Edwin Hatch provided a colorful portrait of the religious world to which Justin Martyr belonged: «The main subject-matter of . . . literary education [amongst the pagans] was the poets. . . . They were read as we read the Bible. They were committed to memory. The minds of men were saturated with them. A quotation from Homer or from a tragic poet was apposite on all occasions and in every kind of society» (The Influence of Greek Ideas on Christianity, 1957). So when some of these pagans converted...
