dream, in an interpretation of a dream, or spoken by oracles and prophecies to some in hearing, healthy or sick, or being met with at the close of life, and opinions being present privately and publicly, from whence many sacred rites of many have taken place, and some will take place;[1] of all these the legislator, who possesses even the smallest particle of mind, will never dare, by making innovations towards a god-worship, which does not possess something clear, to overturn his own state; nor will he, knowing nothing at all (himself), forbid any portion[2] of what the law of his country has spoken, on the subject of the gods.[3] For[4] it is not possible for human nature to know any thing on points of this kind. And does not the same reason hold good, that those are the worst of men, who do not dare to speak to us of the gods really existing [5]in a manifest form, and to make them manifest,[5] by permitting[6] the other gods to be without sacred rites, and not to receive the honours that are due to them? But now there happens a thing of this kind to take place, as if some one of us had seen the Sun and Moon existing and looking upon all of us; and, [7]although able to speak, had not said[7] that they remained still[7] sharing in no honours; nor was he anxious for his part to bring them into a place of honour, nor to cause festivals and sacrifices to take place for them; nor, through the computed time, [8] to distribute to each of them the seasons of fre-
- ↑ Such is the literal translation of the unintelligible Greek; where Stephens was the first to confess himself at fault; nor has Ast been able to make out the syntax and sense satisfactorily. Ficinus, apparently in despair of being able to translate literally, has given what he conceived to be the general sense in his version, adopted in part by Taylor— "quæ aut somnis aut vaticinio audituque per vocem sanorum aut ægrotantium auribus percepta, aut etiam in ipso e vita excessu nobis sese offerentia nostros animos movent; unde multa multis sacra et privatim et publice his opinionibus instituta sunt, insrituenturque in posterum."
- ↑ I have translated as if the Greek were οὐδ’ ἒν— not οὐδ’ ὦν—
- ↑ I have adopted θεῶν, found in the margin of two MSS., in lieu of θνσιῶν—
- ↑ In lieu of ὤσπερ, which he could not understand, Ast suggested ὡς— He should have proposed καὶ γὰρ, as I have translated. On the confusion of ὡς and καὶ see §4, p. 12, n. 7.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Others may, but I will not, believe that the author wrote ὅντως ἡμῖν φανεροὺς ὅντας θεοὺς— and afterwards φανεροὺς ποιεῖν— For if the gods were really manifest, it would be unnecessary to make them so. But what he did write, I confess my inability to discover.
- ↑ In lieu of ὅντας Ficinus found in his MS. ἐὤντας, as shown by his version "relinqui— patiuntur."
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Grou was the first to read, what the sense requires, δυνατὸς, for ἀδύνατος. But as Ficinus omits καὶ μὴ ἕφραζεν ἀδυνατὸς ὤν πῃ φράζειν— Ast would omit those words likewise, without even venturing to assign a reason for their being found here. I have therefore translated, as if the Greek were (7) τιμ ἕτι— μεῖναι, not τίμῆς τε— ἄμα: where ἄμα is perfectly unintelligible.
- ↑ Ast, unable to understand ἀπολαμβανόμενον— χρόνον, suggested ἀπολαμβάνοντα— should have proposed, as I have translated, ἀπολαμβανομένου— χρόνου—
