[12,39] τῆς γὰρ περὶ τὸ θεῖον δόξης καὶ ὑπολήψεως πρώτην μὲν ἀτεχνῶς πηγὴν ἐλέγομεν τὴν ἔμφυτον ἅπασιν ἀνθρώποις ἐπίνοιαν, ἐξ αὐτῶν γιγνομένην τῶν ἔργων καὶ τἀληθοῦς, οὐ κατὰ πλάνην συστᾶσαν οὐδὲ ὡς ἔτυχεν, ἀλλὰ πάνυ ἰσχυρὰν καὶ ἀέναον ἐκ τοῦ παντὸς χρόνου καὶ παρὰ πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἀρξαμένην καὶ διαμένουσαν, σχεδόν τι κοινὴν καὶ δημοσίαν τοῦ λογικοῦ γένους· δευτέραν δὲ λέγομεν τὴν ἐπίκτητον καὶ δι´ ἑτέρων ἐγγιγνομένην ταῖς ψυχαῖς λόγοις τε καὶ μύθοις καὶ ἔθεσι, τοῖς μὲν ἀδεσπότοις τε καὶ ἀγράφοις, τοῖς δὲ ἐγγράφοις καὶ σφόδρα γνωρίμους ἔχουσι τοὺς κυρίους.

[12,39] To resume, then : Of man's belief in the deity and his assumption that there is a god we were maintaining that the fountain-head, as we may say, or source, was that idea which is innate in all mankind and comes into being as the result of the actual facts and the truth, an idea that was not framed confusedly nor yet at random, but has been exceedingly potent and persistent since the beginning of time, and has arisen among all nations and still remains, being, one may almost say, a common and general endowment of rational beings. As the second source we designate the idea which has been acquired and indeed implanted in men's souls through no other means than narrative accounts, myths, and customs, in some cases ascribed to no author and also unwritten, but in others written and having as their authors men of very great fame.

[12,40] τῆς δὲ τοιαύτης ὑπολήψεως τὴν μέν τινα ἑκουσίαν καὶ παραμυθητικὴν φῶμεν, τὴν δὲ ἀναγκαίαν καὶ προστακτικήν. λέγω δὲ τοῦ μὲν ἑκουσίου καὶ παραμυθίας ἐχομένην τὴν τῶν ποιητῶν, τοῦ δὲ ἀναγκαίου καὶ προστάξεως τὴν τῶν νομοθετῶν· τούτων γὰρ οὐδετέραν ἰσχῦσαι δυνατὸν μὴ πρώτης ἐκείνης ὑπούσης, δι´ ἣν βουλομένοις ἐγίγνοντο καὶ τρόπον τινὰ προειδόσιν αὐτοῖς αἵ τε προστάξεις καὶ παραμυθίαι, τῶν μὲν ὀρθῶς καὶ ξυμφώνως ἐξηγουμένων ποιητῶν καὶ νομοθετῶν τῇ τε ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ταῖς ἐννοίαις, τῶν δὲ ἀποπλανωμένων ἔν τισιν.

[12,40] Of this acquired notion of the divine being let us say that one part is voluntary and due to exhortation, another part compulsory and prescriptive. By the kind that depends upon voluntary acceptance and exhortation I mean that which is handed down by the poets, and by the kind that depends upon compulsion and prescription I mean that due to the lawgivers. I call these secondary because neither of them could possibly have gained strength unless that primary notion had been present to begin with ; and because it was present, there took root in mankind, of their own volition and because they already possessed a sort of foreknowledge, the prescriptions of the lawgivers and the exhortations of the poets, some of them expounding things correctly and in consonance with the truth and their hearers notions, and others going astray in certain matters.