[12,41] ἀμφοῖν δὲ τοῖν λεγομένοιν ποτέραν πρεσβυτέραν φῶμεν τῷ χρόνῳ παρά γε ἡμῖν τοῖς Ἕλλησι, {ποίησιν ἢ νομοθεσίαν}, οὐκ ἂν ἔχοιμι διατεινόμενος εἰπεῖν ἐν τῷ παρόντι. πρέπει δὲ ἴσως τὸ ἀζήμιον καὶ πειστικὸν ἀρχαιότερον εἶναι τοῦ μετὰ ζημίας καὶ προστάξεως.

[12,41] But which of the two influences mentioned should be called the earlier in time, among us Greeks at any rate, namely, poetry or legislation, I am afraid I cannot discuss at length on the present occasion; but perhaps it is fitting that the kind which depended, not upon penalties, but upon persuasion should be more ancient than the kind which employed compulsion and prescription.

[12,42] σχεδὸν οὖν μέχρι τοῦδε ὁμοίως πρόεισι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὰ περὶ τοῦ πρώτου καὶ ἀθανάτου γονέως, ὃν καὶ πατρῷον Δία καλοῦμεν οἱ τῆς Ἑλλάδος κοινωνοῦντες, καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν θνητῶν καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων γονέων. καὶ γὰρ δὴ ἡ πρὸς ἐκείνους εὔνοια καὶ θεραπεία τοῖς ἐκγόνοις πρώτη μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς φύσεως καὶ τῆς εὐεργεσίας ἀδίδακτος ὑπάρχει, τὸ γεννῆσαν καὶ τρέφον καὶ στέργον τοῦ γεννηθέντος εὐθὺς ἀντιφιλοῦντος καὶ ἀντιθεραπεύοντος ὅπως ἂν ᾖ δυνατόν,

[12,42] Now up to this point, we may almost say, the feelings of the human race towards their first and immortal parent, whom we who have a share in the heritage of Hellas call Ancestral Zeus, develop step by step along with those which men have toward their mortal and human parents. For in truth the goodwill and desire to serve which the offspring feel toward their parents is, in the first type, present in them, untaught, as a gift of nature and as a result of acts of kindness received, since that which has been begotten straightway from birth loves and cherishes in return, so far as it may, that which begat and nourishes and loves it,