To Poseidon

​sea; and that all things from all sides come here both by land and by sea, and that this is the reason why from the oldest times it has been sung of as a wealthy place by the poets, both because of the abundance of present goods and because of the prosperity existing in it. For it is like a sort of agora, a common court, and a festival of the Greeks, not one which the Greek world fills up for her every two years, like this present one, but one which goes on through the whole year and every single day. And if, just as among men, so also among cities there were mutual hospitality toward one another, this city would have had that name and this honor everywhere; for she receives all of them into herself and sends them forth again from herself, and is a common refuge for all; just like a sort of road and passageway for all men, wherever one might go, and a common city of the Greeks, literally a sort of metropolis and mother in this very sense. For among other things, there is no place where one could rest sweeter or more beloved than as if in a mother’s bosom, so much is she herself a rest, a refuge, and a salvation to all who meet her. But indeed, how great a multitude of her beauty and longings and loves has been kindled, so as to bind everyone with sweetness and to set everyone on fire for her alike, and to have within herself friendships, longings, intimate converse, and persuasive talk, so as to steal away the mind even of those who think highly of themselves; and if there is need of anything else besides these—all the so-called remedies of the goddess—so that the city is clearly that of Aphrodite, which it occurs to me to name; whatever this girdle is, with which the goddess binds everyone to herself, and that this is like a sort of collar and necklace of the whole of Greece, and a sanctuary of the Nymphs, of all the Naiads dwelling here, and a bridal chamber of the Hours, in which they sit all the time and from which they go forth to open the gates, whether you wish to call them those of Zeus or of Poseidon. And if ever a strife concerning beauty had ​fallen upon the cities, just as it is said once to have occurred among the goddesses, it would have been on the side of Aphrodite. And concerning the appearance of the city, what could anyone even say, since not even the eyes of all men are sufficient to contain it? And as for its size, what greater proof could one make than that she is stretched out to all seas, and is settled together with them and built alongside them, not in one part and not in another, but in all alike? Moreover, as a base of good order, the city even now awards justice to the Greeks. And as for wealth and the abundance of goods, since the land from all sides and the sea from all sides pour upon her as much as is fitting, she is as if dwelling in the midst of goods and washed around by them, just like a merchant ship full of goods all around. And as for wisdom, even by walking along the road you would find it; and you might learn and hear it even from inanimate things; so many are the treasuries of letters all around her, wherever one might only look, even along the streets themselves and the colonnades. Furthermore, there are the gymnasia, the schools, both studies and histories. Why then is there need to mention Sisyphus, or the understanding of Sisyphus, or Corinthus son of Zeus, or Bellerophon son of Poseidon, or any other of the heroes and demigods, or, after these things, those who in turn invented weights and scales and measures, and the justice in these things, and how this city built ships—not only the trireme, but I would even say the Argo itself? At any rate, the leader of its voyage, after the sailing up from there, appears to have brought her down here and moored her here; or again, the things on land: the so-called wing of Pegasus, whether you will call it that of a horse or even that of a bird; and the first rider who dared to mount it in mid-air. But these indeed are ancient and mythical; while those things which are still even now remembered, both peaceable and warlike...