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| The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as Much. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter XV.—The
Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly
of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as
Much.
It would be tedious to take a survey of all those,
too, whom you have buried amongst the constellations, and audaciously
minister to as gods.1057 I suppose your
Castors, and Perseus, and Erigona,1058
1058 The constellation
Virgo. | have just the
same claims for the honours of the sky as Jupiter’s own big
boy1059
1059 Jovis exoletus,
Ganymede, or Aquarius. | had. But why should we wonder? You have
transferred to heaven even dogs, and scorpions, and crabs. I postpone
all remarks1060
1060 He makes a
similar postponement above, in c. vii., to The Apology, cc.
xxii. xxiii. | concerning those
whom you worship in your oracles. That this worship exists, is attested
by him who pronounces the oracle.1061 Why; you will
have your gods to be spectators even of sadness,1062
1062 Et tristitiæ
arbitros. | as is Viduus, who makes a widow of
the soul, by parting it from the body, and whom you have condemned, by
not permitting him to be enclosed within your city-walls; there is
Cæculus also, to deprive the eyes of their perception; and Orbana,
to bereave seed of its vital power; moreover, there is the goddess of
death herself. To pass hastily by all others,1063
you account as gods the sites of places or of the city; such are Father
Janus (there being, moreover, the archer-goddess1064 Jana1065
1065 Perhaps another form
of Diana. | ), and
Septimontius of the seven hills.
Men sacrifice1066 to the same
Genii, whilst they have altars or temples in the same
places; but to others besides, when they dwell in a strange place, or
live in rented houses.1067
1067 This seems to be the
meaning of an almost unintelligible sentence, which we subjoin:
“Geniis eisdem illi faciunt qui in isdem locis aras vel ædes
habent; præterea aliis qui in alieno loco aut mercedibus
habitant.” Oehler, who makes this text, supposes that in each
clause the name of some god has dropped out. | I say nothing about
Ascensus, who gets his name for his climbing propensity, and
Clivicola, from her sloping (haunts); I pass silently by the deities
called Forculus from doors, and Cardea from hinges, and Limentinus the
god of thresholds, and whatever others are worshipped by your
neighbours as tutelar deities of their street doors.1068 There is nothing strange in this, since men
have their respective gods in their brothels, their kitchens, and even
in their prison. Heaven, therefore, is crowded with innumerable gods of
its own, both these and others belonging to the Romans, which have
distributed amongst them the functions of one’s whole life, in
such a way that there is no want of the other1069
gods. Although, it is true,1070 the gods which we
have enumerated are reckoned as Roman peculiarly, and as not easily
recognised abroad; yet how do all those functions and circumstances,
over which men have willed their gods to preside, come about,1071 in every part of the human race, and in
every nation, where their guarantees1072 are not only
without an official recognition, but even any recognition at
all?E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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