Elephants, storks and the phoenix
I do not know how Celsus came to hear even of an oath sworn by elephants, and that they are more faithful toward the divine than we are, and have knowledge of God. For I know many wonderful things that are recorded about the nature of this animal and its tameness, but I am not aware that anyone has spoken of an elephant’s oaths. Unless, perhaps, he has given the name of oath-keeping to their tameness, and to the compact, as it were, which they keep with men once they have come under men’s control; and even that is false. For it is recorded, if only rarely, that elephants which seemed tame have turned savage against men and killed people, and for this were condemned to be put to death as no longer of use.
After this he brings in what is recorded about the stork, that it repays its parents’ care and carries food to those who begot it, in order to prove, as he supposes, that storks are more pious than men. To this we must say that storks do this too not from a considered grasp of duty, nor from reasoning, but from nature. The nature that formed them wished to set forth, in animals without reason, an example that could shame men into repaying the kindness of those who begot them. If Celsus had known how great the difference is between doing these things by reason and performing them without reason, by nature, he would not have said that storks are more pious than men.
Further, as though he were standing up for the piety of animals without reason, Celsus brings in the Arabian creature, the phoenix: at intervals of many years it visits Egypt, bringing its father, who has died and been buried in a ball of myrrh, and lays him down where the precinct of the sun is. This too is recorded. But if it is true, it may also be a work of nature. For divine providence has been lavish in setting before men, in the differences among living things as well, the variety in the ordering of what is in the world, a variety that reaches even to the birds; and it has brought into being a certain “only-begotten” creature, so that by this too it might cause men to wonder not at the creature but at the One who made it.
Greek
Οὐκ οἶδα δ᾿ ὅπως ὁ Κέλσος καὶ ὅρκου ἐλεφάντων ἤκουσε, καὶ ὅτι εἰσὶν οὗτοι πιστότεροι πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ἡμῶν καὶ γνῶσιν ἔχουσι τοῦ θεοῦ. ἐγὼ γὰρ πολλὰ μὲν καὶ θαυμαστὰ οἶδα περὶ τῆς φύσεως τοῦ ζῴου καὶ τῆς ἡμερότητος ἱστορούμενα. οὐ μὴν καὶ περὶ ὅρκων ἐλέφαντος σύνοιδα εἰρῆσθαι παρά τινι· εἰ μὴ ἄρα τὸ ἥμερον καὶ τὴν ὡσπερεὶ πρὸς ἀνθρώπους αὐτῶν συνθήκην ἅπαξ γενομένων ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῖς εὐορκίαν τηρουμένην ὠνόμασεν, ὅπερ καὶ αὐτὸ ψεῦδός ἐστιν. εἰ γὰρ καὶ σπανίως, ἀλλ᾿ οὖν γε ἱστόρηται ὅτι μετὰ τὴν δοκοῦσαν ἡμερότητα ἐξηγριώθησαν ἐλέφαντες κατὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων (καὶ φόνους ἐποίησαν) καὶ διὰ τοῦτο κατεδικάσθησαν ἀναιρεθῆναι ὡς οὐκέτι χρήσιμοι. ἐπεὶ δὲ παραλαμβάνει μετὰ ταῦτα εἰς τὸ κατασκευάσαι, ὡς οἴεται, εὐσεβεστέρους εἶναι τοὺς πελαργοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰ περὶ τοῦ ζῴου ἱστορούμενα, ἀντιπελαργοῦντος καὶ τροφὰς φέροντος τοῖς γεγεννηκόσι· λεκτέον ὅτι καὶ τοῦτ᾿ οὐκ ἀπὸ θεωρήματος τοῦ περὶ τοῦ καθήκοντος ποιοῦσιν οἱ πελαργοὶ οὐδ᾿ ἀπὸ λογισμοῦ ἀλλ᾿ ἀπὸ φύσεως. βουληθείσης τῆς κατασκευαζούσης αὐτοὺς φύσεως παράδειγμα ἐν ἀλόγοις ζῴοις δυσωπῆσαι δυνάμενον ἀνθρώπους ἐκθέσθαι περὶ τοῦ χάριτας ἀποτιννύειν τοῖς γεγεννηκόσιν. εἰ δὲ ᾔδει Κέλσος, ὅσῳ διαφέρει λόγῳ ταῦτα ποιεῖν τοῦ ἀλόγως καὶ φυσικῶς αὐτὰ ἐνεργεῖν, οὐκ ἂν εὐσεβεστέρους εἶπε τοὺς πελαργοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων. ἔτι δὲ ὡς ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων ἱστάμενος ὁ Κέλσος παραλαμβάνει τὸ Ἀράβιον ζῷον, τὸν φοίνικα. διὰ πολλῶν ἐτῶν ἐπιδημοῦν Αἰγύπτῳ καὶ φέρον ἀποθανόντα τὸν πατέρα καὶ ταφέντα ἐν σφαίρᾳ σμύρνης καὶ ἐπιτιθὲν ὅπου τὸ τοῦ ἡλίου τέμενος, καὶ τοῦτο δὲ ἱστόρηται μὲν δύναται δὲ, ἐάνπερ ᾖ ἀληθὲς, καὶ αὐτὸ φυσικὸν τυγχάνειν, ἐπιδαψιλευσαμένης τῆς θείας προνοίας καὶ ἐν ταῖς διαφοραῖς τῶν ζῴων παραστῆσαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὸ ποικίλον τῆς τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ κατασκευῆς φθάνον καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ὄρνεα· καὶ ζῷόν τι „μονογενὲς“ ὑπέστησεν. ἵνα καὶ τοῦτο ποιήσῃ θαυμασθῆναι οὐ τὸ ζῷον ἀλλὰ τὸν πεποιηκότα αὐτό.