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| Chapter X.—Absurdities of Idolatry.
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Chapter X.—Absurdities of Idolatry.
Why should I further recount the multitude of animals
worshipped by the Egyptians, both reptiles, and cattle, and wild beasts,
and birds, and river-fishes; and even wash-pots538
| 538 [Foot-baths. A reference to Amasis, and his story in
Heredotus, ii. 172. See Rawlinson’s Version and Notes,
vol. ii. p. 221, ed. Appletons, 1859. See also Athanagoras,
infra, Embassy, cap. xxvi.] | and disgraceful noises?539
| 539 [The fable of Echo and her
shameful gossip may serve for an example.] | But if you cite the
Greeks and the other nations, they worship stones and wood, and other
kinds of material substances,—the images, as we have just been
saying, of dead men. For Phidias is found in Pisa making for the Eleians
the Olympian Jupiter, and at Athens the Minerva of the Acropolis. And I
will inquire of you, my friend, how many Jupiters exist. For there is,
firstly, Jupiter surnamed Olympian, then Jupiter Latiaris, and Jupiter
Cassius, and Jupiter Tonans, and Jupiter Propator, and Jupiter Pannychius,
and Jupiter Poliuchus, and Jupiter Capitolinus; and that Jupiter, the
son of Saturn, who is king of the Cretans, has a tomb in Crete, but
the rest, possibly, were not thought worthy of tombs. And if you speak
of the mother of those who are called gods, far be it from me to utter
with my lips her deeds, or the deeds of those by whom she is worshipped
(for it is unlawful for us so much as to name such things), and what vast
taxes and revenues she and her sons furnish to the king. For these are
not gods, but idols, as we have already said, the works of men’s
hands and unclean demons. And such may all those become who make them
and put their trust in them!E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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