Philo Judaeus De Decalogo 79

Charles Duke Yonge (Translator)

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De Decalogo. Philo Judaeus. Charles Duke Yonge (Translator). Medford, MA, USA. 2023.

Sponsored by Tufts University.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition First1KGreek

Concerning the Ten Commandments, which are the Heads of the Law (English) (The works of Philo Judaeus, the contemporary of Josephus, volume 3. Yonge, C. D., translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1855.)

Editions (1)
De Decalogo First1KGreek (Philo Judaeus. Opera quae supersunt, Volume 4. Cohn, Leonard, editor.Berlin: Reimer, 1902.) — 79 focus

Notes on the current edition

Concerning the Ten Commandments, which are the Heads ofthe Law

1.
This was one of the things which especially excited the ridicule of the Romans. Juvenal says, Sat. xv. 1 —
Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens
Aegyptus portenta colat? Crocodilon adorat
Pars haec: illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibim,
Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitheci,
Dimidio magice resonant ubi Memnone chorda,
Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis.
Illic coeruleow, hic piscem fluminis, illic
Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.
Or, as it is translated by Gifford,
Who knows not to what monstrous gods, my friend,
The mad inhabitants of Egypt bend?
The snake devouring ibis, these enshrine
Those think the crocodile alone divine;
Others, where Thebes’ vast ruins strew the ground
And shattered Memnon yields a magic sound,
Set up a glittering brute of uncouth shape,
And bow before the image of an ape!
Thousands regard the hound with holy fear,
Not one Diana,