celebrating the Thargelia at Athens, Carneades, whilst the Cyrenians
kept their Carnea; and both these feasts are, upon the same day. Nay,
the god himself you (he continued), his priests and prophets, call
Hebdomagenes, as if he were born on the seventh day. And therefore those
who make Apollo Plato's father do not, in my opinion, dishonor the god;
since by Socrates's as by another Chiron's instructions he is become
a physician for the diseases of the mind. And together with this, he
mentioned that vision and voice which forbade Aristo, Plato's father, to
come near or lie with his wife for ten months.

To this Tyndares the Spartan subjoined: It is very fit we should apply
that to Plato,

He seemed not sprung from mortal man, but God.
("Iliad," xxiv. 258.)

But, for my part, I am afraid to beget, as well as to be begotten,
is repugnant to the incorruptibility of the deity. For that implies a
change and passion; as Alexander imagined, when he said that he knew
himself to be mortal as often as he lay with a woman or slept. For sleep
is a relaxation of the body, occasioned by the weakness of our nature;
and all generation is a corruptive parting with some of our own
substance. But yet I take heart again, when I hear Plato call the
eternal and unbegotten deity the father and maker of the world and all
other begotten things; not as if he parted with any seed, but as if
by his power he implanted a generative principle in matter, which
acts upon, forms, and fashions it. Winds passing through a hen will on
occasions impregnate her; and it seems no incredible thing, that the
deity, though not after the fashion of a man, but by some other certain
communication, fills a mortal creature with some divine conception. Nor
is this my sense; but the Egyptians who say Apis was conceived by the
influence of the moon, and make no question but that an immortal god may
have communication with a mortal woman. But on the contrary, they think
that no mortal can beget anything on a goddess, because they believe the
goddesses are made of thin air, and subtle heat and moisture.

QUESTION II. WHAT IS PLATO'S MEANING, WHEN HE SAYS THAT GOD ALWAYS PLAYS
THE GEOMETER?

DIOGENIANUS, TYNDARES, FLORUS, AUTOBULUS.

Silence following this discourse, Diogenianus began again and said:
Since our discourse is about the gods, shall we, especially on his own
birthday, admit Plato to the conference, and inquire upon what account
he says (suppo