40
But, in time, Horas overpowered Typhon; that is to say, there carne on a timely abundance of rain, and the Nile forced out the sea and revealed the fertile land, which it filled out with its alluvial deposits. This has support in the testimony of our own observation; for we see, even to-day, as the river brings down new silt and advances the land, that the deep waters gradually recede and, as the bottom gains in height by reason of the alluvial deposits, the water of the sea runs off from these. We also note that Pharos, which Homer Od. iv. 356. Cf. also Strabo, xii. 2. 4 (p. 536), and xvii. 1. 6 (p. 791). knew as distant a day’s sail from Egypt, is now a part of it; not that the island has extended its area by rising, or has come nearer to the land, but the sea that separated them was obliged to retire before the river, as the river reshaped the land and made it to increase.
40
The fact is that all this is somewhat like the doctrines promulgated by the Stoics Cf. von Arnim, Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, ii. 1093 (p. 319). about the gods; for they say that the creative and fostering spirit is Dionysus, the truculent and destructive is Heracles, the receptive is Ammon, that which pervades the Earth and its products is Demeter and the Daughter, and that which pervades the Sea is Poseidon. Cf. Cicero, De Natura Deorum, i. 15 (40), ii. 28 (71); and Diogenes Laertius, vii. 147.