Protrepticus

 raging for corruptions, celebrating insolence, deifying sorrows, the first to lead men by the hand to idols, yes, indeed, to stones and wood, that is,

 may inspire, and which may receive the 1.5.4 Lord. Yes, indeed, David the king, the harpist, whom we mentioned a little before, was exhorting towards

 and to statues and to certain such images having bound them fast with the wretched bond of superstition, that which is indeed said, bringing living me

 Let her who does not give birth hear let her who does not travail break forth with a cry, for the children of the desolate are more than of her who

 breathing roughly is interpreted as the female serpent But Deo and Kore have already become a mystic drama, and Eleusis holds torches for their wande

 a herdsman, the goad, calling the narthex a herdsman's goad, I suppose, which the Bacchants indeed wreathe. 2.17.1 Do you wish that I should narrate t

 and the swineherd Eubouleus from whom sprang the hierophantic family of the Eumolpidae and Kerykes, 2.20.3 this very one at Athens. And indeed (for I

 a teacher of the woman's 2.24.2 disease to the other Scythians. For which reason (for it must by no means be concealed), it comes over me to wonder in

 they have fabricated certain saviors, the Dioscuri and Heracles, averter of evil, and Asclepius the physician. 2.27.1 These are the slippery and harmf

 Apollodorus says, and Callimachus, Phoebus is appointed over the sacrifices of asses among the Hyperboreans. And the same poet elsewhere says, Fat sac

 and of gods. He was so poured out in matters of love, as to desire all, and to fulfill his desire upon all. At any rate, he was filled with women no

 is fashioned in the manner of a member and sits upon the branch, fulfilling the promise to the dead man. A mystical memorial of this passion, phalli a

 is taught to be prudent. The myth is laid bare for you Leda died, the swan died, the eagle died. You seek your Zeus? do not meddle with the sky, but

 2.39.8 they acclaimed. But Heraclides in *Foundations of Temples* says that in Acarnania, where the Actium promontory is and the temple of Actian Apol

 he records 3.42.7 to have offered a whole burnt-offering. And Erechtheus the Attic and Marius the Roman sacrificed their own daughters of whom the on

 In Athens, on the acropolis, is that of Cecrops, as Antiochus says in the ninth book of his Histories. And what of Erichthonius? Was he not buried in

 the so-called Palladium, fallen from heaven, which Diomedes and Odysseus are said to have stolen from Ilium, and to have entrusted to Demophon, was ma

 Nor insult the blooming youth keep it pure, that it may be beautiful. Become a king of beauty, not a tyrant let it remain free then I will recogniz

 worshippers of stones, having learned by deed not to worship senseless matter, being overcome by the need itself, are destroyed by superstition But t

 And private individuals dignified themselves with divine titles, as Menecrates the physician, who was surnamed Zeus. Why must I list Alexarchus (he wa

 4.56.4 offspring of the earth, all these things that you see? Why then, O foolish and empty-minded ones (for I will say it again), having blasphemed t

 they boast, having enrolled them as their own household slaves, having made them compelled slaves by their incantations. Therefore, the remembered mar

 you shall make, says the prophet, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above and that is in the 4.62.3 earth beneath. Would we, then, still s

 those who worship it have suffered for others named this fire Hephaestus. 5.65.1 But the Magi of the Persians have honored fire, as have many of the

 of truth, do you show that those who have trusted in you are subjected to a flow and current and disorderly eddies? And why do you fill my life with i

 by counsel but indeed they raise pure arms to heaven, rising early from bed, always cleansing their skin with water, and they honor only the one who

 a comfort of the gods, images of stone, or bronze or gold-wrought or ivory figures and allotting sacrifices to them and empty festivals, thus we thin

 you will empty injustice. 8.77.1 Now that the other things have been duly completed by us in order, it is time to turn to the prophetic writings for

 I swear by myself. But he is vexed with the idolaters, saying to whom have you likened the Lord? or to what likeness have you likened him? Did a car

 For how is it permitted for the foreigner to enter? But when, I suppose, he is enrolled and made a citizen and receives the father, then he will be i

 the wanderers of the Hebrews for they are said not to have entered into the rest because of unbelief, until, having followed the successor of Moses,

 10.89.1 But to overturn a custom handed down to us from our fathers, you say, is not reasonable. And why, then, do we not use our first food, milk, to

 demands repentance. But I want to ask you, if it does not seem absurd to you that you, men, having been born a creation of God and having received you

 punishment? Why do we not accept the gift? Why do we not choose the better things, God instead of the wicked one, and prefer wisdom to idolatry, and e

 10.98.3 promised? Who has promised immortality? Only the Creator of all things, the father, the master-craftsman, fashioned us, man, such a living s

 to wipe away the hindrances to salvation, both pride and wealth and fear, uttering this very poetic saying: Where, indeed, do I carry these many posse

 they inhumanly attempt to slaughter him who teaches humanely, who calls them to righteousness, neither awaiting the grace from above nor shunning the

 a portion to those who have turned to any part of life, and to consider wisdom the same waveless harbor of salvation 10.107.3 through which those who

 He who also was, through what He taught and showed, having presented himself, our truce-bearer and reconciler and savior, the Word, a life-giving, pea

 since you were not ashamed of your brother. 11.114.1 Let us then take away, let us take away the forgetfulness of the truth having cast down the igno

 The trumpet with its great blast sounded, gathered soldiers, and announced war but Christ, having breathed a peaceful melody to the ends of the earth

 bound, you shall be loosed from all corruption, the Word of God will steer you, and the Holy Spirit will bring you to anchor in the harbors of the hea

 12.121.1 Let us hasten, let us run, O God-loving and God-like images of the Word [men] let us hasten, let us run, let us take up His yoke, let us mou

a herdsman, the goad, calling the narthex a herdsman's goad, I suppose, which the Bacchants indeed wreathe. 2.17.1 Do you wish that I should narrate to you also the flower-gatherings of Pherrephatta, and the basket, and her seizure by Aidoneus, and the chasm in the earth, and the swine of Eubuleus that were swallowed up with the two goddesses, for which reason at the Thesmophoria they cast pigs into the chasms? This myth the women celebrate in various ways in city after city, Thesmophoria, Scirophoria, Arrhetophoria, in many ways dramatizing the rape of Pherrephatta. 2.17.2 For the mysteries of Dionysus are completely inhuman; for while he was still a child, and the Kouretes were dancing around him in an armed dance, the Titans, stealing in by stealth, having deceived him with childish toys, these very Titans tore him asunder, while he was still an infant, as the poet of the Initiation, Orpheus the Thracian, says: a cone and a rhombus and limb-bending toys, and beautiful golden apples from the clear-voiced Hesperides. 2.18.1 And it is not useless to set before you for condemnation the worthless symbols of this rite: knuckle-bone, ball, top, apples, rhombus, mirror, fleece. Athena, then, having snatched away the heart of Dionysus, was called Pallas from the palpitating of the heart; and the Titans, who had torn him apart, placing a certain cauldron on a tripod and throwing in the limbs of Dionysus, first boiled them; then, having pierced them with spits, 2.18.2 "held them over Hephaestus." But Zeus, appearing later (if he was a god, perhaps having partaken of the savour of the roasted flesh, of which indeed your gods confess it is their "prerogative to receive a portion") smites the Titans with his thunderbolt, and entrusts the limbs of Dionysus to his son, Apollo, to bury. And he, for he did not disobey Zeus, carries it to Parnassus and lays to rest the dismembered corpse. 2.19.1 And if you wish to see the orgies of the Korybantes, these two, having slain their third brother, covered the head of the dead man with a purple cloth and, having crowned it, buried it, carrying it on a bronze shield to the foot of Olympus 2.19.2 (and these are the mysteries, to speak concisely, murders and burials). The priests of these rites, whom those concerned call Anaktotelestai, add prodigy to the misfortune, forbidding celery with its root to be placed on the table; for they suppose indeed that celery has grown from the blood that flowed from the slain Korybant; 2.19.3 just as, of course, the women celebrating the Thesmophoria are on their guard against eating the seeds of the pomegranate; for they believe the seeds that fell to the ground from the drops of Dionysus' blood have sprouted into pomegranates. 2.19.4 And calling the Korybantes Kabeiroi, they proclaim a Kabeiric initiation; for these two fratricides themselves, taking up the chest in which the phallus of Dionysus lay, brought it to Tyrrhenia, merchants of a glorious cargo; and there they two stayed, being exiles, delivering to the Tyrrhenians the most valuable teaching of piety, to worship a phallus and a chest. For which reason not unreasonably some wish Dionysus to be called Attis, since he was deprived of his genitals. 2.20.1 And what wonder is it if the Tyrrhenians, who are barbarians, are initiated into such shameful sufferings, when for 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 Kore, around Eleusis (this place is in Attica) grows weary and sits down upon a well, grieving. This is forbidden to those being initiated even now, so that the initiated might not seem to be imitating the lamenting one. 2.20.2 And at that time the earth-born inhabitants dwelt in Eleusis; their names were Baubo and Dysaules and Triptolemus, and also Eumolpus and Eubuleus; Triptolemus was a herdsman, and Eumolpus a shepherd,

βουκόλος, τὸ κέντρον, βουκολικόν, οἶμαι, κέντρον τὸν νάρθηκα ἐπικαλῶν, ὃν δὴ ἀναστέφουσιν οἱ βάκχοι. 2.17.1 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 2.17.2 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. 2.18.1 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 2.18.2 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. 2.19.1 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 2.19.2 (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 2.19.3 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. 2.19.4 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. 2.20.1 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 2.20.2 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,