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On the deceit of the devil

Of the same Athanasius, archbishop of Alexandria; An explanation concerning the deceit of the devil and the error of the idols.

1 How many terrible threats the devil has introduced to the race of men,

from the beginning he has contrived against our race and has devised wickedness against us. For he alienated us from God who made us, he cast us out of paradise, he handed us over to death, he cast in sins, he caused us corruption, he devised toils for us; the evil one filled us with these evils, the good God delivered us from these, but it is necessary to touch upon wickedness also, so that knowing what we are up against, we may make ourselves secure. for by these it has turned out well for them against us ... wickedness has caused disorder for the well-ordered, for intending to alienate us from the good God, he set up snares for us through heaven and air and earth and sea, so that wherever we might look up or turn about, we might be caught by what he has contrived. For seeing that the creations are good, he first attempted with these to alienate us from the Creator. Bright, he says, is the heaven, I will use it, I will misuse it for darkening; and the sun shines, let it be dark for men; and the order of the creations he armed against us for disorder, for by pointing out the beauties of the creations in heaven, he deprived us of worshipping the Maker, and leaving the Creator we turned to the creations and for us order became disorder, and the cosmos became chaos, and the light became darkness, and the created things became objects of worship. Since the soul by nature yearns for the beautiful, seeing to what the soul has looked up, he proposes beauties with hypocrisy, so that it might be deprived of the most beautiful things; and having placed faith in the course of the stars and having falsely called the order in heaven 'fate', having cast out providence, so that we might not cling to God, wishing to be saved; and what one ought to seek from God, these things, he says, seek all of them from the stars, slandering the creations, so that the one who created might not be sought; and giving beautiful words to the poets and applying contrived figures of speech and hiding the falsehood in the pleasure of the myths, he says, the heaven begets.

2 And bear with me as I mention myths at this time; not so that I might defile the holy place by mentioning shameful things, but so that the shameful things, having been refuted here, might free those held fast by the deceit. For the apostle did not shrink from mentioning the base things from their deeds and relating them, "not so that," he says, "we might learn these things, but so that we might be freed from them"; for 'males with males committing what is shameful', is a shameful deed and the saying is not dignified, but the cure is necessary. For everyone who treats a wound endures a stench, he soils his hands; for if the hands remain clean, the gangrene persists. Since, therefore, it is necessary to refute the falsehood, so that the refutation may be manifest ... for the evil one is like those who give deadly drugs in sweet drinks, so also he, having hidden wickedness with beautiful words, has plotted secretly through the outward appearance and as again those who give drugs do not provide them plain because of their bitterness, but hide the wickedness in accustomed food, so, having thrown elegant words and contrived figures of speech into the error of the myths and into the pleasure of licentiousness, and having added the drunkenness and feasting of the festivals, so that, being weighed down, we might not investigate the falsehood of the myths, but we might celebrate against ourselves, being stripped naked through wine, being mixed with mud through the

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De fallacia diaboli

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ Ἀθανασίου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Ἀλεξανδρείας· Ἐξήγησις περὶ τῆς ἀπάτης τοῦ διαβόλου καὶ τῆς πλάνης τῶν εἰδώλων.

1 Ὅσα ὁ διάβολος παρεισήνεγκε τῷ γένει τῶν ἀνθρώπων δεινὴν ἀπειλήν,

κατὰ τοῦ ἡμετέρου γένους ἐξ ἀρχῆς συνεσκευάσατο καὶ τὴν πονηρίαν καθ' ἡμῶν ἐμηχανήσατο. θεοῦ γὰρ τοῦ ποιήσαντος ἡμᾶς ἠλλοτρίωσεν, παραδείσου ἡμᾶς ἐξέβαλεν, θανάτῳ ἡμᾶς παραδέδωκεν, ἁμαρτίας ἐνέβαλεν, φθορὰν ἡμῖν προυξένησεν, πόνους ἡμῖν ἐπενόησεν· τούτων τῶν κακῶν ἡμᾶς ἐνέπλησεν ὁ πονηρός, τούτων ἐρρύσατο ὁ ἀγαθὸς θεός, δεῖ δὲ ἐφίκεσθαι καὶ πονηρίαν, ἵνα γνόντες πρὸς τίνα ἔχομεν ἀσφαλισώμεθα. αὐτοῖς γὰρ καλῶς γέγονεν καθ' ἡμῶν ... κακία τοῖς κεκοσμημένοις προυξένησεν ἀκοσμίαν, προθέμενος γὰρ ἡμᾶς θεοῦ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἀλλοτριῶσαι, παγίδας συνεστήσατο ἡμῖν διά τε οὐρανοῦ καὶ ἀέρος καὶ γῆς καὶ θαλάσσης, ἵνα ὅπου ἀνανεύσωμεν ἢ περιστραφῶμεν, περιληφθῶμεν οἷς συνεσκευάσατο. θεωρήσας γὰρ ὅτι καλὰ τὰ δημιουργήματα, πρώτοις τούτοις ἐπεχείρησεν ἡμᾶς τοῦ δημιουργοῦ ἀπαλλοτριῶσαι. λαμπρός, φησίν, ὁ οὐρανός, κεχρήσομαι αὐτῷ, ἀποχρήσομαι αὐτῷ εἰς τὸ σκοτίσαι· καὶ ἥλιος φαίνῃ, ἔστω σκοτεινὸς τοῖς ἀνθρώποις· καὶ τὴν τάξιν τῶν δημιουργημάτων εἰς ἀταξίαν καθ' ἡμῶν καθώπλισεν, τὰ γὰρ κατ' οὐρανὸν τῶν δημιουργημάτων κάλλη ὑποδεικνύων ἀπεστέρησεν ἡμᾶς τοῦ προσκυνεῖν τὸν ποιητὴν καὶ ἀφέντες τὸν δημιουργὸν ἔστημεν εἰς τὰ δημιουργήματα καὶ γέγονεν ἡμῖν ἡ τάξις εἰς ἀταξίαν καὶ ὁ κόσμος εἰς ἀκοσμίαν καὶ τὸ φῶς εἰς σκότος καὶ τὰ ποιήματα εἰς προσκυνήματα. ἐπειδὴ φύσει ὀρέγεται ἡ ψυχὴ καλοῦ, θεασάμενος εἰς τί κἂν ἀνένευκεν ἡ ψυχή, κάλλη ὑποκρίσει προτείνει, ἵνα τῶν καλλίστων ἀποστερηθῇ· περιθεὶς δὲ πίστιν τῷ δρόμῳ τῶν ἄστρων καὶ τὴν τάξιν τὴν κατ' οὐρανὸν ψευδῶς εἱμαρμένην ἐκάλεσεν τὴν πρόνοιαν ἐκβαλών, ἵνα μὴ ἑξώμεθα θεῷ βουλόμενοι σώζεσθαι· καὶ ἃ χρὴ ἐπιζητῆσαι παρὰ θεοῦ, ταῦτα, φησί, πάντα παρὰ τῶν ἄστρων ζητεῖ, συκοφαντήσας τὰ δημιουργήματα, ἵνα μὴ ζητηθῇ ὁ δημιουργήσας· καὶ λέξεις καλὰς τοῖς ποιηταῖς ἐνδοὺς καὶ σχήματα ἐπιτετηδευμένα περιθεὶς καὶ τῇ ἡδονῇ τῶν μύθων τὸ ψεῦδος κρύψας φησίν, ὁ οὐρανὸς γεννᾷ.

2 Κἀμοῦ ἀνέχεσθαι μνημονεύοντος μύθων ἐν καιρῷ· οὐχ ἵνα μιανῶ τὸν ἅγιον τόπον αἰσχρῶν μνημονεύσω, ἀλλ' ἵνα τὰ αἰσχρὰ ἐνταῦθα ἐλεγχθέντα ἐλευθερώσῃ τοὺς κατεχομένους τῇ ἀπάτῃ. οὐ γὰρ ὁ ἀπόστολος κατώκνησεν μνημονεῦσαι τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν πράξεων φαῦλα καὶ διηγήσασθαι, "οὐχ ἵνα," φησίν, "ταῦτα μάθωμεν, ἀλλ' ἵνα τούτων ἐλευθερῶμεν"· τὸ γὰρ "ἄρρενες ἄρρεσι τὴν ἀσχημοσύνην κατεργαζόμενοι", αἰσχρὰ πρᾶξις καὶ οὐ σεμνὸν τὸ ῥῆμα, ἀναγκαία δὲ ἡ θεραπεία. πᾶς γὰρ ὁ θεραπεύων ἕλκος ἀνέχεται δυσωδίας, μολύνει τὰς χεῖρας· ἐὰν γὰρ μείνωσι καθαραὶ αἱ χεῖρες, ἐπιμένει ἡ νομή. ἐπεὶ τοίνυν τὸ ψεῦδος ἐλέγξαι δεῖ, ἵνα φανῇ ὁ ἔλεγχος ... ἔοικεν γὰρ ὁ πονηρὸς τοῖς τὰ θανάσιμα φάρμακα διδοῦσιν γλυκέσιν ἐκπόμασιν, οὕτως καὶ αὐτὸς λέξεσι καλαῖς τὴν πονηρίαν κρύψας ἔλαθεν ἐπιβουλεύων διὰ τῆς ἔξωθεν ἐπισκιάσεως καὶ ὡς πάλιν οἱ τὰ φάρμακα διδόντες οὐ γυμνὰ διὰ τὴν πικρότητα παρέχουσιν, ἀλλὰ τῇ εἰθισμένῃ τροφῇ ἐγκρύπτουσιν τὴν πονηρίαν, οὕτως λέξεις κομψὰς καὶ σχήματα ἐπιτετηδευμένα ἐμβαλὼν τῇ τῶν μύθων πλάνῃ καὶ τῇ τῆς ἀσελγείας ἡδονῇ καὶ προσθεὶς τῶν ἑορτῶν τὴν μέθην καὶ τὴν ἑστίαν, ἵνα βαρυνόμενοι μὴ περιεργασώμεθα τῶν μύθων τὸ ψεῦδος, ἀλλ' ἑορτάζωμεν καθ' ἑαυτῶν γυμνούμενοι διὰ τὸν οἶνον, πηλῷ φυρόμενοι διὰ τὴν