Chap. XXV.—Of the Golden Age, of Images, and Prometheus, Who First Fashioned Man.

The poets, therefore, with good reason say that the golden age, which existed in the reign of Saturnus, was changed. For at that time no gods were worshipped, but they knew of one God only. After that they subjected themselves to frail and earthly things, worshipping idols of wood, and brass, and stone, a change took place from the golden age to that of iron. For having lost the knowledge of God, and broken off that one bond of human society, they began to harass one another, to plunder and subdue. But if they would raise their eyes aloft and behold God, who raised them up to the sight of heaven and Himself, they never would bend and prostrate themselves by worshipping earthly things, whose folly Lucretius severely rebukes, saying:1455    De Nat. Deor., vi. 52.    

Wherefore they tremble, and do not understand how foolish it is to fear those things which you have made, or to hope for any protection from those things which are dumb and insensible, and neither see nor hear the suppliant. What majesty, therefore, or deity can they have, which were in the power of a man, that they should not be made, or that they should be made into some other thing, and are so even now? For they are liable to injury and might be carried off by theft, were it not that they are protected by the law and the guardianship of man. Does he therefore appear to be in possession of his senses, who sacrifices to such deities the choicest victims, consecrates gifts, offers costly garments, as if they who are without motion could use them? With reason, then, did Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily plunder and deride the gods of Greece when he had taken possession of it as conqueror; and after the sacrilegious acts which he had committed, he returned to Sicily with a prosperous voyage, and held the kingdom even to his old age: nor were the injured gods able to punish him.  

How much better is it to despise vanities, and to turn to God, to maintain the condition which you have received from God, to maintain your name! For on this account he is called anthropos,1457    ἅνθοωπος, man; said to be compounded of ἅνω, τρέπω, and ὤψ, to turn the face upwards. [Needlessly repeated from p. 41, supra.]   because he looks upward. But he looks upward who looks up to the true and living God, who is in heaven; who seeks after the Maker and Parent of his soul, not only with his perception and mind, but also with his countenance and eyes raised aloft. But he who enslaves himself to earthly and humble things, plainly prefers to himself that which is below him. For since he himself is the workmanship of God, whereas an image is the workmanship of man, the human workmanship cannot be preferred to the divine; and as God is the parent of man, so is the man of the statue. Therefore he is foolish and senseless who adores that which he himself has made, of which detestable and foolish handicraft Prometheus was the author, who was born from Iapetus the uncle of Jupiter. For when first of all Jupiter, having obtained supreme dominion, wished to establish himself as a god, and to found temples, and was seeking for some one who was able to imitate the human figure, at that time Prometheus lived, who fashioned the image of a man from thick clay with such close resemblance, that the novelty and cleverness of the art was a wonder. At length the men of his own time, and afterwards the poets, handed him down as the maker of a true and living man; and we, as often as we praise wrought statues, say that they live and breathe. And he indeed was the inventor of earthenware images. But posterity, following him, both carved them out of marble, and moulded them out of bronze; then in process of time ornament was added of gold and ivory, so that not only the likenesses, but also the gleam itself, might dazzle the eyes. Thus ensnared by beauty, and forgetful of true majesty, sensible beings considered that insensible objects, rational beings that irrational objects, living beings that lifeless objects, were to be worshipped and reverenced by them.  

CAPUT XXV. (Div. Inst. lib. I, c. 22 et 23.) De aureo saeculo; de simulacris ac Prometheo, qui primus hominem effigiavit.

Merito igitur poetae commutatum esse aureum seculum memorant, quod fuerit regnante Saturno. Nulli enim tunc dii colebantur: sed unum et solum Deum noverant. Postquam se terrenis ac fragilibus subjugaverunt, colentes ligna, et aera, et lapides, commutatio saeculi facta est usque ad ferrum. Amissa enim Dei notitia, et uno illo vinculo humanae societatis 1032B abrupto, vastare se invicem, praedari ac debellare coeperunt. Quod si rursum oculos suos tollerent, ac Deum intuerentur, qui eos ad aspectum coeli suique excitavit, nunquam se curvos et humiles facerent terrena venerando, quorum stultitiam Lucretius graviter incusat, dicens: Et faciunt animos humiles formidine divum Depressosque premunt ad terram,qua reddunt. Nec intelligunt quam vanum sit ea timere quae feceris, aut ab his aliquod sperare praesidium, quae muta et insensibilia, nec vident, nec audiunt supplicantem. Quid ergo majestatis aut numinis habere possunt, quae et fuerunt in hominis potestate ne fierent, aut ut aliud fierent, et sunt etiamnunc. Nam et violari et furto sublati possunt, nisi 1032C illa et lex saepiat et humana custodia. Num igitur mentis suae compos videri potest, qui talibus optimas victimas caedit, dona consecrat, pretiosas vestes offert, quasi uti possunt, qui motu carent? Merito ergo Dionysius Siciliae tyrannus deos Graeciae, cum eam victor occupasset, spoliavit atque derisit, et post sacrilegia quae admiserat, ad Siciliam prospera navigatione remeavit, regnumque tenuit usque ad senectutem. Nec eum dii violati punire potuerunt.

Quanto satius est, spretis inanibus, ad Deum se convertere, tueri statum quem a Deo acceperis, tueri 1033A nomen. Idcirco enim ἄνθρωπος, quia sursum 1033A spectat, nominatur. Sursum autem spectat, qui Deum verum et vivum, qui est in coelo, suspicit, qui artificem, qui parentem animae suae non modo sensu ac mente, verum etiam vultu et oculis sublimibus quaerit. Qui autem se terrenis humilibusque substernit, utique illud quod est inferius sibi praefert. Nam, cum ipse opus Dei sit, simulacrum autem opus hominis, non potest humanum opus divino anteponi; et sicut Deus hominis parens est, ita simulacri homo. Stultus igitur et amens qui adorat quod ipse fabricavit. Cujus artificii detestabilis et inepti auctor fuit Prometheus, patruo Jovis Japeto natus. Nam cum primum Jupiter, summo potitus imperio, tamquam Deum se constituere vellet, ac templa condere, et quaereret aliquem, qui humanam figuram posset exprimere, tunc Prometheus extitit, 1033B qui hominis effigiem de pingui luto figuraret, ita verisimiliter, ut novitas ac subtilitas artis miraculo esset. Denique illum et sui temporis homines, et postea poetae, tamquam fictorem veri ac vivi hominis prodiderunt, et nos, quoties fabrefacta signa laudamus, vivere illa et spirare dicimus. Et hic quidem auctor fuit fictilium simulacrorum. Sequentes autem posteri et de marmore sculpserunt, et ex aere fuderunt: deinde processu temporum ex auro et ebore accessit ornatus, ut non modo similitudines oculos hominum, verum etiam fulgor ipse praestringeret. Sic illecti pulchritudine, ac verae majestatis obliti, insensibilia sentientes, irrationabilia rationabiles, exanima viventes colenda sibi ac veneranda duxerunt.