98                         ALBERUNPS INDIA.

which Zeus Aratos meant, the mystical or the physical
one. For the poet Krates called the celestial sphere
Zeus, and likewise Homer says:

' As pieces of snow are cut off from Zeus.'"

Aratos calls the ether and the air Zeus in the passage :
" The roads and the meeting-places are full of him, and
we all must inhale him."

Therefore the philosophers of the Stoa maintain that
Zeus is the spirit which is dispersed in the vXr], and
similar to our souls, i.e. the nature which rules every
natural body. The author supposes that he is mild,
since he is the cause of the good; therefore he is right
in maintaining that he has not only created men, but
also the gods.