29. Now, to prevent any one
from thinking that we have devised what is so impious, we do not call
upon him to believe Heraclitus as a witness, nor to receive from his
account what he felt about such mysteries. Let him4469
ask the whole
of Greece what is the meaning of these
phalli which ancient
custom erects and worships throughout the
country, throughout the
towns: he will find that the causes are those which we say; or if
they are
ashamed to declare the
truth honestly, of what avail will it
be to obscure, to conceal the cause and origin of the rite,
while
4470
| 4470
Cumwanting in the ms.. |
the
accusation
holds good against the very act of
worship? What say you, O
peoples? what, ye
nations busied with the services of the
temples, and
given up
to them? Is it to these rites you drive us by
flames, banishment,
slaughter, and any other
kind of punishments, and
by
fear of cruel
torture? Are these the gods whom you bring to
us, whom you thrust and impose upon us, like whom you would neither
wish yourselves to be, nor any one related to you by
blood and
friendship?
4471
Can you
declare to your beardless sons, still wearing the
dress of
boys, the
agreements which Liber formed with his
lovers? Can you urge your
daughters-in-
law, nay, even your own
wives, to
show the modesty
of Baubo, and
enjoy the
chaste pleasures of Ceres? Do you
wish your young men to know, hear,
and learn what even
Jupiter
showed himself to more matrons than one? Would you wish your
grown-up maidens and still lusty fathers to
learn how the same
deity
sported with his
daughter? Do you wish full
brothers, already
hot
with passion, and sisters sprung from the same
parents, to hear that he
again did not spurn the embraces, the couch of his sister? Should
we not then
flee far from such gods; and should not our
ears be stopped
altogether, that the
filthiness of so impure a
religion may not
creep
into the
mind? For what man is there who has been reared with
morals so pure, that the example of the gods does not excite him to
similar madness? or who can keep back his desires from his kinsfolk,
and those of whom he should stand in awe, when he sees that among the
gods above nothing is held
sacred in the confusion caused by
4472
their
lusts? For when it is certain that the first and
perfect nature
has not been able to restrain its passion within right limits, why
should not man give himself up to his desires without distinction,
being both borne on headlong by his innate frailty, and aided by the
teaching of the holy deities?
4473
| 4473
Lit., “of holy divinity.” Orelli thinks, and
with reason, that Arnobius refers to the words which Terence puts into
the mouth of Chærea (Eun., iii. 5, vv. 36–43), who
encourages himself to give way to lust by asking, “Shall I, a
man, not do this?” when Jove had done as much. [Elucidation
III.] |
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