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Works Cyprian of Carthage (200-258) Quod idola dii non sint On the Vanity of Idols

3.

From this the religion of the gods is variously changed among individual nations and provinces, inasmuch as no one god is worshipped by all, but by each one the worship of its own ancestors is kept peculiar. Proving that this is so, Alexander the Great writes in the remarkable volume addressed to his mother, that through fear of his power the doctrine of the gods being men, which was kept secret, 1 had been disclosed to him by a priest, that it was the memory of ancestors and kings that was (really) kept up, and that from this the rites of worship and sacrifice have grown up. But if gods were born at any time, why are they not born in these days also?--unless, indeed, Jupiter possibly has grown too old, or the faculty of bearing has failed Juno.


  1. The readings here vary much. The first part of the sentence is found in Minucius Felix, c. 21. [Vol. iv. p. 185.] ↩

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On the Vanity of Idols

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Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

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