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31. Let your herald be silent on dishonorable things; let my herald proclaim divine things. Stop your magical and divining books; but let the prophetic and apostolic ones alone be unrolled. Restrain your shameful nights full of darkness; I will set up in opposition the sacred and splendid all-night vigils. Shut up your inner shrines and the roads leading to Hades; I will show the way to the open ones and those leading to heaven. How many preparations of arms and contrivances of engines would have accomplished these things? How many myriads of men and phalanxes, what things we, by only supplicating, and God by willing, accomplished? By the Word He dissolved the darkness, by the Word He established the light, He made firm the earth, He rounded heaven, He ordered the stars, He sowed the air, He bounded the sea, He drew out the rivers, He gave soul to animals, He formed man to His own image, He put the universe around all things; by the Word also, having dissolved the present darkness, He brought all things back to the same light and order and harmony. No longer indeed do gluttonous and deceitful demons hold power; no longer is creation insulted, being worshipped in the guise of honor instead of God. Cast down your Triptolemi, and your Celei, and your mystic serpents; be ashamed at last of the books of your theologian Orpheus; accept the gift of the age, which covers up your shame. But if these things are myths and fabrications, I will reveal your mysteries of the night.

32. No longer does the oak speak; no longer does the cauldron prophesy; no longer is the Pythia filled, I know not with what things, except myths and trifles. Again Castalia has been silenced, and is silent, and its water is not for divination, but for ridicule; again Apollo is a voiceless statue, again Daphne is a plant lamented in a myth; 35.705 again Dionysus is androgynous, and attended by a chorus of drunkards, and your great mystery the phallus, and the god suffering for the beautiful Prosymnus; again Semele is struck by a thunderbolt; again Hephaestus is lame in both feet, but quick to find adulterers, and a god covered in soot, even if a famous craftsman, and an Olympian Thersites; again Ares is a captive for adultery with Terror, and Fear, and the Tumults, and wounded through rashness; again Aphrodite, having become a harlot shamefully, and a servant of shameful unions; again Athena is both a virgin, and gives birth to a serpent; again Heracles goes mad, or rather has ceased from his madness; again Zeus, the counselor and highest of the gods, becomes all things for debauchery and impurity, he who alone draws up all the gods with all existing things, but is not himself drawn down by all. Again the tomb of Zeus is shown in Crete. If I see your god of Gain, and your god of Eloquence, and your god of Contests, I hide my eyes, and run past your god out of shame for the sight; but you worship for me the intensity of his speech and his purse; your one venerable thing alone is, the honors of the Nile among the Egyptians by means of androgynous beings, and the Isises, and the Mendesian gods, and the Apises, and all the other composite and strange beasts which you fashion or depict. I laugh at your Pan, and Priapus, and Hermaphroditus, and the gods castrated or torn apart by madness. But these things indeed I will leave to the stage, and to the poets who adorn them; but I will bring my speech to a close with a certain exhortation.

33. Men and women together, young and old, all who are initiated to this bema, and all who are assigned to the lower place, all whom the Lord has redeemed, formerly from error and godlessness, but now from the insurrection of the gentiles, and from the evils already present and expected, hear the word of a man not moderately instructed in such matters, both from daily occurrences, and from ancient histories, and books, and deeds. It is a great thing indeed to be tried by none of the hardships; but perhaps not even a great thing, if the saying is true, that Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives, and for whom He cares. But it is a great thing indeed not even the

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ΛΑʹ. Σιγάτω σὸς κῆρυξ τὰ ἄτιμα· φθεγγέσθω κῆρυξ ἐμὸς τὰ ἔνθεα. Παῦσόν σου τὰς γοητικὰς καὶ μαντι κὰς βίβλους· αἱ προφητικαὶ δὲ καὶ ἀποστολικαὶ μόναι ἀνελιττέσθωσαν. Ἐπίσχες σου τὰς αἰσχρὰς καὶ σκότους γεμούσας νύκτας· ἀντεγερῶ τὰς ἱερὰς ἐγὼ καὶ λαμπρὰς παννυχίδας. Φρᾶξον τὰ ἄδυτά σου καὶ τὰς εἰς ᾅδου φερούσας ὁδούς· ἐγὼ τὰς φανερὰς καὶ φερούσας πρὸς οὐρανὸν ἐξηγήσομαι. Πόσαι ταῦτα κατέπραξαν ἂν ὅπλων παρασκευαὶ καὶ μηχανημάτων ἐπίνοιαι; πόσαι μυριάδες ἀνδρῶν καὶ φάλαγγες, ὅσα ἱκετεύοντες μόνον ἡμεῖς, καὶ Θεὸς βουληθεὶς κατειργάσατο; Λόγῳ τὸ σκότος ἔλυσε, λόγῳ τὸ φῶς ὑπεστήσατο, ἥδρασε γῆν, ἐγύρωσεν οὐρανὸν, ἀστέρας ἔταξεν, ἔσπειρεν ἀέρα, θάλασσαν ὥρισε, ποταμοὺς εἵλκυσε, ζῶα ἐψύχωσεν, ἄνθρωπον πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐμόρφωσε, κόσμον τοῖς ἅπασι περιέθηκε· λόγῳ καὶ τὴν νῦν σκοτόμηναν λύσας, εἰς φῶς ἅπαντα καὶ τάξιν καὶ ἁρμονίαν τὴν αὐτὴν ἐπανήγα γεν. Οὐκ ἔτι μὲν λίχνοι καὶ ἀπατηλοὶ δαίμονες δυ ναστεύουσιν· οὐκ ἔτι δὲ καθυβρίζεται κτίσις ἐν σχή ματι τιμῆς ἀντὶ Θεοῦ προσκυνουμένη. Κατάβαλε τοὺς Τριπτολέμους σου, καὶ τοὺς Κελεοὺς, καὶ τοὺς μυ στικοὺς δράκοντας· αἰσχύνθητί ποτε ταῖς τοῦ Θεολό γου σου βίβλοις Ὀρφέως· δέξαι τοῦ καιροῦ τὸ δῶρον, τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην σοι συγκαλύπτοντος. Εἰ δὲ ταῦτα μῦθοι καὶ πλάσματα, ἐγώ σου τὰ τῆς νυκτὸς ἀποκαλύψω μυστήρια.

ΛΒʹ. Οὐκ ἔτι φθέγγεται δρῦς· οὐκ ἔτι λέβης μαντεύεται· οὐκ ἔτι Πυθία πληροῦται, οὐκ οἶδ' ὧν τινων, πλὴν μύθων καὶ ληρημάτων. Πάλιν ἡ Κασταλία σεσίγηται, καὶ σιγᾷ, καὶ ὕδωρ ἐστὶν οὐ μαντευόμε νον, ἀλλὰ γελώμενον· πάλιν ἀνδριὰς ἄφωνος ὁ Ἀπόλλων, πάλιν ἡ ∆άφνη φυτόν ἐστιν μύθῳ θρηνού 35.705 μενον· πάλιν ἀνδρόγυνος ὁ ∆ιόνυσος, καὶ χορὸν μεθυόντων ἐξηρτημένος, καὶ τὸ μέγα σου μυστήριον ὁ φαλλὸς, καὶ Προσύμνῳ τῷ καλῷ θεὸς παθαινό μενος· πάλιν Σεμέλη κεραυνῷ βάλλεται· πάλιν ἀμ φιγυήεις Ἥφαιστος, ἀλλὰ ταχὺς εἰς μοιχῶν εὕρεσιν, καὶ θεὸς κατῃθαλωμένος, εἰ καὶ κλυτοτέχνης, καὶ Θερσίτης Ὀλύμπιος· πάλιν δεσμώτης Ἄρης διὰμοιχείαν μετὰ τοῦ δείμου, καὶ τοῦ φόβου, καὶ τῶν κυδοιμῶν, καὶ τραυματίας διὰ θρασύτητα· πάλιν Ἀφροδίτη πόρνη γενομένη τε αἰσχρῶς, καὶ γάμων αἰσχρῶν ὑπηρέτις· πάλιν Ἀθηνᾶ παρθένος τέ ἐστι, καὶ τίκτει δράκοντα· πάλιν Ἡρακλῆς μαίνεται, μᾶλλον δὲ μαινόμενος πέπαυται· πάλιν τὰ πάντα γίνεται δι' ἀσέλγειαν καὶ ἀκαθαρσίαν ὁ Ζεὺς, ὁ τῶν θεῶν μήστωρ καὶ ὕπατος, καὶ μόνος μὲν πάντας σὺν πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσιν ἀνέλκων θεοὺς, αὐτὸς δὲ ὑπὸ πάντων οὐ καθελκόμενος. Πάλιν τοῦ ∆ιὸς τάφος ἐν τῇ Κρήτῃ δείκνυται. Ἂν ἴδω σου τὸν Κερδῷον, καὶ τὸν Λόγιον, καὶ τὸν Ἐναγώνιον, συγκρύπτω τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς, καὶ παρατρέχω σου τὸν θεὸν αἰδοῖ τοῦ θεάματος· σὺ δέ μοι προσκύνει τὸ σύντονον τοῦ λόγου καὶ τὸ σακέλλιον· ἕν σου μόνον αἰδέσιμον, αἱ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις δι' ἀνδρογύνων τιμαὶ τοῦ Νείλου, αἵ τε Ἴσιδες, καὶ οἱ Μενδήσιοι θεοὶ, καὶ οἱ Ἄπιδες, τἆλλά τε ὅσα πλάττεις, ἢ γράφεις, θηρία σύνθετα καὶ ἀλλόκοτα. Γελῶ σου τὸν Πᾶνα, καὶ τὸν Πρία πον, καὶ τὸν Ἑρμαφρόδιτον, καὶ τοὺς ὑπὸ μανίας περικεκομμένους ἢ διεσπασμένους θεούς. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν τῇ σκηνῇ παρήσω, καὶ τοῖς κοσμοῦσιν αὐτοὺς ποιηταῖς· ἐγὼ δὲ εἰς παραίνεσίν τινα κατα λύσω τὸν λόγον.

ΛΓʹ. Ἄνδρες ὁμοῦ καὶ γυναῖκες, νέοι τε καὶ πρεσβύ ται, ὅσοι τε εἰς τὸ βῆμα τοῦτο τελεῖτε, καὶ ὅσοι τὴν κάτω τέταχθε χώραν, πάντες ὅσους ἐλυ τρώσατο Κύριος, πρότερον μὲν ἐκ τῆς πλάνης καὶ τῆς ἀθεΐας, νυνὶ δὲ τῆς ἐπαναστάσεως τῶν ἐθνῶν, καὶ τῶν ἤδη γε παρόντων κακῶν καὶ προσδοκωμένων, ἀκούσατε λόγον ἀνδρὸς οὐ μετρίως τὰ τοιαῦτα πεπαι δευμένου, ἔκ τε τῶν ὁσημέραι συμβαινόντων, καὶ τῶν παλαιῶν ἱστοριῶν, καὶ βίβλων, καὶ πράξεων. Μέγα μὲν τὸ μηδενὸς πειραθῆναι τῶν δυσχερῶν· ἴσως δὲ οὐδὲ μέγα, εἴπερ ἀληθὴς ὁ λόγος, ὅτι Ὃν ἀγαπᾷ Κύριος παιδεύει, μαστιγοῖ δὲ πάντα υἱὸν ὃν πα ραδέχεται, καὶ οὗ κήδεται. Ἀλλὰ μέγα μὲν τὸ μηδὲ τὴν