33. But it may be said that Cicero, the Academic sage, who has been bold enough to
make mention of the sepulchres of their gods, and to commit the statement to writing, is a
more doubtful authority than the poets; although he did not presume to offer that assertion
simply as his own personal opinion, but put it on record as a statement contained among
the traditions of their own sacred rites. Well, then, can it also be maintained that Varro
either gives expression merely to an invention of his own, as a poet might do, or puts the
matter only dubiously, as might be the case with an Academician, because he declares that,
in the instance of all such gods, the matters of their worship had their origin either in the
life which they lived, or in the death which they died, among men? Or was that Egyptian
priest, Leon,588 either a poet or an Academician, who expounded the origin of those gods
of theirs to Alexander of Macedon, in a way somewhat different indeed from the opinion
advanced by the Greeks, but nevertheless so far accordant therewith as to make out their
deities to have been originally men?
34. But what is all this to us?589 Let them assert that they worship Jupiter, and not a
dead man; let them maintain that they have dedicated their Capitol not to a dead man, but
to the Spirit that vivifies all things and fills the world. And as to that shield of his, which was
made of the skin of a she-goat in honour of his nurse, let them put upon it whatever inter-
pretation they please. What do they say, however, about Saturn?590 What is it that they
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worship under the name of Saturn? Is not this the deity that was the first to come down to
us from Olympus (of whom the poet sings):
“Then from Olympus’ height came down
Good Saturn, exiled from his crown
By Jove, his mightier heir:
He brought the race to union first
Erewhile, on mountain-tops dispersed,
And gave them statutes to obey,
And willed the land wherein he lay
Should Latium’s title bear.”
588 On this Leo or Leon, see also Augustin’s City of God, viii. 5. Reference is often made to him by early
Christian writers as a thinker agreeing so far with the principles of Euhemerus (in whose time, or perhaps
somewhat before it, he flourished) as to teach that the gods of the old heathen world were originally men. He
is mentioned by Arnobius, Adversus Gentes, iv. 29; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata, i. 23; Tertullian, De Corona,
c. 7; Tatian, etc.
589 Reading, with Migne, Sed quid ad nos? Dicant se Jovem, etc. Others give, Sed quid ad nos si decant, etc.
= But what is it to us although they say that they worship, etc. The si, however, is wanting in the mss.
590 Reading, with Migne, Quid dicunt de Saturno? Quem, etc. Others give, Quid dicunt de Saturno qui =
What do those say about Saturn who worship Saturn? The mss. have quem.
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Of the Follies Which the Pagans Have Indulged in Regarding Jupiter and …