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Werke Athenagoras von Athen (133-190) Supplicatio pro Christianis A Plea for the Christians

Chapter XXII.--Pretended Symbolical Explanations.

But perhaps these things are poetic vagary, and there is some natural explanation of them, such as this by Empedocles:--

"Let Jove be fire, and Juno source of life, With Pluto and Nêstis, who bathes with tears The human founts."

If, then, Zeus is fire, and Hera the earth, and Aïdoneus the air, and Nêstis water, and these are elements--fire, water, air--none of them is a god, neither Zeus, nor Hera, nor Aïdoneus; for from matter separated into parts by God is their constitution and origin:--

"Fire, water, earth, and the air's gentle height, And harmony with these."

Here are things which without harmony cannot abide; which would be brought to ruin by strife: how then can any one say that they are gods? Friendship, according to Empedocles, has an aptitude to govern, things that are compounded are governed, and that which is apt to govern has the dominion; so that if we make the power of the governed and the governing one and the same, we shall be, unawares to ourselves, putting perishable and fluctuating and changeable matter on an equality with the uncreated, and eternal, and ever self-accordant God. Zeus is, according to the Stoics, the fervid part of nature; Hera is the air (aer)--the very name, if it be joined to itself, signifying this; 1 Poseidon is what is drunk (water, posis). But these things are by different persons explained of natural objects in different ways. Some call Zeus twofold masculine-feminine air; others the season which brings about mild weather, on which account it was that he alone escaped from Kronos. But to the Stoics it may be said, If you acknowledge one God, the supreme and uncreated and eternal One, and as many compound bodies as there are changes of matter, and say that the Spirit of God, which pervades matter, obtains according to its variations a diversity of names, the forms of matter will become the body of God; but when the elements are destroyed in the conflagration, the names will necessarily perish along with the forms, the Spirit of God alone remaining. Who, then, can believe that those bodies, of which the variation according to matter is allied to corruption, are gods? But to those who say that Kronos is time, and Rhea the earth, and that she becomes pregnant by Kronos, and brings forth, whence she is regarded as the mother of all; and that he begets and devours his offspring; and that the mutilation is the intercourse of the male with the female, which cuts off the seed and casts it into the womb, and generates a human being, who has in himself the sexual desire, which is Aphroditae; and that the madness of Kronos is the turn of season, which destroys animate and inanimate things; and that the bonds and Tartarus are time, which is changed by seasons and disappears;--to such persons we say, If Kronos is time, he changes; if a season, he turns about; if darkness, or frost, or the moist part of nature, none of these is abiding; but the Deity is immortal, and immoveable, and unalterable: so that neither is Kronos nor his image God. As regards Zeus again: If he is air, born of Kronos, of which the male part is called Zeus and the female Hera (whence both sister and wife), he is subject to change; if a season, he turns about: but the Deity neither changes nor shifts about. But why should I trespass on your patience by saying more, when you know so well what has been said by each of those who have resolved these things into nature, or what various writers have thought concerning nature, or what they say concerning Athênâ, whom they affirm to be the wisdom (phronesis) pervading all things; and concerning Isis, whom they call the birth of all time (phusis aionos), from whom all have sprung, and by whom all exist; or concerning Osiris, on whose murder by Typhon his brother Isis with her son Orus sought after his limbs, and finding them honoured them with a sepulchre, which sepulchre is to this day called the tomb of Osiris? For whilst they wander up and down about the forms of matter, they miss to find the God who can only be beheld by the reason, while they deify the elements and their several parts, applying different names to them at different times: calling the sowing of the corn, for instance, Osiris (hence they say, that in the mysteries, on the finding of the members of his body, or the fruits, Isis is thus addressed: We have found, we wish thee joy), the fruit of the vine Dionysus, the vine itself Semelae, the heat of the sun the thunderbolt. And yet, in fact, they who refer the fables to actual gods, do anything rather than add to their divine character; for they do not perceive, that by the very defence they make for the gods, they confirm the things which are alleged concerning them. What have Europa, and the bull, and the swan, and Leda, to do with the earth and air, that the abominable intercourse of Zeus with them should be taken for the intercourse of the earth and air? But missing to discover the greatness of God, and not being able to rise on high with their reason (for they have no affinity for the heavenly place), they pine away among the forms of matter, and rooted to the earth, deify the changes of the elements: just as if any one should put the ship he sailed in the place of the steersman. But as the ship, although equipped with everything, is of no use if it have not a steersman, so neither are the elements, though arranged in perfect order, of any service apart from the providence of God. For the ship will not sail of itself; and the elements without their Framer will not move.


  1. Perhaps her (aer) a. ↩

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Übersetzungen dieses Werks
A Plea for the Christians
Apologie des Chrétiens vergleichen
Bittschrift für die Christen (BKV) vergleichen
Kommentare zu diesem Werk
Einleitung zu Athenagoras' Bittschrift für die Christen
Introductory Note to the Writings of Athenagoras

Inhaltsangabe
  • A Plea For the Christians By Athenagoras the Athenian: Philosopher and Christian
    • Chapter I.--Injustice Shown Towards the Christians.
    • Chapter II.--Claim to Be Treated as Others are When Accused.
    • Chapter III.--Charges Brought Against the Christians.
    • Chapter IV.--The Christians are Not Atheists, But Acknowledge One Only God.
    • Chapter V.--Testimony of the Poets to the Unity of God.
    • Chapter VI.--Opinions of the Philosophers as to the One God.
    • Chapter VII.--Superiority of the Christian Doctrine Respecting God.
    • Chapter VIII.--Absurdities of Polytheism.
    • Chapter IX.--The Testimony of the Prophets.
    • Chapter X.--The Christians Worship the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
    • Chapter XI.--The Moral Teaching of the Christians Repels the Charge Brought Against Them.
    • Chapter XII.--Consequent Absurdity of the Charge of Atheism.
    • Chapter XIII.--Why the Christians Do Not Offer Sacrifices.
    • Chapter XIV.--Inconsistency of Those Who Accuse the Christians.
    • Chapter XV.--The Christians Distinguish God from Matter.
    • Chapter XVI.--The Christians Do Not Worship the Universe.
    • Chapter XVII.--The Names of the Gods and Their Images are But of Recent Date.
    • Chapter XVIII.--The Gods Themselves Have Been Created, as the Poets Confess.
    • Chapter XIX.--The Philosophers Agree with the Poets Respecting the Gods.
    • Chapter XX.--Absurd Representations of the Gods.
    • Chapter XXI.--Impure Loves Ascribed to the Gods.
    • Chapter XXII.--Pretended Symbolical Explanations.
    • Chapter XXIII.--Opinions of Thales and Plato.
    • Chapter XXIV.--Concerning the Angels and Giants.
    • Chapter XXV.--The Poets and Philosophers Have Denied a Divine Providence.
    • Chapter XXVI.--The Demons Allure Men to the Worship of Images.
    • Chapter XXVII.--Artifices of the Demons.
    • Chapter XXVIII.--The Heathen Gods Were Simply Men.
    • Chapter XXIX.--Proof of the Same from the Poets.
    • Chapter XXX.--Reasons Why Divinity Has Been Ascribed to Men.
    • Chapter XXXI.--Confutation of the Other Charges Brought Against the Christians.
    • Chapter XXXII.--Elevated Morality of the Christians.
    • Chapter XXXIII.--Chastity of the Christians with Respect to Marriage.
    • Chapter XXXIV.--The Vast Difference in Morals Between the Christians and Their Accusers.
    • Chapter XXXV.--The Christians Condemn and Detest All Cruelty.
    • Chapter XXXVI.--Bearing of the Doctrine of the Resurrection on the Practices of the Christians.
    • Chapter XXXVII.--Entreaty to Be Fairly Judged.

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