13. But it is not enough
that you limit the gods by forms:—you even confine them to the
human figure, and with even less decency enclose them in earthly
bodies. What shall we say then? that the gods have a head
modelled with perfect symmetry,3965
| 3965
Lit., “with smooth roundness.” [Cf. Xenoph.,
Mem., i. cap. 4.] |
bound fast by sinews to the back and
breast, and that, to allow the necessary bending of the
neck, it is
supported by combinations of
vertebræ, and by an osseous
foundation? But if we believe this to be true, it follows that
they have
ears also, pierced by
crooked windings; rolling eyeballs,
overshadowed by the edges of the eyebrows; a nose, placed as a
channel,
3966
| 3966
Lit., “the raised gutter of the nose, easily passed by,”
etc. |
through which
waste fluids and a current of
air might easily pass; teeth to masticate
food, of three kinds, and adapted to three services;
hands to do their
work, moving easily by means of joints,
fingers, and flexible elbows;
feet to support their bodies, regulate their steps, and prompt the
first motions in walking. But if
the gods bear these
things which are seen, it is fitting that they should bear those also
which the
skin conceals under the framework of the ribs, and the
membranes enclosing the viscera; windpipes, stomachs, spleens, lungs,
bladders, livers, the long-entwined intestines, and the veins of
purple
blood, joined with the
air-passages,
3967
| 3967
The veins were supposed to be for the most part filled with
blood, mixed with a little air; while in the arteries air was supposed
to be in excess. Cf. Cicero, de Nat. Deor. ii. 55:
“Through the veins blood is poured forth to the whole body, and
air through the arteries.” |
coursing through the whole
viscera.
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