1

De mensibus

LIBER PRIMUS.

1.1 Rightly then do those who wrote the myths make Cronus destroy his own children, hinting, I suppose, that time is both father and destruction of the things produced by it. †φάρυγος. 1.2 The attendants of Dionysus called the procession "thriambos" from the thyrsi and the iambs, as if .... of the jests, as if "thyrsiambos"; or from "throein" (to shout), according to Plutarch. 1.3 The Lydians say they invented wine; and not only wine, but also the fig plant. 1.4 That the Romans knew to call wine "moustos" as if "mystes." That the Sardians first called it "mysterion." 1.5 Sabinus was eponymously named from the cultivation of wine; for the name Sabinus signifies a sower and planter of wine. 1.6 Messapia is Calabria, from Messapus. 1.7 Lucania, the most wooded; for the Romans call a grove "lucus" by antiphrasis because it is without light, just as they call matter "axylon" (woodless). 1.8 Evander was the first to bring letters from Greece, the so-called Cadmean letters, to Italy, not so many, indeed, as there are now—for antiquity has not handed them down so—but only sixteen, with xi, zeta, and psi for the double letters, theta, phi, and chi for the aspirates, and eta and omega for the long vowels being discovered later. For there were five vowels in ancient times, the letter epsilon providing the function of eta, and omicron that of omega, which is still the case even now among the Romans, and it changes its force only by its length. But later Marcus Flavius, an Italian grammarian, following the Greeks, inscribed the remaining letters for the Romans. For time is wont to change things. 1.9 The Phoenicians, being the first usurers and money-lenders, invented letters and weights and, simply, profiteering, for which reason the poets also call them hucksters. But let us return to the point from which we digressed. 1.10 They say Geryon was three-bodied, not because he used so many bodies, but because three islands lying in the ocean were his allies. 1.11 That the myth most philosophically hints that Erulus in the region of Italy, whom Evander, the son of the prophetess Carmentis, subdued and took his land, was three-souled; for Socrates in the *Phaedo* transmits that the soul has triple powers, the mind as charioteer, and the powers of the soul as horses. In this way also the oracles command to bridle the soul; "and one must bridle the soul, being an intelligible mortal, so that it may not encounter the misshapen earth, but be saved." For since the nature of all things consists of contrary powers, it is necessary for the contrary principles to apply also to the soul that has passed through all things; for its rational part is from the monad—that is, the mind—while its spirited and appetitive part is from the dyad—such as matter; even if the oracle transmits the whole soul as a divine triad; for the same says: "having mixed the psychic spark with two concordances, mind and divine will, to which he added a third, pure Love, the holy charioteer binding all together, he placed it." 1.12 There was a certain Circe in Italy, distinguished in birth and preeminent in beauty, who fell in love with Odysseus while he was wandering in Italy with Diomedes, and having lain with him bore from him Auson, who later ruled the whole country, from whom the western land was also called Ausonia. This Circe, at any rate, on account of her excessive beauty boasted that she was the daughter of Helios, and in honor of her supposed father she first held a horse-race in Italy, which was indeed named "circus" from her. But in Greece previously Enyalius, son of Poseidon, in the days of Moses, used a two-horse chariot, Oenomaus and

1

De mensibus

LIBER PRIMUS.

1.1 Ὀρθῶς ἄρα οἱ τὰ μυθικὰ συγγράψαντες τὸν Κρόνον τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ παῖδας ἀφανίζοντα ποιοῦσιν, αἰνιττόμενοι δήπου τὸν χρόνον πατέρα τε ἅμα καὶ ὄλεθρον τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ φυομένων γίνεσθαι. †φάρυγος. 1.2 Θρίαμβον ὠνόμαζον οἱ ∆ιονύσου θεράποντες τὴν πομπὴν ἀπὸ τῶν θύρσων καὶ τῶν ἰάμβων, οἱονεὶ .... τῶν σκωμμάτων, ὡσανεὶ θυρσίαμβον· ἢ ἀπὸ τοῦ θροεῖν, κατὰ Πλούταρχον. 1.3 Οἱ Λυδοί φασιν ἐφεῦρον τὸν οἶνον· καὶ οὐκ οἶνον μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ συκῆς φυτόν. 1.4 Ὅτι μοῦστον τὸν οἶνον οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι ἔγνωσαν καλεῖν ὡσανεὶ μύστην. ὅτι μυστήριον πρῶτοι Σαρδιανοὶ προσηγόρευσαν. 1.5 Σαβῖνος ἐκ τῆς περὶ τὸν οἶνον γεωργίας φερωνύμως ὠνομάσθη· τὸ γὰρ Σαβῖνος ὄνομα σπορέα καὶ φυτευτὴν οἴνου διασημαίνει. 1.6 Μεσσαπία ἡ Καλαβρία, ἀπὸ Μεσσάπου. 1.7 Λουκανίαν τὴν ἀλσωδεστάτην· τὸ γὰρ ἄλσος κατὰ στέρησιν λοῦκον οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσι παρὰ τὸ ἀφεγγές, ὡς ἄξυλον τὴν ὕλην. 1.8 Ὁ Εὔανδρος πρῶτος γράμματα ἀπὸ τῆς Ἑλλάδος, τὰ λεγόμενα Κάδμου, εἰς τὴν Ἰταλίαν ἐκόμισεν, οὐ τοσαῦτα μέν, ὅσα νῦν ἐστιν-οὐδὲ γὰρ οὕτως ἡ παλαιότης παραδέδωκε-μόνα δὲ ἓξ πρὸς τοῖς δέκα, τοῦ ξ καὶ τοῦ ζ καὶ τοῦ ψ ἀντὶ διπλῶν, τοῦ θ καὶ τοῦ φ καὶ τοῦ χ ἀντὶ δασέων, τοῦ η καὶ τοῦ ω ἀντὶ μακρῶν ὕστερον προσεξευρημένων. πέντε γὰρ ἦν τὰ πάλαι φωνήεντα, τοῦ μὲν ε στοιχείου τὴν τοῦ η παρεχομένου χρείαν, τοῦ δὲ ο τὴν τοῦ ω, ὅπερ ἔτι καὶ νῦν παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις ἐστὶ καὶ μόνῳ τῷ χρόνῳ τὴν δύναμιν ἀμείβει. ὕστερον δὲ Μάρκος Φλάβιος, γραμματιστὴς Ἰταλός, τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἀκολουθήσας, τὰ λοιπὰ στοιχεῖα τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις ἐπέγραψεν. φιλεῖ γὰρ ὁ χρόνος ἐναμείβειν τὰ πράγματα. 1.9 Φοίνικες πρῶτοι τοκογλύφοι καὶ ὀβολοστάται τυγχάνοντες, γράμματα καὶ σταθμοὺς καὶ ἁπλῶς τὸ κερδαίνειν ἐπενόησαν, ὅθεν καὶ καπήλους αὐτοὺς οἱ ποιηταὶ καλοῦσιν. ἀλλ' ἐπανίωμεν ὅθεν ἐξεκλίνομεν. 1.10 Τρισώματον τὸν Γηρυόνην φασίν, οὐχ ὅτι τοσούτοις ἐχρήσατο σώμασιν, ἀλλ' ὅτι τρεῖς νῆσοι ἐν τῷ ὠκεανῷ κείμεναι συνεμάχουν αὐτῷ. 1.11 Ὅτι Ἔρυλον τὸν περὶ Ἰταλίαν, ὃν κατασχὼν Εὔανδρος, ὁ τῆς μαντικῆς Καρμέντης υἱός, ἔσχε τὴν χώραν, τρίψυχον γενέσθαι ὁ μῦθος αἰνίττεται φιλο σοφώτατα· τριπλᾶς γὰρ ἔχειν τὴν ψυχὴν δυνάμεις ὁ ἐν Φαίδωνι Σωκράτης παραδίδωσιν, ἡνίοχον μὲν τὸν νοῦν, ἵππους δὲ τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις. ταύτῃ καὶ χαλινῶσαι τὴν ψυχὴν θεσπίζει τὰ λόγια· χρὴ δὲ χαλινῶσαι ψυχὴν βροτὸν ὄντα νοητόν, ὄφρα μὴ ἐγκύρσῃ χθονὶ δυσμόρῳ, ἀλλὰ σαωθῇ. τῆς γὰρ τῶν ὅλων φύσεως ἐξ ἐναντίων δυνάμεων τυγχανούσης, ἀνάγκη καὶ τῇ διὰ πάντων κεχωρηκυίᾳ ψυχῇ τὰς ἐναντίας ἐφαρμόζειν ἀρχάς· τὸ μὲν γὰρ αὐτῆς λογικὸν ἐκ τῆς μονάδος-τουτέστι τοῦ νοῦ- τὸ δὲ θυμικὸν καὶ ἐπιθυμητικὸν ἐκ τῆς δυάδος-οἷον τῆς ὕλης-ἐστί· κἂν εἰ τὸ λόγιον ὅλην τὴν ψυχὴν τριάδα θείαν παραδίδωσι· φησὶ γὰρ ὁ αὐτός· ψυχαῖον σπινθῆρα δυσὶ κράσας ὁμονοίαις νῷ καὶ νεύματι θείῳ, ἐφ' οἷς τρίτον ἁγνὸν ἔρωτα, συνδετικὸν πάντων ἐπιβήτορα σεμνόν, ἔθηκεν. 1.12 Κίρκη τις ἦν ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ τῷ τε γένει περιφανὴς καὶ τῷ κάλλει διαπρεπής, ἥτις καὶ τοῦ Ὀδυσσέως πλανωμένου ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ σὺν τῷ ∆ιομήδει ἐρασθεῖσα καὶ συγγενομένη τούτῳ ἔτεκεν ἐξ αὐτοῦ τὸν Αὔσονα, τὸν τῆς χώρας πάσης ἐν ὑστέρῳ κρατήσαντα, ἐξ οὗ καὶ Αὐσονία ἡ ἑσπέριος ἐκλήθη. αὕτη γοῦν ἡ Κίρκη διὰ κάλλους ὑπερβολὴν τοῦ Ἡλίου θυγάτηρ εἶναι ἐκόμ παζε καὶ εἰς τιμὴν τοῦ οἰκείου δῆθεν πατρὸς ἱππικὸν ἀγῶνα πρώτη ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ ἐτέλεσεν, ὃς δὴ καὶ ἐξ αὐτῆς ὠνομάσθη κίρκος. ἐν δὲ Ἑλλάδι πρότερον Ἐνυάλιος, υἱὸς Ποσειδῶνος, ἐν ἡμέραις Μωυσέως διπώλῳ ἐχρήσατο, Οἰνόμαος καὶ