They have called him Victor, Invictus, Opitulus, Impulsor, Stator, Centumpeda, Supinalis, Tigillus, Almus, Ruminus, and other names which it were long to enumerate.But these surnames they have given to one god on account of diverse causes and powers, but yet have not compelled him to be, on account of so many things, as many gods.They gave him these surnames because he conquered all things; because he was conquered by none;because he brought help to the needy; because he had the power of impelling, stopping, stablishing, throwing on the back;because as a beam[1] he held together and sustained the world; because he nourished all things; because, like the pap,[2] he nourished animals.Here, we perceive, are some great things and some small things; and yet it is one who is said to perform them all.I think that the causes and the beginnings of things, on account of which they have thought that the one world is two gods, Jupiter and Janus, are nearer to each other than the holding together of the world, and the giving of the pap to animals;and yet, on account of these two works so far apart from each other, both in nature and dignity, there has not been any necessity for the existence of two gods; but one Jupiter has been called, on account of the one Tigillus, on account of the other Ruminus.I am unwilling to say that the giving of the pap to sucking animals might have become Juno rather than Jupiter, especially when there was the goddess Rumina to help and to serve her in this work; for I think it may be replied that Juno herself is nothing else than Jupiter, according to those verses of Valerius Soranus, where it has been said:
"Almighty Jove, progenitor of kings, and things, and gods, And eke the mother of the gods," etc.
Why, then, was he called Ruminus, when they who may perchance inquire more diligently may find that he is also that goddess Rumina?
If, then, it was rightly thought unworthy of the majesty of the gods, that in one ear of corn one god should have the care of the joint, another that of the husk, how much more unworthy of that majesty is it, that one thing, and that of the lowest kind, even the giving of the pap to animals that they may be nourished, should be under the care of two gods, one of whom is Jupiter himself, the very king of all things, who does this not along with his own wife, but with some ignoble Rumina (unless perhaps he himself is Rumina, being Ruminus for males and Rumina for females)! I should certainly have said that they had been unwilling to apply to Jupiter a feminine name, had he not been styled in these verses "progenitor and mother," and had I not read among other surnames of his that of Pecunia [money], which we found as a goddess among those petty deities, as I have already mentioned in the fourth book.But since both males and females have money [pecuniam], why has he not been called both Pecunius and Pecunia? That is their concern.
CHAP.12.--THAT JUPITER IS ALSO CALLED PE-CUNIA.
How elegantly they have accounted for this name! "He is also called Pecunia," say they, "because all things belong to him." Oh how grand an explanation of the name of a deity! Yes; he to whom all things belong is most meanly and most contumeliously called Pecunia.In comparison of all things which are contained by heaven and earth, what are all things together which are possessed by men under the name of money?[3] And this name, forsooth, hath avarice given to Jupiter, that whoever was a lover of money might seem to himself to love not an ordinary god, but the very king of all things himself.But it would be a far different thing if he had been called Riches.For riches are one thing, money another.For we call rich the wise, the just, the good, who have either no money or very little.For they are more truly rich in possessing virtue, since by it, even as respects things necessary for the body, they are content with what they have.
But we call, the greedy poor, who are always craving and always wanting.For they may possess ever so great an amount of money;but whatever be the abundance of that, they are not able but to want.And we properly call God Himself rich; not, however, in money, but in omnipotence.Therefore they who have abundance of money are called rich, but inwardly needy if they are greedy.So also, those who have no money are called poor, but inwardly rich if they are wise.
What, then, ought the wise man to think of this theology, in which the king of the gods receives the name of that thing "which no wise man has desired?"[1] For had there been anything wholesomely taught by this philosophy concerning eternal life, how much more appropriately would that god who is the ruler of the world have been called by them, not money, but wisdom, the love of which purges from the filth of avarice, that is, of the love of money!
CHAP.13.-- THAT WHEN IT IS EXPOUNDED WHAT SATURN IS, WHAT GENIUS IS, IT COMES TOTHIS, THAT BOTH OF THEM ARE SHOWN TO BE JUPITER.
But why speak more of this Jupiter, with whom perchance all the rest are to be identified; so that, he being all, the opinion as to the existence of many gods may remain as a mere opinion, empty of all truth? And they are all to be referred to him, if his various parts and powers are thought of as so many gods, or if the principle of mind which they think to be diffused through all things has received the names of many gods from the various parts which the mass of this visible world combines in itself, and from the manifold administration of nature.For what is Saturn also?
"One of the principal gods," he says, "who has dominion over all sowings." Does not the exposition of the verses of Valerius Soranus teach that Jupiter is the world, and that he emits all seeds from himself, and receives them into himself?
It is he, then, with whom is the dominion of all sowings.What is Genius?
"He is the god who is set over, and has the power of begetting, all things." Who else than the world do they believe to have this power, to which it has been said:
"Almighty Jove, progenitor and mother?"