Traduction
Masquer
Gegen die Heiden (BKV)
Nr. 26
Hat etwa Jemand uns im Verdacht, wir schmiedeten Ränke, so nehme er die Schriften des threizischen Propheten (Orpheus), welche ihr als göttliches Alterthum anführt, und er wird finden, daß wir nichts weder verschlagen aussinnen, noch irgend Etwas aufsuchen und beibringen, der Götter Heiligkeit dem Gelächter Preis zu geben: denn wir setzen die Verse selbst her, welche der Kalliope Sohn, in griechischer Mundart verfaßt, zum Gesang durch Jahrhunderte hin veröffentlicht hat dem Menschengeschlechte: „So gesprochen zog sie vom Unterleib hinweg das Gewand, und gab den Augen die Schamtheile Preis, welche Baubo, mit hohler Hand aufwärts werfend, tatscht, sanft berührt: denn knabenhaft war der Anblick. Darauf legt die Göttin, die hehren Augen unverwandt dorthin gewendet, alsbald des Herzens Trübniß erweicht ab, nimmt den Becher in die Hand und leert unter nachfolgendem Lachen erheitert den ganzen Mischtrank.“ Was sagt ihr, Nachkommen des Erichtheos, was ihr minervischen Bürger? Der Verstand verlangt zu wissen, mit welchen Reden ihr so wagliche Dinge vertheidigen wollt, oder mittelst welcher Künste ihr von Wunden und Kränkungen so zerstochene Personen wieder heil machen könnt? Nicht ist dieser Verdacht ein falscher, noch werdet ihr ihn als Verläumdung angreifen: denn eurer Eleusinien Merkmale und Anfänge machen auch die Aussprüche alterthümlicher Schriften als schimpflich offenbar; dann die Formeln und Merkworte selbst, welche ihr gefragt bei der Aufnahme antwortet: Ich habe gefastet und den Mischtrank getrunken. Ich habe den Becher aus der Kiste genommen und nach dem Gebrauch in den Korb, dann aber wieder aus dem Korbe in die Kiste gelegt.
Traduction
Masquer
The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen
26.
If any one perchance thinks that we are speaking wicked calumnies, let him take the hooks of the Thracian soothsayer, 1 which you speak of as of divine antiquity; and he will find that we are neither cunningly inventing anything, nor seeking means to bring the holiness of the gods into ridicule, and doing so: for we shall bring forward the very verses which the son of Calliope uttered in Greek, 2 and published abroad in his songs to the human race throughout all ages:--
"With these words she at the same time drew up her garments from the lowest hem,
And exposed to view formatas inguinibus res,
Which Baubo grasping 3 with hollow hand, for
Their appearance was infantile, strikes, touches gently.
Then the goddess, fixing her orbs of august light,
Being softened, lays aside for a little the sadness of her mind;
Thereafter she takes the cup in her hand, and laughing,
Drinks off the whole draught of cyceon with gladness." 4
What say you, O wise sons of Erectheus? 5 what, you citizens of Minerva? 6 The mind is eager to know with what words you will defend what it is so dangerous to maintain, or what arts you have by which to give safety to personages and causes wounded so mortally. This 7 is no false mistrust, nor are you assailed with lying accusations: 8 the infamy of your Eleusinia is declared both by their base beginnings and by the records of ancient literature, by the very signs, in fine, which you use when questioned in receiving the sacred things,--"I have fasted, and drunk the draught; 9 I have taken out of the mystic cist, 10 and put into the wicker-basket; I have received again, and transferred to the little chest." 11
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Orpheus, under whose name there was current in the time of Arnobius an immense mass of literature freely used, and it is probable sometimes supplemented, by Christian writers. Cf. c. 19. ↩
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Lit, "put forth with Greek mouth." ↩
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Lit., "tossing." ↩
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It may be well to observe that Arnobius differs from the Greek versions of these lines found in Clem. Alex. (vol. ii. p. 177) and Eusebius (Praepar. Evang. ii. 3), omitting all mention of Iacchus, who is made very prominent by them; and that he does not adhere strictly to metrical rules, probably, as Heraldus pointed out, because, like the poets of that age, he paid little heed to questions of quantity. Whether Arnobius has merely paraphrased the original as found in Clement and Eusebius, or had a different version of them before him, is a question which can only be discussed by means of a careful comparison between the Greek and Latin forms of the verses with the context in both cases. ↩
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So LB., Hild., and Oehler, reading Erechthidae O(inserted by Hild.) for the ms. erithideo. ↩
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i.e., Athenians. ↩
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The ms., 1st ed., Hild., and Oehler read ita--"It is thus not," etc.; the others as above, ista. ↩
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Delatione calumniosa. [Conf. vol. ii. p. 175, col. 2.] ↩
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Cyceon. [P. 499, supra, and 503, infra.] ↩
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The ms. reads exci-ta, corrected as above, ex cista, in the margins of Ursinus. ↩
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[It is a pity that all this must be retailed anew after Clement, vol. ii. pp. 175, 177, notes.] ↩