Cure of the Greek Maladies 1 part 5/16

For He who compelled the tongue of Balaam the seer—a tongue that wished to curse—to labor in bringing forth a blessing, this same One has surely also turned aside this man's tongue, raging against the truth and darting against falsehood, against its will.

And not only here did he compose such words, but in his Letter to Anebo the Egyptian he set down things very much like these.

He speaks thus concerning those called gods, but who are in fact wicked demons:

"It greatly troubles me how, though invoked as superiors, they are ordered about as inferiors; and how, while charging that it is just for a servant who does wrong to be punished, they themselves, when commanded to do unjust things, comply; and how they do not heed one who calls upon them while not being pure from sexual acts, yet they themselves do not hesitate to lead chance persons into unlawful sexual acts;

they command that the inspired ministers must abstain from animal food, lest they be defiled by the exhalations from bodies, yet they themselves are especially enticed by the exhalations from sacrifices; and that the seer must remain untouched by a corpse, yet their evocations of the gods are accomplished by means of dead animals."

"But far more irrational than these is that a man—any chance person—should, by lying, frighten with threats not some demon, as it might be, nor the soul of a dead man, but the very King-Sun himself, or the Moon, or some one of the heavenly beings, who is supposedly subject to him, in order that those beings may speak the truth.

For to say that he will dash the heaven to the ground, will reveal the secrets of Isis, will disclose the unspeakable thing at Abydos, will halt the sacred barque, and will scatter the limbs of Osiris before Typhon—what excess of folly does this not leave to the one who threatens what he neither knows nor is able to do, and what abjectness to those who fear so empty a terror and such fabrications, as though they were utterly senseless children? And yet Chaeremon the sacred scribe also writes that such things are bandied about even among the Egyptians, and he says that these and the like are most coercive." Having added many other things besides, he went on to say this as well:

"But concerning blessedness they have nothing secure nor trustworthy."

They were not, then, after all, either gods or good demons, but rather that one who is called the deceiver. Which of those instructed in divine things, and who abhor that deceiver, could more clearly have refuted the deceit of the so-called gods? For openly the adversary of the truth declared that these are neither gods nor good demons, but teachers of falsehood and fathers of wickedness.

Plato in the Timaeus says that these are not even immortal by nature;

for he says that the Maker spoke to them thus:

"Immortal you are not, nor wholly indissoluble;

yet you shall not be dissolved, since you have obtained my will." And yet to Homer the opposite seems true;

for everywhere he names them immortal;

for he says, "They eat no bread, nor drink they gleaming wine;

therefore they are bloodless, and are called immortal."

So great is the dispute among the poets and philosophers concerning those who do not exist, yet are called gods.

To these they both built temples and erected altars, and honored them with sacrifices; and having carved certain forms and likenesses out of wood and stone and other materials, they called these handmade idols gods, and deemed the works of the art of Phidias, Polyclitus, and Praxiteles worthy of the divine title.

Accusing this deceit, Xenophanes of Colophon says the following:

"But mortals suppose that the gods are begotten, and that they have perception, and voice, and form, like their own."

"But if oxen or lions had hands, or could draw with their hands and accomplish such works as men do, then horses would draw the forms of the gods like horses, and oxen like oxen, and would make their bodies of such a kind as each of them itself had."

Then, mocking this deception still more plainly, he exposes the falsehood from the very color of the images.

For he said that the Ethiopians paint their own gods black and snub-nosed, just as they themselves are by nature; the Thracians paint theirs blue-eyed and ruddy; and indeed the Medes and Persians make them resemble themselves, and the Egyptians likewise shape them after their own form.

Observing these things, Zeno of Citium too, in his book of the Republic, forbids both the building of temples and the fashioning of statues;

for he says that none of these is a structure worthy of gods.

But Plato did not altogether forbid the doing of this, dreading, it seems, the contentiousness of the Athenians, and wary of the hemlock that had been administered to Socrates;

yet he too nevertheless ridicules most of the statue-making, and says:

"Let no private person, then, consecrate sacred objects to the gods;

gold and silver, both privately in other cities and in sacred precincts, are a possession that arouses envy;

ivory, coming from a body that has lost its soul, is not a holy offering;

iron and bronze are instruments of wars;

but of wood, whatever one wishes, let one dedicate, and of stone, for the common sanctuaries." That it was through fear of the Athenian populace that he did not utterly forbid the making of statues, it is easy to learn from this very passage.

For first he prevented anyone from making images of gods privately; then he cast out gold and silver, as materials that arouse envy and incite to sacrilege;

and he called ivory unhallowed;

and he said that bronze and iron belong to war, not to the making of statues of gods;

and he directed that they be carved only from wood and stone, knowing, I suppose, that the material is contemptible and sufficient to persuade those who see it not to regard as divine, nor to worship, things so cheap and easily bought.

For indeed the God of all has, through the prophet, brought the same accusation against those who both make and worship such things;

for he says, "The craftsman chooses out wood that will not rot;

and the wise man seeks how he may set up an image for himself, and that it may not totter." For not only does he remove the superfluous parts of the material, and mold the image into human form, and carve out each of the members very well, but he also takes the utmost care for its base and its standing, and contrives its standing for it with certain supports and nails; and the thing pieced together from material and craft is named a god.

Of which, he says, "He burned half of it in the fire, and roasting meat he ate, and said:

'It is sweet to me, for I have warmed myself and seen the fire';

but the other half of it he made into a carved image, and he worships it and prays to it, saying:

'Deliver me, for you are my god.'" Having thus plainly mocked their folly, he went on:

"Know that their heart is ashes, and they go astray." But for my part I am astounded at the shamelessness of those who today affect Greek ways.

For being ashamed that the inhabited world has come to its senses and been freed from the former error, they say that the things told by the poets about the gods are false myths, yet they do not blush at being convicted by the very things they do.

they worship fashioned wooden images;

for though every harlot standing upon the brothel-roof is less shameless than the figure of Aphrodite.

For who has ever seen a common prostitute standing naked in the marketplace, without tunic or girdle? Yet the sculptors of statues and the carvers of images fashion the very teacher of these women naked, and do not even cover her with a little tunic.

And Europa seated upon the bull—the painters paint her, the bronze-smiths mould her, and the makers of statues carve her;

and Pan too, and the Satyrs, they fashion as straining after copulation and rutting like horses and asses;

and likewise all the rest the makers of statues mould according to the tales of the poets.

If, then, you say that the poets fabricated false myths, why on earth do you tolerate the sculptors, the image-carvers, and the painters, who confirm the falsehood by their art? And why do you assign such great reverence to the statues fashioned by these men? For if indeed you accuse the poets truthfully, you ought to have burned their poems, and by law to have forbidden the craftsmen, and moreover to have threatened death upon them, so that no one anywhere should ever fashion such images, and whoever acted contrary to the law should be punished with death.

You ought also to have smashed and destroyed the things fashioned for the insult and ridicule of the so-called gods, and to have persuaded everyone that the things noised abroad about them by the myths are false.

But the Egyptians were so enslaved to shameful pleasures that they even named the goat a god, on account of its frenzy for mating.

And the people of Mendes honour it above all others.

Other cities, too, consecrated divine honours to other animals;

for the people of Memphis revered the bull, the Lycopolitans the wolf, the Leontopolitans the lion, and indeed the Cynopolitans the dog; the inhabitants of Latopolis revered a certain fish called the latus, others the ibis, and still others the crocodile.

And each of these was consecrated in the temples, and they offered to it the food suited to it;

then, as though to gods, they performed sacrifices, and when the creatures died they deemed them worthy of a costly burial.

So great was the error that of old held sway over the whole world;

but He whom we worship and whom you do not know utterly abolished this error and altogether drove it out, and showed the nature of men, once drunken and raving, to be sober and steadfast.

But I suppose you will say that you too speak of certain invisible powers, whom you also name and call Angels and Archangels, and Principalities and Authorities and Dominions and Thrones;

and again you know others called, in the tongue of the Hebrews, Cherubim and Seraphim,

who minister to His divine will;

yet we do not name these gods, nor do we render to them divine worship, nor do we divide divine adoration between the God who truly is and these; rather, we declare them to be more honourable than men, yet fellow-servants with us.

And we do not divide the incorporeal nature into male and female;

for of this division the nature of those subject to death stands in need, since, because death enslaves and carries off mankind, marriage, through the begetting of children, brings in a replacement for what is consumed;

for the Maker, as it were, devised the begetting of children as a kind of repairer of immortality for the mortal creature.

For this reason the use of the female is necessary to those who possess a mortal nature, but to beings made immortal the female sex is altogether superfluous;

for they have no need of increase, since they admit of no diminution, nor of intercourse, being free of bodies.

And the work of creation, both of these and of those, bears witness to this account.

For God did not at once create men in great numbers, but fashioned one man and one woman, and through their union filled all the earth and sea with this race;

but the nature of the incorporeal beings He did not make two by two, but created them all at once;

for as many myriads of them as He saw fit should exist, these He brought forth from the beginning.

For this reason too we call them holy, as having nothing earthly, but being released from the passions that pertain to earth, and having as their work the heavenly dance and the hymnody of their Maker, and again the ministries which, when commanded, they perform in service to the divine will, being sent forth by the God of all for the sake of the salvation of men.

For this, surely, the divine Apostle also said concerning them:

"Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?" Imitating their manner of life, all those among men who have embraced the service of God have fled even the lawful fellowship of bodies as something that drags one away from things divine, and have left behind both homeland and kindred, so that they might transfer all their care to things divine, and that no bond might restrain the mind, longing as it is to soar up to heaven and to behold the invisible and ineffable beauty of God.

Of such men are cities and villages full, and the peaks of the mountains and the ravines.

And some, dwelling together in companies, fashion in their souls the statues of philosophy; others, living in twos and threes; and others, shut up alone and forbidding their eyes to delight in the beauty of visible things, afford their minds the leisure to revel in the contemplation of intelligible realities.

But if those who are yoked to bodies and beset by many and manifold passions embrace an incorporeal, lofty life befitting heavenly beings, what discourse could express the impassible polity of the incorporeal natures, set free from all cares? That we should hold this opinion concerning natures invisible indeed, yet created, the divine oracles have taught us;

but you charge them with such great licentiousness and intemperance and every sort of shameful deed, and indeed with strife and wars and tyranny, such as would not befit even the most wicked of men—these things are told of them in myth.

For not even those who are exceedingly wicked possess all the vices which you charge against the father of the gods, the highest and greatest of them all.

For those who were enslaved to lust for young boys did not dig through the marriages of others; and those who fell into this passion spared their nearest kin;

and if anyone even fell into love for his sister, yet he did not rage after his mother, nor go mad for his daughter, but he revered nature and did not emulate the senselessness of the irrational beasts.

Only the Persians do such things, persuaded by a certain ancient and most abominable law, and not reckoning it to be transgression.

Set side by side, then, the things told in your myths concerning natures that are incorporeal but created, with the things said by us concerning the heavenly powers, and observe the difference;

and with sober reasoning judge which of the two is more fitting to the invisible substances.

For you will find, if you are willing to discern by a right verdict, that the things venerated by you are suited not to holy angels, but to most wicked demons.

And since I have made mention of demons, I think it useful to set forth concerning these too what we hold.

For we declare that these, and the one who rules over them—whom the divine oracles call Satan, the name signifying in the Hebrew tongue "the apostate" (the rebel)—

and it also calls him "the devil," as one who slanders God before men and casts strife and conflict among men themselves against one another—we declare that these were not created wicked from the beginning by the God of all, nor did they receive such a nature, but that by the perversion of their will they fell away from the better things to the worse, and, not content with what was bestowed by their Maker but reaching after greater things, they admitted into themselves the passion of pride, and so fell and were stripped of the honour originally given them; then, against men—as those honoured with the divine image—they raged and took up the war against them;

but the Maker, on the one hand, by the oversight of the angels guarded the race of men, lest the one who attacks invisibly, using force and tyranny, should fearlessly destroy those whom he hated through envy; and on the other hand, He no longer prevented the contest of struggle, so that the wrestling might reveal the best, and they might become archetypes of manly virtue.

For this reason, having hindered that one's violent assault, He permitted by the guardianship of the angels the contest of the reasonings, so that He might declare those worthy of victory to be worthy of the crowns—not Himself appointing that one to the rank of adversary, but rather using his wickedness toward a needful end, just as physicians use vipers for the cure of diseases.

These things, then, we have been taught to hold concerning the opposing power;

but as for what Plato too thought concerning these matters, one might most easily learn upon coming across the things he wrote in the tenth book of the Laws;

"When we say that soul governs and dwells in all things that move in every way, must we not also affirm that it governs the heaven? Of course. One soul, or more than one? More than one—I will answer on behalf of you both."

"Both the one that does good, and the one able to work the contrary." Such, then, is what that man wrote.

How full of absurdity these notions are, it is easy to perceive at once.

For he called "soul" the power that directs all things visible and indeed the invisible things as well;

and he said that this power governs not only the earth but also the heaven.

Then, when asked whether one ought to speak of one such power or of several, he answered that one must speak of no fewer than two;

and the one he called the benefactress, the other the worker of contrary things, and he assigned an equal power both to the good one and to the evil one;

and moreover he said that the heaven too is governed by the maker of evil.

But we declare that the all-holy Spirit, whom the divine oracles also name the Paraclete, directs and steers and sanctifies not only angels and archangels and the other ranks of the heavenly hosts, but also those among men who choose to live piously and who hold divine things in high esteem;

[we say that the demons] dread and fear and flee the [Spirit's] champions, and have under their power only those who of their own accord and by their own choice embrace bondage to him.

For the divine apostle has said that he works only in the sons of disobedience.

Concerning this matter Plato too has spoken thus in the Phaedrus:

"There are indeed other evils as well, but some daemon has mingled with most of them an immediate pleasure. For using this as a kind of bait and concealing the deadly hook, he lures away and destroys those of mankind who are easily deceived; but those who are sound in mind foresee the snares and leap clear over them."

Setting side by side, then, the opinions concerning these matters, consider which of them is more fitting to God:

to say that the good God is the maker of an evil nature, and to hand over to it and entrust to it the steering not only of the earth but also of the heaven, to govern as it wishes;

or, on the contrary, to say that God is altogether free from blame for evils, and that the demons became wicked by the choice of their own will, just as do most men also.

But I think that you too will agree that these latter doctrines are better than those former ones.

And if you would consult the divine oracles themselves and accurately grasp their purpose, you will know more clearly how far the God-inspired oracles surpass human reasonings, and what manner of thing the doctrines of the divine Spirit are, and what the teachings of the wicked demons.

For it transforms the soul and refashions it for the better, and renews those ancient impressions which nature implanted in it from the beginning.

And for my part I have come to think this account a very good one.

For Porphyry says that Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus, when in his youth he had inclined toward licentiousness, by diligence and instruction effaced those impressions and stamped upon himself the impressions of philosophy.

And the divine oracles too have taught us many such things.

For indeed our Saviour, by his counsels and exhortations, dragged up out of the pit of vice tax collectors who had embraced a greedy and unjust life, and a most lustful harlot, and a most lawless robber, and many others who had lived in company with wickedness, and made them lovers of the most perfect virtue.

And why do I speak of three or four or ten or fifteen? For through those few whom he himself reshaped he suddenly transformed the whole inhabited world that was so disposed, and rendered sober-minded a world that of old resembled men deranged and out of their senses.

Knowing this clearly, we bring to you the saving teaching;

and although we see you fighting against it and contradicting and thrusting away the cure, we do not give up, but with the sponge of the word we bathe the disease of unbelief.

Three times already we have done this, and we have shown how necessary and useful is the medicine of faith;

we have shown what one ought to believe concerning the divine essence, and what it is fitting to think concerning the natures that are invisible yet created, having stripped bare the shamefulness of poetic mythology and refuted the monstrous allegorizing of the philosophers.

But since concerning the visible creation also they held opinions neither true nor even in harmony with one another, but were divided into many factions as in a battle fought in the dark, treating one another without restraint as enemies, I think it useful to set their opinions out in the midst, to place beside them the doctrines of the divine Scripture, and to show plainly that, as one of our wise men has said, the reasonings of men are timid, and their devices are prone to error.

[Xenophanes,] having considered the matter, declared that the universe is one, spherical and finite, not generated but everlasting and wholly unmoved;

but then again, forgetting these very statements, he said that all things grow out of the earth.

For this verse is indeed his own:

"For out of earth are all these things, and into earth do all things come to their end."

But these statements are flatly inconsistent with one another.

For if the cosmos is everlasting, it is also without beginning;

and if it is without beginning, it is also without cause;

and if it is without cause, then surely it does not have the earth for a mother.

But if it has the earth as its cause, then it is not without cause;

and if it is not without cause, neither is it without beginning;

and if it is not without beginning, then it is not everlasting.

Parmenides son of Pyres, the Eleatic, who became the companion of Xenophanes, in his first account wrote things in agreement with his teacher;

for they say that this verse is indeed his own:

"whole, only-begotten, unshaken, and ungenerated."

But as the cause of all things he named not the earth alone, as that other did, but fire as well.

Melissus son of Ithagenes, the Milesian, became this man's companion, but he did not keep the teaching that had been handed down to him unadulterated;

for he said that the cosmos is infinite, whereas those others had said it was finite.

As for the "indivisible" and "atom" and "solid," some say they were so named because of their being impassible, others because of their being exceedingly small, inasmuch as they cannot admit of cutting or division.

And they so name those smallest and finest bodies, which the sun, casting its rays in through the windows, shows darting up and down within its beams.

Ecphantus of Syracuse, the Pythagorean, followed these men.

Plato, the son of Ariston, says that the first principles of all things are God, matter, and the Ideas;

but Aristotle the Stagirite, son of Nicomachus, [says they are] form, matter, and privation;

and [he says] the elements are not four, but five.

For he said that the ethereal substance is something different, being unchanging and unalterable.

But Xenocrates of Chalcedon called the matter, out of which all things came to be, eternal.

And Zeno of Citium, the son of Mnaseas, the pupil of Crates, the founder of the Stoic school, declared that God and matter are first principles.

But Hippasus of Metapontum and Heraclitus of Ephesus, the son of Bloson, held that the universe is one, motionless and limited, and that it had fire for its first principle.

And again, Thales and Pythagoras and Anaxagoras and Heraclitus and the whole chain of the Stoics said that matter is changeable, alterable, and in flux;

but Plato said that matter is corporeal, formless, shapeless, figureless, and altogether without quality.

For all these things, he says, it received afterward from its Maker.

Aristotle called it corporeal, and the Stoics called it body.

Empedocles, for instance, speaks thus:

"Nothing of the whole is empty, nor is anything superfluous."

But the Stoics held that within the universe there is no void at all, while outside it there is a vast and boundless void.

Strato, on the contrary, held that outside there is no void, but within there can be void.

And it was not only in these matters that they fell into the greatest disagreement, but in all the rest as well.

For indeed, Thales and Pythagoras and Anaxagoras and Parmenides and Melissus and Heraclitus and Plato and Aristotle and Zeno agreed that the cosmos is one;

and some said it is spherical, others that it is of another shape;

and some that it revolves like a millstone, others that it spins like a wheel;

and some that it is ensouled and breathing, others that it is altogether without soul;

and some that it is generated in thought but not in time, others that it is wholly ungenerated and without cause;

and these said it is perishable, while those said it is imperishable.

And as for the stars, Thales named them earthy and fiery;

but Anaxagoras said that stones were torn up by the whirling of the universe, and that these, being set ablaze and fixed on high, were called stars.

And Anaximander said they are certain compressions of air, packed together in the form of wheels and full of fire, which send forth flames from certain openings.

But Plato says that they are for the most part composed of fire, yet share also in the other elements.

And Aristotle said they are akin to the fifth body.

But Xenophanes says they are formed from kindled clouds, and being quenched by day are rekindled by night,

blazing up again, just like coals.

And Heraclides and some others of the Pythagoreans say that each of the stars is a world of its own, containing earth and air;

and some have said these are spherical, while Cleanthes the Stoic said they are cone-shaped.

Moreover, Xenophanes says that the sun and the moon are kindled clouds;

but Aristotle says the sun is a sphere composed of the fifth body;

and Plato says it has the greatest part from fire, but shares also in the other bodies;

and Philolaus the Pythagorean says it is glassy, receiving the reflection of the fire in the cosmos, and filtering through to us both its light and its warmth, holding the place of an image.

And yet others held still other opinions about it, which I think it superfluous to recount, lest I share in the same idle babbling.

And concerning its size and shape too there is great contention among them;

for some say it is spherical, others basin-shaped, and others resembling a chariot wheel;

and Anaximander said it is twenty-seven times the size of the earth, Empedocles that it is equal to the earth, Anaxagoras that it is larger than the Peloponnese, and Heraclitus that it is a foot wide.

And concerning the moon they likewise talk nonsense;

for Thales says it is earthy, while Anaximenes and Parmenides and Heraclitus say it is composed of fire alone;

and Pythagoras says it is a rocky body;

and Heraclides says it is earth surrounded by mist;

and some declare it is larger than the earth, others that it is equal in measure, others smaller, and still others that its diameter is but a span.

And what need is there to relate all the fables they spin about shapes and eclipses and distances? For they tell not only how far apart these bodies stand from one another, but also how far they are removed from the earth;

and they reckon up four hundred—indeed even more—myriads of stadia, some from the earth to the moon, others from there to the sun;

and they are not ashamed that, while ignorant of the depth of the sea—where one can let down a fishing line and a well-rope—they yet pride themselves on knowing clearly the measure of the air and the ether, never considering the unprofitableness of the matter, nor heeding the counsel of Aeschylus:

"Seek not in vain after things that bring no profit."

And even if each of these things were discoverable, it would be altogether useless.

But since their discovery is in fact unattainable by men, these people are simply like those who write on water or draw water with a sieve.

For both these and those undertake a vain labor, and waste their leisure on what serves no purpose.