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of a chariot and how he murdered his children, swallowing the males, and Zeus, that having bound his father, he cast him into Tartarus, just as Uranus also did to his sons, and waged war against the Titans for dominion, and that he pursued his mother Rhea when she forbade her marriage to him, and when she became a she-dragon, he also changing into a dragon bound her with what is called the Heracleotic knot and had intercourse with her (a symbol of the form of their union is the rod of Hermes), then that he had intercourse with his daughter Persephone, violating her also in the form of a dragon, from whom he had a son, Dionysus. It is necessary to say at least this much: what is there august or useful in such a history, that we should believe Cronus, Zeus, Kore, and the rest to be gods? The conditions of their bodies? And what man of judgment and engaged in contemplation would believe that a viper was begotten by a god— Orpheus: But Phanes himself begot another dreadful offspring from his sacred womb, Echidna, terrible to behold, whose hair from her head and beautiful face were fair to see, but the other parts from the top of her neck were of a dreadful dragon— or would he accept Phanes himself, being a first-born god (for this is he who was poured forth from the egg), as having the body or form of a dragon or as being swallowed by Zeus, so that Zeus might become boundless? For if they differ in nothing from the vilest beasts (for it is clear that the divine must be distinguished from earthly things and from things separated from matter), they are not gods. And why should we approach them, whose generation is like that of cattle, and who are themselves beast-shaped and deformed? And yet if they only said that they were fleshly and had blood and seed and passions of anger and lust, even then it would be necessary to consider these stories nonsense and a laughing-stock; for there is neither anger nor lust and desire nor child-producing seed in God. Let them be fleshly then, but at least superior to passion and anger, so that Athena may not be seen "enraged with father Zeus, and savage wrath seized her", and Hera be regarded "but Hera's breast could not contain her wrath, but she spoke", and superior to grief, "Alas, with my own eyes I see a beloved man pursued around the wall; and my heart grieves for him." For I for my part call men ignorant and stupid who yield to anger and grief; but when the "father of men and of gods" laments his son "Ah me, that Sarpedon, dearest of men to me, is fated to be slain by Patroclus, son of Menoetius," and while lamenting is unable to rescue him from the danger

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ἅρματος καὶ ὡς ἐτεκνοκτόνει καταπίνων τῶν παίδων τοὺς ἄρσενας, Ζεὺς δὲ ὅτι τὸν μὲν πατέρα δήσας κατεταρτάρωσεν, καθὰ καὶ τοὺς υἱεῖς ὁ Oὐρανός, καὶ πρὸς Τιτᾶνας περὶ τῆς ἀρχῆς ἐπολέμησεν καὶ ὅτι τὴν μητέρα Ῥέαν ἀπαγορεύουσαν αὐτοῦ τὸν γάμον ἐδίωκε, δρακαίνης δ' αὐτῆς γενομένης καὶ αὐτὸς εἰς δράκοντα μεταβαλὼν συνδήσας αὐτὴν τῷ καλουμένῳ Ἡρακλειωτικῷ ἅμματι ἐμίγη (τοῦ σχήματος τῆς μίξεως σύμβολον ἡ τοῦ Ἑρμοῦ ·άβδος), εἶθ' ὅτι Φερσεφόνῃ τῇ θυγατρὶ ἐμίγη βιασάμενος καὶ ταύτην ἐν δράκοντος σχήματι, ἐξ ἧς παῖς ∆ιόνυσος αὐτῷ· ἀνάγκη κἂν τοσοῦτον εἰπεῖν· τί τὸ σεμνὸν ἢ χρηστὸν τῆς τοιαύτης ἱστορίας, ἵνα πιστεύ σωμεν θεοὺς εἶναι τὸν Κρόνον, τὸν ∆ία, τὴν Κόρην, τοὺς λοιπούς; αἱ διαθέσεις τῶν σωμάτων; καὶ τίς ἂν ἄνθρωπος κεκριμένος καὶ ἐν θεωρίᾳ γεγονὼς ὑπὸ θεοῦ γεννηθῆναι πιστεύσαι ἔχιδναν- Ὀρφεύς· ἂν δὲ Φάνης ἄλλην γενεὴν τεκνώσατο δεινήν νηδύος ἐξ ἱερῆς, προσιδεῖν φοβερωπὸν Ἔχιδναν, ἧς χαῖται μὲν ἀπὸ κρατὸς καλόν τε πρόσωπον ἦν ἐσιδεῖν, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ μέρη φοβεροῖο δράκοντος αὐχένος ἐξ ἄκρου- ἢ αὐτὸν τὸν Φάνητα δέξαιτο, θεὸν ὄντα πρωτόγονον (οὗτος γάρ ἐστιν ὁ ἐκ τοῦ ᾠοῦ προχυθείς), ἢ σῶμα ἢ σχῆμα ἔχειν δράκοντος ἢ καταποθῆναι ὑπὸ τοῦ ∆ιός, ὅπως ὁ Ζεὺς ἀχώρητος γένοιτο; εἰ γὰρ μηδὲν διενενηνόχασιν τῶν φαυλοτάτων θηρίων (δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι ὑποδιαλλάσσειν δεῖ τῶν γηΐνων καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ὕλης ἀποκρινομένων τὸ θεῖον), οὐκ εἰσὶν θεοί. τί δὲ καὶ πρόσιμεν αὐτοῖς, ὧν κτηνῶν μὲν δίκην ἔχει ἡ γένεσις, αὐτοὶ δὲ θηριόμορφοι καὶ δυσειδεῖς; Καίτοι εἰ σαρκοειδεῖς μόνον ἔλεγον αὐτοὺς καὶ αἷμα ἔχειν καὶ σπέρμα καὶ πάθη ὀργῆς καὶ ἐπιθυμίας, καὶ τότε ἔδει λῆρον καὶ γέλωτα λόγους τούτους νομίζειν· οὔτε γὰρ ὀργὴ οὔτε ἐπιθυμία καὶ ὄρεξις οὐδὲ παιδοποιὸν σπέρμα ἐν τῷ θεῷ. ἔστωσαν τοίνυν σαρκοειδεῖς, ἀλλὰ κρείττους μὲν θυμοῦ καὶ ὀργῆς, ἵνα μὴ Ἀθηνᾶ μὲν βλέπηται "σκυζομένη ∆ιὶ πατρί, χόλος δέ μιν ἄγριος ἣρει", Ἥρα δὲ θεωρῆται "Ἥρῃ δ' οὐκ ἔχαδε στῆθος χόλον, ἀλλὰ προσ ηύδα", κρείττους δὲ λύπης, ὢ πόποι, ἦ φίλον ἄνδρα διωκόμενον περὶ τεῖχος ὀφθαλμοῖσιν ὁρῶμαι· ἐμὸν δ' ὀλοφύρεται ἦτορ. ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἀνθρώπους ἀμαθεῖς καὶ σκαιοὺς λέγω τοὺς ὀργῇ καὶ λύπῃ εἴκοντας· ὅταν δὲ ὁ "πατὴρ ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε" ὀδύρηται μὲν τὸν υἱὸν αŠ αŠ ἐγών, ὅτε μοι Σαρπηδόνα φίλτατον ἀνδρῶν μοῖρ' ὑπὸ Πατρόκλοιο Μενοιτιάδαο δαμῆναι, ἀδυνατῇ δὲ ὀδυρόμενος τοῦ κινδύνου ἐξαρπάσαι