are compelled to urge the same reply against them, that no one of them was worth so much 9 Vitii pueritatem.
»o Recipere (with a dative).
" Ignotis Deis. Comp. Acts xvii. 23.
•2 Ut bulbi. This is the passage which Augustine quotes {de Civit. Dei, vii. i) as "too facetious."
13 Adventicii, "coming from abroad."
'4 Touching these gods of the vanquished natioas, compare The Apology, XXV.; below, c. xvii.; Minucius Felix, Octav. xicv.
AD NATIONES.
[book II.
pains. Their fond ' father ^neas, in whom they believed, was never glorious, and was felled with a stone ^ — a vulgar weapon, to pelt a dog withal, inflicting a wound no less ig- noble! But this ^neas turns out^ a traitor to his country; yes, quite as much as Antenor. And if they will not believe this to be true of him, he at any rate deserted his companions when his country was in flames, and must be held inferior to that woman of Carthage,'* who, when her husband Hasdrubal supplicated the enemy with the mild pusillanimity of our ^neas, refused to accompany him, but hurry- ing her children along with her, disdained to take her beautiful self and father's noble hearts into exile, but plunged into the flames of the burning Carthage, as if rushing into the embraces of her (dear but) ruined coun- try. Is he " pious ^neas " for (rescuing) his young only son and decrepid old father, but deserting Priam and Astyanax? But the Romans ought rather to detest him; for in defence of their princes and their royal ^ house, they surrender ' even children and wives, and every dearest pledge.^ They deify the son of Venus, and this with the full knowl- edge and consent of her husband Vulcan, and without opposition from even Juno. Now, if sons have seats in heaven owing to their piety to their parents, why are not those noble youths 5 of Argos rather accounted gods, be- cause they, to save their mother from guilt in the performance of some sacred rites, with a devotion more than human, yoked themselves to her car and dragged her to the temple? Why not make a goddess, for her exceeding piety, of that daughter'" who from her own breasts nourished her father who was famish- ing in prison? What other glorious achieve- ment can be related of ^neas, but that he was nowhere seen in the fight on the field of Laurentum? Following his bent, perhaps he fled a second time as a fugitive from the battle." In like manner, Romulus posthu- mously becomes a god. Was it because he founded the city? Then why not others also, who have built cities, counting even " women? To be sure, Romulus slew his brother in the ' Diligentem.
3lnvenitur.
4 Referred to also above, i. 18.
5 The obscure " formam et patrem"is by Oehler rendered " pulchritudinem et generis nobilitatem."
6 The word is "eorum" (possessive of " principum "), not "suae."
7 Dejerant adversus.
8 What TertuUian himself thinks on this point, see his de Corona, xi.
9 Cleobis and Biton; see Herodotus i, 31.
«» We need not stay to point out the unfairness of this state- ment, in contrast with the exploits of >Eneas against Turnus, as detailed in the last books of the yEneid.
la Usque in.
la Usque in.
bargain, and trickishly ravished some foreign virgins. Therefore of course he becomes a god, and therefore a Quirinus ("god of the spear "), because then their fathers had to use the spear '^ on his account. What did Sterculus do to merit deification? If he worked hard to enrich the fields stercoribus,^* (with manure,) Augias had more dung than he to bestow on them. If Faunus, the son of Picus, used to do violence to law and right, because struck with madness, it was more fit that he should be doctored than deified. 's If the daughter of Faunus so excelled in chastity, that she would hold no conversation with men, it was perhaps from rudeness, or a con- sciousness of deformity, or shame for her father's insanity. How much worthier of di- vine honour than this " good goddess " '* was Penelope, who, although dwelling among so many suitors of the vilest character, preserved with delicate tact the purity which they as- sailed! There is Sanctus, too,'^ who for his hospitality had a temple consecrated to him by king Plotius; and even Ulysses had it in his power to have bestowed one more god upon you in the person of the most refined Alcinous.
CHAP. X. A DISGRACEFUL FEATURE OF THE ROMAN MYTHOLOGY. IT HONOURS SUCH IN- FAMOUS CHARACTERS AS LARENTINA.
I hasten to even more abominable cases. Your writers have not been ashamed to publish that of Larentina. She was a hired prostitute, whether as the nurse of Romulus, and there- fore called Lupa, because she was a prostitute, or as the mistress of Hercules, now deceased, that is to say, now deified. They'* relate that his temple-warder '' happened to be playing' at dice in the temple alone; and in order to rep- resent a partner for himself in the game, in the absence of an actual one, he began to play with one hand for Hercules and the other for himself. (The condition was,) that if he won the stakes from Hercules, he should with them procure a supper and a prostitute; if Hercules, ^however, proved the winner, I mean his other hand, then he should provide the same for Hercules. The hand of Hercules won. That achievement might well have been added to his twelve labours! The temple-warden buys a supper for the hero, and hires Larentina to play the whore. The fire which dissolved the 13 We have thus rendered " quiritatem est," to preserve as far as one could the pun on the deified hero of the Quirites.
14 We insert the Latin, to show the pun on Sterculus; see The Apology, c. XXV. [See p. 40, suf>ra.'\ 15 Curaria quam consecrari.
«6 Bona Dea, i.e., the daup;hter of Faunus just mentioned. '7 See Livy, viii. 20, xxxii. i; Ovid, Fasti, vi. 213, etc. Com- pare also Augustine, de Civ. Dei, xviii. 19. [Tom, vii. p. 576.]
'8 Compare Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vi. 7. [Tom. vii. p. 1S4.J »9iEditura ejus.
CHAT XI.1 AD NATIONES.
body of even a Hercules ' enjoyed the supper, and the altar consumed everything. Larentina sleeps alone in the temple; and she a woman from the brothel, boasts that in her dreams she had submitted herself to the pleasure of Her- cules;^ and she might possibly have experi- enced this, as it passed through her mind, in her sleep. In the morning, on going out of the temple very early, she is solicited by a young man — " a third Hercules," so to speak. ^ He invites her home. She complies, remem- bering that Hercules had told her that it would be for her advantage. He then, to be sure, obtains permission that they should be united in lawful wedlock (for none was allowed to have intercourse with the concubine of a god without being punished for it); the husband makes her his heir. By and by, just before her death, she bequeathed to the Roman people the rather large estate which she had obtained through Hercules. After this she sought deification for her daughters too, whom indeed the divine Larentina ought to have appointed her heirs also. The gods, of the Romans received an accession in her dignity. For she alone of all the wives of Hercules was dear to him, because she alone was rich; and she was even far more fortunate than Ceres, v/ho contributed to the pleasure of the (king of the) dead.-* After so many examples and eminetit names among you, who might not have been declared divine? Who, in fact, ever raised a question as to his divinity against Antinous? '" Was even Ganymede more grate- ful and dear than he to (the supreme god) who loved him? According to you, heaven is open to the dead. You prepare * a way from Hades to the stars. Prostitutes mount it in all direc- tions, so that you must not suppose that you are conferring a great distinction upon your kings.
CHAP. XI. THE ROMANS PROVIDED GODS FOR BIRTH, NAY, EVEN BEFORE BIRTH, TO DEATH. MUCH INDELICACY IN THIS SYSTEM.
And you are not content to assert the di- vinity of such as were once known to you, whom you heard and handled, and whose portraits have been painted, and actions recounted, and memory retained amongst you; but men insist upon consecrating with a heavenly life ^ I know ' That is, when he mounted the pyre.
^Herculi functam. " Fungi alicui" means to satisfy, or yield lO.
3 The well-known Greek saying, 'AAAos oCtos "HpaKA^t.
4 Pluto; Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, is meant. Oehler once preferred to read, " Hebe, quae mortuo placuit," i.e., " than Hebe, who gratified Hercules after death."
5 TertuUian often refers indignantly to this atrocious case.
* Subigitis.
1 Efflagitant coelc et sanciunt, (i.e., " they insist on deifying.")
not what incorporeal, inanimate shadows, and the mere names of things — dividing man's entire existence amongst separate powers even from his conception in the womb: so that there is a god Consevius,* to preside over con- cubital generation; and Fluviona,9to preserve the (growth of the) infant in the womb; after these come Vitumnus and Sentinus," through whom the babe begins to have life and its earliest sensation; then Diespiter," by whose office the child accomplishes its birth. But when women begin their parturition, Candelif- era also comes in aid, since childbearing re- quires the light of the candle; and other god- desses there are '^ who get their names from the parts they bear in the stages of travail. There were two Carmentas likewise, according to the general view: to one of them, called Postverta, belonged the function of assisting the birth of the introverted child; while the other, Prosa,'' executed the like office for the rightly born. The god Farinus was so called from (his in- spiring) the first utterance; while others be- lieved in Locutius from his gift of speech. Cunina'* is present as the protector of the child's deep slumber, and supplies to it re- freshing rest. To lift them (when fallen)'^ there is Levana, and along with her Rumina.'* It is a wonderful oversight that no gods were appointed for cleaning up the filth of chil- dren. Then, to preside over their first pap and earliest drink you have Potina and Edula;'' to teach the child to stand erect is the work of Statina,'^ whilst Adeona helps him to come to dear Mamma, 3ind Abeonato toddle off again; then there is Domiduca,'' (to bring home the bride;) and the goddess Mens, to influence the mind to either good or evil.^ They have likewise Volumnus and Voleta," to control the will; Paventina, (the goddess) of fear; Venilia, of hope;^ Volupia, of pleasure;^ Praestitia, of beauty.^" Then, again, they give his name to Peragenor,^5 from his teaching men to go through their work; to Consus, from his sug- SComp. Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vi. 9.
9 A name of Juno, in reference to her office to mothers, " quia earn sanguinis fluorem in conceptu retinere putabant." Comp. August, de Civ. Dei, iii. 2.
'0 Comp. August, de Civ. Dei, vii. 2, 3.
" Comp. August, de Civ. Dei, iv. 11.
'2 Such as Lucina, Partula, Nona, Decima, Alemona.
13 Or, Prorsa.
'4 "Quae infantes in cunis (in their cradle) tuetur." Comp, August, de Civ. Dei, iv. 11.
15 Educatrix; Augustine says: " Ipse le vet de terra et rocetur dea Le7'ana " (de Civ. Dei, iv. 11).
»6 From the old word ruma, a teat.
»7 Comp. August, de Civ. Dei, iv. 9, u, 36.
18 See also TertuUian 's de Anittia, xxxix.; and Augustine's tie Civ. Dei, iv. 21, where the god has the masculine name o£ Siatilinus.
19 See Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vi. 9 and vii. 3.
■^zJbid. iv. II. [N.B. — Augustine's borrowing from our author.]
24 Amobius, adv. Nationes, iv. 3.
25 Augustine, de Civ. Dei. [iv. 1 1 and j6] mentions Agenoria.
AD NATIONES.
[book 11.
gesting to them counsel, Juventa is their guide on assuming the manly gown, and '^' bearded Fortune ' ' when they come to full manhood.' If I must touch on their nuptial duties, there is Afferenda whose appointed function is to see to the offering of the dower; but fie on you! you have your Mutunus^and Tutunus and Pertunda^ and Subigus and the goddess Prema and likewise Perfica." O spare yourselves, ye impudent gods! No one is present at the secret struggles of married life. Those very few persons who have a wish that way, go away and blush for very shame in the midst of their joy.
CHAP. XII. S — THE ORIGINAL DEITIES WERE HUMAN — WITH SOME VERY QUESTIONABLE CHARACTERISTICS. SATURN OR TIME WAS HUMAN. INCONSISTENCIES OF OPINION ABOUT HIM.
Now, how much further need I go in re- counting your gods — because I want to des- cant on the character of such as you have adopted? It is quite uncertain whether I shall laugh at your absurdity, or upbraid you for your blindness. For how many, and in- deed what, gods shall I bring forward? Shall it be the greater ones, or the lesser? The old ones, or the novel? The male, or the female? The unmarried, or such as are joined in wed- lock? The clever, or the unskilful? The rustic or the town ones? The national or the foreign? For the truth is,* there are so many families, so many nations, which require a catalogue '' (of gods), that they cannot possibly be examined, or distinguished, or described. But the more diffuse the subject is, the more restriction must we impose on it. As, there- fore, in this review we keep before us but one object — that of proving that all these gods were once human beings (not, indeed, to in- struct you in the fact,* for your conduct shows that you have forgotten it) — let us adopt our compendious summary from the most natural method 9 of conducting the examination, even t^y considering the origin of their race. For che origin characterizes all that comes after It. Now this origin of your gods dates," I suppose, from Saturn. And when Varro men- • On Fortuna Bartata, see Augustine, tie Ct7'. Dti, iv. 11, where he also names Consits anA Juventa.
~ Terttilli.an, in Apol. xxv. sarcastically says, " Sterculus, and Mutunus, and Larentina, have raised the empire to its present height."
3 Arnobius, ad7i. Nationes, iv. 7, 11; August, de Civ. Dei, vi. 9.
4 I''or these three gods, see Augustine, de CiT. Dei, vi. 9; and Arnobius, adv. Nationes, iv. 7.
6 Bona fide. ' Censum.
8 'rhere is here an omitted claiise, supplied in The Apology, " but rather to recall it to your memory."
9 Ab ipsa ratione. "^ Signatur.
tions Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, as the most ancient of the gods, it ought not to have es- caped our notice, that every father is more ancient than his sons, and that Saturn there- fore must precede Jupiter, even as Coelus does Saturn, for Saturn was sprung from Coelus and Terra. I pass by, however, the origin of Coelus and Terra. They led in some unac- countable way " single lives, and had no chil- dren. Of course they required a long time for vigorous growth to attain to such a stature." By and by, as soon as the voice of Coelus began to break, '^ and the breasts of Terra to become firm,'* they contract marriage with one another. I suppose either Heaven '^ came down to his spouse, or Earth went up to meet her lord. Be that as it may, Earth conceived seed of Heaven, and when her year was ful- filled brought forth Saturn in a wonderful manner. Which of his parents did he resem- ble? Well, then, even after parentage began,'* it is certain '' that they had no child previous to Saturn, and only one daughter afterwards — Ops; thenceforth they ceased to procreate. The truth is, Saturn castrated Coelus as he was sleeping. We read this name Coelus as of the masculine gender. And for the matter of that, how could he be a father unless he were a male? But with what instrument was the castration effected."* He had a scythe. What, so early as that? For Vulcan was not yet an artificer in iron. The widowed Terra, however, although still quite young, was in no hurry'* to marry another. Indeed, there was no second Coelus for her. What but Ocean offers her an embrace? But he savours of brackishness, and she has been accustomed to fresh water. '9 And so Saturn is the sole male child of Coelus and Terra. When grown to puberty, he marries his own sister. No laws as yet prohibited incest, nor punished parri- cide. Then, when male children were born to him, he would devour them; better himself (should take them) than the wolves, (for to these would they become a prey) if he exposed them. He was, no doubt, afraid that one of them might learn the lesson of his father's scythe. When Jupiter was born in course of time, he was removed out of the way:" (the father) swallowed a stone instead of the son, as was pretended. This artifice secured his safety for a time; but at length the son, whom " Undeunde. '-Tantam proceritatem.
" Insolescere, i.e., at the commencement ot puberty. ■4 Lapilliscere, i.e., to indicate maturity. «5 The nominative " coeluni " is used.
J6 It is not very clear what is the force of " sed et pepererit,'' as read by Oehler; we have given the clause an impersonal turn. '7 " Certe " is sometime " certo ' in cur author. •8 Distulit.
'(' That is, to rain and cloud. 30 Abalienato.
CHAP,. XII.J AD NATIONES.
he had not devoured, and who had grown up in secret, fell upon him, and deprived him of his kingdom. Such, then, is the patriarch of the gods whom Heaven ' and Earth produced for you, with the poets officiating as midwives. Now some persons with a refined - imagination are of opinion that, by this allegorical fable of Saturn, there is a physiological representation of Ti?ne: (they think) that it is because all things are destroyed by Time, that Coelus and Terra were themselves parents without having any of their own, and that the (fatal) scythe was used, and that (Saturn) devoured his own offspring, because he,^ in fact, absorbs within himself all things which have issued from him. They call in also the witness of his name; for they say that he is called VLpdvoq in Greek, meaning the same thing as xpo^oq-^ His Latin name also they derive from seed-sowing;^ for they suppose him to have been the actual procreator — that the seed, in fact, was dropt down from heaven to earth by his means. They unite him with Ops, because seeds pro- duce the affluent treasure \Openi) of actual life, and because they develope with labour (jDpus). Now I wish that you would explain this meta- phorical ^ statement. It was either Saturn or Time. If it was Time, how could it be Saturn?
If he, how could it be Time? For you cannot possibly reckon both these corporeal subjects ^ as co-existing in one person. What, however, was there to prevent )^our worshipping Time under its proper quality? Why not make a human person, or even a mythic man, an object of your adoration, but each in its proper nature not in the character of Time? What is the meanin^^ of that conceit of your mental ingenuity, if it be not to colour the foulest matters with the feigned appearance of reason- able proofs?^ Neither, on the one hand, do you mean Saturn to be Time, because you say he is a human being; nor, on the other hand, whilst portraying him as Time, do you on that account mean that he was ever human. No doubt, in the accounts of remote antiquity your god Saturn is plainly described as living on earth in human guise. Anything whatever may obviously be pictured as incorporeal which never had an existence; there is simply no room for such fictk^n, where there is reality. Since, therefore, tht^e is clear evidence that Saturn once existed, it is in vain that you change his character. He whom you will not « The word is " coelum " here, " Eleganter.
3 i.e., as representing Time.
•♦So Aug:ustine, dc Civ. Dei., \\ jo; Arnobius, adv. Nationes, Bi. 29; Cicero, de Nat. Dear. ii. aj S As if from " sero," satum.
* Translatio.
7 Utrumquc corporale.
• Mentitis argumentationibus.
deny to have once been man, is not at your disposal to be treated anyhow, nor can it be maintained that he is either divine or Time. In every page of your literature the origin' of Saturn is conspicuous. We read of him in Cassius Severus and in the Corneliuses, Nepos and Tacitus,'" and, amongst the Greeks also, in Diodorus, and all other compilers of ancient annals." No more faithful records of him are to be traced than in Italy itself. For, after (traversing) many countries, and (enjoying) the hospitality of Athens, he settled in Italy, or, as it was called, CEnotria, having met with a kind welcome from Janus, or Janes,'- as the Salii call him. The hill on which he settled had the name Saturnius, whilst the city which he founded '3 stili bears the name Saturnia; in short, the whole of Italy once had the same designation. Such is the testimony derived from that country which is now the mistress of the world: whatever doubt prevails about the origin of Saturn, his actions tell us plainly that he was a human being. Since, therefore, Saturn was human, he came undoubtedly from a human stock; and more, because he was a man, he, of course, came not of Coelus and Terra. Some people, however, found it easy enough to call him, whose parents were unknown, the son of those gods from whom all may in a sense seem to be derived. For who is there that does not speak under a feeling of reverence of the heaven and the earth as his own father and mother? Or, in accordance with a custom amongst men, which induces them to say of any who are unknown or sud- denly apparent, that "they came from the sky?" Hence it happened that, because a stranger appeared suddenly every^vhere, it became the custom to call him a heaven-born man,'^ — just as we also commonly call earth- born all those whose descent is unknown. I say nothing of the fact that such was the state of antiquity, when men's eyes and minds were so habitually rude, that they were excited by the appearance of every newcomer as if it were that of a god: much more would this be the case with a king, and that the primeval one. I will linger some time longer over the case of Saturn, because by fully discussing his primordial history I shall beforehand fur- nish a compendious answer for all other cases; and I do not wish to omit the more convincing testimony of your sacred literature, the credit of which ought to be the greater in proportion to its antiquity. Now earlier than all litera- 9 Census.
'0 See his Histories, v. 2, 4. >» Antiquitatem canos, " hoary antiquity." >2 Jano sive Jane.
13 Depalaverat, " marked out with stake*." '4 Coelitem.
AD NATION ES.
[book II.