OF SAINT JUSTIN, PHILOSOPHER AND MARTYR, TO THE GREEKS.

Do not suppose, O men of Greece, that my separation from your customs is irrational or uncritical; for I found nothing in them holy or pleasing to God. For the very compositions of your poets are monuments of madness and intemperance. For he who is pre-eminent among you for his instruction is the most troublesome of all men. For, first, he says that Agamemnon, cooperating with his brother's intemperance, intense madness, and unrestrained desire, and having consented to give his daughter for sacrifice, disturbed all of Greece, in order to rescue Helen, who had been carried off by a leprous shepherd. And when, after the war took hold, they took captives, Agamemnon himself was led captive by Chryseis; and he took up a feud against the son of Thetis on account of Briseis. And the son of Peleus himself, who fettered a river, overthrew Troy, and subdued Hector, was a slave to Polyxena, your hero, and was vanquished by a dead Amazon; having put off his god-made arms, having put on a bridal robe, he became a victim of love-potions in the temple of Apollo. For the Ithacan son of Laertes made a trade of virtue out of wickedness; and that he was devoid of good sense, his voyage past the Sirens showed, when he was not able by his own prudence to stop his ears. Ajax, the son of Telamon, who carried the seven-oxhide shield, being defeated in the judgment concerning the arms against Odysseus, was seized by madness. I do not wish to be taught these things; for I do not claim for myself such virtue as to be persuaded by the myths of Homer. For the whole rhapsody, the beginning and end of the Iliad and the Odyssey, is a woman. But since Hesiod after Homer wrote Works and Days, who will agree with his nonsensical Theogony? For he says that Cronus, the son of Uranus, deposed his father from his rule and seized the scepters, and, fearing that he would suffer the same fate, chose to devour his children, but by the device of the Curetes, Zeus, having been stolen away and hidden, imprisoned his father in chains, and they divided among themselves, as the story goes, Zeus taking the aether, Poseidon the deep, and Plutus obtaining the portion in Hades. But Plutus seized the Maiden; and Demeter, wandering through the desolate places, sought her child. And the fire at Eleusis exalted this myth. Again, Poseidon shamed Melanippe while she was drawing water, and he abused a crowd of no small number of Nereids, whose names, if we were to recount them, we would waste a great multitude of words. Zeus, then, was an adulterer in many ways: with Antiope as a satyr, with Danaë as gold, and with Europa he was a bull, and he was winged with Leda. For his love for Semele exposed both his own intemperance and Hera's jealousy. For the Phrygian Ganymede, they say,

ΤOΥ AΓIOΥ IOΥΣΤIΝOΥ ΦIΛOΣOΦOΥ ΚAI ΜAΡΤΥΡOΣ ΠΡOΣ EΛΛHΝAΣ.

Μὴ ὑπολάβητε, ὦ ἄνδρες Ἕλληνες, ἄλογον ἢ ἀνεπί κριτον εἶναί μου τὸν ἐκ τῶν ὑμετέρων ἐθῶν χωρισμόν· οὐδὲν γὰρ ἐν αὐτοῖς εὗρον ὅσιον ἢ θεοφιλές. Aὐτὰ γὰρ τὰ τῶν ποιητῶν ὑμῶν συνθέματα λύσσης καὶ ἀκρασίας ἐστὶ μνημεῖα. Τῷ γὰρ ἐν παιδείᾳ παρ' ὑμῖν προὔχοντι φοιτῶν τις πάντων ἀνθρώπων ἐστὶν ἀργαλεώτατος. Πρώτιστα μὲν γάρ φησι τὸν Ἀγαμέμνονα, τῇ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἀκρασίᾳ ἐπιτεταμένῃ λύσσῃ καὶ ἀκατασχέτῳ ἐπιθυμίᾳ συνεργοῦντα, καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα πρὸς θυσίαν εὐδοκήσαντα δοῦναι καὶ πᾶσαν ταράξαι τὴν Ἑλ λάδα, ἵνα ·ύσηται τὴν Ἑλένην ὑπὸ λεπροῦ ποιμένος ἡρπασμέ νην. Ὁπότε δὲ καὶ τοῦ πολέμου κατασχόντος αἰχμαλώτους ἤγαγον, αὐτὸς Ἀγαμέμνων ὑπὸ Χρυσηΐδος αἰχμάλωτος ἤγετο· πρὸς τὸν Θέτιδος παῖδα Βρισηΐδος ἕνεκεν ἔχθραν ἤρατο. Aὐτὸς δὲ Πηληϊάδης, ὁ ποταμὸν πεδήσας, Τροίαν κατα στρέψας, Ἕκτορα χειρωσάμενος, Πολυξένης ὁ ἥρως ὑμῶν δοῦλος ἦν, ὑπὸ Ἀμαζόνος νεκρᾶς νενίκητο· τὰ θεότευκτα ὅπλα ἀποδυσάμενος, νυμφικὴν στολὴν ἐνδυσάμενος, φίλτρων θῦμα ἐγίνετο ἐν τῷ τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος νηῷ. Ὁ γὰρ Ἰθακή σιος Λαερτιάδης ἐκ κακίας ἀρετὴν ἐνεπορεύσατο· ὅτι δὲ ἀγα θῆς φρονήσεως ἄμοιρος ἦν, ὁ κατὰ τὰς Σειρῆνας διάπλους ἐδήλωσεν, ὅτε μὴ ἠδυνήθη φρονήσει ἐμφράξαι τὴν ἀκοήν. Ὁ Τελαμώνιος Aἴας, ὁ τὸ ἑπταβόειον φέρων σάκος, διὰ τὴν πρὸς Ὀδυσσέα περὶ τῶν ὅπλων κρίσιν ἡττηθεὶς ὑπὸ μανίας ἡλίσκετο. Ταῦτα παιδεύεσθαι οὐ θέλω· οὐ γὰρ τοιαύτης ἀρε τῆς ἐπιδικάζομαι, ἵνα τοῖς Ὁμήρου μύθοις πείθωμαι. Ἔστι γὰρ ἡ πᾶσα ·αψῳδία, Ἰλιάδος τε καὶ Ὀδυσσείας ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος, γυνή. Ἀλλ' ἐπεὶ Ἡσίοδος μεθ' Ὅμηρον Ἔργα τε καὶ Ἡμέ ρας συνέγραψε, τίς αὐτοῦ τῇ λήρῳ Θεογονίᾳ συνθήσεται; Φησὶ γὰρ Κρόνον, τὸν Oὐρανοῦ παῖδα, τῆς ἀρχῆς καθελεῖν τὸν πατέρα καὶ τῶν σκήπτρων λαβέσθαι, καὶ διευλαβηθέντα τὸ ὅμοιον παθεῖν τεκνοφαγεῖν ἑλέσθαι, τῇ δὲ τῶν Κουρήτων ἐπινοίᾳ τὸν ∆ία κλαπέντα καὶ λαθόντα δεσμοῖς καθεῖρξαι τὸν πατέρα, καὶ διανείμασθαι, ὡς λόγος, ∆ία μὲν τὸν αἰθέρα, Ποσειδῶνα δὲ τὸν βυθόν, καὶ Πλουτέα τὴν καθ' ᾅδου μοῖραν λαχεῖν. Ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν Πλουτεὺς τὴν Κόρην ἥρπασε· καὶ ἡ ∆ή μητρα, ἀλωμένη κατὰ τὰς ἐρήμους, τὸ τέκνον ἐζήτει. Καὶ τοῦτον τὸν μῦθον εἰς ὕψος ἤγαγε τὸ ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι πῦρ. Πάλιν ὁ Ποσειδῶν Μελανίππην μὲν ᾔσχυνεν ὑδρευομένην, ὄχλῳ δὲ Νηρηΐδων οὐκ ὀλίγων κατεχρήσατο, ὧν τὰ ὀνόματα ἐὰν διη γώμεθα, πολὺ πλῆθος λόγων κατατρίψομεν. Ὁ μὲν οὖν Ζεὺς μοιχὸς πολλαχῇ· ἐπ' Ἀντιόπῃ μὲν ὡς σάτυρος, καὶ ἐπὶ ∆ανάῃ χρυσὸς καὶ ἐπ' Eὐρώπῃ ταῦρος ἦν, ἐπτεροῦτο δὲ παρὰ Λήδᾳ. Ὁ γὰρ Σεμέλης ἔρως καὶ αὐτοῦ τὴν ἀκρασίαν ἤλεγξε καὶ τῆς Ἥρας τὸν ζῆλον. Τὸν γὰρ Φρύγα Γανυμήδην, φασίν,