269
Str. Oh no; I mean the change in the rising and setting of the sun and the other heavenly bodies, how in those times they used to set in the quarter where they now rise, and used to rise where they now set, but the god at the time of the quarrel, you recall, changed all that to the present system as a testimony in favor of Atreus.
269
Y. Soc. Yes, I’ve heard that, too.
269
Str. And again we have often heard the tale of the reign of Cronus.
269
Y. Soc. Yes, very often.
269
Str. And how about the story that the ancient folk were earthborn and not begotten of one another?
269
Y. Soc. That is one of the old tales, too.
269
Str. Well, all these stories and others still more remarkable have their source in one and the same event, but in the lapse of ages some of them have been lost and others are told in fragmentary and disconnected fashion. But no one has told the event which is the cause of them all, and so I must tell it now; for that will help us to make clear the nature of the king.
269
Y. Soc. Very good; just tell your tale and omit nothing.
269
Str. Listen then. During a certain period God himself goes with the universe as guide in its revolving course, but at another epoch, when the cycles have at length reached the measure of his allotted time, he lets it go, and of its own accord it turns backward in the opposite direction, since it is a living creature and is endowed with intelligence by him who fashioned it in the beginning. Now this reversal of its motion is an inevitable part of its nature for the following reason.
269
Y. Soc. What reason?
