[4482] Subditivis secretis.
[4483] Both Roman edd. and ms. read dicet--"shall say;" all others as above--dicit.
[4484] i.e., Jupiter.
[4485] Lit., "in the signification of his daughter."
[4486] So the margin of Ursinus--ut reris for the ms. ut ce-reris.
33. These are all quirks, as is evident, and quibbles with which they are wont to bolster up weak cases before a jury; nay, rather, to speak more truly, they are pretences, such as are used in [4487] sophistical reasonings, by which not the truth is sought after, but always the image, and appearance, and shadow of the truth. For because it is shameful and unbecoming to receive as true the correct accounts, you have had recourse [4488] to this expedient, that one thing should be substituted for another, and that what was in itself shameful should, in being explained, be forced into the semblance of decency. But what is it to us whether other senses and other meanings underlie these vain stories? For we who assert that the gods are treated by you wickedly and impiously, need only [4489] receive what is written, what is said, [4490] and need not care as to what is kept secret, since the insult to the deities consists not in the idea hidden in its meanings, [4491] but in what is signified by the words as they stand out. And yet, that we may not seem unwilling to examine what you say, we ask this first of you, if only you will bear with us, from whom have you learned, or by whom has it been made known, either that these things were written allegorically, or that they should be understood in the same way? Did the writers summon you to take counsel with them? or did you lie hid in their bosoms at the time [4492] when they put one thing for another, without regard to truth? Then, if they chose, from religions awe [4493] and fear on any account, to wrap those mysteries in dark obscurity, what audacity it shows in you to wish to understand what they did not wish, to know yourselves and make all acquainted with that which they vainly attempted to conceal by words which did not suggest the truth!
[4487] Lit., "colours of."
[4488] The ms. and both Roman edd. read indecorum est, which leaves the sentence incomplete. LB., followed by later edd., proposed de-cursum est, as above (Oehler, inde d.--"from these recourse has been had"), the other conjectures tending to the same meaning.
[4489] "We need only;" lit., "it is enough for us to."
[4490] Lit., "heard."
[4491] Lit., "in the obscure mind of senses."
[4492] "Or at the time," aut tum, the correction of LB, for the ms. sutum.
[4493] Lit., "fear of any reason and of religion."
34. But, agreeing with you that in all these stories stags are spoken of instead of Iphigenias, yet, how are you sure, when you either explain or unfold these allegories, that you give the same explanations or have the same ideas which were entertained by the writers themselves in the silence of their thoughts, but expressed by words not adapted [4494] to what was meant, but to something else? You say that the falling of rain into the bosom of the earth was spoken of as the union of Jupiter and Ceres; another may both devise with greater subtlety, and conjecture with some probability, something else; a third, a fourth may do the same; and as the characteristics of the minds of the thinkers show themselves, so each thing may be explained in an infinite number of ways. For since all that allegory, as it is called, is taken from narratives expressly made obscure, [4495] and has no certain limit within which the meaning of the story, [4496] as it is called, should be firmly fixed and unchangeable, it is open to every one to put the meaning into it which he pleases, and to assert that that has been adopted [4497] to which his thoughts and surmises [4498] led him. But this being the case, how can you obtain certainty from what is doubtful, and attach one sense only to an expression which you see to be explained in innumerable different ways? [4499]
[4494] Lit., "proper."
[4495] Lit., "from shut-up things."
[4496] Rei.
[4497] Lit., "placed."
[4498] Lit., "his suspicion and conjectural (perhaps "probable") inference."
[4499] Lit., "to be deduced with variety of expositions through numberless ways."
35. Finally, if you think it right, returning to our inquiry, we ask this of you, whether you think that all stories about the gods, [4500] that is, without any exception, [4501] have been written throughout with a double meaning and sense, and in a way [4502] admitting of several interpretations; or that some parts of them are not ambiguous at all, while, on the contrary, others have many meanings, and are enveloped in the veil of allegory which has been thrown round them? For if the whole structure and arrangement of the narrative have been surrounded with a veil of allegory from beginning to end, explain to us, tell us, what we should put and substitute for each thing which every story says, and to what other things and meanings we should refer [4503] each. For as, to take an example, you wish Jupiter to be said instead of the rain, Ceres for the earth, and for Libera [4504] and father Dis the sinking and casting of seed into the earth, so you ought to say what we should understand for the bull, what for the wrath and anger of Ceres; what the word Brimo [4505] means; what the anxious prayer of Jupiter; what the gods sent to make intercession for him, but not listened to; what the castrated ram; what the parts [4506] of the castrated ram; what the satisfaction made with these; what the further dealings with his daughter, still more unseemly in their lustfulness; so, in the other story also, what the grove and flowers of Henna are; what the fire taken from Ætna, and the torches lit with it; what the travelling through the world with these; what the Attic country, the canton of Eleusin, the hut of Baubo, and her rustic hospitality; what the drought of cyceon [4507] means, the refusal of it, the shaving and disclosure of the privy parts, the shameful charm of the sight, and the forgetfulness of her bereavement produced by such means. Now, if you point out what should be put in the place of all these, changing the one for the other, [4508] we shall admit your assertion; but if you can neither present another supposition in each case, nor appeal to [4509] the context as a whole, why do you make that obscure, [4510] by means of fair-seeming allegories, which has been spoken plainly, and disclosed to the understanding of all?
[4500] The ms., first four edd., and Hild. read de his--"about these," corrected in the others dîs or diis, as above.
[4501] Lit., "each."
[4502] Pl.
[4503] Lit., "call."
[4504] i.e., Proserpine. The readiness with which Arnobius breaks the form of the sentence should be noted. At first the gods represent physical phenomena, but immediately after natural events are put for the gods. In the ms. two copyists have been at work, the earlier giving Libero, which is rather out of place, and is accordingly corrected by the later, Libera followed by LB., Oberthür, Orelli, Hild., and Oehler.
[4505] The ms. reads primo. Cf. c. 20.
[4506] Proles.
[4507] [kukeon, a draught resembling caudle. See p. 499, note 10.]
[4508] Lit., "by change of things."
[4509] The ms. omits ad, supplied by Ursinus.
[4510] So all edd., except Hild. and Oehler, reading obscur-atisfor the ms. -itatibus.
36. But you will perhaps say that these allegories are not found in the whole body of the story, but that some parts are written so as to be understood by all, while others have a double meaning, and are veiled in ambiguity. That is refined subtlety, and can be seen through by the dullest. For because it is very difficult for you to transpose, reverse, and divert to other meanings all that has been said, you choose out some things which suit your purpose, and by means of these you strive to maintain that false and spurious versions were thrown about the truth which is under them. [4511] But yet, supposing that we should grant to you that it is just as you say, how do you know, or whence do you learn, which part of the story is written without any double meaning, [4512] which, on the other hand, has been covered with jarring and alien senses? For it may be that what you believe to be so [4513] is otherwise, that what you believe to be otherwise [4514] has been produced with different, and even opposite modes of expression. For where, in a consistent whole, one part is said to be written allegorically, the other in plain and trustworthy language, while there is no sign in the thing itself to point out the difference between what is said ambiguously and what is said simply, that which is simple may as well be thought to have a double meaning, as what has been written ambiguously be believed to be wrapt in obscurity. [4515] But, indeed, we confess that we do not understand at all by whom this [4516] is either done, or can be believed to be possible.
[4511] Lit., "were placed above the interior truth."
[4512] Lit., "with simple senses."
[4513] i.e., involved in obscurity.
[4514] i.e., free from ambiguity.
[4515] Lit., "of shut-off obscurities."
[4516] The reference is to the words in the middle of the chapter, "how do you know which part is simple?" etc.; Arnobius now saying that he does not see how this can be known.
37. Let us examine, then, what is said in this way. In the grove of Henna, my opponent says, the maiden Proserpine was once gathering flowers: this is as yet uncorrupted, and has been told in a straightforward manner, for all know without any doubt what a grove and flowers are, what Proserpine is, and a maiden. Summanus sprung forth from the earth, borne along in a four-horse chariot: this, too, is just as simple, for a team of four horses, a chariot, and Summanus need no interpreter. Suddenly he carried off Proserpine, and bore her with himself under the earth: the burying of the seed, my opponent says, is meant by the rape of Proserpine. What has happened, pray, that the story should be suddenly turned to something else? that Proserpine should be called the seed? that she who was for a long time held to be a maiden gathering flowers, after that she was taken away and carried off by violence, should begin to signify the seed sown? Jupiter, my opponent says, having turned himself into a bull, longed to have intercourse with his mother Ceres: as was explained before, under these names the earth and falling rain are spoken of. I see the law of allegory expressed in the dark and ambiguous terms. Ceres was enraged and angry, and received the parts [4517] of a ram as the penalty demanded by [4518] vengeance: this again I see to be expressed in common language, for both anger and (testes and) satisfaction are spoken of in their usual circumstances. [4519] What, then, happened here,--that from Jupiter, who was named for the rain, and Ceres, who was named for the earth, the story passed to the true Jove, and to a most straightforward account of events?
[4517] Proles.
[4518] Lit., "for penalty and."
[4519] Lit., "in their customs and conditions."
38. Either, then, they must all have been written and put forward allegorically, and the whole should be pointed out to us; or nothing has been so written, since what is supposed to be allegorical does not seem as if it were part of the narrative. [4520] These are all written allegorically, you say. This seems by no means certain. Do you ask for what reason, for what cause? Because, I answer, all that has taken place and has been set down distinctly in any book cannot be turned into an allegory, for neither can that be undone which has been done, nor can the character of an event change into one which is utterly different. Can the Trojan war be turned into the condemnation of Socrates? or the battle of Cannæ become the cruel proscription of Sulla? A proscription may indeed, as Tullius says [4521] in jest, be spoken of as a battle, and be called that of Cannæ; but what has already taken place, cannot be at the same time a battle and a proscription; for neither, as I have said, can that which has taken place be anything else than what has taken place; nor can that pass over into a substance foreign to it which has been fixed down firmly in its own nature and peculiar condition.
[4520] i.e., if historical, the whole must be so, as bits of allegory would not fit in.
[4521] Cicero, pro Rosc. Am., c. 32.
39. Whence, then, do we prove that all these narratives are records of events? From the solemn rites and mysteries of initiation, it is clear, whether those which are celebrated at fixed times and on set days, or those which are taught secretly by the heathen without allowing the observance of their usages to be interrupted. For it is not to be believed that these have no origin, are practised without reason or meaning, and have no causes connected with their first beginnings. That pine which is regularly born into the sanctuary of the Great Mother, [4522] is it not in imitation of that tree beneath which Attis mutilated and unmanned himself, which also, they relate, the goddess consecrated to relieve her grief? That erecting of phalli and fascina, which Greece worships and celebrates in rites every year, does it not recall the deed by which Liber [4523] paid his debt? Of what do those Eleusinian mysteries and secret rites contain a narrative? Is it not of that wandering in which Ceres, worn out in seeking for her daughter, when she came to the confines of Attica, brought wheat with her, graced with a hind's skin the family of the Nebridæ [4524] and laughed at that most wonderful sight in Baubo's groins? Or if there is another cause, that is nothing to us, so long as they are all produced by some cause. For it is not credible that these things were set on foot without being preceded by any causes, or the inhabitants of Attica must be considered mad to have received [4525] a religious ceremony got up without any reason. But if this is clear and certain, that is, if the causes and origins of the mysteries are traceable to past events, by no change can they be turned into the figures of allegory; for that which has been done, which has taken place, cannot, in the nature of things, be undone. [4526]