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A Plea for the Christians

Athenagoras of Athens

Chapter 26

About this work

A polished petition to Roman emperors rebutting charges of atheism, incest, and cannibalism while explaining Christian monotheism, moral discipline, and belief in Father, Son, and Spirit.

Author: Athenagoras of Athens
Date: c. AD 176–177
Origin: Athens (traditional)
Genre: Apology

Chapter XXVI.—The Demons Allure Men to the Worship of Images.

They who draw men to idols, then

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,

are

the

aforesaid

demons

,

who

are

eager

for

the

blood

of

the

sacrifices

,

and

lick

them

;

but

the

gods

that

please

the

multitude

,

and

whose

names

are

given

to

the

images

,

were

men

,

as

may

be

learned

from

their

history

.

And

that

it

is

the

demons

who

act

under

their

names

,

is

proved

by

the

nature

of

their

operations

.

For

some

castrate

,

as

Rhea

;

others

wound

and

slaughter

,

as

Artemis

;

the

Tauric

goddess

puts

all

strangers

to

death

.

I

pass

over

those

who

lacerate

with

knives

and

scourges

of

bones

,

and

shall

not

attempt

to

describe

all

the

kinds

of

demons

;

for

it

is

not

the

part

of

a

god

to

incite

to

things

against

nature

.

“But when the demon plots against a man, He first inflicts some hurt upon his mind.”

But God, being perfectly good, is eternally doing good. That, moreover, those who exert the power are not the same as those to whom the statues are erected, very strong evidence is afforded by Troas and Parium. The one has statues of Neryllinus, a man of our own times; and Parium of Alexander and Proteus: both the sepulchre and the statue of Alexander are still in the forum. The other statues of Neryllinus, then, are a public ornament, if indeed a city can be adorned by such objects as these; but one of them is supposed to utter oracles and to heal the sick, and on this account the people of the Troad offer sacrifices to this statue, and overlay it with gold, and hang chaplets upon it. But of the statues of Alexander and Proteus (the latter, you are aware, threw himself into the fire near Olympia), that of Proteus is likewise said to utter oracles; and to that of Alexander—

“Wretched Paris, though in form so fair, Thou slave of woman”—

sacrifices are offered and festivals are held at the public cost, as to a god who can hear. Is it, then, Neryllinus, and Proteus, and Alexander who exert these energies in connection with the statues, or is it the nature of the matter itself? But the matter is brass. And what can brass do of itself, which may be made again into a different form, as Amasis treated the footpan, as told by Herodotus? And Neryllinus, and Proteus, and Alexander, what good are they to the sick? For what the image is said now to effect, it effected when Neryllinus was alive and sick.

Notes

98
From an unknown tragedian. [A passage which I cannot but apply to the lapse of Tatian.]
99
Hom., Il., iii. 39.
100
[see note to Theophilus, cap. x., supra, p. 92.]