of Simon in the form of Zeus, and one of Helen in the form of Athena, which they worship, calling the former Lord and the latter Lady.  And if any among them on seeing the images, calls them by the name of Simon or Helen, he is cast out as one ignorant of the mysteries.

While this Simon was leading many astray by his magic rites in Samaria, he was confuted by the apostles.  And being cursed, as it is written in the Acts, in dissatisfaction took to these schemes.  And at last he travelled to Rome and again fell in with the apostles, and Peter had many encounters with him for he continued leading numbers astray by his magic.  And towards the end of his career going ... he settled under a plane tree and continued his teachings.  And finally running the risk of exposure through the length of his stay, he said, that if he were buried alive, he would rise again on the third day.  And he did actually order a grave to be dug by his disciples and told them to bury him.  So they carried out his orders, but he has stopped away[42] until the present day, for he was not the Christ.

vi.  Origenes (Contra Celsum, i. 57; v. 62; vi. ii).  Text (edidit Carol.  Henric.  Eduard); Lommatzsch; Berolini, 1846.

i. 57.  And Simon also, the Samaritan magician, endeavoured to steal away certain by his magic.  And at that time he succeeded in deceiving them, but in our own day I do not think it possible to find thirty Simonians altogether in the inhabited world.  And probably I have said more than they really are.  There are a very few of them round Palestine; but in the rest of the world his name is nowhere to be found in the sense of the doctrine he wished to spread broadcast concerning himself.  And alongside of the reports about him, we have the account from the Acts.  And they who say these things about him are Christians and their clear witness is that Simon was nothing divine.

v. 62.  Then pouring out a quantity of our names, he (Celsus) says he knows certain Simonians who are called Heleniani, because they worship Helen or a teacher Helenus.  But Celsus is ignorant that the Simonians in no way confess that Jesus is the Son of God, but they say that Simon is the Power of God, telling some marvellous stories about the fellow, who thought that if he laid claim to like powers as those which he thought Jesus laid claim to, he also would be as powerful among men as Jesus is with many.

vi. ii.  For the former (Simon) pretended he was the Power of God, which is called Great, and the latter (Dositheus) that he too was the Son of God.  For nowhere in the world do the Simonians any longer exist.  Moreover by getting many under his influence Simon took away from his disciples the danger of death, which Christians were taught was taken away, teaching them that there was no difference between it and idolatry.  And yet in the beginning the Simonians were not plotted against.  For the evil daemon who plots against the teaching of Jesus, knew that no counsel of his own would be undone by the disciples of Simon.

vii.  Philastrius (De Haeresibus, i).  Text:  Patres Quarti Ecclesiae Saeculi (edidit D.A.B.  Caillau); Paris, 1842.