To Poseidon

[Continued] also this, the greatest thing, the lot of immortality, and for one to be born straightway in such a state. Therefore, Leucothea was a goddess straight from the beginning, and it was not misfortunes that brought her to this, but her being such straight from her birth prepared her not to be in any misfortune at all. Otherwise she would not have been with the gods, being a goddess, nor would she have had such great power as we hear of. But now, since we must believe the account of Homer, her case runs the risk of being a kind of monarchy over the dominion of the sea, and of it not being permitted even to Poseidon himself to do anything without her consent. For let it be said, if indeed it was not even permitted to him to avenge the murderer of his child, though having these things in his hands, so to speak, but to make a noise in vain, and if his throwing everything into confusion and whatever things he did, snatching up his trident, were nothing in comparison with the protection of this goddess, whether one ought to call it a veil according to the poetic account or in some other way, which was indeed safety and security in the midst of dangers, it is clear that these things did not happen by force nor against the will of the god, but because Poseidon yielded to her in all things and permitted her to do whatever she wished. And indeed, the discourse did well to come to this point, especially because some beautiful thing has appeared to us from it, namely that Leucothea is for us a kind of philosopher, not only compassionate and loving the Greeks; she who, as it turned out, saved Odysseus, the wisest and best of the Greeks, as she would anyone else, and all those who had a love of wisdom and wished to be skilled, quick-witted, and prudent, qualities which are indeed spoken of in relation to Odysseus. These are indeed the things concerning her, pleasing also to Poseidon himself, as I think. And as for Palaemon, it is good both to speak of him and to call upon his name, and to make an oath by him, and to share in the initiation and the mystic rites for him, so great a desire attaches to the child, even to see him in a picture, in one place being carried on a dolphin, in another on the very back of the sea, and in another, in the hands of his ​mother, the young branch of the child, both his youth and his bloom. For these are the sweetest of sights, both to see and to hear; and that the sea and a calm are present with him in a picture is also beautiful, and the smiles of the child toward Poseidon as he receives him with his robe. But one must not add any other thing to these, such as the fearful and impious pictures in some places, which I wonder how those who first saw them ever put up with, and did not go with anger against their creators and perpetrators, or even still now tolerate in the midst of the temples. But indeed, it is perhaps not my place to censure such things. Finally, then, we must pray to Poseidon, Amphitrite, Leucothea, Palaemon, the Nereids, and all the sea gods and goddesses, to grant safety and salvation both on land and at sea to the great king and to his whole race, and to the race of the Greeks, and that we may prosper in other respects and proceed in our discourses to what is fitting for each of us.