Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput VIII: Quorum regum aetate Moyses natus sit, et quorum deorum eisdem temporibus sit orta religio.

Cum ergo regnaret Assyriis quartus decimus Saphrus et Sicyoniis duodecimus Orthopolis et Criasus quintus Argiuis, natus est in Aegypto Moyses, per quem populus dei de seruitute Aegyptia liberatus est, in qua eum ad desiderandum sui creatoris auxilium sic exerceri oportebat. regnantibus memoratis regibus fuisse a quibusdam creditur Prometheus, quem propterea ferunt de luto formasse homines, quia optimus sapientiae doctor fuisse perhibetur; nec tamen ostenditur, qui eius temporibus fuerint sapientes. frater eius Atlans magnus fuisse astrologus dicitur; unde occasionem fabula inuenit, ut eum caelum portare confingeret; quamuis mons eius nomine nuncupetur, cuius altitudine potius caeli portatio in opinionem uulgi uenisse uideatur. multa quoque alia ex illis in Graecia temporibus confingi fabulosa coeperunt; sed usque ad Cecropem regem Atheniensium, quo regnante eadem ciuitas etiam tale nomen accepit, et quo regnante deus per Moysen eduxit ex Aegypto populum suum, relati sunt in deorum numerum aliquot mortui caeca et uana consuetudine ac superstitione Graecorum. in quibus Criasi regis coniux Melantomice et Phorbas filius eorum, qui post patrem rex Argiuorum sextus fuit, et septimi regis Triopae filius Iasus et rex nonus Sthenelas siue Stheneleus siue Sthenelus; uarie quippe in diuersis auctoribus inuenitur. his temporibus etiam Mercurius fuisse perhibetur, nepos Atlantis ex Maia filia, quod uulgatiores etiam litterae personant. multarum autem artium peritus claruit, quas et hominibus tradidit; quo merito eum post mortem deum esse uoluerunt siue etiam crediderunt. posterior fuisse Hercules dicitur, ad ea tamen tempora pertinens Argiuorum; quamuis nonnulli eum Mercurio praeferant tempore; quos falli existimo. sed quolibet tempore nati sint, constat inter historicos graues, qui haec antiqua litteris mandauerunt, ambos homines fuisse, et quod mortalibus ad istam uitam commodius ducendam beneficia multa contulerint, honores ab eis meruisse diuinos. Minerua uero longe his antiquior; nam temporibus Ogygi ad lacum, qui Tritonis dicitur, uirginali apparuisse fertur aetate, unde et Tritonia nuncupata est; multorum sane operum inuentrix et tanto procliuius dea credita, quanto minus origo eius innotuit. quod enim de capite Iouis nata canitur, poetis et fabulis, non historiae rebusque gestis est adplicandum. quamquam Ogygus ipse quando fuerit, cuius temporibus etiam diluuium magnum factum est, non illud maximum, in quo nulli homines euaserunt, nisi qui in arca esse potuerunt, quod gentium nec Graeca nec Latina nouit historia, sed tamen maius quam postea tempore Deucalionis fuit, inter scriptores historiae non conuenit. nam Varro inde exorsus est librum, cuius mentionem superius feci, et nihil sibi, ex quo perueniat ad res Romanas, proponit antiquius quam Ogygi diluuium, hoc est Ogygi factum temporibus. nostri autem qui chronica scripserunt, prius Eusebius, post Hieronymus, qui utique praecedentes aliquos historicos in hac opinione secuti sunt, post annos amplius quam trecentos iam secundo Argiuorum Phoroneo rege regnante Ogygi diluuium fuisse commemorant. sed quolibet tempore fuerit, iam tamen Minerua tamquam dea colebatur regnante Atheniensibus Cecrope, sub quo rege etiam ipsam uel instauratam ferunt uel conditam ciuitatem.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 8.--Who Were Kings When Moses Was Born, and What Gods Began to Be Worshipped Then.

When Saphrus reigned as the fourteenth king of Assyria, and Orthopolis as the twelfth of Sicyon, and Criasus as the fifth of Argos, Moses was born in Egypt, by whom the people of God were liberated from the Egyptian slavery, in which they behoved to be thus tried that they might desire the help of their Creator. Some have thought that Prometheus lived during the reign of the kings now named. He is reported to have formed men out of clay, because he was esteemed the best teacher of wisdom; yet it does not appear what wise men there were in his days. His brother Atlas is said to have been a great astrologer; and this gave occasion for the fable that he held up the sky, although the vulgar opinion about his holding up the sky appears rather to have been suggested by a high mountain named after him. Indeed, from those times many other fabulous things began to be invented in Greece; yet, down to Cecrops king of Athens, in whose reign that city received its name, and in whose reign God brought His people out of Egypt by Moses, only a few dead heroes are reported to have been deified according to the vain superstition of the Greeks. Among these were Melantomice, the wife of king Criasus, and Phorbas their son, who succeeded his father as sixth king of the Argives, and Iasus, son of Triopas, their seventh king, and their ninth king, Sthenelas, or Stheneleus, or Sthenelus,--for his name is given differently by different authors. In those times also, Mercury, the grandson of Atlas by his daughter Maia, is said to have lived, according to the common report in books. He was famous for his skill in many arts, and taught them to men, for which they resolved to make him, and even believed that he deserved to be, a god after death. Hercules is said to have been later, yet belonging to the same period; although some, whom I think mistaken, assign him an earlier date than Mercury. But at whatever time they were born, it is agreed among grave historians, who have committed these ancient things to writing, that both were men, and that they merited divine honors from mortals because they conferred on them many benefits to make this life more pleasant to them. Minerva was far more ancient than these; for she is reported to have appeared in virgin age in the times of Ogyges at the lake called Triton, from which she is also styled Tritonia, the inventress truly of many works, and the more readily believed to be a goddess because her origin was so little known. For what is sung about her having sprung from the head of Jupiter belongs to the region of poetry and fable, and not to that of history and real fact. And historical writers are not agreed when Ogyges flourished, in whose time also a great flood occurred,--not that greatest one from which no man escaped except those who could get into the ark, for neither Greek nor Latin history knew of it, yet a greater flood than that which happened afterward in Deucalion's time. For Varro begins the book I have already mentioned at this date, and does not propose to himself, as the starting-point from which he may arrive at Roman affairs, anything more ancient than the flood of Ogyges, that is, which happened in the time of Ogyges. Now our writers of chronicles--first Eusebius, and afterwards Jerome, who entirely follow some earlier historians in this opinion--relate that the flood of Ogyges happened more than three hundred years after, during the reign of Phoroneus, the second king of Argos. But whenever he may have lived, Minerva was already worshipped as a goddess when Cecrops reigned in Athens, in whose reign the city itself is reported to have been rebuilt or founded.