Hortatory Address to the Greeks

How, then, does Plato banish Homer from his republic, since, in the embassy to Achilles, he has Phœnix say to Achilles, "Even the gods themselves are not inflexible," although Homer referred not to the supreme king and Platonic creator of the gods, but to some of the multitude whom the Greeks consider as gods, as one can infer from Plato's phrase, "gods of gods?" For Homer, with that golden chain, attributes all power and might to the one highest God.

And he said the rest of the gods were so distant from His divinity that he deemed it suitable to mention them alongside humans. At least he has Ulysses say to Achilles about Hector, "He is raging terribly, trusting in Zeus, and values neither men nor gods." In this passage, Homer seems to me undoubtedly to have learned in Egypt, like Plato, about the one God, and openly declares this: that one who trusts in the truly existent God disregards those that do not exist.

For likewise, in another passage, using a different but equivalent word, namely, a pronoun, the poet used the same participle employed by Plato to denote the truly existent God, about whom Plato said, "That which always exists, and has no birth." Not without a double meaning does this expression of Phœnix appear: "Not even if God Himself were to promise me that, having polished off my old age, He would set me in the bloom of youth." For the pronoun "Himself" signifies the truly existing God.

The oracle given to you concerning the Chaldeans and Hebrews likewise indicates this. For when someone inquired what men had ever lived godly, you say the answer was: "Only the Chaldeans and the Hebrews found wisdom, Worshipping God Himself, the unbegotten King."