A Plea for the Christians 30

For if even those who were detestable and hated by the gods gained the reputation of being gods; if Semiramis, the daughter of Derceto, a lustful and bloodthirsty woman, was thought a Syrian goddess, and because of Derceto the Syrians worship doves and Semiramis (for the woman, impossible as it is, was changed into a dove; the myth is in Ctesias): what wonder is it that some were called gods by their subjects because of their rule and sovereignty (the Sibyl, whom Plato also mentions, says: “And then it was the tenth generation of mortal men since the flood came upon the men of old; and Kronos reigned, and Titan, and Iapetus, the noblest children of Earth and Heaven, whom men called by these names, giving them the names of Earth and Heaven, because they were the first of mortal men”), others because of their strength, like Heracles and Perseus, and others because of their art, like Asclepius? Those to whom either their subjects or the rulers themselves gave honor came to share the name, some out of fear, others out of reverence. Antinous too, through the kindness of your ancestors toward their subjects, came to be considered a god. And those who came afterward accepted it without examination. “The Cretans are always liars; for the Cretans, O lord, built a tomb for you; but you did not die.” You believe, Callimachus, in the birth of Zeus, yet disbelieve in his tomb; and thinking to obscure the truth, you proclaim even to those who do not know it that he is dead. If you look at the cave, you are reminded of Rhea's childbearing; if you see the coffin, you cast a shadow over the dead man; not knowing that the uncreated God alone is eternal. For either the myths told by the many and by the poets about the gods are not to be believed, and piety toward them is superfluous (for beings about whom the stories are false do not exist); or, if their births, loves, murders, thefts, castrations, and thunderbolts are true, they no longer exist, having ceased to be, since they came into being from not being. For what reason is there to believe some of the stories and disbelieve others, when the poets wrote their histories to glorify them? Those who made them venerable by their histories, and through whom they came to be considered gods, would not have invented their sufferings. That we are not atheists, then, since we acknowledge as God the Maker of this universe and the Word that comes from him, has been proved as far as I am able, even if not as the subject deserves.