Philo of Alexandria, On the Eternity of the World 55–7 (part = Critolaus, fr. 13 Wehrli 1969b)

Critolaus, one of those who cultivate the Muses, a follower of the Peripatetic philosophy, supporting the doctrine of the eternity of the world used arguments like these: ‘if the world has come to be, it is necessary that the earth too has come to be; if the earth is subject to coming-to-be, certainly the human race [will be so too]; but man is not subject to coming-to-be, since the race has existed from eternity, as will be shown. So the world too is eternal.’ (2) What has been passed over must now be established, if indeed demonstration is needed for things that are so clear; but it is necessary, as it seems, because of the contrivers of fables, who have filled life with lies and banished truth beyond its boundaries, forcing not only cities and households but each individual also to be bereft of the best of possessions, and who have contrived enticing style, metres and rhythms as a bait to trap people; with these they cast spells on the ears of fools, as ugly and loathsome courtesans bewitch the eyes by attached and spurious adornment for want of the genuine. For they say that the coming-to-be of human beings from one another is a recent work of nature, and that coming-to-be from the earth was more original and older, since she both is and is thought to be the mother of all; the Sown Men of whom the Greeks sing grew as trees do now, the complete and fully-armed sons of Earth. That this is a contrived fable is easy to see from many things . . .

Philo of Alexandria, On the Eternity of the World 70 (Critolaus, fr. 12 Wehrli 1969b)

Continuing his contention Critolaus also used an argument like the following: ‘what is the cause of its own health does not suffer disease. What is the cause of its own wakefulness, too, does not sleep. But if this is so, what is the cause of its own existence is eternal. But the world is the cause of its own existence, if it is the cause [of the existence] of all other things. So the world is eternal.’