BOOK II. VI. 36-41 



the daylight, or as being a deputy for the moon. 

 This property of Venus was first discovered by 

 Pythagoras of Samos about the 42nd Olympiad,* 

 142 years after the foundation ^ of Rome. Further it 

 surpasses all the other stars in magnitude, and is so 

 brilliant that alone among stars it casts a shadow by 

 its rays. Consequently there is a great competition 

 to give it a name, some having called it Juno, others 

 Isis, others the Mother of the Gods. Its influence 

 is the cause of the birth of all things upon earth ; 

 at both of its risings it scatters a genital dew with 

 which it not only fills the conceptive organs of the 

 earth but also stimulates those of all animals. It 

 completes the circuit of the zodiac every 348 days, and 

 according to Timaeus is never more than 46 degrees 

 distant from the sun. The star next to Venus is 

 Mei-cuiy, by some called ApoUo ; it has a similar 

 orbit, but is by no means similar in magnitude or 

 power. It travels in a lower circle, with a revolution 

 nine days quicker, shining sometimes before sunrise 

 and sometimes after sunset, but according to Cidenas 

 and Sosigcnes never more than 22 degrees away from 

 the sun. Consequently the course of thcse stars 

 also is peculiar, and not shared by those above- 

 mentioned ; those are often observed to be a quarter 

 or a third of the heaven away from the sun and 

 traveUing against the sun, and they all have other 

 larger circuits of full revolution, the specifieation of 

 which belongs to the theory of tlie Great Year.'' 



But the wonder of everyone is vanquished by the Th-e.nrri 

 last star, the one most familiar to the earth, and 



theory of the Cosmio Year is attributed to the Pythagoreans 

 and to Heraclitus; Plato, Tit/uieus 39, gives its length as 

 10,000 years. 



193 



