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Such, then, is the myth, and its explanation is as follows: The difference and strife of Hera and Zeus is nothing other than a poor mixture and disturbance of the elements, when they are no longer in due proportion to one another according to order, but when irregularity and harshness have arisen, they fight with difficulty and destroy their fellowship and bring about the destruction of all things. If, then, Zeus, that is, the hot and fiery power, provides the cause of the destruction, a drought seizes the earth, but if some excess or superabundance should occur with respect to Hera, that is, the moist and airy nature, a great flood came and rained down and inundated all things. When something of this kind happened also in those times and Boeotia in particular was submerged, as soon as the plain emerged and the flood abated, the order of the surrounding atmosphere resulting from the fair weather was called the harmony and reconciliation of the gods, and the oak was the first of the plants to rise from the earth, and men loved it, because it provided life-sustaining and saving nourishment. For not only to the pious, as Hesiod says, but also to those who were left from the destruction, 'The top bears acorns, the middle bees.' 3.2.1 Thus Plutarch. But we have learned from the words cited by him that the wonderful and secret natural philosophy of the Greek theology introduced nothing divine, nor anything great and befitting God and worthy of 3.2.2 lofty thought. For you have heard Hera at one time being proclaimed the goddess of marriage and signifying the living together of man and wife, at another time the earth again being called Hera, and at another time the moist substance, and Dionysus transferred to drunkenness, and Leto to night, and the sun to Apollo, and Zeus himself to the hot and fiery power. 3.2.3 Therefore, in addition to the indecency of the myths, even the seemingly more solemn narrative and natural philosophy did not lead up to any celestial, intelligent, and divine powers, nor to rational and incorporeal substances, but it too turned back downward to drunkenness and marriages and human passions, and to fire and earth and sun and the other elements of matter, deifying the parts of the cosmos, and 3.2.4 nothing more. And Plato knows this. At any rate, in the Cra3.2.4 tylus he expressly acknowledges that the first men in Greece had known nothing more than the visible parts of the cosmos, and that they had considered only the luminaries in the sky 3.2.5 and the rest of the phenomena to be gods. And so he says in these very words: 'The first men in Greece seem to me to have considered only those to be gods whom many of the barbarians now do, namely sun and moon and earth and stars and sky.' 3.2.6 But such are the Greek matters. Let us see also the most ancient of these; and they were the Egyptian. They say that Isis and Osiris are the sun and the moon, and Zeus the spirit that pervades all things, and Hephaestus is fire, and they named the earth Demeter, and the moist element is considered Oceanus among the Egyptians, and the river among them is the Nile, to which they also ascribed the births of the gods; 3.2.7 and they say that they call the air Athena. And that these five gods, I mean Air and Water and Fire and Earth and Spirit, travel over the whole inhabited world, at different times being shaped into forms and figures of men and of all kinds of animals, and that mortal men had become their namesakes among the Egyptians themselves, being named Helios and Cronus and Rhea, and also Zeus and Hera and Hephaestus and HestiaAnd Manetho writes about these things more extensively, but Diodorus summarily in his aforementioned writing, relating it thus word for word: 3.3.1

2. CONCERNING THE THEOLOGY OF THE EGYPTIANS

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Ὁ μὲν οὖν μῦθος τοιοῦτος, ὁ δὲ λόγος αὐτοῦ τοιόσδε· Ἥρας καὶ ∆ιὸς διαφορὰ καὶ στάσις οὐδὲν ἄλλο πλὴν στοιχείων δυσκρασία καὶ τάραχός ἐστιν, ὅταν ἀλλήλοις μηκέτι συμμετρῆται κατὰ κόσμον, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀνωμαλίας καὶ τραχύτητος ἐγγενομένης δυσμαχήσαντα λύσῃ τὴν κοινωνίαν καὶ φθορὰν τῶν ὅλων ἀπεργάσηται. ἂν μὲν οὖν ὁ Ζεύς, τουτέστιν ἡ θερμὴ καὶ πυρώδης δύναμις, αἰτίαν παράσχῃ τῆς διαφθορᾶς, αὐχμὸς τὴν γῆν καταλαμβάνει, ἐὰν δὲ περὶ τὴν Ἥραν, τουτέστι τὴν ὑγρὰν καὶ πνευματικὴν φύσιν, ὕβρις τις ἢ πλεονασμὸς γένηται, ῥεῦμα ἦλθε πολὺ καὶ συνώμβρησεν καὶ κατέκλυσε τὰ πάντα. τοιούτου δέ τινος γενομένου καὶ περὶ τοὺς τότε χρόνους καὶ μάλιστα τῆς Βοιωτίας βυθισθείσης, ὡς πρῶτον ἀνέδυ τὸ πεδίον καὶ ἡ πλήμμυρα ἐλώφησεν, ὁ μὲν ἐξ εὐδίας κόσμος τοῦ περιέχοντος ὁμόνοια καὶ διαλλαγὴ τῶν θεῶν ἐλέχθη, πρῶτον δὲ ἀνέσχεν ἐκ τῆς γῆς τῶν φυτῶν ἡ δρῦς καὶ ταύτην ἠγάπησαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι, τροφῆς βίου καὶ σωτηρίου διαμονὴν παρασχοῦσαν. οὐ γὰρ μόνον τοῖς εὐσεβέσιν, ὡς Ἡσίοδός φησιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ὑπολειφθεῖσιν τῆς φθορᾶς Ἄκρη μέν τε φέρει βαλάνους, μέσση δὲ μελίσσας.» 3.2.1 Ταῦτα μὲν ὁ Πλούταρχος. ἡμεῖς δὲ ἔγνωμεν ἐκ τῶν παρατεθεισῶν αὐτῷ φωνῶν ὡς ἄρα καὶ ἡ θαυμαστὴ καὶ ἀπόρρητος φυσιολογία τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς θεολογίας θεῖον μὲν οὐδὲν οὐδέ τι μέγα καὶ θεοπρεπὲς καὶ τῆς 3.2.2 ἀνατάσεως ἄξιον ἐπήγετο. ἀκήκοας γὰρ τὴν Ἥραν τοτὲ μὲν γαμήλιον ἀναγορευομένην καὶ τὴν ἀνδρὸς καὶ γυναικὸς συμβίωσιν δηλοῦσαν, τοτὲ δὲ τὴν γῆν πάλιν Ἥραν ὀνομαζομένην, τοτὲ δὲ τὴν ὑγρὰν οὐσίαν, τὸν δὲ ∆ιόνυσον εἰς τὴν μέθην μετενηνεγμένον, εἰς νύκτα δὲ τὴν Λητὼ καὶ τὸν ἥλιον εἰς Ἀπόλλωνα καὶ αὐτὸν δὲ τὸν ∆ία εἰς τὴν θερμὴν καὶ πυρώδη δύναμιν. 3.2.3 οὐκοῦν πρὸς τῇ τῶν μύθων ἀπρεπείᾳ καὶ ἡ δοκοῦσα σεμνοτέρα διήγησις καὶ φυσιολογία οὐκ ἐπί τινας οὐρανίους νοερὰς καὶ θείας δυνάμεις οὐδ' ἐπὶ λογικὰς καὶ ἀσωμάτους ἀνῆγεν οὐσίας, κάτω δὲ πάλιν καὶ αὐτὴ εἰς μέθας καὶ γάμους καὶ ἀνθρώπεια πάθη εἴς τε πῦρ καὶ γῆν καὶ ἥλιον καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῆς ὕλης στοιχεῖα κατέστρεφεν τὰ μέρη τοῦ κόσμου, καὶ πλέον θεοποιοῦσα 3.2.4 οὐδέν. τοῦτο δὲ καὶ ὁ Πλάτων οἶδεν. ὁμολογεῖ γοῦν διαρρήδην ἐν Κρα3.2.4 τύλῳ μηδὲν πλέον τῶν ὁρωμένων τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν τοὺς πρώτους τῶν περὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἀνθρώπων ἐγνωκέναι, μόνους δὲ θεοὺς εἶναι τοὺς ἐν οὐρανῷ 3.2.5 φωστῆρας καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν φαινομένων νομίσαι. λέγει δ' οὖν ὧδε πρὸς λέξιν· «Φαίνονταί μοι οἱ πρῶτοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων περὶ τὴν Ἑλλάδα τούτους μόνους τοὺς θεοὺς ἡγεῖσθαι οὕσπερ νῦν πολλοὶ τῶν βαρβάρων, ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ γῆν καὶ ἄστρα καὶ οὐρανόν.» 3.2.6 Ἀλλὰ τὰ μὲν Ἑλληνικὰ τοιαῦτα. ἴδωμεν δὲ καὶ τὰ τούτων παλαίτατα· ἦν δὲ τὰ Αἰγύπτια. τὴν Ἶσίν φασι καὶ τὸν Ὄσιριν τὸν ἥλιον καὶ τὴν σελήνην εἶναι καὶ ∆ία μὲν τὸ διὰ πάντων χωροῦν πνεῦμα, Ἥφαιστον δὲ τὸ πῦρ, τὴν δὲ γῆν ∆ήμητραν ἐπονομάσαι Ὠκεανόν τε τὸ ὑγρὸν νομίζεσθαι παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις καὶ τὸν παρ' αὐτοῖς ποταμὸν Νεῖλον, ᾧ καὶ τὰς τῶν θεῶν ἀναθεῖναι γενέσεις· 3.2.7 τὸν δὲ ἀέρα φασὶν αὐτοὺς προσαγορεύειν Ἀθηνᾶν. τούτους δὲ τοὺς πέντε θεούς, τὸν Ἀέρα λέγω καὶ τὸ Ὕδωρ τό τε Πῦρ καὶ τὴν Γῆν καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα, τὴν πᾶσαν οἰκουμένην ἐπιπορεύεσθαι, ἄλλοτε ἄλλως εἰς μορφὰς καὶ ἰδέας ἀνθρώπων τε καὶ παντοίων ζῴων σχηματιζομένους, καὶ τούτων ὁμωνύμους παρ' αὐτοῖς Αἰγυπτίοις γεγονέναι θνητοὺς ἀνθρώπους, Ἥλιον καὶ Κρόνον καὶ Ῥέαν, ἔτι δὲ ∆ία καὶ Ἥραν καὶ Ἥφαιστον καὶ Ἑστίαν ἐπονομασθένταςγράφει δὲ καὶ τὰ περὶ τούτων πλατύτερον μὲν ὁ Μανεθῶς, ἐπιτετμημένως δὲ ὁ ∆ιόδωρος ἐν τῇ προλεχθείσῃ αὐτοῦ γραφῇ ὧδέ πως ἱστορῶν κατὰ λέξιν· 3.3.1

βʹ. ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΑΙΓΥΠΤΙΩΝ ΘΕΟΛΟΓΙΑΣ