26. If any one perchance
thinks that we are speaking wicked calumnies, let him take the hooks of
the Thracian soothsayer,4444
| 4444
Orpheus, under whose name there was current in the time of Arnobius an
immense mass of literature freely used, and it is probable sometimes
supplemented, by Christian writers. Cf. c. 19. |
which you speak of as of
divine
antiquity; and he will find that we are neither cunningly inventing
anything, nor seeking means to bring the
holiness of the gods into
ridicule, and doing so: for we shall bring forward the very
verses which the son of Calliope uttered in
Greek,
4445
| 4445
Lit, “put forth with Greek mouth.” |
and
published abroad in his
songs to
the human race throughout all ages:—
“With these words she at the same time drew
up her garments from the lowest hem,
And exposed to view formatas inguinibus
res,
Which Baubo grasping4446
with hollow
hand, for
Their appearance was infantile, strikes, touches
gently.
Then the goddess, fixing her orbs of august light,
Being softened, lays aside for a little the sadness of
her mind;
Thereafter she takes the cup in her hand, and
laughing,
Drinks off the whole draught of cyceon with
gladness.”4447
| 4447
It may be well to observe that Arnobius differs from the Greek
versions of these lines found in Clem. Alex. (vol. ii. p. 177) and
Eusebius (Præpar. Evang. ii. 3), omitting all mention of
Iacchus, who is made very prominent by them; and that he does not
adhere strictly to metrical rules, probably, as Heraldus pointed out,
because, like the poets of that age, he paid little heed to questions
of quantity. Whether Arnobius has merely paraphrased the original
as found in Clement and Eusebius, or had a different version of them
before him, is a question which can only be discussed by means of a
careful comparison between the Greek and Latin forms of the verses with
the context in both cases. |
What say you, O wise sons
of Erectheus?4448
| 4448
So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading Erechthidæ
O(inserted by Hild.) for the ms. erithideo. |
what, you
citizens of Minerva?
4449
The
mind is eager to know with
what words you will
defend what it is so
dangerous to maintain, or what
arts you have by which to give
safety to personages and causes
wounded
so mortally. This
4450
| 4450
The ms., 1st ed., Hild., and Oehler
read ita—“It is thus not,” etc.; the
others as above, ista. |
is no false mistrust, nor are you assailed with
lying
accusations:
4451
| 4451
Delatione calumniosa. [Conf. vol. ii. p. 175, col. 2.] |
the
infamy of your Eleusinia is declared both by their base beginnings and
by the records of ancient literature, by the very signs, in fine, which
you use when questioned in receiving the sacred things,—“I
have fasted, and drunk the draught;
4452
| 4452
Cyceon. [P. 499, supra, and 503, infra.] |
I have taken out of the
mystic
cist,
4453
| 4453
The ms. reads exci-ta,
corrected as above, ex cista, in the margins of Ursinus. |
and put into
the wicker-basket; I have received again, and transferred to the little
chest.”
4454
| 4454 [It
is a pity that all this must be retailed anew after Clement, vol. ii.
pp. 175, 177, notes.] |
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