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gods. But the amazing thing is this, that they themselves, by dying as men, prove that their own vote concerning those deified by them is false.

10 But this custom is not new, nor did it begin with the Roman senate, but it was occurring and being practiced from of old toward the notion of idols. For indeed the gods of old famous among the Greeks—Zeus and Poseidon and Apollo and Hephaestus and Hermes, and among the females Hera and Demeter and Athena and Artemis—were judged to be called gods by the decrees of Theseus, who is recorded in the histories of the Greeks; and those who made the decrees are mourned, as dying men; but those whom they decreed are worshipped as gods. O great contradiction and madness! Knowing the one who decreed, they honor more those whom he decreed. And would that this idol-madness had stopped with males, and they had not brought down the divine appellation to females. For indeed, women, whom it is not even safe to take into common counsel about affairs, these they worship and revere with the honor of God, as those decreed by Theseus, as we have said before, and among the Egyptians Isis and Kore and Neotera, and among others Aphrodite. For I do not consider it holy even to speak the names of the others, being full of all mockery. For many, not only in ancient times, but also in our own, having lost beloved ones and brothers and relatives and wives, and many women also having lost husbands, all of whom nature proved to be mortal humans, painted portraits of these men and women because of their great grief for them, and devising sacrifices, dedicated them, whom those after them, on account of the fabrication and the ambition of the artist, worshipped as gods, suffering a thing not according to nature. For whom the parents mourned as not being gods (for they would not have lamented them as lost, if they had known they were gods; for on this account, not only not considering them to be gods, but not even to exist at all, they fashioned them in an image, so that seeing the appearance through the image, they might be consoled for their no longer being), to these nevertheless the foolish pray as to gods, and they bestow on them the honor of the true God. At any rate, in Egypt even to this day the lament for the destruction of Osiris and Horus and Typhon and the others is performed; and the bronze vessels at Dodona, and the Corybantes in Crete, prove that Zeus is not a god, but a man, and one born from a raw-flesh-eating father. And the amazing thing is that even the very wise Plato among the Greeks, who boasted much of having thought about God, goes down to the Piraeus with Socrates to worship the Artemis fashioned by human art.

11 But these and such-like inventions of idol-madness the scripture taught from above and long before, saying: For the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them the corruption of life. For they were not from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever. For by the vainglory of men they entered into the world, and therefore a speedy end was devised for them. For a father afflicted with untimely mourning, when he had made an image of his child soon taken away, now honored him as a living man who was then dead, and delivered to those under him mysteries and ceremonies. Then in process of time an ungodly custom grown strong was kept as a law. And graven images were worshipped by the commandments of tyrants, whom men, not being able to honor in their presence because they dwelt far off, re-fashioning their appearance from afar, made an express image of the king whom they honored, that by their diligence they might flatter him who was absent as if he were present. And to the furtherance of their worship, the ambition of the craftsman urged on even those who knew him not. For he, wishing perhaps to please him that ruled, forced by his art the likeness to be more beautiful; and the multitude, allured by the grace of the work, now accounted as an object of worship him who a little before was honored as a man. And this was a snare to the world: because, either

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θεούς. ἀλλὰ τὸ θαυμαστόν ἐστι τοῦτο, ὅτι αὐτοὶ ἀποθνήσκοντες ὡς ἄνθρωποι ἐλέγχουσι τὴν ἑαυτῶν περὶ τῶν θεοποιηθέντων ὑπ' αὐτῶν ψῆφον εἶναι ψευδῆ.

10 Τοῦτο δὲ τὸ ἔθος οὐ καινόν, οὐδὲ ἀπὸ τῆς Ῥωμαίων ἤρξατο βουλῆς, ἀλλ' ἦν ἄνωθεν προγιγνόμενον καὶ προμελετώμενον ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν εἰδώλων ἔννοιαν. καὶ γὰρ οἱ πάλαι παρ' Ἕλλησι διαβεβοημένοι θεοὶ Ζεὺς καὶ Ποσειδῶν καὶ Ἀπόλλων καὶ Ἥφαιστος καὶ Ἑρμῆς,καὶ ἐν θηλείαις Ἥρα καὶ ∆ήμητρα καὶ Ἀθηνᾶ καὶ Ἄρτεμις, ταῖς Θησέως τοῦ παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ἱστορουμένου διαταγαῖς ἐκρίθησαν λέγεσθαι θεοί· καὶ οἱ μὲν διαταξάμενοι, ὡς ἄνθρωποι ἀποθνήσκοντες, θρηνοῦνται· οὓς δὲ διετάξαντο, οὗτοι ὡς θεοὶ προσκυνοῦνται. ὢ πολλῆς ἐναντιότητος καὶ μανίας. τὸν διαταξάμενον εἰδότες, οὓς διετάξατο προτιμῶσι. καὶ εἴθε μέχρις ἀρρένων εἱστήκει τούτων ἡ εἰδωλομανία, καὶ μὴ εἰς θηλείας κατέφερον τὴν θείαν προσηγορίαν. καὶ γὰρ καὶ γυναῖκας, ἃς οὐδὲ εἰς κοινὴν περὶ πραγμάτων συμ βουλίαν λαμβάνειν ἀσφαλές, ταύτας τῇ τοῦ Θεοῦ τιμῇ θρησκεύουσι καὶ σέβουσιν, ὡς αἱ μὲν παρὰ Θησέως διαταγεῖσαι, ὡς προειρήκαμεν, παρὰ δὲ Αἰγυπτίοις Ἶσις καὶ Κόρη καὶ Νεωτέρα, καὶ παρ' ἄλλοις Ἀφροδίτη. τὰ γὰρ τῶν ἄλλων ὀνόματα οὐδὲ λέγειν εὐαγὲς ἡγοῦμαι, πάσης χλεύης ὄντα μεστά. πολλοὶ γὰρ οὐ μόνον ἐν τοῖς πάλαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τοῖς καθ' ἡμᾶς χρόνοις, ἀποβαλόντες φίλτατα καὶ ἀδελφοὺς καὶ συγγενεῖς καὶ γυναῖκας, πολλαὶ δὲ καὶ ἄνδρας ἀποβαλοῦσαι, οὓς πάντας ἡ φύσις ἤλεγξεν ἀνθρώπους εἶναι θνητούς, τούτους καὶ ταύτας διὰ τὸ πολὺ περὶ αὐτῶν πένθος ἀναζωγραφήσαντες, καὶ θυσίας ἀναπλάσαντες, ἀνέθηκαν, οὓς οἱ μετὰ ταῦτα διὰ τὴν πλάσιν, καὶ τὴν τοῦ τεχνίτου φιλοτιμίαν θεοὺς ἐθρήσκευσαν, πρᾶγμα πάσχον τες οὐ κατὰ φύσιν. οὓς γὰρ οἱ γονεῖς ὡς μὴ ὄντας θεοὺς ἐθρήνησαν (οὐκ ἂν γάρ, εἴπερ ᾔδεισαν αὐτοὺς θεούς, ὡς ἀπολομένους ἐκόψαντο· τούτου γὰρ χάριν, οὐ μόνον οὐ νομίζοντες αὐτοὺς εἶναι θεούς, ἀλλὰ μηδ' ὅλως ὑπάρχειν, ἐν εἰκόνι τούτους ἐτυπώσαντο, ἵνα τοῦ μηκέτι εἶναι, τὴν διὰ τῆς εἰκόνος δόκησιν ὁρῶντες, παραμυθῶνται), τούτοις ὅμως οἱ ἄφρονες ὡς θεοῖς εὔχονται, καὶ τὴν τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ Θεοῦ τιμὴν τούτοις περιτιθέασιν. ἐν γοῦν Αἰγύπτῳ εἰσέτι καὶ νῦν ὁ περὶ Ὀσίρεως καὶ Ὥρου καὶ Τυφῶνος καὶ τῶν ἄλλων θρῆνος τῆς ἀπωλείας ἐπιτελεῖται· καὶ τὰ ἐν ∆ωδώνῃ χαλκεῖα, καὶ οἱ ἐν Κρήτῃ Κορύβαντες, τὸν ∆ία μὴ εἶναι θεὸν ἐλέγχουσιν, ἀλλ' ἄνθρωπον, καὶ τοῦτον ἐκ πατρὸς ὠμοβόρου γενόμενον. καὶ τό γε θαυμαστόν, ὅτι καὶ ὁ πάνυ παρ' Ἕλλησι σοφὸς καὶ πολλὰ καυχησάμενος ὡς περὶ Θεοῦ διανοηθείς, ὁ Πλάτων, εἰς τὸν Πειραῖα μετὰ Σωκράτους κατέρχεται, τὴν ἀνθρώπου τέχνῃ πλασθεῖσαν Ἄρτεμιν προσκυνήσων.

11 Ταύτας δὲ καὶ τὰς τοιαύτας τῆς εἰδωλομανίας εὑρέσεις ἄνωθεν καὶ πρὸ πολλοῦ προεδίδασκεν ἡ γραφὴ λέγουσα· Ἀρχὴ πορνείας ἐπίνοια εἰδώλων· εὕρεσις δὲ αὐτῶν φθορὰ ζωῆς. οὔτε γὰρ ἦν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, οὔτε εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἔσται. κενοδοξίᾳ γὰρ ἀνθρώπων ἦλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο σύντομον αὐτῶν τέλος ἐπενοήθη. ἀώρῳ γὰρ πένθει τρυχόμενος πατήρ, τοῦ ταχέως ἀφαιρεθέντος τέκνου εἰκόνα ποιήσας, τὸν τότε νεκρὸν ἄνθρωπον νῦν ὡς ζῶντα ἐτίμησε, καὶ παρέδωκε τοῖς ὑποχειρίοις μυστήρια καὶ τελετάς. εἶτ' ἐν χρόνῳ κρατυνθὲν τὸ ἀσεβὲς ἔθος, ὡς νόμος ἐφυλάχθη. καὶ τυράννων ἐπιταγαῖς ἐθρησκεύετο τὰ γλυπτά, οὓς ἐν ὄψει μὴ δυνάμενοι τιμᾷν ἄνθρωποι, διὰ τὸ μακρὰν οἰκεῖν, τὴν πόρρωθεν ὄψιν ἀνατυπωσάμενοι, ἐμφανῆ εἰκόνα τοῦ τετι μημένου βασιλέως ἐποίησαν, ἵνα τὸν ἀπόντα ὡς παρόντα κολακεύωσι διὰ τῆς σπουδῆς. εἰς ἐπίτασιν δὲ θρησκείας καὶ τοὺς ἀγνοοῦντας ἡ τοῦ τεχνίτου προετρέψατο φιλο τιμία· ὁ μὲν γάρ, ἴσως τῷ κρατοῦντι βουλόμενος ἀρέσαι, ἐξεβιάσατο τῇ τέχνῃ τὴν ὁμοιότητα ἐπὶ τὸ κάλλιον· τὸ δὲ πλῆθος, ἐφελκόμενον διὰ τὸ εὔχαρι τῆς ἐργασίας, τὸν πρὸ ὀλίγου τιμηθέντα ἄνθρωπον νῦν σέβασμα ἐλογίσαντο· καὶ τοῦτο ἐγεγόνει τῷ βίῳ εἰς ἔνεδρον· ὅτι, ἢ