Ad Nationes - Appendix - Tertullian
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Text edited by Rev. Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson and
first published by T&T Clark in Edinburgh in 1867. Additional
introductionary material and notes provided for the American
edition by A. Cleveland Coxe, 1886.
A Fragment Concerning the Execrable Gods of the Heathen
So great blindness has fallen on the Roman race, that they call their enemy
Lord, and preach the filcher of blessings as being their very giver, and to
him they give thanks. They call those (deities), then, by human names, not
by their own, for their own names they know not. That they are dµmons [1086]
they understand: but they read histories of the old kings, and then, though
they see that their character [1087] was mortal, they honour them with a
deific name.
As for him whom they call Jupiter, and think to be the highest god, when he
was born the years (that had elapsed) from the foundation of the world
[1088] to him [1089] were some three thousand. He is born in Greece, from
Saturnus and Ops; and, for fear he should be killed by his father (or else,
if it is lawful to say so, should be begotten [1090] anew), is by the advice
of his mother carried down into Crete, and reared in a cave of Ida; is
concealed from his father's search) by (the aid of) Cretans'born men! [1091]
'rattling their arms; sucks a she-goat's dugs; flays her; clothes himself in
her hide; and (thus) uses his own nurse's hide, after killing her, to be
sure, with his own hand! but he sewed thereon three golden tassels worth the
price of an hundred oxen each, as their author Homer [1092] relates, if it
is fair to believe it. This Jupiter, in adult age, waged war several years
with his father; overcame him; made a parricidal raid on his home; violated
his virgin sisters; [1093] selected one of them in marriage; drave [1094]
his father by dint of arms. The remaining scenes, moreover, of that act have
been recorded. Of other folks' wives, or else of violated virgins, he begat
him sons; defiled freeborn boys; oppressed peoples lawlessly with despotic
and kingly sway. The father, whom they erringly suppose to have been the
original god, was ignorant that this (son of his) was lying concealed in
Crete; the son, again, whom they believe the mightier god, knows not that
the father whom himself had banished is lurking in Italy. If he was in
heaven, when would he not see what was doing in Italy? For the Italian land
is "not in a corner." [1095] And yet, had he been a god, nothing ought to
have escaped him. But that he whom the Italians call Saturnus did lurk
there, is clearly evidenced on the face of it, from the fact that from his
lurking [1096] the Hesperian [1097] tongue is to this day called
Latin, [1098] as likewise their author Virgil relates. [1099] (Jupiter,
) then, is said to have been born on earth, while (Saturnus his father)
fears lest he be driven by him from his kingdom, and seeks to kill him as
being his own rival, and knows not that he has been stealthily carried off,
and is in hiding; and afterwards the son-god pursues his father, immortal
seeks to slay immortal (is it credible? [1100] ), and is disappointed by
an interval of sea, and is ignorant of (his quarry's) flight; and while all
this is going on between two gods on earth, heaven is deserted. No one
dispensed the rains, no one thundered, no one governed all this mass of
world. [1101] For they cannot even say that their action and wars took
place in heaven; for all this was going on on Mount Olympus in Greece. Well,
but heaven is not called Olympus, for heaven is heaven.
These, then, are the actions of theirs, which we will treat of
first'nativity, lurking, ignorance, parricide, adulteries,
obscenities'things committed not by a god, but by most impure and truculent
human beings; beings who, had they been living in these days, would have
lain under the impeachment of all laws'laws which are far more just and
strict than their actions. "He drave his father by dint of arms." The
Falcidian and Sempronian law would bind the parricide in a sack with beasts.
"He violated his sisters." The Papinian law would punish the outrage with
all penalties, limb by limb. "He invaded others' wedlock." The Julian law
would visit its adulterous violator capitally. "He defiled freeborn boys."
The Cornelian law would condemn the crime of transgressing the sexual bond
with novel severities, sacrilegiously guilty as it is of a novel union.
[1102] This being is shown to have had no divinity either, for he was a
human being; his father's flight escaped him. To this human being, of such a
character, to so wicked a king, so obscene and so cruel, God's honour has
been assigned by men. Now, to be sure, if on earth he were born and grew up
through the advancing stages of life's periods, and in it committed all
these evils, and yet is no more in it, what is thought [1103] (of him) but
that he is dead? Or else does foolish error think wings were born him in his
old age, whence to fly heavenward? Why, even this may possibly find credit
among men bereft of sense, [1104] if indeed they believe, (as they do, )
that he turned into a swan, to beget the Castors; [1105] an eagle, to
contaminate Ganymede; a bull, to violate Europa; gold, to violate Danaë; a
horse, to beget Pirithoüs; a goat, to beget Egyppa [1106] from a she-goat;
a Satyr, to embrace Antiope. Beholding these adulteries, to which sinners
are prone, they therefore easily believe that sanctions of misdeed and of
every filthiness are borrowed from their reigned god. Do they perceive how
void of amendment are the rest of his career's acts which can find credit,
which are indeed true, and which, they say, he did without self
transformation? Of Semele, he begets Liber; [1107] of Latona, Apollo and
Diana; of Maia, Mercury; of Alcmena, Hercules. But the rest of his
corruptions, which they themselves confess, I am unwilling to record, lest
turpitude, once buried, be again called to men's ears. But of these few
(offsprings of his) I have made mention; off-springs whom in their error
they believe to be themselves, too, gods'born, to wit, of an incestuous
father; adulterous births, supposititious births. And the living, [1108]
eternal God, of sempiternal divinity, prescient of futurity, immeasurable,
[1109] they have dissipated (into nothing, by associating Him) with crimes
so unspeakable.
Elucidation.
This Fragment is noted as spurious, by Oehler who attributes it to somebody
only moderately acquainted with Tertullian's style and teaching. [1110] I
do not find it mentioned by Dupin, nor by Routh. This translation is by
Thelwall.
Footnotes
[1086] Daemons. Gr. , which some hold to = , "knowing,"
"skilful," in which case it would come to be used of any superhuman
intelligence; others, again, derive from , "to divide, distribute," in
which case it would mean a distributor of destinies; which latter derivation
and meaning Liddell and Scott incline to.
[1087] Actum: or "career."
[1088] Mundi.
[1089] i.e., till his time.
[1090] Pareretur. As the word seems to be used here with reference to his
father, this, although not by any means a usual meaning, would seem to be
the sense. [As in the equivalent Greek.]
[1091] A Cretibus, hominibus natis. The force seems to be in the absurdity
of supposing that, 1st, there should eb human beings (hominibus) born, (as
Jupiter is said to have been "born,") already existing at the time of the
"birth" of "the highest god;" 2ndly, that these should have had the power to
do him so essential service as to conceal him from the search of his own
father, likewise a mighty deity, by the simple expedient of rattling their
arms.
[1092] See Hom. Il. ii. 446-9; but Homer says there were 100 such tassels.
[1093] Oehler's "virginis" must mean "virgines."
[1094] So Scott: "He drave my cows last Fastern's night."'Lay of Last
Minstrel.
[1095] See Acts xxvi. 26.
[1096] Latitatio.
[1097] i.e., Western: here="Italian", as being west of Greece.
[1098] Latina.
[1099] See Virg. Aen. viii. 319-323: see also Ov. Fast. I. 234-238.
[1100] Oehler does not mark this as a question. If we follow him, we may
render, "this can find belief." Above, it seemed necessary to introduce the
parenthetical words to make some sense. The Latin is throughout very clumsy
and incoherent.
[1101] Orbis.
[1102] Lex Cornelia transgressi foederis ammissum novis exemplis novi
coitus sacrilegum damnaret. After consulting Dr. Holmes, I have rendered,
but not without hesitation, as above. "Feodus" seems to have been
technically used, especially in later Latin, of the marriage compact; but
what "lex Cornelia" is meant I have sought vainly to discover, and whether
"lex Cornelia transgressi foederis" ought not to go together I am not sure.
For "ammissum" (=admissum) Migne's ed. reads "amissum," a very different
word. For "sacrilegus" with a genitive, see de Res. Carn, c. xlii. med.
[1103] Quid putatur (Oehler) putatus (Migne).
[1104] Or, " feeling "'" sensu. "
[1105] The Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux.
[1106] Perhaps Aegipana (marginal reading of the ms. as given in Oehler
and Migne).
[1107] i.e., Bacchus.
[1108] Oehler reads "vide etem;" but Migne's "viventem" seems better:
indeed, Oehler's is probably a misprint. The punctuation of this treatise in
Oehler is very faulty throughout, and has been disregarded.
[1109] "Immensum," rendered "incomprehensible" in the "Athanasian Creed.
[1110] See page 14, supra.
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