Chapter XIV.—Inconsistency of Those Who Accuse the Christians.
Then, as to the other complaint, that we do not pray to
and believe in the same gods as the cities, it is an exceedingly silly
one. Why, the very men who charge us with atheism for not admitting the
same gods as they acknowledge, are not agreed among themselves concerning
the gods. The Athenians have set up as gods Celeus and Metanira: the
Lacedæmonians Menelaus; and they offer sacrifices and hold festivals
to him, while the men of Ilium cannot endure the very sound of his name,
and pay their adoration to Hector. The Ceans worship Aristæus,
considering him to be the same as Zeus and Apollo; the Thasians Theagenes,
a man who committed murder at the Olympic games; the Samians Lysander,
notwithstanding all the slaughters and all the crimes perpetrated by
him; Alcman and Hesiod Medea, and the Cilicians Niobe; the Sicilians
Philip the son of Butacides; the Amathusians Onesilus; the Carthaginians
Hamilcar. Time would fail me to enumerate the whole. When, therefore,
they differ among themselves concerning their gods, why do they bring the
charge against us of not agreeing with them? Then look at the practices
prevailing among the Egyptians: are they not perfectly ridiculous? For
in the temples at their solemn festivals they beat their breasts as for
the dead, and sacrifice to the same beings as gods; and no wonder, when
they look upon the brutes as gods, and shave themselves when they die,
and bury them in temples, and make public lamentation. If, then, we are
guilty of impiety because we do not practice a piety corresponding with
theirs, then all cities and all nations are guilty of impiety, for they
do not all acknowledge the same gods.
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