Plato Epinomis 987

for it was an ancient custom that nurtured those who first 987a remarked these things owing to the fairness of the summer season which Egypt and Syria amply possess, so that they constantly beheld the whole mass, one may say, of stars revealed to their sight, since they had got then, continually without obstruction of clouds and rains in the sky; whence they have emerged in every direction and in ours likewise, after having been examined for thousands of years, nay, for an infinite time. And therefore we should not hesitate to include them in the scope of our laws; for to have divine things lacking honor, while other things are honored, 987b is clearly a sign of witlessness; and as to their having got no names, the cause of it should be stated as we have done. For indeed they have received titles of gods: thus, that Lucifer, or Hesperus (which is the same), should almost belong to Aphrodite, ¹ is reasonable, and quite befitting a Syrian lawgiver ² ; and that that which follows the same course as the sun and this ³ together should almost belong to Hermes. ⁴ Let us also note three motions of bodies ⁵ travelling to the right with the moon and the sun. One must be mentioned, the eighth, ⁶ which we may especially address as the world-order, and which travels in opposition to the whole company of the others, not impelling them, as might appear to mankind in the scant knowledge that they have of these matters. But we are bound to state, 987c and do state, so much as adequate knowledge tells us. For real wisdom shows herself in some such way as this to him who has got even a little share of right and divine meditation. And now there remain three stars, of which one is distinguished from the others by its slowness, and some speak of it under the title of Saturn; the next after it in slowness is to be cited as Jupiter ; and the next after this, as Mars, which has the ruddiest hue of all. Nothing in all this is hard to understand 987d when someone expresses it; but it is through learning, as we declare, that one must believe it.
  But there is one point which every Greek should bear in mind—that of all Greeks we have a situation which is about the most favorable to human excellence. ⁷ The praiseworthy thing in it that we have to mention is that it may be taken as midway between a wintry and a summery climate; and our climate, being inferior in its summer to that in the region over there, ⁸ as we said, has been so much later in imparting the cognizance of these cosmic deities. And let us note that 987e whatever Greeks acquire from foreigners is finally turned by them into something nobler;