What, then, is left for us to think except that the praises are false and flattering, while the deeds told about them are true? Anyone can recognize this as true from ordinary experience. No one praises a person while at the same time accusing his way of life. Rather, when people’s deeds are shameful, because of the blame those deeds bring, others exalt them with praises so that, by the excess of the praise, they may deceive their hearers and hide the lawlessness of those they praise.
Suppose someone intends to praise a person but, because of the shame in his conduct and the character of his soul, can find no basis for praise there. He praises him in some other way, crediting him with qualities beyond what really belongs to him. So too their admirable poets, embarrassed by the shameful deeds of their so-called gods, gave them a title above human nature. They did not realize that superhuman claims would not hide their human deeds; rather, their human failings would expose that what belongs to God does not fit them.
Indeed, I think the passions and deeds of these gods were recorded even against the poets’ intention. For they were eager to assign to those who are not gods but mortal human beings the Name and honor of God, which Scripture says cannot be shared. Since what they dared to do was both great and impious, they were therefore compelled by the truth, even against their will, to set out these people’s passions, so that for later generations the passions recorded in writings about them might stand before everyone as proof that they are not gods.