The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as Much.

Chapter XV.—The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as Much.

It would be tedious to take a survey of all those, too, whom you have buried amongst the constellations, and audaciously minister to as gods. ¹⁰⁵⁷ I suppose your Castors, and Perseus, and Erigona, ¹⁰⁵⁸ have just the same claims for the honours of the sky as Jupiter’s own big boy ¹⁰⁵⁹ had. But why should we wonder? You have transferred to heaven even dogs, and scorpions, and crabs. I postpone all remarks ¹⁰⁶⁰ concerning those whom you worship in your oracles. That this worship exists, is attested by him who pronounces the oracle. ¹⁰⁶¹ Why; you will have your gods to be spectators even of sadness, ¹⁰⁶² as is Viduus, who makes a widow of the soul, by parting it from the body, and whom you have condemned, by not permitting him to be enclosed within your city-walls; there is Cæculus also, to deprive the eyes of their perception; and Orbana, to bereave seed of its vital power; moreover, there is the goddess of death herself. To pass hastily by all others, ¹⁰⁶³ you account as gods the sites of places or of the city; such are Father Janus (there being, moreover, the archer-goddess ¹⁰⁶⁴ Jana ¹⁰⁶⁵ ), and Septimontius of the seven hills.

Men sacrifice ¹⁰⁶⁶ to the same Genii, whilst p. 145 they have altars or temples in the same places; but to others besides, when they dwell in a strange place, or live in rented houses. ¹⁰⁶⁷ I say nothing about Ascensus, who gets his name for his climbing propensity, and Clivicola, from her sloping (haunts); I pass silently by the deities called Forculus from doors, and Cardea from hinges, and Limentinus the god of thresholds, and whatever others are worshipped by your neighbours as tutelar deities of their street doors. ¹⁰⁶⁸ There is nothing strange in this, since men have their respective gods in their brothels, their kitchens, and even in their prison. Heaven, therefore, is crowded with innumerable gods of its own, both these and others belonging to the Romans, which have distributed amongst them the functions of one’s whole life, in such a way that there is no want of the other ¹⁰⁶⁹ gods. Although, it is true, ¹⁰⁷⁰ the gods which we have enumerated are reckoned as Roman peculiarly, and as not easily recognised abroad; yet how do all those functions and circumstances, over which men have willed their gods to preside, come about, ¹⁰⁷¹ in every part of the human race, and in every nation, where their guarantees ¹⁰⁷² are not only without an official recognition, but even any recognition at all?

Footnotes

144:1057

Deis ministratis.

144:1058

The constellation Virgo.

144:1059

Jovis exoletus, Ganymede, or Aquarius.

144:1060

He makes a similar postponement above, in c. vii., to The Apology, cc. xxii. xxiii.

144:1061

Divini.

144:1062

Et tristitiæ arbitros.

144:1063

Transvolem.

144:1064

Diva arquis.

144:1065

Perhaps another form of Diana.

144:1066

Faciunt = ῥίζουσι.

145:1067

This seems to be the meaning of an almost unintelligible sentence, which we subjoin: “Geniis eisdem illi faciunt qui in isdem locis aras vel ædes habent; præterea aliis qui in alieno loco aut mercedibus habitant.” Oehler, who makes this text, supposes that in each clause the name of some god has dropped out.

145:1068

Numinum janitorum.

145:1069

Ceteris.

145:1070

Immo cum.

145:1071

Proveniunt.

145:1072

Prædes.