Chapter IV.—Shameless practices of the Greeks.

And your public assemblies I have come to hate. For there are excessive banquetings, and subtle flutes which provoke to lustful movements, and useless and luxurious anointings, and crowning with garlands. With such a mass of evils do you banish shame; and ye fill your minds with them, and are carried away by intemperance, and indulge as a common practice in wicked and insane fornication. And this further I would say to you, why are you, being a Greek, indignant at your son when he imitates Jupiter, and rises against you and defrauds you of your own wife? Why do you count him your enemy, and yet worship one that is like him? And why do you blame your wife for living in unchastity, and yet honour Venus with shrines? If indeed these things had been related by others, they would have seemed to be mere slanderous accusations, and not truth. But now your own poets sing these things, and your histories noisily publish them.

Καὶ τὰς πανηγύρεις ὑμῶν μεμίσηκα: ἄμετροι γὰρ ἐκεῖ πλησμοναί, καὶ αὐλοὶ γλαφυροὶ ἐκκαλούμενοι πρὸς οἰ στρώδεις κινήσεις, καὶ μύρων περίεργοι χρίσεις, καὶ στεφάνων περιθέσεις. Καὶ τῷ τοσούτῳ σωρῷ τῶν κακῶν τὴν αἰδῶ περιγράφετε, καὶ νοῦν πληροῦσθε, ὑπὸ ἀκρασίας ἐκβακχευόμενοι: καὶ ταῖς ἀνοσίαις καὶ λυσσώδεσι χρᾶσθαι εἰώθατε μίξεσιν. Εἴποιμι δ' ἂν ὑμῖν ἔτι καὶ τοῦτο: Τί ἀγανακτεῖς, Ἕλλην ὤν, πρὸς τὸ τέκνον σου, εἰ τὸν Δία μιμούμενος ἐπιβουλεύει σοι καὶ ἐπ' ἴσου τὸν γάμον σεσύληκε; Τί τοῦτον ἐχθρὸν ἡγῇ, τὸν δὲ ὅμοιον αὐτῷ σέβῃ; Τί δὲ μέμφῃ σου τὴν γυναῖκα ἀκολάστως ζῶσαν, τὴν δὲ Ἀφροδίτην ναοῖς τετίμηκας; Καὶ εἰ μὲν ταῦτα ὑφ' ἑτέρων ἦν εἰρημένα, κατηγορία ἔδοξεν εἶναι ψιλὴ καὶ οὐκ ἀλήθεια: νῦν δὲ ταῦτα οἱ ὑμέτεροι ᾄδουσι ποιηταί, καὶ αἱ παρ' ὑμῖν κεκράγασιν ἱστορίαι.