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By believing, Callimachus, in the birth of Zeus, you disbelieve in his tomb, and thinking to obscure the truth, you proclaim the dead one even to those who are ignorant. If you look at the cave, you are reminded of the birth from Rhea; but if you see the sepulchre, you cast a shadow on the one who died, not knowing that only the unbegotten God is eternal. For either the myths told by the many and the poets about the gods are unbelievable, and reverence for them is superfluous (for they do not exist whose stories are false), or if their births, their loves, their murders, their thefts, their castrations, their thunderbolts are true, they exist no longer, having ceased to be, since they also came to be from not being. For what reason is there to believe some things and disbelieve others, when the poets have narrated the more august things concerning them? For those through whom they were considered gods, having made their history solemn, would not have falsified their sufferings. That, therefore, we are not atheists, acknowledging as God the maker of this universe and the Word from Him, has been proved, according to my ability, even if not according to His worth. And they also fabricate impious feasts and unions against us, so that they might think they hate with reason, and supposing by terrifying us either to turn us away from our present course of life, or to make the rulers bitter and inexorable by the excess of their accusations, trifling with those who know that from of old it has somehow been the custom, and not in our time only, following some divine law and reason, for wickedness to make war on virtue. Thus also Pythagoras was burned with fire along with three hundred companions; and Heraclitus and Democritus, the one was driven from the city of the Ephesians, the other from that of the Abderites, being accused of being mad; and the Athenians condemned Socrates to death. But just as they were no worse in respect of virtue on account of the opinion of the many, so too the unjudging blasphemy from some does not at all obscure for us the rightness of our life; for we are well-reputed before God. Nevertheless, I will also respond to these accusations. To you, therefore, even by what I have said, I know well that I have made my defense. For, surpassing all in intelligence, you know that these people, whose life is regulated by God as by a plumb-line so that each one of us might become blameless and irreproachable before Him, will never come even to the thought of the slightest sin. For if we were persuaded that we would live only this present life, it might even be possible to suspect that, enslaved to flesh and blood, or yielding to gain or desire, we would sin; but since we know that God stands over what we think and what we say both by night and by day, and that He, being all light, sees also the things in our heart, and we are persuaded that when we are released from this present life we will live another life better than the one here, a heavenly one, not earthly, so as to be with God and

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πιστεύων, Καλλίμαχε, ταῖς γοναῖς τοῦ ∆ιὸς ἀπιστεῖς αὐτοῦ τῷ τάφῳ καὶ νομίζων ἐπισκιάσειν τἀληθὲς καὶ τοῖς ἀγνοοῦσι κηρύσσεις τὸν τεθνηκότα κἂν μὲν τὸ ἄντρον βλέπῃς, τὸν Ῥέας ὑπομιμνήσκῃ τόκον, ἂν δὲ τὴν σορὸν ἴδῃς, ἐπισκοτεῖς τῷ τεθνηκότι, οὐκ εἰδὼς ὅτι μόνος ἀΐδιος ὁ ἀγένητος θεός. ἢ γὰρ ἄπιστοι οἱ ὑπὸ τῶν πολλῶν καὶ ποιητῶν λεγόμενοι μῦθοι περὶ τῶν θεῶν καὶ περισσὴ ἡ περὶ αὐτοὺς εὐσέβεια (οὐ γὰρ εἰσὶν ὧν ψευδεῖς οἱ λόγοι), ἢ εἰ ἀληθεῖς αἱ γενήσεις, οἱ ἔρωτες, αἱ μιαιφονίαι, αἱ κλοπαί, αἱ ἐκτομαί, οἱ κεραυνοί, οὐκέτ' εἰσίν, παυσάμενοι εἶναι, ἐπεὶ καὶ ἐγένοντο οὐκ ὄντες. τίς γὰρ τοῖς μὲν πιστεύειν λόγος, τοῖς δὲ ἀπιστεῖν, ἐπὶ τὸ σεμνότερον περὶ αὐτῶν τῶν ποιητῶν ἱστορηκότων; οὐ γὰρ ἂν δι' οὓς ἐνομίσθησαν θεοὶ σεμνοποιήσαντας τὴν κατ' αὐτοὺς ἱστορίαν, οὗτοι τὰ πάθη τὰ αὐτῶν ἐψεύσαντο. Ὡς μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἐσμὲν ἄθεοι θεὸν ἄγοντες τὸν ποιητὴν τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς καὶ τὸν παρ' αὐτοῦ λόγον, κατὰ δύναμιν τὴν ἐμήν, εἰ καὶ μὴ πρὸς ἀξίαν, ἐλήλεγκται. Ἔτι δὲ καὶ τροφὰς καὶ μίξεις λογοποιοῦσιν ἀθέους καθ' ἡμῶν, ἵνα τε μισεῖν νομίζοιεν μετὰ λόγου καὶ οἰόμενοι τῷ δεδίτ τεσθαι ἢ τῆς ἐνστάσεως ἀπάξειν ἡμᾶς τοῦ βίου ἢ πικροὺς καὶ ἀπαραιτήτους τῇ τῶν αἰτιῶν ὑπερβολῇ τοὺς ἄρχοντας παρασκευά σειν, πρὸς εἰδότας παίζοντες, ὅτι ἄνωθέν πως ἔθος καὶ οὐκ ἐφ' ἡμῶν μόνον κατά τινα θεῖον νόμον καὶ λόγον παρηκολούθηκε προσπολεμεῖν τὴν κακίαν τῇ ἀρετῇ. οὕτω καὶ Πυθαγόρας μὲν ἅμα τριακοσίοις ἑταίροις κατεφλέχθη πυρί, Ἡράκλειτος δὲ καὶ ∆ημόκριτος, ὁ μὲν τῆς Ἐφεσίων πόλεως ἠλαύνετο, ὁ δὲ τῆς Ἀβδηριτῶν ἐπικατηγορούμενος μεμηνέναι, καὶ Σωκράτους Ἀθηναῖοι θάνατον κατέγνωσαν. ἀλλ' ὡς ἐκεῖνοι οὐδὲν χείρους εἰς ἀρετῆς λόγον διὰ τὴν τῶν πολλῶν δόξαν, οὐδ' ἡμῖν οὐδὲν ἐπισκοτεῖ πρὸς ὀρθότητα βίου ἡ παρά τινων ἄκριτος βλασφημία· εὐδοξοῦμεν γὰρ παρὰ τῷ θεῷ. πλὴν ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς ταῦτα ἀπαντήσω τὰ ἐγκλήματα. ὑμῖν μὲν οὖν καὶ δι' ὧν εἴρηκα εὖ οἶδα ἀπολελογῆσθαι ἐμαυτόν. συνέσει γὰρ πάντας ὑπερφρονοῦντες, οἷς ὁ βίος ὡς πρὸς στάθμην τὸν θεὸν κανονίζεται, ὅπως ἀνυπαίτιος καὶ ἀνεπίληπτος ἕκαστος ἡμῶν ἄνθρωπος αὐτῷ γένοιτο, ἴστε τούτους μηδ' εἰς ἔννοιάν ποτε τοῦ βραχυτάτου ἐλευσομένους ἁμαρτήματος. εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἕνα τὸν ἐνταῦθα βίον βιώσεσθαι ἐπεπείσμεθα, κἂν ὑποπτεύειν ἐνῆν δουλεύοντας σαρκὶ καὶ αἵματι ἢ κέρδους ἢ ἐπιθυμίας ἐλάττους γενομένους ἁμαρτεῖν· ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐφεστηκέναι μὲν οἷς ἐννοοῦμεν, οἷς λαλοῦμεν καὶ νύκτωρ καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν τὸν θεὸν οἴδαμεν, πάντα δὲ φῶς αὐτὸν ὄντα καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ ἡμῶν ὁρᾶν, πεπείσμεθα <δὲ> τοῦ ἐνταῦθα ἀπαλλαγέντες βίου βίον ἕτερον βιώσεσθαι ἀμείνονα ἢ κατὰ τὸν ἐνθάδε καὶ ἐπουράνιον, οὐκ ἐπίγειον, ὡς ἂν μετὰ θεοῦ καὶ