Firmicus Maternus, Julius, De errore profanarum religionum

Fuit etiam alius Liber aput Thebus tyrannus magicae artis potestate perspicuus. hic cum muliebres animos uenenis quibusdam et carminibus occupasset, pro arbitrio suo crudelia facinora furentibusimperabat, ut mente captas nobiles feminas et libidinum ministras haberet et scelerum. qui qualia fecerit scelera uel quantum matri contra filium uel sororibus contra fratrem imperauerit facinus, in scaenis cottidie a tragici carminis auctoribus traditur, ut scelerati tyranni facinerosa crudelitas in animis audientium funestis semper relationibus renascatur.

There was also another Liber at Thebes, a tyrant renowned for the power of the magic art. When he had taken possession of women's minds with certain drugs and spells, he ordered the frenzied women to commit cruel crimes at his pleasure, so that he might have noble women, captured in mind, as servants both of his lusts and of his crimes. What crimes he committed, and how great a deed he ordered a mother to do against her son, or sisters against a brother, is told every day on the stage by the authors of tragic poetry, so that the wicked cruelty of the criminal tyrant may be born again forever in the minds of the audience through these grim narrations.

dicant nunc mihi perditi homines: quis potior est, qui uocat et imperat et includit, an qui uocatur et paret et cum uenerit in suscipientis hominis corpore potestate iubentis includitur? gratias agimus, Porphyri, libris tuis: deorum tuorum nobis substantiam prodidisti: didicimus per te quatenus dii tui hominibus iubentibus seruiant. Serapis tuus ab homine uocatur et uenit et cum uenerit statim iussus includitur et loquendi necessitas nolenti forsitan imperatur.

Let these lost men tell me now: who is the stronger, he who calls, commands and shuts in, or he who is called, obeys, and, when he has come, is shut into the body of the man who receives him by the power of the one who commands? We give thanks, Porphyry, to your books: you have betrayed to us the substance of your gods; we have learned through you how far your gods are slaves to men who command them. Your Serapis is called by a man, and comes; and when he has come, he is at once shut in on command, and the necessity of speaking is laid on him, perhaps against his will.