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you supposed our doctrine to be foolishness. Since you, then, afterwards urged me on, though I be unskilled in speech, I nevertheless wish even now, through this writing, to show you more accurately the vain labor and vain religion in which you are held, and at the same time, through a few of the histories according to you which you read, but perhaps do not yet understand, to make the truth clear to you. For it seems ridiculous to me that stone-cutters and molders or painters or founders should mold and paint and carve and cast and fashion gods, who, when they have been made by the artisans, they consider them as nothing; but when they have been bought by some and set up in a so-called temple or some house, not only do the buyers sacrifice to them, but also those who made and sold them come with haste and the array of sacrifices and libations to worship them and consider them gods, not knowing that they are of the same sort as when they were made by them, that is, stone or bronze, or wood or color, or even some other material. This indeed has also happened to you who read the histories and genealogies of the so-called gods. For whenever you come upon their origins, you think of them as men; but later you address them as gods and worship them, not observing nor understanding that they were born such as you read that they had become. And of the gods of that time, if indeed they were being born, many a birth was found. But now where is a birth of gods shown? For if they were begetting and were being born then, it is clear that born gods should have continued to be born even until now; but if not, such a thing will be considered a weakness; for either they have grown old, which is why they no longer beget, or they have died and are no more. For if gods were being born, they ought also to have been born until now, just as men are born; or rather, there ought to be even more gods than men, as the Sibyl says: But if gods beget and yet remain immortal, more gods than men would have been born, nor would there ever have been a place for mortals to stand. For if the children born of mortal and short-lived men are shown to be born even until now, and the begetting of men has not ceased, for which reason cities and villages abound, and indeed countries are inhabited, how should not the gods who do not die according to the poets much more beget and be begotten, since you say that a generation of gods has occurred? And why was the mountain called Olympus inhabited by gods then, but now happens to be deserted? Or for what reason did Zeus dwell on Ida then (he was known to dwell there according to Homer and the other poets) but now is unknown? And why was he not everywhere, but was found in a part of the earth? For either he neglected the rest, or he was unable to be everywhere and to provide for all things. For if he was, so to speak, in an eastern place, he was not in a western place; and if again he was in the western parts, he was not in the

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ὑπέλαβες μωρίαν εἶναι τὸν λόγον ἡμῶν. σοῦ οὖν μετὰ ταῦτα προ- τρεψαμένου με, κἂν ἰδιώτης ὦ τῷ λόγῳ, πλὴν βούλομαί σοι καὶ νῦν διὰ τοῦδε τοῦ συγγράμματος ἀκριβέστερον ἐπιδεῖξαι τὴν ματαιο- πονίαν καὶ ματαίαν θρησκείαν ἐν ᾗ κατέχῃ, ἅμα καὶ δι' ὀλίγων τῶν κατά σε ἱστοριῶν ὧν ἀναγινώσκεις, ἴσως δὲ οὐδέπω γινώσκεις, τὸ ἀληθὲς φανερόν σοι ποιῆσαι. Καὶ γὰρ γέλοιόν μοι δοκεῖ λιθοξόους μὲν καὶ πλάστας ἢ ζω- γράφους ἢ χωνευτὰς πλάσσειν τε καὶ γράφειν καὶ γλύφειν καὶ χωνεύειν καὶ θεοὺς κατασκευάζειν, οἵ, ἔπαν γένωνται ὑπὸ τῶν τεχνιτῶν, οὐδὲν αὐτοὺς ἡγοῦνται· ὅταν δὲ ἀγορασθῶσιν ὑπό τινων καὶ ἀνα- τεθῶσιν εἰς ναὸν καλούμενον ἢ οἶκόν τινα, τούτοις οὐ μόνον θύουσιν οἱ ὠνησάμενοι, ἀλλὰ καὶ οἱ ποιήσαντες καὶ πωλήσαντες ἔρχονται μετὰ σπουδῆς καὶ παρατάξεως θυσιῶν τε καὶ σπονδῶν εἰς τὸ προσκυνεῖν αὐτοῖς καὶ ἡγοῦνται θεοὺς αὐτούς, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι τοιοῦτοί εἰσιν ὁποῖοι καὶ ὅτε ἐγένοντο ὑπ' αὐτῶν ἤτοι λίθος ἢ χαλκός, ἢ ξύλον ἢ χρῶμα, ἢ καὶ ἑτέρα τις ὕλη. Τοῦτο δὴ καὶ ὑμῖν συμβέβηκεν τοῖς ἀναγινώσκουσι τὰς ἱστορίας καὶ γενεαλογίας τῶν λεγομένων θεῶν. ὁπόταν γὰρ ἐπιτυγχάνετε ταῖς γενέσεσιν αὐτῶν, ὡς ἀνθρώπους αὐτοὺς νοεῖτε· ὕστερον δὲ θεοὺς προσαγορεύετε καὶ θρησκεύετε αὐτοῖς, οὐκ ἐφιστάνοντες οὐδὲ συνιέντες ὅτι οἵους αὐτοὺς ἀνέγνωτε γεγονέναι τοιοῦτοι καὶ ἐγεννή- θησαν. Καὶ τῶν μὲν τότε θεῶν, εἴπερ ἐγεννῶντο, γένεσις πολλὴ ηὑρίσκετο. τὸ δὲ νῦν ποῦ θεῶν γένεσις δείκνυται; εἰ γὰρ τότε ἐγέννων καὶ ἐγεννῶντο, δῆλον ὅτι ἐχρῆν καὶ ἕως τοῦ δεῦρο γίνεσθαι θεοὺς γεν- νητούς· εἰ δὲ μή γε, ἀσθενὲς τὸ τοιοῦτο νοηθήσεσθαι· ἢ γὰρ ἐγήρασαν, διὸ οὐκ ἔτι γεννῶσιν, ἢ ἀπέθανον καὶ οὐκ ἔτι εἰσίν. εἰ γὰρ ἐγεννῶντο θεοί, ἐχρῆν καὶ ἕως τοῦ δεῦρο γεννᾶσθαι, καθάπερ γὰρ καὶ ἄνθρωποι γεννῶνται· μᾶλλον δὲ καὶ πλείονες θεοὶ ὤφειλον εἶναι τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ὥς φησιν Σίβυλλα· Eἰ δὲ θεοὶ γεννῶσι καὶ ἀθάνατοί γε μένουσι, πλείονες ἀνθρώπων γεγεννημένοι ἂν θεοὶ ἦσαν, οὐδὲ τόπος στῆναι θνητοῖς οὐκ ἄν ποθ' ὑπῆρξεν. εἰ γὰρ ἀνθρώπων θνητῶν καὶ ὀλιγοχρονίων ὄντων τὰ γεννώμενα τέκνα ἕως τοῦ δεῦρο δείκνυται, καὶ οὐ πέπαυται τὸ μὴ γεννᾶσθαι ἀνθρώπους, διὸ πληθύουσι πόλεις καὶ κῶμαι, ἔτι μὴν καὶ χῶραι κατοικοῦνται, πῶς οὐχὶ μᾶλλον ἐχρῆν θεοὺς τοὺς μὴ ἀποθνήσκοντας κατὰ τοὺς ποιητὰς γεννᾶν καὶ γεννᾶσθαι, καθώς φατε θεῶν γένεσιν γεγενῆσθαι; πρὸς τί δὲ τότε μὲν τὸ ὄρος τὸ καλούμενον Ὄλυμπος ὑπὸ θεῶν κατῳκεῖτο, νυνὶ δὲ ἔρημον τυγχάνει; ἢ τίνος εἵνεκεν τότε μὲν ὁ Ζεὺς ἐν τῇ Ἴδῃ κατῴκει (ἐγινώσκετο οἰκῶν ἐκεῖ κατὰ τὸν Ὅμηρον καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς ποιητάς) νῦνι δὲ ἀγνοεῖται; διὰ τί δὲ καὶ οὐκ ἦν πανταχόσε, ἀλλὰ ἐν μέρει γῆς εὑρίσκετο; ἢ γὰρ τῶν λοιπῶν ἠμέλει, ἢ ἀδύνατος ἦν τοῦ πανταχόσε εἶναι καὶ τῶν πάντων προ- νοεῖν. εἰ γὰρ ἦν, εἰ τύχοι εἰπεῖν, ἐν τόπῳ ἀνατολικῷ, οὐκ ἦν ἐν τόπῳ δυτικῷ· εἰ δὲ αὖ πάλιν ἐν τοῖς δυτικοῖς ἦν, οὐκ ἦν ἐν τοῖς