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| Argument: Octavius Attests the Fact that Men Were Adopted as Gods, by the Testimony of Euhemerus, Prodicus, Persæus, and Alexander the Great, Who Enumerate the Country, the Birthdays, and the Burial-Places of the Gods. Moreover He Sets Forth the Mournful Endings, Misfortunes, and Deaths of the Gods. And, in Addition, He Laughs at the Ridiculous and Disgusting Absurdities Which the Heathens Continually Allege About the Form and Appearance of Their Gods.
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Chapter XXI.—Argument: Octavius Attests the Fact that
Men Were Adopted as Gods, by the Testimony of Euhemerus, Prodicus,
Persæus, and Alexander the Great, Who Enumerate the Country, the
Birthdays, and the Burial-Places of the Gods. Moreover He Sets
Forth the Mournful Endings, Misfortunes, and Deaths of the Gods.
And, in Addition, He Laughs at the Ridiculous and Disgusting
Absurdities Which the Heathens Continually Allege About the Form and
Appearance of Their Gods.
“Read the writings of the Stoics,1782
| 1782 Otherwise, according
to some, “of the historians.” | or the writings of wise men, you will
acknowledge these facts with me. On account of the merits of
their virtue or of some gift, Euhemerus asserts that they were esteemed
gods; and he enumerates their birthdays, their countries, their places
of sepulture, and throughout various provinces points out these
circumstances of the Dictæan Jupiter, and of the Delphic Apollo,
and of the Pharian Isis, and of the Eleusinian Ceres. Prodicus
speaks of men who were taken up among the gods, because they were
helpful to the uses of men in their wanderings, by the discovery of new
kinds of produce. Persæus philosophizes also to the same
result; and he adds thereto, that the fruits discovered, and the
discoverers of those same fruits, were called by the same names; as the
passage of the comic writer runs, that Venus freezes without Bacchus
and Ceres. Alexander the Great, the celebrated Macedonian, wrote
in a remarkable document1783
| 1783 This treatise is
mentioned by Athenagoras, Legat. pro Christ., ch. xxviii.
[See vol. ii. p. 143, this series.] Also by Augustine, de Civ.
Dei., lib. viii. ch. iii. and xxvii. In the fifth chapter
Augustine calls the priest by the name of Leo. | addressed to his
mother, that under fear of his power there had been betrayed to him by
the priest the secret of the gods having been men: to her he
makes Vulcan the original of all, and then the race of Jupiter.
And you behold the swallow and the cymbal of Isis,1784
| 1784 This passage is very
doubtful both in its text and its meaning. | and the tomb of your Serapis or Osiris
empty, with his limbs scattered about. Then consider the sacred
rites themselves, and their very mysteries: you will find
mournful deaths, misfortunes, and funerals, and the griefs and wailings
of the miserable gods. Isis bewails, laments, and seeks after her
lost son, with her Cynocephalus and her bald priests; and the wretched
Isiacs beat their breasts, and imitate the grief of the most unhappy
mother. By and by, when the little boy is found, Isis rejoices,
and the priests exult, Cynocephalus the discoverer boasts, and they do
not cease year by year either to lose what they find, or to find what
they lose. Is it not ridiculous either to grieve for what you
worship, or to worship that over which you grieve? Yet these were
formerly Egyptian rites, and now are Roman ones. Ceres with her
torches lighted, and surrounded1785
| 1785 Otherwise,
“carried about.” | with a
serpent, with anxiety and solicitude tracks the footsteps of
Proserpine, stolen away in her wandering, and corrupter. These
are the Eleusinian mysteries. And what are the sacred rites of
Jupiter? His nurse is a she-goat, and as an infant he is taken
away from his greedy father, lest he should be devoured; and clanging
uproar1786
| 1786 Otherwise, “his
approach is drowned.” | is dashed out of
the cymbals of the Corybantes, lest the father should hear the
infant’s wailing. Cybele of Dindymus—I am ashamed to
speak of it—who could not entice her adulterous lover, who
unhappily was pleasing to her, to lewdness, because she herself, as
being the mother of many gods, was ugly and old, mutilated him,
doubtless that she might make a god of the eunuch. On account of
this story, the Galli also worship her by the punishment of their
emasculated body. Now certainly these things are not sacred
rites, but tortures. What are the very forms and appearances (of
the gods)? do they not argue the contemptible and disgraceful
characters of your gods?1787
| 1787 Otherwise, “do
they not show what are the sports and the honours of your
gods?” | Vulcan is a
lame god, and crippled; Apollo, smooth-faced after so many ages;
Æsculapius well bearded, notwithstanding that he is the son of the
ever youthful Apollo; Neptune with sea-green eyes; Minerva with eyes
bluish grey; Juno with ox-eyes; Mercury with winged feet; Pan with
hoofed feet; Saturn with feet in fetters; Janus, indeed, wears two
faces, as if that he might walk with looks turned back; Diana sometimes
is a huntress, with her robe girded up high; and as the Ephesian she
has many and fruitful breasts; and when exaggerated as Trivia, she is
horrible with three heads and with many hands. What is your
Jupiter himself? Now he is represented in a statue as beardless,
now he is set up as bearded; and when he is called Hammon, he has
horns; and when Capitolinus, then he wields the thunderbolts; and when Latiaris, he
is sprinkled with gore; and when Feretrius, he is not
approached;1788
| 1788 These words are very
variously read. Davis conjectures that they should be,
“When Feretrius, he does not hear,” and explains the
allusion as follows: that Jupiter Feretrius could only be
approached with the spolia opima; and Minucius is covertly
ridiculing the Romans, because, not having taken spolia opima
for so long a time, they could not approach Feretrius. | and not to mention
any further the multitude of Jupiters, the monstrous appearances of
Jupiter are as numerous as his names. Erigone was hanged from a
noose, that as a virgin she might be glowing1789
| 1789 Otherwise,
“pointed out,” or “designated.” |
among the stars. The Castors die by turns, that they may
live. Æsculapius, that he may rise into a god, is struck
with a thunderbolt. Hercules, that he may put off humanity, is
burnt up by the fires of Œta.1790
| 1790 Otherwise corrupted
into Ætna. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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