23. I should wish,
therefore, to see Jupiter, the father of the gods, who ever controls
the world and men,
4412
adorned with the horns of an ox,
shaking his hairy ears, with his feet contracted into hoofs, chewing
green grass, and
having
behind him
4413
a tail, hams,
4414
and ankles smeared over with soft
excrement,
4415
and bedaubed
with the filth cast forth. I should wish, I say,—for it
must be said over and over again,—to see him who turns the stars
in their courses
, and who terrifies and overthrows nations pale
with fear, pursuing the flocks of wethers,
inspicientem testiculos
aretinos
, snatching these away with that severe
4416
and divine hand with which he was wont
to launch the gleaming lightnings and to hurl in his rage the
thunderbolt.
4417
Then,
indeed,
I should like to see him
ransacking their inmost parts
with glowing knife;
4418
and all witnesses being removed,
tearing away the membranes
circumjectas prolibus
, and bringing
them to his mother, still hot with rage, as a kind of fillet
4419
to draw forth
her pity, with downcast countenance, pale, wounded,
4420
pretending to be in agony; and to make
this believed, defiled with the blood of the ram, and covering his
pretended wound with bands of wool and linen.
Is it
possible
that this can be heard and read in this world,
4421
and that those
who discuss these things wish themselves to be thought pious, holy, and
defenders of religion? Is there any greater sacrilege than this,
or can any mind
4422
be found
so imbued with impious ideas as to believe such stories, or receive
them, or hand them down in the most secret mysteries of the sacred
rites? If that Jupiter
of whom you speak
, whoever he is,
really
4423
existed, or
was affected by any sense of wrong, would it not be fitting
that,
4424
roused to
anger, he should remove the earth from under our feet, extinguish the
light of the sun and moon; nay more, that he should throw all things
into one mass, as of old?
4425
4412
This clearly refers to the
Æneid
, x. 18.
4413
Lit., “on the rear part.”
4414
Suffragines.
4415
So
the margin of Ursinus, Elmenh. L.B., Oberth., Orelli, and Oehler,
reading
molli fimo
for the
ms.
molissimo.
4416
Lit., “censorial.”
4417
Lit., “rage with thunders.”
4418
So Gelenius, followed by Stewechius and Orelli, reading
smilia
for the corrupt and unintelligible
ms.
nullas.
4419
Infulæ
, besides being worn by the priest, adorned the
victim, and were borne by the suppliant. Perhaps a combination of
the two last ideas is meant to be suggested here.
4420
i.e., seemingly so.
4421
Lit., “under this axis of the world.”
4422
So the
ms.
, followed by Hild. and Oehler;
the other edd. reading
gens
for
mens.
4423
Lit., “felt himself to be.”
4424
Lit., “would the thing not be worthy that angry and
roused.”
4425
i.e., reduce to chaos, in which one thing would not be distinguished
from another, but all be mixed up confusedly.