Protrepticus

 raging for corruptions, celebrating insolence, deifying sorrows, the first to lead men by the hand to idols, yes, indeed, to stones and wood, that is,

 may inspire, and which may receive the 1.5.4 Lord. Yes, indeed, David the king, the harpist, whom we mentioned a little before, was exhorting towards

 and to statues and to certain such images having bound them fast with the wretched bond of superstition, that which is indeed said, bringing living me

 Let her who does not give birth hear let her who does not travail break forth with a cry, for the children of the desolate are more than of her who

 breathing roughly is interpreted as the female serpent But Deo and Kore have already become a mystic drama, and Eleusis holds torches for their wande

 a herdsman, the goad, calling the narthex a herdsman's goad, I suppose, which the Bacchants indeed wreathe. 2.17.1 Do you wish that I should narrate t

 and the swineherd Eubouleus from whom sprang the hierophantic family of the Eumolpidae and Kerykes, 2.20.3 this very one at Athens. And indeed (for I

 a teacher of the woman's 2.24.2 disease to the other Scythians. For which reason (for it must by no means be concealed), it comes over me to wonder in

 they have fabricated certain saviors, the Dioscuri and Heracles, averter of evil, and Asclepius the physician. 2.27.1 These are the slippery and harmf

 Apollodorus says, and Callimachus, Phoebus is appointed over the sacrifices of asses among the Hyperboreans. And the same poet elsewhere says, Fat sac

 and of gods. He was so poured out in matters of love, as to desire all, and to fulfill his desire upon all. At any rate, he was filled with women no

 is fashioned in the manner of a member and sits upon the branch, fulfilling the promise to the dead man. A mystical memorial of this passion, phalli a

 is taught to be prudent. The myth is laid bare for you Leda died, the swan died, the eagle died. You seek your Zeus? do not meddle with the sky, but

 2.39.8 they acclaimed. But Heraclides in *Foundations of Temples* says that in Acarnania, where the Actium promontory is and the temple of Actian Apol

 he records 3.42.7 to have offered a whole burnt-offering. And Erechtheus the Attic and Marius the Roman sacrificed their own daughters of whom the on

 In Athens, on the acropolis, is that of Cecrops, as Antiochus says in the ninth book of his Histories. And what of Erichthonius? Was he not buried in

 the so-called Palladium, fallen from heaven, which Diomedes and Odysseus are said to have stolen from Ilium, and to have entrusted to Demophon, was ma

 Nor insult the blooming youth keep it pure, that it may be beautiful. Become a king of beauty, not a tyrant let it remain free then I will recogniz

 worshippers of stones, having learned by deed not to worship senseless matter, being overcome by the need itself, are destroyed by superstition But t

 And private individuals dignified themselves with divine titles, as Menecrates the physician, who was surnamed Zeus. Why must I list Alexarchus (he wa

 4.56.4 offspring of the earth, all these things that you see? Why then, O foolish and empty-minded ones (for I will say it again), having blasphemed t

 they boast, having enrolled them as their own household slaves, having made them compelled slaves by their incantations. Therefore, the remembered mar

 you shall make, says the prophet, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above and that is in the 4.62.3 earth beneath. Would we, then, still s

 those who worship it have suffered for others named this fire Hephaestus. 5.65.1 But the Magi of the Persians have honored fire, as have many of the

 of truth, do you show that those who have trusted in you are subjected to a flow and current and disorderly eddies? And why do you fill my life with i

 by counsel but indeed they raise pure arms to heaven, rising early from bed, always cleansing their skin with water, and they honor only the one who

 a comfort of the gods, images of stone, or bronze or gold-wrought or ivory figures and allotting sacrifices to them and empty festivals, thus we thin

 you will empty injustice. 8.77.1 Now that the other things have been duly completed by us in order, it is time to turn to the prophetic writings for

 I swear by myself. But he is vexed with the idolaters, saying to whom have you likened the Lord? or to what likeness have you likened him? Did a car

 For how is it permitted for the foreigner to enter? But when, I suppose, he is enrolled and made a citizen and receives the father, then he will be i

 the wanderers of the Hebrews for they are said not to have entered into the rest because of unbelief, until, having followed the successor of Moses,

 10.89.1 But to overturn a custom handed down to us from our fathers, you say, is not reasonable. And why, then, do we not use our first food, milk, to

 demands repentance. But I want to ask you, if it does not seem absurd to you that you, men, having been born a creation of God and having received you

 punishment? Why do we not accept the gift? Why do we not choose the better things, God instead of the wicked one, and prefer wisdom to idolatry, and e

 10.98.3 promised? Who has promised immortality? Only the Creator of all things, the father, the master-craftsman, fashioned us, man, such a living s

 to wipe away the hindrances to salvation, both pride and wealth and fear, uttering this very poetic saying: Where, indeed, do I carry these many posse

 they inhumanly attempt to slaughter him who teaches humanely, who calls them to righteousness, neither awaiting the grace from above nor shunning the

 a portion to those who have turned to any part of life, and to consider wisdom the same waveless harbor of salvation 10.107.3 through which those who

 He who also was, through what He taught and showed, having presented himself, our truce-bearer and reconciler and savior, the Word, a life-giving, pea

 since you were not ashamed of your brother. 11.114.1 Let us then take away, let us take away the forgetfulness of the truth having cast down the igno

 The trumpet with its great blast sounded, gathered soldiers, and announced war but Christ, having breathed a peaceful melody to the ends of the earth

 bound, you shall be loosed from all corruption, the Word of God will steer you, and the Holy Spirit will bring you to anchor in the harbors of the hea

 12.121.1 Let us hasten, let us run, O God-loving and God-like images of the Word [men] let us hasten, let us run, let us take up His yoke, let us mou

and of gods." He was so poured out in matters of love, as to desire all, and to fulfill his desire upon all. At any rate, he was filled with women no less than the goat of the Thmuites is with she-goats. 2.33.1 And of you, O Homer, I have marveled at your poems: He spoke, and the son of Cronos nodded with his dark brows, and the ambrosial locks of the king streamed from his immortal head; and he made great Olympus tremble. 2.33.2 You fashion Zeus as majestic, Homer, and you attach to him an honored nod. But if you only show, O man, the girdle, Zeus is exposed and his hair is shamed. 2.33.3 To what a degree of licentiousness has that Zeus driven, he who enjoyed so many nights with Alcmene? For not even the nine nights were long for the licentious one (but his whole life, on the contrary, was short through intemperance), that he might sow for us the averter of evils, 2.33.4 the god. Heracles, son of Zeus, truly of Zeus, born from a long night, who labored through the twelve labors over a long time, but corrupted the fifty daughters of Thestius in a single night, becoming at once an adulterer and bridegroom of so many virgins. It is not unfitting, then, that the poets call him "cruel" and an "evildoer." It would be a long task to recount his various adulteries and the 2.33.5 corruptions of boys. For your gods did not even abstain from boys, one being a lover of Hylas, another of Hyacinthus, another of Pelops, another of Chrysippus, and another of Ganymede. 2.33.6 Let your wives worship these gods, and pray that their own husbands be such, so self-controlled, so that they may be like the gods, having emulated the same things; let your children be accustomed to revere these, so that they may become men, taking the gods as a clear image of fornication. 2.33.7 But perhaps among them only the male gods rush into licentious acts; but the female goddesses remained at home, each in her modesty, says Homer, the goddesses being too ashamed on account of their dignity to see Aphrodite 2.33.8 caught in adultery. But they act more licentiously, bound by passion in adultery: Eos for Tithonus, Selene for Endymion, a Nereid for Aeacus and Thetis for Peleus, Demeter for Iasion, and Persephone 2.33.9 for Adonis. And Aphrodite, shamed over Ares, went after Cinyras and married Anchises and lay with Phaethon and loved Adonis; and she contended with the ox-eyed goddess, and the goddesses, having stripped naked for an apple, paid attention to the shepherd, as to which of them would seem beautiful. 2.34.1 Come now, let us briefly survey the games and put an end to these funereal festivals: the Isthmian and Nemean and Pythian and, in addition to these, the Olympian games. At Pytho, then, the Pythian dragon is worshipped, and the festival of the serpent is called the Pythian games; and at the Isthmus the sea cast up a pitiful piece of refuse, and the Isthmian games bewail Melicertes; and at Nemea another little child, Archemorus, is buried, and the funeral rite for the child is called the Nemean games; and Pisa is for you, O Panhellenes, the tomb of a Phrygian charioteer, and the Zeus of Phidias appropriates the libations for Pelops, the Olympian games. The games, then, it seems, were mysteries contested over the dead, just like the oracles, and 2.34.2 both have been made public property. But the mysteries at Agra and those at Halimous in Attica are confined to Athens; but the games and the phalli celebrated for Dionysus are now a cosmic shame, having wickedly overrun life. 2.34.3 For Dionysus, eager to descend to Hades, did not know the way, and one Prosymnus by name promised to show him, but not without a reward; and the reward was not a noble one, but it was noble to Dionysus; it was a sexual favor, the reward that Dionysus was asked for; the request was made to the willing god, and indeed he promised to grant it to him, if he should return, confirming the 2.34.4 promise with an oath. Having learned the way, he departed; he came back again; he does not find Prosymnus (for he had died); Dionysus, wishing to fulfill his obligation to his lover, rushes to the tomb and indulges his lust. He therefore cut off a branch of a fig-tree, as it happened, shaped like a man's

τε θεῶν τε"· τοσοῦτος περὶ τὰ ἀφρο δίσια ἐξεχύθη, ὡς ἐπιθυμεῖν μὲν πασῶν, ἐκπληροῦν δὲ εἰς πάσας τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν. Ἐνεπίμπλατο γοῦν γυναικῶν οὐχ ἧττον ἢ αἰγῶν ὁ Θμουιτῶν τράγος. 2.33.1 Καὶ σοῦ, ὦ Ὅμηρε, τεθαύμακα τὰ ποιήματα· ἦ, καὶ κυανέῃσιν ἐπ' ὀφρύσι νεῦσε Κρονίων· ἀμβρόσιαι δ' ἄρα χαῖται ἐπερρώσαντο ἄνακτος κρατὸς ἀπ' ἀθανάτοιο· μέγαν δ' ἐλέλιξεν Ὄλυμπον. 2.33.2 Σεμνὸν ἀναπλάττεις, Ὅμηρε, τὸν ∆ία καὶ νεῦμα περιάπτεις αὐτῷ τετιμημένον. Ἀλλ' ἐὰν ἐπιδείξῃς μόνον, ἄνθρωπε, τὸν κεστόν, ἐξελέγχεται καὶ ὁ Ζεὺς καὶ ἡ κόμη καταισχύνεται. 2.33.3 Εἰς ὅσον διελήλακεν ἀσελγείας ὁ Ζεὺς ἐκεῖνος ὁ μετ' Ἀλκμήνης τοσαύτας ἡδυπαθήσας νύκτας; οὐδὲ γὰρ αἱ νύκτες αἱ ἐννέα τῷ ἀκολάστῳ μακραί (ἅπας δὲ ἔμπαλιν ὁ βίος ἀκρασίᾳ βραχὺς ἦν), ἵνα δὴ ἡμῖν τὸν ἀλεξίκακον 2.33.4 σπείρῃ θεόν. ∆ιὸς υἱὸς Ἡρακλῆς, ∆ιὸς ὡς ἀληθῶς, ὁ ἐκ μακρᾶς γεννώμενος νυκτός, τοὺς μὲν ἄθλους τοὺς δώδεκα πολλῷ ταλαιπωρησάμενος χρόνῳ, τὰς δὲ πεντήκοντα Θεστίου θυγατέρας νυκτὶ διαφθείρας μιᾷ, μοιχὸς ὁμοῦ καὶ νυμφίος τοσούτων γενόμενος παρθένων. Οὔκουν ἀπεικότως οἱ ποιηταὶ "σχέτλιον" τοῦτον "καὶ αἰσυλοεργὸν" ἀπο καλοῦσιν. Μακρὸν δ' ἂν εἴη μοιχείας αὐτοῦ παντοδαπὰς καὶ 2.33.5 παίδων διηγεῖσθαι φθοράς. Οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ παίδων ἀπέσχοντο οἱ παρ' ὑμῖν θεοί, ὃ μέν τις Ὕλα, ὃ δὲ Ὑακίνθου, ὃ δὲ Πέλοπος, ὃ δὲ Χρυσίππου, ὃ δὲ Γανυμήδους ἐρῶντες. 2.33.6 Τούτους ὑμῶν αἱ γυναῖκες προσκυνούντων τοὺς θεούς, τοιούτους δὲ εὐχέσθων εἶναι τοὺς ἄνδρας τοὺς ἑαυτῶν, οὕτω σώφρονας, ἵν' ὦσιν ὅμοιοι τοῖς θεοῖς τὰ ἴσα ἐζηλω κότες· τούτους ἐθιζόντων οἱ παῖδες ὑμῶν σέβειν, ἵνα καὶ ἄνδρες γενήσονται εἰκόνα πορνείας ἐναργῆ τοὺς θεοὺς 2.33.7 παραλαμβάνοντες. Ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ἄρρενες αὐτοῖς τῶν θεῶν ἴσως μόνοι ᾄττουσι περὶ τὰ ἀφροδίσια· θηλύτεραι δὲ θεαὶ μένον αἰδοῖ οἴκοι ἑκάστη, φησὶν Ὅμηρος, αἰδούμεναι αἱ θεαὶ διὰ σεμνότητα Ἀφροδίτην 2.33.8 ἰδεῖν μεμοιχευμένην. Αἳ δὲ ἀκολασταίνουσιν ἐμπαθέσ τερον ἐν τῇ μοιχείᾳ δεδεμέναι, Ἠὼς ἐπὶ Τιθωνῷ, Σελήνη <δ' ἐπὶ> Ἐνδυμίωνι, Νηρηῒς ἐπὶ Αἰακῷ καὶ ἐπὶ Πηλεῖ Θέτις, ἐπὶ δὲ Ἰασίωνι ∆ημήτηρ καὶ ἐπὶ Ἀδώνιδι Φερέ2.33.9 φαττα. Ἀφροδίτη δὲ ἐπ' Ἄρει κατῃσχυμμένη μετῆλθεν ἐπὶ Κινύραν καὶ Ἀγχίσην ἔγημεν καὶ Φαέθοντα ἐλόχα καὶ ἤρα Ἀδώνιδος, ἐφιλονείκει δὲ τῇ βοώπιδι καὶ ἀποδυσάμεναι διὰ μῆλον αἱ θεαὶ γυμναὶ προσεῖχον τῷ ποιμένι, ἥτις αὐτῶν δόξει καλή. 2.34.1 Ἴθι δὴ καὶ τοὺς ἀγῶνας ἐν βραχεῖ περιοδεύσωμεν καὶ τὰς ἐπιτυμβίους ταυτασὶ πανηγύρεις καταλύσωμεν, Ἴσθμιά τε καὶ Νέμεα καὶ Πύθια καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτοις Ὀλύμπια. Πυθοῖ μὲν οὖν ὁ δράκων ὁ Πύθιος θρῃσκεύεται καὶ τοῦ ὄφεως ἡ πανήγυρις καταγγέλλεται Πύθια· Ἰσθμοῖ δὲ σκύβαλον προσέπτυσεν ἐλεεινὸν ἡ θάλαττα καὶ Μελικέρτην ὀδύρεται τὰ Ἴσθμια· Νεμέασι δὲ ἄλλο παιδίον Ἀρχέμορος κεκήδευται καὶ τοῦ παιδίου ὁ ἐπιτάφιος προσαγορεύεται Νέμεα· Πῖσα δὲ ὑμῖν τάφος ἐστίν, ὦ Πανέλληνες, ἡνιόχου Φρυγός, καὶ τοῦ Πέλοπος τὰς χοάς, τὰ Ὀλύμπια, ὁ Φειδίου σφετερίζεται Ζεύς. Μυστήρια ἦσαν ἄρα, ὡς ἔοικεν, οἱ ἀγῶνες ἐπὶ νεκροῖς διαθλούμενοι, ὥσπερ καὶ τὰ λόγια, καὶ 2.34.2 δεδήμευνται ἄμφω. Ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν ἐπὶ Ἄγρᾳ μυστήρια καὶ τὰ ἐν Ἁλιμοῦντι τῆς Ἀττικῆς Ἀθήνησι περιώρισται·αἶσχος δὲ ἤδη κοσμικὸν οἵ τε ἀγῶνες καὶ οἱ φαλλοὶ οἱ ∆ιονύσῳ ἐπιτελούμενοι, κακῶς ἐπινενεμημένοι τὸν βίον. 2.34.3 ∆ιόνυσος γὰρ κατελθεῖν εἰς Ἅιδου γλιχόμενος ἠγνόει τὴν ὁδόν, ὑπισχνεῖται δ' αὐτῷ φράσειν, Πρόσυμνος τοὔνομα, οὐκ ἀμισθί· ὁ δὲ μισθὸς οὐ καλός, ἀλλὰ ∆ιονύσῳ καλός· καὶ ἀφροδίσιος ἦν ἡ χάρις, ὁ μισθός, ὃν ᾐτεῖτο ∆ιόνυσος· βουλομένῳ δὲ τῷ θεῷ γέγονεν ἡ αἴτησις, καὶ δὴ ὑπισχνεῖται παρέξειν αὐτῷ, εἰ ἀναζεύξοι, ὅρκῳ πιστωσάμενος τὴν 2.34.4 ὑπόσχεσιν. Μαθὼν ἀπῆρεν· ἐπανῆλθεν αὖθις· οὐ κατα λαμβάνει τὸν Πρόσυμνον (ἐτεθνήκει γάρ)· ἀφοσιούμενος τῷ ἐραστῇ ὁ ∆ιόνυσος ἐπὶ τὸ μνημεῖον ὁρμᾷ καὶ πασχητιᾷ. Κλάδον οὖν συκῆς, ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἐκτεμὼν ἀνδρείου