Praeparatio Evangelica 1 part 3/4

Such, then, is this account also. And you find likewise in the Phoenician theology that the first natural philosophers among the Phoenicians recognized as gods only the sun, the moon, the remaining planetary stars, and the elements, together with what is connected to these; and that upon these the most ancient men consecrated the produce of the earth, and regarded them as gods, and worshipped these things, from which they themselves, and those who came after, and all who came before them, obtained their sustenance; and they performed libations and pourings-out; and they consecrated pity, and lamentation, and weeping for the perishing produce of the earth, and for the first generation of living creatures from the earth and from one another, and for their death, whereby they ceased from life.

Such, then, were the notions of worship, corresponding to their weakness and to the still timid state of their soul. This is what the writing of the Phoenicians also relates, as shall be shown in what follows. Moreover, that very man of our own times, who prides himself on his slanders against us, in the work he entitled 'On Abstinence from Animate Beings,' also sets down, using Theophrastus as his witness, the recollection of the antiquity of the ancients, word for word, in the following manner.

It seems to be a time beyond reckoning since the race that is, as Theophrastus says, the most rational of all, and which dwells in the most sacred land created by the Nile, first began to sacrifice at their hearths to the heavenly gods — not offering first-fruits of myrrh, nor of cassia and frankincense mixed with saffron; for these were adopted many generations later, once man, seeking after his necessary sustenance with much toil, had become, as it were, a seeker after error, and offered to the gods the very drops of the tears of that toil.

They did not, then, sacrifice these things earlier, but rather, taking up in their hands, as it were, a mere down of green, of the fertile growth. For the earth brought forth trees before animals, and long before the trees, the annually generated grass; and plucking from this the leaves and roots, and the whole sprouts of their growth, they burned them, in this way greeting the visible heavenly gods with sacrifice, and, through fire, immortalizing the honors paid to them.

For these gods they also kept fire undying in the temples, as being most similar of all things to them. And from the fumigation of things from the earth, they called both the vessels 'censers' and the act 'sacrificing' and 'sacrifices' — terms which we, incorrectly, now understand as signifying the later corruption, calling by the name 'sacrifice' that service which is supposed to be performed through animals.

And the ancients were so concerned not to transgress this custom that, against those who abandoned the ancient practice and introduced another, they pronounced a curse, and named the things that were burned as incense 'aromata.'

Having said this, he adds, after some other remarks: 'But as the first-fruit offerings among mankind advanced far into lawlessness, the adoption of the most terrible sacrificial victims was introduced, full of savagery, so that the curses previously spoken against us now seem to have reached their fulfillment, men having slaughtered victims and stained the altars with blood.'

So much, then, is said by Porphyry — no less than by Theophrastus. And Plato, in the Cratylus, may serve as the seal set upon this discourse for us, saying, before his other remarks concerning the Greeks, words to this effect: 'It seems to me that the first men who lived around Greece considered as gods only those very beings whom many of the barbarians consider so today — sun, moon, earth, stars, and heaven; and so, seeing all of these ever going and running their course, they named them "gods" from this their nature of running.'

But that the first and most ancient of men attended neither to the building of temples nor to the setting up of carved images, since the art of painting had not yet been discovered, nor that of modeling, or sculpture, or statue-making, nor indeed had the art of building or architecture yet come into existence — this, I think, is clear to anyone who reasons the matter through.

But that no memory even of the gods and heroes named later on was present to men of that time, and that they had among them neither Zeus, nor Cronus, nor Poseidon, nor Apollo, nor Hera, nor Athena, nor Dionysus, nor any other god, female or male, of the sort that later became innumerable among both barbarians and Greeks; nor was any spirit, good or evil, admired among men; but only the visible heavenly bodies happened, as they themselves say, to receive the appellation of gods, from 'thein,' which means 'to run'; and not even these were worshipped with sacrifices through animals, nor with the honors devised in later times — this is not our own argument, but testimony from the Greeks' own household, furnished as proof through the sayings already cited and those that shall be cited next in turn.

This is also what our own sacred writings teach, containing the account that, to all the nations at the beginning, the honoring of the visible luminaries was allotted, but that to the Hebrew race alone was entrusted the oversight of the contemplation of God, the maker and craftsman of the universe, and of true piety toward him.

There was, then, no account of a Greek or barbarian theogony among the most ancient of men, nor the setting up of lifeless carved images, nor the great nonsense, now so prevalent, of naming gods as male and female.

At any rate, the appellations and names later invented by men were not yet known among men at that time; nor were there invocations of demons and unseen spirits; nor bizarre mythologies concerning gods and heroes; nor mysteries of secret rites; nor, in general, anything of the extensive and garrulous superstition of men who came later.

All these things, then, were inventions of men and fabrications of mortal nature — or rather, contrivances of shameful and licentious manners, according to the divine oracle among us which says: 'the devising of idols was the beginning of fornication.'

The polytheistic error of all the nations, then, appeared many ages later, beginning from the Phoenicians and the Egyptians, and passing from them to the rest of the nations and even as far as the Greeks themselves — as, again, the history of the most ancient writers records; and it is now time to examine this history too, beginning with the Phoenician accounts.

These matters are related by Sanchuniathon, a most ancient man, and, as they say, older than the times of the Trojan War, whom they attest to have been accepted for the accuracy and truthfulness of his Phoenician history. Philo of Byblos — not the Hebrew — translated his entire work from the Phoenician tongue into the Greek language and published it. This author is mentioned by that man of our own times who composed a contrivance against us, in the fourth book of his treatise against us, bearing witness to the man in the following words, word for word.

He relates most truthfully the matters concerning the Jews, since these are most consistent both with their places and with their names — Sanchuniathon of Berytus, who received the records from Hierombalus, the priest of the god Ieuo; who, having dedicated his history to Abibalus, king of the Berytians, was accepted by him and by the examiners of truth of his time. The dates of these men fall even before the Trojan times, and come close, indeed, to the time of Moses, as the successions of the kings of Phoenicia indicate. Sanchuniathon, writing truth-lovingly in the Phoenician dialect, gathered together the whole ancient history from the records kept in each city and from the inscriptions in the temples, and composed his work; and he lived in the time of Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians, who is recorded to have lived before the Trojan events, or, according to some, about the same time as those events. The works of Sanchuniathon were translated into the Greek tongue by Philo of Byblos.

This, then, is what the aforementioned man testified, bearing witness both to the truth and to the antiquity of this theologian. But as he proceeds, he speaks theologically not of the God who is over all, nor indeed of the gods in heaven, but of mortal men and women, not even refined in character, of the sort worthy to be accepted or emulated for virtue's philosophy, but rather clothed with the wickedness of baseness and depravity of every kind. And he even testifies that these very persons are those who are, even now, still reckoned as gods by all peoples, both in their cities and in their countries. Receive, then, the proofs of these things also from the written texts.

Philo, then, having divided the entire work of Sanchuniathon into nine books, in the preface of the first treatise, says the following, word for word, concerning Sanchuniathon.

These things being so, Sanchuniathon, a man of much learning and much industry, and desirous of knowing from all sources the things from the beginning, from which all things came together, painstakingly searched out the writings of Taautus, knowing that, of all who have ever lived under the sun, Taautus was the first — he who conceived the invention of letters and initiated the writing of records; and taking this as, so to speak, the foundation of his discourse, he began from him whom the Egyptians called Thouth, the Alexandrians Thoth, and whom the Greeks translated as Hermes.

Having said this, he finds fault with the later writers who came after, on the ground that they forcibly and untruthfully reduce the myths concerning the gods to allegories and physical narratives and theories. He then goes on to say, as he proceeds.

But the most recent of the sacred writers dismissed the events that had actually occurred from the beginning, and, devising allegories and myths and fashioning a supposed kinship with cosmic phenomena, established mysteries, thereby imposing upon them a great deal of obscurity, so that no one could easily discern what had truly happened; but he, having come upon the secret writings composed by the Ammuneans and discovered in their inner shrines — writings which were not known to all — himself thoroughly practiced the learning of them all; and having brought his work to completion, having put out of the way the myth and the allegories current from the beginning, he accomplished his purpose, until, again, the priests who arose in later times wished to conceal it once more, and to restore it to a mythical form; from which the mystical element sprang up again, not yet having reached as far as the Greeks.

Next, in continuation, he says: 'These things have been discovered by us, who desired diligently to know the affairs of the Phoenicians, and who searched out much material — not that found among the Greeks; for the Greek material is discordant, and has been composed by some in a more contentious spirit than in accordance with truth.'

And after other remarks: 'It has come to us to be persuaded that matters stand thus, just as he has written, since we observe the discord present among the Greeks — concerning which three books have been diligently composed by me, bearing the title Of Strange History.'

And again, after other remarks, he adds: 'It is necessary to explain beforehand, for the sake of clarity later on, and for the discernment of particulars, that the most ancient of the barbarians, especially the Phoenicians and the Egyptians, from whom the rest of mankind also received their traditions, considered as the greatest gods those who had discovered the things necessary for practical life, or who had in some way benefited the nations; and considering these as benefactors and the causes of many good things, they worshipped them as gods, and, after their passing into the realm of necessity, built temples for them, and dedicated pillars and staffs in their names, greatly revering these, and the Phoenicians assigned to them the greatest festivals. And in particular, they even imposed the names of their own kings upon the elements of the cosmos and upon some of the beings considered gods; while as natural gods they recognized only the sun and the moon and the remaining planetary stars and the elements and what is connected with these — so that for them some gods were mortal, and others immortal.'

Having distinguished these points in the preface, Philo next begins his translation of Sanchuniathon, setting forth the Phoenician theology in the following manner.

He supposes that the origin of all things is a dark and windy air, or a breath of dark air, and a turbid, murky chaos. These, he says, are without limit, and for a long age had no bound. But when, he says, the wind became enamored of its own first principles, and a mingling took place, that intertwining was called Desire. This is the beginning of the creation of all things; but the wind itself did not know its own creation. And from the intertwining of the wind came Mot.

This some call mud, but others call it the putrefaction of a watery mixture. And from this came every seed of creation and the generation of the universe. There were certain living things without sense-perception, from which intelligent living things came into being, and these were called Zophasemin, that is, 'watchers of heaven.' And it was formed likewise in the shape of an egg, and Mot shone forth—the sun and the moon, the stars and the great constellations.

Such, then, is their cosmogony, plainly introducing atheism; let us next see how he says the generation of living things also came to be. He says, then:

And when the air had become bright, through the burning both of the sea and of the earth, winds and clouds arose, and there were mighty downpours and outpourings of the waters of heaven. And when these had been separated and removed from their own place through the burning of the sun, and all things met together again in the air, this with that, and clashed together, thunders and lightnings were produced, and at the crash of the thunders the aforementioned intelligent living creatures awoke, and at the sound were startled, and moved, both male and female, upon earth and sea.

Such, then, is their account of the generation of living things also. Next to this the same writer adds, saying: 'These things were found written in the cosmogony of Taautus, and in his memoirs, from the conjectures and evidences which his mind saw and found and made clear to us.'

Next, after giving the names of the winds—the South wind and the North wind and the rest—he adds: 'But these were the first to consecrate the plants that sprout from the earth, and to consider them gods, and to worship them, since it was by these that they themselves lived, as did those who followed them and all who came before them; and they made libations and offerings to them.'

And he adds: 'These, then, were the conceptions of worship, corresponding to their own weakness and cowardice of soul.' Then he says that from the wind Colpias and his wife Baaut (which is interpreted 'Night') were born Aeon and Protogonus, mortal men so called; and that Aeon discovered food from trees. And that those born from these were called Genos and Genea, and settled in Phoenicia; and when droughts occurred, they stretched out their hands to heaven toward the sun, for (he says) they considered him the only god, lord of heaven, calling him Beelsamen, which among the Phoenicians means 'lord of heaven,' and among the Greeks, Zeus.

After this he charges the Greeks with error, saying: 'For it was not without purpose that we distinguished these things in many ways, with a diversity of names, which the Greeks, being ignorant, understood differently, having been led astray by the ambiguity of the translation.'

Next he says: 'From Genos, son of Aeon and Protogonus, mortal children were born again, whose names were Phos, Pyr, and Phlox [Light, Fire, and Flame]. These (he says) discovered fire by the rubbing together of pieces of wood, and taught the use of it. And they begot sons greater than themselves in size and stature, whose names were given to the mountains which they had occupied, so that from them Casius, Lebanon, Antilebanon, and Brathy were named. From these (he says) were born Samemroumos, also called Hypsouranios, and Ousoos; and (he says) they took their names from their mothers, since the women of that time freely mingled with whomever they chanced to meet.'

Then he says: 'Hypsouranios settled in Tyre, and devised huts made of reeds and rushes and papyrus; and he quarreled with his brother Ousoos, who first, of his own body, discovered a covering from the skins of wild beasts which he had managed to catch. And when violent storms of rain and wind occurred, the trees in Tyre, rubbing against one another, caught fire and burned the timber there. And Ousoos took hold of a tree, stripped off its branches, and was the first to dare to venture upon the sea. And he consecrated two pillars to fire and wind, and worshipped them, and poured libations of blood upon them from the wild beasts he caught in hunting.'

And when these had died, he says that those who were left dedicated rods to them, and worshipped the pillars, and held festivals to them every year. Many years later, from the family of Hypsouranios were born Agreus and Halieus, the inventors of hunting and fishing, from whom hunters and fishermen are named; from these were born two brothers who discovered iron and its working, one of whom, Chrysor, practiced the arts of speech, incantations, and divination; this one was Hephaestus, and he also discovered the fish-hook, bait, fishing-line, and raft, and was the first of all men to sail; therefore after his death he was worshipped as a god.

And he was also called Zeus Meilichios; and others say that his brothers devised walls made of bricks. After this, from the family of these there arose two young men, one called Technites (Craftsman), the other Geinos Autochthon (Earthborn Native); these devised mixing chaff with the clay of the brick and drying it in the sun, and also invented roofs. From these came others, of whom one was called Agros, the other Agrouheros or Agrotes, whose image, greatly revered, and a temple carried on a yoke, exist in Phoenicia; and among the Byblians he is called, above all, the greatest of the gods.

These men devised the addition of courtyards to houses, and enclosures, and caves. From these came farmers and hunters, who are also called Aletae and Titans. From these were born Amynos and Magos, who introduced villages and flocks. From these were born Misor and Sydyk, that is, 'easily released' and 'righteous'; these discovered the use of salt.

From Misor came Taautus, who discovered the writing of the first letters; the Egyptians called him Thoyth, the Alexandrians Thoth, and the Greeks called him Hermes. And from Sydyk came the Dioscuri, or Cabeiri, or Corybantes, or Samothracians; these (he says) were the first to discover a ship. From these arose others, who also discovered herbs and the healing of venomous bites, and incantations. In their time there arose one called Elioun, meaning 'Most High,' and a female called Beruth; and they dwelt around Byblos.

From these was born Epigeius, or Autochthon (the earthborn), whom they later called Ouranos (Heaven); so that from him also the element above us is called 'heaven' because of the excellence of its beauty. And a sister was born to him from those already mentioned, who was also called Ge (Earth); and because of her beauty (he says) they called the earth of the same name after her. And their father, Hypsistos, having died in an encounter with wild beasts, was consecrated, and his children performed libations and sacrifices to him.

And Ouranos, having succeeded to his father's rule, took to wife his sister Ge, and by her had four children: Elus, who is also Kronos, and Baitylos, and Dagon (who is Siton), and Atlas. And from other wives Ouranos also had a numerous progeny; wherefore Ge, being angered and jealous, reviled Ouranos, so that they even separated from one another.

But Ouranos, after separating from her, would nonetheless force his way to her and approach her when he wished, and then again would depart; he also attempted to destroy the children born of her; and Ge often defended herself, having gathered allies to her aid. And when Kronos had grown to manhood, using Hermes Trismegistus as counselor and helper (for he was his secretary), he took vengeance against his father Ouranos, avenging his mother.

To Kronos were born children, Persephone and Athena. The former died a virgin; but by the counsel of Athena and Hermes, Kronos fashioned from iron a sickle and a spear. Then Hermes, having spoken words of sorcery to Kronos' allies, inspired in them a desire to do battle on Ge's behalf against Ouranos. And thus Kronos, engaging Ouranos in war, drove him from his rule and succeeded to the kingship. And in the battle there was also captured the beloved consort of Ouranos, who was pregnant; her Kronos gave in marriage to Dagon.

And to him she bore the child which she carried in her womb from Ouranos, whom she also named Demarous. After these events Kronos surrounded his own dwelling with a wall, and founded the first city, Byblos, in Phoenicia.

After this, Kronos, having become suspicious of his own brother Atlas, with the counsel of Hermes, cast him into the depths of the earth and buried him. At this time those descended from the Dioscuri, having constructed rafts and ships, set sail, and being cast ashore near Mount Casius, dedicated a temple there. The allies of Elus, that is, of Kronos, were called Eloim, as those who were called after Kronos would be called Kronians.

And Kronos, having a son named Sadidos, dispatched him with his own sword, having become suspicious of him; and thus, becoming the murderer of his own child, he deprived him of life. Likewise he cut off the head of his own daughter, so that all the gods were astounded at the mind of Kronos.

As time went on, Ouranos, being in exile, sent his virgin daughter Astarte, together with two of her sisters, Rhea and Dione, to destroy Kronos by treachery; but Kronos seized them and, though they were his sisters, made them his lawful wedded wives.

When Ouranos learned of this, he sent against Kronos Heimarmene (Fate) and Hora (Season), together with other allies; but Kronos, having won them over to himself, kept them at his side. Moreover (he says), the god Ouranos devised the baetyls, having contrived stones that were alive. To Kronos, from Astarte, were born seven daughters called Titanides or Artemides.

And again to the same Kronos, from Rhea, were born seven sons, the youngest of whom was consecrated at his very birth; and from Dione, daughters; and from Astarte again, two males, Pothos and Eros.

And Dagon, since he discovered grain and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrios ('of the plough'). And to Sydyk, called 'the Righteous,' one of the Titanides came and bore Asclepius.

And also in Peraea three sons were born to Kronos: Kronos, of the same name as his father, and Zeus Belus, and Apollo. In their time were born Pontus, Typhon, and Nereus, the father of Pontus.

And from Pontus came Sidon, who, by the surpassing beauty of her voice, was the first to discover the singing of hymns, and Poseidon. To Demarous was born Melkathros, who is also Heracles.

Then again Ouranos made war against Pontus, and having withdrawn, allied himself with Demarous; and Demarous attacked Pontus, but Pontus put him to flight; and Demarous, in his flight, vowed a sacrifice.

In the thirty-second year of his own power and reign, Elus, that is, Kronos, having ambushed his father Ouranos in a certain inland place, and having taken him into his hands, castrated him, near springs and rivers. There Ouranos was consecrated, and his spirit was exhausted, and his blood dripped from his genitals into the springs and the waters of the rivers, and to this day the place is shown.

So much, then, for the story of Kronos, and such are the venerable deeds of that life among the Greeks so much celebrated, of those in the time of Kronos, whom they say became the first golden race of mortal men, of that blessed happiness of the ancients. And again the writer, after other matters, adds, saying:

'The greatest Astarte, and Zeus Demarous, and Adodos, king of gods, ruled over the land by the counsel of Kronos. And Astarte set upon her own head, as an emblem of royalty, the head of a bull; and as she journeyed about the inhabited world, she found a star fallen from the sky, and taking it up, she consecrated it in Tyre, the holy island.'

And the Phoenicians say that Astarte is Aphrodite. And Kronos also, going about the inhabited world, gave to his own daughter Athena the kingdom of Attica.

And when a plague and pestilence occurred, Kronos offered up his own only-begotten son as a whole burnt offering to his father Ouranos, and circumcised his own genitals, compelling those allies who were with him to do the same.

And not long afterward he consecrated another son of his by Rhea, named Muth, when he died. The Phoenicians call him Thanatos (Death) and Pluto.

And after this, Kronos gave the city of Byblos to the goddess Baaltis, who is also Dione; and Berytus he gave to Poseidon and the Cabeiri, the Farmers and the Fishermen, who also consecrated the remains of Pontus in Berytus.

But before these events, the god Taautus, having imitated the appearances of the gods who were his companions—Kronos, Dagon, and the rest—delineated the sacred characters of the elements. He also devised for Kronos the emblems of royalty: four eyes, on the front and back parts, two of them quietly closed, and on the shoulders four wings, two as though flying, and two as though lowered.

And the symbolic meaning was this: that Kronos, while sleeping, could see, and while awake, was asleep; and likewise with the wings, that while resting he flew, and while flying he rested. And to the other gods each was given two wings upon the shoulders, signifying that they flew together with Kronos. And to Kronos himself, again, were given two wings upon his head, one for the most sovereign mind, and one for sense-perception.

And Kronos, coming into the region of the south, gave the whole of Egypt to the god Taautus, that it might become his kingdom. These things (he says) the seven sons of the Cabeiri were the very first of all to record in their memoirs, together with their own brother Asclepius, just as the god Taautus had commanded them.

All these things Thabion, who was the very first hierophant of all the Phoenicians who ever lived, having allegorized them and mixed them together with the physical and cosmic phenomena, handed down to the ecstatic devotees and prophets who preside over the mystic rites; and these, seeking by every means to increase the sense of mystification, transmitted them to their successors and to those brought in from outside. One of these was Isirius, the discoverer of the three letters, brother of Chna, who was the first to be renamed Phoenix.

He again adds next: 'But the Greeks, surpassing all others in natural talent, appropriated most of these things for themselves at first, and then embellished them variously with additional ornamentation, seeking by every means to charm with the pleasures of myths, and so they elaborated them with great variety. From this Hesiod and the celebrated cyclic poets fashioned theogonies of their own, and battles of the giants and of the Titans, and castrations, with which, carrying men along, they overcame the truth.'

'And our ears, having grown up together with their fabrications, and having been preoccupied for many ages, guard as a deposit the myth-making which they received, just as I said at the beginning; and this, having been reinforced by time, has produced so tenacious a hold that it is difficult to escape it, so that truth is thought to be nonsense, and the spurious character of the narrative is thought to be truth.'

Let these things be set forth from the writing of Sanchuniathon, translated by Philo of Byblos, and approved as true by the testimony of the philosopher Porphyry. The same author, in his treatise Concerning the Jews, further writes the following about Kronos.

Taautus, whom the Egyptians call Thoyth, excelling in wisdom among the Phoenicians, was the first to arrange the affairs pertaining to the worship of the gods, bringing them out of the ignorance of the vulgar multitude into scientific expertise. And after many generations, the god Sourmoubelos and Thouro, who was renamed Eusarthis, following him, illuminated the theology of Taau, which had been hidden and overshadowed by allegories.

And shortly afterward he says: 'It was the custom among the ancients, in great crises of danger, for the rulers of a city or nation, in order to prevent the destruction of all, to give up the most beloved of their children as a ransom to the avenging deities; and those who were given up were sacrificed in a mystic manner. Kronos, then, whom the Phoenicians call Elus, who was king of the country and afterward, upon his death, was deified as the star of Kronos, had by a native nymph called Anobret an only-begotten son, whom for this reason they called Ieoud, this being still to this day the name for "only-begotten" among the Phoenicians; and when the greatest dangers from war beset the country, having arrayed his son in royal attire, and having prepared an altar, he sacrificed him with joy.'