Traduction Masquer
The Octavius of Minucius Felix

Chapter XXI.

--Argument: Octavius Attests the Fact that Men Were Adopted as Gods, by the Testimony of Euhemerus, Prodicus, Persaeus, and Alexander the Great, Who Enumerate the Country, the Birthdays, and the Burial-Places of the Gods. Moreover He Sets Forth the Mournful Endings, Misfortunes, and Deaths of the Gods. And, in Addition, He Laughs at the Ridiculous and Disgusting Absurdities Which the Heathens Continually Allege About the Form and Appearance of Their Gods.

"Read the writings of the Stoics, ¹ or the writings of wise men, you will acknowledge these facts with me. On account of the merits of their virtue or of some gift, Euhemerus asserts that they were esteemed gods; and he enumerates their birthdays, their countries, their places of sepulture, and throughout various provinces points out these circumstances of the Dictaean Jupiter, and of the Delphic Apollo, and of the Pharian Isis, and of the Eleusinian Ceres. Prodicus speaks of men who were taken up among the gods, because they were helpful to the uses of men in their wanderings, by the discovery of new kinds of produce. Persaeus philosophizes also to the same result; and he adds thereto, that the fruits discovered, and the discoverers of those same fruits, were called by the same names; as the passage of the comic writer runs, that Venus freezes without Bacchus and Ceres. Alexander the Great, the celebrated Macedonian, wrote in a remarkable document ² addressed to his mother, that under fear of his power there had been betrayed to him by the priest the secret of the gods having been men: to her he makes Vulcan the original of all, and then the race of Jupiter. And you behold the swallow and the cymbal of Isis, ³ and the tomb of your Serapis or Osiris empty, with his limbs scattered about. Then consider the sacred rites themselves, and their very mysteries: you will find mournful deaths, misfortunes, and funerals, and the griefs and wailings of the miserable gods. Isis bewails, laments, and seeks after her lost son, with her Cynocephalus and her bald priests; and the wretched Isiacs beat their breasts, and imitate the grief of the most unhappy mother. By and by, when the little boy is found, Isis rejoices, and the priests exult, Cynocephalus the discoverer boasts, and they do not cease year by year either to lose what they find, or to find what they lose. Is it not ridiculous either to grieve for what you worship, or to worship that over which you grieve? Yet these were formerly Egyptian rites, and now are Roman ones. Ceres with her torches lighted, and surrounded ⁴ with a serpent, with anxiety and solicitude tracks the footsteps of Proserpine, stolen away in her wandering, and corrupter. These are the Eleusinian mysteries. And what are the sacred rites of Jupiter? His nurse is a she-goat, and as an infant he is taken away from his greedy father, lest he should be devoured; and clanging uproar ⁵ is dashed out of the cymbals of the Corybantes, lest the father should hear the infant's wailing. Cybele of Dindymus--I am ashamed to speak of it--who could not entice her adulterous lover, who unhappily was pleasing to her, to lewdness, because she herself, as being the mother of many gods, was ugly and old, mutilated him, doubtless that she might make a god of the eunuch. On account of this story, the Galli also worship her by the punishment of their emasculated body. Now certainly these things are not sacred rites, but tortures. What are the very forms and appearances (of the gods)? do they not argue the contemptible and disgraceful characters of your gods? ⁶ Vulcan is a lame god, and crippled; Apollo, smooth-faced after so many ages; AEsculapius well bearded, notwithstanding that he is the son of the ever youthful Apollo; Neptune with sea-green eyes; Minerva with eyes bluish grey; Juno with ox-eyes; Mercury with winged feet; Pan with hoofed feet; Saturn with feet in fetters; Janus, indeed, wears two faces, as if that he might walk with looks turned back; Diana sometimes is a huntress, with her robe girded up high; and as the Ephesian she has many and fruitful breasts; and when exaggerated as Trivia, she is horrible with three heads and with many hands. What is your Jupiter himself? Now he is represented in a statue as beardless, now he is set up as bearded; and when he is called Hammon, he has horns; and when Capitolinus, then he wields the thunderbolts; and when Latiaris, he is sprinkled with gore; and when Feretrius, he is not approached; ⁷ and not to mention any further the multitude of Jupiters, the monstrous appearances of Jupiter are as numerous as his names. Erigone was hanged from a noose, that as a virgin she might be glowing ⁸ among the stars. The Castors die by turns, that they may live. AEsculapius, that he may rise into a god, is struck with a thunderbolt. Hercules, that he may put off humanity, is burnt up by the fires of OEta. ⁹

Edition Masquer
Marci Minucii Felicis Octavius

Caput XXI

ARGUMENTUM. — Mortales in deos fuisse assumptos confirmat Octavius Evhemeri, Prodici, Perses et Alexandri Magni testimonio, a quibus deorum patria, natales, sepulchra recensentur. Exponit praeterea deorum tristes exitus, fata et funera. Ad haec ineptas putidasque nugas videt, quas de suorum deorum forma et figura ethnici venditant.

Lege Stoicorum scripta vel scripta sapientium, eadem mecum recognosces. Ob merita virtutis aut muneris deos habitos Erueret [impr. Evhemerus] exsequitur, et eorum natales, patrias, sepulchra dinumerat et per provincias monstrat: dicta [impr. Dictaei] Jovis et Apollinis Delphiciae [impr. Delphici], et Pariae [impr. Phariae] Isidis, et Cereris Eleusiniae. Prodigiis [impr. Prodicus] assumptos in deos loquitur, qui errando inventis novis utilitati hominum profuere. In eamdem sententiam et Persaeus philosophatur, et annectit inventas fruges et frugum ipsarum repertores iisdem nominibus, ut comicus sermo est, Venerem sine Libero et Cerere frigere. Alexander ille Magnus, Macedo, insigni volumine ad matrem suam scripsit, metu suae potestatis proditum sibi de diis hominibus a sacerdote secretum: illi Vulcanum facit omnium principem, et postea Jovis gentem et despicis Isidis ad hirundinem, sistrum, et adspersis membris inanem tui Serapidis sive Osiridis tumulum. Considera denique sacra ipsa et ipsa mysteria, invenies exitus tristes, fata et funera, et luctus atque planctus miserorum deorum. Isis perditum filium cum Cynocephalo suo et calvis sacerdotibus luget, plangit, inquirit, et Isiaci miseri caedunt pectora, et dolorem infelicissimae matris imitantur: mox, invento parvulo, gaudet Isis, exsultant sacerdotes, Cynocephalus inventor gloriatur: nec desinunt annis omnibus vel perdere quod inveniunt, vel invenire quod perdunt. Nonne ridiculum est vel lugere quod colas, vel colere quod lugeas? haec tamen Aegyptia quondam, nunc et sacra Romana sunt. Ceres facibus accensis, et serpente circumdata, errore subreptam et corruptam Liberam anxia et sollicita vestigat. Haec sunt Eleusina. Et quae Jovis sacra sunt? Nutrix capella est, et avido patri subtrahitur infans, ne voretur; et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat vagitus, tinnitus eliditur. Cybele Dyndima, pudet dicere, quae adulterum suum infeliciter placitum, quoniam et ipsa deformis et vetula, ut multorum deorum mater, ad stuprum inlicere non poterat, exsecuit, ut deum scilicet faceret eunuchum. Propter hanc fabulam Galli eam et semiviri sui corporis supplicio colunt. Haec jam non sunt sacra; tormenta sunt. Quid formae ipsae et habitus? Nonne arguunt ludibria et decora [impr. dedecora] deorum vestrorum? Vulcanus claudus deus et debilis; Apollo tot aetatibus levis; Aesculapius bene barbatus, etsi semper adolescentis Apollinis filius; Neptunus glaucis oculis, Minerva caesiis, bubulis Juno, pedibus Mercurius alatis, Pan ungulatis, Saturnus compeditis; Janus vero frontes duas gestat, quasi ut aversus incedat. Diana interim est alte succincta venatrix; et Ephesia mammis multis et veribus exstructa; et Trivia trinis capitibus, et mult s manibus horrifica. Quid? ipse Jupiter vester modo imberbis statuitur, modo barbatus locatur: et quum Hammon dicitur, habet cornua; et quum Capitolinus, tunc gerit fulmina; et quum Latiaris, cruore perfunditur; et quum Feretrius, non aditur. Et, ne longius multos Joves obeam, tot sunt Jovis monstra quot nomina. Erigone suspensa de laqueo est, ut Virgo inter astra, ignata sit. Castores alternis moriuntur, ut vivant: Aesculapius, ut in deum surgat, fulminatur: Hercules, ut hominem exuat, Henneis [vulg. Oeteis] ignibus concrematur.