The sources of De legendis gentilium libris

1. Epistle to the Romans Paul 1 authority 1 citation

   de legendis gentilium libris

   Paul is named directly as the source of the cited exhortation.

   or else we must cling to it only so far—as Plato says—as we win from it a service for philosophy, speaking somewhat like Paul, who exhorts that we should take no forethought for the body unto the occasion of lusts.

2. Hippolytus Euripides 1 neutral 1 citation

   de legendis gentilium libris

   The line is attributed to Euripides and reported as spoken by a hypothetical hypocrite, not endorsed outright by the narrator.

   But "the tongue has sworn, the mind is unsworn," he will say with Euripides, and will pursue the seeming good before the being good.

3. Homer 1 neutral 1 citation

   de legendis gentilium libris

   The passage explicitly hedges attribution ('if indeed these verses are Homer's'), marking a neutral, reportive stance.

   Then ease would be worth much in life, and Sardanapalus would be borne to first place of all in happiness, or Margites too, if you like, whom Homer said was neither ploughman nor digger nor any other thing useful for life—if indeed these verses are Homer's.

4. Odyssey Homer 1 extended 1 citation · 4 passages

   de legendis gentilium libris 4 passages anchored here

   Homer's epic is explicitly interpreted and quoted as bearing a moral meaning about virtue.

   As I once heard from a man skilled in discerning a poet's meaning, the whole poetry of Homer is a praise of virtue, and everything in it bears toward this, except what is by-work—and not least in those passages where he has portrayed the leader of the Cephallenians, saved naked from the shipwreck.

5. Phaedo Plato 1 authority 1 citation

   de legendis gentilium libris

   Plato is named directly as source for the teaching on subordinating bodily service to philosophy.

   or else we must cling to it only so far—as Plato says—as we win from it a service for philosophy, speaking somewhat like Paul, who exhorts that we should take no forethought for the body unto the occasion of lusts.

6. Republic Plato 1 authority 1 citation

   de legendis gentilium libris

   Plato is named directly and his view is invoked as decisive ('if we are to believe Plato at all').

   Yet this is the uttermost limit of injustice, if we are to believe Plato at all:

7. Works and Days Hesiod 1 authority 1 citation · 5 passages

   de legendis gentilium libris 5 passages anchored here

   Hesiod is named directly multiple times as author of quoted or paraphrased verses used as moral authority.

   Or with what other intent are we to suppose that Hesiod composed those verses which all men sing, than to urge the young to virtue—how the road that leads to virtue is at first rough and hard to travel, full of much sweat and toil, and steep?

8. the Psalms David 1 authority 1 citation

   de legendis gentilium libris

   David is named directly as author of the sacred songs invoked as authoritative moral music.

   But we must pursue the other kind, the better, the one that leads to the better—the very kind that David, the poet of the sacred songs, used, when, as they say, he restored the king from his madness.

Each stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.

de legendis gentilium libris 12 sources

Dorian proverb · an unnamed tragedy · discourse on the choice of Heracles · elegiac sayings of Solon · elegies of Theognis · fable of the fox · sayings and teachings of Pythagoras · sayings of Bias · sayings of Diogenes · sayings of Pittacus · sayings of Socrates · the Gospels (Sermon on the Mount teachings)