Hortatory Address to the Greeks

WHO: then, you people of Greece, do you call your teachers of religion? The poets? It will not help your case to say so to those who know the poets, for they understand how very ridiculous a theogony they have composed, as we can learn from Homer, your most distinguished and prince of poets. For he states, first, that the gods were originally generated from water, as he has written: "Both ocean, the origin of the gods, and their mother Tethys."

AND THEN WE MUST ALSO REMIND YOU OF WHAT HE FURTHER SAYS ABOUT HIM WHOM YOU CONSIDER THE FIRST OF THE GODS: and whom he often calls "the father of gods and men;" for he said:—"Zeus, who is the dispenser of war to men."

INDEED: he says that he was not only the bringer of war to the army but also the cause of perjury to the Trojans, through his daughter; and Homer introduces him in love, bitterly complaining, mourning, and being plotted against by the other gods, and at one point exclaiming about his own son:—"Alas! He falls, my most beloved of men! Sarpedon, vanquished by Patroclus, falls. So will the fates."

AND AT ANOTHER TIME CONCERNING HECTOR: "Ah! I see a warrior dear to me being driven around the walls of Ilium, and I grieve for Hector."

AND THOSE WHO READ THESE WORDS KNOW WHAT HE SAYS ABOUT THE CONSPIRACY OF THE OTHER GODS AGAINST ZEUS: “When the other Olympians—Juno, Neptune, and Minerva—wanted to bind him.” And if the blessed gods had not feared him, whom the gods call Briareus, Zeus would have been bound by them. And regarding what Homer says about his unrestrained loves, we must remind you of the exact words he used. For he said that Zeus spoke thus to Juno:— “For never did any goddess, nor woman yet, fill my heart with such a tide of love; I never loved Ixion’s wife this much, nor sweet Acrisian Danaë, from whom Perseus, the noblest of mankind, was born; nor Phœnix’s lovely daughter, from whom were born Minos, unrivaled except by the gods, and Rhadamanthus; nor Semele, nor Alcmene, who in Thebes gave birth to the brave Hercules; and even though Bacchus, the joy of man, was my son with Semele; nor Ceres with her golden hair, nor high-throned Latona in the heavens; no—not even yourself as now I love you, and my soul is overwhelmed with the sweetness of intense desire.”

IT IS APPROPRIATE FOR US TO NOW DISCUSS WHAT ONE CAN LEARN FROM THE WORK OF HOMER ABOUT THE OTHER GODS AND WHAT THEY ENDURED AT THE HANDS OF MEN: For he says that Mars and Venus were wounded by Diomed, and he recounts the sufferings of many other gods. We can infer this from the instance of Dione comforting her daughter; she said to her: "Have patience, dearest child; though greatly provoked, restrain your anger: we, who dwell in heaven, have much to endure from mortals; and we often inflict suffering upon each other. Mars suffered when Otus and Ephialtes, sons of Alöeus, bound him strongly, and for thirteen months he lay in brazen fetters. Juno also suffered when Amphitryon's son sent a three-barbed arrow through her right breast: dire and unheard of were the pangs she bore. Even great Pluto felt the stinging arrow when that same son of Ægis-bearing Jove attacked him at the very gates of hell, causing him sharpest anguish; pierced with pain, he came to high Olympus, to the courts of Jove, groaning, as the bitter shaft remained deeply fixed in his shoulder, grieving his soul."

IF IT IS APPROPRIATE TO REMIND YOU OF THE BATTLE OF THE GODS: who were opposed to each other, your own poet will recount it, saying: "Such was the clash when gods met in battle; for there stood royal Neptune against Phœbus Apollo with his sharp arrows; the blue-eyed Pallas against the god of war; against Juno, stood Diana, the heavenly archer, sister of Phœbus, the queen with golden shafts. Stout Hermes, the helpful god, faced Latona."

Homer taught you these things and others like them; and not Homer only, but also Hesiod. So if you believe your most distinguished poets, who have given the genealogies of your gods, you must necessarily either assume that the gods are such beings as these or believe that there are no gods at all.