[38]
But the fact is that you had no regard for the truth; on the contrary, you followed the calumnies of the poets, who declare that the offspring of the immortals have perpetrated as well as suffered things more atrocious than any perpetrated or suffered by the offspring of the most impious of mortals; aye, the poets have related about the gods themselves tales more outrageous than anyone would dare tell concerning their enemies. For not only have they imputed to them thefts and adulteries, and vassalage among men, but they have fabricated tales of the eating of children, the castrations of fathers, the fetterings of mothers, and many other crimes1
1 e.g., Hermes steals Apollo's oxen （HH Herm.）; the illicit love of Ares and Aphrodite （Hom. Od. 8）; Apollo, servant of Admetus （Eur. Alc.）; Cronus devours his children and mutilates his father Uranus; and Hephaestus fetters Hera.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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