8. Say, I pray you,—that Peta, Puta, Patella may graciously favour you,—if there were no884    Orelli omits non, following Oberthür. bees at all on the earth then, or if we men were born without bones, like some worms, would there be no goddess Mellonia;885    Both in this and the preceding chapter the ms. reads Melonia. or would Ossilago, who gives bones their solidity, be without a name of her own? I ask truly, and eagerly inquire whether you think that gods, or men, or bees, fruits, twigs, and the rest, are the more ancient in nature, time, long duration? No man will doubt that you say that the gods precede all things whatever by countless ages and generations. But if it is so, how, in the nature of things, can it be that, from things produced afterwards, they received those names which are earlier in point of time? or that the gods were charged with the care886    Lit., “obtained by lot the wardships.” of those things which were not yet produced, and assigned to be of use to men? Or were the gods long without names; and was it only after things began to spring up, and be on the earth, that you thought it right that they should be called by these names887    Lit., “signs.” and titles? And whence could you have known what name to give to each, since you were wholly ignorant of their existence; or that they possessed any fixed powers, seeing that you were equally unaware which of them had any power, and over what he should be placed to suit his divine might?

VIII. Dicite, o quaeso, ut ita vobis propitiae faveant, 1017A Peta, Puta, Patella, si omnino essent apes ullae in terris, aut si exos genus humanum, velut quidam vermiculi nasceremur, Dea Mellonia non esset: aut Ossilago solidatrix ossium nomen proprium non haberet? Etenim, quaero et rogito utrumne vobis videantur antiquiores dii esse natura, tempore, vetustate, an homines, an apes, fruges, virgulta, et caetera? Dubitabit hominum nemo, quin innumeris dicatis deos aetatibus, saeculis, cuncta quaecumque sunt anteire. Quod si habet se ita, qui fieri per rerum naturam potest, ut ex rebus postea procreatis acciperent nomina ea quae sunt priora temporibus? aut tutelas sortirentur earum Dii rerum, quae nondum essent genitae, et in usum mortalibus attributae? An numquid jamdudum sine nominibus Dii erant, et postquam 1017B res nasci, terrisque inesse coeperunt, his a vobis dignati sunt signis atque appellationibus nuncupari? 1018A Et unde scire potuistis quae nomina singulis inderetis, cum esse illos ignoraretis omnino, aut inesse potentias his certas: cum esset vobis similiter nescium, quisnam eorum quid posset, et cui rei deberet pro sui numinis potestate praeponi?