Chapter VIII.—The Gods of the Different Nations. Varro’s Gentile Class. Their Inferiority. A Good Deal of This Perverse Theology Taken from Scripture. Serapis a Perversion of Joseph.

There remains the gentile class of gods amongst the several nations:448    See above, c. i. [p. 129.] these were adopted out of mere caprice, not from the knowledge of the truth; and our information about them comes from the private notions of different races. God, I imagine, is everywhere known, everywhere present, powerful everywhere—an object whom all ought to worship, all ought to serve. Since, then, it happens that even they, whom all the world worships in common, fail in the evidence of their true divinity, how much more must this befall those whom their very votaries449    Municipes. “Their local worshippers or subjects.” have not succeeded in discovering! For what useful authority could possibly precede a theology of so defective a character as to be wholly unknown to fame?  How many have either seen or heard of the Syrian Atargatis, the African Cœlestis, the Moorish Varsutina, the Arabian Obodas and Dusaris, or the Norican Belenus, or those whom Varro mentions—Deluentinus of Casinum, Visidianus of Narnia, Numiternus of Atina, or Ancharia of Asculum? And who have any clear notions450    Perceperint. of Nortia of Vulsinii?451    Literally, “Have men heard of any Nortia belonging to the Vulsinensians?” There is no difference in the worth of even their names, apart from the human surnames which distinguish them. I laugh often enough at the little coteries of gods452    Deos decuriones, in allusion to the small provincial senates which in the later times spread over the Roman colonies and municipia. in each municipality, which have their honours confined within their own city walls. To what lengths this licence of adopting gods has been pushed, the superstitious practices of the Egyptians show us; for they worship even their native453    Privatas. animals, such as cats, crocodiles, and their snake. It is therefore a small matter that they have also deified a man—him, I mean, whom not Egypt only, or Greece, but the whole world worships, and the Africans swear by; about whose state also all that helps our conjectures and imparts to our knowledge the semblance of truth is stated in our own (sacred) literature. For that Serapis of yours was originally one of our own saints called Joseph.454    Compare Suidas, s. v. Σαράπις; Rufinus, Hist. Eccl. ii. 23. As Serapis was Joseph in disguise, so was Joseph a type of Christ, according to the ancient Christians, who were fond of subordinating heathen myths to Christian theology. The youngest of his brethren, but superior to them in intellect, he was from envy sold into Egypt, and became a slave in the family of Pharaoh king of the country.455    Tertullian is not the only writer who has made mistakes in citing from memory Scripture narratives. Comp. Arnobius. Importuned by the unchaste queen, when he refused to comply with her desire, she turned upon him and reported him to the king, by whom he is put into prison.  There he displays the power of his divine inspiration, by interpreting aright the dreams of some (fellow-prisoners).  Meanwhile the king, too, has some terrible dreams. Joseph being brought before him, according to his summons, was able to expound them.  Having narrated the proofs of true interpretation which he had given in the prison, he opens out his dream to the king:  those seven fat-fleshed and well-favoured kine signified as many years of plenty; in like manner, the seven lean-fleshed animals predicted the scarcity of the seven following years.  He accordingly recommends precautions to be taken against the future famine from the previous plenty. The king believed him. The issue of all that happened showed how wise he was, how invariably holy, and now how necessary. So Pharaoh set him over all Egypt, that he might secure the provision of corn for it, and thenceforth administer its government. They called him Serapis, from the turban456    Suggestu. which adorned his head. The peck-like457    Modialis. shape of this turban marks the memory of his corn-provisioning; whilst evidence is given that the care of the supplies was all on his head,458    Super caput esse, i.e., was entrusted to him. by the very ears of corn which embellish the border of the head-dress. For the same reason, also, they made the sacred figure of a dog,459    Canem dicaverunt. which they regard (as a sentry) in Hades, and put it under his right hand, because the care of the Egyptians was concentrated460    Compressa. under his hand. And they put at his side Pharia,461    Isis; comp. The Apology, xvi. [See p. 31, supra.] whose name shows her to have been the king’s daughter. For in addition to all the rest of his kind gifts and rewards, Pharaoh had given him his own daughter in marriage. Since, however, they had begun to worship both wild animals and human beings, they combined both figures under one form Anubis, in which there may rather be seen clear proofs of its own character and condition enshrined462    Consecrasse. by a nation at war with itself, refractory463    Recontrans. to its kings, despised among foreigners, with even the appetite of a slave and the filthy nature of a dog.

8. Superest gentile illud genus inter populos deorum, quos libidine sumptos, non pro notitia veritatis, docet privata notitia. Deum ergo existimo ubique notum, ubique praesentem, ubique dominantem, omnibus colendum, omnibus demerendum. At enim cum illi quoque, quos totus orbis communiter colit, excidant 0596A probationi verae divinitatis, quanto magis isti, quos ne ipsi quidem municipes sui norunt? Nam quae idonea auctoritas praecucurrit ejusmodi theologiae, quam etiam fama destituit? Quanti sunt, qui norint visu vel auditu Atagartin Syrorum, Coelestem Afrorum, Varsutinam Maurorum, Obodan et Dusaren Arabum, Belenum Noricum, vel, quos Varro ponit, Casiniensium Delventinum, Narniensium Visidianum, Atheniensium Numentinum, Aesculanorum Anchariam, et quam praevenerim , Volsiniensium Nortiam, quorum ne nominum quidem dignitas humanis cognominibus distat? Satis rideo etiam deos decuriones cujusque municipii, quibus honor intra muros suos determinatur. Haec libertas adoptandorum deorum quousque profecerit, Aegyptiorum superstitiones docent, qui etiam bestias privatas colunt, p . . . . crocodilos 0596B et anguem suum. Parum est si etiam hominem consecrarunt. Illum dico, quem non jam Aegyptus aut Graecia, verum totus orbis . . . . . . Afri jurant; de cujus statu quid conjici potest apud nostras litteras ut verisimile videtur positum est. Nam Serapis iste quidam olim Joseph . . . . . . fuit de genere sanctorum, junior inter caeteros fratres, sed excelsior . . . . . . . . . ab iisdem fratribus per livorem venum in Aegyptum datus, saeviebat in familia regis Aegyptorum Pharao, a regina minus pudica desideratus, sed quia non obsequebatur, e contrario ab eadem delatus, a rege in carcerem datur. Illic somnia quibusdam non perperam interpretatus, vim spiritus sui ostendit. Interea rex quoque somnia terribilia quaedam 0596C illi, detractis quos convocaverat, voluit exponere. Joseph expedimenta de carcere edocuit, somnium regi aperit: illos boves septem opimissimos, defluentes, totidem annorum ubertatem significare; posteriores aeque septem ineptos, subsequentium septem annorum inopiam. Praedicare itaque saepe de recondendis praesidiis in futuram famem de copia priore, credidit rex; exitus rerum et prudêntem et sanctum semper necessarium probavit. Itaque Pharao universae Aegypto et frumentandae et exinde curandae eum praefecit. Hunc Serapidem ex suggestu , 0597A quo caput ejus ornatum, vocaverunt, cujus suggestus modialis figura frumentationis memoriam obsignat, et curam frugum super caput ejus fuisse, ipsis spicis, quibus per ambitum notatur, apparet. Propterea et canem, quem apud inferos deputant, sub dextera ejus dicaverunt, quod sub manu ejus compressatur Aegyptiorum, et Fariam adjungunt, quam filiam regis Pharao derivatio nominis esse demonstrat; nam et tunc Pharao, inter caetera honorum et remunerationum, filiam quoque in matrimonium ei dederat. Sed quia et feras et homines colere susceperant, utramque faciem in unum Anubin contulerunt, in quo naturae conditionisque suae potius argumenta videri posset consecrasse gens rixosa, suis regibus recontrans , in extraneis dejecta, sane et gula et spurcitia . . . . . . etiam servi ipsa.