John Chrysostom, On Timothy

as to be born from above, as to be saved by grace, as having no good thing, He saved us; much more in the future will He do this. 4. For nothing was worse than human brutality before the coming of Christ; for all were disposed toward one another like enemies and foes; fathers slaughtered their own children, and mothers raged against their children; nothing was established, neither natural nor written law, but all things had been overturned; continual adulteries, murders, and if anything is worse than murder, thefts (and one of the outsiders says that this practice even seemed to be a virtue; and reasonably so, where they even worshiped such a god), continuous oracles commanding that this one and that one be killed. Shall I mention something from that time? A certain Androgeos, son of Minos, having come to Athens and won a wrestling match, paid the penalty and was killed. Therefore Apollo, healing evil with evil, commanded twice seven children to be led away on account of this. What is more cruel than this tyranny? And this happened, and a man, having come to end the madness of the demon, slaughtered those children, because among them the deceit prevailed; but when they rose up and defended themselves, it was so no longer. If, therefore, the thing was done justly, it ought not to have been prevented; but if unjustly, as indeed it was unjustly, it ought not to have been commanded in the first place. 62.693 They worshiped boxers and wrestlers. Continual and successive wars, city by city, village by village, house by house. They practiced pederasty; and among them a certain philosopher legislated that it was not permitted for a slave either to be the object of pederasty or to anoint himself with dry oil, as if the practice were virtuous and held in great honor. For this reason they even stood in brothels openly doing this. And if one were to go through all their affairs, he would find openly that they were committing outrages even against nature itself, and there was no one to forbid it; but all their plays are full of these things, of adultery, of licentiousness, of corruption. Defiled all-night festivals were held, and women were called to the spectacle. O the defilement! At night, in a theater, there was an all-night festival, and a virgin would sit between maddened youths and a drunken crowd.. The festival was darkness, and the abominable deeds performed by them. For this reason he says: We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures. So-and-so, he says, fell in love with his stepmother, and so-and-so with her stepson, and hanged herself. For of the loves of boys, which it is their custom to call 'paidika', it is not even possible to speak. But what? Do you wish to see marriages with mothers? This also exists among them, and what is truly terrible, the thing happened out of ignorance, and the god among them did not prevent it, but overlooked nature being outraged, and this from one who was distinguished. But if those whom one would expect, if for no other reason, at least for the sake of public opinion, to hold fast to virtue, were thus carried headlong into vice; what is it likely that the many, and those who live in obscurity, would practice? What is more varied than this pleasure? So-and-so fell in love with so-and-so; when her husband returned, she slaughtered him by means of the adulterer. Perhaps many of you know the story. The son of the murdered man killed the adulterer, and sacrificed her as well; after this he himself also went mad, and was pursued by the Furies; then he, having thus gone mad, went away and slaughtered another, and takes his wife. What is worse than these calamities? For this reason I say these things from the outsiders, in order to persuade the Greeks how many evils possessed the world. But, if you wish, let us also show from our own writings. They sacrificed, it says, their sons and their daughters to demons. And again the inhabitants of Sodom were destroyed for no other reason, than because they lusted madly for boys. But again in the prelude to the coming of Christ, did not the king's daughter dance in the midst of the banquet among drunken men? did she not ask for murder, and as the price of her dancing, the head of the prophet? Who will declare the mighty acts of the Lord? Hateful, he says,

ὡς ἄνωθεν γεννηθῆναι, ὡς χάριτι σωθῆναι, ὡς μηδὲν ἔχειν ἀγαθὸν, ἔσωσε, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι τοῦτο ἐργάσεται. δʹ. Οὐδὲν γὰρ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης θηριωδίας χεῖρον ἦν πρὸ τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρουσίας· ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐχθροὶ καὶ πολέμιοι πάντες διέκειντο πρὸς ἀλλήλους· τοὺς παῖδας ἔσφαζον τοὺς ἑαυτῶν πατέρες, καὶ μητέρες παισὶν ἐπεμαίνοντο· οὐδὲν ἦν ἑστηκὸς, οὐ φυσικὸς, οὐ γραπτὸς νόμος, ἀλλὰ ἀνατέτραπτο ἅπαντα· μοιχεῖαι διηνεκεῖς, φόνοι, καὶ εἴ τι φόνων χαλεπώτερον, κλοπαὶ (φησὶ δέ τις τῶν ἔξωθεν, ὅτι καὶ ἀρετῆς τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐδόκει εἶναι· καὶ εἰκότως, ὅπου γε καὶ θεὸν τοιοῦτον ἔσεβον), χρησμοὶ συνεχεῖς τὸν δεῖνα ἀναιρεῖσθαι καὶ τὸν δεῖνα κελεύοντες. Εἴπω τι τῶν κατ' ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον; Ἀνδρόγεώς τις τοῦ Μίνωος υἱὸς ἐλθὼν εἰς Ἀθήνας καὶ πάλην νικήσας, δίκην ἐδίδου, καὶ ἀνῃρέθη. Ὁ οὖν Ἀπόλλων κακῷ τὸ κακὸν ἰώμενος, ἐκέλευσε δὶς ἑπτὰ παῖδας ἀπάγεσθαι ὑπὲρ τούτου. Τί ταύτης τῆς τυραννίδος ὠμότερον; Καὶ τοῦτο ἐγένετο, καὶ ἄνθρωπος τοῦ δαίμονος τὴν μανίαν λῦσαι ἐπελθὼν, ἔσφαξε τοὺς παῖδας ἐκείνους, ὅτι παρ' αὐτοῖς ἡ ἀπάτη ἴσχυεν· ἐπειδὴ δὲ διανέστησαν καὶ ἤμυναν ἑαυτοῖς, οὐκέτι. Εἰ μὲν οὖν δικαίως τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐγίνετο, οὐκ ἐχρῆν κωλυθῆναι· εἰ δὲ ἀδίκως, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ ἀδίκως, οὐδὲ παρὰ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐπι 62.693 ταγῆναι. Πύκτας προσεκύνουν καὶ παλαιστάς. Πόλεμοι συνεχεῖς καὶ ἐπάλληλοι, κατὰ πόλιν, κατὰ κώμην, κατὰ οἰκίαν. Ἐπαιδεράστουν· καὶ παρ' αὐτοῖς φιλόσοφός τις ἐνομοθέτει, δούλῳ ἐξεῖναι μήτε παιδεραστεῖν, μήτε ξηραλοιφεῖν, ὡς ἐναρέτου τοῦ πράγματος ὄντος καὶ πολλὴν ἔχοντος τιμήν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἐπ' οἰκήματος εἱστήκεισαν φανερῶς τοῦτο ποιοῦντες. Καὶ εἰ πάντα τις ἐπέλθοι τὰ κατ' αὐτοὺς, εὑρήσει φανερῶς ὅτι καὶ εἰς τὴν φύσιν αὐτὴν ἐνύβριζον, καὶ οὐδεὶς ὁ κωλύων ἦν· ἀλλὰ τὰ δράματα αὐτοῖς πάντα τούτων γέμει, μοιχείας, ἀσελγείας, διαφθορᾶς. Παννυχίδες ἐγίνοντο μιαραὶ, καὶ γυναῖκες ἐκαλοῦντο ἐπὶ τὴν θέαν. Ὢ τῆς μιαρίας! ἐν νυκτὶ, ἐν θεάτρῳ παννυχὶς ἦν, καὶ παρθένος ἐκάθητο μεταξὺ νέων μεμηνότων καὶ μεθύοντος ὄχλου .. Τὸ σκότος ἦν ἡ πανήγυρις, καὶ τὰ μυσαρὰ ἔργα τὰ ὑπ' αὐτῶν τελούμενα. ∆ιὰ τοῦτό φησιν· Ἦμέν ποτε καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀνόητοι, ἀπειθεῖς, πλανώμενοι, δουλεύοντες ἐπιθυμίαις καὶ ἡδοναῖς ποικίλαις. Ὁ δεῖνα τῆς μητρυιᾶς ἠράσθη, φησὶ, καὶ ἡ δεῖνα τοῦ προγόνου, καὶ ἀπήγξατο. Τοὺς γὰρ τῶν παίδων ἔρωτας, οὕσπερ αὐτοῖς παιδικὰ καλεῖν ἔθος ἐστὶν, οὐδὲ εἰπεῖν ἔνι. Ἀλλὰ τί; βούλει μητρογαμίας ἰδεῖν; Ἔστι καὶ τοῦτο παρ' αὐτοῖς, καὶ τὸ δὴ δεινὸν, ὑπὸ ἀγνοίας τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐγίνετο, καὶ οὐκ ἐκώλυεν ὁ θεὸς ὁ παρ' αὐτοῖς, ἀλλὰ περιεώρα τὴν φύσιν ὑβριζομένην, καὶ ταῦτα τῶν ἐπισήμων οὖσαν Εἰ δὲ οὓς εἰκὸς, εἰ καὶ μὴ δι' ἕτερόν τι, διὰ γοῦν τὴν τῶν πολλῶν δόξαν ἀντέχεσθαι τῆς ἀρετῆς, οὗτοι δὲ οὕτω πρηνεῖς κατὰ τῆς κακίας ἐφέροντο· τί εἰκὸς τοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ λανθανόντως βιοῦντας διαπράττεσθαι; τί ποικιλώτερον ταύτης τῆς ἡδονῆς; Ἠράσθη ἡ δεῖνα τοῦ δεῖνος· ἐπανελθόντα τὸν ἄνδρα ἔσφαξε διὰ τοῦ μοιχοῦ. Τάχα ἴστε τὸ διήγημα οἱ πολλοί. Τὸν μοιχὸν ἀνεῖλεν ὁ παῖς τοῦ φονευθέντος, κἀκείνην ἐπέθυσε· μετὰ ταῦτα ἐμάνη καὶ αὐτὸς, καὶ ταῖς ἐριννύσιν ἠλαύνετο· εἶτα αὐτὸς οὕτως ὁ μανεὶς ἀπελθὼν ἔσφαξεν ἕτερον, καὶ τὴν ἐκείνου γυναῖκα λαμβάνει. Τί τούτων χεῖρον τῶν συμφορῶν; Τούτου χάριν ταῦτα λέγω ἀπὸ τῶν ἔξωθεν, ἵνα τοὺς Ἕλληνας πείσω, πόσα κατεῖχε τὴν οἰκουμένην κακά. Ἀλλ', εἰ βούλεσθε, καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν ἡμετέρων δεικνύωμεν. Ἔθυσαν, φησὶ, τοὺς υἱοὺς αὐτῶν καὶ τὰς θυγατέρας αὐτῶν τοῖς δαιμονίοις. Καὶ πάλιν οἱ τὰ Σόδομα οἰκοῦντες δι' οὐδὲν ἕτερον ἀπώλοντο, ἢ ὅτι παισὶν ἐπεμαίνοντο. Ἀλλὰ πάλιν ἐν προοιμίοις τῆς τοῦ Χριστοῦ παρουσίας οὐχὶ ἡ τοῦ βασιλέως θυγάτηρ ἐν μέσοις ὠρχεῖτο τοῖς συμποσίοις ἐν ἀνθρώποις μεθύουσιν; οὐχὶ φόνον ᾔτει, καὶ ὀρχήσεως τιμὴν τὴν κεφαλὴν τοῦ προφήτου; Τίς λαλήσει τὰς δυναστείας τοῦ Κυρίου; Στυγητοὶ, φησὶ,