these their descendants sojourners only, whose fathers have come from
another country; but they are the children of the soil, dwelling and living
in their own land. And the country which brought them up is not like other
countries, a stepmother to her children, but their own true mother; she
bore them and nourished them and received them, and in her bosom they now
repose. It is meet and right, therefore, that we should begin by praising
the land which is their mother, and that will be a way of praising their
noble birth.

The country is worthy to be praised, not only by us, but by all mankind;
first, and above all, as being dear to the Gods. This is proved by the
strife and contention of the Gods respecting her. And ought not the
country which the Gods praise to be praised by all mankind? The second
praise which may be fairly claimed by her, is that at the time when the
whole earth was sending forth and creating diverse animals, tame and wild,
she our mother was free and pure from savage monsters, and out of all
animals selected and brought forth man, who is superior to the rest in
understanding, and alone has justice and religion. And a great proof that
she brought forth the common ancestors of us and of the departed, is that
she provided the means of support for her offspring. For as a woman proves
her motherhood by giving milk to her young ones (and she who has no
fountain of milk is not a mother), so did this our land prove that she was
the mother of men, for in those days she alone and first of all brought
forth wheat and barley for human food, which is the best and noblest
sustenance for man, whom she regarded as her true offspring. And these are
truer proofs of motherhood in a country than in a woman, for the woman in
her conception and generation is but the imitation of the earth, and not
the earth of the woman. And of the fruit of the earth she gave a plenteous
supply, not only to her own, but to others also; and afterwards she made
the olive to spring up to be a boon to her children, and to help them in