Complete Works of Philo Judaeus (Vol. 6)

§. 6. Critolaus, a lover of the Peripatetic philosophy who has danced with the Muses, agreeing with the doctrine of the eternity of the world, used such proofs: "If the world has come into being, it is necessary that the earth also came into being; if the earth is generated, then certainly the race of humans is as well. But the human is ungenerated, as it will be shown that the race has existed from eternity; therefore, the world is also eternal." The point deferred must now be constructed, if things so evident even require proof. But it seems necessary for the sake of the myth-makers, who, having filled life with falsehoods, have driven truth into exile, compelling not only cities and houses but even every individual to lack that possession, and having devised measures and rhythms as bait for a trap to lure the senses, by which they bewitch the ears of the foolish, just as misshapen and ugly courtesans bewitch eyes with charms and a counterfeit beauty, lacking the genuine kind. They say that the generation of humans from one another is a younger work of nature; and that the one from the earth is more primordial and older, since it is and is considered to be the source of all things. 493 M. mother They say that the Spartoi the "sown men" of Greek myth sung of among the Greeks grew up just like trees today, perfect and armed, children of the earth. That this is a fabrication of myth is easy to see. Right away, the one first born would have needed growth according to determined measures and numbers of years. For nature created ages as certain steps through which a human in a way ascends and descends. He ascends while growing, and descends during the periods of decline. The limit of the highest steps is the peak, upon reaching which one no longer progresses. But just as those running the double-course turn back along the same path, he returns what he received from flourishing youth to weakening old age. To believe that some were born perfect is for those who have ignored the laws of nature,