32. But you err, says my
opponent, and are mistaken, and show, even in criticising
these things, that you are rather ignorant, unlearned, and
boorish. For all those stories which seem to you disgraceful, and
tending to the discredit of the gods, contain in them holy mysteries,
theories wonderful and profound, and not such as any one can easily
become acquainted with by force of understanding. For that is not
meant and said which has been written and placed on the surface of the
story; but all these things are understood in allegorical senses, and
by means of secret explanations privately supplied.4482
| 4482
Subditivis secretis. |
Therefore he who says
4483
| 4483
Both Roman edd. and ms. read
dicet—“shall say;” all others as
above—dicit. |
Jupiter
lay with his mother, does not mean the incestuous or shameful embraces
of Venus, but names
Jupiter instead of rain, and Ceres instead of the
earth. And he, again, who says that he
4484
dealt lasciviously with his
daughter, speaks of no
filthy pleasures, but puts
Jupiter for the name
of a shower, and by his
daughter means
4485
| 4485
Lit., “in the signification of his daughter.” |
the crop sown. So, too, he who
says that Proserpina was carried off by
father Dis, does not say, as
you suppose,
4486
| 4486
So the margin of Ursinus—ut reris for the
ms. ut ce-reris. |
that the
maiden was carried off to
gratify the basest desires; but
because we cover the
seed with clods, he signifies that the
goddess has
sunk under the
earth, and unites with Orcus to bring forth fruit.
In like manner in the other
stories also one thing indeed is said, but
something else is understood; and under a commonplace openness of
expression there lurks a secret doctrine, and a dark profundity of
mystery.
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