34. Some of your learned
men4021
| 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” |
—men, too,
who do not chatter
merely because their humour leads
them—maintain that
Diana, Ceres, Luna, are but one
deity in
triple union;
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| 4022
Triviali—“common,” “vulgar,” seems
to be here used for triplici. |
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.
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