Earthbound spirits behind the oracles
Moreover, it is believed not only among Christians and Jews but also by many others, both Greeks and barbarians, that the human soul lives and exists after its separation from the body. Reason, too, establishes that the pure soul, not weighed down by the lead weights of wickedness, is borne aloft to the regions of the purer, ethereal bodies, leaving behind the gross bodies here below and their defilements; while the wicked soul, dragged down to the earth by its sins and unable even to recover its breath, is carried about here and rolls around, one about “the tombs,” where “apparitions” of shadowy souls have even been seen (Plato, Phaedo 81c–d), another simply about the earth. If so, what sort of spirits must we think those are which have been bound, as it were, for whole ages (if I may put it so) to buildings and places, whether by certain spells or because of their own wickedness? Reason requires us to regard such beings as wicked: they use the power of foreknowledge, which is in itself neither good nor bad, to deceive men and to draw them away from God and from pure piety toward him.
That they are of this sort is shown also by this: their bodies are fed on the fumes that rise from sacrifices and on the vapours given off by blood and burnt offerings, in which they take delight, and so they come to this very thing, a kind of clinging to life, like wicked men who do not welcome the purer life apart from bodies, but for the sake of bodily pleasures cherish life in the earthy body.
If the Apollo at Delphi were a god, as the Greeks think, whom should he rather have chosen as his prophet than the wise man, or, if no such man was found, at least one who was making progress? And how could he not have wished a man, rather than a woman, to prophesy? And if he did want the female sex, perhaps because he could work through nothing else, or took pleasure in nothing else, than the private parts of women, how should he not rather have chosen a virgin than a woman to declare his will?
Greek
Ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴπερ πεπίστευται οὐ παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς καὶ Ἰουδαίοις μόνοις ἀλλὰ καὶ παρ᾿ ἄλλοις πολλοῖς Ἑλλήνων καὶ βαρβάρων ὅτι ζῇ καὶ ὑπάρχει μετὰ τὸν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος χωρισμὸν ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη ψυχὴ, καὶ τῷ λόγῳ παρίσταται ὅτι ἡ μὲν καθαρὰ καὶ μὴ βαρουμένη ὑπὸ τῶν τῆς κακίας μολιβδίδων μετέωρος φέρεται ἐπὶ τοὺς τόπους τῶν καθαρωτέρων καὶ αἰθερίων σωμάτων, καταλιποῦσα τὰ τῇδε παχέα σώματα καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς μιάσματα, ἡ δὲ φαύλη καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἁμαρτάδων καθελκομένη ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ μηδ᾿ ἀναπνεῦσαι δυναμένη τῇδε φέρεται καὶ καλινδεῖται, ἡ μέν τις ἐπὶ „τὰ μνήματα,“ ἔνθα καὶ ὤφθη σκιοειδῶν ψυχῶν „φαντάσματα,“ ἡ δέ τις ἁπαξαπλῶς περὶ τὴν γῆν· ποδαπὰ χρὴ νομίζειν εἶναι πνεύματα τὰ ὅλους. ἵν᾿ οὕτως ὀνομάσω, αἰῶνας προσδεθέντα ὥσπερ εἴτε μαγγανείαις τισὶν εἴτε καὶ διὰ τὴν σφετέραν κακίαν οἰκοδομαῖς καὶ τόποις; ὁ λόγος δὴ αἱρεῖ φαῦλ᾿ ἄττα νομίζειν εἶναι τὰ τοιαῦτα, τῇ προγνωστικῇ δυνάμει μέσῃ τυγχανούσῃ εἰς ἀπάτην ἀνθρώπων χρώμενα καὶ πρὸς τὸ περισπάσαι αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῆς καθαρᾶς εἰς αὐτὸν εὐσεβείας. δηλοῖ δὲ τὸ τοιοῦτον τοὺς αὐτοὺς τυγχάνειν καὶ τὸ ταῖς ἀπὸ τῶν θυσιῶν ἀναθυμιάσεσι καὶ ταῖς ἀπὸ τῶν αἱμάτων καὶ ὁλοκαυτωμάτων ἀποφοραῖς τρεφόμενα αὐτῶν τὰ σώματα, φιληδονούντων τοῖς τοιούτοις, ἐπ᾿ αὐτὸ τυγχάνειν τοῦ ὡσπερεὶ φιλοζωεῖν, ἀνάλογον φαύλοις ἀνθρώποις, οὐκ ἀσπαζομένοις μὲν τὸ καθαρώτερον ἔξω σωμάτων ζῆν, περιέπουσι δὲ διὰ τὰς σωματικὰς ἡδονὰς τὴν ἐν τῷ γεώδει σώματι ζωήν. εἴπερ δὲ θεὸς ἦν, ὡς Ἕλληνες οἴονται. ὁ ἐν Δελφοῖς Ἀπόλλων. τίνα μᾶλλον ἐχρῆν αὐτὸν ἐκλέξασθαι προφήτην ἢ τὸν σοφὸν ἢ μὴ εὑρισκομένου τοῦ τοιούτου κἂν τὸν προκόπτοντα; πῶς δ᾿ ἂν οὐκ ἄνδρα μᾶλλον προφητεύειν ἐβούλετο ἤπερ γυναῖκα; εἰ δὲ καὶ τὸ θῆλυ ἤθελεν, ὡς τάχα μὴ δυνάμενος ἢ μὴ τερπόμενος ἄλλῳ τινὶ ἢ τοῖς κόλποις τῶν γυναικῶν, πῶς οὐχὶ παρθένον μᾶλλον ἐχρῆν αὐτὸν ἐπιλέξασθαι ἤπερ γυναῖκα τὴν τὸ βούλημα αὐτοῦ θεσπίζουσαν;