36

of those who turn. And what are the mystic chests? For I must strip bare their holy things and declare their secrets; are not these sesame cakes, and pyramids, and balls of wool, and many-bossed cakes, and grains of salt, and a serpent, the orgiastic rite of Dionysus Bassarus? And besides these, are there not pomegranates, and fig-branches, and fennel stalks, and ivy, 2.3.40 and also cheese-cakes and poppies? These are their holy things. And in addition, the secret symbols of Themis: oregano, a lamp, a sword, a woman's comb, which is euphemistically and mystically a woman's private part. O, the manifest shamelessness! In old times for temperate men, a silent night was a cloak for pleasure, but now for the initiated the holy night of incontinence is spoken of, and the fire 2.3.41 convicts the passions as it is borne aloft in torches. Extinguish, O Hierophant, the fire! Be ashamed, O torch-bearer, of the torches! The light convicts your Iacchus. Allow the night to hide the mysteries; let the orgies be honoured in darkness. The fire does not play a part; it is ordered to convict and to punish. 2.3.42 These are the mysteries of the atheists. And I rightly call those atheists who are ignorant of the truly existing God, but shamelessly worship a child torn apart by Titans, and a mourning woman, and private parts that are truly unmentionable out of shame, being involved in a twofold atheism: first, in that they are ignorant of God, not knowing the God who truly is; and second, in this other error, that they believe those who are not to be, and call those gods who are not truly gods, or rather are not beings at all, but have only obtained the name.” So much from him. 2.4.1 5. BY WHAT REASONINGS WE HAVE DEPARTED FROM THINKING THE SAME THINGS AS THE GREEKS CONCERNING THE GODS

Rightly, then, we confess that we have become free from all these things, having been delivered from the long and ancient error as from some terrible and most grievous disease, first by the grace and beneficence of the almighty God, and second by the secret power of the evangelical teaching of our Savior, and third, judging with sober reason that it is unholy and impious to honor with the revered name of God mortal men who long ago lay among the dead and left no memory even of temperate men, but have handed down to their successors to keep examples of the utmost incontinence and profligacy, cruelty, and madness. 2.4.2 For what is not of all things most foolish, for lovers of temperance to yield the first place to the base and profligate, and for the intelligent and sensible to give reverent honor to those who have lost their minds, and for practitioners of justice and philanthropy to those who are involved in the defilements of infanticide and parricide through excess of cruelty and inhu2.4.3 manity? And what excess of impiety has it not surpassed to debase the august and all-holy title of God to the unspeakable private parts of men and women, and to irrational and bestial nature, and to theologize such shameful and inhuman things, as even in the case of criminals among men, if they were convicted, they would be subject to the inexorable punishments of the laws? 2.4.4 And why must I prolong the story, bringing good tidings to every barbarian and Greek alike of the freedom from the aforesaid evils, and bringing to light the reasonableness of the apostasy from the falsely-named gods, when even now most of the extremely superstitious themselves, as if recovering from a deep stupor and opening the eye of their soul from the ancient darkness, have perceived the profound nonsense of their ancestral error, and having come to their senses have chosen the other way, departing from the old? Of whom some, 2.4.5 coming to close quarters, have despised the whole theology of their own ancestors, laughing loudly, while others, the reputation of atheism

36

τρεπομένων. οἷαι δὲ καὶ αἱ κίσται αἱ μυστικαί; δεῖ γὰρ ἀπογυμνῶσαι τὰ ἅγια αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ ἄρρητα ἐξειπεῖν· οὐ σησαμαῖ ταῦτα καὶ πυραμίδες καὶ τολύπαι καὶ πόπανα πολυόμφαλα χόνδροι τε ἁλῶν καὶ δράκων, ὄργιον ∆ιονύσου Βασσάρου; οὐχὶ δὲ ῥοιαὶ πρὸς τοῖσδε καὶ κράδαι νάρθηκές τε καὶ κιττοί, 2.3.40 πρὸς δὲ καὶ φθοῖς καὶ μήκωνες; ταῦτ' ἐστὶν αὐτῶν τὰ ἅγια. καὶ προσέτι τῆς Θέμιδος τὰ ἄρρητα σύμβολα, ὀρίγανον, λύχνος, ξίφος, κτεὶς γυναικεῖος, ὅς ἐστιν εὐφήμως καὶ μυστικῶς μόριον γυναικεῖον. ὢ τῆς ἐμφανοῦς ἀναισχυντίας· πάλαι μὲν ἀνθρώποις σωφρονοῦσιν ἐπικάλυμμα ἡδονῆς νὺξ ἦν σιωπωμένη, νυνὶ δὲ τοῖς μυουμένοις ἡ ἱερὰ τῆς ἀκρασίας νύξ ἐστι λαλουμένη, καὶ τὸ πῦρ 2.3.41 ἐλέγχει τὰ πάθη δᾳδουχούμενον. ἀπόσβεσον, ὦ ἱεροφάντα, τὸ πῦρ· αἰδέσθητι, δᾳδοῦχε, τὰς λαμπάδας· ἐλέγχει σου τὸν Ἴακχον τὸ φῶς· ἐπίτρεψον ἀποκρύψαι τῇ νυκτὶ τὰ μυστήρια· σκότει τετιμήσθω τὰ ὄργια. τὸ πῦρ οὐχ ὑποκρίνεται· ἐλέγχειν καὶ κολάζειν κελεύεται. 2.3.42 Ταῦτα τῶν ἀθέων τὰ μυστήρια. ἀθέους δὲ εἰκότως ἀποκαλῶ τούτους, οἳ τὸν μὲν ὄντως ὄντα θεὸν ἠγνοήκασι, παιδίον δὲ Τιτάνων ὕπο διασπώμενον καὶ γύναιον πενθοῦν καὶ μόρια ἄρρητα ὡς ἀληθῶς ὑπ' αἰσχύνης ἀναισχύντως σέβουσιν, διττῇ ἐνισχημένοι τῇ ἀθεότητι· προτέρᾳ μέν, καθ' ἣν ἀγνοοῦσι τὸν θεόν, τὸν ὄντα ὄντως μὴ γνωρίζοντες θεόν, ἑτέρᾳ δὲ καὶ δευτέρᾳ δὴ ταύτῃ τῇ πλάνῃ τοὺς οὐκ ὄντας ὡς ὄντας νομίζοντες καὶ θεοὺς τούτους ὀνομάζοντες τοὺς οὐκ ὄντας ὄντως, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ὄντας, μόνου δὲ τοῦ ὀνόματος τετυχηκότας.» Τοσαῦτα καὶ οὗτος. 2.4.1 εʹ. ΤΙΣΙ ΛΟΓΙΣΜΟΙΣ ΤΟΥ [ΜΗ] ΤΑ ΟΜΟΙΑ ΤΟΙΣ ΕΛΛΗΣΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΘΕΩΝ

ΦΡΟΝΕΙΝ ΑΝΕΧΩΡΗΣΑΜΕΝ Εἰκότως δῆτα ἡμεῖς τούτων ἁπάντων ἐλευθέρους ἡμᾶς γενέσθαι ὁμολογοῦμεν, τῆς μὲν μακρᾶς καὶ πεπαλαιωμένης πλάνης ὥσπερ τινὸς δεινῆς καὶ χαλεπωτάτης νόσου λελυτρωμένοι, πρῶτα μὲν τῇ τοῦ παντοκρά τορος θεοῦ χάριτι καὶ εὐεργεσίᾳ, δεύτερον δὲ ἀπορρήτῳ δυνάμει τῆς τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν εὐαγγελικῆς διδασκαλίας, καὶ τρίτον σώφρονι λογισμῷ κρίναντες ἀνόσιον εἶναι καὶ δυσσεβὲς τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ σεβασμίῳ προσηγορίᾳ τιμᾶν τοὺς πάλαι ἐν νεκροῖς κειμένους θνητοὺς ἄνδρας καὶ οὐδὲ σωφρόνων ἀνδρῶν μνήμην ἀπολελοιπότας, ἐσχάτης δὲ ἀκρασίας καὶ ἀκολασίας ὠμότητός τε καὶ φρενοβλαβείας δείγματα τοῖς μετ' αὐτοὺς φυλάττειν παραδεδωκότας. 2.4.2 πῶς γὰρ οὐ πάντων ἠλιθιώτατον τοὺς σωφροσύνης ἐραστὰς τοῖς αἰσχροῖς καὶ ἀκολάστοις τῶν πρωτείων παραχωρεῖν, καὶ τοὺς συνετοὺς καὶ ἔμφρονας τοῖς τὰς φρένας ἀπολωλεκόσι τὴν σεβάσμιον παρέχειν τιμὴν τούς τε δικαιοσύνης καὶ φιλανθρωπίας ἀσκητὰς τοῖς δι' ὑπερβολὴν ὠμότητος καὶ ἀπανθρω2.4.3 πίας τεκνοκτονίας καὶ πατροκτονίας μιάσμασιν ἐνισχημένοις; ποίαν δ' οὐχ ὑπερηκόντισεν ὑπερβολὴν ἀσεβείας τὸ καταβάλλειν εἰς ἄρρητα ἀνδρῶν καὶ γυναικῶν μόρια καὶ εἰς τὴν ἄλογον καὶ θηριώδη φύσιν τὴν σεμνὴν καὶ παναγίαν τοῦ θεοῦ πρόσρησιν τοιαῦτά τε αἰσχρὰ καὶ ἀπάνθρωπα θεολογεῖν, οἷα καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις κακούργων, εἰ κατελεγχθείη, ταῖς ἀπὸ τῶν νόμων 2.4.4 ἀπαραιτήτοις ὑποπέσοιεν ἂν τιμωρίαις; καὶ τί χρὴ μηκύνειν εὐαγγελιζομένους πάντα βάρβαρον ὁμοῦ καὶ Ἕλληνα τὴν ἀπὸ τῶν εἰρημένων κακῶν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς τε τῶν ψευδωνύμων θεῶν ἀποστασίας τὸ εὔλογον εἰς φῶς ἀγαγόντας, ὁπότε καὶ αὐτῶν ἤδη τῶν σφόδρα δεισιδαιμόνων οἱ πλείους, ὥσπερ ἐκ βαθέος κάρου ἀνανήψαντες καὶ τῆς παλαιᾶς ἀχλύος τὸ τῆς ψυχῆς ὄμμα διανοίξαντες τὸν βαθὺν λῆρον συνεῖδον τῆς πατρικῆς πλάνης καὶ στάντες ἐπὶ λογισμοῦ τὴν ἑτέραν ὁδὸν εἵλοντο, τῆς παλαιᾶς ἀναχωρήσαντες; ὧν οἱ 2.4.5 μὲν ὁμόσε χωρήσαντες τῆς ὅλης κατέπτυσαν θεολογίας τῶν σφετέρων προγόνων πλατὺ καταγελάσαντες, οἱ δ' ἀθεότητος δόξαν