is in the cosmos, except that for them ruling is tiring, and physically and mentally demanding, while for him it is painless, effortless, and without any threat to his physical health. Firmly rooted in the unmoving, he moves everything by his power and leads it around where and how he wants, in all its diverse forms and natures. It is, I suppose, as the law of a city which [resides] unmoving in the souls of those who use it, but organises everything relevant to the constitution. Obviously, it is in obedience to it that rulers go out to [fulfil] their offices, that the law-givers go to the relevant lawcourts, that counsellors and advisors go to the appropriate benches; one person goes to the prytany to eat, another to the jury to defend himself, another to the prison to die. [20] And there are public feasts ordained and annual vigils and sacrifices to the gods, the observance of hero cults, and libations for those laid to rest. Different things are done in different ways but according to a single order or legal authority. This truly validates the words of the poet: 'a city is at the one time full of incense, and at the same time of paeans and lamentations' [Sophocles, Oedipus the King 4-5].

Καθόλου δὲ ὅπερ ἐν νηὶ μὲν κυβερνήτης, ἐν ἅρματι δὲ ἡνίοχος, ἐν χορῷ δὲ κορυφαῖος, ἐν πόλει δὲ νομο<θέτη>ς, ἐν στρατοπέδῳ δὲ ἡγεμών, τοῦτο θεὸς ἐν κόσμῳ, πλὴν καθ' ὅσον τοῖς μὲν καματηρὸν τὸ ἄρχειν πολυκίνητόν τε [400b10] καὶ πολυμέριμνον, τῷ δὲ ἄλυπον ἄπονόν τε καὶ πάσης κεχωρισμένον σωματικῆς ἀσθενείας· ἐν ἀκινήτῳ γὰρ ἱδρυμένος δυνάμει πάντα κινεῖ καὶ περιάγει, ὅπου βούλεται καὶ ὅπως, ἐν διαφόροις ἰδέαις τε καὶ φύσεσιν, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καὶ ὁ τῆς πόλεως νόμος ἀκίνητος ὢν ἐν ταῖς τῶν χρωμένων ψυχαῖς πάντα οἰκονομεῖ τὰ κατὰ τὴν πολιτείαν· ἐφεπόμενοι γὰρ αὐτῷ δηλονότι ἐξίασιν ἄρχοντες μὲν ἐπὶ τὰ ἀρχεῖα, θεσμοθέται δὲ εἰς τὰ οἰκεῖα δικαστήρια, βουλευταὶ δὲ καὶ ἐκκλησιασταὶ εἰς συνέδρια τὰ προσήκοντα, καὶ ὁ μέν τις εἰς τὸ πρυτανεῖον βαδίζει σιτησόμενος, ὁ δὲ πρὸς τοὺς δικαστὰς [400b20] ἀπολογησόμενος, ὁ δὲ εἰς τὸ δεσμωτήριον ἀποθανούμενος. Γίνονται δὲ καὶ δημοθοινίαι νόμιμοι καὶ πανηγύρεις ἐνιαύσιοι θεῶν τε θυσίαι καὶ ἡρώων θεραπεῖαι καὶ χοαὶ κεκμηκότων· ἄλλα δὲ ἄλλως ἐνεργούμενα κατὰ μίαν πρόσταξιν ἢ νόμιμον ἐξουσίαν σώζει τὸ τοῦ ποιήσαντος ὄντως ὅτι πόλις δ' ὁμοῦ μὲν θυμιαμάτων γέμει, ὁμοῦ δὲ παιάνων τε καὶ στεναγμάτων.

36(1) This is how we think things are done in the cosmos too: think of god as a law which ensures systematic balance, without needing corrective adjustments. The whole cosmos is governed like this: its governor looks after everything while unchanging and at rest. The power that seeds have is distributed through things of every nature, through every species and every genus: (2) it makes vines droop readily and palm-trees soar, the peach redden, the apple grow smooth, the fig sweeten and even things we call unhappy because they do not bear fruit are useful for another purpose. The shadow of plane trees, as the poet says, provides a service for drinkers [Vergil, Georgics 4.146]; the prickliness of the pine and the smoothness of box, the scent of the laurel, the odour of cypress wood (3) and finally the natures of all animals, wild and tame, winged and footed and aquatic all arise, are nourished, and are taken away in accordance with celestial decrees: †mensa πανταυεργετωμοσσαarr ιναμρη esse tonosahyti† as Heraclitus says.

36 Ad hunc modum res agi et in mundo aestimemus; lex illa uergens ad aequitatis tenorem sit deus, nulla indigens correctione mutabili. Quippe sic et mundi uniuersitas regitur, dum speculatur ad omnia rector eius atque inmutabiliter incumbit spargiturque uis illa seminibus inclusa per naturas omnium speciesque et genera digesta. Sic faciles uitium lapsus et palmarum ardua, persicorum rubor, laeuitas mali gignitur, dulcitas fici; et quae infelicia propter infecunditatem uocamus, tamen utilia sunt alio pacto: platani, ut ait poeta, umbras potantibus ministrantes et acuta pinus et rasiles buxi, odora laurus, cupressorum odoratius lignum; tandem omnium animalium agrestium et cicurum, pinnatarum et pedestrium et aquatilium natura gignitur, nutritur, absumitur, parens caelestibus institutis: πᾶν γὰρ ἑρπετὸν πληγῇ νέμεται ut Heraclitus ait.

So it should be understood to be for that great city, I mean the cosmos: for god is our equitable law, which allows neither correction nor change, yet is greater, I think, and more sure than those written down in the tablets. When he leads, without movement or misstep, the whole cosmic arrangement of heaven and Earth is administered and parcelled out according to the various natures: to plants and animals according to genus and species through their proper seeds. For [401a1] vines and palm-trees and persea-trees, 'and sweet figs and olives' (as the Poet says [Homer, Odyssey 7.116 = 11.590]): [trees] which do not bear fruit but have other uses (planes and pines and box-trees, 'black polar and sweet-smelling cypress' [Homer, Odyssey 5.64]), [5] [trees] that bear sweet autumn fruit (albeit sometimes difficult to store): 'pear and pomegranate and bright-fruiting apple' [Homer, Odyssey 7.115 = 11.589], and animals too, the wild and the tame, those that feed in air and on earth and in water, [all these] are born and mature and die in obedience to the decrees of god: 'For every creeping thing moves because it is struck' (πᾶν γὰρ ἑρπετὸν πληγῇ νέμεται) as Heraclitus says [22 B11 DK].

οὕτως ὑποληπτέον καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς μείζονος πόλεως, λέγω δὲ τοῦ κόσμου· νόμος γὰρ ἡμῖν ἰσοκλινὴς ὁ θεός, οὐδεμίαν ἐπιδεχόμενος διόρθωσιν ἢ μετάθεσιν, κρείττων δέ, [400b30] οἶμαι, καὶ βεβαιότερος τῶν ἐν ταῖς κύρβεσιν ἀναγεγραμμένων. Ἡγουμένου δὲ ἀκινήτως αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐμμελῶς ὁ σύμπας οἰκονομεῖται διάκοσμος οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς, μεμερισμένος κατὰ τὰς φύσεις πάσας διὰ τῶν οἰκείων σπερμάτων εἴς τε φυτὰ καὶ ζῷα κατὰ γένη τε καὶ εἴδη· καὶ γὰρ ἄμπελοι [401a1] καὶ φοίνικες καὶ περσέαι συκέαι τε γλυκεραὶ καὶ ἐλαῖαι , ὥς φησιν ὁ ποιητής, τά τε ἄκαρπα μέν, ἄλλας δὲ παρεχόμενα χρείας, πλάτανοι καὶ πίτυες καὶ πύξοι κλήθρη τ' αἴγειρός τε καὶ εὐώδης κυπάρισσος, αἵ τε καρπὸν ὀπώρας ἡδὺν ἄλλως δὲ δυσθησαύριστον φέρουσαι, ὄχναι καὶ ῥοιαὶ καὶ μηλέαι ἀγλαόκαρποι, τῶν τε ζῴων τά τε ἄγρια καὶ ἥμερα, τά τε ἐν ἀέρι καὶ ἐπὶ γῆς καὶ ἐν ὕδατι βοσκόμενα, γίνεται καὶ ἀκμάζει καὶ [401a10] φθείρεται τοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ πειθόμενα θεσμοῖς· πᾶν γὰρ ἑρπετὸν πληγῇ νέμεται , ὥς φησιν Ἡράκλειτος.

37(1) And, while [god] is one, he is invoked by many names according to his many aspects, whose diversity makes him multiform. (2) He is called Jupiter, from iuvare [help ] - the Greeks quite rightly name him Ζῆνα, because he is the author of our life; (3) also Saturnine (the Greeks call him Κρόνιος, like χρόνιος: time without beginning, unbounded to the end). (4) He is known as god of the thunderbolt, of thunder, of lightning; and again of storms and conversely of the calm; a lot of people call him fruit-bringer, many guardian of the city, others [god] of hospitality, of friendship - and they name him after all his offices. (5) He is god of the army, of the triumph, and of conquest; [he is] trophy-bearer. And you will find a lot more of the same in the augurs and ancient Romans. Orpheus, when he wanted to express this power, sang about him in these words (Orphica fr. 21a Kern):

Ζεὺς πρῶτος γένετο, Ζεὺς ὕστερος, ἀρχικέραυνος·
Ζεὺς κεφαλή, Ζεὺς μέσσα· Διὸς δ ἐκ πάντα τέτυκται.
Ζεὺς πυθμὴν γαίης τε καὶ οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος.
Ζεὺς ἄρσην γένετο, Ζεὺς ἄμβροτος ἔπλετο νύμφη.
Ζεὺς πνοιὴ πάντων, Ζεὺς ἀκαμάτου πυρὸς ὁρμή.
Ζεὺς πόντου ῥίζα, Ζεὺς ἥλιος ἠδὲ σελήνη.
Ζεὺς βασιλεύς, Ζεὺς ἀρχὸς ἁπάντων, ἀρχικέραυνος·
Πάντας γὰρ κρύψας αὖθις †ταιν† ἐς πολυγηθές
Ἐκ καθαρᾶς κραδίης ἀνενέγκατο μέρμερα ῥέζων.

37 Et cum sit unus, pluribus nominibus cietur, specierum multitudine, quarum diuersitate fit multiformis uis. Idem ab iuuando Iuppiter dictus, quem Ζῆνα Graeci, quod uitae nostrae auctor sit, rectissime appellant. Saturnum etiam illi Κρόνον, quasi χρόνον quendam, incoeptum ab origine, interminum ad finem tempus appellant. Fulgurator et tonitrualis et fulminator, etiam imbricitor, et item dicitur serenator; et plures eum frugiferum uocant, multi urbis custodem, alii hospitalem, amicalem et omnium officiorum nominibus appellant. Est militaris, est triumphator et propagator, tropaeophorus; et multo plura eiusmodi apud haruspices et Romanos ueteres inueneris. Orpheus uero hanc effari potestatem uolens, his de eo uerbis canit:

Ζεὺς πρῶτος γένετο, Ζεὺς ὕστερος, ἀρχικέραυνος·
Ζεὺς κεφαλή, Ζεὺς μέσσα· Διὸς δ ἐκ πάντα τέτυκται.
Ζεὺς πυθμὴν γαίης τε καὶ οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος.
Ζεὺς ἄρσην τρέφετο, Ζεὺς ἄμβροτος ἔπλετο νύμφη.
Ζεὺς πνοιὴ πάντων, Ζεὺς ἀκαμάτου πυρὸς ὁρμή.
Ζεὺς πόντου ῥίζα, Ζεὺς ἥλιος ἠδὲ σελήνη.
Ζεὺς βασιλεύς, Ζεὺς ἀρχὸς ἁπάντων, ἀρχικέραυνος·
Πάντας γὰρ κρύψας αὖθις φάος ἐς πολυγηθές
Ἐκ καθαρᾶς κραδίης ἀνενέγκατο μέρμερα ῥέζων.

[God] is one, but he goes by many names, which are names for all the effects which he initiates. We call him Zen and Dia, using these names in tandem, as if we were to say Through (dia) him we live (zen). He is called the son of Kronos, i.e. time (khronos), persisting from one boundless age to another. He is called coruscating and thundering and sky-clearing, and aetherial god of the thunderbolt and rain god - from rain and lightning and the rest. And he is named fruit-bringer from fruits, and guardian of city from cities [20], protector of kin, of the courtyard, of siblings, and of the family, from his relationship with these things; of companions and friendship and hospitality and the army; trophy-bearer; [god] of purification and of vengeance, and of suppliants and soothing, as the poets say. He is, to sum it up, truly the saviour and liberator, he is of heaven and of Earth, and named for all nature and fortune, since he is the cause of everything. The Orphic lines do not put it badly (Orphica fr. 21a Kern):

Zeus first, Zeus last of all, lord of the lightning;
Zeus the head, Zeus the middle: everything was done by Zeus.
Zeus is the foundation of the Earth and the starry heaven,
Zeus was man, Zeus went as immortal nymph;
Zeus is the breath of all, Zeus the force of unwearying
Zeus the root of the sea; Zeus is Sun and Moon;
Zeus is king, Zeus is the ruler of all, lord of lightning
For he hid everything and again into joyful light (φάος ἐς πολυγηθές)
from his pure heart compelled them, doing terrible deeds.

Εἷς δὲ ὢν πολυώνυμός ἐστι, κατονομαζόμενος τοῖς πάθεσι πᾶσιν ἅπερ αὐτὸς νεοχμοῖ. Καλοῦμεν γὰρ αὐτὸν καὶ Ζῆνα καὶ Δία, παραλλήλως χρώμενοι τοῖς ὀνόμασιν, ὡς κἂν εἰ λέγοιμεν δι' ὃν ζῶμεν. Κρόνου δὲ παῖς καὶ χρόνου λέγεται, διήκων ἐξ αἰῶνος ἀτέρμονος εἰς ἕτερον αἰῶνα· ἀστραπαῖός τε καὶ βρονταῖος καὶ αἴθριος καὶ αἰθέριος κεραύνιός τε καὶ ὑέτιος ἀπὸ τῶν ὑετῶν καὶ κεραυνῶν καὶ τῶν ἄλλων καλεῖται. Καὶ μὴν ἐπικάρπιος μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν καρπῶν, πολιεὺς [401a20] δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν πόλεων ὀνομάζεται, γενέθλιός τε καὶ ἑρκεῖος καὶ ὁμόγνιος καὶ πατρῷος ἀπὸ τῆς πρὸς ταῦτα κοινωνίας, ἑταιρεῖός τε καὶ φίλιος καὶ ξένιος καὶ στράτιος καὶ τροπαιοῦχος καθάρσιός τε καὶ παλαμναῖος καὶ ἱκέσιος καὶ μειλίχιος, ὥσπερ οἱ ποιηταὶ λέγουσι, σωτήρ τε καὶ ἐλευθέριος ἐτύμως, ὡς δὲ τὸ πᾶν εἰπεῖν, οὐράνιός τε καὶ χθόνιος, πάσης ἐπώνυμος φύσεως ὢν καὶ τύχης, ἅτε πάντων αὐτὸς αἴτιος ὤν. Διὸ καὶ ἐν τοῖς Ὀρφικοῖς οὐ κακῶς λέγεται

Ζεὺς πρῶτος γένετο, Ζεὺς ὕστατος ἀρχικέραυνος·
Ζεὺς κεφαλή, Ζεὺς μέσσα, Διὸς δ' ἐκ πάντα τέτυκται·
[401b1] Ζεὺς πυθμὴν γαίης τε καὶ οὐρανοῦ ἀστερόεντος·
Ζεὺς ἄρσην γένετο, Ζεὺς ἄμβροτος ἔπλετο νύμφη·
Ζεὺς πνοιὴ πάντων, Ζεὺς ἀκαμάτου πυρὸς ὁρμή·
Ζεὺς πόντου ῥίζα, Ζεὺς ἥλιος ἠδὲ σελήνη·
Ζεὺς βασιλεύς, Ζεὺς ἀρχὸς ἁπάντων ἀρχικέραυνος·
πάντας γὰρ κρύψας αὖθις φάος ἐς πολυγηθὲς
ἐκ καθαρῆς κραδίης ἀνενέγκατο, μέρμερα ῥέζων.

38(1) The Greeks decided to refer to fate as εἱμαρμένη, from the fact that it is a particular chain of mutually connected causes; they call its decree πεπρωμένη, because everything in this situation is determined, and there is nothing in this world which is indeterminate; and they call the same thing μοῖρα, because it consists of parts (hence ἔννομος [ennomos], because each person has his own allocation). Ἀδράστεια, next, is the inescapable necessity of punishment. (3) But there are three Fates, a number which refers to the structure of time, if you refer the capacity each Fate has to a time: what of the spinning has been finished represents past time; and what is being turned by the fingers suggests the intervals of the present moment; and what has not yet been drawn from the fleece and brought under the attention of the fingers, that seems to suggest subsequent things to come in the future and a later age. (3) This is how they are, and each has a name which fits their character: Atropos is the Fate of past time, which not even god can undo; Lachesis is of future time, and named from the end, because even to those things which are in the future god has given their end. Clotho attends to the present time, as her very actions make clear so that nothing lacks expert oversight.

38 Fa[c]tum autem Graeci εἱμαρμένην a tractu quodam inuicem causarum se continentium uolunt dici; decretum idem πεπρωμένην dicunt, quod omnia in hoc statu rerum definita sint nec sit in hoc mundo aliquid interminatum; idem fatum μοῖραν uocant, quod ex partibus constet; hinc ἔννομον, quod unicuique adtributio sua sit adscripta. Ἀδράστεια denique <est> ineffugibilis necessitas ultionis. Sed tria Fata sunt, numerus cum ratione temporis faciens, si potestatem earum ad eiusdem similitudinem temporis referas. Nam quod in fuso perfectum est praeteriti temporis habet speciem, et quod torquetur in digitis momenti praesentis indicat spatia, et quod nondum ex colo tractum est subactumque cura digitorum, id futuri et consequentis saeculi posteriora uidetur ostendere. Haec illis condicio; et nominum eiusdem proprietate contingit, ut sit Atropos praeteriti temporis fatum, quod ne deus quidem faciet infectum; futuri temporis Lachesis a fine cognominata, quod etiam illis quae futura sunt finem suum deus dederit. Clotho praesentis temporis habet curam, ut ipsis actionibus suadeat, ne cura sollers rebus omnibus desit.

Necessity (ananke) too, I think, refers to nothing other than this [god], who is as it were the unconquered (aniketos) cause ; also Fate (heimarmene), because he 'strings [things] together' (eirein), and goes unimpeded; and Pepromene because he has 'set bounds' (pepratosthai) for everything (nothing among existing things is unbounded); and Moira from his having 'apportioned' everything (merizo); Nemesis from 'distribution' [dianemesis] to each; Adrasteia as the 'unavoidable' (anapodrastos) cause in nature; and Aisa who 'always is' (aiei ousa). The attributes of the Moirai [= the Fates] and the spindle nod in the same direction: for the Moirai are three, corresponding to the divisions of time. Some of the thread on the spindle has already been worked, some is about to be, some is now being spun: one of the Moirai, Atropos, is assigned to what has been - and everything that is past is 'unalterable' (atreptos); Lachesis [is assigned] to the future, for everything remains an allotment [lexis: or 'completion'] by nature and Clotho [is assigned] to the present, accomplishing and spinning [klothousa] what is appropriate for every individual. And the myth expresses all this in proper order.

οἶμαι δὲ καὶ τὴν Ἀνάγκην οὐκ ἄλλο τι λέγεσθαι πλὴν τοῦτον, οἱονεὶ ἀνίκητον αἰτίαν ὄντα, Εἱμαρμένην δὲ διὰ τὸ εἴρειν [401b10] τε καὶ χωρεῖν ἀκωλύτως, Πεπρωμένην δὲ διὰ τὸ πεπερατῶσθαι πάντα καὶ μηδὲν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἄπειρον εἶναι, καὶ Μοῖραν μὲν ἀπὸ τοῦ μεμερίσθαι, Νέμεσιν δὲ ἀπὸ τῆς ἑκάστῳ διανεμήσεως, Ἀδράστειαν δὲ ἀναπόδραστον αἰτίαν οὖσαν κατὰ φύσιν, Αἶσαν δὲ ἀεὶ οὖσαν. Τά τε περὶ τὰς Μοίρας καὶ τὸν ἄτρακτον εἰς ταὐτό πως νεύει· τρεῖς μὲν γὰρ αἱ Μοῖραι, κατὰ τοὺς χρόνους μεμερισμέναι, νῆμα δὲ ἀτράκτου τὸ μὲν ἐξειργασμένον, τὸ δὲ μέλλον, τὸ δὲ περιστρεφόμενον· τέτακται δὲ κατὰ μὲν τὸ γεγονὸς μία τῶν Μοιρῶν, Ἄτροπος, ἐπεὶ τὰ παρελθόντα πάντα ἄτρεπτά ἐστι, κατὰ δὲ τὸ [401b20] μέλλον Λάχεσις [εἰς] πάντα γὰρ ἡ κατὰ φύσιν μένει λῆξις κατὰ δὲ τὸ ἐνεστὼς Κλωθώ, συμπεραίνουσά τε καὶ κλώθουσα ἑκάστῳ τὰ οἰκεῖα. Περαίνεται δὲ καὶ ὁ μῦθος οὐκ ἀτάκτως.

(4) God is properly supposed to go through all the lands and sea-tracts and the depth of heaven. Listen to these words of Plato [Laws 715e-716a + 730c]: 'god,' he says, 'as the ancient account has it, pervades the beginning and end and middle of all things, and is carried above the things to be illuminated in a swift chariot; (5) the avenger Necessity accompanies this same god always and everywhere, the future punisher of those who diverge from sacred law . . . Anyone who has understood her and feared her right from childhood, from their very cradle, and has given himself to her wholly and surrendered will render her gentle.'

Deum uero ire per omnes Terrasque tractusque maria caelumque profundum non frustra arbitrabitur, qui audiet Platonis haec uerba: 'deus namque, sicut uetus , inquit, continet ratio, principia et fines et media rerum omnium penetrat atque inlustrat ac curru uolucri superfertur; eundem deum ultrix Necessitas semper et ubique comitatur, eorum qui a sacra lege discesserint uindex futura; quam faciet ille mitificam, qui statim a tenero et ipsis incunabulis intellexit, extimuit eique se totum dedit atque permisit.'

All these things are nothing else but god, as the noble Plato says [Laws 715e-716a + 730c]: 'God, as the ancient account [has it], holds the beginning and end and middle of all the things that are, and goes straight, travelling according to nature; justice always follows along with him, the punisher of those who abandon divine law . . . in which he who will be blessed and happy should at once from the beginning participate.'

Ταῦτα δὲ πάντα ἐστὶν οὐκ ἄλλο τι πλὴν ὁ θεός, καθάπερ καὶ ὁ γενναῖος Πλάτων φησίν· ὁ μὲν δὴ θεός, ὥσπερ ὁ παλαιὸς λόγος, ἀρχήν τε καὶ τελευτὴν καὶ μέσα τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων ἔχων, εὐθείᾳ περαίνει κατὰ φύσιν πορευόμενος· τῷ δὲ ἀεὶ ξυνέπεται δίκη, τῶν ἀπολειπομένων τοῦ θείου νόμου τιμωρός , ἧς ὁ γενήσεσθαι μέλλων μακάριός τε καὶ εὐδαίμων ἐξ ἀρχῆς εὐθὺς μέτοχος εἴη.