Notable Quotes
The gods of Greece and Rome were men:
"Most of the writers who discuss the same topics that Homer discusses, and also most of the various local traditions, can teach us that these matters are not fictions of poets nor yet of prose writers, but are traces of real persons and events." ~ Strabo

They were extraordinary men:
“For some readers set up an unfair standard and require in the accounts of the ancient myths the same exactness as in the events of our own time, and using their own life as a standard they pass judgment … and estimate the might of Heracles by the weakness of the men of our day…” ~ Diodorus

Eternal gods vs. deified heroes:
“Men of ancient times have handed down … two different conceptions: Certain of the gods, they say, are eternal and imperishable, such as the sun and moon and the other stars of the heavens… But the other gods, we are told, were terrestrial beings who attained to immortal honour and fame because of their benefactions to mankind, such as Heracles, Dionysus, Aristaeus, and the others who were like them.” ~ Diodorus

Heroes were worshiped:
"On the death of Lycurgus they built him a temple, and ever since they have worshiped him with the utmost reverence." ~ Herodotus

Some gods ended up in the Bible (Gen. 10:8-12):
"They say that Ninus was the first to rule over all the inhabitants of Asia, except for the Indians." ~ Eusebius

The religion of paganism is false; the history that started it is not:
“…they followed fables, and by their discourses transferred the most reproachful of human vices unto the gods, and afforded wicked men the most plausible excuses for their crimes…” ~ Josephus
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