When all of them, both those who show themselves in the sky, and
those who retire from view, had come into being, the Creator
addressed them thus:—‘Gods, sons of gods, my works, if I will,
are indissoluble. That which is bound may be dissolved, but only
an evil being would dissolve that which is harmonious and happy.
And although you are not immortal you shall not die, for I will
hold you together. Hear me, then:—Three tribes of mortal beings
have still to be created, but if created by me they would be like
gods. Do ye therefore make them; I will implant in them the seed
of immortality, and you shall weave together the mortal and
immortal, and provide food for them, and receive them again in
death.’ Thus he spake, and poured the remains of the elements
into the cup in which he had mingled the soul of the universe.
They were no longer pure as before, but diluted; and the mixture
he distributed into souls equal in number to the stars, and
assigned each to a star—then having mounted them, as in a
chariot, he showed them the nature of the universe, and told them
of their future birth and human lot. They were to be sown in the
planets, and out of them was to come forth the most religious of
animals, which would hereafter be called man. The souls were to
be implanted in bodies, which were in a perpetual flux, whence,
he said, would arise, first, sensation; secondly, love, which is
a mixture of pleasure and pain; thirdly, fear and anger, and the
opposite affections: and if they conquered these, they would live
righteously, but if they were conquered by them, unrighteously.
He who lived well would return to his native star, and would
there have a blessed existence; but, if he lived ill, he would
pass into the nature of a woman, and if he did not then alter his
evil ways, into the likeness of some animal, until the reason
which was in him reasserted her sway over the elements of fire,
air, earth, water, which had engrossed her, and he regained his
first and better nature. Having given this law to his creatures,
that he might be guiltless of their future evil, he sowed them,
some in the earth, some in the moon, and some in the other
planets; and he ordered the younger gods to frame human bodies
for them and to make the necessary additions to them, and to
avert from them all but self-inflicted evil.