Orationes 1

These gifts, according to my vow, O Zeus, King and Saviour, do we offer up; and do you receive them, and, as you saved me graciously, so also accept the thank-offerings, and aid my discourse, and escort it onward as far as it is possible for a man's speech to reach — as far as may be — that we may not become utterly ridiculous, nor fall short of the whole. And yet, now that I come to it, I do not know what is to become of me; but now I seem to learn, and most keenly, how completely indeed I was in danger, and was not in my right mind because of the sea, when I prayed for such things as it is neither easy to fulfil nor, perhaps, does it carry the credit of sobriety to attempt — promising to deliver a hymn to Zeus, and that without metre. Truly great then was the sea, and was doing everything 2. both to do and to say. Nevertheless — for nothing that has been vowed must be left undone, they say, but anything whatever, paid in any way at all, is better than to be left undone once for all — let us try somehow to discharge our obligation to the god; and whether it be done better or more poorly will be his care. And indeed to leave it wholly undone would bring a reputation for slothfulness, which it is not lawful to have in dealings with the gods; while for not attaining the mark, the very nature of the thing will furnish the pardon. For we shall not seem to have left it undone willingly, but of necessity to come off second. And, to put it so, it is better, if one must, to incur laughter than blame from the gods. Since, then, we have vowed, and these things could not be otherwise, we must, like those athletes who have entered their names, not withdraw, but go to close quarters and make trial of the contest. Come then, Muses, daughters of Zeus — for I do not see when one could better call upon you than now — whether you on Olympus, with Apollo leader of the Muses, sing the divine song, hymning your own and the universal Father, or whether Pieria is your dear abode, or you dance on Boeotian Helicon — of the works and gifts of Zeus, whatever is of profit, come, O you who know all things, whence shall we begin? What shall we dare to say about Zeus? Grant me that my discourse become inspired, as is its theme, and so too fitted to him, and do not leave me in the midst between heaven and earth. Zeus made all things, and the works of Zeus are all things that are — rivers and earth and sea and heaven, and all that is between these above, and all beneath these, and gods and men and all that has soul and all that comes to sight and all that must be grasped by thought. And first of all he made himself: not reared in the fragrant caves of Crete, nor was Cronus about to swallow him, nor did he swallow a stone in his stead, nor was Zeus ever in danger, nor 3. ever shall be in danger; nor is anything older than Zeus, no more than sons could be older than their fathers, or the things that come to be older than their makers; but he is the first and the eldest and the founder of all things, having come into being himself from himself. And when he came into being it is not possible to say, but he both was from the beginning and will be forever, his own father and greater than to have been born of another. And just as he begat Athena from his head and needed no marriage for her, so still earlier he made himself of himself and needed nothing else for his being; but, on the very contrary, all things began to be from him, and there is no time one can name. For there was not yet any time then, since neither was there anything else. For nothing is older than the work of the Maker. Thus, then, the beginning of all things is Zeus, and from Zeus are all things. And inasmuch as he is mightier than time and has none to thwart him, he himself and the universe were at once together. So swiftly he made all things. And he made them thus — and if anywhere we stumble, let him be called the Gentle One to us: he begins from the foundations and makes earth, that all things may stand fast for him upon it, rooting it with roots boundless in depth and making it dense, with rocks for pegs and with all else that has been allotted a nature to make dense; and raising up mountains, defences against rains and waves, and mingling plains in the midst, the seats of mountains and of earth, fixing each so as to give strength to the other. And whatever things came second to him in weight he brought on, setting the sea upon the earth, in the middle, in the midst; and, as one labouring for the friendship and partnership of neighbours, he mingled in rivers, which were to flow from the earth into the sea, and again from the sea, by other unseen paths, to flow under into the earth and join the two to each other. And he interwove them so that each is in the midst of the other, 4. the one of the two always coming to be in the midst of the other by islands and straits and isthmuses. And just as he fortified the earth by each of the two forms, so again the earth and the sea, making both secure through each other; and he set the air above both, the breath of earth and sea. And setting fire above — which indeed they name aether — with this fourth thing he embraced all things, and brought to bear here the strongest of his loving craftsmanship, adorning the whole heaven with stars, as he adorned the sea with islands, and making it transparent through them, and sending down the effluence of fire as far as the earth — not in the time in which we have now gone through them perfecting all these things, but more swiftly than thought allows. And at once with the making and the fashioning he divided each thing according to fitness and allotted their portions, making the living creatures suited to each region, and assigning to those that were born their proper offspring, dwellings, and lots: to the gods, to dwell in heaven, as in the acropolis of the universe — which is indeed the fairest and most brilliant, the purest of dwellings, nor does old age enter into it; to men, on earth; to the tribes of the sea he gave the sea, and to the winged the air, so that each, according to its own nature and power, should best obtain its deserts, finding its lots and receiving the dwellings akin to it: the earthborn and earthy tribe the earth, the more watery the sea, the lighter and drier the air, and again the moist and fiery and that which is strained over all these, the aether and heaven. Thus, then, just as one making, or rather building, a city, he next brought in the men. And when he had separated the matter and equipped the universe, he filled all with races, making them in order with harmony and with forethought that nothing should be left out so as not to be all fitting and complete to one another — being himself the Maker and Founder of the substance and power of the universe.

And how all the tribes of the gods each have an effluence of the power of Zeus, the Father of all, and how simply, after Homer's chain, all things are fastened to him and all hang from him — a far fairer chain than the golden, or any other one might conceive: and Love and Necessity, these two most uniting and most powerful, he begat among the first, that all things might hold together for him. And the mortal tribe he did not deem worthy all of one and the same portion, nor did he refuse to be the father of men as well as of gods; but, from the same race, as now those who prepare perfumes, whatever was like a sediment and had remained below — this was left to be the seed of man, having neither equal honour nor like power, nor pure and free of evils, as that former race was; yet more honoured than the rest of the mortal kind, inasmuch as it had shared in reason and was not altogether parted from the divine portion, but had it like the last part of a channel or a spring. Thus, then, he gives precedence and offices and presidencies to the gods, and second things, far later, to men also; and the things between — all the nurslings of air and sea and whatever else is of earth — he made subject to both, as those in camps who post the best in front, the second behind, and the bad, as the saying is, in the middle. And to the gods he assigned the four regions, that nowhere should there be anything void of gods, but that they might be everywhere present to all things that are and that come to be — the first fatherland, the heavenly, and that in the air and that in the sea and that on earth, divided among them like certain viceroys and satraps. And of the forethought from them he made man partake no more than his due, everywhere preserving to the races their worth and rank, and deeming that the order should not be without profit. And men, knowing this and owing great gratitude for great things, when in later time, 6. gathering one another together, they founded cities, set apart the acropolises for Zeus, both looking to the pattern of the universe, that he himself was the dweller on the summits of the universe, and at the same time willingly withdrawing from the most commanding places, as to one who alone knows how to rule over rulers. And here too, from the secondary things, he showed us that kinship of race is profitable for the ruled; for violence does not touch the gods — for this reason they need no laws; but for men alone of the other living creatures he ordained both that they should not be destroyed by murder, and that there should be no rapine or violence, but that justice should stand before violence. And these things Zeus laid down as law, when he sent to men Reverence and Justice, along with the other gods, to take care of men and to guard their life for them. From Zeus, then, is our birth from the beginning, as also of this universe, and the preservation of our life, and arts and laws, and the fact that our race, though mortal, is in part immortal by succession. And the very reckoning about these things is a portion of Zeus. But Homer was inspired far beyond the season, who made Zeus, in the assembly of the gods, forbidding the gods to care for men; whereas he did not forbid this, nor would he forbid it, reverencing his own self. For it is not lawful for him to turn about nor to have another mind, neither through forgetfulness nor through repentance of that which he had from the beginning, when he made the gods the carers for men, and men the worshippers and servants of the gods — which was indeed most to befit and to profit both. Zeus, then, is the cause and Maker of all things that are, and through him come to be all things both heavenly and earthly, as the very name too indicates, being spoken not far from the cause, whenever we say Dia ("through whom"). For Zeus (Zen) he has been called by us because he is the cause to each of life (zoe) and being; and again, since by this 7. function of the word we name those whom we hold as a cause (aitia), we made him share his name with the word of cause, calling him Dia, since through him all things come to be and have come to be. And the unceasing motion of the sun above the earth and beneath the earth is a fore-ordinance of Zeus, ordained for the sun for the brightness of the whole universe; and the courses of the moon and the dances of all the stars are the ordering of Zeus; and the sea-encircling Ocean, as it came to be from Zeus in the beginning, so it also remains, keeping its own bounds. And the seasons each year by rotation come upon the whole earth. And all time, divided into day and night, has for each the lengths fitting to the season, furnishing rests and toils, as is fitting, more or fewer. And the union of heaven and rain is of Zeus; and Apollo prophesies to men the unerring counsel of Zeus, and Asclepius heals, and Athena Ergane by the judgement of Zeus has obtained this rank, and Hera of marriage, and Artemis of childbirth and of the chase, benefit men, preserving the judgement of the great Benefactor of all. And the Pans, dwellers of the mountains, and the Nymphs, overseers of streams, hold their portion with Zeus. And Poseidon and the Dioscuri save those who sail, obeying Zeus; and the Muses discovered music and made it known when Zeus willed that there should be Muses and music, for the sake both of gods and of men. And all things everywhere are full of Zeus, and he is set beside all in every action, as the teachers beside the children and the attendant runners beside the charioteers. And the benefactions of all the gods are the work of Zeus, and all care for men, keeping the order delivered by him, as in a camp the soldiers keep the order of the general of all. And the portion that he assigns each one rightly knows. For he himself gives it, and this is the inescapable 8. fate — whatever Zeus assigns to each, of whom all things that are are the offspring. Him the mountain peaks do not escape, nor the springs of rivers, nor cities, nor the sand beneath the sea, nor the stars; nor does night stand before him, nor sleep before his great and only eyes that have beheld the truth. And the fairest and most notable of rivers, even the heaven-fed Nile, was such — imitating, indeed, the Father, and as a kind of viceroy appointed by him over the affairs of Egypt, who, instead of the rains of Zeus, himself comes on and fills the land. Zeus is the Father of all, of heaven and earth and gods and men and rivers and plants; and through him we see and have whatever we have. He is the benefactor of all, and overseer, and champion; he is the president and leader and steward of all things that are and that come to be; he is the giver of all, he is the Maker; he, giving victory in assemblies and law-courts, is called Zeus of the Market; in battles, Zeus who turns the rout; in sicknesses and all crises, helping, the Saviour; he is the god of freedom, he is the Gentle; and with reason, inasmuch as he is also Father. He is King, Guardian of the City, the Descender, Lord of rain, the Heavenly, the Lord of summits — all the great names that he himself discovered and that befit him. He, holding the beginnings and ends and measures and lots of all things, ruling all things everywhere alike, would himself alone say what one ought about himself, being a god, inasmuch as he has obtained something more; for this indeed was said by Pindar more finely than anything else by anyone about anything, concerning Zeus. From him we must begin and end in him, calling him the leader and helper of every discourse and every action — as is fitting for the ruler of all, the founder, and the only one who is complete of all things.