Protrepticus

Front matter

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA

EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS

I

II

Do not therefore seek diligently after godless sanctuaries, nor after mouths of caverns full of jugglery,43 nor the Thesprotian caldron, nor the Cirrhaean tripod, nor the Dodonian copper. As for the old stump honoured by the desert sands,44 and the oracular shrine there gone to decay with the oak itself, abandon them both to the region of legends now grown old. The Castalian spring, at least, is all silent. So is the spring of Colophon; and the rest of the prophetic streams are likewise dead. Stripped of their absurd pretensions, though none too soon, they are at last thoroughly exposed; the waters have run dry together with the legends attached to them. Relate to me the utterly vain utterances45 of that other form of divination,—I should rather say hallucination,45—the oracles of Apollo, Clarian, Pythian and Didymean, and those of Amphiaraus and Amphilochus; and, if you will, devote to destruction along with them the soothsayers, augurs and interpreters of dreams. At the same time, take and place by the side of Pythian Apollo those who divine by flour, and by barley,46 and the ventriloquists’47 still held in honour among the multitude. Yes, and let the sanctuaries of Egypt and the Tuscan oracles of the dead be delivered over to darkness. Homes of hallucination in very truth they are, these schools of sophistry for unbelieving men, these gambling-dens of sheer delusion. Partners in this business of trickery are goats, trained for divination; and ravens, taught by men to give oracular responses to men.

But what if I were to recount the mysteries for you? I will not burlesque them, as Alcibiades is said to have done, but will thoroughly lay bare, in accordance with the principle of truth, the trickery they conceal; and as for your so-called gods themselves, to whom the mystic rites belong, I will display them on the stage of life, as it were, for the spectators of truth. The raving Dionysus is worshipped by Bacchants with orgies, in which they celebrate their sacred frenzy by a feast of raw flesh. Wreathed with snakes, they perform the distribution of portions of their victims, shouting the name of Eva,48 that Eva through whom error entered into the world; and a consecrated snake is the emblem of the Bacchic orgies. At any rate, according to the correct Hebrew speech, the word “hevia” with an aspirate means the female snake.49 Demeter and Persephone have come to be the subject of a mystic drama, and DemeterEleusis celebrates with torches the rape of the daughter and the sorrowful wandering of the mother.

Now it seems to me that the terms “orgy” and “mystery” must be derived, the former from wrath (orgē) of Demeter against Zeus,50 and the “mystery” latter from the pollution (mysos) that took place in connexion with Dionysus.51 But even if they are named after a certain Myus of Attica, who according to Apollodorus was killed in hunting, I make no objection. Your mysteries have received the glory of funeral honours! You may also, in another way, suppose them to be hunting-stories (mytheria), since the letters correspond; for as surely as there are men who hunt wild beasts, so do legends like these hunt the rudest among Thracians, the silliest among Phrygians, and the daemon-fearers among Greeks. A curse then upon the man who started this deception for mankind, whether it be Dardanus, who introduced the mysteries of the Mother of the Gods; or Eëtion, who founded the Samothracian orgies and rites; or that Phrygian Midas, who learnt the artful deceit from Odrysus and then passed it on to his subjects. For I could never be beguiled by the claims of the islander Cinyras, of Cyprus, who had the audacity to transfer the lascivious orgies of Aphrodite from night to day, in his ambition to deify a harlot of his own country. Others say that it was Melampus the son of Amythaon who brought into Greece from Egypt the festivals of Demeter, that is, the story of her grief celebrated in hymns. These men I for my part would call originators of mischief, parents of godless legends and deadly daemon-worship, seeing that they implanted the mysteries in human life to be a seed of evil and corruption.

But now, (and high time too,) I will convict your orgies themselves of being full of deception and mysteries jugglery, and if you have been initiated you will smile the more at these legends you are wont to honour. I will tell openly the secret things, and will not shrink from speaking of what you are not ashamed to worship. There is, then, the “foam-born” “Cyprus-born” goddess, the darling of Cinyras. I mean Aphrodite, who received the name Philomēdes because she was born from the mēdea,52 those lustful members that were cut off from Uranus and after the separation did violence to the wave. See how lewd are the members from which so worthy an offspring is born! And in the rites which celebrate this pleasure of the sea, as a symbol of her birth, the gift of a cake of salt and a phallos is made to those who are initiated in the art of fornication; and the initiated bring their tribute of a coin to the goddess, as lovers do to a mistress.

The mysteries of Demeter commemorate the amorous embraces of Zeus with his mother Demeter, and the wrath of Demeter (I do not know what to call her for the future, mother or wife) on account of which she is said to have received the name Brimo53; also the supplications of Zeus, the drink of bile, the tearing out the heart of the victims, and unspeakable obscenities. The same rites are performed in honour of Attis and Cybele and the Corybantes by the Phrygians, who have spread it abroad how that Zeus tore off the testicles of a ram, and then brought and flung them into the midst of Demeter’s lap, thus paying a sham penalty for his violent embrace by pretending that he had mutilated himself. If I go on further to quote the symbols of initiation into this mystery they will, I know, move you to laughter, even though you are in no laughing humour when your rites are being exposed. “I ate from the drum; I drank from the cymbal; I carried the sacred dish; I stole into the bridal chamber.”54 Are not these symbols an outrage? Are not the mysteries a mockery? But what if I were to add the rest of the story? Demeter becomes pregnant; the Maiden grows up; and this Zeus who begat her has further intercourse, this time with Persephone herself, his own daughter, after his union with her mother Demeter. Totally forgetful of his former pollution Zeus becomes the ravisher as well as father of the maiden, meeting her under the form of a serpent, his true nature being thus revealed. At any rate, in the Sabazian mysteries the sign given to those who are initiated is “the god over the breast”; this is a serpent drawn over the breast of the votaries, a proof of the licentiousness of Zeus. Persephone also bears a child, which has the form of a bull. To be sure, we are told by a certain mythological poet that

The bull begets a snake, the snake a bull; On hills the herdsman bears his mystic goad,—

the herdsman’s goad being, I think, a name for the wand which the Bacchants wreathe. Would you have me also tell you the story of Persephone gathering flowers, of her basket, and how she was seized by Hades, of the chasm that opened in the earth, and of the swine of Eubouleus that were swallowed up along with the two deities,55 which is the reason given for the custom of casting swine into the sacred caverns at the festival of the Thesmophoria? This is the tale which the women celebrate at their various feasts in the city, Thesmophoria, Scirophoria, Arretophoria, where in different ways they work up into tragedy the rape of Persephone.

The mysteries of Dionysus are of a perfectly savage character. He was yet a child, and the Curetes were dancing around him with warlike movement, when the Titans stealthily drew near. First they beguiled him with childish toys, and then,—these very Titans —tore him to pieces, though he was but an infant. Orpheus of Thrace, the poet of the Initiation, speaks of the

Top, wheel and jointed dolls, with beauteous fruit Of gold from the clear-voiced Hesperides.

And it is worth while to quote the worthless56 symbols ot this rite of yours in order to excite condemnation: the knuckle-bone, the ball, the spinning-top, apples, wheel, mirror, fleece! Now Athena made off with the heart of Dionysus, and received the name Pallas from its palpitating.57 But the Titans, they who tore him to pieces, placed a caldron upon a tripod, and casting the limbs of Dionysus into it first boiled them down; then, piercing them with spits, they “held them over Hephaestus.”58 Later on Zeus appeared; perhaps, since he was a god, because he smelt the steam of the flesh that was cooking, which your gods admit they “receive as their portion.”59 He plagues the Titans with thunder, and entrusts the limbs of Dionysus to his son Apollo for burial. In obedience to Zeus, Apollo carries the mutilated corpse to Parnassus and lays it to rest.

If you would like a vision of the Corybantic orgies also, this is the story. Two of the Corybantes slew a third one, who was their brother, covered the head of the corpse with a purple cloak, and then wreathed and buried it, bearing it upon a brazen shield to the skirts of Mount Olympus. Here we see what the mysteries are, in one word, murders and burials! The priests of these mysteries, whom such as are interested in them call “Presidents of the Princes’ rites,”60 add a portent to the dismal tale. They forbid wild celery, root and all, to be placed on the table, for they actually believe that wild celery grows out of the blood that flowed from the murdered brother.61 It is a similar custom, of course, that is observed by the women who celebrate the Thesmophoria. They are careful not to eat any pomegranate seeds which fall to the ground, being of opinion that pomegranates spring from the drops of Dionysus’ blood. The Corybantes are also called by the name Cabeiri, which proclaims the rite of the Cabeiri. For this very pair of fratricides got possession of the chest in which the virilia of Dionysus were deposited, and brought it to Tuscany, traders in glorious wares! There they sojourned, being exiles, and communicated their precious teaching of piety, the virilia and the chest, to Tuscans for purposes of worship. For this reason not unnaturally some wish to call Dionysus Attis, because he was mutilated.

Yet how can we wonder if Tuscans, who are barbarians, are thus consecrated to base passions, when Athenians and the rest of Greece—I blush even to speak of it—possess that shameful tale about Demeter? It tells how Demeter, wandering through Eleusis, which is a part of Attica, in search of her daughter the Maiden,62 becomes exhausted and sits down at a well in deep distress. This display of grief is forbidden, up to the present day, to those who are initiated, lest the worshippers should seem to imitate the goddess in her sorrow. At that time Eleusis was inhabited by aborigines, whose names were Baubo, Dysaules, Triptolemus, and also Eumolpus and Eubouleus. Triptolemus was a herdsman, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubouieus a swineherd. These were progenitors of the Eumolpidae and of the Heralds, who form the priestly clan63 at Athens. But to continue; for I will not forbear to tell the rest of the story. Baubo, having received Demeter as a guest, offers her a draught of wine and meal.64 She declines to take it, being unwilling to drink on account of her mourning. Baubo is deeply hurt, thinking she has been slighted, and thereupon uncovers her secret parts and exhibits them to the goddess. Demeter is pleased at the sight, and now at last receives the draught,—delighted with the spectacle! These are the secret mysteries of the Athenians! These are also the subjects of Orpheus’ poems. I will quote you the very lines of Orpheus, in order that you may have the originator of the mysteries as witness of their shamelessness:

This said, she drew aside her robes, and showed A sight of shame; child Iacchus was there, And laughing, plunged his hand below her breasts. Then smiled the goddess, in her heart she smiled, And drank the draught from out the glancing cup.

And the formula of the Eleusinian mysteries is as follows: “I fasted; I drank the draught; I took from the chest; having done my task,65 I placed in the basket, and from the basket into the chest.” Beautiful sights indeed, and fit for a goddess! Yes, such rites are meet for night and torch fires, and for the “great-hearted”—I should rather say empty-headed—people of the Erechtheidae,66 with the rest of the Greeks as well, “whom after death there await such things as they little expect.” Against whom does Heracleitus of Ephesus utter this prophecy? Against “night-roamers, magicians, Bacchants, Lenaean revellers and devotees of the mysteries.” These are the people whom he threatens with the penalties that follow death; for these he prophesies the fire. “For in unholy fashion are they initiated into the mysteries customary among men.”

The mysteries, then, are mere custom and vain and it is a deceit of the serpent that men worship when, with spurious piety, they turn towards these sacred initiations that are really profanities, and solemn rites that are without sanctity. Consider, too, the contents of the mystic chests67; for I must strip bare their holy things and utter the unspeakable. Are they not sesame cakes, pyramid and spherical cakes, cakes with many navels, also balls of salt and a serpent, the mystic sign of Dionysus Bassareus? Are they not also pomegranates, fig branches, fennel stalks, ivy leaves, round cakes and poppies? These are their holy things! In addition, there are the unutterable symbols of Gē Themis,68 marjoram, a lamp, a sword, and a woman’s comb, which is a euphemistic expression used in the mysteries for a woman’s secret parts. What manifest shamelessness! Formerly night, which drew a veil over the pleasures of temperate men, was a time for silence. But now, when night is for those who are being initiated a temptation to licentiousness, talk abounds, and the torch-fires convict unbridled passions. Quench the fire, thou priest. Shrink from the flaming brands, torchbearer. The light convicts your Iacchus. Suffer night to hide the mysteries. Let the orgies be honoured by darkness. The fire is not acting a part; to convict and to punish is its duty.69

These are the mysteries of the atheists.70 And I am right in branding as atheists men who are ignorant of the true God, but shamelessly worship a child being torn to pieces by Titans, a poor grief-stricken woman, and parts of the body which, from a sense of shame, are truly too sacred to speak of. It is a twofold atheism in which they are entangled; first, the atheism of being ignorant of God (since they do not recognize the true God); and then this second error, of believing in the existence of beings that have no existence, and calling by the name of gods those who are not really gods,—nay more, who do not even exist, but have only got the name. No doubt this is also the reason why the Apostle convicts us, when he says, “And ye were strangers from the covenants of the promise, being without hope and atheists in the world.”71

Blessings be upon the Scythian king, whoever he was. When a countryman of his own was imitating among the Scythians the rite of the Mother of the Gods as practised at Cyzicus, by beating a drum and clanging a cymbal, and by having images of the goddess suspended from his neck after the manner of a priest of Cybele,72 this king slew him with an arrow,73 on the ground that the man, having been deprived of his own virility in Greece, was now communicating the effeminate disease to his fellow Scythians. All this—for I must not in the least conceal what I think—makes me amazed how the term atheist has been applied to Euhemerus of Acragas, Nicanor of Cyprus, Diagoras and Hippo of Melps, with that Cyrenian named Theodorus and a good many others besides, men who lived sensible lives and discerned more acutely, I imagine, than the rest of mankind the error connected with these gods. Even if they did not perceive the truth itself, they at least suspected the error; and this suspicion is a living spark of wisdom, and no small one, which grows up like a seed into truth. One of them thus directs the Egyptians: “If you believe they are gods, do not lament them, nor beat the breast; but if you mourn for them, no longer consider these beings to be gods.”74 Another, having taken hold of a Heracles made from a log of wood—he happened, likely enough, to be cooking something at home—said; “Come, Heracles, now is your time to undertake this thirteenth labour for me, as you did the twelve for Eurystheus, and prepare Diagoras his dish!” Then he put him into the fire like a log.

It appears then that atheism and daemon-worship are the extreme points of stupidity, from which we must earnestly endeavour to keep ourselves apart. Do you not see Moses, the sacred interpreter75 of the truth, ordering that no eunuch or mutilated man shall enter the assembly, nor the son of a harlot?76 By the first two expressions he refers in a figure to the atheistic manner of life, which has been deprived of divine power and fruitfulness; by the third and last, to the man who lays claim to many gods, falsely so called, in place of the only real God; just as the son of a harlot lays claim to many fathers, through ignorance of his true father. But there was of old implanted in man a certain fellowship with heaven, which, though darkened through ignorance, yet at times leaps suddenly out of the darkness and shines forth. Take for instance the well-known lines in which someone has said,

Seest thou this boundless firmament on high, Whose arms enfold the earth in soft embrace?77

and these,

O stay of earth, that hast thy seat above, Whoe’er thou art, by guessing scarce discerned;78

and all the other similar things which the sons of the poets sing.

But opinions that are mistaken and deviate from the right—deadly opinions, in very truth—turned aside man, the heavenly plant,79 from a heavenly manner of life, and stretched him upon earth, by inducing him to give heed to things formed out of earth. Some men were deceived from the first about the spectacle of the heavens. Trusting solely to sight, they gazed at the movements of the heavenly bodies, and in wonder deified them, giving them the name of gods from their running motion.80 Hence they worshipped the sun, as Indians do, and the moon, as Phrygians do. Others, when gathering the fruits of plants that spring from the earth, called the corn Demeter, as the Athenians, and the vine Dionysus, as the Thebans. Others, after reflecting upon the punishments of evil-doing, make gods out of their experiences of retribution, worshipping the very calamities. This is the source from which the Erinyes and Eumenides, goddesses of expiation and vengeance, as well as the Alastors,81 have been fashioned by the poets of the stage. Even certain of the philosophers themselves, following the men of poetry, came to represent as deities the types of your emotions, such as Fear, Love, Joy, Hope; just as, of course, Epimenides did of old, when he set up altars in Athens to Insolence and Shamelessness. Some gods arise from the mere circumstances of life deified in men’s eyes and fashioned in bodily form; such are the Athenian deities. Right, the Spinner, the Giver of lots, the Inflexible One, Destiny, Growth and Abundance. There is a sixth way of introducing deception and of procuring gods, according to which men reckon them to be twelve in number, of whose genealogy Hesiod sings his own story, and Homer, too, has much to say about them. Finally (for these ways of error are seven in all), remains that which arises from the divine beneficence shown towards men; for, since men did not understand that it was God who benefited them, they invented certain saviours, the Twin Brothers, Heracles averter of evils, and Asclepius the doctor.

These then are the slippery and harmful paths which lead away from the truth, dragging man down from heaven and overturning him into the pit. But I wish to display to you at close quarters the gods themselves, showing what their characters are, and whether they really exist; in order that at last you may cease from error and run back again to heaven. “For we too were once children of wrath, as also the rest; but God being rich in mercy, through His great love wherewith He loved us, when we were already dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”82 For the Word is living, and he who has been buried with Christ is exalted together with God. They who are still unbelieving are called “children of wrath,” since they are being reared for wrath. We, on the contrary, are no longer creatures of wrath, for we have been torn away from error and are hastening towards the truth. Thus we who were once sons of lawlessness have now become sons of God thanks to the love of the Word for man. But you are they whom even your own poet, Empedocles of Acragas, points to in these lines:

So then, by grievous miseries distraught. Ye ne’er shall rest your mind from woeful pains.83

Now the most part of the stories about your gods are legends and fictions. But as many as are held to be real events are the records of base men who led dissolute lives:

But ye in pride and madness walk; ye left

The true, straight path, and chose the way through thorns

And stakes. Why err, ye mortals? Cease, vain men!

Forsake dark night, and cleave unto the light.84

This is what the prophetic and poetic Sibyl85 enjoins on us. And truth, too, does the same, when she strips these dreadful and terrifying masks from the crowd of gods, and adduces certain similarities of name to prove the absurdity of your rash opinions.

For example, there are some who record three gods of the name of Zeus86: one in Arcadia, the son of Aether, the other two being sons of Cronus, the one in Crete, the other again in Arcadia. Some assume five Athenas: the daughter of Hephaestus, who is the Athenian; the daughter of Neilus, who is the Egyptian87; a third, the daughter of Cronus, who is the discoverer of war; a fourth, the daughter of Zeus, to whom Messenians give the title Coryphasia after her mother. Above all, there is the child of Pallas and Titanis daughter of Oceanus. This is the one who impiously slaughtered her father and is arrayed in the paternal skin, as though it were a fleece.88 Further, with regard to Apollo, Aristotle enumerates, first, the son of Hephaestus and Athena (which puts an end to Athena’s virginity); secondly, the son of Cyrbas in Crete; thirdly, the son of Zeus; and fourthly, the Arcadian, the son of Silenus, called among the Arcadians Nomius.89 In addition to these he reckons the Libyan, the son of Ammon; and Didymus the grammarian adds a sixth, the son of Magnes. And how many Apollos are there at the present time? A countless host, all mortal and perishable men, who have been called by similar names to the deities we have just mentioned. And what if I were to tell you of the many gods named Asclepius, or of every Hermes that is enumerated, or of every Hephaestus that occurs in your mythology? Shall I not seem to be needlessly drowning your ears by the number of their names? But the lands they dwelt in, the arts they practised, the records of their lives, yes, and their very tombs, prove conclusively that they were men.

There is for example Ares, who is honoured, so far as that is possible, in the poets—

Ares, thou plague of men, bloodguilty one, stormer of cities;90

this fickle and implacable god was, according to Epicharmus, a Spartan. But Sophocles knows him for a Thracian, others for an Arcadian. This is the god of whom Homer says that he was bound in chains for a space of thirteen months:

Such was the lot of Ares, when Otus and strong Ephialtes,

Sons of Aloeus, seized him, and chained his limbs in strong fetters;

And in a dungeon of brass for thirteen months he lay captive.91

Blessings be upon the Carians, who sacrifice dogs to him! May Scythians never cease offering asses, as Apollodorus says they do, and Callimachus too, in the following verse:

In northern lands ass-sacrifices rise When Phoebus first appears.92

Elsewhere the same writer says:

Rich sacrifice of asses Phoebus loves,93

Hephaestus, whom Zeus cast out of Olympus, “from the threshold of heaven,”94 fell to earth in Lemnos and worked as a smith. He was lame in both feet, “but his slender legs moved quickly under him.”95 You have not only a smith among the gods, but a doctor as well. The doctor was fond of money, and his name was Asclepius. I will quote your own poet, Pindar the Boeotian:

Gold was his ruin; it shone in his hands, Splendid reward for a deed of skill; Lo! from the arm of Zeus on high Darted the gleaming bolt for ill; Snatched from the man his new-found breath. Whelmed the god in a mortal’s death.96

And Euripides says:

’Twas due to Zeus; he slew Asclepius, My son,—with lightning flame that pierced his heart.97

This god, then, killed by the thunderbolt, lies on the frontier of Cynosuris. But Philochorus says that in Tenos Poseidon was honoured as a doctor. He adds that Sicily was placed upon Cronus, and there he lies buried. Both Patrocles of Thurium and the younger Sophocles relate the story of the Twin Brothers in some of their tragedies. These Brothers were simply two men, subject to death, if Homer’s authority is sufficient for the statement,

they ere now by life-giving earth were enfolded.

There in far Lacedaemon, the well-loved land of their fathers.98

Let the author of the Cyprian verses99 also come forward:

Castor is mortal man, and death as his fate is appointed;

But immortal is great Polydeuces, offspring of Ares.

This last line is a poetic falsehood. But Homer is more worthy of credence than this poet in what he said about both the Brothers. In addition, he has proved Heracles to be a shade. For to him “Heracles, privy to great deeds,” is simply “a man.”100 Heracles, then, is known to be mortal man even by Homer. Hieronymus the philosopher sketches his bodily characteristics also,—small stature, bristling hair, great strength. Dicaearchus adds that he was slim, sinewy, dark, with hooked nose, bright gleaming eyes and long, straight hair. This Heracles, after a life of fifty-two years, ended his days, and his obsequies were celebrated in the pyre on Mount Oeta.

As for the Muses, Alcman derives their origin from Zeus and Mnemosyne, and the rest of the poets and prose-writers deify and worship them; to such an extent that whole cities dedicate “temples of the Muses” in their honour. But these were Mysian serving-maids purchased by Megaclo, the daughter of Macar. Now Macar, who was king over the Lesbians, was constantly quarrelling with his wife, and Megaclo was grieved for her mother’s sake. How could she be otherwise? So she bought these Mysian serving-maids, to the correct number, and pronounced their names Moisai, according to the Aeolic dialect. She had them taught to sing of ancient deeds, and to play the lyre in melodious accompaniment; and they, by their continual playing and the spell of their beautiful singing, were wont to soothe Macar and rid him of his anger. As a thank-offering for these services Megaclo erected, on her mother’s behalf, bronze statues of the maids, and commanded that they should be honoured in all the temples. Such is the origin of the Muses. The account of them is found in Myrsilus of Lesbos.

Now listen to the loves of these gods of yours; to extraordinary tales of their incontinence; to their wounds, imprisonments, fits of laughter, conflicts, and periods of servitude. Listen, too, to their revels, their embraces, their tears, passions and dissolute pleasures. Call Poseidon, and the band of maidens corrupted by him, Amphitrite, Amymone, Alope, Melanippe, Alcyone, Hippothoe, Chione and the thousands of others. Yet in spite of this great number, the passions of your Poseidon were still unsatisfied. Call Apollo, too. He is Phoebus, a holy prophet and good counsellor! But this is not the opinion of Sterope, or Aethusa, or Arsinoe, or Zeuxippe, or Prothoe, or Marpessa, or Hypsipyle. For Daphne was the only one who escaped the prophet and his corruption. Above all, let Zeus come too, he who is, according to your account, “father of gods and men.”101 So completely was he given over to lust, that every woman not only excited his desire, but became a victim of it. Why, he would take his fill of women no less than the buck of the Thmuitans102 does of she-goats. I am astonished at these verses of yours, Homer:

Thus spake the son of Cronus, and nodded assent with his eyebrows;