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whom indeed they call Titans by name, because they took vengeance on great starry Heaven. This is the beginning of genesis concerning their gods and the universe. That, then, each of the things spoken of in theology as the beginning. For if they came into being from not being, as those who write their theology say, they do not exist; for a thing is either uncreated, and it is eternal, or created, and it is corruptible. And it is not I who say this, but the philosophers in another way. "What is that which always is and has no becoming, and what is that which becomes but never is?" Plato, when discussing the intelligible and the sensible, teaches that that which always is, the intelligible, is uncreated, but that which is not, the sensible, is created, beginning and ceasing to be. In accordance with this reasoning, those of the Stoa also say that all things will be consumed by fire and will exist again, the world having taken another beginning. But if, although according to them there are two causes, the one active and originating, which is providence, and the other passive and changing, which is matter, it is impossible for the created world, even though under providence, to remain in the same state, how does the constitution of these gods remain, they being not by nature, but created? And in what way are the gods, having their constitution from water, better than matter? But according to them, neither is water the principle of all things (for what could be composed from simple and uniform elements? But there is need of an artisan for the matter and of matter for the artisan; or how could the impressions come to be without the matter or the artisan?); nor does it make sense for matter to be older than God; for it is necessary that the efficient cause precede the things that come into being. If, then, the implausibility of their theology were confined to saying that the gods have come into being and have their constitution from water, having shown that nothing created is not also dissoluble, I would have proceeded to the remaining charges. But since they have described their bodies, Heracles as a divine coiled serpent, and the Hecatoncheires, and the daughter of Zeus, whom he begot from his own mother Rhea, that is, Demeter, as having two eyes by nature and two on her forehead and a bust on the back part of her neck, and also having horns, for which reason Rhea, frightened by the monster-child, fled, not offering her the nipple, whence mystically she is called Athela but commonly Persephone and Kore, not being the same as the Athena who is named from the maiden; and this, the things done by them, they have recounted with what they think is precision, how Cronus cut off his father’s genitals and cast him down from the

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οὓς δὴ καὶ Τιτῆνας ἐπίκλησιν καλέουσιν, οὕνεκα τισάσθην μέγαν Oὐρανὸν ἀστερόεντα. Aὕτη ἀρχὴ γενέσεως περὶ τοὺς κατ' αὐτοὺς θεούς τε καὶ τῷ παντί. ἐκεῖνο τοίνυν ἕκαστον γὰρ τῶν τεθεολογημένων ὡς τὴν ἀρχήν ονειναι . εἰ γὰρ γεγόνασιν οὐκ ὄντες, ὡς οἱ περὶ αὐτῶν θεολογοῦντες λέγουσιν, οὐκ εἰσίν· ἢ γὰρ ἀγένητόν τι, καὶ ἔστιν ἀίδιον, ἢ γενητόν, καὶ φθαρτόν ἐστιν. καὶ οὐκ ἐγὼ μὲν οὕτως, ἑτέρως δὲ οἱ φιλόσοφοι. "τί τὸ ὂν ἀεὶ γένεσίν τε οὐκ ἔχον, ἢ τί τὸ γενόμενον μέν, ὂν δὲ οὐδέποτε;" περὶ νοητοῦ καὶ αἰσθητοῦ δια λεγόμενος ὁ Πλάτων τὸ μὲν ἀεὶ ὄν, τὸ νοητόν, ἀγένητον εἶναι διδάσκει, τὸ δὲ οὐκ ὄν, τὸ αἰσθητόν, γενητόν, ἀρχόμενον εἶναι καὶ παυόμενον. τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ τῆς Στοᾶς ἐκπυρω θήσεσθαι τὰ πάντα καὶ πάλιν ἔσεσθαί φασιν, ἑτέραν ἀρχὴν τοῦ κόσμου λαβόντος. εἰ δέ, καίτοι δισσοῦ αἰτίου κατ' αὐτοὺς ὄντος, τοῦ μὲν δραστηρίου καὶ καταρχομένου, καθὸ ἡ πρόνοια, τοῦ δὲ πάσχοντος καὶ τρεπομένου, καθὸ ἡ ὕλη, ἀδύνατον [δέ] ἐστιν καὶ προνοούμενον ἐπὶ ταὐτοῦ μεῖναι τὸν κόσμον γενόμενον, πῶς ἡ τούτων μένει σύστασις, οὐ φύσει ὄντων ἀλλὰ γενομένων; τί δὲ τῆς ὕλης κρείττους οἱ θεοὶ τὴν σύστασιν ἐξ ὕδατος ἔχοντες; ἀλλ' οὔτε κατ' αὐτοὺς ὕδωρ τοῖς πᾶσιν ἀρχή (ἐκ γὰρ ἁπλῶν καὶ μονοειδῶν στοιχείων τί ἂν συστῆναι δύναιτο; δεῖ δὲ καὶ τῇ ὕλῃ τεχνίτου καὶ ὕλης τῷ τεχνίτῃ· ἢ πῶς ἂν γένοιτο τὰ ἐκτυπώματα χωρὶς τῆς ὕλης ἢ τοῦ τεχνίτου;)· οὔτε πρεσβυτέραν λόγον ἔχει εἶναι τὴν ὕλην τοῦ θεοῦ· τὸ γὰρ ποιητικὸν αἴτιον προκατάρχειν τῶν γιγνομένων ἀνάγκη. Eἰ μὲν οὖν μέχρι τοῦ φῆσαι γεγονέναι τοὺς θεοὺς καὶ ἐξ ὕδατος τὴν σύστασιν ἔχειν τὸ ἀπίθανον ἦν αὐτοῖς τῆς θεολογίας, ἐπιδεδειχὼς ὅτι οὐδὲν γενητὸν ὃ οὐ καὶ διαλυτόν, ἐπὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ἂν παρεγενόμην τῶν ἐγκλημάτων. ἐπεὶ δὲ τοῦτο μὲν διατεθείκασιν αὐτῶν τὰ σώματα, τὸν μὲν Ἡρακλέα, ὅτι θεὸς δράκων ἑλικτός, τοὺς δὲ Ἑκατόγχειρας εἰπόντες, καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα τοῦ ∆ιός, ἣν ἐκ τῆς μητρὸς Ῥέας καὶ ∆ήμητρος ἢ δημήτορος τὸν αὐτῆς ἐπαιδοποιήσατο, δύο μὲν κατὰ φύσιν [εἶπον] ἔχειν ὀφθαλμοὺς καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ μετώπῳ δύο καὶ προτομὴν κατὰ τὸ ὄπισθεν τοῦ τραχήλου μέρος, ἔχειν δὲ καὶ κέρατα, διὸ καὶ τὴν Ῥέαν φοβηθεῖσαν τὸ τῆς παιδὸς τέρας φυγεῖν οὐκ ἐφεῖσαν αὐτῇ τὴν θηλήν, ἔνθεν μυστικῶς μὲν Ἀθηλᾶ κοινῶς δὲ Φερσεφόνη καὶ Κόρη κέκληται, οὐχ ἡ αὐτὴ οὖσα τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ τῇ ἀπὸ τῆς κόρης λεγομένῃ· τοῦτο δὲ τὰ πραχθέντα αὐτοῖς ἐπ' ἀκριβὲς ὡς οἴονται διεξεληλύθασιν, Κρόνος μὲν ὡς ἐξέτεμεν τὰ αἰδοῖα τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ κατέρριψεν αὐτὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ