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Is it, then, an unholy thing to speak meanly of the gods, but not unholy to have a mean opinion of them? Or does the opinion of him who speaks malignly make his utterance improper? It is a fact that we hold up malign speaking as a sign of animosity, and those who speak ill of us we regard as enemies, since we feel that they must also think ill of us. You see what kind of thoughts the superstitious have about the gods; they assume that the gods are rash, faithless, fickle, vengeful, cruel, and easily offended; and, as a result, the superstitious man is bound to hate and fear the gods. Why not, since he thinks that the worst of his ills are due to them, and will be due to them in the future? As he hates and fears the gods, he is an enemy to them. And yet, though he dreads them, he worships them and sacrifices to them and besieges their shrines; and this is nothing surprising; for it is equally true that men give welcome to despots, and pay court to them, and erect golden statues in their honour, but in their hearts they hate them and shake the head. Sophocles, Antigone, 291. Hermolaüs Cf. Plutarch, Life of Alexander, chap. lv. (p. 696 C). attended upon Alexander, Pausanias It is said that Pausanias later helped to kill Philip. Cf. Aristotle, Politics, v. 10; Diodorus Siculus, xv. 94-95; Aelian, Varia Historia, iii. 45; Valerius Maximus, i. 8, ext. 9. served as bodyguard for Philip, and Chaerea Cassius Chaerea fomented the conspiracy which resulted in the death of Caligula; cf. Tacitus, Annals, i. 32; Suetonius, Caligula, 56-58. for Gaius Caligula, yet each one of these must have said as he followed along: Verily I would have vengeance if only my strength were sufficient. Homer, Il. xxii. 20.
