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again, anger and the like are gods; therefore the one who masters these is plainly an opponent of the gods. Therefore virtue must be shunned as being contrary to the gods, and 3.52 intemperance must be embraced as having been named a god. But these things are both more foolish and more harmful than the poetic myths; and fleeing the smoke, according to the proverb, as it seems, we have fallen into the fire itself; for such is the error of falsehood; and if someone should escape this path, he will fall 3.53 into another, more difficult one. Such then is the fourth kind of deification. For instance, then, Antisthenes, the companion of Socrates and teacher of Diogenes, holding self-control in the highest regard and detesting pleasure, is said to have spoken as follows about Aphrodite: "As for me, I would shoot Aphrodite with an arrow, if I could catch her, because she has corrupted many of our beautiful and good women." And love he called a vice of nature, overcome by which the unfortunate call the disease a god. For this reason, indeed, he chose to go mad rather than to feel pleasure. 3.54 And that they also disagreed on the principle of allegory, one might see accurately by reading the writings of the philosophers. For Plato called Hera 'air'; but Plutarch of Chaeronea named Hera 'earth', and Leto 'forgetfulness' or 'night', in which the mind receives a kind of forgetfulness. But Orpheus says: 'Earth, mother of all, Demeter, giver of wealth.' 3.55 And that they also overthrew each other's theologies, Plato makes clear in the Epinomis, speaking thus: "Theology, then, and zoogony it is necessary, it seems, for me first, since those before have represented them badly, to represent them better in a subsequent account, taking 3.56 up and coming to pious accounts." And concerning the men who were deified, Plutarch in his treatise On the Obsolescence of Oracles says thus: "The stories of the Giants and Titans sung among the Greeks and many lawless deeds and Typhon's oppositions to Apollo and the flights of Dionysus and the wandering of Demeter are in no way inferior to the stories of Osiris and Typhon, which one can hear freely told as myths among all 3.57 people." And again the same man also says these things: "Since I learn that the Solymi also, the neighbors of the Lycians, especially honor Cronus; since after he killed their chieftains, Arsalus and Aryus and Tosobis, he fled and moved somewhere or other—for this they are unable to say—that he was neglected, but those around Arsalus they named harsh gods, and that the Lycians pronounce curses upon these both privately and publicly." 3.58 And Porphyry says in his Letter to Anebo the Egyptian that the Egyptians worship a man in the village of Annabi and sacrifice to him upon the altars, then offer him at the proper time his own food. 3.59 But not even the fourth error was enough for them, but they also devised a fifth and deified the most wicked demons and, having learned from them the tricks of sorcery, they honored them with rites and sacrifices. And Porphyry has made this clear in his work On Philosophy from Oracles; 3.60 and I shall quote his own words: "Through the opposites, however, every need is also accomplished. For it is by these especially that those who work evil through sorceries honor the power presiding over them. For the evil demons are full of all illusion and able to deceive through wonder-working and through making love-potions and charms. For every hope of both wealth and glory is through them, and especially deception. For falsehood is their own; for they wish to be gods; and the power presiding over them seems to be a very great god. These are the ones who rejoice in libation and the savor of sacrifice, through which 3.61 their corporeal and spiritual part is fattened." And it is timely for me to set beside the words of Porphyry the words of the Homeric gods; for they too call the libation and the savor of sacrifice their own portion. Therefore Porphyry is clearly naming as evil demons those called gods by the poet. For indeed

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αὖ πάλιν καὶ ὁ θυμὸς ὡσαύτως θεοί, ὁ τούτων ἄρα κρατῶν ἀντίθεος ἄντι κρυς. Φευκτέον οὖν ἄρα τὴν ἀρετὴν ὡς ἐναντίαν οὖσαν θεοῖς, καὶ 3.52 ἀσπαστέον τὴν ἀκρασίαν ὡς ὠνομασμένην θεόν. Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα καὶ τῶν ποιητικῶν μύθων ἐστὶ ληρωδέστερά τε καὶ βλαβερώτερα· καὶ τὸν καπνὸν κατὰ τὴν παροιμίαν, ὡς ἔοικε, φεύγοντες, εἰς αὐτὸ δὴ τὸ πῦρ ἐμπεπτώκαμεν· τοιοῦτος γὰρ τοῦ ψεύδους ὁ πλάνος· κἂν ταύτην τις διαφύγῃ τὴν ἀτραπόν, εἰς ἑτέραν ἐμπε 3.53 σεῖται χαλεπωτέραν. Τοιοῦτον μὲν δὴ τῆς θεοποιΐας καὶ τὸ τέταρτον εἶδος. Αὐτίκα τοίνυν Ἀντισθένης, ὁ Σωκράτους ἑταῖρος καὶ ∆ιογέ νους διδάσκαλος, τὴν σωφροσύνην περὶ πλείστου ποιούμενος καὶ τὴν ἡδονὴν μυσαττόμενος, τοιάδε περὶ τῆς Ἀφροδίτης λέγεται φάναι· "Ἐγὼ δὲ τὴν Ἀφροδίτην κἂν κατατοξεύσαιμι, εἰ λάβοιμι, ὅτι πολλὰς ἡμῶν καλὰς κἀγαθὰς γυναῖκας διέφθειρεν." Τὸν δέ γε ἔρωτα κακίαν ἐκάλει τῆς φύσεως, ἧς ἥττους ὄντες οἱ κακο δαίμονες, θεὸν τὴν νόσον καλοῦσιν. Ταύτῃ τοι μανῆναι μᾶλλον ἢ ἡσθῆναι ᾑρεῖτο. 3.54 Ὅτι δὲ καὶ κατὰ τὸν τῆς ἀλληγορίας διεφώνουν λόγον, ἴδοι τις ἂν ἀκριβῶς τοῖς τῶν φιλοσόφων ξυγγράμμασιν ἐντυχών. Πλάτων μὲν γὰρ ἀέρα τὴν Ἥραν ὠνόμασε· Πλούταρχος δὲ ὁ Χαιρωνεὺς τὴν γῆν προσηγόρευσεν Ἥραν, Λητὼ δὲ τὴν λήθην ἢ τὴν νύκτα, ἐν ᾗ οἷόν τινα λήθην ἡ διάνοια δέχεται. Ὁ δὲ Ὀρφεύς· γῆ φησι μήτηρ πάντων, ∆ημήτηρ πλουτοδότειρα. 3.55 Ὅτι δέ γε καὶ τὰς ἀλλήλων θεολογίας ἀνέτρεπον, ὁ Πλάτων ἐν Ἐπινομίδι δηλοῖ, λέγων ὡδί· "Θεολογίαν τοίνυν καὶ ζῳογο νίαν ἀναγκαῖον, ὡς ἔοικε, πρῶτον ἐμοί, κακῶς ἀπεικασάντων τῶν ἔμπροσθεν, βέλτιον ἀπεικάσαι κατὰ τὸν ὕστερον λόγον, ἀνα 3.56 λαβόντα καὶ πρὸς τοὺς εὐσεβεῖς ἐληλυθότα λόγους." Περὶ δέ γε τῶν θεοποιηθέντων ἀνθρώπων ὁ Πλούταρχος ἐν τῷ ξυγγράμματι τῷ Περὶ τῶν ἐκλελοιπότων χρηστηρίων ὧδέ φησιν· "Τὰ δὲ Γιγαντικά τε καὶ Τιτανικὰ παρ' Ἕλλησιν ᾀδόμενα καὶ πολλαί τινες ἄθεσμοι πράξεις καὶ Τυφῶνος ἀντιτάξεις πρὸς Ἀπόλλωνα φυγαί τε ∆ιονύσου καὶ πλάνη ∆ήμητρος οὐδὲν ἀπολείπουσι τῶν Ὀσιρικῶν καὶ Τυφωνικῶν, ὧν παρὰ πᾶσιν ἀνέδην ἔστι μυθολο 3.57 γουμένων ἀκούειν." Καὶ πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς καὶ τάδε φησίν· "Ἐπεὶ καὶ Σολύμους πυνθάνομαι τοὺς Λυκίων προσοίκους ἐν τοῖς μάλιστα τιμᾶν τὸν Κρόνον· ἐπειδὴ ἀποκτείνας τοὺς ἀρχηγέτας αὐτῶν, Ἄρσαλον καὶ Ἄρυον καὶ Τόσοβιν, ἔφυγε καὶ μετεχώρησεν ὁπουδήποτε-τοῦτο γὰρ οὐκ ἔχουσιν εἰπεῖν-ἐκεῖνον μὲν ἀμεληθῆναι, τοὺς δὲ περὶ Ἄρσαλον σκιρροὺς θεοὺς προσαγο ρεῦσαι, καὶ τὰς κατάρας ἐπὶ τούτων ποιεῖσθαι ἰδίᾳ καὶ δημοσίᾳ 3.58 Λυκίους." Τοὺς δὲ Αἰγυπτίους φησὶν ὁ Πορφύριος ἐν τῇ Πρὸς Ἀνεβὼ τὸν Αἰγύπτιον ἐπιστολῇ ἄνθρωπον σέβειν ἐν Ἀνναβὶ κώμῃ καὶ τούτῳ θύειν ἐπὶ τῶν βωμῶν, εἶτα προσφέρειν αὐτῷ κατὰ καιρὸν τὴν οἰκείαν τροφήν. 3.59 Ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐδ' ὁ τέταρτος αὐτοῖς ἀπέχρησε πλάνος, ἀλλὰ καὶ πέμπτον προσεπενόησαν καὶ τοὺς παμπονήρους ἐθεοποίησαν δαίμονας καὶ τὰς τῆς γοητείας παρ' αὐτῶν μαγγανείας μεμαθη κότες τελεταῖς αὐτοὺς καὶ θυσίαις ἐτίμησαν. Καὶ τοῦτο δεδήλω κεν ὁ Πορφύριος ἐν τῷ Περὶ τῆς ἐκ λογίων φιλοσοφίας ξυγγράμ 3.60 ματι· ἐγὼ δὲ αὐτοῦ τὰ ῥήματα παραθήσομαι· "∆ιὰ μέντοι τῶν ἐναντίων καὶ ἡ πᾶσα χρεία ἐπιτελεῖται. Τούτοις γὰρ μάλιστα τὴν τούτων προεστῶσαν τιμῶσιν οἱ τὰ κακὰ διὰ γοητειῶν διαπραττό μενοι. Πλήρεις γὰρ πάσης φαντασίας καὶ ἀπατῆσαι ἱκανοὶ διὰ τῆς τερατουργίας καὶ διὰ τοῦ φίλτρα καὶ ἐρωτικὰ κατασκευάζειν οἱ κακοδαίμονες. Πᾶσα γὰρ καὶ πλούτων ἐλπὶς καὶ δόξης διὰ τούτων, καὶ μάλιστα ἡ ἀπάτη. Τὸ γὰρ ψεῦδος τούτοις οἰκεῖον· βούλονται γὰρ εἶναι θεοί· καὶ ἡ προεστῶσα αὐτῶν δύναμις δοκεῖ θεὸς εἶναι μέγιστος. Οὗτοι οἱ χαίροντες λοιβῇ τε κνίσῃ τε, δι' ὧν 3.61 αὐτῶν τὸ σωματικὸν καὶ πνευματικὸν πιαίνεται." Εἰς καιρὸν δέ μοι προσήκει τοῖς τοῦ Πορφυρίου παραθεῖναι ῥητοῖς τοὺς τῶν Ὁμηρικῶν θεῶν λόγους· καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖνοι τὴν λοιβὴν καὶ τὴν κνίσαν οἰκεῖον λάχος καλοῦσιν. Τοιγάρτοι ὁ Πορφύριος δῆλός ἐστι τοὺς ὑπὸ τοῦ ποιητοῦ θεοὺς καλουμένους πονηροὺς δαίμονας ὀνομάζων. Καὶ γὰρ