Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>During this period, that is, from Israel's exodus from Egypt\r\ndown to the death of Joshua the son of Nun, through whom\r\nthat people received the land of promise, rituals were instituted\r\nto the false gods by the kings of Greece, which, by\r\nstated celebration, recalled the memory of the flood, and of\r\nmen's deliverance from it, and of that troublous life they then\r\nled in migrating to and fro between the heights and the\r\nplains. For even the Luperci,<a id=\"FNanchor_502_502\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_502_502\">[502]</a> when they ascend and descend\r\nthe sacred path, are said to represent the men who sought\r\nthe mountain summits because of the inundation of water,\r\nand returned to the lowlands on its subsidence. In those\r\ntimes, Dionysus, who was also called Father Liber, and was\r\nesteemed a god after death, is said to have shown the vine\r\nto his host in Attica. Then the musical games were instituted\r\nfor the Delphic Apollo, to appease his anger, through\r\nwhich they thought the regions of Greece were afflicted with\r\nbarrenness, because they had not defended his temple which\r\nDanaos burnt when he invaded those lands; for they were\r\nwarned by his oracle to institute these games. But king\r\nEricthonius first instituted games to him in Attica, and not to\r\nhim only, but also to Minerva, in which games the olive was\r\ngiven as the prize to the victors, because they relate that\r\nMinerva was the discoverer of that fruit, as Liber was of the\r\ngrape. In those years Europa is alleged to have been carried\r\noff by Xanthus king of Crete (to whom we find some\r\ngive another name), and to have borne him Rhadamanthus,\r\nSarpedon, and Minos, who are more commonly reported to\r\nhave been the sons of Jupiter by the same woman. Now\r\nthose who worship such gods regard what we have said about<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_230\">[Pg 230]</a></span>\r\nXanthus king of Crete as true history; but this about\r\nJupiter, which the poets sing, the theatres applaud, and the\r\npeople celebrate, as empty fable got up as a reason for games\r\nto appease the deities, even with the false ascription of crimes\r\nto them. In those times Hercules was held in honour in\r\nTyre, but that was not the same one as he whom we spoke of\r\nabove. In the more secret history there are said to have been\r\nseveral who were called Father Liber and Hercules. This\r\nHercules, whose great deeds are reckoned as twelve (not including\r\nthe slaughter of Antæus the African, because that\r\naffair pertains to another Hercules), is declared in their books\r\nto have burned himself on Mount Œta, because he was not\r\nable, by that strength with which he had subdued monsters,\r\nto endure the disease under which he languished. At that\r\ntime the king, or rather tyrant Busiris, who is alleged to have\r\nbeen the son of Neptune by Libya the daughter of Epaphus,\r\nis said to have offered up his guests in sacrifice to the gods.\r\nNow it must not be believed that Neptune committed this\r\nadultery, lest the gods should be criminated; yet such things\r\nmust be ascribed to them by the poets and in the theatres,\r\nthat they may be pleased with them. Vulcan and Minerva\r\nare said to have been the parents of Ericthonius king of\r\nAthens, in whose last years Joshua the son of Nun is found\r\nto have died. But since they will have it that Minerva is\r\na virgin, they say that Vulcan, being disturbed in the struggle\r\nbetween them, poured out his seed into the earth, and on that\r\naccount the man born of it received that name; for in the\r\nGreek language ἔρις is \"strife,\" and χθὼν \"earth,\" of which two\r\nwords Ericthonius is a compound. Yet it must be admitted\r\nthat the more learned disprove and disown such things concerning\r\ntheir gods, and declare that this fabulous belief originated\r\nin the fact that in the temple at Athens, which Vulcan\r\nand Minerva had in common, a boy who had been exposed\r\nwas found wrapped up in the coils of a dragon, which signified\r\nthat he would become great, and, as his parents were unknown,\r\nhe was called the son of Vulcan and Minerva, because\r\nthey had the temple in common. Yet that fable accounts for\r\nthe origin of his name better than this history. But what\r\ndoes it matter to us? Let the one in books that speak the<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_231\">[Pg 231]</a></span>\r\ntruth edify religious men, and the other in lying fables delight\r\nimpure demons. Yet these religious men worship them as\r\ngods. Still, while they deny these things concerning them,\r\nthey cannot clear them of all crime, because at their demand\r\nthey exhibit plays in which the very things they wisely deny\r\nare basely done, and the gods are appeased by these false and\r\nbase things. Now, even although the play celebrates an unreal\r\ncrime of the gods, yet to delight in the ascription of an unreal\r\ncrime is a real one.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK EIGHTEENTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-377"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"0874f53d52761d6d7554706d28aa3f486062c36c7ca2f9b5c42cebfcb9b0262f","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_502_502","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_502_502","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_502_502\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_502_502\"><span class=\"label\">[502]</span></a> The priests who officiated at the Lupercalia.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_502_502","text_sha256":"5857eefa8589e82b74c617629ff49c38416efe9b6a14c7e7e32b3f6595c82947","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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