gold-bearing, glistening with robes studded with pearls. The fragrant violet shone, the rose shone back. Every kind of violet's color smiled from every side, dark-gleaming, purple, another pale yellow. Some of the roses were seen to be deep-purple, but others were becoming very white and gleamed sweetly back. There was the snow-colored lily, there were pimpernels. The hyacinth sprang up, there was also the beauty of the narcissus and every first-fruit of the graces of spring. The ears of corn were speechless, weighed down with grain. The dark-leaved ivy crept, shaking its clusters of berries. All things were beautiful, dewy, rich in the splendors of beauty and making the earth fragrant with blended sweet scents. Soft grass was strewn, green, nourishing cattle, horse-pasturing and ox-pasturing, dewy, of the meadow. Such a multi-colored garment the earth wore, such a well-flowered, well-woven robe it was fortunate to have. There were also ranks of plants, and there sprang up of the trees beautiful-leaved, beautiful-haired, fruit-bearing branches. There was also a well-grown shoot of a splendid-fruited apple tree, flourishing olive trees, sweetening fig trees, a glossy-trunked pine, a fir, an oak, an elm. The wind struck the needles of the pine, and made a sweet whispering in the leaves. There was also the beautiful cherry tree and the honey-sweet palm, the grape-cluster-mother vine, rows of vine-shoots, and a nectar-pouring cluster hung from the branches. All things were perfect in fruit, all things were all-perfect; for nothing ungraced or incomplete was brought forth. Amid these things the light of the third day also set, and the face of the day after it shone, and again a beginning of works, and a command of the creator for the heaven to become well-crowned with the stars. Then the heaven was adorned in its beauty with the stars like a pearl-strewn robe, like a gold-sprinkled cloak, like a fabric adorned with fiery-red stones. Then for the first time shone the maiden of the day, the great giant, the sun, the life-nourishing lamp, the unemptied spring of light, the house of woodless fire. Then for the first time the gleaming-lighted and light-bearing sphere of the moon began to light the night with torches, perfectly-circled, all-shining, bright-gleaming, complete. Then for the first time heaven looked upon the great, beautifully-sphered stars, vying with one another and beautifying it as flowers do the meadows. Saturn was very dark, leaden in its color; Jupiter shone like silver, Mars was seen fiery; the sun glistened brightly like refined gold; and the sphere of Venus gleamed back like tin; Mercury lit the way like red-gleaming bronze; the moon shone transparent as glass. Thus the robe of heaven was seen to be of all colors. Saturn was dark blue like the color of the hyacinth; Jupiter shone like a lily, Mars just like a violet; the sun was like a deep-purple rose, being golden; the morning star glistened like a white-flowered pimpernel; Mercury shone like a red-dyed flower; the moon appeared a beautiful-petaled narcissus. Such a flower-colored hue adorned the heaven; such a variously-flowered, graceful, beautifully-bright delight sat upon the faces of heaven, and made the heaven a star-planted garden, of which God is the planter, and like plants and shoots, like myriad-colored flowers are the gleams of the stars. Then for the first time the sun, having shone and shed its light, and having appeared as the ornament of heaven and the beauty of the day, served the command of the one who made it and, setting, completed the fourth day. Thus, then, were the things concerning the stars completed, and the sun was appointed as the star ruling the day, and the eye of the moon lit up the night. But no living creature was moving in the broad places of the earth, not water-faring, not land-walking, nor yet air-running. But the all-perfect God, having placed in the nature of the waters a life-giving strength and a fertile power, commanded a living soul to break forth from there as from a womb a perfectly-formed embryo in labor and burdened with the birth of a full-term infant; for the command of God, falling like a seed, made the wet-pouring streams very fruitful. From there long-winged, air-treading birds had free wing for swift flights, and were lightly lifted up toward the still pools of the air, rushing around its outpourings

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χρυσιοφόρον, στίλβουσαν πέπλοις καταμαργάροις. ἔλαμπεν ἴον εὔοσμον, ἀντέλαμπε τὸ ῥόδον. ἴων χροιὰ παντοδαπὴ πάντοθεν ὑπεγέλα, κυαναυγής, πορφύρεος, ὑπόκιρρος ἑτέρα. τινὰ μὲν περιπόρφυρα τῶν ῥόδων ἑωρᾶτο, τινὰ δ' ὑπελευκαίνετο καὶ γλύκιον ἀντηύγει. ἦν κρῖνον χιονόχροον, ἦσαν ἀναγαλλίδες. ὑάκινθος ἀνέβαινεν, ἦν καὶ ναρκίσσου κάλλος καὶ πᾶν τὸ πρωτοφόρημα τῶν ἔαρος χαρίτων. ἀπεραυδοῦντο στάχυες βαρούμενοι τῷ σίτῳ. εἷρπε κισσὸς μελάμφυλλος κορύμβους ἐπισείων. καλὰ τὰ πάντα, δροσερά, κάλλους αὐγὰς πλουτοῦντα καὶ γῆν εὐωδιάζοντα συγκράτοις εὐοδμίαις. ἔστρωτο πόα μαλακή, πρασίζουσα, βουθρέμμων, ἱπποφορβὸς καὶ βουκολίς, δροσώδης, λειμωνία. τοιοῦτον στόλιον ἡ γῆ παντόχροον ἐφόρει, τοιοῦτον πέπλον εὐανθὲς εὐύφαντον ηὐτύχει. ἦσαν καὶ φάλαγγες φυτῶν, ἀνέτελλον καὶ δένδρων καλλίφυλλοι καλλίκομοι κλῶνες ὀπωροφόροι. ἦν καὶ μηλέας εὐαυξὴς ὅρπηξ ἀγλαοκάρπου, ἐλαῖαι τηλεθόωσαι, γλυκάζουσαι συκέαι, πίτυς λιπαροστέλεχος, ἐλάτη, δρῦς, πτελέα. προσέβαλλε τῆς πίτυος ἄνεμος τοῖς πετάλοις, καὶ γλύκιον ψιθύρισμα τοῖς φύλλοις ἐνεποίει. ἐκεῖ καὶ κέρασος καλὴ καὶ φοῖνιξ μελιτόεις, βοτρυομήτωρ ἄμπελος, ὄρχατοι κληματίδων, καὶ βότρυς νεκταρόχυμος ἤρτητο τῶν κλημάτων. τὰ πάντα τελειόκαρπα, παντέλεια τὰ πάντα· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀχαρίτωτον οὐδ' ἀτελὲς παρήχθη. Ἐν τούτοις ἔδυ καὶ τὸ φῶς ἡμέρας τῆς τριτάτης, ἔλαμπε δὲ τὸ πρόσωπον τῆς μετ' αὐτὴν ἡμέρας, καὶ πάλιν ἔργων καταρχή, καὶ κέλευσις τοῦ κτίστου τὸν οὐρανὸν εὐστέφανον τοῖς ἀστράσι γενέσθαι. τότε τῶν ἄστρων οὐρανὸς τῷ κάλλει διηνθίσθη ὡς πέπλος μαργαρόστρωτος, χρυσόπαστον ὡς φᾶρος, ὡς ὕφασμα κοσμούμενον ἐκ πυρραζόντων λίθων. τότε τὸ πρῶτον ἔφαυσεν ἡ κόρη τῆς ἡμέρας, ὁ μέγας γίγας ἥλιος, ὁ ζωοτρόφος λύχνος, πηγὴ φωτὸς ἀκένωτος, οἶκος πυρὸς ἀξύλου. τότε τὸ πρῶτον δᾳδουχεῖν ἀπήρξατο τὴν νύκτα σελήνης ἡ γλαυκόφωτος καὶ φαεσφόρος σφαῖρα, ἀρτίκυκλος, ὁλοφαής, λιπαραυγής, τελεία. τότε τὸ πρῶτον οὐρανὸς ἀστέρας τοὺς μεγάλους καλλισφαιρώτους ἔβλεψεν ἐρίζοντας ἀλλήλοις καὶ καλλωπίζοντας αὐτὸν ὡς ἄνθη τοὺς λειμῶνας. ὁ Κρόνος ἦν μελάντερος, μολίβδινος τὴν χρόαν· ἔλαμπε Ζεὺς ὡς ἄργυρος, Ἄρης φλογώδης ὦπτο· ἔστιλβεν ἥλιος λαμπρὸν ὡς ὄβρυζον χρυσίον· ἀντηύγει δ' ὡς κασσίτηρος σφαῖρα τῆς Ἀφροδίτης· ὡσεὶ χαλκὸς ἐρυθραυγὴς Ἑρμῆς ἐλαμπτηρούχει· διαφανὴς ὡς ὕελος ηὔγαζεν ἡ σελήνη. οὕτως ὁ πέπλος οὐρανοῦ παντόχρους ἑωρᾶτο. ὁ Κρόνος ἐκυάνιζεν ὡς ὑακίνθου χρόα· ὡς κρῖνον ἔλαμπεν ὁ Ζεύς, Ἄρης καθάπερ ἴον· ὡς ῥόδον περιπόρφυρον ἥλιος ἦν χρυσίζων· ὡς λευκανθὴς ἀναγαλλὶς ἔστιλβεν ἑωσφόρος· ὡς ἄνθος ἐρυθρόβαπτον Ἑρμῆς ἐφωτοβόλει· νάρκισσος καλλιπέταλος ἐφαίνετο σελήνη. τοιαύτη τις ἀνθόχροια τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐκόσμει· τοιαύτη τις ἐφίζανε τοῖς οὐρανοῦ προσώποις ποικιλανθὴς χαρίεσσα καλλιλαμπὴς τερπνότης, καὶ κῆπον ἀστροφύτευτον τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐποίει, οὗ φυτοσκάφος ὁ θεός, ὡς δὲ φυτὰ καὶ βλάσται, ὡς ἄνθη μυριόχροα τὰ τῶν ἀστέρων σέλα. τότε τὸ πρῶτον ἥλιος φαύσας καὶ φωταυγήσας, φανείς τε κόσμος οὐρανοῦ καὶ κάλλος τῆς ἡμέρας, ἐδούλευσε κελεύσματι τῷ τοῦ πεποιηκότος καὶ μύσας συνετέλεσεν ἡμέραν τὴν τετάρτην. Οὕτω μὲν οὖν τετέλεστο τὰ κατὰ τοὺς ἀστέρας, καὶ τέτακτο μὲν ἥλιος ἀστὴρ ἡμεροκράτωρ, τὸ δὲ σελήνης βλέφαρον ἐπύρσευσε τὴν νύκτα. ζῷον δ' οὐδὲν ἐν τοῖς τῆς γῆς ἐστρέφετο πλατείαις, οὐχ ὑγροπόρον, οὐ πεζόν, ἀλλ' οὐδ' ἀεροδρόμον. ἀλλ' ὁ παντέλειος θεὸς τῇ τῶν ὑδάτων φύσει ἰσχὺν ἐνθεὶς ψυχώτριαν καὶ δύναμιν γονίμην, ζῶσαν ψυχὴν ἐκέλευσεν ἐκεῖθεν ἐκραγῆναι ὡς ἐκ γαστρὸς ἀρτιμελὲς ἔμβρυον ὠδινούσης καὶ φορτουμένης τοκετῷ τελειομήνου βρέφους· ὡς σπέρμα γὰρ ἡ τοῦ θεοῦ κέλευσις ἐμπεσοῦσα τὰς ὑγροχεύμονας ῥοὰς ἐποίει πολυγόνους. ἐντεῦθεν τανυπτέρυγες ὄρνεις ἀεροβάται εἶχον ἐλεύθερον πτερὸν εἰς πετασμοὺς συντόνους, καὶ κούφως ἠλαφρίζοντο πρὸς λιμνασμοὺς ἀέρος, περιρροιζοῦντες τὰς αὐτοῦ χύσεις

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