Texte grec :
| [12,34] ἢ τοῦτο μὲν οὐκ ἀνυστόν, κοινῇ δὲ ξύμπαν τὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος
τὴν ὁλόκληρον καὶ τῷ ὄντι τελείαν τελετὴν μυούμενον, οὐκ ἐν οἰκήματι μικρῷ
παρασκευασθέντι πρὸς ὑποδοχὴν ὄχλου βραχέος ὑπὸ
Ἀθηναίων, ἀλλὰ ἐν τῷδε τῷ κόσμῳ, ποικίλῳ καὶ σοφῷ δημιουργήματι, μυρίων
ἑκάστοτε θαυμάτων φαινομένων, ἔτι δὲ οὐκ ἀνθρώπων ὁμοίων τοῖς τελουμένοις,
ἀλλὰ θεῶν ἀθανάτων θνητοὺς
τελούντων, νυκτί τε καὶ ἡμέρᾳ {καὶ φωτὶ καὶ ἄστροις}, εἰ θέμις
εἰπεῖν, ἀτεχνῶς περιχορευόντων ἀεί, τούτων ξυμπάντων μηδεμίαν
αἴσθησιν μηδὲ ὑποψίαν λαβεῖν {μάλιστα δὲ} τοῦ κορυφαίου προεστῶτος τῶν
ὅλων καὶ κατευθύνοντος τὸν ἅπαντα οὐρανὸν καὶ κόσμον, οἷον σοφοῦ
κυβερνήτου νεὼς ἄρχοντος πάνυ καλῶς τε καὶ ἀνενδεῶς παρεσκευασμένης;
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Traduction française :
| [12,34] Or rather, is this not impossible ? impossible
too that the whole human race, which is receiving the
complete and truly perfect initiation, not in a little
building erected by the Athenians for the reception
of a small company, but in this universe, a varied
and cunningly wrought creation, in which countless
marvels appear at every moment, and where, furthermore,
the rites are being performed, not by human
beings who are of no higher order than the initiates
themselves, but by immortal gods who are initiating
mortal men, and night and day both in sunlight
and under the stars areif we may dare to use the
termliterally dancing around them forever is it
possible to suppose, I repeat, that of all these things
his senses told him nothing, or that he gained no
faintest inkling of them, and especially when the
leader of the choir was in charge of the whole
spectacle and directing the entire heaven and universe,
even as a skilful pilot commands a ship that
has been perfectly furnished and lacks nothing ?
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