Chapter XV.—The Constellations and the Genii Very Indifferent Gods. The Roman Monopoly of Gods Unsatisfactory. Other Nations Require Deities Quite as Much.

It would be tedious to take a survey of all those, too, whom you have buried amongst the constellations, and audaciously minister to as gods.599    Deis ministratis. I suppose your Castors, and Perseus, and Erigona,600    The constellation Virgo. have just the same claims for the honours of the sky as Jupiter’s own big boy601    Jovis exoletus, Ganymede, or Aquarius. had. But why should we wonder? You have transferred to heaven even dogs, and scorpions, and crabs. I postpone all remarks602    He makes a similar postponement above, in c. vii., to The Apology, cc. xxii. xxiii. concerning those whom you worship in your oracles. That this worship exists, is attested by him who pronounces the oracle.603    Divini. Why; you will have your gods to be spectators even of sadness,604    Et tristitiæ arbitros. as is Viduus, who makes a widow of the soul, by parting it from the body, and whom you have condemned, by not permitting him to be enclosed within your city-walls; there is Cæculus also, to deprive the eyes of their perception; and Orbana, to bereave seed of its vital power; moreover, there is the goddess of death herself. To pass hastily by all others,605    Transvolem. you account as gods the sites of places or of the city; such are Father Janus (there being, moreover, the archer-goddess606    Diva arquis. Jana607    Perhaps another form of Diana.), and Septimontius of the seven hills.

Men sacrifice608    Faciunt = ῥίζουσι. to the same Genii, whilst they have altars or temples in the same places; but to others besides, when they dwell in a strange place, or live in rented houses.609    This seems to be the meaning of an almost unintelligible sentence, which we subjoin: “Geniis eisdem illi faciunt qui in isdem locis aras vel ædes habent; præterea aliis qui in alieno loco aut mercedibus habitant.” Oehler, who makes this text, supposes that in each clause the name of some god has dropped out. I say nothing about Ascensus, who gets his name for his climbing propensity, and Clivicola, from her sloping (haunts); I pass silently by the deities called Forculus from doors, and Cardea from hinges, and Limentinus the god of thresholds, and whatever others are worshipped by your neighbours as tutelar deities of their street doors.610    Numinum janitorum. There is nothing strange in this, since men have their respective gods in their brothels, their kitchens, and even in their prison. Heaven, therefore, is crowded with innumerable gods of its own, both these and others belonging to the Romans, which have distributed amongst them the functions of one’s whole life, in such a way that there is no want of the other611    Ceteris. gods. Although, it is true,612    Immo cum. the gods which we have enumerated are reckoned as Roman peculiarly, and as not easily recognised abroad; yet how do all those functions and circumstances, over which men have willed their gods to preside, come about,613    Proveniunt. in every part of the human race, and in every nation, where their guarantees614    Prædes. are not only without an official recognition, but even any recognition at all?

15. Longum foret recensere etiam de illis quos in sidera sepelistis, et audaciter dei . . . tratis. Sic opinor digni de coelo Castores et Perseus et Erigona, quemadmodum et Jovis expletus. Sed quid mirandum? etiam canes et scorpios cancros in coelum transtulistis. Differo de his quos in oraculis . . . . et testimonium hic divini, qui et tristitiae deos arbitros esse vultis . . . . dius, qui animam corpore viduet, quem intra muros cludi non permittendo damnastis. Item Caeculus, qui oculos sensu exani . . . . Orbana, quae in orbitatem semina exstinguat, et ipsius Mortis . . . . Ut caetera transvolem, etiam locorum urbis, vel loca, deos ar . . . . patrem, et diva Arquis et Lana et montium 0606B Septemontium . . . . illi faciunt, qui in iisdem locis aras vel aedes habent, praeterea . . . . in alieno loco aut mercedibus habitant. Taceo Ascensum . . . . et Levicolam a clivis; taceo deos Forculum a foribus, et Cardeam a cardinibus, et liminum Limentinum, sive qui alii inter vicinos ap . . . . num Janitorum adorantur. Quid enim magnum? cum et habeant in lupanaribus, in culinis, et in imo carcere; in i . . . . itaque propr . . . . aliisque Romanorum deis, quibus totius vitae officia distribuuntur, taliter, ut caeteris deis opus non sit. Imo cum privatim apud Romanos deputentur, quos supra signavimus, nec facile foris cogniti, quomodo ea omnia illos praeesse voluerunt in omni genere humano, et in omni gente proveniunt; ubi praedes eorum, non modo honore, sed 0606C ipsa quoque notitia carent. Sed enim quidam fructus et necessaria victui demonstraverunt?