ΠΛΟΥΤΑΡΧΟΣ, Περὶ Ἴσιδος καὶ Ὀσίριδος & Περὶ τοῦ Ἐμφαινομένου Προσώπου

     21. Εἰπόντος δὲ τοῦτο τοῦ Λευκίου συνεξέδραμον ἅμα πως τῷ … ὅ τε Φαρνάκης καὶ ὁ Ἀπολλωνίδης· εἶτα τοῦ Ἀπολλωνίδου παρέντος ὁ Φαρνάκης εἶπεν, ὅτι τοῦτο καὶ μάλιστα τὴν σελήνην δείκνυσιν ἄστρον ἢ πῦρ οὖσαν· οὐ γάρ ἐστι παντελῶς ἄδηλος ἐν ταῖς ἐκλείψεσιν, ἀλλὰ διαφαίνει τινὰ χρόαν ἀνθρακώδη καὶ βλοσυράν, ἥτις ἴδιός ἐστιν αὐτῆς. Ὁ δ’ Ἀπολλωνίδης ἐνέστη περὶ τῆς σκιᾶς· ἀεὶ γὰρ οὕτως … ὀνομάζειν τοὺς μαθηματικοὺς τὸν ἀλαμπῆ τόπον … σκιάν τε μὴ δέχεσθαι τὸν οὐρανόν. Ἐγὼ δέ “τοῦτο μὲν” ἔφην “πρὸς τοὔνομα μᾶλλον ἐριστικῶς ἢ πρὸς τὸ πρᾶγμα φυσικῶς καὶ μαθηματικῶς ἐνισταμένου. τὸν γὰρ ἀντιφραττόμενον ὑπὸ τῆς γῆς τόπον εἰ μὴ σκιάν τις ἐθέλοι καλεῖν ἀλλ’ ἀφεγγὲς χωρίον, ὅμως ἀναγκαῖον ἐν αὐτῷ τὴν σελήνην γενομένην … καὶ ὅλως” ἔφην “εὔηθές ἐστιν ἐκεῖ μὴ φάναι τῆς γῆς ἐξικνεῖσθαι τὴν σκιάν, … ἡ σκιὰ τῆς σελήνης ἐπιπίπτουσα τῇ ὄψει καὶ διήκουσα πρὸς τὴν γῆν ἔκλειψιν ἡλίου ποιεῖν. Πρὸς σὲ δέ, ὦ Φαρνάκη, τρέψομαι. Τὸ γὰρ ἀνθρακῶδες ἐκεῖνο καὶ διακαὲς χρῶμα τῆς σελήνης, ὃ φῂς ἴδιον αὐτῆς εἶναι, σώματός ἐστι πυκνότητα καὶ βάθος ἔχοντος· οὐθὲν γὰρ ἐθέλει τοῖς ἀραιοῖς ὑπόλειμμα φλογὸς οὐδ’ ἴχνος ἐμμένειν οὐδ’ ἔστιν ἄνθρακος γένεσις, οὗ μὴ στερέμνιον σῶμα δεξάμενον διὰ βάθους τὴν πύρωσιν καὶ σῷζον· ὥς που καὶ Ὅμηρος εἴρηκεν

αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ πυρὸς ἄνθος ἀπέπτατο, παύσατο δὲ φλὸξ
ἀνθρακιὴν στορέσασα.

     Ὁ γὰρ ἄνθραξ ἔοικεν οὐ πῦρ ἀλλὰ σῶμα πεπυρωμένον εἶναι καὶ πεπονθὸς ὑπὸ πυρὸς στερεῷ καὶ ῥίζαν ἔχοντι προσμένοντος ὄγκῳ καὶ προσδιατρίβοντος· αἱ δὲ φλόγες ἀραιᾶς εἰσιν ἔξαψις καὶ ῥεύματα τροφῆς καὶ ὕλης, ταχὺ δι’ ἀσθένειαν ἀναλυομένης. Ὥστ’ οὐδὲν ἂν ὑπῆρχε τοῦ γεώδη καὶ πυκνὴν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην ἕτερον οὕτως ἐναργὲς τεκμήριον, εἴπερ αὐτῆς ἴδιον ἦν ὡς χρῶμα τὸ ἀνθρακῶδες. Ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἔστιν, ὦ φίλε Φαρνάκη· πολλὰς γὰρ ἐκλείπουσα χρόας ἀμείβει καὶ διαιροῦσιν αὐτὰς οὕτως οἱ μαθηματικοὶ κατὰ χρόνον καὶ ὥραν ἀφορίζοντες· ἂν ἀφ’ ἑσπέρας ἐκλείπῃ, φαίνεται μέλαινα δεινῶς ἄχρι τρίτης ὥρας καὶ ἡμισείας· ἂν δὲ μέσῃ, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ ἐπιφοινίσσον ἵησι καὶ πῦρ καὶ πυρωπόν· ἀπὸ δ’ ἑβδόμης ὥρας καὶ ἡμισείας ἀνίσταται τὸ ἐρύθημα· καὶ τέλος ἤδη πρὸς ἕω λαμβάνει χρόαν κυανοειδῆ καὶ χαροπήν, ἀφ’ ἧς δὴ καὶ μάλιστα ‘γλαυκῶπιν’ αὐτὴν οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς ἀνακαλοῦνται. Τοσαύτας οὖν χρόας ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ τὴν σελήνην λαμβάνουσαν ὁρῶντες οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἐπὶ μόνον καταφέρονται τὸ ἀνθρακῶδες, ὃ μάλιστα φήσαι τις ἂν ἀλλότριον αὐτῆς εἶναι καὶ μᾶλλον ὑπόμιγμα καὶ λεῖμμα τοῦ φωτὸς διὰ τῆς σκιᾶς περιλάμποντος, ἴδιον δὲ τὸ μέλαν καὶ γεῶδες.

     Ὅπου δὲ πορφυρίσιν ἐνταῦθα καὶ φοινικίσι λίμναις τε καὶ ποταμοῖς δεχομένοις ἥλιον ἐπίσκια χωρία γειτνιῶντα συγχρῴζεται καὶ περιλάμπεται, διὰ τὰς ἀνακλάσεις ἀποδιδόντα πολλοὺς καὶ διαφόρους ἀπαυγασμούς, τί θαυμαστὸν εἰ ῥεῦμα πολὺ σκιᾶς ἐμβάλλον ὥσπερ εἰς πέλαγος οὐράνιον οὐ σταθεροῦ φωτὸς οὐδ’ ἠρεμοῦντος ἀλλὰ μυρίοις ἄστροις περιελαυνομένου μίξεις τε παντοδαπὰς καὶ μεταβολὰς λαμβάνοντος, ἄλλην ἄλλοτε χρόαν ἐκματτόμενον ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης ἐνταῦθ’ ἀποδίδωσιν; Ἄστρον μὲν γὰρ ἢ πῦρ οὐκ ἂν ἐν σκιᾷ διαφανείη μέλαν ἢ γλαυκὸν ἢ κυανοειδές, ὄρεσι δὲ καὶ πεδίοις καὶ θαλάσσαις πολλαὶ μὲν ἀφ’ ἡλίου μορφαὶ χρωμάτων ἐπιτρέχουσι καὶ σκιαῖς καὶ ὁμίχλαις, οἵας φαρμάκοις γραφικοῖς μιγνύμενον ἐπάγει βαφὰς τὸ λαμπρόν. Ὧν τὰ μὲν τῆς θαλάττης ἐπικεχείρηκεν ἁμωσγέπως ἐξονομάζειν Ὅμηρος ‘ἰοειδέα’ καλῶν καί ‘οἴνοπα πόντον’, αὖθις δέ ‘πορφύρεον κῦμα’ ‘γλαυκήν’ τ’ ἄλλως ‘θάλασσαν’ καί ‘λευκὴν γαλήνην’, τὰς δὲ περὶ τὴν γῆν διαφορὰς τῶν ἄλλοτ’ ἄλλως ἐπιφαινομένων χρωμάτων παρῆκεν ὡς ἀπείρους τὸ πλῆθος οὔσας. Τὴν δὲ σελήνην οὐκ εἰκὸς ὥσπερ τὴν θάλασσαν μίαν ἔχειν ἐπιφάνειαν, ἀλλ’ ἐοικέναι μάλιστα τῇ γῇ τὴν φύσιν, ἣν ἐμυθολόγει Σωκράτης ὁ παλαιός, εἴτε δὴ ταύτην αἰνιττόμενος εἴτε δὴ ἄλλην τινὰ διηγούμενος. Οὐ γὰρ ἄπιστον οὐδὲ θαυμαστόν, εἰ μηδὲν ἔχουσα διεφθορὸς ἐν ἑαυτῇ μηδ’ ἰλυῶδες, ἀλλὰ φῶς τε καρπουμένη καθαρὸν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καὶ θερμότητος οὐ διακαοῦς οὐδὲ μανικοῦ πυρὸς ἀλλὰ νοτεροῦ καὶ ἀβλαβοῦς καὶ κατὰ φύσιν ἔχοντος οὖσα πλήρης κάλλη τε θαυμαστὰ κέκτηται τόπων ὄρη τε φλογοειδῆ καὶ ζώνας ἁλουργοὺς ἔχει χρυσόν τε καὶ ἄργυρον οὐκ ἐν βάθει διεσπαρμένον, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τοῖς πεδίοις ἐξανθοῦντα πολὺν ἢ πρὸς ὕψεσι λείοις προφερόμενον.

     Εἰ δὲ τούτων ὄψις ἀφικνεῖται διὰ τῆς σκιᾶς ἄλλοτ’ ἄλλη πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐξαλλαγῇ καὶ διαφορᾷ τινι τοῦ περιέχοντος, τό γε μὴν τίμιον οὐκ ἀπόλλυσι τῆς δόξης οὐδὲ τὸ θεῖον ἡ σελήνη, γῆ τις … ἱερὰ πρὸς ἀνθρώπων νομιζομένη μᾶλλον ἢ πῦρ θολερόν, ὥσπερ οἱ Στωικοὶ λέγουσι, καὶ τρυγῶδες. Πῦρ μέν γε παρὰ Μήδοις καὶ Ἀσσυρίοις βαρβαρικὰς ἔχει τιμάς, οἳ φόβῳ τὰ βλάπτοντα θεραπεύουσι πρὸ τῶν σεμνῶν ἀφοσιούμενοι, τὸ δὲ γῆς ὄνομα παντί που φίλον Ἕλληνι καὶ τίμιον, καὶ πατρῷον ἡμῖν ὥσπερ ἄλλον τινὰ θεῶν σέβεσθαι. Πολλοῦ δὲ δέομεν ἄνθρωποι τὴν σελήνην, γῆν οὖσαν ὀλυμπίαν, ἄψυχον ἡγεῖσθαι σῶμα καὶ ἄνουν καὶ ἄμοιρον ὧν θεοῖς ἀπάρχεσθαι προσήκει, νόμῳ τε τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἀμοιβὰς τίνοντας καὶ κατὰ φύσιν σεβομένους τὸ κρεῖττον ἀρετῇ καὶ δυνάμει καὶ τιμιώτερον. Ὥστε μηδὲν οἰώμεθα πλημμελεῖν γῆν αὐτὴν θέμενοι, τὸ δὲ φαινόμενον τουτὶ πρόσωπον αὐτῆς, ὥσπερ ἡ παρ’ ἡμῖν ἔχει γῆ κόλπους τινὰς μεγάλους, οὕτως ἐκείνην ἀνεπτύχθαι βάθεσι μεγάλοις καὶ ῥήξεσιν ὕδωρ ἢ ζοφερὸν ἀέρα περιέχουσιν, ὧν ἐντὸς οὐ καθίησιν οὐδ’ ἐπιψαύει τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς, ἀλλ’ ἐκλείπει καὶ διεσπασμένην ἐνταῦθα τὴν ἀνάκλασιν ἀποδίδωσιν”.

     21. When Lucius said this, almost while he was speaking Pharnaces and Apollonides sprang forth together. Then, Apollonides having yielded, Pharnaces said that this very point above all proves the moon to be a star or fire, since she is not entirely invisible in her eclipses but displays a colour smouldering and grim which is peculiar to her ²⁰². Apollonides raised an objection concerning the “shadow” on the ground that the scientists always give this name to the region that is without light and the heaven does not admit shadow ²⁰³. “This”, I said, “is the objection of one who speaks captiously to the name rather than like a natural scientist and mathematician to the fact. If one refuses to call the region screened by the earth ‘shadow’ and insists upon calling it ‘lightless space’, nevertheless when the moon gets into it she must be obscured since she is deprived of the solar light. Speaking generally too, it is silly”, I said, “to deny that the shadow of the earth reaches that point from which on its part the shadow of the moon by impinging upon the sight and extending to the earth produces an eclipse of the sun. Now I shall turn to you, Pharnaces. That smouldering and glowing colour of the moon which you say is peculiar to her is characteristic of a body that is compact and a solid, for no remnant or trace of flame will remain in tenuous things nor is incandescence possible unless there is a hard body that has been ignited through and through and sustains the ignition ²⁰⁴. So Homer too has somewhere said:

But when fire’s bloom had flown and flame had ceased
He smoothed the embers ²⁰⁵ 

     The reason probably is that what is igneous ²⁰⁶ is not fire but body that has been ignited and subjected to the action of fire, which adheres to a solid and stable mass and continues to occupy itself with it, whereas flames are the kindling and flux of tenuous nourishment or matter which because of its feebleness is swiftly dissolved. Consequently there would be no other proof of the moon’s earthy and compact nature so manifest as the smouldering colour, if it really were her own. But it is not so, my dear Pharnaces, for as she is eclipsed she exhibits many changes of colour which scientists have distinguished as follows, delimiting them according to time or hour ²⁰⁷. If the eclipse occurs between eventide and half after the third hour, she appears terribly black; if at midnight, then she gives of this reddish and fiery colour; from half after the seventh hour a blush arises ²⁰⁸ on her face; and finally, if she is eclipsed when the dawn is already near, she takes on a bluish or azure ²⁰⁹ hue, from which especially it is that the poets and Empedocles give her the epithet ’bright-eyed’ ²¹⁰. Now, when one sees the moon take on so many hues in the shadow, it is a mistake to settle upon the smouldering colour alone, the very one that might especially be called alien to her and rather an admixture or remnant of the light shining round about through the shadow, while the black or earthy colour could be called her own ²¹¹.

     Since here on earth places near lakes and rivers open to the sun take on the colour and brilliance of the purple and red awnings that shade them, by reason of the reflections giving off many various effulgences, what wonder if a great flood of shade debouching as it were into a heavenly sea of light, not calm or at rest but undergoing all sorts of combinations and alterations as it is churned about by countless stars, takes from the moon at different times the stain of different hues and presents them to our sight ²¹²? A star or fire could not in shadow shine out black or glaucous or bluish; but over mountains, plains, and sea flit many kinds of colours from the sun, and blended with the shadows and mists his brilliance ²¹³ induces such tints as brilliance does when blended with a painter’s pigments. Those of the sea Homer has endeavoured somehow or other to designate, using the terms ‘violet’ ²¹⁴ and ‘wine-dark deep’ ²¹⁵ and again ‘purple swell’ ²¹⁶ and elsewhere ‘glaucous sea’ ²¹⁷and ‘white calm’ ²¹⁸; but he passed over as being an endless multitude the variations of the colours that appear differently at different times about the land. It is likely, however, that the moon has not a single plane surface like the sea but closely resembles in constitution the earth that the ancient Socrates made the subject of a myth ²¹⁹, whether he really was speaking in riddles about this earth or was giving a description of some other ²²⁰. It is in fact not incredible or wonderful that the moon, if she has nothing corrupted or slimy in her but garners pure light from heaven and is filled with width, which is fire not glowing or raging but moist ²²¹ and harmless and in its natural state, has got open regions of marvellous beauty and mountains flaming bright and has zones of royal purple with gold and silver not scattered in her depths but bursting forth in abundance on the plains or openly visible on the smooth heights ²²².

     If through the shadow there comes to us a glimpse of these, different at different times because of some variation and difference of the atmosphere, the honourable repute of the moon is surely not impaired nor is her divinity because she is held by men to be a celestial and holy earth rather than, as the Stoics say, a fire turbid and dreggish ²²³. Fire, to be sure, is given barbaric honours among the Medes and Assyrians, who from fear by way of propitiation worship the maleficent rather than the reverend; but to every Greek, of course, the name of earth is dear and honourable, and it is our ancestral tradition to revere her like any other god. As men we are far from thinking that the moon, because she is a celestial ²²⁴ earth, is a body without soul and mind and without share in the first-fruits that it beseems us to offer to the gods according to custom requiting them for the goods we have received and naturally revering what is better and more honourable in virtue and power. Consequently let us not think it an offence to suppose that she is earth and that for this which appears to be her face, just as our earth has certain great gulfs, so that earth yawns with great depths and clefts which contain water or murky air; the interior of these the light of the sun does not plumb or even touch, but it fails and the reflection which it sends back here is discontinuous” ²²⁵.

     22. Ὑπολαβὼν δ’ ὁ Ἀπολλωνίδης “εἶτ’, ὦ πρὸς αὐτῆς” ἔφη “τῆς Σελήνης, δυνατὸν εἶναι δοκεῖ ὑμῖν ῥηγμάτων τινῶν ἢ φαράγγων εἶναι σκιὰς κἀκεῖθεν ἀφικνεῖσθαι δεῦρο πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν, ἢ τὸ συμβαῖνον οὐ λογίζεσθε κἀγὼ τουτὶ εἴπω; ἀκούοιτε δὲ καίπερ οὐκ ἀγνοοῦντες. Ἡ μὲν διάμετρος τῆς σελήνης δυοκαίδεκα δακτύλους ἔχει τὸ φαινόμενον ἐν τοῖς μέσοις ἀποστήμασι μέγεθος. Τῶν δὲ μελάνων καὶ σκιερῶν ἕκαστον ἡμιδακτυλίου φαίνεται μεῖζον, ὥστε τῆς διαμέτρου μεῖζον ἢ εἰκοστοτέταρτον εἶναι. Καὶ μήν, εἰ μόνων ὑποθοίμεθα τὴν περίμετρον τῆς σελήνης τρισμυρίων σταδίων μυρίων δὲ τὴν διάμετρον, κατὰ τὸ ὑποκείμενον οὐκ ἔλαττον ἂν εἴη πεντακοσίων σταδίων ἐν αὐτῇ τῶν σκιερῶν ἕκαστον. Ὅρα δὴ πρῶτον, ἂν ᾖ δυνατὸν τῇ σελήνῃ τηλικαῦτα βάθη καὶ τηλικαύτας εἶναι τραχύτητας ὥστε σκιὰν ποιεῖν τοσαύτην, ἔπειτα πῶς οὖσαι τηλικαῦται τὸ μέγεθος ὑφ’ ἡμῶν οὐχ ὁρῶνται”. Κἀγὼ μειδιάσας πρὸς αὐτόν “εὖγ’” ἔφην “ὅτι τοιαύτην ἐξεύρηκας ἀπόδειξιν, ὦ Ἀπολλωνίδη, δι’ ἧς κἀμὲ καὶ σαυτὸν ἀποδείξεις τῶν Ἀλωαδῶν ἐκείνων εἶναι μείζονας, οὐκ ἐν ἅπαντι μέντοι χρόνῳ τῆς ἡμέρας ἀλλὰ πρωῒ μάλιστα καὶ δείλης, εἴ γ’ οἴει, τὰς σκιὰς ἡμῶν τοῦ ἡλίου ποιοῦντος ἠλιβάτους, τὸν καλὸν τοῦτο τῇ αἰσθήσει παρέχειν συλλογισμόν, ὡς, εἰ μέγα τὸ σκιαζόμενον, ὑπερμέγεθες τὸ σκιάζον. Ἐν Λήμνῳ μὲν οὐδέτερος ἡμῶν εὖ οἶδ’ ὅτι γέγονε, τουτὶ μέντοι τὸ τεθρυλημένον ἰαμβεῖον ἀμφότεροι πολλάκις ἀκηκόαμεν

Ἄθως καλύψει πλευρὰ Λημνίας βοός·

     ἐπιβάλλει γὰρ ἡ σκιὰ τοῦ ὄρους, ὡς ἔοικε, χαλκέῳ τινι βοιδίῳ, μῆκος ἀποτείνουσα διὰ τῆς θαλάττης οὐκ ἔλαττον ἑπτακοσίων σταδίων, *** τὸ κατασκιάζον ὕψος εἶναι. Διὰ τίν’ αἰτίαν; ὅτι πολλαπλασίους αἱ τοῦ φωτὸς ἀποστάσεις τῶν σωμάτων τὰς σκιὰς ποιοῦσι. Δεῦρο δὴ θεῶ καὶ τῆς σελήνης, ὅτε πάμμηνός ἐστι καὶ μάλιστα τὴν ἰδέαν ἔναρθρον τοῦ προσώπου βαθύτητι τῆς σκιᾶς ἀποδίδωσι, τὸ μέγιστον ἀπέχοντα διάστημα τὸν ἥλιον· ἡ γὰρ ἀπόστασις τοῦ φωτὸς αὕτη τὴν σκιὰν μεγάλην, οὐ τὰ μεγέθη τῶν ὑπὲρ τὴν σελήνην ἀνωμαλιῶν πεποίηκε. Καὶ μὴν οὐδὲ τῶν ὀρῶν τὰς ὑπεροχὰς ἐῶσι μεθ’ ἡμέραν αἱ περιαυγαὶ τοῦ ἡλίου καθορᾶσθαι, τὰ μέντοι βαθέα καὶ κοῖλα φαίνεται καὶ σκιώδη πόρρωθεν. Οὐδὲν οὖν ἄτοπον, εἰ καὶ τῆς σελήνης τὴν ἀντίλαμψιν καὶ τὸν ἐπιφωτισμὸν οὐκ ἔστι καθορᾶν ἀκριβῶς, αἱ δὲ τῶν σκιερῶν παραθέσεις παρὰ τὰ λαμπρὰ τῇ διαφορᾷ τὴν ὄψιν οὐ λανθάνουσιν.

     22. Here Apollonides broke in. “Then by the moon herself”, he said, “do you people think it possible that any clefts and chasms cast shadows which from the moon reach our sight here or do you not reckon the consequence and shall I tell you what it is? Please listen then, though it is not anything unknown to you. The diameter of the moon measures twelve digits in apparent size at her mean distance ²²⁶; and each of the black and shadowy spots appears greater than half a digit and consequently would be greater than one twenty-fourth of her diameter. Well then, if we should suppose that the circumference of the moon is only thirty thousand stades and her diameter ten thousand each of the shadowy spots on her would in accordance with the assumption measure not less than five hundred stades ²²⁷. Consider now in the first place whether it is possible for the moon to have depths and corrugations so great as to cast such a large shadow; in the second place why, if they are of such great magnitude, we do not see them”. Then I said to him with a smile: “Congratulations for having discovered such a demonstration, Apollonides. It would enable you to prove that both you and I are taller than the famous sons of Aloeus ²²⁸, not at every time of day to be sure but early in the morning particularly and in late afternoon if, when the sun makes our shadows enormous, you intend to supply sensation with this lovely reasoning that, if the shadow cast is large, what casts the shadow is immense. I am well aware that neither of us has been in Lemnos; we have both, however, often heard this line that is on everyone’s lips:

     Athos will veil the Lemnian heifer’s flank ²²⁹.

     The point of this apparently is that the shadow of the mountain, extending not less than seven hundred stades over the sea ²³⁰, falls upon a left bronze heifer; but it is not necessary, I presume, that what casts the shadow be size stades high, for the reason that shadows are made many times the size of the objects that cast them by the remoteness of the light from the objects ²³¹. Come then, observe that, when the moon is at the full and because of the shadow’s depth exhibits most articulately the appearance of the face, the sun is at his maximum distance from her. The reason is that the remoteness of the light alone and not the magnitude of the irregularities on the surface of the moon has made the shadow large. Besides, even in the case of mountains the dazzling beams of the sun prevent their crags from being discerned in broad daylight, although their depths and hollows and shadowy parts are visible from afar. So it is not at all strange that in the case of the moon too it is not possible to discern accurately the reflection and illumination, whereas the juxtapositions of the shadowy and brilliant parts by reason of the contrast do not escape our sight.

     23. Ἀλλ’ ἐκεῖνο μᾶλλον” ἔφην “ἐλέγχειν δοκεῖ τὴν λεγομένην ἀνάκλασιν ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης, ὅτι τοὺς ἐν ταῖς ἀνακλωμέναις αὐγαῖς ἑστῶτας οὐ μόνον συμβαίνει τὸ φωτιζόμενον ὁρᾶν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ φωτίζον. Ὅταν γὰρ αὐγῆς ἀφ’ ὕδατος πρὸς τοῖχον ἁλλομένης ὄψις ἐν αὐτῷ τῷ πεφωτισμένῳ κατὰ τὴν ἀνάκλασιν τόπῳ γένηται, τὰ τρία καθορᾷ, τήν τ’ ἀνακλωμένην αὐγὴν καὶ τὸ ποιοῦν ὕδωρ τὴν ἀνάκλασιν καὶ τὸν ἥλιον αὐτόν, ἀφ’ οὗ τὸ φῶς τῷ ὕδατι προσπίπτον ἀνακέκλασται. Τούτων δ’ ὁμολογουμένων καὶ φαινομένων κελεύουσι τοὺς ἀνακλάσει φωτίζεσθαι τὴν γῆν ὑπὸ τῆς σελήνης ἀξιοῦντας ἐπιδεικνύναι νύκτωρ ἐμφαινόμενον τῇ σελήνῃ τὸν ἥλιον, ὥσπερ ἐμφαίνεται τῷ ὕδατι μεθ’ ἡμέραν, ὅταν ἀνάκλασις ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ γένηται· μὴ φαινομένου δὲ τούτου, κατ’ ἄλλον οἴονται τρόπον, οὐκ ἀνακλάσει, γίνεσθαι τὸν φωτισμόν· εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῦτο, μηδὲ γῆν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην”. “Τί οὖν” ἔφη “πρὸς αὐτοὺς λεκτέον”; ὁ Ἀπολλωνίδης· “κοινὰ γὰρ ἔοικε καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἶναι τὰ τῆς ἀνακλάσεως”. “Ἀμέλει τρόπον τινά” ἔφην ἐγώ “κοινά, τρόπον δ’ ἄλλον οὐ κοινά. Πρῶτον δ’ ὅρα τὰ τῆς εἰκόνος ὡς ‘ἄνω ποταμῶν’ καὶ τραπέμπαλιν λαμβάνουσιν. Ἐπὶ γῆς γάρ ἐστι καὶ κάτω τὸ ὕδωρ, ὑπὲρ γῆς δὲ σελήνη καὶ μετέωρος· ὅθεν ἀντίστροφον αἱ κεκλασμέναι τὸ σχῆμα τῆς γωνίας ποιοῦσι, τῆς μὲν ἄνω πρὸς τῇ σελήνῃ τῆς δὲ κάτω πρὸς τῇ γῇ τὴν κορυφὴν ἐχούσης. Μὴ ἅπασαν οὖν ἰδέαν κατόπτρων μηδ’ ἐκ πάσης ἀποστάσεως ὁμοίαν ἀνάκλασιν ποιεῖν ἀξιούτωσαν, ἐπεὶ μάχονται πρὸς τὴν ἐνάργειαν.

     Οἱ δὲ σῶμα μὴ λεπτὸν μηδὲ λεῖον, ὥσπερ ἐστὶ τὸ ὕδωρ, ἀποφαίνοντες τὴν σελήνην ἀλλ’ ἐμβριθὲς καὶ γεῶδες οὐκ οἶδ’ ὅπως ἀπαιτοῦνται τοῦ ἡλίου τὴν ἔμφασιν ἐν αὐτῇ πρὸς τὴν ὄψιν. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τὸ γάλα τοὺς τοιούτους ἐσοπτρισμοὺς ἀποδίδωσιν οὐδὲ ποιεῖ τῆς ὄψεως ἀνακλάσεις διὰ τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν καὶ τραχύτητα τῶν μορίων· πόθεν γε τὴν σελήνην δυνατόν ἐστιν ἀναπέμπειν ἀφ’ ἑαυτῆς τὴν ὄψιν, ὥσπερ ἀναπέμπει τὰ λειότερα τῶν ἐσόπτρων; καίτοι καὶ ταῦτα δήπουθεν, ἐὰν ἀμυχή τις ἢ ῥύπος ἢ τραχύτης καταλάβῃ τὸ σημεῖον ἂν, ἀφ’ οὗ πέφυκεν ἡ ὄψις ἀνακλασθῆναι, τυφλοῦται, καὶ βλέπεται μὲν αὐτά, τὴν δ’ ἀνταύγειαν οὐκ ἀποδίδωσιν. Ὁ δ’ ἀξιῶν ἢ καὶ τὴν ὄψιν ἡμῶν ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἢ μηδὲ τὸν ἥλιον ἐφ’ ἡμᾶς ἀνακλᾶν ἀφ’ ἑαυτῆς τὴν σελήνην ἡδύς ἐστι τὸν ὀφθαλμὸν ἥλιον ἀξιῶν εἶναι φῶς δὲ τὴν ὄψιν οὐρανὸν δὲ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. Τοῦ μὲν γὰρ ἡλίου δι’ εὐτονίαν καὶ λαμπρότητα πρὸς τῇ σελήνῃ γινομένην μετὰ πληγῆς τὴν ἀνάκλασιν φέρεσθαι πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἰκός ἐστιν· ἡ δ’ ὄψις ἀσθενὴς οὖσα καὶ λεπτὴ καὶ ὀλιγοστὴ τί θαυμαστὸν εἰ μήτε πληγὴν ἀνακρουστικὴν ποιεῖ μήτ’ ἀφαλλομένης τηρεῖ τὴν συνέχειαν ἀλλὰ θρύπτεται καὶ ἀπολείπει, πλῆθος οὐκ ἔχουσα φωτὸς ὥστε μὴ διασπᾶσθαι περὶ τὰς ἀνωμαλίας καὶ τραχύτητας; Ἀπὸ μὲν γὰρ ὕδατος καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἐσόπτρων ἰσχύουσαν ἔτι τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐγγὺς οὖσαν ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἅλλεσθαι τὴν ἀνάκλασιν οὐκ ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν· ἀπὸ δὲ τῆς σελήνης, κἂν γίνωνταί τινες ὀλισθήσεις αὐτῆς, ἀσθενεῖς ἔσονται καὶ ἀμυδραὶ καὶ προαπολείπουσαι διὰ τὸ μῆκος τῆς ἀποστάσεως.

     Καὶ γὰρ ἄλλως τὰ μὲν κοῖλα τῶν ἐσόπτρων εὐτονωτέραν ποιεῖ τῆς προηγουμένης αὐγῆς τὴν ἀνακλωμένην, ὥστε καὶ φλόγας ἀναπέμπειν πολλάκις, τὰ δὲ κυρτὰ καὶ τὰ σφαιροειδῆ τῷ μὴ πανταχόθεν ἀντερείδειν ἀσθενῆ καὶ ἀμαυράν … . Ὁρᾶτε δήπουθεν, ὅταν ἴριδες δύο φανῶσι, νέφους νέφος ἐμπεριέχοντος, ἀμαυρὰ ποιοῦσαν καὶ ἀσαφῆ τὰ χρώματα τὴν περιέχουσαν· τὸ γὰρ ἐκτὸς νέφος ἀπωτέρω τῆς ὄψεως κείμενον οὐκ εὔτονον οὐδ’ ἰσχυρὰν τὴν ἀνάκλασιν ἀποδίδωσι. Καὶ τί δεῖ πλείονα λέγειν; Ὅπου γὰρ τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου φῶς ἀνακλώμενον ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης τὴν μὲν θερμότητα πᾶσαν ἀποβάλλει, τῆς δὲ λαμπρότητος αὐτοῦ λεπτὸν ἀφικνεῖται μόλις πρὸς ἡμᾶς καὶ ἀδρανὲς λείψανον, ἦπου τῆς ὄψεως τὸν ἴσον φερομένης δίαυλον ἐνδέχεται μόριον ὁτιοῦν λείψανον ἐξικέσθαι πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης; Ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ οἶμαι. Σκοπεῖτε δ’” εἶπον “καὶ ὑμεῖς· εἰ τὰ αὐτὰ πρὸς τὸ ὕδωρ καὶ τὴν σελήνην ἔπασχεν ἡ ὄψις, ἔδει καὶ γῆς καὶ φυτῶν καὶ ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἄστρων ἐμφάσεις ποιεῖν τὴν πανσέληνον, οἵας τὰ λοιπὰ ποιεῖται τῶν ἐσόπτρων· εἰ δ’ οὐ γίνονται πρὸς ταῦτα τῆς ὄψεως ἀνακλάσεις δι’ ἀσθένειαν αὐτῆς ἢ τραχύτητα τῆς σελήνης, μηδὲ πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον ἀπαιτῶμεν.

     23. “There is this, however”, I said, “which seems to be a stronger objection to the alleged reflection from the moon. It happens that those who have placed themselves in the path of reflected rays see not only the object illumined but also what illuminates it. For example, if when a ray rebounds from water to a wall the eye is situated in the place that is itself illumined by the reflection, the eye discerns all three things, the reflected ray and the water that causes the reflection and the sun itself ²³², the source of the light which has been reflected by impinging upon the water. On the basis of these admitted and apparent facts those who maintain that the moon illuminates the earth with reflected light are bidden (by their adversaries) ²³³ to point out in the moon at night an appearance of the sun such as there is in water by day whenever there is a reflection of the sun from it. Since there is no such appearance, (these adversaries) think that the illumination comes about in another way and not by reflection and that, if there is not reflection, neither is the moon an earth”. “What response must be made to them then?” said Apollonides, “for the characteristics of reflection seem to present us with a problem in common” ²³⁴. “In common in a way certainly”, said I, “but in another way not in common either. In the first place consider the matter of the image ²³⁵, how topsy-turvy and like ‘rivers flowing uphill’ ²³⁶ they conceive it. The fact is that water is on earth and below, and the moon above the earth and on high; and hence the angles produced by the reflected rays are the converse of each other, the one having its apex above at the moon, the other below at the earth ²³⁷. So they must not demand that every kind of mirror or a mirror at every distance produce a similar reflection, since (in doing so) they are at variance with the manifest facts.

     Those, on the other hand, who declare that the moon is not a tenuous or smooth body as water is but a heavy and earthy one ²³⁸, I do not understand why it is required of them that the sun be manifest to vision in her. For milk does not return such mirrorings either or produce reflections of the visual ray, and the reason is the irregularity and roughness of its particles ²³⁹; how in the world then is it possible for the moon to cast the visual ray back from herself in the way that the smoother mirrors do? Yet even these, of course, are occluded if a scratch or speck of dirt or roughness covers the point from which the visual ray is naturally reflected, and while the mirrors themselves are seen they do not return the customary reflection ²⁴⁰. One who demands that the moon either reflect our vision from herself to the sun as well or else not reflect the sun from herself to us either is naive, for he is demanding that the eye be a sun, the vision light, and the human being a heaven. Since the light of the sun because of its intensity and brilliance arrives at the moon with a shock, it is reasonable that its reflection should reach to us; but the visual ray, since it is weak and tenuous and many times slighter, what wonder if it does not have an impact that produces recoil or if in rebounding it does not maintain its continuity but is dispersed and exhausted, not having light enough to keep it from being scattered about the irregularities and corrugations (of the moon)? From water, to be sure, and from mirrors of other kinds it is not impossible for the reflection (of the visual ray) to rebound to the sun, since it is still strong because it is near to its point of origin ²⁴¹; but from the moon, even if the visual rays do in some cases glance off, they will be weak and dim and prematurely exhausted because of the magnitude of the distance ²⁴².

     What is more too, whereas mirrors that are concave make the ray of light more intense after reflection than it was before so as often even to send off flames ²⁴³, convex and spherical mirrors ²⁴⁴ by not exerting counter-pressure upon it from all points give it off weak and faint. You observe, I presume, whenever two rainbows appear, as one cloud encloses another, that the encompassing rainbow produces colours that are faint and indistinct. The reason for this is that the outer cloud, being situated further off from the eye, returns reflection that is not intense or strong ²⁴⁵. Nay, what need of further arguments? When the light of the sun by being reflected from the moon loses all its heat ²⁴⁶ and of its brilliance there barely reaches us a slight and feeble remnant, is it really possible that of the visual ray travelling the same double-course ²⁴⁷ any fraction of a remnant should from the moon arrive at the sun? For my part, I think not; and do you too”, I said, “consider this. If the visual ray were affected in the same way by warm water and by the moon, the full moon ought to show such reflections of the earth and plants and human beings and stars as all other mirrors do; but, if there occur no reflections of the visual ray to these objects either because of the weakness of the ray or the ruggedness of the moon, let us not require that there be such reflection to the sun either.

     24. Ἡμεῖς μὲν οὖν” ἔφην, “ὅσα μὴ διαπέφευγε τὴν μνήμην τῶν ἐκεῖ λεχθέντων, ἀπηγγέλκαμεν· ὥρα δὲ καὶ Σύλλαν παρακαλεῖν μᾶλλον δ’ ἀπαιτεῖν τὴν διήγησιν, οἷον ἐπὶ ῥητοῖς ἀκροατὴν γεγενημένον· ὥστε, εἰ δοκεῖ, καταπαύσαντες τὸν περίπατον καὶ καθίσαντες ἐπὶ τῶν βάθρων ἑδραῖον αὐτῷ παράσχωμεν ἀκροατήριον”. Ἔδοξε δὴ ταῦτα, καὶ καθισάντων ἡμῶν ὁ Θέων “ἐγώ τοι, ὦ Λαμπρία” εἶπεν “ἐπιθυμῶ μὲν οὐδενὸς ἧττον ὑμῶν ἀκοῦσαι τὰ λεχθησόμενα, πρότερον δ’ ἂν ἡδέως ἀκούσαιμι περὶ τῶν οἰκεῖν λεγομένων ἐπὶ τῆς σελήνης, οὐκ εἰ κατοικοῦσί τινες ἀλλ’ εἰ δυνατὸν ἐκεῖ κατοικεῖν. Εἰ γὰρ οὐ δυνατόν, ἄλογον καὶ τὸ γῆν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην. Δόξει γὰρ πρὸς οὐθὲν ἀλλὰ μάτην γεγονέναι μήτε καρποὺς ἐκφέρουσα μήτ’ ἀνθρώποις τισὶν ἕδραν παρέχουσα καὶ γένεσιν καὶ δίαιταν· ὧν ἕνεκα καὶ ταύτην γεγονέναι φαμὲν κατὰ Πλάτωνα

τροφὸν ἡμετέραν ἡμέρας τε καὶ νυκτὸς ἀτρεκῆ φύλακα καὶ δημιουργόν.

     Ὁρᾷς δ’ ὅτι πολλὰ λέγεται καὶ σὺν γέλωτι καὶ μετὰ σπουδῆς περὶ τούτων. Τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ὑπὸ τὴν σελήνην οἰκοῦσιν ὥσπερ Ταντάλοις ἐκ κεφαλῆς ἐκκρέμασθαί φασι, τοὺς δ’ οἰκοῦντας αὖ πάλιν ἐπ’ αὐτῆς ὥσπερ Ἰξίονας ἐνδεδεμένους ῥύμῃ τόση… . Καίτοι μίαν οὐ κινεῖται κίνησιν, ἀλλ’, ὥς που καὶ λέγεται, Τριοδῖτίς ἐστιν, ἅμα μῆκος ἐπὶ τοῦ ζῳδιακοῦ καὶ πλάτος φερομένη καὶ βάθος· ὧν τὴν μὲν περιδρομὴν τὴν δ’ ἕλικα τὴν δ’ οὐκ οἶδα πῶς ἀνωμαλίαν ὀνομάζουσιν οἱ μαθηματικοί, καίπερ οὐδεμίαν † ὁμαλὴν οὐδὲ τεταγμένην ταῖς ἀποκαταστάσεσιν ὁρῶντες ἔχουσαν. Οὔκουν εἰ λέων τις ἔπεσεν ὑπὸ ῥύμης εἰς Πελοπόννησον, ἄξιόν ἐστι θαυμάζειν, ἀλλ’ ὅπως οὐ μυρί’ ὁρῶμεν ἀεὶ ‘πεσήματ’ ἀνδρῶν καὶ ἀπολακτισμοὺς βίων’ ἐκεῖθεν οἷον ἐκκυβιστώντων καὶ περιτρεπομένων.

     Καὶ γὰρ γελοῖον περὶ μονῆς τῶν ἐκεῖ διαπορεῖν, εἰ μὴ γένεσιν μηδὲ σύστασιν ἔχειν δύνανται. ὅπου γὰρ Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ Τρωγλοδῦται, οἷς ἡμέρας μιᾶς ἀκαρὲς ἵσταται κατὰ κορυφὴν ὁ ἥλιος ἐν τροπαῖς εἶτ’ ἄπεισιν, ὀλίγον ἀπέχουσι τοῦ κατακεκαῦσθαι ξηρότητι τοῦ περιέχοντος, ἦπου τοὺς ἐπὶ τῆς σελήνης εἰκός ἐστι δώδεκα θερείας ὑπομένειν ἔτους ἑκάστου, κατὰ μῆνα τοῦ ἡλίου πρὸς κάθετον αὐτοῖς ἐφισταμένου καὶ στηρίζοντος, ὅταν ᾖ πανσέληνος; Πνεύματά γε μὴν καὶ νέφη καὶ ὄμβρους, ὧν χωρὶς οὔτε γένεσις φυτῶν ἔστιν οὔτε σωτηρία γενομένοις, ἀμήχανον ἐκεῖ διανοηθῆναι συνιστάμενα διὰ θερμότητα καὶ λεπτότητα τοῦ περιέχοντος. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἐνταῦθα τῶν ὀρῶν τὰ ὑψηλὰ δέχεται τοὺς ἀγρίους καὶ ἐναντίους χειμῶνας, ἀλλ’ … ἤδη καὶ σάλον ἔχων ὑπὸ κουφότητος ὁ ἀὴρ ἐκφεύγει τὴν σύστασιν ταύτην καὶ πύκνωσιν. Εἰ μὴ νὴ Δία φήσομεν, ὥσπερ ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ τῷ Ἀχιλλεῖ νέκταρός τι καὶ ἀμβροσίας ἐνέσταξε μὴ προσιεμένῳ τροφήν, οὕτω τὴν σελήνην, Ἀθηνᾶν λεγομένην καὶ οὖσαν, τρέφειν τοὺς ἄνδρας ἀμβροσίαν ἀνιεῖσαν αὐτοῖς ἐφημέριον, ὡς Φερεκύδης ὁ παλαιὸς οἴεται σιτεῖσθαι τοὺς θεούς. Τὴν μὲν γὰρ Ἰνδικὴν ῥίζαν, ἥν φησι Μεγασθένης τοὺς μήτ’ ἐσθίοντας μήτε πίνοντας ἀλλ’ ἀστόμους ὄντας ὑποτύφειν καὶ θυμιᾶν καὶ τρέφεσθαι τῇ ὀσμῇ, πόθεν ἄν τις ἐκεῖ φυομένην λάβοι μὴ βρεχομένης τῆς σελήνης”;

     24. So we for our part”, said I, “have now reported as much of that conversation ²⁴⁸ as has not slipped our mind; and it is high time to summon Sulla or rather to demand his narrative as the agreed condition upon which he was admitted as a listener. So, if it is agreeable, let us stop our promenade and sit down upon the benches, that we may provide him with a settled audience”. To this then they agreed; and, when we had sat down, Theon said: “Though, as you know, Lamprias, I am as eager as any of you to hear what is going to be said, I should like before that to hear about the beings that are said to dwell on the moon ²⁴⁹ — not whether any really do inhabit it but whether habitation there is possible. If it is not possible, the assertion that the moon is an earth is itself absurd, for she would then appear to have come into existence vainly and to no purpose, neither bringing forth fruit nor providing for men of some kind an origin, an abode, and a means of life, the purposes for which this earth of ours came into being, as we say with Plato,

our nurse, strict guardian and artificer of day and night ²⁵⁰.

     You see that there is much talk about these things both in jest and seriously. It is said that those who dwell under the moon have her suspended overhead like the stone of Tantalus ²⁵¹and on the other hand that those who dwell upon her, fast bound like so many Ixions ²⁵² by such great velocity, are kept from falling by being whirled round in a circle. Yet it is not with a single motion that she moves; but she is, as somewhere she is in fact called, the goddess of three ways ²⁵³, for she moves on the zodiac against the signs in longitude and latitude and in depth at the same time. Of these movements the mathematicians call the first ‘revolution’, the second ‘spiral’, and the third, I know not why ‘anomaly’, although they see that she has no motion at all that is uniform and fixed by regular recurrences ²⁵⁴. There is reason to wonder then not that the velocity caused a lion to fall on the Peloponnesus ²⁵⁵ but how it is that we are not forever seeing countless ‘men falling headlong and lives spurned away’ ²⁵⁶, tumbling off the moon, as it were, and turned head over heels.

     It is moreover ridiculous to raise the question how the inhabitants of the moon remain there, if they cannot come to be or exist. Now, when Egyptians and Troglodytes ²⁵⁷, for whom the sun stands in the zenith one moment of one day at the solstice and then departs, are all but burnt to a cinder by the dryness of the atmosphere, is it really likely that the men on the moon endure twelve summers every year, the sun standing fixed vertically above them each month at the full moon? Yet winds and clouds and rains, without which plants can neither arise nor having arisen be preserved, because of the heat and tenuousness of the atmosphere cannot possibly be imagined as forming there, for not even here on earth do the lofty mountains admit fierce and continual storms ²⁵⁸ but the air, being tenuous already and having a rolling swell ²⁵⁹ as a result of its lightness, escapes this compaction and condensation. otherwise, by Heaven, we shall have to say that, as Athena when Achilles was taking no food instilled into him some nectar and ambrosia ²⁶⁰, so the moon, which is Athena in name and fact ²⁶¹, nourishes her men by sending up ambrosia for them day by day, the food of the gods themselves as the ancient Pherecydes believes ²⁶². For even the Indian root which according to Megasthenes the Mouthless Men, who neither eat nor drink, kindle and cause to smoulder and inhale for their nourishment ²⁶³, how could it be supposed to grow there if the moon is not moistened by rain?”

     25. Ταῦτα τοῦ Θέωνος εἰπόντος “κάλλιστά γε” ἔφην “καὶ ἄριστα τῇ παιδιᾷ τοῦ λόγου τὰς ὀφρῦς ἡμῶν ἔλυσας· δι’ ἃ καὶ θάρσος ἡμῖν ἐγγίνεται πρὸς τὴν ἀπόκρισιν, μὴ πάνυ πικρὰν μηδ’ αὐστηρὰν εὐθύνην προσδοκῶσι. Καὶ γὰρ ὡς ἀληθῶς τῶν σφόδρα πεπεισμένων τὰ τοιαῦτα διαφέρουσιν οὐδὲν οἱ σφόδρα δυσκολαίνοντες αὐτοῖς καὶ διαπιστοῦντες ἀλλὰ μὴ πράως τὸ δυνατὸν καὶ τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον ἐθέλοντες ἐπισκοπεῖν. Εὐθὺς οὖν τὸ πρῶτον οὐκ ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστιν, εἰ μὴ κατοικοῦσιν ἄνθρωποι τὴν σελήνην, μάτην γεγονέναι καὶ πρὸς μηθέν. Οὐδὲ γὰρ τήνδε τὴν γῆν δι’ ὅλης ἐνεργὸν οὐδὲ προσοικουμένην ὁρῶμεν, ἀλλὰ μικρὸν αὐτῆς μέρος ὥσπερ ἄκροις τισὶν ἢ χερρονήσοις ἀνέχουσιν ἐκ βυθοῦ γόνιμόν ἐστι ζῴων καὶ φυτῶν, τῶν δ’ ἄλλων τὰ μὲν ἔρημα καὶ ἄκαρπα χειμῶσι καὶ αὐχμοῖς, τὰ δὲ πλεῖστα κατὰ τῆς μεγάλης δέδυκε θαλάσσης. ἀλλὰ σύ, τὸν Ἀρίσταρχον ἀγαπῶν ἀεὶ καὶ θαυμάζων, οὐκ ἀκούεις Κράτητος ἀναγινώσκοντος.

Ὠκεανός, ὅσπερ γένεσις πάντεσσι τέτυκται
ἀνδράσιν ἠδὲ θεοῖς, πλείστην ἐπὶ γαῖαν ἵησιν.

     Ἀλλὰ πολλοῦ δεῖ μάτην ταῦτα γεγονέναι· καὶ γὰρ ἀναθυμιάσεις ἡ θάλασσα μαλακὰς ἀνίησι, καὶ τῶν πνευμάτων τὰ ἥδιστα θέρους ἀκμάζοντος ἐκ τῆς ἀοικήτου καὶ κατεψυγμένης αἱ χιόνες ἀτρέμα διατηκόμεναι χαλῶσι καὶ διασπείρουσιν, ‘ἡμέρας τε καὶ νυκτὸς’ ἕστηκεν ἀτρεκὴς ἐν μέσῳ ‘φύλαξ’ κατὰ Πλάτωνα ‘καὶ δημιουργός’. Οὐδὲν οὖν κωλύει καὶ τὴν σελήνην ζῴων μὲν ἔρημον εἶναι, παρέχειν δ’ ἀνακλάσεις τε τῷ φωτὶ περὶ αὐτὴν διαχεομένῳ καὶ συρροὴν ταῖς τῶν ἀστέρων αὐγαῖς ἐν αὐτῇ καὶ σύγκρασιν, ᾗ συνεκπέττει τε τὰς ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ἀναθυμιάσεις ἅμα τε καὶ τοῦ ἡλίου τὸ ἔμπυρον ἄγαν καὶ σκληρὸν ἀνίησι. Καί πού τι καὶ παλαιᾷ φήμῃ διδόντες Ἄρτεμιν αὐτὴν νομισθῆναι φήσομεν ὡς παρθένον καὶ ἄγονον, ἄλλως δὲ βοηθητικὴν καὶ ὠφέλιμον. Ἐπεὶ τῶν γ’ εἰρημένων οὐδέν, ὦ φίλε Θέων, ἀδύνατον δείκνυσι τὴν λεγομένην ἐπ’ αὐτῆς οἴκησιν. Ἥ τε γὰρ δίνη πολλὴν ἔχουσα πραότητα καὶ γαλήνην ἐπιλεαίνει τὸν ἀέρα καὶ διανέμει συγκατακοσμούμενον, ὥστε μηδὲν εἶναι δέος ἐκπεσεῖν καὶ ἀποσφαλῆναι τοὺς ἐκεῖ βεβηκότας, † εἰ δὲ μὴ δὲ αὐτὴ † καὶ τὸ ποικίλον τοῦτο τῆς φορᾶς καὶ πεπλανημένον οὐκ ἀνωμαλίας οὐδὲ ταραχῆς ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ θαυμαστὴν ἐπιδείκνυνται τάξιν ἐν τούτοις καὶ πορείαν οἱ ἀστρολόγοι κύκλοις τισὶ περὶ κύκλους ἑτέρους ἐξελιττομένοις συνάγοντες, οἳ ἄγουσιν αὐτὴν οἱ μὲν ἀτρεμοῦσαν, οἱ δὲ λείως καὶ ὁμαλῶς ἀεὶ τάχεσι τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἀνθυποφερομένην· αὗται γὰρ αἱ τῶν κύκλων ἐπιβάσεις καὶ περιαγωγαὶ καὶ σχέσεις πρὸς ἀλλήλους καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς τὰ φαινόμενα τῆς κινήσεως ὕψη καὶ βάθη καὶ τὰς κατὰ πλάτος παραλλάξεις ἅμα ταῖς κατὰ μῆκος αὐτῆς περιόδοις ἐμμελέστατα συμπεραίνουσι.

     Τὴν δὲ πολλὴν θερμότητα καὶ συνεχῆ πύρωσιν ὑφ’ ἡλίου οὐ παύσῃ φοβούμενος, ἂν πρῶτον μὲν ἀντιθῇς † ταῖς ἕνδεκα θεριναῖς συνόδοις τὰς πανσελήνους· εἴσῃ † δὲ τὸ συνεχὲς τῆς μεταβολῆς ταῖς ὑπερβολαῖς χρόνον οὐκ ἐχούσαις πολὺν ἐμποιεῖν κρᾶσιν οἰκείαν καὶ τὸ ἄγαν ἑκατέρας ἀφαιρεῖν· διὰ μέσου δὲ τούτων, ὡς εἰκός, ὥραν ἔαρι προσφορωτάτην ἔχουσιν. Ἔπειτα πρὸς μὲν ἡμᾶς καθίησι δι’ ἀέρος θολεροῦ καὶ συνεπερείδοντος τὴν θερμότητα ταῖς ἀναθυμιάσεσι τρεφομένην, ἐκεῖ δὲ λεπτὸς ὢν καὶ διαυγὴς ὁ ἀὴρ σκίδνησι καὶ διαχεῖ τὴν αὐγήν, ὑπέκκαυμα καὶ σῶμα μηδὲν ἔχουσαν.Ὕλην δὲ καὶ καρποὺς αὐτόθι μὲν ὄμβροι τρέφουσιν, ἑτέρωθι δέ, ὥσπερ ἄνω περὶ Θήβας παρ’ ὑμῖν καὶ Συήνην, οὐκ ὄμβριον ὕδωρ ἀλλὰ γηγενὲς ἡ γῆ πίνουσα καὶ χρωμένη πνεύμασι καὶ δρόσοις οὐκ ἂν ἐθελήσειεν οἶμαι τῇ πλεῖστον ὑομένῃ πολυκαρπίας ὑφίεσθαι δι’ ἀρετήν τινα καὶ κρᾶσιν. Τὰ δ’ αὐτὰ φυτὰ τῷ γένει παρ’ ἡμῖν μέν, ἐὰν σφόδρα πιεσθῇ χειμῶσιν, ἐκφέρει πολὺν καὶ καλὸν καρπόν, ἐν δὲ Λιβύῃ καὶ παρ’ ὑμῖν ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ δύσριγα κομιδῇ καὶ δειλὰ πρὸς χειμῶνάς ἐστι.

     Τῆς δὲ Γεδρωσίας καὶ Τρωγλοδύτιδος, ἣ καθήκει πρὸς τὸν ὠκεανόν, ἀφόρου διὰ ξηρότητα καὶ ἀδένδρου παντάπασιν οὔσης, ἐν τῇ παρακειμένῃ καὶ περικεχυμένῃ θαλάττῃ θαυμαστὰ μεγέθη φυτῶν τρέφεται καὶ κατὰ βυθοῦ τέθηλεν, ὧν τὰ μὲν ἐλαίας τὰ δὲ δάφνας τὰ δ’ Ἴσιδος τρίχας καλοῦσιν. Οἱ δ’ ἀνακαμψέρωτες οὗτοι προσαγορευόμενοι τῆς γῆς ἐξαιρεθέντες οὐ μόνον ζῶσι κρεμάμενοι χρόνον ὅσον βούλεταί τις, ἀλλὰ βλαστάνουσιν … . Σπείρεται δὲ τὰ μὲν πρὸς χειμῶνος τὰ δὲ θέρους ἀκμάζοντος, ὥσπερ σήσαμον καὶ μελίνη· τὸ δὲ θύμον ἢ τὸ κενταύριον ἂν εἰς ἀγαθὴν καὶ πίονα σπαρῇ χώραν καὶ βρέχηται καὶ ἄρδηται, τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ἐξίσταται ποιότητος καὶ ἀποβάλλει τὴν δύναμιν, αὐχμῷ δὲ χαίρει καὶ πρὸς τὸ οἰκεῖον ἐπιδίδωσιν. Εἰ δ’ ὥς φασιν οὐδὲ τὰς δρόσους ἀνέχεται, καθάπερ τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν Ἀραβικῶν, ἀλλ’ ἐξαμαυροῦται διαινόμενα καὶ φθείρεται, τί δὴ θαυμαστόν ἐστιν εἰ γίνονται περὶ τὴν σελήνην ῥίζαι καὶ σπέρματα καὶ ὗλαι μηθὲν ὑετῶν δεόμεναι μηδὲ χιόνων ἀλλὰ πρὸς θερινὸν ἀέρα καὶ λεπτὸν εὐφυῶς ἔχουσαι; Πῶς δ’ οὐκ εἰκὸς ἀνιέναι τε πνεύματα θαλπόμενα τῇ σελήνῃ καὶ τῷ σάλῳ τῆς περιφορᾶς αὔρας τε παρομαρτεῖν ἀτρέμα καὶ δρόσους καὶ ὑγρότητας ἐλαφρὰς περιχεούσας καὶ διασπειρομένας ἐπαρκεῖν τοῖς βλαστάνουσιν, αὐτὴν δὲ τῇ κράσει μὴ πυρώδη μηδ’ αὐχμηρὰν ἀλλὰ μαλακὴν καὶ ὑδροποιὸν εἶναι; ξηρότητος μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν ἀφικνεῖται πάθος ἀπ’ αὐτῆς πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ὑγρότητος δὲ πολλὰ καὶ θηλύτητος, αὐξήσεις φυτῶν, σήψεις κρεῶν, τροπαὶ καὶ ἀνέσεις οἴνων, μαλακότητες ξύλων, εὐτοκίαι γυναικῶν. Δέδοικα δ’ ἡσυχάζοντα Φαρνάκην αὖθις ἐρεθίζειν καὶ κινεῖν, ὠκεανοῦ τε πλημμύρας, ὡς λέγουσιν αὐτοί, καὶ πορθμῶν ἐπιδόσεις διαχεομένων καὶ αὐξανομένων ὑπὸ τῆς σελήνης τῷ ἀνυγραίνεσθαι παρατιθέμενος. Διὸ πρὸς σὲ τρέψομαι μᾶλλον, ὦ φίλε Θέων· λέγεις γὰρ ἡμῖν ἐξηγούμενος ταυτὶ τὰ Ἀλκμᾶνος

οἷα Διὸς θυγάτηρ Ἔρσα τρέφει καὶ δίας Σελάνας,

     ὅτι νῦν τὸν ἀέρα καλεῖ Δία καί φησιν αὐτὸν ὑπὸ τῆς σελήνης καθυγραινόμενον εἰς δρόσους τρέπεσθαι. Κινδυνεύει γάρ, ὦ ἑταῖρε, πρὸς τὸν ἥλιον ἀντιπαθῆ φύσιν ἔχειν, εἴγε μὴ μόνον, ὅσα πυκνοῦν καὶ ξηραίνειν ἐκεῖνος, αὕτη μαλάσσειν καὶ διαχεῖν πέφυκεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἀπ’ ἐκείνου θερμότητα καθυγραίνειν καὶ καταψύχειν προσπίπτουσαν αὐτῇ καὶ συμμιγνυμένην. Οἵ τε δὴ τὴν σελήνην ἔμπυρον σῶμα καὶ διακαὲς εἶναι νομίζοντες ἁμαρτάνουσιν, οἵ τε τοῖς ἐκεῖ ζῴοις ὅσα τοῖς ἐνταῦθα πρὸς γένεσιν καὶ τροφὴν καὶ δίαιταν ἀξιοῦντες ὑπάρχειν ἐοίκασιν ἀθεάτοις τῶν περὶ τὴν φύσιν ἀνωμαλιῶν, ἐν αἷς μείζονας ἔστι καὶ πλέονας πρὸς ἄλληλα τῶν ζῴων ἢ πρὸς τὰ μὴ ζῷα διαφορὰς καὶ ἀνομοιότητας εὑρεῖν. καὶ ἄστομοι μὲν ἄνθρωποι καὶ ὀσμαῖς τρεφόμενοι μὴ ἔστωσαν, εἰ † μὴ … μὴ δοκοῦσι, τὴν δ’ ἄλιμον, ἧς ἡμῖν αὐτὸς ἐξηγεῖτο δύναμιν, ᾐνίξατο μὲν Ἡσίοδος εἰπών

οὐδ’ ὅσον ἐν μαλάχῃ τε καὶ ἀσφοδέλῳ μέγ’ ὄνειαρ,

     ἔργῳ δ’ ἐμφανῆ παρέσχεν Ἐπιμενίδης, διδάξας ὅτι μικρῷ παντάπασιν ἡ φύσις ὑπεκκαύματι ζωπυρεῖ καὶ συνέχει τὸ ζῷον, ἂν ὅσον ἐλαίας μέγεθος λάβῃ, μηδεμιᾶς ἔτι τροφῆς δεόμενον. Τοὺς δ’ ἐπὶ τῆς σελήνης, εἴπερ εἰσίν, εὐσταλεῖς εἶναι τοῖς σώμασι καὶ διαρκεῖς ὑπὸ τῶν τυχόντων τρέφεσθαι πιθανόν ἐστι. καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴν τὴν σελήνην, ὥσπερ τὸν ἥλιον ζῷον ὄντα πύρινον καὶ τῆς γῆς ὄντα πολλαπλάσιον, ἀπὸ τῶν ὑγρῶν φασι τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς τρέφεσθαι καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους ἀστέρας ἀπείρους ὄντας· οὕτως ἐλαφρὰ καὶ λιτὰ τῶν ἀναγκαίων φέρειν ζῷα τὸν ἄνω τόπον ὑπολαμβάνουσιν. Ἀλλ’ οὔτε ταῦτα συνορῶμεν οὔθ’ ὅτι καὶ χώρα καὶ φύσις καὶ κρᾶσις ἄλλη πρόσφορός ἐστιν αὐτοῖς. Ὥσπερ οὖν εἰ τῇ θαλάττῃ μὴ δυναμένων ἡμῶν προσελθεῖν μηδ’ ἅψασθαι, μόνον δὲ τὴν θέαν αὐτῆς πόρρωθεν ἀφορώντων καὶ πυνθανομένων ὅτι πικρὸν καὶ ἄποτον καὶ ἁλμυρὸν ὕδωρ ἐστίν, ἔλεγέ τις ὡς ‘ζῷα πολλὰ καὶ μεγάλα καὶ παντοδαπὰ ταῖς μορφαῖς τρέφει κατὰ βυθοῦ καὶ θηρίων ἐστὶ πλήρης ὕδατι χρωμένων ὅσαπερ ἡμεῖς ἀέρι’, μύθοις ἂν ὅμοια καὶ τέρασιν ἐδόκει περαίνειν, οὕτως ἐοίκαμεν ἔχειν καὶ ταὐτὸ πάσχειν πρὸς τὴν σελήνην, ἀπιστοῦντες ἐκεῖ τινας ἀνθρώπους κατοικεῖν. Ἐκείνους δ’ ἂν οἴομαι πολὺ μᾶλλον ἀποθαυμάσαι τὴν γῆν ἀφορῶντας οἷον ὑποστάθμην καὶ ἰλὺν τοῦ παντὸς ἐν ὑγροῖς καὶ ὁμίχλαις καὶ νέφεσι διαφαινομένην ἀλαμπὲς καὶ ταπεινὸν καὶ ἀκίνητον χωρίον, εἰ ζῷα φύει καὶ τρέφει μετέχοντα κινήσεως ἀναπνοῆς θερμότητος· κἂν εἴ ποθεν αὐτοῖς ἐγγένοιτο τῶν Ὁμηρικῶν τούτων ἀκοῦσαι

σμερδαλέ’, εὐρώεντα, τά τε στυγέουσι θεοί περ,

καί

τόσσον ἔνερθ’ Ἀΐδαο, ὅσον οὐρανὸς ἔστ’ ἀπὸ γαίης,

ταῦτα φήσουσιν ἀτεχνῶς περὶ τοῦ χωρίου τούτου λέγεσθαι καὶ τὸν Ἅιδην ἐνταῦθα καὶ τὸν Τάρταρον ἀπῳκίσθαι, γῆν δὲ μίαν εἶναι τὴν σελήνην, ἴσον ἐκείνων τῶν ἄνω καὶ τῶν κάτω τούτων ἀπέχουσαν."

     25. When Theon had so spoken, I said “Bravo, you have most excellently smoothed our brows by the sport of your speech, wherefore we have been inspired with boldness to reply, since we anticipate no very sharp or bitter scrutiny. It is, moreover, a fact that there really is no difference between those who in such matters are firm believers and those who are violently annoyed by them and firmly disbelieve and refuse to examine calmly what can be and what might be ²⁶⁴. So, for example, in the first place, if the moon is not inhabited by men, it is not necessary that she have come to be in vain and to no purpose, for we see that this earth of ours is not productive and inhabited throughout its whole extent either but only a small part of it is fruitful of animals and plants on the peaks, as it were, and peninsulas rising out of the deep, while of the rest some parts are desert and from less with winter-storms and summer-droughts and the most are sunk in the great sea. You, however, because of your constant fondness and admiration for Aristarchus, give no heed to the text that Crates read:

Ocean, that is the universal source
Of men and gods, spreads over most of earth ²⁶⁵.

     Yet it is by no means for nothing that these parts have come to be. The sea gives off gentle exhalations, and the most pleasant winds when summer is at its height are released and dispersed from the uninhabited and frozen region by the snows that are gradually melting there ²⁶⁶. 'A strict guardian and artificer of day and night' has according to Plato ²⁶⁷ been stationed in the centre. Nothing then prevents the moon too, while destitute of living beings, from providing reflections for the light that is diffused about her and for the rays of the stars a point of confluence in herself and a blending whereby she digests the exhalations from the earth and at the same time slackens the excessive torridity and harshness of the sun ²⁶⁸. Moreover, conceding a point perhaps to ancient tradition also, we shall say that she was held to be Artemis on the ground that she is a virgin and sterile but is helpful and beneficial to other females ²⁶⁹. In the second place, my dear Theon, nothing that has been said proves impossible the alleged inhabitation of the moon. As to the rotation, since it is very gentle and serene, it smooths the air and distributes it in settled order, so that there is no danger of falling and slipping off for those who stand there. And if it is not simple either ²⁷⁰, even this complication and variation of the motion is not attributable to irregularity or confusion; but in them astronomers demonstrate a marvellous order and progression, making her revolve with circles that unroll about other circles, some assuming that she is herself motion less and others that she retrogresses smoothly and regularly with ever constant velocity ²⁷¹, for these superpositions of the circles and their rotations and relations to one another and to us combine most harmoniously to produce the apparent variations of her motion in altitude and the deviations in latitude at the same time as her revolutions in longitude ²⁷². As to the great hear and continual scorching of the sun, you will cease to fear it, if first of all you set the conjunctions over against the universe summery full-moons ²⁷³ and suppose that the continuousness of the change produces in the extremes, which do not last a long time, a suitable tempering and removes the excess from either. Between these then, as is likely, they have a season most nearly approaching spring. In the second place, upon us the sun sends, through air which is turbid and nourished by the exhalations, whereas there the air being tenuous and translucent scatters and diffuses the sun's light, which has no tinder or body to sustain it ²⁷⁴. The fruits of tree and field here in our region are nourished by rains; but elsewhere, as up in your home ²⁷⁵ around Thebes and Syene, the land drinking water that springs from earth instead of rain-water and enjoying breezes and dews ²⁷⁶ would refuse, I think, to adapt itself ²⁷⁷ to the fruitfulness that attends the most abundant rainfall, and that because of a certain excellence and temperament that it has. Plants of the same kind, which in our region if sharply nipped in by winter bear good fruit in abundance, in Libya and in your home in Egypt are very sensitive to cold and afraid of winter ²⁷⁸.

     And, while Gedrosia and Ethiopia which comes down to the ocean is barren and entirely treeless because of the aridity, in the adjacent and surrounding sea there grow and thrive down in the deep plants of great magnitude, some of which are called olives, some laurels, and some tresses of Isis ²⁷⁹; and the plants here called ‘love-restorers’ when lifted out of the earth and hung up not only live as long as you wish but sprout ²⁸⁰ ... . Some plants are sown towards winter, and some at the height of summer as sesame and millet ²⁸¹. Thyme or centaury, if sown in good, rich soil and wetted and watered, departs from its natural quality and loses its strength, whereas drought delights it and causes it to reach its proper stature ²⁸²; and some plants, as they say, cannot stand even dew, as is true of the majority of Arabian plants, but are blighted and destroyed by being moistened ²⁸³. What wonder if on the moon there grow roots and seeds and trees that have no need of rain nor yet of snow but are naturally adapted to a summery and rarefied air? And why is it unlikely that winds arise warmed by the moon and that breezes steadily accompany the rolling swell of her revolution by scattering off and diffusing dews and light moisture suffice for the vegetation and that she herself is not fiery or dry in temperament but soft and humidifying? After all, no influence of dry and comes to us from her but much of moistness and femininity ²⁸⁴: the growth of plants, the decay of meats, the souring and flattening of wine, the softening of timbers, the easy delivery of women ²⁸⁵. Now that Pharnaces is quiet I am afraid of provoking and arousing him again if I cite, in the words of his own school, the flood-tides of Ocean and the swelling of the straits when they are increased and poured abroad by the liquefying action of the moon ²⁸⁶. Therefore I shall rather turn to you, my dear Theon, for when you expound these words of Alcman’s,

Such as are nourished by Dew,
daughter of Zeus and of divine Selene ²⁸⁷,

     you tell us that at this point he calls the air ‘Zeus’ and says that it is liquefied by the moon and turns to dew-drops ²⁸⁸. It is in fact probable, my friend, that the moon's nature is contrary to that of the sun, if of herself she not only naturally softens and dissolves all that he condenses and dries but liquefies and cools even the heat that he casts upon her and imbues her with. They err then who believe the moon to be a fiery and glowing body; and those who demand that living beings there be equipped just as those here are for generation, nourishment, and livelihood seem blind to the diversities of nature, among which one can discover more and greater differences and dissimilarities between living beings than between them and inanimate objects ²⁸⁹. Let there not be mouthless men nourished by odours who Megasthenes thinks do exist ²⁹⁰; yet the Hungerbane ²⁹¹, the virtue of which he was himself trying to explain to us, Hesiod hinted at when he said

     Nor what great profit mallow has and squill ²⁹².

     and Epimenides made manifest in fact when he showed that with a very little fuel nature kindles and sustains the living creature, which needs no further nourishment if it gets as much as the size of an olive ²⁹³. It is plausible that the men on the moon, if they do exist, are slight of body and capable of being nourished by whatever comes their way ²⁹⁴. After all, they say that the moon herself, like the sun which is an animate being of fire many times as large as the earth, is nourished by the moisture on the earth, as are the rest of the stars too, though they are countless; so light and frugal of requirements they do conceive the creatures to be that inhabit the upper region ²⁹⁵. We have no comprehension of these beings, however, nor of the king that a different place and nature and temperature are suitable to them. Just as, assuming that we were unable to approach the sea or touch it but only had a view of it from afar and the information that it is bitter, unpotable, and salty water, if someone said that it supports in its depths many large animals of multifarious shapes and is full of beasts that use water for all the ends that we use air, his statements would seem to us like a tissue of myths and marvels, such appears to be our relation to the moon and our attitude towards her is apparently the same when we disbelieve that any men dwell there. Those men, I think, would be much more amazed at the earth, when they look out at the sediment and dregs ²⁹⁶ of the universe, as it were, obscurely visible in moisture, mists, and clouds as a light less, low, and motionless spot, to think that it engenders and nourishes animate beings which partake of motion, breath, and warmth. If they should chance to hear somewhere these Homeric words,

     Dreadful and dank, which even gods abhor ²⁹⁷ 

and

Deep under Hell as far as Earth from Heaven ²⁹⁸,

     these you would say are simply a description of this place and Hell and Tartarus have been relegated hither while the moon alone is earth, since it is equally distant from those upper regions and these lower ones”.

     26. Ἔτι δέ μου σχεδὸν λέγοντος ὁ Σύλλας ὑπολαβών “ἐπίσχες” εἶπεν “ὦ Λαμπρία, καὶ παραβαλοῦ τὸ θυρίον τοῦ λόγου, μὴ λάθῃς τὸν μῦθον ὥσπερ εἰς γῆν ἐξοκείλας καὶ συγχέῃς τὸ δρᾶμα τοὐμὸν ἑτέραν ἔχον σκηνὴν καὶ διάθεσιν. Ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν ὑποκριτής εἰμι, πρότερον δ’ αὐτοῦ φράσω τὸν ποιητὴν ὑμῖν *** εἰ μή τι κωλύει, καθ’ Ὅμηρον ἀρξάμενος.

     Ὠγυγίη τις νῆσος ἀπόπροθεν εἰν ἁλὶ κεῖται,

     δρόμον ἡμερῶν πέντε Βρεττανίας ἀπέχουσα πλέοντι πρὸς ἑσπέραν· ἕτεραι δὲ τρεῖς ἴσον ἐκείνης ἀφεστῶσαι καὶ ἀλλήλων πρόκεινται μάλιστα κατὰ δυσμὰς ἡλίου θερινάς. Ὧν ἐν μιᾷ τὸν Κρόνον οἱ βάρβαροι καθεῖρχθαι μυθολογοῦσιν ὑπὸ τοῦ Διός, † τὸν δ’ ὡς υἱὸν ἔχοντα φρουρὸν τῶν τε νήσων ἐκείνων καὶ τῆς θαλάττης, ἣν Κρόνιον πέλαγος ὀνομάζουσι, παρακατῳκίσθαι. Τὴν δὲ μεγάλην ἤπειρον, ὑφ’ ἧς ἡ μεγάλη περιέχεται κύκλῳ θάλαττα, τῶν μὲν ἄλλων ἔλαττον ἀπέχειν, τῆς δ’ Ὠγυγίας περὶ πεντακισχιλίους σταδίους κωπήρεσι πλοίοις κομιζομένῳ· ῾βραδύπορον γὰρ εἶναι καὶ πηλῶδες ὑπὸ πλήθους ῥευμάτων τὸ πέλαγος· τὰ δὲ ῥεύματα τὴν μεγάλην ἐξιέναι γῆν καὶ γίνεσθαι προχώσεις ἀπ’ αὐτῶν καὶ βαρεῖαν εἶναι καὶ γεώδη τὴν θάλατταν, ᾗ καὶ πεπηγέναι δόξαν ἔσχἐ. Τῆς δ’ ἠπείρου τὰ πρὸς τῇ θαλάττῃ κατοικεῖν Ἕλληνας περὶ κόλπον οὐκ ἐλάττονα τῆς Μαιώτιδος, οὗ τὸ στόμα τῷ στόματι τοῦ Κασπίου πελάγους μάλιστα κατ’ εὐθεῖαν κεῖσθαι· καλεῖν δὲ καὶ νομίζειν ἐκείνους ἠπειρώτας μὲν αὑτοὺς νησιώτας δὲ τοὺς ταύτην τὴν γῆν κατοικοῦντας, ὡς καὶ κύκλῳ περίρρυτον οὖσαν ὑπὸ τῆς θαλάσσης· οἴεσθαι δὲ τοῖς Κρόνου λαοῖς ἀναμιχθέντας ὕστερον τοὺς μεθ’ Ἡρακλέους παραγενομένους καὶ ὑπολειφθέντας ἤδη σβεννύμενον τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν ἐκεῖ καὶ κρατούμενον γλώττῃ τε βαρβαρικῇ καὶ νόμοις καὶ διαίταις οἷον ἀναζωπυρῆσαι πάλιν ἰσχυρὸν καὶ πολὺ γενόμενον· διὸ τιμὰς ἔχειν πρώτας τὸν Ἡρακλέα, δευτέρας δὲ τὸν Κρόνον. Ὅταν οὖν ὁ τοῦ Κρόνου ἀστήρ, ὃν Φαίνοντα μὲν ἡμεῖς, ἐκείνους δὲ Νυκτοῦρον ἔφη καλεῖν, εἰς Ταῦρον παραγένηται δι’ ἐτῶν τριάκοντα, παρασκευασαμένους ἐν χρόνῳ πολλῷ τὰ περὶ τὴν θυσίαν καὶ τὸν ἀ... ἐκπέμπειν κλήρῳ λαχόντας ἐν πλοίοις τοσούτοις θεραπείαν τε πολλὴν καὶ παρασκευὴν ἀναγκαίαν μέλλουσι πλεῖν πέλαγος τοσοῦτον εἰρεσίᾳ καὶ χρόνον ἐπὶ ξένης βιοτεύειν πολὺν ἐμβαλλομένους. ἀναχθέντας οὖν χρῆσθαι τύχαις, ὡς εἰκός, ἄλλους ἄλλαις, τοὺς δὲ διασωθέντας ἐκ τῆς θαλάττης πρῶτον μὲν ἐπὶ τὰς προκειμένας νήσους οἰκουμένας δ’ ὑφ’ Ἑλλήνων κατίσχειν καὶ τὸν ἥλιον ὁρᾶν κρυπτόμενον ὥρας μιᾶς ἔλαττον ἐφ’ ἡμέρας τριάκοντα· καὶ νύκτα τοῦτ’ εἶναι, σκότος ἔχουσαν ἐλαφρὸν καὶ λυκαυγὲς ἀπὸ δυσμῶν περιλαμπόμενον.

     Ἐκεῖ δὲ διατρίψαντας ἡμέρας ἐνενήκοντα μετὰ τιμῆς καὶ φιλοφροσύνης, ἱεροὺς νομιζομένους καὶ προσαγορευομένους, ὑπὸ πνευμάτων ἤδη περαιοῦσθαι· μηδ’ ἄλλους τινὰς ἐνοικεῖν ἢ σφᾶς τ’ αὐτοὺς καὶ τοὺς πρὸ αὐτῶν ἀποπεμφθέντας. Ἐξεῖναι μὲν γὰρ ἀποπλεῖν οἴκαδε τοὺς τῷ θεῷ τὰ τρὶς δέκ’ ἔτη συλλατρεύσαντας, αἱρεῖσθαι δὲ τοὺς πλείστους ἐπιεικῶς αὐτόθι κατοικεῖν, τοὺς μὲν ὑπὸ συνηθείας τοὺς δ’ ὅτι πόνου δίχα καὶ πραγμάτων ἄφθονα πάρεστι πάντα, πρὸς θυσίαις καὶ χορηγίαις ἢ περὶ λόγους τινὰς ἀεὶ καὶ φιλοσοφίαν διατρίβουσι· θαυμαστὴν γὰρ εἶναι τῆς τε νήσου τὴν φύσιν καὶ τὴν πραότητα τοῦ περιέχοντος ἀέρος· ἐνίοις δὲ καὶ τὸ θεῖον ἐμποδὼν γίνεσθαι διανοηθεῖσιν ἀποπλεῖν ὥσπερ συνήθεσι καὶ φίλοις ἐπιδεικνύμενον. Οὐκ ὄναρ γὰρ μόνον οὐδὲ διὰ συμβόλων, ἀλλὰ καὶ φανερῶς ἐντυγχάνειν πολλοὺς ὄψεσι δαιμόνων καὶ φωναῖς. Αὐτὸν μὲν γὰρ τὸν Κρόνον ἐν ἄντρῳ βαθεῖ περιέχεσθαι πέτρας χρυσοειδοῦς καθεύδοντα ῾τὸν γὰρ ὕπνον αὐτῷ μεμηχανῆσθαι δεσμὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ Διός᾿, ὄρνιθας δὲ τῆς πέτρας κατὰ κορυφὴν εἰσπετομένους ἀμβροσίαν ἐπιφέρειν αὐτῷ, καὶ τὴν νῆσον εὐωδίᾳ κατέχεσθαι πᾶσαν, ὥσπερ ἐκ πηγῆς σκιδναμένῃ τῆς πέτρας· τοὺς δὲ δαίμονας ἐκείνους περιέπειν καὶ θεραπεύειν τὸν Κρόνον, ἑταίρους αὐτῷ γενομένους, ὅτε δὴ θεῶν καὶ ἀνθρώπων ἐβασίλευε· καὶ πολλὰ μὲν ἀφ’ ἑαυτῶν μαντικοὺς ὄντας προλέγειν, τὰ δὲ μέγιστα καὶ περὶ τῶν μεγίστων ὡς ὀνείρατα τοῦ Κρόνου κατιόντας ἐξαγγέλλειν· ὅσα γὰρ ὁ Ζεὺς προδιανοεῖται, ταῦτ’ ὀνειροπολεῖν τὸν Κρόνον, ἐπειδὰν στασιάσαντα τὰ τιτανικὰ πάθη καὶ κινήματα τῆς ψυχῆς ἐν αὐτῷ παντάπασιν ὁ ὕπνος κατακοιμήσῃ καὶ γένηται τὸ βασιλικὸν καὶ θεῖον αὐτὸ καθ’ ἑαυτὸ καθαρὸν καὶ ἀκήρατον.

     Ἐνταῦθα δὴ κομισθείς, ὡς ἔλεγεν, ὁ ξένος καὶ θεραπεύων τὸν θεὸν ἐπὶ σχολῆς, ἀστρολογίας μὲν ἐφ’ ὅσον γεωμετρήσαντι πορρωτάτω προελθεῖν δυνατόν ἐστιν ἐμπειρίαν ἔσχε, φιλοσοφίας δὲ τῆς ἄλλης τῷ φυσικῷ χρώμενος. Ἐπιθυμίαν δέ τινα καὶ πόθον ἔχων γενέσθαι τῆς μεγάλης νήσου θεατής῾οὕτως γὰρ ὡς ἔοικε τὴν παρ’ ἡμῖν οἰκουμένην ὀνομάζουσιν᾿, ἐπεὶ δὴ τὰ τριάκοντ’ ἔτη διῆλθεν, ἀφικομένων τῶν διαδόχων οἴκοθεν ἀσπασάμενος τοὺς φίλους ἐξέπλευσε, τὰ μὲν ἄλλα κατεσκευασμένος εὐσταλῶς ἐφόδιον δὲ συχνὸν ἐν χρυσοῖς ἐκπώμασι κομίζων. Ἃ μὲν οὖν ἔπαθε καὶ ὅσους ἀνθρώπους διῆλθεν, ἱεροῖς τε γράμμασιν ἐντυγχάνων ἐν τελεταῖς τε πάσαις τελούμενος, οὐ μιᾶς ἡμέρας ἔργον ἐστὶ διελθεῖν, ὡς ἐκεῖνος ἡμῖν ἀπήγγελλεν εὖ μάλα καὶ καθ’ ἕκαστον ἀπομνημονεύων· ὅσα δ’ οἰκεῖα τῆς ἐνεστώσης διατριβῆς ἐστιν, ἀκούσατε. Πλεῖστον γὰρ ἐν Καρχηδόνι χρόνον διέτριψεν, ἅτε δὴ παρ’ ἡμῖν μεγάλας τοῦ Κρόνου τιμὰς ἔχοντος, καί τινας, ὅθ’ ἡ προτέρα πόλις ἀπώλλυτο, διφθέρας ἱερὰς ὑπεκκομισθείσας κρύφα καὶ διαλαθούσας πολὺν χρόνον ἐν γῇ κειμένας ἐξευρών, τῶν τε φαινομένων θεῶν ἔφη χρῆναι καί μοι παρεκελεύετο τιμᾶν διαφερόντως τὴν Σελήνην ὡς τοῦ βίου κυριωτάτην οὖσαν ... ἐχομένην”.

     26. Almost before I had finished, Sulla broke in. “Hold on, Lamprias”, he said, “and put to the wicket of your discourse ²⁹⁹ lest you unwittingly run the myth aground, as it were, and confound my drama, which has a different setting and a different disposition. Well, I am but the actor of the piece, but first I shall say that its author began for our sake — if there be no objection — with a quotation from Homer: ³⁰⁰

   An isle, Ogygia, lies far out at sea ³⁰¹,

     a run of five days off from Britain as you sail westward; and three other islands equally distant from it and from one another lie out from it in the general direction of the summer sunset. In one of these, according to the tale told by the natives, Cronus is confined by Zeus, and the antique Briareus, holding watch and ward over those islands and the sea that they call the Cronian main, has been settled close beside him ³⁰². The great mainland, by which the great ocean is encircled ³⁰³, while not so far from the other islands, is about five thousand stades from Ogygia, the voyage being made by oar, for the main is slow to traverse and muddy as a result of the multitude of streams ³⁰⁴. The streams are discharged by the great land-mass and produce alluvial deposits, thus giving density and earthiness to the sea, which has been thought actually to be congealed ³⁰⁵. On the coast of the mainland Greeks dwell about a gulf which is not smaller than the Maeotis ³⁰⁶ and the mouth of the Caspian sea ³⁰⁷, and moreover they both lie on the same straight line. These people consider and call themselves continentals and the inhabitants of this land islanders because the sea flows around it on all sides; and they believe that with the peoples of Cronus there mingled at a later time those who arrived in the train of Heracles and were left behind by him and that these latter so to speak rekindled again to a strong, high flame the Hellenic spark there which was already being quenched and overcome by the tongue, the laws, and the manners of the barbarians. Therefore Heracles has the highest honours and Cronos the second. Now when at intervals of thirty years the star of Cronus, which we call ‘Splendent’ ³⁰⁸ but they, our author said, call ‘Night-watchman’, enters the sign of Taurus ³⁰⁹, they, having spent a long time in preparation for the sacrifice and the expedition, choose by lot and send forth a sufficient number of envoys in a correspondingly sufficient number of ships, putting aboard a large retinue and the provisions necessary for men who are going to cross so much sea by oar and live such a long time in a foreign land. Now when they have put to sea the several voyagers meet with various fortunes as one might expect; but those who survive the voyage first put in at the outlying islands, which are inhabited by Greeks ³¹⁰, and see the sun pass out of sight for less than an hour over a period of thirty days ³¹¹ — and this is night, though it has a darkness that is slight and twilight glimmering from the west.

     There they spend ninety days regarded with honour and friendliness as holy men and so addressed, and then winds carry them across to their appointed goal ³¹². Nor do any others inhabit it but themselves and those who have been dispatched before them, for, while those who have served the god together for the stint of thirty years are allowed to sail off home, most of them usually choose to settle in the spot, some out of habit and others because without toil or trouble they have all things in abundance while they constantly employ their time in sacrifices and celebrations or with various discourse and philosophy, for the nature of the island is marvellous as is the softness of the circumambient air. Some when they intend to sail away are even hindered by the divinity which presents itself to them as to intimates and friends not in dreams only or by means of omens, but many also come upon the visions and the voices of spirits manifest. For Cronus himself sleeps confined in a deep cave of rock that shines like gold — the sleep that Zeus has contrived like a bond for him —, and birds flying in over the summit of the rock bring ambrosia to him, and all the island is suffused with fragrance scattered from the rock as from a fountain; and those spirits mentioned before tend and serve Cronus, having been his comrades what time he ruled as king over gods and men. Many things they do foretell of themselves, for they are oracular; but the prophecies that are greatest and of the greatest matters they come down and report as dreams of Cronus, for all that Zeus premeditates Cronus sees in his ³¹³ dreams ³¹³ and the titanic affections and motions of his soul make him rigidly tense until sleep restores his repose once more and the royal and divine element is all by itself, pure and unalloyed ³¹⁴.

     Here then the stranger ³¹⁵ was conveyed, as he said, and while he served the god became at his leisure acquainted with astronomy, in which he made as much progress as one can by practising geometry, and with the rest of philosophy by dealing with so much of it as is possible for the natural philosopher ³¹⁶. Since he had a strange desire and longing to observe the Great Island (for so, it seems, they call our part of the world), when the thirty years had elapsed, the relief-party having arrived from home, he saluted his friends and sailed away, lightly equipped for the rest but carrying a large viaticum in golden beakers. Well, all his experiences and all the men whom he visited, encountering sacred writings and being initiated in all rites — to recount all this as he reported it to us, relating it thoroughly and in detail, is not a task for a single day; but listen to so much as is pertinent to the present discussion. He spent a great deal of time in Carthage inasmuch as Cronus receives great honour in our country ³¹⁷, and he discovered certain sacred parchments that had been secretly spirited off to safety when the earlier city was being destroyed and had lain unnoticed in the ground for a long time ³¹⁸. Among the visible gods ³¹⁹ he said that one should especially honour the moon, and so he kept exhorting me to do, inasmuch as she is sovereign over life and death, bordering as she does upon the meads of Hades.

     27. Θαυμάζοντος δέ μου ταῦτα καὶ δεομένου σαφέστερον ἀκοῦσαι “πολλά” εἶπεν “ὦ Σύλλα, περὶ θεῶν οὐ πάντα δὲ καλῶς λέγεται παρ’ Ἕλλησιν. Οἷον εὐθὺς ὀρθῶς Δήμητραν καὶ Κόρην ὀνομάζοντες οὐκ ὀρθῶς ὁμοῦ καὶ περὶ τὸν αὐτὸν ἀμφοτέρας εἶναι τόπον νομίζουσιν. Ἡ μὲν γὰρ ἐν γῇ καὶ κυρία τῶν περὶ γῆν ἐστιν, ἡ δ’ ἐν σελήνῃ καὶ τῶν περὶ σελήνην, Κόρη τε καὶ Φερσεφόνη κέκληται, τὸ μὲν ὡς φωσφόρος οὖσα, Κόρη δ’ ὅτι καὶ τοῦ ὄμματος, ἐν ᾧ τὸ εἴδωλον ἀντιλάμπει τοῦ βλέποντος, ὥσπερ τὸ ἡλίου φέγγος ἐνορᾶται τῇ σελήνῃ, κόρην προσαγορεύομεν. Τοῖς τε περὶ τὴν πλάνην καὶ τὴν ζήτησιν αὐτῶν λεγομένοις ἔνεστι μέν τι καὶ ἀληθές· ἀλλήλων γὰρ ἐφίενται χωρὶς οὖσαι καὶ συμπλέκονται περὶ τὴν σκιὰν πολλάκις· τὸ δὲ νῦν μὲν ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ φωτὶ νῦν δ’ ἐν σκότῳ καὶ νυκτὶ γενέσθαι περὶ τὴν Κόρην ψεῦδος μὲν οὐκ ἔστιν, τοῦ δὲ χρόνου τῷ ἀριθμῷ πλάνην παρέσχηκεν· οὐ γὰρ ἓξ μῆνας ἀλλὰ παρ’ ἓξ μῆνας ὁρῶμεν αὐτὴν ὑπὸ τῆς γῆς ὥσπερ ὑπὸ τῆς μητρὸς τῇ σκιᾷ λαμβανομένην, ὀλιγάκις δὲ τοῦτο διὰ πέντε μηνῶν πάσχουσαν. Ἐπεὶ τόν γ’ Ἅιδην ἀπολιπεῖν ἀδύνατόν ἐστιν αὐτήν, τοῦ Ἅιδου πέρας οὖσαν· ὥσπερ καὶ Ὅμηρος ἐπικρυψάμενος οὐ φαύλως τοῦτ’ εἶπεν

ἀλλά σ’ ἐς Ἠλύσιον πεδίον καὶ πείρατα γαίης.

      Ὅπου γὰρ ἡ σκιὰ τῆς γῆς ἐπινεμομένη παύεται, τοῦτο τέρμα τῆς γῆς ἔθετο καὶ πέρας. Εἰς δὲ τοῦτο φαῦλος μὲν οὐδεὶς οὐδ’ ἀκάθαρτος ἄνεισιν, οἱ δὲ χρηστοὶ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν κομισθέντες αὐτόθι ῥᾷστον μὲν οὕτως βίον, οὐ μὴν μακάριον οὐδὲ θεῖον ἔχοντες ἄχρι τοῦ δευτέρου θανάτου διατελοῦσι”.

     27. When I expressed surprise at this and asked for a clearer account, he said ³²⁰: ’Many assertions about the gods, Sulla, are current among the Greeks, but not all of them are right. So, for example, although they give the right names to Demeter and Corê, they are wrong in believing that both are together in the same region. The fact is that the former is in the region of earth and is sovereign over terrestrial things, and the latter is in the moon and mistress of lunar things. She has been called both Corê and Phersephonê ³²¹, the latter as being a bearer of light ³²² and Corê because that is what we call the part of the eye in which is reflected the likeness of him who looks into it ³²³ as the light of the sun is seen in the moon. The tales told of the wandering and the quest of these goddesses contain the truth spoken covertly ³²⁴, for they long for each other when they are apart and they often embrace in the shadow. The statement concerning Corê that now she is in the light of heaven and now in darkness and night is not false but has given rise to error in the computation of the time, for not throughout six months but every six months we see her being wrapped in shadow by the earth as it were by her mother, and infrequently we see this happen to her at intervals of five months ³²⁵, for she cannot abandon Hades since she is the boundary of Hades, as Homer too has rather well put it in veiled terms:

   But to Elysium’s plain, the bourne of earth ³²⁶.

     Where the range of the earth’s shadow ends, this he set as the term and boundary ³²⁷ of the earth ³²⁷. To this point rises no one who is evil or unclean, but the good are conveyed thither after death and there continue to lead a life most easy to be sure ³²⁸ though not blessed or divine until their second  death ³²⁹”.

     28. “Τίς δ’ οὗτός ἐστιν, ὦ Σύλλα;” “Μὴ περὶ τούτων ἔρῃ, μέλλω γὰρ αὐτὸς διηγεῖσθαι. Τὸν ἄνθρωπον οἱ πολλοὶ σύνθετον μὲν ὀρθῶς, ἐκ δυοῖν δὲ μόνων σύνθετον οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἡγοῦνται. Μόριον γὰρ εἶναί πως ψυχῆς οἴονται τὸν νοῦν, οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐκείνων ἁμαρτάνοντες, οἷς ἡ ψυχὴ δοκεῖ μόριον εἶναι τοῦ σώματος. Νοῦς γὰρ ψυχῆς, ὅσῳ ψυχὴ σώματος, ἄμεινόν ἐστι καὶ θειότερον. ποιεῖ δ’ ἡ μὲν ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος μῖξις αἴσθησιν ἡ δὲ νοῦ καὶ ψυχῆς σύνοδος λόγον· ὧν τὸ μὲν ἡδονῆς ἀρχὴ καὶ πόνου τὸ δ’ ἀρετῆς καὶ κακίας. Τριῶν δὲ τούτων συμπαγέντων, τὸ μὲν σῶμα ἡ γῆ τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν ἡ σελήνη, τὸν δὲ νοῦν ὁ ἥλιος παρέσχεν εἰς τὴν γένεσιν … ὥσπερ αὖ τῇ σελήνῃ τὸ φέγγος. Ὃν δ’ ἀποθνήσκομεν θάνατον, ὁ μὲν ἐκ τριῶν δύο ποιεῖ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὁ δ’ ἓν ἐκ δυοῖν, καὶ ὁ μέν ἐστιν ἐν τῇ γῇ τῆς Δήμητρος, … ἐν αὐτῇ τελεῖν καὶ τοὺς νεκροὺς Ἀθηναῖοι Δημητρείους ὠνόμαζον τὸ παλαιόν· ὁ δ’ ἐν τῇ σελήνῃ τῆς Φερσεφόνης· καὶ σύνοικός ἐστι τῆς μὲν χθόνιος ὁ Ἑρμῆς τῆς δ’ οὐράνιος. λύει δ’ αὕτη μὲν ταχὺ καὶ μετὰ βίας τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος, ἡ δὲ Φερσεφόνη πράως καὶ χρόνῳ πολλῷ τὸν νοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς ψυχῆς καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μονογενὴς κέκληται· μόνον γὰρ γίνεται τὸ βέλτιστον τοῦ ἀνθρώπου διακρινόμενον αὐτῆς.

     Συντυγχάνει δ’ οὕτως κατὰ φύσιν ἑκάτερον· Πᾶσαν ψυχήν, ἄνουν τε καὶ σὺν νῷ, σώματος ἐκπεσοῦσαν εἱμαρμένον ἐστὶν ἐν τῷ μεταξὺ γῆς καὶ σελήνης χωρίῳ πλανηθῆναι χρόνον οὐκ ἴσον, ἀλλ’ αἱ μὲν ἄδικοι καὶ ἀκόλαστοι δίκας τῶν ἀδικημάτων τίνουσι, τὰς δ’ ἐπιεικεῖς, ὅσον ἀφαγνεῦσαι καὶ ἀποπνεῦσαι τοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος ὥσπερ ἀτμοῦ πονηροῦ μιασμούς, ἐν τῷ πραοτάτῳ τοῦ ἀέρος, ὃν λειμῶνας Ἅιδου καλοῦσι, δεῖ γίνεσθαι χρόνον τινὰ τεταγμένον. Ἔνθ’ οἷον ἐξ ἀποδημίας ἀνακομιζόμεναι φυγαδικῆς εἰς πατρίδα γεύονται χαρᾶς, οἵαν οἱ τελούμενοι μάλιστα θορύβῳ καὶ πτοήσει συγκεκραμένην μετ’ ἐλπίδος ἡδείας ἔχουσι· πολλὰς γὰρ ἐξωθεῖ καὶ ἀποκυματίζει γλιχομένας ἤδη τῆς σελήνης, ἐνίας δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐκεῖ περικάτω τρεπομένας οἷον εἰς βυθὸν αὖθις ὁρῶσι καταδυομένας. Αἱ δ’ ἄνω γενόμεναι καὶ βεβαίως ἱδρυθεῖσαι πρῶτον μέν, ὥσπερ οἱ νικηφόροι, περιίασιν ἀναδούμεναι στεφάνοις πτερῶν εὐσταθείας λεγομένοις, ὅτι τῆς ψυχῆς τὸ ἄλογον καὶ τὸ παθητικὸν εὐήνιον ἐπιεικῶς τῷ λόγῳ καὶ κεκοσμημένον ἐν τῷ βίῳ παρέσχοντο. Δεύτερον δ’ ἀκτῖνι τὴν ὄψιν ἐοικυῖαι, πυρὶ δὲ τὴν ψυχὴν ἄνω κουφιζομένην ὥσπερ ἐνταῦθα, *** τῷ περὶ τὴν σελήνην αἰθέρι καὶ τόνον ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ καὶ δύναμιν, οἷον τὰ στομούμενα βαφήν, ἴσχουσι· τὸ γὰρ ἀραιὸν ἔτι καὶ διακεχυμένον ῥώννυται καὶ γίνεται σταθερὸν καὶ διαυγές, ὥσθ’ ὑπὸ τῆς τυχούσης ἀναθυμιάσεως τρέφεσθαι· καὶ καλῶς Ἡράκλειτος εἶπεν ὅτι

     αἱ ψυχαὶ ὀσμῶνται καθ’ Ἅιδην

     28. “And what is this, Sulla?” “Do not ask about these things, for I am going to give a full explanation myself. Most people rightly hold man to be composite but wrongly hold him to be composed of only two parts. The reason is that they suppose mind to be somehow part of soul, thus erring no less than those who believe soul to be part of body, for in the same degree as soul is superior to body so is mind better and more divine than soul. The result of soul and body commingled is the irrational or the affective factor, whereas of mind and soul the conjunction produces reason; and of these the former is source of pleasure and pain, the latter of virtue and vice ³³⁰. In the composition of these three factors earth furnishes the body, the moon the soul, and the sun furnishes mind to man for the purpose of his generation ³³¹ even as it furnishes light to the moon herself. As to the death we die, one death reduces man from three factors to two and another reduces him from two to one ³³²; and the former takes place in the earth that belongs to Demeter (wherefore ‘to make an end’ is called ‘to render one’s life to her’ and Athenians used in olden times to call the dead ‘Demetrians’) ³³³, the latter in the moon that belongs to Phersephonê, and associated with the former is Hermes the terrestrial, with the latter Hermes the celestial ³³⁴. While the goddess here ³³⁵ dissociates the soul from the body swiftly and violently, Phersephonê gently and by slow degrees detaches the mind from the soul and has therefore been called ‘single-born’ because the best part of man is ‘born single’ when separated off by her ³³⁶.

     Each of the two separations naturally occurs in this fashion: All soul, whether without mind or with it ³³⁷, when it has issued from the body ³³⁸ is destined to wander in the region between earth and moon but not for an equal time. Unjust and licentious souls pay penalties for their offences; but the good souls must in the gentlest part of the air, which they call ‘the meads of Hades’ ³³⁹, pass a certain set time sufficient to purge and blow away the pollutions contracted from the body as from an evil odour ³⁴⁰. Then, as if brought home from banishment abroad, they savour joy most like that of initiates, which attended by glad expectation is mingled with confusion and excitement ³⁴¹. For many, even as they are in the act of clinging to the moon, she thrusts off and sweeps away; and some of those souls too that are on the moon they see turning upside down as if sinking again into the deep ³⁴². Those that have got up, however, and have found a firm footing first go about like victors crowned with wreaths of feathers called wreaths of steadfastness ³⁴³, because in life they had made the irrational or affective element of the soul orderly and tolerably tractable to reason ³⁴⁴; secondly, in appearance resembling a ray of light but in respect of their nature, which in the upper region is buoyant as it is here in ours, resembling the ether about the moon ³⁴⁵, they get from it both tension and strength as edged instruments get a temper ³⁴⁶, for what laxness and diffuseness they still have is strengthened and becomes firm and translucent. In consequence they are nourished by any exhalation that reaches them, and Heraclitus was right in saying:

   Souls employ the sense of smell in Hades ³⁴⁷.

     29. Ἐφορῶσι δὲ πρῶτον μὲν αὐτῆς σελήνης τὸ μέγεθος καὶ τὸ κάλλος καὶ τὴν φύσιν οὐχ ἁπλῆν οὐδ’ ἄμικτον, ἀλλ’ οἷον ἄστρου σύγκραμα καὶ γῆς οὖσαν. Ὡς γὰρ ἡ γῆ πνεύματι μεμιγμένη καὶ ὑγρῷ … μαλακὴ γέγονε καὶ τὸ αἷμα τῇ σαρκὶ παρέχει τὴν αἴσθησιν ἐγκεκραμένον, οὕτως τῷ αἰθέρι λέγουσι τὴν σελήνην ἀνακεκραμένην διὰ βάθους ἅμα μὲν ἔμψυχον εἶναι καὶ γόνιμον, ἅμα δ’ ἰσόρροπον ἔχειν τὴν πρὸς τὸ βαρὺ συμμετρίαν τῆς κουφότητος. Καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸν οὕτως τὸν κόσμον ἐκ τῶν ἄνω καὶ τῶν κάτω φύσει φερομένων συνηρμοσμένον ἀπηλλάχθαι παντάπασι τῆς κατὰ τόπον κινήσεως. Ταῦτα δὲ καὶ Ξενοκράτης ἔοικεν ἐννοῆσαι θείῳ τινὶ λογισμῷ, τὴν ἀρχὴν λαβὼν παρὰ Πλάτωνος. Πλάτων γάρ ἐστιν ὁ καὶ τῶν ἀστέρων ἕκαστον ἐκ γῆς καὶ πυρὸς συνηρμόσθαι διὰ τῶν δυοῖν μεταξὺ φύσεων ἀναλογίᾳ δεθεισῶν ἀποφηνάμενος· οὐδὲν γὰρ εἰς αἴσθησιν ἐξικνεῖσθαι, ᾧ μή τι γῆς ἐμμέμικται καὶ φωτός. Ὁ δὲ Ξενοκράτης τὰ μὲν ἄστρα καὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἐκ πυρός φησι καὶ τοῦ πρώτου πυκνοῦ συγκεῖσθαι, τὴν δὲ σελήνην ἐκ τοῦ δευτέρου πυκνοῦ καὶ τοῦ ἰδίου ἀέρος, τὴν δὲ γῆν ἐξ ὕδατος καὶ ἀέρος καὶ τοῦ τρίτου τῶν πυκνῶν· ὅλως δὲ μήτε τὸ πυκνὸν αὐτὸ καθ’ αὑτὸ μήτε τὸ μανὸν εἶναι ψυχῆς δεκτικόν. Καὶ ταῦτα μὲν περὶ οὐσίας σελήνης. Εὖρος δὲ καὶ μέγεθος οὐχ ὅσον οἱ γεωμέτραι λέγουσιν, ἀλλὰ μεῖζον πολλάκις ἐστί· καταμετρεῖ δὲ τὴν σκιὰν τῆς γῆς ὀλιγάκις τοῖς ἑαυτῆς μεγέθεσιν οὐχ ὑπὸ σμικρότητος, ἀλλὰ θερμότητος, ᾗ κατεπείγει τὴν κίνησιν ὅπως ταχὺ διεκπερᾷ τὸν σκοτώδη τόπον ὑπεκφέρουσα τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὰς ψυχὰς σπευδούσας καὶ βοώσας. Οὐκέτι γὰρ ἐξακούουσιν ἐν τῇ σκιᾷ γενόμεναι τῆς περὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἁρμονίας· ἅμα δὲ καὶ κάτωθεν αἱ τῶν κολαζομένων ψυχαὶ τηνικαῦτα διὰ τῆς σκιᾶς ὀδυρόμεναι καὶ ἀλαλάζουσαι προσφέρονται ‘διὸ καὶ κροτεῖν ἐν ταῖς ἐκλείψεσιν εἰώθασιν οἱ πλεῖστοι χαλκώματα καὶ ψόφον ποιεῖν καὶ πάταγον ἐπὶ τὰς φαύλας’· ἐκφοβεῖ δ’ αὐτὰς καὶ τὸ καλούμενον πρόσωπον, ὅταν ἐγγὺς γένωνται, βλοσυρόν τι καὶ φρικῶδες ὁρώμενον.

     Ἔστι δ’ οὐ τοιοῦτον, ἀλλ’ ὥσπερ ἡ παρ’ ἡμῖν ἔχει γῆ κόλπους βαθεῖς καὶ μεγάλους, ἕνα μὲν ἐνταῦθα διὰ στηλῶν Ἡρακλείων ἀναχεόμενον εἴσω πρὸς ἡμᾶς, ἔξω δὲ τὸν Κάσπιον καὶ τοὺς περὶ τὴν Ἐρυθρὰν θάλατταν, οὕτως βάθη ταῦτα τῆς σελήνης ἐστὶ καὶ κοιλώματα. Καλοῦσι δ’ αὐτῶν τὸ μὲν μέγιστον Ἑκάτης μυχόν, ὅπου καὶ δίκας διδόασιν αἱ ψυχαὶ καὶ λαμβάνουσιν ὧν ἂν ἤδη γεγενημέναι δαίμονες ἢ πάθωσιν ἢ δράσωσι, τὰς δὲ δύο Μακράς· περαιοῦνται γὰρ αἱ ψυχαὶ δι’ αὐτῶν, νῦν μὲν εἰς τὰ πρὸς οὐρανὸν τῆς σελήνης, νῦν δὲ πάλιν εἰς τὰ πρὸς γῆν· ὀνομάζεσθαι δὲ τὰ μὲν πρὸς οὐρανὸν τῆς σελήνης Ἠλύσιον πεδίον, τὰ δ’ ἐνταῦθα Φερσεφόνης † οὐκ ἀντίχθονος.

     29. First they behold the moon as she is in herself ³⁴⁸: her magnitude and beauty and nature, which is not simple and unmixed but a blend as it were of star and earth. Just as the earth has become soft by having been mixed with breath and moisture and as blood gives rise to sense-perception in the flesh with which it is commingled ³⁴⁹, so the moon, they say ³⁵⁰, because it has been permeated through and through by ether is at once animated and fertile and at the same time has the proportion of lightness to heaviness in equipoise. In fact it is in this way too, they say, that the universe itself has entirely escaped local motion, because it has been constructed out of the things that naturally move upwards and those that naturally move downwards ³⁵¹. This was also the conception of Xenocrates who, taking his start from Plato, seems ³⁵² to have reached it by a kind of superhuman reasoning. Plato is the one who declared that each of the stars as well was constructed of earth and fire bound together in a proportion by means of the two intermediate natures, for nothing, as he said, attains perceptibility that does not contain an admixture of earth and light ³⁵³; but Xenocrates says that the stars and the sun are composed of fire and the first density, the moon of the second density and air that is proper to her, and the earth of water and air and the third kind of density and that in general neither density all by itself nor subtility is receptive of soul ³⁵⁴. So much for the moon’s substance. As to her breadth or magnitude, it is not what the geometers say but many times greater. She measures off the earth’s shadow with few of her own magnitudes not because it is small but she more ardently hastens her motion in order that she may quickly pass through the gloomy place bearing away the souls of the good which cry out and urge her one because when they are in the shadow they no longer catch the sound of the harmony of heaven ³⁵⁵. At the same time too with wails and cries the souls of the chastised then approach through the shadow from below. That is why most people have the custom of beating brasses during eclipses and of raising a din and clatter against the souls ³⁵⁶, which are frightened off also by the so‑called face when they get near it, for it has a grim and horrible aspect ³⁵⁷.

     It is no such thing, however; but just as our earth contains gulfs that are deep and extensive ³⁵⁸, one here pouring in towards us through the Pillars of Heracles and outside the Caspian and the Red Sea with its gulfs ³⁵⁹, so those features are depths and hollows of the moon. The largest of them is called ³⁶⁰ ‘Hecatê’s Recess’ ³⁶¹ where the souls suffer and exact penalties for whatever they have endured or committed after having already become Spirits ³⁶²; and the two long ones are called ‘the Gates’ ³⁶³, for through them pass the souls now to the side of the moon that faces heaven and now back to the side that faces earth ³⁶⁴. The side of the moon towards heaven is named ‘Elysian plain’ ³⁶⁵, the hither side ‘House of counter-terrestrial Phersephonê’ ³⁶⁶.

     30. Οὐκ ἀεὶ δὲ διατρίβουσιν ἐπ’ αὐτὴν οἱ δαίμονες, ἀλλὰ χρηστηρίων δεῦρο κατίασιν ἐπιμελησόμενοι, καὶ ταῖς ἀνωτάτω συμπάρεισι καὶ συνοργιάζουσι τῶν τελετῶν, κολασταί τε γίνονται καὶ φύλακες ἀδικημάτων καὶ σωτῆρες ἔν τε πολέμοις καὶ κατὰ θάλατταν ἐπιλάμπουσιν. Ὅ τι δ’ ἂν μὴ καλῶς περὶ ταῦτα πράξωσιν ἀλλ’ ὑπ’ ὀργῆς ἢ πρὸς ἄδικον χάριν ἢ φθόνῳ, δίκην τίνουσιν· ὠθοῦνται γὰρ αὖθις ἐπὶ γῆν συνειργνύμενοι σώμασιν ἀνθρωπίνοις. Ἐκ δὲ τῶν βελτιόνων ἐκείνων οἵ τε περὶ τὸν Κρόνον ὄντες ἔφασαν αὐτοὺς εἶναι καὶ πρότερον ἐν τῇ Κρήτῃ τοὺς Ἰδαίους Δακτύλους, ἔν τε Φρυγίᾳ τοὺς Κορύβαντας γενέσθαι καὶ τοὺς περὶ Βοιωτίαν ἐν † Οὐδώρα Τροφωνιάδας καὶ μυρίους ἄλλους πολλαχόθι τῆς οἰκουμένης· ὧν ἱερὰ καὶ τιμαὶ καὶ προσηγορίαι διαμένουσιν, αἱ δὲ δυνάμεις ἐξέλιπον ἐνίων εἰς ἕτερον τόπον τῆς ἀρίστης ἐξαλλαγῆς τυγχανόντων. Τυγχάνουσι δ’ οἱ μὲν πρότερον οἱ δ’ ὕστερον, ὅταν ὁ νοῦς ἀποκριθῇ τῆς ψυχῆς· ἀποκρίνεται δ’ ἔρωτι τῆς περὶ τὸν ἥλιον εἰκόνος, δι’ ἧς ἐπιλάμπει τὸ ἐφετὸν καὶ καλὸν καὶ θεῖον καὶ μακάριον, οὗ πᾶσα φύσις, ἄλλη δ’ ἄλλως ὀρέγεται. Καὶ γὰρ αὐτὴν τὴν σελήνην ἔρωτι τοῦ ἡλίου περιπολεῖν ἀεὶ καὶ συγγίνεσθαι ὀρεγομένην ἀπ’ αὐτοῦ τὸ γονιμώτατον. Λείπεται δ’ ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς φύσις ἐπὶ τὴν σελήνην, οἷον ἴχνη τινὰ βίου καὶ ὀνείρατα διαφυλάττουσα· καὶ περὶ ταύτης ὀρθῶς ἡγοῦ λελέχθαι τό

     ψυχὴ δ’ ἠύτ’ ὄνειρος ἀποπταμένη πεπότηται.

     Οὐδὲ γὰρ εὐθὺς οὐδὲ τοῦ σώματος ἀπαλλαγεῖσα τοῦτο πέπονθεν ἀλλ’ ὕστερον, ὅταν ἔρημος καὶ μόνη τοῦ νοῦ ἀπαλλαττομένη γένηται. Καὶ Ὅμηρος ὧν εἶπε πάντων μάλιστα δὴ κατὰ θεὸν εἰπεῖν ἔοικε περὶ τῶν καθ’ Ἅιδου

τὸν δὲ μετ’ εἰσενόησα βίην Ἡρακληείην,
εἴδωλον· αὐτὸς δὲ μετ’ ἀθανάτοισι θεοῖσιν.

     Αὐτός τε γὰρ ἕκαστος ἡμῶν οὐ θυμός ἐστιν οὐδὲ φόβος οὐδ’ ἐπιθυμία, καθάπερ οὐδὲ σάρκες οὐδ’ ὑγρότητες, ἀλλ’ ᾧ διανοούμεθα καὶ φρονοῦμεν, ἥ τε ψυχὴ τυπουμένη μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ νοῦ τυποῦσα δὲ τὸ σῶμα καὶ περιπτύσσουσα πανταχόθεν ἐκμάττεται τὸ εἶδος· ὥστε κἂν χωρὶς ἑκατέρου γένηται, πολὺν χρόνον διατηροῦσα τὴν ὁμοιότητα καὶ τὸν τύπον εἴδωλον ὀρθῶς ὀνομάζεται. Τούτων δ’ ἡ σελήνη, καθάπερ εἴρηται, στοιχεῖόν ἐστιν. Ἀναλύονται γὰρ εἰς ταύτην, ὥσπερ εἰς τὴν γῆν τὰ σώματα τῶν νεκρῶν, ταχὺ μὲν αἱ σώφρονες, μετὰ σχολῆς ἀπράγμονα καὶ φιλόσοφον στέρξασαι βίον῾ἀφεθεῖσαι γὰρ ὑπὸ τοῦ νοῦ καὶ πρὸς οὐθὲν ἔτι χρώμεναι τοῖς πάθεσιν ἀπομαραίνονταἰ· τῶν δὲ φιλοτίμων καὶ πρακτικῶν ἐρωτικῶν τε περὶ σώματα καὶ θυμοειδῶν αἱ μὲν οἷον ἐν ὕπνῳ ταῖς τοῦ βίου μνημοσύναις ὀνείρασι χρώμεναι διαφέρονται, καθάπερ ἡ τοῦ Ἐνδυμίωνος· εἰ δ’ αὐτὰς τὸ ἄστατον καὶ τὸ εὐπαθὲς ἐξίστησι καὶ ἀφέλκει τῆς σελήνης πρὸς ἄλλην γένεσιν, οὐκ ἐᾷ … ἀλλ’ ἀνακαλεῖται καὶ καταθέλγει. Μικρὸν γὰρ οὐδὲν οὐδ’ ἥσυχον οὐδ’ ὁμολογούμενον ἔργον ἐστίν, ὅταν ἄνευ νοῦ τῷ παθητικῷ σώματος ἐπιλάβωνται.

     Τιτυοὶ δὲ καὶ Τυφῶνες ὅ τε Δελφοὺς κατασχὼν καὶ συνταράξας τὸ χρηστήριον ὕβρει καὶ βίᾳ Πύθων ἐξ ἐκείνων ἄρα τῶν ψυχῶν ἦσαν, ἐρήμων λόγου καὶ τύφῳ πλανηθέντι τῷ παθητικῷ χρησαμένων. Χρόνῳ δὲ κἀκείνας κατεδέξατο εἰς αὑτὴν ἡ σελήνη καὶ κατεκόσμησεν, εἶτα τὸν νοῦν αὖθις ἐπισπείραντος τοῦ ἡλίου τῷ ζωτικῷ δεχομένη νέας ποιεῖ ψυχάς, ἡ δὲ γῆ τρίτον σῶμα παρέσχεν. Οὐδὲν γὰρ αὕτη δίδωσιν ἀλλ’ ἀποδίδωσιν μετὰ θάνατον ὅσα λαμβάνει πρὸς γένεσιν· ἥλιος δὲ λαμβάνει μὲν οὐδὲν ἀπολαμβάνει δὲ τὸν νοῦν διδούς, σελήνη δὲ καὶ λαμβάνει καὶ δίδωσι καὶ συντίθησι καὶ διαιρεῖ καὶ κατ’ ἄλλην καὶ ἄλλην δύναμιν· ὧν Εἰλείθυια μὲν ἣ συντίθησιν Ἄρτεμις δ’ ἣ διαιρεῖ καλεῖται. Καὶ τριῶν Μοιρῶν ἡ μὲν Ἄτροπος περὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἱδρυμένη τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐνδίδωσι τῆς γενέσεως, ἡ δὲ Κλωθὼ περὶ τὴν σελήνην φερομένη συνδεῖ καὶ μίγνυσιν, ἐσχάτη δὲ συνεφάπτεται περὶ γῆν ἡ Λάχεσις· ᾗ πλεῖστον τύχης μέτεστι. Τὸ γὰρ ἄψυχον ἄκυρον αὐτὸ καὶ παθητὸν ὑπ’ ἄλλων, ὁ δὲ νοῦς ἀπαθὴς καὶ αὐτοκράτωρ, μικτὸν δὲ καὶ μέσον ἡ ψυχὴ καθάπερ ἡ σελήνη τῶν ἄνω καὶ κάτω σύμμιγμα καὶ μετακέρασμα ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ γέγονε, τοῦτον ἄρα πρὸς ἥλιον ἔχουσα τὸν λόγον ὃν ἔχει γῆ πρὸς σελήνην.

     Ταῦτ’” εἶπεν ὁ Σύλλας “ἐγὼ μὲν ἤκουσα τοῦ ξένου διεξιόντος, ἐκείνῳ δ’ οἱ τοῦ Κρόνου κατευνασταὶ καὶ θεράποντες, ὡς ἔλεγεν αὐτός, ἐξήγγειλαν. Ὑμῖν δ’, ὦ Λαμπρία, χρῆσθαι τῷ λόγῳ πάρεστιν ᾗ βούλεσθε”.

    30. Yet not forever do the Spirits tarry upon the moon; they descend hither to take charge of oracles, they attend and participate in the highest of the mystic rituals, they act as warders against misdeeds and chastisers of them, and they flash forth as saviour a manifest in war and on the sea ³⁶⁷. For any act that they perform in these matters not fairly but inspired by wrath or for an unjust end or out of envy they are penalized, for they are cast out upon earth again confined in human bodies ³⁶⁸. To the former class of better Spirits ³⁶⁹ the attendants of Cronos said that they belong themselves as did aforetime the Idaean Dactyls ³⁷⁰ in Crete and the Corybants ³⁷¹ in Phrygia as well as the Boeotian Trophoniads in Udora ³⁷² and thousands of others in many parts of the world whose rites, honours, and titles persist but whose powers tended to another place as they achieved the ultimate alteration. They achieve it, some sooner and some later, once the mind has been separated from the soul ³⁷³. It is separated by love for the image in the sun through which shines forth manifest the desirable and fair and divine and blessed towards which all nature in one way or another yearns ³⁷⁴, for it must be out of love for the sun that the moon herself goes her rounds and gets into conjunction with him in her yearning to receive from him what is most fructifying ³⁷⁵. The substance of the soul is left upon the moon and retains certain vestiges and dreams of life as it were; it is this that you must properly take to be the subject of the statement

   Soul like a dream has taken wing and sped ³⁷⁶,

     for it is not straightway nor once it has been released from the body that it reaches this state but later when, divorced from the mind, it is deserted and alone. Above all else that Homer said his words concerning those in Hades appear to have been divinely inspired

Thereafter marked I mighty Heracles —
His shade; but he is with the deathless god ³⁷⁷.

     In fact the self of each of us is not anger or fear or desire just as it is not bits of flesh or fluids either but is that which we reason and understand ³⁷⁸; and the soul receives the impression of its shape through being moulded by the mind and moulding in turn and enfolding the body on all sides, so that, even if it be separated from either one for a long time, since it preserves the likeness and the imprint it is correctly called an image ³⁷⁹. Of these, as has been said ³⁸⁰, the moon is the element, for they are resolved into it ³⁸¹ as the bodies of the dead are resolved into earth. This happens quickly to the temperate souls who had been fond of a leisurely, unmeddlesome, and philosophical life, for abandoned by the mind and no longer exercising the passions for anything they quickly wither away. Of the ambitious and the active, the irascible and those who are enamoured of the body, however, some pass their time ³⁸² as it were in sleep with the memories of their lives for dreams as did the soul of Endymion ³⁸³; but, when they are excited by restlessness and emotion and drawn away from the moon to another birth, she forbids them to sink towards earth ³⁸⁴ and keeps conjuring them back and binding them with charms, for it is no slight, quiet, or harmonious business when with the affective faculty apart from reason they seize upon a body.

     Creatures like Tityus ³⁸⁵ and Typho ³⁸⁶ and the Python ³⁸⁷ that with insolence and violence occupied Delphi and confounded the oracle belonged to this class of souls, void of reason and subject to the affective element gone astray through delusion ³⁸⁸; but even these in time the moon took back to herself and reduced to order. Then when the sun with his vital force has again sowed mind in her she receives it and produces new souls, and earth in the third place furnishes body ³⁸⁹. In fact, the earth gives nothing in giving back after death all that she takes for generation, and the sun takes nothing but takes back the mind that he gives, whereas the moon both takes and gives and joins together and divides asunder in virtue of her different powers, of which the one that joins together is called Ilithyia and that which divides asunder Artemis ³⁹⁰. Of the three Fates too Atropos enthroned in the sun initiates generation, Clotho in motion on the moon mingles and binds together, and finally upon the earth Lachesis too puts her hand to the task, she who has the largest share in chance ³⁹¹. For the inanimate is itself powerless and susceptible to alien agents, and the mind is impassable and sovereign; but the soul is a mixed and intermediate thing, even as the moon has been created by god a compound and blend of the things above and below and therefore stands to the sun in the relation of earth to moon.

     These”, said Sulla, “I heard the stranger relate; and he had the account, as he said himself, from the chamberlains and servitors of Cronus. You and your companions, Lamprias, may make what you will of the tale ³⁹²”.