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to obtain a robe. And on account of the four elements they made the four contests: the flowery color for fire, in honor of Rome—and they called her Flora, just as we call her Anthousa—second, the white for the air, a third rank to Ares, and a fourth recently added for Cronus or Poseidon; for to each of them the dark blue is assigned. The Reds were dedicated to fire on account of their color, likewise the Greens to the earth on account of the flowers, the Blues to Hera, and the Whites to water. But some say the Green is spring, the Red summer, the Blue autumn, and the White winter. Therefore they took it as a bad omen that the flowery color received the worse vote, as if Rome herself had been defeated. For since the western center is referred to the element of earth, it was likely that they cared for her. Hence the Romans appear to have honored Hestia before all others, just as the Persians honored the rock-born Mithras on account of the center of fire, and those under the Bear honored the moist substance on account of the center of water, and the Egyptians Isis, instead of the Moon, the guardian of all the air. 4.31 Just as the infant in the womb does not need other nourishment, but is fed from pure blood, so also they did not pour libations for those who died during the first year, as we said, as if they were hidden in nature’s womb. For the libations were brought as a kind of solace to the shades of the dead: milk, blood and wine, and fine flour, and a shell, and some other things. And they called them libations from their being poured out upon the tombs. And a trace is preserved even now; for in our sacred rites we offer bread and wine. 4.32 That the Egyptian Hermes in his discourse called the Perfect says that the avenging demons, being present in matter itself, punish humankind according to their due, and that the purifying demons, fixed in the air, purify the souls trying to ascend after death around the hail-like and fiery zones of the air, which the poets and Plato himself in the Phaedo call Tartarus and Pyriphlegethon; and that the saving demons, stationed near the lunar region, save the souls. 4.33 March. The Romans considered March, as we have also said before, the beginning of the year; and they dedicated it to Ares; it was formerly called Zephyrites and Primus; for Romus, the founder of Rome, having completed a precinct of Ares in it in this month, renamed it Martius, that is, of Mars, according to his native tongue. 4.34 The mythologists say: Zeus, having come together with his sister Hera, bore Ares, as if the aether, joining with the air, presses out the aerial fire. But the natural philosophers say that Ares was named not, as the students of grammar say, from maleness and destruction, but from aiding and helping in violent and combative incidents, or as ruling and a cause of change; and they give him Capricorn as his exaltation. That the Romans called Martem mortem, as if death, or the mover of the arts, or Ares who is honored by and only by males, or from fighting according to Philoxenus, and in Egyptian it is called Ertosi; this signifies the life-giving of every kind and the life-giving ordering according to nature and power of all substance and matter. Ares became the inventor of bronze and iron. And the natural philosophers join Aphrodite, sometimes to him, sometimes to Hephaestus, as if the fiery to the moist substance, hinting that generation proceeds from the moist and the hot; or also, since Scorpio is common to them, the sting belonging to Ares, but the claws to Aphrodite. And, as in the myth, Aphrodite turns away from Ares, since winter follows the particular constitution of Ares, while Aphrodite is well-tempered. So they are opposed to each other, but not completely; for also to each other according to

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εὐπορῆσαι στολῆς. διὰ δὲ τὰ τέσσαρα στοιχεῖα ἐποίησαν τέσσαρας τοὺς ἀγῶνας· τὸ ἀνθηρὸν ἀντὶ πυρός, εἰς τὴν τῆς Ῥώμης τιμήν-Φλῶραν δὲ αὐτὴν ὠνόμαζον, ὥσπερ ἡμεῖς Ἄνθουσαν-δεύτερον τὸ λευκὸν διὰ τὸν ἀέρα, τρίτην τάξιν Ἄρει, καὶ τετάρτην ἄρτι προσληφθεῖσαν Κρόνῳ ἢ Ποσειδῶνι· ἑκατέροις γὰρ τὸ κυανοῦν προσνενέμηται. ῥούσιοι μὲν ἀνέκειντο πυρὶ διὰ τὸ χρῶμα, ὁμοίως πράσινοι γῇ διὰ τὰ ἄνθη, βένετοι Ἥρᾳ, λευκοὶ δὲ ὕδατι. οἱ δέ φασι πράσινον μὲν τὸ ἔαρ, ῥούσιον δὲ τὸ θέρος, βένετον δὲ τὸ φθινόπωρον, λευκὸν δὲ τὸν χειμῶνα. κακοδαιμονίαν οὖν οἰωνίζοντο τὴν χείρονα ψῆφον τὸν ἀνθηρὸν ἀπενέγκασθαι, ὡς αὐτῆς Ῥώμης ἡττηθείσης. τοῦ γὰρ δυτικοῦ κέντρου εἰς τὸ τῆς γῆς στοιχεῖον ἀναφερομένου εἰκὸς ἦν αὐτοῖς μέλειν αὐτῆς. ὅθεν καὶ Ἑστίαν πρὸ πάντων φαίνονται τιμήσαντες Ῥωμαῖοι, ὥσπερ τὸν πετρογενῆ Μίθραν οἱ Πέρσαι διὰ τὸ τοῦ πυρὸς κέντρον, καὶ τὴν ὑγρὰν οὐσίαν οἱ ὑπὸ τὴν Ἄρκτον διὰ τὸ κέντρον τοῦ ὕδατος, καὶ Ἶσιν Αἰγύπτιοι, ἀντὶ τοῦ τὴν Σελήνην, τὴν τοῦ παντὸς ἀέρος ἔφορον. 4.31 Καθάπερ ἐν τῇ μήτρᾳ τυγχάνον τὸ βρέφος οὐ δεῖται ἑτέρας τροφῆς, ἀλλ' ἐξ αἵματος εἰλικρινοῦς τρέφεται, οὕτως οὐδὲ τοῖς τελευτήσασι κατὰ τὸν πρότερον, ὡς ἐλέγομεν, ἐνιαυτὸν ἐπεχόαζον, ὥσπερ ἐν μήτρᾳ παρὰ τῇ φύσει λανθάνουσιν. αἱ γὰρ χοαὶ παραψυχή τις εἰσεφέρετο τοῖς εἰδώλοις τῶν τετελευτηκότων, γάλα, αἷμα καὶ οἶνος, καὶ σεμίδαλις, καὶ κόγχος, καὶ ἕτερά τινα. χοὰς δὲ αὐτὰς ὠνόμαζον ἐκ τοῦ ἐπεκχεῖσθαι τοῖς τάφοις. σώζεται δὲ καὶ νῦν ἴχνος· ἐν γὰρ τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἄρτον καὶ οἶνον προσφέρομεν. 4.32 Ὅτι ὁ Αἰγύπτιος Ἑρμῆς ἐν τῷ λόγῳ αὐτοῦ τῷ καλουμένῳ τελείῳ φησὶ τοὺς μὲν τιμωροὺς τῶν δαιμόνων ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ὕλῃ παρόντας τιμωρεῖσθαι τὸ ἀνθρώπειον κατ' ἀξίαν, τοὺς δὲ καθαρτικοὺς ἐν τῷ ἀέρι πεπηγότας τὰς ψυχὰς μετὰ θάνατον ἀνατρέχειν πειρωμένας ἀποκαθαίρειν περὶ τὰς χαλαζώδεις καὶ πυρώδεις τοῦ ἀέρος ζώνας, ἃς οἱ ποιηταὶ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ Πλάτων ἐν Φαίδωνι Τάρταρον καὶ Πυριφλεγέθοντα ὀνομάζουσι· τοὺς δὲ σωτηρικοὺς πρὸς τῷ σεληνιακῷ χώρῳ τεταγμένους ἀποσώζειν τὰς ψυχάς. 4.33 Μάρτιος. Τὸν Μάρτιον, καθὰ καὶ τοῦτο προείπομεν, ἀρχὴν ἐνιαυτοῦ ἐνόμιζον οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι· ἀνετίθουν δὲ αὐτὸν τῷ Ἄρει· οὗτος δὲ πρότερον Ζεφυρίτης ὠνομάζετο καὶ Πρῖμος· ὁ γὰρ τὴν Ῥώμην κτίσας Ῥῶμος καὶ τέμενος τοῦ Ἄρεος ἐν αὐτῇ τῷ μηνὶ τούτῳ ἀπαρτίσας Μαρτίου αὐτὴν μετωνόμασεν, τουτέστιν Ἄρεος κατὰ τὴν πάτριον ἐκείνου φωνήν. 4.34 Οἱ μυθικοί φασιν· ὁ Ζεὺς συνελθὼν τῇ ἀδελφῇ Ἥρᾳ ἔτεκεν Ἄρεα, οἱονεὶ ὁ αἰθὴρ συναπτόμενος τῷ ἀέρι ἀποθλίβει τὸ ἀέριον πῦρ. οἱ δὲ φυσικοὶ Ἄρεα μὲν οὐχ ὡς οἱ γραμματικῶν παῖδες ἐκ τῆς ἄρσεως καὶ ἀναιρέσεως αὐτὸν ὀνομασθῆναί φασιν, ἀλλ' ἐκ τοῦ ἀρήγειν καὶ συλλαμβάνειν τοῖς κατὰ βίαν καὶ μάχην συμπτώμασιν, ἢ ὡς ἀρκτικὸν καὶ μεταβολῆς αἴτιον· διδόασι δὲ αὐτῷ ὕψωμα τὸν Αἰγόκερων. ὅτι τὸν Μάρ τεμ οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι μόρτεμ ἐκάλουν, οἱονεὶ θάνατον, ἢ κινητὴν τῶν τεχνῶν ἢ Ἄρεα τὸν παρ' ἀρρένων καὶ μόνων τιμώμενον ἢ ἐκ τοῦ μάρνασθαι κατὰ Φιλόξενον, καλεῖται δὲ Αἰγυπτιαστὶ Ἐρτωσί· τοῦτο δὲ σημαίνει παντὸς γένους ζωογονίαν καὶ πάσης οὐσίας καὶ ὕλης κατὰ φύσιν καὶ δύναμιν διατακτικὴν ζωογονικήν. ὁ Ἄρης χαλκοῦ καὶ σιδήρου εὑρέτης ἐγένετο. τὴν δὲ Ἀφροδίτην οἱ φυσικοί, ποτὲ μὲν αὐτῷ, ποτὲ δὲ Ἡφαίστῳ συνάπτουσιν οἱονεὶ τῇ ὑγρᾷ οὐσίᾳ τὴν πυρώδη, ἐξ ὑγροῦ δήπουθεν καὶ θερμοῦ προιέναι τὴν γένεσιν αἰνιττόμενοι· ἢ καί, ἐπειδὴ κοινὸς αὐτοῖς ὁ σκόρπιος, Ἄρεος μὲν ὄντος τοῦ κέντρου, τῶν δὲ χηλῶν Ἀφροδίτης. ἀποστρέφεται δέ, ὥσπερ κατὰ τὸν μῦθον, Ἀφροδίτη τὸν Ἄρην, ἐπειδὴ ὁ χειμὼν ἀκολουθεῖ τῷ τοῦ Ἄρεος ἰδίῳ καταστήματι, ἡ δὲ Ἀφροδίτη εὔκρατος. ὥστε ἐναντίως ἔχουσι πρὸς ἑαυτούς, ἀλλ' οὐ καθόλου· καὶ γὰρ ἀλλήλοις κατὰ