Exhortation to the Greeks 2.35

Naturally, then, such gods of yours became slaves, slaves to their passions. Even before the so-called Helots of the Spartans, Apollo came under the yoke of slavery to Admetus at Pherae, and Heracles to Omphale at Sardis; Poseidon and Apollo worked for hire for Laomedon, like a worthless servant who could not even obtain his freedom from his former master; it was then that the two of them built the walls of Troy for the Phrygian king. Homer is not ashamed to show Athena “holding a golden lamp” in her hands for Odysseus; and we have read how Aphrodite, like some wanton maidservant, brought and set before Helen, face to face, the chair of her adulterous lover, to draw her into intercourse with him. Panyassis, moreover, records that very many other gods served human beings, writing somewhat as follows: “Demeter endured it, the famous lame god endured it, Poseidon endured it, Apollo of the silver bow endured it, to serve a mortal man for a year; and mighty-hearted Ares endured it too, under his father's compulsion,” and so on.