[12,43] δευτέρα δὲ καὶ τρίτη ποιητῶν καὶ νομοθετῶν, τῶν μὲν παραινούντων μὴ ἀποστερεῖν χάριν τὸ πρεσβύτερον καὶ ξυγγενές, ἔτι δὲ αἴτιον ζωῆς καὶ τοῦ εἶναι, τῶν δὲ ἐπαναγκαζόντων καὶ ἀπειλούντων κόλασιν τοῖς οὐ πειθομένοις, ἄνευ τοῦ διασαφεῖν καὶ δηλοῦν ὁποῖοί τινές εἰσιν οἱ γονεῖς καὶ τίνων εὐεργεσιῶν χρέος ὀφειλόμενον κελεύουσι μὴ ἀνέκτιτον ἐᾶν. {ἐν τοῖς περὶ τῶν θεῶν λόγοις καὶ μύθοις μᾶλλον δὲ τοῦτο ἰδεῖν ἔστιν ἐπ´ ἀμφοτέρων γιγνόμενον.} ὁρῶ μὲν οὖν ἔγωγε τοῖς πολλοῖς πανταχοῦ τὴν ἀκρίβειαν κοπῶδες καὶ τὰ περὶ τοὺς λόγους οὐδὲν ἧττον οἷς μέλει πλήθους μόνον, οὐδὲν {δὲ} προειπόντες οὐδὲ διαστειλάμενοι περὶ τοῦ πράγματος, οὐδὲ ἀπό τινος ἀρχῆς ἀρχόμενοι τῶν λόγων, ἀλλ´ αὐτό γε, ὥς φασιν, ἀπλύτοις ποσὶ διεξίασι τὰ φανερώτατα καὶ γυμνότατα. καὶ ποδῶν μὲν ἀπλύτων οὐ μεγάλη βλάβη διά τε πηλοῦ καὶ πολλῶν καθαρμάτων ἰόντων, γλώττης δὲ ἀνεπιστήμονος οὐ μικρὰ ζημία γίγνεται τοῖς ἀκροωμένοις. ἀλλὰ γὰρ εἰκὸς τοὺς πεπαιδευμένους, ὧν λόγον τινὰ ἔχειν ἄξιον, συνεξανύειν καὶ συνεκπονεῖν, μέχρις ἂν ὡς ἐκ καμπῆς τινος καὶ δυσχωρίας καταστήσωμεν εἰς εὐθεῖαν τοὺς λόγους.

[12,43] whereas the second and third types, which are derived from our poets and lawgivers, the former exhorting us not to withhold our gratitude from that which is older and of the same blood, besides being the author of life and being, the latter using compulsion and the threat of punishment for those who refuse obedience, without, however, making altogether clear and showing plainly just who parents are and what the acts of kindness are for which they enjoin upon us not to leave unpaid a debt which is due. But to an even greater extent do we see this to be true in both particulars in their stories and myths about the gods. Now I am well aware that to most men strict exactness in any exposition is on every occasion irksome, and that exactness in a speech is no less so for those whose sole interest is in quantity alone ; these without any preface whatever or any statements defining their subject-matter, nay, without even beginning their speeches with any beginning, but straight off with unwashen feet, as the saying is, proceed to expound things most obvions and naked to the sight. Now as for "unwashen feet," though they do no great harm when men must pass through mud and piles of refuse, yet an ignorant tongue causes no little injury to an audience. However, we may reasonably expect that the educated men of the audience, of whom one ought to take some account, will keep up with us and go through the task with us until we emerge from bypath and rough ground, as it were, and get our argument back upon the straight road.

[12,44] τριῶν δὴ προκειμένων γενέσεων τῆς δαιμονίου παρ´ ἀνθρώποις ὑπολήψεως, ἐμφύτου, ποιητικῆς, νομικῆς, τετάρτην φῶμεν τὴν πλαστικήν τε καὶ δημιουργικὴν τῶν περὶ τὰ θεῖα ἀγάλματα καὶ τὰς εἰκόνας, λέγω δὲ γραφέων τε καὶ ἀνδριαντοποιῶν καὶ λιθοξόων καὶ παντὸς ἁπλῶς τοῦ καταξιώσαντος αὑτὸν ἀποφῆναι μιμητὴν διὰ τέχνης τῆς δαιμονίας φύσεως, εἴτε σκιαγραφίᾳ μάλα ἀσθενεῖ καὶ ἀπατηλῇ πρὸς ὄψιν, χρωμάτων μίξει καὶ γραμμῆς ὅρῳ σχεδὸν τὸ ἀκριβέστατον περιλαμβανούσῃ, εἴτε λίθων γλυφαῖς εἴτε ξοάνων ἐργασίαις, κατ´ ὀλίγον τῆς τέχνης ἀφαιρούσης τὸ περιττόν, ἕως ἂν καταλίπῃ αὐτὸ τὸ φαινόμενον εἶδος, εἴτε χωνείᾳ χαλκοῦ καὶ τῶν ὁμοίων ὅσα τίμια διὰ πυρὸς ἐλαθέντων ἢ ῥυέντων ἐπί τινας τύπους, εἴτε κηροῦ πλάσει ῥᾷστα ξυνακολουθοῦντος τῇ τέχνῃ καὶ πλεῖστον ἐπιδεχομένου τὸ τῆς μετανοίας·

[12,44] Now that we have set before us three sources of man's conception of the divine being, to wit, the innate, that derived from the poets, and that derived from the lawgivers, let us name as the fourth that derived from the plastic art and the work of skilled craftsmen who make statues and likenesses of the gods —I mean painters and sculptors and masons who work in stone, in a word, everyone who has held himself worthy to come forward as a portrayer of the divine nature through the use of art, whether by means of a rough sketch, very indistinct and deceptive to the eye, or by the blending of colours and by line-drawing, which produces a result which we can almost say is the most accurate of all, or by the carving of stone, or by the craft which makes images of wood, in which the artist little by little removes the excess of material until nothing remains but the shape which the observer sees, or by the casting of bronze and the like precious metals, which are heated and then either beaten out or poured into moulds, or by the moulding of wax, which most readily answers the artist's touch and affords the greatest opportunity for change of intention.