now let Jupiter be the soul of this corporeal world, who fills and moves all that mass constructed and compacted out of four, or as many as please them, elements; now let him yield his own parts thence to his sister and brothers; now let him be the ether, that he may embrace from above Juno the air spread beneath; now let him together with the air be himself the whole heaven, and let him impregnate the earth, as a consort and the same a mother (because this is not base among divine things), with fruitful showers and seeds; now again (lest it be necessary to run through all) let him be the one God, of whom many suppose it was said by the most noble poet: 'For God goes through all lands and tracts of the sea and the deep heaven.'
He himself is Jupiter in the upper air, he himself Juno in the lower air, he himself Neptune in the sea, and in the lower depths of the sea he himself is Salacia; on land he is Pluto, in the underworld below he is Proserpina; on the household hearths he is Vesta, in the smiths' furnace he is Vulcan; among the heavenly bodies he is sun and moon and stars, among diviners he is Apollo, in trade he is Mercury; in Janus he is the initiator, in Terminus the one who sets bounds; he is Saturn in time, Mars and Bellona in wars, Liber in the vineyards, Ceres in the grain, Diana in the woods, Minerva in talents. He himself is even, at the last, among that crowd of plebeian gods, as it were; he himself presides under the name of Liber over the seed of men and under the name of Libera over the seed of women; he himself is Diespater, who brings the child forth to the light of day.
He himself is the goddess Mena, whom they set over women's monthly courses; he himself is Lucina, who is invoked by women in labour; he himself brings aid to the newborn by receiving them in the lap of the earth, and is called Opis; he himself opens the mouth in the infant's first wail, and is called the god Vaticanus; he himself lifts the child from the ground, and is called the goddess Levana; he himself watches over the cradle, and is called Cunina. He is no other, but he himself is in those goddesses who sing the fates to the newborn and are called the Carmentes; he presides over chance events and is called Fortuna; in the goddess Rumina he milks the breast into the little one, since the ancients called the breast 'ruma'; in the goddess Potina he ministers drink, in the goddess Educa he supplies food; from the dread of infants he is named Paventia, from the hope that comes he is Venilia, from pleasure Volupia, from action Agenoria.
From the goads by which a man is driven to excessive activity he is named the goddess Stimula; he is the goddess Strenia by making men vigorous, Numeria who teaches counting, Camena who teaches singing; he himself is also the god Consus by furnishing counsel, and the goddess Sentia by inspiring opinions; he himself is the goddess Juventas, who at the laying aside of the boy's toga receives the first beginnings of the age of youth; he himself is also bearded Fortune, who clothes the grown men with a beard — and these men they were unwilling to honour, so that they might call this divinity of whatever sort at least a male god, or Barbatus from the beard, as Nodutus from the knots, or at any rate name it not Fortuna but Fortunius, because it has a beard. He himself in the god Jugatinus joins spouses together, and when the girdle of the virgin bride is loosed, he himself is invoked and is called the goddess Virginensis.
He himself is Mutunus or Tutunus, who among the Greeks is Priapus. If they are not ashamed, then let all these things which I have mentioned and whatever I have not mentioned (for I did not think everything ought to be said), let all these gods and goddesses be one Jupiter — whether, as some hold, all these are parts of him, or his powers, as it seems to those who are pleased to make him the soul of the world, an opinion held, as it were, by men great and very learned. If these things are so (though for the moment I do not yet ask of what sort that may be), what would they lose if they worshipped the one God by a wiser shortcut? For what part of him would be despised, when he himself were worshipped? But if it had to be feared lest his parts, passed over or neglected, should grow angry —
then it is not, as they would have it, the case that this whole is the single life of one living being which contains all the gods as, so to speak, its powers or members or parts; rather, each part has its own life separated from the rest, if one part can be angry apart from another, and one be appeased while another is provoked. But if it is said that all together, that is, Jupiter himself as a whole, could be offended if his parts were not also worshipped each one separately and minutely, that is said foolishly. For surely none of them would be passed over, when the one himself, who possessed them all, was worshipped.
For, to pass over other innumerable matters, when they say that all the stars are parts of Jupiter, and that all of them live and possess rational souls, and are therefore beyond dispute gods, they do not see how many they fail to worship, for how many they build no temples and set up no altars — temples and altars which nonetheless they judged ought to be set up for very few of the stars, and to whom sacrifice should be offered individually. If, then, those who are not worshipped individually grow angry, are they not afraid to live, with a few appeased, while the whole heaven is enraged?
But if they worship all the stars for this reason, that they are in Jupiter whom they worship, then by this same shortcut they could supplicate all of them in that one Jupiter (for thus no one would grow angry, since in that one no one would be despised), rather than that, while certain ones are worshipped, a just cause for anger should be furnished to those far more numerous ones who had been passed over — especially when above those shining from their lofty seat was set Priapus, distended in his foul nakedness. CHAPTER XII. On the opinion of those who held that God is the soul of the world and the world the body of God. What —
ought not this to move shrewd men, or men of any sort at all (for no surpassing genius is needed for this), so that, laying aside the zeal for contention, they would attend to it: if the soul of the world is God, and the world is to that soul as a body, so that there is one living being consisting of soul and body, and this God is, as it were, in some bosom of nature containing all things within himself, so that from his own soul, by which this whole mass is given life, the lives and souls of all living things are drawn, each according to the lot of its birth — then nothing at all remains that is not a part of God. But if this is so, who would not see how great an impiety and irreligion follows: that whatever anyone treads upon, he treads upon a part of God, and that in the killing of every living thing a part of God is slaughtered?
I do not wish to say all the things that can occur to those who reflect, but which cannot be said without shame. CHAPTER XIII. On those who assert that only rational living beings are parts of the one God. But if they contend that only rational animals, such as men are, are parts of God, then indeed I do not see, if the whole world is God, in what way they separate the beasts from his parts; but what need is there to struggle over this? Concerning the rational animal itself, that is, man, what more wretched thing can be believed than that a part of God is beaten when a boy is beaten? And as for parts of God becoming wanton, unjust, impious, and altogether damnable — who could bear it, except one who is utterly mad? Finally, why is he angry at those by whom he is not worshipped, when he is not worshipped by his own parts?
It remains, therefore, that they should say that all the gods have their own lives, that each lives for himself, that none of them is a part of any other, but that all are to be worshipped who can be known and worshipped — since they are so many that all of them cannot be. Among these Jupiter presides as king; and so I suppose they think it was he who established or enlarged the Roman kingdom. For if he himself did not do this, what other god would they believe could have undertaken so great a work, since all are occupied with their own offices and works, and none intrudes upon another's? By the king of the gods, then, the kingdom of men could be propagated and enlarged. CHAPTER XIV. That the increase of kingdoms is incongruously ascribed to Jupiter, since, if Victory is a goddess as they would have it, she alone would suffice for this business.
Here first I ask: why is not the kingdom itself also some god? For why should it not be so, if Victory is a goddess? Or what need is there of Jupiter himself in this matter, if Victory be favourable and propitious and always go to those whom she wills to be victors? With this goddess favouring and propitious, even while Jupiter is idle or doing something else, what peoples would remain unsubdued? what kingdoms would not yield? Or perhaps it displeases good men to fight with most iniquitous wickedness, and to provoke quiet neighbours who do no wrong, by an unprovoked war, in order to extend their realm? Plainly, if they think so, I approve and praise it. CHAPTER XV. Whether it befits good men to wish to reign more widely. Let them see, then, lest perhaps it does not pertain to good men to rejoice in the breadth of empire.
For the iniquity of those against whom just wars were waged helped the kingdom to grow, which would certainly have been small if the peace and justice of its neighbours had by no wrong provoked war to be made against it; and thus, with human affairs in a happier state, all kingdoms would be small, rejoicing in concordant neighbourliness, and there would be in the world very many kingdoms of nations, just as there are in a city very many houses of citizens. Accordingly, to wage war and, with nations subdued, to extend one's realm, seems to the wicked to be felicity, but to the good a necessity. Yet because it would be worse for the injurious to lord it over the more just, therefore not incongruously is even this called felicity. But beyond doubt it is a greater felicity to have a good and concordant neighbour than to subjugate a bad one by warring.
It is an evil wish to desire to have someone whom you hate or whom you fear, so that there may be one whom you can conquer. If, then, by waging just wars — not impious, not iniquitous — the Romans were able to acquire so great an empire, surely another's iniquity is not to be worshipped by them as if it were some goddess? For we see that it greatly cooperated toward that breadth of empire — the iniquity which made men injurious, so that there might be those against whom just wars could be waged and the empire enlarged. But why should not iniquity also be a goddess, at least of foreign nations, if Fear and Pallor and Fever deserved to be gods of the Romans?
By these two, then — that is, by another's iniquity and by the goddess Victory — while iniquity stirs up the causes of wars and Victory brings those same wars to a happy end, the empire grew even while Jupiter took his holiday. For what parts would Jupiter have here, when those things which could be reckoned his benefits are held to be gods, are called gods, are worshipped as gods, and are invoked on their own account for their own parts? Yet here he too would have some part, if Kingdom were itself also so named, just as that Victory is named. Or if kingdom is a gift of Jupiter, why is not victory also held to be his gift? — which assuredly it would be held to be, if not a stone in the Capitol, but the true King of kings and Lord of lords were acknowledged and worshipped. CHAPTER XVI.
What the reason was that the Romans, who assigned individual gods to all things and to all movements, wished the temple of Quiet (Rest) to be outside the gates. I marvel exceedingly that, although they assigned individual gods to individual things and to almost individual movements — naming the goddess Agenoria, who would rouse to action; the goddess Stimula, who would stimulate to action beyond measure; the goddess Murcia, who would not move a man beyond measure but make him, as Pomponius says, 'murcidus,' that is, exceedingly slothful and inactive; the goddess Strenia, who would make him vigorous — and although they undertook to perform public rites to all these gods and goddesses, yet calling the goddess Quiet (Rest), who would make a man at rest, although she had a temple outside the Colline gate, they refused to take her up publicly.
Was this a token of a restless mind, or rather was it thus signified that whoever should persist in worshipping that crowd — not, plainly, of gods, but of demons — could not have quiet? To which the true Physician calls, saying: 'Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls.' CHAPTER XVII. Whether, if the supreme power belongs to Jupiter, Victory ought also to have been esteemed a goddess. Or perhaps they say that Jupiter sends the goddess Victory, and that she, as though obeying him as king of the gods, comes to those to whom he has commanded and takes her place on their side?
This is said truly not of that Jupiter whom, according to their own opinion, they fashion as king of the gods, but of that true King of the ages: namely, that he sends not Victory, which is no substance, but his angel, and makes whomever he wills to conquer; whose counsel can be hidden but cannot be unjust. For if victory is a goddess, why is not triumph too a god, and joined to Victory as either husband or brother or son? For such things did these men opine concerning the gods, things which, if poets feigned them and they were assailed by us, these very men would reply are laughable fictions of the poets, not to be attributed to true divinities; and yet they did not laugh at themselves, when they read such ravings not in the poets but worshipped them in the temples.
Let them, then, beseech Jupiter concerning all things, let them supplicate him alone. For if Victory is a goddess and is under that king, then wherever he had sent her, she would not dare to resist him and to do her own will instead. CHAPTER XVIII. On what principle those who think Felicity and Fortune goddesses distinguish them. What of the fact that Felicity also is a goddess? She has received a temple, has merited an altar, and fitting rites have been duly paid. She, then, alone should be worshipped. For where she is present, what good would be lacking? But what does it mean, that Fortune too is thought a goddess and worshipped? Is felicity one thing, fortune another? Because fortune can be even bad; but felicity, if it were bad, would not be felicity.
Surely we ought to esteem all the gods of either sex (if indeed they have a sex) to be none but good. This Plato says, this say other philosophers, this say the excellent rulers of commonwealths and of peoples. How, then, is the goddess Fortune sometimes good, sometimes bad? Or perhaps, when she is bad, she is not a goddess but is suddenly turned into a malignant demon? How many, then, are these goddesses? Assuredly as many as there are fortunate men, that is, men of good fortune. For since there are also very many others at the same time, that is, at one and the same moment, of bad fortune, would she, if she were the goddess herself, be at once both good and bad — to these one thing, to those another? Or is she who is a goddess always good? Then she is Felicity herself: why are different names applied? But this is to be borne with;
for one and the same thing is wont to be called by two names. But why different temples, different altars, different rites? There is a reason, they say, because that is felicity which the good possess through preceding merits; but fortune, which is called good, befalls men, both good and bad, fortuitously, without any examination of merits — whence indeed she is named Fortuna. How, then, is she good, who comes without any judgement both to the good and to the bad? And to what end is she worshipped, who is so blind that, rushing indiscriminately upon whomever she meets, she for the most part passes by her worshippers and clings to her despisers? Or if her worshippers profit anything, so that they are seen and loved by her, then she follows merits and does not come fortuitously. Where is that definition of Fortune?
Where is it that she has received her very name from fortuitous things? For it profits nothing to worship her, if she is fortune. But if she discerns her worshippers, so as to profit them, she is not fortune. Or does Jupiter send even her too wherever he wills? Then let him alone be worshipped; for Fortune cannot resist him when he commands and sends her wherever he wills. Or at any rate let the wicked worship her — those who do not wish to have the merits by which the goddess Felicity might be invited. CHAPTER XIX.
On Womanly Fortune. So much indeed do they attribute to this supposed divinity, whom they call Fortune, that they have committed to memory that her image — which was dedicated by matrons and was called Womanly Fortune (Fortuna Muliebris) — even spoke, and said not once but twice, that the matrons had duly dedicated her. And if this indeed be true, we ought not to marvel. For it is not even so difficult for malignant demons to deceive, whose arts and cunning these people ought rather to have noted from this very thing — that the goddess who spoke was she who befalls by chance, not she who comes by merit.
For Fortune was talkative and Felicity mute — to what end, except that men should not take care to live rightly, having won Fortune over to themselves, who would make them fortunate without any good merits? And surely, if Fortune speaks, let her at least not speak as a woman, but rather as a man, lest the very women who dedicated the image should be thought to have feigned so great a miracle by womanly talkativeness. CHAPTER XX. On Virtue and Faith, whom the pagans honoured with temples and rites, while passing over other goods which ought similarly to have been worshipped, if divinity was rightly attributed to the others. They made Virtue too a goddess; and she indeed, if she were a goddess, would have been to be preferred before many.
And now, since she is not a goddess but a gift of God, let her be obtained from him by whom alone she can be given, and the whole throng of false gods will vanish. But why was Faith too believed to be a goddess, and herself also received a temple and an altar? Whoever wisely acknowledges her makes himself a dwelling-place for her. But whence do those men know what faith is, whose first and greatest office is that one should believe in the true God? But why had not Virtue alone sufficed? Is not Faith there too? Since indeed they saw that virtue is to be distributed into four kinds — prudence, justice, fortitude, temperance;
and since these several kinds also have their own parts, faith is among the parts of justice and holds the chief place with us, whoever we are who know what that means — that 'the just man lives by faith.' But I marvel at those craving a multitude of gods: if Faith is a goddess, why did they do injury to so many other goddesses by passing them over, to whom they could likewise have dedicated temples and altars? Why did Temperance not deserve to be a goddess, when by her name not a few Roman leaders acquired no small glory? Why, finally, is not Fortitude a goddess — who was present to Mucius, when he stretched out his right hand into the flames; who was present to Curtius, when for his fatherland he hurled himself headlong into the gaping earth;
who was present to Decius the father and Decius the son, when they vowed themselves for the army? — if indeed true fortitude was in all these, of which matter we are not now treating. Why have Prudence, why has Wisdom, merited no places among the divinities? Or is it because they are all worshipped under the general name of Virtue herself? In that way, then, one God too could be worshipped, of whom the rest of the gods are thought to be parts. But in that one Virtue both faith and chastity are also contained — which nonetheless merited altars outside, in their own temples. CHAPTER XXI. That, not understanding the one God, they ought at least to have been content with Virtue and Felicity. It is not truth but vanity that makes these goddesses; for these are gifts of the true God, they are not themselves goddesses. Yet nevertheless, where there is virtue and felicity, what else is sought?
What is lacking to him for whom virtue and felicity do not suffice? For virtue embraces all things to be done, felicity all things to be desired. If Jupiter was worshipped in order that he might grant these things, then, since (if the breadth and long duration of a kingdom is anything good) this pertains to that same felicity — why was it not understood that these are gifts of God, not goddesses? But if they were thought to be goddesses, at least so great another throng of gods would not be sought. For when the offices of all the gods and goddesses have been considered — which they feigned according to their own opinion as they pleased — let them find, if they can, anything that could be furnished by any god to a man having virtue, having felicity. What learning would have to be sought either from Mercury or from Minerva, when virtue had all things with itself?
For the very art of living well and rightly was defined by the ancients as virtue. Whence they supposed that the Latins derived the word for 'art' (ars) from that which in Greek is called arete, virtue. But if virtue could come only to one of ability, what need was there of a god Catius the father, who would make men 'cati,' that is, sharp, when felicity could confer this? For to be born of ability belongs to felicity; whence, even if the goddess Felicity could not be worshipped by one not yet born, so that she might grant him this when conciliated, she could confer this upon his parents, her worshippers, that ingenious children might be born to them. What need was there for women in labour to invoke Lucina, when, if Felicity were present, they would not only bear well, but bear good children?
What need was there to commend the newborn to the goddess Opis, the wailing infants to the god Vaticanus, those lying down to the goddess Cunina, those sucking to the goddess Rumina, those standing to the god Statilinus, those coming to the goddess Adeona, those going away to Abeona; to the goddess Mens, that they might have a good mind; to the god Volumnus and the goddess Volumna, that they might will good things; to the nuptial gods, that they might be well wedded; to the rural gods, that they might gather the most abundant fruits, and chiefly to the divine Fructesea herself; to Mars and Bellona, that they might wage war well; to the goddess Victoria, that they might conquer; to the god Honor, that they might be honoured; to the goddess Pecunia, that they might be moneyed; to the god Aesculanus and his son Argentinus, that they might have bronze and silver money?
For they made Aesculanus the father of Argentinus precisely because bronze money first came into use, and afterward silver. But I marvel that Argentinus did not beget Aurinus, since gold money followed too. If these men had such a god, then, just as they set Jupiter above Saturn, so they would set Aurinus above his father Argentinus and his grandfather Aesculanus.
What need, then, was there, on account of these goods — whether of the soul or of the body or external — to worship and invoke so great a throng of gods (whom I have not even all recalled, nor could they themselves, when all human goods had been minutely and individually parcelled out, provide minute and individual gods for them all), when by a great and easy shortcut the one goddess Felicity could confer all things, and not only would no one else be sought for the obtaining of goods, but none for the warding off of evils either? For why should the goddess Fessona be invoked on account of the weary, the goddess Pellonia for the driving off of enemies, on account of the sick a physician, whether Apollo or Aesculapius or both together, when there was great danger? Nor would the god Spiniensis be entreated, that he might root out thorns from the fields;
nor would the goddess Rubigo (Mildew) be entreated, that she might not draw near: with Felicity alone present and protecting, either no evils would arise, or they would be most easily driven off. Finally, since we are treating of these two goddesses, Virtue and Felicity: if felicity is the reward of virtue, it is not a goddess but a gift of God; but if it is a goddess, why should not she herself be said to confer virtue too, since indeed to attain virtue also is a great felicity? CHAPTER XXII. On the science of worshipping the gods, which Varro boasts to have been conferred by himself upon the Romans. What is it, then, that Varro boasts to bestow upon his fellow-citizens as an enormous benefit, because he not only mentions the gods who ought to be worshipped by the Romans, but also says what pertains to each one?
'For,' he says, 'it profits nothing to know the name and figure of some man who is a physician, and to be ignorant that he is a physician': so he says it profits nothing to know that Aesculapius is a god, if you do not know that he helps health, and thus are ignorant why you ought to supplicate him. This he affirms also by another comparison, saying that no one can not only live well, but live at all, if he be ignorant who is the smith, who the baker, who the plasterer, from whom he may seek each utensil, whom he may take as a helper, whom as a guide, whom as a teacher; asserting that in this way it is doubtful to no one that the knowledge of the gods is thus useful, if it be known what power and faculty and authority over each thing each god has.
'For from this,' he says, 'we shall be able to know which god we ought to summon and invoke for the sake of each cause, lest we do as the mimes are wont, and ask water from Liber, wine from the Lymphs.' Great utility indeed! Who would not give him thanks, if he showed true things, and if he taught men to worship the one true God, from whom all good things come? CHAPTER XXIII. On Felicity, whom the Romans, worshippers of many gods, for a long time did not honour with divine worship, although she alone would have sufficed for all. But (whence we now treat) if their books and rites are true and Felicity is a goddess, why was she not herself alone appointed to be worshipped, who could confer all things and by a shortcut make men happy? For who desires anything for any reason other than that he may become happy?
Why, finally, was it so late that, after so many Roman leaders, Lucullus established a temple to this so great goddess? Why did Romulus himself, desiring to found a happy city, not above all build a temple to her, nor supplicate the other gods for anything, since nothing would be lacking if she were present? For he himself would neither first become king, nor afterward, as they suppose, a god, if he did not have this goddess propitious. Why, then, did he establish for the Romans the gods Janus, Jupiter, Mars, Picus, Faunus, Tiberinus, Hercules, and any others? Why did Titus Tatius add Saturn, Ops, Sol, Luna, Vulcan, Lux, and whatever others he added — among whom even the goddess Cloacina — Felicity being neglected? Why did Numa establish so many gods and so many goddesses without her?
Or perhaps he could not see her in so great a throng? King Hostilius certainly would not himself have introduced the new gods Fear and Pallor to be propitiated, if he had known or worshipped that goddess. For with Felicity present, all fear and pallor would depart, not appeased but routed and put to flight. Next, what is this, that already the Roman empire was growing far and wide, and as yet no one worshipped Felicity? Or was the empire therefore larger than it was happier? For how could there be true felicity there, where there was no true piety? For piety is the true worship of the true God, not the worship of so many false gods, as many as there are of demons. But even afterward, when Felicity had now been received into the number of the gods, a great unhappiness of civil wars followed.
Or perhaps Felicity was justly indignant, because she was invited both so late and not unto honour but rather unto contumely, so that along with her were worshipped Priapus and Cloacina and Fear and Pallor and Fever and the rest — not divinities to be worshipped, but crimes of the worshippers? In short, if it seemed that so great a goddess was to be worshipped together with a most unworthy throng, why was she not at least worshipped more illustriously than the rest? For who could endure that Felicity should be set neither among the Consenting gods (whom they say are admitted to Jupiter's council), nor among the gods whom they call Select? Some temple should be made for her that would excel both in loftiness of place and in dignity of work. For why not something better even than for Jupiter himself? For what gave even Jupiter his kingdom, if not Felicity?