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

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 the super-celestial place, have you dragged piety down to the ground, fashioning for yourselves chthonic gods and pursuing these created things before the uncreated 4.56.5 God, have you fallen into a deeper gloom? The Parian stone is beautiful, but not yet Poseidon; ivory is beautiful, but not yet the Olympian; matter is always in need of art, but God is in need of nothing. Art has come forward, the matter is clothed with the form, and the richness of the substance is convertible to profit, but by its shape alone it becomes an object of reverence. 4.56.6 Your statue is gold, it is wood, it is stone, it is earth, if you think from a higher perspective, having received its form from the craftsman. But I have been taught to walk on the earth, not to worship it; for it is not right for me ever to entrust the hopes of my soul to inanimate things. 4.57.1 One must therefore go as close as possible to the statues, so that the related error may be exposed even by their appearance; for the forms of the statues have very clearly impressed upon them the 4.57.2 disposition of the demons. If, then, anyone going about should look at the paintings and the statues, he would at once recognize your gods by their shameful forms, Dionysus from his robe, Hephaestus from his art, Demeter from her misfortune, Ino from her veil, Poseidon from his trident, Zeus from the swan; the pyre reveals Heracles, and if anyone sees a naked woman depicted, 4.57.3 he thinks of the "golden" Aphrodite. Thus that Cypriot Pygmalion fell in love with an ivory statue; the statue was of Aphrodite and it was naked; the Cypriot is overcome by its form and unites with the statue, and Philostephanus relates this; Another Aphrodite in Cnidus was of stone and was beautiful, and another man fell in love with her and unites with the stone; Posidippus relates it, the former in his work *On Cyprus*, the latter in his *On Cnidus*. So much power did art have to deceive, becoming a procuress for erotic men into a pit of destruction. 4.57.4 The creative art is powerful, but it is not able to deceive a rational person, nor indeed those who have lived according to reason; for doves have flown towards paintings of doves, because of the similarity of the depiction, and horses have neighed at well-painted horses. They say a maiden fell in love with an image and a beautiful youth with a statue of Cnidus, but it was the eyes of the beholders 4.57.5 that were deceived by the art. For no one would have had intercourse with a goddess, nor would anyone be buried with a corpse, nor would a sane person fall in love with a demon and a stone. But art deceives you with a different kind of sorcery, if not leading you to fall in love, then leading you to honor and worship both the statues and the 4.57.6 paintings. The painting is a likeness; let the art be praised, but let it not deceive man as if it were truth. The horse stands still, the dove is motionless, its wing is idle; but the cow of Daedalus, made of wood, caught a wild bull, and art, deceiving, compelled the beast to mount a lustful woman. 4.58.1 Such a frenzy have the arts, practicing their evil craft, produced in the foolish. But the keepers and guardians of apes have marveled at them, because none of the wax or clay likenesses and dolls deceives them; will you then become even worse than apes, by paying attention to little statues of stone and wood and gold and ivory and to 4.58.2 paintings. So many destructive toys have been made for you by their creators—the stone-cutters and statue-makers, and again painters and carpenters and poets—introducing a great crowd of such beings, in the fields Satyrs and Pans, and in the woods the mountain Nymphs and the Hamadryads, yes and indeed, also about the waters and the rivers and the springs the Naiads and about the sea 4.58.3 the Nereids. And Magi already demons as ministers of their own impiety

4.56.4 ἔκγονα, τῆς γῆς, τὰ πάντα ταῦτα ὅσα ὁρᾷς; Τί δὴ οὖν, ὦ μάταιοι καὶ κενόφρονες (πάλιν γὰρ δὴ ἐπαναλήψομαι), τὸν ὑπερουράνιον βλασφημήσαντες τόπον εἰς τοὔδαφος κατεσύρατε τὴν εὐσέβειαν, χθονίους ὑμῖν ἀναπλάττοντες θεοὺς καὶ τὰ γενητὰ ταῦτα πρὸ τοῦ ἀγενήτου μετιόντες 4.56.5 θεοῦ βαθυτέρῳ περιπεπτώκατε ζόφῳ; Καλὸς ὁ Πάριος λίθος, ἀλλ' οὐδέπω Ποσειδῶν· καλὸς ὁ ἐλέφας, ἀλλ' οὐδέπω Ὀλύμπιος· ἐνδεὴς ἀεί ποτε ἡ ὕλη τῆς τέχνης, ὁ θεὸς δὲ ἀνενδεής. Προῆλθεν ἡ τέχνη, περιβέβληται τὸ σχῆμα ἡ ὕλη, καὶ τὸ πλούσιον τῆς οὐσίας πρὸς μὲν τὸ κέρδος ἀγώγιμον, μόνῳ δὲ τῷ σχήματι γίνεται σεβάσμιον. 4.56.6 Χρυσός ἐστι τὸ ἄγαλμά σου, ξύλον ἐστίν, λίθος ἐστίν, γῆ ἐστιν, ἐὰν ἄνωθεν νοήσῃς, μορφὴν παρὰ τοῦ τεχνίτου προσλαβοῦσα. Γῆν δὲ ἐγὼ πατεῖν, οὐ προσκυνεῖν μεμελέ τηκα· οὐ γάρ μοι θέμις ἐμπιστεῦσαί ποτε τοῖς ἀψύχοις τὰς τῆς ψυχῆς ἐλπίδας. 4.57.1 Ἰτέον οὖν ὡς ἔνι μάλιστα ἐγγυτάτω τῶν ἀγαλμάτων, ὡς οἰκεία ἡ πλάνη κἀκ τῆς προσόψεως ἐλέγχηται· ἐναπο μέμακται γὰρ πάνυ δὴ σαφῶς τὰ εἴδη τῶν ἀγαλμάτων τὴν 4.57.2 διάθεσιν τῶν δαιμόνων. Εἰ γοῦν τις τὰς γραφὰς καὶ τὰ ἀγάλματα περινοστῶν θεῷτο, γνωριεῖ ὑμῶν παραυτίκα τοὺς θεοὺς ἐκ τῶν ἐπονειδίστων σχημάτων, τὸν ∆ιόνυσον ἀπὸ τῆς στολῆς, τὸν Ἥφαιστον ἀπὸ τῆς τέχνης, τὴν ∆ηὼ ἀπὸ τῆς συμφορᾶς, ἀπὸ τοῦ κρηδέμνου τὴν Ἰνώ, ἀπὸ τῆς τριαίνης τὸν Ποσειδῶ, ἀπὸ τοῦ κύκνου τὸν ∆ία· τὸν δὲ Ἡρακλέα δείκνυσιν ἡ πυρά, κἂν γυμνὴν ἴδῃ τις ἀνάγραπτον γυναῖκα, 4.57.3 τὴν "χρυσῆν" Ἀφροδίτην νοεῖ. Οὕτως ὁ Κύπριος ὁ Πυγ μαλίων ἐκεῖνος ἐλεφαντίνου ἠράσθη ἀγάλματος· τὸ ἄγαλμα Ἀφροδίτης ἦν καὶ γυμνὴ ἦν· νικᾶται ὁ Κύπριος τῷ σχήματι καὶ συνέρχεται τῷ ἀγάλματι, καὶ τοῦτο Φιλοσ τέφανος ἱστορεῖ· Ἀφροδίτη δὲ ἄλλη ἐν Κνίδῳ λίθος ἦν καὶ καλὴ ἦν, ἕτερος ἠράσθη ταύτης καὶ μίγνυται τῇ λίθῳ· Ποσίδιππος ἱστορεῖ, ὁ μὲν πρότερος ἐν τῷ περὶ Κύπρου, ὁ δὲ ἕτερος ἐν τῷ περὶ Κνίδου. Τοσοῦτον ἴσχυσεν ἀπατῆσαι τέχνη προαγωγὸς ἀνθρώποις ἐρωτικοῖς εἰς βάραθρον γενο 4.57.4 μένη. ∆ραστήριος μὲν ἡ δημιουργική, ἀλλ' οὐχ οἵα τε ἀπατῆσαι λογικὸν οὐδὲ μὴν τοὺς κατὰ λόγον βεβιωκότας· ζωγραφίας μὲν γὰρ, δι' ὁμοιότητα σκιαγραφίας περιστερᾶς, προσέπτησαν πελειάδες καὶ ἵπποις καλῶς γεγραμμέναις προσεχρεμέτισαν ἵπποι. Ἐρασθῆναι κόρην εἰκόνος λέγουσιν καὶ νέον καλὸν Κνιδίου ἀγάλματος, ἀλλ' ἦσαν τῶν θεατῶν 4.57.5 αἱ ὄψεις ἠπατημέναι ὑπὸ τῆς τέχνης. Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν θεᾷ τις συνεπλάκη, οὐδ' ἂν νεκρᾷ τις συνετάφη, οὐδ' ἂν ἠράσθη δαίμονος καὶ λίθου ἄνθρωπος σωφρονῶν. Ὑμᾶς δὲ ἄλλῃ γοητείᾳ ἀπατᾷ ἡ τέχνη, εἰ καὶ μὴ ἐπὶ τὸ ἐρᾶν προσάγουσα, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τὸ τιμᾶν καὶ προσκυνεῖν τά τε ἀγάλματα καὶ τὰς 4.57.6 γραφάς. Ὁμοία γε ἡ γραφή· ἐπαινείσθω μὲν ἡ τέχνη, μὴ ἀπατάτω δὲ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὡς ἀλήθεια. Ἕστηκεν ὁ ἵππος ἡσυχῇ, ἡ πελειὰς ἀτρεμής, ἀργὸν τὸ πτερόν, ἡ δὲ βοῦς ἡ ∆αιδάλου ἡ ἐκ τοῦ ξύλου πεποιημένη ταῦρον εἷλεν ἄγριον καὶ κατηνάγκασεν τὸ θηρίον ἡ τέχνη πλανήσασα ἐρώσης ἐπιβῆναι γυναικός. 4.58.1 Τοσοῦτον οἶστρον αἱ τέχναι κακοτεχνοῦσαι τοῖς ἀνοή τοις ἐνεποίησαν. Ἀλλὰ τοὺς μὲν πιθήκους οἱ τούτων τροφεῖς καὶ μελεδωνοὶ τεθαυμάκασιν, ὅτι τῶν κηρίνων ἢ πηλίνων ὁμοιωμάτων καὶ κοροκοσμίων ἀπατᾷ τούτους οὐδέν· ὑμεῖς δὲ ἄρα καὶ πιθήκων χείρους γενήσεσθε λιθίνοις καὶ ξυλίνοις καὶ χρυσέοις καὶ ἐλεφαντίνοις ἀγαλματίοις καὶ 4.58.2 γραφαῖς προσανέχοντες. Τοσούτων ὑμῖν οἱ δημιουργοὶ ἀθυρμάτων ὀλεθρίων οἱ λιθοξόοι καὶ οἱ ἀνδριαντοποιοὶ γραφεῖς τε αὖ καὶ τέκτονες καὶ ποιηταί, πολύν τινα καὶ τοιοῦτον ὄχλον παρεισάγοντες, κατ' ἀγροὺς μὲν Σατύρους καὶ Πᾶνας, ἀνὰ δὲ τὰς ὕλας Νύμφας τὰς ὀρειάδας καὶ τὰς ἁμαδρυάδας, ναὶ μὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τὰ ὕδατα καὶ περὶ τοὺς ποταμοὺς καὶ τὰς πηγὰς τὰς Ναΐδας καὶ περὶ τὴν θάλατταν 4.58.3 τὰς Νηρεΐδας. Μάγοι δὲ ἤδη ἀσεβείας τῆς σφῶν αὐτῶν ὑπηρέτας δαίμονας