Stephanus 92

92a crowns, wherever the revolutions in each had been crushed together by their idleness. And from this came their race four-footed and many-footed, the god laying down more supports for the more witless, so that they might be drawn the more toward the ground. And from the most witless of these, whose whole body was stretched altogether toward the ground, since there was no more need of feet, the footless ones were begotten, creeping along the earth. And 92b the fourth kind, the water kind, came from the most senseless and most unteachable of all, whom the remolders judged unworthy even of pure breathing any longer, since their souls held every kind of transgression unclean; and instead of a fine and pure breath of air they thrust them into breathing water, murky and deep. From this came the tribe of fish, and that of shellfish, and together with them all that have come to be water-dwellers, who, as the penalty of their uttermost ignorance, won by lot 92c the uttermost of dwellings. And by these rules, then, all living things, then and now, pass into one another, transformed by the losing and the gaining of intelligence and folly.

And now at last let us declare our account about the universe to have its end. For having taken in mortal and immortal living things, and been completed in this way, this world has become a visible living creature embracing all that is visible, an image of the intelligible, a god perceivable to sense, greatest and best and most beautiful and most perfect—one heaven, this one, the only one of its kind.

92a tops of the head, since in each of them the revolutions were crushed together by idleness. From this cause there grew the four-footed kind and the many-footed kind, God setting more supports under the more foolish, so that they would be pulled down more to the earth. To the most foolish of these, whose whole body is stretched down against the ground so that they no longer have any need of feet, he gave birth to them without feet, crawling on the ground. The fourth kind, 92b the water-living one, came to be from the most mindless and unlearned of all, whom the reshapers no longer deemed worthy even of pure breath, because their souls were wholly unclean from every kind of wrong; but instead of the thin, pure breath of air they pushed them into the murky, deep breathing of water. From these came the tribe of fish and of shellfish and everything that lives in water, as the penalty for the deepest ignorance, receiving the lowest homes 92c.

And so now let us say that our account of the whole has reached its end. For this cosmos, taking in mortal and immortal living things and being filled up in this way, has come to be a visible living thing containing all that is visible, an image of the intelligible, a perceptible god, greatest and best, most beautiful and most complete: this one heaven, unique of its kind.

92a On this account also their race was made four-footed and many-footed, since God set more supports under the more foolish ones, so that they might be dragged down still more to the earth. And inasmuch as there was no longer any need of feet for the most foolish of these same creatures, which stretched with their whole body along the earth, the gods generated these footless and wriggling upon the earth. 92b And the fourth kind, which lives in the water, came from the most utterly thoughtless and stupid of men, whom those that remolded them deemed no longer worthy even of pure respiration, seeing that they were unclean of soul through utter wickedness; wherefore in place of air, for refined and pure respiring, they thrust them into water, there to respire its turbid depths. Thence have come into being the tribe of fishes and of shellfish and all creatures of the waters, which have for their portion the extremest of all abodes in requital for the extremity of their witlessness. Thus, both then and now, living creatures keep passing 92c into one another in all these ways, as they undergo transformation by the loss or by the gain of reason and unreason.

And now at length we may say that our discourse concerning the Universe has reached its termination. For this our Cosmos has received the living creatures both mortal and immortal and been thereby fulfilled; it being itself a visible Living Creature embracing the visible creatures, a perceptible God made in the image of the Intelligible, most great and good and fair and perfect in its generation—even this one Heaven sole of its kind.