(41) Timaeus: and of Cronos and Rhea were born Zeus and Hera and all those who are, as we know, called their brethren; and of these again, other descendants. Now when all the gods, both those who revolve manifestly and those who manifest themselves so far as they choose, had come to birth, He that generated this All addressed them thus: “Gods of gods, those works whereof I am framer and father are indissoluble save by my will. For though all that is bound may be dissolved,

(10) But Saturn was not bound to its place, as the sun is, for it is not a corporeal place or space in the room of the deep; but Saturn is a son which is born or generated out of the chamber of death, out of the kindled, hard and cold anxiety, and is only one of the household or family in that space or room in which it has its course and revolution. For it has its corporeal propriety to itself, as a child, when the child is born or generated from the mother. ["Saturn, indeed, was created together with the wheel, when the FIAT created the wheel; but it does not go forth or proceed from Sol."]

(40) Timaeus: It is, as I say, impossible to disbelieve the children of gods, even though their statements lack either probable or necessary demonstration; and inasmuch as they profess to speak of family matters, we must follow custom and believe them. Therefore let the generation of these gods be stated by us, following their account, in this wise: Of Ge and Uranus were born the children Oceanus and Tethys; and of these, Phorkys, Cronos, Rhea, and all that go with them;

(1) 'Twas at the time when Juno was enraged, For Semele, against the Theban blood, As she already more than once had shown, So reft of reason Athamas became, That, seeing his own wife with children twain Walking encumbered upon either hand, He cried: "Spread out the nets, that I may take The lioness and her whelps upon the passage;" And then extended his unpitying claws, Seizing the first, who had the name Learchus, And whirled him round, and dashed him on a rock; And she, with the other burthen, drowned herself;— And at the time when fortune downward hurled The Trojan's arrogance, that all things dared, So that the king was with his kingdom crushed, Hecuba sad, disconsolate, and captive, When lifeless she beheld Polyxena, And of her Polydorus on the shore Of ocean was the dolorous one aware, Out of her senses like a dog she barked, So much the anguish had her mind distorted; But not of Thebes the furies nor the Trojan Were ever seen in any one so cruel In goading beasts, and much more human members,

(378) Yes, Adeimantus, they are stories not to be repeated in our State; the young man should not be told that in committing the worst of crimes he is far from doing anything outrageous; and that even if he chastises his father when he does wrong, in whatever manner, he will only be following the example of the first and greatest among the gods. I entirely agree with you, he said; in my opinion those stories are quite unfit to be repeated. Neither, if we mean our future guardians to regard the habit of quarrelling among themselves as of all things the basest, should any word be said to them of the wars in heaven, and of the plots and fightings of the gods against one another, for they are not true. No, we shall never mention the battles of the giants, or let them be embroidered on garments; and we shall be silent about the innumerable other quarrels of gods and heroes with their friends and relatives. If they would only believe us we would tell them that quarrelling is unholy, and that never up to this time has there been any quarrel between citizens; this is what old men and old women should begin by telling children; and when they grow up, the poets also should be told to compose for them in a similar spirit 9 . But the narrative of Hephaestus binding Here his mother, or how on another occasion Zeus sent him flying for taking her part when she was being beaten, and all the battles of the gods in Homer— these tales must not be admitted into our State, whether they are supposed to have an allegorical meaning or not. For a young person cannot judge what is allegorical and

The FUMIGATION from STORAX. O Jove much-honor'd, Jove supremely great, To thee our holy rites we consecrate, Our pray'rs and expiations, king divine, For all things round thy head exalted shine. The earth is thine, and mountains swelling high, The sea profound, and all within the sky. Saturnian king, descending from above, Magnanimous, commanding, sceptred Jove; All-parent, principle and end of all, Whose pow'r almighty, shakes this earthly ball; Ev'n Nature trembles at thy mighty nod, Loud-sounding, arm'd with light'ning, thund'ring God. Source of abundance, purifying king, O various-form'd from whom all natures spring; Propitious hear my pray'r, give blameless health, With peace divine, and necessary wealth. Next: XV: To Juno Sacred Texts | Classics « Previous: The Initiations of Orpheus: XIII: To Rhea Index Next: The Initiations of Orpheus: XV: To Juno » Sacred Texts | Classics

(1) At that time also, when he was journeying from Sybaris to Crotona, he met near the shore with some fishermen, who were then drawing their nets heavily laden with fishes from the deep, and told them he knew the exact number of the fish they had caught. But the fishermen promising they would perform whatever he should order them to do, if the event corresponded with his prediction, he ordered them, after they had accurately numbered the fish, to return them alive to the sea: and what is yet more wonderful, not one of the fish died while he stood on the shore, though they had been detained from the water a considerable time. Having therefore paid the fishermen the price of their fish, he departed for Crotona.

But they every where divulged the fact, and having learnt his name from some children, they told it to all men. Hence those that heard of this affair were desirous of seeing the stranger, and what they desired was easily obtained. But they were astonished on surveying his countenance, and conjectured him to be such a man as he was in reality. A few days also after this, he entered the Gymnasium, and being surrounded with a crowd of young men, he is said to have delivered an oration to them, in which he incited them to pay attention to their elders, evincing that in the world, in life, in cities, and in nature, that which has a precedency is more honorable than that which is consequent in time.

As for instance, that the east is more honorable than the west; the morning than the evening; the beginning than the end; and generation than corruption. In a similar manner he observed, that natives were more honorable than strangers, and the leaders of colonies than the builders of cities: and universally Gods than dæmons; dæmons than demigods; and heroes than men. Of these likewise he observed, that the authors of generation are more honorable than their progeny. He said these things, however, for the sake of proving by induction, that children should very much esteem their parents, to whom he asserted they owed as many thanks as a dead man would owe to him who should be able to bring him back again into light.

Afterwards, he observed, that it was indeed just to love those above all others, and never to give them pain, who first benefited us, and in the greatest degree. But parents alone benefit their children prior to their birth, and are the causes to their offspring of all their upright conduct; and that when children show themselves to be in no respect inferior to their parents in beneficence towards them, it is not possible for them in this respect to err. For it is reasonable to suppose, that the Gods will pardon those who honor their parent in no less a degree than the divinities themselves; since we learnt from our parents to honor divinity. Hence Homer also added the same appellation to the king of the Gods; for he denominates him the father of Gods and mortals.

Many other mythologists also have delivered to us, that the kings of the Gods have been ambitious to vindicate to themselves that excessive love which subsists through marriage, in children towards their parents. And that on this account, they have at the same time introduced the hypothesis of father and mother among the Gods, the former indeed generating Minerva, but the latter Vulcan, who are of a nature contrary to each other, in order that what is most remote may participate of friendship.

(18) The children of the great god nourish him to whom they have given birth, with sacred offerings

The FUMIGATION from STORAX. ETHERIAL father, mighty Titan, hear, 1 Great fire of Gods and men, whom all revere: Endu'd with various council, pure and strong, To whom perfection and decrease belong. Consum'd by thee all forms that hourly die, By thee restor'd, their former place supply; The world immense in everlasting chains, Strong and ineffable thy pow'r contains Father of vast eternity, divine, O mighty Saturn, various speech is thine: Blossom of earth and of the starry skies, Husband of Rhea, and Prometheus wife. Obstetric Nature, venerable root, From which the various forms of being shoot; No parts peculiar can thy pow'r enclose, Diffus'd thro' all, from which the world arose, O, best of beings, of a subtle mind, Propitious hear to holy pray'rs inclin'd; The sacred rites benevolent attend, And grant a blameless life, a blessed end.

(5) There is a mountain there, that once was glad With waters and with leaves, which was called Ida; Now 'tis deserted, as a thing worn out. Rhea once chose it for the faithful cradle Of her own son; and to conceal him better, Whene'er he cried, she there had clamours made. A grand old man stands in the mount erect, Who holds his shoulders turned tow'rds Damietta, And looks at Rome as if it were his mirror. His head is fashioned of refined gold, And of pure silver are the arms and breast; Then he is brass as far down as the fork. From that point downward all is chosen iron, Save that the right foot is of kiln-baked clay, And more he stands on that than on the other. Each part, except the gold, is by a fissure Asunder cleft, that dripping is with tears, Which gathered together perforate that cavern. From rock to rock they fall into this valley; Acheron, Styx, and Phlegethon they form; Then downward go along this narrow sluice Unto that point where is no more descending. They form Cocytus; what that pool may be Thou shalt behold, so here 'tis not narrated."

(2) All his auditors likewise having granted that the judgment of the immortals is most valid, he said he would demonstrate to the Crotonians, by the example of Hercules the founder of the colony brought to Crotona, that it is necessary to be voluntarily obedient to the mandates of parents, as they knew from tradition that the God himself had undertaken such great labors in consequence of obeying the commands of one older than himself, and being victorious in what he had undertaken to accomplish, had instituted in honor of his father the Olympic games. He also showed them that they should associate with each other in such a manner, as never to be in a state of hostility to their friends, but to become most rapidly friends to their enemies; and that they should exhibit in modesty of behaviour to their elders, the benevolent disposition of children towards their parents; but in their philanthropy to others, fraternal love and regard.

(10) "He bound eighteen-hundred rulers in every æon, and set three-hundred-and-sixty over them, and he set five other great rulers as lords over the three-hundred-and-sixty and over all the bound rulers, who in the whole world of mankind are called with these names: the first is called Kronos, the second Arēs, the third Hermēs, the fourth Aphroditē, the fifth Zeus."

The FUMIGATION from AROMATICS. DAUGHTER of great Protogonus, divine, 1 Illustrious Rhea, to my pray'r incline, Who driv'st thy holy car with speed along, Drawn by fierce lions, terrible and strong. 4 Mother of Jove, whose mighty arm can wield Th' avenging bolt, and shake the dreadful shield. Drum-beating, frantic, of a splendid mien, 7 Brass-sounding, honor'd, Saturn's blessed queen. Thou joy'st in mountains and tumultuous fight, And mankind's horrid howlings, thee delight. War's parent, mighty, of majestic frame, Deceitful saviour, liberating dame. 12 Mother of Gods and men, from whom the earth And lofty heav'ns derive their glorious birth; Th' ætherial gales, the deeply spreading sea Goddess ærial form'd, proceed from thee. Come, pleas'd with wand'rings, blessed and divine, With peace attended on our labours shine; Bring rich abundance, and wherever found Drive dire disease, to earth's remotest bound.

(52) And in the Theogony, it is said by Orpheus of Kronos: "He lay, his thick neck bent aside; and him All-conquering Sleep had seized."

(4) It is worth while, however, to relate how this report became so prevalent. The Pythian oracle then had predicted to this Mnesarchus (who came to Delphi for the purposes of merchandize, with his wife not yet apparently pregnant, and who inquired of the God concerning the event of his voyage to Syria) that his voyage would be lucrative and most conformable to his wishes, but that his wife was now pregnant, and would bring forth a son surpassing in beauty and wisdom all that ever lived, and who would be of the greatest advantage to the human race in every thing pertaining to the life of man. But, when Mnesarchus considered with himself, that the God, without being interrogated concerning his son, had informed him by an oracle, that he would possess an illustrious prerogative, and a gift truly divine, he immediately named his wife Pythaïs, from her son and the Delphic prophet, instead of Parthenis, which was her former appellation; and he called the infant, who was soon after born at Sidon in Phœnicia, Pythagoras; signifying by this appellation, that such an offspring was predicted to him by the Pythian Apollo.

For we must not regard the assertions of Epimenides, Eudoxus, and Xenocrates, who suspect that Apollo at that time, becoming connected with Parthenis, and causing her to be pregnant from not being so, had in consequence of this predicted concerning Pythagoras, by the Delphic prophet: for this is by no means to be admitted. Indeed, no one can doubt that the soul of Pythagoras was sent to mankind from the empire of Apollo, either being an attendant on the God, of co-arranged with him in some other more familiar way: for this may be inferred both from his birth, and the all-various wisdom of his soul. And thus much concerning the nativity of Pythagoras.

(3) But Saturn's original is the earnest, astringent and austere anxiety of the whole body of this world; for as, in the time of the kindling of the wrath, the light in the outermost birth or geniture of this world was extinct, (which birth or geniture is the nature or comprehensibility, or the rising up of the birth of all qualifying or fountain spirits), so also the astringent quality stood in its sharpness and severest birth or geniture, and attracted or contracted most strongly and eagerly the whole work or effect of the qualifying or fountain spirits.

(6) And Hesiod says that Zeus, cheated in a division of flesh by Prometheus, received the white bones of an ox, concealed with cunning art, in shining fat:

(8) But, nevertheless, seeing the mobility was risen up through the power of the hidden heaven, therefore nature could not rest, but was in anguish to the birth, and generated out of or from the spirit of sharpness an astringent, cold and austere sun or star, which is Saturn.

(111) Among the gods who were her sons, inasmuch as he had given [her support