ÉPINOMIS.

fellow citizens from the sacrifices established by the law of the country, because he is ignorant in these sorts of things, all mortal nature being incapable of knowing anything about them.

In relation to the gods that we see openly, does not the same reason teach us that those are very wicked who dare neither speak to us of them nor make them known, suffering that one leaves them without sacrifices and deprived of the honors that are due to them? Now, this is what happens today; it is as if someone having seen the sun or the moon rise and illuminate us all, said nothing about it to others, although he could, in some respects, give them knowledge of it, and, seeing that no honor is rendered to them, did not strive, as much as in him lies, to put them in an honorable place, in the sight of all the world, to have festivals and sacrifices instituted for them, and to use for the distribution of the seasons the time they take to traverse—the sun a longer year, the moon a smaller year Original: ἐνιαυτός year/cycle of time. The text refers here not to the lunar year as we understand it, but to the time the moon takes to complete its periodic revolution and return to the point from which it departed.. Would one not say with reason of this man that, through his wickedness, he harms himself and anyone who, like him, has the faculty of knowing?

Clinias. Without a doubt; he would be a very wicked man.

The Athenian. Well then, my dear Clinias, that is precisely the case in which I find myself.

Clinias. What are you saying?

The Athenian. Know that in the whole extent of the sky there are eight powers, all sisters of one another. I have perceived them, and this is not a great discovery: it is easy for anyone else. Of these eight powers,

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