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Again: "Look up on high with your eyes and see who has shown all these things." 3.10.13 So let these things have been said for the first interpretation of the verses; but come, let us also examine what follows. Since it was not possible, he says, to create such an image as the account indicated, for this reason they have made the image of Zeus anthropomorphic, because he was mind, according to which he created, and by seminal 3.10.14 principles he accomplished all things. And how, if it was not possible to make such an image as the account indicated—and it indicated, indeed, the parts of the visible and seen world, heaven and the things in heaven, and air and earth and the things in them—if, then, it was not possible to construct an image of the visible parts of the world, inasmuch as God was mind, how could anyone create 3.10.15 His image? And what would a human body have in resemblance to the mind of God? For I do not think it has any even to the human mind; since the one is bodiless and uncompounded and indivisible, but the work of artisans has imitated the nature of a mortal body and has delineated a deaf and speechless 3.10.16 image of living flesh with lifeless and dead matter. A rational and immortal soul, and an impassible mind in human nature, seems to me to be well said to preserve the image and likeness of God, inasmuch as its substance is constituted immaterial and incorporeal, intellectual and rational, 3.10.17 being receptive of virtue and wisdom. If, then, anyone were able to fashion a statue and form of a soul in an image, he might also be able to do something of what is better; but if the human mind is formless and without shape and unfigured, neither visible to sight nor its substance comprehensible by reason and hearing, who would be so mad as to declare that the man-like wooden image bears the form and image of the most high 3.10.18 God? The nature of God, then, is conceived of outside of all mortal matter, conceived by a clear mind and in silence by purified souls; but the shape of the visible Zeus in the image would be an image of a man mortal by nature, and not even the whole man, but imitating a certain worse part of him, 3.10.19 because it bears no trace of life and soul. How, then, could the God over all and the creative mind of all things be himself the Zeus in the bronze or the dead ivory? And how, indeed, could the creative mind of all things ever be that Zeus, the father of Heracles by Alcmene, and of the other men fabled to be from Zeus, who, having ended their mortal life in common with all men, have left behind ineffaceable monuments of their own nature for those after 3.10.20 them? The first theologians of the Phoenicians, then, as we have shown in the first book, recorded Zeus as the son of Cronus, a mortal born from a mortal, a man Phoenician by race, and the Egyptians, claiming the man as their own, likewise confessed him to be mortal, agreeing with the Phoenicians at least 3.10.21 on this point. But also the Cretans, showing the tomb of Zeus among them, would be the third witnesses of the same thing; and the Atlanteans and all those previously mentioned, claiming Zeus according to their own history, all together declared him mortal, recording his deeds as mortal and human, and not at all venerable or philosophical, but full of all baseness and licentiousness. 3.10.22 But to those who professed to turn the myths to a more venerable meaning, at one time Zeus was a certain hot and fiery power, at another time the spirit; and now 3.10.23 I know not how the creative mind of all things has been revealed to them. We must therefore ask whom they would call his father, and the father of his father; since according to all the theologians Zeus is acknowledged to be the son of Cronus, and the verses of Orpheus before us have mentioned "the mighty son of Cronus," 3.10.24 and Cronus the son of Uranus. Let it be granted to them, then, that Zeus is the God over all and the mind that created all things. Who then is his father? Cronus. And who is his grandfather? Uranus. But if Zeus is first, as being the creator of all things, it was surely necessary that those made by him should be reckoned second and after 3.10.25 him. For whether Cronus were some time, being by nature the offspring of Uranus

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αὖθις· «ἀναβλέψατε εἰς ὕψος τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑμῶν καὶ ἴδετε τίς κατέδειξεν ταῦτα πάντα.» 3.10.13 Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν εἰς τὴν πρώτην τῶν ἐπῶν ἑρμηνείαν εἰρήσθω· φέρε δὲ 3.10.13 καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς διασκοπήσωμεν. ἐπεὶ μὴ οἷόν τε ἦν, φησίν, εἰκόνα τοιαύτην δημιουργεῖν οἵαν ὁ λόγος ἐμήνυσεν, διὰ τοῦτο ἀνθρωπόμορφον τοῦ ∆ιὸς τὸ δείκηλον πεποιήκασιν, ὅτι νοῦς ἦν, καθ' ὃν ἐδημιούργει, καὶ λόγοις σπερ3.10.14 ματικοῖς ἀπετέλει τὰ πάντα. καὶ πῶς εἰ μὴ οἷόν τε ἦν εἰκόνα τοιαύτην ποιεῖν οἵαν ὁ λόγος ἐμήνυσεν ἐμήνυσεν δὲ ἄρα τοῦ φαινομένου καὶ ὁρωμένου κόσμου τὰ μέρη, οὐρανὸν καὶ τὰ ἐν οὐρανῷ ἀέρα τε καὶ γῆν καὶ τὰ ἐν τούτοις· εἰ δὴ οὖν τῶν ὁρωμένων τοῦ κόσμου μερῶν οὐχ οἷόν τε ἦν εἰκόνα συστήσασθαι, καθὸ νοῦς ἦν ὁ θεός, πῶς ἄν τις τὴν εἰκόνα αὐτοῦ δημιουργή3.10.15 σειεν; τί δ' ἂν ἔχοι σῶμα ἀνθρώπειον ἐμφερὲς πρὸς τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ νοῦν; ἐγὼ μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ πρὸς τὸν ἀνθρώπινον ἡγοῦμαι· ἐπεὶ ὁ μὲν ἀσώματος καὶ ἀσύνθετος καὶ ἀμερής, τὸ δὲ βαναύσων ἀνδρῶν ἔργον θνητοῦ σώματος φύσιν ἀπομεμίμηται καὶ ζώσης σαρκὸς ἀψύχῳ καὶ νεκρᾷ ὕλῃ κωφὴν καὶ ἄναυδον 3.10.16 εἰκόνα καταγέγραπται. ψυχὴ μὲν οὖν λογικὴ καὶ ἀθάνατος καὶ νοῦς ἀπαθὴς ἐν ἀνθρώπου φύσει εὖ μοι δοκεῖ λέγεσθαι εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν ἀποσῴζειν θεοῦ, καθ' ὅσον ἄυλος καὶ ἀσώματος νοερά τε καὶ λογικὴ τὴν οὐσίαν συνέστη3.10.17 κεν, ἀρετῆς οὖσα καὶ σοφίας δεκτική. εἰ δή τις εἴη δυνατὸς ψυχῆς ἄγαλμα καὶ μορφὴν ἐν εἰκόνι τεκτήνασθαι, δύναιτ' ἂν οὗτος καί τι τῶν κρειττόνων· εἰ δὲ ἄμορφος καὶ ἀειδὴς καὶ ἀσχημάτιστος, οὔτε ὁράσει θεωρητὸς οὔτε λόγῳ καὶ ἀκοῇ τὴν οὐσίαν καταληπτὸς ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς, τίς ἂν μανείη τοσοῦτον ὡς τὸ ἀνδρείκελον ξόανον θεοῦ τοῦ ἀνωτάτω μορφὴν καὶ εἰκόνα 3.10.18 φέρειν ἀποφήνασθαι; θεοῦ μὲν οὖν φύσις ἔξω πάσης θνητῆς ὕλης φαντάζεται, νῷ διαυγεῖ καὶ σιγῇ ψυχαῖς κεκαθαρμέναις ἐπινοουμένη· τὸ δέ γε τοῦ ὁρωμένου ∆ιὸς ἐν τῷ δεικήλῳ σχῆμα εἴη ἂν θνητοῦ τὴν φύσιν ἀνδρὸς εἰκὼν οὐδὲ τὸν ὅλον ἄνθρωπον, μέρος δέ τι τὸ χεῖρον αὐτοῦ μεμιμημένον, 3.10.19 ὅτι μηδὲν ἴχνος ζωῆς καὶ ψυχῆς ἐπάγεται. πῶς οὖν ὁ ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς καὶ νοῦς ὁ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργικὸς εἴη ἂν αὐτὸς ὁ ἐν τῷ χαλκῷ ἢ τῷ νεκρῷ ἐλέφαντι Ζεύς; ὁ δὲ δὴ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργικὸς νοῦς πῶς ποτε αὐτὸς ἦν ἄρα ἐκεῖνος ὁ Ζεὺς ὁ τοῦ ἐξ Ἀλκμήνης Ἡρακλέος πατὴρ καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἐκ ∆ιὸς μυθευομένων ἀνδρῶν, οἳ τὸν θνητὸν βίον κοινῶς ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις κατα στρέψαντες τῆς οἰκείας φύσεως ἀνεξάλειπτα τοῖς μετ' αὐτοὺς μνημεῖα κατα3.10.20 λελοίπασι; Φοινίκων μὲν οὖν οἱ πρῶτοι θεολόγοι, ὡς ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ συγγράμματι παρεστήσαμεν, τὸν ∆ία παῖδα Κρόνου θνητὸν ἀπὸ θνητοῦ γενόμενον, ἄνδρα Φοίνικα τὸ γένος, ἀπεμνημόνευον, Αἰγύπτιοι δὲ ἐξοικειούμενοι τὸν ἄνδρα θνητὸν πάλιν αὐτὸν ὡμολόγουν, κατὰ τοῦτό γε Φοίνιξιν ὁμοφω3.10.21 νοῦντες. ἀλλὰ καὶ Κρῆτες τάφον τοῦ ∆ιὸς παρ' ἑαυτοῖς δεικνύντες τρίτοι ἂν εἶεν τοῦ αὐτοῦ μάρτυρες· καὶ Ἀτλάντειοι δὲ καὶ πάντες οἱ πρὸ τούτου δεδηλωμένοι, κατ' οἰκείαν ἱστορίαν ἐξοικειούμενοι τὸν ∆ία πάντες ὁμοῦ θνητὸν ἀπεφήναντο, πράξεις αὐτοῦ θνητὰς καὶ ἀνθρωπείους, ἀλλ' οὐ σεμνάς τινας οὐδὲ φιλοσόφους, αἰσχρουργίας δὲ ἁπάσης καὶ ἀκολασίας ἔμπλεως ἀναγρά3.10.22 ψαντες. τοῖς δ' ἐπὶ τὸ σεμνότερον τοὺς μύθους τρέπειν ἐπηγγελμένοις τοτὲ μὲν ὁ Ζεὺς θερμή τις ἦν καὶ πυρώδης δύναμις, τοτὲ δὲ τὸ πνεῦμα· νῦν δ' 3.10.23 οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως αὐτοῖς ὁ τῶν ὅλων δημιουργικὸς νοῦς ἀναπέφανται. πευστέον τοιγαροῦν τίνα ἂν εἴποιεν τὸν τούτου πατέρα καὶ τοῦ πατρὸς τὸν προπάτορα· ἐπεὶ κατὰ πάντας τοὺς θεολόγους Ζεὺς Κρόνου παῖς ὁμολογεῖται καὶ τά γε προκείμενα τοῦ Ὀρφέως ἔπη «ὑπερμενέος Κρονίωνος» ἐμνημόνευσεν, 3.10.24 Κρόνος δὲ Οὐρανοῦ. δεδόσθω τοίνυν αὐτοῖς εἶναι ὁ Ζεὺς ὁ ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς καὶ νοῦς ὁ τὰ πάντα δημιουργήσας. τίς οὖν ὁ τούτου πατήρ; Κρόνος. τίς δὲ ὁ προπάτωρ; Οὐρανός. εἰ δὲ πρῶτος ὁ Ζεὺς ὡς ἂν δημιουργὸς ἁπάντων, χρῆν δή που δευτέρους καταλέγεσθαι καὶ μετ' αὐτὸν τοὺς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ 3.10.25 πεποιημένους. εἴτε γὰρ χρόνος τις εἴη ὁ Κρόνος Οὐρανοῦ πεφυκὼς γέννημα