Plato, Timaeus 24c · 24c
Order, medicine and a gentle climate
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Critias — τὸν κόσμον, ἅπαντα μέχρι μαντικῆς καὶ ἰατρικῆς πρὸς ὑγίειαν ἐκ τούτων θείων ὄντων εἰς τὰ ἀνθρώπινα ἀνευρών, ὅσα τε ἄλλα τούτοις ἕπεται μαθήματα πάντα κτησάμενος. ταύτην οὖν δὴ τότε σύμπασαν τὴν διακόσμησιν καὶ σύνταξιν ἡ θεὸς προτέρους ὑμᾶς διακοσμήσασα κατῴκισεν, ἐκλεξαμένη τὸν τόπον ἐν ᾧ γεγένησθε, τὴν εὐκρασίαν τῶν ὡρῶν ἐν αὐτῷ κατιδοῦσα, ὅτι φρονιμωτάτους ἄνδρας οἴσοι· ἅτε οὖν φιλοπόλεμός
the order of the world, discovering everything from these divine matters down to human affairs, as far as divination and medicine for health, and acquiring all the other studies that follow from them. This whole ordering and arrangement the goddess then set in place and so settled you, first of all peoples, choosing the place in which you were born, because she saw in it the good blending of the seasons and knew it would bear the wisest of men. Since the goddess was a lover of war
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The setting
The law of the old city is said to have gone from the order of the world to divination and medicine. The goddess then settled the Athenians in a place chosen for its mild seasons, expecting it to bear the wisest men.
A note on this passage
The first half runs from the kosmos, the order of the world, down to ta anthrōpina, human affairs, and the Greek marks the descent with ek toutōn theiōn ontōn eis ta anthrōpina, "from these things that are divine to the human things." Divination and medicine are named as the farthest reach of that order, the one for knowing the future and the other for hygieia, health. The goddess's work is named with two nouns, diakosmēsis and syntaxis, and the first of them shares its stem with the verb diakosmēsasa, "having set in order."
The settling is chosen by climate. eukrasia tōn hōrōn means a good mixing of the seasons, with krasis as the word used for blending wine and water. The goddess looks at the place, katidousa, and sees that it will bear phronimōtatous andras, the wisest men. The verb katōikisen is the one used for planting a settlement, and the feminine article goes with theos, so the Greek says hē theos for the goddess.
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