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with benefits to those in need, 5.9.15 but not to await compulsion; but if what was done was not good nor beneficial, 5.9.15 wherefore it did not happen according to their own will, how then could they be good, 5.9.16 doing what is not good nor advantageous? How are they worthy of being admired and honored with the worship of gods, who are enslaved even by common sorcerers, most destructive in their character, and are compelled to do what is not good nor advantageous against their will, being led and dragged down, not through acceptance of human temperance nor for the sake of virtue or any part of philosophy, but by the forbidden methods of sorcerers, which the same writer again has set forth in his letter to the aforementioned Egyptian, as if communicating true and secret things to a prophet, asking to be taught by him the formulas by which they accomplish these things? At any rate, he inquires, being perplexed, and speaks thus: 5.10.1 10.

BY WHAT METHODS THEIR WONDERFUL GODS TO THE SORCERERS

ARE SUBJUGATED "It greatly disturbs me how, when invoked as superiors, they are commanded as inferiors, and while demanding that their attendant be just, they themselves, when ordered, endure to do unjust things, and while they would not obey someone calling them who was not pure from sexual acts, they themselves do not hesitate 5.10.2 to lead whomever they happen upon into unlawful sexual acts. And they command their ministers to abstain from animal foods, so that they may not be polluted by the vapours from the bodies, but they themselves are especially enticed by the vapours from sacrifices, and while the 5.10.3 initiate must be untouched by a corpse, the evocations of the gods are mostly performed by means of the corpses of animals. But much more irrational than these things is this, that a mere man, who happens to be subject to them, should direct threats not to a daemon, perchance, or the soul of a dead person, but to the king Sun himself, or the Moon, or some one of the heavenly beings, terrifying them with lies so that they may speak the truth. 5.10.4 For to say that he will dash the heavens together and reveal the secrets of Isis and show the unspeakable thing in Abydus and stop the baris and scatter the limbs of Osiris to Typhon, what an excess of folly does this not leave for the one who threatens what he neither knows nor can do, and of baseness for those who have 5.10.5 feared such an empty terror and fabrications, just like utterly foolish children? And yet Chaeremon the sacred scribe records these things, as being commonly reported also among the Egyptians, 5.10.6 and they say that these and such things are most coercive. And what reason do the prayers themselves have, speaking of him who appeared out of the slime and is seated upon the lotus and sails in a boat and changes his forms every hour and is transformed according to the signs of the zodiac? For so they say he is seen with their own eyes, being ignorant 5.10.7 that they are attributing to him the peculiar affection of their own imagination. But if these things are said symbolically, being symbols of his powers, let them tell the interpretation of the symbols. For it is clear that if the experience were of the sun, as in eclipses, the same thing would have been seen by all who gaze at him. 5.10.8 And what is the meaning of the meaningless names, and among the meaningless ones, the barbarian names in preference to each one's own? For if the hearer looks to the thing signified, the same concept, 5.10.9 remaining, is sufficient to make it known, whatever the name may be. For surely the one being addressed was not an Egyptian by birth; and even if he was an Egyptian, still he did not use the Egyptian language nor any human language at all. For either all these things were the contrivances and pretenses of sorcerers, ascribing to the divine the passions that happen to us, or we have unawares held concepts about the divine contrary to how it really is." 5.10.10 Having said these things, he is again perplexed and says to the Egyptian: "But if some are impassible, and others passible, for whom they say phalli are set up on account of these things and obscenities are performed, the ... of the gods are vain

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ταῖς εὐποιίαις τοὺς δεομένους, 5.9.15 ἀλλὰ μὴ περιμένειν ἀνάγκην· εἰ δ' οὐ καλὸν ἦν οὐδ' ὠφελοῦν τὸ πρατ5.9.15 τόμενον, διὸ μηδὲ κατὰ γνώμην αὐτοῖς γίνεσθαι, καὶ πῶς ἂν ἀγαθοὶ εἶεν, 5.9.16 τὸ μὴ καλὸν μηδὲ συμφέρον πράττοντες; πῶς δὲ θαυμάζεσθαι ἄξιοι καὶ θεραπείαις θεῶν τιμᾶσθαι οἱ καὶ τοῖς τυχοῦσι γόησι τὸν τρόπον πανωλεστάτοις καταδουλούμενοι καὶ τὸ μὴ καλὸν μηδὲ συμφέρον παρὰ γνώμην πράττειν ἀναγκαζόμενοι ἀγόμενοί τε καὶ καθελκόμενοι, οὐ δι' ἀποδοχὴν σωφροσύνης ἀνθρώπων οὐδὲ ἀρετῆς χάριν ἤ τινος μέρους φιλοσοφίας, μεθόδοις δὲ γοήτων ἀπειρημέναις, ἃς ὁ αὐτὸς αὖθις συγγραφεὺς ἐν τῇ πρὸς τὸν εἰρημένον Αἰγύπτιον ἐπιστολῇ, ὡς ἂν προφήτῃ τἀληθῆ καὶ ἀπόρρητα κοινούμενος, τέθειται, τοὺς λόγους, καθ' οὓς ταῦτα συντελοῦσιν, ἀξιῶν παρ' αὐτοῦ διδαχθῆναι; πυνθάνεται γοῦν ὧδέ πως ἀπορῶν καὶ λέγων· 5.10.1 ιʹ.

ΟΠΟΙΑΙΣ ΜΕΘΟ∆ΟΙΣ ΟΙ ΘΑΥΜΑΣΙΟΙ ΑΥΤΩΝ ΘΕΟΙ ΤΟΙΣ ΓΟΗΣΙΝ

ΥΠΟΤΑΤΤΟΝΤΑΙ «Πάνυ δέ με θράττει πῶς ὡς κρείττους παρακαλούμενοι ἐπιτάττονται ὡς χείρους καὶ δίκαιον εἶναι ἀξιοῦντες τὸν θεράποντα τὰ ἄδικα αὐτοὶ κελευσθέντες δρᾶν ὑπομένουσιν καὶ καθαρῷ μὲν μὴ ὄντι ἐξ ἀφροδισίων οὐκ ἂν καλοῦντι ὑπακούσαιεν, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἄγειν εἰς παράνομα ἀφροδίσια τοὺς τυχόντας οὐκ 5.10.2 ὀκνοῦσιν. καὶ ἀπὸ ἐμψύχων μὲν ἀποχῆς κελεύουσιν δεῖν εἶναι τοὺς ὑποφήτας, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς ἀπὸ τῶν σωμάτων ἀτμοῖς χραίνωνται αὐτοὶ δὲ ἀτμοῖς τοῖς ἀπὸ θυσιῶν μάλιστα δελεάζονται, καὶ νεκροῦ μὲν ἀθιγῆ δεῖν εἶναι τὸν 5.10.3 ἐπόπτην, διὰ νεκρῶν δὲ τὰ πολλὰ ζῴων αἱ θεαγωγίαι ἐκτελοῦνται. πολλῷ δὲ τούτων ἀλογώτερον τὸ μὴ δαίμονι, εἰ τύχοι, ἢ ψυχῇ τεθνηκότος, αὐτῷ δὲ τῷ βασιλεῖ Ἡλίῳ ἢ Σελήνῃ ἤ τινι τῶν κατ' οὐρανὸν ἄνθρωπον τῷ τυχόντι ὑποχείριον ἀπειλὰς προσφέροντα ἐκφοβεῖν, ψευδόμενον ἵν' ἐκεῖνοι ἀληθεύσωσι. 5.10.4 τὸ γὰρ λέγειν ὅτι τὸν οὐρανὸν προσαράξει καὶ τὰ κρυπτὰ τῆς Ἴσιδος ἐκφανεῖ καὶ τὸ ἐν Ἀβύδῳ ἀπόρρητον δείξει καὶ τὴν βᾶριν στήσει καὶ τὰ μέλη τοῦ Ὀσίριδος διασκεδάσει τῷ Τυφῶνι, τίνα οὐχ ὑπερβολὴν ἐμπληξίας μὲν τῷ ἀπειλοῦντι ἃ μήτε οἶδεν μήτε δύναται, καταλείπει, ταπεινότητος δὲ τοῖς δεδοι5.10.5 κόσιν οὕτως κενὸν φόβον καὶ πλάσματα, ὡς κομιδῆ παῖδες ἀνόητοι; καίτοι καὶ Χαιρήμων ὁ ἱερογραμματεὺς ἀναγράφει ταῦτα, ὡς καὶ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις θρυ5.10.6 λούμενα, καὶ ταῦτά φασιν εἶναι καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα βιαστικώτατα. αὐταὶ δὲ αἱ εὐχαὶ τίνα ἔχουσιν λόγον, τὸν ἐξ ἰλύος ἀναφανέντα λέγουσαι καὶ ἐπὶ τῷ λωτῷ καθήμενον καὶ ἐπὶ πλοίου ναυτιλλόμενον καὶ καθ' ὥραν τὰς μορφὰς ἀμείβοντα καὶ κατὰ ζῴδιον μετασχηματιζόμενον; οὕτω γάρ φασιν αὐτοπτεῖσθαι, ἀγνοοῦν5.10.7 τες ὅτι τὸ ἴδιον πάθος τῆς αὑτῶν φαντασίας ἐκείνῳ περιάπτουσιν. εἰ δὲ συμβολικῶς λέγεται ταῦτα, τῶν ἐκείνου δυνάμεων ὄντα σύμβολα, τὴν ἑρμηνείαν τῶν συμβόλων εἰπάτωσαν. δῆλον γὰρ ὡς εἰ τοῦ ἡλίου ἦν τὸ πάθος, καθάπερ ἐν ταῖς ἐκλείψεσιν, πᾶσιν ἂν ὤφθη ταὐτὸν τοῖς εἰς αὐτὸν ἀτενίζουσιν. 5.10.8 τί δὲ καὶ τὰ ἄσημα βούλεται ὀνόματα καὶ τῶν ἀσήμων τὰ βάρβαρα πρὸ τῶν ἑκάστῳ οἰκείων; εἰ γὰρ πρὸς τὸ σημαινόμενον ἀφορᾷ τὸ ἀκοῦον, αὐτάρκης ἡ 5.10.9 αὐτὴ μένουσα ἔννοια δηλῶσαι, κἂν ὁποιονοῦν ὑπάρχῃ τοὔνομα. οὐ γάρ που καὶ ὁ καλούμενος Αἰγύπτιος ἦν τῷ γένει· εἰ δὲ καὶ Αἰγύπτιος, ἀλλ' οὔ τί γε Αἰ γυπτίᾳ χρώμενος φωνῇ οὐδ' ἀνθρωπείᾳ ὅλως χρώμενος. ἢ γὰρ γοήτων ἦν ταῦτα πάντα τεχνάσματα καὶ προκαλύμματα διὰ τῶν ἐπιφημιζομένων τῷ θείῳ τῶν περὶ ἡμᾶς γινομένων παθῶν, ἢ λελήθαμεν ἐναντίας ἐννοίας ἔχοντες περὶ τοῦ θείου ἢ αὐτὸ τῷ ὄντι διάκειται.» 5.10.10 Ταῦτα εἰπὼν πάλιν ἀπορεῖ πρὸς τὸν Αἰγύπτιον λέγων· «Εἰ δὲ οἱ μὲν ἀπαθεῖς, οἱ δὲ ἐμπαθεῖς, οἷς διὰ τούτων φαλλούς φασιν ἑστάναι καὶ ποιεῖσθαι αἰσχρορρημοσύνας, μάταιοι αἱ θεῶν