40. And yet, even if we
grant you that this is the case, that is, even if the narratives give
utterance to one thing in words, but mean4527
something else, after the manner of
raving seers, do you not observe in this case, do you not see how
dishonouring, how insulting to the gods, this is which is said to be
done?
4528
| 4528
Lit., “with what shame and insult of the gods this is said to be
done.” |
or can any
greater wrong be devised than to term and call the
earth and rain, or
anything else,—for it does not matter what change is made in the
interpretation,—the intercourse of
Jupiter and Ceres? and to
signify the descent of rain from the
sky, and the moistening of the
earth, by charges against the gods? Can anything be either
thought or believed more impious than that the rape of Proserpine
speaks of
seeds buried in the earth, or anything else,—for in
like manner it is of no importance,—and that it speaks of the
pursuit of agriculture to
4529
the dishonour of father
Dis? Is it not a
thousand times more desirable to become mute and speechless, and to
lose that flow of words and noisy and
4530
unseemly loquacity, than to call the
basest things by the names of the gods; nay, more, to signify
commonplace things by the base actions of the gods?
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