The Seven Books of Arnobius Against the Heathen. (Cont.)
Book VI. (Cont.)
1. Having shown briefly how impious and infamous are the opinions which you have formed about your gods, we have now to1 speak of their temples, their images also, and sacrifices, and of the other things which are2 nailed and closely related to them. For you are here in the habit of fastening upon us a very serious charge of impiety because we do not rear temples for the ceremonies of worship, do not set up statues and images3 of any god, do not build altars,4 do not offer the blood of creatures slain in sacrifices, incense,5 nor sacrificial meal, and finally, do not bring wine flowing in libations from sacred bowls; which, indeed, we neglect to build and do, not as though we cherish impious and wicked dispositions, or have conceived any madly desperate feeling of contempt for the gods, but because we think and believe that they6 - if only they are true gods, and are called by this exalted name7 - either scorn such honours, if they give way to scorn, or endure them with anger, if they are roused by feelings of rage.
2. For - that you may learn what are our sentiments and opinions about that race - we think that they - if only they are true gods. that the same things may be said again till you are wearied hearing them8 - should have all the virtues in perfection, should be wise, upright. venerable, - if only our heaping upon them 507 human honours is not a crime, - strong in excellences within themselves, and should not give themselves9 up to external props, because the completeness of their unbroken bliss is made perfect; should be free from all agitating and disturbing passions; should not burn with anger, should not he excited by any desires; should send misfortune to none, should not find a cruel pleasure in the ills of men; should not terrify by portents, should not show prodigies to cause fear; should not hold men responsible and liable to be punished for the vows which they owe, nor demand expiatory sacrifices by threatening omens; should not bring on pestilences and diseases by corrupting the air, should not burn up the fruits with droughts; should take no part in the slaughter of war and devastation of cities; should not wish ill to one party, and be favourable to the success of another; but, as becomes great minds, should weigh all in a just balance, and show kindness impartially to all. For it belongs to a mortal race and human weakness to act otherwise;10 and the maxims and declarations of wise men state distinctly, that those who are touched by passion live a life of suffering,11 and are weakened by grief,12 and that it cannot be but that those who have been given over to disquieting feelings, have been bound by the laws of mortality. Now, since this is the case, how can we be supposed to hold the gods in contempt, who we say are not gods, and cannot be connected with the powers of heaven, unless they are just and worthy of the admiration which great minds excite?
3. But, we are told, we rear no temples to them, and do not worship their images; we do not slay victims in sacrifice, we do not offer incense13 and libations of wine. And what greater honour or dignity can we ascribe to them, than that we put them in the same position as the Head and Lord of the universe, to whom the gods owe it in common with us,14 that they are conscious that they exist, and have a living being?15 For do we honour Him with shrines, and by building temples?16 Do we even slay victims to Him? Do we give Him the other things, to take which and pour them forth in libation shows not a careful regard to reason, but heed to a practice maintained17 merely by usage? For it is perfect folly to measure greater powers by your necessities, and to give the things useful to yourself to the gods who give all things, and to think this an honour, not an insult. We ask, therefore, to do what service to the gods, or to meet what want, do you say that temples have been reared,18 and think that they should be again built? Do they feel the cold of19 winter, or are they scorched by summer suns? Do storms of rain flow over them, or whirlwinds shake them? Are they in danger of being exposed to the onset of enemies, or the furious attacks of wild beasts, so that it is right and becoming to shut them up in places of security,20 or guard them by throwing up a rampart of stones? For what are these temples? If you ask human weakness21 - something vast and spacious; if you consider the power of the gods - small caves, as it were,22 and even, to speak more truly, the narrowest kind of caverns formed and contrived with sorry, judgment.23 Now, if you ask to be told who was their first founder24 and builder, either Phoroneus or the Egyptian Merops25 will be mentioned to you, or, as Varro relates in his treatise “de Admirandis,” Aeacus the offspring of Jupiter. Though these, then, should be built of heaps of marble, or shine resplendent with ceilings fretted with gold, though precious stones sparkle here, and gleam like stars set at varying intervals, all these things are made up of earth, and of the lowest dregs of even baser matter. For not even, if you value these more highly, is it to be believed that the gods take pleasure in them, or that they do not refuse and scorn to shut themselves up, and be confined within these barriers. This, my opponent says, is the temple of Mars, this that of Juno and of Venus, this that of Hercules, of Apollo, of Dis. What is this but to say this is the house of Mars, this of Juno and Venus,26 Apollo dwells here, in this abides Hercules, in that Summanus? Is it not, then, the very27 greatest affront to hold the 508 gods kept fast28 in habitations, to give to them little huts, to build lockfast places and cells, and to think that the things are29 necessary to them which are needed by men, cats, emmets, and lizards, by quaking, timorous, and little mice?
4. But, says my opponent, it is not for this reason that we assign temples to the gods as though we wished to ward off from them drenching storms of rain, winds, showers, or the rays of the sun; but in order that we may be able to see them in person and close at hand, to come near and address them, and impart to them, when in a measure present, the expressions of our reverent feelings. For if they are invoked under the open heaven, and the canopy of ether, they hear nothing, I suppose; and unless prayers are addressed to them near at hand, they will stand deaf and immoveable as if nothing were said. And yet we think that every god whatever - if only he has the power of this name - should hear what every one said from every part of the world, just as if he were present; nay, more, should foresee, without waiting to be told30 what every one conceived in his secret and silent31 thoughts. And as the stars, the sun, the moon, while they wander above the earth, are steadily and everywhere in sight of all those who gaze at them without any exception; so, too,32 it is fitting that the ears of the gods should be closed against no tongue, and should be ever within reach, although voices should flow together to them from widely separated regions. For this it is that belongs specially to the gods, - to fill all things with their power, to be not partly at any place, but all everywhere, not to go to dine with the Aethiopians, and return after twelve days to their own dwellings.33
5. Now, if this be not the case, all hope of help is taken away, and it will be doubtful whether you are heard 34 by the gods or not, if ever you perform the sacred rites with due ceremonies. For, to make it clear,35 let us suppose that there is a temple of some deity in the Canary Islands, another of the same deity in remotest Thyle, also among the Seres, among the tawny Garamantes, and any others36 who are debarred from knowing each other by seas, mountains, forests, and the four quarters of the world. If they all at one time beg of the deity with sacrifices what their wants compel each one to think about,37 what hope, pray, will there be to all of obtaining the benefit, if the god does not hear the cry sent up to him everywhere, and if there shall be any distance to which the words of the suppliant for help cannot penetrate? For either he will be nowhere present, if he may at times not be anywhere,38 or he will be at one place only, since he cannot give his attention generally, and without making any distinction. And thus it is brought about, that either the god helps none at all, if being busy with something he has been unable to hasten to give ear to their cries, or one only goes away with his prayers heard, while the rest have effected nothing.
6. What can you say as to this, that it is attested by the writings of authors, that many of these temples which have been raised with golden domes and lofty roofs cover bones and ashes, and are sepulchres of the dead? Is it not plain and manifest, either that you worship dead men for immortal gods, or that an inexpiable affront is cast upon the deities, whose shrines and temples have been built over the tombs of the dead? Antiochus,39 in the ninth book of his Histories, relates that Cecrops was buried in the temple of Minerva,40 at Athens; again, in the temple of the same goddess, which is in the citadel of Larissa,41 it is related and declared that Acrisius was laid, and in the sanctuary of Polias,42 Erichthonius; while the brothers Dairas and Immarnachus were buried in the enclosure of Eleusin, which lies near the city. What say you as to the virgin daughters of Coleus? are they not said to be buried43 in the temple of Ceres at Eleusin? and in the shrine of Diana, which was set up in the temple of the Delian Apollo, are not Hyperoche and Laodice buried, who are said to have been brought thither from the country of the Hyperboreans? In the Milesian Didymae,44 Leandrius says that Cleochus had the last honours of burial paid to him. Zeno of Myndus openly relates that the monument of Leucophryne is in the sanctuary of Diana at Maghesia. Under the altar of Apollo, which is seen in the city of Telmessus, 509 is it not invariably declared by writings that the prophet Telmessus lies buried? Ptolemaeus, the son of Agesarchus, in the first book of the History of Philopatar45 which he published, affirms, on the authority of literature, that Cinyras, king of Paphos, was interred in the temple of Venus with all his family, nay, more, with all his stock. It would be46 an endless and boundless task to describe in what sanctuaries they all are throughout the world; nor is anxious care required, although47 the Egyptians fixed a penalty for any one who should have revealed the places in which Apis lay hid, as to those Polyandria48 of Varro,49 by what temples they are covered, and what heavy masses they have laid upon them.
7. But why do I speak of these trifles? What man is there who is ignorant that in the Capitol of the imperial people is the sepulchre of Tolus50 Vulcentanus? Who is there, I say, who does not know that from beneath51 its foundations there was rolled a man’s head, buried for no very long time before, either by itself without the other parts of the body, - for some relate this, - or with all its members? Now, if you require this to be made clear by the testimonies of authors, Sammonicus, Granius, Valerianus,52 and Fabius will declare to you whose son Aulus53 was, of what race and nation, how54 he was bereft of life and light by the slave of his brother, of what crime he was guilty against his fellow-citizens, that he was denied burial in his father55 land. You will learn also - although they pretend to be unwilling to make this public - what was done with his head when cut off, or in what place it was shut up, and the whole affair carefully concealed, in order that the omen which the gods had attested might stand without interruption,56 unalterable, and sure. Now, while it was proper that this story, should be suppressed, and concealed, and forgotten in the lapse of time, the composition at the name published it, and, by a testimony which could not be got rid of, caused it to remain in men’s minds, together with its causes, so long as it endured itself;57 and the state which is greatest of all, and worships all deities, did not blush in giving a name to the temple, to name it from the head of Olus58 Capitolium rather than from the name of Jupiter.
8. We have therefore - as I suppose - shown sufficiently, that to the immortal gods temples have been either reared in vain, or built in consequence of insulting opinions held to their dishonour and to the belittling59 of the power believed to be in their hands. We have next to say something about statues and images, which you form with much skill, and tend with religious care, - wherein if there is any credibility, we can by no amount of consideration settle in our own minds whether you do this in earnest and with a serious purpose, or amuse yourselves in childish dreams by mocking at these very things.60 For if you are assured that the gods exist whom you suppose, and that they live in the highest regions of heaven, what cause, what reason, is there that those images should be fashioned by you, when you have true beings to whom you may pour forth prayers, and from whom you may ask help in trying circumstances? But if, on the contrary, you do not believe, or, to speak with moderation, are in doubt, in this case, also, what reason is there, pray, to fashion and set up images of doubtful beings, and to form61 with vain imitation what you do not believe to exist? Do you perchance say, that under these images of deities there is displayed to you their presence, as it were, and that, because it has not been given you to see the gods, they are worshipped in this fashion,62 and the duties owed to them paid? He who says and asserts this, does not believe that the gods exist; and he is proved not to put faith in his own religion, to whom it is necessary to see what he may hold, lest that which being obscure is not seen, may happen to be vain.
9. We worship the gods, you say, by means of images.63 What then? Without these, do the gods not know that they are worshipped, and will they not think that any honour is shown to them by you? Through bypaths, as it were, then, and by assignments to a third party,64 as they are called, they receive and accept your 510 services; and before those to whom that service is owed experience it, you first sacrifice to images, and transmit, as it were, some remnants to them at the pleasure of others.65 And what greater wrong, disgrace, hardship, can be inflicted than to acknowledge one god, and yet make supplication to something else - to hope for help from a deity, and pray to an image without feeling? Is not this, I pray you, that which is said in the common proverbs: “to cut down the smith when you strike at the fuller;”66 “and when you seek a man’s advice, to require of asses and pigs their opinions as to what should be done?”
10. And whence, finally, do you know whether all these images which you form and put in the place of67 the immortal gods reproduce and bear a resemblance to the gods? For it may happen that in heaven one has a beard who by you is represented68 with smooth cheeks; that another is rather advanced in years to whom you give the appearance of a youth;69 that here he is fair, with blue eyes,70 who really has grey ones; that he has distended nostrils whom you make and form with a high nose. For it is not right to call or name that an image which does not derive from the face of the original features like it; which71 can be recognised to be clear and certain from things which are manifest. For while all we men see that the sun is perfectly round by our eyesight, which cannot be doubted, you have given72 to him the features of a man, and of mortal bodies. The moon is always in motion, and in its restoration every month puts on thirty faces:73 with you, as leaders and designers, that is represented as a woman, and has one countenance, which passes through a thousand different states, changing each day.74 We understand that all the winds are only a flow of air driven and impelled in mundane ways in your hands they take75 the forms of men filling with breath twisted trumpets by blasts from out their breasts.76 Among the representations of your gods we see that thereis the very stern face of a lion77 smeared with pure vermilion, and that it is named Frugifer. If all these images are likenesses of the gods above, there must then be said to dwell in heaven also a god such as the image which has been made to represent his form and appearance;78 and, of course, as here that figure of yours, so there the deity himself79 is a mere mask and face, without the rest of the body, growling with fiercely gaping jaws, terrible, red as blood,80 holding an apple fast with his teeth, and at times, as dogs do when wearied, putting his tongue out of his gaping mouth.81 But if,82 indeed, this is not the case, as we all think that it is not, what, pray, is the meaning of so great audacity to fashion to yourself whatever form you please, and to say83 that it is an image of a god whom you cannot prove to exist at all?
11. You laugh because in ancient times the Persians worshipped rivers, as is told in the writings which hand down these things to memory; the Arabians an unshapen stone;84 the Scythian nations a sabre; the Thespians a branch instead of Cinxia;