136 l/-20
And the moon [is eclipsed] when it falls into the earth's shadow; and
that is why there is only an eclipse at the full moon. Although [the moon]
is diametrically opposite to the sun once a month, because it moves in
[an orbit which is] oblique with relation to the sun's, it [usually] diverges
in latitude [and so is not eclipsed every month], being either too far to
the north or too far to the south. But it is eclipsed whenever its latitude
lines up with that of the sun and the ecliptic and is then diametrically
opposite to the sun. And its latitude lines up with that of the ecliptic in
Cancer, Scorpio, Aries and Taurus, as the followers of Posidonius say.
- God is an animal, immortal, rational, perfect^24 in happiness, im-
mune to everything bad, providentially [looking after] the cosmos and
the things in the cosmos; but he is not anthropomorphic. [God] is the
craftsman of the universe and as it were a father of all things, both in
general and also that part of him which extends through everything; he
is called by many names in accordance with its powers.^25 They say that
Dia [a grammatical form of the name Zeus] is the one 'because of whom'
all things are; they call [god] Zena [a grammatical form of the name
Zeus] in so far as he is cause of life or because he penetrates life; and
Athena by reference to the fact that his leading part extends into the
aither; Hera because he extends into the air; Hephaestus because he
extends into craftsmanlike fire; Poseidon because he extends into the
fluid; and Demeter because he extends into the earth. Similarly they also
assign the other titles [to god] by fastening onto one [of his] peculiarities. - Zeno says that the entire cosmos and the heaven are the substance
of god, and so does Chrysippus in book one of his On Gods and Posidonius
in book one of On Gods. And Antipater, in book seven of On the Cosmos,
says that his substance is airy. Boethus [says] in his On Nature that the
sphere of the fixed stars is the substance of god.
Sometimes they explain 'nature' as that which holds the cosmos to-
gether, and other times as that which makes things on earth grow. And
nature is a condition which moves from itself, producing and holding
together the things it produces at definite times, according to spermatic
principles, and making things which are of the same sort as that from
which they were separated. 149. They say that this [i.e., nature] aims at
both the advantageous and at pleasure, as is clear from the craftsmanlike
[structure or activity] of man.
Chrysippus says, in his On Fate, that everything happens by fate, and
so does Posidonius in book two of On Fate, and Zeno, and Boethus in
book one of On Fate. Fate is a continuous string of causes of things - We excise the words "or intelligent" as a gloss.
- The etymologies which follow involve untranslatable word plays.