24. If you will
open your minds’ eyes, and see the real
4204
truth without gratifying any private
end, you will find that the causes of all the miseries by which, as you
say, the human race has long been afflicted, flow from such beliefs
which you held in former times about your gods; and which you have
refused to amend, although the truth was placed before your eyes.
For what about them, pray, have we indeed ever either imagined which
was unbecoming, or put forth in shameful writings that the troubles
which assail men and the loss of the blessings of life
4205
should be used
to excite a prejudice against us? Do we say that certain gods
were produced from eggs,
4206
like storks and pigeons?
Do we
say
that the radiant Cytherean Venus grew up, having taken form
from the sea’s foam and the severed genitals of Cœlus? that
Saturn was thrown into chains for parricide, and relieved from their
weight only on his own days?
4207
that Jupiter was saved from
death
4208
by the
services of the Curetes? that he drove his father from the seat of
power, and by force and fraud possessed a sovereignty not his
own? Do we say that his aged sire, when driven out, concealed
himself in the territories of the Itali, and gave his name as a gift to
Latium,
4209
because he had
been
there
protected from his son? Do we say that Jupiter
himself incestuously married his sister? or, instead of pork,
breakfasted in ignorance upon the son of Lycaon, when invited to his
table? that Vulcan, limping on one foot, wrought as a smith in the
island of Lemnos? that Æsculapius was transfixed by a thunderbolt
because of his greed and avarice, as the Bœotian Pindar
4210
sings? that
Apollo, having become rich, by his ambiguous responses, deceived the
very kings by whose treasures and gifts he had been enriched? Did
we declare that Mercury was a thief? that Laverna is
so
also,
and along with him presides over secret frauds? Is the writer
Myrtilus one of us, who declares that the Muses were the handmaids of
Megalcon,
4211
daughter of
Macarus?
4212
4204
Orelli, without receiving into the text, approves of the reading of
Stewechius,
promptam
, “evident,” for the
ms.
propriam.
4205
Lit.,
“the benefits diminished by which it is lived.”
4206
The
ms.
reads
ex Jovis
; the
first five edd.
Jove
—“from Jove,” which is
altogether out of place; the others, as above,
ex ovis
.
Cf. i. 36.
4207
The
ms.
reads
et ablui diebus
tantis…elevari
; LB., Hild. and Oehler,
statis
or
statutis…et levari
—“and was loosed and
released on fixed days;” Elm., Oberthür, and Orelli receive
the conjecture of Ursinus,
et suis diebus tantum…rel.
, as
above.
4208
Cf. iii. [cap. 41, p. 475, and cap. 30, p. 472].
4209
i.e., hiding-place. Virg.,
Æn.
, viii.
322:
Quoniam latuisset tutus in oris.
4210
Pyth.
, iii. 102 sq.
4211
ms.
Meglac.
4212
The
ms.
and most edd. give
filias
, making the Muses daughters of Macarus; but Orelli,
Hild., and Oehler adopt, as above, the reading of Canterus,
filiæ
, in accordance with Clem. Alex.