Etymologies & Works 8 part 2/3

But he assigned the origin of things to atoms, that is, to indivisible and solid bodies, from whose chance collisions all things are born and have come into being. Moreover, they assert that God does nothing, and that all things consist of bodies, and that the soul is nothing other than a body. Hence he also said: 'I shall not be, once I am dead.' The Gymnosophists are said to philosophize naked throughout the shady wildernesses of India, wearing coverings only over their genitals. For the gymnasium was so named because young men used to exercise naked in the field, where they cover only their private parts. These also restrain themselves from begetting offspring. The Theologians, moreover, are the same as the Physicists. They are called Theologians because in their writings they spoke concerning God.

Their opinion stands as varied, as they inquired what God might be. For some, judging by bodily sense, said that this visible world composed of the four elements was God, as did Dionysius the Stoic. Others understood in a spiritual way that mind was God, as did Thales of Miletus. Some held it to be a soul dwelling within all things and full of light, as did Pythagoras. Some held God to be timeless and unchangeable, as did Plato. Some held him to be a mind set free, as did Cicero. Some held him to be both spirit and mind, as did Maro (Virgil). For they only found that God exists, but they did not set him forth as they found him, because they became vain in their thoughts. For saying that they were wise, they became fools. Likewise, the Platonists indeed assert that God is a caretaker, an arbiter, and a judge; the Epicureans, that he is idle and unemployed.

Concerning the world, the Platonists affirm that it is incorporeal; the Stoics, that it is corporeal; Epicurus derives it from atoms; Pythagoras from numbers; Heraclitus from fire. Hence Varro too calls fire the soul of the world, inasmuch as fire governs all things in the world just as the soul governs within us. How utterly vain! 'When it is within us,' he says, 'we exist; when it goes out, we die.' Therefore fire also, when it departs from the world through lightning flashes, causes the world to die. These errors of the philosophers have even introduced heresies into the Church. From them come the AEONS and I know not what forms; from them, in Arius, the Trinity of mere name; and in Valentinus, Platonic frenzy. From them comes Marcion's better God of tranquility, for it had come from the Stoics; and in order that the soul be said to perish, Epicurus is heeded;

and in order that the restoration of the flesh be denied, it is taken from the empty school of all the philosophers; and where matter is set equal to God, that is the doctrine of Zeno; and where anything is read about a fiery God, Heraclitus intervenes. The same subject matter is turned over among heretics and philosophers alike; the same reworkings are entangled together. VII. ON THE POETS. As to whence the poets got their name, Tranquillus (Suetonius) speaks thus (On the Poets 2): 'When men, having cast off their savagery, first began to have a plan of life and to know themselves and their gods, and had devised for themselves modest worship and the necessary speech, they contrived a magnificence for both, directed to the religion of their gods.

Therefore, just as they made temples more beautiful than their dwellings and images larger than their bodies, so also they thought their gods should be honored with a kind of more august eloquence, and they extolled their praises with more splendid words and more delightful rhythms. This kind of composition, because it is effected by a certain form, which is called POIOTES (quality), was named poema (poem), and its makers poetae (poets).' Varro is our authority that the vates (seers/bards) were so named from the force (vis) of the mind; or from weaving (viere) songs, that is, from bending, that is, from modulating them. And accordingly the poets were of old called vates in Latin, and their writings called prophecies (vaticinia), because they were moved in their writing by a certain force and, as it were, madness; or because they linked their words in measures, since the ancients used viere for 'to bind.'

Even those inspired by divine frenzy bore the same name, because they too uttered many things in verse. The lyric poets are so called APO TOU LEREIN, that is, from the variety of their songs; whence the lyre also gets its name. The tragic poets (tragoedi) are so called because in the beginning the prize for singers was a he-goat, which the Greeks call TRAGOS. Hence also Horace (Ars Poetica 220): 'He who contended in tragic song for a paltry he-goat.' Then thereafter the tragedians who followed attained great honor, excelling in the plots of their plays fashioned after the image of truth. The comic poets (comoedi) were so named either from the place, because they used to perform around the villages, which the Greeks call KOMAS, or from revelry (comisatio). For after their meal men used to come to hear them. But the comic poets recount the deeds of private persons;

whereas the tragic poets treat public affairs and the histories of kings. Likewise the subjects of the tragedians are drawn from mournful matters, those of the comedians from joyful matters. Now there are two kinds of comic poets, that is, the old and the new. The old, who were also jesters given to laughter, such as Plautus, Accius, Terence. The new, who are also called satirists, by whom vices are censured in general terms, such as Flaccus (Horace), Persius, Juvenal, and others. For these rebuke the transgressions of all people, nor did they shrink from describing every basest sort, nor from reproving anyone's sins and morals. Hence they are also depicted naked, because through them individual vices are laid bare. And they are called satirists (satirici), either because they are full of all eloquence, or from fullness and abundance (saturitas), for they speak of many matters at once;

or from that platter (lanx) which used to be brought to the temples of the heathen, laden with diverse kinds of fruits and produce; or the name is derived from the satyrs, who go unpunished for the things spoken in drunkenness. Certain poets, moreover, were called Theological, because they composed songs about the gods. The office of the poet lies in this: that the things which have truly been done he should transfer, transformed with a certain grace into other forms by oblique figurations. Hence Lucan too is for this reason not counted in the number of poets, because he seems to have composed histories, not a poem. Among the poets, moreover, there are said to be three styles of speaking: one in which the poet alone speaks, as in Virgil's books of the Georgics;

another, the dramatic, in which the poet nowhere speaks, as in comedies and tragedies; the third, the mixed, as in the Aeneid. For there both the poet and the characters brought on the stage speak. VIII. ON THE SIBYLS. Sibyls is the general name for all female seers in the Greek tongue. For SOS in the Aeolic dialect means 'gods,' and the Greeks call the mind BOULEN, as it were 'the mind of a god.' Accordingly, therefore, because they were wont to interpret the divine will to men, they were named Sibyls. For just as every prophesying man is called either a seer (vates) or a prophet, so every prophesying woman is called a Sibyl. This name comes from their office, not from the proper meaning of a word. Now, ten Sibyls are handed down by the most learned authors to have existed. Of these the first was from Persia;

the second, the Libyan; the third, the Delphic, born in the temple of Delphian Apollo, who prophesied before the Trojan wars and very many of whose verses Homer inserted into his work. The fourth, the Cimmerian in Italy; the fifth, the Erythraean, named Herophile, born in Babylon, who prophesied to the Greeks as they were making for Ilium that Troy would perish and that Homer would write falsehoods. She was called Erythraean because her songs were found on that same island. The sixth, the Samian, who was called Phemonoe, from the island of Samos, whence she took her surname. The seventh, the Cumaean, named Amalthea, who brought nine books to Tarquinius Priscus, in which the decrees of Rome were written. She is also the Cumaean of whom Virgil speaks (Eclogue 4.4): 'Now the last age of the Cumaean song has come.'

She was called Cumana from the city of Cumae, which is in Campania, and her tomb still remains in Sicily. The eighth, the Hellespontine, born in the Trojan territory, who is recorded to have lived in the times of Solon and Cyrus; the ninth, the Phrygian, who prophesied at Ancyra; the tenth, the Tiburtine, named Albunea. The songs of all these are made public, in which they are most manifestly proven to have written much concerning God and Christ and the nations. But the Erythraean is reckoned more celebrated and more noble than the rest. IX. ON THE MAGI. The first of the Magi was Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians, whom Ninus, king of the Assyrians, slew in battle; of whom Aristotle writes that two million verses composed by him are attested by the indexes of his volumes.

This art Democritus enlarged many ages later, at the time when Hippocrates too flourished in the discipline of medicine. Among the Assyrians, moreover, the magical arts are abundant, as Lucan testifies (6.427): 'Who could learn the deeds foretold in the entrails, who reveal them by birds, who watch the lightnings of heaven and scan the Assyrian stars with care?' And so this vanity of the magical arts, from the tradition of the wicked angels, prevailed throughout the whole world for very many ages. Through a certain knowledge of things to come and of the powers below and by their summoning, there were invented haruspicies, auguries, and those very things which are called oracles and necromancy.

Nor is it any wonder about the illusions of the Magi, whose arts of evildoing advanced so far that they even withstood Moses with very similar signs, turning rods into serpents and waters into blood. There is a report also of a certain most famous sorceress, Circe, who changed the companions of Ulysses into beasts. One reads too of the sacrifice which the Arcadians used to offer to their god Lycaeus, from which whoever partook were turned into the forms of beasts. From this it appears not at all doubtful what that noble poet writes concerning a certain woman who excelled in magical arts (Virgil, Aeneid 4.487): 'She,' he says, 'promises by her spells to loose the minds she wishes, but to send harsh cares upon others; to stay the water of a river and to turn the stars backward; she calls forth the ghosts of the night;

you will see the earth bellow beneath your feet, and the ash trees come down from the mountains.' What need is there of more, if it be lawful to believe, concerning the Witch of Endor, that she called forth the soul of the prophet Samuel from the hidden depths of the underworld and presented it to the sight of the living? — if indeed we are to believe that it was the soul of the prophet, and not some phantasmal illusion wrought by the deceit of Satan. Prudentius too speaks thus concerning Mercury (Against Symmachus 1.90): 'He is said, by taking up the governance of the rod, to have recalled extinguished souls into the light, but to have condemned others to death.' And a little after he adds: 'For to summon forth thin shapes by magic murmur, and cunningly to enchant the ashes of the tomb; likewise the baneful art knows how to despoil others of life.' The Magi are those who are commonly called malefici (evildoers) on account of the greatness of their crimes.

These also shake the elements, disturb the minds of men, and, without any draught of poison, kill by the mere violence of a spell. Hence Lucan (6.457): 'The mind, defiled by no gore of drunk poison, perishes when enchanted.' For, summoning demons, they dare to raise a wind, so that each may destroy his own enemies by evil arts. These also use blood and victims, and often handle the bodies of the dead. The necromancers are those by whose incantations the dead seem to be raised up to divine and to answer questions. For NECHROS in Greek means 'dead,' and MANTEIA is called 'divination'; and to consult these, blood is added to the corpse. For the demons are said to love blood.

And therefore, whenever necromancy is performed, gore is mixed with water, so that they may be more easily provoked by the gore of blood. The hydromancers (hydromantii) are named from water. For hydromancy is, in the inspection of water, to call forth the shades of demons and to see their images or illusions, and there to hear certain things from them, where, blood having been applied, they are said even to consult the powers below. This kind of divination is reported to have been brought from the Persians. Varro says that there are four kinds of divination: earth, water, air, and fire; hence they are called geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, and pyromancy. The divini (soothsayers) are so called as though 'full of god' (deo pleni); for they pretend that they are filled with divinity, and by a certain fraudulent cunning they guess future things for men. There are, moreover, two kinds of divination: art and frenzy.

The enchanters (incantatores) are so called who carry out their art by words. The soothsayers (arioli) are so named because they utter wicked prayers around the altars (aras) of idols and offer deadly sacrifices, and at those celebrations they receive the responses of demons. The soothsayers by entrails (haruspices) are named as though 'inspectors of hours' (horarum inspectores): for they observe days and hours in the conducting of business and works, and they take note of what a man ought to watch for at each several time. These also inspect the entrails of cattle and from them predict things to come. The augurs (augures) are those who attend to the flights and cries of birds and to other signs of things or unforeseen occurrences meeting men. The same are also the auspices (auspices); for auspices are the things which travelers observe on their journeys.

Now auspices are so named as though 'bird-watchings' (avium aspicia), and auguries as though 'bird-chatterings' (avium garria), that is, the voices and tongues of birds. Likewise augurium is as though 'bird-conduct' (avigerium), because the birds conduct it. There are, moreover, two kinds of auspices: one pertaining to the eyes, the other to the ears. To the eyes belongs the flight; to the ears the voice of birds. The pythonesses (pythonissae) are named from Pythian Apollo, because he was the author of divining. The astrologers (astrologi) are so called because they take auguries in the stars. The genethliaci (casters of nativities) are named on account of the consideration of the days of birth. For they describe the nativities of men according to the twelve signs of heaven, and by the course of the stars they attempt to predict the characters, deeds, and fortunes of those being born — that is, under what sort of sign each was born, or what outcome of life he has who is being born.

These are they who are commonly called Mathematici (astrologers); the Latins call this kind of superstition Constellationes, that is, the markings of the stars, how they stand when each person is born. But at first these same interpreters of the stars were called Magi, just as one reads about those who announced Christ's birth in the Gospel; afterward only the Mathematici bore this name. The knowledge of this art was permitted only up to the Gospel, so that, once Christ was brought forth, no one thereafter might interpret anyone's nativity from heaven. The horoscopists (horoscopi) are so called because they observe the hours of men's births under a dissimilar and diverse fate.

The lot-diviners (sortilegi) are those who, under the name of a feigned religion, profess the science of divination through certain things which they call 'the lots of the saints' (sanctorum sortes), or who promise things to come by the inspection of writings of any kind whatever. The salisatores (twitch-diviners) are so named because, when any parts whatever of their limbs twitch (salierint), they declare that this signifies to them something prosperous or sad thereafter. To all these things belong also the amulets of accursed remedies, which the art of physicians condemns — whether in incantations, or in written charms, or in whatever things to be hung and bound on. In all of which there is the art of demons, sprung from a certain pestilential fellowship of men and wicked angels.

Wherefore all these things are to be shunned by a Christian, and utterly to be repudiated, execrated, and condemned with every abhorrence. Now the Phrygians first invented the auguries of birds. But Mercury is said first to have invented the sleight-of-hand illusion (praestigium). And it is called praestigium because it constricts (praestringat) the keenness of the eyes. A certain Tages is said first to have handed down the art of haruspicy to the Etruscans. He dictated haruspicy from the entrails, and afterward did not appear. For it is told in fable that, while a certain peasant was plowing, this Tages suddenly sprang forth from the clods and dictated haruspicy, and on that same day he died. The Romans translated these books from the Etruscan tongue into their own. X. ON THE PAGANS. The pagans (pagani) are named from the country-districts (pagi) of the Athenians, where they arose.

For there, in rural places and country-districts, the heathen set up sacred groves and idols, and from such a beginning they obtained the name pagani. The gentiles are those who are without the law and have not yet believed. Now they are called gentiles because they are as they were begotten (geniti), that is, just as they came down in the flesh under sin — namely, serving idols and not yet reborn. Therefore they are at first named gentiles; these same are called Ethnici in Greek. Ethnici is translated from Greek into Latin as gentiles. For ETHOS in Greek means 'nation.' But after faith, those who believe from among the nations ought not to be called nations or gentiles; just as after faith one can no longer be called a Jew, as Paul the Apostle testifies, saying to those now Christians (1 Corinthians 12:2):

'Since when you were gentiles' — that is, unbelievers. The apostates (apostatae) are those who, after having received the baptism of Christ, return to the worship of idols and the defilement of sacrifices. It is, moreover, a Greek name. XI. ON THE GODS OF THE GENTILES. Those whom the pagans assert to be gods are handed down to have once been men, and after their death they began to be worshiped among their own people according to the life or merits of each — as in Egypt Isis, in Crete Jupiter (Jove), among the Moors Juba, among the Latins Faunus, among the Romans Quirinus. In the same way also, at Athens Minerva, at Samos Juno, at Paphos Venus, at Lemnos Vulcan, at Naxos Liber, at Delos Apollo. To their praises the poets also added, and by composing songs they raised them up to heaven.

For some of them are said to have brought forth the inventions of arts by their pursuit, as medicine by Aesculapius, smithcraft by Vulcan. From their activities, moreover, they are named — as Mercury, because he presides over merchandise (merces); Liber, from liberty (libertas). There were also certain brave men or founders of cities, at whose death the men who loved them fashioned images, so that they might have some solace from the contemplation of the likenesses. But little by little, at the persuasion of demons, this error crept in among their descendants, so that those whom the former had honored merely for the memory of their name, their successors thought to be gods and worshiped as such.

The use of images arose when, out of longing for the dead, portraits or effigies were set up, as though for those received into heaven; in whose stead the demons substituted themselves to be worshiped on earth, and persuaded the deceived and lost that sacrifice should be offered to them. Now images (simulacra) are named from likeness (similitudo), because by the hand of the craftsman, out of stone or some other material, they imitate the faces of those in whose honor they are fashioned. Therefore they are called simulacra either because they are similar (similia), or because they are simulated and feigned (simulata atque conficta); whence they are also false. And it is to be noted that this Latin word occurs among the Hebrews. For among them an idol or image is called Semel. The Jews say that Ishmael first made an image out of clay.

The gentiles, however, hold that Prometheus first fashioned an image of men out of clay, and that from him was born the art of fashioning images and statues. Hence the poets too figuratively feign that men were first made by him, on account of the effigies. Among the Greeks, moreover, was Cecrops, under whom the olive first sprang up on the citadel, and the city of the Athenians drew its name from the appellation of Minerva. He was the first of all to name Jupiter, discovered images, set up altars, and immolated victims — such things never before seen in Greece. Idolatry (idolatria) is interpreted as 'the servitude or worship of idols.' For LATREIA in Greek is called servitus (servitude) in Latin, which, insofar as it pertains to true religion, is owed to none but the one and only God.

As impious pride, whether of men or of demons, either commands or desires that this be rendered to itself, so pious humility, whether of men or of holy angels, refuses it when offered to itself, and points out him to whom it is owed. Now an idol (idolum) is an image which has been made and consecrated in human form, according to the interpretation of the word. For EIDOS in Greek denotes 'form,' and from it, by diminution, idolum is derived, which likewise makes 'a little form' (formula) among us. Therefore every form or little form demands to be called an idol. Hence idolatry is all attendance and servitude directed toward any idol whatsoever. But certain Latins, ignorant of Greek, ignorantly say that idolum took its name from deceit (dolus), because the devil introduced the worship due to the divine name upon the creature.

They say that the demons (daemones) are so called by the Greeks as though DAEMONES, that is, 'skilled' and 'knowing of things.' For they foreknow many future things, whence they are also wont to give certain responses. For there is in them a knowledge of things greater than in human weakness — partly by the keenness of a subtler sense, partly by the experience of a very long life, partly by angelic revelation at God's command. These thrive by the nature of aerial bodies. Before their transgression, indeed, they bore heavenly bodies. But having fallen, they were changed into an aerial quality, and they are not permitted to hold the purer spaces of that air, but these murky ones, which are for them as a prison until the time of judgment. These are the prevaricating angels, of whom the Devil is prince.

The Devil (Diabolus) is called in Hebrew 'flowing downward,' because he scorned to stand quiet on the summit of heaven, but, plunging downward by the weight of his pride, he fell. In Greek, moreover, diabolus is called 'accuser' (criminator), because either he refers to God the crimes into which he himself entices, or because he accuses the innocence of the elect with feigned crimes; whence in the Apocalypse it is said by an angelic voice (12:10): 'The accuser of our brethren is cast down, who accused them before our God day and night.' Satan in Latin means 'adversary,' or 'transgressor.' For he himself is the adversary, who is the enemy of truth, and always strives to oppose the virtues of the saints.

He is also a transgressor, because, being made a prevaricator, he did not stand in the truth in which he was created. The same is also the tempter, because he demands to test the innocence of the just, as is written in Job. He is called Antichrist because he will come against Christ. Not, as certain simple people understand, is Antichrist so called because he will come before Christ, that is, that Christ should come after him. Not so; rather, Antichrist is so called in Greek, which in Latin is 'contrary to Christ' (contrarius Christo). For ANTI in Greek signifies 'against' (contra) in Latin. For he will falsely claim to be Christ when he comes; and there will be a struggle against him; and he will oppose the sacraments of Christ, so as to dissolve the Gospel of his truth.

For he will also attempt to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem and to restore all the ceremonies of the old law. But that man too is Antichrist who denies that Christ is God; for he is contrary to Christ. For all who go out from the Church and are cut off from the unity of faith are themselves also Antichrists. Bel is a Babylonian idol, which is interpreted 'old.' For this Belus was the father of Ninus, the first king of the Assyrians, whom some call Saturn; which name was afterward worshiped both among the Assyrians and among the Africans, whence in the Punic tongue Bal is called 'god.' Among the Assyrians, moreover, Bel is called, by a certain reasoning of their sacred rites, both Saturn and the Sun. Belphegor is interpreted 'the image of ignominy.'

For it was an idol of Moab, surnamed Baal, upon Mount Phegor, whom the Latins call Priapus, the god of gardens. He was from the city of Lampsacus on the Hellespont, from which he was driven out; and on account of the greatness of his virile member the Greeks transferred him into the number of their gods and consecrated him as the deity of gardens; whence he is also said to preside over gardens on account of their fruitfulness. Belzebub was an idol of Ekron, which is interpreted 'man of flies.' For Zebub is called 'fly.' Therefore this most filthy idol was called 'man of flies' on account of the foulness of idolatry, or on account of its uncleanness. Belial... (missing text).

Behemoth, from the Hebrew word, means in the Latin language 'animal,' because from the heights he fell to earthly things, and by his own desert was made like a brute animal. He is also Leviathan, that is, 'a serpent from the waters,' because he is tossed about in the sea of this world by his slippery cunning. Now Leviathan is interpreted 'their addition' (additamentum eorum). Of whom, namely, if not of the men on whom he once brought the guilt of transgression in paradise, and to whom, by daily persuasion, he adds or extends this even unto eternal death? Now the gentiles, through empty fables, attempt to draw certain names of their gods over to physical explanations, and they interpret them as being composed with reference to the elements.

But all this has been wholly invented by the poets, so that they might adorn their gods with certain figures, whom the histories confess to have been lost men, full of the infamy of disgrace. For there is entirely a place for fabrication where truth is lacking. Saturn is designated by the pagans as the origin of the gods and of all posterity. The Latins report that he was named from sowing (satus), as though the sowing of all things pertained to him; or from length of time, because he is sated (saturetur) with years. Hence the Greeks too say that he has the name Cronos, that is, 'time,' because he is said to have devoured his own sons — that is, the years which time produces, he rolls back into himself; or because the seeds return again to that place whence they arise. They say that he cut off the genitals of his father Caelus (Heaven), because nothing in heaven is born from seeds.

He holds a sickle, they say, either to signify agriculture, or on account of the years and seasons, because they return upon themselves, or on account of wisdom, because it is sharp within. In some cities, moreover, among the gentiles they used to immolate their own children to Saturn, because the poets handed down that Saturn was accustomed to devour his own children. Jupiter (Jovis) is said to be named from 'helping' (iuvando), and Iuppiter as though 'a helping father' (iuvans pater), that is, one bestowing on all. Him also they called by the private title Jove the Best (Iovem Optimum), though he was incestuous among his own kin and shameless among strangers. At one moment they feign him a bull on account of the rape of Europa (for he was on a ship whose emblem was a bull); at another, that he sought intercourse with Danae by a shower of gold — where it is understood that a woman's chastity was corrupted by gold:

at another, in the likeness of an eagle, because he seized a boy for defilement; at another, a serpent, because he crawled, and a swan, because he sang. And therefore these are not mere figures, but plainly crimes of real truth. Whence it was disgraceful to believe in such gods as men ought not to be. They call Janus as though the 'door' (ianua) of the world or of heaven or of the months; they give Janus two faces, on account of the East and the West. But when they make him four-faced and call him the twin Janus, they refer this to the four parts of the world, or to the four elements or seasons. But while they feign this, they make a monster, not a god. They proclaim Neptune to be the waters of the world; and he was called by them Neptune as though 'thundering through the cloud' (nube tonans). Vulcan they wish to be fire;