Epinomis

987away nourished those who first thought of these things,¹ because of the beauty of the summer season, which Egypt and Syria possess well enough, seeing all the stars, so to speak, always manifest, inasmuch as they had always possessed them far from the clouds and waters of the cosmos; and from there these things have reached everywhere, and here too, having been tested by a time of countless years and without limit. So one must, with confidence, set these things down in laws — for that the divine things should be without honor, and the others honored, is clearly not the mark of intelligent men — and that they have not 987b got names, the cause, at least, must be said to be this. But in fact they have taken the titles of gods: for the Dawn-bringer, being the same as the Evening Star, very nearly has reason to be Aphrodite’s, a thing quite fitting for a Syrian lawgiver;² and the one that runs the same course with the sun and with this one at once is very nearly Hermes’. Let us speak of three motions more, of those that travel to the right with the moon and the sun. And one must speak of the eighth as one, which one might most of all name cosmos, which travels contrary to all those, not leading the others, as it would appear, at least, to men who know little of these things.³ But what 987c we know well enough we must say, and we do say it; for the wisdom that really is appears in some such way to one who has had even a small share of right and divine understanding. Three stars remain, then, of which one differs from them in slowness, and some utter the title of Cronus for it; the one after this in slowness one must call Zeus’, and the one after this is Ares’, and this one has the reddest color of all.⁴ None of these is hard 987d for one to apprehend when someone declares them; but one who has learned must, as we say, think so.

But every Greek man must think about this, at least: that the place we have, the place of the Greeks, is for virtue very nearly among the