Protrepticus

 Raging for corruptions, celebrating insolence, deifying sorrows, the first to lead men by the hand to idols, yes, indeed, to stones and wood, that is,

 May inspire, and which may receive the 1.5.4 lord. yes, indeed, david the king, the harpist, whom we mentioned a little before, was exhorting towards

 And to statues and to certain such images having bound them fast with the wretched bond of superstition, that which is indeed said, bringing living me

 Let her who does not give birth hear let her who does not travail break forth with a cry, for the children of the desolate are more than of her who

 Breathing roughly is interpreted as the female serpent but deo and kore have already become a mystic drama, and eleusis holds torches for their wande

 A herdsman, the goad, calling the narthex a herdsman's goad, i suppose, which the bacchants indeed wreathe. 2.17.1 do you wish that i should narrate t

 And the swineherd eubouleus from whom sprang the hierophantic family of the eumolpidae and kerykes, 2.20.3 this very one at athens. and indeed (for i

 A teacher of the woman's 2.24.2 disease to the other scythians. for which reason (for it must by no means be concealed), it comes over me to wonder in

 They have fabricated certain saviors, the dioscuri and heracles, averter of evil, and asclepius the physician. 2.27.1 these are the slippery and harmf

 Apollodorus says, and callimachus, phoebus is appointed over the sacrifices of asses among the hyperboreans. and the same poet elsewhere says, fat sac

 And of gods. he was so poured out in matters of love, as to desire all, and to fulfill his desire upon all. at any rate, he was filled with women no

 Is fashioned in the manner of a member and sits upon the branch, fulfilling the promise to the dead man. a mystical memorial of this passion, phalli a

 Is taught to be prudent. the myth is laid bare for you leda died, the swan died, the eagle died. you seek your zeus? do not meddle with the sky, but

 2.39.8 they acclaimed. but heraclides in *foundations of temples* says that in acarnania, where the actium promontory is and the temple of actian apol

 He records 3.42.7 to have offered a whole burnt-offering. and erechtheus the attic and marius the roman sacrificed their own daughters of whom the on

 In athens, on the acropolis, is that of cecrops, as antiochus says in the ninth book of his histories. and what of erichthonius? was he not buried in

 The so-called palladium, fallen from heaven, which diomedes and odysseus are said to have stolen from ilium, and to have entrusted to demophon, was ma

 Nor insult the blooming youth keep it pure, that it may be beautiful. become a king of beauty, not a tyrant let it remain free then i will recogniz

 Worshippers of stones, having learned by deed not to worship senseless matter, being overcome by the need itself, are destroyed by superstition but t

 And private individuals dignified themselves with divine titles, as menecrates the physician, who was surnamed zeus. why must i list alexarchus (he wa

 4.56.4 offspring of the earth, all these things that you see? why then, o foolish and empty-minded ones (for i will say it again), having blasphemed t

 They boast, having enrolled them as their own household slaves, having made them compelled slaves by their incantations. therefore, the remembered mar

 You shall make, says the prophet, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above and that is in the 4.62.3 earth beneath. would we, then, still s

 Those who worship it have suffered for others named this fire hephaestus. 5.65.1 but the magi of the persians have honored fire, as have many of the

 Of truth, do you show that those who have trusted in you are subjected to a flow and current and disorderly eddies? and why do you fill my life with i

 By counsel but indeed they raise pure arms to heaven, rising early from bed, always cleansing their skin with water, and they honor only the one who

 A comfort of the gods, images of stone, or bronze or gold-wrought or ivory figures and allotting sacrifices to them and empty festivals, thus we thin

 You will empty injustice. 8.77.1 now that the other things have been duly completed by us in order, it is time to turn to the prophetic writings for

 I swear by myself. but he is vexed with the idolaters, saying to whom have you likened the lord? or to what likeness have you likened him? did a car

 For how is it permitted for the foreigner to enter? but when, i suppose, he is enrolled and made a citizen and receives the father, then he will be i

 The wanderers of the hebrews for they are said not to have entered into the rest because of unbelief, until, having followed the successor of moses,

 10.89.1 but to overturn a custom handed down to us from our fathers, you say, is not reasonable. and why, then, do we not use our first food, milk, to

 Demands repentance. but i want to ask you, if it does not seem absurd to you that you, men, having been born a creation of god and having received you

 Punishment? why do we not accept the gift? why do we not choose the better things, god instead of the wicked one, and prefer wisdom to idolatry, and e

 10.98.3 promised? who has promised immortality? only the creator of all things, the father, the master-craftsman, fashioned us, man, such a living s

 To wipe away the hindrances to salvation, both pride and wealth and fear, uttering this very poetic saying: where, indeed, do i carry these many posse

 They inhumanly attempt to slaughter him who teaches humanely, who calls them to righteousness, neither awaiting the grace from above nor shunning the

 A portion to those who have turned to any part of life, and to consider wisdom the same waveless harbor of salvation 10.107.3 through which those who

 He who also was, through what he taught and showed, having presented himself, our truce-bearer and reconciler and savior, the word, a life-giving, pea

 Since you were not ashamed of your brother. 11.114.1 let us then take away, let us take away the forgetfulness of the truth having cast down the igno

 The trumpet with its great blast sounded, gathered soldiers, and announced war but christ, having breathed a peaceful melody to the ends of the earth

 Bound, you shall be loosed from all corruption, the word of god will steer you, and the holy spirit will bring you to anchor in the harbors of the hea

 12.121.1 let us hasten, let us run, o god-loving and god-like images of the word [men] let us hasten, let us run, let us take up his yoke, let us mou

to wipe away the hindrances to salvation, both pride and wealth and fear, uttering this very poetic saying: Where, indeed, do I carry these many possessions? And where do I myself wander? 10.101.3 Do you not wish, then, casting off these empty fantasies, to renounce custom itself, saying to vainglory: farewell, false dreams, you were nothing after all? 10.102.1 For what do you suppose, O men, the Hermes Tychon is, and that of Andocides, and the Uninitiated one? Is it not clear to everyone that they are stones, just as Hermes is also. And as the halo is not a god, and as the rainbow is not a god, but affections of air and clouds, and in the way that day is not a god, nor indeed a year, nor the time that is completed by them, so neither are the sun nor the moon, by which each of the aforementioned 10.102.2 is determined. Who then, being of sound mind, would suppose Audit and Punishment and Justice and Retribution to be gods? For neither are the Furies nor the Fates nor Destiny, since neither are the State nor Glory nor Wealth gods, which painters even show as blind; 10.102.3 and if you deify Shame and Love and Aphrodite, let Disgrace and Impulse and Beauty and Intercourse follow them. Therefore, sleep and death would no longer reasonably be considered twin gods among you, these being affections that happen naturally to living beings; nor indeed will you justly call Doom or 10.102.4 Destiny or the Fates goddesses. And if strife and battle are not gods, neither are Ares nor Enyo. Furthermore, <if> lightning and thunderbolts and rains are not gods, how are fire and water gods? And how are shooting stars and comets, which come into being through an affection of the air? And let him who calls fortune a god also call action a god. 10.103.1 If then, therefore, none of these things is considered to be a god, nor indeed any of those handmade and senseless images, but a certain providence of divine power concerning us is manifest, nothing else remains than to confess this, that then in reality the only truly existing God alone is and subsists. But you foolish ones are like men who have drunk mandrake or some other drug; 10.103.2 but may God grant that you may someday awake from this sleep and comprehend God, and not imagine gold or stone or a tree or an action or an affection or a disease or a fear as God. "For there are thirty thousand" truly "on the bounteous earth, demons" not "immortal" nor yet mortal (for they have not partaken of sensation, that they should partake of death), but lords of stone and wood over men, doing violence to and betraying 10.103.3 life through custom. "The earth is the Lord's," he says, "and the fulness thereof"; then how do you dare, while luxuriating in the things of the Lord, to be ignorant of the master? "Leave my earth," the Lord will say to you, "do not touch the water that I give up, do not partake of the fruits that I cultivate; give back, O man, your nurture-fee to God; recognize your master; you are God's own creation; and how could what is his own justly become another's? For that which is alienated, 10.103.4 being deprived of what belongs to it, is bereft of the truth. For are you not, like Niobe in a way, or rather, that I may speak more mystically to you, after the manner of the Hebrew woman (the ancients called her Lot), being turned into insensibility? We have received that this woman was turned to stone because she longed for Sodom; and the Sodomites are the atheists and those who turn back to impiety, both hard of heart and foolish. 10.104.1 Suppose that these words are spoken to you from God: "for do not suppose that stones and wood and birds and serpents are sacred things, but men are not"; but quite the contrary, consider men to be truly sacred, but beasts and stones 10.104.2 to be what they are. For indeed the wretched and miserable among men think that God cries out through a raven and a jackdaw, but is silent through a man, and they have honored the raven as a messenger of God, but they persecute the man of God, who is not cawing, not clucking, but speaking, I suppose, with reason and

ἀπομάξασθαι τὰ ἐμποδὼν τῇ σωτηρίᾳ καὶ τὸν τῦφον καὶ τὸν πλοῦτον καὶ τὸν φόβον, ἐπιφθεγγομένους τὸ ποιητικὸν δὴ τοῦτο· πῇ δὴ χρήματα πολλὰ φέρω τάδε; Πῇ δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς πλάζομαι; 10.101.3 Οὐ βούλεσθε οὖν τὰς φαντασίας ταύτας κενὰς ἀπορρί ψαντες τῇ συνηθείᾳ αὐτῇ ἀποτάξασθαι, κενοδοξίᾳ ἐπιλέ γοντες· ψευδεῖς ὄνειροι χαίρετ', οὐδὲν ἦτ' ἄρα; 10.102.1 Τί γὰρ ἡγεῖσθε, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, τὸν Τύχωνα Ἑρμῆν καὶ τὸν Ἀνδοκίδου καὶ τὸν Ἀμύητον; Ἦ παντί τῳ δῆλονὅτι λίθους, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸν Ἑρμῆν. Ὡς δὲ οὐκ ἔστι θεὸς ἡ ἅλως καὶ ὡς οὐκ ἔστι θεὸς ἡ ἶρις, ἀλλὰ πάθη ἀέρων καὶ νεφῶν, καὶ ὃν τρόπον οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμέρα θεός, οὐδὲ μὴν οὐδὲ ἐνιαυτὸς οὐδὲ χρόνος ὁ ἐκ τούτων συμπληρούμενος, οὕτως οὐδὲ ἥλιος οὐδὲ σελήνη, οἷς ἕκαστον τῶν προειρημένων 10.102.2 διορίζεται. Τίς ἂν οὖν τὴν εὔθυναν καὶ τὴν κόλασιν καὶ τὴν δίκην καὶ τὴν νέμεσιν εὖ φρονῶν ὑπολάβοι θεούς; Οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδ' ἐρινῦς οὐδὲ μοῖραι οὐδὲ εἱμαρμένη, ἐπεὶ μηδὲ πολιτεία μηδὲ δόξα μηδὲ πλοῦτος θεοί, ὃν καὶ ζωγράφοι τυφλὸν 10.102.3 ἐπιδεικνύουσιν· εἰ δὲ αἰδῶ καὶ ἔρωτα καὶ ἀφροδίτην ἐκθειάζετε, ἀκολουθούντων αὐτοῖς αἰσχύνη καὶ ὁρμὴ καὶ κάλλος καὶ συνουσία. Οὔκουν ἔτ' ἂν εἰκότως ὕπνος καὶ θάνατος θεὼ διδυμάονε παρ' ὑμῖν νομίζοιντο, πάθη ταῦτα περὶ τὰ ζῷα συμβαίνοντα φυσικῶς· οὐδὲ μὴν κῆρα οὐδὲ 10.102.4 εἱμαρμένην οὐδὲ μοίρας θεὰς ἐνδίκως ἐρεῖτε. Εἰ δὲ ἔρις καὶ μάχη οὐ θεοί, οὐδὲ Ἄρης οὐδὲ Ἐνυώ. Ἔτι τε <εἰ> αἱ ἀστραπαὶ καὶ οἱ κεραυνοὶ καὶ οἱ ὄμβροι οὐ θεοί, πῶς τὸ πῦρ καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ θεοί; Πῶς δὲ καὶ οἱ διᾴσσοντες καὶ οἱ κομῆται διὰ πάθος ἀέρος γεγενημένοι; Ὁ δὲ τὴν τύχην θεὸν λέγων καὶ τὴν πρᾶξιν λεγέτω θεόν. 10.103.1 Εἰ δὴ οὖν τούτων οὐδὲ ἓν θεὸς εἶναι νομίζεται οὐδὲ μὴν ἐκείνων τῶν χειροκμήτων καὶ ἀναισθήτων πλασμάτων, πρόνοια δέ τις περὶ ἡμᾶς καταφαίνεται δυνάμεως θεϊκῆς, λείπεται οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ τοῦτο ὁμολογεῖν, ὅτι ἄρα ὄντως μόνος ἔστι τε καὶ ὑφέστηκεν ὁ μόνος ὄντως ὑπάρχων θεός. Ἀλλὰ γὰρ μανδραγόραν ἤ τι ἄλλο φάρμακον πεπωκόσιν ἀνθρώποις 10.103.2 ἐοίκατε οἱ ἀνόητοι· θεὸς δὲ ὑμῖν ἀνανῆψαι δοίη ποτὲ τοῦδε τοῦ ὕπνου καὶ συνιέναι θεὸν μηδὲ χρυσὸν ἢ λίθον ἢ δένδρον ἢ πρᾶξιν ἢ πάθος ἢ νόσον ἢ φόβον ἰνδάλλεσθαι ὡς θεόν. "Τρὶς γὰρ μύριοί εἰσιν" ὡς ἀληθῶς "ἐπὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ δαίμονες" οὐκ "ἀθάνατοι" οὐδὲ μὴν θνητοί (οὐδὲ γὰρ αἰσθήσεως, ἵνα καὶ θανάτου, μετειλήφασιν), λίθινοι δὲ καὶ ξύλινοι δεσπόται ἀνθρώπων, ὑβρίζοντες καὶ παρασπον 10.103.3 δοῦντες τὸν βίον διὰ τῆς συνηθείας. "Ἡ γῆ δὲ τοῦ κυρίου," φησί, "καὶ τὸ πλήρωμα αὐτῆς"· εἶτα τί τολμᾷς ἐν τοῖς τοῦ κυρίου τρυφῶν ἀγνοεῖν τὸν δεσπότην; Κατάλειπε τὴν γῆν τὴν ἐμήν, ἐρεῖ σοι ὁ κύριος, μὴ θίγῃς τοῦ ὕδατος ὃ ἐγὼ ἀναδίδωμι, τῶν καρπῶν ὧν ἐγὼ γεωργῶ, μὴ μεταλάμβανε· ἀπόδος, ἄνθρωπε, τὰ τροφεῖα τῷ θεῷ· ἐπίγνωθί σου τὸν δεσπότην· ἴδιον εἶ πλάσμα τοῦ θεοῦ· τὸ δὲ οἰκεῖον αὐτοῦ πῶς ἂν ἐνδίκως ἀλλότριον γένοιτο; Τὸ γὰρ ἀπηλλοτριωμένον 10.103.4 στερόμενον τῆς οἰκειότητος στέρεται τῆς ἀληθείας. Ἦ γὰρ οὐχ ᾗ Νιόβη τρόπον τινά, μᾶλλον δὲ ἵνα μυστικώτερον πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἀποφθέγξωμαι, γυναικὸς τῆς Ἑβραίας δίκην (Λὼτ ἐκάλουν αὐτὴν οἱ παλαιοὶ) εἰς ἀναισθησίαν μετατρέπεσθε; Λελιθωμένην ταύτην παρειλήφαμεν τὴν γυναῖκα διὰ τὸ Σοδόμων ἐρᾶν· Σοδομῖται δὲ οἱ ἄθεοι καὶ οἱ πρὸς τὴν ἀσέβειαν ἐπιστρεφόμενοι σκληροκάρδιοί τε καὶ ἠλίθιοι. 10.104.1 Ταύτας οἴου θεόθεν ἐπιλέγεσθαί σοι τὰς φωνάς· "μὴ γὰρ οἴου λίθους μὲν εἶναι ἱερὰ καὶ ξύλα καὶ ὄρνεα καὶ ὄφεις, ἀνθρώπους δὲ μή"· πολὺ δὲ τοὐναντίον ἱεροὺς μὲν ὄντως τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ὑπολαμβάνετε, τὰ δὲ θηρία καὶ τοὺς 10.104.2 λίθους ὅπερ εἰσίν. Οἱ γάρ τοι δείλαιοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων καὶ ἄθλιοι διὰ μὲν κόρακος καὶ κολοιοῦ νομίζουσι τὸν θεὸν ἐμβοᾶν, διὰ δὲ ἀνθρώπου σιωπᾶν, καὶ τὸν μὲν κόρακα τετιμήκασιν ὡς ἄγγελον θεοῦ, τὸν δὲ ἄνθρωπον τοῦ θεοῦ διώκουσιν, οὐ κρῴζοντα, οὐ κλώζοντα, φθεγγόμενον δέ, οἶμαι, λογικῶς καὶ