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to children, and through the material of their own craft they fashioned gods, the potter from clay, the carpenter from wood, the goldsmith from gold and the silversmith likewise. 103.1 Furthermore, again each person depicted their own passion in shapes before their own eyes, a bloodthirsty man speaking of Ares, an adulterer or adulteress of the common Aphrodite, a ty103.2rant depicting Victory with wings. For the parched and one gaping for the things of life drew the image of Cronus, while the effeminate man drew Cybele and Rhea on account of the fluid, I suppose, of the promiscuity from bodies. 103.3 And another, a male or female rover, prefigured Artemis the huntress and drunken Dionysus and much-toiling Heracles, and some promiscuous person Zeus and 103.4 Apollo. And why should I speak of the multitudes of the myriad passions existing in humans? But more than all, the Egyptians, having gone astray, venerated not only their own passions, but also winged creatures and quadrupeds, both land and water animals and certain untamable beasts and those things given over to them as slaves 103.5 by the holy God in their order they "exchanged"; and as they are brutish in their mind they act with extreme impiety, deifying the animals among them and not being ashamed: the barking dog, the reptile-eating cat, the licentious goat, the bleating sheep, the very-cloven and most unsmiling crocodile, the venom-eating ibis and the kite and the hawk and the crow, the most slavish, and the crooked and 103.6 most unpleasant serpent. And in short, O the great shame of those who neither by sight perceive their own refutation, nor by hearing receive perception, nor by mind * comprehend the things vainly happen103.7ing among them. Therefore, they are struck by an evil fate, neither being illuminated by their own philosophers nor becoming fellow spectators of the encyclicals 103.8 of the truth. For they do not hear of Diagoras, who, because of a lack of wood, burned his own Heracles, which was wooden, and mockingly said to it: "Come now, Heracles, performing your thirteenth labor, come forward to boil our relish for us"; which indeed he took and split into pieces, laughing at his own god as not existing, and jesting, he fed himself on the breakfast set before him. 104.1 Another, Heraclitus, says to the Egyptians: If they are gods, why do you lament them? For they mourn Typhon and Osiris and other chthonic beings, lamenting them shrilly as if they had been buried. Therefore this man says: If they are gods, why do you lament 104.2 them? But if they are dead, you lament them in vain. And another, a comic poet, Eudaemon by name, says "if there are gods, I am not able to speak about them nor to declare what sort of form they have. For there are many things that 104.3 hinder me". And Homer also says "the rule of many is not good". And Philemon, another comic poet, says "those who worship one god have good hopes 104.4 for salvation". For Apis, the straw-eating calf, is immediately struck in the thigh with a sword by Campys, the king of the Assyrians, 104.5 so that, if blood should flow, he might be proven not to be a god. And the followers of Cronus do not deny that their own god is imprisoned in iron chains, believing so. But if someone is in prison, it is not simply that he is subject to one who is greater, but such a one is in prison also as an evildoer. 104.6 And if I am to speak about * Isis, who is also called Atthis and Io, the daughter of Apis the Cappadocian who is also called Inachus, perhaps I am ashamed to proclaim their deeds; 104.7 yet I will not be ashamed to say what they are not ashamed to worship. But let the worshippers of this one and of Aphrogeneia be ashamed for their own daughters and wives and sisters, the 104.8 deeds of their gods

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τέκνοις καὶ διὰ τῆς ὕλης τῆς ἰδίας τεχνουργίας θεοὺς ἀνεπλάσαντο, καὶ κεραμεὺς μὲν ἐκ πηλοῦ, τέκτων ἐκ ξύλου, χρυσοχόος ἐκ χρυσίου καὶ ἀργυροκόπος ὡσαύτως. 103.1 ἔτι δὲ πάλιν ἕκαστος τὸ ἴδιον πάθος εἰς μορφοεμφερείας πρὸ τῶν ἰδίων ὀφθαλμῶν διέγραφεν, ὁ μὲν αἱμοβόρος τις ἀνὴρ Ἄρεα φάσκων, μοιχὸς δὲ ἢ μοιχὰς τὴν πολύκοινον Ἀφροδίτην, τύ103.2 ραννος δὲ Νίκην ἀναπτερώσας. αὐχμώδης γὰρ καὶ περὶ τὰ βιωτικὰ κεχηνὼς Κρόνου τὸν τύπον ἔγραφε, θηλυνόμενος δὲ Κυβέλην καὶ Ῥέαν διὰ τὸ ῥευστόν, οἶμαι, τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων πολυμιξίας. 103.3 ἄλλος τε ῥεμβὸς ἢ ῥεμβὰς Ἄρτεμιν κυνηγέτριαν προετύπου καὶ μέθυσον ∆ιόνυσον καὶ πολύμοχθον Ἡρακλέα, πολύμιξ δέ τις ∆ία καὶ 103.4 Ἀπόλλωνα. καὶ τί μοι τὰ πλήθη λέγειν μυρίων παθῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις ὑπαρχόντων; πλέον δὲ πάντων Αἰγύπτιοι πλανηθέντες οὐ μόνον τὰ ἴδια πάθη ἐσεβάσθησαν, ἀλλὰ πτηνὰ καὶ τετράποδα, χερσαῖά τε καὶ ἔνυδρα καὶ ἀτίθασσά τινα θηρία καὶ τὰ εἰς δοῦλα αὐτοῖς 103.5 ὑπὸ τοῦ ἁγίου θεοῦ παραδοθέντα τῇ τάξει «μετήλλαξαν»· καὶ ὡς ὄντες τῇ διανοίᾳ κτηνώδεις ὑπερασεβοῦσι, τὰ ζῷα τὰ παρ' αὐτοῖς θεοποιοῦντες καὶ οὐκ αἰσχυνόμενοι, κύνα τὸ ὑλακτικόν, αἴλουρον τὸ ἑρπετοφάγον, τράγον τὸ ἀκόλαστον, πρόβατον τὸ βληχρόν, κροκόδειλον τὸ πολυσχιδὲς καὶ ἀμειδέστατον, ἶβιν τὴν ἰοβόρον καὶ ἰκτῖνα καὶ ἱέρακα καὶ κόρακα τὰ δουλοπρεπέστατα, ὄφιν δὲ τὸ σκολιὸν καὶ 103.6 ἀηδέστατον. καὶ ἁπαξαπλῶς ὢ τῆς μεγάλης αἰσχύνης τῶν μήτε ὄψει τὸν ἑαυτῶν ἔλεγχον κατανοούντων καὶ μήτε ἀκοαῖς τὴν αἴσθησιν παραλαμβανόντων μήτε διανοίᾳ * τῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς ματαίως γινο103.7 μένων συνιέντων. κακῷ γοῦν μόρῳ πεπληγμένοι εἰσὶ μηδὲ τοῖς ἰδίοις φιλοσόφοις ἐγκαταυγαζόμενοι μηδὲ τοῖς τῆς ἀληθείας ἐγκυκλη103.8 ταῖς συνθεαταὶ γινόμενοι. οὐκ ἀκούουσι γὰρ ∆ιαγόρου τοῦ τὸν ἴδιον Ἡρακλέα ξύλινον ὄντα δι' ἀπορίαν ξύλων ὑποκαύσαντος καὶ ἐπισκωμματικῶς αὐτῷ λέγοντος· «ἄγε δή, Ἥρακλες, τὸν τρισκαιδέκατον ἆθλον ἐκτελῶν πάρελθε, τὸ ὄψον ἡμῖν ἑψήσων»· ὃν δὴ λαβὼν καὶ σχιδακίσας, καταγελῶν τοῦ ἰδίου θεοῦ ὡς οὐκ ὄντος, τῷ παρατεθέντι αὐτῷ ἀρίστῳ γελοιάζων ἐτρέφετο. 104.1 ἄλλος δὲ Ἡράκλειτος Αἰγυπτίοις φησίν· εἰ θεοί εἰσι, διὰ τί θρηνεῖτε αὐτούς; Τυφῶνα γὰρ καὶ Ὄσιριν καὶ ἄλλους καταχθονίους λιγυρῶς θρηνῳδοῦντες ὡς κεκηδευμένους πενθοῦσι. φησὶ γοῦν οὗτος· εἰ θεοί εἰσι, διὰ τί θρηνεῖτε 104.2 αὐτούς; εἰ δὲ τεθνήκασι, μάτην θρηνεῖτε αὐτούς. ἄλλος δέ, κωμικὸς Εὐδαίμων τοὔνομα, φησίν «εἴπερ εἰσὶ θεοί, οὐ δύναμαι περὶ αὐτῶν λέγειν οὐδ' ὁποῖοί τινές εἰσι ἰδέαν δηλῶσαι. πολλὰ γάρ εἰσι τὰ 104.3 κωλύοντά με». καὶ Ὅμηρος δέ φησιν «οὐκ ἀγαθὸν πολυκοιρανίη». ὁ δὲ Φιλήμων, ἕτερος κωμικός, φησίν «οἱ ἕνα θεὸν σέβοντες ἐλπίδας 104.4 ἔχουσι καλὰς εἰς σωτηρίαν». Ἆπις γὰρ εὐθὺς ὁ ἀχυροφάγος μόσχος ὑπὸ Κάμπυος, τοῦ τῶν Ἀσσυρίων βασιλέως, ξίφει τὸν μηρὸν πλήτ104.5 τεται, ἵν', εἰ ῥεύσει αἷμα, ἐλεγχθῇ μὴ ὢν θεός. Κρονικοὶ δὲ οὐκ ἀρνοῦνται τὸν ἴδιον αὐτῶν θεὸν ἐγκαθεῖρχθαι ἁλύσεσι σιδηραῖς, οὕτως ἡγούμενοι. εἰ δέ τις ἐν καθείρξει ὑπάρχει, οὐχ ἁπλῶς ὅτι ἑνὶ μείζονι ὑπόκειται, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὡς κακοῦργος ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐν καθείρξει ἐστίν. 104.6 εἰ δὲ καὶ περὶ * Ἴσιδός μοι ἔσται λόγος τῆς ἤδη καὶ Ἀτθίδος καὶ Ἰοῦς λεγομένης, θυγατρὸς δὲ Ἄπιδος τοῦ Καππαδόκου τοῦ καὶ Ἰνάχουκαλουμένου, αἰσχύνομαι μὲν ἴσως τὰς ἐκείνων πράξεις ἀνακηρῦξαι· 104.7 πλὴν δὲ οὐκ αἰσχυνθήσομαι λέγειν ἃ αὐτοὶ προσκυνεῖν οὐκ αἰσχύνονται. αἰσχυνέσθωσαν δὲ οἱ ταύτης προσκυνηταὶ καὶ τῆς Ἀφρογενείας τὰς ἑαυτῶν θυγατέρας τε καὶ γυναῖκας καὶ ἀδελφὰς τὰς 104.8 τῶν θεῶν αὐτῶν πράξεις