Homilies 5.1–5.30

So on the following day in Tyre, as we had agreed, I came to the quiet place. I saw the others there, together with some more people, and greeted them; but not having seen Appion, I asked why he was not present. Someone said that he had been in poor bodily health since the evening before. When I said it would be right to set out at once and visit him, nearly all of them asked me first to speak with them and only then go and visit him. So, since everyone was of one mind, I began to speak.

"When I left here yesterday, friends, I confess that I was so anxious about the coming inquiry with Appion that I could not get to sleep. As I lay awake, the trick I had played on him in Rome came into my mind. It was like this. From boyhood I, Clement, loved the truth and sought what matters for the soul; I spent my time arguing against views and building them up, and since I could find nothing complete, my folly ran me aground on illness. While I was laid up, Appion came to stay in Rome. He was a friend of my father's, he lodged with me, and on learning that I was bedridden he came in to me, as one not unversed in medicine, and asked the cause of my being laid up. I knew the man well: he held the Jews in bitter hatred, so much that he had written many books against them; and he had taken up this very Simon as a friend, not out of love of learning, but because he knew him to be a Samaritan who hated the Jews and had come out against them. That is why he had made him his intimate, so that he could learn something from him to use against the Jews.

"Knowing this about Appion in advance, as soon as he asked me the cause of my illness I answered with pretence that I was suffering what young men suffer and was sick at heart. To this he said, 'My child, speak boldly, as to a father: what is the sickness of your soul?' I sighed again with pretence, as though ashamed to speak about love, and by my silence and my downcast look I gave him the impression I wanted to convey. He, truly convinced that I was in love with a woman, said: 'There is nothing in life that cannot find help. When I myself was young, I fell in love with a most distinguished woman; not only did I think it impossible to win her, I did not even hope ever to speak to her. Yet I came across an Egyptian who was thoroughly expert in the arts of the magi, became his friend, and revealed my love to him. Not only did he put himself at my service for everything I wanted, but, being more generous still toward me, he did not grudge teaching me the incantation by which I won her. Through his secret guidance, trusting the generosity of my teacher, I won her once, and my love ceased.

"'So if you too have suffered something of the kind, as men do, take heart and trust me to free you from care: within seven days I will certainly make you win her.' When I heard this, keeping my own aim in view, I said: 'Forgive me if I do not quite believe that magic is real; I have already had experience of many who promised much and deceived me. Still, your promise moves me and leads me to hope. But when I think it over I fear that the demons may sometimes not obey the magi in what they are commanded.'

"Appion said: 'Grant that I know these things better than you. But so that you may not think you have heard nothing from me on the point you raised, learn how the demons are compelled to obey the magi in what they are commanded. Just as it is impossible for a soldier to gainsay his commander, and the commanders themselves cannot disobey the king (for anyone who opposes those set over him is certainly thought to deserve punishment), so it is impossible for the demons not to serve the angels who command them; when adjured by them, they yield trembling, well aware that if they disobey they will certainly be punished. And the angels themselves, when adjured by the magi in the name of the one above them, obey, lest they be condemned for disobedience and perish. For if all beings, living and rational as they are, did not foresee the penalty that comes from the higher power, there would be confusion, with everything in revolt against everything else.'

"I said: 'Then what the poets and philosophers say is right, that in Hades the souls of the ungodly are judged and punished for what they dared to do, like Ixion and Tantalus, Tityus and Sisyphus, and the daughters of Danaus, and all the others who were once ungodly here? And if that is not so, how could magic be real?' When he said that things in Hades are indeed so, I asked: 'Why then are we ourselves not afraid of magic, convinced as we are of the penalty in Hades for adultery? For I do not agree that it is just to force an unwilling woman into adultery; but if someone undertakes to persuade her, I am ready for that, and will be grateful as well.'

"Appion said: 'Do you not think it is the same whether you win her by magic or trick her with words?' I said: 'Not at all the same; the two are far apart. The one who compels an unwilling woman by the force of magic undergoes the severest penalty, as one who has plotted against a chaste woman; but the one who persuades by speech, and leaves the choice to her own authority and will, has not used force. And I think the one who persuaded will be punished less than the one who forced. So if you can persuade her, I will be grateful when I have won her; otherwise I would rather die than force an unwilling woman by violence.'

"Appion, genuinely at a loss, said: 'What am I to say to you? One moment you pray to win her, as one tormented by love; the next, as though not in love, you put fear before desire, and you think that if you persuade her you will go unpunished as one who has not sinned, but if you win her by the force of magic you will pay the penalty. Do you not know that in every matter it is the outcome that is judged, the fact that it happened, and that how it happened is not examined? If you commit adultery, will you really be condemned as ungodly when you managed it by magic, but acquitted of the sin of adultery when you managed it by persuasion?' I said: 'Because I am in love and am set on winning the one I love, I must choose one or the other; but I will choose, if possible, to win her by flattery rather than by magic. Yet it is not easy to persuade her even by flattery, for the woman is very much a philosopher.'

"Appion said: 'That makes me all the more hopeful that I can persuade her as you wish, if only we can speak with her.' I answered, 'Impossible.' Appion asked whether it was possible to send her a letter. I said, 'That is possible.' Appion said: 'This very night I will write a book, a praise of adultery, which you will take from me and send to her; and I hope she will be persuaded and consent.' Appion wrote that book and gave it to me. I thought of it during this night, and remembered that I happen to have it with me, among the other books I carry about." Having told this, I showed the book to those present, and since they wished to hear it I read it; and having read it I said: "This, men, is the education of the Greeks, which provides a noble pretext for sinning without fear." The book ran as follows.

"Without names, because of the laws that come from foolish men. By the commands of Eros, the most ancient child of all, as a favour. I know that you devote yourself to philosophy and, for virtue's sake, aspire to the life of those who are better. And who could be better than the gods among all beings, and philosophers among human beings? For they alone know which deeds are bad or good by nature, and which are thought so by the laying down of laws, though they are not. For example, some have supposed that the act called adultery is bad, though it is good in every respect. For it takes place by the commands of Eros, for the increase of life. And Eros is the most ancient of all the gods. Without Eros there can be no mixing or begetting of elements, gods, human beings, irrational animals, or anything else. We are all instruments of Eros. He is the craftsman who works through us, the mind that dwells in the souls of all that is begotten. So we do not desire of ourselves, but when we are commanded by him we long to do his will. If, when we desire by his will, we try to master the desire for the sake of so-called chastity, how can we not commit the greatest impiety, acting against the most ancient of gods and men?

"But let all doors be opened to him, and let all the wretched laws men have made be repealed. They were laid down for jealous men, who are ruled by folly and unwilling to understand what is reasonable, and who, moreover, suspect those called adulterers; with good reason they are mocked by Zeus himself through the laws he laid down by means of Minos and Rhadamanthys. For Eros, once he has come to dwell in souls, cannot be held back; the passion of lovers is not voluntary. For example, Zeus himself, the giver of these laws, lay with countless women. Some wise men say that he was a benefactor in the begetting of children, sometimes bestowing his union on human beings as a gift; and with those whom he knew would take offence at the favour, he changed his form so as to go unrecognized, in order neither to grieve them nor to seem to act against the laws he himself had laid down. So you who devote yourself to philosophy ought, for the sake of a good life, to imitate those admitted to be better, whose unions have been beyond counting.

"So as not to waste time on more proofs than needed, I will begin with Zeus himself, the father of gods and men, and point out some of his unions; to recall them all is impossible because of their number. Hear, then, of the unions of great Zeus himself which, because of the jealousy of foolish men, went unnoticed by means of his transformations. First of all, wishing to free the wise from the sin of adultery, when he was about to marry, knowing that at a first bedding he would be counted an adulterer by the many, though he was not, he secured his sinless marriage by means of what, as I said, only seems a sin. For he married Hera, his own sister, taking the likeness of a cuckoo's wing, and from her were born Hebe and Eileithyia. For he brought forth Metis without union with anyone, as Hera did Hephaestus.

"Next he lies with a sister of his, born of Ouranos and the Sea from the castration of Ouranos by Kronos: Eros and Cypris, whom they also call Dodone. He also lies with Antiope, daughter of Nycteus, likened to a satyr; from her Amphion and Zethus were born. He comes to Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon, made like Amphitryon her husband; from her Heracles was born. He approaches Aegina, daughter of Asclepius, having become an eagle; from her Aeacus is born. He beds Amalthea, daughter of Phocus, likened to a bear. Upon Danae, daughter of Acrisius, he poured down as gold; from her Perseus sprang up. To Callisto, daughter of Lycaon, he turned wild as a lion, and she bears another, Arcas. With Europa, daughter of Phoenix, he came together by means of a bull; from her sprang Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon. With Eurymedusa, daughter of Achelous, he became an ant; from her came Myrmidon. With a nymph of Hersaeus he became a vulture; from her came the ancient sages of Sicily. With Hima, the earth-born, in Rhodes he came together by means of a rainstorm; from her came Pargaeus, Cronius, and Cytus. He took Ospia as bride, made like Phoenix her husband; from her Anchinous was born to him. With Nemesis, daughter of Thestius, who was also taken to be Leda, he became a swan or a goose and fathered Helen; and again, having become a star, he produced Castor and Polydeuces. For Lamia he took the form of a hoopoe.

"Having likened himself to a shepherd, he makes Mnemosyne mother of the Muses. Blazing as fire, he weds Semele, daughter of Cadmus, and from her brings Dionysus to birth. In the likeness of a serpent he deflowers his own daughter Persephone, who was also reputed to be the wife of his brother Pluto. And with many other women he lay without any transformation, since their husbands felt no jealousy as though at a sin, but knew well that by sharing their wives freely he begot for them, as a gift, Hermeses, Apollos, Dionysuses, Endymions, and all the others we have named, surpassing in beauty because of his union.

"So as not to spend my time on an endless account: you will find that all the gods after Zeus had unions freely. Foolish people call them the adulteries of the gods; yet the gods did not even avoid unions with males as shameful, but practised this too as seemly. For example, Zeus himself loved Ganymede; Poseidon, Pelops; Apollo, Cinyras, Zacynthus, Hyacinthus, Phorbas, Hylas, Admetus, Cyparissus, Amyclas, Troilus, Branchus, Tymnius, Parus, Potnieus, Orpheus; Dionysus, Laonis, Ampelus, Hymenaeus, Hermaphroditus, Achilles; Asclepius, Hippolytus; Hephaestus, Peleus; Pan, Daphnis; Hermes, Perseus, Chrysus, Thersus, Odrysus; Heracles, Abderus, Dryops, Iocastus, Philoctetes, Hylas, Polyphemus, Haemon, Chonus, Eurystheus.

"So I have set before you, dearest, some of the loves of all the more famous gods, that you may know that jealousy about this arises only among foolish human beings. That is why they are mortal and pass their lives in grief: because what the gods thought good, they, out of their own jealousy, declared to be bad. You will therefore be happy from now on if you imitate gods and not human beings. For when human beings see you guarding what is thought to be chastity, they praise you because of their own passion, but they do you no good; while the gods, seeing you make yourself like them, will both praise you and do you good.

"Consider how many beloved ones they rewarded: some they set among the stars, and to others they gave benefits through their children and their helpers. For example, Zeus set Callisto among the stars as the one called the Little Bear, which some call the Dog's Tail. Poseidon placed the Dolphin in heaven on account of Amphitrite. And Orion, son of Euryale the daughter of Minos, he counted worthy of the stars on account of Euryale his mother. Dionysus placed the crown of Ariadne. Zeus set among the stars the eagle that helped him carry off Ganymede, and Ganymede himself in the honour of the Water-bearer; and he honoured the bull on account of Europa. Moreover, as a favour to Leda he made Castor, Polydeuces, and Helen stars; Perseus on account of Danae, Arcas on account of Callisto, the Virgin, who is also Justice, on account of Themis, and Heracles on account of Alcmene. I will not go on at greater length; it would be long to tell one by one how many others the gods have benefited on account of their many beloved ones through their unions with human beings, unions that the foolish forbid as evil deeds, not knowing that pleasure is the great enjoyment among human beings.

"Do not the famous sages, too, prefer pleasure, and lie with whatever women they wished? First among them is the teacher of Greece, of whom Phoebus himself said, 'Of all men Socrates is wisest.' Does he not propose that in Lacedaemon, the best-governed city, wives be held in common, and does he not cover the beautiful Alcibiades under his cloak? Antisthenes the Socratic writes that one must not reject what is called adultery. And his disciple Diogenes, does he not openly and publicly have intercourse with Lais, for the price of carrying her on his shoulders? Does not Epicurus put pleasure first? Does not Aristippus, perfuming his whole body, give himself up to Aphrodite? Does not Zeno, hinting at indifference, say that the divine is through all things, so that it may be understood by the intelligent that whoever one lies with, one lies as it were with oneself, and that it is superfluous to forbid what are called adulteries, or unions with mother, daughter, sister, or children? And Chrysippus in his erotic letters mentions the image at Argos, which puts the face of Hera to the genitals of Zeus.

"I know that these things seem frightening and most shameful to those uninitiated into the truth, but not to the gods and philosophers of the Greeks, nor to the mysteries of Dionysus and Demeter. But above all these, so that I may not waste my time telling the lives of all the gods and philosophers, let there be two supreme examples for you: among the gods, Zeus; among philosopher men, Socrates. As for the rest, understand them from what I have written to remind you, and take care never to grieve a lover of yours; for if you act contrary to the gods and heroes, you will be judged impious and will undergo the fitting punishment. But if you give yourself to every lover, you will obtain their benefaction as one who imitates the gods. For the rest, dearest, remembering the mysteries I have revealed to you, show me your choice by letter. Farewell."

Well then, having received this book from Appion as though I would really send it to my beloved, I made up a reply as if she had written back to it, and the next day, when Appion came, I gave it to him as supposedly her answer. It ran as follows. Copy of a letter to Appion, as if from the beloved.

"I am amazed that, having praised me for wisdom, you write to me as to a fool. Wishing to persuade me into your passion, you drew your examples from the myths about the gods, setting Eros over all gods and men as the most ancient of all, as you said; and you were not afraid to blaspheme, so that you might corrupt my soul and outrage my body. But Eros, who lives in desires, is not the founder of the gods. For if he desires willingly, he is his own passion and his own punishment, and one who suffers by his own will could not be a god. But if he loves union unwillingly, and passes through our souls, using our bodies as instruments, and is carried into intercourse with the objects of his thought, then the one who makes him love and carries him along is greater than he; and again, if that one who carries him is himself carried by another longing, another will be found greater who carries him; and so there comes an endless regress of lovers, which is impossible. So there is neither a carrier nor a carried; it is the lover's own appetite that is the passion, growing with hope and dwindling with despair.

"Those unwilling to master shameful desire tell lies about the gods, so that by pointing to the gods as having done the same things first they may escape blame for what they do. For if the so-called gods committed their adulteries for the sake of begetting children and not out of licentiousness, why did they also lie with males? 'But,' he says, 'as a favour to their beloved ones they set them among the stars.' Then were there no stars before this, until heaven was adorned with stars by adulterers as a cover for licentiousness? And how is it that the descendants of those set among the stars are punished in Hades: Atlas weighed down, Tantalus tormented by thirst, Sisyphus pushing a rock, Tityus with his entrails dug out, Ixion ceaselessly whirled on a wheel? And how did the lovers, being gods, set among the stars those whom they defiled, without granting this to themselves?

"So they were not gods, but riddling images of tyrants. For a tomb of Kronos is shown in the Caucasus mountains, not in heaven but on earth, the tomb of a savage man who devoured his children. And the tomb of the licentious Zeus of myth, who likewise swallowed his daughter Metis, is to be seen in Crete; and at the Acherusian lake the tombs of Pluto and Poseidon; of Helios in Astra, and of Selene in Carcoi; of Hermes in Hermopolis; of Ares in Thrace; of Aphrodite in Cyprus; of Dionysus in Thebes; and of the others in other places. In any case, the tombs of these so-called gods are there to be seen. For they were human beings, and wicked ones at that, and magicians. They would not otherwise have become sole rulers, I mean the Zeus of myth and Dionysus, unless by transformation they overpowered whomever they wished for whatever they themselves wished.

"If we must emulate their lives, let us imitate not only their adulteries but also their tables. For Kronos swallowed his own children, and Zeus likewise his own daughter. What more need be said? Pelops became a dinner for all the gods. So let us too, before our unlawful marriage, prepare a similar dinner for the gods; that way the dinner would be worthy of the marriage. But you would never submit to that, any more than I would submit to committing adultery. Besides this, you threaten me with the wrath of Eros as a mighty god. Eros is not a god, as he is thought to be; he is a desire that arises from the constitution of a living creature for the succession of life, by the providence of the one who made all things, so that the whole race may never fail, but, by the inducement of pleasure, another may come into being from the substance of the one who is to die, born beforehand of lawful marriage, so that he may know his own father and care for him in old age. This, those born of adultery could not do, having no natural affection for those who begot them.

"Since, then, erotic desire arises, as I said, for the sake of succession through legitimate increase, parents who care for chastity ought to train their children before desire comes, by means of books that teach self-control, and to accustom them early to better words, since habit is a second nature. Besides this, they should often remind them of the punishments laid down by the laws, so that, using fear as a bridle, they may not run headlong into unseemly pleasures. It is also fitting, before desire reaches its full strength, to satisfy the natural passion of that age by marriage, having first persuaded them not to gaze at the beauty of another woman.

"For whenever our mind first takes the imprint of the beloved's beauty with delight, forever seeing her form as in a mirror, it is tormented through memory; if it does not obtain what it desires, it plans ways to obtain it, and if it does obtain it, the desire grows all the more, like fire well supplied with fuel, especially when fear has not first been stamped on the lover's soul before the passion. For as water quenches fire, so fear is what quenches irrational desire. That is why I, having learned from a certain Jew to understand and to do what befits God, am not easily caught into adultery by lying myths. As for you, if you wish and strive to be self-controlled, with your soul inflamed with love, may God help you and grant you healing."

"When Appion heard the pretended reply, he said: 'Is it without reason that I hate the Jews? Now some Jew or other has met this woman, brought her over to his religion, and persuaded her to be chaste; and from now on it is impossible for her to enter into union with anyone else. For such people set God before themselves as the one who oversees all actions, and they persevere resolutely in chastity, since they cannot escape his notice.'

"When I heard this I said to Appion: 'Now I will confess the truth to you. I was not in love with a woman or with anyone else; my soul was wholly spent on other desires and on the discovery of true doctrines. Until now, though I have examined many opinions of philosophers, I have inclined to none of them except that of the Jews alone, since one of their merchants, who sells linen, came to stay here in Rome and, by a happy chance, set before me quite simply the belief in one sole ruler.'

"When Appion heard the truth from me, he who hates the Jews without reason, neither knowing nor wishing to know what their faith is, flew into a thoughtless rage and at once left Rome in silence. Since then I have met him now for the first time, and I naturally suspect that his anger from that time remains. But in your presence I will ask him what he can say about the so-called gods, whose lives, told in myths as full of every passion, are deliberately sung in public for the imitation of their like, and whose tombs, as I said, are shown in various places, besides their human passions."

Having heard this from me beforehand, the others, eager to learn what would follow, went with me as if to visit Appion. We found him already bathed and at a table ready laid. So we examined the question of the gods only a little. But he, understanding, I think, our intention, promised to have something to say about the gods the next day, and appointed the same place, as where he would hold the discussion. With this promise we thanked him and went home, each to his own.