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against nature. But whin tho demon plota against a man, M sint inflicta somo hist upon his mi .'
denco is afford is Troas and Parium. The one has statues of Neryllinus, a man of our oWn times ; and Parium os Alexander and Proteus: both the sepulchre and the statuo ofAlexander are stili in the forum. Tho other statues of Neryllinus, then, are a public ornament, ii indeed a city can boadorned by such objecis as these; but one of them is supposedio ulter oracles and to heia the sich, and on this account thopeoplo of tho Troad offer sacrifices to this statue, and oVerlayit With gold, and hang chapleis upon it. But of the statues of Alexander and Proteus the lalter, Fou are inare, thre himself into tho firo noar Olympia , that os Proteus is like-Wiso said to ulter oracles; and to that of Alexander
sacrifices are offered and festivata aro held at tho publiccost, as to a god Who can hear. Is it, then, Neryllinus, and Proteus, and Alexander Who exert these energies in connec-tion with the statues, or is it the naturo of the matter iraest 'But tho matter is brass. And What can bram do of itself, which may bo mado again into a disserent fom, as Amasis troated tho Dotpan, as told by Herodotus d Neryllinus, and Proteus, and Alexander, What good are they to the sich For What tho imago is sald now to effeci, it effected when Neryllinus Was aliis and sich.
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foui, Whicli has no knowledge or experience of sounderdoctrines, and is una customed to contemplate truth, and to
Herodotus, then, and Alexander tho son os Philip, in his letter to his mollier and each os them is sald to have conversed With the priosis at Heliopolis, and Memphis, and Thebes), affirm stat thoy learni from them that the gods hadbeen men. Herodotus speas thus: of such a nature Were,
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names of the gods camo into Greeco from Egypt. Apollo Was the son os Dionysus and Isis, as Herodotus lihewiso amrms: According to the Egyptians, Apollo and Diana arethe childron os Bacchus and Isis; whilo Latona is their nurso and their preserver. ' These beings of heavenly origin theyhad for their fidit hings: partly from ignorance of the truo Worship of the Dei , partly from gratitude for their govern-ment, they esteemed them as gods toguther With their Wives. Tho malo hine, it clean, and the male calves, a re used forsacrifico by the Egyptians universally; but the semales, in are not allo ed to sacrifice, since thoy are sacred to Isis. The statuo of this gοddess has tho form of a Woman, butwith horns lilio a com resembling those of the Greeli representations of Io.'M And Who can bo moro deseruing os credit in maing these statomenis, than thoso who in familysuccession, Son from fallier, received not only the priesthood, but also tho histo For it is not lihely that the priesis, who mino it their business to commend the idols to men's reverence, Would assert falsely that they Were mon. Is Herodotus alone had said that tho Egyptians spolio in their histories of the gods as of men, When he says, μ What theytold me concerning their religion it is not my intention to repeat, excepi only the names of their deities, inings of very trifling importando,Vρ it Would bellovo us not to credit even Herodotus as being a fabulist. But as Alexander and Hermessumamed Trismegistus, Who fhares With thom in tho attributeos eterni , and innumerable others, not to name them indi-
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412 FLEA OF ATHENAGORAS viduassy, Neclaro the sameJ, no room is test even for doubtiliat theri heing hings, mero esteemed goti. That they meremon, the most learned of the Egyptians also testisy, Who,
while saying that ether, earth, su' mson, am go , regard tho rest as mortes men, and the temples as their sepulchres. Apollodorus, too, asseris the fame thing in his troatiso com cerning the gods. But Herodotus calis even inela sufferings mysteries. The ceromonios at tho feast of Isis in tho et os Busiris have been atready spinon os. It is iners that thewholo multitude, both of men and women, many thousandsin number, beat themselves at tho close of the sacrifico inhonour os a god Whose namo a religious scruplo forbids moto mention. y It they are gods, they are also immortal; butii pmple are beaten for them, and their sufferings are steries, they are men, as Herodotus himself says : - Η0re, too, in this fame precinct of Minerva at Sa1s, is the buriati place of Ono whom Ι thinh it not right to mention in such a connection. It stands bellind tho templo against tho bachwall, Which it entirely covers. There are also some largestone obelishs in the enclosure, and there is a Iahe nem them, adorned with an edging of stons. In form it is circular, and in sige, as it seemed to me, about eques to the lae at
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for tho Deity is in Want of nought, and is superior to carnaldestro, nor did they die; or, having been bom men, in were Maed by reason os ignorance, and overcome by love os money. What more need I say, or refer to Castor, or Pollux, or Iaraphiarus, Who, having been bom, so to Speah, only the other day, men of men, are Iooked upon as gods, when they imagine even Ino after her madness and iis consequent susterings to have becomo a goddess l
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Though you belleve, o Callimachus, in the nativity of Zeus,
os credit, and the reverence shoWn them is superfluous forthose do not exist, the tales concerning Whom are untrue);
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importance of the subjeci. CHAP. XXXI.-Confutation of the other charges brought against the Christians. But thoy have further esso mado up stocles against us ofimplous Dasis and sorbidden intercourse belWeen the sexes, both that they may appear to themselves to have rationalgrounds of hatred, and because they thinh oithor is fear tolead us aWay from our Way of lite, or to render the rulers harsh and inexorabio by the magnitude of the charges theybring. But they loso their labour With thoso who know that from of old it has been the custom, and not in Our time only, for vice to mahe war on Virtue. Thus Pythagoras, Withthreo hundred Othors, Was burni to duath; Heraclitus and Democritus mere banished, the ono from the city of the Ephesians, tho oster from Abdera, because he was chamedwith being mad; and tho Athenians condemned Socrates todeath. But as they were nono the worse in respect of Virtuebecause of the opinion of the multitude, so nolinor does theundiscriminating calumny of sume persons cast any stadeupon us as regarda rectitude os illa, for With God wo standin good repute. Nevertheless, I Will meet these charges also,
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416 FLEA OF AXHENAGORABNamelam and irreproach Ie betore Him, mill not interiaineven ine thought of the si Mest sin. For is me bellavinstat me in id sive oesy the present Ide, then me might besuspected os siniann through being e laved to flein and
rest, a Worse one and in fire; sor God has not mado us asineep or bearis of burden, a mere by--a, and that me
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brothera and sistera, and to the more advanced in life we givotho honour duo to fathors and mothors. On bellati of those, then, io Whom me apply the names of brothers and sisters, and other designations of relationship, we exercise the greatest caro that their bodies should remain undefiled and unco
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418 PLEA OF ATHENAGORASto God, Whilo tho indulgendo os carnat thought and destro
virginity he has brought to an end, nor to maro again. Forho Who deprives himself of his first wite, even though inobo dea' is a cloaed adulterer, resisting the hand of God, bocauso in the boginning God made one man and one Woman, and dissolving the strictest union os flest With flest, formed
for the intercourse of the race. CHAP. XXXIV.-The vast disserenoe in morati betaeeen the Christians and theis accu8erS.