10. Chapter Ix. Or, On The Origin And Progress Of Idolatry — Chapter Vii.
CHAPTER IX. OR, ON THE ORIGIN
AND PROGRESS OF IDOLATRY —
CHAPTER VII.
T he further progress of idolatry — Πολυθεϊσμός [Polytheism] ending in ἀντιθεϊσμῷ [anti-theism] — what Hellenism is — its beginnings uncertain, obscure — the opinion of the author of the book called the Wisdom of Solomon — gods and goddesses made by flattery — the mother of Demetrius worshipped by Adimantus, and Lamia, the courtesan of Poliorcetes, by the Athenians and Thebans — Demetrius's jibe against the Athenians — the opinion of Lactantius, and of Eusebius — the manner of Ἀποθέωσις [apotheosis] — the Jews feign that Terah, the father of Abraham, was the first ἀγαλματοποιόν [image-maker] — the origin of the fable — the agreement of the ancient Christians on this point — the testimony of Epiphanius; of Suidas; of John of Antioch — Haran died before his father — this was not, as Epiphanius supposed, the first such case since the founding of the world — Terah a holy man — Pindar ascribes the invention of αὐτόματα [self-moving things] to the Rhodians;
Isidore, to Prometheus; most, to Daedalus — why he is said to have made
ἀγάλματα αὐτοκίνητα [self-moving images] — the statue of Memnon in Philostratus — several other matters.
I. Not yet had Satan brought to its final issue that impious scheming against God and men which, from the success related above, was seized with a fiercer and loftier lust to occupy God's throne. Under the pretext of Hellenism — that is, of the worship of dead men — he obtains his wish. By that superstition, he sets himself up, without any need of circuitous devices, as the very object of religious worship to wretched mankind. And thus πολυθεϊσμός [polytheism] ends in ἀντιθεϊσμῷ [anti-theism]. But it was not until many years, perhaps whole ages, had run their course, that this pinnacle of impiety and spiritual wickedness was reached. For mankind did not at once, from its first defection, procure for itself θεοὺς ἀνθρωποφυέας
[gods of human origin]. It was in the worship of these that Hellenism consisted. Wearied of the heavenly bodies, which, moved by an inviolable law, could not satisfy the vanity and fluctuation of the human mind, men chose for themselves gods like unto themselves — accommodating, indulgent — whose ways they might imitate, and by whom they might obtain honours. Although, therefore, by "Hellenism" may rightly be understood a certain συλλογή [gathering together] and confusion of false religions in the worship of heaven, the sun, and the other heavenly bodies, of demons, of dead men, of images, and of fictitious phantoms — the whole idol-madness, in short, of the ancients — yet here we shall consider it separately from Sabaism, or the superstitious worship of the heavenly bodies, insofar as it introduced the worship of dead men and of images fashioned to the likeness of the human countenance.
II. That the origins of this superstition are doubtful, indeed most uncertain, all confess. Having related the opinions of others — which either
the standing of their authors, or their own verisimilitude, has brought into repute — we shall add some things which still seem wanting for drawing truth up out of the well.
III. Well known is the opinion of the author of the book called the Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 14, verses 13–20: Οὔτε γὰρ, … ἦν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, οὔτε εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ἔσται. Κενοδοξίᾳ γὰρ ἀνθρώπων εἰσῆλθεν εἰς κόσμον, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο σύντομον αὐτῶν τέλος ἐπενοήθη. Ἀώρῳ γὰρ πένθει τρυχόμενος πατήρ, τοῦ ταχέως ἀφαιρεθέντος τέκνου εἰκόνα ποιήσας, τὸν τότε νεκρὸν ἄνθρωπον, νῦν ὡς θεὸν ἐτίμησε, καὶ παρέδωκε τοῖς ὑποχειρίοις μυστήρια, καὶ τελετάς. Εἶτα ἐν χρόνῳ κρατυνθὲν τὸ ἀσεβὲς ἔθος, ὡς νόμος ἐφυλάχθη, καὶ τυράννων ἐπιταγαῖς ἐθρησκεύετο τὰ γλυπτά. [For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever. For by the vanity of men they entered into the world, and therefore shall they come shortly to an end. For a father afflicted with untimely mourning, when he had made an image of his child soon taken away, now honoured him as a god who was then a dead man, and delivered to those that were under him mysteries and rites. Then, in process of time, the ungodly custom, grown strong, was kept as a law, and graven images were worshipped by the commandments of tyrants.]
To which opinion he adds much more. And indeed the events that followed lend credence to it. Flattery made gods and goddesses without number. Let one or two examples be adduced: Τῶν δὲ Δημητρίου τοῦ βασιλέως κολάκων οἱ περὶ Ἀδείμαντον τὸν Λαμψακηνὸν νεὼν κατασκευασάμενοι Θρύῳ ὠνόμασαν Φίλας Ἀφροδίτης, καὶ τὸν τόπον
Φιλαῖον ἐκάλεσαν ἀπὸ τῆς τοῦ Δημητρίου μητρὸς Φίλας, ὡς φησι Διονύσιος ὁ τοῦ Τρύφωνος. [Of the flatterers of King Demetrius, those about Adimantus of Lampsacus, having built a temple at Thyreum, named it
the temple of Venus Philae, and called the place Philaeum, after Phila, the mother of Demetrius, as Dionysius, son of Tryphon, relates.] These are the words of Athenaeus, book VI: "From the flatterers of King Demetrius,
Adimantus of Lampsacus built a temple, and set up statues in Thyreum, under the title of Venus Phila, and called the place Philaea, after Phila, the mother of Demetrius." Likewise, the historian Demochares, cousin of Demosthenes, wrote that the whole people of the Athenians consecrated temples to Lamia, the courtesan of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and worshipped her with divine honours — as did, similarly, the Thebans — even while
Demetrius himself detested the foul flattery, and declared openly that "among the dead there would never be found an Athenian citizen of great and lofty spirit."
IV. There are, accordingly, those who suppose that images were first set up for the dead out of human affection, lest they be buried in oblivion along with the common herd, and that from this, in process of time, some seized the occasion for superstition in worshipping them; and there are others who think that men first reckoned the dead among the gods, and only afterwards set up images for them. Lactantius traces the beginning of setting up images, and of worshipping dead men with divine honours, to the foolish zeal of nations for their dead kings — so that to set up an image for someone, and to number him among the gods, appear to be the same thing.
Eusebius, in the first book of his Chronicle, relates matters not unlike:
Ἐκ τῆς φυλῆς Ἰάφεθ ἐγενήθη Σερούχ (quod παρόραμα superiùs notavimus) ὅστις πρῶτος ἤρξατο τοῦ Ἑλληνισμοῦ, καὶ τοῦ δόγματος τῆς εἰδωλολατρείας, αὐτὸς γὰρ καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ τοὺς πάλαι γενομένους ἢ πολεμιστάς, ἢ ἡγεμόνας, καὶ τι πράξοντας ἀνδρείας ἢ ἀρετῆς ἄξιον ἐν τῷ βίῳ τοῦ μνημονεύεσθαι, καὶ ὡς ὄντας αὐτῶν προπάτορας ἀνδριᾶσι
στηλῶν ἐτίμησαν (nos stelas idololatricas erectas fuisse, longe antequam cuiquam in mentem venerat, homines mortuos divinis honoribus prosequi, superiùs docuimus), καὶ ὡς θεοὺς προσεκύνουν αὐτούς, καὶ ἐθυσίαζον. Οἱ δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα ἄνθρωποι ἀγνοοῦντες τὴν τῶν προγόνων γνώμην, ὅτι ὡς προπάτορας καὶ ἀγαθῶν εὑρετὰς ἐτίμησαν μνήμαις μόναις, ὡς θεοὺς ἐπουρανίους ἐτίμων. 1 [From the tribe of Japheth was born Serug (which slip we noted above), who first began Hellenism, and the doctrine of idolatry; for he, and those with him, honoured with statues on pillars those who had of old been warriors, or leaders, and had done anything in their lifetime worthy of valour or virtue to be remembered, regarding them as their forefathers (we showed above that idolatrous stelae had been erected long before it had occurred to anyone to pursue dead men with divine honours), and worshipped them as gods, and sacrificed to them. But the men who came after, being ignorant of the intention of their ancestors — that they had honoured them merely by memorials, as forefathers and discoverers of good things — worshipped them as gods of heaven.]
What he adds there, concerning the manner and form of ἀποθεώσεως [of apotheosis], deserves the closest attention of those acquainted with the ecclesiastical diptycha [two‑leaf memorial tablets listing names for liturgical commemoration], and with the corrupt superstition that flowed from them: Ἦν δέ … τὸ τῆς ἀποθεώσεως σχῆμα τοιοῦτον. Ἐν ταῖς ἱερατικαῖς αὐτῶν βίβλοις ἐτάσσοντο τὰ ὀνόματα αὐτῶν μετὰ τελευτήν· καὶ κατ' ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν ἑορτὴν αὐτῶ ἐπετέλουν, λέγοντες τὰς αὐτῶν ψυχὰς εἰς τὰς τῶν μακάρων νήσους ἰέναι, καὶ μηκέτι κρίνεσθαι ἢ καίεσθαι πυρί. That is: having inserted the names of the dead into their sacred books, they instituted festal days in their memory, namely anniversaries, believing
their souls to have been received into the seats of the blessed, and not to be tormented by purgatorial fire.
V. The Jews feign that Terah, the father of Abraham, was the first maker of images and statues. By that fable they serve a history no less fabulous — that of Abraham cast into the fire for not worshipping the image of Nimrod.
But it is remarkable with what consensus of the ancients this stale fiction is confirmed. Epiphanius:
Ναχὼρ δὲ γεννᾷ τὸν Θάρρα· ἐντεῦθεν γέγονεν ἀνδριαντοπλασία ἀπὸ πηλουργίας καὶ κεραμικῆς ἐπιστήμης διὰ τῆς τοῦ Θάρρα τούτου τέχνης. —
"Thara was begotten of Nachor; from that time images of clay and potterywork were invented, Thara being the craftsman." Similarly, Suidas: Θάρρα ἦν ἀγαλματοποιός, ἀπὸ διαφόρων ὑλῶν εἰκόνας ἐργαζόμενος, καὶ λέγων τούτους εἶναι θεοὺς καὶ ὀφείλειν προσκυνεῖσθαι, ὡς αἰτίους ἀγαθῶν. —
"Terah was a fashioner of statues, making images out of diverse materials, and affirming these to be gods and worthy of worship, as authors of blessings." And John Malalas of Antioch, book II: Ἦν γὰρ Θάρρα ἀγαλματοποιὸς πλαστουργῶν, ἀπὸ λίθων καὶ ξύλων θεοὺς ποιῶν, καὶ πιπράσκων, καὶ πλάνην ἀγαλμάτων καὶ εἰδωλολατρείας εἰσῆγε τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διὰ ἀπεικονισμάτων τῶν προγόνων, αὐτῶν μάλιστα τῶν εὑρηκότων τὰ γράμματα καὶ τὰς τέχνας. — "Terah was a statuary, who fashioned gods out of stones and wood, and offered them for sale. He it was who entangled men in the superstitions of image-worship and idolatrous cult, by the fabrication of images in memory of their forefathers, especially of those who had been the inventors of letters and of the arts."
VI. That Terah's son Haran died before him, Scripture teaches us. That this then happened for the first time since the founding of the world, as a punishment upon the impious father, Epiphanius notes: Οὐδείς … πώποτε
τῶν προτέρων ἀνθρώπων πρὸ πατρὸς υἱὸς ἐτελεύτα, ἀλλὰ πατέρες πρὸ παίδων τελευτῶντες τοὺς υἱοὺς διαδόχους κατελίμπανον — Against Heresies, book I, chapter 1: "Nor had any son among former men ever yet perished before his father, but fathers, departing this life before their children, left their sons behind as heirs." He compares it to the case of Abel, answering that he was cut off by a violent death. But the learned man is manifestly deceived; for not only did Lamech before the Flood die some years before his own father, but the very same thing befell Peleg, Terah's own great-great-grandfather, who died about two hundred years before the death of his father Eber. But this was the common opinion of the ancients.
For my own part, I have no doubt that grave injury is done to the memory of a pious and holy man — who had left his own country with the very intention of going to Canaan (having, without doubt, χρηματισθείς
[received a divine oracle], Genesis 11:31) — by these fables. For the accusation lacks all colour of truth, and is plainly a Jewish fiction to ascribe to the Rhodians some peculiar craft of ἀγαλματουργία [image-making].
Pindar seems to hold this view, Olympian VII, lines 91–98:
Αὐτὰ δὲ σφισιν ὤπασε τέχναν Πᾶσαν ἐπιχθονίων Γλαυκῶπις ἀριστοπόνοις χερσὶ κρατεῖν· Ἔργα δὲ ζωοῖσιν ἑρπόντεσσί θ' ὁμοῖα κέλευθοιΦέρον.
— "And grey-eyed Minerva herself gave them such craft that they surpassed all mortals in the labour of their hands; and their works resembled, in their motion, animals and reptiles; and their glory was great."
The poet implies that the Rhodians were such craftsmen as could express living images of animals and reptiles, so lifelike that they seemed to move
along the road and in their course. Isidore, in the eighth book of the Origins, affirms that Prometheus first fashioned images of men out of clay, and that from him arose the art of erecting images and statues, and that for this reason the poets feigned that men were made by him.
VII. More celebrated still is the opinion of those who ascribe this craft to Daedalus. Hence the ancients called all statues Δαίδαλα [Daedala]. Others write that he invented statues αὐτοκίνητα καὶ αὐτόματα [self-moving and automatic]. These too were called, proverbially, τὰ Δαιδάλου ποιήματα [the works of Daedalus]. Most of the ancients held this opinion — as Plato, in the Meno: ΣΩ. Ὅτι … τοῖς Δαιδάλου ἀγάλμασιν οὐ προσέσχηκας τὸν νοῦν· ἴσως δὲ οὐδ' ἔστι παρ' ὑμῖν. ΜΕΝ. Πρὸς τί δὲ δὴ τοῦτο λέγεις; ΣΩ. Ὅτι καὶ ταῦτα, ἐὰν μὲν μὴ δεδεμένα ᾖ, ἀποδιδράσκει καὶ δραπετεύει. [Socrates:
Because you have not paid attention to the statues of Daedalus — perhaps indeed there are none among you. Meno: What do you mean by this?
Socrates: Because these too, unless they be bound fast, run away and make their escape.] Hence the statue of Hercules among the Tyrians, and of Bacchus among the Chians, were fastened with chains in their seats, because believed to be αὐτοκίνητα. Aristotle too mentions this, Politics, book I: Εἰ γάρ … ἠδύνατο ἕκαστον τῶν ὀργάνων κελευσθὲν ἢ προαισθανόμενον ἀποτελεῖν τὸ αὑτοῦ ἔργον, ὥσπερ τὰ Δαιδάλου φασίν.
— "If it were possible for each instrument, either commanded or anticipating, to perform its own work, as they say Daedalus's statues do."]
And they say he did this by pouring quicksilver into the statues — as the same Aristotle shows, On the Soul, book I; a certain Philip is quoted as saying: Τὸν Δαίδαλον κινουμένην ποιῆσαι τὴν ξυλίνην Ἀφροδίτην ἐγχέοντα ἄργυρον χυτόν. [That Daedalus made the wooden Venus move by pouring in molten silver.]
VIII. The occasion of the fable was, without doubt, that Daedalus was the first among the Greeks to fashion images to the likeness of the human face and form, with the feet in particular distinctly rendered, and one set forward beyond the line of the other, as though prepared for walking. So Tzetzes resolves the riddle:
Τοὺς ἀνδριάντας πρότερον πρὸ χρόνων τοῦ Δαιδάλου Ἐδημιούργουν ἄχειρας, ἄποδας, ἀομμάτους·
Πρῶτος δ' ὁ Δαίδαλος αὐτὸς διεῖλε χεῖρας, πόδας, Δακτύλους διηρμόσατο, καὶ βλέφαρα καὶ τ' ἄλλα·
[Statues, in the years before Daedalus, men used to fashion without hands, without feet, without eyes; but Daedalus was the first himself to divide the hands, the feet, to fit together the fingers, and the eyelids, and the rest — whence arose the fable that the works of Daedalus could move.]
So it is: the first statues were rough stones (λίθοι ἀργοί), without hands, feet, or eyes; but when Daedalus had set upon them all the marks pertaining to the outward form of man, the fable grew up that he had made statues αὐτοκίνητα. Diodorus Siculus, Palaephatus, and others relate similar things.
IX. Indeed Plato shows plainly enough that the ἀγάλματα fashioned by Daedalus were quite rude — as all things at their beginnings are imperfect, being invented in an imperfect state. So he says, Hippias Major, near the beginning: Εἰ ἄρα … νῦν, ὦ Ἱππία, ὁ Βίας ἀναβιῴη, γέλωτ' ἂν ὄφλοι πρὸς ὑμᾶς, ὥσπερ καὶ τὸν Δαίδαλόν φασιν οἱ ἀνδριαντοποιοί, νῦν εἰ γενόμενος τοιαῦτ' ἐργάζοιτο οἷα ἦν ἀφ' ὧν τοὔνομ' ἔσχε, καταγέλαστον ἂν εἶναι. [If now, O Hippias, Bias should come to life again, he would provoke laughter among you — just as the statuaries say of Daedalus, that if he, coming to
life now, should produce such works as those from which he got his name and fame, it would be ridiculous.] X. It was, however, a great achievement to erect statues in the human form, with the hands extended and the feet distinct — since, after columns, stelae, rough stones, and βαιτύλια, dedicated to the sun, the moon, and the stars, the oldest statues of this kind appear to have been such as are exhibited on the monuments of the Egyptians — without hands, or with the hands glued to the sides, the feet joined, or rather terminating in a base.
Hence Philostratus, Life of Apollonius, book VI, chapter 3, attributing something peculiar to the statue of Memnon, says: Λίθου δὲ εἶναι μέλανος· συμβεβηκέναι δὲ τὰ πόδε ἄμφω κατὰ τὴν ἀγαλματοποιίαν τὴν ἐπὶ
Δαιδάλου. Which words the translator renders thus: "The statue is made of black stone, and, touching the ground with both feet joined, is fashioned according to Daedalus's statuary art." Of this interpretation, Scaliger pronounces it οὐδὲν ὑγιές [nothing sound], Animadversions on Eusebius, to number 737; he himself renders it "having the feet joined together."
Similarly, he interprets the words of Apollodorus concerning the Palladium:
Ἦν δὲ τῷ μεγέθει τρίπηχυ, τοῖς δὲ ποσὶ συμβεβηκός [It was, in size, three cubits, and had the feet joined together] according to some; "with feet so composed as to seem to walk," according to others. From the force of the word, or its use in this subject, nothing can be certainly gathered. But if the statue of Memnon, with feet joined — that is, really without any distinct rendering of the feet at all, as commonly made among the Egyptians, as the images called mummies show — had been fashioned in that manner, there would be nothing peculiar in it, nor anything memorable on that score.
Since, moreover, it was of the kind made ἐπὶ Δαιδάλῳ [after Daedalus], not πρὸ Δαιδάλου [before Daedalus], it seems to me that Philostratus indicates
clearly enough that it differed from the other Egyptian statues in this, that it was fashioned with the feet disjoined, after the manner of Daedalus.
XI. These, then, are very nearly all the matters that occur among the ancients concerning the origin of Hellenism and of ἀγαλματοποιία [imagemaking]. To these many more of the same kind might be added, were it our purpose to relate everything, rather than what suffices. What seems to us to come nearest the truth, or at least most closely to resemble it, we shall state in what next follows.
1. We decided to retain the Latin and the Greek, then provide a translation of both afterward for ease of reading. Normally, the Latin is directly translated.