Chapter XXIV.—Agreement of Plato and Homer.

How, then, does Plato banish Homer from his republic, since, in the embassy to Achilles, he represents Phœnix as saying to Achilles, “Even the gods themselves are not inflexible,”50    Iliad, ix. 497. though Homer said this not of the king and Platonic maker of the gods, but of some of the multitude whom the Greeks esteem as gods, as one can gather from Plato’s saying, “gods of gods?” For Homer, by that golden chain,51    That is, by the challenge of the chain introduced—Iliad, viii. 18. refers all power and might to the one highest God. And the rest of the gods, he said, were so far distant from his divinity, that he thought fit to name them even along with men. At least he introduces Ulysses saying of Hector to Achilles, “He is raging terribly, trusting in Zeus, and values neither men nor gods.”52    Iliad, ix. 238. In this passage Homer seems to me without doubt to have learnt in Egypt, like Plato, concerning the one God, and plainly and openly to declare this, that he who trusts in the really existent God makes no account of those that do not exist. For thus the poet, in another passage, and employing another but equivalent word, to wit, a pronoun, made use of the same participle employed by Plato to designate the really existent God, concerning whom Plato said, “What that is which always exists, and has no birth.” For not without a double sense does this expression of Phœnix seem to have been used: “Not even if God Himself were to promise me, that, having burnished off my old age, He should set me forth in the flower of youth.” For the pronoun “Himself” signifies the really existing God. For thus, too, the oracle which was given to you concerning the Chaldæans and Hebrews signifies. For when some one inquired what men had ever lived godly, you say the answer was:—

Πῶς οὖν Ὅμηρον τῆς ἑαυτοῦ πολιτείας ἐκβάλλει Πλάτων, ἐπειδὴ ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἀχιλλέα πρεσβείᾳ τὸν Φοίνικα πεποίηκε τῷ Ἀχιλλεῖ λέγοντα: Στρεπτοὶ δέ τε καὶ θεοὶ αὐτοί, καίτοι Ὁμήρου οὐ περὶ τοῦ βασιλέως καὶ κατὰ Πλάτωνα δημιουργοῦ τῶν θεῶν ταῦτ' εἰρηκότος, ἀλλὰ περί τινων θεῶν, τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησι πολλῶν εἶναι νομιζομένων, ὡς ἔστιν ἡμῖν καὶ παρ' αὐτοῦ Πλάτωνος μανθάνειν, θεοὶ θεῶν λέγοντος; Τῷ γὰρ ἑνὶ καὶ πρώτῳ θεῷ τὴν ἐξουσίαν καὶ τὸ κράτος ἁπάντων Ὅμηρος διὰ τῆς χρυσῆς ἐκείνης ἀναφέρει σειρᾶς, τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς θεοὺς τοσοῦτ' ἀπέχειν ἔφη τῆς ἐκείνου θεότητος, ὥστε αὐτοὺς καὶ μετὰ ἀνθρώπων ὀνομάζειν ἀξιοῦν. Τὸν γοῦν Ὀδυσσέα κατὰ τοῦ Ἕκτορος πρὸς τὸν Ἀχιλλέα εἰσάγει λέγοντα: Μαίνεται ἐκπάγλως, πίσυνος Διΐ, οὐδέ τι τίει Ἀνέρας οὐδὲ θεούς. Ἐνταῦθά μοι Ὅμηρος δοκεῖ πάντως που καὶ αὐτὸς ὥσπερ ὁ Πλάτων ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ μαθὼν περὶ ἑνὸς θεοῦ σαφῶς καὶ φανερῶς τουτὶ ἐμφαίνειν, ὅτι ὁ τῷ ὄντι πεποιθὼς θεῷ τῶν μὴ ὄντων ἀμελεῖ. Οὕτως γὰρ ὁ ποιητῆς καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ που, δι' ἑτέρας λέξεως ἰσοδυναμούσης, τῇ ἀντωνυμίᾳ, ταὐτῇ τῇ ὑπὸ Πλάτωνος εἰρημένῃ μετοχῇ, κέχρηται, τὸν ὄντα θεὸν ἀπαγγελλούσῃ, περὶ οὗ ὁ Πλάτων ἔφη: Τί τὸ ὂν ἀεί, γένεσιν δὲ οὐκ ἔχον. Οὐ γὰρ ἁπλῶς εἰρῆσθαί μοι δοκεῖ τὸ ὑπὸ τοῦ Φοίνικος εἰρημένον: Οὐδ' εἴ κέν μοι ὑποσταίη θεὸς αὐτός, Γῆρας ἀποξύσας, θήσειν νέον ἡβώοντα. Ἡ γὰρ αὐτὸς ἀντωνυμία τὸν ὄντως ὄντα σημαίνει θεόν. Οὕτως γὰρ καὶ ὁ περὶ τῶν Χαλδαίων ὑμῖν καὶ Ἑβραίων εἰρημένος σημαίνει χρησμός: πυθομένου γάρ τινος, τίνας πώποτε θεοσεβεῖς ἄνδρας γεγενῆσθαι συνέβη, οὕτως εἰρηκέναι αὐτόν φατε: Μοῦνοι Χαλδαῖοι σοφίην λάχον, ἠδ' ἄρ' Ἑβραῖοι, Αὐτογένητον ἄνακτα σεβαζόμενοι θεὸν αὐτόν.