Xenophon said that Heracles, walking at a certain crossroads, found both virtue and vice, appearing in the forms of women. And that Vice, in delicate clothing and with a face made up for love and blooming from such things, being immediately attractive to the eyes, said to Heracles that if he would follow her, she would cause him to live always in pleasure and adorned with the most brilliant and similar adornment to that which was about her. And that Virtue, being squalid in face and in dress, said: But if you obey me, you will adorn yourself not with adornment nor beauty that is fleeting and perishable, but with eternal and noble adornments. And we are persuaded that anyone at all, who flees apparent goods, but pursues what are considered harsh and irrational things, will receive happiness. For Vice, putting forward as a screen for her own actions the qualities that belong to Virtue and are truly good, clothing herself through imitation of things incorruptible (for she has nothing incorruptible, nor can she make anything so), enslaves the groveling among men, attributing to Virtue the evil qualities that belong to herself. But they who have understood the qualities that are truly good and are incorruptible by virtue; which also concerning Christians and those who contend and the men who have done such things as the poets said concerning the supposed gods, every intelligent person must conclude, drawing the conclusion from our despising even that death which is to be avoided. For I myself, while delighting in the teachings of Plato, hearing the Christians slandered, but seeing them fearless toward death and all other things that are considered terrible, I understood that it was impossible for them to be living in wickedness and love of pleasure. For what lover of pleasure or intemperate man, and one who regards the eating of human flesh as a good thing, would be able to welcome death, so that he might be deprived of his goods, but would not by all means try to live forever the life here and to escape the notice of the rulers, much less to give himself up to be killed? And this also the evil demons have contrived to have done through certain wicked men. For they, having themselves killed some people on the basis of slander against us, have dragged to tortures our domestic servants, or children, or women, and by means of terrible torments they compel them to say those legendary things, which they themselves openly do; of which things, since none of them applies to us, we take no thought, having God the unbegotten and ineffable as a witness of our thoughts and of our deeds. For for what reason would we not also publicly confess these things to be good and prove them to be a divine philosophy, saying that we perform the mysteries of Cronus in man-slaying, and in being filled with blood, as is said,

τὸν Ἡρακλέα ἐπὶ τρίοδόν τινα ἔφη ὁ Ξενοφῶν βαδίζοντα εὑρεῖν τήν τε ἀρετὴν καὶ τὴν κακίαν, ἐν γυναικῶν μορφαῖς φαινομένας. καὶ τὴν μὲν κακίαν, ἁβρᾷ ἐσθῆτι καὶ ἐρωτοπεποιημένῳ καὶ ἀνθοῦντι ἐκ τῶν τοιούτων προσώπῳ, θελκτικήν τε εὐθὺς πρὸς τὰς ὄψεις οὖσαν, εἰπεῖν πρὸς τὸν Ἡρακλέα ὅτι, ἢν αὐτῇ ἕπηται, ἡδόμενόν τε καὶ κεκοσμημένον τῷ λαμπροτάτῳ καὶ ὁμοίῳ τῷ περὶ αὐτὴν κόσμῳ διαιτήσειν ἀεὶ ποιήσει. καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν ἐν αὐχμηρῷ μὲν τῷ προσώπῳ καὶ τῇ περιβολῇ οὖσαν εἰπεῖν· Ἀλλ' ἢν ἐμοὶ πείθῃ, οὐ κόσμῳ οὐδὲ κάλλει τῷ ·έοντι καὶ φθει ρομένῳ ἑαυτὸν κοσμήσεις ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἀϊδίοις καὶ καλοῖς κόσμοις. καὶ πάνθ' ὁντινοῦν πεπείσμεθα, φεύγοντα τὰ δοκοῦντα καλά, τὰ δὲ νομιζόμενα σκληρὰ καὶ ἄλογα μετερχόμενον, εὐδαιμονίαν ἐκδέχεσθαι. ἡ γὰρ κακία, πρόβλημα ἑαυτῆς τῶν πράξεων τὰ προσόντα τῇ ἀρετῇ καὶ ὄντως ὄντα καλὰ διὰ μιμήσεως ἀφθάρ των περιβαλλομένη (ἄφθαρτον γὰρ οὐδὲν ἔχει οὐδὲ ποιῆσαι δύνατα), δουλαγωγεῖ τοὺς χαμαιπετεῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τὰ προ σόντα αὐτῇ φαῦλα τῇ ἀρετῇ περιθεῖσα. οἱ δὲ νενοηκότες τὰ προσόντα τῷ ὄντι καλὰ καὶ ἄφθαρτοι τῇ ἀρετῇ· ὃ καὶ περὶ Χριστιανῶν καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ ἄθλου καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώ πων τῶν τοιαῦτα πραξάντων, ὁποῖα ἔφασαν οἱ ποιηταὶ περὶ τῶν νομιζομένων θεῶν, ὑπολαβεῖν δεῖ πάντα νουνεχῆ, ἐκ τοῦ καὶ τοῦ φευκτοῦ καταφρονεῖν ἡμᾶς θανάτου λογισμὸν ἕλκοντα. Καὶ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἐγώ, τοῖς Πλάτωνος χαίρων διδάγ μασι, διαβαλλομένους ἀκούων Χριστιανούς, ὁρῶν δὲ ἀφόβους πρὸς θάνατον καὶ πάντα τὰ ἄλλα νομιζόμενα φοβερά, ἐνε νόουν ἀδύνατον εἶναι ἐν κακίᾳ καὶ φιληδονίᾳ ὑπάρχειν αὐτούς. τίς γὰρ φιλήδονος ἢ ἀκρατὴς καὶ ἀνθρωπίνων σαρκῶν βορὰν ἀγαθὸν ἡγούμενος δύναιτο ἂν θάνατον ἀσπάζεσθαι, ὅπως τῶν αὐτοῦ ἀγαθῶν στερηθῇ, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐκ παντὸς ζῆν μὲν ἀεὶ τὴν ἐνθάδε βιοτὴν καὶ λανθάνειν τοὺς ἄρχοντας ἐπειρᾶτο, οὐχ ὅτι γε ἑαυτὸν κατήγγειλε φονευθησόμενον; ἤδη καὶ τοῦτο ἐνήργησαν οἱ φαῦλοι δαίμονες διά τινων πονηρῶν ἀν θρώπων πραχθῆναι. φονεύοντες γὰρ αὐτοί τινας ἐπὶ συκο φαντίᾳ τῇ εἰς ἡμᾶς καὶ εἰς βασάνους εἵλκυσαν οἰκέτας τῶν ἡμετέρων ἢ παῖδας ἢ γύναια, καὶ δι' αἰκισμῶν φοβερῶν ἐξαναγ κάζουσι κατειπεῖν ταῦτα τὰ μυθολογούμενα, ἃ αὐτοὶ φανερῶς πράττουσιν· ὧν ἐπειδὴ οὐδὲν πρόσεστιν ἡμῖν, οὐ φροντίζομεν, θεὸν τὸν ἀγέννητον καὶ ἄρρητον μάρτυρα ἔχοντες τῶν τε λο γισμῶν καὶ τῶν πράξεων. τίνος γὰρ χάριν οὐχὶ καὶ ταῦτα δημοσίᾳ ὡμολογοῦμεν ἀγαθὰ καὶ φιλοσοφίαν θείαν αὐτὰ ἀπεδείκνυμεν, φάσκοντες Κρόνου μὲν μυστήρια τελεῖν ἐν τῷ ἀνδροφονεῖν, καὶ ἐν τῷ αἵματος ἐμπίπλασθαι, ὡς λέγεται,