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we have shown them to be sinners. One must therefore flee such myths of theirs and their theaters and books, would that it were possible also their cities. For being full of evil lessons and breathing them on their competitors, they transmit like a madness to those near them what they themselves have suffered. But the most difficult thing is that whoever among them is more educated, this one has been turned much further from thinking according to nature. But some among them, claiming to be philosophers, consider such sins to be matters of indifference and call those who are angry at such actions foolish. For such things (they say) are not sins by nature, such as have been forbidden by posited laws by the wise men who lived in the beginning, because they knew that men with a fickle soul, being greatly vexed by such things, take up war against each other; for which reason the wise men, having established a law, forbade such things as sins. But it is ridiculous to suppose so. For how are the causes of disturbances and murders and all confusion not sins? For do not destructions of lives, ruin of households, sorceries, deceits, difficulties, and many other evils spring up from adultery? But why (he says), if the husband is ignorant that his own wife is committing adultery, does he not feel jealousy, not get angry, not make a disturbance, not make war? Thus such things are not by nature evils, but the irrational opinion of men makes them out to be terrible. But I say that, even if these terrible things do not happen, it is possible that through intimacy with the adulterer she might either leave her husband or even plot against him while living with him, or give to the adulterer the things procured by her husband's labor, and, having conceived by the adulterer while her husband is away, because she is ashamed of the exposure, she might wish to destroy what is in her womb and become a child-murderer, or even in destroying it be destroyed with it. And if, while her husband is present, having conceived by an adulterer, she should give birth, the child, being brought up, does not know his own father, but considers him who is not his father to be so, and thus he who is not the father, upon dying, leaves his own substance to another's child. And how many other evils naturally tend to arise from adultery. And we do not know the hidden evils. For just as a mad dog kills those whom it touches, transmitting the most imperceptible madness, so also the hidden evil of adultery, even if it is unknown, effects the cutting off of the succession. But let this now be passed over by us, but that we all know, how in general men are irrepressibly vexed at this, and that wars have been stirred up over this, and overthrows of households have happened, and captures of cities and countless other things. For this reason I have taken refuge with the holy God and law of the Jews, having given my faith to a safe judgment, that from the just judgment of God the law has also been established and the soul by all means receives its due for what it has done, wherever it may be. When I had said these things, Appion added to the discussion: "What then? Do not also the laws of the Greeks," he said, "forbid base things and punish adulterers?" And I said: "Therefore the gods of the Greeks, having done things contrary to the laws, owe a punishment. And how will I be able to discipline myself, supposing that the gods themselves first, along with adultery, all the grievous things

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ἁμαρτανόντων ἀπεδείξαμεν. φευκτέον δὴ τοὺς τοιούτους μύθους αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ θέατρα καὶ τὰ βιβλία, εἴθε δυνατὸν ἦν καὶ τὰς πόλεις. κακῶν γὰρ μαθημάτων γέμοντες καὶ πνέοντες τοῖς συναμιλλωμένοις ὥσπερ λύσσαν τοῖς πλησίον μεταδιδόασιν ὧν πεπόνθασιν αὐτοί. τὸ δὲ χαλεπώ- τατον, ὅστις παρ' αὐτοῖς πλεῖον πεπαίδευται, πολλῷ τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν οὗτος φρονεῖν ἐκτέτραπται. τινὲς δὲ τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς καὶ φιλόσοφοι εἶναι ἀξιοῦντες τὰ τοιαῦτα ἁμαρτήματα ἀδιάφορα τίθενται καὶ τοὺς ἐπὶ ταῖς τοιαύταις πράξεσιν χαλεπαίνοντας ἀνοήτους λέγουσιν. οὐ γάρ ἐστιν (φασί) τὰ τοιαῦτα τῇ φύσει ἁμαρτήματα, ὅσα θετοῖς ἀπηγόρευται νό- μοις ὑπὸ τῶν κατ' ἀρχὰς γενομένων σοφῶν διὰ τὸ εἰδέναι ὅτι οἱ ἄνθρω- ποι εὐριπίστῳ ψυχῇ ἐπὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις μεγάλως ἀχθόμενοι πρὸς ἀλ- λήλους πόλεμον αἴρονται· ὧν ἕνεκα νόμον θέντες οἱ σοφοὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα ὡς ἁμαρτήματα ἀπηγόρευσαν. γελοῖον δὲ οὕτως ὑπολαμβάνειν. πῶς γὰρ οὐχ ἁμαρτήματά εἰσιν τὰ θορύβων καὶ φόνων καὶ πάσης ταραχῆς αἴτια; ἦ γὰρ οὐκ ἐκ μοιχείας ἀνακύπτουσιν βίων περιγραφαί, οἴκων ἀνα- στάσεις, μαγεῖαι, δόλοι, ἀπορίαι καὶ ἄλλα πλείω κακά; ἀλλὰ διὰ τί (φησίν) ὁ ἀνήρ, ἐὰν ἀγνοῇ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γυναῖκα μοιχευομένην, οὐ ζη- λοῖ, οὐ θυμοῦται, οὐ θορυβεῖ, οὐ πολεμεῖ; οὕτως οὐκ ἔστιν τῇ φύσει τὰ τοιαῦτα κακά, ἀλλὰ ἡ ἄλογος ἀνθρώπων δόκησις ταῦτα δεινοποιεῖ. ἐγὼ δέ φημι ὅτι, κἂν μὴ τὰ δεινὰ ταῦτα συμβαίνῃ, ἐνδέχεται συνηθείᾳ τῇ πρὸς τὸν μοιχὸν ἢ τὸν ἄνδρα ἀπολιπεῖν ἢ καὶ συνοικοῦσαν ἐπιβου- λεῦσαι ἢ τὰ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς κόπῳ πεπορισμένα τῷ μοιχῷ παρασχεῖν καὶ ἀπο- δημοῦντος τοῦ ἀνδρὸς συλλαβοῦσαν ἐκ τοῦ μοιχοῦ διὰ τὸ αἰδεῖσθαι τὸν ἔλεγχον τὸ κατὰ γαστρὸς φθεῖραι θελῆσαι καὶ γενέσθαι τεκνοκτόνον ἢ καὶ φθείρουσαν συνφθαρῆναι· εἰ δὲ συνόντος τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἐκ μοιχοῦ συλλαβοῦσα τέκοι, ἀνατραφεὶς ὁ παῖς τὸν μὲν πατέρα ἀγνοεῖ, τὸν δὲ οὐκ ὄντα νομίζει, καὶ οὕτως ὁ μὴ πατὴρ τελευτῶν ἀλλοτρίῳ παιδὶ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ καταλείπει βίον. πόσα δὲ καὶ ἄλλα κακὰ ἐκ τῆς μοιχείας φυ- σικῶς ἀνακύπτειν φιλεῖ. καὶ οὐκ ἴσμεν τὰ κρύφια τῶν κακῶν. ὥσπερ γὰρ ὁ λυσσῶν κύων τούτους ἀναιρεῖ, ὧνπερ ἂν ψαύσῃ, τῆς ἀφανεστάτης λύσσης μεταδιδούς, οὕτως καὶ τῆς μοιχείας τὸ κρύφιον κακόν, κἂν ἀγνοῆται, τῆς διαδοχῆς τὴν ἐκκοπὴν ἐξεργάζεται. ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μὲν νῦν ἡμῖν παρα- λελείφθω, ἐκεῖνο δὲ πάντες ἴσμεν ὡς ἐπίπαν ἐπὶ τούτῳ τοὺς ἄνδρας ἀνεπισχέτως δυσχεραίνοντας πολέμους τε ἐπὶ τούτῳ ἐγηγερμένους καὶ οἴκων γενομένας ἀνατροπὰς καὶ πόλεων ἁλώσεις καὶ ἄλλα μυρία. διὰ τοῦτο ἐγὼ τῷ ἁγίῳ τῶν Ἰουδαίων θεῷ καὶ νόμῳ προσέφυγον ἀποδεδω- κὼς τὴν πίστιν ἀσφαλεῖ τῇ κρίσει, ὅτι ἐκ τῆς τοῦ θεοῦ δικαίας κρίσεως καὶ νόμος ὥρισται καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ πάντως τὸ κατ' ἀξίαν ὧν ἔπραξεν ὁπουδήποτε ἀπολαμβάνει. Ταῦτά μου εἰπόντος ὁ Ἀππίων ἐπήνεγκεν τῷ λόγῳ· Τί γάρ; οὐχὶ καὶ οἱ Ἑλλήνων (ἔφη) νόμοι τὰ φαῦλα ἀπαγορεύουσιν καὶ τοὺς μοιχοὺς κολάζουσιν; κἀγὼ ἔφην· Oὐκοῦν οἱ Ἑλλήνων θεοὶ τὰ ἐναντία τοῖς νόμοις πράξαντες κόλασιν ὀφείλουσιν. πῶς δὲ καὶ σωφρονίζειν ἐμαυτὸν δυνήσομαι ὑπολαμβάνων ὅτι οἱ θεοὶ αὐτοὶ πρῶτοι ἅμα τῇ μοιχείᾳ τὰ χαλεπὰ πάντα