18. And as we are now
speaking of the animals sacrificed, what cause, what reason is there,
that while the immortal gods—for, so far as we are concerned,
they may all be gods who are believed to be so—are of one
mind, or should be of one nature, kind, and character, all are not
appeased with all the victims, but certain deities with certain
animals, according to the sacrificial laws? For what cause
is there, to repeat the same question, that that deity should be
honoured with bulls, another with kids or sheep, this one with sucking
pigs, the other with unshorn lambs, this one with virgin heifers, that
one with horned goats, this with barren cows, but that with
teeming4851
| 4851
The ms. and first four edd. read
ingentibus scrofis—“with huge breeding swine,”
changed by rest, as above, incient-, from the margin of
Ursinus. |
swine, this
with white, that with dusky
4852
| 4852
Or “gloomy,” tetris, the reading of
ms. and all edd. since LB., for which earlier
edd. give atris—“black.” |
victims, one with
female, the
other, on the contrary, with male
animals? For if victims are
slain in
sacrifice to the gods, to do them honour and show
reverence
for them, what does it matter, or what difference is there with the
life of what
animal this
debt is paid, their
anger and resentment put
away? Or is the
blood of one victim less
grateful and pleasing to
one
god, while the other’s fills him with
pleasure and
joy? or,
as is usually done, does that
deity abstain from the
flesh of
goats because of some reverential and
religious scruple, another turn
with disgust from pork, while to this mutton
stinks? and does this one
avoid tough
ox-beef that he may not overtax his
weak stomach, and
choose tender
4853
| 4853
Lit., “the tenderness of.” |
sucklings
that he may digest them more speedily?
4854
| 4854
[The law of clean and unclean reflects the instincts of man, as
here appealed to; but compare and patiently study these
texts: Lev. x. 10 and Ezek. xxii. 26; Lev. xi. and Acts
x. 15; Rom. xiv. 14 and Luke xi. 41.] |
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