§3.56.1ἡμεῖς δʼ ἐπειδὴ περὶ τῶν Ἀτλαντίων ἐμνήσθημεν, οὐκ ἀνοίκειον ἡγούμεθα διελθεῖν τὰ μυθολογούμενα παρʼ αὐτοῖς περὶ τῆς τῶν θεῶν γενέσεως, διὰ τὸ μὴ πολὺ διαλλάττειν αὐτὰ τῶν μυθολογουμένων παρʼ Ἕλλησιν.
Since we have made mention of the Atlantians, we deem it not foreign to our subject to relate what is mythologized among them concerning the birth of the gods, because it does not differ much from what is mythologized among the Greeks.
§3.56.2οἱ τοίνυν Ἀτλάντιοι τοὺς παρὰ τὸν ὠκεανὸν τόπους κατοικοῦντες καὶ χώραν εὐδαίμονα νεμόμενοι πολλῷ μὲν εὐσεβείᾳ καὶ φιλανθρωπίᾳ τῇ πρὸς τοὺς ξένους δοκοῦσι διαφέρειν τῶν πλησιοχώρων, τὴν δὲ γένεσιν τῶν θεῶν παρʼ αὑτοῖς γενέσθαι φασί.
Now the Atlantians, inhabiting the regions along the ocean and possessing a fertile land, are thought to excel their neighbors far in piety and hospitality toward strangers, and they say that the birth of the gods took place among them.
συμφωνεῖν δὲ τοῖς λεγομένοις ὑπʼ αὐτῶν καὶ τὸν ἐπιφανέστατον τῶν παρʼ Ἕλλησι ποιητῶν ἐν οἷς παρεισάγει τὴν Ἥραν λέγουσαν εἶμι γὰρ ὀψομένη πολυφόρβου πείρατα γαίης, Ὠκεανόν τε θεῶν γένεσιν καὶ μητέρα Τηθύν. §3.56.3μυθολογοῦσι δὲ πρῶτον παρʼ αὑτοῖς Οὐρανὸν βασιλεῦσαι καὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους σποράδην οἰκοῦντας συναγαγεῖν εἰς πόλεως περίβολον, καὶ τῆς μὲν ἀνομίας καὶ τοῦ θηριώδους βίου παῦσαι τοὺς ὑπακούοντας, εὑρόντα τὰς τῶν ἡμέρων καρπῶν χρείας καὶ παραθέσεις καὶ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν χρησίμων οὐκ ὀλίγα· κατακτήσασθαι δʼ αὐτὸν καὶ τῆς οἰκουμένης τὴν πλείστην, καὶ μάλιστα τοὺς πρὸς τὴν ἑσπέραν καὶ τὴν ἄρκτον τόπους.
And they assert that the most famous of the poets among the Greeks also agrees with what is said by them, in the passage where he introduces Hera saying: "For I am going to see the limits of the fertile earth, and Oceanus, the origin of the gods, and mother Tethys." And they mythologize that Uranus was the first to reign among them, and that he gathered the people who were living scattered into the enclosure of a city, and made his subjects cease from their lawlessness and beast-like life, having discovered the uses and storage of cultivated crops, and not a few other useful things; and they say that he subdued most of the inhabited world, and especially the regions toward the west and the north.
§3.56.4τῶν δὲ ἄστρων γενόμενον ἐπιμελῆ παρατηρητὴν πολλὰ προλέγειν τῶν κατὰ τὸν κόσμον μελλόντων γίνεσθαι· εἰσηγήσασθαι δὲ τοῖς ὄχλοις τὸν μὲν ἐνιαυτὸν ἐνιαυτὸν ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ ἡλίου κινήσεως, τοὺς δὲ μῆνας ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης, καὶ τὰς κατʼ ἔτος ἕκαστον ὥρας διδάξαι.
And having become a diligent observer of the stars, he predicted many of the things that were going to happen in the universe; and he introduced to the multitudes the year from the movement of the sun, and the months from the moon, and taught the seasons of each year.
§3.56.5διὸ καὶ τοὺς πολλούς, ἀγνοοῦντας μὲν τὴν τῶν ἄστρων αἰώνιον τάξιν, θαυμάζοντας δὲ τὰ γινόμενα κατὰ τὰς προρρήσεις, ὑπολαβεῖν τὸν τούτων εἰσηγητὴν θείας μετέχειν φύσεως, μετὰ δὲ τὴν ἐξ ἀνθρώπων αὐτοῦ μετάστασιν διά τε τὰς εὐεργεσίας καὶ τὴν τῶν ἄστρων ἐπίγνωσιν ἀθανάτους τιμὰς ἀπονεῖμαι· μεταγαγεῖν δʼ αὐτοῦ τὴν προσηγορίαν ἐπὶ τὸν κόσμον, ἅμα μὲν τῷ δοκεῖν οἰκείως ἐσχηκέναι πρὸς τὰς τῶν ἄστρων ἐπιτολάς τε καὶ δύσεις καὶ τἄλλα τὰ γινόμενα περὶ τὸν κόσμον, ἅμα δὲ τῷ μεγέθει τῶν τιμῶν ὑπερβάλλειν τὰς εὐεργεσίας, καὶ πρὸς τὸν αἰῶνα βασιλέα τῶν ὅλων αὐτὸν ἀναγορεύσαντας.
For this reason, the multitudes, being ignorant of the eternal order of the stars and marveling at the things which happened according to his predictions, believed that the introducer of these things partook of a divine nature, and after his departure from among men, they paid him immortal honors because of his benefactions and his knowledge of the stars; and they transferred his name to the universe, partly because he seemed to have been intimately associated with the risings and settings of the stars and other things happening in the universe, and partly because they wished to surpass his benefactions by the magnitude of his honors, and they declared him to be the king of all things for eternity.