Chapter II.—The Absurdity and Impiety of the Heathen Mysteries and Fables About the Birth and Death of Their Gods.

Explore not then too curiously the shrines of impiety, or the mouths of caverns full of monstrosity, or the Thesprotian caldron, or the Cirrhæan tripod, or the Dodonian copper. The Gerandryon,21    What this is, is not known; but it is likely that the word is a corruption of ιερὰν δρῦν, the sacred oak. once regarded sacred in the midst of desert sands, and the oracle there gone to decay with the oak itself, consigned to the region of antiquated fables. The fountain of Castalia is silent, and the other fountain of Colophon; and, in like manner, all the rest of the springs of divination are dead, and stripped of their vainglory, although at a late date, are shown with their fabulous legends to have run dry. Recount to us also the useless22    ἄχρηστα χρηστήια. oracles of that other kind of divination, or rather madness, the Clarian, the Pythian, the Didymæan, that of Amphiaraus, of Apollo, of Amphilochus; and if you will, couple23    The text has ἀνιέρου, the imperative of ἀνιερόω, which in classical Greek means “to hallow;” but the verb here must be derived from the adjective ἀνίερος, and be taken in the sense “deprive of their holiness,” “no longer count holy.” Eusebius reads ἀνιέρους: “unholy interpreters.”with them the expounders of prodigies, the augurs, and the interpreters of dreams. And bring and place beside the Pythian those that divine by flour, and those that divine by barley, and the ventriloquists still held in honour by many. Let the secret shrines of the Egyptians and the necromancies of the Etruscans be consigned to darkness. Insane devices truly are they all of unbelieving men. Goats, too, have been confederates in this art of soothsaying, trained to divination; and crows taught by men to give oracular responses to men.

And what if I go over the mysteries? I will not divulge them in mockery, as they say Alcibiades did, but I will expose right well by the word of truth the sorcery hidden in them; and those so-called gods of yours, whose are the mystic rites, I shall display, as it were, on the stage of life, to the spectators of truth. The bacchanals hold their orgies in honour of the frenzied Dionysus, celebrating their sacred frenzy by the eating of raw flesh, and go through the distribution of the parts of butchered victims, crowned with snakes, shrieking out the name of that Eva by whom error came into the world. The symbol of the Bacchic orgies is a consecrated serpent. Moreover, according to the strict interpretation of the Hebrew term, the name Hevia, aspirated, signifies a female serpent.

Demeter and Proserpine have become the heroines of a mystic drama; and their wanderings, and seizure, and grief, Eleusis celebrates by torchlight processions. I think that the derivation of orgies and mysteries ought to be traced, the former to the wrath (ὀργή) of Demeter against Zeus, the latter to the nefarious wickedness (μύσος) relating to Dionysus; but if from Myus of Attica, who Pollodorus says was killed in hunting—no matter, I don’t grudge your mysteries the glory of funeral honours. You may understand mysteria in another way, as mytheria (hunting fables), the letters of the two words being interchanged; for certainly fables of this sort hunt after the most barbarous of the Thracians, the most senseless of the Phrygians, and the superstitious among the Greeks.

Perish, then, the man who was the author of this imposture among men, be he Dardanus, who taught the mysteries of the mother of the gods, or Eetion, who instituted the orgies and mysteries of the Samothracians, or that Phrygian Midas who, having learned the cunning imposture from Odrysus, communicated it to his subjects. For I will never be persuaded by that Cyprian Islander Cinyras, who dared to bring forth from night to the light of day the lewd orgies of Aphrodité in his eagerness to deify a strumpet of his own country. Others say that Melampus the son of Amythaon imported the festivals of Ceres from Egypt into Greece, celebrating her grief in song.

These I would instance as the prime authors of evil, the parents of impious fables and of deadly superstition, who sowed in human life that seed of evil and ruin—the mysteries.

And now, for it is time, I will prove their orgies to be full of imposture and quackery. And if you have been initiated, you will laugh all the more at these fables of yours which have been held in honour. I publish without reserve what has been involved in secrecy, not ashamed to tell what you are not ashamed to worship.

There is then the foam-born and Cyprus-born, the darling of Cinyras,—I mean Aphrodité, lover of the virilia, because sprung from them, even from those of Uranus, that were cut off,—those lustful members, that, after being cut off, offered violence to the waves. Of members so lewd a worthy fruit—Aphrodité—is born. In the rites which celebrate this enjoyment of the sea, as a symbol of her birth a lump of salt and the phallus are handed to those who are initiated into the art of uncleanness. And those initiated bring a piece of money to her, as a courtesan’s paramours do to her.

Then there are the mysteries of Demeter, and Zeus’s wanton embraces of his mother, and the wrath of Demeter; I know not what for the future I shall call her, mother or wife, on which account it is that she is called Brimo, as is said; also the entreaties of Zeus, and the drink of gall, the plucking out of the hearts of sacrifices, and deeds that we dare not name. Such rites the Phrygians perform in honour of Attis and Cybele and the Corybantes. And the story goes, that Zeus, having torn away the orchites of a ram, brought them out and cast them at the breasts of Demeter, paying thus a fraudulent penalty for his violent embrace, pretending to have cut out his own. The symbols of initiation into these rites, when set before you in a vacant hour, I know will excite your laughter, although on account of the exposure by no means inclined to laugh. “I have eaten out of the drum, I have drunk out of the cymbal, I have carried the Cernos,24    The cernos some take to be a vessel containing poppy, etc., carried in sacrificial processions. The scholiast says that it is a fan. [I have marked this as a quotation. See below: Eleusinian rites.] I have slipped into the bedroom.” Are not these tokens a disgrace? Are not the mysteries absurdity?

What if I add the rest? Demeter becomes a mother, Core25    Proserpine or Pherephatta. is reared up to womanhood. And, in course of time, he who begot her,—this same Zeus has intercourse with his own daughter Pherephatta,—after Ceres, the mother,—forgetting his former abominable wickedness. Zeus is both the father and the seducer of Core, and shamefully courts her in the shape of a dragon; his identity, however, was discovered. The token of the Sabazian mysteries to the initiated is “the deity gliding over the breast,”—the deity being this serpent crawling over the breasts of the initiated. Proof surely this of the unbridled lust of Zeus. Pherephatta has a child, though, to be sure, in the form of a bull, as an idolatrous poet says,—

alluding, as I believe, under the name of the herdsman’s ox-goad, to the reed wielded by bacchanals. Do you wish me to go into the story of Persephatta’s gathering of flowers, her basket, and her seizure by Pluto (Aidoneus), and the rent in the earth, and the swine of Eubouleus that were swallowed up with the two goddesses; for which reason, in the Thesmophoria, speaking the Megaric tongue, they thrust out swine? This mythological story the women celebrate variously in different cities in the festivals called Thesmophoria and Scirophoria; dramatizing in many forms the rape of Pherephatta or Persephatta (Proserpine).

The mysteries of Dionysus are wholly inhuman; for while still a child, and the Curetes danced around [his cradle] clashing their weapons, and the Titans having come upon them by stealth, and having beguiled him with childish toys, these very Titans tore him limb from limb when but a child, as the bard of this mystery, the Thracian Orpheus, says:—

And the useless symbols of this mystic rite it will not be useless to exhibit for condemnation. These are dice, ball, hoop, apples, top,26    The scholiast takes the ῥίμβος to mean a piece of wood attached to a cord, and swung round so as to cause a whistling noise. looking-glass, tuft of wool.

Athené (Minerva), to resume our account, having abstracted the heart of Dionysus, was called Pallas, from the vibrating of the heart; and the Titans who had torn him limb from limb, setting a caldron on a tripod, and throwing into it the members of Dionysus, first boiled them down, and then fixing them on spits, “held them over the fire.” But Zeus having appeared, since he was a god, having speedily perceived the savour of the pieces of flesh that were being cooked,—that savour which your gods agree to have assigned to them as their perquisite,—assails the Titans with his thunderbolt, and consigns the members of Dionysus to his son Apollo to be interred. And he—for he did not disobey Zeus—bore the dismembered corpse to Parnassus, and there deposited it.

If you wish to inspect the orgies of the Corybantes, then know that, having killed their third brother, they covered the head of the dead body with a purple cloth, crowned it, and carrying it on the point of a spear, buried it under the roots of Olympus. These mysteries are, in short, murders and funerals. And the priests of these rites, who are called kings of the sacred rites by those whose business it is to name them, give additional strangeness to the tragic occurrence, by forbidding parsley with the roots from being placed on the table, for they think that parsley grew from the Corybantic blood that flowed forth; just as the women, in celebrating the Thesmophoria, abstain from eating the seeds of the pomegranate which have fallen on the ground, from the idea that pomegranates sprang from the drops of the blood of Dionysus. Those Corybantes also they call Cabiric; and the ceremony itself they announce as the Cabiric mystery.

For those two identical fratricides, having abstracted the box in which the phallus of Bacchus was deposited, took it to Etruria—dealers in honourable wares truly. They lived there as exiles, employing themselves in communicating the precious teaching of their superstition, and presenting phallic symbols and the box for the Tyrrhenians to worship. And some will have it, not improbably, that for this reason Dionysus was called Attis, because he was mutilated. And what is surprising at the Tyrrhenians, who were barbarians, being thus initiated into these foul indignities, when among the Athenians, and in the whole of Greece—I blush to say it—the shameful legend about Demeter holds its ground? For Demeter, wandering in quest of her daughter Core, broke down with fatigue near Eleusis, a place in Attica, and sat down on a well overwhelmed with grief. This is even now prohibited to those who are initiated, lest they should appear to mimic the weeping goddess. The indigenous inhabitants then occupied Eleusis: their names were Baubo, and Dusaules, and Triptolemus; and besides, Eumolpus and Eubouleus. Triptolemus was a herdsman, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubouleus a swineherd; from whom came the race of the Eumolpidæ and that of the Heralds—a race of Hierophants—who flourished at Athens.

Well, then (for I shall not refrain from the recital), Baubo having received Demeter hospitably, reaches to her a refreshing draught; and on her refusing it, not having any inclination to drink (for she was very sad), and Baubo having become annoyed, thinking herself slighted, uncovered her shame, and exhibited her nudity to the goddess. Demeter is delighted at the sight, and takes, though with difficulty, the draught—pleased, I repeat, at the spectacle. These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians; these Orpheus records. I shall produce the very words of Orpheus, that you may have the great authority on the mysteries himself, as evidence for this piece of turpitude:—

And the following is the token of the Eleusinian mysteries: I have fasted, I have drunk the cup; I have received from the box; having done, I put it into the basket, and out of the basket into the chest.27    [See supra, p. 175, where I have affixed quotation-marks, and adopted the word “tokens” (instead of “signs”) to harmonize these two places] Fine sights truly, and becoming a goddess; mysteries worthy of the night, and flame, and the magnanimous or rather silly people of the Erechthidæ and the other Greeks besides, “whom a fate they hope not for awaits after death.” And in truth against these Heraclitus the Ephesian prophesies, as “the night-walkers, the magi, the bacchanals, the Lenæn revellers, the initiated.” These he threatens with what will follow death, and predicts for them fire. For what are regarded among men as mysteries, they celebrate sacrilegiously. Law, then, and opinion, are nugatory. And the mysteries of the dragon are an imposture, which celebrates religiously mysteries that are no mysteries at all, and observes with a spurious piety profane rites. What are these mystic chests?—for I must expose their sacred things, and divulge things not fit for speech. Are they not sesame cakes, and pyramidal cakes, and globular and flat cakes, embossed all over, and lumps of salt, and a serpent the symbol of Dionysus Bassareus? And besides these, are they not pomegranates, and branches, and rods, and ivy leaves? and besides, round cakes and poppy seeds? And further, there are the unmentionable symbols of Themis, marjoram, a lamp, a sword, a woman’s comb, which is a euphemism and mystic expression for the muliebria.

O unblushing shamelessness! Once on a time night was silent, a veil for the pleasure of temperate men; but now for the initiated, the holy night is the tell-tale of the rites of licentiousness; and the glare of torches reveals vicious indulgences. Quench the flame, O Hierophant; reverence, O Torch-bearer, the torches. That light exposes Iacchus; let thy mysteries be honoured, and command the orgies to be hidden in night and darkness.28    This sentence is read variously in various editions.

The fire dissembles not; it exposes and punishes what it is bidden.

Such are the mysteries of the Atheists.29    [A scathing retort upon those who called Christians atheists, and accused them of shameful rites.] And with reason I call those Atheists who know not the true God, and pay shameless worship to a boy torn in pieces by the Titans, and a woman in distress, and to parts of the body that in truth cannot be mentioned for shame, held fast as they are in the double impiety, first in that they know not God, not acknowledging as God Him who truly is; the other and second is the error of regarding those who exist not, as existing and calling those gods that have no real existence, or rather no existence at all, who have nothing but a name. Wherefore the apostle reproves us, saying, “And ye were strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.”30    Eph. ii. 12.

All honour to that king of the Scythians, whoever Anacharsis was, who shot with an arrow one of his subjects who imitated among the Scythians the mystery of the Mother of the gods, as practiced by the inhabitants of Cyzicus, beating a drum and sounding a cymbal strung from his neck like a priest of Cybele, condemning him as having become effeminate among the Greeks, and a teacher of the disease of effeminacy to the rest of the Cythians.

Wherefore (for I must by no means conceal it) I cannot help wondering how Euhemerus of Agrigentum, and Nicanor of Cyprus, and Diagoras, and Hippo of Melos, and besides these, that Cyrenian of the name of Theodorus, and numbers of others, who lived a sober life, and had a clearer insight than the rest of the world into the prevailing error respecting those gods, were called Atheists; for if they did not arrive at the knowledge of the truth, they certainly suspected the error of the common opinion; which suspicion is no insignificant seed, and becomes the germ of true wisdom. One of these charges the Egyptians thus: “If you believe them to be gods, do not mourn or bewail them; and if you mourn and bewail them, do not any more regard them as gods.” And another, taking an image of Hercules made of wood (for he happened most likely to be cooking something at home), said, “Come now, Hercules; now is the time to undergo for us this thirteenth labour, as you did the twelve for Eurystheus, and make this ready for Diagoras,” and so cast it into the fire as a log of wood. For the extremes of ignorance are atheism and superstition, from which we must endeavour to keep. And do you not see Moses, the hierophant of the truth, enjoining that no eunuch, or emasculated man, or son of a harlot, should enter the congregation? By the two first he alludes to the impious custom by which men were deprived both of divine energy and of their virility; and by the third, to him who, in place of the only real God, assumes many gods falsely so called,—as the son of a harlot, in ignorance of his true father, may claim many putative fathers.

There was an innate original communion between men and heaven, obscured through ignorance, but which now at length has leapt forth instantaneously from the darkness, and shines resplendent; as has been expressed by one31    Euripides. in the following lines:—

And in these:—

And whatever else the sons of the poets sing.

But sentiments erroneous, and deviating from what is right, and certainly pernicious, have turned man, a creature of heavenly origin, away from the heavenly life, and stretched him on the earth, by inducing him to cleave to earthly objects. For some, beguiled by the contemplation of the heavens, and trusting to their sight alone, while they looked on the motions of the stars, straightway were seized with admiration, and deified them, calling the stars gods from their motion (θεός from θεῖν); and worshipped the sun,—as, for example, the Indians; and the moon, as the Phrygians. Others, plucking the benignant fruits of earth-born plants, called grain Demeter, as the Athenians, and the vine Dionysus, as the Thebans. Others, considering the penalties of wickedness, deified them, worshipping various forms of retribution and calamity. Hence the Erinnyes, and the Eumenides, and the piacular deities, and the judges and avengers of crime, are the creations of the tragic poets.

And some even of the philosophers, after the poets, make idols of forms of the affections in your breasts,—such as fear, and love, and joy, and hope; as, to be sure, Epimenides of old, who raised at Athens the altars of Insult and Impudence. Other objects deified by men take their rise from events, and are fashioned in bodily shape, such as a Dike, a Clotho, and Lachesis, and Atropos, and Heimarmene, and Auxo, and Thallo, which are Attic goddesses. There is a sixth mode of introducing error and of manufacturing gods, according to which they number the twelve gods, whose birth is the theme of which Hesiod sings in his Theogony, and of whom Homer speaks in all that he says of the gods. The last mode remains (for there are seven in all)—that which takes its rise from the divine beneficence towards men. For, not understanding that it is God that does us good, they have invented saviours in the persons of the Dioscuri, and Hercules the averter of evil, and Asclepius the healer. These are the slippery and hurtful deviations from the truth which draw man down from heaven, and cast him into the abyss. I wish to show thoroughly what like these gods of yours are, that now at length you may abandon your delusion, and speed your flight back to heaven. “For we also were once children of wrath, even as others; but God, being rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith He loved us, when we were now dead in trespasses, quickened us together with Christ.”32    Eph. ii. 3–5. For the Word is living, and having been buried with Christ, is exalted with God. But those who are still unbelieving are called children of wrath, reared for wrath. We who have been rescued from error, and restored to the truth, are no longer the nurslings of wrath. Thus, therefore, we who were once the children of lawlessness, have through the philanthropy of the Word now become the sons of God.

But to you a poet of your own, Empedocles of Agrigentum, comes and says:—

The most of what is told of your gods is fabled and invented; and those things which are supposed to have taken place, are recorded of vile men who lived licentious lives:—

These counsels the Sibyl, who is at once prophetic and poetic, enjoins on us; and truth enjoins them on us too, stripping the crowd of deities of those terrifying and threatening masks of theirs, disproving the rash opinions formed of them by showing the similarity of names. For there are those who reckon three Jupiters: him of Æther in Arcadia, and the other two sons of Kronos; and of these, one in Crete, and the others again in Arcadia. And there are those that reckon five Athenes: the Athenian, the daughter of Hephæstus; the second, the Egyptian, the daughter of Nilus; the third the inventor of war, the daughter of Kronos; the fourth, the daughter of Zeus, whom the Messenians have named Coryphasia, from her mother; above all, the daughter of Pallas and Titanis, the daughter of Oceanus, who, having wickedly killed her father, adorned herself with her father’s skin, as if it had been the fleece of a sheep. Further, Aristotle calls the first Apollo, the son of Hephæstus and Athene (consequently Athene is no more a virgin); the second, that in Crete, the son of Corybas; the third, the son Zeus; the fourth, the Arcadian, the son of Silenus (this one is called by the Arcadians Nomius); and in addition to these, he specifies the Libyan Apollo, the son of Ammon; and to these Didymus the grammarian adds a sixth, the son of Magnes. And now how many Apollos are there? They are numberless, mortal men, all helpers of their fellow-men who similarly with those already mentioned have been so called. And what were I to mention the many Asclepiuses, or all the Mercuries that are reckoned up, or the Vulcans of fable? Shall I not appear extravagant, deluging your ears with these numerous names?

At any rate, the native countries of your gods, and their arts and lives, and besides especially their sepulchres, demonstrate them to have been men. Mars, accordingly, who by the poets is held in the highest possible honour:—

this deity, always changing sides, and implacable, as Epicharmus says, was a Spartan; Sophocles knew him for a Thracian; others say he was an Arcadian. This god, Homer says, was bound thirteen months:—

Good luck attend the Carians, who sacrifice dogs to him! And may the Scythians never leave off sacrificing asses, as Apollodorus and Callimachus relate:—

And the same in another place:—

Hephæstus, whom Jupiter cast from Olympus, from its divine threshold, having fallen on Lemnos, practiced the art of working in brass, maimed in his feet:—

You have also a doctor, and not only a brass-worker among the gods. And the doctor was greedy of gold; Asclepius was his name. I shall produce as a witness your own poet, the Bœotian Pindar:—

And Euripides:—

He therefore lies struck with lightning in the regions of Cynosuris. Philochorus also says, that Poseidon was worshipped as a physician in Tenos; and that Kronos settled in Sicily, and there was buried. Patroclus the Thurian, and Sophocles the younger, in three tragedies, have told the story of the Dioscuri; and these Dioscuri were only two mortals, if Homer is worthy of of credit:—

And, in addition, he who wrote the Cyprian poems says Castor was mortal, and death was decreed to him by fate; but Pollux was immortal, being the progeny of Mars. This he has poetically fabled. But Homer is more worthy of credit, who spoke as above of both the Dioscuri; and, besides, proved Herucles to be a mere phantom:—

Hercules, therefore, was known by Homer himself as only a mortal man. And Hieronymus the philosopher describes the make of his body, as tall,37    The mss. read “small,” but the true reading is doubtless “tall.” bristling-haired, robust; and Dicærchus says that he was square-built, muscular, dark, hook-nosed, with greyish eyes and long hair. This Hercules, accordingly, after living fifty-two years, came to his end, and was burned in a funeral pyre in Œta.

As for the Muses, whom Alcander calls the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, and the rest of the poets and authors deify and worship,—those Muses, in honour of whom whole states have already erected museums, being handmaids, were hired by Megaclo, the daughter of Macar. This Macar reigned over the Lesbians, and was always quarrelling with his wife; and Megaclo was vexed for her mother’s sake. What would she not do on her account? Accordingly she hires those handmaids, being so many in number, and calls them Mysæ, according to the dialect of the Æolians. These she taught to sing deeds of the olden time, and play melodiously on the lyre. And they, by assiduously playing the lyre, and singing sweetly to it, soothed Macar, and put a stop to his ill-temper. Wherefore Megaclo, as a token of gratitude to them, on her mother’s account erected brazen pillars, and ordered them to be held in honour in all the temples. Such, then, are the Muses. This account is in Myrsilus of Lesbos.

And now, then, hear the loves of your gods, and the incredible tales of their licentiousness, and their wounds, and their bonds, and their laughings, and their fights, their servitudes too, and their banquets; and furthermore, their embraces, and tears, and sufferings, and lewd delights. Call me Poseidon, and the troop of damsels deflowered by him, Amphitrite, Amymone, Alope, Melanippe, Alcyone, Hippothoe, Chione, and myriads of others; with whom, though so many, the passions of your Poseidon were not satiated.

Call me Apollo; this is Phœbus, both a holy prophet and a good adviser. But Sterope will not say that, nor Æthousa, nor Arsinoe, nor Zeuxippe, nor Prothoe, nor Marpissa, nor Hypsipyle. For Daphne alone escaped the prophet and seduction.

And, above all, let the father of gods and men, according to you, himself come, who was so given to sexual pleasure, as to lust after all, and indulge his lust on all, like the goats of the Thmuitæ. And thy poems, O Homer, fill me with admiration!

Thou makest Zeus venerable, O Homer; and the nod which thou dost ascribe to him is most reverend. But show him only a woman’s girdle, and Zeus is exposed, and his locks are dishonoured. To what a pitch of licentiousness did that Zeus of yours proceed, who spent so many nights in voluptuousness with Alcmene? For not even these nine nights were long to this insatiable monster. But, on the contrary, a whole lifetime were short enough for his lust; that he might beget for us the evil-averting god.

Hercules, the son of Zeus—a true son of Zeus—was the offspring of that long night, who with hard toil accomplished the twelve labours in a long time, but in one night deflowered the fifty daughters of Thestius, and thus was at once the debaucher and the bridegroom of so many virgins. It is not, then, without reason that the poets call him a cruel wretch and a nefarious scoundrel. It were tedious to recount his adulteries of all sorts, and debauching of boys. For your gods did not even abstain from boys, one having loved Hylas, another Hyacinthus, another Pelops, another Chrysippus, and another Ganymede. Let such gods as these be worshipped by your wives, and let them pray that their husbands be such as these—so temperate; that, emulating them in the same practices, they may be like the gods. Such gods let your boys be trained to worship, that they may grow up to be men with the accursed likeness of fornication on them received from the gods.

But it is only the male deities, perhaps, that are impetuous in sexual indulgence.

“The female deities stayed each in the house, for shame,”39    Odyss., viii. 324. says Homer; the goddesses blushing, for modesty’s sake, to look on Aphrodité when she had been guilty of adultery. But these are more passionately licentious, bound in the chains of adultery; Eos having disgraced herself with Tithonus, Selene with Endymion, Nereis with Æacus, Thetis with Peleus, Demeter with Jason, Persephatta with Adonis. And Aphrodité having disgraced herself with Ares, crossed over to Cinyra and married Anchises, and laid snares for Phaëthon, and loved Adonis. She contended with the ox-eyed Juno; and the goddesses un-robed for the sake of the apple, and presented themselves naked before the shepherd, that he might decide which was the fairest.

But come, let us briefly go the round of the games, and do away with those solemn assemblages at tombs, the Isthmian, Nemean, and Pythian, and finally the Olympian. At Pytho the Pythian dragon is worshipped, and the festival-assemblage of the serpent is called by the name Pythia. At the Isthmus the sea spit out a piece of miserable refuse; and the Isthmian games bewail Melicerta.

At Nemea another—a little boy, Archemorus—was buried; and the funeral games of the child are called Nemea. Pisa is the grave of the Phrygian charioteer, O Hellenes of all tribes; and the Olympian games, which are nothing else than the funeral sacrifices of Pelops, the Zeus of Phidias claims for himself. The mysteries were then, as is probable, games held in honour of the dead; so also were the oracles, and both became public. But the mysteries at Sagra40    Meursius proposed to read, “at Agra.” and in Alimus of Attica were confined to Athens. But those contests and phalloi consecrated to Dionysus were a world’s shame, pervading life with their deadly influence. For Dionysus, eagerly desiring to descend to Hades, did not know the way; a man, by name Prosymnus, offers to tell him, not without reward. The reward was a disgraceful one, though not so in the opinion of Dionysus: it was an Aphrodisian favour that was asked of Dionysus as a reward. The god was not reluctant to grant the request made to him, and promises to fulfil it should he return, and confirms his promise with an oath. Having learned the way, he departed and again returned: he did not find Prosymnus, for he had died. In order to acquit himself of his promise to his lover, he rushes to his tomb, and burns with unnatural lust. Cutting a fig-branch that came to his hand, he shaped the phallus, and so performed his promise to the dead man. As a mystic memorial of this incident, phalloi are raised aloft in honour of Dionysus through the various cities. “For did they not make a procession in honour of Dionysus, and sing most shameless songs in honour of the pudenda, all would go wrong,” says Heraclitus. This is that Pluto and Dionysus in whose honour they give themselves up to frenzy, and play the bacchanal,—not so much, in my opinion, for the sake of intoxication, as for the sake of the shameless ceremonial practiced. With reason, therefore, such as have become slaves of their passions are your gods!

Furthermore, like the Helots among the Lacedemonians, Apollo came under the yoke of slavery to Admetus in Pheræ, Hercules to Omphale in Sardis. Poseidon was a drudge to Laomedon; and so was Apollo, who, like a good-for-nothing servant, was unable to obtain his freedom from his former master; and at that time the walls of Troy were built by them for the Phrygian. And Homer is not ashamed to speak of Athene as appearing to Ulysses with a golden lamp in her hand. And we read of Aphrodite, like a wanton serving-wench, taking and setting a seat for Helen opposite the adulterer, in order to entice him.

Panyasis, too, tells us of gods in plenty besides those who acted as servants, writing thus:—

And so on.

Agreeably to this, it remains for me to bring before you those amatory and sensuous deities of yours, as in every respect having human feelings.

This Homer most distinctly shows, by introducing Aphrodite uttering loud and shrill cries on account of her wound; and describing the most warlike Ares himself as wounded in the stomach by Diomede. Polemo, too, says that Athene was wounded by Ornytus; nay, Homer says that Pluto even was struck with an arrow by Hercules; and Panyasis relates that the beams of Sol were struck by the arrows of Hercules;41    The beams of Sol or the Sun is an emendation of Potter’s. The mss. read “the Elean Augeas.” and the same Panyasis relates, that by the same Hercules Hera the goddess of marriage was wounded in sandy Pylos. Sosibius, too, relates that Hercules was wounded in the hand by the sons of Hippocoon. And if there are wounds, there is blood. For the ichor of the poets is more repulsive than blood; for the putrefaction of blood is called ichor. Wherefore cures and means of sustenance of which they stand in need must be furnished. Accordingly mention is made of tables, and potations, and laughter, and intercourse; for men would not devote themselves to love, or beget children, or sleep, if they were immortal, and had no wants, and never grew old. Jupiter himself, when the guest of Lycaon the Arcadian, partook of a human table among the Ethiopians—a table rather inhuman and forbidden. For he satiated himself with human flesh unwittingly; for the god did not know that Lycaon the Arcadian, his entertainer, had slain his son (his name was Nyctimus), and served him up cooked before Zeus.

This is Jupiter the good, the prophetic, the patron of hospitality, the protector of suppliants, the benign, the author of omens, the avenger of wrongs; rather the unjust, the violater of right and of law, the impious, the inhuman, the violent, the seducer, the adulterer, the amatory. But perhaps when he was such he was a man; but now these fables seem to have grown old on our hands. Zeus is no longer a serpent, a swan, nor an eagle, nor a licentious man; the god no longer flies, nor loves boys, nor kisses, nor offers violence, although there are still many beautiful women, more comely than Leda, more blooming than Semele, and boys of better looks and manners than the Phrygian herdsman. Where is now that eagle? where now that swan? where now is Zeus himself? He has grown old with his feathers; for as yet he does not repent of his amatory exploits, nor is he taught continence. The fable is exposed before you: Leda is dead, the swan is dead. Seek your Jupiter. Ransack not heaven, but earth. The Cretan, in whose country he was buried, will show him to you,—I mean Callimachus, in his hymns:—

For Zeus is dead, be not distressed, as Leda is dead, and the swan, and the eagle, and the libertine, and the serpent. And now even the superstitious seem, although reluctantly, yet truly, to have come to understand their error respecting the Gods.

But shortly after this, they will be found to be but oaks and stones. One Agamemnon is said by Staphylus to be worshipped as a Jupiter in Sparta; and Phanocles, in his book of the Brave and Fair, relates that Agamemnon king of the Hellenes erected the temple of Argennian Aphrodite, in honour of Argennus his friend. An Artemis, named the Strangled, is worshipped by the Arcadians, as Callimachus says in his Book of Causes; and at Methymna another Artemis had divine honours paid her, viz., Artemis Condylitis. There is also the temple of another Artemis—Artemis Podagra (or, the gout)—in Laconica, as Sosibius says. Polemo tells of an image of a yawning Apollo; and again of another image, reverenced in Elis, of the guzzling Apollo. Then the Eleans sacrifice to Zeus, the averter of flies; and the Romans sacrifice to Hercules, the averter of flies; and to Fever, and to Terror, whom also they reckon among the attendants of Hercules. (I pass over the Argives, who worshipped Aphrodite, opener of graves.) The Argives and Spartans reverence Artemis Chelytis, or the cougher, from κελύττειν, which in their speech signifies to cough.

Do you imagine from what source these details have been quoted? Only such as are furnished by yourselves are here adduced; and you do not seem to recognise your own writers, whom I call as witnesses against your unbelief. Poor wretches that ye are, who have filled with unholy jesting the whole compass of your life—a life in reality devoid of life!

Is not Zeus the Baldhead worshipped in Argos; and another Zeus, the avenger, in Cyprus? Do not the Argives sacrifice to Aphrodite Peribaso (the protectress),43    So Liddell and Scott. Commentators are generally agreed that the epithet is an obscene one, though what its precise meaning is they can only conjecture. and the Athenians to Aphrodite Hetæra (the courtesan), and the Syracusans to Aphrodite Kallipygos, whom Nicander has somewhere called Kalliglutos (with beautiful rump). I pass over in silence just now Dionysus Choiropsales.44    An obscene epithet, derived from χοῖρος, a sow, and θλίβω, to press. The Sicyonians reverence this deity, whom they have constituted the god of the muliebria—the patron of filthiness—and religiously honour as the author of licentiousness. Such, then, are their gods; such are they also who make mockery of the gods, or rather mock and insult themselves. How much better are the Egyptians, who in their towns and villages pay divine honours to the irrational creatures, than the Greeks, who worship such gods as these?

For if they are beasts, they are not adulterous or libidinous, and seek pleasure in nothing that is contrary to nature. And of what sort these deities are, what need is there further to say, as they have been already sufficiently exposed? Furthermore, the Egyptians whom I have now mentioned are divided in their objects of worship. The Syenites worship the braize-fish; and the maiotes—this is another fish—is worshipped by those who inhabit Elephantine: the Oxyrinchites likewise worship a fish which takes its name from their country. Again, the Heraclitopolites worship the ichneumon, the inhabitants of Sais and of Thebes a sheep, the Leucopolites a wolf, the Cynopolites a dog, the Memphites Apis, the Mendesians a goat. And you, who are altogether better than the Egyptians (I shrink from saying worse), who never cease laughing every day of your lives at the Egyptians, what are some of you, too, with regard to brute beasts? For of your number the Thessalians pay divine homage to storks, in accordance with ancient custom; and the Thebans to weasels, for their assistance at the birth of Hercules. And again, are not the Thessalians reported to worship ants, since they have learned that Zeus in the likeness of an ant had intercourse with Eurymedusa, the daughter of Cletor, and begot Myrmidon? Polemo, too, relates that the people who inhabit the Troad worship the mice of the country, which they call Sminthoi, because they gnawed the strings of their enemies’ bows; and from those mice Apollo has received his epithet of Sminthian. Heraclides, in his work, Regarding the Building of Temples in Acarnania, says that, at the place where the promontory of Actium is, and the temple of Apollo of Actium, they offer to the flies the sacrifice of an ox.

Nor shall I forget the Samians: the Samians, as Euphorion says, reverence the sheep. Nor shall I forget the Syrians, who inhabit Phœnicia, of whom some revere doves, and others fishes, with as excessive veneration as the Eleans do Zeus. Well, then, since those you worship are not gods, it seems to me requisite to ascertain if those are really demons who are ranked, as you say, in this second order [next to the gods]. For if the lickerish and impure are demons, indigenous demons who have obtained sacred honours may be discovered in crowds throughout your cities: Menedemus among the Cythnians; among the Tenians, Callistagoras; among the Delians, Anius; among the Laconians, Astrabacus; at Phalerus, a hero affixed to the prow of ships is worshipped; and the Pythian priestess enjoined the Platæans to sacrifice to Androcrates and Democrates, and Cyclæus and Leuco while the Median war was at its height. Other demons in plenty may be brought to light by any one who can look about him a little.

Who these guardians are, do not grudge, O Bœotian, to tell. Is it not clear that they are those we have mentioned, and those of more renown, the great demons, Apollo, Artemis, Leto, Demeter, Core, Pluto, Hercules, and Zeus himself?

But it is from running away that they guard us, O Ascræan, or perhaps it is from sinning, as forsooth they have never tried their hand at sin themselves! In that case verily the proverb may fitly be uttered:—

If these are our guardians, it is not because they have any ardour of kindly feeling towards us, but intent on your ruin, after the manner of flatterers, they prey on your substance, enticed by the smoke. These demons themselves indeed confess their own gluttony, saying:—

What other speech would they utter, if indeed the gods of the Egyptians, such as cats and weasels, should receive the faculty of speech, than that Homeric and poetic one which proclaims their liking for savoury odours and cookery? Such are your demons and gods, and demigods, if there are any so called, as there are demi-asses (mules); for you have no want of terms to make up compound names of impiety.

Ἄδυτα τοίνυν ἄθεα μὴ πολυπραγμονεῖτε μηδὲ βαρά θρων στόματα τερατείας ἔμπλεα ἢ λέβητα Θεσπρώτιον ἢ τρίποδα Κιρραῖον ἢ ∆ωδωναῖον χαλκεῖον· γεράνδρυον δὲ ψάμμοις ἐρήμαις τετιμημένον καὶ τὸ αὐτόθι μαντεῖον αὐτῇ δρυῒ μεμαρασμένον μύθοις γεγηρακόσι καταλείψατε. Σεσίγη ται γοῦν ἡ Κασταλίας πηγὴ καὶ Κολοφῶνος ἄλλη πηγή, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ὁμοίως τέθνηκε νάματα μαντικὰ καὶ δὴ τοῦ τύφου κενὰ ὀψὲ μέν, ὅμως δ' οὖν διελήλεγκται τοῖς ἰδίοις συνεκρεύσαντα μύθοις. ∆ιήγησαι ἡμῖν καὶ τῆς ἄλλης μαντι κῆς, μᾶλλον δὲ μανικῆς, τὰ ἄχρηστα χρηστήρια, τὸν Κλάριον, τὸν Πύθιον, τὸν ∆ιδυμέα, τὸν Ἀμφιάρεω, τὸν Ἀπόλλω, τὸν Ἀμφίλοχον, εἰ δὲ βούλει, καὶ τερατοσκόπους καὶ οἰωνοσκόπους καὶ τοὺς ὀνείρων κριτὰς ἀνέρου σὺν αὐτοῖς στῆσον δὲ ὁμοῦ παρὰ τὸν Πύθιον τοὺς ἀλευρομάντεις ἄγων καὶ κριθομάντεις καὶ τοὺς εἰσέτι παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς τετιμη μένους ἐγγαστριμύθους· ναὶ μὴν ἄδυτα Αἰγυπτίων καὶ Τυρρηνῶν νεκυομαντεῖαι σκότῳ παραδιδόσθων. Μανικὰ ταῦτα ὡς ἀληθῶς ἀνθρώπων ἀπίστων σοφιστήρια καὶ πλάνης ἀκράτου κυβευτήρια· συνέμποροι τῆσδε τῆς γοητείας αἶγες αἱ ἐπὶ μαντικὴν ἠσκημέναι καὶ κόρακες ἀνθρώποις χρᾶν ὑπὸ ἀνθρώπων διδασκόμενοι. Τί δ' εἴ σοι καταλέγοιμι τὰ μυστήρια; οὐκ ἐξορχή σομαι μέν, ὥσπερ Ἀλκιβιάδην λέγουσιν, ἀπογυμνώσω δὲ εὖ μάλα ἀνὰ τὸν τῆς ἀληθείας λόγον τὴν γοητείαν τὴν ἐγκεκρυμμένην αὐτοῖς καὶ αὐτούς γε τοὺς καλουμένους ὑμῶν θεούς, ὧν αἱ τελεταὶ μυστικαί, οἷον ἐπὶ σκηνῆς τοῦ βίου τοῖς τῆς ἀληθείας ἐγκυκλήσω θεαταῖς. ∆ιόνυσον μαινόλην ὀργιάζουσι Βάκχοι ὠμοφαγίᾳ τὴν ἱερομανίαν ἄγοντες καὶ τελίσκουσι τὰς κρεονομίας τῶν φόνων ἀνεστεμμένοι τοῖς ὄφεσιν, ἐπολολύζοντες Εὐάν, Εὔαν ἐκείνην, δι' ἣν ἡ πλάνη παρηκολούθησεν· καὶ σημεῖον ὀργίων βακχικῶν ὄφις ἐστὶ τετελεσμένος. Αὐτίκα γοῦν κατὰ τὴν ἀκριβῆ τῶν Ἑβραίων φωνὴν ὄνομα τὸ Ἕυια δασυνόμενον ἑρμηνεύεται ὄφις ἡ θήλεια· ∆ηὼ δὲ καὶ Κόρη δρᾶμα ἤδη ἐγενέσθην μυστικόν, καὶ τὴν πλάνην καὶ τὴν ἁρπαγὴν καὶ τὸ πένθος αὐταῖν Ἐλευσὶς δᾳδουχεῖ. Καί μοι δοκεῖ τὰ ὄργια καὶ τὰ μυστήρια δεῖν ἐτυμο λογεῖν, τὰ μὲν ἀπὸ τῆς ὀργῆς τῆς ∆ηοῦς τῆς πρὸς ∆ία γεγενημένης, τὰ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ μύσους τοῦ συμβεβηκότος περὶ τὸν ∆ιόνυσον· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ Μυοῦντός τινος Ἀττικοῦ, ὃν ἐν κυνηγίᾳ διαφθαρῆναι Ἀπολλόδωρος λέγει, οὐ φθόνος· ὑμῶν δεδόξασται τὰ μυστήρια ἐπιτυμβίῳ τιμῇ. Πάρεστι δὲ καὶ ἄλλως μυθήριά σοι νοεῖν ἀντιστοιχούντων τῶν γραμμάτων τὰ μυστήρια· θηρεύουσι γὰρ εἰ καὶ ἄλλοι τινές, ἀτὰρ δὴ καὶ οἱ μῦθοι οἱ τοιοίδε Θρᾳκῶν τοὺς βαρβαρικωτάτους, Φρυγῶν τοὺς ἀνοητοτάτους, Ἑλλήνων τοὺς δεισιδαίμονας. Ὄλοιτο οὖν ὁ τῆσδε ἄρξας τῆς ἀπάτης ἀνθρώποις, εἴτε ὁ ∆άρδανος, ὁ Μητρὸς θεῶν καταδείξας τὰ μυστήρια, εἴτε Ἠετίων, ὁ τὰ Σαμοθρᾴκων ὄργια καὶ τελετὰς ὑποστησά μενος, εἴτε ὁ Φρὺξ ἐκεῖνος ὁ Μίδας, ὁ παρὰ τοῦ Ὀδρύσου μαθών, ἔπειτα διαδοὺς τοῖς ὑποτεταγμένοις ἔντεχνον ἀπάτην. Οὐ γάρ με ὁ Κύπριος ὁ νησιώτης Κινύρας παραπείσαι ποτ' ἄν, τὰ περὶ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην μαχλῶντα ὄργια ἐκ νυκτὸς ἡμέρᾳ παραδοῦναι τολμήσας, φιλοτιμούμενος θειάσαι πόρνην πολίτιδα. Μελάμποδα δὲ τὸν Ἀμυθάονος ἄλλοι φασὶν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου μετακομίσαι τῇ Ἑλλάδι τὰς ∆ηοῦς ἑορτάς, πένθος ὑμνούμενον. Τούτους ἔγωγ' ἂν ἀρχεκάκους φήσαιμι μύθων ἀθέων καὶ δεισιδαιμονίας ὀλεθρίου πατέρας, σπέρμα κακίας καὶ φθορᾶς ἐγκαταφυτεύσαντας τῷ βίῳ τὰ μυστήρια. Ἤδη δέ, καὶ γὰρ καιρός, αὐτὰ ὑμῶν τὰ ὄργια ἐξε λέγξω ἀπάτης καὶ τερατείας ἔμπλεα. Καὶ εἰ μεμύησθε, ἐπιγελάσεσθε μᾶλλον τοῖς μύθοις ὑμῶν τούτοις τοῖς τιμω μένοις. Ἀγορεύω δὲ ἀναφανδὸν τὰ κεκρυμμένα, οὐκ αἰδού μενος λέγειν ἃ προσκυνεῖν οὐκ αἰσχύνεσθε. Ἡ μὲν οὖν "ἀφρογενής" τε καὶ "κυπρογενής", ἡ Κινύρᾳ φίλη (τὴν Ἀφροδίτην λέγω, τὴν "φιλομηδέα, ὅτι μηδέων ἐξεφαάνθη," μηδέων ἐκείνων τῶν ἀποκεκομμένων Οὐρανοῦ, τῶν λάγνων, τῶν μετὰ τὴν τομὴν τὸ κῦμα βεβιασμένων), ὡς ἀσελγῶν ὑμῖν μορίων ἄξιος [Ἀφροδίτη] γίνεται καρπός, ἐν ταῖς τελεταῖς ταύτης τῆς πελαγίας ἡδονῆς τεκμήριον τῆς γονῆς ἁλῶν χόνδρος καὶ φαλλὸς τοῖς μυουμένοις τὴν τέχνην τὴν μοιχικὴν ἐπιδίδοται· νόμισμα δὲ εἰσφέρουσιν αὐτῇ οἱ μυούμενοι ὡς ἑταίρᾳ ἐρασταί. ∆ηοῦς δὲ μυστήρια καὶ ∆ιὸς πρὸς μητέρα ∆ήμητρα ἀφροδίσιοι συμπλοκαὶ καὶ μῆνις (οὐκ οἶδ' ὅ τι φῶ λοιπὸν μητρὸς ἢ γυναικός) τῆς ∆ηοῦς, ἧς δὴ χάριν Βριμὼ προσα γορευθῆναι λέγεται, ἱκετηρίαι ∆ιὸς καὶ πόμα χολῆς καὶ καρδιουλκίαι καὶ ἀρρητουργίαι· ταὐτὰ οἱ Φρύγες τελίσ κουσιν Ἄττιδι καὶ Κυβέλῃ καὶ Κορύβασιν. Τεθρυλήκασιν δὲ ὡς ἄρα ἀποσπάσας ὁ Ζεὺς τοῦ κριοῦ τοὺς διδύμους φέρων ἐν μέσοις ἔρριψε τοῖς κόλποις τῆς ∆ηοῦς, τιμωρίαν ψευδῆ τῆς βιαίας συμπλοκῆς ἐκτιννύων, ὡς ἑαυτὸν δῆθεν ἐκτεμών. Τὰ σύμβολα τῆς μυήσεως ταύτης ἐκ περιουσίας παρατε θέντα οἶδ' ὅτι κινήσει γέλωτα καὶ μὴ γελασείουσιν ὑμῖν διὰ τοὺς ἐλέγχους· "Ἐκ τυμπάνου ἔφαγον· ἐκ κυμβάλου ἔπιον· ἐκιρνοφόρησα· ὑπὸ τὸν παστὸν ὑπέδυν." Ταῦτα οὐχ ὕβρις τὰ σύμβολα; Οὐ χλεύη τὰ μυστήρια; Τί δ' εἰ καὶ τὰ ἐπίλοιπα προσθείην; Κυεῖ μὲν ἡ ∆ημήτηρ, ἀνατρέφεται δὲ ἡ Κόρη, μίγνυται δ' αὖθις ὁ γεννήσας οὑτοσὶ Ζεὺς τῇ Φερεφάττῃ, τῇ ἰδίᾳ θυγατρί, μετὰ τὴν μητέρα τὴν ∆ηώ, ἐκλαθόμενος τοῦ προτέρου μύσους, πατὴρ καὶ φθορεὺς κόρης ὁ Ζεύς, καὶ μίγνυται δράκων γενόμενος, ὃς ἦν ἐλεγχθείς. Σαβαζίων γοῦν μυστηρίων σύμβολον τοῖς μυουμένοις ὁ διὰ κόλπου θεός· δράκων δέ ἐστιν οὗτος, διελκόμενος τοῦ κόλπου τῶν τελουμένων, ἔλεγχος ἀκρασίας ∆ιός. Κυεῖ καὶ ἡ Φερέφαττα παῖδα ταυρόμορφον· ἀμέλει, φησί τις ποιητὴς εἰδωλικός, ... ταῦρος πατὴρ δράκοντος καὶ πατὴρ ταύρου δράκων, ἐν ὄρει τὸ κρύφιον, βουκόλος, τὸ κέντρον, βουκολικόν, οἶμαι, κέντρον τὸν νάρθηκα ἐπικαλῶν, ὃν δὴ ἀναστέφουσιν οἱ βάκχοι. Βούλει καὶ τὰ Φερεφάττης ἀνθολόγια διηγήσωμαί σοι καὶ τὸν κάλαθον καὶ τὴν ἁρπαγὴν τὴν ὑπὸ Ἀιδωνέως καὶ τὸ σχίσμα τῆς γῆς καὶ τὰς ὗς τὰς Εὐβουλέως τὰς συγκατα ποθείσας ταῖν θεαῖν, δι' ἣν αἰτίαν ἐν τοῖς Θεσμοφορίοις μεγαρίζοντες χοίρους ἐμβάλλουσιν; Ταύτην τὴν μυθολογίαν αἱ γυναῖκες ποικίλως κατὰ πόλιν ἑορτάζουσι, Θεσμοφόρια, Σκιροφόρια, Ἀρρητοφόρια, πολυτρόπως τὴν Φερεφάττης ἐκτραγῳδοῦσαι ἁρπαγήν. Τὰ γὰρ ∆ιονύσου μυστήρια τέλεον ἀπάνθρωπα· ὃν εἰσέτι παῖδα ὄντα ἐνόπλῳ κινήσει περιχο ρευόντων Κουρήτων, δόλῳ δὲ ὑποδύντων Τιτάνων, ἀπατή σαντες παιδαριώδεσιν ἀθύρμασιν, οὗτοι δὴ οἱ Τιτᾶνες διέσπασαν, ἔτι νηπίαχον ὄντα, ὡς ὁ τῆς Τελετῆς ποιητὴς Ὀρφεύς φησιν ὁ Θρᾴκιος· κῶνος καὶ ῥόμβος καὶ παίγνια καμπεσίγυια, μῆλά τε χρύσεα καλὰ παρ' Ἑσπερίδων λιγυφώνων. Καὶ τῆσδε ὑμῖν τῆς τελετῆς τὰ ἀχρεῖα σύμβολα οὐκ ἀχρεῖον εἰς κατάγνωσιν παραθέσθαι· ἀστράγαλος, σφαῖρα, στρόβιλος, μῆλα, ῥόμβος, ἔσοπτρον, πόκος. Ἀθηνᾶ μὲν οὖν τὴν καρδίαν τοῦ ∆ιονύσου ὑφελομένη Παλλὰς ἐκ τοῦ πάλλειν τὴν καρδίαν προσηγορεύθη· οἱ δὲ Τιτᾶνες, οἱ καὶ διασπά σαντες αὐτόν, λέβητά τινα τρίποδι ἐπιθέντες καὶ τοῦ ∆ιονύσου ἐμβαλόντες τὰ μέλη, καθήψουν πρότερον· ἔπειτα ὀβελίσκοις περιπείραντες "ὑπείρεχον Ἡφαίστοιο." Ζεὺς δὲ ὕστερον ἐπιφανείς (εἰ θεὸς ἦν, τάχα που τῆς κνίσης τῶν ὀπτωμένων κρεῶν μεταλαβών, ἧς δὴ τὸ "γέρας λαχεῖν" ὁμολογοῦσιν ὑμῶν οἱ θεοί) κεραυνῷ τοὺς Τιτᾶνας αἰκίζεται καὶ τὰ μέλη τοῦ ∆ιονύσου Ἀπόλλωνι τῷ παιδὶ παρακατατίθεται κατα θάψαι. Ὃ δέ, οὐ γὰρ ἠπείθησε ∆ιί, εἰς τὸν Παρνασσὸν φέρων κατατίθεται διεσπασμένον τὸν νεκρόν. Εἰ θέλεις δ' ἐποπτεῦσαι καὶ Κορυβάντων ὄργια, τὸν τρίτον ἀδελφὸν ἀποκτείναντες οὗτοι τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ νεκροῦ φοινικίδι ἐπεκαλυψάτην καὶ καταστέψαντε ἐθαψάτην, φέρον τες ἐπὶ χαλκῆς ἀσπίδος ὑπὸ τὰς ὑπωρείας τοῦ Ὀλύμπου (καὶ ταῦτ' ἔστι τὰ μυστήρια, συνελόντι φάναι, φόνοι καὶ τάφοι). Οἱ δὲ ἱερεῖς οἱ τῶνδε, οὓς Ἀνακτοτελεστὰς οἷς μέλον καλεῖν καλοῦσι, προσεπιτερατεύονται τῇ συμφορᾷ, ὁλόριζον ἀπαγορεύοντες σέλινον ἐπὶ τραπέζης τιθέναι· οἴονται γὰρ δὴ ἐκ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἀπορρυέντος τοῦ Κορυ βαντικοῦ τὸ σέλινον ἐκπεφυκέναι· ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καὶ αἱ θεσμοφοριάζουσαι τῆς ῥοιᾶς τοὺς κόκκους παραφυλάττουσιν ἐσθίειν· τοὺς [γὰρ] ἀποπεπτωκότας χαμαὶ ἐκ τῶν τοῦ ∆ιο νύσου αἵματος σταγόνων βεβλαστηκέναι νομίζουσι τὰς ῥοιάς. Καβείρους δὲ τοὺς Κορύβαντας καλοῦντες καὶ τελετὴν Καβειρικὴν καταγγέλλουσιν· αὐτὼ γὰρ δὴ τούτω τὼ ἀδελφοκτόνω τὴν κίστην ἀνελομένω, ἐν ᾗ τὸ τοῦ ∆ιονύσου αἰδοῖον ἀπέκειτο, εἰς Τυρρηνίαν κατήγαγον, εὐκλεοῦς ἔμποροι φορτίου· κἀνταῦθα διετριβέτην, φυγάδε ὄντε, τὴν πολυτίμητον εὐσεβείας διδασκαλίαν αἰδοῖα καὶ κίστην θρῃσκεύειν παραθεμένω Τυρρηνοῖς. ∆ι' ἣν αἰτίαν οὐκ ἀπεικότως τὸν ∆ιόνυσόν τινες Ἄττιν προσαγορεύεσθαι θέλουσιν, αἰδοίων ἐστερημένον. Καὶ τί θαυμαστὸν εἰ Τυρρηνοὶ οἱ βάρβαροι αἰσχροῖς οὕτως τελίσκονται παθήμασιν, ὅπου γε Ἀθηναίοις καὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ Ἑλλάδι, αἰδοῦμαι καὶ λέγειν, αἰσχύνης ἔμπλεως ἡ περὶ τὴν ∆ηὼ μυθολογία; Ἀλωμένη γὰρ ἡ ∆ηὼ κατὰ ζήτησιν τῆς θυγατρὸς τῆς Κόρης περὶ τὴν Ἐλευσῖνα (τῆς Ἀττικῆς δέ ἐστι τοῦτο τὸ χωρίον) ἀποκάμνει καὶ φρέατι ἐπικαθίζει λυπουμένη. Τοῦτο τοῖς μυουμένοις ἀπαγορεύεται εἰσέτι νῦν, ἵνα μὴ δοκοῖεν οἱ τετελεσμένοι μιμεῖσθαι τὴν ὀδυρομένην. Ωἴκουν δὲ τηνικάδε τὴν Ἐλευσῖνα οἱ γηγενεῖς· ὀνόματα αὐτοῖς Βαυβὼ καὶ ∆υσαύλης καὶ Τριπτόλεμος, ἔτι δὲ Εὔμολπός τε καὶ Εὐβουλεύς· βουκόλος ὁ Τριπτόλεμος ἦν, ποιμὴν δὲ ὁ Εὔμολπος, συβώτης δὲ ὁ Εὐβουλεύς· ἀφ' ὧν τὸ Εὐμολπιδῶν καὶ τὸ Κηρύκων τὸ ἱεροφαντικὸν δὴ τοῦτο Ἀθήνησι γένος ἤνθησεν. Καὶ δὴ (οὐ γὰρ ἀνήσω μὴ οὐχὶ εἰπεῖν) ξενίσασα ἡ Βαυβὼ τὴν ∆ηὼ ὀρέγει κυκεῶνα αὐτῇ· τῆς δὲ ἀναινομένης λαβεῖν καὶ πιεῖν οὐκ ἐθελούσης (πενθήρης γὰρ ἦν) περιαλγὴς ἡ Βαυβὼ γενομένη, ὡς ὑπεροραθεῖσα δῆθεν, ἀναστέλλεται τὰ αἰδοῖα καὶ ἐπιδεικνύει τῇ θεῷ· ἣ δὲ τέρπεται τῇ ὄψει ἡ ∆ηὼ καὶ μόλις ποτὲ δέχεται τὸ ποτόν, ἡσθεῖσα τῷ θεάματι. Ταῦτ' ἔστι τὰ κρύφια τῶν Ἀθηναίων μυστήρια. Ταῦτά τοι καὶ Ὀρφεὺς ἀναγράφει. Παραθήσομαι δέ σοι αὐτὰ τοῦ Ὀρφέως τὰ ἔπη, ἵν' ἔχῃς μάρτυρα τῆς ἀναισχυντίας τὸν μυσταγωγόν· ὣς εἰποῦσα πέπλους ἀνεσύρατο, δεῖξε δὲ πάντα σώματος οὐδὲ πρέποντα τύπον· παῖς δ' ἦεν Ἴακχος, χειρί τέ μιν ῥίπτασκε γελῶν Βαυβοῦς ὑπὸ κόλποις· ἡ δ' ἐπεὶ οὖν μείδησε θεά, μείδησ' ἐνὶ θυμῷ, δέξατο δ' αἰόλον ἄγγος, ἐν ᾧ κυκεὼν ἐνέκειτο. Κἄστι τὸ σύνθημα Ἐλευσινίων μυστηρίων· "ἐνήστευσα, ἔπιον τὸν κυκεῶνα, ἔλαβον ἐκ κίστης, ἐργασάμενος ἀπεθέμην εἰς κάλαθον καὶ ἐκ καλάθου εἰς κίστην." Καλά γε τὰ θεάματα καὶ θεᾷ πρέποντα. Ἄξια μὲν οὖν νυκτὸς τὰ τελέσματα καὶ πυρὸς καὶ τοῦ "μεγαλήτορος", μᾶλλον δὲ ματαιόφρονος Ἐρεχθειδῶν δήμου, πρὸς δὲ καὶ τῶν ἄλλων Ἑλλήνων, οὕστινας "μένει τελευτήσαντας ἅσσα οὐδὲ ἔλπονται." Τίσι δὴ μαντεύεται Ἡράκλειτος ὁ Ἐφέσιος; "Νυκτιπόλοις, μάγοις, βάκχοις, λήναις, μύσταις", τούτοις ἀπειλεῖ τὰ μετὰ θάνατον, τούτοις μαντεύεται τὸ πῦρ· "τὰ γὰρ νομιζόμενα κατὰ ἀνθρώπους μυστήρια ἀνιερωστὶ μυοῦνται." Νόμος οὖν καὶ ὑπόληψις κενὴ καὶ τοῦ δράκοντος τὰ μυστήρια ἀπάτη τίς ἐστιν θρῃσκευομένη, τὰς ἀμυήτους ὄντως μυήσεις καὶ τὰς ἀνορ γιάστους τελετὰς εὐσεβείᾳ νόθῳ προστρεπομένων. Οἷαι δὲ καὶ αἱ κίσται μυστικαί· δεῖ γὰρ ἀπογυμνῶσαι τὰ ἅγια αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ ἄρρητα ἐξειπεῖν. Οὐ σησαμαῖ ταῦτα καὶ πυραμίδες καὶ τολύπαι καὶ πόπανα πολυόμφαλα χόνδροι τε ἁλῶν καὶ δράκων, ὄργιον ∆ιονύσου Βασσάρου; Οὐχὶ δὲ ῥοιαὶ πρὸς τοῖσδε καὶ κράδαι νάρθηκές τε καὶ κιττοί, πρὸς δὲ καὶ φθοῖς καὶ μήκωνες; Ταῦτ' ἔστιν αὐτῶν τὰ ἅγια. Καὶ προσέτι τῆς Θέμιδος τὰ ἀπόρρητα σύμβολα ὀρίγανον, λύχνος, ξίφος, κτεὶς γυναικεῖος, ὅ ἐστιν εὐφήμως καὶ μυστι κῶς εἰπεῖν μόριον γυναικεῖον. Ὢ τῆς ἐμφανοῦς ἀναισχυντίας. Πάλαι μὲν ἀνθρώποις σωφρονοῦσιν ἐπικάλυμμα ἡδονῆς νὺξ ἦν σιωπωμένη· νυνὶ δὲ τοῖς μυουμένοις πεῖρα τῆς ἀκρασίας νύξ ἐστι λαλουμένη, καὶ τὸ πῦρ ἐλέγχει τὰ πάθη δᾳδουχού μενον. Ἀπόσβεσον, ὦ ἱεροφάντα, τὸ πῦρ· αἰδέσθητι, δᾳδοῦχε, τὰς λαμπάδας· ἐλέγχει σου τὸν Ἴακχον τὸ φῶς· ἐπίτρεψον ἀποκρύψαι τῇ νυκτὶ τὰ μυστήρια· σκότει τετι μήσθω τὰ ὄργια· τὸ πῦρ οὐχ ὑποκρίνεται, ἐλέγχειν καὶ κολάζειν κελεύεται. Ταῦτα τῶν ἀθέων τὰ μυστήρια· ἀθέους δὲ εἰκότως ἀποκαλῶ τούτους, οἳ τὸν μὲν ὄντως ὄντα θεὸν ἠγνοήκασιν, παιδίον δὲ ὑπὸ Τιτάνων διασπώμενον καὶ γύναιον πενθοῦν καὶ μόρια ἄρρητα ὡς ἀληθῶς ὑπ' αἰσχύνης ἀναισχύντως σέβουσιν, διττῇ ἐνεσχημένοι τῇ ἀθεότητι, προτέρᾳ μέν, καθ' ἣν ἀγνοοῦσι τὸν θεόν, τὸν ὄντα ὄντως μὴ γνωρίζοντες θεόν, ἑτέρᾳ δὲ καὶ δευτέρᾳ ταύτῃ πλάνῃ τοὺς οὐκ ὄντας ὡς ὄντας νομίζοντες καὶ θεοὺς τούτους ὀνομάζοντες τοὺς οὐκ ὄντως ὄντας, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ὄντας, μόνου δὲ τοῦ ὀνόματος τετυχη κότας. ∆ιὰ τοῦτό τοι καὶ ὁ ἀπόστολος διελέγχει ἡμᾶς "Καὶ ἦτε ξένοι" λέγων "τῶν διαθηκῶν τῆς ἐπαγγελίας, ἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες καὶ ἄθεοι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ". Πολλὰ κἀγαθὰ γένοιτο τῷ τῶν Σκυθῶν βασιλεῖ, ὅστις ποτὲ ἦν [Ἀνάχαρσις]. Οὗτος τὸν πολίτην τὸν ἑαυτοῦ, τὴν παρὰ Κυζικηνοῖς Μητρὸς τῶν θεῶν τελετὴν ἀπομιμού μενον παρὰ Σκύθαις τύμπανόν τε ἐπικτυποῦντα καὶ κύμβαλον ἐπηχοῦντα καὶ τοῦ τραχήλου τινὰ μηναγυρτικὰ ἐξηρτημένον, κατετόξευσεν, ὡς ἄνανδρον αὐτόν τε παρ' Ἕλλησι γεγενη μένον καὶ τῆς θηλείας τοῖς ἄλλοις Σκυθῶν διδάσκαλον νόσου. Ὧν δὴ χάριν (οὐ γὰρ οὐδαμῶς ἀποκρυπτέον) θαυμά ζειν ἔπεισί μοι ὅτῳ τρόπῳ Εὐήμερον τὸν Ἀκραγαντῖνον καὶ Νικάνορα τὸν Κύπριον καὶ ∆ιαγόραν καὶ Ἵππωνα τὼ Μηλίω τόν τε Κυρηναῖον ἐπὶ τούτοις ἐκεῖνον (ὁ Θεόδωρος ὄνομα αὐτῷ) καί τινας ἄλλους συχνούς, σωφρόνως βεβιω κότας καὶ καθεωρακότας ὀξύτερόν που τῶν λοιπῶν ἀνθρώ πων τὴν ἀμφὶ τοὺς θεοὺς τούτους πλάνην, ἀθέους ἐπικεκλή κασιν, εἰ καὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν αὐτὴν μὴ νενοηκότας, ἀλλὰ τὴν πλάνην γε ὑπωπτευκότας, ὅπερ οὐ σμικρὸν εἰς ἀλήθειαν φρονήσεως ζώπυρον ἀναφύεται σπέρμα· ὧν ὃ μέν τις παρεγγυᾷ τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις, "εἰ θεοὺς νομίζετε, μὴ θρηνεῖτε αὐτοὺς μηδὲ κόπτεσθε· εἰ δὲ πενθεῖτε αὐτούς, μηκέτι τούτους ἡγεῖσθε εἶναι θεούς", ὃ δ' Ἡρακλέα ἐκ ξύλου λαβὼν κατεσκευασμένον (ἔτυχε δὲ ἕψων τι οἴκοι, οἷα εἰκός)· "Εἶα δή, ὦ Ἡράκλεις", εἶπεν· "νῦν σοι ἤδη καιρός, ὥσπερ Εὐρυσθεῖ, ἀτὰρ δὴ καὶ ἡμῖν ὑπουργῆσαι τὸν τρισκαιδέκατον τοῦτον ἆθλον καὶ ∆ιαγόρᾳ τοὔψον παρα σκευάσαι", "κᾆτ' αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ πῦρ ἐνέθηκεν ὡς ξύλον". Ἀκρότητες ἄρα ἀμαθίας ἀθεότης καὶ δεισιδαιμονία, ὧν ἐκτὸς μένειν σπουδαστέον. Οὐχ ὁρᾷς τὸν ἱεροφάντην τῆς ἀληθείας Μωσέα προστάττοντα θλαδίαν καὶ ἀποκεκομμένον μὴ ἐκκλησιάζειν, καὶ προσέτι τὸν ἐκ πόρνης; Αἰνίττεται δὲ διὰ μὲν τῶν προτέρων τὸν ἄθεον τρόπον τὸν τῆς θείας καὶ γονίμου δυνάμεως ἐστερημένον, διὰ δὲ τοῦ λοιποῦ τοῦ τρίτου τὸν πολλοὺς ἐπιγραφόμενον ψευδωνύμους θεοὺς ἀντὶ τοῦ μόνου ὄντος θεοῦ, ὥσπερ ὁ ἐκ τῆς πόρνης τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐπιγράφεται πατέρας ἀγνοίᾳ τοῦ πρὸς ἀλήθειαν πατρός. Ἦν δέ τις ἔμφυτος ἀρχαία πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἀνθρώποις κοινωνία, ἀγνοίᾳ μὲν ἐσκοτισμένη, ἄφνω δέ που διεκθρῴσκουσα τοῦ σκότους καὶ ἀναλάμπουσα, οἷον δὴ ἐκεῖνο λέλεκταί τινι τὸ ὁρᾷς τὸν ὑψοῦ τόνδ' ἄπειρον αἰθέρα καὶ γῆν πέριξ ἔχονθ' ὑγραῖς ἐν ἀγκάλαις; Καὶ τὸ ὦ γῆς ὄχημα κἀπὶ γῆς ἔχων ἕδραν, ὅστις ποτ' εἶ σύ, δυστόπαστος εἰσιδεῖν, καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τοιαῦτα ποιητῶν ᾄδουσι παῖδες. Ἔννοιαι δὲ ἡμαρτημέναι καὶ παρηγμέναι τῆς εὐθείας, ὀλέθριαι ὡς ἀληθῶς, τὸ "οὐράνιον φυτόν", τὸν ἄνθρωπον, οὐρανίου ἐξέτρεψαν διαίτης καὶ ἐξετάνυσαν ἐπὶ γῆς, γηΐνοις προσα νέχειν ἀναπείσασαι πλάσμασιν. Οἳ μὲν γὰρ εὐθέως ἀμφὶ τὴν οὐρανοῦ θέαν ἀπατώ μενοι καὶ ὄψει μόνῃ πεπιστευκότες τῶν ἀστέρων τὰς κινήσεις ἐπιθεώμενοι ἐθαύμασάν τε καὶ ἐξεθείασαν, θεοὺς ἐκ τοῦ θεῖν ὀνομάσαντες τοὺς ἀστέρας, καὶ προσεκύνησαν ἥλιον, ὡς Ἰνδοί, καὶ σελήνην, ὡς Φρύγες· οἳ δὲ τῶν ἐκ γῆς φυομένων τοὺς ἡμέρους δρεπόμενοι καρποὺς ∆ηὼ τὸν σῖτον, ὡς Ἀθηναῖοι, καὶ ∆ιόνυσον τὴν ἄμπελον, ὡς Θηβαῖοι, προση γόρευσαν. Ἄλλοι τὰς ἀμοιβὰς τῆς κακίας ἐπισκοπήσαντες θεοποιοῦσι τὰς ἀντιδόσεις προσκυνοῦντες καὶ τὰς συμφοράς. Ἐντεῦθεν τὰς Ἐρινύας καὶ τὰς Εὐμενίδας Παλαμναίους τε καὶ Προστροπαίους, ἔτι δὲ Ἀλάστορας ἀναπεπλάκασιν οἱ ἀμφὶ τὴν σκηνὴν ποιηταί. Φιλοσόφων δὲ ἤδη τινὲς καὶ αὐτοὶ μετὰ τοὺς ποιητικοὺς τῶν ἐν ὑμῖν παθῶν ἀνειδωλο ποιοῦσι τύπους τὸν Φόβον καὶ τὸν Ἔρωτα καὶ τὴν Χαρὰν καὶ τὴν Ἐλπίδα, ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καὶ Ἐπιμενίδης ὁ παλαιὸς Ὕβρεως καὶ Ἀναιδείας Ἀθήνησιν ἀναστήσας βωμούς· οἳδὲ ἐξ αὐτῶν ὁρμώμενοι τῶν πραγμάτων ἐκθεοῦνται τοῖς ἀνθρώποις καὶ σωματικῶς ἀναπλάττονται, ∆ίκη τις καὶ Κλωθὼ καὶ Λάχεσις καὶ Ἄτροπος καὶ Εἱμαρμένη, Αὐξώ τε καὶ Θαλλώ, αἱ Ἀττικαί. Ἕκτος ἐστὶν εἰσηγητικὸς τρόπος ἀπάτης, θεῶν περιποιητικός, καθ' ὃν ἀριθμοῦσι θεοὺς τοὺς δώδεκα· ὧν καὶ θεογονίαν Ἡσίοδος ᾄδει τὴν αὑτοῦ, καὶ ὅσα θεολογεῖ Ὅμηρος. Τελευταῖος δὲ ὑπολείπεται (ἑπτὰ γὰρ οἱ ἅπαντες οὗτοι τρόποι) ὁ ἀπὸ τῆς θείας εὐεργεσίας τῆς εἰς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους καταγινομένης ὁρμώμενος. Τὸν γὰρ εὐεργετοῦντα μὴ συνιέντες θεὸν ἀνέπλασάν τινας σωτῆρας ∆ιοσκούρους καὶ Ἡρακλέα ἀλεξίκακον καὶ Ἀσκληπιὸνἰατρόν. Αὗται μὲν αἱ ὀλισθηραί τε καὶ ἐπιβλαβεῖς παρεκ βάσεις τῆς ἀληθείας, καθέλκουσαι οὐρανόθεν τὸν ἄνθρωπον καὶ εἰς βάραθρον περιτρέπουσαι. Ἐθέλω δὲ ὑμῖν ἐν χρῷ τοὺς θεοὺς αὐτοὺς ἐπιδεῖξαι ὁποῖοί τινες καὶ εἴ τινες, ἵν' ἤδη ποτὲ τῆς πλάνης λήξητε, αὖθις δὲ παλινδρομήσητε εἰς οὐρανόν. "Ἦμεν γάρ που καὶ ἡμεῖς τέκνα ὀργῆς, ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί· ὁ δὲ θεὸς πλούσιος ὢν ἐν ἐλέει, διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ, ἣν ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς, ὄντας ἤδη νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασιν συνεζωοποίησεν τῷ Χριστῷ." "Ζῶν γὰρ ὁ λόγος" καὶ συνταφεὶς Χριστῷ συνυψοῦται θεῷ. Οἱ δὲ ἔτι ἄπιστοι "τέκνα ὀργῆς" ὀνομάζονται, τρεφόμενα ὀργῇ· ἡμεῖς δὲ οὐκ ὀργῆς θρέμματα ἔτι, οἱ τῆς πλάνης ἀπεσπασ μένοι, ᾄσσοντες δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλήθειαν. Ταύτῃ τοι ἡμεῖς οἱ τῆς ἀνομίας υἱοί ποτε διὰ τὴν φιλανθρωπίαν τοῦ λόγου νῦν υἱοὶ γεγόναμεν τοῦ θεοῦ· ὑμῖν δὲ καὶ ὁ ὑμέτερος ὑποδύεται ποιητὴς ὁ Ἀκραγαντῖνος Ἐμπεδοκλῆς· τοιγάρτοι χαλεπῇσιν ἀλύοντες κακότησιν οὔ ποτε δειλαίων ἀχέων λωφήσετε θυμόν. Τὰ μὲν δὴ πλεῖστα μεμύθευται καὶ πέπλασται περὶ θεῶν ὑμῖν· τὰ δὲ καὶ ὅσα γεγενῆσθαι ὑπείληπται, ταῦτα δὲ περὶ ἀνθρώπων αἰσχρῶν καὶ ἀσελγῶς βεβιωκότων ἀναγέγραπται· τύφῳ καὶ μανίῃ δὲ βαδίζετε καὶ τρίβον ὀρθὴν εὐθεῖαν προλιπόντες ἀπήλθετε τὴν δι' ἀκανθῶν καὶ σκολόπων. Τί πλανᾶσθε, βροτοί; παύσασθε, μάταιοι, καλλίπετε σκοτίην νυκτός, φωτὸς δὲ λάβεσθε. Ταῦτα ἡμῖν ἡ προφητικὴ παρεγγυᾷ καὶ ποιητικὴ Σίβυλλα· παρεγγυᾷ δὲ καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια, γυμνοῦσα τῶν καταπληκτικῶν τουτωνὶ καὶ ἐκπληκτικῶν προσωπείων τὸν ὄχλον τῶν θεῶν, συνωνυμίαις τισὶ τὰς δοξοποιίας διελέγχουσα. Αὐτίκα γοῦν εἰσὶν οἳ τρεῖς τοὺς Ζῆνας ἀναγράφουσιν, τὸν μὲν Αἰθέρος ἐν Ἀρκαδίᾳ, τὼ δὲ λοιπὼ τοῦ Κρόνου παῖδε, τούτοιν τὸν μὲν ἐν Κρήτῃ, θάτερον δὲ ἐν Ἀρκαδίᾳ πάλιν. Εἰσὶ δὲ οἳ πέντε Ἀθηνᾶς ὑποτίθενται, τὴν μὲν Ἡφαίστου, τὴν Ἀθηναίαν· τὴν δὲ Νείλου, τὴν Αἰγυπτίαν· τρίτην τοῦ Κρόνου, τὴν πολέμου εὑρέτιν· τετάρτην τὴν ∆ιός, ἣν Μεσσήνιοι Κορυφασίαν ἀπὸ τῆς μητρὸς ἐπικεκλή κασιν· ἐπὶ πᾶσι τὴν Πάλλαντος καὶ Τιτανίδος τῆς Ὠκεανοῦ, ἣ τὸν πατέρα δυσσεβῶς καταθύσασα τῷ πατρῴῳ κεκόσμηται δέρματι ὥσπερ κῳδίῳ. Ναὶ μὴν Ἀπόλλωνα ὁ μὲν Ἀριστοτέλης πρῶτον Ἡφαίστου καὶ Ἀθηνᾶς (ἐνταῦθα δὴ οὐκέτι παρθένος ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ), δεύτερον ἐν Κρήτῃ τὸν Κύρβαντος, τρίτον τὸν ∆ιὸς καὶ τέταρτον τὸν Ἀρκάδα τὸν Σιληνοῦ· Νόμιος οὗτος κέκληται παρὰ Ἀρκάσιν· ἐπὶ τούτοις τὸν Λίβυν καταλέγει τὸν Ἄμμωνος· ὁ δὲ ∆ίδυμος ὁ γραμμα τικὸς τούτοις ἕκτον ἐπιφέρει τὸν Μάγνητος. Πόσοι δὲ καὶ νῦν Ἀπόλλωνες, ἀναρίθμητοι θνητοὶ καὶ ἐπίκηροί τινες ἄνθρωποι, εἰσίν, οἱ παραπλησίως τοῖς προειρημένοις ἐκείνοις κεκλημένοι; Τί δ' εἴ σοι τοὺς πολλοὺς εἴποιμι Ἀσκληπιοὺς ἢ τοὺς Ἑρμᾶς τοὺς ἀριθμουμένους ἢ τοὺς Ἡφαίστους τοὺς μυθολογουμένους; Μὴ καὶ περιττὸς εἶναι δόξω τὰς ἀκοὰς ὑμῶν τοῖς πολλοῖς τούτοις ἐπικλύζων ὀνόμασιν; Ἀλλ' αἵ γε πατρίδες αὐτοὺς καὶ αἱ τέχναι καὶ οἱ βίοι, πρὸς δέ γε καὶ οἱ τάφοι ἀνθρώπους γεγονότας διελέγχουσιν. Ἄρης γοῦν ὁ καὶ παρὰ τοῖς ποιηταῖς, ὡς οἷόν τε, τετιμημένος, Ἆρες, Ἄρες, βροτολοιγέ, μιαιφόνε, τειχεσιπλῆτα, ὁ "ἀλλοπρόσαλλος" οὗτος καὶ "ἀνάρσιος", ὡς μὲν Ἐπί χαρμός φησι, Σπαρτιάτης ἦν· Σοφοκλῆς δὲ Θρᾷκα οἶδεν αὐτόν· ἄλλοι δὲ Ἀρκάδα. Τοῦτον δὲ Ὅμηρος δεδέσθαι φησὶν ἐπὶ μῆνας τρισκαίδεκα· τλῆ μὲν Ἄρης, ὅτε μιν Ὦτος κρατερός τ' Ἐπιάλτης, παῖδες Ἀλωῆος, δῆσαν κρατηρῷ ἐνὶ δεσμῷ· χαλκέῳ δ' ἐν κεράμῳ δέδετο τρισκαίδεκα μῆνας. Πολλὰ κἀγαθὰ Κᾶρες σχοῖεν, οἳ καταθύουσιν αὐτῷ τοὺς κύνας. Σκύθαι δὲ τοὺς ὄνους ἱερεύοντες μὴ παυέσθων, ὡς Ἀπολλόδωρός φησι καὶ Καλλίμαχος, Φοῖβος Ὑπερβορέοισιν ὄνων ἐπιτέλλεται ἱροῖς. Ὁ αὐτὸς δὲ ἀλλαχοῦ τέρπουσιν λιπαραὶ Φοῖβον ὀνοσφαγίαι. Ἥφαιστος δέ, ὃν ἔρριψεν ἐξ Ὀλύμπου Ζεὺς "βηλοῦ ἀπὸ θεσπεσίοιο", ἐν Λήμνῳ καταπεσὼν ἐχάλκευε, πηρωθεὶς τὼ πόδε, "ὑπὸ δὲ κνῆμαι ῥώοντο ἀραιαί." Ἔχεις καὶ ἰατρόν, οὐχὶ χαλκέα μόνον ἐν θεοῖς· ὁ δὲ ἰατρὸς φιλάργυρος ἦν, Ἀσκληπιὸς ὄνομα αὐτῷ. Καί σοι τὸν σὸν παραθήσομαι ποιητήν, τὸν Βοιώτιον Πίνδαρον· ἔτραπε κἀκεῖνον ἀγάνορι μισθῷ χρυσὸς ἐν χερσὶ φανείς· χερσὶ δ' ἄρα Κρονίων ῥίψας δι' ἀμφοῖν ἀμπνοὰς στέρνων [καθεῖλεν ὠκέως, αἴθων δὲ κεραυνὸς ἔσκηψε μόρον. Καὶ Εὐριπίδης· Ζεὺς γὰρ κατακτὰς παῖδα τὸν ἐμὸν αἴτιος Ἀσκληπιόν, στέρνοισιν ἐμβαλὼν φλόγα. Οὗτος μὲν οὖν κεῖται κεραυνωθεὶς ἐν τοῖς Κυνοσουρίδος ὁρίοις. Φιλόχορος δὲ ἐν Τήνῳ Ποσειδῶνά φησι τιμᾶσθαι ἰατρόν, Κρόνῳ δὲ ἐπικεῖσθαι Σικελίαν καὶ ἐνταῦθα αὐτὸν τεθάφθαι. Πατροκλῆς τε ὁ Θούριος καὶ Σοφοκλῆς ὁ νεώτερος ἐν τρισὶ τραγῳδίαις ἱστορεῖτον τοῖν ∆ιοσκούροιν πέρι· ἀνθρώπω τινὲ τούτω τὼ ∆ιοσκούρω ἐπικήρω ἐγενέσθην, εἴ τῳ ἱκανὸς πιστώσασθαι Ὅμηρος τὸ λελεγμένον· τοὺς δ' ἤδη κάτεχεν φυσίζοος αἶα ἐν Λακεδαίμονι αὖθι, φίλῃ ἐν πατρίδι γαίῃ. Προσίτω δὲ καὶ ὁ τὰ Κυπριακὰ ποιήματα γράψας· Κάστωρ μὲν θνητός, θανάτου δέ οἱ αἶσα πέπρωται· αὐτὰρ ὅ γ' ἀθάνατος Πολυδεύκης, ὄζος Ἄρηος. Τοῦτο μὲν ποιητικῶς ἐψεύσατο· Ὅμηρος δὲ ἀξιοπιστότερος αὐτοῦ εἰπὼν περὶ ἀμφοῖν τοῖν ∆ιοσκούροιν, πρὸς δὲ καὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα "εἴδωλον" ἐλέγξας· "φῶτα" γὰρ "Ἡρακλῆα, μεγάλων ἐπιίστορα ἔργων". Ἡρακλέα οὖν καὶ αὐτὸς Ὅμηρος θνητὸν οἶδεν ἄνθρωπον, Ἱερώνυμος δὲ ὁ φιλόσοφος καὶ τὴν σχέσιν αὐτοῦ ὑφηγεῖται τοῦ σώματος, μικρόν, φριξότριχα, ῥωστικόν· ∆ικαίαρχος δὲ σχιζίαν, νευρώδη, μέλανα, γρυπόν, ὑποχαροπόν, τετανότριχα. Οὗτος οὖν ὁ Ἡρακλῆς δύο πρὸς τοῖς πεντήκοντα ἔτη βεβιωκὼς κατέσ τρεψε τὸν βίον διὰ τῆς ἐν Οἴτῃ πυρᾶς κεκηδευμένος. Τὰς δὲ Μούσας, ἃς Ἀλκμὰν ∆ιὸς καὶ Μνημοσύνης γενεαλογεῖ καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ ποιηταὶ καὶ συγγραφεῖς ἐκθειά ζουσιν καὶ σέβουσιν, ἤδη δὲ καὶ ὅλαι πόλεις μουσεῖα τεμε νίζουσιν αὐταῖς, Μυσὰς οὔσας θεραπαινίδας ταύτας ἐώνηται Μεγακλὼ ἡ θυγάτηρ ἡ Μάκαρος. Ὁ δὲ Μάκαρ Λεσβίων μὲν ἐβασίλευεν, διεφέρετο δὲ ἀεὶ πρὸς τὴν γυναῖκα, ἠγα νάκτει δὲ ἡ Μεγακλὼ ὑπὲρ τῆς μητρός· τί δ' οὐκ ἔμελλε; Καὶ Μυσὰς θεραπαινίδας ταύτας τοσαύτας τὸν ἀριθμὸν ὠνεῖται καὶ καλεῖ Μοίσας κατὰ τὴν διάλεκτον τὴν Αἰολέων. Ταύτας ἐδιδάξατο ᾄδειν καὶ κιθαρίζειν τὰς πράξεις τὰς παλαιὰς ἐμμελῶς. Αἳ δὲ συνεχῶς κιθαρίζουσαι καὶ καλῶς κατεπᾴδουσαι τὸν Μάκαρα ἔθελγον καὶ κατέπαυον τῆς ὀργῆς. Οὗ δὴ χάριν ἡ Μεγακλὼ χαριστήριον αὐτὰς ὑπὲρ τῆς μητρὸς ἀνέθηκε χαλκᾶς καὶ ἀνὰ πάντα ἐκέλευσε τιμᾶσθαι τὰ ἱερά. Καὶ αἱ μὲν Μοῦσαι τοιαίδε· ἡ δὲ ἱστορία παρὰ Μυρσίλῳ τῷ Λεσβίῳ. Ἀκούετε δὴ οὖν τῶν παρ' ὑμῖν θεῶν τοὺς ἔρωτας καὶ τὰς παραδόξους τῆς ἀκρασίας μυθολογίας καὶ τραύματα αὐτῶν καὶ δεσμὰ καὶ γέλωτας καὶ μάχας δουλείας τε ἔτι καὶ συμπόσια συμπλοκάς τ' αὖ καὶ δάκρυα καὶ πάθη καὶ μαχλώσας ἡδονάς. Κάλει μοι τὸν Ποσειδῶ καὶ τὸν χορὸν τῶν διεφθαρμένων ὑπ' αὐτοῦ, τὴν Ἀμφιτρίτην, τὴν Ἀμυμώνην, τὴν Ἀλόπην, τὴν Μελανίππην, τὴν Ἀλκυόνην, τὴν Ἱπποθόην, τὴν Χιόνην, τὰς ἄλλας τὰς μυρίας· ἐν αἷς δὴ καὶ τοσαύταις οὔσαις ἔτι τοῦ Ποσειδῶνος ὑμῶν ἐστενοχω ρεῖτο τὰ πάθη. Κάλει μοι καὶ τὸν Ἀπόλλω· Φοῖβός ἐστιν οὗτος καὶ μάντις ἁγνὸς καὶ σύμβουλος ἀγαθός· ἀλλ' οὐ ταῦτα ἡ Στερόπη λέγει οὐδὲ ἡ Αἴθουσα οὐδὲ ἡ Ἀρσινόη οὐδὲ ἡ Ζευξίππη οὐδὲ ἡ Προθόη οὐδὲ ἡ Μάρπησσα οὐδὲ ἡ Ὑψιπύλη· ∆άφνη γὰρ ἐξέφυγε μόνη καὶ τὸν μάντιν καὶ τὴν φθοράν. Αὐτός τε ὁ Ζεὺς ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἡκέτω, ὁ "πατὴρ" καθ' ὑμᾶς "ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε"· τοσοῦτος περὶ τὰ ἀφρο δίσια ἐξεχύθη, ὡς ἐπιθυμεῖν μὲν πασῶν, ἐκπληροῦν δὲ εἰς πάσας τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν. Ἐνεπίμπλατο γοῦν γυναικῶν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ αἰγῶν ὁ Θμουιτῶν τράγος. Καὶ σοῦ, ὦ Ὅμηρε, τεθαύμακα τὰ ποιήματα· ἦ, καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ' ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίων· ἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτος κρατὸς ἀπ' ἀθανάτοιο· μέγαν δ' ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον. Σεμνὸν ἀναπλάττεις, Ὅμηρε, τὸν ∆ία καὶ νεῦμα περιάπτεις αὐτῷ τετιμημένον. Ἀλλ' ἐὰν ἐπιδείξῃς μόνον, ἄνθρωπε, τὸν κεστόν, ἐξελέγχεται καὶ ὁ Ζεὺς καὶ ἡ κόμη καταισχύνεται. Εἰς ὅσον διελήλακεν ἀσελγείας ὁ Ζεὺς ἐκεῖνος ὁ μετ' Ἀλκμήνης τοσαύτας ἡδυπαθήσας νύκτας; οὐδὲ γὰρ αἱ νύκτες αἱ ἐννέα τῷ ἀκολάστῳ μακραί (ἅπας δὲ ἔμπαλιν ὁ βίος ἀκρασίᾳ βραχὺς ἦν), ἵνα δὴ ἡμῖν τὸν ἀλεξίκακον σπείρῃ θεόν. ∆ιὸς υἱὸς Ἡρακλῆς, ∆ιὸς ὡς ἀληθῶς, ὁ ἐκ μακρᾶς γεννώμενος νυκτός, τοὺς μὲν ἄθλους τοὺς δώδεκα πολλῷ ταλαιπωρησάμενος χρόνῳ, τὰς δὲ πεντήκοντα Θεστίου θυγατέρας νυκτὶ διαφθείρας μιᾷ, μοιχὸς ὁμοῦ καὶ νυμφίος τοσούτων γενόμενος παρθένων. Οὔκουν ἀπεικότως οἱ ποιηταὶ "σχέτλιον" τοῦτον "καὶ αἰσυλοεργὸν" ἀπο καλοῦσιν. Μακρὸν δ' ἂν εἴη μοιχείας αὐτοῦ παντοδαπὰς καὶ παίδων διηγεῖσθαι φθοράς. Οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ παίδων ἀπέσχοντο οἱ παρ' ὑμῖν θεοί, ὃ μέν τις Ὕλα, ὃ δὲ Ὑακίνθου, ὃ δὲ Πέλοπος, ὃ δὲ Χρυσίππου, ὃ δὲ Γανυμήδους ἐρῶντες. Τούτους ὑμῶν αἱ γυναῖκες προσκυνούντων τοὺς θεούς, τοιούτους δὲ εὐχέσθων εἶναι τοὺς ἄνδρας τοὺς ἑαυτῶν, οὕτω σώφρονας, ἵν' ὦσιν ὅμοιοι τοῖς θεοῖς τὰ ἴσα ἐζηλω κότες· τούτους ἐθιζόντων οἱ παῖδες ὑμῶν σέβειν, ἵνα καὶ ἄνδρες γενήσονται εἰκόνα πορνείας ἐναργῆ τοὺς θεοὺς παραλαμβάνοντες. Ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ἄρρενες αὐτοῖς τῶν θεῶν ἴσως μόνοι ᾄττουσι περὶ τὰ ἀφροδίσια· θηλύτεραι δὲ θεαὶ μένον αἰδοῖ οἴκοι ἑκάστη, φησὶν Ὅμηρος, αἰδούμεναι αἱ θεαὶ διὰ σεμνότητα Ἀφροδίτην ἰδεῖν μεμοιχευμένην. Αἳ δὲ ἀκολασταίνουσιν ἐμπαθέσ τερον ἐν τῇ μοιχείᾳ δεδεμέναι, Ἠὼς ἐπὶ Τιθωνῷ, Σελήνη [δ' ἐπὶ] Ἐνδυμίωνι, Νηρηῒς ἐπὶ Αἰακῷ καὶ ἐπὶ Πηλεῖ Θέτις, ἐπὶ δὲ Ἰασίωνι ∆ημήτηρ καὶ ἐπὶ Ἀδώνιδι Φερέ φαττα. Ἀφροδίτη δὲ ἐπ' Ἄρει κατῃσχυμμένη μετῆλθεν ἐπὶ Κινύραν καὶ Ἀγχίσην ἔγημεν καὶ Φαέθοντα ἐλόχα καὶ ἤρα Ἀδώνιδος, ἐφιλονείκει δὲ τῇ βοώπιδι καὶ ἀποδυσάμεναι διὰ μῆλον αἱ θεαὶ γυμναὶ προσεῖχον τῷ ποιμένι, ἥτις αὐτῶν δόξει καλή. Ἴθι δὴ καὶ τοὺς ἀγῶνας ἐν βραχεῖ περιοδεύσωμεν καὶ τὰς ἐπιτυμβίους ταυτασὶ πανηγύρεις καταλύσωμεν, Ἴσθμιά τε καὶ Νέμεα καὶ Πύθια καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτοις Ὀλύμπια. Πυθοῖ μὲν οὖν ὁ δράκων ὁ Πύθιος θρῃσκεύεται καὶ τοῦ ὄφεως ἡ πανήγυρις καταγγέλλεται Πύθια· Ἰσθμοῖ δὲ σκύβαλον προσέπτυσεν ἐλεεινὸν ἡ θάλαττα καὶ Μελικέρτην ὀδύρεται τὰ Ἴσθμια· Νεμέασι δὲ ἄλλο παιδίον Ἀρχέμορος κεκήδευται καὶ τοῦ παιδίου ὁ ἐπιτάφιος προσαγορεύεται Νέμεα· Πῖσα δὲ ὑμῖν τάφος ἐστίν, ὦ Πανέλληνες, ἡνιόχου Φρυγός, καὶ τοῦ Πέλοπος τὰς χοάς, τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ὁ Φειδίου σφετερίζεται Ζεύς. Μυστήρια ἦσαν ἄρα, ὡς ἔοικεν, οἱ ἀγῶνες ἐπὶ νεκροῖς διαθλούμενοι, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ λόγια, καὶ δεδήμευνται ἄμφω. Ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἐπὶ Ἄγρᾳ μυστήρια καὶ τὰ ἐν Ἁλιμοῦντι τῆς Ἀττικῆς Ἀθήνησι περιώρισται·αἶσχος δὲ ἤδη κοσμικὸν οἵ τε ἀγῶνες καὶ οἱ φαλλοὶ οἱ ∆ιονύσῳ ἐπιτελούμενοι, κακῶς ἐπινενεμημένοι τὸν βίον. ∆ιόνυσος γὰρ κατελθεῖν εἰς Ἅιδου γλιχόμενος ἠγνόει τὴν ὁδόν, ὑπισχνεῖται δ' αὐτῷ φράσειν, Πρόσυμνος τοὔνομα, οὐκ ἀμισθί· ὁ δὲ μισθὸς οὐ καλός, ἀλλὰ ∆ιονύσῳ καλός· καὶ ἀφροδίσιος ἦν ἡ χάρις, ὁ μισθός, ὃν ᾐτεῖτο ∆ιόνυσος· βουλομένῳ δὲ τῷ θεῷ γέγονεν ἡ αἴτησις, καὶ δὴ ὑπισχνεῖται παρέξειν αὐτῷ, εἰ ἀναζεύξοι, ὅρκῳ πιστωσάμενος τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν. Μαθὼν ἀπῆρεν· ἐπανῆλθεν αὖθις· οὐ κατα λαμβάνει τὸν Πρόσυμνον (ἐτεθνήκει γάρ)· ἀφοσιούμενος τῷ ἐραστῇ ὁ ∆ιόνυσος ἐπὶ τὸ μνημεῖον ὁρμᾷ καὶ πασχητιᾷ. Κλάδον οὖν συκῆς, ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἐκτεμὼν ἀνδρείου μορίου σκευάζεται τρόπον ἐφέζεταί τε τῷ κλάδῳ, τὴν ὑπόσχεσιν ἐκτελῶν τῷ νεκρῷ. Ὑπόμνημα τοῦ πάθους τούτου μυστικὸν φαλλοὶ κατὰ πόλεις ἀνίστανται ∆ιονύσῳ· "εἰ μὴ γὰρ ∆ιονύσῳ πομπὴν ἐποιοῦντο καὶ ὕμνεον ᾆσμα αἰδοίοισιν, ἀναιδέστατα εἴργαστ' ἄν", φησὶν Ἡράκλειτος, "ωὑτὸς δὲ Ἅιδης καὶ ∆ιόνυσος, ὅτεῳ μαίνονται καὶ ληναΐζουσιν", οὐ διὰ τὴν μέθην τοῦ σώματος, ὡς ἐγὼ οἶμαι, τοσοῦτον ὅσον διὰ τὴν ἐπονείδιστον τῆς ἀσελγείας ἱεροφαντίαν. Εἰκότως ἄρα οἱ τοιοίδε ὑμῶν θεοὶ δοῦλοι παθῶν γεγονότες, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸ τῶν Εἱλώτων καλουμένων τῶν παρὰ Λακεδαιμονίοις δούλειον ὑπεισῆλθεν ζυγὸν Ἀπόλλων Ἀδμήτῳ ἐν Φεραῖς, Ἡρακλῆς ἐν Σάρδεσιν Ὀμφάλῃ, Λαομέδοντι δ' ἐθήτευε Ποσειδῶν καὶ Ἀπόλλων, καθάπερ ἀχρεῖος οἰκέτης, μηδὲ ἐλευθερίας δήπουθεν δυνηθεὶς τυχεῖν παρὰ τοῦ προτέρου δεσπότου· τότε καὶ τὰ Ἰλίου τείχη ἀνῳκοδομησάτην τῷ Φρυγί. Ὅμηρος δὲ τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν οὐκ αἰσχύνεται παραφαίνειν λέγων τῷ Ὀδυσσεῖ "χρύσεον λύχνον ἔχουσαν" ἐν χεροῖν· τὴν δὲ Ἀφροδίτην ἀνέγνωμεν, οἷον ἀκόλαστόν τι θεραπαινίδιον, παραθεῖναι φέρουσαν τῇ Ἑλένῃ τὸν δίφρον τοῦ μοιχοῦ κατὰ πρόσωπον, ὅπως αὐτὸν εἰς συνουσίαν ὑπαγάγηται. Πανύασσις γὰρ πρὸς τούτοις καὶ ἄλλους παμπόλλους ἀνθρώποις λατρεῦσαι θεοὺς ἱστορεῖ ὧδέ πως γράφων· τλῆ μὲν ∆ημήτηρ, τλῆ δὲ κλυτὸς Ἀμφιγυήεις, τλῆ δὲ Ποσειδάων, τλῆ δ' ἀργυρότοξος Ἀπόλλων ἀνδρὶ παρὰ θνητῷ θητευέμεν εἰς ἐνιαυτόν· τλῆ δ' ὀβριμόθυμος Ἄρης ὑπὸ πατρὸς ἀνάγκης, καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτοις. Τούτοις οὖν εἰκότως ἕπεται τοὺς ἐρωτικοὺς ὑμῶν καὶ παθητικοὺς τούτους θεοὺς ἀνθρωποπαθεῖς ἐκ παντὸς εἰσάγειν τρόπου. "Καὶ γάρ θην κείνοις θνητὸς χρώς". Τεκμηριοῖ δὲ Ὅμηρος μάλα ἀκριβῶς, Ἀφροδίτην ἐπὶ τῷτραύματι παρεισάγων ὀξὺ καὶ μέγα ἰάχουσαν αὐτόν τε τὸν πολεμικώτατον Ἄρη ὑπὸ τοῦ ∆ιομήδους κατὰ τοῦ κενεῶνος οὐτασμένον διηγούμενος. Πολέμων δὲ καὶ τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν ὑπὸ Ὀρνύτου τρωθῆναι λέγει· ναὶ μὴν καὶ τὸν Ἀιδωνέα ὑπὸ Ἡρακλέους τοξευθῆναι Ὅμηρος λέγει καὶ τὸν Ἥλιον[Αὐγέαν] Πανύασσις ἱστορεῖ. Ἤδη δὲ καὶ τὴν Ἥραν τὴν ζυγίαν ἱστορεῖ ὑπὸ τοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἡρακλέους ὁ αὐτὸς οὗτος Πανύασσις "ἐν Πύλῳ ἠμαθόεντι". Σωσίβιος δὲ καὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα πρὸς τῶν Ἱπποκοωντιδῶν κατὰ τῆς χειρὸς οὐτασθῆναι λέγει. Εἰ δὴ τραύματα, καὶ αἵματα· οἱ γὰρ ἰχῶρες οἱ ποιητικοὶ εἰδεχθέστεροι καὶ τῶν αἱμάτων, σῆψις γὰρ αἵματος ἰχὼρ νοεῖται. Ἀνάγκη τοίνυν θεραπείας καὶ τροφὰς παρεισάγειν αὐτοῖς, ὧν εἰσιν ἐνδεεῖς. ∆ιὸ τράπεζαι καὶ μέθαι καὶ γέλωτες καὶ συνουσίαι, οὐκ ἂν ἀφροδισίοις χρωμένων ἀνθρωπίνοις οὐδὲ παιδοποιουμένων οὐδὲ μὴν ὑπνωσσόντων, εἰ ἀθάνατοι καὶ ἀνενδεεῖς καὶ ἀγήρῳ ὑπῆρχον. Μετέλαβεν δὲ καὶ τραπέζης ἀνθρωπίνης παρὰ τοῖς Αἰθίοψιν, ἀπανθρώπου δὲ καὶ ἀθέσμου αὐτὸς ὁ Ζεὺς παρὰ Λυκάονι τῷ Ἀρκάδι ἑστιώμενος· ἀνθρωπείων γοῦν ἐνεφορεῖτο σαρκῶν οὐχ ἑκών. Ἠγνόει γὰρ ὁ θεὸς ὡς ἄρα Λυκάων ὁ Ἀρκὰς ὁ ἑστιάτωρ αὐτοῦ τὸν παῖδα κατασφάξας τὸν αὑτοῦ (Νύκτιμος ὄνομα αὐτῷ) παραθείη ὄψον τῷ ∆ιί. Καλός γε ὁ Ζεὺς ὁ μαντικός, ὁ ξένιος, ὁ ἱκέσιος, ὁ μειλίχιος, ὁ πανομφαῖος, ὁ προστροπαῖος· μᾶλλον δὲ [ὁ] ἄδικος, ὁ ἄθεσμος, ὁ ἄνομος, ὁ ἀνόσιος, ὁ ἀπάνθρωπος, ὁ βίαιος, ὁ φθορεύς, ὁ μοιχός, ὁ ἐρωτικός. Ἀλλὰ τότε μὲν ἦν, ὅτε τοιοῦτος ἦν, ὅτε ἄνθρωπος ἦν, νῦν δὲ ἤδη μοι δοκοῦσι καὶ οἱ μῦθοι ὑμῖν γεγηρακέναι. ∆ράκων ὁ Ζεὺς οὐκέτι, οὐ κύκνος ἐστίν, οὐκ ἀετός, οὐκ ἄνθρωπος ἐρωτικός· οὐχ ἵπταται θεός, οὐ παιδεραστεῖ, οὐ φιλεῖ, οὐ βιάζεται, καίτοι πολλαὶ καὶ καλαὶ καὶ νῦν ἔτι γυναῖκες καὶ Λήδας εὐπρε πέστεραι καὶ Σεμέλης ἀκμαιότεραι, μειράκια δὲ ὡραιότερα καὶ πολιτικώτερα τοῦ Φρυγίου βουκόλου. Ποῦ νῦν ἐκεῖνος ὁ ἀετός; Ποῦ δὲ ὁ κύκνος; Ποῦ δὲ αὐτὸς ὁ Ζεύς; Γεγήρακε μετὰ τοῦ πτεροῦ· οὐ γὰρ δήπου μετανοεῖ τοῖς ἐρωτικοῖς οὐδὲ παιδεύεται σωφρονεῖν. Γυμνοῦται δὲ ὑμῖν ὁ μῦθος· ἀπέθανεν ἡ Λήδα, ἀπέθανεν ὁ κύκνος, ἀπέθανεν ὁ ἀετός. Ζητεῖς σου τὸν ∆ία; μὴ τὸν οὐρανόν, ἀλλὰ τὴν γῆν πολυπραγ μόνει. Ὁ Κρής σοι διηγήσεται, παρ' ᾧ καὶ τέθαπται· Καλλίμαχος ἐν ὕμνοις· καὶ γὰρ τάφον, ὦ ἄνα, σεῖο Κρῆτες ἐτεκτήναντο. Τέθνηκε γὰρ ὁ Ζεὺς (μὴ δυσφόρει) ὡς Λήδα, ὡς κύκνος, ὡς ἀετός, ὡς ἄνθρωπος ἐρωτικός, ὡς δράκων. Ἤδη δὲ καὶ αὐτοὶ φαίνονται οἱ δεισιδαίμονες ἄκοντες μέν, ὅμως δ' οὖν συνιέντες τὴν πλάνην τὴν περὶ τοὺς θεούς· οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ δρυός εἰσι παλαιφάτου οὐδ' ἀπὸ πέτρης, ἀλλ' "ἀνδρῶν γένος εἰσί", μικρὸν δὲ ὕστερον καὶ δρύες ὄντες εὑρεθήσονται καὶ πέτραι. Ἀγαμέμνονα γοῦν τινα ∆ία ἐν Σπάρτῃ τιμᾶσθαι Στάφυλος ἱστορεῖ· Φανοκλῆς δὲ ἐν Ἔρωσιν ἢ Καλοῖς Ἀγαμέμνονα τὸν Ἑλλήνων βασιλέαἈργύννου νεὼν Ἀφροδίτης ἵστασθαι ἐπ' Ἀργύννῳ τῷ ἐρωμένῳ. Ἄρτεμιν δὲ Ἀρκάδες Ἀπαγχομένην καλουμένηνπροστρέπονται, ὥς φησι Καλλίμαχος ἐν Αἰτίοις. Καὶ Κονδυλῖτις ἐν Μηθύμνῃ ἑτέρα τετίμηται Ἄρτεμις. Ἔστιδὲ καὶ Ποδάγρας ἄλλης Ἀρτέμιδος ἐν τῇ Λακωνικῇ ἱερόν, ὥς φησι Σωσίβιος. Πολέμων δὲ Κεχηνότος Ἀπόλλωνος οἶδεν ἄγαλμα, καὶ Ὀψοφάγου πάλιν Ἀπόλλωνος ἄλλο ἐν Ἤλιδι τιμώμενον. Ἐνταῦθα Ἀπομυίῳ ∆ιὶ θύουσιν ἨλεῖοιῬωμαῖοι δὲ Ἀπομυίῳ Ἡρακλεῖ καὶ Πυρετῷ δὲ καὶ Φόβῳθύουσιν, οὓς καὶ αὐτοὺς μετὰ τῶν ἀμφὶ τὸν Ἡρακλέα ἐγγρά φουσι. Ἐῶ δὲ Ἀργείους [καὶ Λάκωνας]· Ἀφροδίτην Τυμβωρύχον θρῃσκεύουσιν Ἀργεῖοι [καὶ Λάκωνες], καὶ Χελύτιδα δὲ Ἄρτεμιν Σπαρτιᾶται σέβουσιν· ἐπεὶ τὸ βήττειν χελύττειν καλοῦσιν. Οἴει ποθὲν παρέγγραπτα ταῦτά σοι κομίζεσθαι τὰ ὑφ' ἡμῶν παρατιθέμενα; Οὐδὲ τοὺς σοὺς γνωρίζειν ἔοικας συγγραφεῖς, οὓς ἐγὼ μάρτυρας ἐπὶ τὴν σὴν ἀπιστίαν καλῶ, ἀθέου χλεύης, ὦ δείλαιοι, τὸν πάντα ὑμῶν ἀβίωτον ὄντως βίον ἐμπεπληκότες. Οὐχὶ μέντοι Ζεὺς φαλακρὸς ἐν Ἄργει, τιμωρὸς δὲ ἄλλος ἐν Κύπρῳ τετίμησθον; Οὐχὶ δὲ Ἀφροδίτῃ περιβασοῖ μὲν Ἀργεῖοι, ἑταίρᾳ δὲ Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ καλλιπύγῳ θύουσιν Συρακούσσιοι, ἣν Νίκανδρος ὁ ποιητὴς "καλλίγλου τόν" που κέκληκεν; ∆ιόνυσον δὲ ἤδη σιωπῶ τὸν χοιροψάλαν· Σικυώνιοι τοῦτον προσκυνοῦσιν ἐπὶ τῶν γυναικείων τάξαντες τὸν ∆ιόνυσον μορίων, ἔφορον αἴσχους τὸν ὕβρεως σεβάζοντες ἀρχηγόν. Τοιοίδε μὲν αὐτοῖς οἱ θεοί, τοιοίδε [δὲ] καὶ αὐτοί, παίζοντες ἐν θεοῖς, μᾶλλον δὲ ἐμπαίζοντες καὶ ἐνυβρίζοντες σφίσιν αὐτοῖς. Καὶ πόσῳ βελτίους Αἰγύπτιοι κωμηδὸν καὶ κατὰ πόλεις τὰ ἄλογα τῶν ζῴων ἐκτετιμηκότες ἤπερ Ἕλληνες τοιούτους προσκυνοῦντες θεούς; Τὰ μὲν γὰρ εἰ καὶ θηρία, ἀλλ' οὐ μοιχικά, ἀλλ' οὐ μάχλα, παρὰ φύσιν δὲ θηρεύει ἡδονὴν οὐδὲ ἕν. Οἳ δὲ ὁποῖοι, τί καὶ χρὴ λέγειν ἔτι, ἀποχρώντως αὐτῶν διεληλεγμένων; Ἀλλ' οὖν γε Αἰγύπτιοι, ὧν νῦν δὴ ἐμνήσθην, κατὰ τὰς θρῃσκείας τὰς σφῶν ἐσκέ δανται· σέβουσι δὲ αὐτῶν Συηνῖται φάγρον τὸν ἰχθύν, μαιώτην δὲ (ἄλλος οὗτος ἰχθύς) οἱ τὴν Ἐλεφαντίνην οἰκοῦν τες, Ὀξυρυγχῖται τὸν φερώνυμον τῆς χώρας αὐτῶν ὁμοίως ἰχθύν, ἔτι γε μὴν Ἡρακλεοπολῖται ἰχνεύμονα, Σαῗται δὲ καὶ Θηβαῖοι πρόβατον, Λυκοπολῖται δὲ λύκον, Κυνοπολῖται δὲ κύνα, τὸν Ἆπιν Μεμφῖται, Μενδήσιοι τὸν τράγον. Ὑμεῖς δὲ οἱ πάντ' ἀμείνους Αἰγυπτίων (ὀκνῶ δὲ εἰπεῖν χείρους), οἳ τοὺς Αἰγυπτίους ὁσημέραι γελῶντες οὐ παύεσθε, ὁποῖοί τινες καὶ περὶ τὰ ἄλογα ζῷα; Θεσσαλοὶ μὲν ὑμῶν τοὺς πελαργοὺς τετιμήκασι διὰ τὴν συνήθειαν, Θηβαῖοι δὲ τὰς γαλᾶς διὰ τὴν Ἡρακλέους γένεσιν. Τί δὲ πάλιν Θετταλοί; Μύρμηκας ἱστοροῦνται σέβειν, ἐπεὶ τὸν ∆ία μεμαθήκασιν ὁμοιωθέντα μύρμηκι τῇ Κλήτορος θυγατρὶ Εὐρυμεδούσῃ μιγῆναι καὶ Μυρμιδόνα γεννῆσαι· Πολέμων δὲ τοὺς ἀμφὶ τὴν Τρωάδα κατοικοῦντας ἱστορεῖ τοὺς ἐπιχωρίους μῦς οὓς σμίνθους καλοῦσιν, ὅτι τὰς νευρὰς τῶν πολεμίων διέ τρωγον τῶν τόξων· καὶ Σμίνθιον Ἀπόλλωνα ἀπὸ τῶν μυῶν ἐκείνων ἐπεφήμισαν. Ἡρακλείδης δὲ ἐν Κτίσεσιν ἱερῶν περὶ τὴν Ἀκαρνανίαν φησίν, ἔνθα τὸ Ἄκτιόν ἐστιν ἀκρωτήριον καὶ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος τοῦ Ἀκτίου τὸ ἱερόν, ταῖς μυίαις προθύεσθαι βοῦν. Οὐδὲ μὴν Σαμίων ἐκλήσομαι (πρόβατον, ὥς φησιν Εὐφορίων, σέβουσι Σάμιοι) οὐδέ γε τῶν τὴν Φοινίκην Σύρων κατοικούντων, ὧν οἳ μὲν τὰς περιστεράς, οἳ δὲ τοὺς ἰχθῦς οὕτω σέβουσι περιττῶς ὡς Ἠλεῖοι τὸν ∆ία. Εἶεν δή· ἐπειδὴ οὐ θεοί, οὓς θρῃσκεύετε, αὖθις ἐπισκέψασθαί μοι δοκεῖ εἰ ὄντως εἶεν δαίμονες, δευτέρᾳ ταύτῃ, ὡς ὑμεῖς φατέ, ἐγκαταλεγόμενοι τάξει. Εἰ γὰρ οὖν δαίμονες, λίχνοι τε καὶ μιαροί. Ἔστι μὲν ἐφευρεῖν καὶ ἀναφανδὸν οὕτω κατὰ πόλεις δαίμονας ἐπιχωρίους τιμὴν ἐπιδρεπομένους, παρὰ Κυθνίοις Μενέδημον, παρὰ Τηνίοις Καλλισταγόραν, παρὰ ∆ηλίοις Ἄνιον, παρὰ Λάκωσιν Ἀστράβακον. Τιμᾶται δέ τις καὶ Φαληροῖ κατὰ πρύμναν ἥρως· καὶ ἡ Πυθία συνέταξε θύειν Πλαταιεῦσιν Ἀνδρο κράτει καὶ ∆ημοκράτει καὶ Κυκλαίῳ καὶ Λεύκωνι τῶν Μηδικῶν ἀκμαζόντων ἀγώνων. Ἔστι καὶ ἄλλους παμπόλ λους συνιδεῖν δαίμονας τῷ γε καὶ σμικρὸν διαθρεῖν δυνα μένῳ· τρὶς γὰρ μύριοί εἰσιν ἐπὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ δαίμονες ἀθάνατοι, φύλακες μερόπων ἀνθρώπων. Τίνες εἰσὶν οἱ φύλακες, ὦ Βοιώτιε, μὴ φθονέσῃς λέγειν. Ἢ δῆλον ὡς οὗτοι καὶ οἱ τούτων ἐπιτιμότεροι, οἱ μεγάλοι δαίμονες, ὁ Ἀπόλλων, ἡ Ἄρτεμις, ἡ Λητώ, ἡ ∆ημήτηρ, ἡ Κόρη, ὁ Πλούτων, ὁ Ἡρακλῆς, αὐτὸς ὁ Ζεύς. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀποδρᾶναι ἡμᾶς φυλάττουσιν, Ἀσκραῖε, μὴ ἁμαρτάνειν δὲ ἴσως, οἱ ἁμαρτιῶν δῆτα οὐ πεπειραμένοι. Ἐνταῦθα δὴ τὸ παροιμιῶδες ἐπιφθέγξασθαι ἁρμόττει πατὴρ ἀνουθέτητος παῖδα νουθετεῖ. Εἰ δ' ἄρα καὶ εἰσὶ φύλακες οὗτοι, οὐκ εὐνοίᾳ τῇ πρὸς ὑμᾶς περιπαθεῖς, τῆς δὲ ὑμεδαπῆς ἀπωλείας ἐχόμενοι, κολάκων δίκην ἐγχρίμπτονται τῷ βίῳ, δελεαζόμενοι καπνῷ. Αὐτοί που ἐξομολογοῦνται οἱ δαίμονες τὴν γαστριμαργίαν τὴν αὑτῶν, λοιβῆς τε κνίσης τε· τὸ γὰρ λάχομεν γέρας ἡμεῖς, λέγοντες. Τίνα δ' ἂν φωνὴν ἄλλην, εἰ φωνὴν λάβοιεν Αἰγυπ τίων θεοί, οἷα αἴλουροι καὶ γαλαῖ, προήσονται ἢ τὴν Ὁμηρι κήν τε καὶ ποιητικήν, τῆς κνίσης τε καὶ ὀψαρτυτικῆς φίλην; τοιοίδε μέντοι παρ' ὑμῖν οἵ τε δαίμονες καὶ οἱ θεοὶ καὶ εἴ τινες ἡμίθεοι ὥσπερ ἡμίονοι κέκληνται· οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ ὀνομάτων ὑμῖν πενία πρὸς τὰς τῆς ἀσεβείας συνθέσεις.