Moreover, was it not silly and completely absurd
that when they were talking about things so uncertain they did not make a single assertion
hypothetically but were vehement in their insistence
and gave the rest no chance to outdo them in
exaggeration; all but swearing that the sun is a mass
of molten metal, that the moon is inhabited, and
that the stars drink water, the sun drawing up the
moisture from the sea with a rope and bucket, as it
were, and distributing the beverage to all of them
in order?
As for the contradictory nature of their theories,
that is easy to appreciate. Just see for yourself, in
Heaven’s name, whether their doctrines are akin and
not widely divergent. First of all, there is their
difference of opinion about the universe. Some
think it is without beginning and without end, but
others have even ventured to tell who made it and
how it was constructed; and these latter surprised
me most, for they made some god or other the
creator of the universe, but did not tell where he
came from or where he stood when he created it all;
and yet it is impossible to conceive of time and
space before the genesis of the universe.
They are very presumptuous charlatans by what
you say, Menippus.
But my dear man, what if I should tell you all they
said about “ideas” and incorporeal entities, or their
theories about the finite and the infinite? On the
latter point also they had a childish dispute, some
of them setting a limit to the universe and others
considering it to be unlimited; nay more, they asserted that there are many worlds and censured
those who talked as if there were but one. Another,
not a man of peace, opined that war was the father
of the universe.Heraclitus. The lack of connection between this sentence and the foregoing leads me to suspect that we have lost a ortion of the Greek text containing a reference to the theories of the other Ionians.
As for the gods, why speak of them at all, seeing
that to some a number was god, while others swore
by geese and dogs and plane-trees?Socrates. See Philosophies for Sale, 16. Moreover,
some banished all the rest of the gods and assigned
the governance of the universe to one only, so that
it made me a little disgusted to hear that gods were
so scarce. Others, however, lavishly declared them
to be many and drew a distinction between them,
calling one a first god and ascribing to others second
and third rank in divinity. Furthermore, some
thought that the godhead was without form and
substance, while others defined it as body. Then
too they did not all think that the gods exercise
providence in our affairs; there were some who
relieved them of every bit of responsibility as we are
accustomed to relieve old men of public duties;
indeed, the part that they give them to play is just
like that of supers in comedy. A few went beyond
all this and did not even believe that there were any
gods at all, but left the world to wag on unruled and
ungoverned.
When I heard all this, the result was that I did not
venture to disbelieve “high-thundering” gentlemen
with goodly beards, and yet did not know where to
turn in order to find a point of doctrine that was unassailable and not in any way subject to refutation
by someone else. So I went through just what
Homer speaks of; again and again I was fain to
believe one of them,
“but other counsel drew me
back.Od. 9, 302.
At my wit’s end in view of all this, I despaired of
hearing any truth about these matters on earth and
thought that the only way out of my whole dilemma
would be to get wings somehow and go up to
Heaven. The wish was father to the thought, of
course, but the story-teller Aesop had something to
do with it also, for he makes Heaven accessible to
eagles and beetles and now and then even to camels.
Well, that I myself could ever grow wings was not in
any way possible, I thought; butif L put on the wings
of a vulture or an eagle (for no others would be
large enough to uphold the weight of a man’s body),
perhaps my attempt would succeed. So catching my
birds, I carefully cut of the right wing of the eagle
and the left wing of the vulture, tied them tightly
together, fitted them to my shoulders with stout
straps and made grips for my hands at the ends of
the primary feathers. Then I first tried myself by
jumping up and down, working my arms and doing
as geese do—lifting myself along the ground and
running on tiptoe as I flew. When the thing began
to work well for me, I went in for the experiment
with greater boldness.
Going up to the acropolis, I
let myself drop down the cliff right into the theatre.