Thursday, March 25, 2021

Pseudo-Justin Martyr's Hortatory Address to the Greeks: Homer Teaching Satan was a Fallen Angel in The Iliad

In chapter 28 of Hortatory Address to the Greeks, the author (“pseudo-Justin Martyr”), evidencing his belief that Satan was a fallen angel, stated that Homer affirmed such a belief in his The Iliad:

 

And the same holds good regarding the enemy of mankind who was cast out of heaven, whom the Sacred Scriptures call the Devil, a name which he obtained from his first devilry against man; and if any one would attentively consider the matter, he would find that the poet, though he certainly never mentions the name of the devil, yet gives him a name from his wickedest action. For the poet, calling him Ate, says that he was hurled from heaven by their god, just as if he had a distinct remembrance of the expressions which Isaiah the prophet had uttered regarding him. He wrote thus in his own poem: —

 

And, seizing by her glossy locks
The goddess Ate, in his wrath he swore
That never to the starry skies again,
And the Olympian heights, he would permit
The universal mischief to return.
Then, whirling her around, he cast her down
To earth. She, mingling with all works of men,
Caused many a pang to Jove.