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| Chapter IX. They Give Rise to Superstitions.
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Chapter IX.—They Give Rise to Superstitions.
Such are the demons; these are they who laid down
the doctrine of Fate. Their fundamental principle was the placing of
animals in the heavens. For the creeping things on the earth, and those
that swim in the waters, and the quadrupeds on the mountains, with
which they lived when expelled from heaven,—these they dignified
with celestial honour, in order that they might themselves be thought
to remain in heaven, and, by placing the constellations there, might
make to appear rational the irrational course of life on earth.445
| 445 Comp. ch. viii. init. |
Thus the high-spirited and he who is crushed with toil, the temperate
and the intemperate, the indigent and the wealthy, are what they are
simply from the controllers of their nativity. For the delineation of
the zodiacal circle is the work of gods. And, when the light of one of
them predominates, as they express it, it deprives all the rest
of their honour; and he who now is
conquered, at another time gains the predominance. And the seven
planets are well pleased with them,446
| 446 The signs of the Zodiac (Gesner). | as
if they were amusing themselves with dice. But we are superior
to Fate, and instead of wandering (πλανητῶν)
demons, we have learned to know one Lord who wanders not; and, as we
do not follow the guidance of Fate, we reject its lawgivers. Tell
me, I adjure you,447
| 447
Literally, “Tell me by God,” or, “in the name
of God.” | did Triptolemus sow wheat and prove a
benefactor to the Athenians after their sorrow? And why was not
Demeter, before she lost her daughter, a benefactress to men? The Dog
of Erigone is shown in the heavens, and the Scorpion the helper of
Artemis, and Chiron the Centaur, and the divided Argo, and the Bear
of Callisto. Yet how, before these performed the aforesaid deeds,
were the heavens unadorned? And to whom will it not appear ridiculous
that the Deltotum448
| 448 The
Deltotum was a star of the shape of a triangle.—Otto. | should be placed among the
stars, according to some, on account of Sicily, or, as others say,
on account of the first letter in the name of Zeus (Διός)? For
why are not Sardinia and Cyprus honoured in heaven? And why have
not the letters of the names of the brothers of Zeus, who shared
the kingdom with him, been fixed there too? And how is it that
Kronos, who was put in chains and ejected from his kingdom, is
constituted a manager449
| 449
[οἰκόνομος.
So cap. xii., infra: “the constitution of the
body is under one management,” μιᾶς
ἐστὶν
οἰκονομἱας.
Also cap. xxi., p. 74, infra, note 5.] | of Fate? How, too, can he give
kingdoms who no longer reigns himself? Reject, then, these absurdities,
and do not become transgressors by hating us unjustly.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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