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About the gods of civil theology, the so-called chosen ones, about Janus, Jupiter, Saturn and others, in order to show that even by worshiping them the happiness of eternal life is not achieved Brighter and better minds must patiently and complacently relate to my too zealous efforts to refute and eradicate perverse and long-standing opinions hostile to the truth of piety, which the centuries-old delusion of the human race has implanted too deeply and firmly in darkened souls, and to the feasible assistance on my part from the grace of Him, to Whom, as the true God, this is possible - assistance by Him. assisted. For such people, what has been said on this subject in previous books is more than enough. But they should not consider unnecessary for others what they no longer feel necessary for themselves. We are talking about a subject of the greatest importance when we are talking about the study and veneration of the true and truly holy Divinity - about veneration not for the sake of the passing smoke of mortal life, but for the sake of the blessed life, which can only be eternal life; although this Divinity gives us the necessary help in the present corruptible life that we now live. Chapter I. Since it is obvious that in civil theology there is no deity, is it to be thought that he can be found among the chosen gods? Who has not been convinced by the sixth book, which we have just completed, that such a deity or, as I would say, such a deitas - because ours do not hesitate to use this word in order to more expressively translate the Greek name θεότης - does not exist in that theology, which is called civil and which Marcus Varro expounded in sixteen books, or what is the same: that by honoring such gods it is impossible to achieve eternal happiness life - whoever, I say, was not convinced of this by the sixth book, if he happens to read the present one to him, will no longer have anything in relation to this issue that would require further clarification for him. For perhaps someone is of the opinion that for the sake of a blessed life, which can only be eternal life, one should at least honor the chosen and most important gods, to whom Varro dedicated his last book and about whom we have said very little. Regarding this subject, I will not say what Tertullian says, perhaps more wittily than truly: “If a choice is made from the gods, like from onions, then the rest are considered worthless.” I don't think so. I know that from among the elect some are chosen for some most important and excellent task. In military service, for example, recruits are selected people, but they are selected for some particularly important military art. And in the church, when leaders are elected, the rest are by no means condemned, because all the good faithful are rightly called the elect. During construction, a selection of cornerstones is made, but the rest, intended for other parts of the building, are not thrown. A selection of grape berries is made for consumption, but the rest are not thrown away, from which the drink is prepared. There is no need, however, to expand much on the subject when it is clear by itself. So, because some gods were chosen from among many, one should not yet mock either the one who wrote about this, or the worshipers of these gods, or the gods themselves, but rather one should pay attention to what they themselves, these chosen gods, are, and for what work they are chosen. Chapter II. Who are these chosen gods, and are they excluded from performing the duties of lesser gods? In his book Varro mentions the following chosen gods: Janus, Jupiter, Saturn, Genius, Mercury, Apollo, Mars, Vulcan, Neptune, Sun, Orcus, Liber the Father, Telluria, Ceres, Juno, Luna, Diana, Minerva, Venus, Vesta; a total of twenty: twelve men and eight women. Why are these deities called chosen: is it because they are in charge of the more important parts of the government of the world, or because they have become better known to the people and a more honorable cult has been established for them? If it is because they are in charge of the more important parts of the government of the world, then we should not meet them in that kind of plebeian crowd of deities, which is assigned to empty affairs. Meanwhile, Janus himself, firstly, during the conception of the child’s embryo, from which all those well-known actions begin, distributed in detail among minor deities, Janus himself opens the entrance for the perception of the seed. Saturn is also present there for the sake of the same seed. There is Liber, who frees the man from the spilled seed. There is also Libera, whom they consider to be Venus, who provides the same service to a woman in order to free her through the outpouring of semen. All these gods are from among those who are called the chosen ones. But there is also the goddess Mena, who presides over menstruation (menstruis) bleeding, and although she is the daughter of Jupiter, she is an ignorant goddess. The same writer in the book about the chosen gods assigns this department of menstrual bleeding to Juno herself, who is considered a queen even among the chosen gods; and here, in charge of the same bleeding, he is present, like Juno, with his stepdaughter Mema, Lucina. There are also two there, I don’t know to what extent they are of little honor - Vitumnus and Sentinus, one of whom gives life to the embryo, the other - feeling; and although they are the most humble, they nevertheless give incomparably more than all those nobles and chosen ones. For what, in essence, in the absence of life and feeling, will everything that a woman carries in her womb be, if not the most disgusting mixture of mud and dust? Chapter III. How little reason can be given for singling out certain gods, how quickly many of the lower gods are given more honorable government So, what reason forced so many chosen gods to take up such small matters, in the obligatory administration of which they are surpassed in their participation by Vitumnus and Sentinus, covered in dark obscurity? The chosen Janus opens the entrance and, as it were, the door (januam) of the seed; the chosen Saturn supplies the seed itself; the chosen Liber arranges for the men to have the same seed flow out; Libera, who is also Ceres or Venus, does the same to women; the chosen Juno, and not alone, but together with Mena, the daughter of Jupiter, arranges monthly bleeding to nourish the conceived; and the dark and humble Vitumnus gives life; the dark and ignorant Sentinus communicates the feeling: the last two things are as much more significant than the previous ones as their reason and consideration are more significant. For those who think and understand are undoubtedly superior to those who, like animals, live and feel without meaning and reason; in the same way, that which lives and feels is rightly placed above that which does not live and does not feel. Therefore, Vitumnus, the giver of life, and Sentinus, the giver of feeling, should have been revered among the chosen gods much more than Janus, who receives the seed, than Saturn, the giver or sower (sator) of the seed, than Liber and Libera, who sets in motion and pours out the seed: for it would be indecent to represent it as a seed, if it did not then receive life and feeling. These chosen gifts are given by gods not chosen, but by some unknown ones, in comparison with the dignity of the chosen ones, neglected. If it is answered that Janus has power over all germs and that therefore it is not in vain that the opening of the entrance to the germ is attributed to him; that Saturn has power over all seeds and that human fertilization also cannot be separated from the circle of his actions; that Liber and Libera have the power to scatter all seed and therefore must be in charge of the addition of people; that Juno is in charge of all purifications and births and therefore must be present both at the purifications of women and at the birth of people: in this case, let them think about what to answer regarding Vitumnus and Sentinus. Will they not attribute to these gods power over everything that lives and feels? If they do, let them pay attention to the higher position they will be placed in, compared to others. For seeds are born on the earth and from the earth, and life and feeling are attributed to the star gods. If they say that Vitumnus and Sentinus are given only that which lives and is equipped with feelings in the body, then why does the same god, who gives life and feeling to everything, not give life and feeling to the body, imparting this gift to the embryos by a common action? And what is the need for Vitumn and Sentin? If the one who is in charge of life and feelings entrusted them, as servants, with this carnal, as a last and too low task, then do those chosen ones no longer have any slaves to whom, on their part, they could entrust the mentioned actions, but are forced, with all their nobility, by virtue of which they deserved to be chosen, to work together with the ignorant? The chosen Juno is the queen, sister and wife of Jupiter; and meanwhile, she is also Interduka (guide on the way) for children, and does this work with the most humble goddesses, Abeona and Adeona. There they also placed the goddess Mentu, who gives children common sense (mentem); but she is not among the chosen gods - as if something more could be given to man. But Juno, like Interduca and Dominuca (who accompanied her to the house), is among the chosen ones - as if traveling and returning to the house would bring any benefit if there is no common sense; the goddess who gave this meaning was not placed among the chosen gods. She, undoubtedly, should have been preferred to Minerva, whose memory was appropriated among these petty children's affairs. For who can doubt that having common sense is much better than any great memory? No one is evil who has common sense, and some of the worst people have amazing memories; and the worse they are, the less they are able to forget bad thoughts. Nevertheless, Minerva is among the chosen gods, and the goddess Mentha hides among the crowd of insignificant ones. And what can I say about the Goddess of Virtue, about the Goddess of Happiness, about whom I have already spoken a lot in book four? Considering them goddesses, they did not want to give them a place among the chosen gods, giving it to Mars and Orcus, one of whom makes people die, and the other receives the dying. So, when we see that on these small matters, distributed in parts among many gods, the chosen gods themselves work equally, like the Senate together with the mob; when we find that some gods, who are by no means among the chosen ones, are in charge of matters much more important and better than the so-called chosen gods, then we can only think that the latter are called chosen and most important not because of their exclusive right to participate in ruling the world, but because they have become more known to the people. Therefore, Varro himself says that some father gods and mother goddesses, following the example of people, fell into obscurity. But in this case, if Happiness should not have been among the chosen gods, for example, because these gods achieved nobility not by merit, but by chance, then at least Fortune should have been ranked among them or even higher than them, about which they say that this goddess gives her gifts to everyone not on the basis of reasonable considerations, but at random. She should have stood at the head of these chosen gods, over whom she showed her power: for we see that they are chosen not by the superiority of virtue, not by rational happiness, but by the power of Fortune - a blind power, as the worshipers of these gods themselves think of it. It is possible that the most eloquent Sallust has these same gods in mind when he says: “Indeed, Fortune rules over everything; it both glorifies and leaves every thing in obscurity rather out of passion than out of justice.” After all, they cannot find a reason why Venus is glorified, but Virtue remains unknown; although the statues are dedicated to both of them, their merits do not allow any comparison. If the basis of nobility is the tastes of the majority, for they strive for Venus more than for Virtue, then on what basis is Minerva glorified, and the goddess Pecunia left in the shadows? After all, in the human environment more people are devoted to the love of money than to art; and among the artists themselves you rarely meet a person who would not sell his art for money, and what is done for the sake of something is always valued more highly than what is done for the sake of something else. So, if this election of the gods was guided by the opinion of the unreasonable crowd, then why was the goddess Pecunia not preferred to Minerva, since many became artists for the sake of money (propter pecuniam)? If this distinction between the gods was the work of a rational minority, then why was not Virtue, to which reason gives much greater preference, placed above Venus? In any case, as I said, at least Fortune, who, in the opinion of those who attribute so much to her, rules over everything and glorifies every thing and leaves everything in obscurity rather by passion than by justice - at least she, if she has such power over the gods that, in her blind judgment, she glorifies whomever she wants, and leaves whomever she wants in obscurity, should have a predominant place among the chosen ones, since she has the advantage of power over the gods themselves. If she could not get such a place, then is it possible to think that Fortune herself had an unhappy fortune? She herself, therefore, went against herself, because by making others noble, she did not make herself noble. Chapter IV. The lower gods, who are not dishonored by any insults, were treated better than the chosen ones, whose shameful outrages are glorified Some lover of glory and honor would congratulate these chosen gods and call them happy, if he were not convinced that they were chosen rather for insult than for honor. For that lower crowd of gods, their very ignorance serves as protection from shameful outrages. We laugh, perhaps, when we see that human inventions, having divided the affairs between them, have assigned them to them, like petty tax collectors or artisans in silver workshops, where each vessel, in order to come out well finished, passes through the hands of many craftsmen, although one could have finished it well. But with the multitude of workers, they could not think of anything else other than for each individual to learn, as quickly and easily as possible, a separate part of the skill, and so that everyone together, doing the same thing, would not be forced to succeed in it slowly and with difficulty. But there is hardly any of the unchosen gods whom the shameful rumor would accuse of any crime; on the contrary, there is hardly any of the elect who does not bear the stain of shameful dishonor. However, I have never heard anything shameful about Janus. Perhaps this is how he was, he lived more impeccably and moved away from crimes and atrocities. He favorably accepted Saturn, who was seeking refuge, shared the kingdom with the guest, so that they even built two separate cities, Janiculum and Saturnia. But these hunters of all ugliness in the cult of the gods, finding his life less shameful, disgraced him with the monstrous ugliness of the statue, depicting him now with two faces, now with four faces, as if doubled. Is it because most of the chosen gods, from committing shameful deeds, lost the ability to blush on their faces, and therefore they decided to represent him with the more foreheads, the more innocent he was? Chapter V. About the most mysterious teaching of the pagans and about the physical foundations But let us better listen to their physical interpretations, through which they try to give the ugliness of a pitiful error the appearance of a supposedly most sublime teaching. These interpretations appear in Varro primarily in this form. He says that the ancients invented statues, insignia and decorations of the gods so that those who observe them with eyes who are initiated into the secrets of the teaching could spiritually contemplate the soul of the world and its parts, that is, the true gods; that, giving the statues a human image, they were obviously guided by the fact that the mortal soul living in the human body is the closest resemblance to the immortal soul; that just as vessels can be used to designate the gods, and an Oenophorus can be placed in the church of Bacchus, denoting (as containing - the contents of) wine, so by means of a statue having a human form, the rational soul is designated, because this form, as a kind of vessel, is usually used by that nature, which they consider to be the nature of a god or gods. This is the teaching into the mystery of which this most learned man penetrated and brought to light. But have you, a most ingenious man, lost in these mysteries of teaching that prudence that led you to the sound conclusion that the first who erected statues for the peoples both deprived their citizens of the feeling of (religious) fear and increased error, and that the ancient Romans more reverently honored gods without statues? You relied on the latter to have the courage to say this as a reproach to the later Romans. If even those ancient Romans had revered statues, you would probably have been afraid to express this true thought that statues should not be erected, and you would have even more eloquently and pompously praised these secrets of the teaching through harmful and empty fictions. Meanwhile, your soul, so learned and so gifted (which is why we especially grieve for you), was by no means able to reach its God through this mysterious teaching, i.e. before that God, by whom, and not with whom, she was created, - of whom she is not a part, but a creation; and not the one who is the soul of everything, but the One who created every soul, from whom alone the soul receives the light that makes it blessed, as soon as it gratefully accepts His grace. However, what this mysterious teaching is and what value it should have will be clear from what follows. This most learned man says, among other things, that the soul of the world and its parts are true gods. From this it is clear that his entire theology, that is, that very natural theology to which he attaches the greatest importance, could only rise to the nature of the rational soul. In the book mentioned, he prefaces a few words about natural theology; but let us see whether he was able to compare, through physiological interpretations, with this natural theology the civil theology which he wrote in conclusion about the elect gods. If he could do this, all theology would become natural; and then what would be the need for such a careful separation of civil theology from it? If the latter is singled out due to a real difference, then - if that which he considers natural is not true, because it reaches only the soul, and not to the true God, Who also created the soul - how much more despicable and false is this civil theology, which is primarily occupied with bodily nature? Her interpretations themselves, found and processed with special care, will show us this. I find it necessary to cite some of these interpretations. Chapter VI. On the opinion of Varro, according to which God is the soul of the world, which nevertheless contains in its parts many souls that have a divine nature So, prefacing a few remarks about natural theology, Varro says that, in his opinion, God is the soul of the world, called by the Greeks κόσμος, and that this world itself is God; but just as a wise man is called wise, taking into account only the soul, although he consists of soul and body, so the world is called god, also taking into account the soul, although it consists of soul and body. This shows how he recognizes one God. But in order to imagine the existence of many gods, he adds that the world is divided into two parts, heaven and earth; and the sky is also divided into two: ether and air; the earth is for water and land. Of these parts, the highest is ether, the second is air, the third is water, and the lowest is land. All these four parts are filled with souls: ether and air - immortal, water and earth - mortal. Beginning from the highest roundness of the sky to the circle described by the moon, ethereal souls appear in the form of stars and planets; We not only imagine these heavenly gods in our minds, but also see them. Between the circle described by the moon and the boundary of the clouds and the currents of the winds are the souls of the air; but we contemplate these souls, but do not see them with our eyes: they are called heroes, lares, geniuses. This is natural theology, summarized in the form of a preface. It is found not only in Varro, but also in many philosophers. I will examine it in more detail when, with the help of the true God, I have finished with civil theology, as far as it concerns the chosen gods. Chapter VII. Was it reasonable to divide Janus and Terminus into two deities? So, I ask: who is Janus, from whom everything begins? They answer that this is the world. The answer is short and clear. But in this case, why do they attribute the beginning of things to him, and the end to another, whom they call Terminus? After all, according to them, it is precisely for the sake of the beginning and the end that two months are dedicated to these two gods in addition to the ten that begin in March and follow until December: January is dedicated to Janus, February to Terminus. Terminalia, they say, is celebrated in the same February, in which there is also a sacred purification called Februum, from which this month takes its name. So, why does the world, which is Janus, belong to the beginning of things, but not the end, so that another god is assigned to the latter? Don't they admit that everything that happens in this world ends in this world? And what kind of nonsense is this: in business to attribute half the power to him, but in the statue - a double face? Wouldn't his two-faced appearance be explained much better if he were called both Janus and Terminus, and one person had the beginning and the other the end? For the actor must have both in mind. He who does not look back at the beginning at every moment of his action will not foresee the end. Hence it is necessary that attention looking forward be combined with the memory looking back. He who has lost what he started will not find how to finish. And if they thought that the blessed life begins in this world, but is completely achieved outside it, and therefore ascribed to Janus, that is, the world, power over only one beginning; in this case, they would certainly have placed Terminus above him and would not have eliminated him from among the chosen gods. However, even now, when in the person of these two gods they represent the beginning and end of temporary things, more honor should be given to Terminus. For there is much greater joy when any work comes to an end; and everything that has been started is of great concern until it is completed. He who starts something thinks mainly about the end, strives for it, waits for it, dreams about it, and is not delighted with the work he has begun unless he finishes it. Chapter VIII. Why did the admirers of Janus come up with a two-faced image of him, and even want to present him with four faces? But let's move on to the interpretation of the two-faced idol. They say that the statue has two faces, front and back, because the inner cavity of our mouth, when we open it, appears to resemble the world (that is why the Greeks say the palate is called οὐρανόν, and some of the Latin poets called the sky palatum - palate); and from this oral cavity there is one exit outward towards the teeth, and another inward towards the pharynx. So this is what the world comes down to thanks to our name for the palate, whether it is Greek or poetic! But what does this have to do with the soul, what does it have to do with eternal life? This God is worshiped for the sake of one saliva, with the help of which, both when swallowing and when spitting out, one and another door is opened under the sky of the sky. And then, what could be more absurd, in the world itself you cannot find two doors standing on opposite edges, through which the world would accept something into itself or throw it out of itself, and the image of the world in the face of Janus should be created in the image of our mouth and pharynx, with which the world has no resemblance; to invent all this for the sake of one name for the palate, with which Janus has no resemblance? When they depict him with four faces and call him double Janus, they explain this in relation to the four parts of the world as if the world were looking at them somewhere outside, like Janus with all his faces. But if Janus is the world, and the world consists of four parts, then the image of the two-faced Janus is false. And if it is true because by the name East and West we usually understand the whole world, then is it really possible that, in view of the fact that we know the other two parts, North and South, anyone will call the world double, just as they call the four-faced Janus double? They are absolutely unable to explain these four doors for entry and exit by any imitation of the world, at least as they did for Janus the two-faced, using a human mouth. Unless Neptune comes to their aid and gives them a fish that, in addition to the opening of the mouth and throat, also has a right and left opening for the gills? But even with so many doors, not a single soul can escape this vanity if it does not hear the truth that says: “I am the door” (John X, 7). Chapter IX. On the power of Jovis and his comparison with Janus Let them then explain their concept of Jovis, who is also called Jupiter. “He,” they say, “is a god who has in his power the causes of everything that happens in the world.” The great importance of this is shown by the most excellent verse of Virgil: Happy is he who knows the causes of things 83. But why they put Janus ahead of him, the above-mentioned witty and learned man will tell us. “Because,” he says, “the first is in the power of Janus, and the highest is in the power of Jovis. But Jupiter is rightly considered the king of everything. For the first is inferior to the higher, because although the first precedes in time, the higher is superior in dignity.” This would be said correctly if the beginning of a task and its completion differed in actions: as, for example, the beginning of a task is to leave, the end is to arrive, or the beginning of a task is to decide to study, the end of it is to master science; in this case, the first in everything will be the beginning, and the highest will be the end. But the beginning and the end in this sense are already distributed between Janus and Terminus. The reasons assimilated by Jupiter are the reasons that determine the action, and do not lead to its execution; and therefore it is in no way possible that they were preceded even in time by actions or the beginning of actions. For the thing that does always precedes the thing that is done. Therefore, if the beginning of action belongs to Janus, it does not follow that this beginning precedes the causes that determine the action, which are inherent in Jupiter. Just as nothing happens, so nothing begins to come into existence unless it is preceded by a cause that creates it. So, if this god, in whose power are all the causes of all created nature and all natural things, the people call Jovis and honor him by subjecting him to shame and accusing him of heinous crimes, then they become guilty of a more vile sacrilege than if they did not recognize any god at all. Therefore, it would be better for them to call the name of Jovis someone else who deserves vile and shameful honor, substituting for great reproach some empty fiction (just as Saturn was substituted, they say, for the stone that he devoured instead of his son), than to represent the mentioned god as a thunderer and adulterer, ruling the whole world and indulging in such extreme debauchery, containing in his power the highest causes of all things. nature and all natural things, but in his own actions not guided by good reasons. Further, I ask, what place do they assign among the gods to this Jovis, if Janus represents the world? After all, according to Varro’s definition, the true gods are the soul of the world and parts of it; and hence everything that does not represent this, in no case, in their opinion, can be the true god. So, will they assert that Jovis is the soul of the world so that Janus represents its body, that is, represents this visible world? If they confirm this, then they will have no reason to call Janus a god; because, in their opinion, God is not the body of the world, but the soul of the world and its parts. The same Varro clearly says that, in his opinion, God is the soul of the world, and this world itself is God, but in the sense that just as, they say, a wise man, although he consists of soul and body, is called wise, taking into account only the soul, so the world is called god according to the soul, although he consists of soul and body. Consequently, the body of the world in itself is not God; but God is either his soul alone, or his body and soul taken together, but so, however, that divinity is given not by the body, but by the soul. But if Janus is the world and Janus is God, then in order for Jovis to be a god, will they not argue that the latter is some part of Janus? But they tend to attribute universality primarily to Jupiter; hence the famous expression: So, in order for Jupiter to be a god, and especially the king of the gods, they cannot consider him anything other than the world; and then, in accordance with their opinion, he will play a royal role among the other gods. In this sense, Varro explains the verses of a certain Valerius Soranus in the book that he wrote separately from the above-mentioned on the cult of the gods. The verses are: Jupiter the great, progenitor of kings and gods, You are the mother of the gods, one and all everywhere. These verses are explained in the same book in the sense that they represent him as both a man pouring out the seed and a woman receiving the seed; that Jupiter is the world and that he pours out every seed from himself and receives it into himself. “On this basis,” notes Varro, “Soranus wrote that Jupiter is both progenitor and mother; and with no less reason - that he is one and at the same time everything: for the world is one, and in it alone is everything.” Chapter X. Is the distinction between Janus and Jupiter correct? So, if Janus is the world, and Jupiter is the world, and each of them is the world, then on what basis are there two of them, Janus and Jupiter? Why do they have separate churches, separate altars, different services, different statues? If this is because the beginnings have one meaning, and the causes another, and that the meaning of the former is expressed by the name of Janus, and the latter by Jupiter, then when the same person in different kinds of things has a double power or a double art, is it said of him that these are two rulers or two artists on the ground that each power or art, taken separately, has a different meaning? In the same way, there is only one God - although He has in His power and He also begins the causes - should one necessarily consider two gods just because principles and causes are two special things? If, in their opinion, this follows, then they should consider Jupiter himself to be as many gods as they gave him names due to the diversity of his power: because all the things from which these nicknames are borrowed are special and different things. I will talk about some of these nicknames below. Chapter XI. About the names of Jupiter, which do not refer to many gods, but to one and the same They called him the Conqueror, the Invincible, the Helper, the Exciter, the Stopper, the Centipede, the Overturner, the Supporter, the Breadwinner, the Rumin (co-coupler) and many other names that would take a long time to count. They gave these names to one god because of the different types of his action and power, but they did not create from him the same number of gods as they counted these types of his action and power. He conquers everything and is never defeated by anyone; he gives help to those in need; has the power to excite, stop, give firm stability, overturn; he, like a support, holds and supports the world; It’s as if he’s feeding animals with his nipples or breasts. Among these actions, as we see, there are both important and empty; nevertheless, both are attributed to the same god. I think that the reasons and principles of things for the sake of which they decided to make two gods from one world, Jupiter and Janus, have much more similarities with each other than supporting the world with breastfeeding animals; and, however, for the last two actions, so different from each other in strength and dignity, they did not find it necessary to introduce two gods, but left one Jupiter, called Support for one action, and Rumin for the other. I will not say that giving breasts to suckling animals would be more fitting for Juno than for Jupiter, especially since there is also the goddess Rumina (co-gender) who could provide her with assistance and services in this matter. I think that they could answer me that Juno herself is nothing more than the same Jupiter, based on the same verses of Valery Soranus, which say: But in this case, why did they call him Rumin, when with a more careful study, perhaps, it would have turned out that he himself was that goddess Rumina? After all, if the fact that in one and the same ear one of the gods was entrusted with the care of the knee of the plant, and the other with the skin of the grain, rightly seemed unworthy of the greatness of the gods, then is it not much more unworthy of this greatness that for one such thing of a lower order, which is the breastfeeding of animals, the power of two gods was required, of which one is Jupiter himself, the king of all; and he does this not even with his wife, but with who knows what Rumina? Is it really he who is this Rumina? Maybe for male animals he is Rumin, and for female animals he is Rumina? I would say that they did not want to call Jupiter by a female name, if in the above verses he was not called both progenitor and mother, and if among his other nicknames I had not seen that he was also called Pecunia. We met such a goddess among minor deities and mentioned her in the fourth book. Since both men and women have money (pecuniam), let them say why they did not call him Pecunia and Pecunia, as they called Rumina and Rumin? Chapter XII. That Jupiter is also called Pecunia And what an excellent reason they give for this name! They say he is also called Pecunia, because everything belongs to him. A worthy basis for a divine name! It would seem, on the contrary, to call the one who owns everything Pecunia is extremely humiliating and insulting. For in comparison with everything that is in heaven and on earth, what is money, in total with all the things without exception that a person possesses with the help of money? This name was given to Jupiter, of course, by greed, so that the one who loves money would seem to love not some god, but the king of all. It would be a different matter if it were called wealth. For wealth is one thing, and money is quite another. We call wise, virtuous, fair people rich, for whom money either has no meaning, or, if it does, it is of little importance: they are richer in virtues, thanks to which they are satisfied with what they have even in their bodily needs; poor we call greedy people who always strive for acquisitions and are always in need; no matter how much money they have, they cannot help but need it. And we call the true God himself rich, but rich not in money, but in omnipotence. Moneyed people are also called rich, but they need a soul if they are greedy; Likewise, those who do not have money are called poor, but in their souls they are rich if they are wise. What, one might ask, should that theology, in the view of a sage, look like in which the king of the gods bears the name of such an object for which not a single sage had a predilection? For if this doctrine taught anything pertaining to eternal life, then God, the ruler of the world, would rather be named not from money, but from wisdom, the love of which cleanses from the dirt of greed, that is, from the love of money. Chapter XIII. That from the explanation given to Saturn and Genius, it is clear that both Saturn and Genius are Jupiter But why expand further about this Jupiter, to whom, perhaps, the rest of the gods should also be included, so that the opinion of many gods will remain an empty opinion, since in his person he represents them all: should they be considered his parts or powers, or should he himself be represented by the power of the soul, which, as they believe, is diffused throughout everything, both from the parts of which the real visible world consists, and from the diverse controls of nature, which has received the names of, as it were, many gods? Really, what is Saturn? “One,” says Varro, “is one of the main gods, who has power over all kinds of sowing.” But from the explanation of the above verses of Valery Soran, is it not clear that Jupiter is the world and that he pours out all the seeds from himself and receives them into himself again? Consequently, he himself is the one who has power over all kinds of sowing. What is Genius? “God,” he says, “who is assigned to the birth of all things.” But who else, in their opinion, has such power if not the world, of which, as it is said, “Jupiter is the progenitor and mother”? And although in another place he says that Genius is the rational spirit of every man, and therefore every man has a separate Genius; but the spirit of the world, similar to this, is God; in any case, it turns out that the most universal, so to speak, genius is precisely the spirit of the world. So this is the one they call Jupiter. For if every genius is a god, and the spirit of every man is a genius, then it follows that the spirit of every man is a god; if this absurdity forces them to stop, then it remains to conclude that they only and primarily call the genius who is also called the spirit of the world, that is, Jupiter, god. Chapter XIV. On the responsibilities of Mercury and Mars But they did not figure out how to attribute Mercury and Mars to any parts of the world or to the actions of God taking place in the world’s elements; and therefore they were assigned to human affairs as managers of speech and war. If Mercury has power over the speech of the gods, then he also rules over the king of the gods himself, since through his power Jupiter speaks or receives the ability to speak, which, of course, is absurd. If he is credited with power only over human speech, then it is difficult to believe that Jupiter, having agreed to descend from the sky not only to children, but also to animals during the period of feeding both with mother’s milk (which is why he is called Rumin), would not want to take upon himself the care of our speech, in which we are superior to animals; therefore, Mercury is this very Jupiter. And if Mercury means speech itself, as the interpretations of its name show, for Mercury is, as it were, a running intermediary (Medicurrius, Mercurius) and is so named because speech between people runs from one to another; therefore in Greek it is called Ἑρμὴς; since speech or interpretation, which, of course, refers to speech, is called ἑρμηνεία; therefore, further, he is in charge of trade transactions, since speech serves as an intermediary between those selling and buying; the wings on his head and legs mean speech rushing quickly through the air; he is called a messenger because through speech all thoughts are made known; - so, if Mercury means speech, then by their own admission he is not a god. But when they make gods for themselves who are not demons, then, turning to unclean spirits with prayer, they fall under the power of those who are not gods, but demons. Likewise, not having come up with any element or part of the world for Mars, where he would be in charge of any actions of nature, they called him the god of war, which is a human matter, and an undesirable matter. Therefore, if Happiness granted eternal peace, Mars would have nothing to do. If Mars signifies war itself, as Mercury signifies speech, then just as it is clear that he is not a god, it is also desirable from the bottom of my heart that there should be no war, even if falsely called a god. Chapter XV. About some stars that the pagans named after their gods But maybe these gods are the stars that are named after these gods? For they call one star Mercury, the other Mars. But among them there is also such a star, which they call Jupiter, although Jupiter represents the whole world; there is a star called Saturn, although Saturn, in addition, they attribute to be in charge of no small substance, namely, the substance of all seeds; there is the brightest star of all, which they call Venus, and, however, they consider the same Venus to be the Moon; however, Juno and Venus argue among themselves about this most brilliant star, like about a golden apple. According to some, Lucifer is the star of Venus, according to others, the star of Juno; however, as always, victory remains with Venus. Most of them attribute this star to Venus, so it is difficult to find anyone who would think otherwise. But who does not find it funny that the star of Jupiter, whom they consider the king of all, is eclipsed by the brilliance of the star of Venus? After all, his star should have been as brighter than the others as he himself was more powerful than all the other gods. They say his star appears darker because it is higher and much further from the earth. But if the highest place for this star was given by the highest dignity of Jupiter, then why is Saturn higher than Jupiter in the sky? Or was it that the vanity of the myth, which makes Jupiter king, could not penetrate to the heavenly bodies, and what Saturn did not receive either in his kingdom or in the Capitol, was given to him at least in heaven? But why didn't Janus get any stars? If it is because he is the world and that they are all in it, then Jupiter is also the world, and, however, he has a star. Or did he resolve his affairs to the best of his ability, and instead of one star, which he does not have among the luminaries, he received so many faces on earth? Finally, if Mercury and Mars, so that they can be classified as gods, are considered parts of the world solely because of their stars, since speech and war are in no way parts of the world, but human affairs, then why Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Scorpio and other celestial signs, of which each consists not of one star, but of many, and which, as they say, are located much higher than the stars of Mercury and Mars, in the uppermost sky, where more constant movement gives the heavenly bodies an unchanging path - why didn’t they devote any altars, no cults, no churches to them? Why didn’t they rank them, not to mention among the chosen gods, but at least among the plebeian gods? Chapter XVI. About Apollo, Diana and other chosen gods who are considered parts of the world Although, in their opinion, Apollo is a doctor and a fortuneteller, however, in order to place him in some part of the world, they also call him the Sun. Like him, his sister Diana is considered the Moon and the head of roads. Hence they call her a maiden, because nothing is born on the road. Therefore, both are represented as holding arrows: since both luminaries extend their rays to the very earth. Vulcan is considered the fire of the world; Neptune - the waters of the world; Ditis the father, i.e. Orcus, - the earthly and underground parts of the world; Libera and Ceres are correlated with semen, the former with male, the latter with female, Libera with liquid semen, Ceres with dry semen. And all this relates to the world, that is, to Jupiter, which is called progenitor and mother because all seeds come from it and return to it again. Since they also consider the Great Mother herself to be Ceres, which, according to them, is nothing more than the earth, and they also represent her as Juno, then secondary causes are attributed to her; because it is said about Jupiter: the progenitor and mother of the gods; since, according to them, Jupiter personifies the whole world. Likewise, Minerva, because human arts were given over to her and no star was found where to place her, was called the highest ether and the Moon. And Vesta herself is called the greatest of goddesses because she is earth; although they also considered it necessary to attribute to her that world fire that serves for the everyday needs of people - a softer fire, and not such a destructive one, which is under the jurisdiction of Vulcan. Thus, all these chosen gods, in their opinion, represent the real world, one is the whole, the others are parts of it: the whole is Jupiter, the parts are Genius, the Great Mother, the Sun and the Moon, or better yet, Apollo and Diana, and so on. Sometimes many things are attributed to one god, and sometimes one thing is shared among many gods. Thus, many things are attributed, for example, to Jupiter; Jupiter - and the whole world, and one sky, and one star Jupiter. In the same way, Juno is the mistress of secondary causes, and air, and earth, and the star Juno would have been if she had had victory over Venus. In the same way, Minerva is both the highest ether and the same Minerva-Luna, which is placed on the lowest border of the ether. One thing is divided among many gods in this way: both Janus is the world and Jupiter; Likewise, Juno is the earth, and the Great Mother and Ceres are the earth. Chapter XVII. The fact that Varro himself presented his opinion about the gods as dubious And both what I mentioned as an example and everything else they do not explain, but rather confuse; according to where their opinion pushes them, they rush here and there, and bounce back from here and there; so Varro himself preferred to doubt everything rather than affirm anything. Thus, having finished the first of the last three books about known gods and starting in the second to talk about unknown gods, he remarks: “If in this book I express doubtful opinions about the gods, I should not be blamed for this. Anyone in whose opinion it is possible and should speak decisively, let him, after listening to me, do so himself. I can sooner agree to question what I said in the first book than to direct everything I say in this book to some positive conclusion.” Thus, he presented doubtful not only the book about the unknown gods, but also the book about the known gods. Further, in the third book about the chosen gods, having said in advance what he considered necessary to say from natural theology, and proceeding to the emptiness and senseless falsity of civil theology, to which it was not the truth that led him, but the authority of his ancestors, he says: “I will write in this book about the public gods of the Roman people, to whom they dedicated churches and to whom they assigned many distinctive features, but I will write like Xenophanes of Colophon, that is, I will express what I think, and not what I assert. For it is human nature to have only opinions on this subject, but God alone knows.” So, intending to talk about human judgments, he timidly promises to talk not about what is known and believed in the most certain way, but about what there are only opinions and what is subject to doubt. For to what extent did he know that the world exists, that heaven and earth exist, that the sky shines with luminaries, and the earth is fertile with seeds, and so on; and to what extent he believed that all this vastness was controlled by some invisible and powerful force, he could not speak affirmatively about Janus, that he is the world, or give explanations regarding Saturn, how he is the father of Jupiter, and at the same time subordinate to him as a king, and so on. Chapter XVIII. What is the most likely reason for the strengthening of pagan error? A more plausible interpretation of it will be if we imagine that they were people and that each of them, in accordance with his talents, morals, actions and adventures, was dedicated to those who decided to make them gods out of flattery, cults and festivals, and that thanks to people who were similar in soul to demons and greedy for ridiculous things, it gradually became widespread among the people through, on the one hand, poets, who embellished these things with lies, on the other hand, who seduced evil spirits with them. After all, it could have happened much more likely that a young man who did not have filial feelings or was afraid of being killed by a father who did not have paternal feelings, and at the same time power-hungry, overthrew his father from the throne than what Varro talks about, that is, that Saturn the father was surpassed in power by Jupiter the son because the cause that is attributed to Jupiter exists earlier than the seed that Saturn is supposedly in charge of. If this were so, Saturn would never have been an earlier (god) than Jupiter, nor his father, for the cause always precedes the seed and is never born from the seed. But when they try to make the most empty fables or human actions respectful through natural interpretations, then the wittiest people encounter such difficulties that we are forced to regret their vain efforts. Chapter XIX. On the interpretations by which the veneration of Saturn is justified About Saturn, says Varro, they say that he usually devours what is born from him; because the seeds return to the same place from where they are born. And that instead of Jupiter they gave him a block of earth to devour, this means, he says, that people buried grains of grain, which they began to sow before the benefits of cultivating the land with a plow, into the ground with their own hands. But in this case, Saturn should be called the earth itself, and not the seed: for the earth, in a sense, devours what it gives birth to, when the seeds born from it return again to it. And the fact that Saturn, as they say, mistook a block of earth for Jupiter, what does this have to do with the fact that people covered the seed with earth with their own hands? Was not the seed that was covered with earth devoured like the rest? After all, it seems as if the person who put earth on the seed stole the seed, just as Jupiter was stolen from Saturn when a block of earth was placed on him; and meanwhile, covering the seed with earth, he does this rather so that the seed is more likely to be devoured. Moreover, Jupiter in this case represents the seed, and not the cause, as was said a little above. But what should people do who, while explaining stupid things, cannot find anything smart to say? Saturn, says Varro, has a sickle as a sign of agriculture. But during his reign there was no agriculture yet, and the times of this reign, as he himself interprets these same myths, seem earlier because primitive people ate the seeds that the earth gave birth to by itself? Is it possible that, having lost the scepter, he received the sickle because, having previously been an inactive king, during the reign of his son he became a hardworking worker? Then, some, he says, sacrificed children to him (for example, the Puns and even some of their ancestors, as well as the Gauls), because the best of all seeds is human birth. Is it necessary to expand on this vanity combined with brutal cruelty? It is better to pay attention to the fact that such interpretations do not refer to the true God - a living, incorporeal and immutable nature, from which one should expect eternal blissful life, but revolve within the limits of things corporeal, temporary, changeable and mortal. As for the fact, he continues, that Saturn, as the myths tell, castrated his father Sky, this means that the divine seed is not in the power of heaven, but in the power of Saturn. And this, as far as one can understand, is because in heaven nothing is born from seeds. But in this case, if Saturn is the son of heaven, then he is the son of Jupiter; because in many places he insists that Jupiter represents the sky. So, for the most part, what is not from the truth, even if it is not refuted by anyone, refutes itself. Kronos, he says, is named because the Greek word κρόνος means space of time, without which the seed cannot be fertilized. This and much more is said about Saturn, and all relates to the seed. But Saturn alone with such power would be enough for the seeds - why are other gods invented for them, especially Liber and Libera, i.e. Ceres? About these latter he says so much concerning the seed, as if he had said nothing about Saturn. Chapter XX. About the cult of Eleusinian Ceres In the cult of Ceres, the so-called Eleusinian mysteries, which were held in special esteem by the Athenians, are extolled and praised in every possible way. Concerning them he gives no explanation, except as regards the grain bread invented by Ceres, and Proserpine, which she lost when she was kidnapped by Orcus. This latter, according to him, means the fertility of seeds: when once he was not there, and the earth presented a sad appearance with its barrenness, it was believed that the daughter of Ceres, that is, fertility, which from creeping out (proserpendo) is called Proserpina, was kidnapped by Orcus and kept her in the underworld; there was a public complaint about this; when fertility returned again, Proserpina was returned, joy appeared again and festivities were established. Then he says that in the mysteries of Ceres many things are conveyed that relate specifically to the invention of fruits. Chapter XXI. About the abomination of the cult performed in honor of Liber And to what abomination the cult of Liber has reached, to whom they attribute power over liquid seeds, and therefore not only over the liquids of fruits, among which wine takes a kind of first place, but also over the seed of animals - this would not be worth talking about due to the length of the speech, but it is worth mentioning in view of their proud stupidity. However, I still have to omit something, since there is too much. He says that on the crossroads of Italy, some particulars of the cult of Liber are performed with such disgusting freedom that the shameful male member is venerated in his honor - venerated not with any shameful secrecy, but with open and enthusiastic obscenity. So, this vile member, placed in carts, on the days of the Libera holiday, is taken out with great honor, first in the villages to the crossroads, and then brought into the city. In the town of Lavinia, a whole month was dedicated to Liber, during which everyone had the most obscene words on their tongues, until this member was carried through the square and hidden in its place. The most honorable of the matrons was to openly place the crown on this venerable member! So, if you please, it was necessary to persuade the god Liber to the mercy of the god for the sake of the harvest; This is how it was necessary to remove the canker from the fields: it was necessary to force a noble woman to do something in public that a harlot would not allow herself to do in the theater if the spectators were noble women. Therefore, Saturn alone was considered insufficient for seeds if an unclean soul had the opportunity to invent many gods, and, due to its impurity, turning away from the one God and through many gods being corrupted by greed for even greater abomination, called these sacrileges sacred rites and gave itself up to be desecrated and desecrated by a crowd of vile demons. Chapter XXII. About Neptune, Salacia and Venilia Neptune already had a wife, Salacia, by whose name they meant the lower layer of the sea; On what basis then was Venilia added to it, if not for the sake of multiplying cases of turning to demons without any need for new cults, but solely at the whim of a depraved soul? But let us listen to the interpretation of the famous theology, which, by pointing out this reason, may perhaps keep us from such censure. Venilia, says Varro, is a wave that goes to the shore, and Salacia is a wave that goes out to sea. Why, one might ask, are there two goddesses, when the incoming and outgoing waves are one and the same wave? This is where the mad lust of polytheism manifests itself. Although the coming and going wave remains the same, however, taking advantage of this opportunity to twice appeal to the spells of demons, the vain spirit is more defiled, which “goes away and does not return” (Ps. 77:39). I ask you, Varro, or you who have read such works of such learned men, proud of the fact that they know something great, - explain this to me, even if not in accordance with that eternal and immutable nature, which is the one true God, but in accordance with at least the soul of the world and its parts, which you consider your gods to be. That you imagine Neptune to be part of the world soul, permeating the sea, is, of course, a delusion, but the delusion is still tolerable. But the water that comes to the shore and goes to the sea, are these two parts of the world or two parts of the world soul? Which of you is crazy enough to think like that? Why did they make you two goddesses, if not because your wise ancestors foresaw not that many would reign over you, but that many demons, who take pleasure in vanity and lies of this kind, would subjugate you to their power? And why, according to this interpretation, did Salacia cease to be the lower layer of the sea, in which capacity it was subordinate to her husband? After all, you place it only on the surface when you say that it is a wave leaving the shore. Was it because she drove her husband away from the surface of the sea because she was angry with him for taking Venilia as his mistress? Chapter XXIII. About the earth, which Varro considers a goddess on the basis that the world spirit, which is recognized as a god, penetrates this lower part of its body and imparts divine power to it The earth, of course, is one and the same, although we see it filled with animals characteristic of it: why do they consider her, this great body and the lower part of the world’s elements, a goddess? Is it because she is fertile? But why, in this case, are not the people themselves considered gods, who make the earth more fertile through cultivation, that is, when it is plowed, and not when it is prayed to? But, they say, what makes her a goddess is the part of the world soul that permeates her. But isn’t the existence of the soul in people more obvious; is there any doubt possible regarding this subject? Meanwhile, people are not considered gods; and what is most regrettable is that, due to a strange and pathetic error, they obediently reverence and idolize those who are not only not gods, but whom they themselves are better. The same Varro, in his book on the chosen gods, asserts that in all and every nature there are three levels of the soul. The first permeates all generally living parts of the body, but does not have a feeling, but only a revitalizing force; So, in our body this force, he says, is distributed in the bones, nails, hair; in the inanimate world, trees feed, grow, and live in their own way without feeling. The second level of the soul is the one in which there is feeling: this force exists in the eyes, ears, nose, lips, touch. The third level of the soul is the highest, called spirit, in which rationality predominates: he calls this part of the world soul god, and in us - genius. In the inanimate world, stones and the earth we see, in which feeling does not manifest itself, are like the bones and nails of a deity. The sun, moon and stars, which we feel and with which he himself feels, are his feelings. Finally, the ether is the spirit of the deity: from its power, when it reaches the heavenly bodies, these luminaries become gods; when it penetrates the earth, the earth is the goddess Tellura, and when it reaches the sea and ocean, they become the god Neptune. But let him return back from the area of ​​​​this theology, which he considers natural and where he retreated as if to rest, being tired of all sorts of evasions and roundabouts. Let him, I say, return back to civil theology: I’m focusing on it for now, I’m still talking about it. I will not expand on the fact that if in the inanimate world the earth and stones are similar to our nails and bones, then they, like these latter, do not have reason, just as they do not have feelings; or that if our bones and nails have reason because they are in a person who has reason, then he who calls the earth and stones world gods is as stupid as the one who would call our bones and nails people. We should rather discuss this subject with philosophers; in this case I want to talk to a politician. For it is quite possible that although he tried gradually to move into the field of natural theology, as into a kind of region of freedom, however, while busy writing a book about the chosen gods, he did not lose sight of this topic; and he expressed the above in order to prevent it from seeming that his ancestors or other states worshiped Telluru and Neptune in vain. So, I ask: if the earth is one, then why is not the part of the world soul that permeates the earth also one goddess, whom they call Tellura? If she represents one goddess, then where in this case will be Orcus, the brother of Jupiter and Neptune, who is also called Ditis the Father? Where will his wife Proserpina be, who, according to another opinion set forth in the same book, represents not the fertility of the earth, but its lower part? If they say that the part of the world soul, when it permeates the upper part of the earth, represents the god Dytis the Father, and when the lower part represents the goddess Proserpina, then what then is Tellurium? After all, everything that she herself is is divided into two indicated parts and into two gods, so it is impossible to understand what she, the third, will be and where she will be. Will anyone say that these gods, Orcus and Proserpina, taken together, constitute one Telluru, and that, therefore, there are not three gods, but either one or two? However, they are called three, three are considered and each is revered by its own special altars, churches, cults, priests; and, therefore, by three special demonic charms that defile the corrupt soul. Let them also say what part of the earth does a part of the world spirit penetrate to give birth to the god Tellumon? None, says Varro, but the same earth has a double generative force - male, producing seeds, and female, receiving and nourishing them: from the female force it is called Tellurium, and from the male force - Tellumon. Why, in this case, do the pontiffs, as he himself shows, adding two others, leave this divine work to four gods: Tellur, Tellumon, Altor and Ruzor? Tellurium and Tellumon have already been mentioned, but why also Altor? Because, he says, everything that is born is nourished (aluntur). Why Ruzor? Because, he says, everything returns again (rursus) to the same thing. Chapter XXIV. About the names of Tellura and their meanings, which, even if they were an indication of many things, should not confirm opinions about many gods But for the sake of this quadruple power, the earth would have to have four names, and not represent four gods, just as one Jupiter and one Juno each have many names. By these names is meant a manifold power pertaining to one god or goddess; but their multitude does not represent a multitude of gods. Just as this happens at times with the most despicable women, when they are burdened by the crowd of those to whom their lust attracts, so the soul, which has become despicable and abused by unclean spirits, although most often finds pleasure in the multiplication of gods with which it is defiled, is sometimes burdened by this. And Varro himself, as if ashamed of this crowd, claims that the goddess Tellurium is alone. “She,” he notes, “is called the Great Mother: the tympanum that she has means the globe, the tower on her head means the city, the seats around her mean that although everything around is moving, she herself is motionless. The Gauls are appointed to serve her as a sign that those who do not have seed must serve the earth, because everything is in it. And that they make faces in front of it, this, he says, makes it clear that those who cultivate it should not be idle: for they always have something to do. The ringing of cymbals, the thunder of iron tools, applause and all sorts of chatter show what happens when cultivating the land; copper is preferred because the ancients farmed the land with copper before iron was invented. They add to the same,” continues Varro, “a free and tamed lion, in order to show that there is not a single type of land so remote and harsh that cannot be cultivated.” Continuing his speech further, he says: “Tellura the mother has been given many names and titles, believing that she represents many gods. It is considered Opa because it becomes better by processing (opere); called Mother because she gives birth to so many things; Great because it produces food; Proserpina because fruiting plants crawl out of it (proserpant); Vesta because it is covered (vestiatur) with herbs. Thus,” he says, “it is not without reason that other goddesses treat her.” But, the question arises, if this is one goddess, although in fact she is not even a goddess, then why are so many revered? After all, all these are many names of one goddess, and not so many goddesses as names. But the authority of erring ancestors lies under pressure and in Varro himself causes fear immediately following the expressed opinion. Making a reservation, he notes: “This does not contradict the opinion of the ancestors about these goddesses, according to which they represented them in the form of many goddesses.” How is it not contradictory when it is one thing if one goddess has many names, and quite another thing if there are many goddesses? “But,” he says, “it is possible that the same thing is one and contains something many.” I agree that there is something many things in one person, but is that why there are many people? Also, one goddess can have many things, but is that why she is many goddesses? However, let them do what they want: divide, connect, multiply, divide and mix up. So here they are, these famous mysteries of Tellurium and the Great Mother: everything in them has to do with mortal seeds and the cultivation of the earth. Are things related to this subject and having a similar meaning, such as tympanum, towers, galls, senseless antics, the ringing of cymbals and training of lions, promising anyone eternal life? Do castrated Gauls serve this goddess as a sign that those who do not have seed should serve the earth? Is it not this very service that robs them of seed? After all, those who do not have it do not actually acquire seed by serving this goddess, but as a result of this, those who have it are deprived of serving the seed to her. And they do not notice what strength the evil demons gained when, not daring to promise anything great, they were able to demand such cruelty! If the earth were not considered a goddess, people would cultivate it in order to receive seeds from it, and would not commit atrocities on themselves in order to lose their seed for its sake. If she were not considered a goddess, she would be made fertile by the hands of others, and would not force a person to make himself infertile with his own hands. When, in the cult of Liber, a venerable matron lays a wreath on the male genital organ in front of the whole people, in the presence, perhaps, of a husband blushing with shame (if only there is a drop of shame in these people); when in marriage ceremonies the newlywed is ordered to sit on the trunk of Priapus, then these things are much more tolerable and easier in comparison with this brutal abomination or vile atrocity with which both sexes are fooled by demonic tricks so that, as a result of voluntary mutilation, neither one nor the other is done. There they are afraid of the influence of the evil eye on the fields; here they are not afraid to chop off their members. There, the modesty of the newlywed is insulted in such a way that not only the ability to bear children, but also her virginity is not taken away from her; here the man disfigures himself so much that he neither turns into a woman nor remains a man. Chapter XXV. What interpretation do the Greek sages give of the castration of Atys? Varro did not mention or give an explanation to the famous Atis, for the sake of the memory of his love for whom the Gauls castrated themselves. But the wise and learned Greeks did not miss the opportunity to explain this famous shrine. Since the appearance of the earth in spring is more beautiful than in other seasons, the famous philosopher Porfiry proves that Atis means flowers, and therefore appears castrated, that flowers supposedly fall before the fruit. Thus, it is not the man himself or the pseudo-man called Atys who is compared to flowers, but his genitals. It was the latter that fell during his lifetime - in fact, they did not fall or be torn off, but were simply crushed into pieces; the loss of this color was followed not by any fruit, but by complete infertility. What was left of him later and what did he, castrated, retain that would have the aforementioned significance? What could this be compared with and what meaning can be derived from this? Or, having racked their brains over this in vain and come up with nothing, they will argue that it is preferable to believe what rumor has spread and what is written in books about a castrated person? Our Varro was right that he kept silent and did not want to talk about these things: they were not unknown to him, as a most learned man. Chapter XXVI. About the abomination of the cult of the Great Mother Likewise, he did not want to talk (at least, I don’t remember that I met it anywhere with him) about the men and women dedicated to the Great Mother, who had forgotten all modesty, effeminate people, who with pomaded hair, whitened faces, with relaxed limbs and a woman’s gait, even before yesterday, walked through the squares and streets of Carthage, begging from the crowd for means for a vile life. There was no interpretation, the mind was ashamed, eloquence fell silent. The Great Mother defeated all the son-gods with the greatness not of divinity, but of crime. Even the monstrosity of Janus cannot compare with this monster. He was distinguished by ugliness only in statues, but this one revealed ugliness in the cult, combined with cruelty; This one was given members from stone, and this one took members from people. Compared to this shame, the shameful deeds of Jupiter himself seem small and insignificant: among his love affairs with women, he disgraced the sky by having a relationship with Ganymede alone; and this one, with so many effeminate people, publicly recognized, has desecrated the earth and insulted heaven. This disgusting cruelty can only be compared with the cruelty of Saturn, who ordered his father to be castrated; but in the cult of Saturn, if people were killed, it was by someone else’s hands, and not castrated by their own. He, as the poets say, devoured his sons, and physicists give this a variety of interpretations; the story goes that he simply killed them. But if the Puns sacrificed their children to him, the Romans did not accept this. Meanwhile, the Great Mother introduced eunuchs into Roman churches and supported this wild custom; she is considered an assistant to Roman power - she who cut off male genital organs! What do the thefts of Mercury, the debauchery of Venus, the shameless and vile deeds of the other gods, which we would learn about from books, mean in comparison with this evil, if it were not sung and presented in theaters every day? But all these things are mere trifles compared to that evil, the greatness of which only suited the Great Mother! They say that all these things were invented by poets; but did the poets also invent the fact that they are pleasing and pleasing to the gods? Let it be the audacity of the poets that they were sung and described; but that they were attributed to divine things and, at the insistence and demand of the gods themselves, were performed in their honor - how else can this be called, if not a crime of the gods and, at the same time, an expression of faith in demons and the seduction of poor people? Yes, if the mother of the gods was honored that eunuchs were dedicated to her service in her honor, then it was not the poets who invented this; they, on the contrary, were horrified by this rather than sung. Should anyone devote himself to these chosen gods in order to live blissfully after death, when one dedicated to them cannot live honestly even to death, being devoted to such disgusting superstitions and subject to unclean demons? But all this, says Varro, has to do with the world (mundum). Doesn't it rather refer to the unclean (immundum)? However, why can’t something that turns out to exist in the world relate to the world? But we strive to achieve such a state of spirit in which, having placed his trust in true religion, he would not idolize the world as God, but would praise the world for God’s sake, as the work of God, and, having cleansed himself from worldly abominations, would ascend immaculately to God, Who created the world. Chapter XXVII. About the inventions of physiologists who did not honor the true deity and not with the cult with which the true deity should be honored So we see that these chosen gods enjoyed greater fame than the rest; but they were used not in the sense that their merits were glorified, but in the sense that their abominations were not hidden. Therefore, it is likely that they were people, as not only poets, but also historians report. Thus, Virgil says: Saturn was the first to rise from Olympus He came, deprived of his kingdom by Jupiter 85. Euhemerus talks about this, as well as other accompanying circumstances, in detail in his history, which Ennius translated into Latin. Since those who wrote before us both in Greek and Latin spoke very much against this type of error, I do not want to dwell on this subject. Considering these physiological interpretations, with the help of which witty and learned people try to turn such human things into divine things, I see only that they can be attributed to temporal and earthly affairs and to a corporeal nature, and if invisible, then, in any case, changeable, which in no case can be the true God. If they had at least attached to this meanings consistent with the feeling of reverence, then although one would have to regret that there is no indication of the true God in them, to a certain extent it would be possible to put up with this, if at the same time such vile and disgusting things were not done or ordered to be done; under the given circumstances, when it is already wicked to honor both the body or the spirit instead of the true God, Who alone, dwelling in the soul, makes it blessed, how much more wicked is it to honor these things, and even in such a way that salvation is not acquired, and neither the mental nor the physical decency of the person worshiping is maintained? Therefore, when any element of the world or any created spirit, even unclean and evil, is revered with churches, sacred rites, sacrifices, befitting only the true God; then this is bad not because the things by which this veneration is expressed are bad, but because they are the kind of things with which one should honor the One to whom such veneration and service befits. If someone claims that by the absurdity or monstrousness of statues, the murder of people, the crowning of male genitals, public debauchery, the cutting off of members, the castration of reproductive parts, the dedication of effeminate people, the practice of unclean and abominable games, he honors the true God, the Creator of every soul and body, then such a person sins not because he does not honor Him Whom he should, but because he worships in the wrong way, as it should. And who exactly with such things, i.e. Moreover, he worships not the true God, the Creator of soul and body, but some, albeit innocent, nature, be it soul or body, or soul and body together - he sins doubly against God: because he honors instead of God that which is not God, and honors such things with which neither God nor not God should be honored. And the extent to which they venerate vile and obscene things is obvious. What or who they worship would be unclear if their history did not testify that everything that is vile and disgusting is done, is done because their deities themselves threateningly demanded it. Hence, if we put aside the circumstance, it is clear that all this civil theology, offering absurd images to contemplation and through them taking possession of stupid souls, serves wicked demons and unclean spirits. Chapter XXVIII. That Varro's doctrine of theology in all its parts contradicts itself And what happened from the fact that Varro, a most witty and learned man, in his subtle reasoning tried to distribute all these gods between heaven and earth? He was unable to do this: the gods eluded him, broke free, fell out. Preferring to talk about women, that is, about goddesses, he says: “Since, as I said in the first book about places, the dual origin of the gods is taken into account: heavenly and earthly, which is why some of them are called heavenly, and others earthly; just as in previous books we started from the sky, talking about Janus, whom some call the sky, and others the world, so now, starting to talk about women, let’s start with Tellurium.” I feel how difficult he is. He was guided by a completely plausible assumption that the sky is rather an active principle, and the earth is a passive one, and therefore he attributed male power to heaven and female power to earth, but he lost sight of the fact that He who created both heaven and earth is much more powerful. In this sense, he explained in the previous book the famous mysteries of the Samothraces, saying that some idols represent the sky, others the earth, and others the prototypes of things that Plato called ideas. Under the sky, in his opinion, is meant Jupiter, under the earth - Juno, and under ideas - Minerva; under the sky - that from which it happens, under the earth - that from which it happens, under ideas - that in accordance with what it happens. I will not say that, according to Plato, ideas have such significance that it is not heaven that creates in accordance with them, but it itself is created. I will only say that in the book about the chosen gods, he himself lost sight of this tripartite division of the gods. He gave the sky male gods, the earth female goddesses, and among the latter he placed Minerva, whom he had previously placed above the sky. Further, Neptune ended up in his sea, which belongs more to the earth than to the sky. Finally, Ditis the father, called by the Greeks Πλούτων, the brother of both (i.e., the sky-Jupiter and the sea-Neptune) and a male god, also turned out to be an earthly god. How, one might ask, does he try to give gods to the sky and goddesses to the earth? What can be found in his reasoning that is solid, undeniable, reasonable? After all, he has the earth and Tellurium, the beginning of the goddesses, the Great Mother, before whom the insane abomination of people who have castrated themselves bawled and grimaced. After this, what is the meaning of calling Janus the head of the gods and Tellurium the head of the goddesses? There error did not keep one chapter, here madness did not keep it healthy. Why do they try to attribute such trifles to the world? Even if they succeeded in this, not a single sane person would honor the world instead of God. However, they did not succeed in this either. Therefore, it is better to attribute all this to dead people and demons, and misunderstandings will be eliminated by themselves. Chapter XXIX. That everything that physiologists attributed to the world and its parts, they should have attributed to the one true God In essence, everything that they allegedly attribute to the world on the basis of physical laws from the theology of these gods, all of this, without offending pious feelings in the least, we can attribute to the true God who created the world, the Creator of soul and body, in the following way. We worship God, but not heaven and earth, of which the world consists, and not the soul or souls scattered throughout all living beings; God, who created heaven and earth and everything that is on them, who created not only living souls, but also their feelings and minds. Chapter XXX. With what piety must one distinguish the Creator from the creature, so as not to honor as many gods as there are works of the one Creator? Let us trace in general terms those deeds of the one God, because of which they invented for themselves many and false gods, trying to plausibly interpret their most vile and criminal sacraments. We honor God, who established for the creatures He created the beginnings and purpose of their existence; Which contains, knows, and disposes of the causes of things; Who created the power of seeds, gave to living beings whom He wanted a rational soul called spirit, bestowed the ability of speech, imparted to some spirits the gift of predicting the future, although sometimes He Himself predicts the future and heals diseases through whom He pleases; Who controls the beginning, course and end of wars, when they must correct and purify the human race; Who, in order to dissolve the boundless nature, created everything, the burning fire controls it; Who is the Creator and Ruler of all waters; Who created the sun, the brightest of all corporeal luminaries, and gave it corresponding movement and strength; Who extends His power and dominion even to the underworld itself; Who appointed seeds and food to mortal animals according to their nature; Who lays the foundation of the earth and makes it fertile, generously distributing its fruits to animals and people; Who knows and orders not only the main reasons, but also the secondary ones; Who gives directions to the heavenly and earthly paths; Who imparted to the human mind, created by Him, the knowledge of various sciences; Who established the marriage of husband and wife for the continuation of the human race. The wittiest and most learned Varro, on the basis of who knows what physical interpretations, read from somewhere or invented by himself, tries to distribute all this among the chosen gods. But all this is done and everything is controlled by the one true God, and precisely as God, that is, omnipresent, not limited by any space, not bound by any bonds, not divided into any parts, not changing in anything, and filling heaven and earth with the presence of His power and the fullness of His nature. He controls everything that He has created in such a way that it itself, with His knowledge and will, performs and carries out its own movements. For although nothing can be without Him, yet what was created is not what He is. He does many things through the angels, but He makes them blessed only from Himself. In the same way, although for some reasons He sends angels to people, He makes people blessed not through the angels, but from Himself. From this one true God we expect a future life. Chapter XXXI. In addition to the general gifts, what specific blessings of God do followers of truth enjoy? In addition to this kind of blessings that God generously bestows on virtuous and vicious people due to the control of nature we mentioned, we have from Him a great sign of His great love for virtuous people. We are absolutely unable to thank Him properly for those blessings that we exist, live, see heaven and earth and have a mind with the help of which we find Him, the One who created all this. But what heart, what tongue is able to properly thank Him for the fact that He did not leave us, burdened and burdened with sins, turned away from His light and darkened by love for darkness, that is, for lewdness, but sent to us His Word, which is His only begotten Son, so that we might know from Him, who was born in the flesh and suffered for us, how highly God values ​​man; that by this one sacrifice we might be cleansed from all sins and that, having received into our hearts the outpouring of love from His Spirit, despite all difficulties, we would achieve eternal peace and indescribable sweetness to behold Him? Chapter XXXII. The fact that the mystery of Christ’s redemption has been known in all past times and has always been preached through various omens This mystery of eternal life has been preached through angels through certain signs and sacraments appropriate to the times from the very beginning of the human race. The Jewish people were then united into one civil society for the preservation of the sacraments; in it, through a number of knowledgeable and some ignorant people, what was happening from the time of the coming of Christ to the present day was predicted, as well as what was to happen in the future; and this people was subsequently scattered among other nations for the sake of the testimony of the Scriptures, which preached future salvation in Christ. For not only the prophecies contained in the word, not only the rules of life that order morality and piety and contained in books, but also sacred services, priesthood, churches, altars, rites, holidays and everything pertaining to what befits God and in Greek is called λατρεία - all this signified and foreshadowed that for the sake of the future life of the faithful Christ was fulfilled as we believe, fulfilled as we see, and must be fulfilled as we hope. Chapter XXXIII. That only the Christian religion could discover the cunning of evil spirits who delight in human delusion Thanks to this one true religion, it was discovered that the gods of the pagans were unclean demons, who, under the guise of the souls of the dead or worldly creatures, wanted to be revered as gods, arrogantly enjoyed supposedly divine honors, but in reality - things that were criminal and vile, not allowing the conversion of human souls to the true God. A person is freed from their brutal and wicked domination when he begins to believe in the One who, to restore the fallen, set an example of the same humiliation with which they fell with pride. Thus the gods we spoke about appeared, as well as other gods of other peoples and in other countries. No matter how hard Varro tried to compare their cults with natural laws in order to somehow ennoble shameful things, he was unable to figure out how to reconcile them with each other, for the reasons for the mentioned cults were by no means what he thought or wanted to think. If this were the case, then even if it had nothing to do with the true God and eternal life, the presence of any natural causes would in some way excuse the oddities of the cults, expressed in the form of some kind of ugliness or stupidity. This prompted Varro to try to explain some theatrical works and mysteries of the churches in this way. True, he did not justify theaters by imitating churches, but rather condemned churches for imitating theaters; however, by pointing out the natural causes of the phenomenon, he for a while calmed the feelings outraged by the horrifying things. Chapter XXXIV. About the books of Numa Pompilius, which the Senate ordered to be burned so as not to make known the reasons for the cult stated in them But then it turned out that they, as the same learned man reports, could not indifferently accept the reasons for the cults set forth in the books of Numa Pompilius, and did not consider it possible not only to bring them to the attention of the people, but even to preserve them secretly. So, in the same Varro, in a book dedicated to the cults of the gods, we read the following: “A certain Terence had land at the foot of the Janiculum. His plowman, passing with a plow near the grave of Numa Pompilius, dug out of the ground his books, which set out the reasons for the establishment of cults. Terence took them to the praetor in Rome. He, having looked at them, reported the discovery to the Senate. The Senate, having barely become familiar with some of the reasons, expressed approval for the deceased Numa and, since the senatorial fathers were religious people, ordered the praetor to burn these books.” Let everyone think about it as they see fit. For me, it is quite enough to recall that the reasons for the cults set forth by Pompilius, the founder of the Roman cult, should not have become known to the people, senators, or priests, and that Numa Pompilius himself penetrated into these demonic secrets through inappropriate curiosity. He wrote them down, but although he was a fearless king, he did not dare to either introduce them to others or burn what was written down. He did not want the first, so as not to teach people atheism, the second, so as not to arouse the discontent of the demons against himself. And so he buried them in a place that he considered inaccessible, because he did not think that a plow would dare to approach his tomb. The Senate, not daring to condemn the beliefs of their ancestors, was forced to express approval of Numa; but he found the books mentioned to be so dangerous that he was afraid to bury them again, and ordered to burn these monuments with the seal of a curse. Since they considered it necessary to perform these cults, they decided that error in ignorance of the reasons is more tolerable than disturbance of civil order in knowledge. Chapter XXXV. About hydromancy, which, as a consequence of certain demonic images, misled Numa Numa, to whom neither the prophet of God nor any angel was sent, was forced to turn to hydromancy in order to see the images of the gods in the water (more precisely, the demons mocking him) and from them to learn what he had to establish and perform in the form of a cult. Varro says that this type of fortune telling was invented by the Persians and it was to it that Numa resorted, and after him Pythagoras. If blood was mixed with the water, then this made it possible to question the dead and was called by the Greeks νεκρομαντεία. But whether we call it hydromancy or necromancy, in any case, this is precisely the kind of fortune-telling in which predictions are given on behalf of the dead. What arts they resorted to for this is their business. I will not say that even in the provinces, even before the coming of the Savior, this kind of art was usually prohibited and persecuted by laws. Nevertheless, it was with their help that Numa recognized those cults, the rituals of which he made publicly known, and the reasons for which he hid. To such an extent he himself was frightened by what he learned about. When the books in which these reasons were set forth were discovered, the Senate burned them. Why on earth does Varro give who knows what physical reasons for these rituals? After all, if they had been given in those books, they certainly would not have been burned. Did the senatorial fathers burn the books of Varro himself, written by him and dedicated to the pontiff Caesar? And the fact that Numa Pompilius used water for his hydromancy gave rise to the story that his wife was the nymph Egeria, as Varro himself wrote. So, through this hydromancy, the aforementioned Roman king, passionately striving to penetrate the secrets inaccessible to man, learned those rites of the cult that the pontiffs had set out in their books, and those reasons for the rites, which he did not want to become known to anyone except him. By setting them out separately, he made them, so to speak, die with him. I suppose this is because the demands of the demons were set forth therein to such an extent so filthy and criminal that they would make the whole of civil theology intolerable even to those who calmly accepted many abominable rites; or, perhaps, all the gods were represented there by dead people, for the demons themselves delight in such cults, substituting themselves under the guise of the dead. But by the secret providence of the true God it was arranged in such a way that Pompilius was allowed to find out about this through hydromancy, but was not allowed to burn his books, thanks to which this incident became famous, ended up in Varro’s book, and from it we learned how everything happened. For demons can only do what they are allowed to do. This is allowed to them by the highest and fair court of the Supreme God as a punishment for those who deserve either to be persecuted by them, or even to fall under their power and be deceived by them. And the extent to which the mentioned books were considered dangerous and incompatible with the veneration of the true Deity can be judged from the fact that the Senate wished to burn these books buried by Pompilius. So, whoever does not want to lead a pious life, let him seek eternal death through such cults. Whoever does not want to communicate with evil demons should not be afraid of the harmful superstition by which they are revered, but try to know the true religion, which exposes and defeats them You might be interested in: