Chapter XXII.—Ridicule of the Solemnities of the Greeks.

And of what sort are your teachings? Who must not treat with contempt your solemn festivals, which, being held in honour of wicked demons, cover men with infamy? I have often seen a man65    Tatian here describes an actor. [And in America heathenism has returned upon us in most of the indecencies here exposed. Are we Christians?]—and have been amazed to see, and the amazement has ended in contempt, to think how he is one thing internally, but outwardly counterfeits what he is not—giving himself excessive airs of daintiness and indulging in all sorts of effeminacy; sometimes darting his eyes about; sometimes throwing his hands hither and thither, and raving with his face smeared with mud; sometimes personating Aphrodité, sometimes Apollo; a solitary accuser of all the gods, an epitome of superstition, a vituperator of heroic deeds, an actor of murders, a chronicler of adultery, a storehouse of madness, a teacher of cynædi, an instigator of capital sentences;—and yet such a man is praised by all. But I have rejected all his falsehoods, his impiety, his practices,—in short, the man altogether. But you are led captive by such men, while you revile those who do not take a part in your pursuits. I have no mind to stand agape at a number of singers, nor do I desire to be affected in sympathy with a man when he is winking and gesticulating in an unnatural manner. What wonderful or extraordinary thing is performed among you? They utter ribaldry in affected tones, and go through indecent movements; your daughters and your sons behold them giving lessons in adultery on the stage. Admirable places, forsooth, are your lecture-rooms, where every base action perpetrated by night is proclaimed aloud, and the hearers are regaled with the utterance of infamous discourses! Admirable, too, are your mendacious poets, who by their fictions beguile their hearers from the truth!

22.1 Οἷα γάρ ἐστιν ὑμῶν καὶ τὰ διδάγματα; τίς οὐκ ἂν χλευάσειε τὰς δημοτελεῖς ὑμῶν πανηγύρεις, αἳ προφάσει πονηρῶν ἐπιτελούμεναι δαιμόνων εἰς ἀδοξίαν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους περιτρέπουσιν; εἶδόν τινα πολλάκις, καὶ ἰδὼν ἐθαύμασα καὶ μετὰ τὸ θαυμάσαι κατεφρόνησα πῶς ἔσωθεν μέν ἐστιν ἄλλος, ἔξωθεν δὲ ὅπερ οὐκ ἔστι ψεύδεται, τὸν ἁβρυνόμενον σφόδρα καὶ παντοίως διακλώμενον καὶ τοῦτο μὲν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς μαρμαρύσσοντα, τοῦτο δὲ καὶ τὼ χεῖρε λυγιζόμενον καὶ διὰ πηλίνης ὄψεως δαιμονῶντα καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ὡς Ἀφροδίτην, ποτὲ δὲ ὡς Ἀπόλλωνα γινόμενον, ἕνα κατήγορον πάντων τῶν θεῶν, δεισιδαιμονίας ἐπιτομήν, διάβολον ἡρωϊκῶν πράξεων, φόνων ὑποκριτήν, μοιχείας ὑπομνηματιστήν, θησαυρὸν μανίας, κιναίδων παιδευτήν, καταδικαζομένων ἀφορμὴν 22.2 καὶ τὸν τοιοῦτον ὑπὸ πάντων ἐπαινούμενον. ἐγὼ δὲ αὐτὸν παρῃτησάμην πάντα ψευδόμενον καὶ τὴν ἀθεότητα καὶ τὰ ἐπιτηδεύματα καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον. ὑμεῖς δὲ ὑπὸ τούτων συλαγωγεῖσθε καὶ τοὺς μὴ κοινωνοῦντας ὑμῶν ταῖς πραγματείαις λοιδορεῖτε. κεχηνέναι πολλῶν ᾀδόντων οὐ θέλω καὶ τῷ νεύοντι καὶ κινουμένῳ παρὰ φύσιν οὐ βούλομαι συνδιατίθεσθαι. τί θαυμαστὸν οὐ παρ' ὑμῖν ἐξηυρημένον διαπράττεται; ῥιναυλοῦσι μὲν γὰρ καὶ λαλοῦσι τὰ αἰσχρά, κινοῦνται δὲ κινήσεις ἃς οὐκ ἐχρῆν, καὶ τοὺς ὅπως δεῖ μοιχεύειν ἐπὶ τῆς σκηνῆς σοφιστεύοντας αἱ θυγατέρες ὑμῶν καὶ οἱ παῖδες θεωροῦσι. καλὰ παρ' ὑμῖν τὰ ἀκροατήρια κηρύττοντα πάνθ' ἅπερ ἐν νυκτὶ μοχθηρῶς πραγματεύεται καὶ τέρποντα τοὺς 22.3 ἀκροατὰς αἰσχρῶν λόγων ἐκφωνήμασιν. καλοὶ δέ εἰσιν ὑμῶν καὶ οἱ ποιηταί, ψευδολόγοι καὶ διὰ σχημάτων ἐξαπατῶντες τοὺς ἀκροωμένους.