Against Celsus 4.48
Summary: If any stories deserve shame, it is the Greek myths of gods castrating and devouring one another, which even Chrysippus allegorized obscenely; Christians therefore refuse to call God “Zeus” or give the sun and moon divine names.
Greek text · Koetschau 1:320–321
Εἶτα ὡς εἰς τὸ μισεῖν μόνον καὶ ἀπεχθάνεσθαι τῷ κατʼ Ἰουδαίους καὶ Χριστιανοὺς λόγῳ ἑαυτὸν ἐπιδεδωκὼς, φησὶν ὅτι καὶ Ἰουδαίων καὶ Χριστιανῶν οἱ ἐπιεικέστεροι ταῦτʼ ἀλληγοροῦσι· λέγει δὲ αἰσχυνομένους ἐπὶ τούτοις καταφεύγειν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλληγορίαν, εἶπε δʼ ἄν τις πρὸς αὐτὸν ὅτι, εἴπερ αἰσχύνης ἄξια τὰ κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἐκδοχὴν χρὴ λέγειν μύθων καὶ ἀναπλασμάτων, εἴτε διʼ ὑπονοίας γεγραμμένων εἴτε ἄλλως ὁπωσοῦν· ἐπὶ τίνων τοῦτο ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν χρὴ λέγειν ἱστοριῶν; ἐν αἷς υἱοὶ θεοὶ πατέρας θεοὺς ἐκτέμνουσι καὶ πατέρες θεοὶ υἱοὺς θεοὺς καταπίνουσι, καὶ θεὰ μήτηρ ἀντιδίδωσιν υἱοῦ τῷ πατρὶ „ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε“ λίθον, καὶ πατὴρ θυγατρὶ μίγνυται, καὶ γυνὴ καταδεῖ τὸν ἄνδρα, συνεργοὺς εἰς τοὺς δεσμοὺς παραλαμβάνουσα τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ καταδουμένου καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ, καὶ τί με δεῖ καταλέγειν τὰς περὶ θεῶν ἀτόπους Ἑλλήνων ἱστορίας, αἰσχύνης αὐτόθεν ἀξίας καὶ ἀλληγορουμένας; ὅπου γε ὁ Σολεὺς Χρύσιππος, ὁ τὴν Στοὰν τῶν φιλοσόφων πολλοῖς συγγράμμασι συνετοῖς κεκοσμηκέναι νομιζόμενος, παρερμηνεύει γραφὴν τὴν ἐν Σάμῳ, ἐν ᾗ ἀῤῥητοποιοῦσα ἡ Ἥρα τὸν Δία ἐγέγραπτο, λέγει γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ συγγράμμασιν ὁ σεμνὸς φιλόσοφος ὅτι τοὺς σπερματικοὺς λόγους τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ ὕλη παραδεξαμένη ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῇ εἰς κατακόσμησιν τῶν ὅλων, ὕλη γὰρ ἡ ἐν τῇ κατὰ τὴν Σάμον γραφῇ ἡ Ἥρα καὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ Ζεύς, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα δὴ ἡμεῖς καὶ διὰ τοὺς τοιούτους μύθους καὶ ἄλλους μυρίους οὐδὲ μέχρι ὀνόματος θέλομεν Δία καλεῖν τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν οὐδʼ Ἀπόλλωνα τὸν ἥλιον οὐδʼ Ἄρτεμιν τὴν σελήνην· ἀλλὰ καθαρὰν εὐσέβειαν εἰς τὸν δημιουργὸν ἀσκοῦντες καὶ τὰ καλὰ αὐτοῦ δημιουργήματα εὐφημοῦντες οὐδὲ μέχρι ὀνόματος χραίνομεν τὰ θεῖα, ἀποδεχόμενοι τοῦ Πλάτωνος τὸν ἐν Φιλήβῳ λόγον, μὴ βουληθέντος τὴν ἡδονὴν παραδέξασθαι θεόν· „τὸ γὰρ ἐμὸν, “ φησὶ, „δέος, ὦ Πρώταρχε, περὶ τὰ τῶν θεῶν ὀνόματα τοιόνδε ἐστίν, “ ἡμεῖς οὖν ἀληθῶς ἔχομεν „δέος“ περὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῶν καλῶν αὐτοῦ δημιουργημάτων, ὡς μηδὲ προφάσει τροπολογίας μῦθόν τινα παραδέξασθαι ἐπὶ βλάβῃ τῶν νέων.
English · Claude translation
Then, as one who has given himself up only to hating and detesting the teaching of Jews and Christians, he says that “the more reasonable of the Jews and Christians allegorize these things”; and he says that, being ashamed of them, they take refuge in allegory. One might say to him: If the stories of myths and fictions in their first sense, whether written with hidden meaning or in any other way, must be called worthy of shame, to what should this be said if not to the Greek stories? In them sons who are gods castrate fathers who are gods, and fathers who are gods swallow sons who are gods, and a goddess mother gives to the father “of men and gods” a stone in place of her son, and a father has intercourse with his daughter, and a wife binds her husband, taking as helpers in the binding the brother of the one being bound and his daughter. And why must I list the absurd stories of the Greeks about the gods, obviously worthy of shame even when allegorized? For Chrysippus of Soli, who is thought to have adorned the Stoa of the philosophers with many intelligent writings, interprets a painting at Samos in which Hera was depicted performing an unspeakable act on Zeus. The dignified philosopher says in his writings that matter, having received the seminal principles of God, holds them in itself for the ordering of the universe; for in the painting at Samos Hera is matter and Zeus is God. For these reasons, then, and because of such myths and countless others, we do not want even to call the God over all by the name Zeus, nor the sun Apollo, nor the moon Artemis; but practicing pure piety toward the Creator and speaking well of his beautiful works, we do not defile divine things even by a name, accepting Plato's words in the Philebus, when he did not wish to admit pleasure as a goddess: “For my fear, Protarchus, about the names of the gods is such.” We truly have “fear,” then, about the name of God and of his beautiful works, so as not to accept any myth, even on the pretext of figurative meaning, to the harm of the young.
About this passage
Notes
Translation notes
- The myths are from Hesiod, Theogony (Cronus castrating Uranus, 178–182; swallowing his children, 459–491) and Homer, Iliad 1.399–400 (Hera, Poseidon, and Athena binding Zeus). Chrysippus's allegory of the Samian painting is also reported by Diogenes Laertius 7.187–188. The quotation is Plato, Philebus 12c.
Cite this passage
Origen, Cels. 4.48 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/48/).
Plain text
Origen, Cels. 4.48 (trans. Sophia Scriptura, https://sophiascriptura.com/fathers/origen-celsum/4/48/).
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