Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
of AEther; another, the son of Hyperion; a third, who, the Egyptians
say, was of the city Heliopolis, sprung from Vulcan, the son of Nilus;
a fourth is said to have been born at Rhodes of Acantho, in the times
of the heroes, and was the grandfather of Jalysus, Camirus, and Lindus;
a fifth, of whom, it is pretended, Aretes and Circe were born at
Colchis.
XXII. There are likewise several Vulcans. The first (who had of Minerva
that Apollo whom the ancient historians call the tutelary God of
Athens) was the son of Coelus; the second, whom the Egyptians call
Opas,[264] and whom they looked upon as the protector of Egypt, is the
son of Nilus; the third, who is said to have been the master of the
forges at Lemnos, was the son of the third Jupiter and of Juno; the
fourth, who possessed the islands near Sicily called Vulcaniae,[265] was
the son of Menalius. One Mercury had Coelus for his father and Dies for
his mother; another, who is said to dwell in a cavern, and is the same
as Trophonius, is the son of Valens and Phoronis. A third, of whom, and
of Penelope, Pan was the offspring, is the son of the third Jupiter and
Maia. A fourth, whom the Egyptians think it a crime to name, is the son
of Nilus. A fifth, whom we call, in their language, Thoth, as with them
the first month of the year is called, is he whom the people of
Pheneum[266] worship, and who is said to have killed Argus, to have
fled for it into Egypt, and to have given laws and learning to the
Egyptians. The first of the AEsculapii, the God of Arcadia, who is said
to have invented the probe and to have been the first person who taught
men to use bandages for wounds, is the son of Apollo. The second, who
was killed with thunder, and is said to be buried in Cynosura,[267] is
the brother of the second Mercury. The third, who is said to have found
out the art of purging the stomach, and of drawing teeth, is the son of
Arsippus and Arsinoe; and in Arcadia there is shown his tomb, and the
wood which is consecrated to him, near the river Lusium.
XXIII. I have already spoken of the most ancient of the Apollos, who is
the son of Vulcan, and tutelar God of Athens. There is another, son of
Corybas, and native of Crete, for which island he is said to have
contended with Jupiter himself. A third, who came from the regions of
the Hyperborei[268] to Delphi, is the son of the third Jupiter and of
Latona. A fourth was of Arcadia, whom the Arcadians called Nomio,[269]
because they regarded him as their legislator. There are likewise many
Dianas. The first, who is thought to be the mother of the winged Cupid,
is the daughter of Jupiter and Proserpine. The second, who is more
known, is daughter of the third Jupiter and of Latona. The third, whom
the Greeks often call by her father's name, is the daughter of
Upis[270] and Glauce. There are many also of the Dionysi. The first was
the son of Jupiter and Proserpine. The second, who is said to have
killed Nysa, was the son of Nilus. The third, who reigned in Asia, and
for whom the Sabazia[271] were instituted, was the son of Caprius. The
fourth, for whom they celebrate the Orphic festivals, sprung from
Jupiter and Luna. The fifth, who is supposed to have instituted the
Trieterides, was the son of Nysus and Thyone.
The first Venus, who has a temple at Elis, was the daughter of Coelus
and Dies. The second arose out of the froth of the sea, and became, by
Mercury, the mother of the second Cupid. The third, the daughter of
Jupiter and Diana, was married to Vulcan, but is said to have had
Anteros by Mars. The fourth was a Syrian, born of Tyro, who is called
Astarte, and is said to have been married to Adonis. I have already
mentioned one Minerva, mother of Apollo. Another, who is worshipped at
Sais, a city in Egypt, sprung from Nilus. The third, whom I have also
mentioned, was daughter of Jupiter. The fourth, sprung from Jupiter and
Coryphe, the daughter of the Ocean; the Arcadians call her Coria, and
make her the inventress of chariots. A fifth, whom they paint with
wings at her heels, was daughter of Pallas, and is said to have killed
her father for endeavoring to violate her chastity. The first Cupid is
said to be the son of Mercury and the first Diana; the second, of
Mercury and the second Venus; the third, who is the same as Anteros, of
Mars and the third Venus.
All these opinions arise from old stories that were spread in Greece;
the belief in which, Balbus, you well know, ought to be stopped, lest
religion should suffer. But you Stoics, so far from refuting them, even
give them authority by the mysterious sense which you pretend to find
in them. Can you, then, think, after this plain refutation, that there
is need to employ more subtle reasonings? But to return from this
digression.
XXIV. We see that the mind, faith, hope, virtue, honor, victory,
health, concord, and things of such kind, are purely natural, and have
nothing of divinity in them; for either they are inherent in us, as the
mind, faith, hope, virtue, and concord are; or else they are to be
desired, as honor, health, and victory. I know indeed that they are
useful to us, and see that statues have been religiously erected for
them; but as to their divinity, I shall begin to believe it when you
have proved it for certain. Of this kind I may particularly mention
Fortune, which is allowed to be ever inseparable from inconstancy and
temerity, which are certainly qualities unworthy of a divine being.
But what delight do you take in the explication of fables, and in the
etymology of names?--that Coelus was castrated by his son, and that
Saturn was bound in chains by his son! By your defence of these and
such like fictions you would make the authors of them appear not only
not to be madmen, but to have been even very wise. But the pains which
you take with your etymologies deserve our pity. That Saturn is so
called because _se saturat annis_, he is full of years; Mavors, Mars,
because _magna vortit_, he brings about mighty changes; Minerva,
because _minuit_, she diminishes, or because _minatur_, she threatens;
Venus, because _venit ad omnia_, she comes to all; Ceres, _a gerendo_,
from bearing. How dangerous is this method! for there are many names
would puzzle you. From what would you derive Vejupiter and Vulcan?
Though, indeed, if you can derive Neptune _a nando_, from swimming, in
which you seem to me to flounder about yourself more than Neptune, you
may easily find the origin of all names, since it is founded only upon
the conformity of some one letter. Zeno first, and after him Cleanthes
and Chrysippus, are put to the unnecessary trouble of explaining mere
fables, and giving reasons for the several appellations of every Deity;
which is really owning that those whom we call Gods are not the
representations of deities, but natural things, and that to judge
otherwise is an error.
XXV. Yet this error has so much prevailed that even pernicious things
have not only the title of divinity ascribed to them, but have also
sacrifices offered to them; for Fever has a temple on the Palatine
hill, and Orbona another near that of the Lares, and we see on the
Esquiline hill an altar consecrated to Ill-fortune. Let all such errors
be banished from philosophy, if we would advance, in our dispute
concerning the immortal Gods, nothing unworthy of immortal beings. I
know myself what I ought to believe; which is far different from what
you have said. You take Neptune for an intelligence pervading the sea.
You have the same opinion of Ceres with regard to the earth. I cannot,
I own, find out, or in the least conjecture, what that intelligence of
the sea or the earth is. To learn, therefore, the existence of the
Gods, and of what description and character they are, I must apply
elsewhere, not to the Stoics.
Let us proceed to the two other parts of our dispute: first, "whether
there is a divine providence which governs the world;" and lastly,
"whether that providence particularly regards mankind;" for these are
the remaining propositions of your discourse; and I think that, if you
approve of it, we should examine these more accurately. With all my
heart, says Velleius, for I readily agree to what you have hitherto
said, and expect still greater things from you.
I am unwilling to interrupt you, says Balbus to Cotta, but we shall
take another opportunity, and I shall effectually convince you.
But[272] * * *
XXVI.
Shall I adore, and bend the suppliant knee,
Who scorn their power and doubt their deity?
Does not Niobe here seem to reason, and by that reasoning to bring all
her misfortunes upon herself? But what a subtle expression is the
following!
On strength of will alone depends success;
a maxim capable of leading us into all that is bad.
Though I'm confined, his malice yet is vain,
His tortured heart shall answer pain for pain;
His ruin soothe my soul with soft content,
Lighten my chains, and welcome banishment!
This, now, is reason; that reason which you say the divine goodness has
denied to the brute creation, kindly to bestow it on men alone. How
great, how immense the favor! Observe the same Medea flying from her
father and her country:
The guilty wretch from her pursuer flies.
By her own hands the young Absyrtus slain,
His mangled limbs she scatters o'er the plain,
That the fond sire might sink beneath his woe,
And she to parricide her safety owe.
Reflection, as well as wickedness, must have been necessary to the
preparation of such a fact; and did he too, who prepared that fatal
repast for his brother, do it without reflection?
Revenge as great as Atreus' injury
Shall sink his soul and crown his misery.
XXVII. Did not Thyestes himself, not content with having defiled his
brother's bed (of which Atreus with great justice thus complains,
When faithless comforts, in the lewd embrace,
With vile adultery stain a royal race,
The blood thus mix'd in fouler currents flows,
Taints the rich soil, and breeds unnumber'd woes)--
did he not, I say, by that adultery, aim at the possession of the
crown? Atreus thus continues:
A lamb, fair gift of heaven, with golden fleece,
Promised in vain to fix my crown in peace;
But base Thyestes, eager for the prey,
Crept to my bed, and stole the gem away.
Do you not perceive that Thyestes must have had a share of reason
proportionable to the greatness of his crimes--such crimes as are not
only represented to us on the stage, but such as we see committed, nay,
often exceeded, in the common course of life? The private houses of
individual citizens, the public courts, the senate, the camp, our
allies, our provinces, all agree that reason is the author of all the
ill, as well as of all the good, which is done; that it makes few act
well, and that but seldom, but many act ill, and that frequently; and
that, in short, the Gods would have shown greater benevolence in
denying us any reason at all than in sending us that which is
accompanied with so much mischief; for as wine is seldom wholesome, but
often hurtful in diseases, we think it more prudent to deny it to the
patient than to run the risk of so uncertain a remedy; so I do not know
whether it would not be better for mankind to be deprived of wit,
thought, and penetration, or what we call reason, since it is a thing
pernicious to many and very useful to few, than to have it bestowed
upon them with so much liberality and in such abundance. But if the
divine will has really consulted the good of man in this gift of
reason, the good of those men only was consulted on whom a
well-regulated one is bestowed: how few those are, if any, is very
apparent. We cannot admit, therefore, that the Gods consulted the good