Epinomis

hidden away and becoming unseen, 985c presenting a wonder to dim sight. Of these five living beings, then, that really are, in whatever way some of us have met with them, whether meeting with them in sleep, in dreaming, or through voices and oracles told to some in their hearing, in health or in sickness too, or also to those who have met with the end of life, opinions that have arisen in private and in public, from which many sacred rites of many have come to be, and others will come to be — of all these, the lawgiver who has acquired sense, even the least, will never dare, innovating, 985d to turn his city to a reverence toward the gods that has nothing clear about it; nor indeed will he prevent what the ancestral law has said about sacrifices, knowing nothing at all, as it is not even possible for mortal nature to know about such things. But as for the gods who are really manifest to us, does not the same account¹ hold that those are the worst who do not dare to speak of them to us and make it manifest that they are other gods, who are without rites and do not receive the honors that belong to them? 985e But now, as it is, just such a thing turns out to be happening at the same time. For it is as if one of us had ever seen the sun or the moon coming into being and looking down on us all, and did not declare it, being in some way unable to declare it, and they, at the same time, were without a portion of honor, and he were not eager, for his own part at least, by bringing them, plainly seen, into an honored place, to make feasts and sacrifices take place for them, and, setting apart a time for each, 986a to distribute the seasons of years often longer and shorter: would he not, if he were called bad, seem to himself and to anyone else who knew to be called so justly?

Clin. Of course, stranger; the very worst, indeed.

Ath. Well then, my dear Clinias, know that this is manifestly happening now in my own case.

Clin. What do you mean?