It is said that cicadas were people, before the Muses were born. When they saw them first, they were so enthralled watching them sing, dance, and frolic, that they simply forgot to eat and drink. But of course, they all died off as a race. The Muses, in appreciation, and for their own delight, brought them back, in their present form. Now they can sing their love songs to their hearts content, throughout their short lives, without the need of food and water.

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Now man, having a share of the divine attributes, was the only one of the animals to have any gods. He was not long in inventing articulate speech and names. He also constructed houses, and clothes, and shoes, and beds. He drew sustenance from the earth. Thus provided, mankind at first lived dispersed, and there were no cities. But as a consequence, they were decimated by wild beasts. They were utterly weak, in comparison to them, and their art was only sufficient to provide them with the means of life. They were not able to carry on war against those that breed by force. Food they had, but not as yet the art of government, of which the art of war is a part. After a while the desire of self-preservation gathered them into cities. When they were gathered together, having no art of government, they injured one another, and were again, in the process of dispersion and destruction.

Zeus feared the entire race would be exterminated. He sent Hermes, bearing Reverence and Justice, to be the ordering principles of cities, and the bonds of friendship and conciliation. Hermes asked Zeus how he should impart Reverence and Justice among men. Should he distribute them as the arts are distributed, that is to say, to a favored few only. One skilled individual having enough of medicine, or any other art, for many unskilled ones. Shall this be the manner in which I am to distribute Reverence and Justice among men, or shall I give them to all. To all, said Zeus, I should like them all to have a share; for cities cannot exist, if only a few share in the virtues, as in the arts. And further, make a law by my order, that he who has no part in Reverence and Justice, shall be killed, for he is a plague upon the state.