Ante-Nicene Christian Library; Translations Of The Writings Of The Fathers Down To A.D. 325, Volume 11: The Writings Of Tertullian, Volume 1

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rather accounted gods, becausa then to save their mother hom mili in the performance of some sacred rites, with a devotion more than human, yoked themselves to her car and

more dung than ho to beston on them. Is Faunus, the sonos Picus, used to do violencs to laW and right, hecauso struch Uith madnos' it was more fit that he should bo doctored than dolfiod.' It tho daughter of Faunus so excelled in chasti , that she would hold no conversation Mith men, it

Cleobis and Biton; see Herodotus, i. 31.J See Valerius Maximus, V. 4, 1.J Ne noed not sisy to potnt out the untiarnem of thia statament, in contrast missi the exploiis of AEnma against Turnus, as delassed in thelast booka of tho AEneid.J Usque in. si DKs have thus rendered quiritatem est, Π to preserve M lar m Onec id the pun on the deaeed hero of the Quirites. J' Ne inseri tho Latin, to a W the pun on Sterciaua; aee Tho

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486 TERTULLIANUS although d elling among so many suitors of the vilest ch racter, preserved With delicate taci the purity which theyassailod i Thero is Sanctus, too, who for his hospitali liud a temple consecrated to hi in by hing Plotius ; and evenUlyssos had it in his pomer to have besto ed one more godupon you in the person of the most refined Alcinous. CHAP. X.-It is a diagracesul feature of the Roman mytholata,

have not been ashamed to publisti that of Larentina. Shewas a hired prostitute, Whether as the nurse of Romulus, and there ore called Lupa, because she Was a prostitute, oras the mistress of Hercules, noW deceased, that is to say, no

dei fiod. They relate that his temple-warder' happened tobe playing at dice in the temple alone; and in order torepresent a pariner for himself in the game, in the absonos ofan actual one, he began to play with one hand for Hercules and tho other for himself. Tho condition was,J that is homon tho stahes from Hercules, he should With stem procurea supper and a prostitute; is Hercules, hoWever, proved the winner Ι mean his other hand), then ho fhould provide thesamo for Hercules. The hand of Hercules mon. Thatachiovoment might meli havo been addod to his twolvolaboursi The tomple-Warden buys a supper for the hero, and hires Larentina to play the whore. The firo which di soluod the body of even a Hercules enjπed the supper, and

the altar consumed everything. Larentina fleeps alone in

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sho bequeathed to the Roman peopte the rather large estatemhich sho had obtainad through Herculos. Aster stis ahesouot deification for her daughtera ino, Whom indeed stodivine Larentina ought to have appotnted her heim also. The gods of tho Romans received an accession in her digni .

For ahe alone os ali the wives of Hercules Was dear to him, hecause aho alone Was rich ; and ahe was even far more se tunate than Ceres, who contributed to the pleasuro of th

names among JOu, Who might not have been declared divino tWho, in faci, ever raised a question as in his divinity against Antinous ' Was even Ganymede more gratesul and dear

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488 TERTULLIANUS

srom his conception in the wοmb: so that there is a god Consevius,' to preside over concubitat generation; and Fl riona,' in preserve the diro th of theJ insant in the womb; after these come Vitumnus and Sentinus,' through whomilio babo boons to havo life and ita earliest sensation; then Diespiter,' by Whoso ossico the child accomptishes ita birin. But When Women begin their parturition, Candelisera also comes in alM, since childbearing requires the light of thocandie; and other goddesses there are' Who get thela nam fram the parta they bear in the stages of travail. Therowero tWo Carmentas likeWise, according to the generat vie rto ono of them, called Postverta, belonged tho function of sisting tho birili of tho introverted child ; whilo the other, Pros ' executed tho liko ossice for tho rightly bore. Thogod Farinus was so called from his inspirinc the first uites ance; whilo others belleved in Locutius from his gist of speech. Cunina' is present as the protector of tho child'sdeep slumber, and supplies to it refreshing rest. To list them whon fallenJ' thero is Levana, and along mith her Rumina.δ' It is a wondersui oversight that no gods Wero

Efflagitant coelo et sanciunt sce. they inaist on deisying J.

A nams of Juno, in reserenoe in her ossico in mothera, quia eam sanguinis fluorem in conceptu retinere Putabant.' Comp. August. G

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Comp. August. de civ. Dei, iv. 9, 11, 36. J

Seo iam Tertullian's de Anima, xxxix.; and Augustine'a de civ. Dei, iv. 21, here the god has the masculine name of Statilinus.J

η Arnobius, ado. Nationes, tu. 3.J' fAugustine, de Cis. Dei, mentiona the goddem Agenoris.Jλ' son Fortuna Barbata, Me Augustine, de civ. Dei, iv. 11, Where he

also namea Consus and Iuventa. J

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490 TERTULLIANUS

let us adopi our compendious summary from the most nat

rat method ' os conducting the examination, even is considoring tho origin of their race. For the origin charaeterietes ali stat comes aster it. NoW this origin of your gods dares,' I suppose, from Saturn. And when Varro mentions Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, as the most ancient of the god' it ought not to have escaped our notice, that every father is more ancient than his sons, and that Saturn theresore must precede Jupiter, even as Coelus does Saturn, sor Saturn Was Aprungfrom Ccelus and Terra. I para by, ho ever, the origis of Ccelus and Terra. They led in some unaccount te Wayy singio lives, and had no chilhen. of course they required

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to marry another. Indeed, there mas no second Ccelus forher. What but Ocean offers her an embraeel But hesmours of brachistiness, and sho has been accustomed infroin mater.' And so Saturn is tho solo malo child of Coelus and Terra. When grown to puberu, he marries his o nsister. No laWs as yet prohibited incest, nor punished parrucide. Then, When malo children mero bom to him, he would

Tantam proceritatem.

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492 TERTULLIANUS. This artifico secured his sately for a time; but at longin thoson, Whom he had not devoured, and who had mo- up in secret, teli vpon him, and deprived him os his hingdom. Such, then, is the patriarch of the gods whom Heaven in and Earin produced for you, with the poeta ossiciating as mi

os opinion that, by this allegorical fabie of Saturn, there is a physiological representation os Time: fthey thinhJ that it isbecauso ali things are dest yed by Time, stat Coelus and Terra mere themselves parenis Without having any of theirown, and that the fiata scythe was used, and that SaturnJ

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do you on that account mean that he Was ever human. Nodoubi, in the accounts of remote antiquity yοur god Saturnis plainly described as living on earth in human guise. An thing Whatever may obviously be pictured as incorporealwhicli never had an existenm; there is simply no room forsuoli fiction, Where there is reali . Since, theretore, thereis clear evidelice that Saturn once existed, it is in vain that Du change his character. He Whom you Will not deny toliave once been man, is not at your disposal to bo troaledanylio' nor can it be maintained that he is sither divino orTime. In every page of your literature the origink of Saturnis conspicuous. We read of him in Cassius Severus and intho Corneliuses, Nepos and Tacitus,' and , amongst the Greehsalso, in Diodorus, and ali other compilers of ancient annals. No more faithsul records of him are to bo traced than in

as it mas then called, innotria, having met with a hind wel- como from Janus, or Janes,' as the Salii cali him. Thohili on whicli ho sotiled had tho name Saturnius, Whilst theeity whieli ho foundod μ stili bears the namo Saturnia; in aliori, tho whole of Italy once had the samo designation. Sueli is tho testimony derived irom that country whicli is

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known. I say nothing of tho faci that such Waa the stato os antiquiu, When men's eyes and minia mere so habituallyrude, stat they Were excited by the appearanoe of every -- comer as is it Wers that os a god: muta moro Would this botho caso missi a Ling, and that the primeval one. I milliinger some time longer over the case of Saturn, Minum is

iurnish a compendious answer for ali other cases; and I donot wish to omit the more convincing testimony of Four sacred literature, the credit of which ought to bo the greater in proportion to ita antiquity. ΝοW earlier than ali litoraturo Was the Sibyl; that Sibyl, I mean, Who mas the true Pr phetem os truth, from Rhom you borrow their titio for thopriesis of Four demons. She in senarian verse ex untatae descent of Saturn and his sxploita in Worti in this effectr In tho tentii generation of men, aftor tho Bood had ove Whelmed the former race, rei ed Saturn, and Titan, and Japetus, the bravest of the fons of Terra and Ccelus' Wha,

ever credit, the fore, is attached to Four older Writers and literature, and much more to thoso Who mere tho simplest asbelonging to that age,' it becomes sufficiently certain that Saturn and his fami lyy Wero human beings. Wo have in Our possession, then, a bries principie Which amounts to a pr scriptive rule about their origin serving for est oster cases, in prevent Our Ming Wrong in individual instances. The particular character of a posterity is stlown by the originalfounders of the race-mortal beings scomH irom mortali,earthly ones hom emthly; step after step comes in due relationρ- marriage, conception, birth - counim, Settismenis,

Coclitem. Magis proximis quoniam illius aetatis. Prosapia. ε Qualitas.

- Comparantur.

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