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Theophilus to Autolycus

Theophilus of Antioch

Book 3 · Chapter 5

About this work

Three books addressed to a pagan friend defending the invisible God, creation, resurrection, Christian morality, and the antiquity of the Hebrew Scriptures against Greco-Roman religion and literature.

Author: Theophilus of Antioch
Date: c. AD 180–185
Origin: Antioch
Genre: Apology

Philosophers Inculcate Cannibalism.

Since, then, you have read much,

‹ Book 3 · Chapter 4 Book 3 · Chapter 6 ›

what

is

your

opinion

of

the

precepts

of

Zeno

,

and

Diogenes

,

and

Cleanthes

,

which

their

books

contain

,

inculcating

the

eating

of

human

flesh

:

that

fathers

be

cooked

and

eaten

by

their

own

children

;

and

that

if

any

one

refuse

or

reject

a

part

of

this

infamous

food

,

he

himself

be

devoured

who

will

riot

eat

?

An

utterance

even

more

godless

than

these

is

found

,

—

that

,

namely

,

of

Diogenes

,

who

teaches

children

to

bring

their

own

parents

in

sacrifice

,

and

devour

them

.

And

does

not

the

historian

Herodotus

narrate

that

Cambyses

,

when

he

had

slaughtered

the

children

of

Harpagus

,

cooked

them

also

,

and

set

them

as

a

meal

before

their

father

?

And

,

still

further

,

he

narrates

that

among

the

Indians

the

parents

are

eaten

by

their

own

children

.

Oh

!

the

godless

teaching

of

those

who

recorded

,

yea

,

rather

,

inculcated

such

things

!

Oh

!

their

wickedness

and

godlessness

!

Oh

!

the

conception

of

those

who

thus

accurately

philosophized

,

and

profess

philosophy

!

For

they

who

taught

these

doctrines

have

filled

the

world

with

iniquity

.

Notes

4
It was not Cambyses, but Astyages, who did this; see Herod. i. 119.