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| Concerning the Offices of Mercury and Mars.
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Chapter 14.—Concerning the
Offices of Mercury and Mars.
But they have not found how to
refer Mercury and Mars to any parts of the world, and to the works
of God which are in the elements; and therefore they have set them
at least over human works, making them assistants in speaking and
in carrying on wars. Now Mercury, if he has also the power of the
speech of the gods, rules also over the king of the gods himself,
if Jupiter, as he receives from him the faculty of speech, also
speaks according as it is his pleasure to permit him—which surely
is absurd; but if it is only the power over human speech which is
held to be attributed to him, then we say it is incredible that
Jupiter should have condescended to give the pap not only to
children, but also to beasts—from which he has been surnamed
Ruminus—and yet should have been unwilling that the care of our
speech, by which we excel the beasts, should pertain to him. And
thus speech itself both belongs to Jupiter, and is Mercury. But
if speech itself is said to be Mercury, as those things which are
said concerning him by way of interpretation show it to be;—for
he is said to have been called Mercury, that is, he who runs
between,276
| 276 Quasi medius
currens. | because
speech runs between men: they say also that the Greeks call
him ῾Ερμῆς, because
speech, or interpretation, which certainly belongs to speech, is
called by them ἑρμηνεία: also
he is said to preside over payments, because speech passes between
sellers and buyers: the wings, too, which he has on his head and
on his feet, they say mean that speech passes winged through the
air: he is also said to have been called the messenger,277
because by
means of speech all our thoughts are expressed;278
—if, therefore, speech itself is
Mercury, then, even by their own confession, he is not a god. But
when they make to themselves gods of such as are not even
demons, by praying to unclean spirits, they are
possessed by such as are not gods, but demons. In like manner,
because they have not been able to find for Mars any element or
part of the world in which he might perform some works of nature of
whatever kind, they have said that he is the god of war, which is a
work of men, and that not one which is considered desirable by
them. If, therefore, Felicitas should give perpetual peace, Mars
would have nothing to do. But if war itself is Mars, as speech is
Mercury, I wish it were as true that there were no war to be
falsely called a god, as it is true that it is not a
god.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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