Political Fragments of Archytas, Charondas, Zaleucus + Hierocles

of these fragments were considered as precious monuments; and he wonders—as I have observed in page 13 of the Introduction to my translation of Proclus On the Theology of Plato—that “the stars are not called Gods by the Jewish legislator, as things inanimate like statues fashioned of wood or stone.” This is evident from what is said in the book of Job and the Psalms:

“Behold even the moon and it shines not, yea the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm, and the son of man which is a worm?” (Job xxv. 5–6).

And,

“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?” (Psalm viii. 3–4).

It is evident, therefore, from these passages, that the heavens and the stars are more excellent than man; but nothing inanimate can be more excellent than that which is animated. To which may be added that, in the following verse, David says that God has made man a little lower than the angels. But the stars, as I have demonstrated in the aforementioned Introduction, were considered by Moses as angels and Gods; and consequently they are animated beings and superior to man.

Furthermore, it is said in Psalm xi. 4 that “the Lord’s throne is in heaven.” And again, in Isaiah, chapter lxvi. 1:

“Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.”

If, therefore, the heavens are the throne of Deity, they must evidently be deified. For nothing can come into immediate contact with divinity without being divine. Hence, says Simplicius (in Commentary on the Second Book of the Heavens): “That it is natural to the human