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circumcise their own children, as Origen says, although they honor Astarte and not Cronus; and the Ethiopians also seal the sockets of the knees of the young with a hot iron for Apollo. Porphyry, however, in his commentary on the oracles, deems the one twice beyond, that is, the creator of all things, to be the one honored by the Jews, whom the Chaldean theologizes as second from the one once beyond, that is, from the good. But those around Iamblichus and Syrianus and Proclus consider him to be the creator of the sensible world, calling him the god of the four-element series; and the Roman Varro, speaking about him, says that among the Chaldeans in the mysteries he is called Iao instead of "intelligible light" in the Phoenician tongue, as Herennius says. And he is often called Sabaoth, as in "the one above the seven poles," that is, the creator. Therefore, there are many such opinions about him, but better are those who theologize him as unknown and unseen. But that those are mistaken who think he is Dionysus, both from the aforementioned vines which held up the curtains and also because, convinced from I know not where that the profane among the Hebrews were without wine, one might learn from their own laws; for they decree that not the profane but those being consecrated do this, saying thus: "You shall not drink wine and strong drink when you go into the tent." 4.54 On the fifteenth day before the Kalends of April, Euctemon says that various winds blow. One might say Athena is chief prudence; for it is said that prudence is situated for men on the top of the head, at the back of the head, at the roots of the brain; whence Homer made the angered Achilles be seized by the top of his head by Athena, saying: "she seized the son of Peleus by his blond hair." And they depict her as grey-eyed because of her fiery nature and they assign to her the owl as a bird, which is awake through the entire night, just as, one might say, the human soul is idle at no time; for it is immortal and ever-moving by nature; for that which has a pause from motion has a pause from life, according to Plato. 4.55 That on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of April it was the custom for the Salii, whom Numa established, to put away the heaven-sent weapons, which they called ancilia. And these were customarily moved in honor of Mars the warlike on that day, on which it is said a voice was heard from heaven, saying that the city would be saved as long as the ancilia were safe. 4.56 That in Rome also they made sport of the citizens' sins on wagons and brought out hidden ones according to the Athenian custom, who threatened sinners to "speak things from the wagon." 4.57 On the fourteenth day before the Kalends of April, a festival is honored among the Romans, not as a Roman one, but as one having the greatest honor among the Egyptians for such a reason: when the Nile once refused its annual increase of waters and the Egyptians were perishing because of this, a certain good demon, appearing as a man, his whole body covered in mud, cried out to the Egyptians that the Nile would gush forth, and he himself fell into the waters; and when they, though they had disbelieved, found it true in deed, a festival was established among them and among the Greeks called Pelousion. 4.58 That the Egyptians founded Philadelphia in Lydia. That the circle of the philosopher Proclus called Philadelphia "Little Athens" because of its zeal for that city, both for the festivals and the temples of the idols. 4.59 On the eleventh day before the Kalends of April a pine tree was carried by the dendrophori into the Palatium. And the emperor Claudius established the festival, a man so just in his judgments that he ordered a mother who was denying her own child, as if

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τοὺς ἑαυτῶν παῖδας περιτέμνουσιν ὡς Ὠριγένης λέγει, καίτοι Ἀστάρτην ἀλλ' οὐ Κρόνον τιμῶντες· καὶ Αἰθίοπες δὲ τὰς κόγχας τῶν γονάτων τῶν νέων σιδηρῷ καυστικῷ σφραγίζουσι τῷ Ἀπόλλωνι. ὁ μέντοι Πορφύριος ἐν τῷ ὑπομνήματι τῶν λογίων τὸν δὶς ἐπέκεινα τουτέστι τὸν τῶν ὅλων δημιουργὸν τὸν παρὰ Ἰουδαίων τιμώμενον εἶναι ἀξιοῖ, ὃν ὁ Χαλδαῖος δεύτερον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἅπαξ ἐπέκεινα, τουτέστι τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ, θεολογεῖ. οἱ μέντοι περὶ Ἰάμβλιχον καὶ Συριανὸν καὶ Πρόκλον δημιουργὸν αὐτὸν τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ κόσμου νομίζουσιν εἶναι καλοῦντες αὐτὸν τῆς τετραστοίχου θεόν· ὁ δὲ Ῥωμαῖος Βάρρων περὶ αὐτοῦ διαλαβών φησι παρὰ Χαλδαίοις ἐν τοῖς μυστικοῖς αὐτὸν λέγεσθαι Ἰάω ἀντὶ τοῦ φῶς νοητὸν τῇ Φοινίκων γλώσσῃ, ὥς φησιν Ἑρέννιος. καὶ Σαβαὼθ δὲ πολλαχοῦ λέγεται, οἷον ὁ ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἑπτὰ πόλους, τουτέστιν ὁ δημιουργός. πολλαὶ μὲν οὖν οὕτω περὶ αὐτοῦ δόξαι, κρείττους δὲ μᾶλλον οἱ ἄγνωστον αὐτὸν καὶ ἄδηλον θεολογοῦντες. ὅτι δὲ σφάλλονται οἱ ∆ιόνυσον αὐτὸν εἶναι νομίζοντες ἀπό τε τῶν εἰρημένων ἀμπέλων, αἳ τὰ παραπετάσματα ἀνέστελλον καὶ ἔτι οὐκ οἶδ' ὅθεν ἀναπεισθέντες ἀνοινεῖν τοὺς Ἑβραίων βεβήλους, ἐξ αὐτῶν ἄν τις τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς νομίμων λάβοι· οὐ γὰρ τοὺς βεβήλους, ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἱερουμένους τουτὶ πράττειν θεσπίζουσιν οὕτω λέγοντες· «οἶνον καὶ σίκερα οὐ πίεσθε ἡνίκα ἂν εἰσπορεύησθε εἰς τὴν σκηνήν.» 4.54 Πρὸ δεκαπέντε Καλενδῶν Ἀπριλίων ὁ Εὐκτήμων ποικίλους ἀνέμους πνέειν λέγει. κεφαλαίαν δὲ Ἀθηνᾶν τὴν φρόνησιν ἄν τις εἴποι· καὶ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ βρέγματος κατὰ τὸ ἀντικέφαλον ἐναποκεῖσθαι λέγεται πρὸς ταῖς ῥίζαις τοῦ ἐγκεφάλου τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡ φρόνησις· ὅθεν ὀργιζόμενον Ἀχιλλέα Ὅμηρος ἐκ τοῦ βρέγματος πιεζόμενον ὑπὸ τῆς Ἀθηνᾶς ἐποίησε λέγων· ξανθῆς δὲ κόμης ἕλε Πηλείωνα. καὶ γλαυκῶπιν αὐτὴν διὰ τὸ πυρῶδες γράφουσι καὶ γλαῦκα αὐτῇ τὸ ὄρνεον προσνέμουσιν, ὅπερ ἐγρήγορε διὰ πάσης τῆς νυκτός, ὡς ἄν τις εἴποι, ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη ψυχὴ κατὰ μηδένα καιρὸν ἀργοῦσα· καὶ γὰρ ἀθάνατος καὶ ἀεικίνητος τὴν φύσιν· τὸ γὰρ παῦλαν ἔχον κινήσεως παῦλαν ἔχει ζωῆς κατὰ Πλάτωνα. 4.55 Ὅτι κατὰ τὴν πρὸ τεσσαρεσκαίδεκα καλενδῶν Ἀπριλίων ἔθος ἦν τοὺς Σαλίους ἀποτίθεσθαι τὰ διοπετῆ ὅπλα, ἅτινα ἐκάλουν ἀγκίλια, οὓς κατέστησεν ὁ Νουμᾶς. ταῦτα δὲ εἰς τιμὴν Ἄρεος πολεμικοῦ εἰώθη κινεῖσθαι ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ, ἐν ᾗ λέγεται φωνὴν ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἀκουσθῆναι λέγουσαν, ἕως τότε σώζεσθαι τὴν πόλιν, ἕως ἂν σώζηται τὰ ἀγκίλια. 4.56 Ὅτι καὶ ἐν Ῥώμῃ τὰς τῶν πολιτῶν ἁμαρτάδας ἐπὶ ἁμαξῶν διέπαιζον καὶ λανθανούσας ἐξῆγον κατὰ τὴν Ἀθηναίων συνήθειαν, οἳ τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν ἠπείλουν λέγειν τὰ ἐξ ἁμάξης. 4.57 Πρὸ δεκατεσσάρων Καλενδῶν Ἀπριλίων ἑορτὴ παρὰ Ῥωμαίοις τιμωμένη οὐχ ὡς Ῥωμαϊκὴ ἀλλ' ὡς μεγίστην παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις ἔχουσα τιμὴν δι' αἰτίαν τοιαύτην· τοῦ Νείλου τὴν ἐτήσιον ἐπίδοσιν τῶν ὑδάτων ἀρνουμένου ποτὲ καὶ ταύτῃ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων ἀπολλυμένων, δαίμων τις ἀγαθὸς εἰς ἄνθρωπον φανείς, ὅλον τὸ σῶμα πεπηλωμένος, ἐξεβόα τοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις ἀναβλύ σαι τὸν Νεῖλον, καὶ αὐτὸν ἐμπεσεῖν τοῖς ὕδασι· τῶν δὲ ἀπιστησάντων, ἔργῳ δὲ τἀληθὲς εὑρόντων, ἑορτὴ παρ' αὐτοῖς τε καὶ παρὰ τοῖς Ἕλλησιν ὡρίσθη λεγομένη Πηλούσιον. 4.58 Ὅτι τὴν ἐν Λυδίᾳ Φιλαδέλφειαν Αἰγύπτιοι ἐπόλισαν. ὅτι οἱ περὶ τὸν φιλόσοφον Πρόκλον μικρὰς Ἀθήνας ἐκάλουν τὴν Φιλαδέλφειαν διὰ τὸν πρὸς ἐκείνας ζῆλον διά τε τὰς ἑορτὰς καὶ τὰ ἱερὰ τῶν εἰδώλων. 4.59 Τῇ πρὸ δεκαμιᾶς Καλενδῶν Ἀπριλίων δένδρον πίτυς παρὰ τῶν δενδροφόρων ἐφέρετο ἐν τῷ Παλατίῳ. τὴν δὲ ἑορτὴν Κλαύδιος ὁ βασιλεὺς κατεστήσατο, ἀνὴρ οὕτω δίκαιος περὶ τὰς κρίσεις, ὡς μητέρα τὸν ἑαυτῆς παῖδα ἀρνουμένην κελεῦσαι ὡσανεὶ