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the conception of those called philosophers concerning the constitution of the universe and the first cosmogony, who posited no craftsman, no maker of all things, nor indeed did they make any mention of God at all, but assigned the cause of the universe only to irrational force and automatic motion. 1.8.14 So great was their opposition to one another, having agreed with each other on nothing, but having filled everything with strife and discord. Hence also the admirable Socrates refuted all these men, showing them to be fools, and said they differed in no way from madmen, if indeed Xenophon is for you a worthy witness, speaking thus in his *Memorabilia*: 1.8.15 “No one ever saw Socrates doing or heard him saying anything impious or unholy. For he did not discourse, as most others did, about the nature of all things, investigating how the 'cosmos,' as it is called by the sophists, is constituted, and by what necessities each of the celestial phenomena comes to be, but he would show that those who concerned themselves with such things were fools.” And he adds next: 1.8.16 “And he wondered if it was not clear to them that it is not possible for humans to discover these things, since even those who prided themselves most on discussing these matters did not hold the same opinions as one another, but were disposed toward one another like madmen. For of madmen, some do not fear even what is terrible, while others are afraid of what is not fearful, and of those who ponder the nature of all things, some think that Being is one only, while others think it is infinite in number, and some think that all things are always in motion, while others think that nothing could ever be moved; and some that all things come into being and perish, while others that nothing could ever come into being or perish.” 1.8.17 These things Socrates said, as Xenophon testifies. And Plato also agrees with these things, recording him in his *On the Soul* as saying the following: “For I, Cebes,” he said, “when I was young, had a wonderful desire for that wisdom which they call natural history. For it seemed to me a magnificent thing to know the causes of everything, why each thing comes to be and why it perishes and why it is. And I often tossed myself up and down, first investigating such things as these: is it when the hot and the cold undergo some sort of decay, as some said, that living creatures are then nourished? And is it the blood with which we think, or the air, or the fire? Or is it none of these, but the brain is what provides the senses of hearing and seeing and smelling, and from these come memory and opinion, and from memory and opinion, when they have attained a state of rest, in the same way knowledge comes to be. 1.8.18 And in turn, investigating the corruptions of these things and the phenomena concerning heaven and earth, I finally seemed to myself so ill-suited for this inquiry as could be. And I will tell you sufficient proof: for what I previously knew clearly, as at least it seemed to myself and to others, I was then so severely blinded by this very inquiry that I unlearned even those things which I thought I knew before.” 1.8.19 These things were said by Socrates himself, he who is celebrated by all the Greeks. When, therefore, even to so great a philosopher the doctrines of the aforementioned natural philosophers seemed to be of such a kind, I think it is reasonable for us also to have rejected the atheism of all these men, since also their polytheistic error does not seem to be foreign to what has been said. This, then, will be refuted at the proper time, at which we will show that Anaxagoras is recorded as the first of the Greeks to have set Mind over the cause of the universe. But now proceed for me to Diodorus and observe what he relates concerning the first theology of men: 1.9.1

8. THAT THE ANCIENT MEN WORSHIPPED ONLY THE LUMINARIES IN THE HEAVEN, KNOWING NOTHING ABOUT THE GOD OF ALL THINGS, NOR EVEN ABOUT

THE SETTING UP OF STATUES NOR ABOUT DEMONS

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φιλοσόφων ἐπικληθέντων ἡ περὶ τῆς συστάσεως τοῦ παντὸς καὶ τῆς πρώτης κοσμογονίας διάληψις, οὐ δημιουργόν, οὐ ποιητήν τινα τῶν ὅλων ὑποστησαμένων, ἀλλ' οὐδ' ὅλως θεοῦ μνήμην ποιησαμένων, μόνῃ δὲ τῇ ἀλόγῳ φορᾷ καὶ τῇ αὐτομάτῳ κινήσει τὴν αἰτίαν τοῦ παντὸς ἀνατεθειμένων. 1.8.14 τοσαύτη δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ ἡ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἐναντιότης, ἐν μὲν οὐδενὶ ἀλλήλοις συμπεφωνηκότων, μάχης δὲ καὶ διαφωνίας τὰ πάντα ἀναπεπληρωκότων. ἔνθεν καὶ ὁ θαυμάσιος Σωκράτης τουτουσὶ πάντας μωραίνοντας ἀπήλεγχεν καὶ μαινομένων κατ' οὐδὲν ἔλεγεν διαφέρειν, εἰ δή σοι μάρτυς ἀξιόχρεως Ξενοφῶν ἐν Ἀπομνημονεύμασι λέγων οὕτως· 1.8.15 «Οὐδεὶς δὲ πώποτε Σωκράτους οὐδὲν ἀσεβὲς οὐδὲ ἀνόσιον οὔτε πράττοντος εἶδεν οὔτε λέγοντος ἤκουσεν. οὐδὲ γὰρ περὶ τῆς ἁπάντων φύσεως ἢ περὶ τῶν ἄλλων, ὡς οἱ πλεῖστοι, διελέγετο, σκοπῶν ὅπως ὁ καλούμενος ὑπὸ τῶν σοφιστῶν κόσμος ἔχει καὶ τίσιν ἀνάγκαις ἕκαστα γίγνεται τῶν οὐρανίων, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς φροντίζοντας τὰ τοιαῦτα μωραίνοντας ἀπεδείκνυεν.» Καὶ ἐπιλέγει ἑξῆς· 1.8.16 «Ἐθαύμαζεν δὲ εἰ μὴ φανερὸν αὐτοῖς ἐστιν ὅτι ταῦτα οὐ δυνατόν ἐστιν ἀνθρώποις εὑρεῖν, ἐπεὶ καὶ τοὺς μέγιστα φρονοῦντας ἐπὶ τῷ περὶ τούτων λέγειν οὐ τὰ αὐτὰ δοξάζειν ἀλλήλοις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μαινομένοις ὁμοίως διακεῖσθαι πρὸς ἀλλήλους. τῶν τε γὰρ μαινομένων τοὺς μὲν οὐδὲ τὰ δεινὰ δεδιέναι, τοὺς δὲ τὰ μὴ φοβερὰ φοβεῖσθαι, τῶν τε περὶ τῆς πάντων φύσεως μεριμνώντων τοῖς μὲν δοκεῖν ἓν μόνον τὸ ὂν εἶναι, τοῖς δὲ ἄπειρα τὸ πλῆθος, καὶ τοῖς μὲν ἀεὶ πάντα κινεῖσθαι, τοῖς δὲ οὐδὲν ἄν ποτε κινηθῆναι· καὶ τοῖς μὲν ἅπαντα γίνεσθαί τε καὶ ἀπόλλυσθαι, τοῖς δὲ οὔτ' ἂν γενέσθαι ποτὲ οὐδὲν οὔτε ἀπόλλυσθαι.» 1.8.17 Ταῦθ' ὁ Σωκράτης, ὡς ὁ Ξενοφῶν μαρτυρεῖ. συνᾴδει δὲ καὶ ὁ Πλάτων τούτοις ἐν τῷ Περὶ ψυχῆς τοιάδε λέγοντα αὐτὸν ἀναγράφων· «Ἐγὼ γάρ, ἔφη, ὦ Κέβης, νέος ὢν θαυμαστῶς ὡς ἐπεθύμησα ταύτης τῆς σοφίας, ἣν δὴ καλοῦσι περὶ φύσεως ἱστορίαν· ὑπερήφανον γάρ μοι ἐδόκει εἶναι εἰδέναι τὰς αἰτίας ἑκάστου, διὰ τί γίνεται ἕκαστον καὶ διὰ τί ἀπόλλυται καὶ διὰ τί ἔστι· καὶ πολλάκις ἐμαυτὸν ἄνω κάτω μετέβαλλον, σκοπῶν πρῶτον τὰ τοιάδε· ἆρα ἐπειδὰν τὸ θερμὸν καὶ τὸ ψυχρὸν σηπεδόνα τινὰ λάβῃ, ὥς τινες ἔλεγον, τότε ἤδη τὰ ζῷα ξυντρέφεται· καὶ πότερον τὸ αἷμά ἐστιν ᾧ φρονοῦμεν ἢ ὁ ἀὴρ ἢ τὸ πῦρ· ἢ τούτων μὲν οὐδέν, ὁ δ' ἐγκέφαλός ἐστιν ὁ τὰς αἰσθήσεις παρέχων τοῦ ἀκούειν καὶ ὁρᾶν καὶ ὀσφραίνεσθαι, ἐκ τούτων δὲ γίγνοιτο μνήμη καὶ δόξα, ἐκ δὲ μνήμης καὶ δόξης λαβούσης τὸ ἠρεμεῖν κατὰ ταῦτα γίνεσθαι 1.8.18 ἐπιστήμην. καὶ αὖ τούτων τὰς φθορὰς σκοπῶν καὶ τὰ περὶ τὸν οὐρανόν τε καὶ τὴν γῆν πάθη, τελευτῶν οὕτως ἐμαυτῷ ἔδοξα πρὸς ταύτην τὴν σκέψιν ἀφυὴς εἶναι ὡς οὐδὲν χρῆμα. τεκμήριον δέ σοι ἐρῶ ἱκανόν· ἐγὼ γὰρ ἃ καὶ πρότερον σαφῶς ἠπιστάμην, ὥς γε ἐμαυτῷ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐδόκουν, τότε ὑπ' αὐτῆς τῆς σκέψεως οὕτω σφόδρα ἐτυφλώθην ὥστε ἀπέμαθον καὶ ταῦτα ἃ πρὸ τοῦ ᾤμην εἰδέναι.» 1.8.19 Ταῦτα Σωκράτης αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος ὁ πᾶσιν ἀοίδιμος Ἕλλησιν. ὅτε τοίνυν καὶ τῷ τηλικούτῳ φιλοσόφῳ τοιάδε ἐδόκει εἶναι τὰ τῆς τῶν δηλωθέντων φυσιολογίας, εἰκότως μοι δοκῶ καὶ ἡμᾶς τὴν τούτων ἁπάντων ἀθεότητα παρῃτῆσθαι, ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ τῆς πολυθέου πλάνης αὐτῶν οὐκ ἔοικεν εἶναι ἀλλότρια τῶν εἰρημένων. τοῦτο μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ καιροῦ τοῦ προσήκοντος ἐλεγχθήσεται, καθ' ὃν ἀποδείξομεν ὅτι πρῶτος Ἑλλήνων Ἀναξαγόρας νοῦν ἐπιστῆσαι τῇ τοῦ παντὸς αἰτίᾳ μνημονεύεται. νῦν δέ μοι ἐπὶ τὸν ∆ιόδωρον μετάβα καὶ σκόπει οἷα περὶ τῆς πρώτης τῶν ἀνθρώπων θεολογίας ἱστορεῖ· 1.9.1

ηʹ. ΟΤΙ ΟΙ ΠΑΛΑΙΟΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΩΝ ΤΟΥΣ ΚΑΤ' ΟΥΡΑΝΟΝ ΦΩΣΤΗΡΑΣ ΜΟΝΟΥΣ ΕΣΕΒΟΝ ΜΗ∆ΕΝ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΟΥ ΤΩΝ ΟΛΩΝ ΘΕΟΥ, ΑΛΛ' ΟΥ∆Ε ΠΕΡΙ

ΞΟΑΝΩΝ Ι∆ΡΥΣΕΩΣ ΟΥ∆Ε ΠΕΡΙ ∆ΑΙΜΟΝΩΝ ΕΠΙΣΤΑΜΕΝΟΙ