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"Now, the men of old in Egypt, having looked up to the world and having been struck with astonishment and wonder at the nature of the universe, supposed that there were two gods, eternal and primary, the sun and the moon, of whom they named the one Osiris, and the other Isis, from a certain etymology assigned 1.9.2 to each appellation. For when these names are translated into the Greek manner of speech, Osiris is ‘many-eyed,’ reasonably so; for by casting his rays everywhere he sees, as with many eyes, all the earth and sea; and the poet speaks in accordance with this: ‘Helios, who sees all things and hears all things.’ 1.9.3 But some of the ancient mythologers among the Greeks call Osiris Dionysus, and Sirius by a derived name. Of these, Eumolpus in his Bacchic verses says: ‘star-bright Dionysus in fiery rays,’ and Orpheus: ‘for this cause they call him Phanes and Dionysus.’ And some say that the fawn-skin cloak was put on him because of the variegation of the stars. 1.9.4 And Isis, when translated, is ‘ancient,’ the appellation having been given to the moon from its eternal and ancient generation; and they place horns on her both from the appearance which she has when she is crescent-shaped, and from the cow which is sacred to her among the Egyptians. And they hold that these gods govern the entire universe." 1.9.5 Such, then, are these accounts. You have it also in the Phoenician theology, that the first Phoenicians "knew as gods only the physical sun and moon and the other wandering stars and the elements and things connected with them" and that to these the most ancient men "dedicated the products of the earth, and considered these to be gods and worshipped them, from which they themselves lived and their successors and all before them, and they performed libations and incense-offerings; and they consecrated pity and compassion and wailing to the departing produce of the earth and to the first generation of animals from the earth and from one another and to their death, at which 1.9.6 they departed from life. And these were the concepts of their worship, similar to their own weakness and the timidity of their soul." This is also in the Phoenician writing, as will be shown in what follows. But also he who lived in our own times, that very man who is distinguished by his slanders against us, in the work he entitled *On Abstinence from Animal Food*, sets forth the memory of the ancient times of the men of old in these very words, using Theophrastus as a witness: 1.9.7 "An innumerable time seems to have passed since the most rational race of all, as Theophrastus says, inhabiting the most sacred land founded by the Nile, first began from the hearth to sacrifice to the celestial gods, not first-fruits of myrrh nor of cassia and frankincense mixed with saffron; for these were adopted many generations later, when man became a wanderer and a seeker after the necessities of life with many toils and tears, offering drops of these 1.9.8 to the gods. They did not, therefore, sacrifice these things at first, but blades of grass, as it were a certain bloom of prolific nature, lifting them up in their hands. For the earth sent forth trees before animals, and long before trees, the grass that grows annually; plucking its leaves and roots and all its natural shoots, they would burn them, by this sacrifice propitiating the visible celestial gods and immortalizing their honors with fire. 1.9.9 For to these they also kept the fire immortal in the temples, as being most like them. And from the burning of incense from the earth they called them 'incense-altars' and 'to sacrifice' and 'sacrifices,' which terms we, incorrectly understanding them as signifying the later offense, call the supposed worship through animals 1.9.10 a 'sacrifice.' So much did the ancients care not to transgress the custom that they cursed those who forsook the ancient way and introduced another, and called the spices that were burned for incense 'curses' (arōmata)." 1.9.11 After saying this, he adds among other things: "But as the lawlessness of men advanced far from the first-fruits of sacrifices, the lawlessness of the most terrible things

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«Τοὺς δ' οὖν κατ' Αἴγυπτον ἀνθρώπους τὸ παλαιὸν γενομένους ἀναβλέψαντας εἰς τὸν κόσμον καὶ τὴν τῶν ὅλων φύσιν καταπλαγέντας τε καὶ θαυμάσαντας ὑπολαβεῖν εἶναι δύο θεοὺς ἀϊδίους τε καὶ πρώτους, τόν τε ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην, ὧν τὸν μὲν Ὄσιριν, τὴν δὲ Ἶσιν ὀνομάσαι, ἀπό τινος ἐτύμου τεθείσης 1.9.2 ἑκατέρας τῆς προσηγορίας. μεθερμηνευομένων γὰρ τούτων εἰς τὸν Ἑλληνικὸν τῆς διαλέκτου τρόπον εἶναι τὸν μὲν Ὄσιριν πολυόφθαλμον, εἰκότως· πάντη γὰρ ἐπιβάλλοντα τὰς ἀκτῖνας ὥσπερ ὀφθαλμοῖς πολλοῖς βλέπειν ἅπασαν γῆν καὶ θάλατταν· καὶ τὸν ποιητὴν δὲ λέγειν σύμφωνα τούτοις· Ἠέλιός θ' ὃς πάντ' ἐφορᾷ καὶ πάντ' ἐπακούει. 1.9.3 τῶν δὲ παρ' Ἕλλησι παλαιῶν μυθολόγων τινὲς τὸν Ὄσιριν ∆ιόνυσον προσονομάζουσιν καὶ Σείριον παρωνύμως. ὧν Εὔμολπος μὲν ἐν τοῖς Βακχικοῖς ἔπεσί φησιν· ἀστροφαῆ ∆ιόνυσον ἐν ἀκτίνεσσι πυρωπόν, Ὀρφεὺς δὲ τοὐνεκά μιν καλέουσι Φάνητά τε καὶ ∆ιόνυσον. φασὶ δέ τινες καὶ τὸ ἔναμμα αὐτῷ τὸ τῆς νεβρίδος ἀπὸ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων ποικι1.9.4 λίας περιῆφθαι. τὴν δ' Ἶσιν μεθερμηνευομένην εἶναι παλαιάν, τεθειμένης τῆς προσηγορίας τῇ σελήνῃ ἀπὸ τῆς ἀϊδίου καὶ παλαιᾶς γενέσεως· κέρατα δ' αὐτῇ περιτιθέασιν ἀπό τε τῆς ὄψεως, ἣν ἔχουσα φαίνεται καθ' ὃν ἂν χρόνον ὑπάρχῃ μηνοειδής, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς καθιερωμένης αὐτῇ βοὸς παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις. τούτους δὲ τοὺς θεοὺς ὑφίστανται τὸν σύμπαντα κόσμον διοικεῖν.» 1.9.5 Τοιαῦτα μὲν οὖν καὶ ταῦτα. ἔχεις δὲ καὶ ἐν τῇ Φοινικικῇ θεολογίᾳ, ὡς ἄρα Φοινίκων οἱ πρῶτοι «φυσικοὺς ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς πλανήτας ἀστέρας καὶ τὰ στοιχεῖα καὶ τὰ τούτοις συναφῆ θεοὺς μόνους ἐγίνωσκον» καὶ ὅτι τούτοις οἱ παλαίτατοι «τὰ τῆς γῆς ἀφιέρωσαν βλαστήματα, καὶ θεοὺς ἐνόμισαν καὶ προσεκύνουν ταῦτα, ἀφ' ὧν αὐτοί τε διεγί νοντο καὶ οἱ ἑπόμενοι καὶ οἱ πρὸ αὐτῶν πάντες, καὶ χοὰς καὶ ἐπιθύσεις ἐτέλουν· ἔλεον δὲ καὶ οἶκτον καὶ κλαυθμὸν βλαστήματι γῆς ἀπιόντι καθιέρουν καὶ γενέσει ζῴων ἐκ γῆς πρώτῃ καὶ τῇ ἐξ ἀλλήλων καὶ τελευτῇ, καθ' ἣν τοῦ 1.9.6 ζῆν ἀπήρχοντο. αὗται δ' ἦσαν αἱ ἐπίνοιαι τῆς προσκυνήσεως ὅμοιαι τῇ αὐτῶν ἀσθενείᾳ καὶ ψυχῆς ἔτι ἀτολμίᾳ.» ταῦτα καὶ ἡ Φοινίκων γραφή, ὡς ἑξῆς ἀποδειχθήσεται. ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς γεγονὼς αὐτὸς ἐκεῖνος ὁ ταῖς καθ' ἡμῶν λαμπρυνόμενος δυσφημίαις, ἐν οἷς ἐπέγραψεν Περὶ τῆς τῶν ἐμψύχων ἀποχῆς τῆς τῶν παλαιῶν ἀρχαιότητος τὴν μνήμην ὧδέ πως αὐτολεξεί, Θεοφράστῳ μάρτυρι χρώμενος, παρατίθεται· 1.9.7 «Ἀνάριθμος μέν τις ἔοικεν εἶναι χρόνος, ἀφ' οὗ τό γε πάντων λογιώτατον γένος, ὥς φησι Θεόφραστος, καὶ τὴν ἱερωτάτην ὑπὸ τοῦ Νείλου κτισθεῖσαν χώραν κατοικοῦν ἤρξαντο οἱ πρῶτοι ἀφ' ἑστίας τοῖς οὐρανίοις θεοῖς θύειν, οὐ σμύρνης οὐδὲ κασίας καὶ λιβανωτοῦ κρόκῳ μιχθέντων ἀπαρχάς· πολλαῖς γὰρ γενεαῖς ὕστερον παρελήφθη ταῦτα, καὶ πλάνης καὶ μαστὴρ ὁ ἄνθρωπος γινόμενος τῆς ἀναγκαίας ζωῆς μετὰ πολλῶν πόνων καὶ δακρύων σταγόνας 1.9.8 τούτων ἀπήρξατο τοῖς θεοῖς· οὐ τούτων οὖν ἔθυον πρότερον, ἀλλὰ χλόης οἱονεί τινα τῆς γονίμου φύσεως χνοῦν ταῖς χερσὶν ἀράμενοι. δένδρα μὲν γὰρ δὴ πρὸ ζῴων ἀνέδωκεν ἡ γῆ, τῶν δένδρων δὲ πολὺ πρόσθεν τὴν ἐπέτειον γεννωμένην πόαν· ἧς δρεπόμενοι φύλλα καὶ ῥίζας καὶ τοὺς ὅλους τῆς φύσεως αὐτῶν βλαστοὺς κατέκαιον, ταύτῃ τοὺς φαινομένους οὐρανίους θεοὺς τῇ θυσίᾳ δεξιούμενοι καὶ τοῦ πυρὸς ἀπαθανατίζοντες αὐτοῖς τὰς τιμάς. 1.9.9 τούτοις γὰρ καὶ τὸ πῦρ ἀθάνατον ἐφύλαττον ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς, ὡς ὂν μάλιστα αὐτοῖς ὁμοιότατον. ἐκ δὲ τῆς θυμιάσεως τῶν ἀπὸ γῆς θυμιατήριά τε ἐκάλουν καὶ τὸ θύειν καὶ θυσίας, ἃ δὴ ἡμεῖς ὡς τὴν ὑστέραν πλημμέλειαν σημαίνοντα οὐκ ὀρθῶς ἐξακούομεν, τὴν διὰ τῶν ζῴων δοκοῦσαν θεραπείαν 1.9.10 καλοῦντες θυσίαν. τοσοῦτον δὲ τοῖς παλαιοῖς τοῦ μὴ παραβαίνειν τὸ ἔθος ἔμελεν ὡς κατὰ τῶν ἐκλειπόντων τὸ ἀρχαῖον, ἐπεισαγόντων δὲ ἕτερον, ἀρασαμένους ἀρώματα τὰ θυμιώμενα προσαγορεῦσαι.» 1.9.11 Ταῦτα εἰπὼν ἐπιλέγει μεθ' ἕτερα· «Πόρρω δὲ τῶν περὶ τὰς θυσίας ἀπαρχῶν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις προϊουσῶν παρανομίας ἡ τῶν δεινοτάτων