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by obscuring them with ambiguities so that no one might understand what was prophesied, and by the uncertainty of what was said 4.1.11 to escape refutation. and that many things happen also by certain other deceptions and prodigies, certain incantations being employed in what takes place, along with some meaningless and barbaric utterance, in order that the things done by them in no way at all might seem to be accomplished by these means; and that especially the poetic compositions of the oracles themselves strike with amazement the many and even those thought to be of educated origin, being well embellished in the composition of their words, well puffed up with the pomposity of grandiloquence, and fashioned with much boasting of elevation and the feigned pride of divine inspiration, and through ambiguous speech deceiving almost all the people. 4.2.1 At any rate, of those oracles of theirs that escaped ambiguity, having been uttered not according to a foreknowledge of the future but according to some conjecture, myriad of these, or rather almost all of them, have often been caught having failed of their prediction, the final outcome of events having taken a turn contrary to what was prophesied, unless perhaps on rare occasion one out of ten thousand happening by some coincidental chance or according to the conjectured expectation of the future 4.2.2 was thought to make the oracle come true. And this indeed you might see them especially talking about, and engraving on pillars, and proclaiming to every corner of the earth, while about the fact that such-and-such a number happened to be mistaken, nowhere is anyone willing to mention, but that for this one man out of ten thousand some one of the prophecies came to pass, they carry it about up and down; just as if someone, in the case of two people drawing lots from ten thousand, if they ever happened once to fall upon the same things, should marvel as if by divination and foreknowledge one and the same number 4.2.3 happened to come round to both. For such is the case of the one thing out of ten thousand prophecies upon ten thousand that has once happened by chance; and seeing this, the one who possesses nothing steadfast in the depth of his soul is utterly astonished at the oracle, for whom it would have been far better not to be foolish, having reasoned for how many others the aforementioned have become causes of death, and of sedition and wars, and to have examined the histories of the ancients and to see how they displayed no work of divine excellence even then, when the affairs of the Greeks were flourishing, and the oracles, once renowned but now no longer existing, were established, deemed worthy of all forethought and zeal by the locals who revered and served them with ancestral laws and mysteries. 4.2.4 And then, at any rate, they were most especially proven to be powerless in the calamities of wars, in which the noble prophets, unable to help, were caught deceiving the refugees through the ambiguity of the oracles, as we shall therefore demonstrate at the proper time, showing how they also provoked to war against each other those who consulted them, and how they did not give their responses concerning serious matters, and how through their oracles they deceived those who questioned them, making sport, and how in the darkness of obscurity they concealed their own ignorance. 4.2.5 But consider for yourself, having inquired, how also to the sick they often promised strength and life and salvation, and then, having been believed as gods and having collected great fees for this inspired commerce, not long after they were discovered for what they were, convicted as sorcerers, not gods, an inauspicious end having befallen the deceived. 4.2.6 Or what need is there to say that not even to their own housemates, who indeed dwell in the same city, did the wonderful seers provide aid from themselves, but you might see there sick and maimed and countless persons mutilated in their whole body? Why, then, did they promise good hopes to those outside and to those arriving from afar from a foreign land, but no longer also to their housemates in the same place, to whom indeed before all others it was fitting, as to their own friends and fellow citizens, to provide the good that comes from the presence of the gods? But it is because they could more easily deceive the strangers, being unaware of the trickery, but no longer their acquaintances, as being not inexperienced in the art, and conscious of it.

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ἀσαφείαις ἐπισκο τούντων εἰς τὸ μή τινα συνεῖναι τὸ χρησθέν, τῇ δὲ τοῦ λεχθέντος ἀδηλίᾳ 4.1.11 τὸν ἔλεγχον ἐκφεύγειν. πολλὰ δὲ συμβαίνειν καὶ ἄλλαις τισὶν ἀπάταις καὶ τερατείαις, συμπαραλαμβανομένων τοῖς γιγνομένοις ἐπῳδῶν δή τινων μετά τινος ἀσήμου καὶ βαρβαρικῆς ἐπιρρήσεως, ἵνα δὴ ὑπὸ τούτων σπουδάζεσθαι δοκῇ τὰ μηδ' ὁτιοῦν πρὸς αὐτῶν γιγνόμενα· μάλιστα δὲ τοὺς πολλοὺς καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ παιδείας ὁρμᾶσθαι νομιζομένων ἐκπλήττειν αὐτῶν δὴ τῶν χρησμῶν τὰ ποιήματα, εὖ μὲν τῇ συνθέσει τῶν ῥημάτων κεκαλλωπισμένα, εὖ δὲ τῷ τῆς μεγαλοφωνίας ὄγκῳ τετυφωμένα, πολλῷ δὲ καὶ τῷ τῆς ἀνατάσεως κόμπῳ τῷ τε πεπλασμένῳ τύφῳ τῆς θεοφορίας ἐσχηματισμένα καὶ διὰ τῆς ἀμφιβόλου φωνῆς τὸν πάντα σχεδὸν ἀπατῶντα λεών. 4.2.1 Ὅσα γοῦν αὐτοῖς τὴν ἀμφιβολίαν ἐκπέφευγεν τῶν χρησμῶν, οὐ κατὰ πρόγνωσιν τοῦ μέλλοντος, κατὰ δέ τινα στοχασμὸν ἐξενηνεγμένα, τούτων μυρία, μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ πάντα σχεδόν, ἥλω πολλάκις τῆς προρρήσεως ἀποπεπτωκότα, ἐναντίως ἢ κατὰ τὸ χρησθὲν τοῦ τῶν πραγμάτων τέλους τὴν ἔκβασιν ἀπειληφότος, εἰ μή ποτ' ἄρα σπανίως ἕν ποτε ἐκ μυρίων συμβὰν κατά τινα φορὰν συντυχικὴν ἢ κατὰ τὴν στοχασθεῖσαν τοῦ μέλλοντος προσδοκίαν 4.2.2 τὸν χρησμὸν ἐπαληθεύειν ἐνομίσθη ποιεῖν. ὃ δὴ καὶ μάλιστα θρυλοῦντας ἂν ἴδοις καὶ στήλαις ἐγχαράττοντας καὶ πανταχόσε γῆς βοῶντας, ὅτι μὲν εἰ τύχοι τοσοίδε τὸν ἀριθμὸν ἀπεσφάλησαν μηδαμῆ μηδενὸς ἐθέλοντος μνημονεύειν, ὅτι δὲ τῷδε ἀπὸ μυρίων συνέτυχέν τι τῶν χρησθέντων ἄνω καὶ κάτω περιφέροντας· ὡς εἴ τις καὶ ἐπὶ δύο λαγχάνουσιν ἀπὸ μυρίων, εἰ ἄρα ποτὲ εἰς ἅπαξ αὐτοὺς κατὰ τῶν αὐτῶν συμπεσεῖν ἔτυχεν, θαυμάζοι ὡς κατὰ μαντείαν καὶ πρόγνωσιν ἕνα καὶ τὸν αὐτὸν ἀμφοτέροις συνέβη περιελθεῖν 4.2.3 ἀριθμόν. οὕτω γὰρ ἔχειν τὸ ἀπὸ μυρίων ἐπὶ μυρίοις χρησθέντων ἅπαξ ποτὲ συμβὰν κατὰ τύχην· ὃ καὶ συνιδόντα τὸν μηδὲν στερρὸν ἐν βάθει ψυχῆς κεκτημένον ὑπερεκπλήττεσθαι τὸ χρηστήριον, ᾧ πολὺ κρεῖττον ἦν τὸ μὴ ἀφραίνειν συλλογισαμένῳ ὅσοις ἄλλοις θανάτου γεγόνασιν αἴτιοι στάσεώς τε καὶ πολέμων οἱ δεδηλωμένοι σκέψασθαί τε τῶν παλαιῶν τὰς ἱστορίας καὶ συνιδεῖν ὡς οὐδὲ τὸ τηνικάδε ἀρετῆς τι θείας ἔργον ἐπεδείξαντο, ὁπηνίκα ἤνθει μὲν τὰ Ἑλλήνων, συνεστήκει δὲ τὰ πρὶν βοώμενα, νῦν δὲ μηκέτ' ὄντα χρηστήρια, πάσης προνοίας καὶ σπουδῆς ἠξιωμένα πρὸς τῶν ἐπιχωρίων τῶν δὴ πατρῴοις νόμοις τε καὶ μυστηρίοις σεβόντων τε αὐτὰ καὶ θεραπευόν4.2.4 των. καὶ τότε γοῦν μάλιστα τὸ μηδὲν δύνασθαι ἀπηλέγχθησαν ἐν ταῖς τῶν πολέμων συμφοραῖς, ἐν αἷς βοηθεῖν ἀδυνατοῦντες οἱ γενναῖοι θεσπιῳδοὶ δι' ἀμφιβολίας τῶν χρησμῶν ἥλωσαν σοφισάμενοι τοὺς πρόσφυγας, ὥσπερ οὖν κατὰ τὸν δέοντα καιρὸν ἐπιδείξομεν, παριστῶντες ὅπως καὶ εἰς τὸν κατ' ἀλλήλων πόλεμον τοὺς χρωμένους παρώξυνον καὶ ὡς οὐδὲ περὶ σπουδαίων πραγμάτων τὰς ἀποκρίσεις ἐποιοῦντο καὶ ὡς ἐπλάνων διὰ τῶν χρησμῶν παίζοντες τοὺς ἐρωτῶντας καὶ ὡς τῷ τῆς ἀσαφείας σκότῳ τὴν σφῶν ἄγνοιαν 4.2.5 ἐπεκρύπτοντο. σκέψαι δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς πυθόμενος, ὡς καὶ ἀρρώστοις πολλάκις ῥῶσιν καὶ ζωὴν καὶ σωτηρίαν ὑποσχόμενοι κἄπειτα πιστευθέντες ὡς δὴ θεοὶ καὶ τῆς ἐνθέου ταύτης ἐμπορίας μεγάλους τοὺς μισθοὺς εἰσπραξάμενοι, οὐ μετὰ πλεῖστον οἵτινες ἦσαν ἐφωράθησαν, γόητες ἄνδρες, ἀλλ' οὐ θεοὶ διελεγχθέντες, οὐκ αἰσίας καταστροφῆς τοὺς ἠπατημένους διαλαβού4.2.6 σης. ἢ τί δεῖ λέγειν, ὡς οὐδὲ τοῖς ἑαυτῶν συνοίκοις, τοῖς δὴ κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν πόλιν διατρίβουσιν, οἱ θαυμάσιοι μάντεις τὰς ἐξ αὐτῶν παρέσχον ἐπικουρίας, ἀλλὰ καὶ νοσοῦντας ἂν ἴδοις αὐτόσε καὶ ἀναπήρους καὶ πᾶν τὸ σῶμα λελωβημένους μυρίους; τί δή ποτ' οὖν τοῖς μὲν ἔξω καὶ πόρρωθεν ἐξ ἀλλοδαπῆς ἀφικνουμένοις τὰς χρηστὰς ὑπέγραφον ἐλπίδας, οὐκέτι δὲ καὶ τοῖς κατὰ τὸ αὐτὸ συνοίκοις, οἷς δὴ καὶ πρὸ πάντων ἐχρῆν, ὡς ἂν οἰκείοις φίλοις καὶ συμπολίταις, τὸ ἐκ τῆς τῶν θεῶν παρουσίας ἀγαθὸν παρέχειν; ἀλλ' ὅτι τοὺς μὲν ξένους ἀγνῶτας ὄντας τῆς ῥᾳδιουργίας ῥᾷον ἂν καὶ ἀπατήσαιεν, οὐκέτι δὲ τοὺς συνήθεις, ὡς ἂν τῆς τέχνης οὐκ ἀπείρους, συνίστορας