On the Mysteries

[The practitioners] do not hesitate to command them referring to the divine powers to engage in shameful sexual acts, even though they would not listen to anyone who was not pure and free from such activities. Furthermore, they order their prophets to abstain from living creatures meat, so that they are not stained by vapors from the bodies; yet the gods themselves are enticed primarily by the vapors of animal sacrifices. They decree that it is unlawful for the inspectors of their rites to touch the dead, yet most of the evocations of the gods are performed through the corpses of animals. Far more irrational than these things is that a person, if the occasion arises, would threaten not merely some demon or dead soul, but the King Helios Sun himself, or Selene Moon, or any other celestial being, and would use lies to terrify them so that they might speak the truth.

To say that one will shake the heavens, or reveal the hidden things of Isis, or show what is secret in Abydos, or stop the sacred boat, or scatter the limbs of Osiris to Typhon—what excess of madness is it to threaten things that one neither knows how to do, nor is able to do? It is the height of baseness to terrify those who fear such empty and fabricated threats, like foolish children. Chæremon the sacred scribe records that these things are commonly bruited about among the Egyptians, and they claim that these, and things like them, are most powerful for compelling the gods.

But what logic is there in these prayers that say the Sun emerges from the mud, or sits upon a lotus, or travels by boat, or changes his form by the hour, or transforms his zodiacal sign? For they claim these are visions autopteia seeing with one's own eyes, failing to realize that they are attributing their own psychic passions to his appearance. If these things are spoken symbolically as signs of his powers, let them explain the meaning of these symbols. It is clear that if they interpret the Sun...

...in such a way that the lower and worse [powers] might obey: and those who wish their own clients to cultivate equity, nonetheless endure to comply with these same unjust commands; and thus, while they reject the vows and prayers of those who have not approached them in a state of appropriate purity, they do not hesitate to drive any they meet to incestuous unions.

Furthermore, these prophets bid their interpreters to abstain from living things so that they might not be infected by bodily exhalations; yet they are especially captivated by the vapors of sacrifices that are accustomed to be made from animals. They decree that it is forbidden for the inspectors of their sacred rites to touch a dead body, yet the evocations of the gods are performed for the most part through slaughtered victims.

What is the most absurd thing of all: a man subject to every vice threatens not merely some common demon or the soul of a deceased person, but the Sun himself, the prince of the stars, the Moon, and the remaining celestial gods; and he displays a false and empty terror in order to compel them to speak the truth. For he who threatens that he will shake the very heavens, or reveal the arcana of Isis, or bring to light that which is hidden at Abydos and is forbidden to be spoken, or inhibit the course of the Egyptian boat, or scatter the limbs of Osiris to please Typhon—what, I ask, does he leave for himself, other than the highest degree of stupidity and madness, by threatening things he neither knows nor can accomplish? And for the gods, what does this fictitious and empty terror leave, which would startle only the most frivolous of small children?

Chæremon the sacred scribe records these things as if they had long been boasted of by the mouths of all the Egyptians; and they insist that these things, along with others of the same kind, are most powerful for bringing force to bear upon the gods. Now, what logic do these prayers possess, which proclaim that the same Sun either emerges from the mud, or sits upon a lotus, or is carried in a boat, or changes his form every hour, or assumes various countenances through the individual signs of the Zodiac? For they declare that he is seen by us in this way during the rites, and they do not understand that they are attributing to him the specific vice and error of their own thought. If they take refuge in symbolic discourse, as if the various faculties of the Sun were shadowed forth by signs of this kind, then let them declare to us the power and meaning of their signs.