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20. But you, on the
contrary, forgetting how great4184
4184
Lit., “forgetting the so great majesty and sublimity.” | their dignity and grandeur are,
associate with them a birth,4185 and impute to them a
descent,4186 which men of
at all refined feelings regard as at once execrable and terrible.
From Ops, you say, his mother, and from his father Saturn, Diespiter
was born with his brothers. Do the gods, then, have wives; and,
the matches having been previously planned, do they become subject to
the bonds of marriage? Do they take upon themselves4187
4187
The ms., first four edd., and
Oberthür read conducunt—“unite;”
for which the rest read condic-unt, as above. | the
engagements of the bridal couch by prescription, by the cake of spelt,
and by a pretended sale?4188
4188
i.e., usu, farre, coemptione. | Have they their
mistresses,4189
4189
The word here translated mistresses, speratas, is used of
maidens loved, but not yet asked in marriage. | their
promised wives, their betrothed brides, on settled conditions?
And what do we say about their marriages, too, when indeed you say that
some celebrated their nuptials, and entertained joyous throngs, and
that the goddesses sported at these; and that some threw all
things into utter confusion with dissensions because they had no share
in singing the Fescennine verses, and occasioned danger and
destruction4190
4190 Lit.,
“dangers of destructions.” | to the next
generation of men?4191
4191
Instead of “occasioned,” sevisse, which the
later editions give, the ms. and first four
edd. read sævisse—“that danger and
destruction raged against,” etc. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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