40. Nigidius taught that the
dii Penates were Neptune and Apollo, who once, on fixed terms,
girt Ilium4055
| 4055
The ms. reads immortalium,
corrected in the edd. urbem Ilium. |
with walls.
He himself again, in his sixteenth book, following Etruscan teaching,
shows that there are four kinds of Penates; and that one of these
pertains to
Jupiter, another to Neptune, the third to the shades below,
the fourth to
mortal men, making some unintelligible assertion.
Cæsius himself, also, following this
teaching, thinks that
they are Fortune, and Ceres, the genius Jovialis,
4056
| 4056
Supposed to be either the genius attending Jupiter; the family
god as sent by him; or the chief among the genii, sometimes mentioned
simply as Genius. |
and Pales, but not the
female
deity commonly received,
4057
| 4057
Lit., “whom the commonalty receives.” |
but some male attendant and
steward of
Jupiter. Varro thinks that they are the gods of whom we speak who
are within, and in the inmost recesses of
heaven, and that neither
their number nor names are known. The Etruscans say that these
are the
Consentes and
Complices,
4058
| 4058
Consentes (those who are together, or agree together, i.e.,
councillors) and Complices (confederate, or agreeing) are said
by some to be the twelve gods who composed the great council of heaven;
and, in accordance with this, the words una oriantur et occidant
una might be translated “rise and sit down together,”
i.e., at the council table. But then, the names and number of
these are known; while Arnobius says, immediately after, that the names
of the dii Consentes are not known and has already quoted Varro, to the
effect that neither names nor number are known. Schelling
(über die Gotth. v.
Samothr , quoted by Orelli) adopts
the reading (see following note), “of whom very little mention is
made,” i.e., in prayers or rites, because they are merely
Jove’s councillors, and exercise no power over men, and
identifies them with the Samothracian Cabiri—Κάβειροι
and Consentes being merely Greek and Latin renderings of the name. |
and name them because they rise and fall together, six of
them being male, and as many
female, with unknown names and pitiless
dispositions,
4059
| 4059
So the ms. and all edd. reading
miserationis parcissimæ, except Gelenius, who reads
nationis barbarissimæ—“of a most barbarous
nation;” while Ursinus suggested memorationis
parc.—“of whom very little mention is
made,”—the reading approved by Schelling. |
but they are
considered the
counsellors and
princes of Jove
supreme. There
were some, too, who said that
Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva were the
dii Penates, without whom we cannot
live and be
wise, and by
whom we are ruled within in reason, passion, and thought. As you
see, even here, too, nothing is said harmoniously, nothing is settled
with the consent of all, nor is there anything reliable on which the
mind can take its stand, drawing by conjecture very near to the
truth. For their opinions are so doubtful, and one supposition so
discredited
4060
| 4060 Lit.,
“shaken to its foundations.” |
by another, that
there is either no truth in them all, or if it is uttered by any, it is
not recognised amid so many different statements.
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