And when, in the course of the myth, Helios says that on account of the impiety of the comrades of Odysseus(662) he will forsake Olympus, Zeus no longer says,) Αὐτῇ κεν γαίῃ ἐρύσαιμ᾽ αὐτῇ τε θαλάσσῃ, (“Then with very earth would I draw you up and the sea withal,”(663)) οὐδὲ ἀπειλεῖ δεσμὸν οὐδὲ βίαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν δίκην φησὶν ἐπιθήσειν τοῖς ἡμαρτηκόσιν, αὐτὸν δὲ ἀξιοῖ φαίνειν ἐν τοῖς θεοῖς. ἆρ᾽ οὐξὶ διὰ τούτων πρὸς τῷ αὐτεξουσίῳ καὶ τελεσιουργὸν εἶναί φησι τὸν Ἥλιον; ἐπὶ τί γὰρ αὐτοῦ οἱ θεοὶ δέονται, πλὴν εἰ μὴ πρὸς τὴν οὐσίαν [B] καὶ τὸ εἶναι ἀφανῶς ἐναστράπτων ὧν ἔφαμεν ἀγαθῶν ἀποπληρωτικὸς τυγχάνοι; τὸ γὰρ (nor does he threaten him with fetters or violence, but he says that he will inflict punishment on the guilty and bids Helios go on shining among the gods. Does he not thereby declare that besides being unconditioned, Helios has also the power to perfect? For why do the gods need him unless by sending his light, himself invisible, on their substance and existence, he fulfils for them the blessings of which I spoke? For when Homer says that) Ἠέλιόν τ᾽ ἀκάμαντα βοῶπις πότνια Ἥρη Πέμψεν ἐπ᾽ Ὠκεανοῖο ῥοὰς ἀέκοντα νέεσθαι(664) (“Ox‐eyed Hera, the queen, sent unwearied Helios to go, all unwilling, to the streams of Oceanus,”) πρὸ τοῦ καιροῦ φησι νομισθῆναι τὴν νύκτα διὰ τινα χαλεπὴν ὁμίχλην. αὕτη γὰρ ἡ θεός που, καὶ ἄλλοθι τῆς ποιήσεώς φησιν,(665) (he means that, by reason of a heavy mist, it was thought to be night before the proper time. And this mist is surely the goddess herself, and in another place also in the poem he says,) ἠέρα δ᾽ Ἥρη Πίτνα πρόσθε βαθεῖαν. [C] (“Hera spread before them a thick mist.”) ἁλλὰ τὰ μὲν τῶν ποιητῶν χαίρειν ἐάσωμεν· ἔχει γὰρ μετὰ τοῦ θείου πολὺ καὶ τἀνθρώπινον· ἃ δὲ ἡμᾶς ἔοικεν αὐτὸς ὁ θεὸς διδάσκειν ὑπέρ τε αὑτοῦ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων, ἐκεῖνα ἤδη διέλθωμεν. (But let us leave the stories of the poets alone. For along with what is inspired they contain much also that is merely human. And let me now relate what the god himself seems to teach us, both about himself and the other gods.)