The elements sorted — heaven in seven circles, the star-gods appear
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Hermes — ἀδιορίστων δὲ ὄντων ἁπάντων καὶ ἀκατασκευάστων, ἀποδιωρίσθη τὰ ἐλαφρὰ εἰς ὕψος καὶ τὰ βαρέα ἐθεμελιώθη ἐφ' ὑγρᾷ ἄμμῳ, πυρὶ τῶν ὅλων διορισθέντων καὶ ἀνακρεμασθέντων πνεύματι ὀχεῖσθαι· καὶ ὤφθη ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐν κύκλοις ἑπτά, καὶ θεοὶ ταῖς ἐνάστροις ἰδέαις ὀπτανόμενοι, σὺν τοῖς αὐτῶν σημείοις ἅπασι· καὶ διηριθμήθη τὰ ἄστρα σὺν τοῖς ἐν αὐτοῖς θεοῖς· καὶ περιειλίχθη τὸ περικύκλιον ἀέρι, κυκλίῳ δρομήματι πνεύματι θείῳ ὀχούμενον.
While all things were still undivided and unformed, the light things were separated off into the height, and the heavy things were founded upon the moist sand, the wholes being separated by fire and hung up to be borne upon spirit. And heaven appeared in seven circles, and the gods, appearing in starry forms with all their signs; and the stars were numbered out with the gods in them; and the encircling sphere was wound round with air, borne in a circular course by the divine spirit.
While all things were still undivided and unformed, the light elements were separated off into the height, and the heavy were founded upon the moist sand; the wholes being separated by fire and hung up to be borne upon spirit. And heaven appeared in seven circles, and the gods, appearing in starry forms with all their signs; and the stars were numbered out with the gods in them; and the encircling sphere was wound round with air, borne along in a circular course by the divine spirit.
The second movement is the sorting of the elements, and it follows the standard Greek physics of weight: 'the light things separated off into the height (τὰ ἐλαφρὰ εἰς ὕψος), the heavy founded on the moist sand (τὰ βαρέα… ἐφ' ὑγρᾷ ἄμμῳ).' Fire divides the mass; spirit (πνεῦμα) bears the whole up. The word ἀκατασκεύαστος, 'unformed,' is worth stopping on: it is the exact term the Septuagint uses for the earth in Genesis 1:2 (ἀόρατος καὶ ἀκατασκεύαστος, 'invisible and unformed'), so the treatise is still shadowing Genesis even as it turns to Ionian element-theory.
Then the sky is furnished. 'Heaven appeared in seven circles (ὁ οὐρανὸς ἐν κύκλοις ἑπτά)' — the seven planetary spheres of CH I's Governors, here made visible — and the gods show themselves 'in starry forms (ἐνάστροις ἰδέαις),' the constellations as the shapes of divine powers. The interlinear keeps the astral vocabulary intact (ἄστρον, ἔναστρος, περικύκλιον, δρόμημα) because this is the treatise's distinctive fusion: a Genesis-shaped creation whose result is a Greek astronomical cosmos, the star-gods numbered and wheeling. The section ends on motion — the whole sphere 'borne in a circular course by the divine spirit (πνεύματι θείῳ ὀχούμενον)' — quietly rhyming with CH II's long argument that all motion rests on the divine.
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