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| Heathen defence continued. (2) 'The gods are worshipped for having invented the Arts of Life.' But this is a human and natural, not a divine, achievement. And why, on this principle, are not all inventors deified?
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§18. Heathen defence continued. (2)
‘The gods are worshipped for having invented the Arts of
Life.’ But this is a human and natural, not a divine,
achievement. And why, on this principle, are not all inventors
deified?
What defence, then, what proof that these are
real gods, can they offer who hold this superstition? For, by what has
been said just above, our argument has demonstrated them to be men, and
not respectable men. But perhaps they will turn to another argument,
and proudly appeal to the things useful to life discovered by them,
saying that the reason why they regard them as gods is their having
been of use to mankind. For Zeus is said to have possessed the plastic
art, Poseidon that of the pilot, Hephæstus the smith’s,
Athena that of weaving, Apollo that of music, Artemis that of hunting,
Hera dressmaking, Demeter agriculture, and others other arts, as those
who inform us about them have related. 2. But men ought to ascribe them
and such like arts not to the gods alone but to the common nature of
mankind, for by observing nature132
| 132 φύσις is here
used in a double sense. | men discover the
arts. For even common parlance calls art an imitation of nature. If
then they have been skilled in the arts they pursued, that is no reason
for thinking them gods, but rather for thinking them men; for the arts
were not their creation, but in them they, like others, imitated
nature. 3. For men having a natural capacity for knowledge according to
the definition laid down133
| 133 By
Aristotle, Top. V. ii.–iv. where man is defined as
ζῶον
ἐπιστήμης
δεκτικόν: compare Metaph. I. i. ‘All men by nature desire to
know.’ | concerning them,
there is nothing to surprise us if by human intelligence, and by
looking of themselves at their own nature and coming to know it, they
have hit upon the arts. Or if they say that the discovery of the arts entitles them to
be proclaimed as gods, it is high time to proclaim as gods the
discoverers of the other arts on the same grounds as the former were
thought worthy of such a title. For the Phœnicians invented
letters, Homer epic poetry, Zeno of Elea dialectic, Corax of Syracuse
rhetoric, Aristæus bee-keeping, Triptolemus the sowing of corn,
Lycurgus of Sparta and Solon of Athens laws; while Palamedes discovered
the arrangement of letters, and numbers, and measures and weights. And
others imparted various other things useful for the life of mankind,
according to the testimony of our historians. 4. If then the arts make
gods, and because of them carved gods exist, it follows, on their
shewing, that those who at a later date discovered the other arts must
be gods. Or if they do not deem these worthy of divine honour, but
recognise that they are men, it were but consistent not to give even
the name of gods to Zeus, Hera, and the others, but to believe that
they too have been human beings, and all the more so, inasmuch as they
were not even respectable in their day; just as by the very fact of
sculpturing their form in statues they shew that they are nothing else
but men.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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