§34Has igitur ob causas nata astra sunt, quae per caelum penetrantia solstitiali se et brumali revocatione converterent, ut hoc omne animal, quod videmus, esset illi animali, quod sentimus, ad aeternitatis imitationem simillimum. Et cetera quidem usque ad temporis ortum impressa ab illis, quae imitabatur, ecfinxerat; sed quia nondum omne animal in mundo intus incluserat, ex ea parte deficiebat ad propositum exemplar imaginis similitudo.
Therefore, for these causes the stars were born, which, penetrating through heaven, should turn themselves back at the summer and winter solstices, so that this entire living creature which we see might be most similar, in the imitation of eternity, to that living creature which we perceive with our intellect.\nAnd the other things indeed, up to the origin of time, he had fashioned as impressed by those things which he was imitating; but because he had not yet enclosed every living creature inside the world, the similarity of the image to the proposed model was deficient in that part.
Quot igitur et quales animalium formas mens in speciem rerum intuens poterat cernere, totidem et tales in hoc mundo secum cogitavit effingere. §35Erant autem animantium genera quattuor, quorum unum divinum atque caeleste, alterum pinnigerum et ae+rium, tertium aquatile, terrestre quartum.
Therefore, as many and of what kind of forms of living creatures as the mind, looking into the idea of things, could discern, so many and of such kinds he thought to fashion within this world.\n Now there were four kinds of living creatures: one divine and celestial, another winged and aerial, a third aquatic, and a fourth terrestrial.
Divinae animationis maxime speciem faciebat ex igne, ut et splendidissimus esset et aspectu pulcherrimus.
Of the divine life he made the form chiefly from fire, so that it might be both most splendid and most beautiful to look upon.
Cumque eum similem universi naturae efficere vellet, ad volubilitatem rotundavit comitemque eum sapientiae quam optimae mentis effecit circumque omne caelum aequaliter distribuit, ut hunc varietate distinctum bene Graeci ko/smon, nos lucentem mundum nominaremus. §36Dedit autem divinis duo genera motus, unum, quod semper esset in eodem † de quo et idem omnibus atque uno modo celaret, alterum, quod in anticam partem a conversione eiusdem et similis pelleretur.
And since he wished to make it similar to the nature of the universe, he rounded it for volubility, and made it a companion of the wisdom of the best mind, and distributed it equally around the whole heaven, so that the Greeks might properly call this object, adorned with variety, "cosmos," and we "the shining world."\n Moreover, he gave to the divine ones two kinds of motion: one, which should always be in the same place and [rotate in the same manner], and another, which should be driven forward by the revolution of the same and similar.
Quinque autem reliquis motibus orbum eum voluit esse et expertem, immobilem et stantem.
But he wished it to be deprived of and without the five remaining motions, motionless and standing.
Ex quo genere ea sunt sidera, quae infixa caelo non moventur loco, quae sunt animantia, eaque divina, ob eamque causam suis sedibus inhaerent et perpetuo manent.
To this class belong those stars which, fixed in heaven, do not move from their place, which are living creatures, and divine ones, and for this reason cling to their seats and remain perpetually.
Quae autem vaga et mutabili erratione labuntur, ita generata sunt, ut supra diximus. §37Iam vero terram, altricem nostram, quae traiecto axi sustinetur, diei noctisque effectricem eandemque custodem, antiquissimam deorum omnium voluit esse eorum, qui intra caelum gignerentur.
But those which glide in a wandering and changeable error were generated as we have said above.\n Now indeed the earth, our nourisher, which is sustained by the traversed axis, the effecter and guardian of day and night, he wished to be the oldest of all the gods that are generated within the heaven.
Lusiones autem deorum et inter ipsos deos concursiones, quaeque in orbibus eorum conversiones quaeque antecessiones eveniant, cumque inter se paene contingant, eorum qui prope copulentur contrariaque regione et pone quos aut ante labantur quibusque temporibus a nostro aspectu oblitescant rursusque emersi terrorem incutiant rationis expertibus, si verbis explicare conemur nullo posito ob oculos simulacro earum rerum, frustra suscipiatur labor.
But as for the play of the gods and their running together among themselves, and what revolutions and retrogradations occur in their circles, and when they almost touch each other, and which of those that are closely conjoined glide behind or before others, and at what times they hide from our sight and, emerging again, strike terror into those devoid of reason—if we should attempt to explain these things in words, with no model of those things placed before our eyes, our labor would be undertaken in vain.
Sed haec satis sint dicta nobis, quaeque de deorum, qui cernuntur quique sunt orti, natura praefati sumus, habeant hunc terminum. §38Reliquorum autem, quos Graeci dai/monas appellant, nostri, opinor, Lares, si modo hoc recte conversum videri potest, et nosse et enuntiare ortum eorum maius est, quam ut profiteri nos scribere audeamus.
But let these things be sufficiently spoken by us, and let what we have prefaced concerning the nature of the gods who are seen and who are born have this limit.\n But concerning the other gods, whom the Greeks call "daimones," and our people, I think, "Lares" (if only this can seem to be correctly translated), both to know and to declare their origin is a task too great for us to dare to profess to write.
Credendum nimirum est veteribus et priscis, ut aiunt, viris, qui se progeniem deorum esse dicebant, itaque eorum vocabula nobis prodiderunt.
We must indeed believe those ancient and primeval men, as they say, who declared themselves to be the progeny of the gods, and thus handed down their names to us.
Nosse autem generatores suos optime poterant, ac difficile factu est a deis ortis fidem non habere, quamquam nec argumentis nec rationibus certis eorum oratio confirmatur; sed quia de suis rebus videntur loqui, veteri legi morique parendum est. §39Sic igitur, ut ab iis est traditum, horum deorum ortus habeatur atque dicatur, ut Oceanum Salaciamque Caeli satu Terraeque conceptu generatos editosque memoremus, ex his Saturnum et Opem, deinceps Iovem atque Iunonem, reliquos, quos fratres inter se agnatosque usurpari atque appellari videmus, et eorum, ut utamur vetere verbo, prosapiam.
For they could best know their own parents, and it is difficult not to have faith in those born of the gods, although their speech is confirmed neither by arguments nor by certain reasons; but because they seem to speak of their own affairs, we must obey the ancient law and custom.\n Thus therefore, as it has been handed down by them, let the origin of these gods be held and spoken of: namely, that we should commemorate Oceanus and Salacia as generated and brought forth by the seed of Heaven and the conception of Earth, and from these Saturn and Ops, then Jupiter and Juno, and the rest whom we see used and called brothers and relatives among themselves, and their "prosapia" (ancestry), to use an old word.