116. All these tales, and yet more than these so cleverly and ingeniously put together, and quite out of the common rule, who is there of your party so sublime, so powerful and truly "comparable to Jove for wisdom," as to be able to bring them into a decent form, by means of the words of cloudy dissertation, soaring far above the limits of our comprehension? And yet these stories, if true, you ought not to be ashamed of, nay, ye ought to glory in them, or at any rate to prove that they are not shameful. And what good is there in taking refuge in "fable" as a veil for shame; for fable is the resource not of persons confident in their cause, but of those giving it up: but if these tales be fictions----in the first place let them produce us their undisguised theologians, in order that we may have to deal with them; and next let them explain how it is not silly to make a boast of the very things of which they feel ashamed: and the very things that it was possible to conceal from the vulgar (for education does not belong to all), to make these public to everybody's eyes, by means of statues and figures, and, worst of all, with how great a waste of money, in temples, and altars, and monuments, and offerings, and sacrifices costing many talents: and, when it was in their power to be pious without cost, to prefer the being impious at a great expense!

ΡΙΖʹ. Ταῦτα πάντα καὶ πλείω τούτων οὕτω σοφῶς καὶ πολυτρόπως συγκείμενα, καὶ παντάπασιν ἔξω τῶν νενομισμένων, τίς οὕτως ὑμῖν ὑψηλός τε καὶ μέγας, καὶ ὄντως Διὶ μῆτιν ἀτάλαντος, ὡς εἰς τὸ εὐπρεπὲς ἀγαγεῖν λόγοις θεωρίας ὑπερνεφοῦς, καὶ ὑπὲρ τὰ ἡμέτερα μέτρα τῆς καταλήψεως; Καίτοι ταῦτα εἰ μὲν ἀληθῆ, μήτ' αἰσχυνέσθωσαν, καὶ φιλοτιμείσθωσαν, ἢ, ὅτι μὴ αἰσχρὰ, πειθέτωσαν: καὶ τί δεῖ καταφεύγειν αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ τὸν μῦθον, ὡς τῆς αἰσχύνης συγκάλυμμα; οὐ γὰρ θαῤῥούντων, ἀλλ' ὑποχωρούντων ὁ μῦθος: εἰ δὲ ψευδῆ, πρῶτον μὲν ἐπιδεικνύτωσαν ἡμῖν τοὺς γυμνοὺς θεολόγους, ἵν' ᾖ πρὸς ἐκείνους ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος: ἔπειτα λεγέτωσαν πῶς οὐκ εὔηθες, οἷς ὡς μυθικοῖς αἰσχύνονται, τούτοις ὡς ἰσχυροῖς καλλωπίζεσθαι: καὶ ἃ τοὺς πολλοὺς λανθάνειν δυνατὸν ἦν, οὐ γὰρ πάντων ἡ παίδευσις, ταῦτα δημοσιεύειν ταῖς ἁπάντων ὄψεσιν ἐν πλάσμασί τε καὶ σχήμασι, καὶ τὸ δεινότατον, μεθ' ὅσης τῆς εἰς χρήματα ζημίας, ἔν τε ναοῖς καὶ βωμοῖς, καὶ ἱδρύμασι, καὶ ἀναθήμασι, καὶ θυσίαις πολυταλάντοις, καὶ ἀζημίως ἐνὸν εὐσεβεῖν, ἀσεβεῖν αἱρεῖσθαι μετὰ ζημίας;