454 Zeus descends in rain to fertilise the earth

An equally famous passage from the Chrysippos of the same poet
expands the idea:

Mightiest Earth and Burning Sky of Zeus —
He was the sire of men and gods alike,

And she from him received

The pelting watery drops
And mortals bare, bare too both blade and beast,
Wherefore aright we deem her mother of all.

Yea, and the things that spring

From Earth to Earth return,
But such as grow from seed aetherial
Home again go to the very height of heaven.

Nothing that lives shall die,
But, scattered now by this and now by that,
Put on fresh forms of immortality1.

Vitruvius informs us that Euripides took these views—views which
left a lasting trace on the poetic thought of Rome—from the
philosopher Anaxagoras2. But if so, it is merely one more case o
Greek philosophy starting from the premises of folk-belief3.
that belief I take to have been that the rain falling from the sky
was in very truth the seed of the sky-god. ,
Nowhere, perhaps, is this put more simply than in Prokl°s
commentary on the Timaios of Platon. After remarking t^3'
Orpheus speaks of the Earth as the first bride and of her uni°n
with the Sky as the very first marriage4, he proceeds: ' The ordinanceS
of the Athenians were aware of this, when they bade the preurn'n^g
marriage sacrifice be offered to Sky and Earth. It was with
same intent that at the Eleusinian rites they looked up to the _
and shouted hye, "rain," then down to the Earth and added /|
"conceive": they realised, in fact, that all things spring from
and Earth as from a father and a mother5.' ^

1 Eur. Chrysippos frag. 839 Nauck2 ap. Sext. adv. mus. 6. 17, Philon- de 11 ^
mundi 11, de mundo II, alib. Taia fieyiari] nal Aios kWrjp, \ 6 av9p<i'irb"'^' tIkT(1
yevtrup, | 77 5' vypo/36\ovs (J. Toup cj. uyp6/3oXos) arayovas vorias | TrapaSe^ap ^ ^ ^ ^
0vi1tovs, | riiTH fioT&v-riv (E. Miiller cj. pordvav for fiop&v codd.) <pv\& re ^j""* tfaii,'
ovk aSUm \ y.-hrf)p tt&vtwv vevopiffrai. \ xaPe' MffM I ra ixh eK yalas <Pvvr * i&
to, 5' air' alOeplov §\aarbvTa yovijs j eh oipavwv -rrcChw r/KBe wb'Kov \ BvfiaKtt. S s°sage
yiyvofitvoiv, | 5ia.Kpiv6p.evov S' dWo irpbs &\\ov | p.opcpiiv eripav airiSei^ev. This p ses frag
translated by Lucr. 2. 991 ff. (cp. it. 5. 318 ff.) and paraphrased by Pacuv. Chry
6 Ribbeck. Supra i. 26. in; j875

2 Vitr. 8 praef. 1. See alsoAet. 5. 19. 3 = H. Diels Doxographi GraedBeI°

673 l;,i's

p. 430 a 10 ff., id. Die Fragmente do- Vorsokratiker'3 Berlin 1912 i- 398' 9 ^ ,( $o&

3 Supra i. 11, 27 ff., 282 n. 7, 310 f., 357 n. 4, ii. 222 n. 1, 505 n. 1. ^ r0xt
n. 6, 1132 n. 3, etc. For a fine expansion of the theme see Prof. F.
stimulating book From Religion to Philosophy London 1912. , ,\

4 Oiph./ra^-. 112 Kern ap. Prokl. in Plat. Tim. 40 E (hi. 176, 10 ff. £>iel >'

5 Prokl. in Plat. Tim. 40 K (iii. 176, 26 ff. Diehl) cited supra p. 299 n"