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Although they would have Apollo to be a diviner and physician, they
have nevertheless given him a place as some part of the world. They
have said that he is also the sun; and likewise they have said that
Diana, his sister, is the moon, and the guardian of roads. Whence
also they will have her be a virgin, because a road brings forth
nothing. They also make both of them have arrows, because those two
planets send their rays from the heavens to the earth. They make
Vulcan to be the fire of the world; Neptune the waters of the world;
Father Dis, that is, Orcus, the earthy and lowest part of the
world. Liber and Ceres they set over seeds, the former over the
seeds of males, the latter over the seeds of females; or the one over
the fluid part of seed, but the other over the dry part. And all this
together is referred to the world, that is, to Jupiter, who is
called "progenitor and mother," because he emitted all seeds from
himself, and received them into himself. For they also make this same
Ceres to be the Great Mother, who they say is none other than the
earth, and call her also Juno. And therefore they assign to her the
second causes of things, notwithstanding that it has been said to
Jupiter, "progenitor and mother of the gods;" because, according
to them, the whole world itself is Jupiter's. Minerva, also,
because they set her over human arts, and did not find even a star in
which to place her, has been said by them to be either the highest
ether, or even the moon. Also Vesta herself they have thought to be
the highest of the goddesses, because she is the earth; although they
have thought that the milder fire of the world, which is used for the
ordinary purposes of human life, not the more violent fire, such as
belongs to Vulcan, is to be assigned to her. And thus they will have
all those select gods to be the world and its parts,, some of them the
whole world, others of them its parts; the whole of it Jupiter, its
parts, Genius, Mater Magna, Sol and Luna, or rather Apollo and
Diana, and so on. And sometimes they make one god many things;
sometimes one thing many gods. Many things are one god in the case of
Jupiter; for both the whole world is Jupiter, and the sky alone is
Jupiter, and the star alone is said and held to be Jupiter. Juno
also is mistress of second causes, Juno is the air, Juno is the
earth; and had she won it over Venus, Juno would have been the
star. Likewise Minerva is the highest ether, and Minerva is
likewise the moon, which they suppose to be in the lowest limit of the
ether. And also they make one thing many gods in this way. The world
is both Janus and Jupiter; also the earth is Juno, and Mater
Magna, and Ceres.
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