23. I should wish,
therefore, to see Jupiter, the father of the gods, who ever controls
the world and men,4412
| 4412
This clearly refers to the Æneid, x. 18. |
adorned with the
horns of an
ox,
shaking his hairy
ears, with his
feet contracted into hoofs, chewing
green
grass, and
having behind him
4413
| 4413
Lit., “on the rear part.” |
a tail, hams,
4414
and ankles smeared over with soft
excrement,
4415
| 4415 So
the margin of Ursinus, Elmenh. L.B., Oberth., Orelli, and Oehler,
reading molli fimo for the ms. molissimo. |
and bedaubed
with the
filth cast forth. I should wish, I say,—for it
must be said over and over again,—to see him who turns the
stars
in their courses, and who
terrifies and overthrows
nations pale
with
fear, pursuing the
flocks of wethers,
inspicientem testiculos
aretinos, snatching these away with that severe
4416
and
divine hand with which he was wont
to launch the gleaming lightnings and to hurl in his
rage the
thunderbolt.
4417
| 4417
Lit., “rage with thunders.” |
Then,
indeed,
I should like to see him ransacking their inmost parts
with glowing knife;
4418
| 4418
So Gelenius, followed by Stewechius and Orelli, reading smilia
for the corrupt and unintelligible ms. nullas. |
and all witnesses being removed,
tearing away the membranes
circumjectas prolibus, and bringing
them to his mother, still
hot with
rage, as a
kind of fillet
4419
| 4419
Infulæ, besides being worn by the priest, adorned the
victim, and were borne by the suppliant. Perhaps a combination of
the two last ideas is meant to be suggested here. |
to draw forth
her pity, with downcast
countenance, pale,
wounded,
4420
pretending to be in
agony; and to make
this believed,
defiled with the
blood of the ram, and covering his
pretended
wound with
bands of
wool and linen.
Is it
possible that this can be heard and read in this
world,
4421
| 4421
Lit., “under this axis of the world.” |
and that those
who discuss these things wish themselves to be thought pious, holy, and
defenders of
religion? Is there any greater
sacrilege than this,
or can any
mind4422
| 4422
So the ms., followed by Hild. and Oehler;
the other edd. reading gens for mens. |
be found
so imbued with impious ideas as to believe such
stories, or receive
them, or
hand them down in the most
secret mysteries of the
sacred
rites? If that
Jupiter of whom you speak, whoever he is,
really
4423
| 4423
Lit., “felt himself to be.” |
existed, or
was affected by any sense of wrong, would it not be fitting
that,
4424
| 4424
Lit., “would the thing not be worthy that angry and
roused.” |
roused to
anger, he should remove the earth from under our feet, extinguish the
light of the sun and moon; nay more, that he should throw all things
into one mass, as of old?
4425
| 4425
i.e., reduce to chaos, in which one thing would not be distinguished
from another, but all be mixed up confusedly. |
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
