Thus Tert. Ap. 46. Lact. iii. 20. Origen cont. Cels. vi. c. 4, quotes this as showing the Philosophers guilty of St. Paul’s charge, at the same time speaking of Socrates’ previous discourse as “what God had shown them;” the note of Spencer, Ed. Ben. i. 631, quotes an allegorical explanation. Theodoret, Græc. Aff. Cur. Dis. vii. de Sacr. says it was done to disprove the charge of Atheism. [Probably Socrates’ real judgment on the popular mythology was, that it was an imperfect and economical revelation of a higher truth than it expressed: and its ceremonies the legitimate though conventional expression of true devotion. Thus “the cock to Æsculapius” was the sick man’s thank-offering for recovery from “life’s fitful fever.”]