114. So far, so good: what comes after? Thou wilt certainly supply them with interpreters of the "inspired Oracles" (as ye will call them), and open books upon theology and morals. But what books, pray, and of what authors? A fine thing, truly, for the books of Hesiod to be chanted by them with their wars and rebellions, their Titans and Giants, with their terrible names and doings: Cotos, Briareus, Gyges, Encelados, those serpent-footed, lightning-armed gods of yours; the islands piled upon them, weapons and tombs at once to whoso encountered them: and the births and dropping from all these, Hydras, Chimaeras, Cerberi, Gorgons----a revelling in everything bad. Let these samples of Hesiod's fine things be set forth to the audience: let Orpheus come forward with his harp and all-attractive song; let him thunder out in honour of Jove the Great, supernatural words and ideas of his theogony:----

"Jove, greatest of the gods, rolled up in dung"----

of sheep, that is, and of horses, as well as of mules, in order that from hence may be exhibited the life-giving and life-maintaining power of the Deity: ⁹³ for in no other way could it be done. Nor should he spare the rest of his magniloquence: ----

ΡΙΕʹ. Ταῦτα μὲν δὴ ταύτῃ: τί δὲ τὸ ἐντεῦθεν; Παρέξεις αὐτοῖς ὑποφήτας δηλαδὴ θεοφόρων λογίων, ὡς ἂν αὐτοὶ φαίητε, καὶ βίβλους ἀνελίξεις θεολογικάς τε καὶ ἠθικάς. Τίνας ταύτας, εἰπέ μοι, καὶ τίνων; Καλὸν προσάδεσθαι τὴν Ἡσιόδου Θεογονίαν αὐτοῖς καὶ τοὺς ἐκεῖ πολέμους καὶ κλόνους, τοὺς Τιτᾶνας, τοὺς Γίγαντας, μετὰ τῶν φοβερῶν ὀνομάτων τε καὶ πραγμάτων; Κότος, Βριάρεως, Γύγης, Ἐγκέλαδος, οἱ δρακοντόποδες ὑμῶν, οἱ κεραυνοφόροι θεοὶ, αἱ τούτοις ἐπαφιέμεναι νῆσοι, βέλη τε ὁμοῦ καὶ τάφοι τοῖς ἀπαντήσασι: τὰ πικρὰ τούτων γεννήματα καὶ προβλήματα, Ὕδραι, Χίμαιραι, Κέρβεροι, Γοργόνες, φιλοτιμία παντὸς κακοῦ. Ταῦτα ἔστω τῶν Ἡσιόδου καλῶν ταῖς ἀκοαῖς προτιθέμενα. Ὀρφεὺς παρίτω μετὰ τῆς κιθάρας καὶ τῆς πάντα ἑλκούσης ᾠδῆς, ἐπιβρεμέτω Διὶ τὰ μεγάλα καὶ ὑπερφυῆ τῆς θεολογίας ῥήματα καὶ νοήματα: Ζεῦ κύδιστε, μέγιστε θεῶν, εἰλυμένε κόπρῳ, ὅση τε μηλείη, ὅση τε ἵππων, ὅση τε ἡμιόνων, ἵν' ἐντεῦθεν, οἶμαι, δειχθῇ τὸ ζωογόνον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ φερέσβιον: οὐ γὰρ ἄλλως οἷόν τε ἦν: καὶ μηδὲ τῆς ἄλλης φείδεσθαι μεγαληγορίας.