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

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 one to Pherephatta, as Demaratus in the first book of *Tragoudoumena*, and the other to the Averting Gods, Marius, as Dorotheus in the fourth book 3.42.8 of *Italica* records. From these things the demons certainly appear philanthropic; and how are the superstitious not correspondingly pious? The ones are hailed as saviors, the others ask for salvation from those who plot against salvation. At any rate, while supposing they are making favorable sacrifices to them, they are unwittingly slaughtering men. 3.42.9 For a murder does not become a sacrifice because of the place, nor if one should slaughter a man for Artemis and Zeus in a supposedly sacred place rather than for anger and avarice, other similar demons, on altars or in the streets, calling it a [sacred] victim, but such a sacrifice is murder and manslaughter. 3.43.1 Why then, O men, wisest of all other living creatures, do we flee wild beasts, and if we should happen upon a bear or a lion, we turn away, as when one seeing a serpent in the mountain glens starts back, and trembling seizes his limbs, and he withdraws again; but though you perceive and 3.43.2 understand that demons are destructive and wicked, treacherous and misanthropic and ruinous, you do not turn away or avert yourselves? What truth would the evil ones speak, or whom would they benefit? At any rate, I can show you at once a man better than these gods of yours, the demons, Cyrus and Solon 3.43.3 than the prophetic Apollo. Your Phoebus is gift-loving, but not philanthropic. He betrayed his friend Croesus and, forgetting his fee (so fond of ambiguity was he), led Croesus across the Halys to the pyre. Loving in this way 3.43.4 do demons lead to the fire. But, O man more philanthropic and more truthful than Apollo, pity him who is bound upon the pyre, and you, O Solon, prophesy the truth, and you, O Cyrus, command the pyre to be extinguished. Be wise at last, O Croesus, learning by your suffering; ungrateful is the one you worship, he takes the fee and after the gold he lies again. "Look to the end" not the demon, but the man says to you. Solon does not prophesy ambiguously; this oracle alone, O barbarian, you will find true; this one you will test upon the pyre. 3.44.1 Wherefore I am moved to wonder by what fancies the first deluded men were led astray to announce superstition to mankind, ordaining that wicked demons be worshiped, whether it was that Phoroneus or Merops or some other, who erected temples and altars to them, and besides are fabled to have been the first 3.44.2 to establish sacrifices. For indeed in later times they also fabricated gods, whom they might worship. For instance, no one before honored this Eros, who is said to be among the eldest of the gods, until Charmus took some youth and established an altar in the Academy as a thank-offering for a desire that was fulfilled; and they have called the licentiousness of the disease "Eros," deifying intemperate desire. 3.44.3 And the Athenians did not even know who Pan was, before Philippides told them. Reasonably, then, superstition, having its origin somewhere, has become a fount of foolish wickedness; then, not being checked, but increasing and flowing abundantly, it becomes the creator of many demons, sacrificing hecatombs and celebrating festivals and erecting statues and 3.44.4 building temples, which indeed—for I will not be silent about these, but will also expose them—are euphemistically called temples, but have become tombs [that is, the tombs have been called temples]. But you, even now, should put superstition out of your minds, being ashamed to honor tombs. 3.45.1 In the temple of Athena in Larissa on the acropolis is the tomb of Acrisius,

ὁλοκαυτεῖν 3.42.7 ἱστορεῖ. Ἐρεχθεὺς δὲ ὁ Ἀττικὸς καὶ Μάριος ὁ Ῥωμαῖος τὰς αὑτῶν ἐθυσάτην θυγατέρας· ὧν ὃ μὲν τῇ Φερεφάττῃ, ὡς ∆ημάρατος ἐν πρώτῃ Τραγῳδουμένων, ὃ δὲ τοῖς Ἀποτροπαίοις, ὁ Μάριος, ὡς ∆ωρόθεος ἐν τῇ τετάρτῃ 3.42.8 Ἰταλικῶν ἱστορεῖ. Φιλάνθρωποί γε ἐκ τούτων καταφαίνονται οἱ δαίμονες· πῶς δὲ οὐχ ὅσιοι ἀναλόγως οἱ δεισιδαίμονες; Οἳ μὲν σωτῆρες εὐφημούμενοι, οἳ δὲ σωτηρίαν αἰτούμενοι παρὰ τῶν ἐπιβούλων σωτηρίας. Καλλιερεῖν γοῦν τοπάζοντες αὐτοῖς σφᾶς αὐτοὺς λελήθασιν ἀποσφάττοντες ἀνθρώπους. 3.42.9 Οὐ γὰρ οὖν παρὰ τὸν τόπον ἱερεῖον γίνεται ὁ φόνος, οὐδ' εἰ Ἀρτέμιδί τις καὶ ∆ιὶ ἐν ἱερῷ δῆθεν χωρίῳ μᾶλλον ἢ ὀργῇ καὶ φιλαργυρίᾳ, ἄλλοις ὁμοίοις δαίμοσιν, ἐπὶ βωμοῖς ἢ ἐν ὁδοῖς ἀποσφάττοι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, [ἱερὸν] ἱερεῖον ἐπιφη μίσας, ἀλλὰ φόνος ἐστὶ καὶ ἀνδροκτασία ἡ τοιαύτη θυσία. 3.43.1 Τί δὴ οὖν, ὦ σοφώτατοι τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων ἄνθρωποι, τὰ μὲν θηρία περιφεύγομεν τὰ ἀνήμερα, κἄν που περιτύ χωμεν ἄρκῳ ἢ λέοντι, ἐκτρεπόμεθα, ὡς δ' ὅτε τίς τε δράκοντα ἰδὼν παλίνορσος ἀπέστη οὔρεος ἐν βήσσῃς, ὑπό τε τρόμος ἔλλαβε γυῖα, ἄψ τ' ἀνεχώρησεν· δαίμονας δὲ ὀλεθρίους καὶ ἀλιτηρίους ἐπιβούλους τε καὶ μισανθρώπους καὶ λυμεῶνας ὄντας προαισθόμενοι καὶ 3.43.2 συνιέντες οὐκ ἐκτρέπεσθε οὐδὲ ἀποστρέφεσθε; Τί δ' ἂν καὶ ἀληθεύσαιεν οἱ κακοί, ἢ τίνα ἂν ὠφελήσαιεν; Αὐτίκα γοῦν ἔχω σοι βελτίονα, τῶν ὑμεδαπῶν τούτων θεῶν, τῶν δαιμό νων, ἐπιδεῖξαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος τοῦ μαντικοῦ 3.43.3 τὸν Κῦρον καὶ τὸν Σόλωνα. Φιλόδωρος ὑμῶν ὁ Φοῖβος, ἀλλ' οὐ φιλάνθρωπος. Προὔδωκε τὸν Κροῖσον τὸν φίλον καὶ τοῦ μισθοῦ ἐκλαθόμενος (οὕτω φιλόλοξος ἦν) ἀνήγαγε τὸν Κροῖσον διὰ τοῦ Ἅλυος ἐπὶ τὴν πυράν. Οὕτω φιλοῦντες 3.43.4 οἱ δαίμονες ὁδηγοῦσιν εἰς τὸ πῦρ. Ἀλλ', ὦ φιλανθρωπότερε καὶ ἀληθέστερε τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος ἄνθρωπε, τὸν ἐπὶ τῆς πυρᾶς οἴκτειρον δεδεμένον, καὶ σὺ μέν, ὦ Σόλων, μάντευσαι τὴν ἀλήθειαν, σὺ δέ, ὦ Κῦρε, κέλευσον ἀποσβεσθῆναι τὴν πυράν. Σωφρόνησον ὕστατον γοῦν, ὦ Κροῖσε, τῷ πάθει μεταμαθών· ἀχάριστός ἐστιν ὃν προσκυνεῖς, λαμβάνει τὸν μισθὸν καὶ μετὰ τὸ χρυσίον ψεύδεται πάλιν. "Τέλος ὅρα" οὐχ ὁ δαίμων, ἀλλὰ ὁ ἄνθρωπός σοι λέγει. Οὐ λοξὰ μαν τεύεται Σόλων· τοῦτον εὑρήσεις ἀληθῆ μόνον, ὦ βάρβαρε, τὸν χρησμόν· τοῦτον ἐπὶ τῆς πυρᾶς δοκιμάσεις. 3.44.1 Ὅθεν ἔπεισί μοι θαυμάζειν τίσι ποτὲ φαντασίαις ἀπαχθέντες οἱ πρῶτοι πεπλανημένοι δεισιδαιμονίαν ἀνθρώ ποις κατήγγειλαν, δαίμονας ἀλιτηρίους νομοθετοῦντες σέβειν, εἴτε Φορωνεὺς ἐκεῖνος ἦν εἴτε Μέροψ εἴτε ἄλλος τις, οἳ νεὼς καὶ βωμοὺς ἀνέστησαν αὐτοῖς, πρὸς δὲ καὶ θυσίας 3.44.2 παραστῆσαι πρῶτοι μεμύθευνται. Καὶ γὰρ δὴ καὶ κατὰ χρόνους ὕστερον ἀνέπλαττον θεούς, οἷς προσκυνοῖεν. Ἀμέλει τὸν Ἔρωτα τοῦτον ἐν τοῖς πρεσβυτάτοις τῶν θεῶν εἶναι λεγόμενον ἐτίμα πρότερον οὐδὲ εἷς πρὶν ἢ Χάρμον μειράκιόν τι ἑλεῖν καὶ βωμὸν ἱδρύσασθαι ἐν Ἀκαδημίᾳ χαριστήριον ἐπιτελοῦς γενομένης ἐπιθυμίας· καὶ τῆς νόσου τὴν ἀσέλγειαν Ἔρωτα κεκλήκασι, θεοποιοῦντες ἀκόλαστον ἐπιθυμίαν. 3.44.3 Ἀθηναῖοι δὲ οὐδὲ τὸν Πᾶνα ᾔδεσαν ὅστις ἦν, πρὶν ἢ Φιλιπ πίδην εἰπεῖν αὐτοῖς. Εἰκότως ἄρα ἀρχήν ποθεν ἡ δεισιδαι μονία λαβοῦσα κακίας ἀνοήτου γέγονε πηγή· εἶτα δὲ μὴ ἀνακοπεῖσα, ἀλλ' εἰς ἐπίδοσιν ἐλθοῦσα καὶ πολλὴ δὴ ῥυεῖσα, δημιουργὸς πολλῶν καθίσταται δαιμόνων, ἑκατόμβας θύουσα καὶ πανηγύρεις ἐπιτελοῦσα καὶ ἀγάλματα ἀνιστᾶσα καὶ 3.44.4 νεὼς ἀνοικοδομοῦσα, τοὺς δή-οὐ γὰρ οὐδὲ τούτους σιωπή σομαι, πρὸς δὲ καὶ αὐτοὺς ἐξελέγξω-νεὼς μὲν εὐφήμως ὀνομαζομένους, τάφους δὲ γενομένους [τουτέστι τοὺς τάφους νεὼς ἐπικεκλημένους]. Ὑμεῖς δὲ ἀλλὰ κἂν νῦν δεισιδαιμονίας ἐκλάθεσθε, τοὺς τάφους τιμᾶν αἰσχυνόμενοι. 3.45.1 Ἐν τῷ νεῲ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἐν Λαρίσῃ ἐν τῇ ἀκροπόλει τάφος ἐστὶν Ἀκρισίου,