25. For what grandeur—if you look at the truth without any prejudice1512    Lit., “and without any favour,” gratificatione.—is there in these images1513    Lit., “what great thing have these images in them.” of which they speak, that the men of old should have had reason to hope and think that, by beholding them, the vices of men could be subdued, and their morals and wicked ways brought under restraint?1514    So the ms., first four edd., Elm., Hild., and Oehler, reading mores et maleficia, corrected in the others a maleficio—“morals withheld from wickedness.” The reaping-hook, for example, which was assigned to Saturn,1515    Cf. ch. 12, p. 511. was it to inspire mortals with fear, that they should be willing to live peacefully, and to abandon their malicious inclinations? Janus, with double face, or that spiked key by which he has been distinguished; Jupiter, cloaked and bearded, and holding in his right hand a piece of wood shaped like a thunderbolt; the cestus of Juno,1516    The reference is probably to some statue or picture of Juno represented as girt with the girdle of Venus. (Il., xiv. 214). or the maiden lurking under a soldier’s helmet; the mother of the gods, with her timbrel; the Muses, with their pipes and psalteries; Mercury, the winged slayer of Argus; Æsculapius, with his staff; Ceres, with huge breasts, or the drinking cup swinging in Liber’s right hand; Mulciber, with his workman s dress; or Fortune, with her horn full of apples, figs, or autumnal fruits; Diana, with half-covered thighs, or Venus naked, exciting to lustful desire; Anubis, with his dog’s face; or Priapus, of less importance1517    Lit., “inferior.” than his own genitals: were these expected to make men afraid?

XXV. Quid enim, si verum, et sine ulla gratificatione perspicias, signa ista quae dicunt, habent in se magnum, ut merito sperarit atque existimarit antiquitas, conspectu illorum posse frangi hominum vitia, et mores a maleficio temperari? Falx messoria scilicet, quae est attributa Saturno, metum fuerat injectura mortalibus, vitam vellent ut pacificam degere, ac malitiosas abjicere voluntates; fronte Janus ancipiti, aut dentata illa, qua insignitus est, clavis; riciniatus 1213B Jupiter atque barbatus, dextera fomitem sustinens perdolatum in fulminis morem; Junonius ille caestus, aut militari sub galea puellula delitescens; deum mater cum tympano; cum tibiis, et cum psalteriis Musae; Mercurius pinnatus Argiphontes; Aesculapius baculo, Ceres mammis cum grandibus, aut in Liberi 1214A dextera pendens potorius cantharus; Mulciber fabrili cum habitu; aut fortuna cum cornu, pomis, ficis, aut frugibus autumnalibus pleno; semitectis femoribus Diana; aut ad libidinem concitans Venus nuda; Anubis canina cum facie; aut genitalibus propriis inferior Priapus.