Devious polemics: Jews and Egyptians in Diogenes of Oenoanda

The paper discusses the attack waged against Egyptians and Jews in the inscription of Diogenes of Oenoanda. It focuses on epigraphic evidence revealing the existence of Roman-era Lycians adhering to Egyptian cults and Judaism. The paper contends that through this attack Diogenes was trying to discredit the Egyptian and Jewish cults in Lycia. It supports the view that the false beliefs spreading ‘like a plague’ [cf. fr.2 Smith (=HK fr. 59), cols. II.4 – III.4, and fr.3 Smith (=HK 57 + 58), cols. IV.3 – V.8] are not only Platonism, Stoicism, or theistic trends in Greek and local religion, but also the foreign cults in Lycia (Isis, Osiris, Anoubis, Jahwe). The paper adds to the equation the cult of Θεός Ὕψιστος, a syncretistic (monotheistic?) blend of Zeus and Jahwe, whose presence is well attested at Oenoanda. It is argued that there is a possibility that Diogenes might also attack the Christians when referring to ‘Jews’, since he could well regard them as a Jewish sect.