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| Allegorical Interpretation.
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Chapter XXXII.—Allegorical Interpretation.
“She therefore (Rhea, or nature), it is said,
produced, as it were, a certain bubble which had been collecting for a
long time; and it being gradually collected from the spirit which
was in the waters, swelled, and being for some time driven over the
surface of matter, from which it had come forth as from a womb, and
being hardened by the rigour of cold, and always increasing by
additions of ice, at length was broken off and sunk into the deep, and
drawn by its own weight, went down to the infernal regions; and because
it became invisible it was called Aides, and is also named Orcus or
Pluto.871
| 871 [Comp. Homily VI.
6.—R.] | And since it was sunk from the top
to the bottom, it gave place to the moist element to flow together; and
the grosser part, which is the earth, was laid bare by the retirement
of the waters. They say, therefore, that this freedom of the
waters, which was formerly restrained by the presence of the bubble,
was called Neptune after the bubble attained the lowest place.
After this, when the cold element had been sucked down to the lower
regions by the concretion of the icy bubble, and the dry and the moist
element had been separated, there being now no hindrance, the warm
element rushed by its force and lightness to the upper regions of the
air, being borne up by wind and storm. This storm, therefore,
which in Greek is called καταιγίς,
they called ægis—that is, a
she-goat; and the fire which ascended to the upper regions they called
Jupiter; wherefore they say that he ascended to Olympus riding on a
she-goat.
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