Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Argument: Moreover, These Fables, Which at First Were Invented by Ignorant Men, Were Afterwards Celebrated by Others, and Chiefly by Poets, Who Did No Little Mischief to the Truth by Their Authority. By Fictions of This Kind, and by Falsehoods of a Yet More Attractive Nature, the Minds of Young People are Corrupted, and Thence They Miserably Grow Old in These Beliefs, Although, on the Other Hand, the Truth is Obvious to Them If They Will Only Seek After It. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
XXII.—Argument: Moreover, These Fables, Which at First Were
Invented by Ignorant Men, Were Afterwards Celebrated by Others, and
Chiefly by Poets, Who Did No Little Mischief to the Truth by Their
Authority. By Fictions of This Kind, and by Falsehoods of a Yet
More Attractive Nature, the Minds of Young People are Corrupted, and
Thence They Miserably Grow Old in These Beliefs, Although, on the Other
Hand, the Truth is Obvious to Them If They Will Only Seek After
It.
“These fables and errors we both learn from
ignorant parents, and, what is more serious still, we elaborate them in
our very studies and instructions, especially in the verses of the
poets, who as much as possible have prejudiced1791
1791 Some read, “and
it is marvellous how these have prejudiced,” etc. |
the truth1792
1792 Some read, “the
truth itself.” | by their
authority. And for this reason Plato rightly expelled from the
state which he had founded in his discourse, the illustrious Homer whom
he had praised and crowned.1793
1793 Plat., de Rep.,
lib. iii. | For it was he
especially who in the Trojan was allowed your gods, although he made
jests of them, still to interfere in the affairs and doings of
men: he brought them together in contest; he wounded Venus; he
bound, wounded, and drove away Mars. He relates that Jupiter was
set free by Briareus, so as not to be bound fast by the rest of the
gods; and that he bewailed in showers of blood his son Sarpedon,
because he could not snatch him from death; and that, enticed by the
girdle of Venus, he lay more eagerly with his wife Juno than he was
accustomed to do with his adulterous loves. Elsewhere Hercules
threw out dung, and Apollo is feeding cattle for Admetus.
Neptune, however, builds walls for Laomedon, and the unfortunate
builder did not receive the wages for his work. Then
Jupiter’s thunderbolt is fabricated1794
1794 Otherwise, “Then
Vulcan fabricates,” etc. | on
the anvil with the arms of Æneas, although there were heaven, and
thunderbolts, and lightnings long before Jupiter was born in Crete; and
neither could the Cyclops imitate, nor Jupiter himself help fearing,
the flames of the real thunderbolt. Why should I speak of the
detected adultery of Mars and Venus, and of the violence of Jupiter
against Ganymede,—a deed consecrated, (as you say,) in
heaven? And all these things have been put forward with this
view, that a certain authority might be gained for the vices1795
1795 Otherwise,
“judgments.” | of men. By these fictions, and such as
these, and by lies of a more attractive kind, the minds of boys are
corrupted; and with the same fables clinging to them, they grow up even
to the strength of mature age; and, poor wretches, they grow old in the
same beliefs, although the truth is plain, if they will only seek after
it. For all the writers of antiquity, both Greek and Roman, have
set forth that Saturn, the beginner of this race and multitude, was a
man. Nepos knows this, and Cassius in his history; and Thallus
and Diodorus speak the same thing. This Saturn then, driven from
Crete, by the fear of his raging son, had come to Italy, and, received
by the hospitality of Janus, taught those unskilled and rustic men many
things,—as, being something of a Greek, and polished,—to
print letters for instance, to coin money, to make instruments.
Therefore he preferred that his hiding-place, because he had been
safely hidden (latent) there, should be called Latium; and he gave a
city, from his own name, the name of Saturnia, and Janus, Janiculum, so
that each of them left their names to the memory of posterity.
Therefore it was certainly a man that fled, certainly a man who was
concealed, and the father of a man, and sprung from a man. He was
declared, however, to be the son of earth or of heaven, because among
the Italians he was of unknown parents; as even to this day we call
those who appear unexpectedly, sent from heaven, those who are ignoble
and unknown, sons of the earth. His son Jupiter reigned at Crete
after his father was driven out. There he died, there he had
sons. To this day the cave of Jupiter is visited, and his
sepulchre is shown, and he is convicted of being human by those very
sacred rites of his.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|