25. Unxia, my opponent says, presides over the anointing of door-posts; Cinxia over the loosening of the zone; the most venerable Victa755    The ms. reads Vita. and Potua attend to eating and drinking. O rare and admirable interpretation of the divine powers! would gods not have names756    [i.e., these names are derived from their offices to men. Have they no names apart from these services?] if brides did not besmear their husbands’ door-posts with greasy ointment; were it not that husbands, when now eagerly drawing near, unbind the maiden-girdle; if men did not eat and drink? Moreover, not satisfied to have subjected and involved the gods in cares so unseemly, you also ascribe to them dispositions fierce, cruel, savage, ever rejoicing in the ills and destruction of mankind.

0972A XXV. Unctionibus, inquit, superest Unxia, cingulorum Cinxia replicationi, Victa et Potua sanctissimae victui potuique procurant. O egregia numinum, et singularis interpretatio potestatum, nisi postes virorum adipali unguine oblinerentur a sponsis: nisi virginalia vincula jam ferventes dissolverent, atque imminentes mariti, nisi potarent, et manderent homines, dii nomina non haberent? Quid? quod non contenti tam deformibus subdidisse atque implicuisse deos curis, naturas his etiam feras, truculentas, immanes, malis gaudentes semper, et humani generis attribuitis vastitate.