The Theology of Plato, in six books — trans. Thomas Taylor

ugh its strength, nor moved with difficulty through its weight, nor slippery through its smoothness, nor repercussivc through its hardness, nor groveling through its coldness, nor precipitate through its beat, nor inclined to swim through its laxity, nor feeding on raw flesh through its ferocity, nor on grass through its imbecility ; but is harmomcally composed for its proper works, and is dreadful to timid animals, but mild to such as arc brave. It ia also adapted to walk by nature, but winged by reason, capable of swimming by art, feeds on com and fruits, and cultivates the earth, is of a good colour, stands firm, has a pleasing countenance, and a graceful beard. In the resemblance of such a body, die Greeks think fit to honour the Gods."

INTBOBUCTION.

oaks nor cedars, nor rivers, nor bird*, but the rising sun, (be splendid moon, the variegated heaven, the earth itself and the air, all fire and all water ; or shall we constrain these men also to the nec easily of honouring wood, or stones or images ? If, however, this is the common law of all men, let bola a* well as their names.

" For divinity indeed, the father and fabricator of a)i things, is more ancient than the sun and the heavens, more excellent than time and eternity, and every flowing nature, and is a legislator with* out law, ineffable by voice, and invisible by the eyes. Not being able, however, to comprehend his silver, to plants and rivers, to the summits of mountains, and to streams of water ; desiring indeed to understand his nature, hut tlu-ough imbecility calling him by the names of such things as appear to us to be beautiful. And in thus acting, we are affected in the same manner as lovers, who are delighted with surveying the images of the objects of their love, and with recollecting the lyre, the dart, and the seat of these, the circus in which they ran, and every thing in short, whkh excites tho memory of the beloved object. What then remains for me to investigate and determine respecting statues f only to admit the subsistence of deity. But if the art of Phidias excite* the Greeks to the recollection of divinity, honour to animals the Egyptians, a river others, and fire others, I do not condemn the dissonance : let them ouly know, let them only love, let them only be mindful of the object they adore."

With respect to the worship of animals, Plutarch apologizes for it in the following excellent manner in hi, treatise On Isis and Osiris.

ot condemn the dissonance : let them ouly know, let them only love, let them only be mindful of the object they adore."

With respect to the worship of animals, Plutarch apologizes for it in the following excellent manner in hi, treatise On Isis and Osiris.

" It now remains that we should speak of the utility of these animals to man, and of their symbolical meaning ; some of them partaking of one of these only, hut many of them of both. It is e\idcnl therefore tlifit tilt El^yptiHns worsliijir/jcti tlic ox^ tlic she*?^] sod tlic ic b DC Uikk 00 j OD 3fcCC OUf) t of their use and benefit, as the Letnnians did larks, for discovering the eggs of caterpillars and breaking them ; and the Thessalians storks, because, as their land produced abundance of serpents, the storks destroyed all of tbem as soon as they appeared. Hence also ibey enacted a law, that whoever killed a stork should be banished. But the Egyptians honoured the asp, the weezle, and the beetle, in consequence of observing in them certain dark resemblances of the power of the Gods, like that of the sun in drops of water. For at present, many believe and assert that the weezle engenders by the ear, and brings forth by the mouth, being thus an image of the generation of reason, [or the productive principle of things.] But the genus of beetles has no female; and r

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INTRODUCTION.

XII VII

all the males emit their sperm into a spherical piece of earth, which they roll about thrusting it backwards with their hind feet, while they themselves move forward ; just as the sun appears to revolve in a direction contrary to that of the heavens, in coasequence of moving from west to east. They also assimilated the asp to a star, is being esempt from old age, and performing its motions 1 by organs with agility and ease Nor was the crocodile honoured by them without a > ; but is said to have been considered by them as • resemblance of divinity, as being the only animal that is without a tongue. For the divine reason is unindigent of voice, and proceeding through a silent path, and accompanied with ' justice, conducts mortal affairs according to it. They also say it is the only animal living in water mat has the sight of its eyes covered with a thin film which descends from his forehead so thjt he sees without beinsr seen which r with the first God. But in whatever place the female crocodile may lay her eggs, this may with certainty be concluded to be the boundary of the increase of the Nile.

a thin film which descends from his forehead so thjt he sees without beinsr seen which r with the first God. But in whatever place the female crocodile may lay her eggs, this may with certainty be concluded to be the boundary of the increase of the Nile. For not being able to lay their eggs in the water, and fearing to lay them far from it, they have such an accurate pre-sensation of futurity, that though they enjoy the benefit of the river in its access, during the time of their laying and hatching, yet they preserve their eggs dry and untouched by the water. Tbey also lay sixty eggs, are the same number of days in hatching them, and those that are the *em, live just so many years ; which number ia the first of the measures

" Moreover, of those animals that were honoured for both reasons, we have before spoken of the dog. But the ibis, killing indeed all deadly reptiles, was the first that taught men the use of medical evacuation, in consequence of observing that she is after this manner washed and purified by herself. Those priests also, that are most attentive to the laws of sacred rites, when they coosecrate water for lustration, fetch it from that place where the ibis had been drinking ; for ahe will neither drink nor come near unwholesome or infected water ; b t with the distance of her feet from each other, and her bill she makes an equilateral triangle. Farther still, the variety and mixture of her black wings about die white represents the moon when she is gibbous.

" We ought not, however, to wonder if the Egyptians love such slender similitudes, since the Greeks also, both in their pictures and statues, employ many such like resemblances of the Gods. Thus in Crete, there was a statue of Jupiter without ears. For it is fit that he who is the ruler and lord of all things, should bear no one.* Phidias also placed a dragon by the statue of

• Instead of «» I read xxxviii

* i. e. Should be perfectly impartial.

INTRODUCTION.

Minerva, and a snail by that of Venus at Elis, to show that virgins require a guard, and that keep* ing at home and silence become married women. But the trident of Neptune is a symbol of the third region of the world, which the sea possesses, having an arrangement after the heavens and the air. Hence also, they thus denominated Amphitritc and the Tritons. The Pythagoreans likewise adorned numbers and figures with the appellations of the Gods.