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of the fragrance of things, He Himself being the perfect fragrance, wanting nothing and needing nothing; but the greatest sacrifice to Him is if we know who stretched out and rounded the heavens and established the earth like a center, who gathered the water into the seas and separated the light from the darkness, who adorned the aether with stars and made the earth put forth every seed, who made the animals and fashioned man. When <οὖν> possessing the creator God, who holds together and oversees with the knowledge and art by which He directs all things, we lift up holy hands to Him, what further need does He have of a hecatomb? "And men turn him aside with sacrifices and gentle prayers, with libation and the savor of fat, beseeching him, whensoever any man transgresses and sins." But what to Me are whole burnt offerings, which God does not need? and to offer them, when it is necessary to present the unbloody sacrifice, the rational worship? But their argument about not approaching and not recognizing the same gods as the cities is very simple-minded; but not even those who accuse us of atheism, because we do not believe in the same gods as they know, agree among themselves about the gods [in vain], but the Athenians have established Celeus and Metaneira as gods, the Lacedaemonians Menelaus, and they sacrifice to him and celebrate festivals, the Ilians cannot bear even to hear the name of Hector, the Ceans Aristaeus, whom they consider the same as both Zeus and Apollo, the Thasians Theagenes, by whom a murder was even committed at Olympia, the Samians Lysander, after so many slaughters and so many evils, Alcman and Hesiod Medea, or the Cilicians Niobe, the Sicilians Philip the son of Boutacides, the Amathusians Onesilus, the Carthaginians Hamilcar; the day will fail me as I enumerate the multitude. When, therefore, they disagree among themselves about their own gods, why do they accuse us for not agreeing with them? And is not the case of the Egyptians even ridiculous? For in their temples at the festivals they beat their breasts as for dead men, and they sacrifice to them as gods. And no wonder; since they even consider beasts to be gods, and shave themselves when they die, and bury them in temples, and raise public lamentations. If, then, we are impious because we do not worship in common with them, then all cities and all nations are impious; for they do not all recognize the same gods. But let it be that they do recognize the same gods. What then? Since the many, being unable to distinguish what is matter and what is God, and how great is the difference between them, approach idols made of matter, shall we on their account—we who distinguish and separate the uncreated and the created, that which is and that which is not, the intelligible and the sensible, and assign to each of them its proper name—shall we also approach and worship the images? For if matter and God are the same thing, two names for

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μάτων εὐωδίας, αὐτὸς ὢν ἡ τελεία εὐωδία, ἀνενδεὴς καὶ ἀπροσδεής· ἀλλὰ θυσία αὐτῷ μεγίστη, ἂν γινώσκωμεν τίς ἐξέτεινε καὶ συνε σφαίρωσεν τοὺς οὐρανοὺς καὶ τὴν γῆν κέντρου δίκην ἥδρασε, τίς συνήγαγεν τὸ ὕδωρ εἰς θαλάσσας καὶ διέκρινεν τὸ φῶς ἀπὸ τοῦ σκότους, τίς ἐκόσμησεν ἄστροις τὸν αἰθέρα καὶ ἐποίησεν πᾶν σπέρμα τὴν γῆν ἀναβάλλειν, τίς ἐποίησεν ζῷα καὶ ἄνθρωπον ἔπλασεν. ὅταν <οὖν> ἔχοντες τὸν δημιουργὸν θεὸν συνέχοντα καὶ ἐποπτεύοντα ἐπιστήμῃ καὶ τέχνῃ καθ' ἣν ἄγει τὰ πάντα, ἐπαίρωμεν ὁσίους χεῖρας αὐτῷ, ποίας ἔτι χρείαν ἑκατόμβης ἔχει; καὶ τοὺς μὲν θυσίῃσι καὶ εὐχωλῇς ἀγανῇσι λοιβῇ τε κνίσῃ τε παρατρωπῶσ' ἄνθρωποι, λισσόμενοι, ὅτε κέν τις ὑπερβαίῃ καὶ ἁμάρτῃ. τί δέ μοι ὁλοκαυτώσεων, ὧν μὴ δεῖται ὁ θεός; καὶ προσφέρειν, δέον ἀναίμακτον θυσίαν τὴν λογικὴν προσάγειν λατρείαν; Ὁ δὲ περὶ τοῦ μὴ προσιέναι καὶ τοὺς αὐτοὺς ταῖς πόλεσιν θεοὺς ἄγειν πάνυ αὐτοῖς εὐήθης λόγος· ἀλλ' οὐδὲ οἱ ἡμῖν ἐπικα λοῦντες ἀθεότητα, ἐπεὶ μὴ τοὺς αὐτοὺς οἷς ἴσασι νομίζομεν, σφίσιν αὐτοῖς συμφωνοῦσιν περὶ θεῶν [μάτην], ἀλλ' Ἀθηναῖοι μὲν Κελεὸν καὶ Μετάνειραν ἵδρυνται θεούς, Λακεδαιμόνιοι δὲ Μενέλεων καὶ θύουσιν αὐτῷ καὶ ἑορτάζουσιν, Ἰλιεῖς δὲ οὐδὲ τὸ ὄνομα ἀκούοντες Ἕκτορα φέρουσιν, Κεῖοι Ἀρισταῖον, τὸν αὐτὸν καὶ ∆ία καὶ Ἀπόλλω νομίζοντες, Θάσιοι Θεαγένην, ὑφ' οὗ καὶ φόνος Ὀλυμ πίασιν ἐγένετο, Σάμιοι Λύσανδρον ἐπὶ τοσαύταις σφαγαῖς καὶ τοσούτοις κακοῖς, Ἀλκμὰν καὶ Ἡσίοδος Μήδειαν ἢ Νιόβην Κίλικες, Σικελοὶ Φίλιππον τὸν Βουτακίδου, Ὀνησίλαον Ἀμαθούσιοι, Ἀμίλκαν Καρχηδόνιοι· ἐπιλείψει με ἡ ἡμέρα τὸ πλῆθος καταλέγοντα. ὅταν οὖν αὐτοὶ αὑτοῖς διαφωνῶσιν περὶ τῶν κατ' αὐτοὺς θεῶν, τί ἡμῖν μὴ συμφερομένοις ἐπικαλοῦσιν; τὸ δὲ κατ' Aἰγυπτίους μὴ καὶ γελοῖον ᾖ· τύπτονται γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς τὰ στήθη κατὰ τὰς πανηγύρεις ὡς ἐπὶ τετελευτηκόσιν καὶ θύουσιν ὡς θεοῖς. καὶ οὐδὲν θαυμαστόν· οἵ γε καὶ τὰ θηρία θεοὺς ἄγουσιν καὶ ξυρῶνται ἐπεὶ ἀποθνῄσκουσιν, καὶ θάπτουσιν ἐν ἱεροῖς καὶ δημοτελεῖς κοπετοὺς ἐγείρουσιν. ἂν τοίνυν ἡμεῖς, ὅτι μὴ κοινῶς ἐκείνοις θεοσεβοῦμεν, ἀσεβῶμεν, πᾶσαι μὲν πόλεις, πάντα δὲ ἔθνη ἀσεβοῦσιν· οὐ γὰρ τοὺς αὐτοὺς πάντες ἄγουσι θεούς. Ἀλλ' ἔστωσαν τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἄγοντες. τί οὖν; ἐπεὶ οἱ πολλοὶ διακρῖναι οὐ δυνάμενοι, τί μὲν ὕλη, τί δὲ θεός, πόσον δὲ τὸ διὰ μέσου αὐτῶν, προσίασι τοῖς ἀπὸ τῆς ὕλης εἰδώλοις, δι' ἐκείνους καὶ ἡμεῖς οἱ διακρίνοντες καὶ χωρίζοντες τὸ ἀγένητον καὶ τὸ γενητόν, τὸ ὂν καὶ τὸ οὐκ ὄν, τὸ νοητὸν καὶ τὸ αἰσθητόν, καὶ ἑκάστῳ αὐτῶν τὸ προσῆκον ὄνομα ἀποδιδόντες, προσελευσόμεθα καὶ προσκυνήσομεν τὰ ἀγάλματα; εἰ μὲν γὰρ ταὐτὸν ὕλη καὶ θεός, δύο ὀνόματα καθ'