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he says, teaching: "I pray, being a mortal, to Pan the connate god, the two-horned, two-footed, goat-legged, reveler." 3.14.9 The man who has been mentioned has set these things down in the secrets of the philosophy derived from oracles. No longer then was Pan a symbol of the universe, but he would be some such daemon as has been described, he who also gave out the oracle; 3.14.10 for indeed the universe and the whole cosmos did not give the preceding oracle. Therefore it was of this daemon, and not of the universe, that men made an image and imitated the form described above. And how could Hermes be conceived as the creative and interpretive Word of all things, confessing that he had Maia the daughter of Atlas for his mother, 3.14.11 having approved the mythology told about him, and not the physical explanation? So also how could Asclepius be transferred to the sun, when he is described as having Tricca for his native country and confesses to having been born of a mortal mother? And how, being the sun, could he be shown to be again the son of the sun? since they also explained by physical allegory that his father Phoebus was no other than the sun. 3.14.12 And to say that he was born of the sun and a mortal woman, how is that not the most ridiculous thing of all? since even his father the sun, whom they say is Apollo, how is it likely that he was born on the island of Delos of a mortal mother again, Leto? 3.14.13 Observe for me here how many gods the Greeks declared in their theology to have been born of women, for comparison, should they ever try to mock the birth of our savior, and that the records set forth are not the voices of poets, but of the gods themselves. 3.15.1

12. THAT THEY ALSO CONFIRM THE THEORIES OF THE PHILOSOPHERS THROUGH THE ORACLES, ALLEGORIZING CONTRARY TO THE MYTHS ABOUT THEMSELVES

Since, then, poets, as they say, invent myths about the gods, while philosophers give physical explanations, one ought, surely, with good reason to despise the former, but to admire the latter as philosophers and to accept the plausible arguments of the better sort rather than the poets' trifles. But again, when gods and philosophers enter into a contest, and the former in oracles teach accurately the things concerning themselves, as knowing better, while the latter pervert their conjectures about things they do not know into discordant and unproven sophistries, whom does reason choose to obey? 3.15.2 Or is this not even worth asking? If, then, the gods speak truly when they confirm the human passions attributed to them, those who reject them would be false; but if the physical explanations of the philosophers are true, the testimonies of the gods would be false. 3.15.3 But also Apollo himself, one might say, when asked in an oracle who he was, said somewhere: "Helios, Horus, Osiris, king, son of Zeus, Apollo, dispenser of seasons and of times, of winds and of rains, wielding the reins of dawn and starry night, king of the blazing stars and immortal fire." 3.15.4 Therefore the same gods agree both with the myths of the poets and the conjectures of the philosophers, siding with things that are in conflict. For if they claim mortal mothers and confess earthly fatherlands, how could they be such as the natural philosophers describe? 3.15.5 For let Apollo be the sun—for again their argument will be caught running up and down into the same things—how then could Delos, the island still now appearing in the sea, be the sun's fatherland, and Leto his mother? For his own oracles just now confirmed these things as being true. And how could the sun be the father of the mortal man Asclepius, having begotten him of a mortal woman? But let these things be dismissed. 3.16.1

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λέγει διδάσκων· «Εὔχομαι βροτὸς γεγὼς Πανὶ συμφύτῳ θεῷ, δισσοκέρατι, δισσόποδι, τραγοσκελεῖ, τρυφῶντι.» 3.14.9 ταῦτα ἐν ἀπορρήτοις τῆς ἐκ λογίων φιλοσοφίας ὁ δηλωθεὶς ἀνὴρ τέθειται. οὐκέτ' ἄρα ὁ Πὰν σύμβολον ἦν τοῦ παντός, δαίμων δ' ἂν εἴη τις τοιοῦτος οἷος καὶ ὑπογέγραπται ὁ καὶ τὸν χρησμὸν ἐκδούς· οὐ γὰρ δὴ τὸ πᾶν καὶ ὁ σύμπας κόσμος ἔχρησεν τὰ προκείμενα. τούτου τοιγαροῦν τοῦ δαίμονος, ἀλλ' οὐ τοῦ παντὸς τὴν εἰκόνα ἐκτυπώσαντες ἄνδρες τὸ προγεγραμμένον ἐμιμή 3.14.10 σαντο σχῆμα. καὶ ὁ Ἑρμῆς δὲ πῶς ἂν νοοῖτο πάντων ποιητικός τε καὶ ἑρμηνευτικὸς λόγος, μητέρα Μαῖαν τὴν Ἄτλαντος ὁμολογῶν ἐσχηκέναι τήν γε 3.14.11 περὶ αὐτοῦ λεγομένην μυθολογίαν, ἀλλ' οὐ φυσιολογίαν ἐγκρίνας; οὕτω καὶ ὁ Ἀσκληπιὸς πῶς ἂν μετάγοιτο εἰς ἥλιον, πατρίδα τὴν Τρίκκην ἐπιγραφόμενος καὶ ἀπὸ θνητῆς ὁμολογῶν γεγονέναι μητρός; πῶς δὲ ἥλιος ὢν αὐτὸς τοῦ ἡλίου πάλιν υἱὸς ἀποφανθείη; ἐπεὶ καὶ τὸν αὐτοῦ πατέρα τὸν Φοῖβον οὐκ 3.14.12 ἄλλον εἶναι τοῦ ἡλίου ἐφυσιολόγησαν. ἐξ ἡλίου δὲ καὶ θνητῆς γυναικὸς φάναι αὐτὸν πῶς οὐ πάντων καταγελαστότατον; ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν πατέρα ἥλιον, ὃν δὴ Ἀπόλλωνά φασιν εἶναι, πῶς εἰκὸς ἐν ∆ήλῳ γεγενῆσθαι τῇ νήσῳ 3.14.13 ὑπὸ θνητῆς πάλιν μητρὸς τῆς Λητοῦς; ἐνταῦθά μοι τήρει ὁπόσους Ἕλληνες θεοὺς γεννητοὺς γυναικῶν ἐθεολόγησαν, εἰς παράθεσιν, εἴ ποτε πειρῷντο σκώπτειν τὴν τοῦ ἡμετέρου σωτῆρος γένεσιν, καὶ ὅτι οὐ ποιητῶν εἰσι φωναί, ἀλλ' αὐτῶν τῶν θεῶν αἱ προκείμεναι σημειώσεις. 3.15.1

ιβʹ. ΟΤΙ ΚΑΙ ΤΑΣ ΤΩΝ ΦΙΛΟΣΟΦΩΝ ΘΕΩΡΙΑΣ ΒΕΒΑΙΟΥΣΙ ∆ΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΧΡΗΣΜΩΝ ΕΝΑΝΤΙΩΣ ΤΟΙΣ ΠΕΡΙ ΑΥΤΩΝ ΜΥΘΟΙΣ ΑΛΛΗΓΟΡΟΥΝΤΕΣ

Ποιητῶν μὲν οὖν, ὥς φασι, μύθους περὶ θεῶν πλαττομένων, φιλοσόφων δὲ φυσιολογούντων χρῆν δήπου εἰκότως τῶν μὲν καταφρονεῖν, τοὺς δὲ θαυμάζειν ὡς φιλοσόφους καὶ μᾶλλον τῶν ποιητικῶν λήρων τὰς τῶν κρειττόνων ἐκδέχεσθαι πιθανολογίας. θεῶν δ' αὖ πάλιν καὶ φιλοσόφων εἰς ἅμιλ λαν κατιόντων καὶ τῶν μὲν ἐν χρησμοῖς τὰ καθ' ἑαυτούς, ὡς ἂν μᾶλλον εἰδότων, ἀκριβῶς διδασκόντων, τῶν δὲ εἰς ἀσυμφώνους καὶ ἀναποδείκτους εὑρησιλογίας τὰς περὶ ὧν μὴ ἴσασιν ὑπονοίας περιτρεπόντων, τίσιν αἱρεῖ λόγος πείθεσθαι; 3.15.2 ἢ τοῦτο οὐδ' ἐρωτᾶν ἄξιον; εἰ δὴ οὖν ἀληθεύουσιν οἱ θεοὶ κυροῦντες τὰς περὶ ἑαυτῶν ἀνθρωποπαθείας, ψευδεῖς ἂν εἶεν οἱ ἀθετοῦντες αὐτάς· εἰ δὲ τῶν φιλοσόφων ἀληθεῖς αἱ φυσιολογίαι, ψευδεῖς γένοιντ' ἂν αἱ τῶν θεῶν 3.15.3 μαρτυρίαι. ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτός, εἴποι τις ἄν, ὁ Ἀπόλλων ἔφη που ἐν χρησμοῖς ἐρωτηθεὶς περὶ ἑαυτοῦ ὅστις εἴη· «Ἥλιος, Ὧρος, Ὄσιρις, ἄναξ ∆ιὸς υἱὸς Ἀπόλλων ὡρῶν καὶ καιρῶν ταμίης ἀνέμων τε καὶ ὄμβρων, ἠοῦς καὶ νυκτὸς πολυάστερος ἡνία νωμῶν, ζαφλεγέων ἄστρων βασιλεὺς ἡδ' ἀθάνατον πῦρ.» 3.15.4 οὐκοῦν οἱ αὐτοὶ καὶ τοῖς τῶν ποιητῶν μύθοις καὶ ταῖς τῶν φιλοσόφων ὑπονοίαις συμφέρονται, μαχομένοις συνιστάμενοι. εἰ γὰρ μητέρας ἐπιγράφονται θνητὰς καὶ πατρίδας τὰς ἐπὶ γῆς ὁμολογοῦσιν, πῶς ἂν εἶεν οἵους φυσιολο3.15.5 γοῦσιν; ἔστω γὰρ ὁ Ἀπόλλων ἥλιος-πάλιν γὰρ ἄνω καὶ κάτω εἰς τὰ αὐτὰ περιτρέχων αὐτοῖς ἁλώσεται ὁ λόγος-πῶς οὖν ἡ ∆ῆλος, ἡ κατὰ θάλατταν εἰσέτι νῦν προφαινομένη νῆσος, γένοιτ' ἂν τοῦ ἡλίου πατρὶς καὶ μήτηρ ἡ Λητώ; ταυτὶ γὰρ ἀρτίως ἐκύρουν ὡς ἀληθῆ γε ὄντα οἱ αὐτοῦ χρησμοί. πῶς δὲ καὶ τοῦ Ἀσκληπιοῦ θνητοῦ ἀνδρὸς τὴν φύσιν γένοιτ' ἂν ὁ ἥλιος πατήρ, ἐκ θνητῆς αὐτὸν γυναικὸς πεποιημένος; ἀλλὰ παρείσθω ταῦτα. 3.16.1