30. But what shall we say of
Jove himself, whom the wise have repeatedly asserted to be the sun,
driving a winged chariot, followed by a crowd of deities;
4009
some, the ether,
blazing with mighty flames, and wasting fire which cannot be
extinguished? Now if this is clear and certain, there is, then,
according to you, no Jupiter at all; who, born of Saturn his father and
Ops his mother, is reported to have been concealed in the Cretan
territory, that he might escape his father’s rage. But now,
does not a similar mode of thought remove Juno from the list of
gods? For if she is the air, as you have been wont to jest and
say, repeating in reversed order the
syllables
of the Greek
name,
4010
there will be
found no sister and spouse of almighty Jupiter, no Fluonia,
4011
no Pomona, no
Ossipagina, no Februtis, Populonia, Cinxia, Caprotina; and thus the
invention of that name, spread abroad with a frequent but vain
4012
belief, will be
found to be wholly
4013
useless.
4009
Cf. Plato,
Phædr.
, st. p. 246.
4010
Lit.,
“the reversed order of the Greek name being repeated,” i.
e., instead of
ἥ-ρα, ἀ-ήρ
.
4011
The
ms.
gives Fluvionia.
4012
Lit.,
“with the frequency (or fame) of vain,” etc.
4013
Lit., “very.”