The shameful myths are the Greeks’ own
Then, like a man who has given himself over to nothing but hatred and hostility toward the teaching of Jews and Christians, he says that “the more reasonable among both Jews and Christians allegorize these things.” He says that “being ashamed of them, they take refuge in allegory.” One might answer him: if myths and fictions, whether written with a hidden meaning or in any other way at all, are to be called shameful when taken in their first sense, to which should this be said to apply if not to the stories of the Greeks? In them sons who are gods castrate fathers who are gods, and fathers who are gods swallow sons who are gods; a goddess mother hands the father “of men and gods” (Homer, Iliad 1.544) a stone in place of her son; a father has intercourse with his daughter; and a wife binds her husband, taking as her helpers in the binding the brother of the one being bound and his daughter (Homer, Iliad 1.399–400).
And why need I list the absurd stories of the Greeks about the gods, which are plainly shameful even when they are allegorized? Why, Chrysippus of Soli, who is thought to have adorned the Stoa of the philosophers with many intelligent writings, gives a false interpretation of the painting at Samos in which Hera was painted doing an unspeakable act with Zeus. For this venerable philosopher says in his writings that matter has received the seminal principles of god and holds them in itself for the ordering of the universe; for in the painting at Samos Hera is matter and Zeus is god.
It is for these reasons, and because of such myths and countless others, that we are unwilling to call the God over all “Zeus” even in name, or the sun “Apollo,” or the moon “Artemis.” Rather, practising pure piety toward the Creator and speaking well of his beautiful works, we do not defile divine things even in their names. In this we accept the words of Plato in the Philebus, where he would not accept pleasure as a goddess: “For my fear, Protarchus,” he says, “concerning the names of the gods is of this kind” (Plato, Philebus 12c). We, then, truly have “fear” concerning the name of God and of his beautiful works, so that we do not accept any myth, even on the pretext of a figurative meaning, to the harm of the young.
Greek
Εἶτα ὡς εἰς τὸ μισεῖν μόνον καὶ ἀπεχθάνεσθαι τῷ κατ᾿ Ἰουδαίους καὶ Χριστιανοὺς λόγῳ ἑαυτὸν ἐπιδεδωκὼς, φησὶν ὅτι καὶ Ἰουδαίων καὶ Χριστιανῶν οἱ ἐπιεικέστεροι ταῦτ᾿ ἀλληγοροῦσι· λέγει δὲ αἰσχυνομένους ἐπὶ τούτοις καταφεύγειν ἐπὶ τὴν ἀλληγορίαν, εἶπε δ᾿ ἄν τις πρὸς αὐτὸν ὅτι, εἴπερ αἰσχύνης ἄξια τὰ κατὰ τὴν πρώτην ἐκδοχὴν χρὴ λέγειν μύθων καὶ ἀναπλασμάτων, εἴτε δι᾿ ὑπονοίας γεγραμμένων εἴτε ἄλλως ὁπωσοῦν· ἐπὶ τίνων τοῦτο ἢ ἐπὶ τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν χρὴ λέγειν ἱστοριῶν; ἐν αἷς υἱοὶ θεοὶ πατέρας θεοὺς ἐκτέμνουσι καὶ πατέρες θεοὶ υἱοὺς θεοὺς καταπίνουσι, καὶ θεὰ μήτηρ ἀντιδίδωσιν υἱοῦ τῷ πατρὶ „ἀνδρῶν τε θεῶν τε“ λίθον, καὶ πατὴρ θυγατρὶ μίγνυται, καὶ γυνὴ καταδεῖ τὸν ἄνδρα, συνεργοὺς εἰς τοὺς δεσμοὺς παραλαμβάνουσα τὸν ἀδελφὸν τοῦ καταδουμένου καὶ τὴν θυγατέρα αὐτοῦ, καὶ τί με δεῖ καταλέγειν τὰς περὶ θεῶν ἀτόπους Ἑλλήνων ἱστορίας, αἰσχύνης αὐτόθεν ἀξίας καὶ ἀλληγορουμένας; ὅπου γε ὁ Σολεὺς Χρύσιππος, ὁ τὴν Στοὰν τῶν φιλοσόφων πολλοῖς συγγράμμασι συνετοῖς κεκοσμηκέναι νομιζόμενος, παρερμηνεύει γραφὴν τὴν ἐν Σάμῳ, ἐν ᾗ ἀῤῥητοποιοῦσα ἡ Ἥρα τὸν Δία ἐγέγραπτο, λέγει γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ συγγράμμασιν ὁ σεμνὸς φιλόσοφος ὅτι τοὺς σπερματικοὺς λόγους τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ ὕλη παραδεξαμένη ἔχει ἐν ἑαυτῇ εἰς κατακόσμησιν τῶν ὅλων, ὕλη γὰρ ἡ ἐν τῇ κατὰ τὴν Σάμον γραφῇ ἡ Ἥρα καὶ ὁ θεὸς ὁ Ζεύς, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα δὴ ἡμεῖς καὶ διὰ τοὺς τοιούτους μύθους καὶ ἄλλους μυρίους οὐδὲ μέχρι ὀνόματος θέλομεν Δία καλεῖν τὸν ἐπὶ πᾶσι θεὸν οὐδ᾿ Ἀπόλλωνα τὸν ἥλιον οὐδ᾿ Ἄρτεμιν τὴν σελήνην· ἀλλὰ καθαρὰν εὐσέβειαν εἰς τὸν δημιουργὸν ἀσκοῦντες καὶ τὰ καλὰ αὐτοῦ δημιουργήματα εὐφημοῦντες οὐδὲ μέχρι ὀνόματος χραίνομεν τὰ θεῖα, ἀποδεχόμενοι τοῦ Πλάτωνος τὸν ἐν Φιλήβῳ λόγον, μὴ βουληθέντος τὴν ἡδονὴν παραδέξασθαι θεόν· „τὸ γὰρ ἐμὸν,“ φησὶ, „δέος, ὦ Πρώταρχε, περὶ τὰ τῶν θεῶν ὀνόματα τοιόνδε ἐστίν,“ ἡμεῖς οὖν ἀληθῶς ἔχομεν „δέος“ περὶ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῶν καλῶν αὐτοῦ δημιουργημάτων, ὡς μηδὲ προφάσει τροπολογίας μῦθόν τινα παραδέξασθαι ἐπὶ βλάβῃ τῶν νέων.