22. If, then, these things
are vain, and are not supported by any reason, the very
offering4866
| 4866
So the ms., Hild., and Oehler,
reading d-atio, approved of by Stewechius also. The
others read r-—“reasoning on behalf.” |
of
sacrifices also is idle. For how can that which follows have a
suitable cause, when that very first
statement from which the
second flows is found to be utterly idle and
vain, and established on
no solid basis? To mother
Earth, they say, is sacrificed a
teeming
4867
| 4867
Inci-ens, so corrected in the margin of Ursinus for
ms.
ing-—“huge.” Cf. ch. 18, p. 524, n.
10. |
and
pregnant sow; but to the
virgin Minerva is slain a
virgin calf, never
forced
4868
| 4868 The ms. reads excitata conatus (according to
Hild.); corrected, as above, by the insertion of ad. |
by the
goad to attempt any labour. But yet we think that neither should
a
virgin have been sacrificed to a
virgin, that the
virginity might not
be violated in the brute, for which the
goddess is especially esteemed;
nor
should gravid and pregnant
victims have been
sacrificed to the
Earth from respect for its fruitfulness,
which
4869
| 4869
Quam, i.e., the earth. |
we all
desire and wish to go on always in irrepressible fertility.
4870
| 4870
Singularly enough, for fecunditate Oberthür reads
virginitate—“inextinguishable virginity,”
which is by no means universally desired in the earth. Orelli, as
usual, copies without remark the mistake of his predecessor. |
For if
because the Tritonian
goddess is a
virgin it is therefore
fitting that
virgin victims be sacrificed to her, and
if because
the
Earth is a mother she is in like manner to be
entertained with
gravid
swine, then also Apollo
should be honoured by the
sacrifice of musicians because he is a
musician; Æsculapius,
because he is a
physician, by the
sacrifice of
physicians; and because
he is an artificer, Vulcan by the
sacrifice of artificers; and because
Mercury is eloquent,
sacrifice should be made to him with the eloquent
and most fluent. But if it is madness to say this, or, to speak
with
moderation, nonsense, that shows much greater madness to
slaughter
pregnant
swine to the Earth because she is even more prolific;
pure and virgin
heifers to Minerva because she is pure, of
unviolated virginity.
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