§22. The image cannot represent the true form of God, else God would be corruptible.

For if the reason of their being thus fashioned is, that the Deity is of human form, why do they invest it also with the forms of irrational creatures? Or if the form of it is that of the latter, why do they embody it also in the images of rational creatures? Or if it be both at once, and they conceive God to be of the two combined, namely, that He has the forms both of rational and of irrational, why do they separate what is joined together, and separate the images of brutes and of men, instead of always carving it of both kinds, such as are the fictions in the myths, Scylla, Charybdis, the Hippocentaur, and the dog-headed Anubis of the Egyptians? For they ought either to represent them solely of two natures in this way, or, if they have a single form, not to falsely represent them in the other as well. 2. And again, if their forms are male, why do they also invest them with female shapes? Or if they are of the latter, why do they also falsify their forms as though they were males? Or if again they are a mixture of both, they ought not to be divided, but both ought to be combined, and follow the type of the so-called hermaphrodites, so that their superstition should furnish beholders with a spectacle not only of impiety and calumny, but of ridicule as well. 2. And generally, if they conceive the Deity to be corporeal, so that they contrive for it and represent belly and hands and feet, and neck also, and breasts and the other organs that go to make man, see to what impiety and godlessness their mind has come down, to have such ideas of the Deity. For it follows that it must be capable of all other bodily casualties as well, of being cut and divided, and even of perishing altogether. But these and like things are not properties of God, but rather of earthly bodies. 3. For while God is incorporeal and incorruptible, and immortal, needing nothing for any purpose, these are both corruptible, and are shapes of bodies, and need bodily ministrations, as we said before37    Supra xiii. 3.. For often we see images which have grown old renewed, and those which time, or rain, or some or other of the animals of the earth have spoiled, restored. In which connexion one must condemn their folly, in that they proclaim as gods things of which they themselves are the makers, and themselves ask salvation of objects which they themselves adorn with their arts to preserve them from corruption, and beg that their own wants may be supplied by beings which they well know need attention from themselves, and are not ashamed to call lords of heaven and all the earth creatures whom they shut up in small chambers.

22 Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ὅτι ἀνθρωπόμορφόν ἐστι τὸ Θεῖον, διὰ τοῦτο οὕτω τετύπωται, διὰ τί καὶ ἀλόγων αὐτῷ τύπους περιτιθέασιν; εἰ δὲ ζώων ἀλόγων ἐστὶν ὁ τούτου τύπος, διὰ τί καὶ λογικῶν αὐτῷ περι τιθέασι γλυφάς; εἰ δὲ τὸ συναμφότερόν ἐστι, καὶ ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων κατειλήφασι τὸν Θεόν, ὅτι τε ἀλόγων καὶ λογικῶν ἔχει τοὺς τύπους, τί διαιροῦσι τὰ συνημμένα, καὶ χωρίζουσι τὴν ἀλόγων καὶ ἀνθρώπων γλυφήν, καὶ οὐ πάντοτε ἐξ ἀμφοτέρων αὐτὸν γλύφουσιν, ὁποῖα τὰ παρὰ τοῖς μύθοις ἐστὶ πλάσματα, ἡ Σκύλλα καὶ ἡ Χάρυβδις καὶ ὁ Ἱπποκένταυρος καὶ ὁ παρ' Αἰγυπτίοις κυνοκέφαλος Ἄνουβις; ἔδει γὰρ ἢ μόνους αὐτοὺς οὕτω γράφεσθαι διφυεῖς, ἢ μίαν αὐτῶν ἐχόντων μορφήν, μὴ καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἀναπλάττεσθαι κατ' αὐτῶν. καὶ πάλιν εἰ ἀρρενικαὶ τούτων εἰσὶν αἱ μορφαί, διὰ τί καὶ θηλειῶν αὐτοῖς περι τιθέασι τύπους; εἰ δὲ θηλυκῶν εἰσι, διὰ τί καὶ ἀρρενικῶν κατ' αὐτῶν ψεύδονται τὰς μορφάς; εἰ δὲ πάλιν τὸ συναμφότερόν εἰσιν, ἔδει μὴ διαιρεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ ἀμφότερα συνάπτεσθαι, καὶ γίνεσθαι κατὰ τοὺς λεγομένους ἑρμαφροδίτους, ἵνα μὴ μόνον ἀσέβειαν καὶ συκοφαντίαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ γέλωτας αὐτῶν ἡ δεισιδαιμονία τοῖς ὁρῶσι παράσχῃ· καὶ ὅλως εἰ σωματοειδὲς τὸ Θεῖον ὑπολαμβάνουσιν, ὥστε καὶ γαστέρα καὶ χεῖρας καὶ πόδας, καὶ πάλιν αὐχένα καὶ στήθη καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τὰ πρὸς γένεσιν ἀνθρώπων μέλη ἐπινοεῖν αὐτῷ καὶ ἀναπλάττειν, ὅρα εἰς ὅσην ἀσέβειαν καὶ ἀθεότητα καταπέπτωκε τούτων ὁ νοῦς, ὥστε τοιαῦτα ὑπονοεῖν περὶ τοῦ Θείου. ἀκολουθεῖ γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα τοῦ σώματος πάντως πάσχειν, ὥστε καὶ τέμνεσθαι, καὶ διαιρεῖσθαι, καὶ πάλιν ἐξ ὅλου φθείρεσθαι· ταῦτα δὲ καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα οὐκ ἴδια Θεοῦ, ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς σωμάτων ἐστίν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ Θεὸς ἀσώματός ἐστι καὶ ἄφθαρτος καὶ ἀθάνατος, οὐδενὸς εἰς ὁτιοῦν δεόμενος· ταῦτα δὲ καὶ φθαρτὰ καὶ σωμάτων εἰσὶ τύποι, καὶ τῆς παρ' αὐτῶν ἐπιδεόμενα χρείας, ὥσπερ καὶ πρότερον εἴρηται· πολ λάκις γοῦν ὁρῶμεν ἀνακαινουμένους τοὺς παλαιωθέντας, καὶ οὓς ὁ χρόνος ἢ ὑετὸς ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς ζώων ἠφάνισε, τούτους ἀναπλαττομένους. ἐφ' ᾧ ἄν τις αὐτῶν καταγνώσεται τῆς παρα φροσύνης· ὅτι ὧν αὐτοὶ ποιηταὶ τυγχάνουσι, τούτους θεοὺς ἀναγο ρεύουσι· καὶ οὓς αὐτοὶ ταῖς τέχναις περικοσμοῦσιν ἕνεκα τοῦ μὴ φθαρῆναι παρὰ τούτων, αὐτοὶ σωτηρίαν αἰτοῦσι· καὶ οὓς οὐκ ἀγνο οῦσι δεομένους τῆς αὐτῶν ἐπιμελείας, παρὰ τούτων αὐτοὶ τὰς ἑαυτῶν χρείας ἀξιοῦσιν ἀναπληροῦσθαι· καὶ οὓς ἐν μικροῖς οἰκίσκοις κατακλείουσι, τούτους οὐρανοῦ καὶ γῆς ἁπάσης δεσπότας οὐκ αἰσχύνονται καλοῦντες.