In Philoctetes:
"You see how honourable gain is deemed
Even to the gods; and how he is admired
Whose shrine is laden most with yellow gold.
What, then, doth hinder thee, since it is good
To be like gods, from thus accepting gain?"
In Hecuba:
"O Jupiter! whoever thou mayest be,
Of whom except in word all knowledge fails;"
And, "Jupiter, whether thou art indeed
A great necessity, or the mind of man,
I worship thee!"
Chap. vi.—We should acknowledge one only God.
Here, then, is a proof of virtue, and of a mind loving prudence, to recur to the communion of the unity,[1] and to attach one's self to prudence for salvation, and make choice of the better things according to the free-will placed in man; and not to think that those who are possessed of human passions are lords of all, when they shall not appear to have even equal power with men. For in Homer,[2] Demodocus says he is self-taught—
"God inspired me with strains"—
though he is a mortal. Æsculapius and Apollo are taught to heal by Chiron the Centaur,—a very novel thing indeed, for gods to be taught by a man. What need I speak of Bacchus, who the poet says is mad? or of Hercules, who he says is unhappy? What need to speak of Mars and Venus, the leaders of adultery; and by means of all these to establish the proof which has been undertaken? For if some one, in ignorance, should imitate the deeds which are said to be divine, he would be reckoned among impure men, and a stranger to life and humanity; and if any one does so
