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Chapter XXV.
Now, in order to grant that there did exist a
healing spirit named Æsculapius, who used to cure the bodies of
men, I would say to those who are astonished at such an occurrence, or
at the prophetic knowledge of Apollo, that since the cure of bodies is
a thing indifferent,3505 and a matter within
the reach not merely of the good,3506 but also of
the bad; and as the foreknowledge of the future is also a thing
indifferent—for the possessor of foreknowledge does not
necessarily manifest the possession of virtue—you must show that
they who practise healing or who forefell the future are in no respect
wicked, but exhibit a perfect pattern of virtue, and are not far from
being regarded as gods. But they will not be able to show
that they are virtuous who practise the art of healing, or who are
gifted with foreknowledge, seeing many who are not fit to live are
related to have been healed; and these, too, persons whom, as leading
improper lives, no wise physician would wish to heal. And in the
responses of the Pythian oracle also you may find some injunctions
which are not in accordance with reason, two of which we will adduce on
the present occasion; viz., when it gave commandment that
Cleomedes3507
3507 Cf.
Smith’s Dict. of Biograph., s.v. | —the boxer, I
suppose—should be honoured with divine honours, seeing some great
importance or other attaching to his pugilistic skill, but did not
confer either upon Pythagoras or upon Socrates the honours which it
awarded to pugilism; and also when it called Archilochus “the
servant of the Muses”—a man who employed his poetic powers
upon topics of the most wicked and licentious nature, and whose public
character was dissolute and impure—and entitled him
“pious,”3508 in respect of his
being the servant of the Muses, who are deemed to be goddesses!
Now I am inclined to think that no one would assert that he was a
“pious” man who was not adorned with all moderation and
virtue, or that a decorous3509 man would utter
such expressions as are contained in the unseemly3510 iambics of Archilochus. And if nothing
that is divine in itself is shown to belong either to the healing skill
of Æsculapius or the prophetic power of Apollo, how could any one,
even were I to grant that the facts are as alleged, reasonably worship
them as pure divinities?—and especially when the prophetic spirit
of Apollo, pure from any body of earth, secretly enters through the private parts the
person of her who is called the priestess, as she is seated at the
mouth of the Pythian cave!3511
3511 ὅτε
διὰ τοῦ
Πυθίου
στομίου
περικαθεζομένῃ
τῇ καλουμένῃ
προφήτιδι
πνεῦμα διὰ
τῶν
γυναικείων
ὑπεισέρχεται
τὸ μαντικὸν,
ὁ ᾽Απόλλων,
τὸ καθαρὸν
ἀπὸ γηίνου
σώματος. Boherellus
conjectures τὸ
μαντικὸν τοῦ
᾽Απόλλωνος
τὸ καθαρον. | Whereas
regarding Jesus and His power we have no such notion; for the body
which was born of the Virgin was composed of human material, and
capable of receiving human wounds and death.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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