Oceanus

To Demeter I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess, of her and her trim-ankled daughter, whom Idoneus rapt away, given to him by all-seeing Zeus, the loud thunderer.

Apart from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits, she was playing with the deep-bosom daughters of Oceanus and gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also, and hyacinths and the narcissus which earth made to grow at the will of zeus and to please the host of many to be a snare for the bloom-like girl a marvellous radiant flower it was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see from its root grew a hundred blooms and it smelled most sweetly so that all wide heaven above and the whole earth in the sea's salt swell laughed for joy and the girl was amazed, and reached out with both hands to take the lovely toy.

But the wide-pathed earth yawned there in the plain of Nyssa, and the Lord, host of many, with his immortal horses, sprang out upon her, the son of Kronos, he who has many names.

He caught her up reluctant on his golden car, and bare her away lamenting.

Prometheus, chorus of ocean nymphs.

Oceanus, Io, daughter of Inicus, and Hermes.

Kratos and Bia, Hephaestus and Prometheus.

Kratos, We are come to the far-bounding plane of earth, to the Scythian way, to the unapproached solitude.

To Demeter I begin to sing of rich-haired Demeter, awful goddess, of her and her trim-ankled daughter, whom Idoneus wrapped away, given to him by all-seeing Zeus, the loud thunderer.

Apart from Demeter, lady of the golden sword and glorious fruits, She was playing with the deep-bosom daughters of Oceanus and gathering flowers over a soft meadow, roses and crocuses and beautiful violets, irises also, and hyacinths and the narcissus, which earth made to grow at the will of Zeus and to please the host of many, to be a snare for the bloom-like girl.

A marvellous, radiant flower.

It was a thing of awe whether for deathless gods or mortal men to see.

Although they give no proof, we must believe them as is customary.

They tell us that Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven; that Phorcys, Cronus, and Rhea came in the next generation, and were followed by Zeus and Hera, whose brothers and children are known to everybody.

When all of them, both those who show themselves in the sky and those who retire from view, had come into being, the Creator addressed them thus: 'Gods, sons of gods, my works, if I will, are indissoluble.

That which is bound may be dissolved, but only an evil being would dissolve that which is harmonious and happy.

One of them is the heavenly race of the gods, another the race of birds whose way is in the air, the third the watery species, and the fourth the pedestrian and land creatures.

Of the heavenly and divine he created the greater part out of fire, that they might be the brightest of all things and fairest to behold, and he fashioned them after the likeness of the universe in the figure of a circle, and made them follow the intelligent motion of the supreme, distributing them over the whole circumference of heaven, which was to be a true cosmos or glorious world spangled with them all over.

And he gave to each of them two movements the first a movement on the same spot after the same manner whereby they ever continue to think consistently the same thoughts about the same things the second a forward movement in which they are controlled by the revolution of the same and alike but by the other five motions they were unaffected in order that each of them might attain the highest perfection and for this reason the fixed stars were created to be divine and eternal animals ever abiding and revolving after the same manner and on the same spot and the other stars which reverse their motion and are subject to deviations of this kind were created in the manner already described the earth which is our nurse clinging or circling around the pole which is extended through the universe he framed to be the guardian and artificer of night and day first and eldest of gods that are in the interior of heaven vain would be the attempt to tell all the figures of them circling as in dance and their juxtapositions and the return of them in their revolutions upon themselves and their approximations and to say which of these deities in their conjunctions meet and which of them are in opposition and in what order they get behind and before one another and when they are severally eclipsed to our sight and again reappear sending terrors and intimations of the future to those who cannot calculate their movements to attempt to tell of all this without a visible representation of the heavenly system would be labour in vain enough on this head and now let what we have said about the nature of the created and visible gods have an end end of part two part three of Timaeus this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Anna Simon Timaeus by Plato translated by Benjamin Jowett part three Timaeus continues to know or tell the origin of the other divinities is beyond us and we must accept the traditions of the men of old time who affirm themselves to be the offspring of the gods that is what they say and they must surely have known their own ancestors how can we doubt the word of the children of the gods although they give no probable or certain proofs still as they declare that they are speaking of what took place in their own family we must conform to custom and believe them in this manner then according to them the genealogy of these gods is to be received and set forth Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven and from these sprang Phorcys and Kronos and Rhea and all that generation and from Kronos and Rhea sprang Zeus and Here and all those who are said to be their brethren and others who are the children of these now when all of them both those who visibly appear in their revolutions as well as those other gods who are of a more retiring nature had come into being the creator of the universe addressed them in these words gods children of gods who are my works and of who I am the artificer and father my creations are indissoluble if so I will all that is bound may be undone but only an evil being would wish to undo that which is harmonious and happy wherefore since ye are but creatures ye are not altogether immortal and indissoluble but ye shall certainly not be dissolved nor be liable to the fate of death having in my will a greater and mightier bond than those with which ye were bound at the time of your birth and now listen to my instructions three tribes of mortal beings remain to be created without them the universe will be incomplete for it will not contain every kind of animal which it ought to contain if it is to be perfect on the other hand if they were created by me and received life at my hands they would be on an equality with the gods in order then that they may be mortal and that this universe may be truly universal do ye according to your natures betake yourselves to the formation of animals imitating the power which was shown by me in creating you the part of them worthy of the name immortal which is called divine and is the guiding principle of those who are willing to follow justice and you of that divine part I will myself sow the seed and having made a beginning I will hand the work over to you and do ye then interweave the mortal with the immortal and make and beget living creatures and give them food and make them to grow and receive them again in death thus he spake and once more into the cup in which he had previously mingled the soul of the universe he poured the remains of the elements and mingled them in much the same manner they were not however pure as before but diluted to the second and third degree and having made it he divided the whole mixture into souls equal in number to the stars and assigned each soul to a star and having there placed them as in a chariot he showed them the nature of the universe and declared to them the laws of destiny according to which their first birth would be one and the same for all no one should suffer a disadvantage at his hands they were to be sown in the instruments of time severally adapted to them and to come forth the most religious of animals and as human nature was of two kinds the superior race would hereafter be called man now when they should be implanted in bodies by necessity and be always gaining or losing some part of their bodily substance then in the first place it would be necessary that they should all have in them one and the same faculty of sensation arising out of irresistible impressions In the second place, they must have love, in which pleasure and pain mingle, also fear and anger, and the feelings which are akin or opposite to them.

If they conquered these, they would live righteously, and if they were conquered by them, unrighteously.

And out of chaos came earth, and out of earth there came the starry heaven.

And from heaven and earth wedded there were born the Titan gods and goddesses, Oceanus, Coesus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, gold-crowned Phoebe, and lovely Tethys.

And then Heaven and Earth had for their child Cronus, the most cunning of all.

Cronus wedded Rhea, and from Cronus and Rhea were born the gods, who were different from the Titan gods.

The sickle sword that Hermes gave him was at his side, and on his arm he held the bronze shield that was now well polished.

He went through the air, taking a way that the nymphs had shown him.

He came to Oceanus that was rim around the world.

He saw forms that were of living creatures all in stone, and he knew that he was near the place where the Gorgons had their lair.