{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>But if any one says that it is not of all the demons, but\r\nonly of the wicked, that the poets, not without truth, say that\r\nthey violently love or hate certain men,—for it was of them\r\nApuleius said that they were driven about by strong currents\r\nof emotion,—how can we accept this interpretation, when\r\nApuleius, in the very same connection, represents all the\r\ndemons, and not only the wicked, as intermediate between\r\ngods and men by their aerial bodies? The fiction of the poets,\r\naccording to him, consists in their making gods of demons,\r\nand giving them the names of gods, and assigning them as\r\nallies or enemies to individual men, using this poetical licence,\r\nthough they profess that the gods are very different in character\r\nfrom the demons, and far exalted above them by their\r\ncelestial abode and wealth of beatitude. This, I say, is the\r\npoets' fiction, to say that these are gods who are not gods, and\r\nthat, under the names of gods, they fight among themselves\r\nabout the men whom they love or hate with keen partisan\r\nfeeling. Apuleius says that this is not far from the truth,\r\nsince, though they are wrongfully called by the names of the\r\ngods, they are described in their own proper character as demons.\r\nTo this category, he says, belongs the Minerva of Homer,\r\n\"who interposed in the ranks of the Greeks to restrain\r\nAchilles.\"<a id=\"FNanchor_340_340\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_340_340\">[340]</a> For that this was Minerva he supposes to be\r\npoetical fiction; for he thinks that Minerva is a goddess, and\r\nhe places her among the gods whom he believes to be all good\r\nand blessed in the sublime ethereal region, remote from intercourse\r\nwith men. But that there was a demon favourable\r\nto the Greeks and adverse to the Trojans, as another, whom\r\nthe same poet mentions under the name of Venus or Mars\r\n(gods exalted above earthly affairs in their heavenly habitations),\r\nwas the Trojans' ally and the foe of the Greeks, and\r\nthat these demons fought for those they loved against those\r\nthey hated,—in all this he owned that the poets stated something<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_362\">[Pg 362]</a></span>\r\nvery like the truth. For they made these statements\r\nabout beings to whom he ascribes the same violent and tempestuous\r\npassions as disturb men, and who are therefore\r\ncapable of loves and hatreds not justly formed, but formed in a\r\nparty spirit, as the spectators in races or hunts take fancies\r\nand prejudices. It seems to have been the great fear of this\r\nPlatonist that the poetical fictions should be believed of the\r\ngods, and not of the demons who bore their names.</p>","headings":["THE WORKS OF AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,","BOOK NINTH.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45304-paragraph-638"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"fec268da54a900e8b1bcecb56dac79b40ecb46223a88e7151b4f78dbf24b297b","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume I","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Book IV)","J. J. Smith (Books V-VIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45304-Footnote_340_340","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_340_340","source_ebook":45304,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_340_340\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_340_340\"><span class=\"label\">[340]</span></a> <i>De Deo Soc.</i></p></div>","source_sha256":"d89e9a2b80bb59f394f0fb1bf313b39fab162f06af6642166d62c5912c1195f1","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45304/pg45304-images.html#Footnote_340_340","text_sha256":"72f9f3c4d8d904367250e4cad28714c0182af64ddaab9f80f2563c9006df9181","verified":false,"work_id":null}