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| Chapter XXX.—Homer’s knowledge of man’s origin.
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Chapter XXX.—Homer’s knowledge of
man’s origin.
And he
was obviously deceived in the same way regarding the earth and heaven and
man; for he supposes that there are “ideas” of these. For as
Moses wrote thus, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth,” and then subjoins this sentence, “And the earth was
invisible and unfashioned,” he thought that it was the pre-existent
earth which was spoken of in the words, “The earth was,”
because Moses said, “And the earth was invisible and
unfashioned;” and he thought that the earth, concerning which he
says, “God created the heaven and the earth,” was that earth
which we perceive by the senses, and which God made according to the
pre-existent form. And so also, of the heaven which was created, he
thought that the heaven which was created—and which he also
called the firmament—was that creation which the senses perceive;
and that the heaven which the intellect perceives is that other of which
the prophet said, “The heaven of heavens is the Lord’s, but
the earth hath He given to the children of men.”2577
And so also concerning man: Moses first mentions the name of man,
and then after many other creations he makes mention of the formation of
man, saying, “And God made man, taking dust from the
earth.”2578
He thought, accordingly,
that the man first so named existed before the man who was made, and that
he who was formed of the earth was afterwards made according to the
pre-existent form. And that man was formed of earth, Homer, too, having
discovered from the ancient and divine history which says, “Dust
thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return,”2579
calls the lifeless body of Hector dumb clay. For in condemnation
of Achilles dragging the corpse of Hector after death, he says
somewhere:2580
—
“On
the dumb clay he cast indignity,
Blinded
with rage.”
And again, somewhere else,2581
he
introduces Menelaus, thus addressing those who were not accepting
Hector’s challenge to single combat with becoming alacrity,—
“To earth and water may you all return,”—
resolving them in his violent rage into their original
and pristine formation from earth. These things Homer and Plato, having
learned in Egypt from the ancient histories, wrote in their own
words.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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