Chapter 5 of 13
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But the air sank down upon the earth with its long roots. R. P. 171 a.
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Sea the sweat of the earth. R. P. 170 b.
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Salt was solidified by the impact of the sun's beams.
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On it (the earth) many heads sprung up without necks and arms wandered bare and bereft of shoulders. Eyes strayed up and down in want of foreheads. R. P. 173 a.
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Solitary limbs wandered seeking for union.
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But, as divinity was mingled still further with divinity, these things joined together as each might chance, and many other things besides them continually arose.
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Shambling creatures with countless hands.
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Many creatures with faces and breasts looking in different directions were born; some, offspring of oxen with faces of men, while others, again, arose as offspring of men with the heads of oxen, and creatures in whom the nature of women and men was mingled, 5furnished with sterile[50] parts. R. P. 173 b.
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Come now, hear how the Fire as it was separated caused the night-born shoots of men and tearful women to arise; for my tale is not off the point nor uninformed. Whole-natured forms first arose from the earth, having a portion both of water and fire.[51] 5These did the fire, desirous of reaching its like, send up, showing as yet neither the charming form of the limbs, nor yet the voice and parts that are proper to men. R. P. 173 c.
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... But the substance of (the child's) limbs is divided between them, part of it in men's (and part in women's body).
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And upon him came desire reminding him through sight.
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... And it was poured out in the purified parts; and when it met with cold women arose from it.
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The divided meadows of Aphrodite.
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For in its warmer part the womb brings forth males, and that is why men are dark and more manly and shaggy.
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On the tenth day of the eighth month it turns to a white putrefaction.[52]
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