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Light is called Light because of the Light above, and Christ because of the Christ above, and Logos because of the Logos above, and likewise Mind and Savior. but he always transcends his own father the Demiurge, and leads up those who obey him together with himself to the syzygies above of the Pleroma. And oh, the foolishness of these men and such great idle talk! But I will set forth, as I said before, how they themselves have yoked their nonsense to the poetic and gentile fictions of the myths. For after the thirty * the one name, intermediate and neuter, and after it the Ogdoad again found in syzygy from the Demiurge, able to be composed in this way also, and these are the names: first Exepaphos, Porphyrion, Klotho, Rhyakos, Lachesis, Epiphaon, Atropos, Hyperion, Asterope. And this is the stage-play of these poets, having also many other names of gods named by them, male and female, called one way and another by some, able to make up the number three hundred and sixty-five and more, as a pretext for the other heresies who, in their dreams, have established this same tragic plot. For after the aforesaid names, the school of Hesiod and Orpheus and Stesichorus say that Ouranos and Tartarus were born, and Cronus and Rhea, and Zeus and Hera and Apollo, and Poseidon and Pluto, and henceforth the myriad gods named by them. For great is the deceitful error of these men from conjecture, which becoming pregnant with empty sounds and inventing many myths has made them into poetry. And this is what seems to present fantasies to the mind of these deceived ones. But these things are immediately found to be ridiculous by all those whose mind is enlightened according to 1.390 God. But passing over these things, I will again, following their own books, * make a word-for-word and verbatim quotation here from the reading among them, that is, from their book, and it is as follows: 5. From the wise, and from the psychic, and from the carnal, and from the cosmic, and from the Greatness, * an indestructible mind to the indestructible, greetings. I make mention to you of unnameable and unutterable and supercelestial mysteries, which can be comprehended neither by principalities nor by powers nor by subjections nor by any confusion, but are revealed only by the Ennoia of the Unchanging One. For when in the beginning the Autopator himself contained all things within himself, existing within himself in unknowingness, whom some call an ageless Aeon, ever-young, male-female, who always contains all things and is not contained, then the Ennoia within him wished—that one, whom some called En1.391 noia, others Charis (Grace); appropriately, because she has supplied treasures of the Greatness to those from the Greatness, but those who spoke truly named her Sige (Silence), because through thought without word the Greatness perfected all things—as I said before, the incorruptible Ennoia, wishing to break eternal bonds, made the Greatness effeminate with desire for its repose. And she, mingling with him, brought forth the Father of truth, whom the perfect appropriately named Man, because he was the antitype of the pre-existing Unbegotten. After this, Sige, having brought forth a natural unity of Light with Man—and their coming together was willing—she brings forth Aletheia (Truth). And she was appropriately named Aletheia by the perfect, because she was truly like her own mother Sige, as Sige wished this, that the apportionment of lights of both the male and the female be equal, so that through themselves the feminine principle in them * might be revealed to those from them in him who have been divided into percep1.392 tible lights. After this, Aletheia, having brought forth a motherly lasciviousness, made her own Father effeminate towards herself, and they came together with each other, in an incorruptible mingling and ageless blending, and they bring forth a spiritual, male-female tetrad, an antitype of the pre-existing tetrad which was Bythos

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Φῶς διὰ τὸ ἄνω Φῶς καὶ Χριστὸν διὰ τὸν ἄνω Χριστὸν καὶ Λόγον διὰ τὸν ἄνω Λόγον καὶ Νοῦν ὡσαύτως καὶ Σωτῆρα λέγεσθαι. ἀεὶ δὲ ὑπερβαίνειν τὸν αὐτοῦ πατέρα τὸν ∆ημιουργόν, συναναφέρειν δὲ τοὺς αὐτῷ πειθομένους ἅμα αὐτῷ πρὸς τὰς ἄνω συζυγίας τοῦ Πληρώματος. καὶ ὦ τῆς τούτων ληρῳδίας καὶ τοσαύτης ματαιολογίας. παραθήσομαι δὲ ὡς προεῖπον καὶ ὡς αὐτοὶ συνέζευξαν τοῖς ποιητικοῖς καὶ ἐθνομύθοις πλάσμασι τὴν αὐτῶν ληρολογίαν. μετὰ τὴν τριακοντάδα γὰρ * τὸ ἓν ὄνομα μέσον καὶ ἀθήλυντον καὶ μετ' αὐτὸ τὴν κατὰ συζυγίαν πάλιν Ὀγδοάδα εὑρεθεῖσαν ἀπὸ τοῦ ∆ημιουργοῦ, δυναμένην καὶ οὕτως συντίθεσθαι, καὶ ἔστιν τὰ ὀνόματα τάδε· πρῶτος Ἐξέπαφος, Πορφυρίων Κλωθὼ Ῥύακος Λάχεσις Ἐπιφάων Ἄτροπος Ὑπερίων Ἀστεροπή. καὶ αὕμὲν ἡ τῶν ποιητῶν τούτων σκηνή, ἔχουσα καὶ ἄλλας πολλὰς ὀνομασίας θεῶν παρ' αὐτοῖς ὀνομαζομένων, ἀρρένων τε καὶ θηλειῶν, ἄλλως καὶ ἄλλως παρά τισι λεγομένων, δυναμένων ποιῆσαι καὶ τριακοσίων ἑξήκοντα πέντε ἀριθμὸν καὶ ἔτι εἰς πρόφασιν τῶν ἄλλων αἱρέσεων τῶν ταύτην πάλιν τὴν τραγικὴν ὑπόθεσιν ἐνστησαμένων ὀνειρωττομένων. μετὰ γὰρ τὰ προειρημένα ὀνόματά φασιν οἱ περὶ Ἡσίοδον καὶ Ὀρφέα καὶ Στησίχορον γεγενῆσθαι Οὐρανόν τε καὶ Τάρταρον, Κρόνον τε καὶ Ῥέαν, ∆ία τε καὶ Ἥραν καὶ Ἀπόλλωνα, Ποσειδῶνά τε καὶ Πλούτωνα, καὶ μυρίους λοιπὸν τοὺς παρ' αὐτοῖς ὀνομαζομένους θεούς. πολλὴ γὰρ τούτων ἡ ἀπατηλὸς ἐξ ὑπονοίας πλάνη, ἥτις κενοφωνίαν ἐγκισσήσασα καὶ ἐξευραμένη πολλοὺς μύθους ἐποιητεύσατο. Καὶ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ δοκοῦσα φαντάζειν τὴν τῶν ἀπατωμένων τούτων διάνοιαν. γελοῖα δὲ εὐθὺς πᾶσιν εὑρίσκεται ταῦτα τοῖς κατὰ 1.390 θεὸν τὸν νοῦν πεφωτισμένοις. παρελθὼν δὲ ταῦτα αὖθις ταῖς ἀπὸ τῶν βιβλίων αὐτῶν ἀκολουθίαις * πρὸς ἔπος καὶ κατὰ λέξιν τὴν παράθεσιν τῆς παρ' αὐτοῖς ἀναγνώσεως, λέγω δὴ τῆς αὐτῶν βίβλου, ἐνταῦθα ποιήσομαι, καὶ ἔστιν τάδε· 5. Παρὰ φρονίμοις, παρὰ δὲ ψυχικοῖς, παρὰ δὲ σαρκικοῖς, παρὰ δὲ κοσμικοῖς, παρὰ δὲ τῷ Μεγέθει * νοῦς ἀκατάργητος τοῖς ἀκαταργήτοις χαίρειν. Ἀνονομάστων ἐγὼ καὶ ἀρρήτων καὶ ὑπερουρανίων μνείαν ποιοῦμαι μυστηρίων πρὸς ὑμᾶς, οὔτε ἀρχαῖς οὔτε ἐξουσίαις οὔτε ὑποταγαῖς οὔτε πάσῃ συγχύσει περινοηθῆναι δυναμένων, μόνῃ δὲ τῇ τοῦ Ἀτρέπτου Ἐννοίᾳ πεφανερωμένων. ὅτε γὰρ ἐπ' ἀρχῆς ὁ Αὐτοπάτωρ αὐτὸς ἐν ἑαυτῷ περιεῖχε τὰ πάντα, ὅντα ἐν ἑαυτῷ ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ, ὃν καλοῦσί τινες Αἰῶνα ἀγήρατον, ἀεὶ νεάζοντα, ἀρρενόθηλυν, ὃς πάντοτε περιέχει τὰ πάντα καὶ οὐκ ἐνπεριέχεται, τότε ἡ ἐν αὐτῷ Ἔννοια ἠθέλησεν-ἐκείνη, ἥν τινες Ἔν1.391 νοιαν ἔφασαν, ἕτεροι Χάριν· οἰκείως, διὰ τὸ ἐπικεχορηγηκέναι αὐτὴν θησαυρίσματα τοῦ Μεγέθους τοῖς ἐκ τοῦ Μεγέθους, οἱ δὲ ἀληθεύσαντες Σιγὴν προσηγόρευσαν, ὅτι δι' ἐνθυμήσεως χωρὶς λόγου τὰ ἅπαντα τὸ Μέγεθος ἐτελείωσεν-ὡς οὖν προεῖπον, ἡ ἄφθαρτος Ἔννοια αἰώνια βουληθεῖσα δεσμὰ ῥῆξαι ἐθήλυνε τὸ Μέγεθος ἐπ' ὀρέξει ἀναπαύσεως αὐτοῦ. καὶ αὕτη αὐτῷ μιγεῖσα ἀνέδειξε τὸν Πατέρα τῆς ἀληθείας, ὃν οἰκείως οἱ τέλειοι Ἄνθρωπον ὠνόμασαν, ὅτι ἦν ἀντίτυπος τοῦ προόντος Ἀγεννήτου. μετὰ τοῦτο δὲ ἡ Σιγή, φυσικὴν ἑνότητα Φωτὸς προενεγκαμένη σὺν τῷ Ἀνθρώπῳ ἦν δὲ αὐτῶν ἡ συνέλευσις τὸ θέλειν, καὶ ἀναδείκνυσι τὴν Ἀλήθειαν. Ἀλήθεια δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν τελείων οἰκείως ὠνομάσθη, ὅτι ἀληθῶς ὁμοία ἦν τῇ ἑαυτῆς μητρὶ Σιγῇ, τῆς Σιγῆς τοῦτο βουληθείσης, ἀπομερισμὸν φώτων τοῦ τε ἄρρενος καὶ τῆς θηλείας ἴσον εἶναι, ὅπως δι' ἑαυτῶν καὶ ἡ ἐν αὐτοῖς * φανερωθῇ τοῖς ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐν αὐτῷ εἰς αἰσθη1.392 τικὰ φῶτα μερισθεῖσι. μετὰ τοῦτο ἡ Ἀλήθεια μητρικὴν προενεγκαμένη προυνικίαν ἐθήλυνε τὸν Πατέρα ἑαυτῆς εἰς ἑαυτὴν καὶ συνῄεσαν ἑαυτοῖς, ἀφθάρτῳ μίξει καὶ ἀγηράτῳ συγκράσει καὶ ἀναδεικνύουσι τετράδα πνευματικὴν ἀρρενόθηλυν, ἀντίτυπον τῆς προούσης τετράδος ἥτις ἦν Βυθὸς