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that one those, and this one these, openly asserted to rejoice in libation and 3.62 the savor of sacrifice. It must be investigated, however, what power Porphyry says presides over the evil demons, which, he said, lying, calls itself the greatest god. But indeed I have no need for labor in the investigation; for in the treatise itself he also says these things: "We do not idly suspect the evil demons to be under Sarapis, nor are we persuaded only by the symbols, but because their propitiations and averting rites are directed to Pluto, as we showed in the first book. This god is the same as Pluto, and for this reason he is especially the ruler of demons." 3.63 Then again he has also added the following: "Perhaps these are the ones whom Sarapis rules, and of these the symbol is the three-headed dog, that is, the evil demon in the three elements, water, earth, air, whom the god restrains, having them under his hand; and Hecate also rules them, as holding them together according to the three elements." These 3.64 things not Moses the lawgiver nor Peter or Paul or John the heralds of the truth wrote against the evil demons, but Porphyry the opponent of the truth; and he named Pluto and Hecate as rulers of the evil demons, and 3.65 he said that lying he called himself the greatest god. And this marvel simply resembles the riddle of the noble Samson: "Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness." For these things against falsehood were written by the advocate of falsehood; and the accuser of the truth was seen to be an unwilling advocate of the truth. For he who compelled the tongue of Balaam the seer, which wished to curse, to bring forth a blessing, this one indeed has also turned this man's tongue, which was raging and 3.66 darting against the truth, unwillingly against falsehood. And not only here did he write such words, but also in the letter To Anebo the Egyptian he has set down similar things. He speaks thus concerning those who are called gods but are in fact evil demons: "It greatly disturbs me how, though they are invoked as superiors, they are commanded as inferiors, and while claiming it is just for the servant who does unjust things to be punished, they themselves, when ordered to do unjust things, endure it, and while they do not obey one who calls upon them if he is not pure from sexual acts, they themselves do not hesitate to lead any chance person into unlawful sexual acts; they command their interpreters to abstain from animate things, so that they might not be polluted by the vapors from their bodies, yet they themselves are especially enticed by the vapors from sacrifices, and while the initiate must be untouched by a corpse, the theurgies 3.67 are performed by means of dead animals. But much more irrational than these things is that any chance man, who is subject to them, frightens not, as it may be, a demon or the soul of a dead person, but the king Sun himself or the Moon or one of those in heaven, by bringing threats, lying, so that they might speak the truth. For to say that he will dash the heavens and reveal the secrets of Isis and show the unspeakable thing in Abydus and stop the Baris and scatter the limbs of Osiris to Typhon, what excess of folly does it not leave for the one threatening things he neither knows nor can do, and of baseness for those who fear such an empty fear and 3.68 fabrications, as if they were utterly foolish children? And yet Chaeremon the sacred scribe also writes, as things commonly reported also among the Egyptians, and he says that these and such things are most coercive." And having added many other things, he also brought on these: "But concerning happiness they have nothing safe or sure. They were not, then, it seems, either gods or good demons, but rather that so-called deceiver." 3.69 Who of those instructed in divine things and who abominate that deceiver would have more clearly refuted the deceit of the so-called gods? For the opponent of the truth openly said that these are neither gods nor good demons, but teachers of falsehood 3.70 and fathers of wickedness. These Plato in the Timaeus says are not even immortal by nature; for he says that the maker spoke to them: "You are not immortal nor altogether indissoluble; not at all indeed

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ἐκεῖνος ἐκείνους, καὶ οὗτος τούτους λοιβῇ καὶ 3.62 κνίσῃ χαίρειν ἀναφανδὸν ἰσχυρίσαντο. Ζητητέον μέντοι, τίνα προεστάναι τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων δύναμιν ὁ Πορφύριος λέγει, ἣν ψευδομένην μέγιστον θεὸν ἑαυτὴν ἔφησεν ὀνομάζειν. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ οὐ δεῖ μοι πόνου πρὸς ζήτησιν· ἐν αὐτῷ γὰρ τῷ ξυγγράμματι καὶ ταῦτά φησιν· "Τοὺς δὲ πονηροὺς δαίμονας οὐκ εἰκῇ ὑπὸ τὸν Σάραπιν ὑποπτεύομεν, οὐδ' ἐκ τῶν ξυμβόλων μόνον ἀναπειθό μενοι, ἀλλ' ὅτι τὰ μειλίγματα καὶ τὰ τούτων ἀποτρόπαια πρὸς τὸν Πλούτωνα γίνεται, ὡς ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ ἐδείκνυμεν. Ὁ αὐτὸς δὲ τῷ Πλούτωνι οὗτος ὁ θεός, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μάλιστα δαιμόνων 3.63 ἄρχων." Πάλιν δ' αὖ καὶ τάδε προστέθεικεν· "Μήποτε οὗτοί εἰσιν ὧν ἄρχει ὁ Σάραπις, καὶ τούτων ξύμβολον ὁ τρικάρανος κύων, τουτέστιν ὁ ἐν τοῖς τρισὶ στοιχείοις, ὕδατι, γῇ, ἀέρι, πονη ρὸς δαίμων, οὓς καταπαύει ὁ θεὸς ἔχων ὑπὸ χεῖρα· ἄρχει δὲ αὐτῶν καὶ ἡ Ἑκάτη, ὡς ξυνέχουσα κατὰ τὸ τρίστοιχον." Ταῦτα 3.64 οὐ Μωϋσῆς ὁ νομοθέτης οὐδὲ Πέτρος ἢ Παῦλος ἢ Ἰωάννης οἱ τῆς ἀληθείας κήρυκες κατὰ τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων ξυνέγραψαν, ἀλλὰ Πορφύριος ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀντίπαλος· καὶ τὸν Πλούτωνα καὶ τὴν Ἑκάτην ἄρχοντας τῶν πονηρῶν δαιμόνων ὠνόμασε καὶ 3.65 ψευδόμενον ἔφησε μέγιστον ἑαυτὸν ὀνομάσαι θεόν. Καὶ ἔοικεν ἀτεχνῶς τοῦτο τὸ θαῦμα τῷ τοῦ γενναίου Σαμψὼν προβλήματι· "Ἐκ στόματος ἐσθίοντος ἐξῆλθε βρῶσις, καὶ ἐξ ἰσχυροῦ γλυκύ." Ταῦτα γὰρ δὴ κατὰ τοῦ ψεύδους ὑπὸ τοῦ ξυνηγόρου ξυνεγράφη τοῦ ψεύδους· καὶ ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας κατήγορος ἄκων ὤφθη τῆς ἀλη θείας ξυνήγορος. Ὁ γὰρ τοῦ Βαλαὰμ τοῦ μάντεως τὴν γλῶτταν ἐπαράσασθαι βουλομένην εὐλογίαν ὠδῖναι καταναγκάσας, οὗτος δῆτα καὶ τοῦδε τὴν γλῶτταν κατὰ τῆς ἀληθείας λυττῶσαν καὶ 3.66 ᾄττουσαν κατὰ τοῦ ψεύδους ἄκουσαν μετατέθεικεν. Οὐ μόνον δὲ τῇδε τοιούσδε λόγους ξυνέγραψεν, ἀλλὰ κἀν τῇ Πρὸς Ἀνεβὼ τὸν Αἰγύπτιον ἐπιστολῇ τὰ παραπλήσια τέθεικεν. Λέγει δὲ οὕτως περὶ τῶν θεῶν μὲν καλουμένων, πονηρῶν δὲ ὄντων δαιμόνων· "Πάνυ με θράττει, πῶς ὡς κρείττους παρακαλούμενοι ἐπιτάτ τονται ὡς χείρους, καὶ δίκαιον εἶναι κατηγοροῦντες τὸν θεράποντα κολάζεσθαι τὰ ἄδικα πράττοντα, αὐτοὶ κελευσθέντες ἄδικα δρᾶν ὑπομένουσι, καὶ καθαρῷ μὲν μὴ ὄντι ἐξ ἀφροδισίων καλοῦντι οὐχ ὑπακούουσιν, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἄγειν εἰς παράνομα ἀφροδίσια τοὺς τυχόντας οὐκ ὀκνοῦσιν· ἀπὸ ἐμψύχων μὲν ἀποχῆς κελεύουσι δεῖν εἶναι τοὺς ὑποφήτας, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων ἀτμοῖς χραίνωνται, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἀτμοῖς τοῖς ἀπὸ θυσιῶν μάλιστα δελεάζονται, καὶ νεκροῦ μὲν ἀθιγῆ δεῖν εἶναι τὸν ἐπόπτην, διὰ νεκρῶν δὲ ζῴων αἱ θεαγω 3.67 γίαι ἐκτελοῦνται. Πολλῷ δὲ τούτων ἀλογώτερον τὸ μὴ δαίμονι, εἰ τύχοι, ἢ ψυχῇ τεθνεῶτος, αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ ἡλίῳ ἢ σελήνῃ ἤ τινι τῶν κατ' οὐρανὸν ἄνθρωπον τῷ τυχόντι ὑποχείριον ἀπειλὰς προσφέροντα φοβεῖν, ψευδόμενον, ἵνα ἐκεῖνοι ἀληθεύσωσιν. Τὸ γὰρ λέγειν, ὅτι τὸν οὐρανὸν προσαράξει καὶ τὰ κρυπτὰ τῆς Ἴσιδος ἐκφανεῖ καὶ τὸ ἐν Ἀβύδῳ ἀπόρρητον δείξει καὶ τὴν βάριν στήσει καὶ τὰ μέλη τοῦ Ὀσίριδος διασκεδάσει τῷ Τυφῶνι, τίνα οὐχ ὑπερ βολὴν ἐμπληξίας μὲν τῷ ἀπειλοῦντι, ἃ μήτε οἶδε μήτε δύναται, καταλείπει, ταπεινότητος δὲ τοῖς δεδοικόσιν οὕτω κενὸν φόβον καὶ 3.68 πλάσματα, ὡς κομιδῇ παισὶν ἀνοήτοις; καίτοι καὶ Χαιρήμων ὁ ἱερογραμματεὺς γράφει, ὡς καὶ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις θρυλούμενα, καὶ ταῦτά φησι καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα εἶναι βιαστικώτατα." Πολλὰ δὲ καὶ ἄλλα προσθείς, ἐπήγαγε καὶ ταῦτα· "Περὶ δὲ εὐδαιμονίας οὐδὲν ἀσφαλὲς οὐδὲ ἐχέγγυον ἔχουσιν. Οὐκ ἦσαν οὖν ἄρα οὔτε θεοὶ οὔτε ἀγαθοὶ δαίμονες, ἀλλ' ἢ ἐκεῖνος ὁ λεγόμενος πλάνος." 3.69 Τίς τῶν τὰ θεῖα πεπαιδευμένων καὶ τὸν πλάνον ἐκεῖνον μυσαττο μένων ἐναργέστερον ἂν τῶν καλουμένων θεῶν τὸν πλάνον δι ήλεγξεν; ἀναφανδὸν γὰρ τούτους ἔφησεν ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας ἀντίπα λος μήτε θεοὺς μήτε ἀγαθοὺς δαίμονας εἶναι, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ψεύδους 3.70 διδασκάλους καὶ πονηρίας πατέρας. Τούτους ὁ Πλάτων ἐν τῷ Τιμαίῳ οὐδὲ φύσει ἀθανάτους φησίν· τὸν γὰρ ποιητὴν εἰρηκέναι πρὸς αὐτοὺς λέγει· "Ἀθάνατοι μὲν οὐκ ἐστὲ οὐδ' ἄλυτοι τὸ πάμπαν· οὔτι μὲν δὴ