Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Commodianus/The Instructions of Commodianus/Chapter 16

by Commodianus

XV.—Hercules.

Hercules, because he destroyed the monster of the Aventine Mount, who had been wont to steal the herds of Evander, is a god:  the rustic mind of men, untaught also, when they wished to return thanks instead of praise to the absent thunderer, senselessly vowed victims as to a god to be besought, they made milky altars as a memorial to themselves.  Thence it arises that he is worshipped in the ancient manner.  But he is no god, although he was strong in arms.