clear uncovering of the dry land, when he says of Tethys and Oceanus:
"For now for a long time they abstain from
Each other's bed and love?"[1]
Again, power in all things is by the most intellectual among the Greeks ascribed to God; Epicharmus—he was a Pythagorean—saying:
"Nothing escapes the divine. This it behoves thee to know.
He is our observer. To God nought is impossible."
And the lyric poet:
"And God from gloomy night
Can raise unstained light,
And can in darksome gloom obscure
The day's refulgence pure."
He alone who is able to make night during the period of day is God.
In the Phænomena Aratus writes thus:
"With Zeus let us begin; whom let us ne'er,
Being men, leave unexpressed. All full of Zeus,
The streets, and throngs of men, and full the sea,
And shores, and everywhere we Zeus enjoy."
He adds:
"For we also are
His offspring; …"
that is, by creation.
Who, bland to men,
Propitious signs displays, and to their tasks
Arouses. For these signs in heaven He fixed,
The constellations spread, and crowned the year
With stars; to show to men the seasons' tasks,
That all things may proceed in order sure.
Him ever first, Him last too, they adore:
Hail Father, marvel great—great boon to men.
And before him, Homer, framing the world in accordance with Moses on the Vulcan-wrought shield, says:
"On it he fashioned earth, and sky, and sea,
And all the signs with which the heaven is crowned."[2]
