22. And, not content to have
ascribed these carnal unions to the venerable Saturn,4197
| 4197
Lit., “Saturnian gravity.” |
you
affirm that the king of the
world
himself begot
children even more shamefully than he was himself
born
and begotten. Of Hyperiona,
4198
| 4198
Cf. ch. 14, note 8, supra. |
as his mother, you say, and
Jupiter,
who wields the thunderbolt, was
born the golden and blazing Sun; of
Latona and the same, the Delian archer, and
Diana,
4199
| 4199 It
is worth while to compare this passage with ch. 16. Here Arnobius
makes Latona the mother of Apollo and Diana in accordance with the
common legend; but there he represents the first Minerva as claiming
them as her children. |
who rouses the woods; of Leda and the
same,
4200
| 4200
In the ms. there is here an evident
blunder on the part of the copyist, who has inserted the preceding line
(“the archer Apollo, and of the woods”) after “the
same.” Omitting these words, the ms. reading is literally, “the name in Greek is to
the Dioscori.” Before “the name” some
word is pretty generally supposed to have been lost, some conjecturing
“to whom;” others (among them Orelli, following Salmasius)
“Castores.” But it is evidently not really necessary
to supplement the text. |
those named in
Greek Dioscori; of Alcmena and the same, the Theban Hercules, whom his
club and
hide defended; of him and Semele, Liber, who is named Bromius,
and was
born a second time from his
father’s thigh; of him,
again, and Maia, Mercury, eloquent in
speech, and bearer of the
harmless snakes. Can any greater insult be put upon your
Jupiter,
or is there anything else which will
destroy and
ruin the
reputation of
the
chief of the gods, further than that you believe him to have been
at times overcome by vicious
pleasures, and to have glowed with the
passion of a
heart roused to
lust after
women? And what had the
Saturnian king to do with
strange nuptials? Did Juno not suffice
him; and could he not stay the force of his desires on the
queen of the
deities, although so great excellence graced her,
such beauty,
majesty of
countenance, and snowy and
marble whiteness of arms?
Or did he, not content with one
wife, taking
pleasure in
concubines,
mistresses, and courtezans, a
lustful god, show
4201
his incontinence in all directions, as is
the
custom with dissolute
4202
| 4202
Orelli reads with the ms., LB., and
Hild., babecali, which he interprets belli, i.e.,
“handsome.” |
youths; and in old age, after
intercourse with numberless persons, did he
renew his eagerness for
pleasures now losing their zest? What say you, profane
ones; or what vile thoughts do you fashion about your Jove? Do
you not, then, observe, do you not see with what disgrace you brand
him? of what wrong-doing you make him the author? or what stains of
vice, how great infamy you heap upon him?
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
