Chapter X.—A Disgraceful Feature of the Roman Mythology. It Honours Such Infamous Characters as Larentina.

I hasten to even more abominable cases. Your writers have not been ashamed to publish that of Larentina.  She was a hired prostitute, whether as the nurse of Romulus, and therefore called Lupa, because she was a prostitute, or as the mistress of Hercules, now deceased, that is to say, now deified. They487    Comp. The Apology, cc. xl. xli.  [And Augustine, Civ. Dei. iii.]    Compare Augustine, de Civ. Dei, vi. 7.  [Tom. vii. p. 184.] relate that his temple-warder488    By the “manceps erroris” he means the devil.    Æditum ejus. happened to be playing at dice in the temple alone; and in order to represent a partner for himself in the game, in the absence of an actual one, he began to play with one hand for Hercules and the other for himself. (The condition was,) that if he won the stakes from Hercules, he should with them procure a supper and a prostitute; if Hercules, however, proved the winner, I mean his other hand, then he should provide the same for Hercules. The hand of Hercules won. That achievement might well have been added to his twelve labours!  The temple-warden buys a supper for the hero, and hires Larentina to play the whore. The fire which dissolved the body of even a Hercules489    Libitina.    That is, when he mounted the pyre. enjoyed the supper, and the altar consumed everything. Larentina sleeps alone in the temple; and she a woman from the brothel, boasts that in her dreams she had submitted herself to the pleasure of Hercules;490    Christianorum meritum, which with “sit” may also, “Let the Christians have their due.” In The Apology the cry is, “Christianos ad leonem.”    Herculi functam. “Fungi alicui” means to satisfy, or yield to. and she might possibly have experienced this, as it passed through her mind, in her sleep. In the morning, on going out of the temple very early, she is solicited by a young man—“a third Hercules,” so to speak.491    We insert this after Oehler. Tertullian’s words are, “Quasi modicum habeant aut aliud metuere qui Deum verum.”    The well-known Greek saying, ῎Αλλος οὗτος ῾Ηρακλῆς. He invites her home. She complies, remembering that Hercules had told her that it would be for her advantage.  He then, to be sure, obtains permission that they should be united in lawful wedlock (for none was allowed to have intercourse with the concubine of a god without being punished for it); the husband makes her his heir. By and by, just before her death, she bequeathed to the Roman people the rather large estate which she had obtained through Hercules. After this she sought deification for her daughters too, whom indeed the divine Larentina ought to have appointed her heirs also. The gods of the Romans received an accession in her dignity. For she alone of all the wives of Hercules was dear to him, because she alone was rich; and she was even far more fortunate than Ceres, who contributed to the pleasure of the (king of the) dead.492    See above, c. vii.    Pluto; Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, is meant. Oehler once preferred to read, “Hebe, quæ mortuo placuit,” i.e., “than Hebe, who gratified Hercules after death.” After so many examples and eminent names among you, who might not have been declared divine? Who, in fact, ever raised a question as to his divinity against Antinous?493    Sæculum digessit.    Tertullian often refers indignantly to this atrocious case. Was even Ganymede more grateful and dear than he to (the supreme god) who loved him?  According to you, heaven is open to the dead. You prepare494    Aliter vobis renuntiata.    Subigitis. a way from Hades to the stars.  Prostitutes mount it in all directions, so that you must not suppose that you are conferring a great distinction upon your kings.

10. Ad foediora festino. Non puduit auctores vestros de Larentina palam facere . Scortum haec meritorium fuit, sive dum Romuli nutrix, et ideo lupa, quia scortum; sive dum Herculis amica est, et jam mortui Herculis, id est, jam dei. Nam ferunt, aedituum ejus solum forte in aede calculis ludentem ut sibi collusorem, quem non habebat, repraesentaret, una manu Herculis nomine, alia ex sua persona lusum inisse, si ipse vicisset, coenulam et scortulum ex stipitibus Herculis sumeret; si vero Hercules, id est manus 0599D altera, eadem Herculi exhiberet. Vicit manus Herculis (quoque potuit duodecim titulis ejus adscribi). 0600A Aeditus coenam Herculi dependit, scortum Larentinam conducit: coenat ignis, qui Sol, et ipsius Herculis co . . . . . . . nia ara consumpsit. Larentina in aede sola dormit . . . . . . de lenonio ludo jactitat se somniis Herculi functam, et potuit, dum animo contemplatur, somnio pati. Eam de aede progredientem mane primo quidam adolescens, tertius quod aiunt Hercules concupiscit, ad se . . . . . . . . . . . . . . s . . . . . . . . . . . . . id dictum sibi ab Hercule, utique . . . . . . . . . . . . . ceantur. Non enim impune licui . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dem quoque scribit; mox illa prop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . per Herculem fuerat insecuta, agrum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . divinitatem et filiabus suis, quas ut ipsas h . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . dium a Larentiniana Romanorum numina digni . . . . . . . . . . . sola de tot uxoribus Herculi cara, sola enim dives . . . . . . . . . . or Cerere quae mortuo placuit. Tot exemplis et vo . . . . . . . . . . . . quis non 0600B deus affirmari potuit? Quis denique Antinoo controversiam divinitatis agitavit, quod decorior Ganymedes aut carior suo amatori . . . . ? Apud vos mortuis coelum, viam ab inferis ab astra subigitur. Pass . . . . . . . . . . ta ascendunt. Ne multum putetis vos praestare regibus vestris.