{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p class=\"c006\">But as Celsus makes a jest also of the serpent, as counteracting\r\nthe injunctions given by God to the man, taking the\r\nnarrative to be an old wife’s fable,<a id=\"r637\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f637\"><sup>[637]</sup></a> and has purposely neither\r\nmentioned the paradise<a id=\"r638\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f638\"><sup>[638]</sup></a> of God, nor stated that God is said to\r\nhave planted it in Eden towards the east, and that there afterwards\r\nsprang up from the earth every tree that was beautiful\r\nto the sight, and good for food, and the tree of life in the midst\r\nof the paradise, and the tree of the knowledge of good and\r\nevil, and the other statements which follow, which might of\r\nthemselves lead a candid reader to see that all these things\r\nhad not inappropriately an allegorical meaning, let us contrast\r\nwith this the words of Socrates regarding Eros in the Symposium\r\nof Plato, and which are put in the mouth of Socrates as\r\nbeing more appropriate than what was said regarding him by\r\nall the others at the Symposium. The words of Plato are as\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_204\">204</span>follow: “When Aphrodite was born, the gods held a banquet,\r\nand there was present, along with the others, Porus the son of\r\nMetis. And after they had dined, Penia<a id=\"r639\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f639\"><sup>[639]</sup></a> came to beg for\r\nsomething (seeing there was an entertainment), and she stood\r\nat the gate. Porus meantime, having become intoxicated with\r\nthe nectar (for there was then no wine), went into the garden\r\nof Zeus, and being heavy with liquor, lay down to sleep.\r\nPenia accordingly formed a secret plot, with a view of freeing\r\nherself from her condition of poverty,<a id=\"r640\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f640\"><sup>[640]</sup></a> to get a child by Porus,\r\nand accordingly lay down beside him, and became pregnant\r\nwith Eros. And on this account Eros has become the follower\r\nand attendant of Aphrodite, having been begotten on her birth-day\r\nfeast,<a id=\"r641\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f641\"><sup>[641]</sup></a> and being at the same time by nature a lover of\r\nthe beautiful, because Aphrodite too is beautiful. Seeing, then,\r\nthat Eros is the son of Porus and Penia, the following is his\r\ncondition.<a id=\"r642\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f642\"><sup>[642]</sup></a> In the first place, he is always poor, and far from\r\nbeing delicate and beautiful, as most persons imagine; but is\r\nwithered, and sunburnt,<a id=\"r643\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f643\"><sup>[643]</sup></a> and unshod, and without a home,\r\nsleeping always upon the ground, and without a covering;\r\nlying in the open air beside gates, and on public roads; possessing\r\nthe nature of his mother, and dwelling continually with\r\nindigence.<a id=\"r644\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f644\"><sup>[644]</sup></a> But, on the other hand, in conformity with the\r\ncharacter of his father, he is given to plotting against the\r\nbeautiful and the good, being courageous, and hasty, and vehement;<a id=\"r645\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f645\"><sup>[645]</sup></a>\r\na keen<a id=\"r646\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f646\"><sup>[646]</sup></a> hunter, perpetually devising contrivances;\r\nboth much given to forethought, and also fertile in resources;<a id=\"r647\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f647\"><sup>[647]</sup></a>\r\nacting like a philosopher throughout the whole of his life; a\r\nterrible<a id=\"r648\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f648\"><sup>[648]</sup></a> sorcerer, and dealer in drugs, and a sophist as well;\r\nneither immortal by nature nor yet mortal, but on the same\r\nday, at one time he flourishes and lives when he has plenty,\r\nand again at another time dies, and once more is recalled to\r\nlife through possessing the nature of his father. But the supplies\r\nfurnished to him are always gradually disappearing, so\r\nthat he is never at any time in want, nor yet rich; and, on the\r\nother hand, he occupies an intermediate position between wisdom\r\n<span class=\"pageno\" id=\"Page_205\">205</span>and ignorance.” Now, if those who read these words\r\nwere to imitate the malignity of Celsus—which be it far from\r\nChristians to do!—they would ridicule the myth, and would\r\nturn this great Plato into a subject of jest; but if, on investigating\r\nin a philosophic spirit what is conveyed in the dress of\r\na myth, they should be able to discover the meaning of Plato,\r\n[they will admire]<a id=\"r649\"></a><a class=\"c008 pginternal\" href=\"#f649\"><sup>[649]</sup></a> the manner in which he was able to conceal,\r\non account of the multitude, in the form of this myth, the\r\ngreat ideas which presented themselves to him, and to speak\r\nin a befitting manner to those who know how to ascertain from\r\nthe myths the true meaning of him who wove them together.\r\nNow I have brought forward this myth occurring in the\r\nwritings of Plato, because of the mention in it of the garden of\r\nZeus, which appears to bear some resemblance to the paradise\r\nof God, and of the comparison between Penia and the serpent,\r\nand the plot against Porus by Penia, which may be compared\r\nwith the plot of the serpent against the man. It is not very\r\nclear, indeed, whether Plato fell in with these stories by chance,\r\nor whether, as some think, meeting during his visit to Egypt\r\nwith certain individuals who philosophized on the Jewish mysteries,\r\nand learning some things from them, he may have preserved\r\na few of their ideas, and thrown others aside, being\r\ncareful not to offend the Greeks by a complete adoption of all\r\nthe points of the philosophy of the Jews, who were in bad\r\nrepute with the multitude, on account of the foreign character\r\nof their laws and their peculiar polity. The present, however,\r\nis not the proper time for explaining either the myth of Plato,\r\nor the story of the serpent and the paradise of God, and all\r\nthat is related to have taken place in it, as in our exposition of\r\nthe book of Genesis we have especially occupied ourselves as\r\nwe best could with these matters.</p>","headings":["The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 of 2","BOOK IV.","Chapter XXXIX."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg70693-paragraph-260"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"c4886968b6439668cf0849c6c32d2041093f0e45dcb84f5aca592997a5f94c19","edition_title":"The writings of Origen, Vol. 2 (of 2)","edition_translators":["Frederick Crombie","W. H. Cairns"],"edition_year":1872,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg70693-f646","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Project Gutenberg metadata: Public domain in the USA. Existing 1872 English edition; listed translators died 1889 and 1872. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"f646","source_ebook":70693,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\" id=\"f646\">\n<p class=\"c007\"><span class=\"label\"><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#r646\">646</a>. </span><span lang=\"grc\">δεινός.</span></p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"76ed9a9fd752c1d5095189e38fe3dcbbea0fd23d6be719db17360e4da14552fa","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/70693/pg70693-images.html#f646","text_sha256":"ba33ff4f8c38252ce9c38ada5b2e7647cf4a80f8dc38e17d45fb8f5faad33555","verified":false,"work_id":null}