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he says monstrous births happen, but Empedocles blames the lack or excess of breath itself. 4.85 That Amelius says: The Muses, he says, are the souls of the spheres, which gather together into one harmony ordained by the demiurge all the activities of the universal powers and substances that they send forth into the universe. 4.86 Four Hephaestuses: first, of Ouranos and Hemera, father of Apollo, the archegetes of the Athenians; second, son of the Nile, whom the Egyptians call Phthas; third, the son of Cronus and Hera, the Lemnian, the smith; fourth, Hephaestus, son of Mantus the Sicilian, from whom the Hephaestiades islands are named. that Hephaestus, as Numenius says, is generative fire, the life-giving heat of the sun; for which reason they also make Hephaestus lame, in that the nature of fire is lame in itself, when it is not composed with the others. But Cincius among the Romans says that Hephaestus is understood to be lame in both feet because of the uneven course of the sun. But the Chaeronean says that, having called the power of fire Hephaestus, they have made his statue in human form, but they placed a dark-blue felt cap on it as a symbol of the celestial revolution; where the archetypal and purest fire is. But according to history, Manetho in the third volume of his Egyptian memoirs says that the first of men to rule among the Egyptians was Hephaestus, who also became the inventor of fire for them; from whom came Helios, whose son was Cronus, after whom came Osiris, then Typhon, the brother of Osiris. 4.87 But it should be known that, as Manetho says in his work *On Festivals*, a solar eclipse brings a wicked influence upon men with respect to both the head and the stomach. 4.88 Junius. Thus, therefore, with the fifth month having been set aside in honor of the senate by king Numa, it remained for the sixth to be designated in honor of the youth—for they call the younger men *iuniores*—for it is fitting for the state to be governed, as Plato says, by the counsel of old men and the courage of younger men. And it seems not without reason that he assigns the number six to it; for this number is life-giving, being completed from itself in succession from the monad up to the triad and being sufficient for itself; and for this reason Pythagoras has dedicated it to the first of the Fates. 4.89 On the Kalends of June, a festival of Hera and prayers in the Capitol, with all Romans together tasting cold water from the morning for the prevention of every kind of disease, and especially of gout, as the oracle wished, and so that births would not be twins or monstrous. And such a custom was introduced in the time of Hadrian, when an Egyptian woman was sent to him who recounted that in four days at an unequal interval she had given birth to four children, and after forty days the fifth, according to Aristotle, who says that in four births twenty were conceived; and Heracleides says this happens when ejaculation two or three times after continence hits the mark through anastomosis, or also when the womb has been reopened after the first coagulation to the same extent as the birth is numbered. that the month of June is unsuitable for weddings, as the books of the priests among the Romans say; and the saying is true and entirely necessary, that a marriage taking place at this time of year casts off the younger partner, and I am experienced in this outcome, having lost my dearest wife so quickly. And for three days it was not permitted for women either to cut their hair or to pare their nails. 4.90 The name Sancus means heaven in the Sabine tongue. 4.91 That the Hebrews not without reason abstain from the hare and the Libyan sparrow and the plover; for the male hare is by nature able to give birth monstrously, and the Libyan sparrow is neither a sparrow nor a quadruped nor a complete winged creature; and no one who has eaten a plover

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συμβαίνειν λέγει τοὺς τερα τώδεις τοκετούς, ὁ δὲ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς αὐτὴν τοῦ πνεύματος τὴν ἔλλειψιν ἢ ὑπερβολὴν αἰτιᾶται. 4.85 Ὅτι ὁ Ἀμέλιος· Μοῦσαί εἰσι, φησίν, αἱ τῶν σφαιρῶν ψυχαί, αἳ τὰς τῶν ὅλων δυνάμεών τε καὶ οὐσιῶν ἐνεργείας ὅσας εἰς τὸ πᾶν ἀφιᾶσιν ὁμοῦ καὶ εἰς μίαν συνάγουσι συμφωνίαν τὴν ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τεταγμένην. 4.86 Ἥφαιστοι τέσσαρες· πρῶτος Οὐρανοῦ καὶ Ἡμέρας, πατὴρ Ἀπόλλωνος τοῦ Ἀθηναίων ἀρχηγέτου· δεύτερος Νείλου παῖς, ὃν Αἰγύπτιοι καλοῦσι Φθάν· τρίτος ὁ Κρόνου καὶ Ἥρας ὁ Λήμνιος, ὁ χαλκευτής· τέταρτος Ἥφαιστος ὁ Μαντοῦς ὁ Σικελιώτης, ἐξ οὗ Ἡφαιστιάδες αἱ νῆσοι. ὅτι ὁ Ἥφαιστος, ὥς φησι Νουμήνιος, γόνιμον πῦρ ἐστιν, ἡ τοῦ ἡλίου ζωογονικὴ θερμότης· διὸ δὴ καὶ χωλὸν ποιοῦσι τὸν Ἥφαιστον, καθ' ὃ χωλεύει καθ' ἑαυτὴν ἡ τοῦ πυρὸς φύσις, ὅταν μὴ συγκεκρότηται τοῖς ἄλλοις. ὁ δὲ παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις Κίγκιος λέγει, χωλὸν τὼ πόδε τὸν Ἥφαιστον λαμβάνεσθαι διὰ τὸ ἄνισον τῆς ἡλίου πορείας. ὁ δὲ Χαιρωνεύς φησιν, ὅτι τοῦ πυρὸς τὴν δύναμιν προσειπόντες Ἥφαιστον ἀνθρωποειδὲς μὲν αὐτοῦ τὸ ἄγαλμα πεποιήκασι, πῖλον δὲ περιέθεσαν κυάνεον τῆς οὐρανίου σύμβολον περιφορᾶς· ἔνθα τοῦ πυρὸς τὸ ἀρχοειδές τε καὶ ἀκραιφνέστατον. κατὰ δὲ ἱστορίαν Μανέθων Αἰγυπτιακῶν ὑπομνημάτων ἐν τόμῳ τρίτῳ φησίν, ὅτι πρῶτος ἀνθρώπων παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις ἐβασίλευσεν Ἥφαιστος ὁ καὶ εὑρέτης τοῦ πυρὸς αὐτοῖς γενόμενος· ἐξ οὗ Ἥλιος, οὗ Κρόνος, μεθ' ὃν Ὄσιρις, ἔπειτα Τυφών, ἀδελφὸς Ὀσίρεως. 4.87 Ἰστέον δέ, ὡς ὁ Μανέθων ἐν τᾷ περὶ ἑορτῶν λέγει, τὴν ἡλιακὴν ἔκλειψιν πονηρὰν ἐπίρροιαν ἀνθρώποις ἐπιφέρειν περί τε τὴν κεφαλὴν καὶ τὸν στόμαχον. 4.88 Ἰούνιος. Οὕτως οὖν τοῦ πέμπτου μηνὸς εἰς τιμὴν τῆς γερουσίας πρὸς τοῦ βασιλέως Νουμᾶ διατεθέντος ἐλείπετο ἄρα τὸν ἕκτον εἰς τιμὴν τῆς νεολαίας- ἰουνιῶρας γὰρ τοὺς νεωτέρους φασίν-ὁρισθῆναι· βουλῇ γὰρ γερόντων καὶ νεωτέρων ἀνδρείᾳ εἰκὸς διοικεῖσθαι, ὥς φησι Πλάτων, τὸ πολίτευμα. οὐκ ἔξω δὲ λόγου τὸν ἓξ ἀριθμὸν φαίνεται ταύτῃ προσνέμων· ζωογονικὸς γὰρ οὗτος ἀπὸ μονάδος ἑξῆς ἄχρι τριάδος ἐξ αὑτοῦ συμπληρούμενος καὶ ἀρκῶν ἑαυτῷ· καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ὁ Πυθαγόρας τῇ πρώτῃ τῶν Μοιρῶν τοῦτον ἀνατέθεικεν. 4.89 Καλένδαις Ἰουνίαις ἑορτὴ Ἥρας καὶ εὐχαὶ ἐν τῷ Καπετωλίῳ, πάντων ὁμοῦ Ῥωμαίων ὕδατος ἐξ ἑωθινῆς ἀπογευομένων ψυχροῦ πρὸς φυλακὴν νόσου παντοίας καὶ διαφερόντως ποδαλγικῆς, ὡς ὁ χρησμὸς ἐβούλετο, καὶ ὥστε μὴ διδύμους ἢ τερατώδεις γενέσθαι τοὺς τοκετούς. ἡ δὲ τοιαύτη συνήθεια ἐπὶ Ἀδριανοῦ εἰσενήνεκται, πεμφθείσης γυναικὸς ὡς αὐτὸν Αἰγυπτίας, ἣ ἀφηγεῖτο τέσσαρσιν ἡμέραις κατὰ διάστημα ἄνισον τέσσαρα τεκεῖν, μετὰ δὲ τεσσαράκοντα ἡμέρας τὸ πέμπτον, κατὰ τὸν Ἀριστοτέλην, ὅς φησιν ἐν τέσσαρσι τοκετοῖς εἴκοσι κυηθῆναι· τοῦτο δέ φησιν ὁ Ἡρακλείδης συμβαίνειν, ὅταν ἐξακοντισμὸς δὶς ἢ τρὶς ἀπὸ ἐγκρατείας κατ' ἀναστομώσεως εὐστοχήσῃ ἢ καὶ τῆς μήτρας ἐπανοιχθείσης μετὰ τὴν προτέραν πῆξιν κατὰ τοσοῦτον καθ' ὅσον ὁ τοκετὸς ἀριθμοῖτο. ὅτι ὁ Ἰούνιος μὴν ἀνεπιτήδειος πρὸς γάμους, ὡς τὰ βιβλία τῶν παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις ἱερέων λέγει· ἀληθὴς δὲ ὁ λόγος καὶ ἀνάγκη πᾶσα, κατὰ τόδε καιροῦ γινόμενον συνοικέσιον τὸν νεώτερον ἀποβαλεῖν, καὶ ταύτης ἐγὼ τῆς ἐκβάσεως ἔμπειρός εἰμι, τὴν ἐμοὶ φιλτάτην γυναῖκα ὡς τάχος ἀποβαλών. ἐπὶ δὲ τρεῖς ἡμέρας οὐκ ἐξῆν γυναιξὶν ἢ καρῆναι ἢ ὀνυχίσασθαι. 4.90 Τὸ Σάγκος ὄνομα οὐρανὸν σημαίνει τῇ Σαβίνων γλώσσῃ. 4.91 Ὅτι οἱ Ἑβραῖοι οὐκ εἰκῇ ἀπέχονται λαγωοῦ καὶ στρουθοῦ Λίβυος καὶ χαραδριοῦ· ὁ μὲν γὰρ λαγωὸς ἄρρην τίκτειν πέφυκε τεραστίως, ὁ δὲ Λίβυς στρουθὸς οὐδὲ στρουθὸς οὐδὲ τετράποδον οὐδὲ πτηνόν ἐστι τέλειον· οὐδεὶς δὲ χαραδριὸν φαγὼν