190

we must allow the poet to speak, but if they should say that they needed punishment as being wretchedly evil, and in paying the penalty were benefited by God, we must allow it; but to say that 13.3.42 God, being good, is the cause of evils for anyone, we must contend against in every way.” But also concerning God's not being changed, the prophecy among the Hebrews teaches thus in some way from the person of God, saying: “Because I am the Lord your God and I have not been changed.” And in his divine songs David also cries out, saying: “They will all grow old like a garment, and like a cloak you will roll them up, 13.3.43 and they will be changed; but you are the same, and your years will not fail.” But if in some way they introduce the Word of God appearing in human form and shape, it must be said that not according to the myths of the Greeks, similarly to Proteus and Thetis and Hera, nor as the gods who “go about by night in the likeness of many and various animals,” do the Hebrew scriptures also introduce the Word of God having appeared to men, but as Plato himself says it is sometimes necessary for the benefit of friends, “when through madness or some folly they attempt to do some evil thing, then to become useful as a medicine for the sake of turning them away,” so is the 13.3.44 coming of God to men. Since, therefore, of the creatures on earth there was no race more beloved by God than man, both akin and related to the Word of God, from whom also he had been made rational in the nature of his soul, fittingly, as one caring for a beloved creature, they say the heavenly Word came for the healing of the whole race, which had undergone a strange sickness and madness, so as neither to know God the Father, nor the proper substance of its intelligent nature, nor again the providence of God, the savior of all, but having come to a devia13.3.45tion almost as great as that of an irrational animal. Wherefore, they say, the Savior and Physician appeared, not, indeed, having departed from His own nature, nor yet deceiving those who saw Him, but keeping both true, the unseen and the seen. For in one way He was seen as a true man, and in another way He was the true Word of God, not bewitching nor deceiving the beholders, since that the divine is free from falsehood seemed right 13.3.46 also to Plato. “Then God is altogether simple and true in deed and word, He neither changes Himself nor deceives others, either by apparitions or by words or by the sending of signs, whether in waking or in dreams.” For all such things, as the physician of rational souls, for the sake of the salvation of the whole human race, He accomplished in truth, and not in appearance, through the man He had assumed, bestowing upon all of us friendship with His own Father and a return to Him through the knowledge of God and true piety proclaimed by Him, 13.3.47. And our views are such as these; but with those who say otherwise “we shall be angry, and we will not grant them a chorus, nor will we allow the teachers to use them for the education of the young, if our guardians are to become god-fearing and divine,” as also seemed best to the philosopher.

13.4.1 4. THAT THE NARRATIVES CONCERNING THE GREEK GODS CONTAIN NOTHING MORE THAN SHAMEFUL MYTHS, FOR NOT BELIEVING WHICH

THE ATHENIANS KILLED SOCRATES “For men themselves happen to believe that Zeus is the best and most just of the gods, and they acknowledge that he bound his own father, because he swallowed his sons unjustly, and that he in turn castrated his own father for other such reasons; but they are angry with me because I am prosecuting my father for doing wrong, and so they say contradictory things about the gods and about me. 13.4.2 Is it then, Euthyphro, for this reason that I am being indicted, that whenever someone says such 13.4.2 things about the gods, I somehow find it difficult

190

ἐατέον λέγειν τὸν ποιητήν, ἀλλ' εἰ μὲν ὅτι ἐδεήθησαν κολάσεως λέγοιεν ὡς ἄθλιοι κακοί, διδόντες δὲ δίκην ὠφελοῦντο ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ, ἐατέον· κακῶν δὲ αἴτιον φάναι 13.3.42 θεόν τινι γίγνεσθαι, ἀγαθὸν ὄντα, διαμαχητέον παντὶ τρόπῳ.» ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τοῦ μὴ ἀλλοιοῦσθαι τὸν θεὸν ἡ παρ' Ἑβραίοις προφητεία ὧδέ πη ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ θεοῦ διδάσκει λέγουσα· «∆ιότι ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν καὶ οὐκ ἠλλοίωμαι.» καὶ ἐν ταῖς θεολογίαις δὲ ὁ ∆αβὶδ ἀναφωνεῖ λέγων· «Πάντες ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιωθήσονται, καὶ ὡσεὶ περιβόλαιον ἑλίξεις αὐτούς, 13.3.43 καὶ ἀλλαγήσονται· σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ, καὶ τὰ ἔτη σου οὐκ ἐκλείψουσιν.» εἰ δέ πη τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον εἰσάγουσιν ἐν εἴδει καὶ σχήματι ἀνθρωπείῳ παραφαινόμενον, λεκτέον ὡς οὐ κατὰ τοὺς Ἑλλήνων μύθους ὁμοίως Πρωτεῖ καὶ Θέτιδι καὶ Ἥρᾳ οὐδ' ὡς οἱ θεοὶ οἱ «περιερχόμενοι νύκτωρ πολλοῖς ζῴοις καὶ παντοδαποῖς ἰνδαλλόμενοι» καὶ τὸν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγον ἀνθρώποις πεφηνότα εἰσάγουσιν οἱ Ἑβραίων λόγοι, ἀλλ' ὡς αὐτὸς ὁ Πλάτων δεῖν ποτέ φησιν ἐπὶ φίλων εὐεργεσίᾳ, «ὅταν διὰ μανίαν ἤ τινα ἄνοιαν κακόν τι ἐπιχειρῶσι πράττειν, τότε ἀποτροπῆς ἕνεκα ὡς φάρμακον χρήσιμον γενέσθαι» τὴν τοῦ 13.3.44 θεοῦ εἰς ἀνθρώπους πάροδον. ἐπεὶ οὖν τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ζῴων οὐδὲν ἦν θεοφιλέστερον γένος ἀνθρώπου, συγγενές τε καὶ οἰκεῖον τῷ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγῳ, παρ' οὗ καὶ λογικὸς τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς φύσιν ἀπείργαστο, εἰκότως, οἷα φίλου ζῴου κηδόμενον, τὸν ἐπουράνιον λόγον ἥκειν ἐπὶ θεραπείᾳ φασὶ παντὸς τοῦ γένους, νόσον καὶ μανίαν ἔκτοπον ὑπομείναντος, ὡς μήτε τὸν πατέρα γινώσκειν θεὸν μήτε τὴν οἰκείαν τῆς νοερᾶς φύσεως οὐσίαν μήτ' αὖ θεοῦ πρόνοιαν, σώτειραν τῶν ὅλων, εἰς ἀλόγου δὲ ζῴου σχεδὸν ὅσον παρατρο13.3.45 πὴν ἥκοντος. διὸ δὴ τὸν σωτῆρα καὶ ἰατρὸν ἐπιστῆναι λέγουσιν, οὐ μὲν δὴ τῆς οἰκείας ἐκστάντα φύσεως οὐδέ γε ψευσάμενον τοὺς ὁρῶντας, ἄμφω δὲ ἀληθῆ φυλάξαντα, τό τε ἀφανὲς καὶ τὸ ὁρώμενον. πῆ μὲν γὰρ ἀληθὴς ἄνθρωπος ἑωρᾶτο, πῆ δὲ θεοῦ λόγος ἦν ἀληθής, οὐ γοητεύων οὐδὲ τοὺς θεωμένους ἐξαπατῶν, ἐπειδὴ τὸ θεῖον ἀψευδὲς καλῶς ἔχειν ἐδόκει 13.3.46 καὶ Πλάτωνι. «κομιδῇ ἄρα ὁ θεός, λόγος ἁπλοῦς ὢν καὶ ἀληθὴς ἔν τε ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ, οὔτε αὐτὸς μεθίστατο οὔτε ἄλλους ἐξηπάτα οὔτε κατὰ φαντασίας οὔτε κατὰ λόγους οὔτε κατὰ σημείων πομπὰς ὕπαρ οὐδ' ὄναρ.» πάντα γὰρ ὅσα τοιαῦτα, οἷα λογικῶν ψυχῶν ἰατρός, σωτηρίας ἕνεκα τοῦ παντὸς ἀνθρώπων γένους ἀληθῶς, ἀλλ' οὐ δοκήσει δι' οὗ ἀνείληφεν ἀνθρώπου διεπραγματεύσατο, τὴν πρὸς τὸν αὑτοῦ πατέρα φιλίαν τε καὶ ὑποστροφὴν διὰ τῆς κατηγγελμένης ὑπ' αὐτοῦ θεογνωσίας τε καὶ ἀληθοῦς εὐσεβείας 13.3.47 πᾶσιν ἡμῖν δωρούμενος. καὶ τὰ μὲν ἡμέτερα τοιαῦτα· τοῖς δὲ ἄλλως λέγουσι «χαλεπανοῦμέν τε καὶ χορὸν οὐ δώσομεν οὐδέ γε τοὺς διδασκάλους ἐάσομεν ἐπὶ παιδείᾳ χρῆσθαι τῶν νέων, εἰ μέλλουσιν ἡμῖν οἱ φύλακες θεοσεβεῖς τε καὶ θεῖοι γίγνεσθαι,» ὡς καὶ τῷ φιλοσόφῳ ἄριστα ἔχειν ἐδόκει.

13.4.1 δʹ. ΟΤΙ ΠΛΕΟΝ ΟΥ∆ΕΝ ΤΩΝ ΑΙΣΧΡΩΝ ΜΥΘΩΝ ΑΙ ΠΕΡΙ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΩΝ ΘΕΩΝ ∆ΙΗΓΗΣΕΙΣ ΠΕΡΙΕΧΟΥΣΙΝ, ΑΙΣ ΜΗ ΠΕΙΘΟΜΕΝΟΝ

ΣΩΚΡΑΤΗΝ ΕΚΤΕΙΝΑΝ ΑΘΗΝΑΙΟΙ «Αὐτοὶ γὰρ οἱ ἄνθρωποι τυγχάνουσι νομίζοντες τὸν ∆ία τῶν θεῶν ἄριστον καὶ δικαιότατον καὶ τοῦτον ὁμολογοῦσι τὸν αὑτοῦ πατέρα δῆσαι, ὅτι τοὺς υἱεῖς κατέπινεν οὐκ ἐν δίκῃ, καὶ ἐκεῖνόν γε αὖ τὸν αὑτοῦ πατέρα ἐκτεμεῖν δι' ἕτερα τοιαῦτα· ἐμοὶ δὲ χαλεπαίνουσιν ὅτι τῷ πατρὶ ἐπεξέρχομαι ἀδικοῦντι καὶ οὕτως αὐτοὶ αὑτοῖς τὰ ἐναντία λέγουσι περί τε τῶν θεῶν καὶ περὶ ἐμοῦ. 13.4.2 Ἆρά γε, ὦ Εὐθύφρον, τοῦτ' ἔστιν οὗ 'νεκα τὴν γραφὴν φεύγω ὅτι τὰ τοι13.4.2 αῦτα ἐπειδάν τις περὶ τῶν θεῶν λέγῃ, δυσχερῶς πως