De Defectu Oraculorum

When Cleombrotus had expounded these matters, Heracleon said, There is no unsanctified or irreligious person present, or anyone who holds opinions about the gods that are out of keeping with ours; but let us ourselves be stringently on our guard lest we unwittingly try to support the argument with extraordinary and presumptuous hypotheses. That is a very good suggestion, said Philip,

but which of the theses of Cleombrotus makes you the most uncomfortable?

That it is not the gods, said Heracleon, who are in charge of the oracles, since the gods ought properly to be freed of earthly concerns; but that it is the demigods, ministers of the gods, who have them in charge, seems to me not a bad postulate; but to take, practically by the handful, from the verses of Empedocles[*](Cf. Diels, Frag. der Vorsokratiker, i. p. 267, Empedocles, no. b 115.) sins, rash crimes, and heaven-sent wanderings, and to impose them upon the demigods, and to assume that their final fate is death, just as with men, I regard as rather too audacious and uncivilized.

Cleombrotus was moved to ask Philip who the young man was and whence he carne; and after learning his name and his city he said, It is not unwittingly, Heracleon, that we have become involved in strange arguments; but it is impossible, when discussing important matters, to make any progress in our ideas toward the probable truth without employing for this purpose important principles. But you unwittingly take back what you concede; for you agree that these demigods exist, but by your postulating that they are not bad nor mortal you no longer keep them; for in what respect do they differ from gods, if as regards their being they possess immortality and as regards their virtues freedom from all emotion or sin ?