|
That liberty, in truth, which this man wanted, so that he did not
dare to censure that theology of the city, which is very similar to the
theatrical, so openly as he did the theatrical itself, was, though
not fully, yet in part possessed by Annaeus Seneca, whom we have
some evidence to show to have flourished in the times of our apostles.
It was in part possessed by him, I say, for he possessed it in
writing, but not in living. For in that book which he wrote against
superstition, he more copiously and vehemently censured that civil and
urban theology than Varro the theatrical and fabulous. For, when
speaking concerning images, he says, "They dedicate images of the
sacred and inviolable immortals in most worthless and motionless
matter. They give them the appearance of man, beasts, and fishes,
and some make them of mixed sex, and heterogeneous bodies. They call
them deities, when they are such that if they should get breath and
should suddenly meet them, they would be held to be monsters."
Then, a while afterwards, when extolling the natural theology, he
had expounded the sentiments of certain philosophers, he opposes to
himself a question, and says, "Here some one says, Shall I
believe that the heavens and the earth are gods, and that some are
above the moon and some below it? Shall I bring forward either Plato
or the peripatetic Strato, one of whom made God to be without a
body, the other without a mind?" In answer to which he says,
"And, really, what truer do the dreams of Titus Tatius, or
Romulus, or Tullus Hostilius appear to thee? Tatius declared the
divinity of the goddess Cloacina; Romulus that of Picus and
Tiberinus; Tullus Hostilius that of Pavor and Pallor, the most
disagreeable affections of men, the one of which is the agitation of
the mind under fright, the other that of the body, not a disease,
indeed, but a change of color." Wilt thou rather believe that these
are deities, and receive them into heaven? But with what freedom he
has written concerning the rites themselves, cruel and shameful!
"One," he says, "castrates himself, another cuts his arms.
Where will they find room for the fear of these gods when angry, who
use such means of gaining their favor when propitious? But gods who
wish to be worshipped in this fashion should be worshipped in none. So
great is the frenzy of the mind when perturbed and driven from its
seat, that the gods are propitiated by men in a manner in which not
even men of the greatest ferocity and fable-renowned cruelty vent their
rage. Tyrants have lacerated the limbs of some; they never ordered
any one to lacerate his own. For the gratification of royal lust,
some have been castrated; but no one ever, by the command of his
lord, laid violent hands on himself to emasculate himself. They kill
themselves in the temples. They supplicate with their wounds and with
their blood. If any one has time to see the things they do and the
things they suffer, he will find so many things unseemly for men of
respectability, so unworthy of freemen, so unlike the doings of sane
men, that no one would doubt that they are mad, had they been mad with
the minority; but now the multitude of the insane is the defence of
their sanity."
He next relates those things which are wont to be done in the
Capitol, and with the utmost intrepidity insists that they are such
things as one could only believe to be done by men making sport, or by
madmen. For having spoken with derision of this, that in the
Egyptian sacred rites Osiris, being lost, is lamented for, but
straightway, when found, is the occasion of great joy by his
reappearance, because both the losing and the finding of him are
reigned; and yet that grief and that joy which are elicited thereby
from those who have lost nothing and found nothing are real;, having
I say, so spoken of this, he says, "Still there is a fixed time
for this frenzy. It is tolerable to go mad once in the year. Go into
the Capitol. One is suggesting divine commands to a god; another is
telling the hours to Jupiter; one is a lictor; another is an
anointer, who with the mere movement of his arms imitates one
anointing. There are women who arrange the hair of Juno and
Minerva, standing far away not only from her image, but even from her
temple. These move their fingers in the manner of hairdressers.
There are some women who hold a mirror. There are some who are
calling the gods to assist them in court. There are some who are
holding up documents to them, and are explaining to them their cases.
A learned and distinguished comedian, now old and decrepit, was daily
playing the mimic in the Capitol, as though the gods would gladly be
spectators of that which men had ceased to care about. Every kind of
artificers working for the immortal gods is dwelling there in
idleness." And a little after he says, "Nevertheless these,
though they give themselves up to the gods for purposes superflous
enough, do not do so for any abominable or infamous purpose. There
sit certain women in the Capitol who think they are beloved by
Jupiter; nor are they frightened even by the look of the, if you will
believe the poets, most wrathful Juno."
This liberty Varro did not enjoy. It was only the poetical theology
he seemed to censure. The civil, which this man cuts to pieces, he
was not bold enough to impugn. But if we attend to the truth, the
temples where these things are performed are far worse than the theatres
where they are represented. Whence, with respect to these sacred
rites of the civil theology, Seneca preferred, as the best course to
be followed by a wise man, to feign respect for them in act, but to
have no real regard for them at heart. "All which things," he
says, "a wise man will observe as being commanded by the laws, but
not as being pleasing to the gods." And a little after he says,
"And what of this, that we unite the gods in marriage, and that not
even naturally, for we join brothers and sisters? We marry Bellona
to Mars, Venus to Vulcan, Salacia to Neptune. Some of them we
leave unmarried, as though there were no match for them, which is
surely needless, especially when there are certain unmarried
goddesses, as Populonia, or Fulgora, or the goddess Rumina, for
whom I am not astonished that suitors have been awanting. All this
ignoble crowd of gods, which the superstition of ages has amassed, we
ought," he says, "to adore in such a way as to remember all the
while that its worship belongs rather to custom than to reality."
Wherefore, neither those laws nor customs instituted in the civil
theology that which was pleasing to the gods, or which pertained to
reality. But this man, whom philosophy had made, as it were, free,
nevertheless, because he was an illustrious senator of the Roman
people, worshipped what he censured, did what he condemned, adored
what he reproached, because, forsooth, philosophy had taught him
something great, namely, not to be superstitious in the world, but,
on account of the laws of cities and the customs of men, to be an
actor, not on the stage, but in the temples, conduct the more to be
condemned, that those things which he was deCeitfully acting he so
acted that the people thought he was acting sincerely. But a
stage-actor would rather delight people by acting plays than take them
in by false pretences.
|
|