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| What Opinions Those Have Followed Who Have Set Divers Gods Over Divers Parts of the World.
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Chapter 10.—What Opinions Those
Have Followed Who Have Set Divers Gods Over Divers Parts of the
World.
Why, also, is Juno united to him as
his wife, who is called at once “sister and yoke-fellow?”169
| 169 Virgil, Æneid, i.
47. | Because,
say they, we have Jove in the ether, Juno in the air; and these two
elements are united, the one being superior, the other inferior.
It is not he, then, of whom it is said, “All things are full of
Jove,” if Juno also fills some part. Does each fill either, and
are both of this couple in both of these elements, and in each of
them at the same time? Why, then, is the ether given to Jove, the
air to Juno? Besides, these two should have been enough. Why is
it that the sea is assigned to Neptune, the earth to Pluto? And
that these also might not be left without mates, Salacia is joined
to Neptune, Proserpine to Pluto. For they say that, as Juno
possesses the lower part of the heavens,—that is, the air,—so
Salacia possesses the lower part of the sea, and Proserpine the
lower part of the earth. They seek how they may patch up these
fables, but they find no way. For if these things were so, their
ancient sages would have maintained that there are three chief
elements of the world, not four, in order that each of the elements
might have a pair of gods. Now, they have positively affirmed
that the ether is one thing, the air another. But water, whether
higher or lower, is surely water. Suppose it ever so unlike, can
it ever be so much so as no longer to be water? And the lower
earth, by whatever divinity it may be distinguished, what else can
it be than earth? Lo, then, since the whole physical world is
complete in these four or three elements, where shall Minerva be?
What should she possess, what should she fill? For she is placed
in the Capitol along with these two, although she is not the
offspring of their marriage. Or if they say that she possesses
the higher part of the ether,—and on that account the poets have
feigned that she sprang from the head of Jove,—why then is she
not rather reckoned queen of the gods, because she is superior to
Jove? Is it because it would be improper to set the daughter
before the father? Why, then, is not that rule of justice
observed concerning Jove himself toward Saturn? Is it because he
was conquered? Have they fought then? By no means, say they;
that is an old wife’s fable. Lo, we are not to believe fables,
and must hold more worthy opinions concerning the gods! Why,
then, do they not assign to the father of Jove a seat, if not of
higher, at least of equal honor? Because Saturn, say they, is
length of time.170
| 170 Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii.
25. | Therefore
they who worship Saturn worship Time; and it is insinuated that
Jupiter, the king of the gods, was born of Time. For is anything
unworthy said when Jupiter and Juno are said to have been sprung
from Time, if he is the heaven and she is the earth, since both
heaven and earth have been made, and are therefore not eternal?
For their learned and wise men have this also in their books. Nor
is that saying taken by Virgil out of poetic figments, but out of
the books of philosophers,
“Then Ether, the Father Almighty,
in copious showers descended
Into his spouse’s glad bosom,
making it fertile,”171
| 171 Virgil, Georg. ii. 325,
326. |
—that is, into the bosom of Tellus, or the
earth. Although here, also, they will have it that there are some
differences, and think that
in the earth herself Terra is
one thing, Tellus another, and Tellumo another. And they have all
these as gods, called by their own names distinguished by their own
offices, and venerated with their own altars and rites. This same
earth also they call the mother of the gods, so that even the
fictions of the poets are more tolerable, if, according, not to
their poetical but sacred books, Juno is not only the sister and
wife, but also the mother of Jove. The same earth they worship as
Ceres, and also as Vesta; while yet they more frequently affirm
that Vesta is nothing else than fire, pertaining to the hearths,
without which the city cannot exist; and therefore virgins are wont
to serve her, because as nothing is born of a virgin, so nothing is
born of fire;—but all this nonsense ought to be completely
abolished and extinguished by Him who is born of a virgin. For
who can bear that, while they ascribe to the fire so much honor,
and, as it were, chastity, they do not blush sometimes even to call
Vesta Venus, so that honored virginity may vanish in her
hand-maidens? For if Vesta is Venus, how can virgins rightly
serve her by abstaining from venery? Are there two Venuses, the
one a virgin, the other not a maid? Or rather, are there three,
one the goddess of virgins, who is also called Vesta, another the
goddess of wives, and another of harlots? To her also the
Phenicians offered a gift by prostituting their daughters before
they united them to husbands.172
| 172 Eusebius, De Prœp.
Evang. i. 10. | Which of these is the wife of
Vulcan? Certainly not the virgin, since she has a husband. Far
be it from us to say it is the harlot, lest we should seem to wrong
the son of Juno and fellow-worker of Minerva. Therefore it is to
be understood that she belongs to the married people; but we would
not wish them to imitate her in what she did with Mars.
“Again,” say they, “you return to fables.” What sort of
justice is that, to be angry with us because we say such things of
their gods, and not to be angry with themselves, who in their
theatres most willingly behold the crimes of their gods? And,—a
thing incredible, if it were not thoroughly well proved,—these
very theatric representations of the crimes of their gods have been
instituted in honor of these same gods.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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