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taking up superstitious error, consider its failure. By nature, then, and by self-taught notions, or rather by God-taught ones, all men by common reasonings had preconceived that which signifies the name and essence of God to be something good and beneficial, the Creator of all things having sown this in every rational and intelligent soul by natural 2.6.12 notions. Yet they did not use their choice in accordance with reason. For perhaps one, or a second, or a very few others, whose memory the Hebrew oracles contain, having applied the concept of God to none of the visible things, but with undistorted reasonings ascending from visible things to the Creator of the whole universe and the great Maker of all things, understood with the purified eyes of the mind that he alone is the God and savior of all, and the only giver of good things; but the rest, turned aside by every kind of spiritual darkness, were carried down into the abyss of impiety, so that, in the manner of wild beasts, they established the good and the expedient and the virtuous 2.6.13 only as far as the pleasures of the body and of the flesh, and in this way, as has been said before, they proclaimed as benefactors, saviors and gods, the supposed benefactors of the body’s goods and necessities, or certain potentates and tyrants, or even sorcerers and poisoners, men who were by nature mortal and subject to human misfortunes, transferring the venerable notion, which existed in them by nature, 2.6.14 to those whom they considered benefactors. And such a paralysis of the mind possessed them that they took no account of any of the sins of those of whom they made gods, nor did they blush at the shameful things reported about them, but they admired the men in all things, on account of the benefits provided by them, or also on account of the principalities and 2.6.15 tyrannies that were then first being established. At any rate, since laws, as I have already said before, were not yet then in force among men, nor was punishment suspended over sinners, they commemorated adulteries and corruptions of males, and incestuous and unlawful marriages, and murders and patricides, and slaughters of children and brothers, yes, and wars and seditions truly committed by their own patrons, whom they considered and called gods, as if they were a kind of right actions and brave deeds, leaving the memory of these things to posterity as if they were venerable and manly. 2.6.16

IX. CONCERNING THE MORE VENERABLE AND MORE PHYSICAL THEOLOGY OF THE GREEKS

Such were the things of the ancient theology, which certain new men, who have sprung up but yesterday and the day before, boasting that they philosophize more rationally, having changed it, have introduced the more physical opinion of the history concerning the gods, having additionally contrived more venerable interpretations for the myths, neither entirely escaping the sin of their forefathers' impiety, nor, on the other hand, enduring the wickedness of those made gods, which is evident at 2.6.17 once. But these men, nevertheless, being eager to cure the ancestral error, have refashioned the myths into physical narratives and theories, boasting as if more mystically that these things indicated by the myths are the nutritive and generative powers of the nature of 2.6.18 bodies. Thence these men also, going on, have named the elements of the world as gods, not only the sun and moon and stars, but also earth and water, air and fire, and the compounds and results from these, yes, and also the seasonal fruits from the earth and the other growths of dry and moist food, which they themselves also, as being the causes of the life of bodies, have deified, calling them Demeter and Kore and Dionysus and as many others as are similar to these, having introduced a forced and untrue embellishment of the 2.6.19 myths. But these men, at some late time, as if ashamed of the theologies of their ancestors, the solemn interpretations which each devised for himself for the myths about the gods

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ἀναλαβὼν τῆς δεισιδαίμονος πλάνης ἐπίσκεψαι τὴν διάπτωσιν. φύσει μὲν οὖν καὶ αὐτοδιδάκτοις ἐννοίαις, μᾶλ λον δὲ θεοδιδάκτοις καλόν τι καὶ ὠφέλιμον τυγχάνειν τὸ σημαῖνον τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ προσηγορίαν τε καὶ οὐσίαν πάντες ἄνθρωποι κοινοῖς λογισμοῖς προειλήφεσαν, τοῦ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργοῦ τοῦτο πάσῃ λογικῇ καὶ νοερᾷ ψυχῇ φυσι2.6.12 καῖς ἐννοίαις ὑποσπείραντος. οὐ μὴν καὶ τῇ προαιρέσει τῇ κατὰ λόγον ἐκέχρηντο· εἷς μὲν γάρ που τάχα τις καὶ δεύτερος ἢ καί τινες ἄλλοι κομιδῆ βραχεῖς, ὧν τὴν μνήμην τὰ Ἑβραίων περιέχει λόγια, εἰς οὐδὲν τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐφαρμόσαντες τὴν περὶ θεοῦ ἔννοιαν, ἀδιαστρόφοις δὲ τοῖς λογισμοῖς ἐπὶ τὸν τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου δημιουργὸν καὶ τὸν μέγαν τῶν ὅλων ποιητὴν ἐκ τῶν ὁρωμένων ἀναγαγόντες, διανοίας ὄμμασι κεκαθαρμένοις μόνον αὐτὸν εἶναι τὸν θεὸν τῶν πάντων σωτῆρα καὶ μόνον ἀγαθῶν δοτῆρα συνενόησαν· οἱ δὲ λοιποὶ παντοίᾳ ψυχῆς ἀμαυρώσει περιτραπέντες κατὰ βυθὸν ἀσεβείας ἠνέχθησαν, ὥστε θηρίων ἀγρίων τρόπον τὸ καλὸν καὶ συμφέρον καὶ ἀγαθὸν 2.6.13 μέχρι σωμάτων καὶ σαρκὸς ἡδονῆς στῆσαι ταύτη τε κατὰ τὰ προειρημένα τοὺς τῶν νενομισμένων τοῦ σώματος καλῶν καὶ χρησίμων εὐεργέτας ἢ καὶ δυνάστας τινὰς καὶ τυράννους ἢ καὶ γόητας καὶ φαρμακέας ἄνδρας, τῇ φύσει θνητοὺς καὶ ἀνθρωπίναις κεχρημένους συμφοραῖς, ὡς ἀγαθῶν χορηγοὺς σωτῆρας καὶ θεοὺς ἀναγορεύειν, τὴν σεβάσμιον ἔννοιαν φυσικῶς 2.6.14 αὐτοῖς ἐνυπάρχουσαν ἐφ' οὓς ἐνόμιζον εὐεργέτας μετατεθεικότες. τοσαύτη δ' ἄρα συνεῖχεν αὐτοὺς φρενῶν ἀποπληξία, ὡς μηδὲν τῶν πλημμελουμένων τοῖς θεολογουμένοις ὑπολογίζεσθαι μηδ' ἐρυθριᾶν ἐπὶ τοῖς αἰσχρῶς περὶ αὐτῶν φημιζομένοις, τὰ πάντα δὲ τοὺς ἄνδρας διὰ τὰς ἐξ αὐτῶν παρεχομένας ὠφελείας ἢ καὶ διὰ τὰς τότε πρῶτον συνισταμένας δυναστείας τε καὶ 2.6.15 τυραννίδας ἀποθαυμάζειν. νόμων γοῦν, ὥσπερ ἔφην ἤδη πρότερον, μηδέπω τότε ἐν ἀνθρώποις πολιτευομένων μηδ' ἐπὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτανομένοις τιμωρίας ἐπῃωρημένης, μοιχείας καὶ ἀρρένων φθοράς, ἐκθέσμους τε καὶ παρανόμους γάμους, μιαιφονίας τε καὶ πατροκτονίας, τέκνων τε καὶ ἀδελφῶν σφαγάς, ναὶ μὴν καὶ πολέμους καὶ στάσεις πεπραγμένας ὄντως τοῖς οἰκείοις προστάταις. οὓς θεοὺς ἡγοῦντό τε καὶ ἀπεκάλουν, ὥσπερ ἐν μέρει κατορθωμάτων καὶ ἀνδραγαθίας ἀπεμνημόνευον, τὴν τούτων μνήμην ὡς σεμνῶν καὶ ἀνδρείων τοῖς ὀψιγόνοις ἀπολιπόντες. 2.6.16

θʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ ΣΕΜΝΟΤΕΡΑΣ ΚΑΙ ΦΥΣΙΚΩΤΕΡΑΣ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ

Τοιαῦτα ἦν τὰ τῆς παλαιᾶς θεολογίας, ἣν μεταβαλόντες νέοι τινές, ἐχθὲς καὶ πρώην ἐπιφυέντες λογικώτερόν τε φιλοσοφεῖν αὐχοῦντες, τὴν δὴ φυσικωτέραν τῆς περὶ θεῶν ἱστορίας δόξαν εἰσηγήσαντο, σεμνοτέρας εὑρησιλογίας τοῖς μύθοις προσεπινοήσαντες καὶ μήτε πάντη τῶν προπατόρων τὸ πλημμελὲς τῆς δυσσεβείας ἐκφυγόντες μήτ' αὖ πάλιν τὴν αὐτόθεν προ2.6.17 φαινομένην τῶν θεολογουμένων μοχθηρίαν ὑπομείναντες. θεραπεῦσαι δ' οὖν ὅμως οἵδε τὸ πατρικὸν ἁμάρτημα προθυμηθέντες ἐπὶ φυσικὰς διηγήσεις καὶ θεωρίας τοὺς μύθους μετεσκευάσαντο, τὰ θρεπτικὰ καὶ αὐξητικὰ τῆς τῶν σωμάτων φύσεως ταῦτ' εἶναι τὰ διὰ τῶν μύθων δηλούμενα ὡς δὴ μυ2.6.18 στικώτερον κομπάσαντες. ἔνθεν ἀνιόντες καὶ οἵδε τὰ στοιχεῖα τοῦ κόσμου θεοὺς ἐπεφήμισαν, οὐκ αὐτὸ μόνον ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ ἄστρα, προσέτι δὲ γῆν καὶ ὕδωρ, ἀέρα τε καὶ πῦρ τά τε ἐκ τούτων συγκρίματά τε καὶ ἀποτελέσματα, ναὶ μὴν καὶ τοὺς ὡραίους ἀπὸ γῆς καρποὺς καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς ξηρᾶς καὶ ὑγρᾶς τροφῆς βλαστήματα, ἃ καὶ αὐτὰ ὡς ἂν τῆς τῶν σωμάτων ζωῆς αἴτια ∆ήμητραν καὶ Κόρην καὶ ∆ιόνυσον καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τούτοις ἐμφερῆ προσειπόντες τεθειάκασι, βεβιασμένον καὶ οὐκ ἀληθῆ τῶν μύθων 2.6.19 τὸν καλλωπισμὸν εἰσηγησάμενοι. ἀλλ' οὗτοι μὲν ὀψέ ποτε, ὡς ἂν ἐπαισχυ νόμενοι τὰς τῶν προγόνων θεολογίας, οἴκοθεν ἃς ἕκαστος ἐφεῦρε σεμνολογίας τοῖς περὶ θεῶν μύθοις