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← ExitStobaeus, Volume I

Reading language

Book I Chapter 49

44.58 · Hermes accepts Momus’s proposal

Hermes took pleasure as Momus said this, for what had been said accorded with his own disposition, and he carried out everything Momus had proposed. He said: “Momus, will not the encompassing realm’s nature of divine breath become manifest? For the master of all things has declared me to be steward and provident guardian.¹⁵⁶⁹

44.59 · Adrasteia and the hidden instrument

Therefore the keen-sighted goddess Adrasteia will watch over the ordering of the whole, and I shall fashion a hidden instrument, possessing unerring and inviolable oversight. By it everything on earth, from coming-to-be to final dissolution, will necessarily be brought into servitude. It will hold the fixed arrangement ⟨of the things⟩ brought to completion; and everything else on earth will also obey this instrument.” Hermes [I] said these things to Momus, and already the instrument was in motion.¹⁵⁷⁰

44.60 · The creator summons the gods again

When these things had happened, the souls had entered bodies, and he himself had received praise for what had been accomplished, the sole ruler again convened an assembly of the gods. The gods were present, and he once more spoke as follows:¹⁵⁷¹

44.61 · The gods are called to bring forth

“Gods,” he said, “you who have obtained the highest, imperishable nature, who have been allotted the governance of the great age forever, for whom all things will never tire of handing themselves over to one another: how long shall we hold mastery over this unrecognized dominion? How long will these things remain unseen by Sun and Moon? Let each of us bring forth on his own part. Let us use our power to erase this still idle condition. Let chaos come to seem an incredible tale to those who come after. Set your hands to great works; I myself shall begin first.”¹⁵⁷²

44.62 · Heaven appears and earth takes form

He spoke, and immediately the still-dark unity of the cosmos was divided. Heaven appeared above, adorned with all its own mysteries. Earth, still quivering, became firm when the Sun shone and appeared adorned with all the beautiful things surrounding her. For even what mortals consider mean is beautiful to the god, because it was made to serve the god’s laws.¹⁵⁷³

44.63 · The creator gives to earth

The god rejoiced to see his works now moving. Filling his hands, equal in extent to the encompassing space, with the things arising from nature, and clenching his fists firmly, he said, “Receive, sacred earth; receive, all-honored one, who are to become the mother of all. Henceforth consider yourself inferior to none.” The god spoke and, opening hands such as a god must have, released everything into the constitution of existing things.¹⁵⁷⁴

44.64 · The embodied souls stir human conflict

At first there was complete ignorance. For the souls, newly confined and unable to bear the dishonor, contended with the gods in heaven, holding fast to their own noble origin and insisting that they too had the same craftsman. They rebelled and, using the remaining human beings as instruments, made them attack one another, oppose one another, and wage war upon one another.¹⁵⁷⁵

44.65 · Violence drives the elements to petition

Thus strength exercised great power against weakness: the strong burned and murdered the powerless and hurled them down, sometimes living and sometimes dead, [from the sacred places] from the inner sanctuaries. At last the outraged elements resolved to petition the sole-ruling god concerning humanity’s savage way of life. When the evil had grown great, the elements approached the god who had made them and voiced their complaint in these words. Fire was first given leave to speak.¹⁵⁷⁶

44.66 · Fire asks for divine presence and laws

“Master,” Fire said, “craftsman of this new cosmos, a name hidden among gods and revered until now by all human beings: how long, divine spirit, do you intend to leave mortal life without a god? Reveal yourself now like a rising light to the existing cosmos, and initiate the savagery of life into peace. Grant laws to life; grant oracles to night; fill everything with good hopes.¹⁵⁷⁷

44.67 · Fire asks to serve gratitude rather than cruelty

Let human beings fear retribution from the gods, and no one will transgress. If they receive recompense worthy of their offenses, the rest will guard against wrongdoing, fear oaths, and no longer entertain an impious thought. Let those who receive benefits learn gratitude, so that I may gladly serve at libations [at sacrifices], [Fire], and send fragrant vapors up to you from the hearth. For until now, master, I am polluted; the godless boldness of the humans who have come into being forces me to torture flesh. They do not let me remain in the state for which I was born, but improperly debase what is incorruptible.”¹⁵⁷⁸

44.68 · Air complains of pollution

Air said, “I too am fouled, master, and the exhalation from dead bodies makes me diseased and no longer healthful. From above I see things that it is not lawful to behold.”¹⁵⁷⁹

44.69 · Water asks for clean rivers

Water next had leave to speak, my noble-hearted child, and said: “Father and wondrous maker of all things, self-born divine spirit and maker of Nature, who through you brings forth everything: at last, divine spirit, command the streams of rivers to remain forever clean. For rivers and seas either wash the murderers or receive the murdered.”¹⁵⁸⁰

1569.The repeated verbs of saying leave the subject of “had proposed” implicit; Momus is understood from the preceding speech. The question about divine breath and the encompassing realm is syntactically compressed. English retains both genitive expressions without deciding that the realm is simply identical with Hermes. The question mark follows Wachsmuth’s punctuation. Tamias and pronoētēs express stewardship and forethought.

1570.The printed tagēs is ordering or arrangement. The instrument is not named or described mechanically; its oversight, compulsion, and fixed outcomes are the stated features. Pēxis can mean fixing or consolidation, and the clause remains provisional. The supplied article tōn is represented by “of the things.” The rejected egō, “I,” reflects a disturbed shift of speaker and remains bracketed. Hermes’ instrument begins moving before further explanation is given.

1571.The first “he himself” is most naturally Hermes, who has just acted; the sole ruler is then named as the convener. The pronoun’s referent is not explicitly supplied in the Greek. The narrative now returns to a divine assembly and the ordering of the visible world after already describing embodiment; its sequence is preserved.

1572.The clause about things handing themselves over to one another is difficult; the printed auta heautois is retained rather than simplified by deleting a pronoun. Aiōn is rendered “age,” with its perpetuity separately expressed. “Unrecognized dominion” preserves anepignōstou hēgemonias. The command uses “each of us,” as printed, although an alternative has “you.” The passage calls for the disappearance of an idle condition and for chaos to become a story of the past.

1573.Diastasis is separation from a prior unity. The earth’s quivering and subsequent setting are both retained. The printed participle “adorned” agrees with earth; the apparatus’s proposed change of agreement is not adopted. The final sentence explicitly distinguishes divine and mortal assessments of what is beautiful or mean, grounding the former in obedience to divine laws.

1574.Isostasious, “equal,” follows the printed correction and takes tōi periechonti as its comparison: the hands match the encompassing space. “In extent” makes this spatial comparison explicit. The genitive “of the things arising from nature” supplies the contents of the hands with “filling”; the surrounding space is not itself the material. The qualification about hands fitting a god is explicit in the source. “Inferior to none” interprets the comparative sense of leipesthai in the command to earth.

1575.The return to initial ignorance is part of the narrative as transmitted. The printed leipomenois, “remaining,” qualifies human beings, although the apparatus offers a form meaning “left.” The relation between souls as instigators and human beings as their instruments is left as stated. Their claim of a common craftsman motivates the rebellion in this passage; it is not an additional assertion made by the translator.

1576.The burning, killing, and casting down from sanctuaries explain the elements’ appeal. Kata with the genitive is rendered “down from”; the buildings’ arrangement is unspecified. The rejected phrase “from the sacred places” remains bracketed; the apparatus treats it as redundant beside “from the inner sanctuaries.” Politeia again denotes a way of life or social conduct. The elements now become speaking petitioners in turn, beginning with Fire.

1577.The text calls the divine name hidden among gods and revered by humans, yet immediately describes mortal life as godless. Wachsmuth considers exchanging “hidden” and “revered”; the printed order is retained. Anateilon uses the image of rising, expressed in English by the simile of light. The unusual request for oracles “to night” remains, though the apparatus questions nykti. No particular form of nocturnal divination is supplied.

1578.The rejected sacrificial phrase and the rejected identification “Fire” remain marked; the latter is an intrusive gloss on the speaker in the edition’s account. “Fear oaths” retains the printed object instead of replacing it with perjury. The final verb paracharassontes evokes the defacement or debasement of coinage and is used here of an incorruptible element. The contrast within Fire’s plea is between grateful ritual service and its coercion into harming flesh.

1579.The opening “I too” follows the edition’s placement within Air’s speech. The complaint links the bodily exhalation below with Air’s polluted condition and elevated viewpoint. Themis concerns what is permitted by divine or customary order, here the horrors Air is compelled to witness.

1580.Isis’ address to Horus interrupts the narrative before Water’s speech. “Maker” is repeated as printed, although the apparatus suspects the first occurrence. Autogone means self-born. The final balance distinguishes the murderers washed by the waters from the victims received into them, bringing together bodily pollution and moral complaint.