268 NICOLAUS STENO 



of rivers ^ of like name, as also by the traditions of the Greeks,^ 

 since they relate that men, descending little by little from 

 the mountains, inhabited places bordering on the sea that were 

 sterile by reason of excessive moisture, but in course of time 

 became fertile. 



The sixth aspect of the earth is evident to the senses ; herein 

 the plains left by the waters, especially by reason of erosion, and 

 p. 75. at times through the burning of fires, passed over into various 

 channels, valleys, and steep places. And it is not to be 

 wondered at that in the historians there is no account as to 

 when any given change took place. For the history of the 

 first ages after the deluge is confused and doubtful in secular 



1 In Homer the river Nile {Odyssey IV. 477) is o AiyuirTos and the country {Odyssey XVII. 

 448) is 77 KlyvKTo%- Herodotus (II. 5) calls Aegypt 'the gift' of the Nile, and Plato 

 (Timaeus, 22 D) represents an Egyptian priest as saying to Solon : ' And from this calamity 

 {i.e. periodic destruction) the Nile, which is our never-failing savior, saves and frees us.' 

 Cf. Strabo, Geography, C. 36 (I. 2, 29). 



^ The tradition is explained at length in dialogue in Plato's Laws, 677-682 B : 



^Athenian. Do the ancient traditions seem to you to contain any truth ? 



Kleinias. What traditions ? 



Ath. The traditions that many destructions of mankind were occasioned by deluges and 

 diseases and many other things, as a result of which only a small remnant of the human race 

 was left. 



Kl. Every one believes all that. 



Ath. Come then. Let us think that one of many such destructions was once occasioned 

 by a deluge. 



Kl. What are we to think about it ? 



Ath. That those who then escaped the destruction would only be some mountain shep- 

 herds, small sparks of the human race preserved on the mountain tops. 



Kl. Clearly. . . . 



Ath. After this they came together in greater numbers and increased the size of their 

 cities, and turned to husbandry, first at the foot of the mountains. . . . 



Ath. Homer also disclosed the form following the second, saying that the third arose 

 thus. For he says. He founded Dardania, since holy Ilios had not yet been built on the 

 plain, the city of mortal men, but they still dwelt at the foot of Ida with its many springs 

 {Iliad, XX. 216-218). . . . 



Ath. Now Ilios, we say, was built when men had come down from the heights into 

 a large, fair plain, on a low hill watered by many rivers which descended from Ida.' 



We may compare also Plato's Timaeus, 11 C ; Statesman, 270 ; Critias, 109 D. 



A summary of the passage in the Laws is given by Strabo in his Geography. C, 592, 593 

 (XIII. I, 25): 



' Plato conjectures that three forms of political commonwealth were established after the del- 

 uges. The first was upon the mountain tops, a simple and savage affair, composed of folk who 

 feared the waters that still flooded the plains. The second was on the foothills, composed of 

 folk who regained their courage little by little, since the plains were beginning to dry. The 

 third was in the plains. One might mention a fourth and a fifth, and possibly more, but the 

 last was on the sea-coast and in the islands, after all fear of a deluge had vanished.' 



