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sent to the shepherd Paris those to be judged for beauty. But neither were goddesses judged, nor did Paris give the apple to Aphrodite. Nor did Aphrodite, having been honored, honor him in return with the marriage of Helen. For the honor of the goddess would not have become a pretext for an all-consuming war, and that to the destruction of the one who had received the honor and was a kinsman to the race of Aphrodite. But (as I said), o child, such things have a certain proper and philosophical meaning, which can be expressed by allegory, so that you, upon hearing it, will marvel. And I said: I beg you, do not torment me by putting it off. And he said: Fear not; for I will not postpone, but will begin to speak now. There was a time when there was nothing <was> except chaos and an indiscriminate mixture of elements still disorderly heaped together, with nature herself confessing this and great men having understood that it was so. And I will provide you as a witness of the great in wisdom, the greatest, Homer himself, who said concerning the primeval confusion: ‘But may you all become water and earth,’ as if all things had their origin from there and after dissolution of the moist and earthy substance are restored again to their first nature, which is chaos. And Hesiod in the Theogony says: ‘Verily, first of all Chaos came to be’. And the ‘came to be’ clearly signifies that it has come into being as something created, not that it always is as something uncreated. And Orpheus also likens chaos to an egg, in which was the confusion of the first elements. This Hesiod supposes to be chaos, which Orpheus calls a created egg, projected forth from infinite matter, and it came to be thus: the four-natured matter being ensouled and the whole of a certain infinite abyss always flowing and moving indiscriminately and at different times in different ways pouring forth countless imperfect mixtures [into] and for this reason dissolving them again by its disorder, and gaping open as though unable to be bound for the generation of a living being, it happened once, as the infinite sea itself was being driven around by its own nature, that by a natural and orderly motion it flowed from the same place to the same place like a vortex and mixed the substances, and thus the most savory part from each of all things, which was most suitable for the generation of a living being, as in a crucible, flowed into the middle of the universe and, by the all-carrying vortex, went into the depth and drew in the surrounding spirit and, being conceived as into a most fertile thing, made a discerning composition. For just as a bubble is wont to form in a liquid, so a vessel, spherical on all sides, was conceived. Then it, having been gestated in itself, being borne up by the divine spirit that had enveloped it, emerged into light, this very great offspring, as an ensouled creation born from the whole of the infinite abyss, and in its circumference resembling an egg and in the speed of its flight. Understand Kronos, then, to be time for me, and Rhea the flow of the moist substance, because in time all matter, being carried along, brought forth the spherical heaven, which contains all things, like an egg; which at first was full of the generative marrow so as to be able to bring forth elements and all kinds of colors, and yet from one substance and one color it bore the appearance of every kind. For just as in the offspring of the peacock the color of the egg appears to be one, but in potentiality it has countless [colors] in

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τὸν ποιμένα Πάριν κριθησομένας περὶ κάλλους ἐξέπεμψεν. ἀλλ' οὔτε ἐκρίθησαν θεαὶ οὔτε ὁ Πάρις τῇ Ἀφροδίτῃ τὸ μῆλον ἀπέδωκεν. οὐκ Ἀφροδίτη τιμηθεῖσα τῷ τῆς Ἑλένης αὐτὸν ἀντετίμησεν γάμῳ. οὐ γὰρ ἂν τῇ τῆς θεᾶς τιμῇ πρόφασις ἐγίνετο παμφύλου πολέμου καὶ ταῦτα ἐπ' ὀλέθρῳ τοῦ τὴν τιμὴν ἀπειληφότος καὶ ἀγχιστεύοντος τῷ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης γένει. ἀλλά (ὡς ἔφην), ὦ τέκνον, ἔχει τινὰ λόγον τὰ τοιαῦτα οἰκεῖον καὶ φιλόσοφον, ἀλληγορίᾳ φρασθῆναι δυνάμενον, ὥστε σε ἀκούσαντα θαυμάσαι. κἀγὼ ἔφην· ∆έομαι μή με ἀναβαλλόμενος βασανίσῃς. καὶ ὃς ἔφη· Μηδὲν φοβηθῇς· οὐ γὰρ ὑπερθήσομαι, ἀλλ' ἄρξομαι ἤδη λέγειν. Ἠν ποτε ὅτε οὐδὲν <ἦν> πλὴν χάος καὶ στοιχείων ἀτάκτων ἔτι συν- πεφορημένων μίξις ἀδιάκριτος, τοῦτο καὶ τῆς φύσεως ὁμολογούσης καὶ τῶν μεγάλων ἀνδρῶν οὕτως ἔχειν νενοηκότων. καὶ μάρτυρα τῶν μεγά λων ἐν σοφίᾳ τὸν μέγιστον Ὅμηρον αὐτόν σοι παρέξομαι, εἰπόντα περὶ τῆς ἀνέκαθεν συγχύσεως· «Ἀλλὰ ὑμεῖς μὲν πάντες ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα γέ- νοισθε», ὡς ἐκεῖθεν ἁπάντων τὴν γένεσιν ἐσχηκότων καὶ μετὰ ἀνάλυσιν τῆς ὑγρᾶς καὶ γηίνης οὐσίας εἰς τὴν πρώτην πάλιν ἀποκαθισταμένων φύσιν, ὅ ἐστιν χάος. Ἡσίοδος δὲ ἐν τῇ θεογονίᾳ λέγει· «Ἤτοι μὲν πρώτιστα χάος ἐγένετο». τὸ δὲ «ἐγένετο» δῆλον ὅτι γεγενῆσθαι ὡς γενητὰ σημαίνει, οὐ τὸ ἀεὶ εἶναι ὡς ἀγένητα. καὶ Ὀρφεὺς δὲ τὸ χάος ὠῷ παρεικάζει, ἐν ᾧ τῶν πρώτων στοιχείων ἦν ἡ σύγχυσις. τοῦτο Ἡσίοδος χάος ὑποτίθεται, ὅπερ Ὀρφεὺς ὠὸν λέγει γενητόν, ἐξ ἀπείρου τῆς ὕλης προβεβλημένον, γεγονὸς δὲ οὕτω· τῆς τετραγενοῦς ὕλης ἐμψύχου οὔσης καὶ ὅλου ἀπείρου τινὸς βυθοῦ ἀεὶ ·έοντος καὶ ἀκρίτως φερομένου καὶ μυρίας ἀτελεῖς κράσεις [εἰς] ἄλλοτε ἄλλως ἐπαναχέοντος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο αὐτὰς ἀνα- λύοντος τῇ ἀταξίᾳ, καὶ κεχηνότος ὡς εἰς γένεσιν ζσου δεθῆναι μὴ δυ- ναμένου, συνέβη ποτέ, αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἀπείρου πελάγους ὑπὸ ἰδίας φύσεως περιωθουμένου, κινήσει φυσικῇ εὐτάκτως ·υῆναι ἀπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸ αὐτὸ ὥσπερ ἴλιγγα καὶ μῖξαι τὰς οὐσίας, καὶ οὕτως ἐξ ἑκάστου τῶν πάν- των τὸ νοστιμώτατον, ὅπερ πρὸς γένεσιν ζσου ἐπιτηδειότατον ἦν, ὥσπερ ἐν χώνῃ κατὰ μέσου ·υῆναι τοῦ παντὸς καὶ ὑπὸ τῆς πάντα φερού- σης ἴλιγγος χωρῆσαι εἰς βάθος καὶ τὸ περικείμενον πνεῦμα ἐπισπά- σασθαι καὶ ὡς εἰς γονιμώτατον συλληφθὲν ποιεῖν κριτικὴν σύστασιν. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν ὑγρῷ φιλεῖ γίνεσθαι πομφόλυξ, οὕτως σφαιροειδὲς πανταχό θεν συνελήφθη κύτος. ἔπειτα αὐτὸ ἐν ἑαυτῷ κυηθέν, ὑπὸ τοῦ περιειλη- φότος θειώδους πνεύματος ἀναφερόμενον, προέκυψεν εἰς φῶς μέγιστόν τι τοῦτο ἀποκύημα, ὡς ἂν ἐκ παντὸς τοῦ ἀπείρου βυθοῦ ἀποκεκυημένον ἔμψυχον δημιούργημα καὶ τῇ περιφερείᾳ τῷ ὠῷ προσεοικὸς καὶ τῷ τά- χει τῆς πτήσεως. Κρόνον οὖν τὸν χρόνον μοι νόει, τὴν δὲ Ῥέαν τὸ ·έον τῆς ὑγρᾶς οὐσίας, ὅτι χρόνῳ φερομένη ἡ ὕλη ἅπασα ὥσπερ ὠὸν τὸν πάντα περιέχοντα σφαιροειδῆ ἀπεκύησεν οὐρανόν· ὅπερ κατ' ἀρχὰς τοῦ γονίμου μυελοῦ πλῆρες ἦν ὡς ἂν στοιχεῖα καὶ χρώματα παν- τοδαπὰ ἐκτεκεῖν δυνάμενον, καὶ ὅμως παντοδαπὴν ἐκ μιᾶς οὐσίας τε καὶ χρώματος ἑνὸς ἔφερε τὴν φαντασίαν. ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν τῷ τοῦ ταὼ γεννήματι ἓν μὲν τοῦ ὠοῦ χρῶμα δοκεῖ, δυνάμει δὲ μυρία ἔχει ἐν