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heavenly, Osiris is the Nile, which they think is brought down from heaven; and they mourn for him too, propitiating his power as it ceases and is consumed. Isis, who is mingled with Osiris in the myths, is the Egyptian earth, wherefore she is watered and conceives and brings forth the fruits; for which reason Osiris has been handed down as the husband of Isis and her brother and son. 3.12.1 In the city of Elephantine an image is honored, molded, but in human form and seated, blue in color, having the head of a ram and a royal headdress with goat's horns, upon which is a disc-shaped circle. He sits beside a potter's vessel, on which he is molding a man. That he has the face of a ram and the horns of a goat signifies the conjunction of the sun and moon in the Ram; and the blue color, that the moon in con3.12.2 junction is a water-bringer. The second light of the moon is consecrated in the city of Apollo; and its symbol is a man with the face of a hawk, overpowering with a spear Typhon, who is represented as a hippopotamus. The statue is white in color, the whiteness representing that the moon is illuminated, and the hawk's face that it is illuminated by the sun and receives spirit. For they consecrate the hawk to the sun; and for them the hawk is a symbol of light and spirit, both because of its swift motion and because it soars up to the height, where the light is; the hippopotamus signifies the western pole, 3.12.3 from its swallowing into itself those who revolve around it. The god honored in this city is Horus. The city of Eileithyia worships the third light; and the wooden image is fashioned into a flying vulture, whose plumage is composed of precious stones. Its vulture-like form signifies the moon as generative of spirits; for they think that the vulture conceives from the wind, declaring them all to be fe3.12.4males. In the Eleusinian mysteries, the Hierophant is arrayed in the image of the Demiurge, the Torch-bearer in that of the sun; 3.12.5 and the one at the altar in that of the moon, and the Herald in that of Hermes. And a man, too, among the Egyptians has been included in their sacred rites. For Anabis is a village of Egypt, in which a man is worshipped, and sacrifice is offered to him, and the victims are burned upon the altars; and a little after he would eat the things prepared for him as for a man. 3.12.6 That they do not consider the animals themselves to be gods, but made them images and symbols of gods, is shown by the fact that in many places oxen, having been consecrated to the gods, are sacrificed to them on the new moons and in their religious services. For to the sun and moon they consecrated oxen. 3.13.1 But the one dedicated to the sun in Heliopolis, called Mnevis, is the largest of oxen, exceedingly black, especially because the intense sun also blackens human bodies. He has a tail different from other oxen and his whole body has hair growing backwards, just as the sun makes its course opposite to the pole; and his testicles are very large, since the desire for sensual pleasure is produced by heat, 3.13.2 and the sun is said to impregnate nature. To the moon they dedicated a bull, which they name Apis, who is also blacker than the others, bearing marks of the sun and moon, because the light of the moon is also from the sun; a mark of the sun is the blackness of his body and the beetle under his tongue; and a symbol of the moon is what is both halved and gibbous.” 3.13.3 Let these things be abridged by me from the writing of the aforementioned man, so that none of the secret doctrines of the Greek and Egyptian theology together may escape us, from which we confess ourselves to be apostates and fugitives, having rejected these things too by sound judgment and 3.13.4 sober reasoning. For the boastful voice will not startle me, saying, "I will speak to those to whom it is lawful; but put doors upon yourselves, you profane." Profane, therefore, are not we, but they who declared such shameful and unseemly mythologies about beetles and irrational beasts to be the thoughts of theological wisdom, who, according to the wonderful apostle, "professing themselves to be wise, they became fools; because they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into a likeness of an image 3.13.5 of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts

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οὐρανίαν, Ὄσιρίς ἐστιν ὁ Νεῖλος, ὃν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ καταφέρεσθαι οἴονται· πενθοῦσι δὲ καὶ τοῦτον, ἀπομειλισσόμενοι τὴν δύναμιν λήγουσαν καὶ ἀναλισκομένην. ἡ δὲ ἐν τοῖς μύθοις μισγομένη τῷ Ὀσίριδι Ἶσις ἡ Αἰγυπτία ἐστὶν γῆ, διόπερ ἰσοῦται καὶ κυεῖ καὶ ποιεῖ τοὺς καρπούς· διὸ ἀνὴρ τῆς Ἴσιδος Ὄσιρις καὶ ἀδελφὸς καὶ υἱὸς παραδέδοται. 3.12.1 Κατὰ δὲ τὴν Ἐλεφαντίνην πόλιν τετίμηται ἄγαλμα, πεπλασμένον μέν, ἀλλὰ ἀνδρείκελον καὶ καθήμενον κυανοῦν τε τὴν χρόαν, κεφαλὴν δὲ κριοῦ κεκτημένον καὶ βασίλειον κέρατα τράγεια ἔχον, οἷς ἔπεστι κύκλος δισκοειδής. κάθηται δὲ παρακειμένου κεραμέου ἀγγείου, ἐφ' οὗ ἄνθρωπον ἀναπλάσσει. δηλοῖ δὲ ἀπὸ μὲν τοῦ κριοῦ πρόσωπον ἔχειν καὶ αἰγὸς κέρατα τὴν ἐν κριῷ σύνοδον ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης· τὸ δὲ ἐκ κυανοῦ χρῶμα, ὅτι ὑδραγωγὸς ἐν συνόδῳ ἡ σε3.12.2 λήνη. τὸ δὲ δεύτερον φῶς τῆς σελήνης ἐν Ἀπόλλωνος μὲν πόλει καθιέρωται· ἔστι δὲ τούτου σύμβολον ἱερακοπρόσωπος ἄνθρωπος ζιβύνῃ χειρούμενος Τυφῶνα ἱπποποτάμῳ εἰκασμένον. λευκὸν δὲ τῇ χρόᾳ τὸ ἄγαλμα, τῆς μὲν λευκότητος τὸ φωτίζεσθαι τὴν σελήνην παραστησάσης, τοῦ δὲ ἱερακείου προσώπου τὸ ἀφ' ἡλίου φωτίζεσθαι καὶ πνεῦμα λαμβάνειν. τὸν γὰρ ἱέρακα ἡλίῳ ἀφιεροῦσιν· φωτὸς δὲ καὶ πνεύματος ἱέραξ αὐτοῖς σύμβολον διά τε τὴν ὀξυκινησίαν καὶ τὸ πρὸς ὕψος ἀνατρέχειν, ἔνθα τὸ φῶς· ὁ δ' ἱπποπόταμος τὸν δυτικὸν δηλοῖ πόλον, 3.12.3 παρὰ τὸ καταπίνειν εἰς ἑαυτὸν τοὺς περιπολοῦντας. θεὸς δὲ τιμᾶται ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ ὁ Ὧρος. ἡ δὲ τῆς Εἰλειθυίας πόλις τὸ τρίτον φῶς θεραπεύει· τὸ δὲ ξόανον τετύπωται εἰς γῦπα πετομένην, ἧς τὸ πτέρωμα ἐκ σπουδαίων συνέστηκε λίθων. σημαίνει δὲ τὸ μὲν γυποειδὲς αὐτῆς τὴν γεννητικὴν πνευμάτων σελήνην· ἐκ γὰρ τοῦ πνεύματος οἴονται συλλαμβάνειν τὸν γῦπα, θη3.12.4 λείας πάσας ἀποφαινόμενοι. ἐν δὲ τοῖς κατ' Ἐλευσῖνα μυστηρίοις ὁ μὲν ἱεροφάντης εἰς εἰκόνα τοῦ δημιουργοῦ ἐνσκευάζεται, δᾳδοῦχος δὲ εἰς τὴν ἡλίου· 3.12.5 καὶ ὁ μὲν ἐπὶ βωμῷ εἰς τὴν σελήνης, ὁ δὲ ἱεροκῆρυξ Ἑρμοῦ. καὶ ἄνθρωπος δὲ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς παρείληπται. Ἄναβις γάρ ἐστι κώμη Αἰγύπτου, ἐν ᾗ θεραπεύεται ἄνθρωπος καὶ θύεται τούτῳ καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν βωμῶν τὰ ἱερεῖα καίεται· ὁ δὲ μετ' ὀλίγον φάγοι ἂν τὰ ὡς ἀνθρώπῳ αὐτῷ παρεσκευα3.12.6 σμένα. ὅτι δὲ οὐδὲ τὰ ζῷα θεοὺς ἡγοῦνται, εἰκόνας δὲ ἐποιοῦντο καὶ σύμβολα ταῦτα θεῶν, δηλοῖ τὸ πολλαχοῦ βοῦς ἀναχθέντας θεοῖς ἐν ταῖς ἱερομηνίαις καὶ ταῖς πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς θρησκείαις βουθυτεῖν. ἡλίῳ μὲν γὰρ καὶ σελήνῃ βοῦς ἀνιέρωσαν. 3.13.1 Ἀλλ' ὅ γε ἡλίῳ ἀνακείμενος ἐν Ἡλίου πόλει καλούμενος Μνεῦις βοῶν ἐστι μέγιστος, σφόδρα μέλας, μάλιστα ὅτι καὶ ὁ ἥλιος ὁ πολὺς μελαίνει τὰ ἀνθρώπεια σώματα. ἔχει δὲ τὴν οὐρὰν παρὰ τοὺς ἄλλους βοῦς καὶ τὸ πᾶν σῶμα ἀνάτριχον, καθάπερ ὁ ἥλιος τὸν ἐναντίον τῷ πόλῳ ποιεῖται δρόμον· τούς τε ὄρχεις μεγίστους, ἐπειδήπερ ὁ περὶ τὰ ἀφροδίσια ἵμερος γίνεται ὑπὸ θερμότη3.13.2 τος ὅ τε ἥλιος σπερμαίνειν λέγεται τὴν φύσιν. σελήνῃ δὲ ταῦρον ἀνέθεσαν, ὃν Ἆπιν ἐπονομάζουσιν, μέλανα μὲν καὶ αὐτὸν ὑπὲρ τοὺς ἄλλους, φέροντα δὲ σημεῖα ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης, ὅτι καὶ τῆς σελήνης τὸ φῶς ἐξ ἡλίου· ἡλίου δὲ σημεῖον τὸ μέλαν τοῦ σώματος καὶ ὁ ὑπὸ τὴν γλῶτταν κάνθαρος· σελήνης δὲ σύμβολον τό τε διχότομον καὶ ἀμφίκυρτον.» 3.13.3 Ταῦτά μοι ἐκ τῆς τοῦ προειρημένου ἀνδρὸς γραφῆς ἐπιτετμήσθω, ὡς ἂν μηδὲν ἡμᾶς λάθοι τῶν ἀπορρήτων τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς ὁμοῦ καὶ Αἰγυπτιακῆς θεολογίας, ἧς ἀποστάτας ἑαυτοὺς καὶ φυγάδας ὁμολογοῦμεν, κρίσει καὶ 3.13.4 λογισμῷ σώφρονι καὶ τάδε παραιτησάμενοι. οὐ γάρ με ἡ ἀλαζὼν ἐκπλήξει φωνή, φθέγξομαι οἷς θέμις ἐστί, θύρας δ' ἐπίθεσθε βέβηλοι φήσασα. βέβηλοι γοῦν οὐχ ἡμεῖς, ἀλλ' οἵ γε τοιάσδε αἰσχρὰς καὶ ἀπρεπεῖς μυθολογίας κανθάρων πέρι καὶ θηρίων ἀλόγων σοφίας θεολόγου νοήματα εἶναι ἀποφηνάμενοι, οἳ κατὰ τὸν θαυμάσιον ἀπόστολον «φάσκοντες εἶναι σοφοὶ ἐμωράνθησαν· ὅτι δὴ ἤλλαξαν τὴν δόξαν τοῦ ἀφθάρτου θεοῦ ἐν ὁμοιώματι εἰκόνος 3.13.5 φθαρτοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ πετεινῶν καὶ τετραπόδων