Preparation for the Gospel, Book 2

The theology of the Phoenicians, then, has the character described above; and the saving word announces as good news that we should flee from it without turning back, and should seek the cure for the madness of the ancients. That these are not myths and inventions of poets containing some hidden meaning in their allegories, but true testimonies of wise and ancient theologians, as they themselves would say, containing things older than all poets and prose writers, and drawing the credibility of their words from the names and history of the gods that still prevail in the cities and villages of Phoenicia and from the mysteries performed among each people, would be plain from the agreement of the other writers and especially of those considered theologians. By it they testified that the ancients who first composed the accounts of the gods referred nothing to physical figurative meanings and did not allegorize the myths about the gods, but kept the histories in their literal sense. For this was shown by the words of the writers mentioned, quoted above; so that there is no longer any need to search out forced physical explanations of them, since the facts bring their clear refutation. Such, then, is the theology of the Phoenicians. It is time to pass on and examine also that of the Egyptians, so as to understand accurately and see by examination whether our withdrawal from them has not been well judged and reasonable, and accomplished by nothing else than the demonstration of the gospel alone, first of all among the Egyptians themselves and then among those who think as they do. The whole Egyptian history, and in particular what concerns their theology, has been put at length into the Greek language by Manetho the Egyptian, both in the Sacred Book he wrote and in other writings of his. Diodorus too, whom we mentioned before, having collected his histories from many sources and set out the customs of each nation as accurately as possible, a distinguished man who won no small reputation for learning among all lovers of letters, gathered all ancient history together, joined the earliest events to the later ones, and made the theology of the Egyptians the beginning of his whole work. I think it better to set out the matters before us from him, since his writing is better known to the Greeks. He records the following, word for word:

Epitome of Egyptian theology, and how it was transmitted to the Greeks; and that we have had good reason for abandoning it all; that the theology current among the Greeks was introduced later

"The Egyptians say, then, that at the original generation of all things the first human beings came into being in Egypt, both because of the good climate of the country and because of the nature of the Nile. For it, being very fertile and providing food that grows of itself, easily nourished the living creatures it brought forth. The gods, they say, were human beings and mortal, but obtained immortality because of their intelligence and their benefits to all mankind; and some of them were also kings. Of these, when their names are translated, some have the same names as the heavenly bodies, while others have had names of their own: Helios (the Sun), Cronus, and also Zeus, called Ammon by some, and besides these Hera and Hephaestus, Hestia, and finally Hermes. And first Helios reigned over Egypt, having the same name as the star in heaven. But some of the priests say that Hephaestus reigned first, having been the discoverer of fire. After this Cronus ruled, and having married his sister Rhea he begot, according to some, Osiris and Isis, but according to most, Zeus and Hera, who because of their virtue reigned over the whole world. From these were born five gods: Osiris, Isis, Typhon, Apollo, and Aphrodite. Osiris is Dionysus, and Isis is Demeter. Osiris married her, succeeded to the kingdom, and did many things for the benefit of the community. He founded in the Thebaid a city with a hundred gates, which some called the City of Zeus and others Thebes. He also built a temple to his parents, Zeus and Hera, and golden shrines to the other gods, assigned honors to each of them, and appointed priests to care for them. Osiris was the discoverer of the vine, was the first to make use of it, and taught the rest of mankind agriculture. Of all his followers he honored Hermes most, who was endowed with an extraordinary nature for devising things that could benefit the common life. For he was the discoverer of letters, arranged the sacrifices to the gods, invented the lyre, and taught the Greeks the art of interpretation (hermeneia) concerning these things; from which he was named Hermes. He also discovered the olive plant. Osiris, going through the whole inhabited world, set Busiris over Phoenicia and Antaeus over Ethiopia and Libya. He made his expedition with his brother Apollo, who, they say, was the discoverer of the laurel plant. Osiris's two sons, Anubis and Macedon, went with him on the expedition, and he also took Pan, who is especially honored by the Egyptians; from him the city of Pan is named. While he was near Taphosiris, the race of Satyrs was brought to him. Being a lover of music, he took with him a crowd of musicians, among them nine maidens able to sing and trained in other arts, those called the Muses among the Greeks, whose leader was Apollo. Since every nation received Osiris as a god because of his benefits, he left memorials of himself everywhere, and he founded many cities among the Indians. He went also through the other nations of Phrygia and crossed the Hellespont into Europe. He left his son Macedon as king of Macedonia, and entrusted the agriculture of Attica to Triptolemus. And afterward, having passed from among men to the gods, he received from Isis and Hermes a sanctuary and the other most distinguished honors among the gods. They also instituted rites and introduced many mystical things concerning him. He was killed by his brother Typhon, who was wicked and impious; Typhon cut the body of the murdered man into twenty-six pieces and gave a portion to each of his fellow conspirators, wishing all to share in the pollution. Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris, avenged the murder with the help of her son Horus; and having killed Typhon and his accomplices near the village now called the Village of Antaeus, she reigned over Egypt. Having found all the parts of the body except the private parts of Osiris, they say she molded around each part a human figure like Osiris in size, out of spices and wax, and gave it to the priests throughout all Egypt to honor; and that she consecrated to him whichever one of the animals among them they chose. The sacred bulls, the one named Apis and Mnevis, were consecrated to Osiris, and it was ordained that all the Egyptians in common should reverence them as gods; for these animals had helped those who discovered the fruit of grain in sowing and in agriculture generally. Isis swore that she would accept no man's intercourse any longer; and when she too had passed from among men, she received immortal honors and was buried at Memphis. The parts of Osiris that were found, they say, were given burial in the way described. But the private part, they say, was thrown into the river by Typhon, yet was counted worthy by Isis of honors equal to the gods, no less than the other parts. For she made an image of it in the temples, instituted honors and rites, and made the sacrifices offered to this god most honored. Therefore the Greeks too, having received from Egypt the orgies and the Dionysiac festivals, honor this member in the mysteries and in the rites and sacrifices of this god, calling it the phallus. Those who say that the god was born at Thebes in Boeotia of Semele and Zeus are inventing. For Orpheus, having visited Egypt and shared in the initiation, received the Dionysiac mysteries; and being a friend of the Cadmeans and honored by them, he transferred the god's birth to them as a favor, while the multitudes, partly through ignorance and partly from wishing the god to be called a Greek, readily accepted the rites and the mysteries. Orpheus had the following occasions for transferring the god's birth and rites: Cadmus, coming from Thebes in Egypt, begot Semele among other children. She, seduced by someone or other, became pregnant and at the end of seven months bore a child such as the Egyptians believe Osiris to have been; When the child died, Cadmus gilded it and offered the appropriate sacrifices to it, and ascribed its birth to Zeus, thus glorifying Osiris and removing the reproach from his seduced daughter. Therefore the story was published among the Greeks that Semele the daughter of Cadmus bore Osiris by Zeus. Then, when the mythographers came on the scene, the story filled the theater and became a strong and unchangeable belief for later generations. In general, they say, the Greeks appropriate the most famous heroes and gods of the Egyptians. For Heracles, who was Egyptian by race, went through much of the inhabited world because of his courage; and the Greeks claim him as their own, though he was different from the son of Alcmene who was born among the Greeks at some later time. They say that Perseus too was born in Egypt, and that the birth of Isis was transferred by the Greeks to Argos, where they tell the myth that she is Io, who was changed into the form of a cow. Some regard the same goddess as Isis, others as Demeter, others as Thesmophorus, others as Selene, and others as Hera. Osiris some regard as Sarapis, others as Dionysus, others as Pluto, others as Ammon, others as Zeus, and others as Pan. They say that Isis was the discoverer of many medicines and of the science of healing; she also discovered the medicine of immortality, by which, when her son Horus had been plotted against by the Titans and found dead in the water, she not only raised him up by giving him his soul again, but also made him share in immortality. Horus was the last of the gods to reign over Egypt. When translated, they say, he is Apollo; having been taught medicine and divination by his mother Isis, he benefits mankind through his oracles and healings. It is agreed by most that in the time of Isis certain giants of huge body, monstrously arrayed, raised war against the gods around Zeus and Osiris. They say too that the Egyptians made it a law to marry sisters, because Isis was married to Osiris, who was her brother." Such are their accounts of these things. Concerning the animals consecrated in Egypt, an account of this kind prevails among them: "Some say that the gods who were born in the beginning, being few and overpowered by the number and impiety of the earth-born men, made themselves like certain irrational animals and so escaped; and afterward, in gratitude for their safety, consecrated the kinds of those animals they had resembled. Others say that in their battles with enemies they made images of the animals they now honor, and the leaders wore these on their heads and had them as a mark of their command; and when they won victories over their enemies, they deified the animals whose images they wore, as having been the cause. Others give a third cause, saying that the animals were honored for their usefulness. For the cow bears calves and plows; sheep bear lambs and provide covering and food through their milk and cheese; and the dog hunts with men and keeps guard. Therefore the god whom they call Anubis has a dog's head, showing that he was the bodyguard of Osiris and Isis. Some say that when Isis was searching for Osiris, the dogs went before her and kept off the wild beasts and those who met her. The cat is useful against asps and the other biting reptiles; the ichneumon breaks the crocodiles' eggs and kills the crocodiles themselves, rolling itself in mud, leaping into their open mouths, and eating through their insides so that it leaves them dead. Of the birds, the ibis is useful against snakes, locusts, and caterpillars; the hawk against scorpions, horned serpents, and the small biting creatures, and because it contributes to divination; and the eagle because it is royal. The goat, they say, has been deified, as Priapus has among the Greeks, because of the generative member. For this animal is most inclined to intercourse, and the part of the body that is the cause of generation is fittingly honored as the origin of the nature of living things. In general, not only the Egyptians but many other peoples have consecrated the private member in their rites, as the cause of the generation of living things; and the priests in Egypt who have inherited their fathers' priesthoods are initiated first to this god. They say that the Pans and Satyrs too are honored among men for the same reason; therefore most people set up their images in the temples with the member erect and resembling the nature of the goat; for this animal is reported to be most active in intercourse. The sacred bulls, Apis and Mnevis, are honored like the gods, partly because of agriculture and partly because they ascribe to them the discovery of the fruits of the earth. Wolves are honored because of the likeness of their nature to dogs, and because in ancient times, they say, when Isis with her son Horus was about to fight against Typhon, Osiris came from Hades to help his child and his wife, having taken the appearance of a wolf. Others say that when the Ethiopians marched against Egypt they were driven off by a multitude of wolves; and therefore the district was called Lycopolis. The crocodile, they say, is reverenced because the robbers from Arabia and Libya do not dare to swim across the Nile because of the crocodiles. They say that one of their kings, pursued by his own dogs, fled into the lake, and then was miraculously taken up by a crocodile and carried to the other side. Some give still other causes for the honoring of irrational animals. For in ancient times, when the people were revolting from the kings and agreeing to be ruled by kings no longer, one king devised giving them different animals to worship, so that, as each group reverenced the animal honored among themselves and despised the one consecrated among the others, all the Egyptians might never be able to agree together. When one of these animals dies, they cover it with fine linen, beat their breasts with wailing, and bury it in sacred tombs. Whoever kills one of these animals deliberately incurs death; except that if anyone kills a cat or the ibis, whether deliberately or not, he certainly incurs death. Moreover, in whatever house a dead dog is found, all the household shave their whole body and go into mourning; and if wine or grain or any of the necessities of life happens to be stored in the house, they would not bear to use it any longer. They keep Apis in Memphis, Mnevis in Heliopolis, the goat in Mendes, the crocodile in the lake of Moeris, and the other animals in sacred enclosures, offering them fine flour, or groats boiled in milk, all kinds of cakes kneaded with honey, and goose meat, some boiled and some roasted. To the flesh-eating ones they throw many birds, and for each of the animals they keep the most beautiful females, whom they call concubines. When Apis dies and has been buried magnificently, they seek another like him; and when he is found, the people are released from their mourning, and the calf is first taken to Nilopolis. Only then do the women see him, standing before him and showing him their private parts by lifting their garments; at all other times they are forbidden to come into the sight of this god. They say that the soul of Osiris passed into this bull after his death." Such is the shameful atheism, rather than theology, of the Egyptians, which it is disgraceful even to oppose. We have rightly spat upon it and withdrawn from it, having found redemption and freedom from such great evils in no other way than through the saving teaching of the gospel alone, which has announced to those blind in mind the recovery of sight. Their more dignified theories and natural explanations we shall examine a little later, when we have also discussed the religion of the Greeks. So, as the Egyptian and Phoenician mythologies ran together in a mixture, the superstition of the ancient error naturally prevailed among most of the nations. But we must speak of the religion of the Greeks too. The dignified features of the Egyptian mythology are such as have been set out; that the Greek religion consists of fragments and misunderstandings of these very things has been said often before, and through the evidence of the writers already quoted; but it would also become plain from the Greek theology itself, since in their own records about the gods they bring in nothing of their own, but fall in with the mythologies of foreigners. For they are shown to use similar images and the same mysteries, as one may learn from the history of these matters which he records who gathered the libraries together into one, whom I mentioned before, in the third and fourth books of the work referred to, beginning his history from the times of Cadmus. That Cadmus lived after Moses the accurate successions of the chronologies establish, as we shall show at the proper time; so that Moses is shown to be earlier even than the Greek gods, if he lived before Cadmus and the gods appear to be younger than Cadmus's time. Listen, then, to the words of the historian:

Epitome of the mythological tales among the Greeks concerning their gods and heroes

"Cadmus the son of Agenor, they say, was sent from Phoenicia by the king to search for Europa, who had been carried off by Zeus. Not finding her, he came into Boeotia and founded Thebes there; and having married Harmonia, the daughter of Aphrodite, he begot by her Semele and her sisters. Zeus had intercourse with Semele and was asked by her to make his embraces like those with Hera. When he came to her as befits a god, with thunder and lightning, Semele, who was pregnant, could not bear it and miscarried the child, and she herself died from the fire. Zeus took the child, handed it to Hermes, and sent it away to the cave in Nysa, which lies between Phoenicia and the Nile. Dionysus, reared in this way by the nymphs, became the discoverer of wine and taught mankind to plant the vine. He also discovered the drink made from barley, called zythos. He led about with him an army not only of men but also of women, and punished the unjust and impious among mankind. He made an expedition into India lasting three years. From this the Greeks instituted the triennial sacrifices to Dionysus, and believe that the god makes his appearances among men at this time; and all mankind reverence him for the gift of wine, as they reverence Demeter for the discovery of grain for food." "They say there was also another Dionysus much earlier than this one, called Sabazius by some, born of Zeus and Persephone, whose birth, sacrifices, and honors they celebrate by night and in secret because of the shame that attends the intercourse. He was the first to attempt to yoke oxen, and so they represent him with horns. The younger one, the son of Semele, they say was delicate in body, excelled in beauty, and was much inclined to sexual pleasures; and on his campaigns he led about a crowd of women armed with lances. They say that the Muses also traveled with him, being maidens and exceptionally educated, who delighted the god with song and dance; and that his tutor Silenus contributed much to his excellence. Against the headaches caused by too much wine, he bound his head with a headband. They call him 'of two mothers' because the two Dionysuses had one father but two mothers. They give him the fennel stalk because the ancients, drinking their wine unmixed, became frenzied and struck one another with their staffs, so that some were even killed; hence he taught them to use fennel stalks instead of wooden staffs. He is called Bacchius from the Bacchae, Lenaeus from the treading of grapes in the wine-presses (lenoi), and Bromius from the roaring (bromos) that occurred at his birth. They say too that he took Satyrs about with him, who gave him delight and pleasure in their dances and tragic performances; and that he instituted the theater and the system of musical performances. Such are the stories about Dionysus." "Priapus, they say, is the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, because those who are drunk with wine are aroused toward sexual pleasures. Some say that the ancients called the human member Priapus in their myths. Some say that the generative member, being the cause of human generation, has for this reason received immortal honor for all time; just as the Egyptians said that Isis, searching for the limbs of Osiris and unable to find his member, ordained that it be honored as a god and set it up erect in the temple. And among the Greeks too this god receives some honor not only in the Dionysiac rites but in all the others, being brought into the sacrifices with laughter and play; as also Hermaphroditus, who was born of Hermes and Aphrodite and received his name from them. This god, they say, appears among men at certain times and is born with a bodily nature mixed of man and woman. Some say that such creatures are portents and, being rarely born, are signs sometimes of evils and sometimes of good things." "The Muses are daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, or according to some of Ouranus and Ge. Most of the mythographers say that they are maidens, and that they got their name from initiating (myein) men, that is, teaching them what is good." "About Heracles the Greeks say this: Perseus was born of Danae daughter of Acrisius and of Zeus; of Perseus and Andromeda was born Electryon; and from him was born Alcmene, with whom Zeus had intercourse and begot Heracles. In lying with her Zeus made the night three times as long; and this union alone of Zeus's took place not for the sake of erotic desire, as with the other women, but chiefly for the begetting of a child. Hera, being jealous, held back Alcmene's labor pains and brought Eurystheus to the light before the proper time, since Zeus had declared that the child born on that day would reign over the race of the Perseids. Alcmene, having given birth, exposed the infant, they say, for fear of Hera. Athena, admiring the infant, persuaded Hera to give it her breast; but when the child drew on the breast more violently than his age warranted, Hera in pain threw the infant away, and Athena took it and told its mother to rear it." "After this Hera sent two serpents to destroy the infant; but the child, not dismayed, gripped the neck of each in his two hands and strangled the serpents. When Heracles had become a man, Eurystheus, who held the kingdom of Argos, ordered him to perform twelve labors. When he fell into great perplexity, Hera sent madness upon him; and being grieved in soul he fell into frenzy. As the affliction grew, he went out of his mind and tried to kill his companion and nephew Iolaus; and when he fled, he shot down with arrows, as if they were enemies, his own children born to him by Megara, daughter of King Creon. After this, having come quietly to himself, he performs the twelve labors for Eurystheus. He also kills the Centaurs, and among them Chiron, famous for his medicine." "They say that something peculiar happened at the birth of this god. For Zeus had intercourse first with a mortal woman, Niobe daughter of Phoroneus, and last with Alcmene, the mother of Heracles; they reckon her as the sixteenth generation from Niobe; and with her he put an end to his intercourse with mortal women." "But when Heracles had completed the labors, he gave his own wife Megara to his nephew Iolaus because of the misfortune with the children; and he himself asked for Iole the daughter of Eurytus in marriage. When her father refused and Heracles fell ill, he received an oracle that he would be freed from his sickness if he were first sold and became a slave. So he sailed to Phrygia, was sold by one of his friends, and became the slave of Omphale, queen of those then called Maeonians and now Lydians. During the time of his slavery a son, Cleolaus, was born to him by a slave woman. Then he married Omphale and had a child by her too. "Returning to Arcadia and lodging with King Aleus, he secretly had intercourse with his daughter, made her pregnant, and went away." "And after this he married again, Deianeira the daughter of Oeneus, Meleager being already dead. Taking captive the daughter of Phyleus, he had intercourse with her and begot Tlepolemus. While dining with Oeneus, he struck with his fist and killed the servant who had made some mistake in waiting on him. When on his journey he came to the river Evenus, he found the Centaur Nessus carrying people across the river for hire. Nessus carried Deianeira across first and, falling in love with her because of her beauty, tried to violate her. When she called aloud to her husband, Heracles shot the Centaur; and Nessus, in the very act and dying at once from the sharpness of the wound, said he would give Deianeira a love charm, so that Heracles would never wish to approach any other woman. He told her, therefore, to take the seed that had fallen from him, mix with it oil and the blood dripping from the arrowhead, and anoint Heracles' tunic with it. Deianeira did this and kept the drug by her." "Again Heracles took captive the daughter of Phylas, had intercourse with her, and begot a son Antiochus; and again, taking captive Astyaneira, the daughter of King Armenius, he had intercourse with her and begot a son Ctesippus." "Thespius the Athenian, son of Erechtheus, having had fifty daughters by various wives, and being ambitious to have children for them by Heracles, invited Heracles to a sacrifice, entertained him splendidly, and sent his daughters to him one by one. And he violated them all in one night, and became the father of those called the Thespiadae." "Having taken Iole captive and being about to offer a sacrifice, he sent to his wife Deianeira asking for the robe and tunic he was accustomed to use for sacrifices; and she anointed the tunic with the charm given her by the Centaur and sent it. Heracles put on the tunic and fell into the greatest calamity. For since the arrowhead had taken up the venom of the Hydra, and the tunic therefore, through the heat, ravaged the flesh of his body, he was in great agony and killed the servant who had brought it; and he himself, according to an oracle, gave himself to the fire and so ended his life. Such are the stories of Heracles." "About Asclepius they say that he was the son of Apollo and Coronis, that he devoted himself to the science of medicine, and advanced so far in fame as to heal unexpectedly many sick people who had been given up. So Zeus, provoked, struck him with a thunderbolt and destroyed him; and Apollo, provoked at the killing of his son, murdered the Cyclopes who had made the thunderbolt for Zeus. Zeus, provoked at their death, ordered Apollo to serve as a laborer with Admetus, and took this penalty from him for his offenses." This is what Diodorus has set out in the fourth book of his Library. And the same writer says again that the Greeks borrowed the rest of their theology from other nations, writing as follows in the third book of his history: "The Atlantians say that Ouranus was the first to reign among them, and that he had forty-five children by several wives, of whom they say eighteen were by one wife, Titaea; she, being chaste and the cause of many good things, was deified after her death and renamed Ge (Earth). Ouranus had daughters, Basileia and Rhea, who is also Pandora. Basileia brought up her brothers, showing them a mother's kindness, and was called Mother. Later, after the death of Ouranus, she lived with her brother Hyperion and bore two children, whom she named Helios and Selene (Sun and Moon). Rhea's brothers, becoming afraid, slaughtered Hyperion and drowned Helios in the river Eridanus. Selene, learning of this, threw herself from the roof; and their mother, gone mad, wandered about the country with her hair loose, frenzied by the sound of drums and cymbals, and she too entirely disappeared. The people, marveling at the calamity, transferred Helios and Selene to the stars of heaven, regarded their mother as a goddess, set up altars, and honored her with ecstatic rites with drums and cymbals." "The Phrygians say that Meion, king of Phrygia, had a daughter Cybele, who was the first to invent the pipe, and was called the Mother of the Mountain. Marsyas the Phrygian, being her friend, first put together the flutes, and remained without experience of sexual pleasures until his death. Cybele, having come into intimacy with Attis, became pregnant. When this was discovered, her father killed Attis and her nurses; and Cybele, gone mad, rushed out into the country, and there continued wailing and beating the drum. Marsyas accompanied her; he entered into a contest of music with Apollo, and, being defeated, was flayed alive by Apollo. Apollo, falling in love with Cybele, wandered with her as far as the Hyperboreans, and ordered that the body of Attis be buried and that Cybele be honored as a goddess. Therefore even to this day the Phrygians do this, lamenting the young man's death, setting up altars, and honoring Attis and Cybele with sacrifices. Later they built a costly temple at Pessinus in Phrygia and established most magnificent honors and sacrifices." "After the death of Hyperion the sons of Ouranus divided the kingdom, the most famous of whom were Atlas and Cronus. Of these Atlas received the regions along the Ocean, and became the best of astronomers. He had seven daughters, called the Atlantides. These, uniting with the most distinguished gods, became the founders of most of the race, bearing gods and heroes for their excellence; and the eldest of them, Maia, uniting with Zeus, bore Hermes." "Cronus, excelling in greed and licentiousness, married his sister Rhea, by whom he begot Zeus. There was also another Zeus, brother of Ouranus, who reigned over Crete, far inferior in fame to the later one. The later one reigned over the whole world; the Cretan one begot ten sons, who were named Curetes; and they say his tomb is still shown in Crete. Cronus ruled over Sicily, Libya, and Italy. Zeus, his son, followed a life opposite to his father's. Some say he succeeded to the kingdom when his father yielded it willingly, others that he was chosen by the people because of their hatred of his father. When Cronus marched against him with the Titans, Zeus defeated him in battle and went through the whole inhabited world. He excelled in bodily strength and the other virtues, and gave all his zeal to punishing the impious and benefiting the good; for which, after his departure from among men, he was named Zen, because he was thought to have been the cause of living (zen) well for mankind. These are the chief points of the theology of the Atlantians; and they say that the Greeks too make use of them." So writes Diodorus in the third book of his histories. The same writer, in the sixth book, confirms the same theology from the writing of Euhemerus the Messenian, speaking thus, word for word: "Concerning the gods, then, the ancients have handed down to later generations two kinds of notions. Some, they say, are eternal and incorruptible, such as the sun and moon and the other stars of heaven, and besides these the winds and the others that have a nature like theirs; for each of these has its generation and its continuance from eternity. Others, they say, were earthly beings who became gods and obtained immortal honor and glory because of their benefits to mankind, such as Heracles, Dionysus, Aristaeus, and the others like them. About the earthly gods many varied accounts have been handed down by historians and mythographers. Of the historians, Euhemerus, who composed the Sacred Record, has written in a way of his own; of the mythologists, Homer, Hesiod, Orpheus, and others like them have fashioned more monstrous myths about the gods. We shall try to run briefly over what both have recorded, aiming at due proportion." "Euhemerus, then, who was a friend of King Cassander and was obliged by him to perform certain royal services and long journeys abroad, says that he traveled southward to the Ocean. Setting sail from Arabia Felix, he made his voyage through the Ocean for several days and was carried to islands in the open sea, one of which was called Panchaea. There he saw the Panchaeans who live there, excelling in piety and honoring the gods with most magnificent sacrifices and remarkable offerings of silver and gold. The island is also sacred to the gods, and there are many other things admired both for their antiquity and for the great art of their construction, of which we have written in detail in the books before this one. On a very high hill there is a temple of Zeus Triphylius, founded by him when he reigned over the whole inhabited world while still among men. In this temple there is a golden pillar, on which are written in Panchaean letters, in summary, the deeds of Ouranus, Cronus, and Zeus. After this he says that Ouranus was the first king, an equitable and beneficent man, skilled in the motion of the stars; that he was the first to honor the heavenly gods with sacrifices, and was therefore called Ouranus (Heaven). Sons were born to him by his wife Hestia, Titan and Cronus, and daughters, Rhea and Demeter. Cronus reigned after Ouranus, and having married Rhea begot Zeus, Hera, and Poseidon. Zeus, succeeding to the kingdom of Cronus, married Hera, Demeter, and Themis, and had children by them: the Curetes by the first, Persephone by the second, and Athena by the third. Going to Babylon, he was entertained by Belus; and afterward, coming to the island of Panchaea, which lies by the Ocean, he set up an altar to Ouranus, his own forefather. From there he went through Syria to Casius, the ruler at that time, from whom Mount Casius is named; and going into Cilicia he conquered Cilix, the local ruler, in war. Visiting very many other nations as well, he was honored by them all and proclaimed a god." Having gone through these things and the like about the gods as about mortal men, he adds, saying: "Concerning Euhemerus, who composed the Sacred Record, we shall be content with what has been said; but we shall try to run briefly over what is told in myth among the Greeks about the gods, following Hesiod, Homer, and Orpheus." Then next he adds the mythologies of the poets. But let this much, sufficient for us, be cut out from the theology of the Greeks. It is reasonable to add to it the rites of the same gods in their shrines and their secret mysteries, and to consider whether they bear any mark worthy of God, of a theology that is truly divine, or spring from somewhere below, from a long and demonic error, worthy of laughter, or rather of shame, or rather of pity for those still blind. These the admirable Clement exposes plainly in his Exhortation to the Greeks, a man who had gone through all of them by experience but quickly turned back from the error, as one redeemed from those evils by the saving word and through the teaching of the gospel. Listen, then, briefly to these too:

Of the secret initiations and cryptic mysteries of their polytheistic delusion

"Do not, then, pry into godless shrines, nor into the mouths of chasms full of marvel-mongering, nor the Thesprotian cauldron, nor the Cirrhaean tripod, nor the Dodonaean bronze; and the old oak honored in the desert sands, and the oracle there, withered away together with the oak itself, leave to myths grown old. The spring of Castalia, at any rate, has been silenced, and the other spring of Colophon; and the other prophetic streams are likewise dead. Emptied of their vanity, late indeed but nonetheless, they have been exposed, having run dry together with their own myths. Tell us also of the useless oracles of the rest of divination, or rather of madness: the Clarian, the Pythian, the Didymaean, that of Amphiaraus, of Apollo, of Amphilochus; and if you will, devote to perdition along with them the interpreters of portents and of birds and the judges of dreams. Set beside the Pythian, too, the diviners by flour and by barley, and the ventriloquists who are still honored by the many. Yes, and let the shrines of the Egyptians and the necromancies of the Etruscans be consigned to darkness. These are truly mad schools of sophistry for faithless men, and gambling houses of undiluted error. Partners in this trickery are goats trained for divination, and ravens taught by men to give oracles to men." "What if I were to recount to you the mysteries? I will not mock them in dance, as they say Alcibiades did, but I will strip bare, in accordance with the word of truth, the trickery hidden in them; and your so-called gods themselves, whose rites are mystic, I will wheel out, as on the stage of life, before the spectators of truth. The Bacchants hold orgies in honor of the mad Dionysus, celebrating their sacred frenzy with the eating of raw flesh, and they perform the distribution of the flesh of their butcheries, crowned with snakes, shrieking out 'Eua, Eua,' the name of that Eve through whom error came in; and a consecrated serpent is the sign of the Bacchic orgies. In fact, according to the exact Hebrew pronunciation, the name Heva, with a rough breathing, is interpreted 'the female serpent.' Deo and Kore have now become a mystic drama, and Eleusis lights up with torches their wandering, the rape, and their grief." "And it seems to me that orgies and mysteries must be derived, the one from the anger (orge) of Deo against Zeus, the other from the pollution (mysos) that happened to Dionysus. Or if they come from one Myus of Attica, who, Apollodorus says, was killed in hunting, I do not grudge you that your mysteries have been glorified with funeral honors. You may also understand the mysteries in another way, as 'myth-ries,' by a change of letters; for myths of this kind, as well as other things, hunt down the most barbarous of the Thracians, the most foolish of the Phrygians, and the superstitious among the Greeks. Perish, then, whoever began this deceit among men, whether it was Dardanus, who introduced the mysteries of the Mother of the gods, or Eetion, who founded the orgies and rites of the Samothracians, or that Phrygian Midas who learned the artful deceit from Odrysus and then handed it on to his subjects. For Cinyras the Cypriot islander would never persuade me, who dared to bring out from night into day the lewd orgies of Aphrodite, ambitious to deify a harlot of his own city. Others say that Melampus the son of Amythaon brought from Egypt to Greece the festivals of Deo, a grief celebrated in hymns. These I would call the originators of evil, fathers of godless myths and of deadly superstition, who planted the mysteries in human life as a seed of vice and corruption." "And now, for it is time, I will prove your orgies themselves to be full of deceit and marvel-mongering. And if you have been initiated, you will laugh all the more at these myths of yours that are held in honor. I will proclaim openly what is hidden, not ashamed to speak of what you are not ashamed to worship. There is, then, the foam-born, the Cyprus-born, the darling of Cinyras: I mean Aphrodite, called philommedes because she was brought forth from the medea, those lustful members cut off from Ouranus, which after the cutting did violence to the wave. See how, from members so licentious, a worthy fruit is born for you, Aphrodite! And in the rites of this sea-born pleasure, a lump of salt and a phallus are given to those initiated into the art of adultery, as a token of her birth; and the initiates bring her a coin, as lovers to a harlot. "The mysteries of Deo are the amorous embraces of Zeus with his mother Demeter, and the anger of Deo (I do not know what to call her for the rest, mother or wife), on account of which she is said to have been called Brimo; the supplications of Zeus, the drink of gall, the tearing out of hearts, and unspeakable deeds. The same rites the Phrygians perform in honor of Attis, Cybele, and the Corybantes. They have spread the tale that Zeus tore off the testicles of a ram, brought them, and threw them into the lap of Deo, paying a sham penalty for his violent embrace, as though he had castrated himself. The symbols of this initiation, set out over and above, will, I know, move you to laughter, even if you are not disposed to laugh, because of the exposure: 'I ate from the drum; I drank from the cymbal; I carried the sacred dish; I slipped under the bridal chamber.' Are not these symbols an outrage? Are not the mysteries a mockery?" "What if I were to add the rest? Demeter conceives; the Maiden is reared; and this same Zeus who begot her has intercourse again with Pherephatta, his own daughter, after her mother Deo, forgetting his former pollution, and he unites with her having become a serpent, which is what he was shown to be. At any rate, in the Sabazian mysteries the sign for the initiates is 'the god through the bosom'; and this is a serpent drawn through the bosom of the initiates, a proof of the incontinence of Zeus. Pherephatta too conceives a child in the form of a bull. Indeed, a certain idolatrous poet says: 'The bull is father of the serpent, and the serpent of the bull; on the mountain the herdsman's hidden goad,' calling, I think, the fennel stalk the herdsman's goad, the stalk that the Bacchants wreathe. "Would you have me tell you also of Pherephatta's gathering of flowers, the basket, the rape by Aidoneus, the chasm in the earth, and the swine of Eubuleus that were swallowed up together with the two goddesses, for which reason at the Thesmophoria they cast pigs into the chasms? This mythology the women celebrate in festivals in various ways in their cities, the Thesmophoria, Scirophoria, Arrhetophoria, dramatizing in many ways the rape of Pherephatta. As for the mysteries of Dionysus, they are utterly inhuman. While he was still a child, and the Curetes were dancing around him with armed movement, the Titans crept in by guile, deceived him with childish toys, and these same Titans tore him in pieces while still an infant, as Orpheus the Thracian, the poet of the rite, says: 'cone, and bull-roarer, and limb-bending toys, and fair golden apples from the clear-voiced Hesperides.' "And it is not useless to set out, for condemnation, the useless symbols of this rite: knucklebone, ball, top, apples, bull-roarer, mirror, fleece. Athena, having stolen away the heart of Dionysus, was called Pallas from its palpitating (pallein). The Titans who tore him in pieces set a cauldron on a tripod, threw in the limbs of Dionysus, and first boiled them; then, piercing them with spits, 'they held them over Hephaestus.' Zeus afterward appeared (if he was a god, perhaps because he had a share of the savor of the roasting flesh, which your gods agree they receive as their portion) and punished the Titans with a thunderbolt, and entrusted the limbs of Dionysus to his son Apollo to bury. And he, for he did not disobey Zeus, carried the dismembered corpse to Parnassus and laid it there. If you wish to look upon the orgies of the Corybantes as well: these two, having killed their third brother, covered the dead man's head with a purple cloth, crowned it, and buried it, carrying it on a bronze shield to the foothills of Olympus. And these, to put it briefly, are the mysteries: murders and burials. Their priests, whom those concerned call 'kings of the rites,' add further marvels to the calamity, forbidding parsley with its roots to be set on the table; for they think parsley grew from the Corybantic blood that flowed out. Just so the women celebrating the Thesmophoria take care not to eat pomegranate seeds; for they think pomegranates sprang from the drops of the blood of Dionysus that fell to the ground. Calling the Corybantes Cabiri, they also proclaim a Cabiric rite. For these two fratricides took up the chest in which the private part of Dionysus had been laid and brought it to Etruria, merchants of a glorious cargo. There they lived as exiles, entrusting to the Etruscans the precious teaching of piety, to worship private parts and a chest. For this reason some not unreasonably wish Dionysus to be called Attis, as having been deprived of his private parts." "And what wonder if the Etruscans, being barbarians, are initiated with such shameful sufferings, when among the Athenians and the rest of Greece (I am ashamed even to say it) the mythology about Deo is full of shame? For Deo, wandering in search of her daughter the Maiden near Eleusis (this place is in Attica), grows weary and sits down by a well in her grief. This is forbidden to the initiates even now, so that those initiated may not seem to imitate the mourning goddess. At that time Eleusis was inhabited by the earth-born. Their names were Baubo, Dysaules, and Triptolemus, and also Eumolpus and Eubuleus. Triptolemus was a herdsman, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubuleus a swineherd; from them sprang the race of the Eumolpidae and of the Heralds, this priestly race at Athens. And indeed (for I will not refrain from saying it) Baubo, having received Deo as a guest, offers her a mixed drink (kykeon). When she refused to take it and would not drink, since she was mourning, Baubo, deeply hurt as if slighted, uncovered her private parts and showed them to the goddess; and Deo was delighted at the sight and at last received the drink, pleased with the spectacle." "These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians; these Orpheus records. I will set before you the very verses of Orpheus, so that you may have the mystagogue himself as witness of the shamelessness: 'So saying, she drew up her robes and showed all her body's indecent form; and the child Iacchus was there, and laughing he tossed his hand beneath Baubo's breasts. And when the goddess smiled, she smiled in her heart, and received the glittering vessel in which the kykeon lay.' And the password of the Eleusinian mysteries is: 'I fasted; I drank the kykeon; I took from the chest; having done my work, I put it into the basket, and from the basket into the chest.' Fine sights indeed, and fitting for a goddess! Worthy of night, then, are the rites, and of fire, and of the 'great-hearted,' or rather empty-minded, people of the Erechtheidae, and of the other Greeks besides, 'whom there awaits after death what they do not expect.' To whom does Heraclitus of Ephesus prophesy? 'To night-wanderers, magi, Bacchants, Lenaeans, initiates.' These he threatens with what comes after death; for these he prophesies the fire. 'For the mysteries customary among men are celebrated in an unholy way.' Custom, then, and empty opinion; and the mysteries of the serpent are a deceit that is worshipped, of those who with bastard piety urge people to initiations that are in truth no initiations and rites that are no rites. And what are the mystic chests? (For I must strip bare their holy things and speak out what is unspeakable.) Are they not sesame cakes, pyramid cakes, balls, flat cakes with many knobs, lumps of salt, and a serpent, the sacred object of Dionysus Bassareus? And besides these, pomegranates, hearts, fennel stalks, ivy, and also round cakes and poppies? These are their holy things. And further, the unspeakable symbols of Themis: marjoram, a lamp, a sword, a woman's comb, which is a euphemistic and mystic term for the female member. What open shamelessness! Formerly, for sober people, silent night was a covering for pleasure; now, for the initiates, the holy night of incontinence is talked about, and the fire, carried in torches, exposes the passions. Put out the fire, hierophant; respect the torches, torchbearer! The light exposes your Iacchus. Allow the mysteries to be hidden by night; let the orgies be honored with darkness. The fire is no actor; it is commanded to expose and to punish." "These are the mysteries of the atheists. And I rightly call them atheists, who have not known the God who truly is, but shamelessly worship a child torn in pieces by Titans, a grieving woman, and parts that are truly unspeakable for shame. They are held fast in a twofold atheism: first, that by which they do not know God, not recognizing the God who truly is; and second, this error by which they think things that are not to be, and call these gods, which do not truly exist, or rather do not exist at all, but have obtained only the name." So much this writer too.

By what considerations we were led to withdraw from the opinions of the Greeks concerning the gods

Rightly, then, do we confess that we have become free of all these things, redeemed from the long and inveterate error as from some dreadful and most grievous disease: first by the grace and kindness of God Almighty; second by the secret power of our Savior's gospel teaching; and third because we judged with sober reason that it is unholy and impious to honor with the reverend name of God mortal men who have long lain among the dead, who have not even left behind the memory of sober men, but have handed down to those after them examples of the utmost incontinence and licentiousness, of cruelty and madness to preserve. For how would it not be the height of folly for lovers of self-control to yield the first place to the shameful and licentious, for the wise and sensible to give reverent honor to those who have lost their minds, and for those who practice justice and kindness to give it to those defiled, through the excess of their cruelty and inhumanity, with the pollution of killing children and fathers? And what extreme of impiety has not been surpassed by bringing down the reverend and all-holy name of God to the unspeakable parts of men and women and to irrational and brutish nature, and by attributing to gods such shameful and inhuman things that, if any human wrongdoers were convicted of them, they would fall under the inexorable penalties of the laws? And why should we go on at length, announcing to every barbarian and Greek alike the good news of freedom from these evils and bringing to light the reasonableness of our departure from the falsely named gods, when already most even of the extremely superstitious, as if sobering up from a deep stupor and opening the eye of the soul from the ancient mist, have seen through the deep nonsense of their ancestral error, and, standing firm on reason, have chosen the other road and withdrawn from the old one? Of these, some went straight at it, spat upon the whole mythology of their ancestors, and laughed it broadly to scorn. Others, avoiding the reputation of atheism, neither stood by the former beliefs nor withdrew from them entirely; but, intending to flatter and serve their own reputation, they declared that the histories of the gods celebrated among them, which were true accounts, were myths fashioned by the poets, hiding physical theories within them. Even though these interpretations bear no mark of truth at all, an exposition of them would still be necessary for us, to examine what is dignified among these people too; for our withdrawal from them could not have been brought about otherwise than if its reasonableness were shown through the gospel teaching of our Savior. Come, then, let us take up their account from the beginning and examine it.

Summary of the preceding arguments

The character of the Greek theology, then (I mean the popular and more mythical theology), and long before it that of the Phoenicians, Egyptians, and the others whom the preceding books recorded, has been shown to be such as has been made plain by the words of the Greek writers themselves set out above. We have rightly set it before our readers at the beginning of the present Preparation for the Gospel for their examination and judgment, so that both we ourselves and those still unacquainted with these things might learn who we formerly were, from what kind of fathers we sprang, by what great evils we were formerly fettered, and in what impiety and drunkenness of ignorance of God our souls were buried, when we were counted worthy of turning back and of freedom from all of these through the one teaching of the gospel alone, which was granted us in no other way than through the appearing of our Savior Jesus, the Christ of God. He, not in one part of the earth nor in a corner of the land of one nation, but throughout the whole inhabited world, where the most superstitious error prevailed, like a sun of intellectual and rational souls spreading out the rays of his own light, brought over the whole human race at once, barbarians and Greeks alike, all of us, as out of a dreadful mist and the gloomiest and unseen night of superstitious error, to the bright and most radiant day of the true worship of God the universal King. The words quoted earlier plainly taught that all those excited by the polytheistic error, in cities and villages, worshipped and cherished images of the dead and likenesses of men long departed; for the men of old, through the extreme savagery of life at that time, took no account of God the creator of all, paid no heed to divine justice which punishes wrongdoing, and plunged into every unholy deed. For laws by which one must live had not yet been established, nor had civilized government been ordered among men; life was unrestrained, nomadic, and beastlike. Some, like irrational cattle, cared for nothing more than filling the belly, and in them the first form of atheism lurks. Others, stirred a little by natural notions, conceived that God and the power of God is something saving and good; and wishing to find him, they stretched their souls up to heaven, but stopped there in their thinking, and, struck with wonder at the beauty of the luminaries that shine and appear in heaven, declared these to be gods. A third group, casting themselves down to earth, proclaimed as gods, both while they still lived and after their death, those thought to excel in wisdom among their contemporaries, or who had overpowered the many by bodily strength and the might of their power, giants or tyrants; or sorcerers and poisoners who had contrived their wicked arts of magic from some falling away of the more divine beings; or others who had first bestowed some common benefit useful for life. Hence the houses of the gods are recorded among them to be the tombs of the dead, as Clement relates in his Exhortation to the Greeks, bringing in the Greeks themselves as witnesses of the account. If you like, listen again to him writing in this way:

That what they call the temples of their gods are the tombs of dead men; the opinion of the ancients concerning the gods; the physical and supposedly more venerable theology of the Greeks

"Naturally, then, superstition, having taken its beginning from somewhere, became the source of senseless vice; then, not being checked but increasing and flowing in full stream, it became the creator of many demons, offering hecatombs, celebrating festivals, setting up statues, and building temples. These (for I will not keep silent about this either, but will expose it too) were euphemistically named temples but were in fact tombs; that is, tombs were called temples. But you, even now at least, forget your superstition, being ashamed to honor tombs." "In the temple of Athena at Larissa, on the acropolis, there is the tomb of Acrisius; and at Athens on the acropolis that of Cecrops, as Antiochus says in the ninth book of his histories. And what of Erichthonius? Is he not buried in the temple of Polias? And Immarus, son of Eumolpus and Daeira, is he not buried in the precinct of the Eleusinium below the acropolis? And are not the daughters of Celeus buried at Eleusis? Why should I list for you the women from the Hyperboreans? They were called Hyperoche and Laodice; they are buried in the Artemisium on Delos, which is in the temple of Delian Apollo. Leandrus says that Cleomachus is buried at Miletus in the Didymaeum. Here it is not right to pass over the tomb of Leucophryne, following Zeno of Myndus, who is buried in the temple of Artemis at Magnesia; nor the altar of Apollo at Telmessus, which too they record to be the tomb of Telmessus the seer. Ptolemy son of Agesarchus, in the first book of his work on Philopator, says that Cinyras and the descendants of Cinyras are buried at Paphos in the temple of Aphrodite. But if I were to go through the tombs you worship, all time would not suffice me. As for you, if no shame for what you dare creeps over you, then you go about utterly dead, trusting in the dead: 'Ah, wretches, what evil is this you suffer?'" And a little later he says: "Another new god, in Egypt, and nearly among the Greeks too, the king of the Romans has solemnly deified: his favorite Antinous, who was exceedingly beautiful, he consecrated, as Zeus did Ganymede. For desire that has no fear is not easily restrained. And people now venerate the sacred nights of Antinous, which the lover who kept the vigil with him knew to be shameful." And he continues: "Already the tomb of the favorite is the temple and city of Antinous. For as temples, I suppose, so tombs too are admired: pyramids, mausoleums, and labyrinths, other temples of the dead, as those are tombs of the gods." And again, a little later: "Come, let us briefly go round the games too and put an end to these funeral festivals, the Isthmian, Nemean, Pythian, and besides these the Olympian. At Pytho the Pythian serpent is worshipped, and the festival of the snake is proclaimed as the Pythian games. At the Isthmus the sea cast up a pitiable piece of refuse, and the Isthmian games mourn Melicertes. At Nemea another child, Archemorus, is buried, and the child's funeral rites are called the Nemean games. Pisa, Panhellenes, is the tomb of a Phrygian charioteer, and the Zeus of Phidias claims for himself the libations to Pelops, the Olympian games." So much this writer. But you, taking up the account from the beginning, consider how the superstitious error fell away. By nature, then, and by self-taught notions, or rather God-taught ones, the thing signified by the name and being of God was held to be something good and beneficial; for all people had grasped this beforehand by common reasoning, since the creator of all things had sown it in every rational and intellectual soul by natural notions. Yet they did not use their choice in accordance with reason. Perhaps one here and a second there, or a very few others, whose memory the oracles of the Hebrews preserve, applied the notion of God to none of the things seen, but with undistorted reasoning led it up from the things seen to the creator of the whole world and the great maker of all things, and with the purified eyes of the mind perceived that he alone is God, the Savior of all, and the only giver of good things. But the rest, turned aside by every kind of darkening of the soul, were carried down into the depth of impiety, so that like wild beasts they fixed the beautiful, the advantageous, and the good no higher than bodies and the pleasure of the flesh. In this way, as was said before, they proclaimed as saviors and gods, as givers of good things, the discoverers of what were considered the goods and useful things of the body, or some rulers and tyrants, or sorcerers and poisoners, men mortal by nature and subject to human misfortunes, transferring the reverent notion naturally present in them to those whom they thought benefactors. So great a stupor of mind held them that they took no account of the wrongs done by those they called gods, and did not blush at the shameful things reported of them, but admired the men in everything, because of the benefits they provided, or because of the dominions and tyrannies then first being established. Since, as I said before, laws were not yet in force among men and no punishment hung over wrongdoing, they recorded adulteries and the corruption of males, lawless and unlawful marriages, murders and parricides, slaughters of children and brothers, yes, and wars and seditions, really committed by their own leaders, whom they regarded and called gods, as if they were great deeds and acts of valor, leaving the memory of them to later generations as of noble and brave men. Such was the ancient theology. Some newcomers, who sprang up only yesterday or the day before and boasted of philosophizing more rationally, changed it and introduced the more physical interpretation of the history of the gods, devising more dignified inventions to add to the myths. They neither entirely escaped the impious offense of their ancestors, nor could they endure the depravity of what was said of the gods, which was plain on the face of it. Eager nevertheless to remedy their fathers' offense, they turned the myths into physical narratives and theories, boasting, as if it were something more mystical, that the things signified by the myths are the nourishing and growth-giving powers of the nature of bodies. From there they too went up and proclaimed the elements of the world gods: not only the sun, moon, and stars, but also earth and water, air and fire, and the compounds and products of these; yes, and the seasonable fruits of the earth and the other growths of dry and moist food. These too, as causes of the life of bodies, they deified, calling them Demeter, Kore, Dionysus, and whatever else is like them, introducing a forced and untrue embellishment of the myths. But these men, late in time, as if ashamed of their ancestors' theologies, added to the myths about the gods such dignified explanations as each invented for himself; for no one dared to disturb the ancestral customs, but they held antiquity and the customary upbringing they had been reared in from childhood in great honor. Those older than these, on a par with the deification of men, also ordained the deification of irrational animals because of their usefulness, for the reasons given before, and consecrated equal worship to irrational beasts, with libations, sacrifices, mystic rites, hymns, and songs, exalting their honors in the same way as those of deified men. They went so far in evil that through excess of unrestrained luxury they deified with honors equal to the gods the parts of the body that draw to shameful deeds and the licentious passions among men; while the theologians themselves declared that nothing in these things should be dignified with solemn language. It must be observed, then, that the most ancient people are attested to have known nothing more than the history and to have devoted themselves only to the myths. However, since we have once set out to examine also the dignified and secret doctrines of the noble philosophers, come, let us survey these too, so that we may not seem to be ignorant of their marvelous natural philosophy. But before setting these out, I think it right to point out first the contradiction of these marvelous philosophers with one another even in this. Some tell their stories at random and declare their own views according to what occurs to each; for they do not agree with one another in their natural explanations. Others, more candidly, do away with the whole thing, and banish from their own commonwealth not only the indecent stories about the gods but also their interpretations; and sometimes, through fear of the punishment of the laws, they speak indulgently of the myths. Listen, then, to the Greeks themselves, through one who is the best of them all, who now drives out the myths and now again admits them. Their admirable Plato, when he lays bare his own choice, boldly forbids anyone to think and speak of the gods at all such things as the ancients said, whether they contain some hidden meaning in allegories or are said without any allegory; but when he speaks indulgently to the laws, he says that one must believe the myths about the gods, as having no hidden meaning conveyed by them. And at one point, having separated his own theology from the ancient myths, and having discussed separately the nature of heaven, sun, moon, and stars, and further of the whole universe and its parts, he goes through again separately and distinctly the gods whose genealogies were told of old, in the Timaeus, in these very words:

What Plato thought of the theology of the ancients

"But to speak of the other demons and to know their origin is beyond us; we must believe those who have spoken before, who were offspring of gods, as they said, and surely knew their own ancestors. It is impossible, then, to disbelieve children of gods, even though they speak without probable or necessary proofs; but since they profess to report family matters, we must follow the law and believe them. So let the origin of these gods be held and told by us according to them: Oceanus and Tethys were children of Earth and Heaven; of these were born Phorcys, Cronus and Rhea, and all that go with them; and of Cronus and Rhea were born Zeus and Hera and all those whom we know are called their brothers and sisters, and further others who are their offspring." These things Plato says must be believed by those who follow the law, though he admits that they are said without probable or necessary proofs. And it should be noted that he shows the names and genealogies of the gods to contain no secret meaning signified in physical theories. Again elsewhere the same writer, laying bare his own preference, uses these words: "First of all," I said, "he who told the greatest lie, and about the greatest matters, did not lie well: that Ouranus did what Hesiod says he did, and how Cronus in turn took vengeance on him. As for the deeds of Cronus and his sufferings at the hands of his son, even if they were true, I should not think they ought to be told so lightly to foolish young people, but should rather be kept in silence; or if there were some necessity to tell them, as few as possible should hear them in secret, after sacrificing not a pig but some great and hard-to-get victim, so that as few as possible might happen to hear. "Yes," he said, "these stories are hard." "And they must not be told, Adeimantus, in our city; nor must a young man hear it said that in committing the worst crimes he would be doing nothing remarkable, nor again in punishing his father for wrongdoing in every way, but would only be doing what the first and greatest of the gods did." "Nor do I myself," he said, "think they are fit to be told." "Nor indeed at all," I said, "that gods war against gods and plot and fight; for it is not true either, if those who are to guard our city must think it most shameful to quarrel lightly with one another. Far less must battles of giants be told them in myths and embroidered, and many other enmities of every kind of gods and heroes toward their kin and friends. But if we are somehow to persuade them that no citizen ever quarreled with another, and that this is not holy, such things rather must be told to children from the first by old men and old women, and as they grow older; and the poets must be compelled to compose stories close to these. But the binding of Hera by her son, and the hurling of Hephaestus by his father when he was about to defend his mother from being beaten, and all the battles of the gods that Homer has composed, must not be admitted into the city, whether they are composed with allegorical meanings or without them." Clearly, then, by these words the philosopher teaches that both the myths of the ancients about the gods and the physical theories supposed to be expressed in the myths in allegories must be rejected; so that it is no longer unreasonable for the teaching of our Savior to announce to us our withdrawal from them, since they have been cast out even by their own people. Hence it occurs to me to admire the ancient Romans too, how, perceiving that all the Greek physical theories about the gods were absurd and unprofitable, or rather forced and inconsistent, they cut off the myths themselves from their own theology. You may learn this from the Roman Antiquities of Dionysius of Halicarnassus. In the second book, recounting the history of Romulus, the first founder of Rome, he goes through his other achievements and writes about these matters too in this way:

Of the theology of the Romans

"But he knew that good laws and the emulation of noble pursuits make a city pious and temperate, practiced in justice and good in war; and he took great care of these, beginning with the worship of the gods and divine beings. Temples, then, and precincts and altars, and the setting up of images, their forms and symbols, and the powers and gifts with which they have benefited our race; festivals of the kind that should be held for each of the gods or divine beings, and sacrifices in which they delight when honored by men; holy truces, public festivals, rests from labor, and all such things he established in the same way as the best customs among the Greeks. But the myths handed down about them, in which there are some blasphemies or accusations against them, he considered wicked, unprofitable, and indecent, and unworthy not only of gods but even of good men; he rejected them all, and prepared people to speak and think the best things about the gods, attributing to them no pursuit unworthy of their blessed nature. For among the Romans neither is Ouranus said to have been castrated by his own sons, nor Cronus to have destroyed his own offspring for fear of their attack, nor Zeus to have overthrown the dominion of Cronus and shut up his own father in the prison of Tartarus; nor are there wars, wounds, bonds, and servitude of gods among men. No festival is held among them in black garments or in mourning, with beating of breasts and lamentations of women for vanished gods, such as are performed among the Greeks over the rape of Persephone and the sufferings of Dionysus and all other such things. Nor would one see among them, even though their customs are now corrupted, any ecstatic possessions, Corybantic frenzies, Bacchic revels and secret rites, all-night vigils of men with women in the temples of the gods, or any other such monstrosity; but everything said and done concerning the gods is done with reverence, as neither among Greeks nor among barbarians. And what I have admired most of all: though countless nations have come into the city, who must of necessity worship their ancestral gods by their own customs, the city has never publicly adopted any foreign practice, as has happened to many; and if it has introduced any rites in accordance with oracles, it has adapted them to its own customs, casting out all mythical humbug, as with the rites of the Idaean goddess. For the praetors perform sacrifices and games for her every year according to the laws of the Romans; but her priest is a Phrygian man and a Phrygian woman, and they carry her around the city begging alms for the Mother, as is their custom, wearing images on their breasts, while their followers play the flute to them in the Mother's songs and they beat their drums. But of the native Romans none goes through the city begging for the Mother or accompanied by flutes, dressed in a many-colored robe, nor celebrates the goddess's orgies with the Phrygian rites, by law and decree of the senate. So cautious is the city toward customs about the gods that are not native, and so does it regard as ill-omened all pretension that has nothing seemly about it. And let no one suppose that I am unaware that some of the Greek myths are useful to men: some showing the works of nature through allegory, some composed for consolation in human misfortunes, some removing disturbances of the soul and fears and putting down unhealthy opinions, and some fashioned for some other benefit. But although I know these things as well as anyone, nevertheless I am cautious toward them, and I rather approve the theology of the Romans, considering that the good to be had from the Greek myths is small and cannot benefit many, but only those who have examined the purposes for which they are made. And those who have a share of this philosophy are few. The great unphilosophical multitude is apt to take the stories about them in the worse sense, and suffers one of two things: either it despises the gods as wallowing in great misfortune, or it refrains from none of the most shameful and lawless deeds, seeing them attributed to gods. But let the consideration of these things be left to those who practice only the contemplative part of philosophy; I have thought these matters too worth recording in the history of the constitution established by Romulus." Such, then, were the views of the best of the philosophers and of the first and ancient rulers of Rome about the Greek theology: they in no way accepted physical explanations in the myths about the gods, nor their pompous and sophistical quibbles. But since we have once set out to refute these too, come, let us see what dignified thing worthy of God their interpretations and theories bring, adding nothing of our own but using their own words throughout, so that we may learn their own doctrines from themselves.