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lurks in the hidden places of the earth. Yet they say he is the father of Zeus on account of the moist substance, which is handed down as the oldest of the elements according to the poet, who says: “Oceanus, the genesis of gods, and mother Tethys.” They fittingly named the water Tethys from its being situated by nature, contained by the dry part of the earth and the dense part of the air.” And so the natural philosophers speak about Cronus. Yet we find him also mentioned in the books as the child of Ouranos, like the rain brought forth from the air, whence it is also called *hyetos* as if *hyios*, or because after the heaven is the cold zone, then the hot. And concerning the casting of Cronus into Tartarus, Ammonius says that Cronus is the mind or rather the soul—for they are not the same—and Zeus is generation; and that before generation the soul was imprisoned in the body, for which reason the body is called *demas* instead of *desmos*; and the castration is the ultimate and generative and creative principle of all things; such is the nature of the genitals. And these Cronus cast off, the father of the Cronian nature, so that the power of the eternity of heaven might also exist in the sea, that is, in the world beneath the moon, which indeed is likened to the unstable and ever-turning nature of the sea, “where there is murder and strife and the tribes of other banes.” Such are the things the Greeks say. 4.160 Dionysus is the spirit that came to be in fire, that is, the hot principle, whence he was also called fire-born and thigh-nurtured and androgynous by the Greeks, they being ignorant of the philosophy concerning him, and who he happens to be; for this is the hot spirit that is deposited from every seed of every spiritual living being for the generation and growth of all things in the world. He was called thigh-nurtured, since such a substance of every living being, from which all things were constituted, is settled in the membranes and the generative masses and the veins in the thighs. He was called androgynous because the androgynous seeds become two, a male and a female nature, and it is not possible for one to generate from the other, unless they come together; and they will generate the living things created by this one. And they have supposed that he is dissolved and born again, since the things born from him are likewise unceasingly consumed and again generated. 4.161 That of shapes the circle is most perfect; whence the Egyptians, when drawing the world, trace a circular shape, aeriform and fiery, and in the middle a hawk-shaped serpent stretched out, as it were a cohesive good daemon; and the whole shape is like our letter Theta. 4.162 That the number of the ogdoad is female and infinite and imperfect; whence also by Nicomachus it is called “born out of time”; for the eight-month period appears to have a ratio with none of the harmonic numbers. Whence eight-month births are not brought to term; for being in the middle of the numbers that bring to term, it is found to be imperfect itself. For partaking of all material power, it has obtained the powers related to matter. incert. t FRAGMENTA INCERTAE SEDIS.} incert.1 That a certain licentious soldier in Dadastana attacked a chaste woman, forcing her to intercourse; and when she refused, since the seducer was pressing her greatly, the woman says to him that, if he would refrain from her, she would certainly provide a charm that would save him unharmed from a sword, and dying for her modesty she thought it right to persuade him to make the trial on her own neck; and he, striking her, deprived himself of his desire, and her of her life; so that time knows, after Stheneboea’s Bellerophon and Tennes son of Alphesiboea and Peleus son of Astydameia and the famous Hippolytus, also the chaste woman of our time. incert.2 That Tages, according to the so-called climarchs, thinks that daemons are implanted in those born in each place

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κευθμῶσι τῆς γῆς ἐμφωλεύει. πατέρα δὲ ὅμως τοῦ ∆ιός φασι διὰ τὴν ὑγρὰν οὐσίαν, ἥτις πάντων πρεσβυτέρα τῶν στοιχείων παραδίδοται κατὰ τὸν ποιητήν, ὅς φησιν· Ὠκεανόν τε θεῶν γένεσιν καὶ μητέρα Τηθύν. τὸ δὲ ὕδωρ Τηθὺν ἐμφερῶς ὠνόμασαν ἀπὸ τοῦ κεῖσθαι κατὰ φύσιν τῷ μὲν ξηρῷ τῆς γῆς, τῷ δὲ πυκνῷ τοῦ ἀέρος συνεχόμενον». καὶ οὕτω μὲν οἱ φυσικοὶ περὶ Κρόνου. εὑρίσκομεν δὲ αὐτὸν ὅμως καὶ Οὐρανοῦ παῖδα ἐν τοῖς βιβλίοις ἀναφερόμενον, οἷον τὸν ἐξ ἀέρος ἀποτικτόμενον ὄμβρον, ὅθεν καὶ ὑετὸς ὡσανεὶ υἱὸς καλεῖται, ἢ ὅτι μετὰ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἡ ψυχρὰ ζώνη, εἶτα ἡ θερμὴ τυγχάνει. περὶ δὲ τῆς καταταρταρώσεως τοῦ Κρόνου Ἀμμώνιος λέγει, Κρόνον μὲν εἶναι τὸν νοῦν ἢ μᾶλλον ψυχήν· οὐ γὰρ ταὐτόν· τὸν δὲ ∆ία τὴν γένεσιν· καὶ ὅτι πρὸ τῆς γενέσεως καθείρχθη ἡ ψυχὴ ἐν τῷ σώματι, ταύτῃ καὶ δέμας ἀντὶ τοῦ δεσμὸς τὸ σῶμα προσαγορεύεται· ἡ δὲ ἐκτομή ἐστι τὸ ἔσχατον καὶ γεννητικὸν καὶ ποιητικὸν τῶν πάντων· τοιαύτη δὲ ἡ τῶν αἰδοίων φύσις· ταῦτα δὲ Κρόνος ἔρριψεν ὁ τῆς Κρονικῆς φύσεως πατήρ, ἵνα ἡ τῆς ἀϊδιότητος δύναμις τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἐν τῇ θαλάσσῃ ὑπάρχῃ, τουτέστι τῷ ὑπὸ σελήνην κόσμῳ, ὃς δὴ τῷ ἀστάτῳ καὶ πολυστρέπτῳ ἀπείκασται τῆς θαλάσσης, ἔνθα φόνος τε κότος τε καὶ ἄλλων ἔθνεα κηρῶν. τοιαῦτα μὲν Ἕλληνες. 4.160 ∆ιόνυσός ἐστι τὸ ἐν τῷ πυρὶ γενόμενον πνεῦμα, τουτέστι τὸ θερμόν, ὅθεν καὶ πυρίτοκος ἐκλήθη καὶ μηροτραφὴς καὶ ἀρσενόθηλυς ὑπὸ Ἑλλήνων, ἀγνοη σάντων ἐκείνων τὴν περὶ αὐτὸν φιλοσοφίαν, καὶ τίς τετύχηκεν ὤν· οὗτος γάρ ἐστι τὸ θερμὸν πνεῦμα τὸ ἐκ πάσης σπορᾶς παντὸς ζώου πνευματικοῦ συγκατατιθέμενον εἰς ζωογονίαν καὶ αὔξησιν πάντων τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ. μηροτραφὴς δὲ ἐκλήθη, ἐπεὶ ἐν ταῖς μήνιγξι καὶ τοῖς ὄγκοις τοῖς γονίμοις καὶ ταῖς φλεψὶ ταῖς ἐν τοῖς μηροῖς ἐγκατῴκισται ἡ τοιαύτη οὐσία παντὸς ζώου, ἐξ οὗ συνέστη τὰ πάντα. ἀρρενόθηλυς δὲ ἐρρήθη διὰ τὸ τὰς ἀρρενοθήλεις σπορὰς γίνεσθαι δύο, ἀρσενικήν τε καὶ θηλυκὴν φύσιν, καὶ οὐκ ἔστιν ἕτερον ἀφ' ἑτέρου τὸ δυνάμενον γεννῆσαι, εἰ μὴ ὁμοῦ ἔλθοιεν· καὶ ζωογονήσουσι τὰ ζῶα τὰ ὑπὸ τούτου δεδημιουργημένα. ἀναλύεσθαί τε αὐτὸν ὑπειλήφασι καὶ πάλιν γεννᾶσθαι, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννώμενα ὁμοίως ἀνεκλείπτως δαπανᾶται καὶ πάλιν ζωογονεῖται. 4.161 Ὅτι σχημάτων ὁ κύκλος τελειότατον· ὅθεν Αἰγύπτιοι τὸν κόσμον γράφοντες περιφερῆ κύκλον ἀεροειδῆ καὶ πυρωπὸν χαράττουσι καὶ μέσον τεταμένον ὄφιν ἱερακόμορφον, οἱονεὶ συνεκτικὸν ἀγαθὸν δαίμονα καί ἐστι τὸ πᾶν σχῆμα ὡς τὸ παρ' ἡμῖν Θ. 4.162 Ὅτι ὁ τῆς ὀγδοάδος ἀριθμὸς θῆλυς καὶ ἄπειρος καὶ ἀτελής· ὅθεν καὶ παρὰ τῷ Νικομάχῳ ἠλιτόμηνος καλεῖται· ὁ γὰρ ὀκτάμηνος χρόνος πρὸς οὐδένα τῶν ἁρμονικῶν ἔχων φαίνεται λόγον. ὅθεν οὐ τελεσφορεῖται τὰ ὀκταμηνιαῖα· μέσος γὰρ ὢν τῶν τελεσφόρων ἀριθμῶν αὐτὸς ἀτελὴς εὑρίσκεται. πάσης γὰρ ὑλικῆς δυνάμεως μετέχων τὰς περὶ τὴν ὕλην εἴληχε δυνάμεις. incert. t FRAGMENTA INCERTAE SEDIS.} incert.1 Ὅτι στρατιώτης τις ἀκόλαστος ἐν ∆αδαστάνοις ἐπέθετο γυναικὶ σώφρονι βιαζόμενος αὐτὴν πρὸς ὁμιλίαν· τῆς δὲ παραιτουμένης, ὡς πολὺς ἦν ὁ φθορεὺς ἐπικείμενος, πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡ γυνή φησιν, ὡς, εἰ ἀφέξεται αὐτῆς, παράσχοι πάντως φάρμακον τὸ σῶζον αὐτὸν ἀπήμαντον ἀπὸ ξίφους, καὶ θανατῶσα ὑπὲρ τῆς αἰδοῦς πείθειν ἠξίου αὐτόν, ἐπὶ τοῦ ἑαυτῆς τραχήλου τὴν πεῖραν λαβεῖν· ὁ δὲ πλήξας αὐτὴν τῆς μὲν ἐπιθυμίας ἑαυτὸν, ἐκείνην δὲ τῆς ζωῆς ἐζημίωσεν· ὥστε οἶδεν ὁ χρόνος μετὰ τὸν Σθενεβοίας Βελλεροφόντην καὶ Τέννην τὸν Ἀλφεσιβοίας καὶ Πηλέα τὸν Ἀστυδαμείας καὶ Ἱππόλυτον τὸν πολὺν καὶ τὴν καθ' ἡμᾶς σώφρωνα. incert.2 Ὅτι ὁ Τάγης κατὰ τοὺς λεγομένους κλιματάρχας ἐμφύεσθαι ἀξιοῖ τοῖς ἑκασταχοῦ γινομένοις δαίμονας