The Epistle to Diogentus

Are not all these of perishable material? Were they not forged by iron and fire? Did not the wood-carver make one, the brass-founder another, the silversmith another, the potter another. Before they were moulded by their arts, into the shapes which they have, was it not possible and does it not still remain possible, for each of them to have been given a different shape? Might not vessels made out of the same material, if they met with the same artificers, be still made similar to such as they?[*](The meaning is that, given the requisite workers, the material used for ordinary vessels of wood or brass or silver might at any moment be turned into a god.)