Opening the library…
Origen Against Celsus
Origen of Alexandria
A detailed reply to the pagan critic Celsus that defends Christian Scripture, worship, history, miracles, moral life, and claims about Jesus within the intellectual world of the Roman Empire.
In the next place, as it is his object to
“‘Son of Iapetus!’ with wrathful heart
Spake the cloud-gatherer: ‘Oh, unmatched in art!
Exultest thou in this the flame retrieved,
And dost thou triumph in the god deceived?
But thou, with the posterity of man,
Shalt rue the fraud whence mightier ills began;
I will send evil for thy stealthy fire,
While all embrace it, and their bane desire.’
The sire, who rules the earth, and sways the pole,
Had said, and laughter fill’d his secret soul.
He bade the artist-god his hest obey,
And mould with tempering waters ductile clay:
Infuse, as breathing life and form began,
The supple vigour, and the voice of man:
Her aspect fair as goddesses above,
A virgin’s likeness, with the brows of love.
He bade Minerva teach the skill that dyes
The web with colours, as the shuttle flies;
He called the magic of Love’s Queen to shed
A nameless grace around her courteous head;
Instil the wish that longs with restless aim,
And cares of dress that feed upon the frame:
Bade Hermes last implant the craft refined
Of artful manners, and a shameless mind.
He said; their king th’ inferior powers obeyed:
The fictile likeness of a bashful maid
Rose from the temper’d earth, by Jove’s behest,
Under the forming god; the zone and vest
Were clasp’d and folded by Minerva’s hand:
The heaven-born graces, and persuasion bland
Deck’d her round limbs with chains of gold: the hours
Of loose locks twined her temples with spring flowers.
The whole attire Minerva’s curious care
Form’d to her shape, and fitted to her air.
But in her breast the herald from above,
Full of the counsels of deep thundering Jove,
Wrought artful manners, wrought perfidious lies,
And speech that thrills the blood, and lulls the wise.
Her did th’ interpreter of gods proclaim,
And named the woman with Pandora’s name;
Since all the gods conferr’d their gifts, to charm,
For man’s inventive race, this beauteous harm.”
Moreover, what is said also about the casket is fitted of itself to excite laughter; for example:—
“Whilome on earth the sons of men abode
From ills apart, and labour’s irksome load,
And sore diseases, bringing age to man;
Now the sad life of mortals is a span.
The woman’s hands a mighty casket bear;
She lifts the lid; she scatters griefs in air:
Alone, beneath the vessel’s rims detained,
Hope still within th’ unbroken cell remained,
Nor fled abroad; so will’d cloud-gatherer Jove:
The woman’s hand had dropp’d the lid above.”
Now, to him who would give to these lines a grave allegorical meaning (whether any such meaning be contained in them or not), we would say: Are the Greeks alone at liberty to convey a philosophic meaning in a secret covering? or perhaps also the Egyptians, and those of the Barbarians who pride themselves upon their mysteries and the truth (which is concealed within them); while the Jews alone, with their lawgiver and historians, appear to you the most unintelligent of men? And is this the only nation which has not received a share of divine power, and which yet was so grandly instructed how to rise upwards to the uncreated nature of God, and to gaze on Him alone, and to expect from Him alone (the fulfilment of) their hopes?
Cf. Gen. ii. 21, 22.
ἀντὶ τοῦ πυρός.
χωρὶς παντὸς λόγου καί τινος ἐπικρύψεως.
μοχθίζειν.
Hesiod, Works and Days, i. 73–114 (Elton’s translation [in substance. S.]).
Hesiod, Works and Days, i.125–134 (Elton’s translation [in substance. S.]).