Chapter XXI.—Doctrines of the Christians and Greeks Respecting God Compared.

We do not act as fools, O Greeks, nor utter idle tales, when we announce that God was born in the form of a man. I call on you who reproach us to compare your mythical accounts with our narrations. Athené, as they say, took the form of Deïphobus for the sake of Hector,62    Il., xxii. 227. and the unshorn Phoœbus for the sake of Admetus fed the trailing-footed oxen, and the spouse us came as an old woman to Semele. But, while you treat seriously such things, how can you deride us? Your Asclepios died, and he who ravished fifty virgins in one night at Thespiæ lost his life by delivering himself to the devouring flame. Prometheus, fastened to Caucasus, suffered punishment for his good deeds to men. According to you, Zeus is envious, and hides the dream63    Il., ii. init. from men, wishing their destruction. Wherefore, looking at your own memorials, vouchsafe us your approval, though it were only as dealing in legends similar to your own. We, however, do not deal in folly, but your legends are only idle tales. If you speak of the origin of the gods, you also declare them to be mortal. For what reason is Hera now never pregnant? Has she grown old? or is there no one to give you information? Believe me now, O Greeks, and do not resolve your myths and gods into allegory. If you attempt to do this, the divine nature as held by you is overthrown by your own selves; for, if the demons with you are such as they are said to be, they are worthless as to character; or, if regarded as symbols of the powers of nature, they are not what they are called. But I cannot be persuaded to pay religious homage to the natural elements, nor can I undertake to persuade my neighbour. And Metrodorus of Lampsacus, in his treatise concerning Homer, has argued very foolishly, turning everything into allegory. For he says that neither Hera, nor Athené, nor Zeus are what those persons suppose who consecrate to them sacred enclosures and groves, but parts of nature and certain arrangements of the elements. Hector also, and Achilles, and Agamemnon, and all the Greeks in general, and the Barbarians with Helen and Paris, being of the same nature, you will of course say are introduced merely for the sake of the machinery64    [Χάριν οἰκονμίας. Compare divers uses of this word in Kaye’s Justin, p. 174.] of the poem, not one of these personages having really existed. But these things we have put forth only for argument’s sake; for it is not allowable even to compare our notion of God with those who are wallowing in matter and mud.

21.1 Οὐ γὰρ μωραίνομεν, ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, οὐδὲ λήρους ἀπαγγέλλομεν, θεὸν ἐν ἀνθρώπου μορφῇ γεγονέναι καταγγέλλοντες. οἱ λοιδοροῦντες ἡμᾶς συγκρίνατε τοὺς μύθους ὑμῶν τοῖς ἡμετέροις διηγήμασιν. ∆ηίφοβος, ὥς φασιν, ἦν ἡ Ἀθηνᾶ διὰ τὸν Ἕκτορα, καὶ χάριν Ἀδμήτου __Φ_ο_ῖ_β_ο_ς ὁ _ἀ_κ_ε_ρ_σ_ε_κ_ό_μ_η_ς τὰς _ε_ἰ_λ_ί_π_ο_δ_α_ς_ _β_ο_ῦ_ς ἐποίμαινε, καὶ πρεσβῦτις ἀφικνεῖται πρὸς τὴν Σεμέλην ἡ τοῦ ∆ιὸς γαμετή. τοιαῦτα δὲ μελετῶντες πῶς ἡμᾶς διαγελᾶτε; τέθνηκεν ὑμῶν ὁ Ἀσκληπιός, καὶ ὁ τὰς πεντήκοντα παρθένους μιᾷ νυκτὶ Θεσπιᾶσι διακορεύσας πυρὸς ἑαυτὸν παραδοὺς βορᾷ οἴχεται. Προμηθεὺς τῷ Καυκάσῳ προσαρτηθεὶς τιμωρίαν χάριν τῆς εἰς ἀνθρώπους εὐεργεσίας ὑπήνεγκε. φθονερὸς ὁ Ζεὺς καθ' ὑμᾶς καὶ κρύπτει *** τὸν ὄνειρον τοὺς ἀνθρώπους βουλόμενος 21.2 ἀπόλλυσθαι. διόπερ ἀποβλέψαντες πρὸς τὰ οἰκεῖα *** ἀπομνημονεύματα κἂν ὡς ὁμοίως μυθολογοῦντας ἡμᾶς ἀποδέξασθε. καὶ ἡμεῖς μὲν οὐκ ἀφραίνομεν, φλήναφα δὲ τὰ ὑμέτερα. γένεσιν ἂν λέγητε θεῶν, καὶ θνητοὺς αὐτοὺς ἀποφανεῖσθε. διὰ τί γὰρ οὐ κυεῖ νῦν ἡ Ἥρα; πότερον γεγήρακεν ἢ τοῦ μηνύσοντος ὑμῖν ἀπορεῖ; πείσθητέ μοι νῦν, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, μηδὲ τοὺς μύθους μηδὲ τοὺς θεοὺς ὑμῶν ἀλληγορήσητε· κἂν γὰρ τοῦτο πράττειν ἐπιχειρήσητε, θεότης ἡ καθ' ὑμᾶς ἀνῄρηται καὶ ὑφ' ἡμῶν καὶ ὑφ' ὑμῶν. ἢ γὰρ τοιοῦτοι παρ' ὑμῖν ὄντες οἱ δαίμονες ὁποῖοι καὶ λέγονται, φαῦλοι τὸν τρόπον εἰσίν, ἢ μεταγόμενοι πρὸς τὸ φυσικώτερον οὔκ εἰσιν οἷοι καὶ λέγονται. 21.3 σέβειν δὲ τῶν στοιχείων τὴν ὑπόστασιν οὔτ' ἂν πεισθείην οὔτ' ἂν πείσαιμι τὸν πλησίον. καὶ Μητρόδωρος δὲ ὁ Λαμψακηνὸς ἐν τῷ Περὶ Ὁμήρου λίαν εὐήθως διείλεκται, πάντα εἰς ἀλληγορίαν μετάγων. οὔτε γὰρ Ἥραν οὔτε Ἀθηνᾶν οὔτε ∆ία τοῦτ' εἶναί φησιν ὅπερ οἱ τοὺς περιβόλους αὐτοῖς καὶ τεμένη καθιδρύσαντες νομίζουσιν, φύσεως δὲ ὑποστάσεις καὶ στοιχείων διακοσμήσεις. καὶ τὸν Ἕκτορα δὲ καὶ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα δηλαδὴ καὶ τὸν Ἀγαμέμνονα καὶ πάντας ἁπαξαπλῶς Ἕλληνάς τε καὶ βαρβάρους σὺν τῇ Ἑλένῃ καὶ τῷ Πάριδι τῆς αὐτῆς φύσεως ὑπάρχοντας χάριν οἰκονομίας ἐρεῖτε παρεισῆχθαι οὐδενὸς ὄντος τῶν προειρημένων ἀνθρώπων. ταῦτα δὲ ἡμεῖς προετείναμεν ὥσπερ ἐπὶ ὑποθέσεως· 21.4 τὴν γὰρ ἡμετέραν περὶ τοῦ θεοῦ κατάληψιν οὐδὲ συγκρίνειν ὅσιον τοῖς εἰς ὕλην καὶ βόρβορον κυλινδουμένοις.