• Home
  • Works
  • Introduction Guide Collaboration Sponsors / Collaborators Copyrights Contact Imprint
Bibliothek der Kirchenväter
Search
DE EN FR
Works Arnobius the Elder (240-330) Adversus Nationes The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen
Book III.

25.

Unxia, my opponent says, presides over the anointing of door-posts; Cinxia over the loosening of the zone; the most venerable Victa 1 and Potua attend to eating and drinking. O rare and admirable interpretation of the divine powers! would gods not have names 2 if brides did not besmear their husbands' door-posts with greasy ointment; were it not that husbands, when now eagerly drawing near, unbind the maiden-girdle; if men did not eat and drink? Moreover, not satisfied to have subjected and involved the gods in cares so unseemly, you also ascribe to them dispositions fierce, cruel, savage, ever rejoicing in the ills and destruction of mankind.


  1. The ms. reads Vita. ↩

  2. [i.e., these names are derived from their offices to men. Have they no names apart from these services?] ↩

pattern
  Print   Report an error
  • Show the text
  • Bibliographic Reference
  • Scans for this version
Translations of this Work
Gegen die Heiden (BKV) Compare
The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen
Commentaries for this Work
Einleitung
Elucidations - Seven Books Against the Heathens
Introduction to Arnobius

Contents

Faculty of Theology, Patristics and History of the Early Church
Miséricorde, Av. Europe 20, CH 1700 Fribourg

© 2025 Gregor Emmenegger
Imprint
Privacy policy