Julian.
Presently, Nevita! First I must tell you of a strange dream I had last night.
I dreamed that I saw a child pursued by a rich man who owned countless flocks, but despised the worship of the gods.
This wicked man exterminated all the child’s kindred. But Zeus took pity on the child itself, and held his hand over it.
Then I saw this child grow up into a youth, under the care of Minerva and Apollo.
Further, I dreamed that the youth fell asleep upon a stone beneath the open sky.
Then Hermes descended to him, in the likeness of a young man, and said: “Come; I will show thee the way to the abode of the highest god!” So he led the youth to the foot of a very steep mountain. There he left him.
Then the youth burst out into tears and lamentations, and called with a loud voice upon Zeus. Lo, then, Minerva and the Sun-King who rules the earth descended to his side, bore him aloft to the peak of the mountain, and showed him the whole inheritance of his race.
But this inheritance was the orb of the earth from ocean to ocean, and beyond the ocean.
Then they told the youth that all this should belong to him. And therewith they gave him three warnings: he should not sleep, as his race had done; he should not hearken to the counsel of hypocrites; and, lastly, he should honour as gods those who resemble the gods. “Forget not,” they said, on leaving him, “that thou hast an immortal soul, and that this thy soul is of divine origin. And if thou follow our counsel thou shalt see our father and become a god, even as we.”