One Nation’s God Is Another’s Sacrifice

This, then, is no slight proof of their real godlessness. Since the gods of every city and country are many and various, and each destroys the god of the other, all of them are destroyed by all. For the beings some count as gods are offered as sacrifices and drink offerings to the so-called gods of others, and the victims of some are in turn the gods of others. So the Egyptians serve the ox, and Apis, a calf, while others sacrifice these animals to Zeus. For even if they do not sacrifice the very animals the others have consecrated, still by sacrificing their fellows they seem to offer the same. The Libyans have for a god a sheep, which they call Ammon, and among other nations this animal is slaughtered as a victim to many gods. [a]

The Indians worship Dionysus, using the name as a symbol for wine, while others pour out wine as an offering to the other gods. Others honor rivers and springs, and above all the Egyptians pay special honor to water, calling the waters gods. And yet others, even the Egyptians who worship the waters, use them to wash the dirt off others and off themselves, and throw away what they have used with contempt. Indeed nearly the whole Egyptian system of idols consists of things that are victims to the gods of other nations. So they are scorned even by those others for making gods of what are not gods, but are, both elsewhere and even among themselves, offerings to win favor and victims for sacrifice.