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But the sandals of each of us have a difference. For each one has shod himself with his own action. And henceforth, each one obeying you, the disciples and good shepherds, he who had shod himself with idolatry, unloosed it by your counsel, another unloosed adultery, 102.4 another fornication, another theft, and another greed. Not only that, but also renouncing hateful speech and shameful words, with blessed hopes "under the mighty hand" of the good shepherd, through you, the good disciples, each one gives himself to be tended; 102.5 for each one will certainly abstain from error. And you set the truth before their eyes, by disfiguring idols and openly proclaiming the error concerning them, for you do not consider them dead, since they never lived, but reasonably teaching everyone 102.6 always that they are empty and vain and non-existent. For they never were, that they might be something; but they are wicked demons, a product of the human mind, which strengthened the occasions for pleasures; and from this, each person's own passion has been sanctioned 102.7 and dared to become an object of worship. For as soon as this was first introduced among men through the wickedness of demons, this was declared "the first fornication" and the idols were prefigured in shadowy outlines. Then each one delivered his own craft, which he had in his hands, through which he had his prosperity, to his own children as an object of worship, and through the material of their own craftsmanship they fashioned gods, and a potter from clay, a carpenter from wood, a goldsmith from gold and a silversmith likewise. 103.1 Yet again, each one depicted his own passion in visible forms before his own eyes, the bloodthirsty man saying it was Ares, the adulterer or adulteress, the common Aphrodite, and the ty103.2 rant, a winged Nike. For one who was squalid and gaping for the necessities of life would paint the image of Kronos, while one who was effeminate would paint Cybele and Rhea on account of the fluidity, I suppose, of the promiscuity of bodies. 103.3 And another, a male or female wanderer, prefigured Artemis the huntress, and the drunken Dionysus and the much-toiling Heracles, and a promiscuous person, Zeus and 103.4 Apollo. And why should I speak of the multitudes, when there are countless passions among men? But more than all, the Egyptians, having gone astray, not only venerated their own passions, but also birds and quadrupeds, land and water animals, and certain untamed beasts, and those that had been given over to them as slaves 103.5 by the holy God in their order, they "exchanged"; and being beast-like in their mind, they are exceedingly impious, deifying the animals among them and not being ashamed, the dog, the barking one; the cat, the reptile-eater; the goat, the licentious one; the sheep, the bleating one; the crocodile, the many-cleft and most unsmiling one; the ibis, the venom-eating one; and the kite and the hawk and the raven, the most slavish things; and the serpent, the crooked and 103.6 most unpleasant one. And in a word, O the great shame of those who neither perceive their own refutation with their sight, nor receive perception with their hearing, nor understand with their mind * the things that are done vainly among them. 103.7 For they are struck by an evil fate, neither being enlightened by their own philosophers, nor becoming fellow spectators with the encyclopedists 103.8 of the truth. For do they not hear of Diagoras, who, because of a lack of firewood, burned his own wooden Heracles and said to it mockingly: "Come now, Heracles, come and perform your thirteenth labor, to boil the stew for us"; which indeed he took and chopped up, laughing at his own god as non-existent, and joking, he fed himself on the meal set before him. 104.1 And another, Heraclitus, says to the Egyptians: if they are gods, why do you lament them?

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ὑποδήματα δὲ ἑκάστου ἡμῶν ἔχει διαφοράν. τῇ γὰρ ἰδίᾳ ἑαυτοῦ πράξει ἕκαστος ὑπεδήσατο. καὶ λοιπὸν ὑμῶν τῶν μαθητῶν καὶ καλῶν ποιμένων ὑπακούων ἕκαστος, ὃς μὲν ὑπεδήσατο εἰδωλολατρείαν, ὑπελύσατο τῇ ὑμῶν νουθεσίᾳ, ἄλλος δὲ μοιχείαν ὑπελύσατο, 102.4 ἕτερος πορνείαν, ἄλλος κλοπήν, ὃς δὲ πλεονεξίαν. οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλὰ καὶ λόγοις στυγητοῖς καὶ αἰσχροῖς ῥήμασιν ἀποτασσόμενοι μακαρίαις ἐλπίσιν «ὑπὸ χεῖρα κραταιὰν» τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ποιμένος δι' ὑμῶν τῶν καλῶν, τῶν μαθητῶν ἕκαστος βουκολεῖσθαι παραδίδωσιν ἑαυτόν· ἀφέξεται 102.5 γὰρ ἕκαστος πάντως τῆς πλάνης. καὶ πρὸ ὀφθαλμῶν παρατίθεσθε τὴν ἀλήθειαν, εἴδωλα μὲν παραχαράττοντες καὶ ἀναφανδὸν τὴν περὶ αὐτῶν πλάνην ἀνακηρύττοντες οὔτε γὰρ νεκροὺς τούτους ἡγεῖσθε, ἐπεὶ μήποτε ἔζησαν, κενὰ δὲ καὶ μάταια καὶ οὐκ ὄντα εἰκότως πάντας 102.6 πάντοτε διδάσκοντες. οὐ γὰρ ἦσάν ποτε, ἵνα τι ὦσιν ἐκεῖνοι· εἰσὶ δὲ κακοδαίμονες, ἀνθρωπίνης διανοίας παράθεσις, ἡδονῶν ἀφορμὰς ἐπιρρώσασα· καὶ ἔνθεν ὑπὸ ἑκάστου τὸ ἴδιον πάθος εἰς σέβασμα 102.7 κυρωθὲν τετόλμηται. πρῶτον γὰρ εὐθὺς ὅτε τοῦτο τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐκαινοτόμητο διὰ δαιμόνων κακουργίας, «πρώτη» αὕτη «πορνεία» ἀπεφθέγγετο καὶ σκιογραφίαις τὰ εἴδωλα προετυποῦτο. ἔπειτα τέχνην τὴν ἰδίαν, ἣν μετὰ χεῖρας εἶχεν ἕκαστος, δι' ἧς τὴν εὐπορίαν ἔσχεν, εἰς σέβασμα τοῖς ἰδίοις παρεδίδου 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;