The True Lie Is Unacceptable

The gods are themselves unchangeable.

They cannot appear in various forms by witchcraft and deception just as no one is willingly deceived in the truest and highest part of himself, or in the truest and highest matters.

Above all, man is most afraid of being possessed by a lie. The soul is the highest part of the people. Being deceived about the highest realities is what mankind utterly detests. This can be called “the true lie”.

The lie in words is only a kind of imitation of a previous affection of the soul. It is not pure unadulterated falsehood. The true lie is hated not only by the gods, but also by men.

Whereas the lie in words is in certain cases useful and not hateful. We tell lies to our enemies. We tell lies when our friends go mad, in order to prevent them from doing harm. We do not know the truth about ancient times, so we turn lies into truth as much as we can.

But God has no reason or motive to tell any lies. God does not lie from His fear of enemies. God does not lie to senseless friends because a senseless person cannot be a friend of God. Therefore, the superhuman and divine is absolutely incapable of falsehood.

Then God is perfectly simple and true both in word and deed.

• He does not change.
• He does not deceive.

This is the second quality of divine things. The gods are not magicians who transform themselves. They do not deceive mankind in any way.

We admire Homer, but we do not admire the lying dream which Zeus sends to Agamemnon. We neither praise the verses of Aeschylus in which Thetis says that: