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“no, no” must be compared to that; “But for me to allow a falsehood and to conceal the truth is in no way right.” This passage in the tenth book of the Laws agrees with the prohibition against swearing; “Let both praise and oath be absent from everything.” And in general, Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato, saying that they hear the voice of God, contemplating that the structure of all things has been precisely made by God and is held together without ceasing, have heard Moses saying; “He spoke and 13.13.22 it was done,” describing the word of God as a deed. And dwelling on the fashioning of man from dust, the philosophers for their part declare the body to be earthly in every respect, but Homer does not hesitate to place in the form of a curse the line "but may you all become water and earth," 13.13.23 just as Isaiah says, “and trample them down as clay.” And Callimachus writes expressly; that was the year, in which once the winged and the creature in the sea and the four-footed so spoke as did the clay of Prometheus. And again the same author; “If,” he said, “Prometheus fashioned you and you are not made from other clay.” And Hesiod says of Pandora "He commanded the famed Hephaestus to mix earth with water with all speed, and to put in it a human voice and mind." 13.13.24 The Stoics, then, define nature as a technical fire, proceeding on a path to generation; but God and his word are allegorized as fire and light by the scripture. What then, does not Homer also, paraphrasing the separation of the water from the earth and the clear revealing of the dry land, say of Tethys and Oceanus; "for now for a long time they have kept apart from each other's bed and love"? 13.13.25 Again, the most learned among the Greeks also attribute to God the power in all things; 13.13.25 Epicharmus, for he was a Pythagorean, saying; nothing escapes the divine, you must know this; he himself is our overseer, and nothing is impossible for God. And the lyric poet; "for God it is possible to raise an unstained light from the black night, and with a dark cloud to cover the pure brightness of day." He who alone is able to make night while day is present, he says, this is God. 13.13.26 And in the work entitled *Phaenomena*, Aratus; saying, “Let us begin from Zeus;” whom we men never leave unspoken; full of Zeus are all the streets, and all the market-places of men; full is the sea and the harbours; and in all ways we all have need of Zeus” he adds; “for we are also his offspring,” as by creation, ... “and he, being kind, gives favourable signs to men; for he himself fixed the signs in heaven, distinguishing the stars; and he devised stars for the year, which might best signify to men the appointed seasons, so that all things might grow steadfastly; and they propitiate him always, first and last. Hail, Father, great wonder, great help to men.” And before him, Homer, making a world on the shield wrought by Hephaestus, according to Moses, “therein he wrought the earth, and therein the heaven, and therein the sea,” he says, “and all the constellations with which the heaven is crowned.” For the Zeus who is celebrated through poems and prose writings refers the thought to God. 13.13.27 Now, so to speak, in the light of day, Democritus writes that there are some few men, “who, stretching out their hands to where we Greeks now call the air—Zeus speaks of all things and he knows all things and gives and takes away, and he is king of all things.” And more mystically, the Boeotian Pindar, being a Pythagorean, "one is the race of men, one of gods, and from one mother we both draw our breath," of matter, he hands down, and one creator of these, he calls him the “father, the best of craftsmen,” who has also provided advancements into divinity according to merit. 13.13.28 For I pass over Plato in silence, since this man in his letter to Erastus and Coriscus appears to reveal Father and Son, I know not how, from the Hebrew scriptures, exhorting them verbatim "swearing with seriousness that is not uncultured and with its sister, education, by the God of all things, the cause both of the leader and of the cause

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οὒ οὔ» ἐκεῖνο ἀπεικαστέον· «Ἀλλά μοι ψεῦδός τε συγχωρῆσαι καὶ ἀλήθειαν ἀφανίσαι οὐδαμῶς θέμις.» τῇ τε περὶ τοῦ ὀμόσαι ἀπαγορεύσει συνᾴδει ἥδε ἡ ἐν τῷ δεκάτῳ τῶν Νόμων λέξις· «Ἔπαινός τε ὅρκος τε περὶ παντὸς ἀπέστω.» καὶ τὸ σύνολον Πυθαγόρας καὶ Σωκράτης καὶ Πλάτων λέγοντες ἀκούειν φωνῆς θεοῦ, τὴν κατασκευὴν τῶν ὅλων θεωροῦντες ἀκριβῶς ὑπὸ θεοῦ γεγονυῖαν καὶ συνεχομένην ἀδιαλείπτως, ἀκηκόασι τοῦ Μωσέως λέγοντος· «Εἶπε καὶ 13.13.22 ἐγένετο,» τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ ἔργον εἶναι διαγράφοντος. ἐπί τε τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἐκ χοὸς διαπλάσεως ἱστάμενοι γήϊνον μὲν οἱ φιλόσοφοι παρ' ἕκαστα τὸ σῶμα ἀναγορεύουσιν, Ὅμηρος δὲ οὐκ ὀκνεῖ ἐν κατάρας μέρει τίθεσθαι τὸ ἀλλ' ὑμεῖς μὲν πάντες ὕδωρ καὶ γαῖα γένοισθε, 13.13.23 καθάπερ Ἡσαΐας «καὶ καταπατήσατε αὐτοὺς» λέγων «ὡς πηλόν.» Καλλίμαχος δὲ διαρρήδην γράφει· ἦν κεῖνος οὑνιαυτός, ᾧ ποτε πτηνὸν καὶ τοὐν θαλάσσῃ καὶ τὸ τετράπουν οὕτως ἐφθέγγεθ' ὡς ὁ πηλὸς ὁ Προμηθέως. πάλιν τε ὁ αὐτός· «Εἴ σε», ἔφη, «Προμηθεὺς ἔπλασε καὶ πηλοῦ μὴ ἐξ ἑτέρου γέγονας.» Ἡσίοδός τε ἐπὶ τῆς Πανδώρας λέγει Ἥφαιστον δὲ κέλευσε περικλυτὸν ὅττι τάχιστα γαῖαν ὕδει φύρειν, ἐν δ' ἀνθρώπου θέμεν αὐδὴν καὶ νόον. 13.13.24 πῦρ μὲν οὖν τεχνικόν, ὁδῷ βαδίζον εἰς γένεσιν, τὴν φύσιν ὁρίζονται οἱ Στωϊκοί· πῦρ δὲ καὶ φῶς ἀλληγορεῖται ὁ θεὸς καὶ ὁ λόγος αὐτοῦ πρὸς τῆς γραφῆς. τί δ', οὐχὶ καὶ Ὅμηρος παραφράζων τὸν χωρισμὸν τοῦ ὕδατος ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς καὶ τὴν ἀποκάλυψιν τὴν ἐμφανῆ τῆς ξηρᾶς ἐπὶ τῆς Τηθύος καὶ τοῦ Ὠκεανοῦ λέγει· ἤδη γὰρ δηρὸν χρόνον ἀλλήλων ἀπέχονται εὐνῆς καὶ φιλότητος; 13.13.25 πάλιν τὸ δυνατὸν ἐν πᾶσι προσάπτουσι καὶ οἱ παρ' Ἕλλησι λογιώτατοι 13.13.25 τῷ θεῷ· ὁ μὲν Ἐπίχαρμος, Πυθαγόρειος δὲ ἦν, λέγων· οὐδὲν ἐκφεύγει τὸ θεῖον, τοῦτο γινώσκειν σε δεῖ· αὐτός ἐσθ' ἁμῶν ἐπόπτης, ἀδυνατεῖ δ' οὐδὲν θεός. ὁ μελοποιὸς δέ· θεῷ δυνατὸν ἐκ μελαίνας νυκτὸς ἀμίαντον ὄρσαι φάος, κελαινεφεῖ δὲ σκότει καλύψαι καθαρὸν ἁμέρας σέλας. ὁ μόνος ἡμέρας ἐνεστώσης νύκτα ποιῆσαι δυνάμενος, φησί, θεὸς οὗτός ἐστιν. 13.13.26 ἔν τε τοῖς Φαινομένοις ἐπιγραφομένοις ὁ Ἄρατος· Ἐκ ∆ιὸς ἀρχώμεθα εἰπών· τὸν οὐδέποτ' ἄνδρες ἐῶμεν ἄρρητον· μεσταὶ δὲ ∆ιὸς πᾶσαι μὲν ἀγυιαί. πᾶσαι δ' ἀνθρώπων ἀγοραί, μεστὴ δὲ θάλασσα καὶ λιμένες, πάντη δὲ ∆ιὸς κεχρήμεθα πάντες ἐπιφέρει· τοῦ γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμέν, οἷον δημιουργίᾳ, ... ὁ δ' ἤπιος ἀνθρώποισι δεξιὰ σημαίνει· αὐτὸς γὰρ τά γε σήματ' ἐν οὐρανῷ ἐστήριξεν, ἄστρα διακρίνας· ἐσκέψατο δ' εἰς ἐνιαυτὸν ἀστέρας, οἵ κε μάλιστα τετυγμένα σημαίνοιεν ἀνδράσιν ὡράων, ὄφρ' ἔμπεδα πάντα φύηται· καί μιν ἀεὶ πρῶτόν τε καὶ ὕστατον ἱλάσκονται. χαῖρε, πάτερ, μέγα θαῦμα, μέγ' ἀνθρώποισιν ὄνειαρ. καὶ πρὸ τούτου δὲ Ὅμηρος ἐπὶ τῆς Ἡφαιστοτεύκτου ἀσπίδος κοσμοποιῶν κατὰ Μωσέα ἐν μὲν γαῖαν ἔτευξ', ἐν δ' οὐρανόν, ἐν δὲ θάλασσαν, φησίν, ἐν δὲ τὰ τείρεα πάντα, τά τ' οὐρανὸς ἐστεφάνωται. ὁ γὰρ διὰ τῶν ποιημάτων καὶ καταλογάδην συγγραμμάτων ᾀδόμενος Ζεὺς τὴν ἔννοιαν ἐπὶ τὸν θεὸν ἀναφέρει. 13.13.27 Ἤδη δέ, ὡς εἰπεῖν, ὑπ' αὐγὰς ὁ ∆ημόκριτος εἶναί τινας ὀλίγους γράφει τῶν ἀνθρώπων, «οἳ δὴ ἀνατείναντες τὰς χεῖρας ἐνταῦθα, οὗ νῦν ἠέρα καλέομεν οἱ Ἕλληνες-πάντα Ζεὺς μυθεῖται καὶ πάντα οὗτος οἶδε καὶ διδοῖ καὶ ἀφαιρεῖται, καὶ βασιλεὺς οὗτος τῶν πάντων.» μυστικώτερον δὲ ὁ μὲν Βοιώτιος Πίνδαρος, ἅτε Πυθαγόρειος ὤν, ἓν ἀνδρῶν, ἓν θεῶν γένος, ἐκ μιᾶς δὲ ματρὸς πνέομεν ἄμφω, τῆς ὕλης, παραδίδωσι καὶ ἕνα τὸν τούτων δημιουργόν, τὸν «ἀριστοτέχναν πατέρα» λέγει, τὸν καὶ τὰς προκοπὰς κατ' ἀξίαν εἰς θειότητα παρεσχημένον. 13.13.28 σιωπῶ γὰρ Πλάτωνα, ἃ ἄντικρυς οὗτος ἐν τῇ πρὸς Ἐραστὸν καὶ Κορίσκον ἐπιστολῇ φαίνεται πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ἐκ τῶν Ἑβραϊκῶν γραφῶν ἐμφαίνων, παρακελευόμενος κατὰ λέξιν «ἐπομνύντας σπουδῇ τε ἅμα μὴ ἀμούσῳ καὶ τῇ τῆς σπουδῆς ἀδελφῇ παιδείᾳ τὸν πάντων θεὸν αἴτιον καὶ τοῦ ἡγεμόνος καὶ αἰτίου