Chap. VIII.—Of Æsculapius, Apollo, Mars, Castor and Pollux, and of Mercurius and Bacchus.

Tarquitius relates that Æsculapius was born of doubtful parents, and that on this account he was exposed; and being taken up by hunters, and fed by the teats of a hound, was given to Chiron for instruction. He lived at Epidaurus, and was buried at Cynosuræ, as Cicero says,1441    Cicero, De Nat. Deor., iii. 22.   when he had been killed by lightning. But Apollo, his father, did not disdain to take charge of another’s flock that he might receive a wife;1442    When Pelias had promised his daughter Alcestis to Admetus, on condition of his coming to her in a chariot drawn by lions and boars, Apollo enabled Admetus to fulfil this condition.   and when he had unintentionally killed a boy whom he loved, he inscribed his own lamentations on a flower. Mars, a man of the greatest bravery, was not free from the charge of adultery, since he was made a spectacle, being bound with a chain together with the adulteress.  

Castor and Pollux carried off the brides of others, but not with impunity, to whose death and burial Homer bears witness, not with poetical, but simple faith. Mercurius, who was the father of Androgynus by his intrigue with Venus, deserved to be a god, because he invented the lyre and the palæstra. Father Bacchus, after subduing India as a conqueror, having by chance come to Crete, saw Ariadne on the shore, whom Theseus had forced and deserted. Then, being inflamed by love, he united her in marriage to himself, and placed her crown, as the poets say, conspicuously among the stars. The mother of the gods1443    Rhea or Cybele.   herself, while she lived in Phrygia after the banishment and death of her husband, though a widow, and aged, was enamoured of a beautiful youth; and because he was not faithful, she mutilated, and rendered him effeminate: on which account even now she delights in the Galli1444    Galli, the priests of Cybele, were so called: they mutilated themselves, and performed many raving ceremonies.   as her priests.  

CAPUT VIII. (Div. Inst. lib. I, c. 10.) De Aesculapio, Apolline, Marte, Castore et Polluce, atque de Mercurio et Baccho.

Aesculapium Tarquitius tradit ex incertis parentibus natum, et ob id expositum, atque a venatoribus collectum, caninis uberibus educatum, Chironi in disciplinam datum. Hic Epidauri moratus est, Cynosuris, ut Cicero ait, sepultus, cum esset 1024B ictu fulminis interemptus. Apollo autem pater ejus non dedignatus est alienum gregem pascere, ut acciperet uxorem; et dilectum puerum cum peremisset imprudens, gemitus suos inscripsit in flore. Marti, viro fortissimo, adulterii crimen non defuit; siquidem catenis cum adultera vinctus spectaculo fuit.

Castor et Pollux alienas sponsas non impune rapuerunt, quos Homerus non poetica, sed simplici fide mortuos sepultosque testatur. Mercurius, qui de stupro Veneris genuit Androgynum, deus esse meruit, quia lyram reperit et palaestram. Liber Pater, debellata India victor, cum Cretam forte venisset, Ariadnem conspexit in littore, quam Theseus et violaverat, et reliquerat. Tum amore inflammatus, eam sibi in conjugium sociavit, et coronam ejus, ut poetae 1024C ferunt, inter astra signavit. Mater ipsa post fugam et obitum viri cum in Phrygia moraretur, vidua et anus formosum adolescentem in deliciis habuit; et quia fidem non praestiterat, ademptis genitalibus, effoeminavit Ideo etiam nunc Gallis sacerdotibus gaudet.