Chapter XIV. That Their Gods, by Ratifying the Legendary Narratives Concerning Gods by Their Own Oracles, Are Convicted of Contradicting the Philosophers

So after their long and manifold philosophical speculation, and after their solemn systems of meteorology and physiology, they fell down from their high place, as it were from the loftiest mountain-top, and were dragged down with the common herd, and swept away with the polytheistic delusion of the ancients, pretending that they glorified the like deities with the multitude by offering sacrifice and falling down before images, and increasing, and still further strengthening, the vulgar opinion of the legendary stories concerning the gods.

Must it not then be evident to all men that they are only talking solemn nonsense in their physical theories, and, as far as words go, putting a fair face on foul things by their perversion of the truth, but in actual deeds establishing the fabulous delusion, and the vulgar superstition? And so far there is no wonder, since they even record that their gods themselves assent to the fabulous stories concerning them.

Hear at least how Apollo himself teaches men a hymn, which he put forth concerning himself, acknowledging that he was born of Leto in the island of Delos, and Asclepius again in Tricca, as also Hermes acknowledging that he was the child of Maia: for these things also are written by Porphyry in a book which he entitled Of the Philosophy derived from Oracles,wherein he made mention of the oracles which run as follows:[1]

‘Thou, joy of mortals, forth didst spring From thy pure mother’s sacred pangs.’

To this he subjoins----

‘But when the pangs of holy birth Through all her frame fair Leto seized, And in her womb twin children stirr’d, Still stood the earth, the air stood still, The isle grew fix’d, the wave was hush’d; Forth into life Lycoreus sprang, God of the bow, the prophet-king On the divining tripod thron’d.’

Asclepius again thus speaks of himself:

‘From sacred Tricca, lo! I come, the god Of mortal mother erst to Phoebus born, Of wisdom and the healing art a king, Asclepius nam’d. But say, what would’st thou ask?’

And Hermes says:

‘Lo! whom thou callest, Zeus’ and Maia’s son, Hermes, descending from the starry throne, Hither I come.’

They also subjoin a description of the appearance of their own form, as Pan in the oracles gives the following description concerning himself:[2]

‘To Pan, a god of kindred race, A mortal born my vows I pay; Whose horned brows and cloven feet And goat-like legs his lust betray.’

These are the things which the author before named has set forth among the secrets Of the Philosophy drawn from the Oracles,Pan therefore was no longer the symbol of the universe, but must be some such daemon as is described, who also gave forth the oracle: for of course it was not the universe, and the whole world, that gave the oracle which we have before us. The men therefore who fashioned the likeness of this daemon, and not that of the universe, imitated the figure before described.

How also could Hermes be thought of as the reason which both makes and interprets all things, when he confesses that he had for his mother Maia the daughter of Atlas, thus sanctioning the fable that is told concerning him, and not any physical explanation?

So again, how could Asclepius be changed into the sun, when he lays claim to Tricca as his native place, and confesses that he was born of a mortal mother? Or how, if he were himself the sun, could be represented again as a child of the sun? Since in their physical theory they made his father Phoebus to be no other than the sun.

And is it not the most ridiculous thing of all, to say that he was born of the sun and a mortal woman? For how is it reasonable that his father, the sun, whom they declare to be Apollo, should himself also have been born in the island Delos of a mortal mother again, namely Leto.

Here observe, I pray you, how many gods born of women were deified by the Greeks, to be brought forward if ever they attempt to mock at our Saviour’s birth: observe also that the remarks quoted are not the words of poets, but of the gods themselves.