[4001] Stewechius and Orelli would omit rebus, and interpret "about the same gods." Instead of de--"about," the ms. has deos.
[4002] The ms. reads fonti, corrected by Meursius Fontis, as above.
[4003] Lit., "circuit."
[4004] Lit., "finished."
[4005] i.e., the god.
[4006] i.e., time.
[4007] Lit., "the measuring of a certain space included in," etc.
[4008] Cf. vi. 12.
30. But what shall we say of Jove himself, whom the wise have repeatedly asserted to be the sun, driving a winged chariot, followed by a crowd of deities; [4009] some, the ether, blazing with mighty flames, and wasting fire which cannot be extinguished? Now if this is clear and certain, there is, then, according to you, no Jupiter at all; who, born of Saturn his father and Ops his mother, is reported to have been concealed in the Cretan territory, that he might escape his father's rage. But now, does not a similar mode of thought remove Juno from the list of gods? For if she is the air, as you have been wont to jest and say, repeating in reversed order the syllables of the Greek name, [4010] there will be found no sister and spouse of almighty Jupiter, no Fluonia, [4011] no Pomona, no Ossipagina, no Februtis, Populonia, Cinxia, Caprotina; and thus the invention of that name, spread abroad with a frequent but vain [4012] belief, will be found to be wholly [4013] useless.
[4009] Cf. Plato, Phædr., st. p. 246.
[4010] Lit., "the reversed order of the Greek name being repeated," i. e., instead of he-ra, a-er.
[4011] The ms. gives Fluvionia.
[4012] Lit., "with the frequency (or fame) of vain," etc.
[4013] Lit., "very."
31. Aristotle, a man of most powerful intellect, and distinguished for learning, as Granius tells, shows by plausible arguments that Minerva is the moon, and proves it by the authority of learned men. Others have said that this very goddess is the depth of ether, and utmost height; some have maintained that she is memory, whence her name even, Minerva, has arisen, as if she were some goddess of memory. But if this is credited, it follows that there is no daughter of Mens, no daughter of Victory, no discoverer of the Olive, born from the head of Jupiter, no goddess skilled in the knowledge of the arts, and in different branches of learning. Neptune, they say, has received his name and title because he covers the earth with water. If, then, by the use of this name is meant the outspread water, there is no god Neptune at all; and thus is put away, and removed from us, the full brother of Pluto and Jupiter, armed with the iron trident, lord of the fish, great and small, king of the depths of the sea, and shaker of the trembling earth. [4014]
[4014] So Meursius emended the ms. sali--"sea."
32. Mercury, also, has been named as though he were a kind of go-between; and because conversation passes between two speakers, and is exchanged by them, that which is expressed by this name has been produced. [4015] If this, then, is the case, Mercury is not the name of a god, but of speech and words exchanged by two persons; and in this way is blotted out and annihilated the noted Cyllenian bearer of the caduceus, born on the cold mountain top, [4016] contriver of words and names, the god who presides over markets, and over the exchange of goods and commercial intercourse. Some of you have said that the earth is the Great Mother, [4017] because it provides all things living with food; others declare that the same earth is Ceres, because it brings forth crops of useful fruits; [4018] while some maintain that it is Vesta, because it alone in the universe is at rest, its other members being, by their constitution, ever in motion. Now if this is propounded and maintained on sure grounds, in like manner, on your interpretation, three deities have no existence: neither Ceres nor Vesta are to be reckoned in the number [4019] of the gods; nor, in fine, can the mother of the gods herself, whom Nigidius thinks to have been married to Saturn, be rightly declared a goddess, if indeed these are all names of the one earth, and it alone is signified by these titles.
[4015] Lit., "the quality of this name has been adjusted."
[4016] So Orelli, reading monte vertice; the last word, according to Oehler, not being found in the ms.
[4017] i.e., Cybele. Cf. Lucr., ii. 991 sqq.
[4018] Lit., "seeds."
[4019] Fasti--"list," "register."
33. We here leave Vulcan unnoticed, to avoid prolixity; whom you all declare to be fire, with one consenting voice. We pass by Venus, named because lust assails all, and Proserpina, named because plants steal gradually forth into the light,--where, again, you do away with three deities; if indeed the first is the name of an element, and does not signify a living power; the second, of a desire common to all living creatures; while the third refers to seeds rising above ground, and the upward movements [4020] of growing crops. What! when you maintain that Bacchus, Apollo, the Sun, are one deity, increased in number by the use of three names, is not the number of the gods lessened, and their vaunted reputation overthrown, by your opinions? For if it is true that the sun is also Bacchus and Apollo, there can consequently be in the universe no Apollo or Bacchus; and thus, by yourselves, the son of Semele and the Pythian god are blotted out and set aside,--one the giver of drunken merriment, the other the destroyer of Sminthian mice.
[4020] Lit., "motions."
34. Some of your learned men [4021] --men, too, who do not chatter merely because their humour leads them--maintain that Diana, Ceres, Luna, are but one deity in triple union; [4022] and that there are not three distinct persons, as there are three different names; that in all these Luna is invoked, and that the others are a series of surnames added to her name. But if this is sure, if this is certain, and the facts of the case show it to be so, again is Ceres but an empty name, and Diana: and thus the discussion is brought to this issue, that you lead and advise us to believe that she whom you maintain to be the discoverer of the earth's fruits has no existence, and Apollo is robbed of his sister, whom once the horned hunter [4023] gazed upon as she washed her limbs from impurity in a pool, and paid the penalty of his curiosity.
[4021] Cf. Servius ad Virg., Georg., i. 5: "The Stoics say that Luna, Diana, Ceres, Juno, and Proserpina are one; following whom, Virgil invoked Liber and Ceres for Sol and Luna"
[4022] Triviali--"common," "vulgar," seems to be here used for triplici.
[4023] Actæon.
35. Men worthy to be remembered in the study of philosophy, who have been raised by your praises to its highest place, declare, with commendable earnestness, as their conclusion, that the whole mass of the world, by whose folds we all are encompassed, covered, and upheld, is one animal [4024] possessed of wisdom and reason; yet if this is a true, sure, and certain opinion, [4025] they also will forthwith cease to be gods whom you set up a little ago in its parts without change of name. [4026] For as one man cannot, while his body remains entire, be divided into many men; nor can many men, while they continue to be distinct and separate from each other, [4027] be fused into one sentient individual: so, if the world is a single animal, and moves from the impulse of one mind, neither can it be dispersed in several deities; nor, if the gods are parts of it, can they be brought together and changed into one living creature, with unity of feeling throughout all its parts. The moon, the sun, the earth, the ether, the stars, are members and parts of the world; but if they are parts and members, they are certainly not themselves [4028] living creatures; for in no thing can parts be the very thing which the whole is, or think and feel for themselves, for this cannot be effected by their own actions, without the whole creature's joining in; and this being established and settled, the whole matter comes back to this, that neither Sol, nor Luna, nor Æther, Tellus, and the rest, are gods. For they are parts of the world, not the proper names of deities; and thus it is brought about that, by your disturbing and confusing all divine things, the world is set up as the sole god in the universe, while all the rest are cast aside, and that as having been set up vainly, uselessly, and without any reality.
[4024] Plato, Timæus, st. p. 30.
[4025] Lit., "of which things, however, if the opinion," etc.
[4026] i.e., deifying parts of the universe, and giving them, as deities, the same names as before.
[4027] Lit., "the difference of their disjunction being preserved"--multi disjunctionis differentia conservata, suggested in the margin of Ursinus for the ms. multitudinis junctionis d. c., retained in the first five edd.
[4028] Lit., "of their own name."
36. If we sought to subvert the belief in your gods in so many ways, by so many arguments, no one would doubt that, mad with rage and fury, you would demand for us the stake, the beasts, and swords, with the other kinds of torture by which you usually appease your thirst in its intense craving for our blood. But while you yourselves put away almost the whole race of deities with a pretence of cleverness and wisdom, you do not hesitate to assert that, because of us, men suffer ill at the hands of the gods; [4029] although, indeed, if it is true that they anywhere exist, and burn with anger and [4030] rage, there can be no better reason for their showing anger against you, [4031] than that you deny their existence, and say that they are not found in any part of the universe.
[4029] Lit., "for the sake of our name, men's affairs are made harassing."
[4030] Lit., "with flames of," etc.
[4031] The ms., according to Crusius, reads nos--"us."
37. We are told by Mnaseas that the Muses are the daughters of Tellus and Coelus; others declare that they are Jove's by his wife Memory, or Mens; some relate that they were virgins, others that they were matrons. For now we wish to touch briefly on the points where you are shown, from the difference of your opinions, to make different statements about the same thing. Ephorus, then, says that they are three [4032] in number; Mnaseas, whom we mentioned, that they are four; [4033] Myrtilus [4034] brings forward seven; Crates asserts that there are eight; finally Hesiod, enriching heaven and the stars with gods, comes forward with nine names. [4035]
If we are not mistaken, such want of agreement marks those who are wholly ignorant of the truth, and does not spring from the real state of the case. For if their number were clearly known, the voice of all would be the same, and the agreement of all would tend to and find issue in the same conclusion. [4036]
[4032] Three was the most ancient number; and the names preserved by Pausanias, are Melete, 'Aoide, Mneme.
[4033] Cicero (de Nat. Deor., iii. 21, a passage where there is some doubt as to the reading) enumerates as the four Muses, Thelxiope, Aoede, Arche, Melete.
[4034] The ms. reads Murtylus. Seven are said to have been mentioned by Epicharmis,--Neilous, Tritone, Asopous, Heptapolis, Acheloïs, Tipoplous, and Rhodia.
[4035] The nine are Clio, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania, and Calliope (Theog., 77-79).
[4036] Lit., "into the end of the same opinion."
38. How, then, can you give to religion its whole power, when you fall into error about the gods themselves? or summon us to their solemn worship, while you give us no definite information how to conceive of the deities themselves? For, to take no notice of the other [4037] authors, either the first [4038] makes away with and destroys six divine Muses, if they are certainly nine; or the last [4039] adds six who have no existence to the three who alone really are; so that it cannot be known or understood what should be added, what taken away; and in the performance of religious rites we are in danger [4040] of either worshipping that which does not exist, or passing that by which, it may be, does exist. Piso believes that the Novensiles are nine gods, set up among the Sabines at Trebia. [4041] Granius thinks that they are the Muses, agreeing with Ælius; Varro teaches that they are nine, [4042] because, in doing anything, that number is always reputed most powerful and greatest; Cornificius, [4043] that they watch over the renewing of things, [4044] because, by their care, all things are afresh renewed in strength, and endure; Manilius, that they are the nine gods to whom alone Jupiter gave power to wield his thunder. [4045] Cincius declares them to be deities brought from abroad, named from their very newness, because the Romans were in the habit of sometimes individually introducing into their families the rites [4046] of conquered cities, while some they publicly consecrated; and lest, from their great number, or in ignorance, any god should be passed by, all alike were briefly and compendiously invoked under one name--Novensiles.