Chap. XXIV.—Of the Origin of Sacred Rites and Superstitions.

These are the mysteries of the gods. Now let us inquire also into the origin of superstitions, that we may search out by whom and at what times they were instituted. Didymus, in those books which are inscribed Of the Explanation of Pindar, relates that Melisseus was king of the Cretans, whose daughters were Amalthea and Melissa, who nourished Jupiter with goats’ milk and honey; that he introduced new rites and ceremonies of sacred things, and was the first who sacrificed to gods, that is, to Vesta, who is called Tellus,—whence the poet says:—  

and afterwards to the mother of the gods. But Euhemerus, in his sacred history, says that Jupiter himself, after that he received the government, erected temples in honour of himself in many places. For in going about the world, as he came to each place he united the chiefs of the people to himself in friendship and the right of hospitality; and that the remembrance of this might be preserved, he ordered that temples should be built to him, and annual festivals be celebrated by those connected with him in a league of hospitality. Thus he spread the worship of himself through all lands. But at what time they lived can easily be inferred. For Thallus writes in his history, that Belus, the king of the Assyrians, whom the Babylonians worship, and who was the contemporary and friend of Saturnus, was three hundred and twenty-two years before the Trojan war, and it is fourteen hundred and seventy years since the taking of Troy. From which it is evident, that it is not more than eighteen hundred years from the time when mankind fell into error by the institution of new forms of divine worship.  

CAPUT XXIV. (Div. Inst. lib. I, c. 22.) De origine sacrorum et religionem.

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Haec sunt mysteria deorum. Nunc etiam originem religionum requiramus, ut et a quibus, et per quae tempora institutae fuerint, eruamus. Didymus in iis libris qui inscribuntur Ἐξηγήσεως Πινδαρικῆς, Melissea fuisse tradit Cretensium regem, cujus filiae fuerint Amalthea et Melissa, quae Jovem nutrierint caprino lacte ac melle. Hunc novos ritus ac pompas sacrarum introduxisse, et primum diis sacrificasse, id est Vestae, quae dicitur Tellus. Unde Poeta: primamque deorum Tellurem;et postmodum: deum matri. Euhemerus autem in sacra historia ipsum Jovem dicit, postquam imperium 1031C ceperit, sibi multis in locis fana posuisse. Nam «circuiens orbem, ut quemque in locum venerat, principes populorum amicitia sibi et hospitii jure sociabat. Cujus rei ut posset memoria servari, fanum sibi creari jubebat, atque ab hospitibus suis annua festa celebrari. Sic per omnes terras cultum sui nominis seminavit.» Quando autem isti fuerint, facile colligi potest. Scribit enim Thallus in historia sua, Belum regem Assyriorum, quem Babylonii colunt, quique Saturni fuerit aequalis et amicus, antiquiorem fuisse Troico bello annis CCCXXII, et sunt ab Ilio 1032A capto anni MCCCCLXX. Unde apparet, non amplius quam MDCCC esse annos, ex quo novis deorum cultibus institutis, humanum genus inciderit in errorem.