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| The Myths are Not to Be Taken Literally.
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Chapter II.—The Myths are Not to Be Taken
Literally.
“The wisest of the ancients, men who had by
hard labour learned all truth, kept the path of knowledge hid from
those who were unworthy and had no taste for lessons in divine
things.1054
| 1054 [Compare in
general, with chaps. 2–22, the mythological statements in
Recognitions, x. 17–41.—R.] | For it is not
really true that from Ouranos and his mother Ge were born twelve
children, as the myth counts them: six sons, Okeanos, Koios,
Krios, Hyperion, Japetos, Kronos; and six daughters, Thea, Themis,
Mnemosyne, Demeter, Tethys, and Rhea.1055
| 1055 [Compare
Recognitions, x. 17, 31.—R.] | Nor that Kronos, with the knife of
adamant, mutilated his father Ouranos, as you say, and threw the part
into the sea; nor that Aphrodite sprang from the drops of blood which
flowed from it; nor that Kronos associated with Rhea, and devoured his
first-begotten son Pluto, because a certain saying of Prometheus led
him to fear that a child born from him would wax stronger than himself,
and spoil him of his kingdom; nor that he devoured in the same way
Poseidon, his second child; nor that, when Zeus was born next, his
mother Rhea concealed him, and when Kronos asked for him that he might
devour him, gave him a stone instead; nor that this, when it was
devoured, pressed those who had been previously devoured, and forced
them out, so that Pluto, who was devoured first, came out first, and
after him Poseidon, and then Zeus;1056
| 1056 The passage seems to
be corrupt. | nor that Zeus,
as the story goes, preserved by the wit of his mother, ascended into
heaven, and spoiled his father of the kingdom; nor that he punished his
father’s brothers; nor that he came down to lust after mortal
women; nor that he associated with his sisters, and daughters, and
sisters-in-law, and was guilty of shameful pæderasty; nor that he
devoured his daughter Metis, in order that from her he might make
Athene be born out of his own brain (and from his thigh might bear
Dionysos, who is said to have been rent in pieces by the
Titans)1057
| 1057 The common story
about Dionysus is, that he was the unborn son, not of Metis, but of
Semele. Wieseler supposes that some words have fallen out, or
that the latter part of the sentence is a careless interpolation. | ; nor that he held
a feast at the marriage of Peleus and Thetis;1058
| 1058 [Compare, on
“the supper of the gods,” chap. 15, and
Recognitions, x. 41.—R.] |
nor that he excluded Eris (discord) from the marriage; nor that Eris on
her part, thus dishonoured, contrived an occasion of quarrelling and
discord among the feasters; nor that she took a golden apple from the
gardens of the Hesperides, and wrote on it ‘For the
fair.’ And then they fable how Hera, and Athena, and
Aphrodite, found the apple, and quarrelling about it, came to Zeus; and
he did not decide it for
them, but sent them by Hermes to the shepherd Paris, to be judged of
their beauty. But there was no such judging of the goddesses; nor
did Paris give the apple to Aphrodite; nor did Aphrodite, being thus
honoured, honour him in return, by giving him Helen to wife. For
the honour bestowed by the goddess could never have furnished a pretext
for a universal war, and that to the ruin of him who was honoured,
himself nearly related to the race of Aphrodite. But, my son, as
I said, such stories have a peculiar and philosophical meaning, which
can be allegorically set forth in such a way that you yourself would
listen with wonder.” And I said, “I beseech you not
to torment me with delay.” And he said, “Do not be
afraid; for I shall lose no time, but commence at once.
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