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Let them therefore assert as many things as ever they please in
physical reasonings and disputations. One while let Jupiter be the
soul of this corporeal world, who fills and moves that whole mass,
constructed and compacted out of four, or as many elements as they
please; another while, let him yield to his sister and brothers their
parts of it: now let him be the ether, that from above he may embrace
Juno, the air spread out beneath; again, let him be the whole heaven
along with the air, and impregnate with fertilizing showers and seeds
the earth, as his wife, and, at the same time, his mother (for this
is not vile in divine beings); and yet again (that it may not be
necessary to run through them all), let him, the one god, of whom
many think it has been said by a most noble poet, "For God pervadeth
all things, All lands, and the tracts of the sea, and the depth of
the heavens," - let it be him who in the ether is Jupiter; in the
air, Juno; in the sea, Neptune; in the lower parts of the sea,
Salacia; in the earth, Pluto; in the lower part of the earth,
Proserpine; on the domestic hearths, Vesta; in the furnace of the
workmen, Vulcan; among the stars, Sol and Luna, and the Stars;
in divination, Apollo; in merchandise, Mercury; in Janus, the
initiator; in Terminus, the terminator; Saturn, in time; Mars
and Bellona, in war; Liber, in vineyards; Ceres, in cornfields;
Diana, in forests; Minerva, in learning. Finally, let it be him
who is in that crowd, as it were, of plebeian gods: let him preside
under the name of Liber over the seed of men, and under that of
Libera over that of women: let him be Diespiter, who brings forth
the birth to the light of day: let him be the goddess Mena, whom they
set over the menstruation of women: let him be Lucina, who is invoked
by women in childbirth: let him bring help to those who are being
born, by taking them up from the bosom of the earth, and let him be
called Opis: let him open the mouth in the crying babe, and be called
the god Vaticanus: let him lift it from the earth, and be called the
goddess Levana; let him watch over cradles, and be called the goddess
Cunina: let it be no other than he who is in those goddesses, who
sing the fates of the new born, and are called Carmentes: let him
preside over fortuitous events, and be called Fortuna: in the goddess
Rumina, let him milk out the breast to the little one, because the
ancients termed the breast ruma: in the goddess Potina, let him
administer drink: in the goddess Educa, let him supply food: from
the terror of infants, let him be styled Paventia: from the hope
which comes, Venilia: from voluptuousness, Volupia: from action,
Agenor: from the stimulants by which man is spurred on to much
action, let him be named the goddess Stimula: let him be the goddess
Strenia, for making strenuous; Numeria, who teaches to number;
Camoena, who teaches to sing: let him be both the god Consus for
granting counsel, and the goddess Sentia for inspiring sentences: let
him be the goddess Juventas, who, after the robe of boyhood is laid
aside, takes charge of the beginning of the youthful age: let him be
Fortuna Barbata, who endues adults with a beard, whom they have not
chosen to honor; so that this divinity, whatever it may be, should at
least be a male god, named either Barbatus, from barba, like
Nodotus, from nodus; or, certainly, not Fortuna, but because he
has beards, Fortunius: let him, in the god Jugatinus, yoke couples
in marriage; and when the girdle of the virgin wife is loosed, let him
be invoked as the goddess Virginiensis: let him be Mutunus or
Tuternus, who, among the Greeks, is called Priapus. If they are
not ashamed of it, let all these which I have named, and whatever
others I have not named (for I have not thought fit to name all),
let all these gods and goddesses be that one Jupiter, whether, as
some will have it, all these are parts of him, or are his powers, as
those think who are pleased to consider him the soul of the world,
which is the opinion of most of their doctors, and these the greatest.
If these things are so (how evil they may be I do not yet meanwhile
inquire), what would they lose, if they, by a more prudent
abridgment, should worship one god? For what part of him could be
contemned if he himself should be worshipped? But if they are afraid
lest parts of him should be angry at being passed by or neglected, then
it is not the case, as they will have it, that this whole is as the
life of one living being, which contains all the gods together, as if
they were its virtues, or members, or parts; but each part has its
own life separate from the rest, if it is so that one can be angered,
appeased, or stirred up more than another. But if it is said that all
together, that is, the whole Jove himself, would be offended if his
parts were not also worshipped singly and minutely, it is foolishly
spoken. Surely none of them could be passed by if he who singly
possesses them all should be worshipped. For, to omit other things
which are innumerable, when they say that all the stars are parts of
Jove, and are all alive, and have rational souls, and therefore
without controversy are gods, can they not see how many they do not
worship, to how many they do not build temples or set up altars, and
to how very few, in fact, of the stars they have thought of setting
them up and offering sacrifice? If, therefore, those are displeased
who are not severally worshipped, do they not fear to live with only a
few appeased, while all heaven is displeased? But if they worship all
the stars because they are part of Jove whom they worship, by the same
compendious method they could supplicate them all in him alone. For in
this way no one would be displeased, since in him alone all would be
supplicated. No one would be contemned, instead of there being just
cause of displeasure given to the much greater number who are passed by
in the worship offered to some; especially when Priapus, stretched
out in vile nakedness, is preferred to those who shine from their
supernal abode.
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