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becoming unseen, To these men, then, we say: whether Kronos is time, he changes; whether a season, he turns; whether darkness or ice or a liquid substance, none of them remains. But the divine is also immortal and immovable and unchangeable. Therefore neither Kronos nor his image is God. And concerning Zeus, if he is air born of Kronos, of which the male part is Zeus and the female Hera (for which reason she is both sister and wife), he is altered; if he is a season, he turns. But the divine neither changes nor is transformed. But why <must I trouble you> by speaking further, you who know better what is said among each of the natural philosophers, what those who wrote about nature conceived, or about Athena, whom they say is intelligence extending through all things, or about Isis, whom they say is the nature of the age, from whom all things have sprung and through whom all things exist, or about Osiris, who was slain by his brother Typhon, and for whose enormous son Isis searched for his members and, having found them, prepared them for burial, which burial is to this day called the Osirian? For turning up and down about the forms of matter, they fall away from the God who is perceived by reason, and they deify the elements and their parts, at different times giving them different names, calling the sowing of grain Osiris (whence they say that at the finding of the members or the fruits, it was said mystically to Isis, "we have found, we rejoice together"), and the fruit of the vine Dionysus, and the vine itself Semele, and the flame of the sun a thunderbolt. And yet they who deify myths .... do anything rather than theologize, not knowing that by the things they say in defense of the gods, they confirm the stories about them. What have Europa and the Bull and the Swan and Leda to do with earth and air, so that the foul union of Zeus with these should be a union of earth and air? But falling away from the greatness of God and being unable to rise above with their reason (for they have no affinity for the heavenly place), they have been consumed upon the forms of matter and, falling down, they deify the changes of the elements, just as if someone should honor the ship in which he sailed, instead of the pilot. For just as a ship is nothing more, even if it be perfectly equipped, without its pilot, so there is no benefit from the elements in their order apart from the providence of God. For the ship will not sail by itself, and the elements will not be moved apart from the Creator. You might say then, you who surpass all in understanding: By what reason, then, do some of the idols work wonders, if they are not gods, in whose honor we set up the statues? For it is not likely that lifeless and motionless images have power in themselves, apart from that which moves them. That indeed in certain places and cities and nations certain workings happen in the name of idols

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ἀφανῆ γινόμενον, πρὸς τοίνυν τούτους φαμέν· εἴτε χρόνος ἐστὶν ὁ Κρόνος, μεταβάλλει, εἴτε καιρός, τρέπεται, εἴτε σκότος ἢ πάγος ἢ οὐσία ὑγρά, οὐδὲν αὐτῶν μένει· τὸ δὲ θεῖον καὶ ἀθάνατον καὶ ἀκίνητον καὶ ἀναλλοίωτον· οὔτε ἄρα ὁ Κρόνος οὔτε τὸ ἐπ' αὐτῷ εἴδωλον θεός. περὶ δὲ τοῦ ∆ιός, εἰ μὲν ἀήρ ἐστι γεγονὼς ἐκ Κρόνου, οὗ τὸ μὲν ἄρσεν ὁ Ζεύς, τὸ δὲ θῆλυ Ἥρα (διὸ καὶ ἀδελφὴ καὶ γυνή), ἀλλοιοῦται, εἰ δὲ καιρός, τρέπεται· οὔτε δὲ μεταβάλλει οὔτε μεταπίπτει τὸ θεῖον. τί δὲ <δεῖ ὑμῖν ἐπὶ> πλέον λέγοντα ἐνοχλεῖν, οἳ ἄμεινον τὰ παρ' ἑκάστοις τῶν πεφυσιολογηκότων οἴδατε, ποῖα περὶ τῆς φύσεως ἐνόησαν οἱ συγγραψάμενοι ἢ περὶ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς, ἣν φρόνησιν διὰ πάντων διήκουσάν φασιν, ἢ περὶ τῆς Ἴσιδος, ἣν φύσιν αἰῶνος, ἐξ ἧς πάντες ἔφυσαν καὶ δι' ἧς πάντες εἰσίν, λέγουσιν, ἢ περὶ τοῦ Ὀσίριδος, οὗ σφαγέντος ὑπὸ Τυφῶνος τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ περὶ πελώρου τοῦ υἱοῦ ἡ Ἰσις ζητοῦσα τὰ μέλη καὶ εὑροῦσα ἤσκησεν εἰς ταφήν, ἣ ταφὴ ἕως νῦν Ὀσιριακὴ καλεῖται; ἄνω κάτω γὰρ περὶ τὰ εἴδη τῆς ὕλης στρεφόμενοι ἀποπίπτουσιν τοῦ λόγῳ θεωρητοῦ θεοῦ, τὰ δὲ στοιχεῖα καὶ τὰ μόρια αὐτῶν θεοποιοῦσιν, ἄλλοτε ἄλλα ὀνόματα αὐτοῖς τιθέμενοι, τὴν μὲν τοῦ σίτου σπορὰν Ὄσιριν (ὅθεν φασὶ μυστικῶς ἐπὶ τῇ ἀνευρέσει τῶν μελῶν ἢ τῶν καρπῶν ἐπιλεχθῆναι τῇ Ἴσιδι "εὑρήκαμεν, συγ χαίρομεν"), τὸν δὲ τῆς ἀμπέλου καρπὸν ∆ιόνυσον καὶ Σεμέλην αὐτὴν τὴν ἄμπελον καὶ κεραυνὸν τὴν τοῦ ἡλίου φλόγα. καίτοι γε πάντα μᾶλλον ἢ θεολογοῦσιν οἱ τοὺς μύθους .... θεο ποιοῦντες, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι οἷς ἀπολογοῦνται ὑπὲρ τῶν θεῶν, τοὺς ἐπ' αὐτοῖς λόγους βεβαιοῦσιν. τί ἡ Eὐρώπη καὶ ὁ Ταῦρος καὶ ὁ Κύκνος καὶ ἡ Λήδα πρὸς γῆν καὶ ἀέρα, ἵν' ἡ πρὸς ταύτας μιαρὰ τοῦ ∆ιὸς μῖξις ᾖ γῆς καὶ ἀέρος; ἀλλὰ ἀποπίπτοντες τοῦ μεγέθους τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ὑπερκύψαι τῷ λόγῳ (οὐ γὰρ ἔχουσιν συμ πάθειαν εἰς τὸν οὐράνιον τόπον) οὐ δυνάμενοι, ἐπὶ τὰ εἴδη τῆς ὕλης συντετήκασιν καὶ καταπίπτοντες τὰς τῶν στοιχείων τροπὰς θεο ποιοῦσιν, ὅμοιον εἰ καὶ ναῦν τις, ἐν ᾗ ἔπλευσεν, ἀντὶ τοῦ κυβερνήτου ἄγοι. ὡς δὲ οὐδὲν πλέον νεώς, κἂν ᾖ πᾶσιν ἠσκημένη, μὴ ἐχούσης τὸν κυβερνήτην, οὐδὲ τῶν στοιχείων ὄφελος διακεκοσμημένων δίχα τῆς παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ προνοίας. ἥ τε γὰρ ναῦς καθ' ἑαυτὴν οὐ πλευσεῖται τά τε στοιχεῖα χωρὶς τοῦ δημιουργοῦ οὐ κινηθήσεται. Eἴποιτε ἂν οὖν συνέσει πάντας ὑπερέχοντες· τίνι οὖν τῷ λόγῳ ἔνια τῶν εἰδώλων ἐνεργεῖ, εἰ μὴ εἰσὶν θεοί, ἐφ' οἷς ἱδρυόμεθα τὰ ἀγάλματα; οὐ γὰρ εἰκὸς τὰς ἀψύχους καὶ ἀκινήτους εἰκόνας καθ' ἑαυτὰς ἰσχύειν χωρὶς τοῦ κινοῦντος. τὸ μὲν δὴ κατὰ τόπους καὶ πόλεις καὶ ἔθνη γίγνεσθαί τινας ἐπ' ὀνόματι εἰδώλων ἐνεργείας