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Chapter
XXXVIII.
I wish, however, to show how Celsus asserts
without any good reason, that each one reveres his domestic and native
institutions. For he declares that “those Ethiopians who
inhabit Meroe know only of two gods, Jupiter and Bacchus, and worship
these alone; and that the Arabians also know only of two, viz.,
Bacchus, who is also an Ethiopian deity, and Urania, whose worship is
confined to them.” According to his account, neither do the
Ethiopians worship Urania, nor the Arabians Jupiter. If, then, an
Ethiopian were from any accident to fall into the hands of the
Arabians, and were to be judged guilty of impiety because he did not
worship Urania, and for this reason should incur the danger of death,
would it be proper for the Ethiopian to die, or to act contrary to his
country’s laws, and do obeisance to Urania? Now, if it
would be proper for him to act contrary to the laws of his country, he
will do what is not right, so far as the language of Celsus is any
standard; while, if he should be led away to death, let him show the
reasonableness of selecting such a fate. I know not whether, if
the Ethiopian doctrine taught men to philosophize on the immortality of
the soul, and the honour which is paid to religion, they would
reverence those as deities who are deemed to be such by the laws of the
country.4210
4210 This sentence is
regarded by Guietus as an interpolation, which should be struck out of
the text. | A similar
illustration may be employed in the case of the Arabians, if from any
accident they happened to visit the Ethiopians about Meroe. For,
having been taught to worship Urania and Bacchus alone, they will not
worship Jupiter along with the Ethiopians; and if, adjudged guilty of
impiety, they should be led away to death, let Celsus tell us what it
would be reasonable on their part to do. And with regard to the
fables which relate to Osiris and Isis, it is superfluous and out of
place at present to enumerate them. For although an allegorical
meaning may be given to the fables, they will nevertheless teach us to
offer divine worship to cold water, and to the earth, which is subject
to men, and all the animal creation. For in this way, I presume,
they refer Osiris to water, and Isis to earth; while with regard to
Serapis the accounts are numerous and conflicting, to the effect that
very recently he appeared in public, agreeably to certain juggling
tricks performed at the desire of Ptolemy, who wished to show to the
people of Alexandria as it were a visible god. And we have read
in the writings of Numenius the Pythagorean regarding his formation,
that he partakes of the essence of all the animals and plants that are
under the control of nature, that he may appear to have been fashioned into a god, not by
the makers of images alone, with the aid of profane mysteries, and
juggling tricks employed to invoke demons, but also by magicians and
sorcerers, and those demons who are bewitched by their
incantations.4211
4211 ἵνα
δόξῃ μετὰ
τῶν
ἀτελέστων
τελετῶν, καὶ
τῶν καλουσῶν
δαίμονας
μαγγανειῶν,
οὐχ ὑπὸ
ἀγαλματοποιῶν
μόνων
κατασκευάζεσθαι
θεὸς, ἀλλὰ
καὶ ὑπὸ
μάγων, καὶ
φαρμακῶν, καὶ
τῶν ἐπῳδαῖς
αὐτῶν
κηλουμένων
δαιμόνων. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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