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men enslaved by misfortune or tyranny, have bestowed the incommunicable name upon stones and wood. Since, therefore, such was the invention of idols, which began and was fashioned among men, with Scripture for a witness, it is now time to show you the refutation of it, taking our proofs not so much from without, as from what these men think concerning them. For if one were to take the deeds of those among them called gods, to begin first with those below, he will find that not only are they not gods, but that they have been the most shameful of men. For instance, what a thing it is to see the loves and the wanton acts of Zeus among the poets. What a thing it is to hear of him seizing Ganymede, and committing stealthy adulteries, and fearing and cowering lest the walls of the Trojans perish against his will. What a thing it is to see him grieving at the death of his son Sarpedon, and wishing to help him and not being able; and being plotted against by the other so-called gods, I mean Athena and Hera and Poseidon, and being helped by the woman Thetis and by the hundred-handed Aigaion; and being conquered by pleasures, and being enslaved to women, and on their account risking his form in irrational animals, both four-footed and winged; and again, hiding himself because of his father's plot, while Kronos is bound by him, and that one castrating his father. Is it then right to suppose him a god, who did and was accused of so many things, which even the common laws of the Romans do not permit mere men to do?

12 For, to mention a few of many because of their number, who, seeing his lawlessness and violation of Semele and Leda and Alcmene and Artemis and Leto and Maia and Europa and Danae and Antiope; or who, seeing his attempt and audacity against his own sister, since he had the same woman as both sister and wife, would not mock him, and punish him with death? Because not only did he commit adultery, but he even deified and set up the children born to him from adultery, fashioning the pretence of deification as a cover for his lawlessness; among whom are Dionysus and Heracles and the Dioscuri and Hermes and Perseus and Soteira. Who, seeing the implacable strife of the so-called gods against each other at Ilium for the sake of the Greeks and Trojans, will not condemn their weakness, because through their rivalry with one another they also incited men? Who, seeing Ares and Aphrodite being wounded by Diomedes, and Hera and the subterranean god whom they call Aidoneus by Heracles, and Dionysus by Perseus, and Athena by an Arcadian, and Hephaestus being thrown down and limping, will not condemn their nature, and turn away from still calling them gods, but hearing them to be mortal and passible, will recognize them as nothing other than men, and weak men, and would rather admire those who wounded than those who were wounded? Or who, seeing the adultery of Ares with Aphrodite, and the trap fashioned by Hephaestus against both, and the other so-called gods being called by Hephaestus to the spectacle of the adultery, and them coming, and seeing their debauchery, would not laugh and condemn their worthlessness? Or who would not laugh seeing the madness and debauchery of Heracles with Omphale from drunkenness? For their actions according to pleasure, and their irrational loves, and their fashionings of gods in gold and silver, and bronze and iron, and stones and wood, need not be refuted with zeal, since the deeds themselves contain their own pollution, and display through themselves the mark of their error; at which one might especially pity those who are deceived by them. For while hating the adulterer who approaches their own wife, the teachers of adultery

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συμφορᾷ ἢ τυραννίδι δουλεύσαντες ἄνθρωποι, τὸ ἀκοινώνητον ὄνομα λίθοις καὶ ξύλοις περιέθηκαν. τοιαύτης τοίνυν τῆς εἰδώλων εὑρέσεως ἐπὶ μάρτυρι τῇ γραφῇ παρὰ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἀρξαμένης καὶ ἀναπλασθείσης, ὥρα λοιπόν σοι καὶ τὸν κατ' αὐτῆς ἔλεγχον ἀποδεῖξαι, οὐ τοσοῦτον ἔξωθεν, ὅσον ἀφ' ὧν οὗτοι περὶ αὐτῶν φρονοῦσι τὰ τεκμήρια λαμβανόντας. Εἰ γάρ τις τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς λεγομένων θεῶν, ἵνα πρῶτον ἀπὸ τούτων τῶν κάτωθεν ἄρξωμαι, λάβοι τὰς πράξεις, εὑρήσει μὴ μόνον οὐκ εἶναι αὐτοὺς θεούς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τοὺς αἰσχίστους γεγονότας. οἷον γάρ, οἷόν ἐστιν ἰδεῖν τοὺς παρὰ ποιηταῖς τοῦ ∆ιὸς ἔρωτας, καὶ τὰς ἀσελγείας. οἷόν ἐστιν αὐτὸν ἀκούειν ἁρπάζοντα μὲν τὸν Γανυμήδην, καὶ τὰς κλοπιμαίους ἐργαζόμενον μοιχείας, δεδιότα δὲ καὶ δειλιῶντα μὴ παρὰ γνώμην αὐτοῦ τὰ τῶν Τρώων ἀπόληται τείχη. οἷόν ἐστιν ἰδεῖν αὐτὸν ἀχθόμενον ἐπὶ τῷ θανάτῳ τοῦ υἱέος αὐτοῦ Σαρπηδόνος, καὶ βουλόμενον αὐτῷ βοηθῆσαι καὶ μὴ δυνά μενον· καὶ ἐπιβουλευόμενον μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν ἄλλων λεγομένων θεῶν, Ἀθηνᾶς δὴ λέγω καὶ Ἥρας καὶ Ποσειδῶνος, βοηθούμενον δὲ ὑπὸ Θέτιδος γυναικὸς καὶ τοῦ ἑκατονταχείρου Αἰγαίωνος· καὶ νικώμενον ὑπὸ ἡδονῶν, δουλεύοντα δὲ γυναιξί, καὶ δι' αὐτὰς ἐν ἀλόγοις ζώοις τετράποσί τε καὶ πτηνοῖς ταῖς φαντασίαις παρακινδυνεύοντα· καὶ πάλιν αὐτὸν μὲν κρυπτόμενον διὰ τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς ἐπιβουλήν, τὸν δὲ Κρόνον ὑπ' αὐτοῦ δεσμευόμενον, κἀκεῖνον ἀποτέμνοντα τὸν πατέρα. ἆρ' οὖν ἄξιον τοῦτον ὑπονοεῖν θεόν, τοσαῦτα δράσαντα, καὶ διαβλη θέντα, ἃ μηδὲ οἱ κοινοὶ Ῥωμαίων νόμοι καὶ τοὺς ἁπλῶς ἀνθρώπους ἐπιτρέπουσι ποιεῖν;

12 Ἵνα γὰρ ἐκ πολλῶν ὀλίγα μνημονεύσω διὰ τὸ πλῆθος, τίς ἰδὼν αὐτοῦ τὴν εἰς Σεμέλην καὶ Λήδαν καὶ Ἀλκμήνην καὶ Ἄρτεμιν καὶ Λητὼ καὶ Μαῖαν καὶ Εὐρώπην καὶ ∆ανάην καὶ Ἀντιόπην παρανομίαν καὶ φθοράν· ἢ τίς, ἰδὼν τὴν εἰς τὴν ἰδίαν ἀδελφὴν αὐτοῦ ἐπιχείρη σιν καὶ τόλμαν, ὅτι τὴν αὐτὴν ἀδελφὴν εἶχε καὶ γυναῖκα, οὐκ ἂν χλευάσειε, καὶ ζημιώσειε θανάτῳ; ὅτι μὴ μόνον ἐμοίχευσεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς ἐκ τῆς μοιχείας γενομένους αὐτῷ παῖδας θεοποιήσας ἀνέθηκεν, ἐπικάλυμμα τῆς παρανομίας αὐτοῦ τὴν τῆς θεοποιίας φαντασίαν κατασκευάζων· ὧν εἰσι ∆ιόνυσος καὶ Ἡρακλῆς καὶ ∆ιόσκουροι καὶ Ἑρμῆς καὶ Περσεὺς καὶ Σώτειρα. τίς, ἰδὼν τὴν τῶν λεγομένων θεῶν ἀκατάλλακτον πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς ἔριν ἐν Ἰλίῳ τῶν Ἑλλήνων καὶ τῶν Τρώων χάριν, οὐ καταγνώσεται τῆς ἀσθενείας αὐτῶν, ὅτι διὰ τὴν πρὸς ἀλλήλους φιλονεικίαν καὶ τοὺς ἀνθρώπους παρώξυναν; τίς, ἰδὼν ὑπὸ μὲν ∆ιομήδους τιτρωσκομένους Ἄρεα καὶ Ἀφροδίτην, ὑπὸ δὲ Ἡρακλέους τὴν Ἥραν καὶ τὸν Ὑποχθόνιον ὃκαλοῦσι θεὸν Ἀϊδωνέα, καὶ ∆ιόνυσον μὲν ὑπὸ Περσέως, Ἀθηνᾶν δὲ ὑπὸ Ἀρκάδος, καὶ τὸν Ἥφαιστον ῥιπτόμενον καὶ χωλαίνοντα, οὐ καταγνώσεται τῆς φύσεως, καὶ ἀποστραφήσεται μὲν τοῦ λέγειν αὐτοὺς ἔτι εἶναι θεούς, φθαρτοὺς δὲ καὶ παθητοὺς αὐτοὺς ἀκούων, οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ ἀνθρώπους αὐτούς, καὶ ἀνθρώπους ἀσθενεῖς ἐπιγνώσε ται, καὶ μᾶλλον τοὺς τρώσαντας ἢ τοὺς τρωθέντας θαυμάσειεν; ἢ τίς, ἰδὼν τὴν Ἄρεως πρὸς Ἀφροδίτην μοιχείαν, καὶ τὸν Ἡφαίστουκατ' ἀμφοτέρων κατασκευαζόμενον δόλον, καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους λεγο μένους θεοὺς ἐπὶ θέαν τῆς μοιχείας ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἡφαίστου καλουμένους, καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐρχομένους, καὶ ὁρῶντας αὐτῶν τὴν ἀσέλγειαν, οὐκ ἂν γελάσειε καὶ καταγνώσεται τῆς φαυλότητος αὐτῶν; ἢ τίς οὐκ ἂν γελάσειεν ὁρῶν τὴν Ἡρακλέους πρὸς τὴν Ὀμφάλην ἐκ μέθης παραφροσύνην καὶ ἀσωτίαν; Τὰς γὰρ καθ' ἡδονὴν αὐτῶν πράξεις, καὶ τοὺς παραλόγους αὐτῶν ἔρωτας, καὶ τὰς ἐν χρυσῷ καὶ ἀργύρῳ, καὶ χαλκῷ καὶ σιδήρῳ, καὶ λίθοις καὶ ξύλοις θεοπλαστίας, οὐ δεῖ διελέγχειν μετὰ σπουδῆς, τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ ἀφ' ἑαυτῶν ἐχόντων τὸ μύσος, καὶ δι' ἑαυτῶν ἐπιδεικνυμένων τὸ τῆς πλάνης γνώρισμα· ἐφ' οἷς μάλιστα καὶ οἰκτειρήσειεν ἄν τις τοὺς ἀπατωμένους ἐν αὐτοῖς. τῇ γὰρ ἑαυτῶν γυναικὶ μισοῦντες τὸν ἐπιβαίνοντα μοιχόν, τοὺς τῆς μοιχείας διδα σκάλους