The Nature of the Gods by Marcus Cicero

Author:Marcus Cicero
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141959290
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2009-11-24T00:00:00+00:00

Or a quality which manifests some great power is itself named as a god, such as Faith and Reason, both of which we have actually seen consecrated in the Capitol by Marcus Aemilius Scaurus. There was also a previous consecration of Hope by Aulus Atilius Calatinus. You can see from here the temple of Virtue, restored as a temple of Honour by Marcus Marcellus, and originally consecrated many years ago in the time of the Ligurian War by Quintus Maximus. Wealth, Salvation, Concord, Liberty, Victory – all of these, on account of their great power, which seemed to demand a divine origin, have been named as gods. In the same way Desire, Pleasure, Lust have been deified. But these are perverse and sophisticated vices rather than natural emotions, even if Velleius thinks otherwise. But often such vicious and artificial pleasures can overcome our more natural instincts.

‘As each divine power confers its own benefits, so it is recognized as a god in accordance with the importance of the benefits which it confers, and the power which resides in each of the gods is expressed in their names, as in the examples I have given.

‘The common custom of our human life has also brought it about that men who have conferred outstanding benefits upon mankind have been deified out of gratitude. Hence the deification of Hercules, of Castor and Pollux, of Aesculapius and of Liber. I mean here Liber the son of Semele and not the Liber to whom our ancestors paid such solemn and sacred reverence together with Ceres and Libera. The nature of that worship is revealed only in the mysteries. Here Liber and Libera were so named as the offspring of Ceres, from our word “liberi” meaning “children” – a usage which has remained in the case of Libera but not of Liber. This is the origin, too, of the deification of Romulus, whom some identify with Quirinus. All these benefactors were duly honoured as gods blessed and immortal whose spirits would endure and flourish to eternity.

‘A great number of gods have also been derived from scientific theories about the world of nature. Endowed with human shapes, they have provided fables for the poets and have permeated human life with every form of superstition. This subject has been treated by Zeno and explained at greater length by Cleanthes and Chrysippus. For example, it was an old legend of the Greeks that the Sky-God* was mutilated by his son Saturn and that Saturn in his turn was made captive by his son Jupiter. These impious tales are merely the picturesque disguise of a sophisticated scientific theory. Those who invented them felt that the high, aethereal and fiery nature of the Sky-God should have no use for those parts of the body which require intercourse with another to beget a child.

‘Men have believed it to be Saturn who rules the cyclic courses of the times and seasons. In Greek the nature of this god is expressed in his name. He is

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