Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 10.--What Varro Reports About the Term Areopagus, and About Deucalion's Flood.

Marcus Varro, however, is not willing to credit lying fables against the gods, lest he should find something dishonoring to their majesty; and therefore he will not admit that the Areopagus, the place where the Apostle Paul disputed with the Athenians, got this name because Mars, who in Greek is called AAres, when he was charged with the crime of homicide, and was judged by twelve gods in that field, was acquitted by the sentence of six; because it was the custom, when the votes were equal, to acquit rather than condemn. Against this opinion, which is much most widely published, he tries, from the notices of obscure books, to support another reason for this name, lest the Athenians should be thought to have called it Areopagus from the words" Mars" and "field," ¹ as if it were the field of Mars, to the dishonor of the gods, forsooth, from whom he thinks lawsuits and judgments far removed. And he asserts that this which is said about Mars is not less false than what is said about the three goddesses, to wit, Juno, Minerva, and Venus, whose contest for the palm of beauty, before Paris as judge, in order to obtain the golden apple, is not only related, but is celebrated in songs and dances amid the applause of the theatres, in plays meant to please the gods who take pleasure in these crimes of their own, whether real or fabled. Varro does not believe these things, because they are incompatible with the nature of the gods and of morality; and yet, in giving not a fabulous but a historic reason for the name of Athens, he inserts in his books the strife between Neptune and Minerva as to whose name should be given to that city, which was so great that, when they contended by the display of prodigies, even Apollo dared not judge between them when consulted; but, in order to end the strife of the gods, just as Jupiter sent the three goddesses we have named to Paris, so he sent them to men, when Minerva won by the vote, and yet was defeated by the punishment of her own voters, for she was unable to confer the title of Athenians on the women who were her friends, although she could impose it on the men who were her opponents. In these times, when Cranaos reigned at Athens as the successor of Cecrops, as Varro writes, but, according to our Eusebius and Jerome, while Cecrops himself still remained, the flood occurred which is called Deucalion's, because it occurred chiefly in those parts of the earth in which he reigned. But this flood did not at all reach Egypt or its vicinity.

Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput X: Quid Varro tradat de nuncupatione Areopagi et de diluuio Deucalionis.

Et tamen Marcus Varro non uult fabulosis aduersus deos fidem adhibere figmentis, ne de maiestatis eorum dignitate indignum aliquid sentiat. et ideo nec Areon pagon, ubi cum Atheniensibus Paulus apostolus disputauit, ex quo loco Areopagitae appellati sunt curiales urbis eiusdem, uult inde accepisse nomen, quod Mars, qui Graece Ἄρης dicitur, cum homicidii crimine reus fieret, iudicantibus duodecim dis in eo pago sex sententiis absolutus est, quia ubi paris numeri sententiae fuissent, praeponi absolutio damnationi solebat; sed contra istam, quae multo amplius est celebrata, opinionem aliam quandam de obscurarum notitia litterarum causam nominis huius conatur adstruere, ne Areon pagon Athenienses de nomine Martis et pagi quasi Martis pagum nominasse credantur, in iniuriam uidelicet numinum, a quibus litigia uel iudicia existimat aliena; non minus hoc, quod de Marte dicitur, falsum esse adseuerans, quam illud quod de tribus deabus, Iunone scilicet et Minerua et Venere, quae pro malo aureo adipiscendo apud iudicem Paridem de pulchritudinis excellentia certasse narrantur et ad placandos ludis deos, qui delectantur seu ueris seu falsis istis criminibus suis, inter theatricos plausus cantatur atque saltantur. haec Varro non credit, ne deorum naturae seu moribus credat incongrua; et tamen non fabulosam, sed historicam rationem de Athenarum uocabulo reddens tantam Neptuni et Mineruae litem suis litteris inserit, de cuius nomine potius illa ciuitas uocaretur, ut, cum prodigiorum ostentatione contenderent, inter eos iudicare nec Apollo consultus auderet, sed deorum iurgium finiendum, sicut memoratarum trium dearum ad Paridem Iuppiter, ita et iste ad homines mitteret, ubi uinceret Minerua suffragiis et in poena suarum suffragatricium uinceretur, quae in aduersariis suis uiris obtinere Athenas potuit, et amicas suas feminas Athenaeas habere non potuit. his temporibus, ut Varro scribit, regnante Atheniensibus Cranao, successore Cecropis, ut autem nostri Eusebius et Hieronymus, adhuc eodem Cecrope permanente, diluuium fuit, quod appellatum est Deucalionis, eo quod ipse regnabat in earum terrarum partibus, ubi maxime factum est. hoc autem diluuium nequaquam ad Aegyptum atque ad eius uicina peruenit.