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[HOMILY 6.] And on the third day, having come with my closest friends to the appointed place in Tyre, I find Appion sitting between Annoubion and Athenodorus, and with many other men of culture waiting for us. And yet, not at all dismayed, having greeted them, I sit down opposite Appion, who not long after began to speak: I wish, being the first to begin, to come quickly from this point to the matter in question. Before you were present with us, my child Clement, this Annoubion and Athenodorus, who yesterday along with the others heard you discoursing, related to me how in Rome, when associating with you as with a lover of truth, I spoke many falsehoods about the gods, saying they were pederasts, licentious, having intercourse with mothers, sisters, daughters, and being involved in countless adulteries. But you should have known, O child, that I wrote not thinking such things about the gods, but out of affection for you I concealed speaking the truth, which, if you now wish, hear from me. The wisest of the men of old, having themselves learned all truth with toil, concealed the knowledge from the unworthy and those not aspiring to divine learning. For neither were twelve children born from Ouranos and his mother Gaea, as the myth recounts: males, Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Cronus; and females, Theia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Demeter, Tethys, Rhea; nor did Cronus, having cut off the genitals of his father Ouranos with the adamantine sickle (as you say), throw them into the deep. Nor was Aphrodite born from the flowing drops of blood from the castration of Ouranos; nor again did Cronus, having united with Rhea and having first begotten Plouton, swallow him, on account of some oracle of Prometheus, fearing that someday an infant born from him, having become nobler than him, might deprive him of his kingdom. Nor having begotten Poseidon second did he likewise swallow him. Nor after these, when Zeus was born, did his mother Rhea, having hidden him, give a stone instead to Cronus who demanded to swallow him. Nor was it swallowed and, pressing on those previously swallowed, pushed them out, so that first Plouton came forth, who was first swallowed, and after him Poseidon [and third, Zeus]. Nor indeed (as they say) was Zeus saved by his mother's foresight, and having ascended to heaven, did he depose his father from his kingdom. He did not punish his father's brothers. He did not descend out of desire for mortal women. He did not shamefully have intercourse with sisters or daughters, not with his brothers' wives, not with boys. Nor did he beget Metis and swallow her, in order that he might bring forth Athena from his brain from Metis, and give birth to Dionysus from his thigh, who they say was torn to pieces by the Titans. He did not hold a banquet at the wedding of Thetis and Peleus. He did not thrust Eris away from the wedding. Nor did this Eris, having been dishonored, contrive a battle and strife for those feasting. Nor, taking a golden apple from the gardens of the Hesperides, did she inscribe "A gift for the fair." Then they tell a myth how Hera and Athena and Aphrodite find the apple and, quarreling, they come to Zeus; for whom he himself did not judge, but through Hermes to

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[OΜIΛIA Ϛ.] Τρίτῃ δὲ ἡμέρᾳ εἰς τὸ προωρισμένον τῆς Τύρου χωρίον σὺν τοῖς οἰκειοτάτοις ἐλθὼν ἔγωγε εὑρίσκω τὸν Ἀππίωνα, Ἀννουβίωνός τε καὶ Ἀθηνοδώρου καθεζόμενον μέσον καὶ μετὰ πολλῶν ἄλλων τῶν ἐκ παι- δείας ἀνδρῶν ἡμᾶς ἀναμενόντων. καὶ ὅμως οὐδὲν καταπλαγεὶς προσα- γορεύσας ἀντικαθέζομαι τῷ Ἀππίωνι, ὃς μετ' οὐ πολὺ λέγειν ἤρξατο· Βούλομαι πρῶτος ἀρξάμενος ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη ταχέως ἐλθεῖν ἐπὶ τὸ ζητού- μενον. πρὸ τοῦ σε, τέκνον Κλήμης, ἡμῖν παρεῖναι, Ἀννουβίων οὗτος καὶ Ἀθηνόδωρος, οἱ χθὲς ἅμα τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐπακούσαντές σου διαλεγομένου, ἀφηγήσαντό μοι, πῶς ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ συνερχόμενός σοι ὡς ἐρῶντι πολλὰ τῶν θεῶν κατεψευσάμην, εἰπὼν αὐτοὺς παιδεράστας, ἀσελγεῖς, μιγνυμέ- νους μητράσιν ἀδελφαῖς θυγατράσιν καὶ μυρίαις μοιχείαις ἐνεχομένους. ἀλλ' ἐχρῆν σε, ὦ τέκνον, εἰδέναι ὅτι μὴ τοιαῦτα περὶ θεῶν φρονῶν ἔγρα- φον, ἀλλὰ στοργῇ τῇ πρὸς σὲ τὰ ἀληθῆ λέγειν ἀπεκρυπτόμην, ἅπερ, εἰ νῦν ἐθέλεις, παρ' ἐμοῦ ἄκουσον. Τῶν πάλαι ἀνδρῶν οἱ σοφώτατοι, πᾶσαν ἀλήθειαν αὐτοὶ καμάτῳ μεμαθηκότες, τοὺς ἀναξίους καὶ μὴ ὀρεγομένους θείων μαθημάτων ἀπεκρύ- ψαντο τὴν ἐπιστήμην λαβεῖν. οὔτε γὰρ ἀπ' Oὐρανοῦ καὶ τῆς μητρὸς αὐτοῦ Γῆς γεγόνασιν παῖδες δώδεκα, ὡς ὁ μῦθος καταριθμεῖ· ἄρρενες μὲν Ὠκεανός, Κοῖος, Κρῖος, Ὑπερίων, Ἰαπετός, Κρόνος· θήλειαι δὲ Θεία, Θέμις, Μνημο- σύνη, ∆ημήτηρ, Τηθύς, Ῥέα· οὔτε τῇ ἐξ ἀδάμαντος ἅρπῃ τὰ αἰδοῖα Κρόνος Oὐρανοῦ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐκτεμών (ὥς φατε) εἰς βυθὸν ἀπέρριψεν. ἀλλ' οὐδ' ἐκ τῆς ἀποτομῆς τοῦ Oὐρανοῦ σταγόνων ῥυέντος αἵματος ἡ Ἀφροδίτη ἐγένετο οὐδ' αὖ Κρόνος τῇ Ῥέᾳ μιγεὶς καὶ γεννήσας Πλούτωνα πρῶτον κατέπιεν, διά τινα Προμηθέως θεσμὸν, δεδιὼς μήποτε γεννηθὲν ἐξ αὐτοῦ βρέφος γενναιότερον αὐτοῦ γενόμενον ἀφέληται αὐτὸν τῆς βασιλείας. οὐ τὸν Πο- σειδῶνα δεύτερον γεννήσας ὁμοίως κατέπιεν. οὐ μετὰ τούτους τὸν ∆ία γεννηθέντα ἡ μήτηρ κατακρύψασα ἡ Ῥέα ἀπαιτήσαντι τῷ Κρόνῳ κατα- πιεῖν λίθον ἀντέδωκεν. οὐ καταποθεὶς τοὺς προκαταποθέντας θλίψας ἐξῶσεν, ὡς προελθεῖν πρῶτον μὲν τὸν πρῶτον καταποθέντα Πλούτωνα, ἐπ' αὐτῷ δὲ Ποσειδῶνα [καὶ τρίτον τὸν ∆ία]. οὐδέ γε (ὥς φασιν) μητρὸς προνοίᾳ διασωθεὶς ὁ Ζεὺς καὶ εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀναβάς, τὸν πατέρα τῆς βασι- λείας καθεῖλεν. οὐ πατρὸς ἀδελφοὺς ἐκόλασεν. οὐκ εἰς πόθον γυναικῶν θνητῶν κατῆλθεν. οὐκ ἀδελφαῖς ἢ θυγατράσιν, οὐκ ἀδελφῶν γυναιξίν, οὐ παισὶν αἰσχρῶς συνεγένετο. οὐδὲ Μῆτιν γεννήσας κατέπιεν, ἵνα ἀπ' ἐνκεφάλου μὲν τὴν Ἀθηνᾶν ἀναφύσῃ ἐκ τῆς Μήτιδος, ἐκ δὲ τοῦ μηροῦ τὸν ∆ιόνυσον τέκῃ, ὃν ὑπὸ Τιτάνων ἐσπαράχθαι λέγουσιν. οὐ δεῖπνον ἐπὶ τῷ Θέτιδος καὶ Πηλέως γάμῳ συντελεῖ. οὐ τὴν Ἔριν τῶν γάμων ἀπεώσατο. οὐχ αὕτη ἡ Ἔρις ἀτιμασθεῖσα μάχην καὶ στάσιν τοῖς ἑστιωμένοις ἐπενόησεν. οὐ μῆλον χρύσεον ἐκ τῶν Ἑσπερίδων κήπων λαβοῦσα ἐπέγραψεν «∆ῶρον τῇ καλῇ». ἔπειτα μυθολογοῦσιν ὡς Ἥρα τε καὶ Ἀθηνᾶ καὶ Ἀφροδίτη εὑρίσκουσι τὸ μῆλον καὶ φιλονεικοῦσαι ἔρχονται πρὸς τὸν ∆ία· αἷς αὐτὸς μὲν οὐκ ἔκρινεν, δι' Ἑρμοῦ δὲ πρὸς