posted July 28, 2021 04:12 PM            

X. And when the father who begat it perceived the created image of the eternal gods, that it had motion and life, he re- joiced and was well pleased ; and he bethought him to make it yet more nearly like its pattern. Now whereas that is a living being eternally existent, even so he essayed to make this All the like to the best of his power. Now so it was that the nature of the ideal was eternal. But to bestow this attribute altogether upon a created thing was impossible ; so he bethought him to make a moving image of eternity, and while he was ordering the universe he made of eternity that abides in unity an eternal image moving according to number, even that which we have named time. For whereas days and nights and months and years were not before the universe was created, he then devised the generation of them along with the fashioning of the universe. Now all these are portions of time, and was and shall be are forms of time that have come to be, although we wrongly ascribe them unawares to the eternal essence. For we say that it was and is and shall be, but in verity is alone belongs to it : and was and shall be it is meet should be applied only to Becoming which moves in time ; for these are motions. But that which is ever changeless without motion must not become elder or younger in time, neither must it have become so in the past nor be so in the future ; nor has it to do with any attributes that Becoming attaches to the moving objects of sense : these have come into being as forms of time, which is the image of eternity and revolves according to number. Moreover we say that the become is the become, and the becoming is the becoming, and that which shall become is that which shall become, and not-being is not-being. In all this we speak incorrectly. But concerning these things the present were perchance not the right season to inquire particularly.

XI. Time then has come into being along with the universe, that being generated together, together they may be dissolved, should a dissolution of them ever come to pass ; and it was made after the pattern of the eternal nature, that it might be as like to it as was possible. For the pattern is existent for all eternity ; but the copy has been and is and shall be throughout all time continually. So then this was the plan and intent of God for the generation of time ; the sun and the moon and five other stars which have the name of planets have been created for defining and preserving the numbers of time. And when God had made their several bodies, he set them in the orbits wherein the revolution of the Other was moving, in seven circles seven stars. The moon he placed in that nearest the earth, and in the second above the earth he set the sun ; and the morningstar and that which is held sacred to Hermes he assigned to those that moved in an orbit having equal speed with the sun, but having a contrary tendency : wherefore the sun and Hermes and the morning star in like manner overtake and are over- taken one by another. And as to the rest, were we to set forth all the orbits wherein he put them and the causes wherefore he did so, the account, though only by the way, would lay on us a heavier task than that which was our chief object in giving it. These things perhaps may hereafter, when we have leisure, find a fitting exposition. But when each of the beings which were to join in creating time had arrived in its proper orbit, and had been generated as animate creatures, their bodies secured with living bonds, and had learnt their appointed task ; then in the motion of the Other, which was slanting and crossed the motion of the Same and was thereby controlled, whereas one of these planets had a larger, another a smaller circuit, the lesser orbit was completed more swiftly, the larger more slowly : but because of the motion of the Same those which revolved most swiftly seemed to be overtaken by those that went more slowly, though really they overtook them. For the motion of the Same, twisting all their circles into spirals, because they have a separate and simultaneous motion in the opposite way, being of all the swiftest displays closest to itself that which departs most slowly from it. And that there might be some clear measure of the relative swiftness and slowness with which they moved in their eight revolutions, God kindled a light in the second orbit from the earth, which we now have named the sun, in order that it might shine most brightly to the ends of heaven, and that living things, so many as was meet, should possess number, learning it from the motion of the same and uniform. Night then and day have been created in this manner and for these causes ; and this is one revolution of the undivided and most intelligent circuit ; and a month is fulfilled when the moon, after completing her own orbit, overtakes the sun ; a year, when the sun has completed his own course. But the courses of the others men have not taken into account, save a few out of many ; and they neither give them names nor measure them against one another, comparing them by means of numbers nay I may say they do not know that time arises from the wanderings of these, which are incalculable in multitude and marvellously intricate. None the less however can we observe that the perfect number of time fulfils the perfect year at the moment when the relative swiftnesses of all the eight revolutions accomplish their course together and reach their starting-point, being measured by-the circle of the same and uniformly moving. In this way then and for these causes were created all such of the stars as wander through the heavens and turn about therein, in order that this universe may be most like to the perfect and ideal animal by its assimilation to the eternal being.

XII. Now up to the generation of time all else had been accomplished in the likeness of that whereunto it was likened : but in that it did not yet contain all living creatures created within it, herein it was still unlike. So he went on to complete this that remained unfinished, moulding it after the nature of the pattern. So many forms then as Mind perceived to exist in the ideal animal, according to their variety and multitude, such kinds and such a number did he think fit that this universe should possess. These are fourfold : first the race of the heavenly gods, next the winged tribe whose path is in the air, third whatso dwells in the water, and fourth that which goes upon dry land. The visible form of the deities he created chiefly of fire, that it might be most radiant and most fair to behold ; and likening it to the All he shaped it like a sphere and assigned it to the intelligence of the supreme to follow after it ; and he disposed it throughout all the firmament of heaven, to be an adornment of it in very truth, wrought cunningly over the whole expanse. And he bestowed two movements upon each, one in the same spot and uniform, whereby it should be ever constant to its own thoughts concerning the same thing; the other forward, but controlled by the revolution of the same and uniform : but for the other five movements he made it motionless and still, that each star might attain the highest completeness of perfection. From which cause have been created all the stars that wander not but abide fast for ever, living beings divine and eternal and in one spot revolving : while those that move in a circle and wander as aforesaid have come into being on those principles which in the foregoing we have declared. And the earth our foster-mother, that is globed round the axis stretched from pole to pole of the universe, her he fashioned to be the guardian and creator of night and day, the first and most august of the gods that have been created within the heavens. But the circlings of them and their crossings one of another, and the manner of the returning of their orbits upon themselves and their approximations, and which of the deities meet in their conjunctions and which are in opposition, and how they pass before and behind each other, and at what times they are hidden from us and again reappearing send to them who cannot calculate their motions panics and portents of things to come to declare all this without visible illustrations of their very movements were labour lost. So let thus much suffice on this head and let our exposition concerning the nature of the gods visible and created be brought to an end.