12. Would any one say this
about the gods who had even a very low opinion of them? or, if they
were taken up with such affairs, considerations, cares, would any man
of wisdom either believe that they are gods, or reckon them among men
even? Was that Acdestis, pray, the lopping off of whose lewd
members was to give a sense of security to the immortals,
was he
one of the creatures of earth, or one of the gods, and possessed
of
4350
immortality? For if he was thought
to be
of our lot and in
the condition of men, why did he cause the deities so much
terror? But if he was a god, how could he be deceived, or
how
could anything be cut off from a divine body?
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But we raise no issue on this point: he may have
been of divine birth, or one of us, if you think it more correct to say
so. Did a pomegranate tree, also, spring from the blood which
flowed and from the parts which were cut off? or at the time
when
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that member
was concealed in the bosom of the earth, did it lay hold of the ground
with a root, and spring up into a mighty tree, put forth branches
loaded with blossoms,
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and in a moment bare mellow fruit
perfectly and completely ripe? And because these sprang from red
blood, is their colour therefore bright purple, with a dash of
yellow? Say further that they are juicy also, that they have the
taste of wine, because they spring from the blood of one filled with
it, and you have finished your story consistently. O Abdera,
Abdera, what occasions for mocking
you would give
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to men, if
such a tale had been devised by you! All fathers relate it, and
haughty states peruse it; and you are considered foolish, and utterly
dull and stupid.
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4350
Lit., “endowed with the honour of.”
4351
The
ms.
here inserts
de
—“from the body from a divine (being).”
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So
the edd. (except Oehler), reading
tum cum
for the
ms.
tum quæ quod.
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Balaustiis
, the flowers of the wild pomegranate.
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Dares
supplied by Salmasius.
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[The Abderitans were proverbially such. “Hinc
Abdera
, non tacente me.”—
Cicero
,
Ep. ad Attic.
, iv. 16.]