8. Say, I pray
you,—that Peta, Puta, Patella may graciously favour you,—if
there were no4122
| 4122
Orelli omits non, following Oberthür. |
bees at all on
the
earth then, or if we men were
born without
bones, like some
worms,
would there be no
goddess Mellonia;
4123
| 4123
Both in this and the preceding chapter the ms. reads Melonia. |
or would Ossilago, who gives
bones
their solidity, be without a name of her own? I ask truly, and
eagerly inquire whether you think that gods, or men, or bees, fruits,
twigs, and the
rest, are the more ancient in
nature, time, long
duration? No man will doubt that you say that the gods precede
all things whatever by countless ages and generations. But if it
is so, how, in the
nature of things, can it be that, from things
produced afterwards, they received those names which are earlier in
point of time? or that the gods were charged with the care
4124
| 4124
Lit., “obtained by lot the wardships.” |
of those
things which were not yet produced, and assigned to be of use to
men? Or were the gods long without names; and was it only after
things began to spring up, and be on the
earth, that you thought it
right that they should be called by these names
4125
and titles? And whence could you
have known what name to give to each, since you were wholly ignorant of
their existence; or that they possessed
any fixed powers, seeing
that you were equally unaware which of them had any power, and over
what he should be placed to suit his divine might?
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
