To mention only a few examples out of many, who, seeing his lawlessness and corruption with Semele, Leda, Alcmene, Artemis, Leto, Maia, Europa, Danae, and Antiope—or seeing his attempt and audacity against his own sister, so that the same woman was both his sister and his wife—would not mock him and sentence him to death?
For he not only committed adultery, but also deified and set up the children born to him from adultery, making the fiction of deification a cover for his lawlessness. Among these are Dionysus, Heracles, the Dioscuri, Hermes, Perseus, and Soteira.
Who, seeing the irreconcilable quarrel of the so-called gods with one another at Ilium over the Greeks and the Trojans, would not condemn their weakness, since through their rivalry with one another they stirred up human beings as well?
Who, seeing Ares and Aphrodite wounded by Diomedes; Hera and the underworld being whom they call the god Aïdoneus wounded by Heracles; Dionysus by Perseus; Athena by Arcas; and Hephaestus hurled down and made lame—who would not condemn their nature? Hearing that they are corruptible and subject to suffering, he will turn away from still calling them gods. He will recognize them as nothing but human beings, and weak human beings at that, and will admire those who wounded them rather than those who were wounded.
Or who, seeing the adultery of Ares with Aphrodite, the trap Hephaestus prepared against them both, and the other so-called gods summoned by Hephaestus to witness the adultery, coming and seeing their licentiousness—who would not laugh and condemn their worthlessness? Or who would not laugh at seeing the drunken madness and debauchery of Heracles with Omphale?
Their pleasure-driven deeds, their irrational lusts, and their fashioning of gods in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood do not need laborious refutation. The facts are repulsive in themselves and by themselves display the mark of the error. Above all, one might pity those who are deceived by them.
For although they hate the adulterer who goes after their own wife, they are not ashamed to deify the teachers of adultery. Though they themselves do not have relations with their sisters, they worship those who did. Though they acknowledge that the sexual corruption of children is evil, they worship those accused of it. And they are not ashamed to ascribe to those they call gods things that the laws do not permit even among human beings.
To mention only a few examples out of many, who, seeing his lawlessness and corruption with Semele, Leda, Alcmene, Artemis, Leto, Maia, Europa, Danae, and Antiope—or seeing his attempt and audacity against his own sister, so that the same woman was both his sister and his wife—would not mock him and sentence him to death?
For he not only committed adultery, but also deified and set up the children born to him from adultery, making the fiction of deification a cover for his lawlessness. Among these are Dionysus, Heracles, the Dioscuri, Hermes, Perseus, and Soteira.
Who, seeing the irreconcilable quarrel of the so-called gods with one another at Ilium over the Greeks and the Trojans, would not condemn their weakness, since through their rivalry with one another they stirred up human beings as well?
Who, seeing Ares and Aphrodite wounded by Diomedes; Hera and the underworld being whom they call the god Aïdoneus wounded by Heracles; Dionysus by Perseus; Athena by Arcas; and Hephaestus hurled down and made lame—who would not condemn their nature? Hearing that they are corruptible and subject to suffering, he will turn away from still calling them gods. He will recognize them as nothing but human beings, and weak human beings at that, and will admire those who wounded them rather than those who were wounded.
Or who, seeing the adultery of Ares with Aphrodite, the trap Hephaestus prepared against them both, and the other so-called gods summoned by Hephaestus to witness the adultery, coming and seeing their licentiousness—who would not laugh and condemn their worthlessness? Or who would not laugh at seeing the drunken madness and debauchery of Heracles with Omphale?
Their pleasure-driven deeds, their irrational lusts, and their fashioning of gods in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood do not need laborious refutation. The facts are repulsive in themselves and by themselves display the mark of the error. Above all, one might pity those who are deceived by them.
For although they hate the adulterer who goes after their own wife, they are not ashamed to deify the teachers of adultery. Though they themselves do not have relations with their sisters, they worship those who did. Though they acknowledge that the sexual corruption of children is evil, they worship those accused of it. And they are not ashamed to ascribe to those they call gods things that the laws do not permit even among human beings.