(For it is evident that Attis of whom I speak, who wears the tiara set with stars, took for the foundation of his own dominion the functions of every god as we see them applied to the visible world. And in his case all is undefiled and pure as far as the Milky Way. But, at this very point, that which is troubled by passion begins to mingle with the passionless, and from that union matter begins to subsist. And so the association of Attis with matter is the descent into the cave, nor did this take place against the will of the gods and the Mother of the Gods, though the myth says that it was against their will. For by their nature the gods dwell in a higher world, and the higher powers do not desire to drag them hence down to our world: rather through the condescension of the higher they desire to lead the things of our earth upwards to a higher plane more favoured by the gods. And in fact the myth does not say that the Mother of the Gods was hostile to Attis after his castration: but it says that though she is no longer angry, she was angry at the time on account of his condescension, in that he who was a higher being and a god had given himself to that which was inferior. But when, after staying his limitless progress, he has set in order the chaos of our world through his sympathy with the cycle of the equinox, where mighty Helios controls the most perfect symmetry of his motion within due limits, then the goddess gladly leads him upwards to herself, or rather keeps him by her side. And never did this happen save in the manner that it happens now; but forever is Attis the servant and charioteer of the Mother; forever he yearns passionately towards generation; and forever he cuts short his unlimited course through the cause whose limits are fixed, even the cause of the forms. In like manner the myth says that he is led upwards as though from our earth, and again resumes his ancient sceptre and dominion: not that he ever lost it, or ever loses it now, but the myth says that he lost it on account of his union with that which is subject to passion and change.)