Nature, city of Zeus. Marcus Aurelius 4.23

Marcus Aurelius believes that nature gives us no evil. Even deathwhen viewed properly, as something naturalis a blessing (καρπός) to him.


Πᾶν μοι συναρμόζει ὃ σοὶ εὐάρμοστόν ἐστιν, ὦ κόσμε· οὐδέν μοι πρόωρον οὐδὲ ὄψιμον ὃ σοὶ εὔκαιρον. πᾶν μοι καρπὸς ὃ φέρουσιν αἱ σαὶ ὧραι, ὦ φύσις· ἐκ σοῦ πάντα, ἐν σοὶ πάντα, εἰς σὲ πάντα. ἐκεῖνος μέν φησιν· «ὦ πόλι φίλη Κέκροπος»· σὺ δὲ οὐκ ἐρεῖς· «ὦ πόλι φίλη Διός»;


Everything well joined to thee, dear World, dost thou wed to me. There is no movement of thy dance can find me late, or out of time. Whatever thing thy seasons bring, o Nature: all of it is sweet to me. From thee all, within thee all, and into thee all things must go. Some fellow hails Athens, "Dear city of Cecrops (), the ancient king!" Shall you not give voice in response, speaking the praise of your founder? "Dear city of Zeus the king!"


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() Myth made Cecrops the first king of Athens: born of the earth in Attica, with the lower body of a snake, he was supposed to have taught the first Athenians, also earth-born, the arts of marriage, navigation, and politics (how to make proper offerings to Zeus, with cakes rather than corpses, and how to divide into tribes organized to implement decisions binding upon the group). Some accounts might make him the founder of the Areopagus, too. See Aristophanes, Wasps 438; Strabo 9; Pausanias 1.28, 8.22; Apollodorus 3.15; Eustathius, Commentarii ad Homeri Iliadem 1.38, etc.