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Nor do we contradict; but if some were benefited and again others were harmed, we do not think that gods were the ones who worked in either case, but both by what reason you think the idols have power and who are the ones who work, taking possession of their names, we have examined in detail. But it is necessary for me, as I am about to show who they are that work in the idols and that they are not gods, to make use of some witnesses also from philosophy. First Thales divides, as those who accurately report his views recall, into god, into daimons, into heroes. But "god" he considers "the mind of the cosmos," and "daimons" he understands as "psychic substances," and "heroes" as "the separated souls" of men, "the good ones being good, and the wicked ones being evil." And Plato, while holding back on other things, himself also divides into the unbegotten god and those who came to be from the unbegotten in the order of the heaven, both the planets and the fixed stars, and into daimons; concerning which daimons he himself, not deigning to speak, thinks it right to pay attention to those who have spoken about them: "But to speak of the other daimons and to know their generation is a greater task than is in our power; we must believe those who have spoken before, who were, as they said, the offspring of gods, and who must surely have known their own ancestors. It is impossible, then, to disbelieve the children of gods, even if they speak without probable and necessary proofs, but as they claim to report on their own family matters, we must believe them in obedience to the law. In this way, then, according to them, let the generation of these gods be held by us and be told. The children of Earth and Heaven were Oceanus and Tethys, and from these, Phorcys and Cronus and Rhea and all those with them, and from Cronus and Rhea came Zeus and Hera and all whom we know are called their brothers, and in addition to these, other offspring." Did he then, who conceived of the eternal god apprehended by mind and reason, and declared the properties belonging to him—that which truly is, the simple, the good flowing from him, which is truth, and concerning the "first power"... and "around the king of all things are all things, and for his sake are all things, and he is the cause of all things," and concerning a second and a third, "the second is concerned with the second things and the third with the third," did he think that to learn the truth about those said to have been born from sensible things, earth and heaven, was a greater task than was in his power? It is not possible to say so. But since he thought it impossible for gods to beget and be born, with the ends that follow upon beings that come into existence, and even more impossible than this to persuade the multitude who accept the myths without examination, for these reasons he said that to know and to speak about the generation of the other daimons was a greater task than was in his power, being able neither to learn nor to declare that gods are born. And the statement made by him, "The great leader in heaven, Zeus, driving a winged chariot, goes first, ordering all things and caring for them, and he is followed by an army of gods and

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οὐδ' ἡμεῖς ἀντιλέγομεν· οὐ μὴν εἰ ὠφελήθησάν τινες καὶ αὖ ἐλυπή θησαν ἕτεροι, θεοὺς νοοῦμεν τοὺς ἐφ' ἑκάτερα ἐνεργήσαντας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ᾧ λόγῳ νομίζετε ἰσχύειν τὰ εἴδωλα καὶ τίνες οἱ ἐνεργοῦντες ἐπιβατεύοντες αὐτῶν τοῖς ὀνόμασιν, ἐπ' ἀκριβὲς ἐξητάκαμεν. ἀναγκαῖον δέ μοι μέλλοντι δεικνύειν, τίνες οἱ ἐπὶ τοῖς εἰδώλοις ἐνεργοῦντες καὶ ὅτι μὴ θεοί, προσχρήσασθαί τισι καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ φιλοσοφίας μάρτυσιν. πρῶτος Θαλῆς διαιρεῖ, ὡς οἱ τὰ ἐκείνου ἀκριβοῦντες μνημονεύουσιν, εἰς θεόν, εἰς δαίμονας, εἰς ἥρωας. ἀλλὰ "θεὸν" μὲν "τὸν νοῦν τοῦ κόσμου" ἄγει, "δαίμονας" δὲ "οὐσίας" νοεῖ "ψυχικὰς καὶ ἥρωας τὰς κεχωρισμένας ψυχὰς" τῶν ἀνθρώπων, "ἀγαθοὺς μὲν τὰς ἀγαθάς, κακοὺς δὲ τὰς φαύλους". Πλάτων δὲ τὰ ἄλλα ἐπέχων καὶ αὐτὸς εἴς τε τὸν ἀγένητον θεὸν καὶ τοὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ ἀγενήτου εἰς κόσμον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ γεγονότας, τούς τε πλανήτας καὶ τοὺς ἀπλανεῖς ἀστέρας, καὶ εἰς δαίμονας τέμνει· περὶ ὧν δαιμόνων αὐτὸς ἀπαξιῶν λέγειν, τοῖς περὶ αὐτῶν εἰρηκόσιν προσέχειν ἀξιοῖ· "περὶ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων δαιμόνων εἰπεῖν καὶ γνῶναι τὴν γένεσιν μεῖζον ἢ καθ' ἡμᾶς, πειστέον δὲ τοῖς εἰρηκόσιν ἔμπροσθεν, ἐγγόνοις μὲν θεῶν οὖσιν, ὡς ἔφασαν, σαφῶς γέ που τοὺς ἑαυτῶν προγόνους εἰδότων· ἀδύνατον οὖν θεῶν παισὶν ἀπιστεῖν, κἄνπερ ἄνευ εἰκότων καὶ ἀναγκαίων ἀποδείξεων λέγωσιν, ἀλλὰ ὡς οἰκεῖα φασκόντων ἀπαγγέλλειν ἑπομένους τῷ νόμῳ πιστευτέον. οὕτως οὖν κατ' ἐκείνους καὶ ἡμῖν ἡ γένεσις περὶ τούτων τῶν θεῶν ἐχέτω καὶ λεγέσθω. Γῆς τε καὶ Oὐρανοῦ παῖδες Ὠκεανός τε καὶ Τηθὺς ἐγεννήθησαν, τούτων δὲ Φόρκος Κρόνος τε καὶ Ῥέα καὶ ὅσοι μετὰ τούτων, ἐκ δὲ Κρόνου τε καὶ Ῥέας Ζεὺς Ἥρα τε καὶ πάντες, οὓς ἴσμεν πάντας ἀδελφοὺς λεγομένους αὐτῶν ἔτι τε τούτων ἄλλους ἐκγόνους." ἆρ' οὖν ὁ τὸν ἀΐδιον νῷ καὶ λόγῳ κατα λαμβανόμενον περινοήσας θεὸν καὶ τὰ ἐπισυμβεβηκότα αὐτῷ ἐξ ειπών, τὸ ὄντως ὄν, τὸ μονοφυές, τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ ἀποχεόμενον, ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἀλήθεια, καὶ περὶ "πρώτης δυνάμεως"· ... καὶ "περὶ τὸν πάντων βασιλέα πάντα ἐστὶν καὶ ἐκείνου ἕνεκεν πάντα καὶ ἐκεῖνο αἴτιον πάντων" καὶ περὶ δευτέρου καὶ τρίτου "δεύτερον δὲ περὶ τὰ δεύτερα καὶ τρίτον περὶ τὰ τρίτα", περὶ τῶν ἐκ τῶν αἰσθητῶν, γῆς τε καὶ οὐρανοῦ, λεγομένων γεγονέναι μεῖζον ἢ καθ' ἑαυτὸν τἀληθὲς μαθεῖν ἐνόμισεν; ἦ οὐκ ἔστιν εἰπεῖν. ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ ἀδύνατον γεννᾶν καὶ ἀποκυΐσκεσθαι θεοὺς ἐνόμισεν ἑπομένων τοῖς γιγνομένοις τελῶν καὶ ἔτι τούτου ἀδυνατώτερον μεταπεῖσαι τοὺς πολλοὺς ἀβασανίστως τοὺς μύθους παραδεχομένους, διὰ ταῦτα μεῖζον ἢ καθ' ἑαυτὸν γνῶναι καὶ εἰπεῖν ἔφη περὶ τῆς τῶν ἄλλων δαιμόνων γενέσεως, οὔτε μαθεῖν οὔτε ἐξειπεῖν γεννᾶσθαι θεοὺς δυνάμενος. καὶ τὸ εἰρημένον αὐτῷ "ὁ δὴ μέγας ἡγεμὼν ἐν οὐρανῷ Ζεύς, ἐλαύνων πτηνὸν ἅρμα, πρῶτος πορεύεται διακοσμῶν πάντα καὶ ἐπιμελούμενος, τῷ δὲ ἕπεται στρατιὰ θεῶν τε καὶ