Sumerian Flood Story (ca. 2500 BC)
(http://history-world.org/sumerian_floor_story.htm)
After Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag
had fashioned the black-headed people,
Vegetation sprang from the earth,
Animals, four-legged creatures of the plain,
Were brought artfully into existence
[37 lines are unreadable]
After the....of kingship had been lowered from heaven
After the exalted crown and the throne of kingship
Had been lowered from heaven,
He perfected the rites and exalted the divine ordinances...
He founded the five cities in pure places,...
Then did Nintu weep like a....
The pure Inanna set up a lament for its people,
Enki took council with himself,
Anu, Enlil, Enki, and Ninhursag....
The gods of heaven and earth uttered the name of Anu and Enlil
Then did Ziusudra, the king, the priest of...,
Build a giant...;
Humbly obedient, reverently he...
Attending daily, constantly he...,
Bringing forth all kinds of dreams, he...,
Uttering the name of heaven and earth, he...[...]
the gods a wall...,
Ziusudra, standing at its side, listened.
"Stand by the wall at my left side...,
By the wall I will say a word to you,
Take my word,
Give ear to my instructions:
By our...a flood will sweep over the cult-centers;
To destroy the seed of mankind...,
Is the decision, the word of the assembly of the gods.
By the word commanded by Anu and Enlil...,
Its kingship, its rule will be put to an end.
[about 40 lines missing]
All the windstorms, exceedingly powerful,
Attacked as one,
At the same time, the flood sweeps over the cult-centers.
After, for seven days,
the flood sweeps over the cult centers.
After, for seven days and seven nights,
The flood had swept over the land,
And the huge boat had been tossed
About by the windstorms on the great waters,
Utu came forth, who sheds light on heaven and earth,
Ziusudra opened a window of the huge boat,
The hero Utu brought his rays into the giant boat.
Ziusudra, the king,
Prostrated himself before Utu. 

Atra-hasis and the Flood
(This tale from Babylonia, dated ca. 1700 BCE, is the longest
and most comprehensive of the Mesopotamian Flood stories.)
Retold and Condensed by James W. Bell
http://www.jameswbell.com/m013atrahasis.html
In the beginning, before men were created, the Anunnaki – the gods living on the earth – had to till the land and water it to grow their food. They found the work tiresome and too much trouble.
So they gave Enlil lordship of the earth. He summoned the Igigi, calling down from heaven the lesser gods, lower divinities without names, to do the work.
Besides tilling the soil, Enlil assigned to the Igigi the additional tasks of digging canals, river beds and keeping their channels clear. For thousands of years, the Igigi toiled for the Anunnaki. It was too much! They downed their tools and went as a group to the Ekur, Enlil’s citadel at Nippur, to demand relief.
When the Igigi arrived before Enlil’s stronghold, he ordered his doorkeeper, Nusku, to bar the gate to keep them out. But Nusku asked, “Why has your face become as pale as the tamarisk? Why do you fear your sons? Call the other gods and let them help solve this thing.”
So Enlil summoned the others, including Anu from heaven, and Enki, lord of the Abzu. Together, they stood on the ramparts of the Ekur and addressed the besiegers. “Why do you attack us?”
The Igigi answered as one, “The work you have assigned us is killing; we can no longer bear it. We have put a stop to digging and declared war.”
Then Enki took the gods inside to counsel them. “Why do we blame the Igigi? Their tasks are too hard.
“Look,” he continued, “the goddess Mami is with us. Let her create mortals, creatures to be our servants and to do our work. Then we can put the yoke of Enlil on these beings and let the Igigi return to heaven.”
The gods agreed and asked Mami to produce such creatures. But the Goddess of Midwifery demurred. “It is not prudent for me to attempt all this. Choose Enki instead, because he is wise and makes things right. If he will prepare clay suitable to the task, I will birth it.”
Enki responded, “If we use pure clay to make these new creatures, they will be like the animals, without intelligence. To make them capable of bearing the yoke of Enlil, we must slay one of the gods so his flesh and blood can be mixed with the clay to be made into a man. Then what we create will be god and man mixed together.”
The gods seized Geshtu-e, a god of wisdom, and slaughtered him. When his flesh and blood were taken and mixed with the clay, a ghost came into being so that none should ever forget him, or fail to remember that the new creature called man was part mortal and part divine.
Mami took the mixture and pinched off fourteen pieces, to create seven males and seven females. She presented them to the Anunnaki, saying, “I have done all you asked. You have slain a god of intelligence and mixed his flesh and blood with clay so I could engender men. I relieve you of wearisome work by imposing your yoke upon them. I have also bestowed upon them the ability to use the spoken word, so they may call to one another to help fulfill their tasks. Let each man choose a woman to wive so Ishtar can bless them with healthy children, to fill the earth with generations upon generations of servants.”
It was in this manner and for these reasons that man was created.
Twelve hundred years went by and the people grew numerous. The land became filled with them and their unceasing clamor. Enlil said, “The noise men make has become too much; I am losing sleep. Let Namtar come up from the depths of the Netherworld and distribute disease among them, so that their numbers and uproar may be reduced.”
The Herald of Death strewed sickness back and forth across the countryside and many died. A wise man in Shuruppak, by name of Atra-hasis, called upon Enki. “How long are the gods going to plague us? Will illness and death afflict us forever?”
Enki advised Atra-hasis, “Call together the elders. Speak to them; tell them to not worship their gods or take them offerings. Instead, let them build a house for Namtar in Shuruppak and let each household bake a loaf of fresh bread and take it to his door.”
The people listened and did as Enki advised. Namtar’s house was filled with fresh bread and surrounded with its pleasant aroma. The Herald of Death was shamed by the multitude of offerings. He drew back his hand so that disease abated. The people regained their health and the land returned to prosperity.
Another twelve hundred years passed and the people again became numerous. The Earth grew crowded and filled with a terrific din. Enlil said, “Once more, the noise made by men is causing me to lose sleep. Let’s cut off their food. Let my son, Ninurta, shut the sluice gates of heaven so that drought comes. Let crops fail and the people perish.”
When drought had held the land in its grip for six years and the people had become famished, Atra-hasis again went to Enki for help. “Call together the elders,” the god said. “Tell them not to worship their gods or make offerings to them. Instead, build a house for Ninurta. Then let each household take of what flour they have and bake a loaf of fresh bread to take to his door.”
Again, the people followed Enki’s advice. Ninurta’s house was filled with fresh bread and surrounded by its pleasant aroma. The young god knew bread was scarce and, though he was Enlil’s son, he was greatly shamed by the precious offerings given him by starving men, so he opened the clouds and let the rain fall. But nothing grew, for the land turned bitter and became encrusted with salt.
In the seventh year, when people began to eat their young, Atra-hasis went to Enki again. “We have no more flour to make bread. It rains, but the land no longer grows our crops. Will this scourge never end?”
“Call together the elders. Tell them to not worship their gods, nor make them offerings nor say prayers nor sing them songs of praise. Let the earth be as it was in the beginning; before men existed, when the gods struggled to grow their own food. Let the gods pick up their tools again and go back to tilling the land, without offerings or praise. Let them suffer.”
It was too much for the gods. Faint with hunger, they yearned to hear prayerful supplications and listen to sweet songs of praise. They relented and allowed Enki to cleanse the earth with sweet water drawn from the depths of the Abzu. With his pure water, he washed away the salt and made the land fertile again.
But, in another twelve hundred years, what had happened before occurred again. The people grew more numerous than ever and earth was filled with their shouting and curses. Enlil said, “I cannot sleep because of the bellowing of men, but I cannot bring them under control because of my brother, Enki. He protects them. Because he created them, they are his children. I will see him about this.”
So Enlil went to Enki and said, “You persuaded us to kill a god and used your power to create men. You imposed our yoke upon them but you also had Mami gift them with the spoken word. What you did was wrong, for men use their power to shout and curse and argue with each other. Now, you must swear an oath to correct the wrong you have caused. You must use your power against your creation and create a Flood to rid the earth of men.”
Enki replied, “Why should I swear an oath? And why should I use my power against my people? The Flood you mentioned, how do I have the power to give birth to such a thing? That’s work for you, Enlil, and your son, Ninurta. If you wish a Flood, then tell Ninurta to let it rain till the dams overflow and drown the land.”
Enlil was furious with Enki. “Then, I shall see it done myself; I will see that the Flood covers the earth. But, brother, you and all the Anunnaki, must promise not to try to obstruct what I am about to undertake; you must not warn men of my plan.”
With the other Anunnaki, Enki took an oath that he would not tell Enlil’s plan to any human.
That night, Enki went out and sat beside the reed wall of Atra-hasis’s house. He spoke aloud, saying, “Wall, listen to me! Reed hut, make sure you hear my words! Take this house apart and build a boat. Leave your worldly possessions behind and take aboard living things. Build the boat two stories high and pitch it with bitumen to make it strong and waterproof. For a flood will come that will last seven days and seven nights and the land will be under water.”
Now, as Enki spoke, Atra-hasis was inside his house and overheard everything the god said. The next day he hired carpenters and reed workers to tear down his house and build the boat the god described. The workmen ate and drank as they worked but Atra-hasis kept his distance, for his heart was breaking over those he knew would soon be drowned and he was vomiting bile.
The day arrived when Ninurta 
bellowed from the clouds and the face of the weather changed. The winds came and Atra-hasis hurried his family and animals inside the boat. Then he cut the mooring rope and had bitumen handed up to seal the door.
The sky turned dark so no one could see anyone else. The flood roared toward them like a bull and, like a wild ass, the winds screamed overhead. There was no sun and darkness hid the land. Ninurta opened the clouds and water poured over the land. The goddess Mami watched the storm from above and wept for her people. “What father would have given birth to a raging sea?” she asked Enlil. The other gods and goddesses wept with Mami.
After the seventh night, Enlil ordered his son to stop the rain. As the waters receded, corpses were left strewn about like drowned dragonflies.
But, then, a sweet aroma from an offering went up and attracted the gods. They hovered overhead to catch the fragrance and Enlil spotted Atra-hasis and his boat. “How could anyone have survived the catastrophe?” he asked. “No form of life should have escaped. Who, but Enki, would have done this? My brother has broken his oath!”
Enki heard Enlil and answered, “Atra-hasis must have overheard me when worry caused me to talk aloud to myself. I did this in defiance of you, Enlil, to make sure life was preserved. But I never told him; I did not break my oath.”
“Men multiply continually,” Enlil said. “Again and again they crowd the earth and fill it with noise. I seek only to stop them so I’ll have peace. Why do you continue to defy me?”
“Because, brother, if you destroyed men to rid the earth of noise, who would be left to grow our food? It would be as it was in the beginning.”
Enlil perceived the wisdom in Enki’s answer and he was shamed. “Then, what is to be done?” he asked. “If nothing is changed, in another twelve hundred years, there will be too many people again.”
Enki said, “To prevent that from ever happening again, let the gods decree that a third of the women shall be barren and another third shall be unsuccessful in childbirth. In addition, let the women in the temples be made taboo, so they too will not bear children. By decreeing this, the gods will continue to have men for their servants but there will never be too many again, and the gods and men will live together evermore at peace.”
Enlil rejoiced at hearing his brother’s resolution and praised him for his astuteness.

Epic of Gilgamesh – Tablet 11
http://www.mythome.org/gilgamesh11.html
Column I

To Utnapishtim, Gilgamesh said:
"When I first you saw
I thought to fight you as did I Hawawa demon of cedar forest far.
But now I see your face as if I saw my own in mirror surface.
It is from once mortal man that I came to find how death be avoided. 
So tell me how came about wearing divinity like a skin?"

Utnapishtim said to him in swift reply:

"King of Uruk surely there is no one more bold
Here is knowledge that no other has ever been told.. 
Near where Euphrates born sits a city you call Shuruppak, home of those divine. 
Enlil send from there a flood to stop noisy human babbling all the time.
Anunu, Anu, and Enlil were at Shuruppak.
But it was Ea who did speak in whispers through my roofly straw to tell me to attend to what he says, 
Ea the ever vigilant did to me speak
Saying build a boat and abandon what I have, for you riches can not save your life.
Saying catch a creating match of every living thing which in your boat do put.
Saying make water tight your boat, protect it from the flood which comes.
Saying make the boat wide and equally long, then tile the roof with slate.
Saying listen and attend to what I say.
Saying tell your neighbours that you can not stay for Enlil hates you as he does
Saying tell your neighbours that you must find another place to place you head to rest
Saying tell your neighbours that Ea of the watery Abyss will protect you now, this you know.
Saying to me to attend, to listen to his words.
Saying to tell my neighbours that Shuruppak will reap only water and be no more.
Saying to tell my neighbours that first Shuruppak will receive like rain loaves, and fish most great 

Column II

So I did as Ea told to me
and from each house did outward flow
People came to build a boat.

Strong and weak, young and old.

Some carried pitch, and some carried oil. 
Some carried timber, and some carried nails.
Some cut wood, and some nailed wood.
Sixty lengths by sixty lengths the boat did grow.
Six deck below, six decks above, twelve decks in all
I drafted plans, I showed where each board should go. I showed were pitch must go
Three times we pitched the outside in the seams.
Three times inside in the seams.
We slaughtered sheep and cattle by the score 
For our work done we feasted as every day was the last.

And on the seven day it was done.
I oiled my hands and prayed thanks to Ea below.
We loaded up the living things and then my gold, jewels every precious thing.
We loaded up every household man, woman and child
We grasped sixty poles in our hands 
And pushed the boat towards the setting sun. 
We pushed then pulled the ungainly boat till solid in the river water did it lay
And in the sky the dark water heavy clouds did form as Ea had foretold. 
We bustled everyone below. Puzuramurri did caulk the top hatch full shut from outside where he did stand.
So to make him glad I gave to him my house and everything around."

Column III #

Then Utnapishtim continued, saying : 
"By next day's dawn Adad made noise in the underground darkness in the clouds above.
Before Adad moved more, Hadad the horrible herald came before 
Then the Annanuki blazed a terrible light,
Which even we caulked in below did this light into our eyes did cut.
Then like pushing waters escaping from a dam above came rain pushing down to us below.
Nergal from his underground home did break the posts and up water from below did come.
Ninurta let watery chaos abound
Drowing babe, cattle, and then trees.
South wind pushed waters into eyes
So people scrambling around flowing water could not see and so were drowned.
Like pieces of a broken pot lay the pieces of land among the spreading water.
So high did the water go that even the gods scrambled for mountain so high
And cringed like rain whipped dogs in the storm.
Eanna did cry like a birthing mom:
"This is not what I thought would be when I did bring to council my compaints.
Now the humans are like fish but still as if out of river had they gone on to stoney ground."
The Annunaki wept with her in regret 
For all that came out of anger pure.
For six days did they weep,
Then on the seventh day the squall of this birthing storm did still, so did their eyes dry every one.
I,Utamipishtim, did break open the hatch and in the daylight poured.
All about was flat, like flattened baked clay.

Nothing moved. Humans were once more clay.
The eyes of god now dry, my own eyes did weep.
And while my tears did fall in rivers along the land of my face
I continued to look in everfy way for something not river made.
First far off then so close 
That the boat did run aground,
Mt. Nishur was our stopping place.
For seven days the boat stood in ground.
So on the seventh day I let loose a single dove,
Which flew around but could not land so returned to me.
So on the seventh day I let loose a single swallow,
Which flew around but could not land so returned to me.
So on the seventh day I let loose a single raven,
Which flew around and found a place to land so it returned not to me.
So on the seventh day I let loose all the birds,
Which flew around, and found places to land so they never returned to me.?"

Column IV

Upnapishtim continued: 
"Seven vessels did I set out
When we got ashore.
Then seven more vessels did I set out.
A libation did I give to the gods.
I built a fire. A set it alit. 
Smoke of cedar, myrtle and cane wafted heavenward.
The Igigi were pleased.
I slaughtered a sheep, and roasted it for the gods.
So pleased were they, than down came fertile Eanna
With necklace of lapis lazuli, gold, and amythest, which 
Thereinafter we called the rainbow
As this artisan gift she gave to us.
A gift she gave to ever remind us of dimmer sadder days.
So all the gods could partake in this holy smoke save Enlil, evil personified.

The gods about the altar did meet. 
When Enlil did see the boat and humankind about the altar he spit in rage.
"Why are any of these humans alive, when the flood I sent was to score all of them from my sight."
Ninurta spoke witht contempt: "Ask Ea for he knows."
Ea spoke to Enlil with contempt:
"For one man's crimes do you kill all the rest?
And crime's punishement should match the act.
One one offence you kill all including the innocent.
Here me now I did not tell the secrets of the gods to Utnapishtim
But he listened to the wind and used his mind 
And the rest he wroth you do now see.
So in the presence of this council atone you now 
For you act's excess."

So Enlil frowned then went down
To my boat on the ground.
He made me and my wife kneel on the deck, and said thus to us:
"You mere human are now an immortal 
Dwell you now where all the rivers come." So thus it came to be that I live where now you see." So Gilgamesh, king and man, if you want the council of gods to convene
Sit you down for a week with no sleep
And by this test of seven nights find out 
What the gods think best."

Column V 

But when Gilgamesh sat from the sea came a sleeping mist 
And into deep slumber did he slip.
Utnipishtim sadly turned to his wife and said: 
"So this King Gilgamesh would sleep instead of awaiting the gods with open eyes."
But his wife took pity on the hero form and this she said in reply:
"Awaken him with your touch and send him back to Uruk bound." 
Utnapishtim laughted and said:
"This be a man. He will first deceive himself and then us too.
So on each day bake a loaf and lay that beside his form.
Make a mark on yonder wall for each night this hero sleeps away his immortality." 

On the first day she baked a loaf as dry as dust.
On the second day she baked a loaf was hard as rock.
On the third day she baked a loaf wet and awfully rotten all through.
On the fourth day she baked a loaf custed with white slime
On the fifth day she baked a loaf blue with mold.
On the sixth day she baked a loaf which looked quite good.
On the seventh day Utnapishtim touch the hero on his head
And up from his deepest sleep came Gilgamesh.
Gilgamesh did proclaim: "I nearly fell asleep but your touch did keep me awake.
Utnapishtim shook his head and pointed to yonder wall
"Look, O Hero, see the marks for every day which you did sleep, 
And on the ground there beside you know lay six loafs, one each day made
By my wife, and note:
On the first day she baked a loaf as dry as dust.
On the second day she baked a loaf was hard as rock.
On the third day she baked a loaf wet and awfully rotten all through.
On the fourth day she baked a loaf custed with white slime
On the fifth day she baked a loaf blue with mold."
Gilgamesh did now frown and said with sadness and with fear:
"What can I do? 
Sleep is much like death when into it I peek
It captures me and from that prison I cannot escape."

Column VI

With this humble answer Utnapishtim did nod, and said:
"Boatman take his man and cast his 
Wild animal skins away. Bath him, annoint him, braid his hair most fine
Cloth him in kingly robe, Return him to his Uruk town.
To Uruk town he be bound in honor with kingly replensident.

So thus was done
The boatman did take King Gilgamesh wild animal skins and away them threw.
The boatman did take King Gilgamesh bathing and annointing true.
The boatman did take King Gilgamesh and braided his hair most fine.
The boatman did take King Gilgamesh and cloth him kingly robes to make him kingly replensident.
The boatman did take King Gilgamesh and on the ferry boat did make him stand.
Utnapishtim's wife spoke up now
Oh husband, this man has endured great hardship to come here, give him something for his return
So Utnapishtim said to Gilgamesh:
"I shall tell you this secret of gods for you to take on your return.
There is a thorny bush which underwater does grow.
This plant is named Reborn Man and here is what you should do.
Dive down to that plant and seize it the Reborn Man in your hand.
And know I tell you so you know Reborn man is under you boat deep in the deadly sea.

So Gilgamesh tied two massive stones, one two each of his feet.
Into deadly waters did he leap
Down, down this in his hand he seized Reborn Man taking the pain of thorns in one hand
While with other he did cut free of the stones and thus descend back to Utnapishtim's shore.

Column VII

With a cry of joy did Gilgamesh speak to boatman Urshanabi. 
"With Reborn Man new life can be made
With Reborn Man our Elder there can share new life with everyone
With Reborn Man I can return to youth wherein I be most strong"

Column VIII

So away did they sail.
When 20 long walks did they pass
They did eat.
When another 20 long walks did they pass
They did a short time rest.
When another 20 long walks did they pass
They did make camp.
It was then that with plant in hand Gilgamesh did go to bathe.
But to wash himself he must Reborn Man put down, and then
A nearby serpent smelled its myrrh, and straight 
To it did it go.
The serpent stole and ate it, and thusly 
Does the snake Reborn of skin once every full moon.

Gilgamesh realized his loss.
He weep and said:
"What is the use of this long journey,
For now I am as at the start."
But seeing nothing could be done 
Gilgamesh the king, two parts divine one part man, went on. 

Column IX

Within 60 days the boatman and the King saw holy Uruk in their sight..
Boatman mark these walls, so high and thick. 
Boatman mark those fields so lush and fertile.
Boatman mark these people so vital and rich.
Boatman mark that this town is Uruk. It is mine.

The Ba’al Cycle
http://www.piney.com/BaalEpic.html

Now Mighty Baal, son of Dagon, desired the kingship of the Gods. He contended with Prince Yam-Nahar, the Son of El. But Kindly El, Father Shunem, decided the case in favour of His son; He gave the kingship to Prince Yam. He gave the power to Judge Nahar.
Fearsome Yam came to rule the Gods with an iron fist. He caused Them to labor and toil under His reign. They cried unto Their mother, Asherah, Lady of the Sea. They convinced Her to confront Yam, to interceed in Their behalf.
Asherah went into the presence of Prince Yam. She came before Judge Nahar. She begged that He release His grip upon the Gods Her sons. But Mighty Yam declined Her request. She offered favours to the Tyrant. But Powerful Nahar softened not His heart. 
Finally, Kindly Asherah, who loves Her children, offered Herself to the God of the Sea. She offered Her own body to the Lord of Rivers.
Yam-Nahar agreed to this, and Asherah returned to the Source of the Two Rivers. She went home to the court of El. She came before the Divine Council, and spoke of Her plan to the Gods Her children.
Baal was infuriated by Her speech. He was angered at the Gods who would allow such a plot. He would not consent to surrendering Great Asherah to the Tyrant Yam-Nahar. He swore to the Gods that He would destroy Prince Yam. He would lay to rest the tyranny of Judge Nahar.
Yam-Nahar was made aware of the words of Baal. He sent His two messengers to the court of El:
"Depart Lads!
Do not sit!
Then Ye shall surely set face 
Toward the Convocation of the Assembly
In the midst of the mountain of Night.  
At the feet of El do not fall,
Do not prostrate Yourselves before the Convocation of the Assembly,
But declare Your information!
And say to The Bull, My father, El,
Declare to the Convocation of the Assembly:
 
'The message of Yam, Your Lord,
Of Your master Judge River:
Give up, O Gods, Him whom You harbor,
Him whom the multitude harbor!
Give up Baal and His partisans,
Dagon's Son, so that I may inherit His gold!'"
 
The lads depart
They do not Sit.
Then They set face
Toward the Mountain of Night,
Toward the Convocation of the Assembly.
The Gods had not even sat down,
The Deities to dine,
When Baal stood up by El. 
 As soon as the Gods saw Them,
Saw the messengers of Yam
The emissaries of Judge Nahar,
The Gods lowered Their heads upon Their knees.
Yea, upon the thrones of Their lordships.
 Baal rebukes Them:
"Why, O Gods, have Ye lowered
Your heads on top of Your knees,
Yea, upon the thrones of Your lordships?
 
Let a pair of Gods read the tablets of the messengers of Yam,
Of the emissaries of Judge Nahar!
O Gods, lift up Your heads
From the top of Your knees
Yea, from the thrones of Your lordships!
 
And I shall answer
The messengers of Yam
The emissaries of Judge Nahar!"
The Gods lift Their heads
From the top of Their knees
Yea, from the thrones of thier lordships.
 
After there arrive the messengers of Yam,
The emissaries of JudgeNahar.
At the feet of El They do not fall,

They do not prostrate Themselves before the Convocation of the Assembly.
Arise, for They declare Their information.
 
A fire, two fires!
He sees a burnished sword!
They say to The Bull, His father, El:
"The message of Yam, Your lord,
Of Your master, Judge Nahar:
 
'Give up, O Gods, Him whom Ye harbor,
Him whom the multitudes harbor!
Give up Baal and His partisans,
Dagon's Son, so that I may inherit His gold!'"
 
And The Bull, His father, El, replies:
"Baal is Thy slave, O Yam!
Baal is Thy slave O Yam!
Dagon's Son is Thy captive!
He will bring Thy tribute like the Gods.
Like the Deities, Thy gift!"
 
But Prince Baal was infuriated.
A knife He takes in the hand
A dagger in the right hand.
To smite the lads He flourishes it.
Anath siezes His right hand,
Astarte seizes His left hand:

"How canst Thou smite the messengers of Yam?
The emissaries of Judge Nahar?
They have merely brought the words of Yam-Nahar.
Word of Their Lord and Master."

But Prince Baal is infuriated. He spares the lives of the messengers; He sends Them back to Their master. He instructs Them to give His information: Baal will not bow to Prince Yam. He will not be the slave of Judge Nahar. He declares once more that He shall slay the Tyrant lord of the Gods.

"To the earth let Our mighty one fall!
Yea, to dust Our strong one!"
From His mouth the word had not yet gone forth,
Nor from His lips, His utterance.
And His voice was given forth
Like a mountain under the throne of Prince Yam.
 And Kothar-u-Khasis declared:
"Did I not tell Thee, O Prince Baal,
Nor declare, O Rider of Clouds?
'Lo, Thine enemies, O Baal,
Lo, Thine enemies wilt Thou smite
Lo, Thou wilt van quish Thy foes.
Thou wilt take Thine eternal kingdom;
Thine everlasting sovereignty!'"
 
Kothar brings down two clubs
And proclaims Their Names.
"Thy Name, even Thine, is Yagrush!
Yagrush, expel Yam
Expel Yam from His throne
Nahar from the seat of His sovereignty!

Thou shalt swoop from the hands of Baal
Like an Eagle from His fingers!
Strike the shoulders of Prince Yam
Twixt the hands of Judge Nahar!"
 
The club swoops from the hands of Baal
Like an eagle from His fingers.
It strikes the shoulders of Prince Yam,
Twixt the hands of Judge Nahar.
Yam is strong;
He is not vanquished,
His joints do not fail,
Nor His frame collapse.
 
Kothar brings down a second club,
And proclaims His Name.
"Thy Name, even Thine, is Aymur!
Aymur, drive Yam,
Drive Yam from His throne!
Nahar from His seat of His sovereignty!
 
Thou shalt swoop from the hands of Baal
Like an Eagle from His fingers!
Strike the head of Prince Yam
Twixt the eyes of Judge Nahar!
Let Yam sink
And fall to the earth!"
 
And the club swoops from the hands of Baal
Like an eagle from His fingers.
It strikes the head of Prince Yam,
Twixt the eyes of Judge Nahar.
 
Yam sinks,
Falls to the earth.
His joints fail
His frame collapses.
Baal drags and poises Yam
Destroys Judge Nahar.
 
By Name, Astarte rebukes:
"Shmae, O Aliyan Baal,
Shame, O Rider of the Clouds!
For Prince Yam was Our captive
For Judge River was Our captive."
 
And there went out Baal,
Verily ashamed is Aliyan Baal
And Prince Yam is, indeed, dead.
So let Baal reign!

Baal was now King of the Gods. Lord of the Mountain of Saphon. But Baal 
had no palace like the other Gods. He speaks His word to Kothat-u-Khasis:

"There are the dwelling of El,
The shelter of His sons.
The dwelling of Lady Asherah of the Sea,
The dwelling of the renowned brides.
The dwelling of Pidray, girl of Light,
The shelter of Tallay, girl of rain,
The dwelling of Arsay, girl of Yaabdar.
 
Also, something else I'll tell Thee.
Go to!
Beseech Lady Asherah of the Sea,
Entreat the Creatress of Gods!"
 
The Skilled One goes up to the bellows.
In the hands of Khasis are the tongs.
He pours silver,
He casts gold.
He pours silver by thousands of shekels,
Gold He pours by myriads.
 
A glorious crown studded with silver,
Adorned with red gold.
A glorious throne,
A dais above a glorious footstool,
Which glisters in purity.
Glorious shoes of reception,
Thereover He brings them gold.
 
A glorious table that is full.
A glorious bowl, fine work of Kamares,
Set like the realm of Yam,
In which there are buffaloes by myriads.

Kothar-u-Kasis goes to the Lady Asherah of the Sea, Mother of the Seventy Gods. He offers these gifts unto Her.

He adorns Her with the covering of Her flesh.
She tears Her clothing.
On the second day
He adorns Her in the two rivers.
She sets a pot on the fire
A vessel on top of the coals.
 
She propitiates The Bull, God of Mercy,
Entreats the Creator of Creatures.
On lifting Her eyes
She sees.

Asherah sees Baal's going,
Yea the going of the Virgin Anath,
The tread of the Progenitress of Heroes.
 
After Aliyan Baal came,
And came the Virgin Anath, 
They besought Lady Asherah of the Sea.
Yea entreated the Creatress of the Gods.
And Lady Asherah of the Sea replied:
"How can Ye beseech Lady Asherah of the Sea,
Yea entreat the Creatress of the Gods?
Have Ye besought The Bull, God of Mercy,
Or entreated the Creator of Creatures?
 
And the Virgin Anath replied:
"We do beseech Lady Asherah of the Sea.
We entreat the Creatress of Gods.
The Gods eat and drink,
And those that suck the breast quaff
With a keen knife
A slice of fatling.
They drink wine from a goblet,
From a cup of gold, the blood of vines."
 
Asherah of the Sea declares:
"Saddle an ass,
Hitch a donkey!
Put on a harness of silver,
Trappings of gold.
Prepare the harness of My jennies!
 
Qadish-u-Amrar hearkens.
He saddles an ass
Hitches a donkey.
Put on a harness of silver,
Trappings of gold.

Prepares the harness of Her jennies!
Qadish-u-Amrar embraces; 
He sets Asherah on the back of the ass,
On the beautiful back of the donkey.
Qadish begins to light the way,
Even Amrar like a star. 
Forward goes the Virgin Anath,
And Baal departs for the heights of Saphon.
Then She sets face toward El,
At the sources of the Two Rivers,
In the midst of the streams of the Two Deeps.
She enters the abode of El,
And comes into the domicile of the King, Father Shunem.
At the feet of El She bows and falls,
She prostrates Herself and honors Him.
 
As soon as El sees Her,
He cracks a smile and laughs.
His feet He sets on the footstool,
And twiddles His fingers.
He lifts His voice
And shouts:
"Why has Lady Asherah of the Sea come?
Why came the Creatress of Gods?
Art Thou hungry?
Then have a morsel!
Or art Thou thirsty?
Then have a drink!
Eat!
Or drink!

Eat bread from the tables!
Drink wine from the goblets!
From a cup of gold, the blood of vines!
If the love of El moves Thee,
Yea the affection of The Bull arouses Thee!"
 
And Lady Asherah of the Sea replies:
"Thy word, El, is wise;
Thou art wise unto eternity;
Lucky life is Thy word.
Our king is Aliyan Baal,
Out judge, and none is above Him.
Let both of Us drain His chalice;
Both of Us drain His cup!"
 
Loudly Bull-El, Her father, shouts,
King El who brought Her into being;
There shout Asherah and Her sons,
The Goddess and the band of Her brood:
 
"Lo there is no house unto Baal like the Gods.
Not a court like the sons of Asherah:
The dwelling of El,
The shelter of His sons.
The dwelling of Lady Asherah of the Sea,
The dwelling of the renowned brides.
The dwelling of Pidray, girl of Light.
The shelter of Tallay, girl of rain.
The dwelling of Arsay, girl of Yaabdar."
 And the God of Mercy replied:
"Am I to act as a lackey of Asherah?
Am I to act like the holder of a trowel?
If the handmaid of Asherah will make the bricks
A house shall be built for Baal like the Gods.
Yea a court like the sons of Asherah."
 And Lady Asherah of the Sea replied:
"Thou art great, O El,
Thou are verily wise!
The gray of Thy beard hath verily instructed Thee!
Here are pectorals of gold for Thy breast.
 
Lo, also it is the time of His rain.
Baal sets the season,
And gives forth His voice from the clouds.
He flashes lightning to the earth.
As a house of cedars let Him complete it,
Or a house of bricks let Him erect it!
Let it be told to Aliyan Baal:
'The mountains will bring Thee much silver.
The hills, the choicest of gold;
The mines will bring Thee precious stones,
And build a house of silver and gold.
A house of lapis gems!'"
 
The Virgin Anath rejoices.
She jumps with the feet
And leaves the earth.
Then She sets face toward the Lord of Saphon's crest
By the thousand acres,
Yea the myriad hectares.
The Virgin Anath laughs.
She lifts Her voice
And shouts:
 
"Be informed, Baal!
Thy news I bring!
A house shall be built for Thee as for Thy brothers,
Even as a court as for Thy kin!
The mountains will bring Thee much silver.
The hills, the choicest of gold;
The mines will bring Thee precious stones,
And build a house of silver and gold.
A house of lapis gems!"
 
Aliyan Baal rejoices.
The mountains bring Him much silver,
The mines bring Him precious stones.
 Kothar-u-Khasis is sent.
After Kothar-u-Khasis arrived,
He sets an ox in front of Him.
A fatling directly before Him.
A chair is placed,
And He is seated
At the right of Aliyan Baal,
Until They have eaten
And drunk.
 
And Aliyan Baal declares:
"Hurry, let a house be built.
Hurry, let a palace be erected!
Hurry, let a house be built.
Hurry, let a palace be erected
In the midst of the heights of Saphon!
A thousand acres the house is to comprise,
A myriad hectares, the palace!"
 And Kothar-u-Khasis declares:
"Hear, O Aliyan Baal!
Percieve, O Rider of Clouds!
I shall surely put a window in the house,
A casement in the midst of the palace!"
 
And Aliyan Baal replies:
"Do not put a window in the house,
A casement in the midst of the palace!
Let not Pidray, girl of Light,
Nor Tallay, girl of rain,
Be seen by El's beloved Yam Nahar!"
The Lord reviles and spits.
 
And Kothar-u-Khasis replies:
"Thou wilt return, Baal, to My word."
 
Of ceders His house is to be built,
Of bricks is His palace to be erected.
He goes to Lebabob and it's trees,
To Syria and the choicest of it's cedars.
Lo, Lebanon and it's trees,
Syria and it's cedars.

Fire is set on the house,
Flame on the palace.
Behold a day and a second,
The fire eats into the house,
The flame into the palace.
A fifth, a sixth day,
The fire eats into the house,
The flame in the midst of the palace.

Behold, on the seventh day,
The fire departs from the house,
The flame from the palace.
Silver turns from blocks,
Gold is turned from bricks.
 
Aliyan Baal rejoices.
"My house have I built of silver.
My palace of gold have I made."
 
His house, Baal prepairs.
Hadad prepares the housewarming of His palace.
He slaughters great and small cattle
He fells oxen and ram-fatlings.

Yearling calves,
Little lambs and kids.
He called His brothers into His house.
His kinsmen into the midst of His palace.
He called the Seventy sons of Asherah.
He caused the sheep Gods to drink wine.
He caused the ewe Goddesses to drink wine.
He cause the bull Gods to drink wine.
He caused the cow Goddesses to drink wine.
He caused the throne Gods to drink wine.
He caused the chair Goddesses to drink wine.
He caused the jar Gods to drink wine.
He caused the jug Goddesses to drink wine.
Until the Gods had eaten and drunk,
And the sucklings quaffed
With a keen knife
A slice of fatling.
They drink wine from a goblet,
From a cup of gold, the blood of vines.

Lord Baal went on to take possesion of many earthly cities. Sixty-six, Seventy-Seven towns He took. Eighty, Ninety was the total number of cities that fell to the posession of Mighty Hadad. Thus Baal returned to His home as Lord of all the World.

As Baal went into the midst of the house
Aliyan Baal declared:
"I would install, Kothar, son of the Sea,
Yea Kothar, son of the assembly!

Let a casement be opened in the house;
A window in the midst of the palace,
And let the clouds be opened with rain
On the opening of Kothar-u-Khasis."
 
Kothar-u-Khasis laughed.
He lifts His voice
And shouts:
"Did I not tell Thee, O Aliyan Baal,
That Thou wouldst return, Baal, to My word?
Let a casement be opened in the house,
A window in the midst of the palace!"
 
Baal opened the clouds with rain,
His holy voice He gives forth in the heavens.
 
The enemies of Baal seize the forests,
The foes of Hadad, the fringes of the mountain.
And Aliyan Baal declares:
"Enemies of Hadad, why do Ye invade?
Why do Ye invade the arsenal of Our defense?"
Weeping, Baal returns to His house:
"Whether king
Or commander
Be invested with sovereignty over the land,
Respects I shall not send to Mavet,
Nor greetings to El's beloved, the Hero!"
 
Mavet calls from His throat,
The Beloved meditates in His inwards:
"I alone am He who will rule over the Gods.
Yea command Gods and men.
Even dominate the multitudes of the earth."
 
Aloud Baal cries to His lads:
"Look, Gupan and Ugar, sons of Galmat,
Errand lads, sons of Zalmat
The lofty and distinguished!
Then surely set face
Toward the mountain of Tergezz,
Toward the mountain of Shermeg,
Toward the furrow of the thriving of the earth.
Lift the mountain on the hands,
The hill on top of the palms,
And go down into to nether-reaches of the earth
So that You will be counted amoung those who go down into the earth!
Then shall Ye set face
Toward His city, Hemry.
Lo, the throne on which He sits
In the midst of the land of His inheritance
And the guards of the defense of the Gods.

Do not draw near the God Mavet,
Lest He make You like a lamb in His mouth,
Like a kid in His jaws Ye be crushed!
The Torch of the Gods, Shapash, burns;
The heavens halt on account of El's darling, Mavet.

By the thousand acres,
Yea the myriad hectares
At the feet of Mavet bow and fall.
Prostrate Yourselves and honor Him!
And say to the God Mavet,
Declare to El's beloved, the Hero:

And Baal spoke His word to His lads. He sent His message to Mavet. The Lord Hadad refused to pay tribute to the Beloved of El. Mavet was enfuriated, and sent His word back to Baal. He declared that, because Baal had destroyed the Serpent Lotan, He would exact revenge by devouring Baal. The messengers of Baal informed Baal that Mavet would open His mouth wide.

"A lip to earth,
A lip to heaven,
And a tounge to the stars
So that Baal may enter His inwards,
Yea, descend into His mouth
As scorched is the olive,
The produce of the Earth,
And the fruit of the Trees."
 
Aliyan Baal fears Him,
The Rider of the Clouds dreads Him.
"Depart! Speak to the God Mavet.
Declare to El's Beloved, the Hero:
The message of Aliyan Baal,
The word of Aliy the Warrior:

'Hail, O God Mavet!
Thy slave am I,
Yea Thine forever.'"
 
The Gods depart and do not sit.
Then They set face toward the God Mavet.
Toward His city, Hemry.
Behold it is the throne of His sitting,
Yea the land of His inheritance!
They lift Their voices
And shout:

"The message of Aliyan Baal
The word of Aliy the Warrior!
"Hail, O God Mavet!
Thy slave am I,
Yea Thine forever!"

The God Mavet is glad. Baal will be delivered unto Him, and the fertility of the land will die with Him. Baal feasts His last meal, and Mavet commands Him:

"I shall put Him in the grave of the Gods of the earth.
And Thou, take Thy clouds,
Thy wind, Thy storm, Thy rains!
With Thee Thy seven lads,
Thine eight swine.
With Thee, Pidray, girl of Light,
With Thee, Tallay, girl of rain.
Then Thy face shalt Thou set toward the mountain of Kenkeny.
Lift the mountain on the hands,
The hill on top of the palms,
And go down to the nether reaches of the earth
So that Thou mayest be counted amoung those who do down into the earth,
And all may know that Thou art dead!"
 
Aliyan Baal hearkens.
He loves a heifer in Deber,
A young cow in the fields of Shechelmemet.
He lies with Her seventy-seven times,
Yea, eighty-eight times,
So that She conceives
And bears Moshe.

Baal was found dead there in the fields of Shechelmemet, in the land of Deber. The news reaches the ears of El, Father of Shunem:

Thereupon the God of Mercy
Goes down from the throne,
Sits on the footstool,
And from the footstool sits on the earth.

He pours the ashes of grief on His head,
The dust of wallowing on His pate.
For clothing, He is covered with a doubled cloak.
He roams the mountain in mourning,
Yea through the forest in grief.

He cuts cheek and chin,
He lacerates His forearms.
He plows His chest like a garden;
Like a vale He lacerates His back.
He lifts His voice
And shouts:
"Baal is dead!
Woe to the people of Dagon's son!
Woe to the multitudes of Athar-Baal!
I shall go down into the earth."
 Also Anath goes
And treads every mountain to the midst of the Earth.
Every hill to the midst of the fields.
She comes to the goodness of the land of Deber,
The beauty of the fields of Shechelmemet.
She comes upon Baal prostrate on the earth.
 
For clothing She is covered with a doubled cloak.
The mountain in mournig She roams.
In grief, through the forest.
She cuts cheek and chin.
She lacerates Her forearms.
She plows lake a garden Her chest,
Like a vale She lacerates the back.
"Baal is dead!

Woe to the people of Dagon's son!
Woe to the multitudes of Athar-Baal!
Let us go down into the earth."
 
With Her goes down the Torch of the Gods, Shapash.
Until She is sated with weeping,
She drinks tears like wine.
Aloud She cries to the Torch of the Gods, Shapash:
"Load Aliyan Baal on to Me!"
 
The Torch of the Gods, Shapash, hearkens.
She lifts Aliyan Baal,
On the shoulders of Anath She places Him,
She raises Him into the heights of Saphon.
She weeps for Him and buries Him.
She puts Him in the grave of the Gods of the earth.
 
She sacrifices seventy buffaloes
As an offering for Aliyan Baal.
She sacrifices seventy oxen
As an offering for Aliyan Baal.
She sacrifices seventy head of small cattle
As an offering for Aliyan Baal.
She sacrifices seventy deer
As an offering for Aliyan Baal.
She sacrifices seventy wild goats
As an offering for Aliyan Baal.
She sacrifices seventy asses
As an offering for Aliyan Baal.
 
Then She sets face toward El
At the sources of the Two Rivers,
In the midst of the streams of the Two Deeps.
She enters the abode of El,
Goes into the domicile of the King, Father Shunem.
At the feet of El She bends and falls,
Prostrates Herself and honors Him.

She lifts Her voice
And shouts:

"Let Asherah and Her sons rejoice,
The Goddess and the band of Her brood!
For dead is Aliyan Baal,
For Perished is the Prince, Lord of Earth!"
Aloud cries El to Asherah of the Sea:
"Hear, O Lady Asherah of the Sea!
Give one of Thy sons that I may make Him king!"
 
And Lady Asherah of the Sea replies:
"Let Us make king one who knows how to govern!"
 
And the God of Mercy declares:
"One feeble of frame will not vie with Baal,
Nor wield a spear against Dagon's son."
 
When the parley is finished,
Lady Asherah of the Sea declares:
"Let Us make Ashtar the Terrible king!
Let Ashtar the Terrible reign!"
 
Thereupon Ashtar the Terrible
Goes into the heights of Saphon
That He may sit on the throne of Aliyan Baal.
His feet do not reach the footstool,
Nor does His head reach it's top.
And Ashtar the Terrible says:
"I cannot rule in the heights of Saphon!"
Ashtar the Terrible goes down,
Goes down from the throne of Aliyan Baal,
That He may rule over all the grand earth.
 
Anath goes now to face Mavet, the Darling of El, the Hero.
 
As with the heart of a cow toward her calf,
As with the heart of an ete toward her lamb,
So is the heart of Anath toward Baal.
She seizes Mavet, in ripping His garment.

She closes in on Him, in tearing His clothes.
She lifts Her voice
And shouts:
"Come, Mavet, yield My brother!"
 
And the God Mavet replies:
"What does Thou ask, O Virgin Anath?
I was going,
And roaming
Every mountain to the midst of the earth,
Every hill to the midst of the fields.
A soul was missing amoung men,
A soul of the multitudes of the earth.
I arrived at the goodness of the land of Debar,
The beauty of the fields of Shechelmemet.
I met Aliyan Baal;
I made Him like a lamb in My mouth.
Like a kid in My jaws was He crushed."
 
The Torch of the Gods, Shapash, glows,
The heavens stop on account of the God Mavet.
A day, two days pass.
From days to months.
 
The maiden Anath meets Him.
As with the heart of a cow toward her calf,
As with the heart of an ewe toward her lamb,
So is the heart of Anath toward Baal.
She siezes the God Mavet.

With a sword She cleaves Him,
With a pitchfork She winnows Him,
With a fire She burns Him,
In the millstones She grinds Him,
In the fields She plants Him,
So that the birds do not eat His flesh,
Nor the fowl destroy His portion.
Flesh calls to flesh.
 
The Great El, Father Shunem, declares of the lost God Baal:
 
"For perished is the Prince, Lord of Earth.
And if Aliyan Baal is alive,
And if the Prince, Lord of Earth, exists,
In a dream of the God of Mercy,
In a vision of the Creator of Creatures,
Let the heavens rain oil,
The wadies run with honey,
That I may know that Aliyan Baal is alive,
That the Prince, Lord of Earth, exists."
 
In a dream of the God of Mercy,
In a vision of the Creator of Creatures,
The heavens rain oil,
The wadies run with honey,
The God of Mercy rejoices.
His feet He sets on the footstool.
He cracks a smile and laughs.

He lifts His voice
And shouts:
"Let Me sit and rest,
And let My soul repose in My breast.
For Aliyan Baal is alive,
For the Prince, Lord of Earth, exists."
Aloud shouts El to the Virgin Anath:

"Hear, O Virgin Anath,
Say to the Torch of the Gods, Shapash:
'Over the furrows of the fields, O Shapash,
Over the furrows of the fields let El set Thee.
As for the Lord of the Plowed Furrows,
Where is Aliyan Baal?
Where is the Prince, Lord of Earth?'"
 
The Virgin Anath departs.
Then She sets face toward the Torch of the Gods, Shapash.
She lifts Her voice
And shouts:

"The message of Bull-El, Thy father,
The word of the God of Mercy, Thy begetter:
'Over the furrows of the fields, O Shapash,
Over the furrows of the fields let El set Thee!
As for the Lord of the Furrows of His plowing,
Where is Aliyan Baal?
Where is the Prince, Lord of Earth?'"
 
And the Torch of the Gods, Shapash, replies:
"I shall seek Aliyan Baal!"
 
And the Virgin Anath answers:
"As for Me, tis not I, O Shapash!
As for Me, tis not I, but El summons Thee!
May the Gods guard Thee in Sheol!"

Shapash descends into the underworld. She enters the realm of Sheol. Upon Her return to the world above, She carries Great Baal with Her. Ball goes into the heights of Saphon. He confronts Mavet, the Hero.

Baal seizes the son of Asherah.
The great one He smites on the shoulder.
The tyrant He smites with a stick.
Mavet is vanquished,
Reaches earth.
 
Baal returns to the throne of His kingship,
Dagon's son to the seat of His sovereignty.
From days to months,
From months to years,
Lo in the seventh year.
 
And the God Mavet addresses Himself to Aliyan Baal.
He lifts His voice
And shouts:
 
"Because of Thee, O Baal, I have experienced humiliation.
Because of Thee, experienced scattering by the sword.
Because of Thee, experienced burning in the fire.
Because of Thee, experienced grinding in the millstones.
Because of Thee, experienced winnowing by the pitchfork.
Because of Thee, experienced being planted in the feilds.
Because of Thee, experienced being sown in the sea."

Thereupon Mavet threatens to destroy Baal in revenge. He threatens to take the kingship of Baal. Baal expels Him, drives Him out of the heights of Saphon. Mavet vows His revenge eupon Baal:

"And lo, as a brother of Yam Thou art made, Baal is given
As retribution for the destroyed sons of My mother!"
 
He returns to the Lord of the heights of Saphon,
He lifts His voice
And shouts:
"A brother of Yam Thou art made, O Baal!
As retribution for the destroyed sons of My mother!"
 
They shake each other like Gemar-beasts,
Mavet is strong, Baal is strong.
They gore each other like buffaloes,
Mavet is strong, Baal is strong.
They bite like serpents,
Mavet is strong, Baal is strong.
They kick like racing beasts,
Mavet is down, Ball is down.
 
Up comes Shapash.
She cries to Mavet:
"Hear, O God Mavet!
How canst Thou fight with Aliyan Baal?
How will Bull-El, Thy father, not hear Thee?
Will He not remove the supports of Thy throne?
Nor upset the seat of Thy kingship?
Nor break the scepter of Thy rule?"
 
The Got Mavet is afraid,
El's Beloved, the Hero, is frightened.
Mavet is roused from His prstration.

The God of Sterility submits to Baal. He conceeds the kingship to the Lord of Earth. Baal returns to the Heights of Saphon, but Anath does not go with Him. She turns Her anger to the enemies of Baal. To those who were fickle against Baal in His trials. The attacks mankind.

Like the fruit of seven daughters,
The scent of kids and anhb-animals,
Both gates of Anath's house.
 
And the lads chance upon the Lady of the Mountain.
And lo, Anath smites in the valley,
Fighting between the two cities.
She smites the people of the seashore,
Destroys mankind of the sunrise.
Under Her are heads like vultures.
 
Over Her are hands like locusts,
Like thorns, the hands of troops.
She piles up heads on Her back,
She ties up hands in Her bundle.
Knee-deep She plunges in the blood of soldiery,
Up to the neck in the gore of troops.
With a stick She drives out foes,
Against the flank She draws Her bow.
 
And lo, Anath reaches Her house,
Yea the Goddess enters Her palace,
But is not satisfied.
She had smitten in the valley,
Fought between the two cities.
 
She hurls chairs at the troops,
Hurling tables at the soldiers,
Footstools at the heroes.
Much She smites and looks,
Fights and views.
Anath gluts Her liver with laughter.
Her heart is filled with joy,
For Anath's hand is victory.
For knee-deep She plunges in the blood of soldiery,
Up to the neck in the gore of troops.
Until She is sated She smites in the house,
Fights between the two tables,
Shedding the blood of soldiery.
 
Pouring the oil of peace from a bowl,
The Virgin Anath washes Her hands,
The Progenitress of Heroes, Her fingers.
She washes Her hands in the blood of soldiery,
Her fingers in the gore of troops.
 
Arranging portions by the chairs,
Tables by the tables,
Footstools She arranges by the footstools.
She gathers water and washes
With dew of heaven,
Fat of earth,
Rain of the Rider of Clouds,
The dew that the heavens pour,
The rain that the stars pour.
The anhb-animals leap by the thousand acres,
The zuh-fish in the sea, by the myriads of hectares.

Noah and the Flood – J Source

ca. 8th Century BC

Adapted from Richard Elliott Friedman’s The Bible with Sources Revealed & the New American Bible Catholic Edition.

Chapter 6
1 
1 When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, 
2 
2 the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose. 
3 
3 Then the LORD said: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years." 
4 
4 At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons. They were the heroes of old, the men of renown. 
5 
5 When the LORD saw how great was man's wickedness on earth, and how no desire that his heart conceived was ever anything but evil, 
6 
he regretted that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was grieved. 
7 
So the LORD said: "I will wipe out from the earth the men whom I have created, and not only the men, but also the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air, for I am sorry that I made them." 
8 
But Noah found favor with the LORD. 

Chapter 7
1 
Then the LORD said to Noah: "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for you alone in this age have I found to be truly just. 
2 
Of every clean animal, take with you seven pairs, a male and its mate; and of the unclean animals, one pair, a male and its mate; 
3 
likewise, of every clean bird of the air, seven pairs, a male and a female, and of all the unclean birds, one pair, a male and a female. Thus you will keep their issue alive over all the earth. 
4 
Seven days from now I will bring rain down on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and so I will wipe out from the surface of the earth every moving creature that I have made." 
5 
Noah did just as the LORD had commanded him. 

7 
Together with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, Noah went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 
16 
…Then the LORD shut him in. 
17 
The flood continued upon the earth for forty days. As the waters increased, they lifted the ark, so that it rose above the earth. 
18 
The swelling waters increased greatly, but the ark floated on the surface of the waters. 
19 
Higher and higher above the earth rose the waters, until all the highest mountains everywhere were submerged, 
20 
the crest rising fifteen cubits higher than the submerged mountains. 
22 
Everything on dry land with the faintest breath of life in its nostrils died out. 
23 
The LORD wiped out every living thing on earth: man and cattle, the creeping things and the birds of the air; all were wiped out from the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were left. 

Chapter 8
2
and the downpour from the sky was held back. 
3 
Gradually the waters receded from the earth.
6 
At the end of forty days Noah opened the hatch he had made in the ark, 
8 
Then he sent out a dove, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. 
9 
But the dove could find no place to alight and perch, and it returned to him in the ark, for there was water all over the earth. Putting out his hand, he caught the dove and drew it back to him inside the ark. 
10 
He waited seven days more and again sent the dove out from the ark. 
11 
In the evening the dove came back to him, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! So Noah knew that the waters had lessened on the earth. 
12 
He waited still another seven days and then released the dove once more; and this time it did not come back. 
13 
…Noah then removed the covering of the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was drying up. 
20 
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and choosing from every clean animal and every clean bird, he offered holocausts on the altar. 
21 
3 When the LORD smelled the sweet odor, he said to himself: "Never again will I doom the earth because of man, since the desires of man's heart are evil from the start; nor will I ever again strike down all living beings, as I have done. 
22 
As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, Summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." 

Chapter 9
18 
3 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 
19 
These three were the sons of Noah, and from them the whole earth was peopled. 
20 
Now Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 
21 
When he drank some of the wine, he became drunk and lay naked inside his tent. 
22 
Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness, and he told his two brothers outside about it. 
23 
Shem and Japheth, however, took a robe, and holding it on their backs, they walked backward and covered their father's nakedness; since their faces were turned the other way, they did not see their father's nakedness. 
24 
When Noah woke up from his drunkenness and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 
25 
he said: "Cursed be Caanan! The lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers." 
26 
4 He also said: "Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! Let Canaan be his slave. 
27 
5 May God expand Japheth, so that he dwells among the tents of Shem; and let Canaan be his slave." 
Noah and the Flood – P Source

ca. 6th Century BC

Adapted from Richard Elliott Friedman’s The Bible with Sources Revealed & the New American Bible Catholic Edition.

Chapter 6

9 
These are the descendants of Noah. Noah, a good man and blameless in that age, 
10 
for he walked with God, begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 
11 
In the eyes of God the earth was corrupt and full of lawlessness. 
12 
When God saw how corrupt the earth had become, since all mortals led depraved lives on earth, 
13 
he said to Noah: "I have decided to put an end to all mortals on earth; the earth is full of lawlessness because of them. So I will destroy them and all life on earth. 
14 
6 Make yourself an ark of gopherwood, put various compartments in it, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 
15 
7 This is how you shall build it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 
16 
8 Make an opening for daylight in the ark, and finish the ark a cubit above it. Put an entrance in the side of the ark, which you shall make with bottom, second and third decks. 
17 
I, on my part, am about to bring the flood (waters) on the earth, to destroy everywhere all creatures in which there is the breath of life; everything on earth shall perish. 
18 
But with you I will establish my covenant; you and your sons, your wife and your sons' wives, shall go into the ark. 
19 
Of all other living creatures you shall bring two into the ark, one male and one female, that you may keep them alive with you. 
20 
Of all kinds of birds, of all kinds of beasts, and of all kinds of creeping things, two of each shall come into the ark with you, to stay alive. 
21 
Moreover, you are to provide yourself with all the food that is to be eaten, and store it away, that it may serve as provisions for you and for them." 
22 
This Noah did; he carried out all the commands that God gave him. 

Chapter 7
8 
Of the clean animals and the unclean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 
9 
(two by two) male and female entered the ark with Noah, just as the LORD had commanded him. 
10 
As soon as the seven days were over, the waters of the flood came upon the earth. 
11 
1 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month: it was on that day that All the fountains of the great abyss burst forth, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. 
12 
For forty days and forty nights heavy rain poured down on the earth. 
13 
On the precise day named, Noah and his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of Noah's sons had entered the ark, 
14 
together with every kind of wild beast, every kind of domestic animal, every kind of creeping thing of the earth, and every kind of bird. 
15 
Pairs of all creatures in which there was the breath of life entered the ark with Noah. 
16 
Those that entered were male and female, and of all species they came, as God had commanded Noah. 
21 
All creatures that stirred on earth perished: birds, cattle, wild animals, and all that swarmed on the earth, as well as all mankind. 
24 
The waters maintained their crest over the earth for one hundred and fifty days, 

Chapter 8
1 
and then God remembered Noah and all the animals, wild and tame, that were with him in the ark. So God made a wind sweep over the earth, and the waters began to subside. 
2 
The fountains of the abyss and the floodgates of the sky were closed, 
At the end of one hundred and fifty days, the waters had so diminished 
4 
that, in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 
5 
The waters continued to diminish until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared. 

7
and he sent out a raven, to see if the waters had lessened on the earth. It flew back and forth until the waters dried off from the earth.

13 
In the six hundred and first year of Noah's life, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water began to dry up on the earth…
14 
In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 
15 
Then God said to Noah: 
16 
"Go out of the ark, together with your wife and your sons and your sons' wives. 
17 
Bring out with you every living thing that is with you--all bodily creatures, be they birds or animals or creeping things of the earth-and let them abound on the earth, breeding and multiplying on it." 
18 
So Noah came out, together with his wife and his sons and his sons' wives; 
19 
and all the animals, wild and tame, all the birds, and all the creeping creatures of the earth left the ark, one kind after another. 

Chapter 9
1 
God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: "Be fertile and multiply and fill the earth. 
2 
Dread fear of you shall come upon all the animals of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon all the creatures that move about on the ground and all the fishes of the sea; into your power they are delivered. 
3 
1 Every creature that is alive shall be yours to eat; I give them all to you as I did the green plants. 
4 
2 Only flesh with its lifeblood still in it you shall not eat. 
5 
For your own lifeblood, too, I will demand an accounting: from every animal I will demand it, and from man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life. 
6 
If anyone sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; For in the image of God has man been made. 
7 
Be fertile, then, and multiply; abound on earth and subdue it." 
8 
God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 
9 
"See, I am now establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you 
10 
and with every living creature that was with you: all the birds, and the various tame and wild animals that were with you and came out of the ark. 
11 
I will establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all bodily creatures be destroyed by the waters of a flood; there shall not be another flood to devastate the earth." 
12 
God added: "This is the sign that I am giving for all ages to come, of the covenant between me and you and every living creature with you: 
13 
I set my bow in the clouds to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 
14 
When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow appears in the clouds, 
15 
I will recall the covenant I have made between me and you and all living beings, so that the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all mortal beings. 
16 
As the bow appears in the clouds, I will see it and recall the everlasting covenant that I have established between God and all living beings--all mortal creatures that are on earth." 
17 
God told Noah: "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all mortal creatures that are on earth." 

Timaeus 

By Plato
(http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html)

Socrates. One, two, three; but where, my dear Timaeus, is the fourth of those who were yesterday my guests and are to be my entertainers to-day? 

Timaeus. He has been taken ill, Socrates; for he would not willingly have been absent from this gathering. 

Soc. Then, if he is not coming, you and the two others must supply his place. 

Tim. Certainly, and we will do all that we can; having been handsomely entertained by you yesterday, those of us who remain should be only too glad to return your hospitality. 

Soc. Do you remember what were the points of which I required you to speak? 

Tim. We remember some of them, and you will be here to remind us of anything which we have forgotten: or rather, if we are not troubling you, will you briefly recapitulate the whole, and then the particulars will be more firmly fixed in our memories? 

Soc. To be sure I will: the chief theme of my yesterday's discourse was the State-how constituted and of what citizens composed it would seem likely to be most perfect. 

Tim. Yes, Socrates; and what you said of it was very much to our mind. 

Soc. Did we not begin by separating the husbandmen and the artisans from the class of defenders of the State? 

Tim. Yes. 

Soc. And when we had given to each one that single employment and particular art which was suited to his nature, we spoke of those who were intended to be our warriors, and said that they were to be guardians of the city against attacks from within as well as from without, and to have no other employment; they were to be merciful in judging their subjects, of whom they were by nature friends, but fierce to their enemies, when they came across them in battle. 

Tim. Exactly. 

Soc. We said, if I am not mistaken, that the guardians should be gifted with a temperament in a high degree both passionate and philosophical; and that then they would be as they ought to be, gentle to their friends and fierce with their enemies. 

Tim. Certainly. 

Soc. And what did we say of their education? Were they not to be trained in gymnastic, and music, and all other sorts of knowledge which were proper for them? 

Tim. Very true. 

Soc. And being thus trained they were not to consider gold or silver or anything else to be their own private property; they were to be like hired troops, receiving pay for keeping guard from those who were protected by them-the pay was to be no more than would suffice for men of simple life; and they were to spend in common, and to live together in the continual practice of virtue, which was to be their sole pursuit. 

Tim. That was also said. 

Soc. Neither did we forget the women; of whom we declared, that their natures should be assimilated and brought into harmony with those of the men, and that common pursuits should be assigned to them both in time of war and in their ordinary life. 

Tim. That, again, was as you say. 

Soc. And what about the procreation of children? Or rather not the proposal too singular to be forgotten? for all wives and children were to be in common, to the intent that no one should ever know his own child, but they were to imagine that they were all one family; those who were within a suitable limit of age were to be brothers and sisters, those who were of an elder generation parents and grandparents, and those of a younger children and grandchildren. 

Tim. Yes, and the proposal is easy to remember, as you say. 

Soc. And do you also remember how, with a view of securing as far as we could the best breed, we said that the chief magistrates, male and female, should contrive secretly, by the use of certain lots, so to arrange the nuptial meeting, that the bad of either sex and the good of either sex might pair with their like; and there was to be no quarrelling on this account, for they would imagine that the union was a mere accident, and was to be attributed to the lot? 

Tim. I remember. 

Soc. And you remember how we said that the children of the good parents were to be educated, and the children of the bad secretly dispersed among the inferior citizens; and while they were all growing up the rulers were to be on the look-out, and to bring up from below in their turn those who were worthy, and those among themselves who were unworthy were to take the places of those who came up? 

Tim. True. 

Soc. Then have I now given you all the heads of our yesterday's discussion? Or is there anything more, my dear Timaeus, which has been omitted? 

Tim. Nothing, Socrates; it was just as you have said. 

Soc. I should like, before proceeding further, to tell you how I feel about the State which we have described. I might compare myself to a person who, on beholding beautiful animals either created by the painter's art, or, better still, alive but at rest, is seized with a desire of seeing them in motion or engaged in some struggle or conflict to which their forms appear suited; this is my feeling about the State which we have been describing. There are conflicts which all cities undergo, and I should like to hear some one tell of our own city carrying on a struggle against her neighbours, and how she went out to war in a becoming manner, and when at war showed by the greatness of her actions and the magnanimity of her words in dealing with other cities a result worthy of her training and education. Now I, Critias and Hermocrates, am conscious that I myself should never be able to celebrate the city and her citizens in a befitting manner, and I am not surprised at my own incapacity; to me the wonder is rather that the poets present as well as past are no better-not that I mean to depreciate them; but every one can see that they are a tribe of imitators, and will imitate best and most easily the life in which they have been brought up; while that which is beyond the range of a man's education he finds hard to carry out in action, and still harder adequately to represent in language. I am aware that the Sophists have plenty of brave words and fair conceits, but I am afraid that being only wanderers from one city to another, and having never had habitations of their own, they may fail in their conception of philosophers and statesmen, and may not know what they do and say in time of war, when they are fighting or holding parley with their enemies. And thus people of your class are the only ones remaining who are fitted by nature and education to take part at once both in politics and philosophy. Here is Timaeus, of Locris in Italy, a city which has admirable laws, and who is himself in wealth and rank the equal of any of his fellow-citizens; he has held the most important and honourable offices in his own state, and, as I believe, has scaled the heights of all philosophy; and here is Critias, whom every Athenian knows to be no novice in the matters of which we are speaking; and as to, Hermocrates, I am assured by many witnesses that his genius and education qualify him to take part in any speculation of the kind. And therefore yesterday when I saw that you wanted me to describe the formation of the State, I readily assented, being very well aware, that, if you only would, none were better qualified to carry the discussion further, and that when you had engaged our city in a suitable war, you of all men living could best exhibit her playing a fitting part. When I had completed my task, I in return imposed this other task upon you. You conferred together and agreed to entertain me to-day, as I had entertained you, with a feast of discourse. Here am I in festive array, and no man can be more ready for the promised banquet. 

Her. And we too, Socrates, as Timaeus says, will not be wanting in enthusiasm; and there is no excuse for not complying with your request. As soon as we arrived yesterday at the guest-chamber of Critias, with whom we are staying, or rather on our way thither, we talked the matter over, and he told us an ancient tradition, which I wish, Critias, that you would repeat to Socrates, so that he may help us to judge whether it will satisfy his requirements or not. 

Crit. I will, if Timaeus, who is our other partner, approves. 

Tim. I quite approve. 

Crit. Then listen, Socrates, to a tale which, though strange, is certainly true, having been attested by Solon, who was the wisest of the seven sages. He was a relative and a dear friend of my great-grandfather, Dropides, as he himself says in many passages of his poems; and he told the story to Critias, my grandfather, who remembered and repeated it to us. There were of old, he said, great and marvellous actions of the Athenian city, which have passed into oblivion through lapse of time and the destruction of mankind, and one in particular, greater than all the rest. This we will now rehearse. It will be a fitting monument of our gratitude to you, and a hymn of praise true and worthy of the goddess, on this her day of festival. 

Soc. Very good. And what is this ancient famous action of the Athenians, which Critias declared, on the authority of Solon, to be not a mere legend, but an actual fact? 

Crit. I will tell an old-world story which I heard from an aged man; for Critias, at the time of telling it, was as he said, nearly ninety years of age, and I was about ten. Now the day was that day of the Apaturia which is called the Registration of Youth, at which, according to custom, our parents gave prizes for recitations, and the poems of several poets were recited by us boys, and many of us sang the poems of Solon, which at that time had not gone out of fashion. One of our tribe, either because he thought so or to please Critias, said that in his judgment Solon was not only the wisest of men, but also the noblest of poets. The old man, as I very well remember, brightened up at hearing this and said, smiling: Yes, Amynander, if Solon had only, like other poets, made poetry the business of his life, and had completed the tale which he brought with him from Egypt, and had not been compelled, by reason of the factions and troubles which he found stirring in his own country when he came home, to attend to other matters, in my opinion he would have been as famous as Homer or Hesiod, or any poet. 

And what was the tale about, Critias? said Amynander. 
About the greatest action which the Athenians ever did, and which ought to have been the most famous, but, through the lapse of time and the destruction of the actors, it has not come down to us. 

Tell us, said the other, the whole story, and how and from whom Solon heard this veritable tradition. 

He replied:-In the Egyptian Delta, at the head of which the river Nile divides, there is a certain district which is called the district of Sais, and the great city of the district is also called Sais, and is the city from which King Amasis came. The citizens have a deity for their foundress; she is called in the Egyptian tongue Neith, and is asserted by them to be the same whom the Hellenes call Athene; they are great lovers of the Athenians, and say that they are in some way related to them. To this city came Solon, and was received there with great honour; he asked the priests who were most skilful in such matters, about antiquity, and made the discovery that neither he nor any other Hellene knew anything worth mentioning about the times of old. On one occasion, wishing to draw them on to speak of antiquity, he began to tell about the most ancient things in our part of the world-about Phoroneus, who is called "the first man," and about Niobe; and after the Deluge, of the survival of Deucalion and Pyrrha; and he traced the genealogy of their descendants, and reckoning up the dates, tried to compute how many years ago the events of which he was speaking happened. Thereupon one of the priests, who was of a very great age, said: O Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are never anything but children, and there is not an old man among you. Solon in return asked him what he meant. I mean to say, he replied, that in mind you are all young; there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you why. There have been, and will be again, many destructions of mankind arising 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 Paethon, the son of Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was upon the earth, and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the bodies moving in the heavens around the earth, and a great conflagration of things upon the earth, which recurs after long intervals; at such times those who live upon the mountains and in dry and lofty places are more liable to destruction than those who dwell by rivers or on the seashore. And from this calamity the Nile, who is our never-failing saviour, delivers and preserves us. When, on the other hand, the gods purge the earth with a deluge of water, the survivors in your country are herdsmen and shepherds who dwell on the mountains, but those who, like you, live in cities are carried by the rivers into the sea. Whereas in this land, neither then nor at any other time, does the water come down from above on the fields, having always a tendency to come up from below; for which reason the traditions preserved here are the most ancient. 

The fact is, that wherever the extremity of winter frost or of summer does not prevent, mankind exist, sometimes in greater, sometimes in lesser numbers. And whatever happened either in your country or in ours, or in any other region of which we are informed-if there were any actions noble or great or in any other way remarkable, they have all been written down by us of old, and are preserved in our temples. Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves. As for those genealogies of yours which you just now recounted to us, Solon, they are no better than the tales of children. In the first place you remember a single deluge only, but there were many previous ones; in the next place, you do not know that there formerly dwelt in your land the fairest and noblest race of men which ever lived, and that you and your whole city are descended from a small seed or remnant of them which survived. And this was unknown to you, because, for many generations, the survivors of that destruction died, leaving no written word. For there was a time, Solon, before the great deluge of all, when the city which now is Athens was first in war and in every way the best governed of all cities, is said to have performed the noblest deeds and to have had the fairest constitution of any of which tradition tells, under the face of heaven. 

Solon marvelled at his words, and earnestly requested the priests to inform him exactly and in order about these former citizens. You are welcome to hear about them, Solon, said the priest, both for your own sake and for that of your city, and above all, for the sake of the goddess who is the common patron and parent and educator of both our cities. She founded your city a thousand years before ours, receiving from the Earth and Hephaestus the seed of your race, and afterwards she founded ours, of which the constitution is recorded in our sacred registers to be eight thousand years old. As touching your citizens of nine thousand years ago, I will briefly inform you of their laws and of their most famous action; the exact particulars of the whole we will hereafter go through at our leisure in the sacred registers themselves. If you compare these very laws with ours you will find that many of ours are the counterpart of yours as they were in the olden time. In the first place, there is the caste of priests, which is separated from all the others; next, there are the artificers, who ply their several crafts by themselves and do not intermix; and also there is the class of shepherds and of hunters, as well as that of husbandmen; and you will observe, too, that the warriors in Egypt are distinct from all the other classes, and are commanded by the law to devote themselves solely to military pursuits; moreover, the weapons which they carry are shields and spears, a style of equipment which the goddess taught of Asiatics first to us, as in your part of the world first to you. Then as to wisdom, do you observe how our law from the very first made a study of the whole order of things, extending even to prophecy and medicine which gives health, out of these divine elements deriving what was needful for human life, and adding every sort of knowledge which was akin to them. All this order and arrangement the goddess first imparted to you when establishing your city; and she chose the spot of earth in which you were born, because she saw that the happy temperament of the seasons in that land would produce the wisest of men. Wherefore the goddess, who was a lover both of war and of wisdom, selected and first of all settled that spot which was the most likely to produce men likest herself. And there you dwelt, having such laws as these and still better ones, and excelled all mankind in all virtue, as became the children and disciples of the gods. 

Many great and wonderful deeds are recorded of your state in our histories. But one of them exceeds all the rest in greatness and valour. For these histories tell of a mighty power which unprovoked made an expedition against the whole of Europe and Asia, and to which your city put an end. This power came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean, for in those days the Atlantic was navigable; and there was an island situated in front of the straits which are by you called the Pillars of Heracles; the island was larger than Libya and Asia put together, and was the way to other islands, and from these you might pass to the whole of the opposite continent which surrounded the true ocean; for this sea which is within the Straits of Heracles is only a harbour, having a narrow entrance, but that other is a real sea, and the surrounding land may be most truly called a boundless continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there was a great and wonderful empire which had rule over the whole island and several others, and over parts of the continent, and, furthermore, the men of Atlantis had subjected the parts of Libya within the columns of Heracles as far as Egypt, and of Europe as far as Tyrrhenia. This vast power, gathered into one, endeavoured to subdue at a blow our country and yours and the whole of the region within the straits; and then, Solon, your country shone forth, in the excellence of her virtue and strength, among all mankind. She was pre-eminent in courage and military skill, and was the leader of the Hellenes. And when the rest fell off from her, being compelled to stand alone, after having undergone the very extremity of danger, she defeated and triumphed over the invaders, and preserved from slavery those who were not yet subjugated, and generously liberated all the rest of us who dwell within the pillars. But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and night of misfortune all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner disappeared in the depths of the sea. For which reason the sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is a shoal of mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island. 

I have told you briefly, Socrates, what the aged Critias heard from Solon and related to us. And when you were speaking yesterday about your city and citizens, the tale which I have just been repeating to you came into my mind, and I remarked with astonishment how, by some mysterious coincidence, you agreed in almost every particular with the narrative of Solon; but I did not like to speak at the moment. For a long time had elapsed, and I had forgotten too much; I thought that I must first of all run over the narrative in my own mind, and then I would speak. And so I readily assented to your request yesterday, considering that in all such cases the chief difficulty is to find a tale suitable to our purpose, and that with such a tale we should be fairly well provided. 

And therefore, as Hermocrates has told you, on my way home yesterday I at once communicated the tale to my companions as I remembered it; and after I left them, during the night by thinking I recovered nearly the whole it. Truly, as is often said, the lessons of our childhood make wonderful impression on our memories; for I am not sure that I could remember all the discourse of yesterday, but I should be much surprised if I forgot any of these things which I have heard very long ago. I listened at the time with childlike interest to the old man's narrative; he was very ready to teach me, and I asked him again and again to repeat his words, so that like an indelible picture they were branded into my mind. As soon as the day broke, I rehearsed them as he spoke them to my companions, that they, as well as myself, might have something to say. And now, Socrates, to make an end my preface, I am ready to tell you the whole tale. I will give you not only the general heads, but the particulars, as they were told to me. The city and citizens, which you yesterday described to us in fiction, we will now transfer to the world of reality. It shall be the ancient city of Athens, and we will suppose that the citizens whom you imagined, were our veritable ancestors, of whom the priest spoke; they will perfectly harmonise, and there will be no inconsistency in saying that the citizens of your republic are these ancient Athenians. Let us divide the subject among us, and all endeavour according to our ability gracefully to execute the task which you have imposed upon us. Consider then, Socrates, if this narrative is suited to the purpose, or whether we should seek for some other instead. 

Soc. And what other, Critias, can we find that will be better than this, which is natural and suitable to the festival of the goddess, and has the very great advantage of being a fact and not a fiction? How or where shall we find another if we abandon this? We cannot, and therefore you must tell the tale, and good luck to you; and I in return for my yesterday's discourse will now rest and be a listener. 

Crit. Let me proceed to explain to you, Socrates, the order in which we have arranged our entertainment. Our intention is, that Timaeus, who is the most of an astronomer amongst us, and has made the nature of the universe his special study, should speak first, beginning with the generation of the world and going down to the creation of man; next, I am to receive the men whom he has created of whom some will have profited by the excellent education which you have given them; and then, in accordance with the tale of Solon, and equally with his law, we will bring them into court and make them citizens, as if they were those very Athenians whom the sacred Egyptian record has recovered from oblivion, and thenceforward we will speak of them as Athenians and fellow-citizens. 

Soc. I see that I shall receive in my turn a perfect and splendid feast of reason. And now, Timaeus, you, I suppose, should speak next, after duly calling upon the Gods. 

Tim. All men, Socrates, who have any degree of right feeling, at the beginning of every enterprise, whether small or great, always call upon God. And we, too, who are going to discourse of the nature of the universe, how created or how existing without creation, if we be not altogether out of our wits, must invoke the aid of Gods and Goddesses and pray that our words may be acceptable to them and consistent with themselves. Let this, then, be our invocation of the Gods, to which I add an exhortation of myself to speak in such manner as will be most intelligible to you, and will most accord with my own intent. 

First then, in my judgment, we must make a distinction and ask, What is that which always is and has no becoming; and what is that which is always becoming and never is? That which is apprehended by intelligence and reason is always in the same state; but that which is conceived by opinion with the help of sensation and without reason, is always in a process of becoming and perishing and never really is. Now everything that becomes or is created must of necessity be created by some cause, for without a cause nothing can be created. The work of the creator, whenever he looks to the unchangeable and fashions the form and nature of his work after an unchangeable pattern, must necessarily be made fair and perfect; but when he looks to the created only, and uses a created pattern, it is not fair or perfect. Was the heaven then or the world, whether called by this or by any other more appropriate name-assuming the name, I am asking a question which has to be asked at the beginning of an enquiry about anything-was the world, I say, always in existence and without beginning? or created, and had it a beginning? Created, I reply, being visible and tangible and having a body, and therefore sensible; and all sensible things are apprehended by opinion and sense and are in a process of creation and created. Now that which is created must, as we affirm, of necessity be created by a cause. But the father and maker of all this universe is past finding out; and even if we found him, to tell of him to all men would be impossible. And there is still a question to be asked about him: Which of the patterns had the artificer in view when he made the world-the pattern of the unchangeable, or of that which is created? If the world be indeed fair and the artificer good, it is manifest that he must have looked to that which is eternal; but if what cannot be said without blasphemy is true, then to the created pattern. Every one will see that he must have looked to, the eternal; for the world is the fairest of creations and he is the best of causes. And having been created in this way, the world has been framed in the likeness of that which is apprehended by reason and mind and is unchangeable, and must therefore of necessity, if this is admitted, be a copy of something. Now it is all-important that the beginning of everything should be according to nature. And in speaking of the copy and the original we may assume that words are akin to the matter which they describe; when they relate to the lasting and permanent and intelligible, they ought to be lasting and unalterable, and, as far as their nature allows, irrefutable and immovable-nothing less. But when they express only the copy or likeness and not the eternal things themselves, they need only be likely and analogous to the real words. As being is to becoming, so is truth to belief. If then, Socrates, amid the many opinions about the gods and the generation of the universe, we are not able to give notions which are altogether and in every respect exact and consistent with one another, do not be surprised. Enough, if we adduce probabilities as likely as any others; for we must remember that I who am the speaker, and you who are the judges, are only mortal men, and we ought to accept the tale which is probable and enquire no further. 

Soc. Excellent, Timaeus; and we will do precisely as you bid us. The prelude is charming, and is already accepted by us-may we beg of you to proceed to the strain? 

Tim. Let me tell you then why the creator made this world of generation. He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And being free from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as like himself as they could be. This is in the truest sense the origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in believing on the testimony of wise men: God desired that all things should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable. Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he brought order, considering that this was in every way better than the other. Now the deeds of the best could never be or have been other than the fairest; and the creator, reflecting on the things which are by nature visible, found that no unintelligent creature taken as a whole was fairer than the intelligent taken as a whole; and that intelligence could not be present in anything which was devoid of soul. For which reason, when he was framing the universe, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he might be the creator of a work which was by nature fairest and best. Wherefore, using the language of probability, we may say that the world became a living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God. 

This being supposed, let us proceed to the next stage: In the likeness of what animal did the Creator make the world? It would be an unworthy thing to liken it to any nature which exists as a part only; for nothing can be beautiful which is like any imperfect thing; but let us suppose the world to be the very image of that whole of which all other animals both individually and in their tribes are portions. For the original of the universe contains in itself all intelligible beings, just as this world comprehends us and all other visible creatures. For the Deity, intending to make this world like the fairest and most perfect of intelligible beings, framed one visible animal comprehending within itself all other animals of a kindred nature. Are we right in saying that there is one world, or that they are many and infinite? There must be one only, if the created copy is to accord with the original. For that which includes all other intelligible creatures cannot have a second or companion; in that case there would be need of another living being which would include both, and of which they would be parts, and the likeness would be more truly said to resemble not them, but that other which included them. In order then that the world might be solitary, like the perfect animal, the creator made not two worlds or an infinite number of them; but there is and ever will be one only-begotten and created heaven. 

Now that which is created is of necessity corporeal, and also visible and tangible. And nothing is visible where there is no fire, or tangible which has no solidity, and nothing is solid without earth. Wherefore also God in the beginning of creation made the body of the universe to consist of fire and earth. But two things cannot be rightly put together without a third; there must be some bond of union between them. And the fairest bond is that which makes the most complete fusion of itself and the things which it combines; and proportion is best adapted to effect such a union. For whenever in any three numbers, whether cube or square, there is a mean, which is to the last term what the first term is to it; and again, when the mean is to the first term as the last term is to the mean-then the mean becoming first and last, and the first and last both becoming means, they will all of them of necessity come to be the same, and having become the same with one another will be all one. If the universal frame had been created a surface only and having no depth, a single mean would have sufficed to bind together itself and the other terms; but now, as the world must be solid, and solid bodies are always compacted not by one mean but by two, God placed water and air in the mean between fire and earth, and made them to have the same proportion so far as was possible (as fire is to air so is air to water, and as air is to water so is water to earth); and thus he bound and put together a visible and tangible heaven. And for these reasons, and out of such elements which are in number four, the body of the world was created, and it was harmonised by proportion, and therefore has the spirit of friendship; and having been reconciled to itself, it was indissoluble by the hand of any other than the framer. 

Now the creation took up the whole of each of the four elements; for the Creator compounded the world out of all the fire and all the water and all the air and all the earth, leaving no part of any of them nor any power of them outside. His intention was, in the first place, that the animal should be as far as possible a perfect whole and of perfect parts: secondly, that it should be one, leaving no remnants out of which another such world might be created: and also that it should be free from old age and unaffected by disease. Considering that if heat and cold and other powerful forces which unite bodies surround and attack them from without when they are unprepared, they decompose them, and by bringing diseases and old age upon them, make them waste away-for this cause and on these grounds he made the world one whole, having every part entire, and being therefore perfect and not liable to old age and disease. And he gave to the world the figure which was suitable and also natural. Now to the animal which was to comprehend all animals, that figure was suitable which comprehends within itself all other figures. Wherefore he made the world in the form of a globe, round as from a lathe, having its extremes in every direction equidistant from the centre, the most perfect and the most like itself of all figures; for he considered that the like is infinitely fairer than the unlike. This he finished off, making the surface smooth all around for many reasons; in the first place, because the living being had no need of eyes when there was nothing remaining outside him to be seen; nor of ears when there was nothing to be heard; and there was no surrounding atmosphere to be breathed; nor would there have been any use of organs by the help of which he might receive his food or get rid of what he had already digested, since there was nothing which went from him or came into him: for there was nothing beside him. Of design he was created thus, his own waste providing his own food, and all that he did or suffered taking place in and by himself. For the Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything; and, as he had no need to take anything or defend himself against any one, the Creator did not think it necessary to bestow upon him hands: nor had he any need of feet, nor of the whole apparatus of walking; but the movement suited to his spherical form was assigned to him, being of all the seven that which is most appropriate to mind and intelligence; and he was made to move in the same manner and on the same spot, within his own limits revolving in a circle. All the other six motions were taken away from him, and he was made not to partake of their deviations. And as this circular movement required no feet, the universe was created without legs and without feet. 

Such was the whole plan of the eternal God about the god that was to be, to whom for this reason he gave a body, smooth and even, having a surface in every direction equidistant from the centre, a body entire and perfect, and formed out of perfect bodies. And in the centre he put the soul, which he diffused throughout the body, making it also to be the exterior environment of it; and he made the universe a circle moving in a circle, one and solitary, yet by reason of its excellence able to converse with itself, and needing no other friendship or acquaintance. Having these purposes in view he created the world a blessed god. 

Now God did not make the soul after the body, although we are speaking of them in this order; for having brought them together he would never have allowed that the elder should be ruled by the younger; but this is a random manner of speaking which we have, because somehow we ourselves too are very much under the dominion of chance. Whereas he made the soul in origin and excellence prior to and older than the body, to be the ruler and mistress, of whom the body was to be the subject. And he made her out of the following elements and on this wise: Out of the indivisible and unchangeable, and also out of that which is divisible and has to do with material bodies, he compounded a third and intermediate kind of essence, partaking of the nature of the same and of the other, and this compound he placed accordingly in a mean between the indivisible, and the divisible and material. He took the three elements of the same, the other, and the essence, and mingled them into one form, compressing by force the reluctant and unsociable nature of the other into the same. When he had mingled them with the essence and out of three made one, he again divided this whole into as many portions as was fitting, each portion being a compound of the same, the other, and the essence. And he proceeded to divide after this manner:-First of all, he took away one part of the whole [1], and then he separated a second part which was double the first [2], and then he took away a third part which was half as much again as the second and three times as much as the first [3], and then he took a fourth part which was twice as much as the second [4], and a fifth part which was three times the third [9], and a sixth part which was eight times the first [8], and a seventh part which was twenty-seven times the first [27]. After this he filled up the double intervals [i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8] and the triple [i.e. between 1, 3, 9, 27] cutting off yet other portions from the mixture and placing them in the intervals, so that in each interval there were two kinds of means, the one exceeding and exceeded by equal parts of its extremes [as for example 1, 4/3, 2, in which the mean 4/3 is one-third of 1 more than 1, and one-third of 2 less than 2], the other being that kind of mean which exceeds and is exceeded by an equal number. Where there were intervals of 3/2 and of 4/3 and of 9/8, made by the connecting terms in the former intervals, he filled up all the intervals of 4/3 with the interval of 9/8, leaving a fraction over; and the interval which this fraction expressed was in the ratio of 256 to 243. And thus the whole mixture out of which he cut these portions was all exhausted by him. This entire compound he divided lengthways into two parts, which he joined to one another at the centre like the letter X, and bent them into a circular form, connecting them with themselves and each other at the point opposite to their original meeting-point; and, comprehending them in a uniform revolution upon the same axis, he made the one the outer and the other the inner circle. Now the motion of the outer circle he called the motion of the same, and the motion of the inner circle the motion of the other or diverse. The motion of the same he carried round by the side to the right, and the motion of the diverse diagonally to the left. And he gave dominion to the motion of the same and like, for that he left single and undivided; but the inner motion he divided in six places and made seven unequal circles having their intervals in ratios of two-and three, three of each, and bade the orbits proceed in a direction opposite to one another; and three [Sun, Mercury, Venus] he made to move with equal swiftness, and the remaining four [Moon, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter] to move with unequal swiftness to the three and to one another, but in due proportion. 

Now when the Creator had framed the soul according to his will, he formed within her the corporeal universe, and brought the two together, and united them centre to centre. The soul, interfused everywhere from the centre to the circumference of heaven, of which also she is the external envelopment, herself turning in herself, began a divine beginning of never ceasing and rational life enduring throughout all time. The body of heaven is visible, but the soul is invisible, and partakes of reason and harmony, and being made by the best of intellectual and everlasting natures, is the best of things created. And because she is composed of the same and of the other and of the essence, these three, and is divided and united in due proportion, and in her revolutions returns upon herself, the soul, when touching anything which has essence, whether dispersed in parts or undivided, is stirred through all her powers, to declare the sameness or difference of that thing and some other; and to what individuals are related, and by what affected, and in what way and how and when, both in the world of generation and in the world of immutable being. And when reason, which works with equal truth, whether she be in the circle of the diverse or of the same-in voiceless silence holding her onward course in the sphere of the self-moved-when reason, I say, is hovering around the sensible world and when the circle of the diverse also moving truly imparts the intimations of sense to the whole soul, then arise opinions and beliefs sure and certain. But when reason is concerned with the rational, and the circle of the same moving smoothly declares it, then intelligence and knowledge are necessarily perfected. And if any one affirms that in which these two are found to be other than the soul, he will say the very opposite of the truth. 

When the father creator saw the creature which he had made moving and living, the created image of the eternal gods, he rejoiced, and in his joy determined to make the copy still more like the original; and as this was eternal, he sought to make the universe eternal, so far as might be. Now the nature of the ideal being was everlasting, but to bestow this attribute in its fulness upon a creature was impossible. Wherefore he resolved to have a moving image of eternity, and when he set in order the heaven, he made this image eternal but moving according to number, while eternity itself rests in unity; and this image we call time. For there were no days and nights and months and years before the heaven was created, but when he constructed the heaven he created them also. They are all parts of time, and the past and future are created species of time, which we unconsciously but wrongly transfer to the eternal essence; for we say that he "was," he "is," he "will be," but the truth is that "is" alone is properly attributed to him, and that "was" and "will be" only to be spoken of becoming in time, for they are motions, but that which is immovably the same cannot become older or younger by time, nor ever did or has become, or hereafter will be, older or younger, nor is subject at all to any of those states which affect moving and sensible things and of which generation is the cause. These are the forms of time, which imitates eternity and revolves according to a law of number. Moreover, when we say that what has become is become and what becomes is becoming, and that what will become is about to become and that the non-existent is non-existent-all these are inaccurate modes of expression. But perhaps this whole subject will be more suitably discussed on some other occasion. 

Time, then, and the heaven came into being at the same instant in order that, having been created together, if ever there was to be a dissolution of them, they might be dissolved together. It was framed after the pattern of the eternal nature, that it might resemble this as far as was possible; for the pattern exists from eternity, and the created heaven has been, and is, and will be, in all time. Such was the mind and thought of God in the creation of time. The sun and moon and five other stars, which are called the planets, were created by him in order to distinguish and preserve the numbers of time; and when he had made-their several bodies, he placed them in the orbits in which the circle of the other was revolving-in seven orbits seven stars. First, there was the moon in the orbit nearest the earth, and next the sun, in the second orbit above the earth; then came the morning star and the star sacred to Hermes, moving in orbits which have an equal swiftness with the sun, but in an opposite direction; and this is the reason why the sun and Hermes and Lucifer overtake and are overtaken by each other. To enumerate the places which he assigned to the other stars, and to give all the reasons why he assigned them, although a secondary matter, would give more trouble than the primary. These things at some future time, when we are at leisure, may have the consideration which they deserve, but not at present. 

Now, when all the stars which were necessary to the creation of time had attained a motion suitable to them,-and had become living creatures having bodies fastened by vital chains, and learnt their appointed task, moving in the motion of the diverse, which is diagonal, and passes through and is governed by the motion of the same, they revolved, some in a larger and some in a lesser orbit-those which had the lesser orbit revolving faster, and those which had the larger more slowly. Now by reason of the motion of the same, those which revolved fastest appeared to be overtaken by those which moved slower although they really overtook them; for the motion of the same made them all turn in a spiral, and, because some went one way and some another, that which receded most slowly from the sphere of the same, which was the swiftest, appeared to follow it most nearly. That there might be some visible measure of their relative swiftness and slowness as they proceeded in their eight courses, God lighted a fire, which we now call the sun, in the second from the earth of these orbits, that it might give light to the whole of heaven, and that the animals, as many as nature intended, might participate in number, learning arithmetic from the revolution of the same and the like. Thus then, and for this reason the night and the day were created, being the period of the one most intelligent revolution. And the month is accomplished when the moon has completed her orbit and overtaken the sun, and the year when the sun has completed his own orbit. Mankind, with hardly an exception, have not remarked the periods of the other stars, and they have no name for them, and do not measure them against one another by the help of number, and hence they can scarcely be said to know that their wanderings, being infinite in number and admirable for their variety, make up time. And yet there is no difficulty in seeing that the perfect number of time fulfils the perfect year when all the eight revolutions, having their relative degrees of swiftness, are accomplished together and attain their completion at the same time, measured by the rotation of the same and equally moving. After this manner, and for these reasons, came into being such of the stars as in their heavenly progress received reversals of motion, to the end that the created heaven might imitate the eternal nature, and be as like as possible to the perfect and intelligible animal. 

Thus far and until the birth of time the created universe was made in the likeness of the original, but inasmuch as all animals were not yet comprehended therein, it was still unlike. What remained, the creator then proceeded to fashion after the nature of the pattern. Now as in the ideal animal the mind perceives ideas or species of a certain nature and number, he thought that this created animal ought to have species of a like nature and number. There are four such; one of them is the heavenly race of the gods; another, the race of birds whose way is in the air; the third, the watery species; and the fourth, the pedestrian and land creatures. Of the heavenly and divine, he created the greater part out of fire, that they might be the brightest of all things and fairest to behold, and he fashioned them after the likeness of the universe in the figure of a circle, and made them follow the intelligent motion of the supreme, distributing them over the whole circumference of heaven, which was to be a true cosmos or glorious world spangled with them all over. And he gave to each of them two movements: the first, a movement on the same spot after the same manner, whereby they ever continue to think consistently the same thoughts about the same things; the second, a forward movement, in which they are controlled by the revolution of the same and the like; but by the other five motions they were unaffected, in order that each of them might attain the highest perfection. And for this reason the fixed stars were created, to be divine and eternal animals, ever-abiding and revolving after the same manner and on the same spot; and the other stars which reverse their motion and are subject to deviations of this kind, were created in the manner already described. The earth, which is our nurse, clinging around the pole which is extended through the universe, he framed to be the guardian and artificer of night and day, first and eldest of gods that are in the interior of heaven. Vain would be the attempt to tell all the figures of them circling as in dance, and their juxtapositions, and the return of them in their revolutions upon themselves, and their approximations, and to say which of these deities in their conjunctions meet, and which of them are in opposition, and in what order they get behind and before one another, and when they are severally eclipsed to our sight and again reappear, sending terrors and intimations of the future to those who cannot calculate their movements-to attempt to tell of all this without a visible representation of the heavenly system would be labour in vain. Enough on this head; and now let what we have said about the nature of the created and visible gods have an end. 

To know or tell the origin of the other divinities is beyond us, and we must accept the traditions of the men of old time who affirm themselves to be the offspring of the gods-that is what they say-and they must surely have known their own ancestors. How can we doubt the word of the children of the gods? Although they give no probable or certain proofs, still, as they declare that they are speaking of what took place in their own family, we must conform to custom and believe them. In this manner, then, according to them, the genealogy of these gods is to be received and set forth. 

Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and from these sprang Phorcys and Cronos and Rhea, and all that generation; and from Cronos and Rhea sprang Zeus and Here, and all those who are said to be their brethren, and others who were the children of these. 

Now, when all of them, both those who visibly appear in their revolutions as well as those other gods who are of a more retiring nature, had come into being, the creator of the universe addressed them in these words: "Gods, children of gods, who are my works, and of whom I am the artificer and father, my creations are indissoluble, if so I will. All that is bound may be undone, but only an evil being would wish to undo that which is harmonious and happy. Wherefore, since ye are but creatures, ye are not altogether immortal and indissoluble, but ye shall certainly not be dissolved, nor be liable to the fate of death, having in my will a greater and mightier bond than those with which ye were bound at the time of your birth. And now listen to my instructions:-Three tribes of mortal beings remain to be created-without them the universe will be incomplete, for it will not contain every kind of animal which it ought to contain, if it is to be perfect. On the other hand, if they were created by me and received life at my hands, they would be on an equality with the gods. In order then that they may be mortal, and that this universe may be truly universal, do ye, according to your natures, betake yourselves to the formation of animals, imitating the power which was shown by me in creating you. The part of them worthy of the name immortal, which is called divine and is the guiding principle of those who are willing to follow justice and you-of that divine part I will myself sow the seed, and having made a beginning, I will hand the work over to you. And do ye then interweave the mortal with the immortal, and make and beget living creatures, and give them food, and make them to grow, and receive them again in death." 

Thus he spake, and once more into the cup in which he had previously mingled the soul of the universe he poured the remains of the elements, and mingled them in much the same manner; they were not, however, pure as before, but diluted to the second and third degree. And having made it he divided the whole mixture into souls equal in number to the stars, and assigned each soul to a star; and having there placed them as in a chariot, he showed them the nature of the universe, and declared to them the laws of destiny, according to which their first birth would be one and the same for all,-no one should suffer a disadvantage at his hands; they were to be sown in the instruments of time severally adapted to them, and to come forth the most religious of animals; and as human nature was of two kinds, the superior race would here after be called man. Now, when they should be implanted in bodies by necessity, and be always gaining or losing some part of their bodily substance, then in the first place it would be necessary that they should all have in them one and the same faculty of sensation, arising out of irresistible impressions; in the second place, they must have love, in which pleasure and pain mingle; also fear and anger, and the feelings which are akin or opposite to them; if they conquered these they would live righteously, and if they were conquered by them, unrighteously. He who lived well during his appointed time was to return and dwell in his native star, and there he would have a blessed and congenial existence. But if he failed in attaining this, at the second birth he would pass into a woman, and if, when in that state of being, he did not desist from evil, he would continually be changed into some brute who resembled him in the evil nature which he had acquired, and would not cease from his toils and transformations until he followed the revolution of the same and the like within him, and overcame by the help of reason the turbulent and irrational mob of later accretions, made up of fire and air and water and earth, and returned to the form of his first and better state. Having given all these laws to his creatures, that he might be guiltless of future evil in any of them, the creator sowed some of them in the earth, and some in the moon, and some in the other instruments of time; and when he had sown them he committed to the younger gods the fashioning of their mortal bodies, and desired them to furnish what was still lacking to the human soul, and having made all the suitable additions, to rule over them, and to pilot the mortal animal in the best and wisest manner which they could, and avert from him all but self-inflicted evils. 

When the creator had made all these ordinances he remained in his own accustomed nature, and his children heard and were obedient to their father's word, and receiving from him the immortal principle of a mortal creature, in imitation of their own creator they borrowed portions of fire, and earth, and water, and air from the world, which were hereafter to be restored-these they took and welded them together, not with the indissoluble chains by which they were themselves bound, but with little pegs too small to be visible, making up out of all the four elements each separate body, and fastening the courses of the immortal soul in a body which was in a state of perpetual influx and efflux. Now these courses, detained as in a vast river, neither overcame nor were overcome; but were hurrying and hurried to and fro, so that the whole animal was moved and progressed, irregularly however and irrationally and anyhow, in all the six directions of motion, wandering backwards and forwards, and right and left, and up and down, and in all the six directions. For great as was the advancing and retiring flood which provided nourishment, the affections produced by external contact caused still greater tumult-when the body of any one met and came into collision with some external fire, or with the solid earth or the gliding waters, or was caught in the tempest borne on the air, and the motions produced by any of these impulses were carried through the body to the soul. All such motions have consequently received the general name of "sensations," which they still retain. And they did in fact at that time create a very great and mighty movement; uniting with the ever flowing stream in stirring up and violently shaking the courses of the soul, they completely stopped the revolution of the same by their opposing current, and hindered it from predominating and advancing; and they so disturbed the nature of the other or diverse, that the three double intervals [i.e. between 1, 2, 4, 8], and the three triple intervals [i.e. between 1, 3, 9, 27], together with the mean terms and connecting links which are expressed by the ratios of 3 : 2, and 4 : 3, and of 9 : 8-these, although they cannot be wholly undone except by him who united them, were twisted by them in all sorts of ways, and the circles were broken and disordered in every possible manner, so that when they moved they were tumbling to pieces, and moved irrationally, at one time in a reverse direction, and then again obliquely, and then upside down, as you might imagine a person who is upside down and has his head leaning upon the ground and his feet up against something in the air; and when he is in such a position, both he and the spectator fancy that the right of either is his left, and left right. If, when powerfully experiencing these and similar effects, the revolutions of the soul come in contact with some external thing, either of the class of the same or of the other, they speak of the same or of the other in a manner the very opposite of the truth; and they become false and foolish, and there is no course or revolution in them which has a guiding or directing power; and if again any sensations enter in violently from without and drag after them the whole vessel of the soul, then the courses of the soul, though they seem to conquer, are really conquered. 

And by reason of all these affections, the soul, when encased in a mortal body, now, as in the beginning, is at first without intelligence; but when the flood of growth and nutriment abates, and the courses of the soul, calming down, go their own way and become steadier as time goes on, then the several circles return to their natural form, and their revolutions are corrected, and they call the same and the other by their right names, and make the possessor of them to become a rational being. And if these combine in him with any true nurture or education, he attains the fulness and health of the perfect man, and escapes the worst disease of all; but if he neglects education he walks lame to the end of his life, and returns imperfect and good for nothing to the world below. This, however, is a later stage; at present we must treat more exactly the subject before us, which involves a preliminary enquiry into the generation of the body and its members, and as to how the soul was created-for what reason and by what providence of the gods; and holding fast to probability, we must pursue our way. 

First, then, the gods, imitating the spherical shape of the universe, enclosed the two divine courses in a spherical body, that, namely, which we now term the head, being the most divine part of us and the lord of all that is in us: to this the gods, when they put together the body, gave all the other members to be servants, considering that it partook of every sort of motion. In order then that it might not tumble about among the high and deep places of the earth, but might be able to get over the one and out of the other, they provided the body to be its vehicle and means of locomotion; which consequently had length and was furnished with four limbs extended and flexible; these God contrived to be instruments of locomotion with which it might take hold and find support, and so be able to pass through all places, carrying on high the dwelling-place of the most sacred and divine part of us. Such was the origin of legs and hands, which for this reason were attached to every man; and the gods, deeming the front part of man to be more honourable and more fit to command than the hinder part, made us to move mostly in a forward direction. Wherefore man must needs have his front part unlike and distinguished from the rest of his body. 

And so in the vessel of the head, they first of all put a face in which they inserted organs to minister in all things to the providence of the soul, and they appointed this part, which has authority, to be by nature the part which is in front. And of the organs they first contrived the eyes to give light, and the principle according to which they were inserted was as follows: So much of fire as would not burn, but gave a gentle light, they formed into a substance akin to the light of every-day life; and the pure fire which is within us and related thereto they made to flow through the eyes in a stream smooth and dense, compressing the whole eye, and especially the centre part, so that it kept out everything of a coarser nature, and allowed to pass only this pure element. When the light of day surrounds the stream of vision, then like falls upon like, and they coalesce, and one body is formed by natural affinity in the line of vision, wherever the light that falls from within meets with an external object. And the whole stream of vision, being similarly affected in virtue of similarity, diffuses the motions of what it touches or what touches it over the whole body, until they reach the soul, causing that perception which we call sight. But when night comes on and the external and kindred fire departs, then the stream of vision is cut off; for going forth to an unlike element it is changed and extinguished, being no longer of one nature with the surrounding atmosphere which is now deprived of fire: and so the eye no longer sees, and we feel disposed to sleep. For when the eyelids, which the gods invented for the preservation of sight, are closed, they keep in the internal fire; and the power of the fire diffuses and equalises the inward motions; when they are equalised, there is rest, and when the rest is profound, sleep comes over us scarce disturbed by dreams; but where the greater motions still remain, of whatever nature and in whatever locality, they engender corresponding visions in dreams, which are remembered by us when we are awake and in the external world. And now there is no longer any difficulty in understanding the creation of images in mirrors and all smooth and bright surfaces. For from the communion of the internal and external fires, and again from the union of them and their numerous transformations when they meet in the mirror, all these appearances of necessity arise, when the fire from the face coalesces with the fire from the eye on the bright and smooth surface. And right appears left and left right, because the visual rays come into contact with the rays emitted by the object in a manner contrary to the usual mode of meeting; but the right appears right, and the left left, when the position of one of the two concurring lights is reversed; and this happens when the mirror is concave and its smooth surface repels the right stream of vision to the left side, and the left to the right. Or if the mirror be turned vertically, then the concavity makes the countenance appear to be all upside down, and the lower rays are driven upwards and the upper downwards. 

All these are to be reckoned among the second and co-operative causes which God, carrying into execution the idea of the best as far as possible, uses as his ministers. They are thought by most men not to be the second, but the prime causes of all things, because they freeze and heat, and contract and dilate, and the like. But they are not so, for they are incapable of reason or intellect; the only being which can properly have mind is the invisible soul, whereas fire and water, and earth and air, are all of them visible bodies. The lover of intellect and knowledge ought to explore causes of intelligent nature first of all, and, secondly, of those things which, being moved by others, are compelled to move others. And this is what we too must do. Both kinds of causes should be acknowledged by us, but a distinction should be made between those which are endowed with mind and are the workers of things fair and good, and those which are deprived of intelligence and always produce chance effects without order or design. Of the second or co-operative causes of sight, which help to give to the eyes the power which they now possess, enough has been said. I will therefore now proceed to speak of the higher use and purpose for which God has given them to us. The sight in my opinion is the source of the greatest benefit to us, for had we never seen the stars, and the sun, and the heaven, none of the words which we have spoken about the universe would ever have been uttered. But now the sight of day and night, and the months and the revolutions of the years, have created number, and have given us a conception of time, and the power of enquiring about the nature of the universe; and from this source we have derived philosophy, than which no greater good ever was or will be given by the gods to mortal man. This is the greatest boon of sight: and of the lesser benefits why should I speak? even the ordinary man if he were deprived of them would bewail his loss, but in vain. Thus much let me say however: God invented and gave us sight to the end that we might behold the courses of intelligence in the heaven, and apply them to the courses of our own intelligence which are akin to them, the unperturbed to the perturbed; and that we, learning them and partaking of the natural truth of reason, might imitate the absolutely unerring courses of God and regulate our own vagaries. The same may be affirmed of speech and hearing: they have been given by the gods to the same end and for a like reason. For this is the principal end of speech, whereto it most contributes. Moreover, so much of music as is adapted to the sound of the voice and to the sense of hearing is granted to us for the sake of harmony; and harmony, which has motions akin to the revolutions of our souls, is not regarded by the intelligent votary of the Muses as given by them with a view to irrational pleasure, which is deemed to be the purpose of it in our day, but as meant to correct any discord which may have arisen in the courses of the soul, and to be our ally in bringing her into harmony and agreement with herself; and rhythm too was given by them for the same reason, on account of the irregular and graceless ways which prevail among mankind generally, and to help us against them. 

Thus far in what we have been saying, with small exception, the works of intelligence have been set forth; and now we must place by the side of them in our discourse the things which come into being through necessity-for the creation is mixed, being made up of necessity and mind. Mind, the ruling power, persuaded necessity to bring the greater part of created things to perfection, and thus and after this manner in the beginning, when the influence of reason got the better of necessity, the universe was created. But if a person will truly tell of the way in which the work was accomplished, he must include the other influence of the variable cause as well. Wherefore, we must return again and find another suitable beginning, as about the former matters, so also about these. To which end we must consider the nature of fire, and water, and air, and earth, such as they were prior to the creation of the heaven, and what was happening to them in this previous state; for no one has as yet explained the manner of their generation, but we speak of fire and the rest of them, whatever they mean, as though men knew their natures, and we maintain them to be the first principles and letters or elements of the whole, when they cannot reasonably be compared by a man of any sense even to syllables or first compounds. And let me say thus much: I will not now speak of the first principle or principles of all things, or by whatever name they are to be called, for this reason-because it is difficult to set forth my opinion according to the method of discussion which we are at present employing. Do not imagine, any more than I can bring myself to imagine, that I should be right in undertaking so great and difficult a task. Remembering what I said at first about probability, I will do my best to give as probable an explanation as any other-or rather, more probable; and I will first go back to the beginning and try to speak of each thing and of all. Once more, then, at the commencement of my discourse, I call upon God, and beg him to be our saviour out of a strange and unwonted enquiry, and to bring us to the haven of probability. So now let us begin again. 

This new beginning of our discussion of the universe requires a fuller division than the former; for then we made two classes, now a third must be revealed. The two sufficed for the former discussion: one, which we assumed, was a pattern intelligible and always the same; and the second was only the imitation of the pattern, generated and visible. There is also a third kind which we did not distinguish at the time, conceiving that the two would be enough. But now the argument seems to require that we should set forth in words another kind, which is difficult of explanation and dimly seen. What nature are we to attribute to this new kind of being? We reply, that it is the receptacle, and in a manner the nurse, of all generation. I have spoken the truth; but I must express myself in clearer language, and this will be an arduous task for many reasons, and in particular because I must first raise questions concerning fire and the other elements, and determine what each of them is; for to say, with any probability or certitude, which of them should be called water rather than fire, and which should be called any of them rather than all or some one of them, is a difficult matter. How, then, shall we settle this point, and what questions about the elements may be fairly raised? 

In the first place, we see that what we just now called water, by condensation, I suppose, becomes stone and earth; and this same element, when melted and dispersed, passes into vapour and air. Air, again, when inflamed, becomes fire; and again fire, when condensed and extinguished, passes once more into the form of air; and once more, air, when collected and condensed, produces cloud and mist; and from these, when still more compressed, comes flowing water, and from water comes earth and stones once more; and thus generation appears to be transmitted from one to the other in a circle. Thus, then, as the several elements never present themselves in the same form, how can any one have the assurance to assert positively that any of them, whatever it may be, is one thing rather than another? No one can. But much the safest plan is to speak of them as follows:-Anything which we see to be continually changing, as, for example, fire, we must not call "this" or "that," but rather say that it is "of such a nature"; nor let us speak of water as "this"; but always as "such"; nor must we imply that there is any stability in any of those things which we indicate by the use of the words "this" and "that," supposing ourselves to signify something thereby; for they are too volatile to be detained in any such expressions as "this," or "that," or "relative to this," or any other mode of speaking which represents them as permanent. We ought not to apply "this" to any of them, but rather the word "such"; which expresses the similar principle circulating in each and all of them; for example, that should be called "fire" which is of such a nature always, and so of everything that has generation. That in which the elements severally grow up, and appear, and decay, is alone to be called by the name "this" or "that"; but that which is of a certain nature, hot or white, or anything which admits of opposite equalities, and all things that are compounded of them, ought not to be so denominated. Let me make another attempt to explain my meaning more clearly. Suppose a person to make all kinds of figures of gold and to be always transmuting one form into all the rest-somebody points to one of them and asks what it is. By far the safest and truest answer is, That is gold; and not to call the triangle or any other figures which are formed in the gold "these," as though they had existence, since they are in process of change while he is making the assertion; but if the questioner be willing to take the safe and indefinite expression, "such," we should be satisfied. And the same argument applies to the universal nature which receives all bodies-that must be always called the same; for, while receiving all things, she never departs at all from her own nature, and never in any way, or at any time, assumes a form like that of any of the things which enter into her; she is the natural recipient of all impressions, and is stirred and informed by them, and appears different from time to time by reason of them. But the forms which enter into and go out of her are the likenesses of real existences modelled after their patterns in wonderful and inexplicable manner, which we will hereafter investigate. For the present we have only to conceive of three natures: first, that which is in process of generation; secondly, that in which the generation takes place; and thirdly, that of which the thing generated is a resemblance. And we may liken the receiving principle to a mother, and the source or spring to a father, and the intermediate nature to a child; and may remark further, that if the model is to take every variety of form, then the matter in which the model is fashioned will not be duly prepared, unless it is formless, and free from the impress of any of these shapes which it is hereafter to receive from without. For if the matter were like any of the supervening forms, then whenever any opposite or entirely different nature was stamped upon its surface, it would take the impression badly, because it would intrude its own shape. Wherefore, that which is to receive all forms should have no form; as in making perfumes they first contrive that the liquid substance which is to receive the scent shall be as inodorous as possible; or as those who wish to impress figures on soft substances do not allow any previous impression to remain, but begin by making the surface as even and smooth as possible. In the same way that which is to receive perpetually and through its whole extent the resemblances of all.

Genesis 1
From New American Bible – Catholic Edition

6 
Then God said, "Let there be a dome in the middle of the waters, to separate one body of water from the other." And so it happened: 
7 
God made the dome, and it separated the water above the dome from the water below it. 
8 
God called the dome "the sky." Evening came, and morning followed--the second day. 
NOTE: The term “dome” is a translation of the Greek for “firmament,” and this word is often used in other editions

Midrash on the Creation of the World (Jewish Epigrapha), from Willis Barnstone’s The Other Bible

On the Second day God brought forth four creations, the firmament, Hell, fire, and the Angels.  
The firmament is not the same as the heavens of the first day.  It is the crystal stretched forth over the heads of the Hayyot, from which the heavens derive their light, as the earth derives its light from the sun.  This firmament saves the earth from being engulfed by the waters of the heavens; it forms the partition between the waters above and the waters below.  It was made to crystallize into the solid it is by the heavenly fire, which broke its bounds and condensed the surface of the firmament.  Thus fire made a division between the celestial and the terrestrial at the time of creation, as it did at the revelation on Mount Sinai.  The firmament is not more than three fingers thick, nevertheless it divides two such heavy bodies as the waters below, which are foundations for the netherworld, and the waters above, which are the foundations for the seven heavens, the divine throne, and the abode of the angels.