Astronomicon

Whether mixed chaos once separated the first beginnings of things and, having labored to bring forth the world in its shining birth, the driven-out darkness fled into the shadows of the underworld;

Or whether the world was resolved into indivisible principles original: "individuis... principiis." This refers to the atomist theory popularized by Epicurus and Lucretius, suggesting the universe is made of tiny, "uncuttable" particles called atoms., only to return to them again—for it remains after a thousand ages, having come almost from nothing and destined to become a final nothingness, and blind matter completed the heavens and the earth;

Or if fire fashioned the work, and the shimmering flames—which made the eyes of the world The "eyes of the world" refers to the celestial bodies, particularly the sun and moon, which allow the universe to "see" and be seen.—gape through the whole body and fix vibrating lights in the sky;

Whether water gave birth to this, or that earth from which dry matter thrives, and which calls for the fire by which it is dissolved;

But as neither earth, nor flame, nor air, nor water knows a master, they create a god through their four limbs original: "quattuor artus." Manilius personifies the four elements (earth, air, fire, water) as the structural limbs of a divine, living universe.. They constructed the globe of the world and forbid anything to be sought beyond themselves. Then all things are created through them, so that cold things are not lacking to the hot, nor moist to the dry, nor spirit to the solid.

This is their harmonious discord original: "discordia concors." A central Stoic concept where the tension between opposing forces (like fire and water) is exactly what creates the balance and stability of the natural world. which fashions a clever bond and a generative work. And rather, they make all elements interconnected. There will always be a kind of struggle, and it will remain undecided on each side; and yet, there stands above them the [fate] of humans and gods.

Whatever the appearance was at the origin of things, it is agreed that the body of the universe was arranged in a certain order: swift fire raised itself into the ethereal breezes.