1The author left Greek ways because Homer's heroes are slaves of lust, deceit, and madness.
2Hesiod's gods commit parricide, rape, adultery, and pederasty, and their roles are absurdly confused.
3Heracles' labours end in shameful subjection to women, and Greek tragedy is full of crimes among gods and heroes.
4Greek festivals breed excess and licentiousness; Greeks condemn in their families what they honour in their gods.
5The Greeks should come to the divine Word, who makes mortals immortal by driving the passions from the soul and restoring it to its Maker.
About this work
Author
Anonymous
Attribution
spurious · Transmitted under Justin's name (in the manuscripts and in Migne's Justin volume), but not his: its style, vocabulary and arguments differ from the First Apology and the Dialogue with Trypho, and Eusebius does not list it among his works. Migne prints it as Justin's Discourse to the Greeks (Λόγος πρὸς Ἕλληνας), a short attack on the immorality of the Greek gods and an invitation to the Christian teaching. A few scholars have defended it as Justin's; most do not.
Standing
Not honoured as a saint or in a church calendar by the Catholic, Orthodox, or Protestant traditions. Anonymous or pseudonymous work read and used in the church of its time.
Older English translation
Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 1 (1885) (public domain, at CCEL; for comparison: our translation is made from the original first and checked against it afterwards) · ANF 1 prints it as "Discourse to the Greeks" in 5 chapters; the numbering is the same as Migne's.
Date
2nd–3rd century (disputed) (disputed) · Date unknown; the attribution to Justin (d. ca. 165) is not generally accepted.
Written at
Unknown (disputed)
Language
Greek
Genre
apology
Reference system
chapter (1–5, as in Migne's PG 6 and ANF)
SBL abbreviation
Or. Graec.Not yet checked
Clavis
CPG number not yet checked
Text from
J.-P. Migne, ed., Patrologiae cursus completus, Series Graeca 6 (Paris: Migne, 1857), cols. 229–240 (Printed edition in the public domain; OCR transcription of public-domain page images)
Critical editions
Miroslav Marcovich, ed., Pseudo-Iustinus: Cohortatio ad Graecos; De monarchia; Oratio ad Graecos, PTS 32 (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1990) (cited, not reproduced)