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to his house, which he cut, wood from the forest, which the Lord planted, and rain made it grow, so that it might be for men for burning, and taking from it he might be warmed. and having burned it they baked loaves on it, but the rest they worked into gods, and they worshipped them, of which half they burned in the fire. and on the half of it, having roasted meat, he ate and was filled; and being warmed, he said: It is pleasant for me, because I was warmed, and I saw fire. But the rest he worshipped, saying: Deliver me, because you are my God. They did not know how to understand, because they were darkened from seeing with their eyes, and from understanding with their heart; and he did not consider in his heart, nor did he consider in his soul, nor did he know in his understanding, that half of it he burned in the fire and baked loaves on its coals; and having roasted meat he ate, and the rest of it he made into an abomination, and they worship it. Know that their heart is ashes, and they are led astray, and no one is able to deliver their soul. See, and you will not say, that there is a lie in my right hand. How then would not those who are accused of impiety even by the divine scripture be judged godless by all? Or how would not they be wretched who are so openly convicted of worshipping lifeless things instead of the truth? What hope is there for these, or what pardon could there be for them, who trust in irrational and immovable things, which they revere instead of the true God?

15

For would that, would that the craftsman had even formed the gods for them without a shape, so that they might not have a manifest refutation of their insensibility. For they would have stolen away the suspicion of the simple, that the idols had perception, if they did not have the symbols of the senses, such as eyes and noses and ears and hands and a mouth, lying motionless for the use of perception and the apprehension of perceptible things. But now, having them they do not have them, and standing they do not stand, and sitting they do not sit. For they do not have the function of these, but as the one who formed them wished, so also they remain lying, providing no mark of God, but appearing placed altogether lifeless only by the art of man. Would that also the heralds and prophets of such false gods, I mean poets and writers, had written simply that they are gods; but not also recorded their deeds as a refutation of their godlessness and a shameful way of life. For they would have been able, by the name of divinity alone, to snatch away the truth, or rather, to lead the many astray from the truth. But now, recounting the loves and licentiousness of Zeus, and the pederasty of the others, and jealousies for the pleasure of females, and fears and cowardice, and the other evils, they do nothing other than refute themselves, that not only are they not recounting things about gods, but not even about respectable men, but they are telling tales about shameful men and those who are far from the good.

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But perhaps concerning these things the impious will take refuge in the peculiarity of the poets, saying that it is a peculiar characteristic of poets to invent things that are not and to lie about myths for the pleasure of their hearers, for which reason they will say that they also composed the things about the gods. But this pretext above all will be shown to be stale for them from what they themselves hold as opinion and set forth concerning these things. For if the things in the poets are fabrications and false, then the very naming of Zeus and Cronus and Hera and Ares and the others would also be false. For perhaps, as they themselves say, the names also have been fabricated, and there is no Zeus at all, nor Cronus, nor Ares; but the poets invent these as being real for the deception of their hearers. But if the poets invent things that are not, how do they worship them as being real? Or perhaps they will say again, the names are not invented, but they lie about their deeds? But this is no less unsafe for their defense. For if they lied about the deeds, they certainly also lied about the names, whose deeds they are said to be

10

οἴκῳ ὃ ἔκοψε ξύλον ἐκ τοῦ δρυμοῦ, ὃ ἐφύτευσεν ὁ Κύριος, καὶ ὑετὸς ἐμήκυνεν, ἵνα ᾖ ἀνθρώποις εἰς καῦσιν, καὶ λαβὼν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ θερμανθῇ. καὶ καύσαν τες ἔπεψαν ἄρτους ἐπ' αὐτῷ, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν εἰργάσαντο εἰς θεούς, καὶ προσεκύνησαν αὐτοῖς, οὗ τὸ ἥμισυ αὐτοῦ κατέ καυσαν πυρί. καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἡμίσεος αὐτοῦ κρέας ὀπτήσας, ἔφαγε καὶ ἐνεπλήσθη· καὶ θερμανθεὶς εἶπεν· Ἡδύ μοι, ὅτι ἐθερμάνθην, καὶ εἶδον πῦρ. τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν προσεκύνει λέγων· Ἐξέλου με, ὅτι Θεός μου εἶ σύ. οὐκ ἔγνωσαν φρονῆσαι, ὅτι ἀπημαυρώθησαν τοῦ βλέπειν τοῖς ὀφθαλ μοῖς αὐτῶν, καὶ τοῦ νοῆσαι τῇ καρδίᾳ· καὶ οὐκ ἀνελογί σατο ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ, οὐδὲ ἀνελογίσατο τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτοῦ, οὐδὲ ἔγνω τῇ φροσήσει, ὅτι τὸ ἥμισυ αὐτοῦ κατέ καυσεν ἐν πυρὶ καὶ ἔπεψεν ἐπὶ τῶν ἀνθράκων αὐτοῦ ἄρτους· καὶ ὀπτήσας κρέας ἔφαγε, καὶ τὸ λοιπὸν αὐτοῦ εἰς βδέλυγ μα ἐποίησε, καὶ προσκυνοῦσιν αὐτό. γνῶτε, ὅτι σποδὸς ἡ καρδία αὐτῶν, καὶ πλανῶνται, καὶ οὐδεὶς δύναται ἐξελέ σθαι τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτῶν. ἴδετε, καὶ οὐκ ἐρεῖτε, ὅτι ψεῦδος ἐν τῇ δεξιᾷ μου. πῶς οὖν οὐκ ἄθεοι παρὰ πᾶσι κριθεῖεν οἱ καὶ παρὰ τῆς θείας γραφῆς ἀσεβείας κατηγορούμενοι; ἢ πῶς οὐκ ἂν εἶεν κακοδαίμονες οἱ οὕτω φανερῶς ἐλεγχόμενοι τὰ ἄψυχα θρησκεύοντες ἀντὶ τῆς ἀληθείας; ποία δὲ τούτοις ἐλπίς, ἢ τίς ἂν αὐτοῖς γένοιτο συγγνώμη, πεποιθόσιν ἐπὶ τὰ ἄλογα καὶ ἀκίνητα, ἃ ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ Θεοῦ σέβουσιν;

15 Εἴθε γάρ, εἴθε κἂν χωρὶς σχήματος αὐτοῖς τοὺς θεοὺς ἔπλαττεν ὁ τεχνίτης, ἵνα μὴ τῆς ἀναισθησίας φανερὸν ἔχωσι τὸν ἔλεγχον. ὑπέκλεψαν γὰρ ἂν τὴν ὑπόνοιαν τῶν ἀκεραίων, ὡς αἰσθομένων τῶν εἰδώλων, εἰ μὴ τὰ σύμβολα τῶν αἰσθήσεων, οἷον ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ ῥῖνας καὶ ὦτα καὶ χεῖρας καὶ στόμα εἶχον ἀκινήτως κείμενα πρὸς τὴν τῆς αἰσθήσεως χρῆσιν καὶ τὴν τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἀντίληψιν. νῦν δὲ ἔχοντες οὐκ ἔχουσι καὶ στήκοντες οὐ στήκουσι, καὶ καθεζόμενοι οὐ καθέζονται. οὐ γὰρ ἔχουσι τούτων τὴν ἐνέργειαν, ἀλλ' ὡς ὁ πλάσας ἠθέλησεν, οὕτω καὶ μένουσι κείμενοι, Θεοῦ μὲν γνώρισμα μηδὲν παρέχοντες, ἄψυχοι δὲ καθόλου μόνον ἀνθρώπου τέχνῃ φαινόμενοι τεθέντες. Εἴθε δὲ καὶ οἱ τῶν τοιούτων ψευδοθέων κήρυκες καὶ μάντεις, ποιηταὶ λέγω καὶ συγγραφεῖς, ἁπλῶς θεοὺς αὐτοὺς εἶναι γεγραφή κεισαν· ἀλλὰ μὴ καὶ τὰς πράξεις αὐτῶν πρὸς ἔλεγχον ἀθεότητος καὶ αἰσχροποιοῦ πολιτείας ἀναγεγραφήκεισαν. ἠδύναντο γὰρ καὶ μόνῳ τῷ τῆς θεότητος ὀνόματι τὴν ἀλήθειαν ὑφαρπάσαι, μᾶλλον δὲ τοὺς πολλοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας πλανῆσαι. νῦν δὲ ἔρωτας καὶ ἀσελγείας διηγούμενοι τοῦ ∆ιός, καὶ παιδοφθορίας τῶν ἄλλων, καὶ ζηλοτυπίας πρὸς ἡδονὴν τῶν θηλειῶν, καὶ φόβους καὶ δειλίας, καὶ τὰς ἄλλας κακίας, οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ ἑαυτοὺς ἐλέγχουσιν, ὅτι οὐ μόνον οὐ περὶ θεῶν διηγοῦνται, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ περὶ ἀνθρώπων σεμνῶν, περὶ δὲ αἰσχρῶν καὶ τοῦ καλοῦ μακρὰν ὄντων μυθολογοῦσιν.

16 Ἀλλ' ἴσως περὶ τούτων οἱ δυσσεβεῖς ἐπὶ τὴν ἰδιότητα τῶν ποιητῶν καταφεύξονται, λέγοντες τῶν ποιητῶν ἴδιον εἶναι χαρα κτῆρα τὰ μὴ ὄντα πλάττεσθαι καὶ ψεύδεσθαι περὶ μύθων εἰς ἡδονὴν τῶν ἀκουόντων, οὗ χάριν καὶ τὰ περὶ θεῶν αὐτοὺς πεποιηκέναι φήσουσιν. ἀλλ' αὕτη καὶ πάντων μᾶλλον ἡ πρόφασις αὐτοῖς ἕωλος δειχθήσεται ἀφ' ὧν αὐτοὶ περὶ τούτων ἔχουσι δόξαν καὶ προτίθενται. εἰ γὰρ τὰ παρὰ ποιηταῖς ἐστι πλάσματα καὶ ψευδῆ, ψευδὴς ἂν εἴη καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ περὶ τοῦ ∆ιὸς καὶ Κρόνου καὶ Ἥρας καὶ Ἄρεως καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ὀνομασία. ἴσως γάρ, ὡς αὐτοί φασι, καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα πέπλα σται, καὶ οὐκ ἔστι μὲν ὅλως Ζεύς, οὐδὲ Κρόνος, οὐδὲ Ἄρης· πλάτ τονται δὲ τούτους ὡς ὄντας οἱ ποιηταὶ πρὸς ἀπάτην τῶν ἀκουόντων. πλαττόντων δὲ τῶν ποιητῶν τὰ μὴ ὄντα, πῶς ὡς ὄντας αὐτοὺς θρησκεύουσιν; ἢ ἴσως γὰρ ἂν πάλιν φήσουσι, τὰ μὲν ὀνόματα οὐ πλάττονται, τὰς δὲ πράξεις ψεύδονται κατ' αὐτῶν; ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦτο οὐδὲν ἧττον πρὸς ἀπολογίαν αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀσφαλές. εἰ γὰρ τὰς πράξεις ἐψεύσαντο, ἐψεύσαντο πάντως καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα, ὧν καὶ τὰς πράξεις εἶναι