10. What say you, ye holy
and pure guardians of religion? Have the gods, then, sexes; and
are they disfigured by those parts, the very mention of whose names by
modest lips is disgraceful? What, then, now remains, but to
believe that they, as unclean beasts, are transported with violent
passions, rush with maddened desires into mutual embraces, and at last,
with shattered and ruined bodies, are enfeebled by their
sensuality? And since some things are peculiar to the female sex,
we must believe that the goddesses, too, submit to these conditions at
the proper time, conceive and become pregnant with loathing, miscarry,
carry the full time, and sometimes are prematurely delivered. O
divinity, pure, holy, free from and unstained by any dishonourable
blot! The mind longs3956
| 3956
The ms., followed by Hild., reads
habet et animum—“has it a mind to, and does
it,” etc.; for which Gelenius, followed by later edd., reads, as
above, avet animus. |
and
burns to see, in the great halls and
palaces of
heaven, gods and
goddesses, with bodies uncovered and bare,
the full-breasted Ceres
nursing Iacchus,
3957
| 3957
Cererem ab Iaccho, either as above, or “loved by
Iacchus.” Cf. Lucret. iv. 1160: At tumida et
mammosa Ceres est ipsa ab Iaccho. |
as the muse of Lucretius
sings, the
Hellespontian Priapus bearing about among the
goddesses,
virgin and
matron, those parts
3958
ever prepared for encounter. It
longs, I say, to see
goddesses pregnant,
goddesses with
child, and, as
they
daily increase in size, faltering in their steps, through the
irksomeness of the burden they bear about with them; others, after long
delay, bringing to
birth, and seeking the midwife’s aid; others,
shrieking as they are attacked by keen pangs and grievous pains,
tormented,
3959
| 3959 The
first five edd. read hortari—“exhorted,” for
which LB, followed by later edd., received tortari; as
above,—a conjecture of Canterus. |
and, under all
these influences, imploring the aid of Juno Lucina. Is it not
much better to abuse, revile, and otherwise insult the gods, than, with
pious pretence, unworthily to entertain such monstrous beliefs about
them?
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