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again to those declaring Heracles, and again 3.13.16 Dionysus and Asclepius, to be alike. For how could the same one be both father and son, Asclepius and Apollo at the same time? How again could he be transferred to Heracles, if indeed Heracles is acknowledged by them to have been born of a mortal woman, Alcmene? And how could the sun become mad and slay his own children, because these things also have been recorded of Hera3.13.17 cles? But Heracles, in accomplishing the twelve labors, is a symbol of the division in heaven of the zodiacal circle, which they say the sun traverses. Who then could Eurystheus be, who commands the sun, just as he did Heracles, to perform the labors? And how could the fifty daughters of Thespius and the multitude of the other female captives, with whom the story goes Heracles had intercourse, be referred to the sun, from whom also mortal children were born to him and prolonged the succession of their families for a very long time? And who could the centaur be, with whose blood Deianira, having stained the tunic, might involve the sun, 3.13.18 just as Heracles, in the aforesaid calamity? But let the sun no longer be Heracles for them, but let him be Dionysus; and what have these things to do with Dionysus? one might reasonably say. For who is she that bore him, whether she be called Semele or Persephone? And how could Dionysus be at the same time both the sun and the power that causes the liquid fruits and the fruits of trees to sprout? And what would become of the multitude of women who campaigned with him? And who is the sun's Ariadne, just as she was Dionysus'? And why would Dio3.13.19 nysus, being transferred to the sun, be the giver of wine rather than of grain and pulse and of all the fruits from the earth? But if again for them the sun were also Asclepius, how is he struck by Zeus' thunderbolt for the sake of sordid love of gain, according to the Boeotian lyric poet Pindar who speaks somehow thus: Gold appearing in his hands for a conspicuous reward turned even him ... and with his hands then the son of Cronos, hurling through them both, quickly snatched the breath from their breasts, and the blazing thunderbolt inflicted death. 3.13.20 And who are the Asclepiadae from the sun, having been preserved for a long period of life and having established a generation of mortal men similar to all men? But still again for them, as they escape, as if by a device, the shameful and mythical narratives about the gods, the argument would run back to the sun and moon and the other parts of the wo3.13.21 rld. If indeed for them Hephaestus was fire and the hot power, and Poseidon the moist substance, and Hera the air, and earth again, the mountainous and rocky part Rhea, and the fruitful and plain part Demeter, and Kore the seed-bearing power, and Dionysus the planting power of fruit trees, and the sun Apollo with those who have been mentioned, and the moon sometimes Artemis, sometimes Athena and again Hecate and Eileithyia, are they not therefore again convicted of theologizing the creation instead of the creator and the work of the universe instead of the worker, very precariously and dangerously 3.13.22 and to the harm of their own heads. But if they say they do not deify the visible bodies of the sun and moon and stars, nor yet the perceptible parts of the universe, but the invisible powers in them of him who is indeed over all—for being one God, with all kinds of powers he fills all things and passes through all things and presides over all things incorporeally and invisibly, being in all things and passing through all things, and they say they reasonably worship him through the things that have been mentioned—why then, forsooth, do they not, having rejected the shameful and unseemly mythologies about the gods as being lawless and impious, and having made the very books about them disappear as containing impious and licentious things, celebrate with hymns the one and only and invisible God nakedly and purely and without any shameful 3.13.23 complexity? For it was necessary for those who have recognized the truth to do this, and not to bring down and cast down the venerable address of God into shameful and passionate unspeakable rites; but not even to shut themselves up in little houses and recesses of darkness and in buildings of men, as if they will find God within, nor in wooden images made from lifeless matter the divine

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πάλιν τὸν Ἡρακλέα καὶ αὖθις 3.13.16 τὸν ∆ιόνυσον καὶ τὸν Ἀσκληπιὸν ὁμοίως ἀποφαινομένοις. πῶς γὰρ ὁ αὐτὸς πατὴρ ἂν γένοιτο καὶ υἱός, Ἀσκληπιὸς ὁμοῦ καὶ Ἀπόλλων; πῶς δὲ πάλιν εἰς Ἡρακλέα μετενεχθείη, εἰ δὴ ἐκ θνητῆς γυναικὸς τῆς Ἀλκμήνης ὁ Ἡρακλῆς αὐτοῖς ὁμολογεῖται; πῶς δ' ἂν ἐμμανὴς γένοιτο καὶ σφάξειεν τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ παῖδας ὁ ἥλιος, ὅτι δὴ καὶ ταῦτα προσαναγέγραπται τῷ Ἡρα3.13.17 κλεῖ; ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἄθλους ἐπιτελοῦντα τοὺς δώδεκα τὸν Ἡρακλέα τῆς κατ' οὐρανὸν διαιρέσεως τοῦ ζωδιακοῦ κύκλου, ὅν φασι τὸν ἥλιον περιπολεῖν, τὸ σύμβολον φέρειν. τίς οὖν ἔτι γένοιτ' ἂν Εὐρυσθεὺς ὁ τῷ ἡλίῳ, ὥσπερ οὖν τῷ Ἡρακλεῖ, τοὺς ἄθλους ἐκτελεῖν ἐπιτάττων; πῶς δὲ ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον ἀναχθεῖεν αἱ πεντήκοντα Θεσπίου θυγατέρες καὶ τὸ τῶν λοιπῶν αἰχμαλωτίδων πλῆθος, αἷς τὸν Ἡρακλέα λόγος ἔχει μιγῆναι, ἐξ ὧν καὶ θνητοὶ παῖδες αὐτῷ γενόμενοι ἐπὶ μήκιστον τὴν τῶν γενῶν παρέτειναν διαδοχήν; τίς δ' ἂν εἴη ὁ κένταυρος, οὗ τῷ αἵματι τὸν χιτῶνα μολύνασα ἡ ∆ηιάνειρα τὸν ἥλιον, 3.13.18 ὥσπερ οὖν τὸν Ἡρακλέα, τῇ δεδηλωμένῃ περιβάλοι ἂν συμφορᾷ; ἀλλὰ γὰρ μηκέτ' ἔστω ὁ ἥλιος αὐτοῖς Ἡρακλῆς, ἔστω δὲ ∆ιόνυσος· καὶ τί ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν ∆ιόνυσον; φαίη τις ἂν εἰκότως. τίς γὰρ ἡ τοῦτον γεννήσασα, εἴτε Σεμέλη τις λέγοιτο εἴτε Περσεφόνη; πῶς δ' ἂν εἴη ὁ ∆ιόνυσος ὁμοῦ καὶ ἥλιος καὶ ἡ κατὰ τοὺς ὑγροὺς καρποὺς καὶ τὰ ἀκρόδρυα βλαστῶσα δύναμις; τί δ' ἂν γένοιτο τῶν συστρατευσαμένων αὐτῷ γυναικῶν τὸ πλῆθος; τίς δὲ καὶ ἡ τοῦ ἡλίου, ὥσπερ οὖν ἡ τοῦ ∆ιονύσου, Ἀριάδνη; τί δὲ μᾶλλον οἴνου, οὐχὶ δὲ σίτου καὶ ὀσπρίων καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ γῆς ἁπάντων καρπῶν γένοιτ' ἂν ὁ ∆ιό3.13.19 νυσος χορηγὸς ἐπὶ τὸν ἥλιον μεταγόμενος; εἰ δὲ καὶ Ἀσκληπιὸς πάλιν αὐτοῖς εἴη ὁ ἥλιος, πῶς οὗτος κεραυνοῦται ὑπὸ τοῦ ∆ιὸς ῥυπαρᾶς ἕνεκεν αἰσχροκερδείας, κατὰ τὸν Βοιώτιον μελοποιὸν Πίνδαρον ὧδέ πως λέγοντα· Ἔτραπεν κἀκεῖνον ἀγάνορι μισθῷ χρυσὸς ἐν χερσὶν φανείς ... χερσὶ δ' ἄρα Κρονίων ῥίψας δι' ἀμφοῖν ἀμπνοὰς στέρνων καθεῖλεν ὠκέως, αἴθων δὲ κεραυνὸς ἔσκηψε μόρον. 3.13.20 τίνες δὲ καὶ οἱ ἐξ ἡλίου Ἀσκληπιάδαι, εἰς μακρὸν τοῦ βίου διαφυλαχθέντες καὶ θνητῶν ἀνδρῶν γένεσιν πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις παραπλησίαν ὑποστησάμενοι; πλὴν ἀλλὰ πάλιν αὐτοῖς, ὥσπερ διὰ μηχανῆς, τὰς αἰσχρὰς καὶ μυθικὰς περὶ θεῶν διηγήσεις ἀποφεύγουσι πρὸς ἥλιον καὶ σελήνην καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τοῦ κό3.13.21 σμου μέρη ἀνατρέχοι ἂν ὁ λόγος. εἴ γε πῦρ μὲν ἦν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἥφαιστος καὶ ἡ θερμὴ δύναμις, Ποσειδῶν δὲ ἡ ὑγρὰ οὐσία, Ἥρα δὲ ὁ ἀήρ, καὶ γῆ πάλιν ἡ μὲν ὄρειος καὶ πετρώδης Ῥέα, ἡ δὲ γόνιμος καὶ πεδινὴ ∆ημήτηρ καὶ Κόρη δὲ ἡ σπερματοῦχος καὶ ∆ιόνυσος ἡ φυτευτικὴ τῶν ἀκροδρύων δύναμις καὶ ἥλιος Ἀπόλλων σὺν τοῖς κατειλεγμένοις, σελήνη δὲ ποτὲ μὲν Ἄρτεμις, ποτὲ δὲ Ἀθηνᾶ καὶ πάλιν Ἑκάτη καὶ Εἰλείθυια, οὐκοῦν πάλιν τὴνκτίσιν παρὰ τὸν κτίστην καὶ τὴν δημιουργίαν τοῦ παντός, ἀλλ' οὐ τὸν δημιουργὸν θεολογοῦντες ἀπελέγχονται, λίαν ἐπισφαλῶς καὶ ἐπικινδύνως 3.13.22 καὶ ἐπὶ κακῷ τῆς ἰδίας αὐτῶν κεφαλῆς. εἰ δὲ μὴ τὰ ὁρώμενα σώματα ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης καὶ ἄστρων μηδέ γε τὰ αἰσθητὰ μέρη τοῦ κόσμου φήσουσι θεοποιεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὰς ἐν τούτοις ἀοράτους δυνάμεις αὐτοῦ δὴ τοῦ ἐπὶ πᾶσιν ἕνα γὰρ ὄντα θεὸν παντοίαις δυνάμεσι τὰ πάντα πληροῦν καὶ διὰ πάντων διήκειν καὶ τοῖς πᾶσιν ἐπιστατεῖν ἀσωμάτως καὶ ἀφανῶς ἐν πᾶσιν ὄντα καὶ διὰ πάντων διήκοντα, καὶ τοῦτον εἰκότως διὰ τῶν δεδηλωμένων σέβειν φασί, τί δῆτα τοιγαροῦν οὐχὶ τὰς αἰσχρὰς καὶ ἀπρεπεῖς περὶ θεῶν μυθολογίας ὡς ἂν ἀθέσμους καὶ ἀσεβεῖς παραιτησάμενοι καὶ αὐτάς γε τὰς περὶ τούτων βίβλους ὡς δυσσεβῆ καὶ ἀκόλαστα περιεχούσας ἀφανεῖς ποιήσαντες, τὸν ἕνα καὶ μόνον καὶ ἀόρατον θεὸν γυμνῶς καὶ καθαρῶς καὶ ἄνευ τινὸς αἰσχρᾶς 3.13.23 περιπλοκῆς ἀνυμνοῦσι; τοῦτο γὰρ δέον ἦν ποιεῖν τοῖς τἀληθὲς ἐπεγνωκόσι, μηδὲ κατάγειν καὶ καταβάλλειν εἰς αἰσχρὰς καὶ ἐμπαθεῖς ἀρρητολογίας τὴν σεβάσμιον τοῦ θεοῦ πρόσρησιν· ἀλλὰ μηδ' ἐν οἰκίσκοις καὶ σκότου μυχοῖς ἀνδρῶν τε οἰκοδομαῖς σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐναποκλείειν, ὡς ἔνδον εὑρήσοντας τὸν θεόν, μηδ' ἐν ξοάνοις ἐξ ἀψύχου πεποιημένοις ὕλης τὰς θείας