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of immortality, some of whom had also been kings in Egypt. And when their names are translated, some are homonymous with the heavenly bodies, while others have their own special name, Helios and Cronus and Rhea, and also Zeus, who is called Ammon by some, and in addition to these Hera and Hephaestus, and also Hestia and finally Hermes. And first Helios reigned over those in Egypt, being homonymous with the star in heaven.” 3.3.11 So says the aforementioned writer. And Plutarch too, in his work Concerning Isis, writes these things word for word:

3. STILL ON THE SAME SUBJECTS “But from another starting-point, let us first examine the simplest views of those who seem to say something more philosophical. These are the ones who say that just as the Greeks allegorize Cronus as time, Hera as the air, and the birth of Hephaestus as the change of air into fire, so among the Egyptians the Nile is Osiris united with Isis, the earth, and Typhon is the sea, into which the Nile falls and disappears.” 3.3.12 After saying these and similar things, he again refers the myths about the said gods to daemons, and again he explains them differently, and yet again in another way 3.3.13 by allegorizing. But it would be reasonable to ask of which of the two kinds of gods they will say the wooden images preserve the engraved forms. Are they of daemons, or of fire and air and earth and water? Or images of men and women and shapes of irrational animals 3.3.14 and wild beasts? For since it is conceded even by them that certain mortal men, homonymous with the sun and with the universal elements, came to be and were proclaimed gods, of whom would it be likely to say the carved shapes and images in the lifeless wooden statues are? Of the universal elements, or, as the plain evidence of sight shows, of mortals lying among the dead? 3.3.15 But even if they themselves do not say so, the true account indeed shouts and cries out, all but uttering a voice, testifying that the aforementioned were mortal men. And Plutarch, from his abundance, also describes the qualitative character of their bodily form, in his Concerning Isis and the Egyptian Gods, speaking thus: 3.3.16 “For the Egyptians relate that Hermes was born with one arm shorter than the other, and Typhon was reddish in complexion, while Ares was white and Osiris dark, as being by nature men.” 3.3.17 Thus also Plutarch. Their entire deification, therefore, consists of dead men; and their physiological theories are fabricated. For why was it necessary to fashion the shapes of men and women, when it was possible even without these to worship the sun and moon 3.3.18 and the other elements of the cosmos? But to which of these, and beginning from which, did they apply such names? I mean, for example, Hephaestus and Athena, Zeus and Poseidon and Hera. For were these first names of the universal elements, and did they secondly apply them to mortals, making them homonymous with the celestial beings, or conversely, from the appellation among men did they 3.3.19 make the transference to the substances? And why is it necessary to name the universal natures with mortal appellations? And do the mysteries for each god, the hymns and the songs and the secrets of the rites, derive their symbols 3.3.20 from the universal elements or from the mortal men of old who were homonymous with the gods? But wanderings and drunkenness and loves, and corruptions of women and plots of men, and countless other things, truly mortal and shameful and unseemly, how could one attribute these to the universal elements, since they carry with them from the start what is mortal and subject to human passion? 3.3.21 So that from all these things this wondrous and noble science of nature is convicted of grasping nothing of the truth, nor of bringing in anything truly divine, but of having a strained and falsified solemnity from without.

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ἀθανασίας, ὧν ἐνίους καὶ βασιλεῖς γεγονέναι κατὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον. μεθερμηνευομένων δ' αὐτῶν τινὰς μὲν ὁμωνύμους ὑπάρχειν τοῖς οὐρανίοις, τινὰς δ' ἰδίαν ἐσχηκέναι προσηγορίαν, Ἥλιον τε καὶ Κρόνον καὶ Ῥέαν, ἔτι δὲ ∆ία τὸν ὑπό τινων Ἄμμωνα προσαγορευόμενον, πρὸς δὲ τούτοις Ἥραν καὶ Ἥφαιστον, ἔτι δὲ Ἑστίανκαὶ τελευταῖον Ἑρμῆν. καὶ πρῶτον μὲν Ἥλιον βασιλεῦσαι τῶν κατ' Αἴγυπτον, ὁμώνυμον ὄντα τῷ κατ' οὐρανὸν ἄστρῳ.» 3.3.11 Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ὁ δηλωθεὶς συγγραφεύς. καὶ ὁ Πλούταρχος δὲ ἐν τῷ Περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν Ἶσιν αὐτοῦ συγγράμματι τάδε γράφει κατὰ λέξιν·

γʹ. ΕΤΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΑΥΤΩΝ «Ἀπ' ἄλλης δὲ ἀρχῆς τῶν φιλοσοφώτερόν τι λέγειν δοκούντων τοὺς ἁπλουστάτους σκεψώμεθα πρῶτον. οὗτοι δ' εἰσὶν οἱ λέγοντες, ὥσπερ Ἕλληνες Κρόνον ἀλληγοροῦσι τὸν χρόνον, Ἥραν δὲ τὸν ἀέρα, γένεσιν δὲ Ἡφαίστουτὴν εἰς πῦρ ἀέρος μεταβολήν, οὕτω παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις Νεῖλον εἶναι τὸν Ὄσιριν Ἴσιδι συνόντα τῇ γῇ, Τυφῶνα δὲ τὴν θάλασσαν, εἰς ἣν ὁ Νεῖλος ἐμπίπτων ἀφανίζεται.» 3.3.12 Ταῦτα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα εἰπὼν πάλιν εἰς δαίμονας ἀναφέρει τοὺς περὶ τῶν δηλουμένων θεῶν μύθους καὶ πάλιν ἄλλως ἀποδίδωσι καὶ αὖθις ἑτέρως 3.3.13 ἀλληγορῶν. ἦν δ' ἂν κατὰ λόγον πυθέσθαι ὁποτέρων θεῶν τὰ ξόανα τὰς ἐντετυπωμένας μορφὰς σῴζειν φήσουσι. πότερα δαιμόνων, ἀλλὰ πυρὸς καὶ ἀέρος καὶ γῆς καὶ ὕδατος; ἢ ἀνδρῶν καὶ γυναικῶν εἰκόνας καὶ ζῴων ἀλόγων 3.3.14 καὶ θηρίων σχήματα; ἐπεὶ γὰρ καὶ πρὸς αὐτῶν συγκεχώρηται ὁμωνύμως ἡλίῳ καὶ τοῖς καθόλου στοιχείοις θνητούς τινας ἄνδρας γεγονέναι καὶ τούτους θεοὺς ἀνηγορεῦσθαι, τίνων εἰκὸς ἂν εἴη λέγειν μορφὰς εἶναι καὶ εἰκόνας τὰς ἐν τοῖς ἀψύχοις ξοάνοις γλυφάς; πότερον τῶν καθόλου στοιχείων ἤ, ὅπερ καὶ τὸ ἐναργὲς τῆς ὄψεως ἐπιδείκνυσιν, τῶν ἐν νεκροῖς κειμένων θνητῶν; 3.3.15 ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ αὐτοὶ μὴ λέγοιεν, ὅ γέ τοι ἀληθὴς λόγος βοᾷ καὶ κέκραγεν, μονονουχὶ φωνὴν ἀφιείς, θνητοὺς ἄνδρας μαρτυρῶν γεγονέναι τοὺς δηλουμένους. ὁ δὲ Πλούταρχος καὶ τῶν σωμάτων αὐτῶν ἐκ περιουσίας τὸν ποιὸν ὑπογράφει τοῦ σχήματος χαρακτῆρα, ἐν τοῖς Περὶ τῆς Ἴσιδος καὶ τῶν Αἰγυπτίων θεῶν ὧδέ πως λέγων· 3.3.16 «Ἱστοροῦσι γὰρ Αἰγύπτιοι τὸν μὲν Ἑρμῆν τῷ σώματι γενέσθαι γαλιάγκωνα, τὸν δὲ Τυφῶνα τῇ χροιᾷ πυρρόν, λευκὸν δὲ τὸν Ἄρην καὶ μελάγχρουν τὸν Ὄσιριν, ὡς τῇ φύσει γεγονότας ἀνθρώπους.» 3.3.17 Ταῦτα καὶ ὁ Πλούταρχος. νεκρῶν ἄρα ἡ πᾶσα αὐτῶν θεοποιία καθέστηκεν· πέπλασται δὲ αὐτοῖς τὰ τῆς φυσιολογίας. τί γὰρ χρῆν ἀνδρῶν καὶ γυναικῶν σχήματα ζῳοπλαστεῖν, παρὸν καὶ δίχα τούτων ἥλιον σέβειν καὶ σελήνην 3.3.18 καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τοῦ κόσμου στοιχεῖα; ποτέροις δὲ τούτων καὶ ἐκ τίνων ἀρξάμενοι τὰς τοιάσδε προσηγορίας ἐπεφήμισαν; οἷον λέγω τὸν Ἥφαιστον καὶ τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν ∆ία τε καὶ Ποσειδῶνα καὶ Ἥραν. ἆρα γὰρ ταῦτα τῶν καθόλου στοιχείων πρότερον ὄντα ὀνόματα δεύτερον αὐτὰ τοῖς θνητοῖς ὁμωνύμως τοῖς οὐρανίοις ἐπιτεθείκασιν, ἢ τοὔμπαλιν ἐκ τῆς παρ' ἀνθρώποις ἐπικλήσεως τὴν 3.3.19 μεταφορὰν ἐπὶ τὰς οὐσίας πεποίηνται; καὶ τί χρὴ θνηταῖς προσηγορίαις τὰς καθόλου φύσεις ἐπιφημίζειν; τὰ δὲ καθ' ἕκαστον θεὸν μυστήρια οἵ τε ὕμνοι καὶ αἱ ᾠδαὶ καὶ τῶν τελετῶν τὰ ἀπόρρητα πότερον τῶν καθόλου στοιχείων ἢ τῶν πάλαι θνητῶν ἀνδρῶν τῶν τοῖς θεοῖς ὁμωνύμων ἐπάγονται 3.3.20 τὰ σύμβολα; ἀλλὰ γὰρ πλάνας καὶ μέθας καὶ ἔρωτας φθοράς τε γυναικῶν καὶ ἀνδρῶν ἐπιβουλὰς καὶ μυρία ἄττα, θνητὰ ὡς ἀληθῶς καὶ αἰσχρὰ καὶ ἄσεμνα, πῶς ἄν τις ἀναθείη τοῖς καθόλου στοιχείοις, αὐτόθεν τὸ θνητὸν καὶ ἀνθρω3.3.21 ποπαθὲς ἐπενηνεγμένα; ὥστε ἐκ τούτων ἁπάντων ἁλίσκεσθαι τὴν θαυμαστὴν ταύτην καὶ γενναίαν φυσιολογίαν κατ' οὐδὲν ἀληθείας ἡμμένην οὐδέ τι θεῖον ἀληθῶς ἐπαγομένην, βεβιασμένην δὲ καὶ διεψευσμένην ἔχουσαν τὴν ἔξωθεν σεμνολογίαν.