{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>I know fire to be capable of exposing and curing superstition. If thou\r\nart willing to abandon this folly, the element of fire shall light\r\nthy way. This same fire burned the temple in Argos, with Chrysis the\r\npriestess; and that of Artemis in Ephesus the second time after the\r\nAmazons. And the Capitol in Rome was often wrapped in flames; nor did\r\nthe fire spare the temple of Serapis, in the city of the Alexandrians.\r\nAt Athens it demolished the temple of the Eleutherian Dionysus; and\r\nas to the temple of Apollo at Delphi, first a storm assailed it, and\r\nthen the discerning fire utterly destroyed it. This is told as the\r\npreface of what the fire promises. And the makers of images, do they\r\nnot shame those of you who are wise into despising matter? The Athenian\r\nPhidias inscribed on the finger of the Olympian Jove, Pantarkes<a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_55\" id=\"FNanchor_55\">[55]</a>\r\nis beautiful. It was not Zeus that was beautiful in his eyes, but the\r\nman he loved. And Praxiteles, as Posidippus relates in his book about\r\nCnidus, when he fashioned the statue of Aphrodite of Cnidus, made it\r\nlike the form of Cratine, of whom he was enamoured, that the miserable\r\npeople might have the paramour of Praxiteles to worship. And when\r\nPhryne the courtesan, the Thespian, was in her bloom, all the painters\r\nmade their pictures of Aphrodite copies of the beauty of Phryne; as,\r\nagain, the sculptors at Athens made their Mercuries like Alcibiades.\r\nIt remains for you to judge whether you ought to worship courtesans.\r\nMoved, as I believe, by such facts, and despising such fables, the\r\nancient kings unblushingly proclaimed themselves gods, as this involved\r\nno danger from men, and thus taught that on account of their glory they\r\nwere made immortal. Ceux, the son of Eolus, was styled Zeus by his wife\r\nAlcyone; Alcyone, again, being by her husband styled Hera. Ptolemy the\r\nFourth was called Dionysus; and Mithridates of Pontus was also called\r\nDionysus; and Alexander wished to be considered the son of Ammon, and\r\nto have his statue made horned by the sculptors—eager to disgrace the\r\nbeauty of the human form by the addition of a horn. And not kings only,\r\nbut private<span class=\"pagenum\" id=\"Page_59\">[59]</span> persons dignified themselves with the names of deities,\r\nas Menecrates the physician, who took the name of Zeus. What need is\r\nthere for me to instance Alexarchus? He, having been by profession\r\na grammarian, assumed the character of the sungod, as Aristus of\r\nSalamis relates. And why mention Nicagorus? He was a native of Zela\r\n[in Pontus], and lived in the days of Alexander. Nicagorus was styled\r\nHermes, and used the dress of Hermes, as he himself testifies. And\r\nwhilst whole nations, and cities with all their inhabitants, sinking\r\ninto self-flattery, treat the myths about the gods with contempt, at\r\nthe same time men themselves, assuming the air of equality with the\r\ngods, and being puffed up with vainglory, vote themselves extravagant\r\nhonours. There is the case of the Macedonian Philip of Pella, the son\r\nof Amyntor, to whom they decreed divine worship in Cynosargus, although\r\nhis collar-bone was broken, and he had a lame leg, and had one of his\r\neyes knocked out. And again that of Demetrius, who was raised to the\r\nrank of the gods; and where he alighted from his horse on his entrance\r\ninto Athens is the temple of Demetrius <i>the Alighter</i>; and altars\r\nwere raised to him everywhere, and nuptials with Athene assigned to him\r\nby the Athenians. But he disdained the goddess, as he could not marry\r\nthe statue; and taking the courtesan Lamia, he ascended the Acropolis,\r\nand lay with her on the couch of Athene, showing to the old virgin the\r\npostures of the young courtesan.</p>","headings":["THE WRITINGS OF CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.","EXHORTATION TO THE HEATHEN.","CHAPTER IV. THE ABSURDITY AND SHAMEFULNESS OF THE IMAGES BY WHICH THE GODS ARE WORSHIPPED."],"marker_anchor":"FNanchor_55","paragraph_id":"pg71937-paragraph-143"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"554dec487f9a0b1f2b98589098d93f038fb30cd246b65e502f2d9163198bb38d","edition_title":"The writings of Clement of Alexandria, Vol. 1 (of 2)","edition_translators":["William Wilson"],"edition_year":1867,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg71937-Footnote_55","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 1867 English translation; translator died 1875. Electronic transcription subject to Project Gutenberg reuse terms.","source_anchor":"Footnote_55","source_ebook":71937,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a class=\"label pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_55\" id=\"Footnote_55\">[55]</a> Pantarkes is said to have been the name of a boy loved by\r\nPhidias; but as the word signifies “all-assisting,” “all-powerful,” it\r\nmight also be made to apply to Zeus.</p>\n</div>","source_sha256":"8e5c5bc39922dbad2626ac7651c2eb2e3d94cdcbd721f781e9792143ebb1cd03","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/71937/pg71937-images.html#Footnote_55","text_sha256":"96021d6fc302a46e575737e870bef200bfec5f44c27afc32cf57a60e6dca161f","verified":false,"work_id":null}