Plutarch, De Superstitione, Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator), 13

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[13] Would it not then have been better for those Gauls ¹ and Scythians ² to have had absolutely no conception, no vision, no tradition, regarding the gods, than to believe in the existence of gods who take delight in the blood of human sacrifice and hold this to be the most perfect offering and holy rite ? Again, would it not have been far better for the Carthaginians to have taken Critias or Diagoras ³ to draw up their law-code at the very beginning, and so not to believe in any divine power or god, rather than to offer such sacrifices as they used to offer to Cronos? ⁴ These were not in the manner that Empedocles describes ⁵ in his attack on those who sacrifice living creatures:

Changed in form is the son beloved of his father so pious, Who on the altar lays him and slays him. What folly!

No, but with full knowledge and understanding they themselves offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds; meanwhile the mother stood by without a tear or moan; but should she utter a single moan or let fall a single tear, she had to forfeit the money, ⁶ and her child was sacrificed nevertheless; and the whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums so that the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people. Yet, if Typhons or Giants were ruling over us after they had expelled the gods, with what sort of sacrifices would they be pleased, or what other holy rites would they require? Amestris, the wife of Xerxes, caused twelve human beings to be buried alive ⁷ as an offering in her behalf to propitiate Hades, of whom Plato says ⁸ that it is because he is humane and wise and rich, and controls the souls of the dead by persuasion and reason, that he has come to be called by this name. Xenophanes, the natural philosopher, seeing the Egyptians beating their breasts and wailing at their festivals, gave them a very proper suggestion: If these beings are gods, said he, do not bewail them; and if they are men, do not offer sacrifices to them.⁹

De Superstitione. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1928.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Superstition (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. IΙ. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1928 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ δεισιδαιμονίας Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol I. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1888.) — 13 focus

οὐκ ἄμεινον οὖν ἦν Γαλάταις ἐκείνοις καὶ Σκύθαις τὸ παράπαν μήτʼ ἔννοιαν ἔχειν θεῶν μήτε φαντασίαν μήθʼ ἱστορίαν ἢ θεοὺς εἶναι νομίζειν χαίροντας ἀνθρώπων σφαττομένων αἵματι καὶ τελεωτάτην 171c θυσίαν καὶ ἱερουργίαν ταύτην νομίζοντας; 10 τί δέ; Καρχηδονίοις οὐκ ἐλυσιτέλει Κριτίαν λαβοῦσιν ἢ Διαγόραν νομοθέτην ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς μήτε τινὰ δαιμόνων μήτε θεῶν νομίζειν ἢ τοιαῦτα θύειν οἷα τῷ Κρόνῳ ἔθυον; οὐχ ὥσπερ Ἐμπεδοκλῆς¹ φησι τῶν τὰ ζῷα θυόντων καθαπτόμενος 15

μορφὴν δʼ ἀλλάξαντα πατὴρ φίλον υἱὸν ἀείρας

σφάζει ἐπευχόμενος μέγα νήπιος,

ἀλλʼ εἰδότες καὶ γιγνώσκοντες αὐτοὶ τὰ αὑτῶν τέκνα καθιέρευον, οἱ δʼ ἄτεκνοι παρὰ τῶν πενήτων ὠνούμενοι παιδία κατέσφαζον καθάπερ ἄρνας ἢ νεοσσούς, 20 171d παρειστήκει δʼ ἡ μήτηρ ἄτεγκτος καὶ ἀστένακτος. εἰ δὲ στενάξειεν ἢ δακρύσειεν, ἔδει τῆς τιμῆς στέρεσθαι, τὸ δὲ παιδίον οὐδὲν ἧττον ἐθύετο, κρότου τε κατεπίμπλατο πάντα πρὸ τοῦ ἀγάλματος ἐπαυλούντων καὶ τυμπανιζόντων ἕνεκα τοῦ μὴ γίγνεσθαι τὴν 25 βοὴν τῶν θρήνων ἐξάκουστον. εἰ δὲ Τυφῶνές τινες ἢ Γίγαντες ἦρχον ἡμῶν τοὺς θεοὺς ἐκβαλόντες, ποίαις ἂν ἥδοντο θυσίαις ἢ τίνας ἄλλας ἱερουργίας ἀπῄτουν; Ἄμηστρις δʼ ἡ Ξέρξου γυνὴ δώδεκα κατώρυξεν ἀνθρώπους ζῶντας ὑπὲρ αὑτῆς τῷ ᾍδῃ, ὃν 171e ὁ Πλάτων² φησὶ φιλάνθρωπον ὄντα καὶ σοφὸν καὶ πλούσιον, πειθοῖ καὶ λόγῳ κατέχοντα τὰς ψυχάς, ᾍδην ὠνομάσθαι. Ξενοφάνης δʼ ὁ φυσικὸς τοὺς 5 Αἰγυπτίους κοπτομένους ἐν ταῖς ἑορταῖς καὶ θρηνοῦντας ὁρῶν ὑπέμνησεν οἰκείως. οὗτοι φησὶν εἰ μὲν θεοί εἰσι, μὴ θρηνεῖτε αὐτούς· εἰ δʼ ἄνθρωποι, μὴ θύετε αὐτοῖς.

Translations (1)

Of Superstition, or Indiscreet Devotion Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. II. Goodwin, William W., editor; Baxter, William translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 13 focus

[13] Had it not been much better for the so much famed Gauls and Scythians to have neither thought nor imagined nor heard any thing of their Gods, than to have believed them such as would be pleased with the blood of human sacrifices, and would account such for the most complete and meritorious of expiations? How much better had it been for the Carthaginians to have had either a Critias or a Diagoras for their first lawmaker, that so they might have believed in neither God nor spirits, than to make such offerings to Saturn as they made?—not such as Empedocles speaks of, where he thus touches the sacrifices of beasts:—

The sire lifts up his dear beloved son,

Who first some other form and shape did take;

He doth him slay and sacrifice anon,

And therewith vows and foolish prayers doth make.

But they knowingly and wittingly themselves devoted their own children; and they that had none of their own bought of some poor people, and then sacrificed them like lambs or pigeons, the poor mother standing by the while without either a sigh or tear; and if by chance she fetched a sigh or let fall a tear, she lost the price of her child, but it was nevertheless sacrificed. All the places round the image were in the mean time filled with the noise of hautboys and tabors, to drown the poor infants’ crying. Suppose we now the Typhons and Giants should depose the Gods and make themselves masters of mankind, what sort of sacrifices, think you, would they expect? Or what other expiations would they require? The queen of King Xerxes, Amestris, buried twelve men alive, as a sacrifice to Pluto to prolong her own life; and yet Plato saith, This God is called in Greek Hades, because he is placid, wise, and wealthy, and retains the souls of men by persuasion and oratory. That great naturalist Xenophanes, seeing the Egyptians beating their breasts and lamenting at the solemn times of their devotions, gave them this pertinent and seasonable admonition: If they are Gods (said he), don’t cry for them; and if they are men, don’t sacrifice to them.

Notes on the current edition

Superstition

1. Cf. Caesar, Gallic War, vi. 16 and Strabo, iv. 4. 5.

2. Cf. Herodotus, iv. 70-72.

3. Both Critias and Diagoras were famous atheists of antiquity. Cf. Sextus Empiricus, Adersus Mathematicos, ix. 54; Plutarch, Moralia, 880 D, 1075 A.

4. Plutarch says ( Moralia, 175 A and 522 A) that the practice was stopped by Gelon, tyrant of Syracuse, after his victory oer the Carthaginians in 480 B.C. But cf. Diodorus, xx. 14, which suggests that the practice was later revived. Cronos here is, of course, the Greek equivalent of Phoenician El (Hebrew Moloch or Baal). Cf. G. F. Moore in the Journal of Biblical Lit. xvi. (1897), p. 161.

5. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, i. p. 275.

6. Since the bad omen of her conduct would nullify the good effect of the sacrifice.

7. Herodotus, vii. 114; but compare iii. 35.

8. The reference is probably to Plato, Cratylus, pp. 403 A-404B, where are repeated the popular etymologies of Pluto from πλοῦτος (wealth), and Hades from πάντα τὰ καλὰ ἐιδέναι (all-knowing of good).

9. The saying is quoted also in Moralia, 379 B and 763 C, and referred to in 228 E, cf. also Aristotle, Rhetoric, ii. 23, 27.

Plutarch De Superstitione 13

Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator)

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