20. But you, on the contrary, forgetting how great 4184 their dignity and grandeur are, associate with them a birth, 4185 and impute to them a descent, 4186 which men of at all refined feelings regard as at once execrable and terrible. From Ops, you say, his mother, and from his father Saturn, Diespiter was born with his brothers. Do the gods, then, have wives; and, the matches having been previously planned, do they become subject to the bonds of marriage? Do they take upon themselves 4187 the engagements of the bridal couch by prescription, by the cake of spelt, and by a pretended sale? 4188 Have they their mistresses, 4189 their promised wives, their betrothed brides, on settled conditions? And what do we say about their marriages, too, when indeed you say that some celebrated their nuptials, and entertained joyous throngs, and that the goddesses sported at these; and that some threw all things into utter confusion with dissensions because they had no share in singing the Fescennine verses, and occasioned danger and destruction 4190 to the next generation of men? 4191 4184     Lit., “forgetting the so great majesty and sublimity.” 4185     Both plural. 4186     Both plural. 4187     The ms. , first four edd., and Oberthür read conducunt —“unite;” for which the rest read condic-unt , as above. 4188     i.e., usu, farre, coemptione. 4189     The word here translated mistresses, speratas , is used of maidens loved, but not yet asked in marriage. 4190     Lit., “dangers of destructions.” 4191     Instead of “occasioned,” sevisse , which the later editions give, the ms. and first four edd. read sævisse —“that danger and destruction raged against,” etc.