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to those who were not gods, but mortal men, they were eager to ascribe, and great and impious was the thing they dared, for this reason even unwillingly they were forced by the truth to set forth the passions of these men, so that to posterity the passions of these men, lying in the writings about them, might appear to all for a refutation of their not being gods.

18 What defense, then, what proof could there be for those who are superstitious in these matters that these are gods? For from what was said a little before, the argument has shown them to be men, and men who are not venerable; but perhaps they will turn to this, and will be very proud of the useful things for life discovered by them, saying that on account of these things they also consider them gods, because they have become useful to men. For Zeus is said to have possessed the plastic art, and Poseidon that of the pilot; and Hephaestus the blacksmith's art, and Athena weaving; and Apollo music, and Artemis hunting, and Hera adornment, Demeter agriculture, and the others other arts, as the historians who wrote about them have related. But men ought not to have ascribed these and such kinds of knowledge to them alone, but to the common nature of men, by looking to which men invent the arts. For many people also say that art is an imitation of nature. If, therefore, they became knowledgeable in the arts they pursued, it is not for this reason necessary to consider them gods, but rather men. For the arts are not from them, but in these they themselves also imitated nature. For being men by nature receptive of knowledge according to the definition established for them, it is not at all surprising if with human intellect they themselves also, looking to their own nature, and having received knowledge of it, invented the arts. Or if they say that on account of their discoveries of the arts they are worthy to be proclaimed gods, it is time to proclaim as gods also the inventors of the other arts, for the same reason that they too were deemed worthy of such a name. For the Phoenicians invented letters, and Homer heroic poetry; and Zeno of Elea dialectic, and Corax of Syracuse the art of rhetoric; and Aristaeus the fruit of bees, and Triptolemus the sowing of grain; and Lycurgus the Spartan and Solon the Athenian, laws; and Palamedes invented the syntax of letters, and numbers and measures and weights; and others announced other and different useful things for the life of men, according to the testimony of the historians. If, therefore, knowledge makes gods, and on account of this there are carved gods, it is necessary also that those who after them became inventors of other things be gods according to them; or if they do not deem these worthy of the honor of God, but recognize them as men, it follows that Zeus and Hera and the others should not even be named gods, but that one should believe they too were men, and furthermore that they were not even venerable, as even from the very carving of the statues they prove them to be nothing other than men.

19 For what other form do they, in carving them, impose than that of males and females, and of things yet lower than these and irrational by nature: all sorts of birds, four-footed animals both tame and wild, and reptiles, as many as earth and sea and all the nature of the waters bear? For men, having fallen into the irrationality of passions and pleasures, and seeing nothing more than pleasures and desires of the flesh, as though having their mind set on these irrational creatures, have also fashioned the Divine in irrational forms according to the variety of their own passions, and having carved so many gods. For there are among them images of four-footed beasts and of reptiles and of birds, as also the interpreter of divine and true piety says: They became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened; claiming to be wise, they became fools, and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for a likeness

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τοῖς οὐκ οὖσι θεοῖς, ἀλλ' ἀνθρώποις θνητοῖς ἐσπούδαζον ἀναθεῖναι, καὶ μέγα καὶ δυσσεβὲς ἦν τὸ ὑπ' αὐτῶν τολμώμενον, τούτου ἕνεκεν καὶ ἄκοντες ὑπὸ τῆς ἀληθείας ἠναγκάσθησαν τὰ τούτων ἐκθέσθαι πάθη, ἵνα τοῖς μετὰ ταῦτα τὰ τούτων πάθη πρὸς ἔλεγχον τοῦ μὴ εἶναι τούτους θεοὺς ἐν ταῖς περὶ αὐτῶν γραφαῖς κείμενα πᾶσι φαίνηται.

18 Τίς οὖν ἀπολογία, τίς ἀπόδειξις περὶ τοῦ εἶναι τούτους θεοὺς γένοιτ' ἂν τοῖς ἐν τούτοις δεισιδαιμονοῦσιν; ἐκ μὲν γὰρ τῶν λεχθέν των μικρῷ πρότερον, ἀνθρώπους αὐτούς, καὶ ἀνθρώπους οὐ σεμνοὺς ὄντας, ὁ λόγος ἀπέδειξεν· εἰς ἐκεῖνο δὲ τάχα τραπήσονται, καὶ μέγα φρονήσουσιν ἐπὶ τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτῶν εὑρεθεῖσι τῷ βίῳ χρησίμοις, λέγοντες διὰ ταῦτα αὐτοὺς καὶ θεοὺς ἡγεῖσθαι, ὅτι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις χρήσιμοι γεγόνασι. Ζεὺς μὲν γὰρ λέγεται πλαστικὴν τέχνην ἐσχη κέναι, Ποσειδῶν δὲ τὴν τοῦ κυβερνήτου· καὶ Ἥφαιστος μὲν χαλ κευτικήν, Ἀθηνᾶ δὲ τὴν ὑφαντικήν· καὶ Ἀπόλλων μὲν τὴν μουσικήν, Ἄρτεμις δὲ τὴν κυνηγετικήν, καὶ Ἥρα στολισμόν, ∆ήμητρα γεωρ-γίαν, καὶ οἱ ἄλλοι ἄλλας, ὡς οἱ ἱστοροῦντες περὶ αὐτῶν ἐξηγήσαντο. ἀλλὰ ταύτας καὶ τὰς τοιαύτας ἐπιστήμας οὐκ αὐτοῖς μόνοις ἔδει τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀναθεῖναι, ἀλλὰ τῇ κοινῇ τῶν ἀνθρώπων φύσει, εἰς ἣν ἀτενίζοντες ἄνθρωποι τὰς τέχνας ἐφευρίσκουσι. τὴν γὰρ τέχνην καὶ οἱ πολλοὶ λέγουσι φύσεως αὐτὴν εἶναι μίμημα. εἰ τοίνυν ἐπιστή μονες περὶ ἃς ἐσπούδασαν τέχνας γεγόνασιν, οὐ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ θεοὺς αὐτοὺς νομίζειν ἀνάγκη, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἀνθρώπους. οὐ γὰρ ἐξ αὐτῶν αἱ τέχναι, ἀλλ' ἐν ταύταις καὶ αὐτοὶ τὴν φύσιν ἐμιμήσαντο. ὄντες γὰρ ἄνθρωποι κατὰ φύσιν δεκτικοὶ ἐπιστήμης κατὰ τὸν περὶ αὐτῶν τεθέντα ὅρον, οὐδὲν θαυμαστὸν εἰ τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ διανοίᾳ καὶ αὐτοὶ εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῶν φύσιν ἀποβλέποντες, καὶ ταύτης ἐπιστήμην λαβόντες, τὰς τέχνας ἐπενόησαν. ἢ εἰ διὰ τὰς τῶν τεχνῶν εὑρέσεις θεοὺς αὐτοὺς ἄξιον ἀναγορεύεσθαι λέγουσιν, ὥρα καὶ τοὺς τῶν ἄλλων τεχνῶν εὑρετὰς θεοὺς ἀναγορεύειν, καθ' ὃν λόγον κἀκεῖνοι τῆς τοιαύτης ὀνομασίας ἠξιώθησαν. γράμματα μὲν γὰρ ἐφεῦρον Φοίνι κες, ποίησιν δὲ ἡρωϊκὴν Ὅμηρος· καὶ διαλεκτικὴν μὲν Ζήνων ὁ Ἐλεάτης, ῥητορικὴν δὲ τέχνην Κόραξ ὁ Συρακούσιος· καὶ καρπὸν μὲν μελισσῶν Ἀρισταῖος, σίτου δὲ σπορὰν Τριπτόλεμος· καὶ νόμους μὲν Λυκοῦργος ὁ Σπαρτιάτης καὶ Σόλων ὁ Ἀθηναῖος· τῶν δὲ γραμμάτων τὴν σύνταξιν καὶ ἀριθμοὺς καὶ μέτρα καὶ στάθμια Παλαμήδης ἐφεῦρε· καὶ ἄλλοι ἄλλα καὶ διάφορα τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀπήγ γειλαν χρήσιμα, κατὰ τὴν τῶν ἱστορησάντων μαρτυρίαν. εἴπερ οὖν αἱ ἐπιστῆμαι θεοποιοῦσι, καὶ διὰ ταύτας εἰσὶ θεοὶ γλυπτοί, ἀνάγκη καὶ τοὺς ὕστερον ἐκείνων ἐφευρετὰς τῶν ἄλλων γενομένους εἶναι κατ' αὐτοὺς θεούς· ἢ εἰ μὴ τούτους ἀξιοῦσι τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ τιμῆς, ἀλλ' ἀνθρώπους ἐπιγινώσκουσιν· ἀκολουθεῖ καὶ τὸν ∆ία καὶ τὴν Ἥραν καὶ τοὺς ἄλλους μηδὲ ὀνομάζεσθαι θεούς, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοὺς ἀνθρώ πους γεγενῆσθαι πιστεύειν, καὶ κατὰ περιττὸν ὅτι μηδὲ σεμνοὶ γεγόνασιν, ὡς καὶ ἀπ' αὐτῆς τῆς τῶν ἀγαλμάτων γλυφῆς οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἢ ἀνθρώπους αὐτοὺς ἐλέγχουσι.

19 Τίνα γὰρ ἄλλην αὐτοῖς γλύφοντες ἐπιβάλλουσι μορφὴν ἢ τὴν ἀρρένων καὶ γυναικῶν, καὶ τῶν ἔτι κατωτέρω τούτων καὶ ἀλόγων ὄντων τὴν φύσιν πετεινῶν παντοίων, τετραπόδων ἡμέρων τε καὶ ἀγρίων, καὶ ἑρπετῶν, ὅσα γῆ καὶ θάλαττα καὶ πᾶσα τῶν ὑδάτων ἡ φύσις φέρει; εἰς γὰρ τὴν τῶν παθῶν καὶ ἡδονῶν ἀλογίαν πεσόντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι, καὶ πλέον οὐδὲν ὁρῶντες ἢ ἡδονὰς καὶ σαρκὸς ἐπιθυμίας, ὡς ἐν τούτοις τοῖς ἀλόγοις τὴν διάνοιαν ἔχοντες, ἐν ἀλόγοις καὶ τὸ Θεῖον ἀνεπλάσαντο κατὰ τὴν ποικιλίαν τῶν παθῶν ἑαυτῶν, καὶ θεοὺς τοσούτους γλύψαντες. τετραπόδων τε γὰρ εἰκόνες καὶ ἑρ πετῶν, καὶ πετεινῶν εἰσι παρ' αὐτοῖς, καθὼς καὶ ὁ τῆς θείας καὶ ἀληθοῦς εὐσεβείας ἑρμηνεύς φησιν· Ἐματαιώθησαν ἐν τοῖς διαλογισμοῖς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐσκοτίσθη ἡ ἀσύνετος αὐτῶν καρδία· φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοί, ἐμωράνθησαν, καὶ ἤλλα ξαν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ ἀφθάρτου Θεοῦ ἐν ὁμοιώματι