The Error of Myth-making
Have you erred? If indeed you are such that you have drunk the potion of error, many being mere travelers; but if, having broken the common air of all, you drink the water of forgetfulness in handfuls, how and from where do you mythologize, having taken knowledge regarding souls? From where do you know at all the nature of these streams? For either you have not attempted their use, and so you are ignorant of the rising of the waters; or having become partakers of their experience, you have made the memory of their use vanish and have exhaled the knowledge.
But having turned toward such barbarian superstition, you have stumbled, using Egyptian guides. That indeed the souls are not ungenerated, this shows more clearly the age of newborn infants.
For if, at the same time as the children were born, they had reached perfection of wisdom, it would have been possible for some to feign a certain lack of understanding; but if mind and reason and [...] are lacking.
Greek
λαθόντες; Εἰ μὲν οὖν ὑμεῖς οἷοί· τε ἐγένεσθε τὸ τῆς πλάνης διαδρᾶναι πόμα, πρόδηλοι πολλοί τινες· εἰ δὲ τὸν κοινὸν πᾶσιν ἀέρα σπασάμενοι, τὸ τῆς λήθης ὕδωρ ἐπίετε χανδόν, πῶς καὶ πόθεν μυθοποιεῖτε λαβόντες περὶ ψυχῶν; πόθεν ὅλως ἴστε τὸ τῶν ῥείθρων τούτων γένος; εἴτε γὰρ μὴ ἐπειράθητε τῆς χρείας αὐτῶν, ἀγνοεῖτε τὴν τῶν ὑδάτων ἀνάδοσιν· εἴτε τῆς πείρας αὐτῶν ἔσω γεγονότες, λήθῃ τὴν μνήμην τῆς χρήσεως αὐτῶν ἠφανίσατε καὶ τὴν γνῶσιν ἐξεπτύσατε. Ἀλλ' εἰς ταῦτα βαρβαρώδη δεισιδαιμονίᾳ τραπέντες ἐσφάλησαν, Αἰγυπτίοις χρησάμενοι καθηγεμόσιν. 4 Ὅτι μὲν οὔκ εἰσιν ἀγέννητοι αἱ ψυχαὶ, τοῦτο δείκνυσιν σαφέστερον ἡ τῶν ἀρτιγόνων ἡλικία βρεφῶν. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἅμα τῷ τεχθῆναι τὰ παιδία, τελείας ἐξῆπτο φρονήσεως, ἐξῆν ἴσως ὑποκρίνεσθαί τινας ἄνοιαν· εἰ δὲ λείπεται νοῦ καὶ λόγου καὶ
About this text
On the Soul against the Philosophers attributed to Eustathius of Antioch.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 18 (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.