Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
these facts we demonstrate the volubility of the world (which could not
possibly take place in any but a globular form) and the circular orbits
of the stars. And first of all the sun, which has the chief rank among
all the stars, is moved in such a manner that it fills the whole earth
with its light, and illuminates alternately one part of the earth,
while it leaves the other in darkness. The shadow of the earth
interposing causes night; and the intervals of night are equal to those
of day. And it is the regular approaches and retreats of the sun from
which arise the regulated degrees of cold and heat. His annual circuit
is in three hundred and sixty-five days, and nearly six hours
more.[130] At one time he bends his course to the north, at another to
the south, and thus produces summer and winter, with the other two
seasons, one of which succeeds the decline of winter, and the other
that of summer. And so to these four changes of the seasons we
attribute the origin and cause of all the productions both of sea and
land.
The moon completes the same course every month which the sun does in a
year. The nearer she approaches to the sun, the dimmer light does she
yield, and when most remote from it she shines with the fullest
brilliancy; nor are her figure and form only changed in her wane, but
her situation likewise, which is sometimes in the north and sometimes
in the south. By this course she has a sort of summer and winter
solstices; and by her influence she contributes to the nourishment and
increase of animated beings, and to the ripeness and maturity of all
vegetables.
XX. But most worthy our admiration is the motion of those five stars
which are falsely called wandering stars; for they cannot be said to
wander which keep from all eternity their approaches and retreats, and
have all the rest of their motions, in one regular constant and
established order. What is yet more wonderful in these stars which we
are speaking of is that sometimes they appear, and sometimes they
disappear; sometimes they advance towards the sun, and sometimes they
retreat; sometimes they precede him, and sometimes follow him;
sometimes they move faster, sometimes slower, and sometimes they do not
stir in the least, but for a while stand still. From these unequal
motions of the planets, mathematicians have called that the "great
year"[131] in which the sun, moon, and five wandering stars, having
finished their revolutions, are found in their original situation. In
how long a time this is effected is much disputed, but it must be a
certain and definite period. For the planet Saturn (called by the
Greeks [Greek: Phainon]), which is farthest from the earth, finishes
his course in about thirty years; and in his course there is something
very singular, for sometimes he moves before the sun, sometimes he
keeps behind it; at one time lying hidden in the night, at another
again appearing in the morning; and ever performing the same motions in
the same space of time without any alteration, so as to be for infinite
ages regular in these courses. Beneath this planet, and nearer the
earth, is Jupiter, called [Greek: Phaethon], which passes the same
orbit of the twelve signs[132] in twelve years, and goes through
exactly the same variety in its course that the star of Saturn does.
Next to Jupiter is the planet Mars (in Greek, [Greek: Pyroeis]), which
finishes its revolution through the same orbit as the two previously
mentioned,[133] in twenty-four months, wanting six days, as I imagine.
Below this is Mercury (called by the Greeks [Greek: Stilbon]), which
performs the same course in little less than a year, and is never
farther distant from the sun than the space of one sign, whether it
precedes or follows it. The lowest of the five planets, and nearest the
earth, is that of Venus (called in Greek [Greek: Phosphoros]). Before
the rising of the sun, it is called the morning-star, and after the
setting, the evening-star. It has the same revolution through the
zodiac, both as to latitude and longitude, with the other planets, in a
year, and never is more than two[134] signs from the sun, whether it
precedes or follows it.
XXI. I cannot, therefore, conceive that this constant course of the
planets, this just agreement in such various motions through all
eternity, can be preserved without a mind, reason, and consideration;
and since we may perceive these qualities in the stars, we cannot but
place them in the rank of Gods. Those which are called the fixed stars
have the same indications of reason and prudence. Their motion is
daily, regular, and constant. They do not move with the sky, nor have
they an adhesion to the firmament, as they who are ignorant of natural
philosophy affirm. For the sky, which is thin, transparent, and
suffused with an equal heat, does not seem by its nature to have power
to whirl about the stars, or to be proper to contain them. The fixed
stars, therefore, have their own sphere, separate and free from any
conjunction with the sky. Their perpetual courses, with that admirable
and incredible regularity of theirs, so plainly declare a divine power
and mind to be in them, that he who cannot perceive that they are also
endowed with divine power must be incapable of all perception whatever.
In the heavens, therefore, there is nothing fortuitous, unadvised,
inconstant, or variable: all there is order, truth, reason, and
constancy; and all the things which are destitute of these qualities
are counterfeit, deceitful, and erroneous, and have their residence
about the earth[135] beneath the moon, the lowest of all the planets.
He, therefore, who believes that this admirable order and almost
incredible regularity of the heavenly bodies, by which the preservation
and entire safety of all things is secured, is destitute of
intelligence, must be considered to be himself wholly destitute of all
intellect whatever.
I think, then, I shall not deceive myself in maintaining this dispute
upon the principle of Zeno, who went the farthest in his search after
truth.
XXII. Zeno, then, defines nature to be "an artificial fire, proceeding
in a regular way to generation;" for he thinks that to create and beget
are especial properties of art, and that whatever may be wrought by the
hands of our artificers is much more skilfully performed by nature,
that is, by this artificial fire, which is the master of all other
arts.
According to this manner of reasoning, every particular nature is
artificial, as it operates agreeably to a certain method peculiar to
itself; but that universal nature which embraces all things is said by
Zeno to be not only artificial, but absolutely the artificer, ever
thinking and providing all things useful and proper; and as every
particular nature owes its rise and increase to its own proper seed, so
universal nature has all her motions voluntary, has affections and
desires (by the Greeks called [Greek: hormas]) productive of actions
agreeable to them, like us, who have sense and understanding to direct
us. Such, then, is the intelligence of the universe; for which reason
it may be properly termed prudence or providence (in Greek, [Greek:
pronoia]), since her chiefest care and employment is to provide all
things fit for its duration, that it may want nothing, and, above all,
that it may be adorned with all perfection of beauty and ornament.
XXIII. Thus far have I spoken concerning the universe, and also of the
stars; from whence it is apparent that there is almost an infinite
number of Gods, always in action, but without labor or fatigue; for
they are not composed of veins, nerves, and bones; their food and drink
are not such as cause humors too gross or too subtle; nor are their
bodies such as to be subject to the fear of falls or blows, or in
danger of diseases from a weariness of limbs. Epicurus, to secure his
Gods from such accidents, has made them only outlines of Deities, void
of action; but our Gods being of the most beautiful form, and situated
in the purest region of the heavens, dispose and rule their course in
such a manner that they seem to contribute to the support and
preservation of all things.
Besides these, there are many other natures which have with reason been
deified by the wisest Grecians, and by our ancestors, in consideration
of the benefits derived from them; for they were persuaded that
whatever was of great utility to human kind must proceed from divine
goodness, and the name of the Deity was applied to that which the Deity
produced, as when we call corn Ceres, and wine Bacchus; whence that
saying of Terence,[136]
Without Ceres and Bacchus, Venus starves.
And any quality, also, in which there was any singular virtue was
nominated a Deity, such as Faith and Wisdom, which are placed among the
divinities in the Capitol; the last by AEmilius Scaurus, but Faith was
consecrated before by Atilius Calatinus. You see the temple of Virtue
and that of Honor repaired by M. Marcellus, erected formerly, in the
Ligurian war, by Q. Maximus. Need I mention those dedicated to Help,
Safety, Concord, Liberty, and Victory, which have been called Deities,
because their efficacy has been so great that it could not have
proceeded from any but from some divine power? In like manner are the
names of Cupid, Voluptas, and of Lubentine Venus consecrated, though
they were things vicious and not natural, whatever Velleius may think
to the contrary, for they frequently stimulate nature in too violent a
manner. Everything, then, from which any great utility proceeded was
deified; and, indeed, the names I have just now mentioned are
declaratory of the particular virtue of each Deity.
XXIV. It has been a general custom likewise, that men who have done
important service to the public should be exalted to heaven by fame and
universal consent. Thus Hercules, Castor and Pollux, AEsculapius, and
Liber became Gods (I mean Liber[137] the son of Semele, and not
him[138] whom our ancestors consecrated in such state and solemnity
with Ceres and Libera; the difference in which may be seen in our
Mysteries.[139] But because the offsprings of our bodies are called
"Liberi" (children), therefore the offsprings of Ceres are called Liber
and Libera (Libera[140] is the feminine, and Liber the masculine); thus
likewise Romulus, or Quirinus--for they are thought to be the
same--became a God.
They are justly esteemed as Deities, since their souls subsist and
enjoy eternity, from whence they are perfect and immortal beings.
There is another reason, too, and that founded on natural philosophy,
which has greatly contributed to the number of Deities; namely, the
custom of representing in human form a crowd of Gods who have supplied
the poets with fables, and filled mankind with all sorts of
superstition. Zeno has treated of this subject, but it has been
discussed more at length by Cleanthes and Chrysippus. All Greece was of
opinion that Coelum was castrated by his son Saturn,[141] and that
Saturn was chained by his son Jupiter. In these impious fables, a
physical and not inelegant meaning is contained; for they would denote
that the celestial, most exalted, and ethereal nature--that is, the
fiery nature, which produces all things by itself--is destitute of that
part of the body which is necessary for the act of generation by
conjunction with another.
XXV. By Saturn they mean that which comprehends the course and
revolution of times and seasons; the Greek name for which Deity implies
as much, for he is called [Greek: Kronos,] which is the same with
[Greek: Chronos], that is, a "space of time." But he is called Saturn,
because he is filled (_saturatur_) with years; and he is usually
feigned to have devoured his children, because time, ever insatiable,