Now as to the rites of Liber, whom they have set over liquid seeds, and therefore not only over the liquors of fruits, among which wine holds, so to speak, the primacy, but also over the seeds of animals:--as to these rites, I am unwilling to undertake to show to what excess of turpitude they had reached, because that would entail a lengthened discourse, though I am not unwilling to do so as a demonstration of the proud stupidity of those who practise them.Among other rites which I am compelled from the greatness of their number to omit, Varro says that in Italy, at the places where roads crossed each other the rites of Liber were celebrated with such unrestrained turpitude, that the private parts of a man were worshipped in his honor.Nor was this abomination transacted in secret that some regard at least might be paid to modesty, but was openly and wantonly displayed.For during the festival of Liber this obscene member, placed on a car, was carried with great honor, first over the crossroads in the country, and then into the city.But in the town of Lavinium a whole month was devoted to Liber alone, during the days of which all the people gave themselves up to the must dissolute conversation, until that member had been carried through the forum and brought to rest in its own place;on which unseemly member it was necessary that the most honorable matron should place a wreath in the presence of all the people.
Thus, forsooth, was the god Liber to be appeased in order to the growth of seeds.Thus was enchantment to be driven away from fields, even by a matron's being compelled to do in public what not even a harlot ought to be permitted to do in a theatre, if there were matrons among the spectators.For these reasons, then, Saturn alone was not believed to be sufficient for seeds,--namely, that the impure mind might find occasions for multiplying the gods; and that, being righteously abandoned to uncleanness by the one true God, and being prostituted to the worship of many false gods, through an avidity for ever greater and greater uncleanness, it should call these sacrilegious rites sacred things, and should abandon itself to be violated and polluted by crowds of foul demons.
CHAP.22.--CONCERNING NEPTUNE, AND SALACIA AND VENILIA.
Now Neptune had Salacia to wife, who they say is the nether waters of the sea.Wherefore was Venilia also joined to him?
Was it not simply through the lust of the soul desiring a greater number of demons to whom to prostitute itself, and not because this goddess was necessary to the perfection of their sacred rites?
But let the interpretation of this illustrious theology be brought forward to restrain us from this censuring by rendering a satisfactory reason.Venilia, says this theology, is the wave which comes to the shore, Salacia the wave which returns into the sea.
Why, then, are there two goddesses, when it is one wave which comes and returns? Certainly it is mad lust itself, which in its eagerness for many deities resembles the waves which break on the shore.For though the water which goes is not different from that which returns, still the soul which goes and returns not is defiled by two demons, whom it has taken occasion by this false pretext to invite.I ask thee, O Varro, and you who have read such works of learned men, and think ye have learned something great,--I ask you to interpret this, I do not say In a manner consistent with the eternal and unchangeable nature which alone is God, but only in a manner consistent with the doctrine concerning the soul of the world and its parts, which ye think to be the true gods.It is a somewhat more tolerable thing that ye have made that part of the soul of the world which pervades the sea your god Neptune.Is the wave, then, which comes to the shore and returns to the main, two parts of the world, or two parts of the soul of the world? Who of you is so silly as to think so? Why, then, have they made to you two goddesses? The only reason seems to be, that your wise ancestors have provided, not that many gods should rule you, but that many of such demons as are delighted with those vanities and falsehoods should possess you.But why has that Salacia, according to this interpretation, lost the lower part of the sea, seeing that she was represented as subject to her husband? For in saying that she is the receding wave, ye have put her on the surface.
Was she enraged at her husband for taking Venilia as a concubine, and thus drove him from the upper part of the sea?
CHAP.23.--CONCERNING THE EARTH, WHICH VARRO AFFIRMS TO BE A GODDESS, BECAUSE THATSOUL OF THE WORLD WHICH HE THINKS TO BE GOD PERVADES ALSO THIS LOWESTPART OF HIS
BODY, AND IMPARTS TO IT A DIVINE FORCE.
Surely the earth, which we see full of its own living creatures, is one; but for all that, it is but a mighty mass among the elements and the lowest part of the world.Why, then, would they have it to be a goddess? Is it because it is fruitful? Why, then, are not men rather held to be gods, who render it fruitful by cultivating it;but though they plough it, do not adore it? But, say they, the part of the soul of the world which pervades it makes it a goddess.
