Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Commodianus/The Instructions of Commodianus/Chapter 17

XVI.&#8212;Of the Gods and Goddesses.

Ye say that they are gods who are plainly cruel, and ye say that genesis assigns the fates to you.&#160; Now, then, say to whom first of all sacred rites are paid.&#160; Between the ways on either side immature death is straying.&#160; If the fates give the generations, why do you pray to the god?&#160; Thou art vainly deceived who art seeking to beseech the manes, and thou namest them to be lords over thee who are fabricated.&#160; Or, moreover, I know not what women you pray to as goddesses&#8212;Bellona and Nemesis the goddesses, together with the celestial Fury, the Virgins and Venus, for whom your wives are weak in the loins.&#160; Besides, there are in the lanes other demons which are not as yet numbered, and are worn on the neck, so that they themselves cannot give to themselves an account.&#160; Plagues ought rather to be exported to the ends of the earth.