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he says 4.16.21 that “what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God.” Or if there was anything good in them, so as for this reason to share also in the title of the good, it would have been beneficent and saving for all, a friend of righteousness and solicitous of men. But being such, how did it rejoice in the slaughter of men? And how did it not restrain the human race through oracles from doing such things? Or surely it was worse and more worthless than men, who at least by the penalties of laws made murderers outcasts? For it was not some god, but a man, who stopped the long-standing and protracted disease of human sacrifice. 4.16.22 That these things were of worthless and evil demons would be even more evident to you, if you were to consider the things of their unspeakable and licentious prostitution which are still now performed in Heliopolis of Phoenicia and among very many other men. For example, they say it is necessary to perform adulteries and seductions and other unlawful unions in honor of the gods, as if some debt were owed, and to offer the first-fruits of the adulterous and prostituted act to the gods, dedicating to them 4.16.23 the fruits of this inglorious and unholy traffic, as if it were some good thank-offering. For these things are similar to the human sacrifices. If, then, it is not characteristic even of a prudent man to rejoice in murders and filthy talk and unlawful unions of women selling their beauty for hire, it is far from being the case to say that it is characteristic of gods or good demons to approve of such things. But if someone should say that these things are confessedly of worthless demons, but that the good ones are others, whom they especially worship as saviors, one must ask where then were their good saviors, if indeed they worshipped these too, so as not to restrain the evil ones doing such things against their supplicants, and where were the good demons, not to drive away the harmful ones and to fight alongside their worshippers? And why did they show contempt by overlooking the rational and god-beloved race of men being worn down by the cruelty of worthless demons, and did they not openly proclaim to all to flee without turning back and to turn away from every so-called god as not a god, but a worthless demon, to whom cruel and 4.16.24 inhuman, and lawless and shameful things happen to be dear? And if there was formerly of old in Rhodes a god held in honor who rejoiced in human sacrifices, the true god, if there was one, would have stopped the practice and proclaimed to all that this one should be considered not a god, but a worthless demon, or if in Salamis, formerly called Coroneia, a man was sacrificed there too in the Cyprian month of Aphrodisius, the true god would also have declared this one to be a baneful 4.16.25 demon, having stopped what was done as impious and unholy. And if also in Heliopolis of Egypt Amosis abolished the law of homicide, the true god would have taught that the man was much better than the god; for not a god, but again a demon was he who initiated the homicide. And would not the true god have legislated that it is necessary to consider the demon of Hera not polluted, to whom history has recorded 4.16.26 that three men were sacrificed each day. And what could truly be more demonic than the one called Dionysus Omadius, to whom they say in Chios they sacrifice a man by tearing him limb from limb, or than the one in Tenedos likewise, whom they also propitiated by human sacrifice? And the true god would have forbidden sacrificing a man also to the demon Ares, the pest of mortals and war-lover, and he would have legislated not to slaughter to him the dearest things of either their 4.16.27 own people or of foreigners. And if also to Athena a maiden, as they say, was sacrificed yearly in Laodicea in Syria, the true god would not have refrained from calling her also an evil demon; as also the one in Libya who rejoices in similar things and the one in Arabia, to whom also they sacrificed a boy each year, whom they also buried under an altar. 4.17.1

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φησιν 4.16.21 ὅτι «ἃ θύουσιν, δαιμονίοις καὶ οὐ θεῷ θύουσιν». ἢ εἴ τί γε ἦν ἀγαθὸν ἐν αὐτοῖς, ὡς διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τῆς τῶν ἀγαθῶν μεταλαχεῖν προσηγορίας, εὐεργετικὸν ἂν ἦν καὶ πάντων σωτήριον φίλον τε δικαιοσύνης καὶ ἀνθρώπων κηδεμονικόν. τοιοῦτον δὲ ὂν πῶς ἀνθρώπων ἔχαιρεν σφαγαῖς; πῶς δὲ οὐκ ἀπεῖργεν διὰ χρησμῶν τὸ ἀνθρώπειον γένος τοιαῦτα πράττειν; ἤ που χεῖρον ἦν καὶ φαυλότερον ἀνθρώπων, οἵ γε νόμων τιμωρίαις ἐξάντεις τοὺς μαιφόνους κατέστησαν; οὐ γὰρ θεός τις ἦν, ἀλλ' ἄνθρωπος ὁ τῆς ἀνθρωποθυσίας τὴν χρόνιον καὶ μακρὰν παραλύσας νόσον. 4.16.22 Ὅτι δὲ φαύλων ἦν καὶ πονηρῶν ταῦτα δαιμόνων, εἴη ἄν σοι ἔτι μᾶλλον συμφανές, εἰ λογίσαιο τὰ τῆς ἐπιρρήτου καὶ ἀκολάστου πορνείας αὐτῶν τῆς ἐν Ἡλίου πόλει τῆς Φοινίκης εἰσέτι νῦν ἐπιτελούμενα καὶ παρὰ πλείστοις ἄλλοις ἀνθρώπων. μοιχείας γοῦν καὶ φθορὰς καὶ παρανόμους ἑτέρας μίξεις ἐπὶ τιμῇ θεῶν, ὥσπερ τι χρέος ὀφειλόμενον, χρῆναί φασιν ἐκτελεῖν καὶ τῆς μοιχιδίου καὶ πορνικῆς πράξεως τοῖς θεοῖς ἀπάρχεσθαι, τῆς ἀκλεοῦς ταύτης καὶ ἀσέμνου ἐμπορίας ὥσπερ τι χαριστήριον ἀγαθὸν τοὺς καρποὺς αὐτοῖς 4.16.23 ἀνατιθέντας. ὅμοια γὰρ ταῦτα ταῖς ἀνθρωποθυσίαις. εἰ δὴ οὖν οὐδὲ σώ φρονος ἀνδρὸς οἰκεῖον τὸ χαίρειν φόνοις αἰσχρορρημοσύναις τε καὶ παρανόμοις γυναικῶν μίξεσιν ἐπὶ μισθῷ τὴν ὥραν ἀπεμπολουσῶν, πολλοῦ δεῖ φάναι θεῶν ἢ δαιμόνων εἶναι ἀγαθῶν τὸ ἀποδέχεσθαι τὰ τοιαῦτα. εἰ δὲ δὴ λέγοι τις φαύλων μὲν ὁμολογουμένως εἶναι ταῦτα δαιμόνων, πλὴν ἀλλ' ἑτέρους εἶναι τοὺς ἀγαθούς, οὓς δὴ μάλιστα σέβειν αὐτοὺς οἷα σωτῆρας, πευστέον ποῦ ἄρα ἦσαν αὐτοῖς οἱ ἀγαθοὶ σωτῆρες, εἰ δὴ καὶ τούτους ἔσεβον, ὥστε μὴ τοὺς πονηροὺς τοιαῦτα δρῶντας κατὰ τῶν προσφύγων ἀπερύκειν, ποῦ δὲ οἱ ἀγαθοὶ δαίμονες, τοὺς βλαπτικοὺς μὴ ἀπελαύνειν καὶ τοῖς θεραπεύουσι συμμαχεῖν; τί δὲ καὶ περιεφρόνουν παρορῶντες τὸ λογικὸν καὶ θεοφιλὲς ἀνθρώπων γένος τῇ τῶν φαύλων δαιμόνων ὠμότητι κατατρυχόμενον, οὐχὶ δὲ ἄντικρυς τοῖς πᾶσιν προεκήρυττον ἀμεταστρεπτεὶ φεύγειν καὶ ἀποτρέπεσθαι πάντα θεὸν ὀνομαζόμενον ὡς οὐ θεόν, ἀλλὰ φαῦλον δαίμονα, ᾧ τὰ ὠμὰ καὶ 4.16.24 ἀπάνθρωπα τά τε παράνομα καὶ αἰσχρὰ φίλα τυγχάνει; καὶ εἴτε τις ἦν πάλαι πρότερον ἐν Ῥόδῳ νενομισμένος θεὸς χαίρων ἀνθρωποθυσίαις, τοῦτον ὁ ἀληθὴς θεός, εἴ τις ἦν ἄρα, τὴν πρᾶξιν ἐπισχὼν ἂν οὐ θεόν, ἀλλὰ φαῦλον ἡγεῖσθαι δαίμονα τοῖς πᾶσι προεκήρυξεν, εἴτε ἐν Σαλαμῖνι, τῇ πρότερον Κορωνείᾳ ὀνομαζομένῃ, καὶ αὐτῇ ἐν μηνὶ κατὰ Κυπρίους Ἀφροδισίῳ ἐθύετο ἄνθρωπος, καὶ τοῦτον ἂν ὁ ἀληθὴς θεὸς ἀπέφηνεν ἀλιτήριον 4.16.25 εἶναι δαίμονα, παύσας ὡς ἀσεβὲς καὶ ἀνόσιον τὸ γινόμενον. εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐν Ἡλίου πόλει τῆς Αἰγύπτου τὸν τῆς ἀνθρωποκτονίας νόμον Ἄμωσις ἔλυσε, πολὺ κρείττονα τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὁ ἀληθὴς θεὸς ἐδίδαξεν ἂν γεγονέναι· οὐ γὰρ θεός, δαίμων δὲ πάλιν κἀκεῖνος ἦν ὁ κατάρχων τῆς ἀνθρωποκτονίας. οὐκ ἂν δὲ ὁ ἀληθὴς θεὸς καὶ τὸν τῆς Ἥρας δαίμονα οὐχὶ μιαρὸν ἡγεῖσθαι δεῖν ἐνομοθέτησεν, ᾧ τῆς ἡμέρας ἑκάστης τρεῖς ἀνθρώπους θύεσθαι παρέστησεν 4.16.26 ἡ ἱστορία. τί δ' ἂν γένοιτο δαιμονικώτερον ἀληθῶς τοῦ καλουμένου Ὠμαδίου ∆ιονύσου, ᾧ φασιν ἐν Χίῳ ἄνθρωπον μελεϊστὶ διασπῶντας θύειν, ἢ τοῦ ἐν Τενέδῳ ὡσαύτως, ὃν καὶ αὐτὸν διὰ τῆς ἀνθρωποθυσίας ἱλάσκοντο; ἀπηγόρευσεν δ' ἂν ὁ ἀληθὴς θεὸς καὶ τῷ Ἄρει τῷ βροτολοιγῷ καὶ φιλοπολέμῳ δαίμονι θύειν ἄνθρωπον, ἐνομοθέτησεν δὲ ἂν μήτε τῶν 4.16.27 οἰκείων μήτε τῶν ἀλλοτρίων τὰ φίλτατα κατασφάττειν αὐτῷ. εἰ δὲ καὶ τῇ Ἀθηνᾷ κατ' ἔτος παρθένος, ὥς φασιν, ἐθύετο ἐν Λαοδικείᾳ τῇ κατὰ Συρίαν καὶ ταύτην εἰπεῖν πονηρὸν δαίμονα οὐκ ἂν ἐφυλάξατο ὁ ἀληθὴς θεός· ὡς καὶ τὸν ἐν Λιβύῃ τοῖς ὁμοίοις χαίροντα καὶ τὸν ἐπὶ τῆς Ἀραβίας, ᾧ καὶ αὐτῷ κατ' ἔτος ἕκαστον ἔθυον παῖδα, ὃν καὶ ὑπὸ βωμὸν ἔθαπτον. 4.17.1