Theophilus of Antioch, To Autolycus 10

Why should I go on listing the countless living things the Egyptians worship—reptiles, livestock, wild beasts, birds, and every kind of aquatic creature—along with foot-basins and shameful noises? If you point to the Greeks and the other nations, they worship stones, wood, and the rest of matter: images of dead men, as we have already said. Phidias, for example, is found in Pisa crafting the Olympian Zeus for the people of Elis, and the Athena on the Acropolis for the Athenians. Let me ask you, then: how many Zeuses can be found? Zeus is called first Olympian, then Zeus Latearius, Zeus Cassius, Zeus Ceraunius, Zeus Propator, Zeus Pannychius, Zeus Poliouchus, and Zeus Capitolinus. The Zeus who is the son of Cronus became king of the Cretans and has a tomb in Crete; the rest perhaps were not even deemed worthy of burial. If you were to name the mother of the so-called gods, may I never be forced to speak her deeds with my mouth—for it is unlawful for us even to name such things—or the deeds of her attendants by whom she is served, or the many fees and contributions she and her sons pay to the king. For they are not gods, but idols, as we have said before; they are works of human hands and unclean demons. May those who make them and those who hope in them become like them.