11

the king against those of the city, and he sent an army against them; and when a civil war arose, Laius came out to defend himself to them. and when an arrow was shot at him, Laius was killed; and so Jocasta, not wanting to be cast out of the kingdom, immediately brought Oedipus and made him king, having learned that he did not have a wife. And she was married to him for the healing of the city and the senate; and Oedipus reigned over Thebes for 19 years, with Jocasta and Oedipus being ignorant that she was his mother; and he had two sons by her, Eteocles and Polyneices, and two daughters, Ismene and Antigone. After some time, the same Jocasta asked Oedipus where he was from and who his father was. He spoke of Meliboeus, the one who had raised him. And having sent for Meliboeus who had raised him, she learned from him that he was not his son, but that he had found him in the woods. And having inquired about the time, she knew that he was her son; and she told him. And upon hearing this, Oedipus took nails, and having fixed them in his own eyes, he died, leaving the kingdom to his two sons, having commanded them to reign year by year; who, having come into enmity over the kingdom, warred with each other, and slaughtered themselves, fighting in single combat. For Polyneices, having been cast out from the kingdom and driven from 53 Thebes by Eteocles, his brother, went away to Argos; and he took to wife the daughter of Adrastus, the king of Argos. And having urged king Adrastus and other kings with a multitude of an army against his own brother, he came against Thebes; those who were urged and campaigned with him were these: Adrastus, Capaneus, Amphiaraus, Parthenopaeus, Hippomedon. And when the two brothers died, as has been said, the kings departed with their own armies to their own lands, and the kingdom of the Thebans, that is of the Boeotians, was dissolved, having lasted for 369 years. The most wise Palaephatus set forth all these things written above as true. For the most wise Euripides poetically set forth a drama about Oedipus and Jocasta and the Sphinx. For Africanus the chronographer set forth the reigns of Thebes. And in the times written above, Seruch was born from the tribe of Japheth; who first began the dogma of Hellenism through idolatry, as Eusebius of Pamphilus wrote, because the men of old, 54 warriors, rulers, or those who had done something brave or virtuous in life worthy of being remembered, especially those who performed mysteries through some power, as being their forefathers, they honored with statues on pillars, and all worshiped them as benefactors to a god, and sacrificed, honoring them, because they were discoverers of a good thing, or had come through skill or through an invention or through wisdom or through any other virtue whatsoever, whom they deified, as the most wise Reginus wrote the names of those who were deified. But the men after these, being ignorant of the intention of their ancestors, that they honored them as forefathers and inventors of good things for the sake of memory and that alone, honored them and sacrificed to them as heavenly gods, not as mortal men of like passions. Concerning whom, the most wise Diodorus also says these things in his writings, that the gods were men, whom men, as they believed, called immortal on account of their beneficence; and that some had received appellations of names and ruled over lands. And men did this, being filled with ignorance. And the form of deification 55 was this. In their sacred books their names were set down when they died, and at the same time they performed a festival and a sacrifice for them at the tombs where they lay, saying to the isles of the blessed

11

ὁ βασιλεὺς κατὰ τῶν τῆς πόλεως, καὶ ἔπεμψε στρατὸν κατ' αὐτῶν· καὶ γενομένου ἐμφυλίου πολέμου ἐξῆλθεν ὁ Λάϊος ἀπολογήσασθαι αὐτοῖς. καὶ ῥιφείσης κατ' αὐτοῦ σαγίττας ἐφονεύθη ὁ Λάϊος· καὶ λοιπὸν ἡ Ἰοκάστη, μὴ θέλουσα ἐκβληθῆναι τῆς βασιλείας, εὐθέως ἀγαγοῦσα τὸν Οἰδίποδα ἐποίησεν αὐτὸν βασιλέα, μαθοῦσα ὅτι οὐκ ἔχει γυναῖκα. καὶ ἐγαμήθη αὐτῷ πρὸς θεραπείαν τῶν τῆς πόλεως καὶ τῆς συγκλήτου· καὶ ἐβασίλευσε τῶν Θηβῶν ὁ Οἰδίπους ἔτη ιθʹ, καὶ τῆς Ἰοκάστης ἀγνοούσης καὶ τοῦ Οἰδίποδος ὅτι μήτηρ αὐτοῦ ὑπῆρχε· καὶ ἔσχε δύο υἱοὺς παρ' αὐτῆς, τὸν Ἐτεοκλέα καὶ τὸν Πολυνείκην, καὶ θυγατέρας δύο, Ἰσμήνην καὶ Ἀντιγόνην. μετὰ δὲ χρόνον τινὰ ἐπηρώτησεν ἡ αὐτὴ Ἰοκάστη τὸν Οἰδίποδα πόθεν ἐστὶ καὶ τίς αὐτοῦ πατήρ; ὁ δὲ εἶπε τὸν Μελίβοιον τὸν ἀναθρεψάμενον αὐτόν. καὶ μεταστειλαμένη τὸν Μελίβοιον τὸν ἀναθρέψαντα αὐτὸν ἔμαθε παρ' αὐτοῦ ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῦ υἱός, ἀλλ' εὗρεν αὐτὸν εἰς τὰς ὕλας. καὶ ἐπερωτήσασα τὸν χρόνον, ἔγνω ὅτι υἱὸς αὐτῆς ἐστι· καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ. καὶ ἀκούσας ὁ Οἰδίπους ἔλαβεν ἥλους, καὶ πήξας τοῖς ἰδίοις αὐτοῦ ὀφθαλμοῖς τελευτᾷ, ἐάσας τὸ βασίλειον τοῖς δυσὶν αὐτοῦ υἱοῖς, ἐνιαυτὸν παρ' ἐνιαυτὸν βασιλεύειν κελεύσας· οἵτινες εἰς ἔχθραν ἐλθόντες διὰ τὴν βασιλείαν, ἐπολέμησαν μετ' ἀλλήλων, καὶ ἑαυτοὺς ἔσφαξαν μονομαχήσαντες. ὁ γὰρ Πολυνείκης, ἐκβληθεὶς ἀπὸ τῆς βασιλείας καὶ διωχθεὶς ἀπὸ τῶν 53 Θηβῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἐτεοκλέους, ἀδελφοῦ αὐτοῦ, ἀπῆλθεν εἰς τὸ Ἄργος· καὶ ἠγάγετο γυναῖκα τὴν θυγατέρα Ἀδράστου τοῦ βασιλέως τοῦ Ἄργους. καὶ προτρεψάμενος τὸν Ἄδραστον βασιλέα καὶ ἄλλους βασιλεῖς μετὰ πλήθους στρατοῦ κατὰ τοῦ ἰδίου ἀδελφοῦ ἦλθε κατὰ τῶν Θηβῶν· οἱ δὲ προτραπέντες καὶ μετ' αὐτοῦ ἐπιστρατεύσαντες ἦσαν αὐτοί, Ἄδραστος, Καπανεύς, Ἀμφιάραος, Παρθενοπεύς, Ἱππομέδων. καὶ τῶν δύο ἀδελφῶν, ὡς εἴρηται, τελευτησάντων, ἀνεχώρησαν οἱ βασιλεῖς μετὰ τῶν ἰδίων στρατευμάτων ἐπὶ τὰς αὐτῶν χώρας, καὶ ἐλύθη ἡ βασιλεία τῶν Θηβῶν, ἤτοι Βοιωτῶν, κατασχοῦσα ἔτη τξθʹ. τὰ δὲ προγεγραμμένα ταῦτα πάντα ὁ σοφώτατος Παλαίφατος ἀληθῆ ἐξέθετο. ὁ γὰρ σοφώτατος Εὐριπίδης ποιητικῶς ἐξέθετο δρᾶμα περὶ τοῦ Οἰδίποδος καὶ τῆς Ἰοκάστης καὶ τῆς Σφιγγός. τὰ γὰρ τῶν Θηβῶν βασίλεια Ἀφρικανὸς ὁ χρονογράφος ἐξέθετο. Ἐν δὲ τοῖς ἀνωτέρω προγεγραμμένοις χρόνοις ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς τοῦ Ἰάφεθ ἐγεννήθη ὁ Σερούχ· ὅστις ἐνήρξατο πρῶτος τὸ τοῦ ἑλληνισμοῦ δόγματος διὰ τῆς εἰδωλολατρίας, καθὼς Εὐσέβιος ὁ Παμφίλου συνεγράψατο, διὰ τὸ τοὺς πάλαι γενομένους 54 πολεμιστάς, ἡγεμόνας, ἢ πράξαντάς τι ἀνδρεῖον ἢ ἀρετῆς ἐν τῷ βίῳ τοῦ μνημονεύεσθαι εἶναι ἄξιον, μάλιστα τοὺς ποιήσαντας διὰ δυνάμεώς τινος μυστήρια, ὡς ὄντας αὐτῶν προπάτορας, ἀνδριᾶσι στηλῶν ἐτίμησαν, καὶ πάντες ὡς εὐεργέτας εἰς θεὸν προσεκύνουν, καὶ ἐθυσίαζον αὐτοὺς τιμῶντες, ὅτι ἀγαθὸν εὑρηκότες, ἢ διὰ τέχνης ἢ διὰ κτίσματος ἢ διὰ σοφίας ἢ δι' ἄλλης οἵας δήποτε ἀρετῆς ἐλθόντας, οὕστινας ἀπεθέωσαν, καθὼς Ῥηγῖνος ὁ σοφώτατος συνεγράψατο τῶν ἀποθεωθέντων ὀνόματα. οἱ δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα ἄνθρωποι, ἀγνοοῦντες τὴν τῶν προγόνων γνώμην, ὅτι ὡς προπάτορας καὶ ἀγαθῶν ἐπινοητὰς ἐτίμησαν μνήμης καὶ μόνης χάριν, ὡς θεοὺς ἐπουρανίους ἐτίμουν καὶ ἐθυσίαζον αὐτοῖς, οὐχ ὡς γενομένους ἀνθρώπους θνητοὺς καὶ ὁμοιοπαθεῖς. περὶ ὧν ἐν ταῖς συγγραφαῖς αὐτοῦ λέγει καὶ ὁ ∆ιόδωρος ὁ σοφώτατος ταῦτα ὅτι ἄνθρωποι γεγόνασιν οἱ θεοί, οὕστινας οἱ ἄνθρωποι ὡς νομίζοντες δι' εὐεργεσίαν ἀθανάτους προσηγόρευον· τινὰς δὲ καὶ ὀνομάτων προσηγορίας ἐσχηκέναι καὶ κρατήσαντας χώρας. τοῦτο δὲ ἐποίουν οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἀγνοίᾳ πλησθέντες. ἦν δὲ τὸ τῆς ἀποθεώ 55 σεως σχῆμα τοῦτο. ἐν τοῖς ἱερατικοῖς αὐτῶν βιβλίοις τὰ ὀνόματα αὐτῶν ἐτάσσετο, ὅτε ἐτελεύτησαν, καὶ κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν καιρὸν ἑορτὴν καὶ θυσίαν αὐτῶν ἐπετέλουν ἐν οἷς ἔκειντο μνήμασι, λέγοντες εἰς τὰς τῶν μακάρων νήσους