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to receive the appellations of offspring, and product, and creature20; and a little later: 20the Son alone20, he says, 20constituted by the Father's energy, has an incommunicable nature 3.2.74 and relation to the one who begot him20. So, such are the things that have been said. But let us first consider the enemies' battle against themselves, as if we have become spectators of enemies in sedition against one another, and then let us in contrast show the truth of piety. The Son alone, he says, constituted by the Father's energy, has an incommunicable relation to the one who begot him. But in what came before this, he says not to refuse to call the begotten an offspring, since the begotten substance itself and the appellation of Son appropriates such a relation of names. 3.2.75 Therefore, with the contradiction in what has been said being so manifest, it occurs to me to marvel at the sagacity of the praisers of this dogma. For it would be a puzzle to which of the things said by him they might turn and not err with respect to what is left. His former argument established that the begotten substance and the appellation of Son appropriates such a relation of names. The present artifice says the opposite, that the Son has an incommunicable relation to the one who begot him. If they believe the first, they will certainly not accept the second; if they incline to this 3.2.76, they will stand against the former supposition. Who will resolve the battle for them, who will mediate the civil war, who will reconcile the sedition to harmony, with the soul itself being divided against itself by what is said and torn apart by the contradiction of the dogmas? Or is this perhaps the riddle of the prophecy, which David says concerning the Jews, that "They were rent asunder, and were not pricked with compunction." For behold, not even being torn asunder by the opposition of the dogmas do they have a sense of their error, but are carried about by the ears, in the manner of amphorae, being turned about 3.2.77 according to what seems good to the one who shifts them. It pleased him to say that the begotten substance appropriately has the appellation of Son; immediately, just like those who are drowsy, they nodded assent to what was said. He shifted his argument again to the contrary and denies the Son's relation to the one who begot him; again the dearest ones nod along with this too, just as the shadows of bodies by automatic imitation are conformed to the movement of that which goes before, inclining toward this wherever it may wish, and even if it fights with itself, they accept this too. This is another Homeric potion, not changing the bodies of those drugged into the forms of irrational animals, but working against the souls their metamorphosis into what is irrational. 3.2.78 For concerning those, the story says that their mind was steadfast, though their form was altered to that of a beast; but here, while their bodies remain in their natural state, their souls are remolded into what is irrational. And just as there the poetic monstrosity says that those who were drugged were changed into the forms of different beasts according to the pleasure of the one who outwits nature, the same things also now happen from 3.2.79 this Circaean mixing bowl. For those who drink of the bewitched deceit from the same writing are changed into different forms of dogmas, being formed now by this, and again by the other. And on top of this, the sweetest ones, according to the arrangement of the myth, still love the one who expounds such irrationality to them and, like some cornel-berry or acorn, stooping down, they pick up the arguments scattered by him, in the manner of swine, greedily running to the dogmas thrown on the ground, while not having the nature to gaze upon high and heavenly things. For this reason they do not see the digression of the argument to opposite things, but they seize without examination what comes to them, 3.2.80 of whatever sort it may be; and just as they say of those stupefied by mandrake that their bodies are seized by a certain coma and difficulty of movement, in the same way for these too are disposed the sense-organs of the soul, toward the

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τὴν δέχεσθαι τὰς τοῦ γεννήματος καὶ ποιή ματος καὶ κτίσματος προσηγορίας20· καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα· 20μόνος δὲ ὁ υἱός20, φησί, 20τῇ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐν εργείᾳ συστὰς ἀκοινώνητον ἔχει τήν τε φύσιν 3.2.74 καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὸν γεγεννηκότα σχέσιν20. τὰ μὲν οὖν εἰρημένα τοιαῦτα. ἡμεῖς δὲ πρῶτον μὲν τῶν ἐχθρῶν τὴν πρὸς ἑαυτοὺς μάχην κατανοήσωμεν, οἷόν τινες θεαταὶ πολεμίων γενόμενοι πρὸς ἀλλήλους στασιαζόντων, εἶθ' οὕτως ἀντιπαραδείξωμεν τὴν τῆς εὐσεβείας ἀλήθειαν. μόνος, φησίν, ὁ υἱὸς τῇ τοῦ πατρὸς ἐνεργείᾳ συστὰς ἀκοινώνητον ἔχει τὴν πρὸς τὸν γεγεννηκότα σχέσιν. ἐν δὲ τοῖς πρὸ τούτου τὸν γεννητὸν γέννημα λέγειν μὴ παραιτεῖσθαί φησι, τῆς γεννηθείσης αὐτῆς οὐσίας καὶ τῆς τοῦ υἱοῦ προσηγορίας τὴν τοιαύτην τῶν ὀνομάτων οἰκειουμένης σχέσιν. 3.2.75 Οὕτω τοίνυν προδήλου τῆς ἐν τοῖς εἰρημένοις οὔσης ἐναντιότητος, θαυμάζειν ἔπεισί μοι τῆς ἀγχινοίας τοὺς ἐπαινέτας τούτου τοῦ δόγματος. ἄπορον γὰρ ἂν εἴη πρὸς ὅ τι τῶν εἰρημένων παρ' αὐτοῦ τραπέντες οὐκ ἂν πλημμε λοῖεν εἰς τὸ λειπόμενον. ὁ πρότερος κατεσκεύαζε λόγος αὐτῷ τὴν γεννηθεῖσαν οὐσίαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ προσηγορίαν τὴν τοιαύτην τῶν ὀνομάτων οἰκειοῦσθαι σχέσιν. ἡ νῦν τεχνολογία τὸ ἐναντίον φησίν, ἀκοινώνητον ἔχειν τὸν υἱὸν τὴν πρὸς τὸν γεγεννηκότα σχέσιν. ἐὰν τῷ πρώτῳ πιστεύ σωσι, οὐ παραδέξονται πάντως τὸ δεύτερον· ἐὰν πρὸς τοῦτο 3.2.76 ῥέψωσι, κατὰ τῆς προτέρας ὑπολήψεως στήσονται. τίς αὐτοῖς διαλύσει τὴν μάχην, τίς μεσιτεύσει τῷ ἐμφυλίῳ πολέμῳ, τίς συμβιβάσει πρὸς συμφωνίαν τὴν στάσιν, αὐτῆς τῆς ψυχῆς πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἐκ τῶν λεγομένων μεριζομένης καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἐναντιότητα τῶν δογμάτων διελκομένης; ἢ τοῦτο τῆς προφητείας ἐστὶ τάχα τὸ αἴνιγμα, ὃ περὶ τῶν Ἰουδαίων φησὶν ὁ ∆αβὶδ ὅτι ∆ιεσχίσθησαν καὶ οὐ κατε νύγησαν. ἰδοὺ γὰρ οὐδὲ πρὸς τὴν ἐναντίωσιν τῶν δογμάτων διασχιζόμενοι τὴν τοῦ πλημμελήματος αἴσθησιν ἔχουσιν, ἀλλὰ φέρονται διὰ τῶν ὤτων, ἀμφορέων δίκην πρὸς τὸ 3.2.77 δοκοῦν τῷ μετατιθέντι περιαγόμενοι. ἤρεσεν αὐτῷ τὴν γεννηθεῖσαν οὐσίαν προσφυῶς τὴν τοῦ υἱοῦ προσηγορίαν ἔχειν εἰπεῖν· εὐθὺς καθάπερ οἱ νυστάζοντες τοῖς εἰρημένοις ἐπένευσαν. μετέθετο πάλιν πρὸς τοὐναντίον τὸν λόγον καὶ ἀρνεῖται τοῦ υἱοῦ τὴν πρὸς τὸν γεγεννηκότα σχέσιν· πάλιν οἱ φίλτατοι καὶ τούτῳ συνανανεύουσιν, ὥσπερ αἱ τῶν σω μάτων σκιαὶ τῇ αὐτομάτῳ μιμήσει πρὸς τὴν τοῦ προάγοντος συμμετασχηματίζονται κίνησιν, ὅπῃπερ ἂν ἐθέλῃ, πρὸς τοῦτο ῥέποντες, κἂν ἑαυτῷ μάχηται, καὶ τοῦτο καταδεχόμενοι. ἄλλος τις οὗτος Ὁμηρικὸς κυκεών, οὐ τὰ σώματα τῶν φαρ μακευομένων ἀλλάσσων εἰς ἀλόγων μορφάς, ἀλλὰ κατὰ τῶν ψυχῶν ἐνεργῶν τὴν ἐπὶ τὸ ἄλογον αὐτῶν μεταμόρφωσιν. 3.2.78 περὶ μὲν γὰρ ἐκείνων ὁ λόγος φησὶν ὅτι βέβαιος αὐτοῖς ὁ νοῦς ἦν, ἀλλοιωθέντος πρὸς τὸ θηριῶδες τοῦ εἴδους· ἐν ταῦθα δὲ τῶν σωμάτων αὐτοῖς ἐν τῷ κατὰ φύσιν διαμενόν των πρὸς τὸ ἄλογον αἱ ψυχαὶ μεταπλάσσονται. καὶ ὥσπερ ἐκεῖ φησιν ἡ ποιητικὴ τερατεία εἰς διαφόρων θηρίων εἴδη τοὺς φαρμακευθέντας ἀλλάσσεσθαι κατὰ τὸ ἀρέσκον τῇ παρασοφιζομένῃ τὴν φύσιν, τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ νῦν γίνεται παρὰ 3.2.79 τοῦ Κιρκαίου τούτου κρατῆρος. οἱ γὰρ ἐμπίνοντες τῆς γεγοητευμένης ἀπάτης ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ συγγράμματος εἰς δια φόρους δογμάτων μορφὰς ἀλλοιοῦνται, νῦν μὲν τούτῳ, πάλιν δὲ τῷ ἑτέρῳ μορφούμενοι. καὶ ἐπὶ τούτοις οἱ γλυκύτατοι κατὰ τὴν τοῦ μύθου διασκευὴν ἀγαπῶσιν ἔτι τὸν τῆς τοι αύτης ἀλογίας αὐτοῖς ἐξηγούμενον καὶ οἷόν τινα καρπὸν κρανείας ἢ βάλανον τοὺς διαρριπτουμένους παρ' αὐτοῦ λό γους ὑποκεκυφότες ἐκλέγουσιν, συῶν δίκην πρὸς τὰ χαμαιρ ριφῆ τῶν δογμάτων λαιμάργως ἐπιτρέχοντες, τοῖς δὲ ὑψη λοῖς τε καὶ οὐρανίοις ἐνατενίζειν φύσιν οὐκ ἔχοντες. διὰ τοῦτο τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ ἐναντία τοῦ λόγου παρατροπὴν οὐχ ὁρῶ σιν, ἀλλὰ τὸ ἐπ' αὐτοὺς ἐλθὸν ἀνεξετάστως ἁρπάζουσιν, 3.2.80 οἷον δὴ ἂν ᾖ· καὶ καθάπερ φασὶ τῶν διὰ μανδραγόρου κεκαρωμένων κώματί τινι καὶ δυσκινησίᾳ κρατεῖσθαι τὰ σώματα, τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ τούτοις διάκειται τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αἰσθητήρια, πρὸς τὴν