Read City of God (Penguin Classics) Online
Authors: Saint Augustine
Next, if you will, let us inquire which gods, of all that host of gods
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who received their worship, they believed to be specially responsible for the extension and preservation of the Roman Empire. For in a work of such nobility and sublime grandeur they do not dare to assign any part to the goddess Cloacina, or to Volupia (whose name has the same root as ‘voluptuous’) or to Lubentina (a name derived from
libido
), or to Vaticanus (who presides over the wails –
vogitus
– of
infants), or to Cunina (who takes care of their cradles –
cunae
). But how can I give a list, in one passage of this book, of all the names of their gods and goddesses? The Romans had difficulty in getting them into the massive volumes in which they assigned particular functions and special responsibilities to the various divine powers. They decided that responsibility for the land should not be entrusted to any one god; they put the goddess Rusina in charge of the rural countryside; they consigned the mountain ranges (
iuga
) to the care of the god Jugatinus; the hills (
colles
) to the goddess Collatina, the valleys to Vallonia. They could not even find the goddess called Segetia adequate on her own, to the responsibility for the crops (
segetes
) from start to finish. Instead, they decided that the corn when sown (
sata
) should have the goddess Seia to watch over it as long as the seeds were under ground; as soon as the shoots came above the ground and began to form the grain (
seges
), they were under the charge of the goddess Segetia; but when the corn had been reaped and stored the goddess Tutiliua was set over them to keep them safe (
tuto
). Would not anyone think that Segetia should have been competent to supervise the whole process from the first green shoots to the dry ears of corn? But that was not enough for men who loved a multitude of gods – and so much so that their miserable soul disdained the pure embrace of the one true God and prostituted itself to a mob of demons. So they put Proserpina in command of germinating corn; the god Nodutus looked after the nodes and joints on the stalks; the goddess Volutina saw to the envelopes (
involumenta
) of the follicles; when the follicles opened (
patescunt
) to release the spike, the goddess Patelana took over; when the crops were evenly eared, then came the turn of the goddess Hostilina (the old word for ‘make even’ was
hostirc);
when the crops were blooming, the goddess Flora came in; when they became milky, the god Lacturnus; when they were maturing, the goddess Matuta; when they were plucked up (
runcantur
) the goddess Runcina.
I shall not list them all; I find the whole thing disagreeable, even if the Romans do not think it disgraceful. But this very brief account is intended to make it clear that the pagans have not the impudence to allege that the Roman Empire was established, increased, and preserved by those divinities who were so clearly confined to their own particular departments that no general responsibility was entrusted to any one of them. When could Segetia have looked after the Empire, seeing that she was not allowed the simultaneous charge of crops and trees? How could Cunina have even given a thought to arms, when her authority was not permitted to range beyond cradles? How could
Nodutus help in war, when his interest was confined to the node of the stalk and did not even extend to the follicle?
Each man appoints one door-keeper for his house and that one, being a man, is enough. But the Romans appointed three gods; Forculus to guard the doors (
fores);
Cardea the hinges (
cardo);
Iimentinus the threshold (
limen
).
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So Porculus could not guard both hinges and threshold at the same time!
9.
Jupiter’s worshippers consider him to be the supreme god. Is he to be held responsible for the wide extent and long duration of the Roman Empire
?
We ought then to pass over this host of tiny gods – or at least to dismiss them for a time – and to look into the functions of the greater gods, by whose activity Rome was brought to greatness and enjoyed a long period of empire over so many peoples. Here, of course, we see the work of Jupiter; it is Jupiter whom the Romans will have to be the king of all the gods and goddesses. This is the meaning of his sceptre, and of the Capitol
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on its high hill. ‘The whole universe is full of
Jupiter.’
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This may be a poetic utterance; but the Romans use it as the most adequate definition of the god; and Varro believes that men who worship one single God, without an idol, are really worshipping Jupiter, though under another name.
23
If that is true, why has he been so shamefully treated at Rome – and indeed among other nations – by having an idol erected to him? This action so offended Varro that, despite the pressure of perverted custom in so great a city, he had not the slightest hesitation in saying, and saying in writing, that those who set up images for the people ‘have abolished reverence and introduced error’.
10.
Theories which placed different gods in charge of different parts of the universe
Why do the pagans give Juno to Jupiter for a wife, to be called ‘sister and spouse’?
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‘The reason is’, they say, ‘that, by tradition, we assume Jupiter to be in the ether
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(the upper air) and Juno in the lower air; and these two elements are joined together, the one above the other.’ Then it follows that this Jupiter is not the subject of the statement, ‘The whole universe is full of Jupiter’, if Juno also fills some part of it. Or is it that each of them fills both elements and this married pair are at the same time in both and in each? Then why is the ether assigned to Jupiter and the air to Juno? And in any case the two of them would be enough. Why allot the sea to Neptune, and the earth to Pluto? And they must not be left wifeless, so Salada
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is provided for Neptune, Proserpina for Pluto. For as the lower part of the sky – the air – is, they say, occupied by Juno, so Salacia has the lower part of the sea, and Proserpina the lower parts of the earth.
They try to find ways to botch together their fables, but without success. For if their account were true their teachers of old time would have spoken of three elements, not four, so as to distribute each of the married pairs to their particular element. As it is, those teachers undoubtedly asserted that ether and air were different elements; but water, whether ‘upper’ or ‘lower’, is still just water; you may conceive some difference; but not enough to make it anything but water.
And in spite of all imaginable differences and distinctions, ‘lower’ earth cannot be anything but earth.
Observe further that the whole material universe is made up of the four elements. Then where will Minerva come in? What will be her sphere? What will she fill? She was set up in the Capitol with Jupiter and Juno, although she was not the daughter of both. If they say that Minerva holds sway in the upper part of the ether and that this gave the poets occasion to invent the story of her birth from the head of Jupiter, why is she not reputed the queen of the gods on the ground that she is higher than Jupiter? Is it because it was improper to place a daughter above her father? Then why was that equity not observed in the relation between Jupiter and Saturn? Is it because Saturn was conquered? Then they fought, did they? ‘Certainly not! All that is legendary gossip!’ Very well. Let us not believe the fables; let us have better ideas about the gods. Then why is Jupiter’s father not given at least an equal place of honour, if not a higher? ‘Because Saturn represents duration of time.’
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So they worship time when they worship Saturn! And the implication is that Jupiter, king of gods, is a child of time! Is there anything improper in calling Juno and Jupiter the children of time, if he is the sky and she is the earth? For undoubtedly sky and earth are created things; and Virgil is basing himself not on poetical fictions but on the writings of philosophers, when he says,
The omnipotent father, ether all-supreme,
Descends with fecund showers upon the lap
Of his glad consort.
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‘Upon the lap’, that is, of Tellus or Terra; for here also they are determined to have some difference, and in the earth itself they distinguish Terra, Tellus, and Tellumo,
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and all these gods are called by their special names, assigned to their own separate functions and worshipped with their own rites, at their own altars. The earth is also called the Mother of the Gods – so the fictions of the poets are more tolerable, since it is not in the poetry of the Romans but in their sacred books that Juno is found not only as ‘sister and spouse’ of Jupiter, but also as his mother. They make out the same earth to be Ceres and also Vesta,
30
although more often they claim that Vesta is simply fire,
fire on the hearth, without which a community cannot exist; and the reason why virgins are by custom consecrated to her service is that fire, like a virgin, does not give birth. All this inanity deserved to be abolished and swept away by him who was born of a virgin.
Is it not insupportable that while they ascribe to fire so much honour and, one may say, purity, they are not ashamed sometimes to identify Vesta with Venus, thus making nonsense of the virginity which is honoured in her attendants? For if Vesta is Venus how could the virgins do her due service by abstaining from the works of Venus? Or are there two Venuses, one a virgin, the other a wife? Or, rather three! One for virgins, who is the same as Vesta; one for married women; one for harlots? This last was the goddess to whom the Phoenicians used to give a present, earned by the prostitution of their daughters, before they gave them in marriage. Which of these is the lady wife of Vulcan? Certainly not the virgin, since she has a husband. Not the harlot; perish the thought! We must not seem to insult the son of Juno, and Minerva’s fellow-worker! Then we infer that Vulcan’s wife was concerned with married women. I hope they will not imitate her behaviour with Mars!
‘There you go! Back to the fables again.’ But what kind of justice is this – to be angry with us for talking like this about their gods and not to be angry with themselves for taking such pleasure in watching the gods’ depravities in the theatres? And remember (incredible though it would be, were it not proved quite incontestably) that those representations of the gods’ disgrace were instituted in honour of the gods!
11.
The many gods identified by the learned with Jupiter
So let them make what claims they like in their scientific theories and arguments. Let Jupiter be at one time the soul of this material universe, who ‘fills’ and ‘moves the whole mass’,
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constructed and composed out of four elements – or as many elements as they please – and then let him give up to his sister and his brothers their special parts of the whole. At another time let him be the ether, so that he may from above embrace Juno, the air spread out below him, and then let him be the whole sky, air included, and fertilize, with his ‘fecund showers’ and seeds, the earth which is both his wife and his mother – nothing disgusting in this, in the divine context! Then (we need not discuss all
the possibilities) let him be the one god of whom the famous poet (as many think) is speaking when he says,
Because God ranges all the lands of earth,
The sea’s expanse, and the vast depth of heaven.
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Let this one god be Jupiter in the ether, Juno in the air, Neptune in the sea, Salacia
33
in the lower depths of the sea, Pluto on earth, Proserpina in the lower depths of the earth, Vesta on the domestic hearth, Vulcan in the metal-worker’s forge: in the sky, let him be the Sun, the Moon, the stars; among the seers, Apollo; in commerce, Mercury; in the person of Janus
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let him appear as the initiator, in Terminus as the terminator. Let him be Saturn, in respect of time; in wars let him be Mars and Bellona; Liber among the vines, Ceres among the crops and Diana in the woods; and Minerva in respect of natural talents. Finally, let him also be seen in that crowd of plebian gods, as we may call them. Under the name of Liber let him be in charge of the seed of men, and in charge of the seed of women under the title of Libera;
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let him be identified with Diespater, to bring the offspring into the light of day (
dies
), and with Mena, whom the Romans appointed to supervise the periods of women; and with Lucina,
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who is invoked by women in childbirth. Let him bring aid (
opem
) to the newly-born by receiving them upon the lap of earth, and be called Opis; let him open the infant’s mouth when the baby wails, and be called the god Vaticanus; and lift it (
levare
) from the ground as the goddess Levana; and guard the cradle as Cunina.
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Let it be none other than he who is manifested in those goddesses, called Carmentes, who foretell the fate of the newly-born; let him be invoked as Fortuna, the presiding deity of chances. As the goddess Rumina let him give the breast to the baby (the breast was anciently called
ruma
); as Potina let him offer drink (
potio
), and as Educa serve food (
esca
) to the young. Let him be named Paventia, from the terror (
pavor
) of infants; Venilia,
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from the advent of hope; Volupia,
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from voluptuous delight; Agenoria, in respect of activity; from the stimulus which drives men to excessive action, let him get the title Stimula; and be the goddess Strenia,
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in making men strenuous; and Numeria, to teach men numbers, and Camena to teach them to sin (
canere
). At the same time let him be Consus, in offering counsel, and Sentia, by inspiring sentiments; and appear as the
goddess Juventas,
41
to welcome the opening stages of youth, when the
toga praetexta
has been laid aside; and as ‘Bearded Fortuna’
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to equip the young men with beards. (The pagans refused to do these young men the honour of giving this divinity, as a male divinity of some kind or other, a masculine name, Barbatus, say – from
barbo
, as Nodutus from
nodus
– or Fortunáis; anything rather than the feminine Fortuna – with that beard!) In the character of Jugatinus
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let him join couples in marriage; and let him be invoked by the name of Virginensis, when the bride’s virgin girdle is untied. Let him be Mutunus, or Tutunus, whom the Greeks called Priapus.
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If it does not embarrass our opponents, let Jupiter be all that I have mentioned – and all that I have left unsaid (for I decided to omit a great deal): let him, and him alone, be all those gods and goddesses,
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whether, as
some would have it, they are all aspects of Jupiter, or forces of Jupiter. The latter interpretation is advanced by those who have decided that he is the soul of the world – an opinion held by men of apparent distinction and erudition.