36. But, says my opponent,
the deities are not inimical to you, because you worship the omnipotent
God; but because you both allege that one born as men are, and put to
death on the cross, which is a disgraceful punishment even for
worthless men, was God, and because you believe that He still lives,
and because you worship Him in daily supplications. If it is
agreeable to you, my friends, state clearly what deities those are who
believe that the worship of Christ by us has a tendency to injure
them? Is it Janus, the founder of the Janiculum, and Saturn, the
author of the Saturnian state? Is it Fauna Fatua,3299
| 3299
So Ursinus, followed by most edd., for the reading of the
ms. Fenta Fatua, cf. v.
18. A later writer has corrected the ms. Fanda, which, Rigaltius says, an old
gloss renders “mother.” |
the
wife of
Faunus, who is called the Good
Goddess, but who is better and more
deserving of
praise in the drinking of
wine? Is it those gods
Indigetes who
swim in the
river, and
live in the channels of the
Numicius, in
company with
frogs and little fishes? Is it
Æsculapius and
father Bacchus, the former
born of Coronis, and the
other
dashed by
lightning from his mother’s
womb? Is it
Mercury, son of Maia, and what is more
divine,
Maia the
beautiful? Is it the bow-bearing deities
Diana and Apollo, who
were companions of their mother’s wanderings, and who were
scarcely
safe in floating
islands? Is it Venus,
daughter of
Dione, paramour of a man of Trojan
family, and the prostituter of her
secret charms? Is it Ceres,
born in Sicilian territory, and
Proserpine, surprised while gathering
flowers? Is it the Theban
or the Phœnician Hercules,—the latter buried in Spanish
territory, the other
burned by
fire on Mount Œta? Is it the
brothers Castor and Pollux, sons of Tyndareus,—the one accustomed
to tame
horses, the other an excellent boxer, and unconquerable with
the untanned gauntlet? Is it the Titans and the Bocchores of the
Moors, and the Syrian
3300
| 3300 So
restored by Salmasius for Dioscuri, and understood by him
as meaning Dea Syria, i.e., Venus, because it is said that a large egg
having been found by the fish in the Euphrates, was pushed up by them
to the dry land, when a dove came down, and sat upon it until the
goddess came forth. Such was the form of the legend according to
Nigidius; but Eratosthenes spoke of both Venus and Cupid as being
produced in this manner. The Syrian deities were therefore Venus,
Cupid, and perhaps Adonis. It should be remembered, however, that
the Syrians paid reverence to pigeons and fish as gods (Xen.,
Anab., i. 4, 9), and that these may therefore be
meant. |
deities, the
offspring of eggs? Is it Apis,
born in the
Peloponnese, and in Egypt called Serapis? Is it Isis, tanned by
Ethiopian suns, lamenting her lost son and
husband torn limb from
limb? Passing on, we omit the
royal offspring of Ops, which your
writers have in their books set forth for your
instruction, telling you
both who they are, and of what character. Do these, then, hear
with offended
ears that
Christ is worshipped, and that He is accepted
by us and regarded as a
divine person? And being
forgetful of the
grade and
state in which they recently were, are they
unwilling to
share with another that which has been granted to themselves? Is
this the
justice of the heavenly deities? Is this the
righteous
judgment of the gods? Is not this a
kind of
malice and of greed?
is it not a species of base envy, to wish their own fortunes only to
rise,—those of others to be lowered, and to be trodden down in
despised lowliness?
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