Chapter XXXVI.

But what sort of being is this Ammon of Herodotus, whose words Celsus has quoted, as if by way of demonstrating how each one ought to keep his country’s laws?  For this Ammon would not allow the people of the cities of Marea and Apis, who inhabit the districts adjacent to Libya, to treat as a matter of indifference the use of cows’ flesh, which is a thing not only indifferent in its own nature, but which does not prevent a man from being noble and virtuous.  If Ammon, then, forbade the use of cows’ flesh, because of the advantage which results from the use of the animal in the cultivation of the ground, and in addition to this, because it is by the female that the breed is increased, the account would possess more plausibility.  But now he simply requires that those who drink of the Nile should observe the laws of the Egyptians regarding kine.  And hereupon Celsus, taking occasion to pass a jest upon the employment of the angels among the Jews as the ambassadors of God, says that “Ammon did not make a worse ambassador of divine things than did the angels of the Jews,” into the meaning of whose words and manifestations he instituted no investigation; otherwise he would have seen, that it is not for oxen that God is concerned, even where He may appear to legislate for them, or for irrational animals, but that what is written for the sake of men, under the appearance of relating to irrational animals, contains certain truths of nature.1131    φυσιολογίαν.  Celsus, moreover, says that no wrong is committed by any one who wishes to observe the religious worship sanctioned by the laws of his country; and it follows, according to his view, that the Scythians commit no wrong, when, in conformity with their country’s laws, they eat human beings.  And those Indians who eat their own fathers are considered, according to Celsus, to do a religious, or at least not a wicked act.  He adduces, indeed, a statement of Herodotus which favours the principle that each one ought, from a sense of what is becoming, to obey his country’s laws; and he appears to approve of the custom of those Indians called Callatians, who in the time of Darius devoured their parents, since, on Darius inquiring for how great a sum of money they would be willing to lay aside this usage, they raised a loud shout, and bade the king say no more.

Οἷος δὲ καὶ ὁ τοῦ Ἡροδότου ἐστὶν Ἄμμων, οὗ τὰς λέξεις ὁ Κέλσος παρείληφεν, ὡς εἰς ἀπόδειξιν περὶ τοῦ δεῖν ἕκαστον τὰ πάτρια τηρεῖν; Ὁ γὰρ Ἄμμων αὐτῶν τοῖς τῶν ἀπὸ Μαρέης πόλεως καὶ Ἄπιος οἰκοῦσι τὰ πρόσουρα τῇ Λιβύῃ οὐκ ἐᾷ ἀδιαφορεῖν πρὸς τὴν χρῆσιν τῶν θηλέων βοῶν· ὅπερ πρᾶγμα οὐ μόνον τῇ φύσει ἑαυτοῦ ἀδιάφορόν ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ οὐ κωλύει καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν εἶναί τινα. Καὶ εἰ μὲν ὁ Ἄμμων αὐτῶν ἀπηγόρευε τὴν χρῆσιν τῶν θηλειῶν βοῶν διὰ τὸ εἰς γεωργίαν τοῦ ζῴου χρήσιμον καὶ πρὸς τούτῳ διὰ τὸ διὰ τῶν θηλέων μάλιστα αὔξειν τὸ γένος αὐτῶν, τάχα ἂν εἶχε πιθανότητα ὁ λόγος· νυνὶ δὲ ἅπαξ βούλεται αὐτοὺς [ὡς] ἐμπίνοντας τοῦ Νείλου δεῖν τηρεῖν τοὺς Αἰγυπτίων περὶ θηλειῶν βοῶν νόμους. Καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ γε τωθάζων ὁ Κέλσος τοὺς παρὰ Ἰουδαίοις ἀγγέλους πρεσ βεύοντας τὰ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐ κακίονα ἔφησεν εἶναι τὸν Ἄμμωνα πρὸς τὸ διαπρεσβεῦσαι τὰ δαιμόνια ἢ οἱ Ἰουδαίων ἄγγελοι· ὧν οὐκ ἐξήτασε τοὺς λόγους καὶ τὰς ἐπιφανείας, τί βούλονται. Ἑωράκει γὰρ ἂν ὅτι οὐ "τῶν βοῶν μέλει τῷ θεῷ", ἔνθα καὶ δοκεῖ περὶ βοῶν ἢ ἀλόγων ζῴων νομοθετεῖν, ἀλλὰ τὰ δι' ἀνθρώπους γραφέντα ἐν προσχήματι τῷ περὶ ἀλόγων ζῴων φυσιολογίαν τινὰ περιέχει. Κέλσος μὲν οὖν οὐδὲν ἄδικόν φησι ποιεῖν ἕκαστον, τὰ σφέτερα νόμιμα θρησκεύειν ἐθέλοντα· καὶ ἀκολουθεῖ κατ' αὐτὸν μηδὲν ἄδικον ποιεῖν Σκύθας, ἐπεὶ κατὰ τὰ πάτρια δαίνυνται ἀνθρώπους. Καὶ Ἰνδῶν δὲ οἱ τοὺς πατέρας ἐσθίοντες ὅσια δρᾶν νομίζουσι, καὶ κατὰ τὸν Κέλσον, ἢ οὐκ ἄδικά γε. Ἐκτίθεται γοῦν Ἡροδότου λέξιν συναγορεύουσαν τὸ ἕκαστον τοῖς πατρίοις νόμοις καθηκόντως χρῆσθαι, καὶ ἔοικεν ἀποδεχομένῳ τοὺς ἐπὶ ∆αρείου Καλλατίας καλου μένους Ἰνδοὺς τοὺς γονεῖς κατεσθίοντας, ἐπεὶ πρὸς τὸν ∆αρεῖον πυνθανόμενον, ἐπὶ πόσῳ χρήματι ἀποθέσθαι τοῦτον τὸν νόμον βούλονται, ἀναβοήσαντες μέγα εὐφημεῖν αὐτὸν ἐκέλευον.