matter[1]. The translation of Avienus has the advantage, which neither that of Cicero or Germanicus possesses, of coming down to us unmutilated.
Among the more celebrated of the Latin poets Virgil, Ovid, and Manilius, have borrowed considerably from Aratus.
To another class of commentators and readers the poems of Aratus have been recommended by the circumstance of St Paul, when addressing the philosophers of Athens, having quoted the exordium of the Phenomena; for, although the sacred historian only gives four words as a reference to the passage, it is probable, that the Apostle quoted the following lines to prove to his learned hearers, that the doctrine of the eternity, unity, and omnipotence of the Godhead was no new invention, or confined to the Jewish nation, but the creed of the wisest of their own philosophers and poets:
Έκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα, τὸν οὐδέποτ᾽ ἄνδρες ἐῶμεν
ἄρρητον: μεσταὶ δέ Διὸς πᾶσαι μὲν ἀγυιαί,
πᾶσαι δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἀγοραί, μεστὴ δὲ θάλασσα
καὶ λιμένες: πάντη δὲ Διὸς κεχρήμεθα πάντες.
του γαρ και γενος εσμεν' ὁ δ᾽ ἤπιος ἀνθρώποισιν
δεξιὰ σημαίνει, λαοὺς δ᾽ ἐπὶ ἔργον ἐγείρει,
μιμνῄσκων βιότοιο, λέγει δ᾽ ὅτε βῶλος ἀρίστη
βουσί τε καὶ μακέλῃσι, λέγει δ᾽ ὅτε δεξιαὶ ὧραι
καὶ φυτὰ γυρῶσαι καὶ σπέρματα πάντα βαλέσθαι.
- ↑ "In dictione poetica non comparandus est Avienus quidem Cicerone aut Germanico, excellit tamen inter poetas Latinos seriores puritate et elegantia sermonis." (Buhle.)
