The Seventh Oration is directed against the Cynic Heracleios, who had ventured to recite before an audience when Julian was present a myth or allegory in which the gods were irreverently handled. Julian raises the question whether fables and myths are suitable for a Cynic discourse. He names the regular divisions of philosophy and decides that the use of myths may properly be allowed only to ethical philosophers and writers on theology: that myth is intended always as a means of religious teaching and should be addressed to children and those whose intellect does not allow them to envisage the truth without some such assistance. In Sallust's treatise On the Gods and the World he gives much the same account of the proper function of myths and divides them into five species, giving examples of each. “To wish to teach the whole truth about the gods to all produces contempt in the foolish, because they cannot understand, and lack of zeal in the good; whereas to conceal the truth by myths prevents the contempt of the foolish and compels the good to practise philosophy.”112 This is precisely the opinion of Julian as expressed [pg 070] in the Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Orations. Though both Julian and Sallust explain the myths away they are never rationalistic, and never offer the least excuse for scepticism. Julian's explanation of the Semele myth,113 which makes Semele an inspired prophetess and not the mother of Dionysus, tends to the greater glory of the god. The conclusion is that Heracleios should not have used myth at all, but in any case he used the wrong sort and wrote in the wrong spirit. He should have used such a myth as that composed by Prodicus the sophist on the Choice of Heracles at the Crossroads, an allegory which is more than once cited by Julian and was a favourite illustration in later Greek literature.114
To show Heraclius what he might have written with propriety Julian adds a parable of his own modelled on that of Prodicus. In this he himself plays the part of a second Heracles, and takes the opportunity to vilify Constantius and point out his own mission of reformer and restorer of order and religion to the Empire. Throughout the parable there are striking resemblances with the First Oration of Dio Chrysostom, and Asmus115 has made a detailed comparison of the two writers to prove that Julian wrote with Dio before him. In many of these parallels both Julian and Dio can be traced to a common classical source, usually Plato, but there is no doubt that Julian was thoroughly familiar with [pg 071] the work of Dio and often used the same illustrations. Themistius116 however uses the Prodicus myth in much the same words as Dio, and it is imitated also by Maximus of Tyre.117
In conclusion Julian praises the earlier Cynics and criticises the later, in much the same words as he had used in the Sixth Oration.