27. But among you, is it
only the males who lust; and has the female sex preserved its
purity?4226
Is it
not
proved in your books that Tithonus was
loved by Aurora; that Luna
lusted after Endymion; the Nereid after Æacus; Thetis after
Achilles’
father; Proserpina after Adonis; her mother, Ceres,
after some rustic Jasion, and afterwards Vulcan, Phaeton,
4227
| 4227
The ms. reads
Phætontem: for which, both here and in Clem., Potter
proposed Phaonem, because no such amour is mentioned
elsewhere. |
Mars; Venus
herself, the mother of Æneas, and founder of the
Roman power, to
marry Anchises? While, therefore, you
accuse, without making
any exception, not one only by name, but the whole of the gods
alike, in whose existence you believe, of such acts of extraordinary
shamefulness and baseness, do you
dare, without violation of modesty,
to say either that we are impious, or that you are pious, although they
receive from you much greater occasion for
offence on account of all
the shameful acts which you heap up to their
reproach, than in
connection with the service and
duties required by their
majesty,
honour, and
worship? For either all these things are false which
you bring forward about them individually, lessening their credit and
reputation; and it is
in that case a matter quite deserving,
that the gods should utterly destroy the race of men; or if they are
true and certain, and perceived without any reasons for doubt, it comes
to this issue, that, however unwilling you may be, we believe them to
be not of heavenly, but of earthly birth.
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
