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they happen to be, what reason is there to consider the oracles of demons to be prophecies of the God over all, or to compare their affairs with the prophets of God? And what sort were their predictions, which, at the time they seemed to exist, they made to those who questioned them? Were they not about ignoble, humble, and worthless men, boxers, for instance, or some such people, whom they ordered to be honored with sacrifices? And what were their customs concerning human sacrifice? For this is indeed the main point of what has been said. 5.Prooem.11 Did they leave any wicked deed short of the extreme of absurdity, if indeed the saviors of men, both gods and good demons, urged their suppliants and pious refugees to slaughter their own dearest ones as if they were some other cattle, openly thirsting for human blood beyond all nature of beasts, and proving themselves to be nothing other than blood-drinkers and man-eaters and friends of destruction. Or let anyone who wishes say, if he can show anything noble and worthy of virtue in what is declared, or prophecies and predictions pertaining to the whole race of men, or laws and civil ordinances set forth, by which all men ought to live, or doctrines and teachings of philosophy put forth by the gods for the lovers of philosophy. 5.Prooem.12 But no one could say that any such thing ever came to life from the famous oracles. For if these things existed, men for whom laws were made by gods would not have used different and conflicting laws. 5.Prooem.13 For being gods and good, how would they not have used the same ordinances? And how not the most temperate and just laws? What need was there then of Solon or Draco or of the other men legislating for Greeks and barbarians, when gods were near at hand and prescribing what was needful through their oracles? 5.Prooem.14 But if someone should say that they and no others were the ones legislating for each nation of men, let him say then who and of what sort was that god who, for example, commanded the Scythians to eat human flesh, or the one who made it law for others to have intercourse with mothers and daughters, or the one who ordained, as a good thing, to cast the aged to dogs, or the one who permitted marrying sisters and males having intercourse with males? And why must I enumerate the lawless accounts among Greeks and barbarians, for the refutation that their wonderful givers of oracles were not gods but wicked and mischievous demons, who have cast down the thrice-wretched race of men to unnatural absurdities, 5.Prooem.15 since not even the celebrated gods and seers among the Greeks are shown to have provided anything beneficial and profitable for the benefit of the soul to those who consulted them? 5.Prooem.16 For why ever did Greek men, leaving behind the benefit from them, set out for barbarian land, collecting a trade of learning from somewhere abroad, when it was possible to use the gods as teachers? For when gods or even good demons were giving oracles, and at one time showing their own power through foreknowledge and other working of wonders, and at another time teaching true wisdom through the infallible truth of their teachings, what was the reason then that the sons of philosophers were not instructed by them, but that some provided contrivances from one doctrine and others from another, so that from the long disagreement various schools of philosophers were formed? But if the majority of men did not pay attention to them, surely then it was necessary for the pious who approached the gods to have obtained infallibility from the benefit of the gods. 5.Prooem.17 Who then are these? For whomever you may name, these are proven to be in error by those who hold opposite opinions. But in fact, as it seems, the oracles were of demons, extending as far as the detection of a thief or the loss of a vessel or some other such thing, of which things it was not unlikely that they, making their haunts in the air around the earth, had knowledge; but to be partakers of no noble and wise philosophical doctrine, nor of a constitution, nor of a law established with right reason,

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τυγχάνουσιν, τίς αἱρεῖ λόγος τοῦ ἐπὶ πάντων θεοῦ μαντείας εἶναι ἡγεῖσθαι τὰ τῶν δαιμόνων χρηστήρια ἢ τοῖς τοῦ θεοῦ προφήταις τὰ κατ' αὐτοὺς παραβάλλειν; ποταπαὶ δὲ αὐτῶν αἱ προρρήσεις, ἅς, ὅτε καὶ ἐδόκουν ὑφεστάναι, πρὸς τοὺς ἐρωτῶντας ἐποιοῦντο; ἆρα οὐχὶ περὶ ἀσέμνων ταπεινῶν τε καὶ εὐτελῶν ἀνδρῶν, πυκτῶν φέρε, ἤ τινων τοιούτων, οὓς θυσίαις τιμᾶν ἐκέλευον; ποῖα δὲ τὰ περὶ τῆς ἀνθρωποθυσίας νενόμιστο; κεφάλαιον γὰρ δὴ τοῦτο τῶν εἰρημένων. 5.Prooem.11 ἆρά τινι πράγματι κατέλιπον φαύλῳ ἀτοπίας ὑπερβολήν, εἰ δὴ οἱ σωτῆρες ἀνθρώπων θεοί τε καὶ ἀγαθοὶ δαίμονες τοὺς ἱκέτας αὐτῶν καὶ εὐσεβεῖς πρόσφυγας κατασφάττειν τὰ ἑαυτῶν φίλτατα ὡσπερεί τινα ἄλλα θρέμματα παρεκελεύοντο, ἄντικρυς ἀνθρωπείων αἱμάτων ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν θηρίων φύσιν διψῶντες, καὶ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ αἱμοπότας καὶ ἀνθρωποβόρους ἀπωλείας τε φίλους εἶναι σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἀπελέγχοντες. ἢ λεγέτω ὁ βουλόμενος, εἰ ἔχοι σεμνόν τι καὶ ἀρετῆς ἄξιον τῶν δηλουμένων ἐπιδεῖξαι, ἢ μαντείας καὶ προρρήσεις εἰς πᾶν γένος ἀνθρώπων συντεινούσας, ἢ νόμους καὶ πολιτικὰς διατάξεις καθ' οὓς χρῆν βιοῦν πάντας ἀνθρώπους διαγορευούσας, ἢ φιλοσοφίας δόγματά τε καὶ μαθήματα πρὸς τῶν θεῶν προβεβλημένα τοῖς ἐρασταῖς φιλοσοφίας. 5.Prooem.12 ἀλλ' οὐκ ἂν ἔχοι τις φάναι τοιοῦτον πώποτε ὑπῆρχθαι τῷ βίῳ ἐκ τῶν περιβοήτων χρηστηρίων. εἰ γὰρ ἦν ταῦτα, οὐκ ἂν διαφόροις ἐχρήσαντο καὶ μαχομένοις νόμοις ἄνθρωποι ὑπὸ θεῶν νομοθετούμενοι. 5.Prooem.13 θεοὶ γὰρ ὄντες καὶ ἀγαθοὶ πῶς οὐκ ἂν τοῖς ἴσοις ἐχρήσαντο διατάγμασιν; πῶς δ' οὐχὶ ταῖς σώφροσιν καὶ δικαιοτάταις νομοθεσίαις; τίς οὖν τῆς Σόλωνος ἢ ∆ράκοντος ἢ τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων Ἕλλησίν τε καὶ βαρβάροις νομοθετῶν χρεία ἦν, θεῶν ἐγγὺς παρόντων καὶ διὰ τῶν χρησμῶν διαταττομένων τὰ δέοντα; 5.Prooem.14 εἰ δὲ δὴ φαίη τις αὐτοὺς καὶ οὐδ' ἄλλους εἶναι τοὺς καθ' ἕκαστον ἔθνος ἀνθρώπων νομοθετοῦντας, καὶ τίς ἆρ' ἐκεῖνος καὶ ποταπὸς εἰπάτω θεὸς ὁ Σκύθαις φέρε ἀνθρωποβορεῖν διαταξάμενος, ἢ ὁ μητράσιν ἑτέροις καὶ θυγατράσι μίγνυσθαι νομοθετήσας, ἢ ὁ κυσὶν παραβάλλειν τοὺς γεγηρακότας, ὡς ἀγαθόν, διατεταγμένος, ἢ ὁ ἐπιτρέπων ἀδελφὰς γαμεῖν καὶ ἄρρενας ἄρρεσιν ἐπιμίγνυσθαι; καὶ τί με δεῖ τοὺς ἐκθέσμους τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησι καὶ βαρβάροις λόγους ἀπαριθμεῖν, εἰς ἔλεγχον τοῦ μὴ θεοὺς γεγονέναι πονηροὺς δὲ καὶ ἀλιτηρίους δαίμονας τοὺς θαυμαστοὺς αὐτῶν χρησμοδότας, ἐπὶ τὰ παρὰ φύσιν ἀτοπήματα τὸ τρισάθλιον τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένος καταβεβληκότας, 5.Prooem.15 ὁπότ' οὐδ' οἱ παρ' Ἕλλησιν βεβοημένοι θεοὶ καὶ μάντεις ὀνησιφόρον τι καὶ λυσιτελὲς εἰς ψυχῆς ὠφέλειαν τοῖς χρωμένοις ἀποδείκνυνται παρεσχημένοι; 5.Prooem.16 τί γὰρ δή ποτε καταλιπόντες ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες τὴν ἐξ αὐτῶν ὠφέλειαν ἐπὶ τὴν βάρβαρον ἐστέλλοντο γῆν, ἐμπορίαν μαθημάτων ἔξωθέν ποθεν ἐρανιζόμενοι, παρὸν διδασκάλοις τοῖς θεοῖς χρῆσθαι; θεῶν γὰρ ἢ καὶ δαιμόνων ἀγαθῶν χρηματιζόντων, καὶ τοτὲ μὲν διὰ τῆς προγνώσεως καὶ τῆς ἄλλης παραδοξοποιίας τὴν οἰκείαν δύναμιν παραφαινόντων, τοτὲ δὲ διὰ τῆς ἀδιαπτώτου τῶν μαθημάτων ἀληθείας τὴν ἀληθῆ σοφίαν ἐκδιδασκόντων, τί ποτ' ἦν ἄρα τὸ μὴ τούτοις μαθητευθῆναι φιλοσόφων παῖδας, ἄλλων δ' ἀπ' ἄλλου δογμάτων τινῶν ἐπινοίας ποριζομένων, ἐκ τῆς μακρᾶς διαφωνίας ποικίλας αἱρέσεις φιλοσόφων συστῆναι; ἀλλ' εἰ μὴ προσεῖχον αὐτοῖς οἱ πολλοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τοὺς εὐσεβεῖς δ' οὖν καὶ θεοῖς προσιόντας χρῆν δήπου τὸ ἀδιάπτωτον ἐκ τῆς τῶν θεῶν ὠφελείας πεπορίσθαι. 5.Prooem.17 τίνες οὖν οὗτοι; οὓς γὰρ ἂν φῇς, τούτους ἀπελέγχουσιν πλανωμένους οἱ ἀντιδοξάζοντες. ἀλλὰ γάρ, ὡς ἔοικεν, δαιμόνων ἦν μαντεῖα, μέχρι κλέπτου φωρᾶς ἢ σκεύους ἀπωλείας ἤ τινος ἄλλου τοιούτου φθάνοντα, ὧν οὐκ ἀπεικὸς ἦν αὐτοὺς ἐν τῷ περὶ γῆν ἀέρι τὰς διατριβὰς ποιουμένους τὴν εἴδησιν ἐσχηκέναι· καλοῦ δὲ καὶ σοφοῦ μηδενὸς ἐπηβόλους εἶναι δόγματος φιλοσόφου, μὴ πολιτείας, μὴ νόμου ὀρθῷ λόγῳ κειμένου,