1907.] 



AND CONTRACTION OF THE EARTH. 239 



rush into the lower parts of the earth, as they are called, they flow through 

 the earth into those regions, and fill them up as with the alternate motion 

 of a pump, and then when they leave those regions and rush back hither, 

 they again fill the hollows here, and when these are filled, flow through sub- 

 terranean channels and find their way to their several places, forming seas, 

 and lakes, and rivers, and springs. Thence they again enter the earth, some 

 of them making a long circuit into many lands, others going to few places 

 and those not distant, and again fall into Tartarus, some at a point a good 

 deal lower than that at which they rose, and others not much lower, but all 

 in some degree lower than the point of issue. And some burst forth again 

 on the opposite side, and some on the same side, and some wind round the 

 earth with one or many folds, like the coils of a serpent, and descend as far 

 as they can, but always return and fall into the lake. The rivers on either 

 side can descend only to the center and no further, for to the rivers on both 

 sides the opposite side is a precipice. 



" * Now these rivers are many, and mighty, and diverse, and there are 

 four principal ones, of which the greatest and outermost is that called Oceanus, 

 which flows round the earth in a circle; and in the opposite direction flows 

 Acheron, which passes under the earth through desert places, into the Ache- 

 riisian lake : this is the lake to the shores of which the souls of the many go 

 when they are dead, and after waiting an appointed time, which is to some 

 a longer and to some a shorter time, they are sent back again to be born as 

 animals. The third river rises between the two, and near the place of ris- 

 ing pours into a vast region of fire, and forms a lake larger than the Medi- 

 terranean Sea, boiling with water and mud ; and proceeding muddy and tur- 

 bid, and winding about the earth, comes among other places, to the extremities 

 of the Acherusian lake, but mingles not with the waters of the lake, and 

 after making many coils about the earth plunges into Tartarus at a deeper 

 level. This is that Pyriphlegethon, as the stream is called, which throws 

 up jets of fire in all sorts of places. The fourth river goes out on the oppo- 

 site side, and falls first of all into a wild and savage region, which is all of 

 a dark-blue color, like lapis lazuli ; and this is that river which is called the 

 Stygian river, and falls into and forms the lake Styx, and after falling into 

 the lake and receiving strange powers in the waters, passes under the earth, 

 winding round in the opposite direction to Pyriphlegethon, and meeting in 

 the Acherusian lake from the opposite side. And the water of this river too 

 mingles with no other, but flows round in a circle and falls into Tartarus 

 over against Pyriphlegethon ; and the name of this river, as the poets say, 

 is Cocytus.' " 



In the Timciis Plato represents a priest of Sais in Egypt as say- 

 ing to Solon : 



" ' There have been and will be again, many destructions of mankind aris- 

 ing out of many causes ; the greatest have been brought about by the agencies 

 of fire and water, and other lesser ones by innumerable other causes. There 

 is a story which even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaethon, the 

 son of Helios, having yoked the steeds of his father's chariot, because he 

 was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was 



PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC, XLVI. l86 Q, PRINTED SEPTEMBER 4, I907. 



