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Aux nations

X.

J'ai hâte d'arriver à des choses plus honteuses encore. Vos ancêtres n'ont pas rougi de diviniser publiquement Larentina, courtisane émérite qui vous a rendu plus d'un service, soit lorsqu'elle nourrit Romulus, connue alors sous le nom de Louve, à cause de ses prostitutions, soit lorsqu'elle fut la maîtresse d'Hercule, mais d'Hercule déjà mort, c'est-à-dire déjà dieu. On raconte, en effet, qu'un des gardiens du temple d'Hercule, ne sachant comment amuser les loisirs de sa solitude, s'avisa de jouer aux dés. Afin de représenter le partenaire qui lui manquait, il jouait d'une main pour son compte, et de l'autre pour le compte d'Hercule. Il y avait mis cette condition: si c'était lui qui gagnait, il devait prélever sur les offrandes du dieu un souper et une courtisane; si c'était Hercule, au contraire, c'est-à-dire l'autre main, il s'engageait vis-à-vis d'Hercule aux mêmes conditions. La main d'Hercule gagna. (Ajoutez cette oeuvre si vous voulez à ses douze travaux.) Le gardien du temple de s'exécuter. Il paie à souper à Hercule, et lui amène la courtisane Larentina. Le soleil, qui n'était autre chose que le feu de l'autel, dévore le souper destiné à Hercule. Larentina passe la nuit seule dans le temple. . . . . . Le lendemain elle se vante d'avoir fait son métier avec le dieu; peut-être, en effet, son imagination échauffée fut-elle la dupe d'une illusion… En sortant du temple, le matin, un jeune homme appelé Hercule, c'est le troisième de ce nom, convoite et obtient la prostituée… Aussitôt le bruit court de toutes parts que Larentina était l'amie du dieu. Dès ce moment, les honneurs pleuvent sur elle. . . . . . On lui donne des terres; on la gratifie de l'immortalité, elle et ses filles. . . . . . On prétend que de toutes les épouses d'Hercule, elle est la plus chérie, probablement pare qu'elle est la plus riche. Elle est plus puissante que Cybèle, puisqu'elle sut plaire à un mort. Après de tels exemples. . . . . qui ne peut espérer une petite place dans l'Olympe? Qui enfin s'aviserait de disputer à Antinoüs sa divinité sous prétexte que Ganymède était plus beau que lui et plus cher à son céleste amant? Chez vous le ciel s'ouvre aux morts. Du chemin des enfers vous avez fait le chemin de l'Olympe; tout le monde peut y monter, grande faveur vraiment que vous accordez à vos rois.

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Ad Nationes

Chapter X.--A Disgraceful Feature of the Roman Mythology. It Honours Such Infamous Characters as Larentina.

I hasten to even more abominable cases. Your writers have not been ashamed to publish that of Larentina. She was a hired prostitute, whether as the nurse of Romulus, and therefore called Lupa, because she was a prostitute, or as the mistress of Hercules, now deceased, that is to say, now deified. They ¹ relate that his temple-warder ² happened to be playing at dice in the temple alone; and in order to represent a partner for himself in the game, in the absence of an actual one, he began to play with one hand for Hercules and the other for himself. (The condition was,) that if he won the stakes from Hercules, he should with them procure a supper and a prostitute; if Hercules, however, proved the winner, I mean his other hand, then he should provide the same for Hercules. The hand of Hercules won. That achievement might well have been added to his twelve labours! The temple-warden buys a supper for the hero, and hires Larentina to play the whore. The fire which dissolved the body of even a Hercules ³ enjoyed the supper, and the altar consumed everything. Larentina sleeps alone in the temple; and she a woman from the brothel, boasts that in her dreams she had submitted herself to the pleasure of Hercules; ⁴ and she might possibly have experienced this, as it passed through her mind, in her sleep. In the morning, on going out of the temple very early, she is solicited by a young man--"a third Hercules," so to speak. ⁵ He invites her home. She complies, remembering that Hercules had told her that it would be for her advantage. He then, to be sure, obtains permission that they should be united in lawful wedlock (for none was allowed to have intercourse with the concubine of a god without being punished for it); the husband makes her his heir. By and by, just before her death, she bequeathed to the Roman people the rather large estate which she had obtained through Hercules. After this she sought deification for her daughters too, whom indeed the divine Larentina ought to have appointed her heirs also. The gods of the Romans received an accession in her dignity. For she alone of all the wives of Hercules was dear to him, because she alone was rich; and she was even far more fortunate than Ceres, who contributed to the pleasure of the (king of the) dead. ⁶ After so many examples and eminent names among you, who might not have been declared divine? Who, in fact, ever raised a question as to his divinity against Antinous? ⁷ Was even Ganymede more grateful and dear than he to (the supreme god) who loved him? According to you, heaven is open to the dead. You prepare ⁸ a way from Hades to the stars. Prostitutes mount it in all directions, so that you must not suppose that you are conferring a great distinction upon your kings.