Juan Pérez de Moya
Collected here is the crowning work of Spanish literature regarding the interpretation of the fables of classical mythology, carried out by the bachelor Juan Pérez de Moya (1513-1596), according to the 1585 edition published in Madrid. The transcription of the text is carried out by the University of Alicante, who have kindly provided it to this magazine.
Approval
I have read this book entitled Secret Philosophy (ordered by the bachelor Iuan Pérez de Moya) by order of the gentlemen of the Council of His Majesty, and not only do I not find anything in it that contradicts our holy faith, but outside of Being of a lot of work and study by the author, it is beneficial for the declaration of the fables that almost all the poets put in their books, and for the good understanding of them, and for the common people to know what the poets wanted to mean by them. And so it seems to me that a license can be given for it to be printed. Given in Madrid, in this our convent of Our Lady of Mercy, redemption of captives, on August 8, one thousand five hundred and eighty-four years.F. Alonso Muñoz
The king
Because from you, the bachelor Iuan Pérez de Moya, a resident of the town of San Esteban del Puerto, we were told that you had composed a book entitled Secret Philosophy where beneath fabulous stories is contained a lot of doctrine beneficial to all studies. . With the origin of the idols or gods of the Gentiles, which had cost you a lot of work and study, and we begged us to give you permission to be able to print and privilege for twenty years, or whatever our favor was, which seen by the of our Council, since in the said book the procedures that the pragmatics made to us regarding the printing of the books were carried out, it was agreed that we should order this our document to be given in the said reason, and we considered it okay. By which we give you license and power so that you, or the person in your power, and no other, can have the said book printed and sold, which is mentioned above, in all these our kingdoms of Castile for a period of time. and a space of ten following first years that run and are counted from the day of the date of this document onwards, under penalty that the person or persons who, without having your power to do so, print or sell it, lose the impression they made, with the molds and rigging thereof, and incur a penalty of fifty thousand maravedis each time the contrary is done; of which said penalty is one third for the person who will accuse him and the other third for the judge who will sentence him, and the other third for our chamber and treasury. Provided that every time you have the said book printed, during the said period of the said ten years, you bring it to our Council, together with the original that was seen in it, which is initialed on each page and signed at the end. of Iuan Gallo de Andrada, our chamber clerk, of those who reside in our Council; and before it is sold you bring it to our people, together with the original saying so that it can be seen if the said impression is in accordance with it, and you bring public faith in how the corrector appointed by our command saw and corrected it. the said printing by the original saying and if it was printed in accordance with it and the errors indicated by it are printed for each one of those books that were printed in this way, and you are assessed the price that you must have for each volume, under penalty of fall and incur the penalties contained in the pragmatic sayings and laws of our kingdoms. And we command those of our Council and any other justices of our kingdoms to guard, fulfill and execute this our decree and everything contained in it. Made in San Lorenzo on the seventeenth day of the month of August, one thousand five hundred and eighty-four years.
I the King By order of his Majesty, Antonio de Eraso
To the illustrious Lord Iuan Baptista Gentil
Although the intention of my writing and the concept that I have, of the virtuous readers, whose custom is to pay equal attention to the will and to the service, and to make up for the lack of what is given with what is left over in the desire to give, assured me In order not to look for a defender against the objections that are rarely lacking in such occupations, I wanted to give this book the flavor that its author considers the main one, because the luck is that he who uses cravings does not put them on to see them and get pregnant. there the sight, but to move forward and through them see other things, thus directing VM. The Geometry book that I took out before this one was not for him alone to fulfill the obligations that I owed to VM. I have, but to make a path and principle to dedicate to the illustrious name of VM. all those that I will draw from here on, moving towards them two things: one, to correspond with the obligation that I have as my patron; the other, due to the usefulness that it gives to my writings, because as precious stones do not receive as much value from the name they have (they can be false and counterfeit) as from the person in whose hands they are, so my works have a protector in whom So many excellent virtues are contained, with so much approval and satisfaction from all, they will be able to free themselves from the slander and contradictions of those who, like Momos, exercise themselves in inquiring into other people's inadvertence. And so I beg VM. Receive this service as from a person who wishes you to do greater things. From Madrid on the twentieth of February, one thousand five hundred and eighty-five years.
[Tasa]
I, Iuan Gallo de Andrada, chamber clerk of His Majesty, of those who reside in his Council, attest that having seen by the gentlemen of a book entitled Secret Philosophy, composed by the bachelor Moya, they appraised each sheet of said book at three maravedis and they gave license so that it could be sold at this price, and they ordered that this rate be put at the beginning of said book and that it could not be sold without it, and for the record of this I give this, which is dated in Madrid on the XIII days of the month of March one thousand five hundred and eighty-five years.
In which it is said how idolatry entered the world, and the multitude of gods of the Gentiles, about, from various nations
How this fable name is defined, and tells its usefulness and origin
Because what is said about the gods of the Gentiles was all fabulous fiction of the ancients, we will begin by stating what a fable is and why this language was invented. Fable they say to a feigned speech with which an image of something is represented. It is said, according to Hermogenes, from for faris, a Latin verb, which means to speak, because every fable is based on a reasoning of feigned and apparent things, invented by poets and wise men, so that beneath an honest recreation of peaceful tales, sayings with some semblance of truth, induce readers to often read and know its hidden morality and beneficial doctrine. Fables, some take their name from the place where they were invented; others, from the same inventors; and the one and the other are divided into mythological, and apological, and milesian, and genealogical. Mythological is a speech that with words of admiration means some natural secret, or story of history, like the fable that claims to be Venus generated from the foam of the sea. Albricus, the philosopher, and Fortunus, and Epicharmus, and Crates the Athenian, and many others dealt with this kind of fables.
Apological is a speech in which, by pretending to speak, brute animals persuade men to live wisely and prudently, which is why by another name they are called moral, or rational, or admonishing, or police fables. In this way of allegorizing, Aesop excelled so much that all the fables of this genre are called Aesopian, leaving many authors who wrote about it in silence. There are two differences in this type of apologies: some are called Libyan, and others Aesopian; In the Libyan ones one pretends to speak men, and in the Aesopian ones one pretends to speak brutes; and because the Libyans mixed with the Aesopian ones, they call them both Aesopian.
Milesias are said of the city of Miletus, which is in Ionia, where they were first invented, and these are ravings without a foundation of virtue, concocted to stupefy the simple. In this genre of fables Apuleius wrote his Golden Donkey; and so are the fables of the books of chivalry, similar to those that the sacred apostle admonishes us to avoid, because they serve only as bait for the devil, with which he hunts in the corners the tender spirits of the maidens and light young men.
Genealogical are those that deal with lineage or kinship of the pretended gods of gentility; and because poets use these more to adorn their poems, and for various other purposes, they are called poetic, of which, and of the mythological, it is my attempt in this book to write, because the excellence and greatness of the artifice of the ancients in pretending that with them they sometimes declared, according to an allegorical sense, principles and precepts, and order of natural philosophy; others, virtues and vices; others, forces and secrets of medicine and properties of things; others, history; others, to flatter and soften the spirits of the powerful; others, so that in work and calamities and disturbances of the spirit we have suffering; others, that move us to the fear of God, and separate us from clumsy things; and so they proceed declaring with fables everything that consists of knowledge; and they were so used in ancient times, and so beneficial to all human doctrines and customs, and even to Christian ones, that they are even found in sacred scripture: where the Sacred Text says that the trees were gathered together (as in a chapter). from the mountain, to raise one of them as king. And in another place it says that King Ioas sent an embassy to King Amazias that he would not be taken with him, that he should be careful not to happen to him what happened to the running thistle, who asked for the daughter of the cedar of Mount Lebanon to marry his son, And at that time the beasts of Mount Lebanon passed by and ate the thistle, which was presumed to be related to the cedar. The first to write fables was Alemon, according to Isidoro. And the reason that moved the ancients to write their secrets and other things in this genre, according to Plato, was to show children doctrine, and to make them fond of it, gilding it like pills with the pretenses of peaceful stories, with which, not only They made them attentive, but very greedy to know what was meant behind those fables, or because this type of writing is easier to commit things to memory. We could also say that the little paper and writing resources they had at that time must have required them to use fables to declare many things with few words. And also not wanting its secrets to be common to everyone, because in the same way that wine loses something of its being or softness when put in bad vessels, so the divine things of philosophy, put in such a way that they are vulgar to rustic, are corrupted. and they lose much of their esteem.
Of the meanings that can be given to a fable
A fable can be declared in five ways, namely: literal, allegorical, anagogical, tropological, and physical or natural. Literal sense, which by another name is called historical or parabolic, is the same as what the lyrics of such a fable or scripture sound like. Allegorical sense is a diverse understanding of what the fable or scripture literally says. It is derived from alseon, which means diverse, because by saying one thing the letter means another different thing. Anagogical is said from anagoge, and anagoge is derived from Ana, which means upward, and goge, guide, which means to guide upward, to the high things of God. Tropological is said of tropos, which is reversio, or conversion, and logos, which is word, or reason, or prayer; as if saying, a word or prayer convertible to inform the soul to good habits. Physical or natural is a sense that declares some work of nature. Example: Hercules, son of Jupiter (according to poetic fiction), after completing his victorious work, he was placed in heaven. Taking this literally, nothing is understood other than what the lyrics sound like. And according to allegory or morality, Hercules means victory against vices. And according to the anagogical sense it means the uprising of the anima, which despises worldly things for heavenly things. And according to the tropological sense, Hercules is understood as a strong man, accustomed to virtue and good customs. And according to the physical or natural sense, Hercules is understood as the Sun, and by his twelve works or feats, the twelve signs of the zodiac, surpassed by him passing through them in one year. And it should be noted that the last three senses, since they are named by different names, can still be called allegorical, because, as we have said, allegory says what is different from the historical or literal sense. And what of these senses it is my attempt to declare in the fables is the historical sense, and the physical and moral sense.
He says that worship or religion is something to which man naturally inclines, and what opinion did the ancients have of God?
Of the perfections given to human nature, there is none that is more esteemed and more appropriate to man than adoration and religion, because our soul, according to Plato's opinion, after it is created by the hand of God, by natural and certain movement she turns to him as to her creator, in the manner of a loving daughter of pure desire to see her father, just as the fire that is kindled on earth by virtue of the superior bodies tries to direct its flame as far as it can towards the heights, so our soul, which with a natural instinct feels divinely created, turns towards this divinity and desires and adores; Therefore there was and is no people who did not believe there was someone who deserved to be feared, adored and served, whom they called God. This is what Iamblichus, a philosopher, wanted to feel, saying that a certain divine fire comes to wound our spirit, from which a natural appetite for the love of God follows from man. Therefore, many wanting to follow this opinion, said that Prometheus descended the divine fire from Heaven, with which he gave being and life to the man that he formed from clay; From this natural divine fire, from which God (understood by Prometheus) formed man, the cause arises, because when something happens to us, good or bad, suddenly, before we make any other consideration, we raise our eyes to heaven, joining the hands, as naturally man understands and feels that everything happens from above, and is inclined to give thanks to the one who sends it, which are effects of worship and that there is God to fear and love. But what this God is, or whether he is one or many, the opinions of the ancient philosophers were various and diverse. Thales Milesius said that God was an intellect or soul that generated all things from water; because it seemed to him that without humidity nothing could be generated, he thought that water was the beginning of all things. Pythagoras said that God was a spirit spread throughout all things in the world. Cleanthes and Anaximenes said that God was the air, and that everything was generated from it, and that it was immense and infinite, and always in motion; because it seemed to them that without air and respiration nothing could live. Anaxagoras, before them, and Xenophanes, said that God was an infinite understanding together with all things. Straton said nature was God. Chrysippus said fire was God. Macrobius and Alcineus said the Sun and the Moon and the stars were God. Theodoncio claimed to be the earth. Others thought that the spirit of man was a particle of divinity, that it would result from it, like a spark that jumps from a burning coal, and thus they thought that the spirit was God, and that as from a large spark other small sparks jump into the air, Thus they held that all the effects and forces of the mind were gods, and if the affection was active, they called it a male god, and if it was passive, they called it that female; Not everyone had this madness, because as Tullius argues, if man's mind were God, he would not be ignorant of anything. And he says more: that in this way of gods made of physical reason Zeno had treated it, and later Cleanthe and Chrysippus explained it, saying that the strength of God derived in the spirit of the strong man was called Mars, from this name: but- maris, because strength encourages males. Cupid loved the love of God, because it is derived from the lover's spirit. They called Minerva the wisdom, derived in the mind of the wise man. They called the generative power Venus, which was like the vein of generation, and thus they came from the other gods and goddesses, who according to this false opinion of Gentiles were named after the forces and affections of the spirit. Others, with the discourse of reason, considering the miraculous workmanship and disposition of the universe, and the prudence of the order of nature, call Him who ordained it, and created it, and made it out of nothing, God, as is the truth; and God, according to Saint Isidore, means Fear, which properly belongs to the Holy Trinity, of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, to which Trinity refers everything that can be said about God. Or we say God of two days, because it is understood to be the giver of all the goods of the world, and this God is eternal and infinite and invisible, and an incorporeal spirit that fills everything, and to this Lord we owe religion and worship and service, of whom we will say more elsewhere.
It tells how the diversity of languages caused the multitude of the gods of the Gentiles
In the entire first age before the flood of Noah, although men sinned in many things, it is not read or heard that there had been idolatry, because idolatry, according to Lactantius, entered the world through ignorance, and while Since the language was one, there could not have been such great ignorance among the people, because they always had someone to teach them the truth, and they all talked about one thing, having for this purpose teachers from ancient times, like Noah, who learned from the works of the true God. They remembered, and could not lose the knowledge of a God who created and made everything created. And thus, if all the people always had one language and conversation, they could not fall into such great ignorance that they believed there was another God except the one whom the flood had sent upon the earth, and delivered from it Noah and those who were with him in the ark. But according to Lactantius, in the alleged book, the introduction of the gods and idolatry originated from the builders of the tower of Babylon, who, not understanding each other due to the diversity of languages, had to be distributed throughout different lands, and it happened that in some languages there were only young men, who did not have perfect knowledge of things, who, and those who were born from them, not finding anyone from the divinity to give them certain knowledge, fell into errors, ignoring their Creator and adoring his creatures. , believing and calling gods those who were not, helped by the evil of demons and the abhorrence they have of destroying the human lineage; because they, knowing the inclination and the most ardent desire that man has to find God, and that he cannot be found without worshiping Him (as we said in the previous chapter), in order to remove the tendency that he had to seek Him, and honor himself, they persuaded him that what he was looking for is what he puts in his fantasy, and with an attempt to deceive him he told him things to come, and he did things that seemed to be supernatural to simple people, as Eusebius and Saint Augustine say.
How the Egyptians were the first to worship the sun and the moon
The first to fall after the flood into the error of worshiping the Sun and Moon and having them as gods were the Egyptians, according to Lactantius Firmianus and Diodorus Siculus, and the reason why these people began to worship creatures, more than others, was That they were people of little police, and did not have houses, they contemplated the Sun and Moon and the other celestial bodies, and seeing the benefits that they brought to everyone with their movements, they believed they were gods. Worshiping these heavenly bodies was also the doctrine of Cham, Noah's third son, because, according to Saint Augustine, he populated Egypt, and was a great necromantic, and a friend of using natural things for evil; and not esteeming at all the doctrine that his father had taught him, of the true God, he determined to invent new things, and devastate men, and attract them to believe what he said and did; and the evil inclination of some, and the ignorance of others, had so much influence on them that they easily allowed themselves to be overcome by the bad doctrine that the damned Cham gave them. As the world grew more, things became so blind that they inclined to worship lower things, because they found nothing on earth in which there was any benefit that they did not revere and hold in high regard, because they judged that this could not come except by divine will; That's how Tulio feels. This is why the Egyptians worshiped water, because of the benefits that come from it, and because it does not rain in Egypt; and seeing her need and the privation they have, they esteemed her very much. From these the deity of water passed to the Greeks, and from the Greeks to the Trojans, and from the Trojans to the Romans. For this very reason they worshiped beasts and vile animals, because of the interest and benefit they brought them. This is witnessed by Strabo and Diodorus Siculus, who say that they worshiped cats, dogs, wolves, oxen or bulls, sheep, weasels, eagles, storks, and falcons, crocodiles and so on other animals, as they had some benefit or harm. Diodorus Siculus says that the reason why the Egyptians (in general) worshiped animals was because in wars they put animal insignia on their banners and when they won, they had to be the cause of such a sign, and in gratitude they worshiped it.
Rufinus says that the Egyptians, in memory of Ioseph, son of Jacob, for the benefit he had done to those of that land, sustaining them in those seven years of the great famine, as it is read in the sacred volume, they set up an idol called Serapis. , having him as patron of the whole earth, and thus there was in Alexandria of Egypt a famous temple that was celebrated by all people, where there was a large statue in his name that had its finger on its lips, to denote that everyone keep quiet and no one would dare to say that he had been a mortal man (as Marcus Varro points out), and anyone who said such would be punished for dying.
Others have that the Egyptians, to denote the effects that the Sun causes with its own movements and abduction, walking through the zodiac, worshiped a large black ox or bull, with very large testicles, and the hair upside down from the tail to the back. the head, and they called him Apis. By the blackness of this animal they denoted the effect that the Sun has on human bodies, turning them from white to black, and as a source that is the generation of all nature, for which they attributed large testicles to denote it, as instruments that They are from that generation. By the position of the hairs, unlike the other bulls, the movement of the Sun was implied to be contrary and the opposite of what we see the first mobile do. Others, for this very reason, worshiped the same Sun in the form of a beetle, which is a black animal, for the aforementioned reason, which pushes the ball of dirty manure in the opposite way from the posture and position of the body in such movement. . Author of this is Plinio. Whoever wants to see these vanities more in the long run read Lucian and Alexandrinus and Saint Augustine, book 2, chapter 22, and book 8, chapter 26, of his City of God.
How the Chaldeans worshiped fire
The first to worship fire were the Chaldeans, and the one who imposed it on them was Nimrod, grandson of Cham, who according to Joseph was an idolater, and the one who showed men to depart from the fear of God, and worship fire; Because once Noah's flood had passed, in which the world perished by water, it was bound to perish again by fire, and out of fear they worshiped him. And to persuade them that it had an advantage over all the other things they worshiped, he told them to watch how the fire burned and consumed all the gold and silver and the other materials from which the other gods were made. But this worship of fire was removed by a very clever invention by a priest of Canope, a city in Egypt, as Rufinus writes. And the invention was that this priest took an earthen jar, made with many very small holes, which he covered with wax, and filled it with water, and so that it could not be seen, he painted it with different colors, and took a head from an ancient idol. and placed it on the very composed jar. Which done, he said that he was a god, the most powerful of all the gods, and challenged the Chaldeans to come with their god Fire, to examine which was more powerful. The Chaldeans, with the confidence they had in theirs and to give him more credit, came willingly and very confident. Therefore, a great fire was made, the priest placed his jar with his god in the middle of the fire, and as the heat melted the wax, the water began to distill delicately without being noticed, from which the fire went out; and thus the jar was the winner for killing the fire. When those who were present saw this, they left the fire that they had as a god for a long time and worshiped the jar, and it was called the great God Canopus.
He tells how in three ways idolatry entered the world, and what idol was first worshiped.
In the Book of Wisdom there are three ways of introducing various and vain gods at the beginning, some were who called gods the greatest things that they thought had some power or virtue over the world, as well as those who said they were gods. Sun, Moon and stars, and the great waters, and the strong winds, and the Scripture calls these vain, because they did not find knowledge of God, however blame them less than all the others, because these intend to know, thinking this to be Truly, they gave the honor of divinity to that thing that they believed to be greatest of all.
The second way of introducing gods or idols was those that, by their will, called men gods, there being no reason to call them that, because they had made them like images or portraits, which men, of clay or wood or of other matters they made by memory, and this is called the Latin simulacrum, and against these the Scripture makes much reprehension. Diophanes and Fulgentius Myrthologius say that Syrophanes Egicianus, a very rich man, had a son who succeeded him in his estate, which was the thing he loved most in life; God took him away, and with the anguish of his pain (which seeks remedies for consolation) he made a portrait of his son to keep in his house as a memory, ignoring that the remedy for work is oblivion, and this was called an idol, which is It says of idodinin in Greek, which means remembrance of pain, or figure, or simulation of pain, or of idos, ei, which means form, and from here comes diminutive idol, which is what they say formula in Latin; and thus, whether it is a form or a formula, they call this an idol, and hence idolatry, which is service or worship done to an idol. Having made this idol or portrait, his entire family, to please or flatter the lord, worshiped him.
Others, such as Eusebius and Trogus Pompey, say that Nilus, son of Belus, first king of the Assyrians, grandson of Nimrod, descendant of Cham, the evil son of Noah, was the first, and the master of Ecclesiastical History, they say that he did idol, because loving his father Belo very much, after he died, he ordered his portrait or statue to be made very natural, and placed in a room, passing by he gave him reverence and respect as if he were alive, and he ordered his servants to honor, beginning first as a way of obedience; and as the demon found opportunity in this invention, he made him give answers to everything he asked him, as if he were alive; and so he who was alive and a dead man was deified through ignorance, or love, or fear, or flattery of servants and subjects. It helped a lot [that], seeing that Nino loved his dead father so much, they began to favor each other, withdrawing when they committed some crime in the room where the portrait was, of which Nino took pleasure, and not only forgave them for their mistakes, but also even granting them what they most demanded. From this came the beginning to humiliate themselves before the image, and to worship it, until bad custom made it a general law, from which Nino, very happy that the honor of his image was growing, ordered priests to make sacrifices to it there, and throughout their land generally, and thus Belo began to be considered a god, and they called him the god Belo. And it followed from this principle that the images or portraits that were initially made of the dead for their memory, and not for worship, if they were of common people, were particularly venerated, and if they were of great lords, generally of everyone.
Belo was received as god of all the people who belonged to the lordship of Nino, who subjugated all of Asia and even Libya, and made all those lands worship him as such. And since the people spoke different languages, they did not have a way of pronouncing or finishing the word; and so, some called him Bel, as it is read in Daniel chapter 14; others called him Baal, as it is read in Number, chapter 22, and in book 3, Book of Kings, chapter 18, and in book 4, Regum, chapter 10; others called him Baalin, as read in book I, Regum, chapter 7; others called him Beelfegor, as we read in Psalm 105. And this is a name composed of Bel, fegor, because fegor is the name of the mountain, in which the people of Moab worshiped this idol, because they had their temple there, and for this reason they composed it calling him Beelfegor, as if he were calling the temple of Belo which is on Mount Fegor, and so on in many other ways, according to the different regions that venerated him. And although these names have different endings or ends, depending on the conditions of different languages, as they have a single name beginning, they all begin with one way, which is Bel.
Continue the same matter from the previous chapter
Later another error occurred, that when a man was famous for some knowledge or virtue, both in war and in peace, or who invented some usefulness to the republic, the rude people, thinking that this was a great thing, did not believe that it was the work of human, but divine, and he valued them highly, and wanting to show that they valued him highly, they knelt down and worshiped them, and after they were dead they had him become a star, which they called god, and these reasons are given by Saint Isidro and Tulio. Lactantius, in his Divine Institutions, says that the kings in common were worshiped by gods, sometimes out of fear, like Nebuchodonosor, king of Babylon, who, as we read in Daniel, made a golden statue sixty cubits high and six wide, and he ordered all those in his kingdom to worship that statue alone, and that there be no other, and his people, fearing his wrath, did so, and this is why Petronius says that fear made the idols. Other times, when having received benefits from some, not knowing how to satisfy them, they honored them as gods: this was mostly when they made benefits to some community of men, who, out of gratitude and to exhort others to imitate them, gave them honor, making a temple and statue for it, and setting up an altar for it, and ordaining holidays for it, and offering sacrifices to it; For this reason Iupiter was considered a god: because he did many benefits to his subjects when he was king and found various arts necessary for the life of men; and as they understood that he was a friend of fame and honor, and that he desired this remuneration, they adored him.
Other times out of flattery, and this was when some, to flatter people from whom they wanted some good, called them gods, and since honor is well known to everyone, they suffered it, and custom confirmed it. Which the great Alexandro did not consent to, of whom it is read that when some told him through flattery that he was a god, he responded: I experience it differently; as if he said: having need to eat, drink, and sleep, and suffering joys and sorrows and other passions, do not say that I am God, but rather a mortal man.
Of the variety of idols and gods that the Romans had
The Romans, for some time, had no image of any idol, because Numa Pompilius, the second king of the Romans, showed them to be God in pure understanding, not begotten nor subject to the sight of mortals, which could in no way be humanly declared; but after the Romans began to subjugate the world, as friends of novelties, imitating what they saw and what they had in Greece and other provinces that they conquered, they gathered from the rites and religions of all a rabble of gods and idols, which there were more in Rome alone than in the whole world, and thus they made several differences between them, to distinguish them. They called some select gods, which means chosen; These, according to their lightness, were considered children of gods, on the part of their father and mother, and Cicero calls these the greatest gods of the nations, because among all they were given the principality and government of things, and those of this class were said to be immortal. class: between males and females they did not reach thirty-two. These were Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo, Mars, Mercury, Vulcan, Iuno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, and others named by Saint Augustine. They called twelve of these consenting gods, namely, six males and six females, of whom Seneca mentions in the Natural Questions. They had their figures gilded and placed in the squares, as Marcus Varro says, these were Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Vulcan, Mars, Mercury, Iuno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus. They said they agreed, as if they were saying they were aware of what was being done there.
There were other gods who were called semideos, or medioxumos, which means half gods; They called them half-gods because they were sons of gods, on the one hand, and on the other, sons of mortal men, and these are of lesser lineage and nobility, according to the lesser part they had of divinity; Of these, some were gods with only a father and a mortal mother, such as Hercules, who said he was the son of Iupiter and Alcmene, a Theban woman. Others were gods on their mother's side and mortals on their father's side; and these were of lesser nobility, just as Aeneas, who was the son of Anchises, the Trojan, and the goddess Venus, and Achilles, who was the son of Peleus, a mortal man, and the goddess Thetis, and of these the numbers do not give a certain number. authors, because there were many, like Plato and other learned men, and because of brave deeds they did, like Osiris, first king of the Argives, who because he showed things pertaining to the cultivation of bread, his vassals canonized him as a god; and the Romans did the same to Iano. Read Saint Augustine about this.
There were other gods who called uncertain; They said this because they doubted their divinities. Of this kind were Pan, Silvanus, and satyrs, Faunus, Romulus, who later was called Quirinus, and Flora, and Wolf, and Penulus, and Pelunus; These last two they worshiped, according to Saint Augustine, because one invented the grinding of wheat, and the other the manuring of fields; and Simon Magus, and one of his friends (as we read in the Ecclesiastical History), and many others. And it should be noted that the Unknown God of the Athenians was not the same as the uncertain ones, because the uncertain ones doubted their divinities, and knew their names. And the Unknown God that the Athenians worshiped, although they did not know his name, they did not doubt his divinity, and this God Saint Paul declared, because having seen among the altars of the idols that the Athenians worshiped, an altar without an idol, and that had a letter that read Ignoto Deo, he preached to them saying: This God that you call unknown is the one that I preach to you; and when he told them of the Incarnation of the Son of God, and of his Passion and Resurrection, some believed him, such as Dionysius the Areopagite and his wife Damaris, and others with them, as is read in the Acts of the Apostles. The reason why the Athenians venerated the Unknown God was that when they were once afflicted with a great pestilence, they consulted the oracle of Apollo about the end of that illness, or with what sacrifices it would be remedied. Apollo responded that it was appropriate that the fields be cleared with sacrifices, but he did not indicate a place, nor to what gods they should be made, nor from what animals they should be. Then, the Greeks having a great reputation for a great philosopher named Epimenides, they asked him how to understand what Apollo commanded. He responded that they should send white and black sheep through the fields, and that the priests should follow them, and there they should offer the sacrifice to the Unknown God wherever the sheep stopped. This was done and the pestilence ceased, and from then on it was introduced to make altars and sacrifices in Athenas to the Unknown God, according to what Diogenes Laertius says, speaking of Epimenides; And since, on the advice of this philosopher, this mortality ceased, in recognition of this good work they decided to give him a large sum of money, and since he did not want to receive it, his goodness was greatly confirmed and they considered him to be something divine, and they canonized him as a god. Plato writes this story more in the long run.
They called another kind of gods villagers, and these were considered children of mortal parents; They were called villagers because they lived in various parts of the earth and water, and they believed that none of them were in heaven, like the great gods and half-gods, nor did Jupiter (father of the gods) give them so much dignity, according to Ovid, and for this reason They were called by another name terrestrial gods, or heroes, or sermons; By this name they understood themselves to be mortal, although they were of more excellence than men; Of this kind were the Muses, Nymphas, Lares, and Penates, and those who were in charge of natural things, because they gave each natural thing a god, giving it a different office.
Furthermore, they gave gods to men from the day they were conceived in the mother's womb until they died. The goddess Lucina was the advocate of childbirth, where it became customary to this day that they say to a woman who is in labor that God give her light. Vituno was the one who gave life to the child. Setune the one who gave it meaning. Lenona was the goddess who was in charge of her after the child was born, lifting him up from the earth, because in ancient times they gently let him fall on her, as her mother who received all those born to her. The goddess Cunina was the one who was careful to look after the child in her cradle. Rumina was a goddess of tits. Potina was in charge of the child's eating and drinking. Manduca was responsible for ensuring that food or drink did not harm him. Another goddess, whom they called Penencia, had control over the fear that she would not be in danger. The Vatican was in charge of crying, said vagire, which means to cry. Deesa Mite was the one who wished the child well. The god Conjus, the one who gave him good advice. Sencia was the one who made him say pleasant words to her parents and housekeepers. They had a goddess to start walking. Another to gain strength. Another one that would advise him well. Another for bad. For marriages there was another set of gods: one, who arranged the betrothal; others who helped them, and so they proceeded to the grave. They gave the body of man as many gods as there are members, and for this reason they dedicated the head to Jupiter, the eyes to Minierva, the arms to Iuno, the breasts to Neptune, the waist to Mars, the kidneys to Venus, the feet to Mercury. , etc. They had another goddess of illness called Fever, who presided over fevers (of which Saint Augustine speaks), and of fear, and of yellowness, and the one who first led to this madness was Tullius Hostilius, third king of the Romans. Who, being once in a war against some peoples of Italy, when he was told that the king of the Albans (who helped him) was fleeing with his people, those of Tulio's side became troubled, and turned their faces white and yellow, effects of fear, and for which Tullius Hostilius then made a vow to add twelve priests to the temple of Mars, and to dedicate one temple to yellowness and another to fear, and from then on they took fear and yellowness as deities, of which, Lactantius mocking , says that the Romans had their own evils as gods. With these they added a goddess of virtue, another of happiness and faith, and fortune, and prudence, and youth, and to honor, and to ugliness, and clumsiness, and iniquity, and even to the flies, and secrets, and various other things, according to Saint Augustine, and Titus Livy, others invented; and thus this number of gods grew so much that Hesiod, a poet, according to Eusebius, says that in his time there were thirty thousand gods, and they were not many, because they made each thing they needed their god like weak people, that each one of them was not enough for more.
Of the figuration of the statues of the gods and goddesses of gentility
The statues or portraits of the gods and goddesses were generally depicted naked (according to Alexander Aphrodysseus), to signify that their strength was hidden from no one, or to say that the gods are sincere and naked in spirit, and not stained with vices, nor hidden from the deception that usually lies beneath the dress.
Those of Phoenicia painted their gods with bags of money in their hands, because they judged that the one who was richer in gold was more than the others, or to denote that every gift came from them.
The Greeks painted them armed, because they believed that with weapons you mainly subjugate people, or to denote that the gods were powerful and strong. Others painted them with the insignia that most signified their inclinations, as elsewhere, dealing with them in particular, it will be said.
From the places where the idols gave answers
Once idolatry was already introduced into the world, as has been said in the preceding chapters, the devil, to further confirm the false divinities, found idols to be a great means of giving answers, so that by responding to what was to happen, they would believe that it was true. God, according to what Esaias says: Annuntiate quae ventura sunt in futurum, et sciemus, quia dii estis vos. Tell us the things that are to come, and we will know that you are gods. And although these answers were given in many idol temples, some were still more prominent than others. The one was in Dodona, a city in the province of Egypt, of whom Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus write, where in the depths of a mountain there was a temple dedicated to Iupiter, in which there was an oracle who gave answers. There was another in Africa, which they called the Amun temple, dedicated to Jupiter; and it was called Amón de Arena, because it was located in a sandy place. There was another in Delphos, located at the foot of Mount Parnassus, and this was the most famous of all those in the world, where the most continuous and truest answers were given, of whom Saint Fulgentius and Lucanus mention; And they say that Apollo, king of the towns called Delphos, finding some caves on Mount Parnassus where divine answers were given, locked himself in them and became a false prophet, taking that virtue into himself; and according to Pausanias, Tellus first gave answers there, his priestess being Daphne; and that afterwards he gave this place to Themis, whom Deucalion went to consult, and afterwards to Themis Apollo succeeded; and it is to be known that it was not Tellus, nor Daphne, nor Themis, nor Apollo who gave the answers, but rather very wise and deceitful demons, who in their name answered men, and the answers were not given with certainty, but with certainty. such caution that they would not be caught in a lie, speaking with misunderstanding and different meanings, in such an orderly manner, that whether the thing came, or its opposite happened, what happened always seemed to have been meant by Apollo, as Saint Augustine and Paul Orosius note. , trying Apollo's tricks in giving answers. And not only did Apollo give answers in Delphos, but according to Macrobius, in Thrace. The Ligyrian peoples had another cave, where Apollo gave answers; and in the land of Chanaam and Syria and other parts, which were the habitation of the Philistines, they had Apollo in the city of Akaron as an oracle of all their answers, and they named him Beelzebub; and they had so much confidence in him that they considered him prince of all the gods, and this was the prince of demons that the Jews said when they accused Christ our Redeemer, when they saw him do so many wonders, as appears from Saint Matheus, and not Only the Gentiles esteemed this god as something great, seeing that he so clearly gave the answers, but even the Jews went to consult his affairs, as appears from the Book of Kings, where it is read that Ochozias, king of idolatrous Israel, fell sick, he sent messengers to find out what would happen to his health. Diodorus Siculus writes about the invention of how the cave and oracle of Apollo was found. The priestesses of Apollo who gave the answers were called pythonesses, from Pythón, a serpent, who pretended that Apollo had died, and there were many of these in the world, as it is read in the Book of Kings, that Saul looked for one to ask about the event of war. These responses of the idols and pythonesses and demons lasted until the time of the Evangelical preaching, as stated by Porphyrio, and Eusebius, and Saint Augustine in the alleged place, and it was just that where the creator of the world spoke, the demon remained silent. author of lies.
How the poets called the gods of gentility everlasting and immortal
Although the poets truly knew that they were the mortal gods of gentility, and were born like other men, and they understood that everything that is born must die at some time, yet they called them everlasting and immortal. Vergil called Jupiter everlasting, and Plautus calls him immortal, and that is the reason that beneath the names of these gods they understood something else; because they called the first mind of God Saturn, and by Prometheus they understood the providence of God, and by Epimetheus, his brother, they understood sensual appetite; by Iupiter, the virtue of elemental fire or natural heat, or the middle region of the air, or the sky, and thus understanding by Iuno the lower air, and by Vesta or Ceres the fertility of the earth, and by Neptune the force or divine virtue infused in the waters, by Vulcan the artificial fire, and by Venus the natural appetite of generation, by Minerva the highest part of the air or wisdom, which is the divine force of understanding. And taking the gods in this way, they will be everlasting, according to the opinion of the ancients themselves, who thought they were the everlasting heavens and elements.
Furthermore, they said that Iupiter was the father of all things, for the reason that since by Iupiter, as we have said, they understand elemental heat, and that heat is the cause of generation, for this reason they said that he was the begetter and governor of things and the soul of the world. ; and by this soul of the world the philosophers understood the providence of God, and giver of life, because natural heat gives life to animals, as we will say elsewhere.
How was there no shortage among the Gentiles of those who mocked such gods?
Although the ancient poets and wise men celebrated the multitude of gods that we have mentioned, for declaring with them things of history and works of nature, most of them, with the common school of philosophers, mock those who really considered them gods, because they knew to be false; because by natural reason they understood there to be a single author and mover of everything, from whom as the main principle without beginning all things emanate, and from whom, as the supreme governor, the entire universe is sustained and governed; and thus, Diagoras, Milesian philosopher, mocks them. And Protagoras, according to Cicero, begins one of his works with these words: "I don't know whether he says there are gods or that there aren't any"; wanting with them to imply that there is only one Creator and powerful God; For this reason, with an open public order, they ordered his works to be burned, and it would cost him his life if he did not escape by fleeing. Plutarch, in the De Placitis Philosophorum, says a lot about how men could come to this knowledge. Plato, as appears in his books on the Republic, rebuking the multitude of gods, changed the theology of the Greeks, declaring that they believed there was only one God, and he governed the universe, whom he sometimes called the soul of the world, other times the world itself. , other times it is called the force that is diffused in all bodies. The blessed doctor Saint Augustine says that because Socrates made a book of the unity and power of one God, he was imprisoned in Athens and died in the suit, saying that he willingly died for the confession of this one Lord, whom as His human weakness allowed, he always sought to serve, and he wanted more to give his life than to leave his citizens deceived in error, which contradicts natural reason with the worship of many gods. Virgil felt this same thing, when he says of God, from whom everything comes, all the heavens and the earth and the air are filled. And finally, recognizing only one God, Cicero and Marcus Varro laughed and mocked the popular people, who submitted themselves to honor and venerate so many people. It is said of Aristotle that, placed at the extreme of life, entrusting himself to this Sovereign Creator, he said: "Cause of causes, have mercy on me." And in this way, many Gentiles will confess that there was a God, if the fear of being punished for it did not hinder them, from which it is concluded that the gods of the Gentiles were demons and diabolical inventions, as we read in Psalm 95, which disappeared later. that the Only Begotten Iesu Christo incarnated, as a shadow of the presence of the Sun. Which is seen by experience in the Indies that are newly discovered, that when the Holy Sacrament of the altar enters them, the demons that are in the idols disappear, and seeing the Indians who do not answer their questions, first because they remain like statues (as they are), then they despise them and understand their vanity, and convert to our true Christian religion.
How there is a god, and that he is triune in persons, and one in essence
Tullius says that there was and is no rational nation or man in the world, who is not deprived of judgment, who is unaware that there is God, and who does not know Him, even if confusedly. Cleanthes, a Stoic, as Tullius introduces in the alleged book, gives causes to prove this knowledge of God, which for brevity are not related, and because without them there are many reasons that naturally conclude that God is one and not many, without us believing it. by the light of faith, because if there were as many gods as the Gentiles admitted, and among them there were males and females, who married and committed adultery, in a short time they would multiply so much that there would be a lack of magistrates and lordships (as Comes Natalis says) for so many, and if it did not seem to them that we were living idle and negligent, we would have had official gods, and the earth would already be uninhabited by men and populated by gods. But all reason is repugnant to have such gods, and among them males and females, and that they ate and slept, things that are not of God, because eating and drinking and sleeping is to rejoice and preserve the weakness of the corruptible body, and its works, to preserve life, things very foreign to the divine nature of the true God. Ultra this if there were many gods, as well as two or more, would they all be equal in power or not? If they were equal, they would follow what one wanted and the other would want, and there would be disagreements and anxieties among them, each wanting to undo what the other was doing. Or since everyone was conformed to granting what others did, each one being sufficient for the production of the world, in the ordinance and government of it, the other god or gods would be superfluous, since one was enough for this, and it would be too much for something so necessary and first was superfluous and useless, something that nature does not suffer. If we say that these gods were not equal in power, nor that each one alone was sufficient for the production and government of the world, one without the other, and that all of them together were sufficient, this would be a greater inconvenience than the first, because each one would follow some to be depleted of power and defective; which to think would be like saying that there is no God, as God is the source and principle from which all powers and perfections proceed, and no perfection can be lacking in him. Another reason, it is true, is that God is infinite in power and knowledge and goodness, and we understand and say infinite to what cannot be measured with any measure, nor numbered with any number. For if there were two or more infinite gods, they would all be equal, and if so, one would be the measure of the other, because each one infinite is not greater than the other; from which it would follow that none of them would be infinite; and this proof is absolutely necessary granting that God is infinite, as is true. Having proven that there is God and that he is one, let us prove that he is not one of the celestial bodies that we see, such as the Sun, or Moon, or Sky, or any of the stars, nor any of the elements, nor any animal. This is proven by considering that every body is caused and must be a cause, because it is composed of matter and form and accidents; and if God were a body, as are the Sky, Sun, Moon and Stars, and the animal or other creature, there would be need of another God to have made it, and another mover to necessarily move it; and for these reasons it is proven that there is God, and that he is one, and that this is not one of the visible bodies, but rather it is an incorporeal one that swells everything, invisible and immortal omnipotent, infinite and blessed, whose wisdom, power and goodness theologians call the Trinity of persons, since the essence of this Trinity is one; because in the same way that fire is one, three diverse and distinct things can be considered in it: one, which illuminates dark things; the second, that it warms cold things; the third, which consumes the things that are gathered to it; thus God, since he is one in essence, is triune in persons.
God the Father produced, or eternally generated from himself God the Son, who is called by another name Word, and from these two, God the Father and God the Son, God the Holy Spirit was breathed out, who by another name is called Love, and so there are three persons different and one true God in essence, by which Philosophy the Gentile philosophers did not walk, because they limp in the first article of our Religion, which is to believe in only one God, because they believed in many (as we have said), and the who erred less, such as Aristotle, who through the discourse of Physics said that there was only one God, even with that God he did not trust everything, because he took away the creation of the world and celestial and angelic bodies, which made them eternal. But our eternal Lord God (as read in Psalm 113) did whatever he wanted in heaven and on earth, being the Creator of all. And if the Jews begin to walk by this Article of Faith, saying that they believe in one God, Creator of heaven and earth, they run aground in the second and third and fourth Articles, in which we confess the three divine persons and one substance and divine essence of the triune and one God, that the Jew cannot understand how one is, if he is triune. Well, if we move on to the fifth Article, which is Creator, here the Peripatetic school limps, which stops at this madness, that nothing could be done from nothing. Then in the sixth Article the Hebrews and Gentiles are scandalized, that a man is a giver of glory and rescue and copious redemption of the poor captive people, whom we confess to be true God and man, as Saint Paul says: We preach Jesus Christ, and This crucified scandal to the Jews and Gentiles. Leaving aside the other Articles that belong to the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in this one that we claim to be Christo God and Man, the whole world became pregnant and there was no one who saw or understood this mystery, except with the light of faith, which It is the gift of God, graciously given to men. Here is everything in this article, the mystery of the resurrection, and of the final judgment, and of the state of the blessed, and of the other life, which we hope for after this, and the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and everything of our Catholic faith, all of which was taught to us by our good teacher Iesu Christo, who was given to us on Mount Tabor from the Eternal Father, commanding us to believe everything he told us, by a voice from the Father, which sounded from above, saying : «This is my beloved Son; Hear what I say to you as to your own teacher, in whom I believe as I write; and I conclude the first book of this work.
END OF BOOK ONE
In which the lineage, life, exploits and events of the male gods that we named in the first book are declared in particular, with the historical and allegorical meanings of their fables.
From Demogorgon
The blindness of some ancients was so great that they said Demogorgon was not begotten by anyone, but that he had been eternal and father of all things and gods, and that he lived in the bowels of the earth, for whom they worshiped the earth. Which opinion had its origin (according to Theodoncio) with the rustics of Arcadia, who, being half-savage men, who lived in mountains, saw how the earth itself produced trees, and herbs, and flowers, and other fruits, which without crops are born from it, and from the herbs and seeds all animals are sustained and raised, and then they receive into themselves all the things that die, and there are mountains that emit flames of light, and from the hard flints fire comes out, and from the bowels of the earth flow water, and cause fountains and rivers and the sea itself. Furthermore, seeing vapors and exhalations emerge or rise from the earth, from which comets or burning lights are generated, they came to madly believe that the Sun and the Moon and stars were formed from it, whom the ancients call gods; And proceeding further, those who came after them, considering a little higher, did not simply call the Earth the author of these things, but imagined that there was a divine mind or being together with it, by whose will what has been said was carried out, the which mind they believed they had staying underground; And they called him who made the earth produce so many things Demogorgon, which in Greek means the god of the earth, which Lactantius interprets as wisdom of the earth, or as others please, it means the terrible or frightening god, because many times They explain him by saying that he means Demon, which is something of great knowledge or scientism, whom those of Arcadia held in great reverence, and imagining that with the silence of his name his deity would grow, or it seems to them that it would not be a convenient thing to have his name in the mouths of Mortals, fearing that by naming him he would not be moved to anger against them, by common consent it was forbidden that he should not be named by anyone without penalty. Which Lucanus shows where he introduces Eritius, who call them souls, and Statius, where he asks for the commandment of Etheoclus the old, blind Teresias of the event of the Theban war; which poets speak without expressing the name of Demogorgon. Lactantius, writing about Statius, says Demogorgon is the head and principle of the Gentile gods; They wanted, finally, by this Demogorgon to understand the maker of all created things, which is God who fills the heavens and earth.
Of litigation or strife
Litigius, according to Iuan Bocacio, was the first god of the Gentiles who was taken from the womb of Chaos, ignoring the name of his father, whose birth and upbringing Theodoncio tells this fable. Pronapides, a poet, writes (he says) that while Demogorgon was residing, to rest for a while, in the cave of Eternity, he heard a noise in the belly of Chaos, from which, moved, he stretched out his hand, opened its belly and brought out the Litigation. , who made the noise, and because he had a rough and ugly face, he threw him into the air, which then flew high, because he could not descend below, seeming to him that he had taken him from the womb of the most inferior mother of all the others. things. Chaos, tired of the hard work, not having any Lucina to call to help her give birth, bathed all over and swollen, letting out infinite sighs, it seemed that she would change into sweat, still having the strong hand of Demogorgon in her. Therefore it came to pass that, having taken him out of the Litigation, he brought out the three Fates and Pan together with him. Later, it seemed to him that Pan was more comfortable than the others in the actions of things, he made him governor of his estate, and gave him as servants her sisters. Free Chaos from the weight at Pan's command, happened in Demogorgon's chair. But the Litigation, which we call Discord, and Homer calls Lite or Lawsuit, was once again cast from heaven to earth.
In this fable it seems that Pronapides wanted to declare the creation of the world, according to the false opinion of those who have thought that God produced things created from composite matter. Because Demogorgon felt noise in the belly of Chaos, it is nothing other than divine wisdom, which moved it by some cause; as if we were to say, the maturity of the womb has arrived; that is, the hour of the determined time, and thus having begun to want to do the creation, and with regulated order he separated the things that were together, and for this doing he extended his hand; that is, putting into effect the will of a disformed city council to produce a formed and ordered work; whereby the first of all brought Litigation out of the womb of weary Chaos; That is, he suffered from the fatigue of confusion, which litigation so often takes away from things as soon as proper order is placed in them. It is, therefore, evident that above all things he did this: it is convenient, namely, to separate the things that were together. The elements were confused: hot things contrasted with cold ones, dry things with humid ones, and light things with heavy ones. And it seemed that God's first action to order the disorders had been to bring out the Litigation, he said he was the first son of Demogorgon. That he was rejected because of his ugly face, it is worth noting that the lawsuit or dispute seems good to no one. That he then flew high is an ornament to the fabulous order; Furthermore, being thrown out of heaven and not finding a high place where one could have oneself shows having been taken from the lowest parts of the already produced world. Or it means that in heaven there is no place for contradiction or strife, and for this reason they also wanted to declare the heavens to be devoid of corruption and generation. But as for the lower sense, I think that very often disputes arise between men from the movement of the higher bodies. It can also be said that the gods cast it to earth, that is, that with regard to the blessed courtiers of heaven all things are done with concert and eternal order, but among men there is hardly anything found that is consistent. When he later says that Chaos, bathed in sweat and inflamed, cast out sighs, he means the first separation of the elements, so that by sweat we understand water; by the fiery sighs, the air and the fire and the superior bodies, and by the grossness of this mass or heaviness, the earth, which later on the advice of its creator was made the room and chair of Pan, by whom nature is understood.
If Pan had been born after the Litigation, I believe that the ancients imagined that nature had had its beginning in that separation of elements; and then on the continent it was placed before the dwelling of Demogorgon, that is, to the world, as through his work, God willing it, all mortal things are produced.
The Fates, born from the same birth and given as mistresses to the brother, was pretended so that it would be understood that nature was produced with this bond: that it produces, engenders and maintains and, in the end, creates the things born, which are the three offices of the Fates, in which they do continuous service to nature, as will be shown at greater length elsewhere.
Of the god Pan
Pan, god of shepherds and rustic and peasant exercises, whose son he was, there are different opinions; some say he is the son of Demogorgon, and according to Hesiod and Homer, of Mercury. Epimenides and Aristippus make him the son of Jupiter and a nymph; others say he is the son of Aeter; others, of Heaven and Day; They raised nymphs for him, and he was their guide and messenger of the gods. They claimed to have dominion and preside over the mountains and pastures and cattle, as Virgil feels, where he begins: Ipse nemus linquens. They said they had the power to make the teats of cattle abound with milk. Isaico says that Pan loved Echo, for which some called him Echo's husband, he challenged the god of Love, and when they came to battle, he was defeated, for which reason, because the victor wanted it that way, he made him love Syrinx, Nymph of Arcadia, as Ovid writes where it begins: Panaque, cum pressing, etc. About who tells that one day seeing Syringa, coming close to her, he said to her: know, nymph, that with good will I would marry you. She, despising his words, without waiting for any other reason to be added, began to flee, until she reached her father's river, called Ladon, and seeing herself blocked there, she began to pray to the nymphs, her sisters, and to the river, that help her or change her in another way. Her prayers were heard when she moved to a cane field; and as with the air that moved them they made a sound like something that was complaining, Pan hearing it, both because of the sound and because of the love he had for the root from which they were generated, cut off those reeds and joined together with wax six or seven cañutos, and composed the musical instrument that they called fistola, with which Pan first sang and played, as Virgil says where it begins: Pan primus calamos cera coniungere plures instituit; It means: Pan was the first who decided to gather many canes or reeds with wax. He was also loved by the Moon, to whom he offered a fleece of white wool, as Virgil attests where it begins: Munere sic niueo, etc. They paint Pan with a russet face; the head with goat horns, looking at the sky; the long beard that hung down his chest, dressed in panther skin of different colors, and in one hand a staff or crook, like a shepherd's, with the end twisted, or with a sickle, and in the other an instrument musician of seven cannons or flutes; from the middle down very rough and hairy, and the feet of a goat. Rabano, and Juan Pierio Valeriano say this in book 59 of the Hieroglyphics of him.
By Pan the ancients understood the Sun or the nature or second cause, worker of the divine will of God, created by his divine providence. And because in nature the Sun is the one that acts most in the operation of all things, regarding their generation and corruption, therefore Pan, by whom they understood the Sun, was called Pan or Pana, which means in Greek everything, or the entire universe, that is finished in the lap of nature. This is how Eusebius and Phornuto and Servius interpret him, and as such they considered him the father and lord of things. They say they are gods of shepherds, because the ancients considered them to be gods that brought them some benefit, and since the Sun or nature understood by Pan was so beneficial for the pastures of their livestock, they considered it such.
They said they were the son of Mercury, because by Mercury they understood the divine will or mind, which guides the birth or generation of things; and they add that after he was born he wrapped Mercury in a hare's skin and took him to heaven; which means nothing other than that nature, as soon as it is born, begins to move with very slight movement, because who does not know that everything that is is surrounded by the very rapid movement of the heavens?
That the nymphs were mistresses who raised Pan, this is what those who followed the opinion of Thales Milesius said, who had that only humor or water, understood by the nymphs, was the author of all things, and from this the poet said he was Oceanus. father of all things; and since Pan embraces her with all the other things, they said he was prince and guide of the nymphs. Messenger of the gods he is called, because with the Sun and nature God communicates to us his mercies, making days, nights, months, years, and sustaining us with the fruits that the earth produces through it. And because from the abundance of the pastures, which come from the temperance of the Sun, understood by Pan, the milk cattle abound, for this reason they claimed to have the power to make the teats of the cattle abound with milk. Being Echo, beloved of Pan, is because the harmony of heaven was thought to be the Echo, which results from movement, and in imitation of seven planets, there were first seven strings in musical instruments, although Boethius contradicts the opinion of Pythagoras, who said that the heavens caused music with their movements.
That he fought with Cupid and was defeated by him, says this because love and contrariness were principles of all natural things. The love of procreation moves and awakens matter, and in all forms composes for generation; and so he says he was surpassed by the love that created him all, when he fought with it. Or in another way, to be overcome by love is that after nature was produced from the Creator, he began to work so quickly, and detaching himself from his work, he began to love it, and thus, moved by delight, he subjected himself to love. Because of Pan's love for Syringa, they wanted to denote the same thing as with Echo, because Syringa, according to Leoncio, is derived from sirim, which means singing thing; By this is understood the melody (according to the opinion of Pythagoras) that the heavens make with their movements (as has been said) and, consequently, as a thing most pleasing to God and to the working nature, it comes to be loved. Seringa was a nymph of Arcadia and transmuted into reeds, according to Theodoncio: those of Arcadia were the first to invent the song or son with panpipes, and they found four differences in voices, and later they added three, and to the last what they did with many pipes or panpipes, they turned it into a single one with holes at distances, which made up for the many, from which the invention of the flute came; Although Macrobius attributes this invention to Pythagoras of the harmony and sound that the hitting of small and large hammers made in a blacksmith's shop. And Iosepho attributes this to Tubal, taken from Tubal Caim, his brother, who was a blacksmith; but because this invention of music was first exercised with fistulas in Arcadia, for this reason it is said to be Syringa of Arcadia.
Syringa belittling the Satyrs means the rude wits turning into reeds by the river Ladon. Ladón is a river where an abundance of reeds grow, like those where Syringa is said to have transmuted. Being a Syringa nymph means that just as the root of the reeds in the earth takes substance from humidity, so the voice or music is caused by the help of humidity, because without it there is no pronouncing. Fleeing Syringa from Pan is that the humidity lit by the nymph Syringa flees from the heat of the Sun (understood by Pan), fleeing into the bowels of the earth, becoming reeds or another type of plant. The loves of the Moon and Pan are declared in book 3, dealing with the Moon. Through the painting of Pan, the ancients wanted to describe the body of nature, both the things they do and the things they suffer. By the russet face some understood the highest sky, or the nature of fire, or the colors that the Sun causes in the mornings and afternoons. The horns towards the sky denote the demonstration of the supercelestial bodies, or the Sun, and the Moon, or the rays of the Sun itself, understood by Pan. The long beard denotes the rays of the Sun, which penetrate the earth; or by the beard, which is a man's thing, they wanted to denote the active virtue of the Sun for the generation of things. The hare or panther skin, which they give him as clothing, denotes the starry sky or the earth, because it abounds with a multitude of plants and animals, and the admirable variety of rivers and mountains, which things are distinguished as spots, or the ornament and beauty that is derived from the light of the Sun. The staff or staff denotes the power and moderation, government and power of nature engendered in it, and corrupting all things, and the government of things that lack reason, which encourages them to acquire their goals. The year is denoted by the crookedness of this staff, because it begins where it ends, like a circle. Those who paint it with a sickle in their hands want to declare the industry of nature in pruning the superfluous, which is necessary for the generation and conservation of things. By the fistula of seven pipes, it denotes the harmony that the Pythagoreans believed the heavens caused with their orderly and continuous movements, known with the movement of the Sun. The rough and hairy of the legs denotes the surface of the earth, which is covered with herbs. and bushes and trees. The goat's feet denote the stability of the earth or the changes of the clouds that occur in the air. Having Pan with a good face and like a man from the middle above, and from the middle below like a brute, denotes the generation and corruption of things, or that the divine and true is on high; and the bad and false, in many men of the earth, which is the base.
Of Uranium, which later was called Celio or Sky, father of Saturn
Lactantius says that a powerful man named Uranius was found to have married a lady named Vesta, by whom, and by several other women, he had forty-five children, and seventeen by one called Tithea, for which reason they called the eldest of all Titano or Titan; and of the others, the most named were Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, and Iapetus, which some have that was Noah, and Opis, and Saturn, and others that Apollodorus tells, and how Saturn came to achieve great power, as in his place We will say, to extol the clarity of his lineage and to ennoble and glory in it, he called his father, called Uranium, Heaven, and his mother, who was called Vesta, he called Earth because these two things, Heaven and Earth, are the most main in the world; and not content with this, he wanted to ennoble his grandfather, saying that his father Sky was the son of Aether and of the Day, it is worth knowing, of the fiery Virtue because Aether means fire or radiance, and of the famous light understood by the day, of where his name came from in light of being famous; That's what Tulio says. From this genealogy, which was the beginning or stock from which the most powerful men in the world came, we will understand well how they and we are children of the earth and grandchildren of nothing; And so, to declare that God formed the first man of clay, the wise men pretended to have been Saturn, son of the Earth, and his father, Heaven, understanding Heaven as the maker of him.
Of Saturn, son of Heaven
Saturn, according to Lactantius, was the son of Cielo and Vesta. Once his father Heaven died, his brother Titan was to succeed in his kingdom, because he was his eldest son; However, Vesta, mother of Saturn, and the daughters called Ceres and Opis, wanted Saturn to reign, because he was a gentle young man and very wise, and Titan, on the contrary, was very ugly and rude, for which the mother and her daughters begged Titan gave the kingdom to Saturn, his brother. The pleas and importunities of some, and the diligence of Saturn, were so powerful that Titan had to give him the kingdom, with the addition of Saturn killing the male children that were born to him, so that, with Saturn having no children, the kingdom would go to the his became. This condition Saturn accepted with good will and with a healthy attempt to preserve it, and thus he began to reign in peace one hundred and fifty years before the Trojan war, according to Eusebius, and according to Lactantius, 322 years before the conquest of Troy.
Saturn married his sister Opis, because it was the custom of the gods of the Gentiles to receive sisters as wives; This is how Ovid puts it, introducing the words of Biblis, who loved Caunus, his brother, wishing to marry him, where he says:
Dii melius, Dii nempe, suas habuere sorores,
sic Saturnus Opim iunctam sibi sanguine duxit,
Occeanus Thetim, Iunorem rector Olimpi.
It is better for God, indeed God, to have his own sisters,
thus Saturn led Opim, united to himself by blood,
Oceanus Thetis, ruler of the youth of Olympus.
The gods have a better law, who take their sisters as wives; Thus Saturn takes Opis, who was very close to him in blood; The god Ocean took Thetis, and Jupiter, ruler of heaven, his sister Iuno. She ordered the first son born to her to be killed, but the second time the queen became pregnant, two children were born to her: Lidamas, whom the poets later called Iupiter, and a girl called Iuno; Showing Saturn the girl, pretending to have given birth to nothing else, they hid Jupiter, giving him to his grandmother Vestal to raise. Others say that Saturn had the habit of swallowing the children that were born to him, and when he asked Jupiter to swallow them, Opis presented him with a stone called Abdir, making him understand that he should give birth to it. Saturn ground this stone and swallowed it. In another third birth, Opis gave birth to Neptune, who also hid and raised him with lies, and again she gave birth to Pluto and a girl named Glauca; They hid Pluto and showed Glauca as if she were born alone, who, a short time later, died, according to Juan Bocacio. As time went by (discoverer of secret things), Titan learned that Saturn, his brother, had children, against the agreement and feud with him, so, angry, he gathered large companies of his children, called Titanos, and removed Saturn the kingdom, and he and his wife were put in prison. Knowing these things about Jupiter, who was already a brave young man, he came with a large army of Cretans to help his parents; and after a fierce battle against his uncle and the Titans, he defeated them and freed his parents; and restored to his kingdom, he returned to Crete, according to Lactantius. At this time, Saturn being warned by an oracle to guard against Jupiter, his son, who was going to kill him or expel him from the kingdom, Saturn wanting to avoid it, laid traps against Jupiter, looking for ways to kill him. Iupiter was warned of this by one of his relatives, so he immediately turned his anger against his father, and came with many people, and after his battles, he defeated him and threw him into prison; from which Saturn detached himself, and not daring to stop in the kingdom, he went to Italy to a province called Latium, where he was received by Iano, who at that time reigned there, according to what Virgil says, where it begins: Primus ab aethereo venit Saturnus Olympus. Lactantius believes that as Iupiter defeated his father Saturn, he cut off his genital member and banished him to the dark hells. Others say that when Jupiter came to help his father in Titan's prison, he saw himself victorious and took over the kingdom; and his father, seeing that his son was taking possession of him, did not dare to stop there, and went to Italy. Tullius says that Saturn cut off his father Heaven's virile member with a sickle, and that from the blood that came out of this genital, together with the foam of the sea, Venus was generated, because the blood fell into the sea and the sickle into the land of Sicily, and that Jupiter did the same to his father Saturn, as we have said. According to Macrobius, the Greeks had this Saturn as the prince and origin of the gods and those who descended from them, and Saint Isidro says the same. They paint Saturn old, and with four small children, and dirty and poorly dressed, and lazy, sad; his head wrapped, a sickle in his hand, and eating his children and vomiting them out again after eating. In his sacrifices the priests had their heads uncovered, as in those of other gods they had their heads covered. On his temple in Rome there was a Triton, blowing a horn.
To say that Saturn is the son of Heaven is that Saturn means time, because the Greeks call the planet Saturn Cronus or Cronon, which means time, which time came out of the movement of Heaven, because as Plato says, before the creation of Heaven there was no time, and thus time is nothing other than a measure of the movement of Heaven. By Titan's agreement with Saturn that all the children born to him should be killed, concord and discord are understood to be two principles of natural things, as Empedocles Agrigentinus felt. And there is no doubt, but then as Heaven was created by Almighty God and together with the other lower bodies (as the wise men thought), then strife and friendship were born, I mean, concord and discord in the things that within the matter informis, which they called Chaos, they believed to be hiding. Then proceeding from God himself, the time that before was none, the elements were created, which meant by the sons of Saturn: by Iupiter, the splendor of the heavens or elemental fire, or the entire ethereal region, which Anaxagoras thought to be fire, which from time understood by Saturn and from the earth understood by Opis, had been born; and by Iuno they understood the air; and for Neptune the water; and by Pluto and Ceres, terrestrial gods, the virtue or substantial force of the earth. Which is all nothing else but to say that God first made heaven, and from heaven time was born, from which the elements proceeded, making everything God out of nothing. To say that Saturn cut off Caelius' genital members is to mean that in heaven nothing is ever born, just as if there were no such members in it, understanding generation, as among animals, which is not done without such instruments. . It means that in heaven there is no generation of things that are born in it; and they said that Saturn was the one who had removed these members, as if to say: some things are not generated by a length of time in Heaven, as in earth and water we see done and corrupted by the discourse of time. This opinion is held by Saint Isidore and Cicero; which virtue of generation and corruption, which is done on earth and water, descends from Heaven, according to Aristotle, where he says that the virtue of generating is in the same virtue of Heaven, and although natural things have the virtue of generating others, whether by seminal derivation or without it, do not have fulfilled power in themselves, nor have they from themselves, but they receive it from Heaven, and this is what the alleged Aristotle wanted to feel when he says: Sol et homo generant hominem, the Sun and man begets man; and to imply that the Sun does more than man, he put the Sun first. Here Sun is taken for all the celestial bodies, because all the bodies that are in Heaven are necessary, and there is none that does not have some particular effect for the generation and corruption of things; and here the generation of man is taken as the generation of all things, because man is called every creature. That is what Saint Mark calls him, because in man God encrypted everything that is in the world, giving him being, like stone, being and vegetative soul, like plants and trees; sensitive being and soul, like animals; being and understanding and reasoning, like the angels, and for this reason philosophers call it Microcosmus, which means lesser world. This generation of the things that Heaven does is understood through its movement; This is how Aristotle feels when he says: Per accessum et recessum Solis in circulo obliquo fiunt omnes generationes, et corrupciones in terra. According to the separation and approach that the Sun makes, moving in the oblique circle (which is the Zodiac), all the creations and corruptions are made on the earth. Which is not only understood from the movement of the Sun alone, but also of all the other planets and stars, and if there were no movement there would be no generation, nor would time have any need for measurement, because by ceasing the movement, in such a way that the world would remain At the time of cessation, this would be the case, without changing: if during the day the movement stopped for some, it would always be day for them, and if at night, it would be night.
That the members of Caelius were cut by Saturn with a sickle is because the ancients painted Saturn with a sickle in his hands, for the reason that in Italy he showed how to bear and sow, and for harvesting the harvest this is a good instrument, and if cutting had to his father had to do something with this one he had; and it is worth knowing that in order to cut something from Caelius, and that being understood as Heaven, it was necessary for Saturn to be high, to be able to do it, because being on the ground it could not reach; and since in common quarrels weapons often fall from their hands, the sickle fell, and as it came from a height and was about to hit somewhere, the poets wanted it to hit the land of Sicily, near Mount Lilibeo, to declare for it. a city that is in the seaport, near the said mountain, called in Latin Drepanis and in the vulgar language Trapana, and the Greeks call it sickle, and this is because that place makes a figure of a sickle on its seat, or because the sickle means the fruits that are cut from the ground with a sickle; and falling more in the land of Sicily than in another place was because he declared that that land of Sicily was the most abundant in the world in seeds, and thus there was a need for a sickle to reap the harvest more than in another land, since it had more bread; or because Ceres, queen of that island, showed her sowing and harvesting bread.
She says more: that the severed limbs fell into the sea, from whose blood and foam of the same sea Venus was generated. This is to declare that to become generation two things are necessary, it is convenient to know: agent principle and material principle. The agent is heat, which in things of nature takes the place of male. The material or passion is humidity, which has the role of female. The agent principle is understood here by the virtue of Heaven and natural heat understood by the genitals of Caelius. The material principle is humor, which humor is disposed to suffer from heat and from there to be generated formed things; and because humidity belongs to water and water is more in the sea than elsewhere, therefore they say that the members, meaning virtue or heavenly heat, fell into the sea, and because virtue has heavenly agent for matter, humidity (as we have said), there are more generations and larger bodies in the sea than on land; and for this same reason some ancients had the opinion of saying that water was the beginning of things; For this very reason they said Oceanus and Thetis were fathers of things, because by these they denoted humity. This is how Virgil felt it, where he says: Occeanum rerum patrem: The Ocean is the father of all things. Saint Fulgentius says that by the severed genitals of Caelius the fruits and maintenance of the earth are understood; By the sea into which they fell, our bowels are understood to be full of humors, like the sea of waters; and there with our foam and blood Venus is generated, because when the blood in the body is ignited, the venerial desire is caused, understood by Venus, and the seminal humor is derived, which would not be generated, except by the igniting of blood, made by eating and drinking without order; and for this reason the sickle must have fallen more on the land than in the sea, because most of the maintenance with which they are generated and warms the blood are from the land, and few from the sea, because those from the sea do not inflame as much, because they are humid and cold, and those of the earth are hot and dry.
To say that Opis, when she gave birth to Iupiter, showed a stone called Abdir in his place and Saturn crushed it and swallowed it, is to signify the desire that Saturn had to kill the children, to fulfill what he had promised to Titan, since He even swallowed stones in the name of children; or to mean that there is nothing so hard or so strong that if it is born in time it will not be corrupted in time; And although the Abdir stone is one of the hardest and strongest things found, because it is as strong as a diamond, Saturn, who is time, swallows it, as we see that even the stones are consumed. Some say that the stone that Opis showed to Saturn to free Jupiter was a child that they showed in his place, called Stone. Not being swallowed by Jupiter denotes that no force feels the clarity of Heaven, of time.
The story of the exile of Saturn is not fabulous, but true, that he was banished from Jupiter, and it was that Saturn was once freed from the hands of the Titans, who had him imprisoned, and Jupiter freed him from chains, to him and to the mother, coming powerfully, then Jupiter took the kingdom for himself. And Saturn, seeing that Iupiter was taking over the kingdom while he was alive, was very sorry, and secretly tried with the Titans to arrest him, and Iupiter, sensing this, wanted to arrest or kill his father Saturn, and he, understanding it, fled to Italy.
To say that Iupiter threw his father Saturn into prison is because Saturn, as a planet, is above the orb of the planet Iupiter, which with respect to the earth, Saturn is locked up, being behind Iupiter.
That Iupiter cut off his virile member is because as a planet, Iupiter being in conjunction with him, tempers his malice and even removes it, which cannot have any effect, and knocks him down from his empire, as if he had no strength whatsoever to This is why it is said to have taken away his kingdom or cut off his virile member, understanding by this member the virtue of influencing something.
To say that it was released is that this planet Saturn, when the evil of its influences is not repressed, acts freely. Ovid understands Jupiter's throwing Saturn into hell insofar as Saturn and Jupiter were men, where he says:
Posquam Saturno tenebrosa in thartara misso,
sub Ioue mundus erat, subiitque argentea proles.
After Saturn had sent the darkness into Tartara,
The world was under Joue, and the silver offspring came under him.
After Jupiter cast Saturn into the dark hells the world was under the power of Jupiter; then came the silver age. Ovid said this because Jupiter was not king until his father was exiled. To say that he threw him into the dark hells is because Saturn, fleeing from Greece, came to Italy, and because the poets call the eastern part of the world heaven, and the westernmost part hell, because the western part is lower than the eastern part; and because the West seems to descend walking from the East to the West, and because the lower is called hell, and Greece is more eastern than Italy, they say that it was Saturn cast into hell. He says dark because the western part is darker than the eastern part, since the light comes from the eastern part first and goes later to the western part. Furthermore, by the kingdom that Saturn had, the world was understood, because the poets do not want there to be more things in the world than those in which Jupiter happened, and for this reason the departure or flight of Saturn from his kingdom is called flight from the world. Ovid, through Saturn's imprisonment and binding in the dark hells, does not understand anything else, except the stripping of the royal dignity, which Saturn first had. When Saturn went to Italy, according to Macrobius, he was well received by King Ianus, who at that time reigned in the province called Latium; and as until then men lived like savages, and without knowledge, and that they lived in mountains, not living a citizen life, and they were supported by wild fruits, such as acorns, chestnuts and other similar things, and Saturn taught how to till the land , and sow, and to live a civic life, and many other benefits (which would take too long to tell), and he gave them laws, as Virgil says, where he begins:
Is genus in docile, ac dispersum montibus altis,
Composuit, legesque dedit, Latiumque vocari
He maluit, his quoniam tutus latuisset in oris.
That race in docility, and dispersed among the high mountains,
He composed and gave laws, and was called Latus
He preferred them, because he was safe in the mouth.
He means, he taught the untaught people, who were then on this earth, and gave them laws of living; and he wanted this land to be called Latium, because he had hidden there, with which things he reduced men, who were like beasts and wild, to live more politically; and for this reason, Iano wanting to be grateful for the benefits received from Saturn, gave him part of his kingdom, and not content with this, on the coin that he later carved, he had his head printed on one part of the money, which It was with two sides, and on the other the ship in which Saturn had come to Italy; and these two kings lived in great harmony and harmony, until one day Saturn suddenly disappeared, and being no longer seen, the ignorant people believed that he was taken to heaven with the other gods, and thus he was honored as God. This disappearance could have been a test by demons, to deceive people; And Iano, wanting to further increase the honor of Saturn, called the entire land of his kingdom after him Saturnia, and invented altars for it, and sacrifices to make to him, which were called Saturnalia, and after Saturn they named the Sabbath, on whose day They honored him, until the Emperor Constantine, among other things he did in favor of our Christian religion, ordered to change the days of the week named and dedicated to the planets, to those we now have. Saturn, according to Saint Isidro, was said of Sero, which in the Latin language means sowing, because he showed how to sow and plant (as we have said) in Italy; Others refer to him as saturando, which means to fill up, because until they reached the bread, which he showed benefit, men did not feel satiated, and because he invented dung the trees and the earth, they called him Esterculio, according to Boccacio.
They paint Saturn old, insofar as Saturn means time, and time is old, because it began since the sky had movement, or because as a planet, because astrologers say that Saturn is cold and dry and has a melancholic complexion, which are things that are found in old people, or because over time things become old and corrupt.
They paint him with four children next to him to denote the division of the year (which is time) into four parts, which are summer, summer, autumn, winter.
They paint him with a dirty habit because Saturn, as a planet, has dominion over filth or dirty things, such as kitchens, secrets, sewers, where dirty and stinking things run.
They paint him as poorly dressed because at the beginning of the world there were no more clothes than those that only covered the flesh.
They paint it as lazy as a planet because it is the one that spends the most time completing its revolution, according to its own movement in which it spends thirty years, and thus, those who are born in its ascendant or in those it dominates, are lazy in what they have to do. and even in getting angry, because they get angry late, and when they get angry, they lose their anger later.
To say that he had a sad expression suits him as a planet, because he makes the men over whom he has control sad, because Saturn is cold, dry and melancholic in complexion, things that are repugnant to joy. Furthermore, he makes men of great thought, and imaginative men of little pleasure.
They cover its head, because as a planet it is a star of little light, compared to others, and due to its little brightness it seems to be enveloped, or because those who are Saturnians are closed, of few words and of great advice, and of condition that it is hardly possible to understand what they have in their will, or because in what time means, which hides things due to its length, and brings them into oblivion, as if they had never been.
They paint him with a sickle in his hand because it denotes time, and the end of one year is the beginning of another, like the circle, the beginning and end come to a point, and this they denoted with the sickle, because it is curve or because Saturn was wise and this instrument is sharp on the inside and sharp on the outside; Such is the wise man, who within himself has great acuity of wisdom, and does not appear so from the outside unless he wants to show it. This is what Saint Isidro declares, where he begins: Saturnus falcem tenet.
They paint him eating his children because, according to the opinion of astrologers, those who are born in the ascendant of this planet live a short time, or because in the time of Saturn men ate human flesh, and this is what they said to eat their children, or because what is born on time, understood by Saturn , everything ends in time.
Saying that after eating the children he vomited them denotes the manifestation of Jupiter and Pluto, when they later appeared in war, coming to favor their father Saturn against Titan and his children, or because it means time; and just as the year that ends is enclosed in time, so from the year, which is time, the year that begins emerges and manifests itself. And because years and times are similar, because between one year and another, as a time, there is so much similarity that there is no difference between them, except that one is not another, or because when it ends, one has passed. And this is eating Saturn, which is time, his children the years, which are also time; and because the end of one is the beginning of another, this is why they say that once the children are eaten, they are vomited out again. These children do not understand the years, but the things that are born and corrupted in time. Example: Time, which is Saturn, generates herbs and fruits, and the animals end up consuming them over time, and this is Saturn eating the children; And because the same thing returns over time to production, this is why they say the children vomit again. Saint Isidro plays this in the alleged place, where he begins: Saturnus origo Deorum, etc. In this they wanted to denote the vicissitude of things, and that the corruption of one thing is the generation of another; And it is worth knowing that by saying the fables that Saturn ate or swallowed his children, the Gentiles thought (not understanding the meaning of it) that they would do him a great service and a very pleasant sacrifice in offering him his children; so that not only did they sacrifice other people's children, but even their own; and they were impious and very cruel sacrifices, and in many places where Saturn was worshiped, especially in Italy, they killed the foreigners who passed through the land, offering them on the altar to Saturn, which custom, according to Macrobius, lasted until that when Hercules returned from Spain, from the conquest of Geryon, he changed the custom of offering children, and even to foreigners, although offering foreigners, as it was a divine ceremony (according to them) did not completely cease, but they changed it to something else, giving in place of the foreigners some wax images, which offered burning axes on the altar of Saturn. This custom was kept for a long time in Italy, as Saint Isidro touches on in the alleged place.
That the priests had their heads uncovered in their sacrifices, as in those of other gods they had them covered, is to denote that Saturn as a man was true and just, and we exhort in this, that we love the truth, because time understood by Saturn sooner or later discovers her declaring the lie.
There was in Rome on the temple of Saturn a very great Triton, according to Natalis Comitis, who blew a horn every time the wind arose. This, they say, meant that the things that happened in the world before Saturn had been kept quiet, but after the lordship of Saturn they had been celebrated with a very clear voice by historians.
About Jupiter
Many were named Jupiter in ancient times. The first, according to Leontius and Cicero, was a man from Arcadia named Lysanias, who, as he went to Athens and found men there like beasts, and he was of singular and excellent genius, showed them to live under a law that was common. to all, and use marriage, each one having his wife (as a clumsy community first used); and then he showed himself to honor and serve the gods and build temples and make sacrifices to them. At which the Athenians, as rude, marveling, made him their king, and honored him as a god, and called him Jupiter, a name given to no man before him, and to ennoble him more, even if he had noble parents, because they would not be of such fame, that By their names this Jupiter was known, the authors, with great ingenuity, gave him as his father Aether, which means the celestial fire, because he was of ardent understanding; They gave him Day as his mother, although she is not a person nor can she give birth, because of the fame and clarity of her name, because Day is a clear thing, or because Day is time, and time magnifies such men, because those who come out are very excellent. They were neither before nor later as they were born, but over distance of time the virtues and knowledge grow, until they become excellent; And so, with these parents and with the name they gave him Iupiter, and it being poetic to speak of Iupiter, as if he were God, and not as a mortal man (as he was), they magnified him and honored him as much as possible, because what they say in Greek is Zeus, in Latin means Iupiter, and Zeus means life or giver of life; or according to others, Iúpiter is called quasi Iuvans pater, which means helping father or father who engenders and gives being. He is called a helper father, because he not only gives life, engendering, as well as a carnal father, but helping to raise, as the father does by supporting his children, things that are not suitable for man, as were all those who were called Jupiter, except God. true, because He is Father and beginning of all things, which either do not live or receive life from Him. It is called an assistant, due to the continuation of the being in which it preserves the one it creates, because this being would perish at every moment and would return to the nothingness that it first was, if it were not preserved by the current flow of that which can only give being, who is true God. ; and this means Iupiter, where among the names no one was found that meant as much excellence as this one, because giving life and being is the most perfect and powerful thing that can be; And although the Gentiles erred in many other things, introducing many gods, but they well understood that there was only one Iupiter, from whom these goods came to men; and giving such a name to some man was because he was of such excellence, in his opinion, that he went to others as a cause of being and living, for some great benefits such as this one gave; and then as time went on, some star excellent in influencing or causing good was known, and to this they named Iupiter; and thus it is concluded that this name was first given to some man than to the star or planet called Jupiter. This first Iupiter, according to Leontius, was the oldest of all the kings of Athens; and Eusebius says that the first king of Athens was Cyclops; and they reconcile that it could have been Cyclops and Lysanias, all one; and his people later called him Iupiter, and from here came the origin of calling the kings of Arcadia, Iupiter; Like the first Caesar, the emperors of Rome were called Caesars.
Of the second called Jupiter
The second man who was called Iupiter, according to Tullius and Theodontius, was a man of noble lineage from Arcadia, of whom it is pretended that he turned Lycaon, king of this province, into a wolf, as in the fable of Lycaon, we will say; although Ovid attributes this to the third Jupiter; but Eusebius says that it cannot be, because the third Jupiter was from Crete and son of Saturn; According to Cicero, it was more than a hundred years later, but save yourself by saying that Ovid and all the poets treat those called Iupiter as if they were one, although they know that there were many; and the Jupiter that everyone talks about is the son of Saturn and Opis, third of this name, because this was the most famous; and so much so that after his death his name was so celebrated among all nations, that no one after him was called Jupiter. And it is worth knowing that there is great diversity among the authors, because what one says about the first, another says about the second, and another about the third; but everything that is said must be understood of the third, son of Saturn, because there was no one of this name that was appropriate to him from his nativity as to this son of Saturn, who from his birth was called Iupiter or another Greek name that wants to say the same; and thus, speaking of Iupiter, they understand only him, who from his birth was so called.
From the third Jupiter
Of the third Jupiter of whom we have to deal, we will say that he was a true man from the island of Candia, from Greece, son of Saturn and Opis; Of this some things are said that are true history, and many according to poetic fiction, to declare natural and moral doctrine to men. This Jupiter was the most famous and had the most name in the world, and is celebrated to this day, of whom Eusebius says that in all the Greek, Roman, and Egyptian nations, he was considered the greatest of the gods, and they worshiped him as such. , and each nation wanted him for themselves, and to honor themselves they said that he had been born in their own provinces. Those of Phenicia said that he had been born among them. The Egyptians did not want to allow him to have been born outside of Egypt. The Cretans professed against everyone (according to Lucian). The Athenians could not suffer anywhere else. This, according to Diodorus Siculus, surpassed all the other gods and after the death of Saturn, his father, he did great and notable things, and then began to dominate many other dominions, not so much acquired with strength and weapons, but with industrious prudence, showing men great secrets of nature, because by publishing that every new invention that came out, he would be the first to be notified, promising great rewards, and thus, learning from many, everyone would receive it as news from him alone, with who led people to wiser and more orderly ways of living, giving them many profitable and necessary industries for the maintenance of human life, removing bad customs, such as not eating human flesh, as until the time of his father Saturn. had used. He taught to observe justice in the towns, and that no one should wrong another, otherwise he would be punished. He made laws for many people. He removed strife that existed among men, and ordered how they should be agreed, with which he was so loved and loved that not only when he waged war against the Giants, all the other gods came to help him, but he gained much lordship and worldly honor ( as he desired) and divinity, which was not very difficult to acquire, because the ignorant people, knowing the many and very good advice of living and benefits that they received from him, not knowing how they could pay him, ordered them to worship him, seeing him be I very much accept this type of pay; And he, for his part, did not care that this should happen, because, making friends with the princes, he begged them to build temples for him, as a man very ambitious for honor, in his name, dedicated to him; and so King Cassius built a temple for him and named it Iupiter Cassius, and King Molion another, called Iupiter Molion; And many others did so, which it would be too long for him to tell. With all this, he was also so disordered in his sensual vice that he did not forgive even his sister, and thus, he did not see a woman with a good face that he did not enjoy, and even loving young men, of which Saint Augustine accuses him. . Something to admire is the blindness of the ancients and the deception of the devil (through which, God allowing it for his sins), that a man so vicious, and who after death was buried in hell, took the opinion of God and left His works were so firm in the hearts of men that whatever evil or good came from heaven they believed would happen through Jupiter, and that he sent it; and thus, the lightning, and stones, and rains, received it as a thing from his hand. They gave it many names, both among the Greeks and among the Latins and other nations, and all of them were according to the property of the power, offices, and effects attributed to it. They called him father because of the benevolence, provision and care that he had for everyone. They called him the best king, the greatest, because he communicated his goods to everyone. They named him victor, emperor, guardian, destroyer, capitulin, and various other names, which Saint Augustine refers to. The Egyptians called him Hamon, for the reason we mentioned elsewhere.
About how and where Iúpiter was raised, and about his mistresses
Iupiter, as soon as he was born, to hide it, they gave him to raise his grandmother Vesta (as we said about Saturn), and taking him to the mountain called Ida (which is in Crete or Candia), they entrusted him with the guardianship of the curetes, as Eusebius writes, and because, according to the custom of children, Jupiter sometimes cried, so that Saturn would not hear the crying and understand where he was and kill him, they pretend that near a cave where they kept him, they beat copper caskets and basins. , and other instruments that caused noise; The bees came to this noise, and with the honey they made in the child's mouth they sustained him; others say that he raised a goat for her; others a bear, or that his lovers became bears. Pausanias says that two Nymphs named Ithome and Neda raised him, it is a hilltop in the province of Messenia, next to a spring called Clephidia. Cicero says that Adrastea and Ida and Amalthea were Iupiter's mistresses. Others say that some pigeons raised him. They painted Jupiter, sometimes without ears and sometimes with them; others with three eyes; others like a ram, or with ram's horns; They dedicated the eagle to him and he wore it as a badge, and it served to carry rays of the kind made by Vulcan and his servants the Cyclopes.
They say that when Iupiter was trying to throw his father Saturn out of the kingdom, he arrived at the Ceclopian peoples, who had received salaries to help him in his wars, and since they lied to him like bad and deceitful people, he turned them into Ximians.
That Iupiter and Iuno being born from a womb showed Iuno and hid Iupiter, the significance of him will be told when dealing with Iuno. That Jupiter was given to Vesta to raise him denotes that animals and plants are raised from the earth, understood by Vesta, or that the changes of the elements are made near the earth, from which the vapors arise, from which he thought Thales maintain the ethereal or celestial region. Giving Iupiter guardians to the Curetes was because they, according to historical sense, were very loyal and great servants of Iupiter, and because of the good treatment and favors he gave them, they are called sons of Iupiter.
To say that the curettes, because Saturn did not hear the cries that Iupiter, as children, made, played drums and basins, this is because, according to the opinion of Pythagoreans, they had that the ethereal region or heavens, with their movements, caused musical harmony . To declare this, the fable says that Iúpiter was kept among the noise of caskets and adufes and basins that the curibantes played, so that Saturn would not hear him cry.
That the bees then came to raise Jupiter, making honey in his mouth: This denotes several things: one, that it is good for children after they are born to put a drop of honey in their mouth, so that they show themselves to move their tongue to suck. Furthermore, the bees coming there, the curibantes making so much noise, is showing that the bees, by knocking on the corks, come together, as Virgil shows, saying: Nunc age natura apibus. Or it means that in that land where Jupiter was raised, it was where care was first taken to benefit the bees.
To say that he raised a goat or bees for him is that, according to Didymus, Iupiter was entrusted to King Milesius of Crete, who had two daughters named Amalthea and Melisa, and they raised Iupiter; and they said that a goat called Amalthea, for poetic concealment, or of the bees, because Melisa, sister of Amalthea, in Greek, means Apis in Latin, which in our language is bee; For this reason they say that bees and a goat raised him. And the poets said this to exalt Jupiter, saying that he had not been raised like other creatures, but with things foreign to nature, or to imply that the animals that do not know reason obeyed and served him, so that for this reason Iúpiter seems to be some divine virtue; or by this they meant that just as bees are bred without the union of male and female, so the elements, understood by Jupiter as the one of fire, are generated without council, of which the ancients thought to feed and breed the ethereal region, or to meaning that exhalations and the generation of the elements arise from the earth.
They said they raised Iúpiter more like a goat than another animal because the goat likes to climb high, so much so that even to eat it rises and climbs into the bushes; thus the elements and vapors rise above the earth. And to declare that vapors also arise from water, they said that they created Jupiter one, because nymph is the general name of all humidity, and by humidity is understood water.
To say that he was raised by a bear is because where he was raised there was a mountain called Ursus, which means bear, or because they went there and stripped him and cleaned him, they said that a bear raised him, or that his mistress turned into a bear.
To say that they raised him pigeons is that some of the mothers who raised someone named Iúpiter called themselves Columbae, which means pigeons.
In Crete, according to Plutarch, Iupiter was painted without ears, to denote that the king should not listen to mockery, or that he should not listen to some more than others to his justices. The Lacedaemonians also painted him on the contrary, with four ears, to declare the prudence and diligence that the king must have to administer and hear and understand everything that his people do; and for this very reason, they paint him with three eyes, because he must see everything and nothing must be hidden from him; For this reason they attribute the eagle to him because of his bird, because of the great eyesight that this bird has. Others say that the reason why Iupiter received the eagle and took it as his motto was that when he was leaving the island called Naxos, to go to war against the Titans, in favor of his parents, as he was making sacrifice on the sea coast, an eagle came to him. by omen; And when he later defeated the Titans, he took the eagle as a good sign and made it his motto, and they say that when the eagle came, it settled on his head. Which meant that he was to be king, as he was not then; And this is what they made the eagle page of Jupiter, and it served to bring him the rays that the Cyclops, servants of Vulcan, made. This is what the poets say, because according to the natives, this bird is not struck by lightning; which to signify this they said that he carried the lightning bolts in his feet, so that if they hurt him, he would not dare touch them, or that his flight is so high that it exceeds the region of the air, where the lightning bolts are generated. They also dedicated the eagle to him, because just as he is the queen and chief of the birds, so Jupiter was considered the greatest of the Gentile gods. And because he carried this bird on his shield or weapons as a badge, they call him Armiger Iovis, something that brings the weapons of Jupiter.
The cecropios, turned by Jupiter into ximios, because they failed to speak or blasphemed against him, gives us an example that the proud and liars, who have the audacity to speak evil against religion and against God, are nothing else, by God's judgment, but monkeys, who, having the likeness of men, lack works.
Those of Egypt called Iupiter Amon, which according to Papias means ram, or sandy, and this is because when the gods pretended to have fled from the giant Typhoeus to Egypt, Iupiter changed into a ram, out of fear, not being able to get past there; and the other gods changed into other figures, as Ovid says. The other is sandy, because in the land of Libya, which is Africa, there is a temple of Jupiter in a sandy area, and this temple was so venerated in the time of the Gentiles that Alexander went to visit it.
Of the partition of the world that Jupiter made with his brothers
After Iupiter had expelled his father Saturn from the kingdom, and received Iuno, his sister, as his wife, Neptune and Pluto asked Iupiter for part of the kingdom, considering that they had helped him against Titan and that everything was at peace. Iupiter came in this, and according to poetic pretense, they divided the world between them, as Lactantius and Statius say, because they presuppose there is nothing else in the world, apart from what Iupiter had; They divided it into three parts, and by casting lots, Jupiter got the sky, and Neptune the sea, and Pluto the hell, with all the earth. That is, all three brothers inherited most of Greece; and because Iupiter was given the easternmost part of that province, with respect to the other parts of his brothers, who were more western, or because he used to live on Mount Olympus, in Thesalia, which mountain its inhabitants call heaven, For this reason they say that Jupiter has taken over the sky, or that he lives in the sky. Neptune, because he had room for the islands of Greece, and some nearby lands of sea, was called god of the sea, or for having room for the sea. Pluto, because the westernmost parts of Greece fit in or because this part, compared to the eastern part, where the Sun rises, is very dark, or because walking towards the West they descend downwards, and the lower part is called hell, for example. This is what they call Pluto the god of the dark hells, and because hell is in the middle of the bowels or in the center of the earth, they also said that he had dominion over the entire earth.
To say that this division or division of the world was done by lot was to denote the equality of the brothers, children of Saturn.
How is it understood that Jupiter changes into various things and descends from heaven?
We have said that Iupiter said himself like this: Quasi invans pater, which means helping father or helping father, because he helped men with great advice necessary for life, or because iuvo iuvas, in another meaning, is taken by delecto delectas, which It means to delight, because he was one of the most vicious and sensual of those mentioned in stories, who, as if to fulfill his clumsy desires and dirty appetites, came down from Mount Olympus in Thesalia, where he made his habitation, to enjoy of many women, whom he went to look for where he thought he would find them, with various forms of precautions to be able to find them, the poets pretend that he came down from Heaven, because the inhabitants of it called this mountain Heaven, and that it was converted into various forms, saying that to reach Danae he became pluvia or grains of gold, which according to Saint Isidro and Saint Augustine, was nothing other than that Iupiter, with a large sum of gold that he gave, came to deceive the simple and collected maiden.
To say that he once again became Amphitryon, as Plautus states, is to say that by giving many treasures to Amphitryon, he allowed him to sleep in his place with Alcmene, his wife.
To say that he again became a bull is because coming by sea carrying the sail of his ship with a bull painted as an insignia, he robbed the noble Europe, daughter of King Agenor; and in this manner were all the other transmutations which are said to have been made for the adulteries and murders and wickedness of him. And thus, says Arnobius, an ancient author, that when Iupiter intended to do some evil, he was transformed into various forms; That is to say, he looked for various ways to do this, through third parties, and with a sum of money and other bribes.
Of the fight of the titans or giants against Jupiter
Ovid tells us that the Titans or Giants, who had the feet of snakes, wanted to ascend to the heavenly kingdoms, to drive Iupiter and the other gods from there, and to accomplish this they piled up mountains one on top of the other; It is convenient to know: Mount Ossa on Mount Pelion, and on these they placed Mount Olympus, until they reached the stars with them, to then arrest all the gods and drive them out of their chambers. Then Iupiter, indignant at such great arrogance, threw a lightning bolt from heaven, with which he wounded these Giants, and opening the earth, he placed them under it, placing large and heavy mountains on top of them; but from their hot blood, mixed with the earth, others were generated, and for this reason it is called giant, which is a Greek name, which means born of the earth. Giant also means man who is warp and stronger than the others.
These Giants, according to Macrobius, were not some men with large bodies, as we commonly understand; but they called a very foolish people Giants, who denied there were gods; And this is why the fable says that the gods wanted to throw them out of heaven, because the Gentiles gave heaven to the gods as a place. To say that these giants had the feet of snakes is to signify the evil and bad inclination of such, because the snake does not walk upright, but rather lying on the ground; Thus, these were all earthly, who did not think heavenly things. To say that from the blood of the Titans or Giants, and from the earth, other Giants were generated, this is because the Titans were men of bad conditions and worse customs, and it is believed that a bad person is born another bad person, or that from the Root of pride understood by the Titans or Giants, all impieties and evils are born. Putting the mountains Pelion and Ursa and Olympus on top of each other, this is because they are mountains in Thesalia or Macedonia, which are so close to each other, and in such a way, that Ursa is higher than Pelion, and Olympus higher than Ursa , and seen from a distance they seem to be on top of each other; and to declare this, they pretend that the Giants brought them together. Some want to say that the Giants were men as ferocious as they were arrogant, who denied the deity and power of their gods, and wanting to fight with them, they were converted into Ximios, which is nothing other than meaning that, not wanting to know the evil ones, the benefits of their Creator, nor keep his laws and commandments, but with presumptuous pride, which is the head of all vices, immersed in ugly evils, they become beasts, like Ximians, which Tullius wanted to feel when he said: It is no other Giants do not fight with the gods but men live outside of reason and resist nature. To say that they guarded the sky, this is because the Titans guarded the royal power that Jupiter had. What they say that Jupiter brought down the mountains on the Giants is that by Titan they understood the Sun and by his wife the Earth, and because of the qualities of these things, which is heat understood by the Sun, and humidity understood by the earth, all things are born, this is why they say that the Giants were born from the blood of the Titans mixed with the earth. Some say that the ancients by this fable declared the changes of the elements, one in another, and the generations of natural things, understanding by the Titans how thick and terrestrial, which the elements have among themselves, that the force of the heavenly bodies It rushes from above to below, because the vapors, by the force or virtue of the Sun, by whom the Titans are understood, rise upwards, which, reaching the heights by virtue of the divine bodies, are resolved into pure elements, or They are rejected downwards, and some of them re-enter the earth, as water does, and from this entry the earth returns to generate things, and other vapors, which is a perpetual fight, through which the contrariety of elements consists in the generation of natural things, like what we say Metheoros. According to historical sense, the truth of this war was that the Titans fought against Iupiter in Thesalia or Macedonia, in the field of Phlegia, where there was a very big fight, and the Titans were defeated, many of them dying, as Solinus writes.
Of another war of the giant Thiphoeus against Jupiter and the other gods
This war, which they say of the giant Thiphoeus against Jupiter and the other gods, was not real, but rather a feigned one, for allegorical exposition. This is proven by the fact that Jupiter's wars against the Titans were, according to Lactantius: the first, when he fought with them to free his father Saturn from the prisons in which they kept him; the second, when they fought against Jupiter to take his kingdom. After Saturn was expelled from Greece, the rest of Jupiter's life was peaceful, which caused him to waste his life in carnal delights. And the alleged Lactantius says that this war was the beginning of all the evils of the human race, because Jupiter won in it; because if he were defeated, he would not make himself considered a god, building temples and ordering sacrifices, from which the custom later remained among the Gentiles of worshiping Jupiter, Diana, Mars, Mercury, Apollo, Ceres, Hercules, Bacho, and many others. who are, or are said to be, of the lineage of Jupiter; and so this war was feigned to declare the properties of the motion and effects of the planets and other things, as we will say in its declaration. The fable says, then, that the Earth conceived of Titan and gave birth to Typholo or Thiphoeo, prince of the Giants, and he was of such admirable greatness of body that he reached with his head to the stars and with one hand to the East and with another to the West; The beard was very long, and it breathed fire from its mouth, from whose strength and sight so frightening, the gods not being able to resist, fled to Egypt, and no longer being able to flee nor considering themselves safe, the figures changed: Iupiter changed into a ram, Phebo as a raven, Bacho as a goat, Diana as a deer, Iuno as a white cow, Venus as an eagle, Mercury as a stork, and so on from other gods.
Theodoncio tells this in another way: he says that the Giants, following the condition of their fathers the Titans, waged war against the gods, but they did not dare to start it until their mother Earth hid Egla, wife of the god Pan, in a cave, who She was the most beautiful of all women. Once this was done, they started war and the gods fled to Egypt, where they changed into different figures: Iupiter became an eagle, Pan changed part of it into a fish, and part into a goat. But Iupiter, having revelation from the oracle, that if he wanted to win he would cover his shield with the skin of Egla, wife of the god Pan, and his head with that of Gorgon, then present the goddess Pallas initiated the war, and the Giants were defeated and in He put the island of Sicily on top of Thiphoeus, who had been struck by lightning, stabbing his right arm under Mount Peloro, which falls towards the narrow sea of Italy, and his left hand under Mount Plachyno, which is the end of Sicily against noon; the feet under Mount Lilibeo, which is towards the western part of Sicily, and the head under Mount Ethna, which is towards the East, which in the vulgar language is called Mongibel; and they pretend that this giant is alive, and since he has breathing, with the pressure of his spirit it catches fire from him and turns into fire; For this reason on Mount Ethna in Sicily, flames of fire issue from the mouth of Typhoeo, which is below. Furthermore, they say this Giant, when he gets tired of lying on one side, wanting to return, tired of having so much weight on him, he insists on moving, and thus, the cities of the island move.
The reason for the variety of this fable is that the authors wanted to understand various things by it: by the first narration of the flight that the gods made to Egypt, by whom the planets are understood, they wanted to say that the greatest declination that the planets have is towards that side, because Egypt is open or midday. And to say that in Egypt the gods changed their figures is to mean many things, it is convenient to know: the custom that the Egyptians had of worshiping Jupiter in the figure of a lamb and the other gods in various other ones, and also because these people worshiped animals. , as Juvenal felt, where it begins:
Quis nesciat Volusi Bithinice, etc.
Who does not know Volusi Bithynice, etc.
Volusius of Bethinia says, there is no one who does not know what absurd things Egypt adores; They serve the crocodile, which is a monstrous animal in the river. Others love storks, who are fed up with snakes. There, some worship the fish of the river, others the fish of the sea, and there are people who have dogs as gods, and no one worships Diana.
The gods changing into some animal figures, more than others, is to declare the properties of the planets; and thus, changing the Moon into a deer denotes that just as the deer is a very light animal, so the Moon makes its course more briefly than any other planet. Mercury turning into a stork is because the stork is contrary to snakes, like Mercury, which kills them, or because Mercury is understood as the doctor, and he has to kill the snakes, which is to remove the diseases from the bodies, which corrupt and they infect the bodies, like poisonous snakes that bite. Venus became an anke; that is, because as the eel is despicable, the more they squeeze it and try to have it, the more it slips, and the more quickly it comes loose from their hands, so dishonest delight (understood by Venus), the more its vain lovers desire to have it , the more quickly it runs away and it's over. Apollo, understood by the Sun, became a raven, due to the similarity; because just as Apollo was the god of divination, so the raven has the ability (according to soothsayers) to divine. Bacho, changed into a bastard, because the bastard is of a warm nature, just like the wine understood by Bacho; and just as too much wine provokes lust, so this bastard animal is extremely lustful. And just as wine rises to the heads, so this bastard animal rises to the high heather. Mars became a fox, because just as this animal uses great tricks to kill birds and animals, so in war, as understood by Mars, many tricks are necessary. Changing Iupiter into a ram, according to Ovid, is to suit Iupiter the properties of this animal, because just as the meek ram guides the others, so Iupiter is benign and guides those who are born, because men are born in common in the ninth month, and Jupiter rules this ninth month; because in the first month of conception Saturn has dominion (according to the opinion of astrologers), in the second month Jupiter, in the third Mars, in the fourth Sun, in the fifth Venus, in the sixth Mercury, in the seventh Moon, in the 8th Saturn once again dominates, and in the 9th Jupiter. Theodoncio says that Iupiter became an eagle because just as it is queen of the other birds, and that it never feeds or eats without leaving part for other birds to eat, so Iupiter was the chief of the vain gods, and is a planet in its effects more benign than the others for the children conceived. Saturn is not now counted among the gods, because the poets suppose his son Jupiter to have cast him from the heavens into hell, as we said in the second chapter, or because Saturn is detrimental to the life of the engendered infant, for which reason it seems that he provided God kept it away from the earth more than from another planet, so that it would do less damage with its bad influences. The planets are called gods because they are those who among the Gentiles were considered the greatest gods, because they illuminate the earth and cause many benefits in it, and the generations and corruptions that occur in it. Iuno became a white cow: this is put to fulfill the fable, because Iuno is not one of the number of the planets; But since she was the wife of Jupiter, her husband fled and changed into another person's form, it was necessary for his wife to follow him in this, with which doctrine is given to married women to follow and conform to the wills of their husbands in lawful things. and honest. And becoming a cow more than anything else is because by Iuno the earth is sometimes understood, and to declare that the main animal for tilling the earth is the cow or ox, so that it bears abundant fruits. This cow being white denotes that Iuno, understood by the earth, in winter is covered with snow, with which it becomes beautiful and becomes more powerful to bear fruit, for the reasons that we said in our Astronomy.
Pan became (according to Theodoncio) a goat and a fish; This is because by Pan the ancients understood the nature of the things of the world, the one part of which is earth, and meant by the bastard, who lives on the earth. Another is water, which is understood by the fish that is raised in it. By this they wanted to imply that all the animals and things in the world are sustained and preserved in land and water, or that the life of every animal consists of the temperance of the humid understood by the fish, and the warm understood by the bastard.
By Typhoeus, who made the gods flee to Egypt, is meant the movement of the heavens, by which the planets move. By the long beard is understood the heavenly virtue, through which the things of this world are generated and corrupted, according to the operation of the second cause, by the order that our Lord ordained it.
What Theodoncio says, that the Giants did not dare to begin the war against the gods until Egla, wife of the god Pan, was hidden in the earth, was to signify the industry of war, which no one should attempt without having the right things. necessary for her; and because one more necessary was to hide Egla, which means the wealth or maintenance of men, than because she was Pan's wife, which, as we have said, Pan denotes the things of the world. It is Egla, wife of the god Pan, to signify that the world in common loves wealth, as a husband loves a virtuous and beloved wife. To say that Egla was the most beautiful of all women is because greedy worldly men consider riches to be better than all things and very beautiful. The name of Pan's wife is Egla, which in Greek means goat, because in ancient times all the wealth of men was cattle, and from this comes pecus, which in Latin means sheep or goat or pig, comes from pecunia, which in the The same language means all kinds of money, because Pan in another meaning was god of shepherds, and for this reason Pan is Egla's husband. Being Egla hidden in the earth meant that they had to wait time for Iúpiter to be unnoticed and without provisions, because if Iúpiter did not find Egla, because she was hidden in the earth, she would be poor, because all wealth comes from the earth. That Jupiter had a revelation that if he covered his shield with Egla's leather and his head with Gorgon, and Pallas were present, he would win, means that if he provided supplies, understood by Egla's leather, and continued the war, with advice understood by Gorgon, would win. What he says is that Pallas was present for Jupiter to win, meaning that Pallas was the goddess of war, and it also means the wisdom and experience of military art, without which he can hardly win. And Jupiter, having these things, defeated the Giants and cast them into hell; This is because the defeated abase themselves from their dignities, and because just as there is nothing lower than hell, so there is nothing more abased than the captive and defeated. Ovid describes this war, recounting the contest between the nine Muses and the nine sisters, daughters of Aganipe, disputing which ones were more knowledgeable in the art of singing, and placing the nymphs as judges.
To say that Typhoeus had been struck by lightning is because the poets give these weapons to Iupiter, and if Iupiter defeated him, it had to be with lightning.
That Jupiter named the entire island of Sicily, putting one arm under one mountain, and another under another, etc., is to declare the description or position of that island.
To say that it breathed fire from its mouth, and that this fire wheezed or came out from the summit of Mount Ethna, under which they pretend to have their head, is to declare the volcano or mouth of fire that came out on this Mount Ethna in Sicily. And Typhoeus means something that emits fire from itself, because it is the custom of poets to tell the truths under feigned concealments. Whoever wants to see the cause of volcanoes, read our Astronomy.
To say that Typhoeo moving made the cities of Sicily shake is to declare the earth tremors that are caused on that island, due to its cavernous land, more continuously than in other parts.
Iupiter having placed Typhoeus lower on this island than on another is because Typhoeus, according to Theodontius, was a very ancient king of Sicily, who, bringing up differences with his brother called Osiris, killed him; Then he fought with Jupiter, and being defeated by him, he was killed; and for this reason it is said that he wanted to take heaven from Jupiter, because he fought to take the kingdom from him. Calling Typhoeus the son of Titan is because Titan was proud, and all proud people are called children of Titan. Being called a son of the earth, because he had great dominion over it, or because he was a giant, because all the giants were called sons of the earth, because since they have such large bodies, they believed that they could not have come from the womb of any woman, but from another. greater thing; and because there is no greater womb than that of the earth, they said that the Giants were born from it, as the mother of all things. And to color this thing without order, of how the Giants of the earth could be born, they said that the Titans, their fathers, waged war against the gods, in which, spilling their blood, the earth conceived and generated those great bodies. Hesiod, in three verses that begin: Sanguineae quot guttae, recipit, etc., says that they were born from the earth, and from the blood of the virile member that Saturn cut off from his father Caelo, to declare that from the celestial generative virtue understood by this member, and from the earth, things are generated.
In another way the flight of the gods from the giant Thiphoeus can be applied; understanding by the earth the Giants, or by Thiphoeus, who was one of them, and not taking land for all of it, because the planets never flee from it (by whom the gods are understood), but for some northern part of it, in which Jupiter lived; and according to this sense, one can say that the gods or planets flee from it, because in winter the Sun moves away from this earth, arriving towards noon, and in summer it approaches. Thus the Moon moves away and approaches in a month, as this planet completes its circle in each month; other planets finish him off later; This is understood according to their own movements and not according to the one that makes them all make the first movement, in the space of a calendar day, and thus they approach and move apart at different times, and because of this separation or declination the poets say that the planets or gods flee from Thiphoeo, which is the corresponding land where we dwell. Which separation or declination of planets is from North towards South, which is understood by the flight to Egypt, because Greece, where Jupiter is supposed to have lived, is towards North, and Egypt towards South. As far as length is concerned, there is no end, because everything is going from East to West, and proceeding around until returning to the East.
Of Iuno, sister and wife of Iupiter
Iuno was the daughter of Saturn and Opis; She was born from the same birth with Iupiter, and showing her to Saturn and telling him that she had been born alone, Iupiter escaped from her. There are different opinions about the place where she was born. Pausanias says that in the land of the Samians; Homer, in Argos; Apollonius says she was raised on Samos. The mistresses who raised Iuno were: Eubaea and Porsimna and Acraea, daughters of the river Asterion. Ovid says that she was raised by the daughters of Oceanus. Homer says that of Oceanus and Tethis; others say she was raised by Neptune; others have the opposite, saying that Iuno raised Neptune; and others love the Hours. About how her brother Iúpiter deceived her and married him, the poets say, that Iúpiter loving her for her extreme beauty, seeing her one day alone on a mountain, separated from other goddesses, changed into the bird they call cuquillo, and first inciting great storm of water and pretending to be very wet, it settled on his knees; Iuno, seeing that little bird so wet and intensely cold, moved with compassion, put it in her clothes in an attempt to keep it warm; Then Iupiter, becoming her first form and promising to marry her, took advantage of her sister, and from then on she remained his wife; They had as children Vulcan, and Hebe, and Mars, and others. And Lucian says that Iuno had Vulcan without a male council. And Theodontius says that in the same way there were Hebe and Mars. And this Iuno did, seeing that Iupiter, without a female, had begotten Minerva, as will be said in her place. They paint Iuno with a scepter in her hand and a cuquillo, and covering her head. They dedicated her goose and her peacock to her, and gave her many nymphs to accompany her and serve as her. And to the arc of the Sun they say Iris, daughter of Thaumas and Electra, and sister of the Harpies, that she sits under the throne of Iuno and serves as his messenger, according to Valerius Flaccus. They say that Jupiter hung her high, placing two large anvils at her feet and tying her hands with a golden ligature; And as she was hanging from heaven, the other gods, moved with compassion, wanted to take her down, but they could not, as Homer testifies. She is the mistress of riches and kingdoms. The ancient ones, among other temples dedicated to Iuno, had one without doors and without a roof. They name her with various names, some of events, others of offices, others of temples that were dedicated to her, others of other things. The most common are Iuno, queen of the gods, mother of the gods, Lucina, Eliciana, Matrona, Artemia, Fluonia, Februa, Interduca, Domiduca, Unxia, Cinthia, Soticena, Populonea, Proserpina, Argina, Samia, Aegophaga, and so on others.
To understand what is said about Iuno, it is necessary to know that by Iuno we mean sometimes the air, sometimes the earth, sometimes the riches or kingdoms, sometimes the Moon, sometimes other things, and thus the wise men attribute some things to him, according to which means air, others according to other things.
To say that Iuno was the sister of Iupiter, this is insofar as Iuno means the air and Iupiter the elemental fire, under which fire is the air; and because these two elements are together one after the other, they are called brothers, because brother is the greatest kinship that can be in kinship, and this sense is given by Tullius.
Saying that at the birth they hid Iupiter and showed Iuno denotes that the elemental fire understood by Iupiter is hidden from us with the air that surrounds it, understood by Iuno.
That Iuno was born or raised on the island of Samos or in Argos denotes that many healthy airs are generated in those lands.
That Iuno was bred from the daughters of the river Asterion or from the daughters of Ocean, or from Ocean himself, and Tethis, or from Neptune, denotes that the air understood by Iuno is generated mainly from the exhalations that through natural heat rise from fountains and rivers and humidities, understood by the Nymphs or by Ocean and Neptune, from which they rise in greater abundance than from anything else; and this is what the ancients called breeding, and for this reason Iuno is created by these things.
That Iuno created Neptune is appropriate since Iuno is understood as the air and Neptune as the waters of the sea, and water is generated from the air enclosed in the cavernous concavities of the earth, or because the clouds that exist in the air dissolve into rain. , of the luck that we declare in our Astronomy.
To also give the Hours as masters is to say that at all times they are corrupted and vary, and exhalations are generated and increased, from which the air is generated and created.
To say that Iúpiter in the figure of a wet cuquillo sat on the lap of Iuno, here they understand Iuno to be the earth and by Iúpiter the ethereal or celestial region. Sending rain on the lap or surface of the earth denotes that Iupiter then meets her sister and produces fruits and begets. Iúpiter becoming more of a cuquillo than anything else is because this bird is the announcer of storms and rain, as it pretended to have done that day.
To say that Iuno is the wife of Iupiter is inasmuch as Iuno denotes the earth, and because just as the male derives seminal humor from the council, from which conception is made in the womb of the female, and from there the creature is born, so the sky or Aether, understood by Iupiter, according to Tullius, derives from itself the rain that falls on the earth, and these received into its womb, it conceives fruits. This is how Virgil understood it where he begins: See adeo frondi, etc. So that heaven is understood as a man or husband, since he has active virtue to engender. And the earth is understood as a woman, because it has passive virtue to receive as a female; and although the sky does not have the rains in itself, it causes them by its alterative virtue, with which it alters the elements and elemental things, from which all creations come, or because other times by Iupiter fire and air are understood, and by Iuno , water and earth, from the mixture of which things are produced and generated, and for this reason Iuno is the wife of Iupiter.
That Vulcan is the son of Iupiter and Iuno is because they understood by Iupiter the fire and by Iuno the air and by Vulcan the rays, which are generated in the air by the operation of fire or elemental heat; and because in the air they are generated and appear, they say the air is the mother of lightning; and so they took Iuno into the air, when they said she was the mother of Vulcan, without a man's council. Iuno also having Hebe and Mars as children is because the temperance of the air is the cause of abundance and fertility of all things, from which come the fruits and riches understood by Hebe, and from the riches and fertility cudicias and discords are caused in the mortals; and by these wars is meant Mars, and by this Mars is the son of Iuno and brother of Hebe. Give her scepter as queen. They paint it with her cuquillo because of what has been said about Iúpiter becoming that bird, when he met her. They paint her head covered, because riches, understood by me, are covered in the bowels of the earth or in the coffers of the miserly.
They dedicated the goose to him because this bird feels the movement of the air more than another, no matter how little.
They dedicated the peacock to her, as she is the dearest of riches, to denote with what the peacock does the condition of the rich. The peacock is a proud and vociferous bird, it usually walks on top of the roofs, it is painted in different colors, it raises its tail to show its beauty, and then leaves its rear uncovered. These things are conditions appropriate to rich men; These are, for the most part, proud as the peacock, because riches make them think that they do not need anyone, before others need them. They are vociferous, because they praise and despise each other, and speak haughty and arrogant words; They walk on the heights, because the rich do not walk on the plains, but desire the highnesses of state and preeminences. They are painted in different colors, because the rich dress in beautiful and various garments of gold and silk, and in different colors, like that rich man in the sacred Gospel, who dressed in purple and light. And just as under the tail of the peacock, which is beautiful, ugly things are hidden, which are the feet and the back of the body, so under the beauty of the precious clothing of the rich many vices and clumsiness of customs are hidden. And just as when the turkey raises its tail it reveals its ugliness, and when it does not lift it it has them covered, so the rich, when they want to glory in their riches and precious trappings, make their vices and shortcomings known, which would not happen if they Keep quiet, don't glorify yourself. It also denotes that the peacock has ugly parts, being such a beautiful bird that there is no state, no matter how rich or prosperous it may be, that does not have work or hidden blemish.
To say that Iuno had many nymphs that continually served him: by these nymphs we understand the clouds that are in the air, and then by Iuno we understand the air; or by these nymphs, which are many, they signify the many and various changes and impressions that are generated in the region of the air, because in it the rain, and wind, and snow, and hail, fogs, dew, lightning, lightning are made. , comets and all the other things that Aristotle treats and we declare in our Astronomy, which is not done in any other element.
To say that the celestial bow served Iuno, because this bow is generated in the clouds that are in the air, understood by Iuno, and cannot be generated in anything else, as Aristotle declares. Others, like Juan Bocacio, apply this to Iuno, as it means riches, because the celestial arch is very beautiful, of different colors, and is curved in shape, and dissolves quickly, which suits the rich and rich, because they They take different postures and become enlightened and admirable in the eyes of other men, and it is not one color, but many, because the rich of different postures paint themselves, and as the bow is curved, so on the one hand they rise and on the other another descends, because riches do not always remain in the same men, but some ascend to them and others descend, having no leisure; but some leave them and others take them; and as the bow dissolves very quickly, so the state of the rich usually dissolves quickly.
She says Iris is the daughter of Thaumas and Electra, because Thaumas was the son of Pontus or Ocean, which is water, and Electra is a compound name of Ilios, which is Sun, and aetrius serenus; then Iris is born of water and serenity, of reflection of the Sun's rays in some cloud that is dissolving into water, as we declare in our Astronomy. That Iris sits beneath the throne of Iuno is because she is engendered in the lower part of the air, that is, beneath the clouds. That she is a messenger of Iuno and sister of the Harpies or the winds is because when an arc is caused it is a sign that winds, or waters, or serenity will follow; and this is why Virgil, where he begins: Et bibit ingens arcus, among the signs he puts to predict rain, counts the celestial arc. And Valerio Flaco, in the verses that begin: Emicuit reserata dies, puts it as a sign of serenity. The red color of the arch is caused by the first part of the air, which is penetrated by the Sun's rays. The black color is caused by the Sun's rays not being able to penetrate the cloud well, due to its density or thickness. The green is caused by the darker red and the darkness of the cloud; The blue is caused by the darkness or blackness of the cloud and the brightness or whiteness of the Sun's rays.
To say that Iupiter hanged Iuno, this is because the air, understood by Iuno, is inferior to the elemental fire understood by Iupiter. The two anvils that they say he placed at his feet denote water and earth, understood by Neptune and Pluto, which are below, which all seem to hang in the air. And by the fiction of these four main sons of Saturn the ancients wanted to declare the places and order of the elemental region, meaning that fire is first next to the sky of the Moon, and below the air, then the water and after this the earth. And through Saturn, their father, they wanted to understand the first mind of God, Creator of everything visible and invisible. Some say that this Saturn was Noah, and they called him Saturn because of the religious, political, civil, and agricultural doctrine that he taught to his children and to the Italians. They called Shem, son of Noah, Iupiter, and he stayed in Asia, where they left the ark after the flood had passed. His father came to Europe, to the province of Italy, and he stayed there. They called Iaphet, son of Noah, Iano, and Neptune, and his father Noah made him general of a fleet, and for this reason he was called Neptune, god of the waters, or president of the sea, or because he taught navigation to Cham, the other son of Noah, they called Pluto, or Cameses; He lived in Spain.
To say that all the gods, despite seeing Iuno hanging, tried to free her from her bonds and could not, denotes that the power and power of God and the artifice of the placement of elemental and ethereal things is so great that no human forces can undo nor change any natural thing, if it were not God himself, who created everything from nothing; The golden ligature or chain with which she was tied Iuno denotes the strength of the ethereal or celestial region, which by it are understood to be the eleven heavens that surround the elemental region of which we treat in our Astronomy. He claims to be this ligature of gold more than anything else, to declare that just as gold exceeds the other metals, so the ethereal or celestial region exceeds the elemental.
Those who said they were the mistress of riches and kingdoms understood the earth as one. This is the lady of the kingdoms, because all of them are located in her and none in the air. Furthermore, it is that of riches, because they are all enclosed in the bowels of the earth, taking riches for artificial ones, which are metals or made of metals, or for the fruits that are born from the earth, from which we sustain ourselves.
By the temple that the ancients had without doors or roof, dedicated to Iuno, they denoted that in no way should this goddess be enclosed, understood as air, since air is an element with which we breathe and live.
Iuno, according to Tullius, is derived from iuvans omnes, which means that he helps all women, since the ancients understood Iuno to be the goddess of marriages and of women who give birth, because by marrying or giving birth the natural closures are opened, and This is understood as Iuno means the Moon, which with its humidity relaxes and loosens the said closures, and to this end they attributed most of their names.
She is called queen of the gods because she was the wife of Iupiter, and just as Iupiter was considered king of the gods, so her wife Ione of her was right to be queen of the gods and goddesses of the Gentiles.
They call her the mother of the gods because all the children she had were considered gods, or because, taking Iuno for the earth, she is a mother, because according to the opinion of the Gentiles (who were such gods), they said they were generated from the earth. Or inasmuch as Iuno is the mistress of those who give birth, and the gods of the Gentiles were all born of women, and thus, according to the way of speaking of the poets, she will be the mother of all, because she helps all to be born for the reasons stated.
Lucina was told how she means the Moon.
Elicina is said of Elicio, for bringing by force, because the creatures are tied to the mothers by a belly that is the navel, and until it matures and is cut by the movement of nature, the creature does not come out; and Iuno does this naturally inasmuch as she signifies the Moon.
Matrona means mother or lady of mothers; She is the mother of all, as she brings everyone to light, as if she gave birth to them.
Artemia is a Greek name, it means cutter or opener, and according to Macrobius, this name suits her in that she helps give birth, from what has been said.
Fluonia is a Latin word; It means ordinary humor, and this is because the Moon understood by Iuno is the mother of humors.
Februa is a Greek word and means cleanser; This suits her insofar as the Moon signifies, because she cleanses women of undesirable humidity, as well as the menstrual blood that comes to women every month, distilling something, which is a purgation of the pure cooked blood, for matter of the generation.
Interduca is said ab introando, because they attributed power to it to bring the brides to the houses of the bridegrooms, because in the first town councils it caused shame to virgin women to go to their husbands, for going to lose their virginity, and being ashamed to go by day, they went by night; and because the Moon, which is Iuno, illuminated them for this, it is called Interduca.
Domiduca means the same as Interduca. Unxia means anointing. They gave this name to signify the custom of the ancients, according to Marcus Varro, that when brides came for the first time to the bridegroom's house, before they entered the house, they anointed the doorposts with various anointings, and then they entered and They remained in the power of the men. From here comes the reason why when a maiden is betrothed to a man, by ceremonies of present words, and that she is in her father's house, before consummating the marriage they call themselves wives, and when they give them to their husbands, taking them from their parents' house, they call them married like that, because they took them to the men's house; and they call this in Latin uxores, ab ungendo, and because Iuno, who was the lady of those who married, made them perform these anointing ceremonies, they called her Unxia and them uxores.
Cynthia is derived from cingulum. This is because Iuno, lady of marriages, would remove the ribbon from her wife so that she could join her husband. These want to attribute more to Venus than to Iuno; However, whatever it may be, the ancients placed a wish on this profession. This removal of the tape can be understood in another way, and that is that the tape that virgins put on after having conceived as a boy, due to pregnancy and how the belly grows, as well as because of the discomfort caused by the waistband. to wheeze, it was necessary to loosen the tape or remove it; and so the Latin, to say that the woman knows a man, says: Soluere zonam. And for this they attributed a desire that this position had, that would take away their shame.
Soticena is derived from sociando, because she associates her husband and his wife; This council is done in two ways: one is to join them by marriage, which is done at the beginning; and this office Marcus Varro gave to the god called Iugantinus; The other council is to bring them together carnally, for which the Gentiles did not think that male and female were enough with their natural desires, but they gave them help from gods and goddesses; and so they called Iuno Soticena.
Populonea, a populis dicta, because Iuno, through these marriages, causes the multiplication of peoples, from which the multitude of people is born that spreads throughout the world.
Proserpina; This suits Iuno, since by it they understood the earth, in which seeds and harvests are born, which are close to us, because Proserpine says: Quasi prope nos serpens, which means that it tracks close to us. This is appropriate to what is on the earth and does not move, like corn and herbs. Furthermore, this name Proserpine suits Iuno, as it means the Moon, as many ancients understood; and the Moon should be called Proserpine, which means creeping close to us, because among all the planets and stars there is none that walks as close to us as she does.
Argina and Samia are names given to him from places where he was born and raised.
Egophaga was said because Hercules sacrificed a goat to him, from which the custom remained among the Lacedaemonians, of sacrificing goats to him under this name.
From Neptune
Neptune, god of the sea, was the son of Saturn and Opis, and brother of Iupiter, and there is not to be found among the gods of gentility another of this name; treats del Tullius, and Virgil says much of his state and magnificence; give him by wife Amphitrite, and according to some Salacia, who is the Wave, of whom St. Augustine makes a mockery. Attribute to her many children, as well as Doris male, because Doris female was daughter of Ocean, Amicus, Phorcus, Albion, Borgion, Thara, Polyphemus, Telepho, Brontes, Sterpus, Piraginon, Nau, Theo, Melion, Ateiron, Aon, Mesapo, Busiris , Pegasus, Hirceus, Pelias, Neleus, Agnus, Octo, Nitheus, Ophialtes, Aegeus, Onchestus, Pelasgus, Namplio, Celenus, Elo, Occipites, Sican, Siculus; they were cruel tolos, as will be seen in the discourse of this work.
Give him chariot in which he goes, and bring him monsters, and accompany him many gods and Nymphas and Tritons with cheerful gesture. Statius gives him the pressing winds that accompany him, and the ragged rains, and the moans of the waves, and the obscure cyano of the deep sea; give him instead of royal scepter, a three-pronged staff, which they say trident. Some write that Neptune brought up Iuno, and others, on the contrary, that Neptune was brought up by Iuno; the foundations of the buildings were consecrated to him. Paint Cicero naked, the half-body out of the water, with a shell in one hand and the trident in the other, of greenish eyes, and on a horse. He built the walls of Troy in company with Apollo, and for this he was said to have served Laomedon, the Trojan king. They name him by several names: some call him Neptune, others Enosigros; the Greeks call him Posidone; those who name him Ocean and Nereus, said it inasmuch as by Ocean and by Nereus they understood the sea. But the truth is that Ocean and Nereus are diverse things of Neptune.
Neptune being the son of Saturn and Opis is historical truth, as we said when dealing with Saturn. But because in the division that Iupiter made with his brothers of the kingdom, the maritime parts of Greece and some islands belonged to Neptune, or because he was the first, according to Diodorus, who put a fleet into the sea and showed how to navigate, they said he was god of the sea or the waters, although the common people of the Gentiles thought it was some god who especially had power over the sea and the waters, as they did not put all things in the power of one god alone, but of many. The truth is that by Neptune physically the same element of water is understood, and sometimes the spirit or divine mind that is spread throughout the sea, which is nothing other than the anima unfounded in the elements, as well as in the animals and plants that are preserved in their being.
They give him Amphitrite as a wife, according to Alberic, because since he was a man, he had to have a wife, although the woman they attribute to him is not according to the truth, but according to the poetic pretense in order for her to mean something. Which seems to be the word attributed to it. Amphitrite is a Greek name, composed of amphi which means around, and Triton, sound, which everything means sound around, which does not belong to Neptune insofar as he was a true man, but as the spirit spread throughout the greatness of the water, because on all the shores of the roundness of the sea, the waves breaking, they make sound. For this very reason they give him Salacia as his wife, who is the wave of the sea, which although it comes with impetus, eventually sinks itself; and thus by these women is understood the same body or matter of water or of any humor that is included near the earth or within it. Give these women to Neptune, because as the woman does not deviate from command due to the bond of marriage, so the sound and waves of the shores are something that never ceases nor is removed from the sea. The woman he truly had, according to the fact that she was a man, was called Venilia.
Of the children they give him, some could be his, if he were a true man; However, others do not, but wear them for some convenience of ownership. They give him other children who were neither his nor anyone else's, unless they are men, as well as the nymphs and gods of the sea, which are nothing; but it is meant to mean something or to cause delightful stories. They also give Neptune as sons the men who grow a lot and the unknown men who come by sea. The reason for the first is based on the fact that it seems to be natural that things with large bodies are attributed to Neptune, since Neptune means the sea, which in common produces larger animals than the earth or the air, as appears in whales and other fish; and because they had humidity, denoted by water, as the principle of all things. For this reason, those that were generated from water were called children of Neptune. The reason for the second, that those who are not known were called children of Neptune, is that those who walk on land cannot come suddenly but by succession, in the midst of all the other people who are between us and them; And so, first they come, they are known to many, because as they walk they talk to many and leave traces of who they are; However, those who come by sea, as they pass through few towns or none at all, when they arrive where they want to are so unknown that it is in their power to sell themselves to whoever they want, mainly because by sea very long roads are made, which cannot be done by land. ; For this reason, because such are not known nor is there any other news about them except that they passed through the sea, for this reason they are called children of Neptune.
Giving Neptune many children is to denote the fertility of the sea; The fact that all the children of Neptune are cruel denotes that the fish eat each other.
To send Neptune the dolphin to Amphitrite to reconcile her to his love is to make us understand that the dolphin surpasses all the other animals of the sea, in knowledge and ingenuity and lightness of body.
They give Neptune a chariot, because that is how the ancient kings and gods walked, to represent majesty or to denote the movement of water, which is made around the earth, which is denoted by the wheels, or because it makes the water with its noise movement like the car.
The sea monsters that carry this chariot denote the wave that the sea makes with its movement.
For the gods and nymphs and tritons that accompany him with happy faces, they wanted to signify the sea when it is calm or calm. Other times giving Neptune company the strong and troubled winds, and rains, and moans of the waves, and the silt, was to denote the state of the sea in stormy weather. And for this reason, Statius did not put some gods or happy things, but all sad and laborious, as those who navigate with such disturbances are.
They give it the trident as a sign of a royal scepter, to signify by the three teeth that it has three conditions of water, it is convenient to know: that we swim in it, and it has movement, and it is good for drinking, things that are not found in any other of them. the elements, or to denote the power that the ancients gave to Neptune to be able to preserve the sea and move storms and calm them, or to denote the three differences of meteors of which water is the mother. The first, of the exhalations and vapors that are the material for generating winds. The second difference is from the exhalations that generate dew, frost, rain, snow, hail, stone, manna, honey, produced from steam, which after it becomes snow thickens, or before it thickens takes on some of the aforementioned forms. ; the difference of which is caused according to the highest or lowest place where the air takes it, as we said in our Astronomy. The third difference is from the exhalations that generate impressions that have a flammable substance, such as comets, lightning, rays, breaks in the sky and their fires, and other forms of fire that we see in the air.
Raising Neptune to Iuno, or conversely, Iuno to Neptune, denotes the mutations or reciprocal generations that exist in the elements, converting one into another, because rising from the water and other humid parts of the earth (understood by Neptune) exhalations, it generates air, which is Iuno; and on the contrary, the dense air (which is understood as Iuno) being enclosed in the caves and other concavities of the earth, it becomes water, which is Neptune, and the air, resolved into subtle exhalation, becomes the element of fire.
Consecrating the foundations of buildings to Neptune is because the waters, understood by Neptune, moving through the earth, dig and pierce and destroy it, and thus they sacrificed to him the foundations or foundations that are made in it, so that they would be firm and would not be damaged. carry the water. And the Gentiles worshiped the good gods, so that they did good, and the bad ones, so that they did no harm, and for this reason they sacrificed a black bull; He says black, because Neptune was a bad god; He says bull, because the bull imitates the sea in its fury and roaring.
Painting it naked denotes the nature of fresh water, or as a pure and clean element without mixture.
The shell in his hand denotes the sound of the waters.
The shape or figure of Neptune or his eyes declares the nature of the sea, and its color is blue-green. They paint him on a horse, because it is as light as the current of the galley or ship that goes through the sea, or because those who sail go on the ship as on horses, or because one of Thesalia called Neptune was the first who showed how to climb a horse. horse and use it. Of the building of the walls of Troy and how it served Laomedon, it will be told about Apollo.
Saint Isidro says that his name was Neptune Quasi cloud tonans. That is, it gives sound in the clouds, because in the waters, understood by Neptune, they fall from the clouds sounding. Tulio and Alberico refer to natando, which is swimming, because we swim in them. Rabano writes that he is called Neptune because he covers the earth, like water did before God commanded it to gather in one place. Homer named him Enosigeos, which means earthmover; that is, because the waters belong to Neptune, which, moving, wear out and eat the earth. The Greeks call him Posidona, which according to Saint Fulgentius means the one who makes an image, because of water, understood by Neptune, helping natural heat, things are formed and cause the generation.
Of Ocean
Oceanus, according to Virgil and Orpheus and Thales and other authors, was called the father of all the gods and of all other things. But according to Hesiod, he had a beginning because he was the son of Coelius and Vesta and grandson of Love. They say that Iuno was raised near the Ocean; others say that Iuno raised Oceanus. Euripides says he has the head of a bull; They also said that he had been a good friend of Prometheus and that he had married Thetys, and that his children were rivers and fountains, and that he had many other children, among whom they counted Tyche; Give him a chariot to ride in, which will carry him whales; nymphs accompany him; Triton serves as trumpeter, who goes before him.
Ocean is the universal greatness of water that surrounds the entire earth, which is what we call sea. Ocean in Greek means the same as Caeruleus in Latin; which in Spanish is a black-green color, similar to what we see sea water having. This Ocean takes several names, some from the four main points of the world, which are East, West, Midi and North, and others from the provinces whose coasts it bathes. The part of the Ocean corresponding to the eastern point is called the Indian Sea. The one that falls towards the western part is called the Atlantic Sea. The Ocean that falls towards midday is called Rubro or Aethiopic sea. The one in the northern part is called the Pontic or frozen sea, because it freezes or can freeze, because it is so far from the Sun. Ultra of this, the Ocean whose waters beat on the coast of England is called the British sea, because England was called Britain. The one that touches the coast of Gaul, which is France, is called the Gallic Sea; and thus it takes various names, according to the diversity of provinces in which it touches.
Considering, then, Thales Milesius, according to Aristotle, that Ocean is understood to be all water, and that the first things that are generated need moisture, without which nothing can be generated or corrupted, he came to say that Ocean was the principle or father of all things in the world and even the gods themselves. Orpheus felt the same in a hymn, and Virgil when he says:
Oceanum rerum patrem, Nymphasque sorores.
The ocean is the father of things, and the nymphs are his sisters.
He means: let us make sacrifice and prayers to Oceanus, who is the father of all things, and to my sisters the Nymphas. Hesiod began by saying that he was the son of heaven and earth, understood by Caelius and Vesta, because they had those of their opinion, that love had mixed all the greatness of Chaos, from which heaven and earth and the sea were born. , from which not only all things were generated, but even the gods themselves. Those who said this were prophesying what Christians have by faith and belief, because when the Almighty God created the world from nothing, moved by love, he said: Let there be light, then the heavens and planets were made, which are instruments of light; Therefore, first the heaven was made, then he commanded the waters to separate to a place, which were on the earth. And this separation that the waters made, coming together and discovering the land in many parts, was called Ocean, which we call sea; and because the heaven was made first, they said it was father, and because of the separation that the waters made from the earth they said mother, because it seems that the earth took it out of itself, or because the water came out of the voids and silty parts of the earth ; and because love, which is the divine goodness of God himself, created all things, for this reason they gave Love as their grandfather.
That Ocean created Iuno, or conversely, Iuno created Ocean, is the same as what we said in the preceding chapter, about Neptune creating Iuno, and conversely.
That Ocean has the head of a bull denotes the strength of the waters, which tend to be disturbed and raging like a bull, with large and high waves, either because Ocean makes noise like a bull's roar, or because like a furious bull he wounds on the banks.
Oceanus being a friend of Prometheus denotes that as Prometheus was a very ingenious and prudent man, so whoever has friendship with Oceanus should be another Prometheus. That is to say, whoever wants to navigate the Ocean in peace and safety needs great prudence, knowledge of the stars, and being very experienced in knowing the rocks and crags and shoals, and in knowing the coming storms by signs of the winds and other things.
They gave Oceanus to Tethys as his wife, as Ovid says:
Duxerat Oceanus quondam Titanida Tethym.
Oceanus had once married the Titanid Tethym
It means that Oceanus will marry a woman of the lineage of the Titans, called Tethys. By Ocean is understood the active virtue for the generation that is made of water, and by Tethys, the passive or the matter of generation. Or by Ocean we mean pure elemental water, and by Tethys, water elemental or mixed with other elements, capable of generating something as a mother.
Call the rivers and fountains children, because although it is true that the thickened air, enclosed in the concavities and caves of the earth, becomes water and causes fountains, the main source from which the fountains and rivers are fed is the Ocean. . They put Tyche among the sons of Oceanus, because Tyche means fortune or good success, because sailors who at sea trust in the doubtful and various winds should be happy, because nothing truer can be said of the safety of the sea. water than not having any.
Give it a car, to denote that the Ocean surrounds the entire earth. Bring this whale car, because it is a whale walk. By the Nymphas that accompany it, we understand the diversities of waters that exist in the world: some sweet, others brackish, etc., as we deal with in our natural Philosophy.
The Triton that they give as a trumpet to the Ocean denotes the noise that the waters make with their movement.
From Tethys or Thetis
Servius and Hesiod say that Tethys, wife of Oceanus, was the daughter of Heaven and Vesta. They called her Mother of the Deesas, as Oceanus, her husband, was the husband of the gods; Vergil, and Ovid, and Paulus Chrysippus, and Lactantius make mention of this.
This pretense does not belong at all to the historical sense; but it was ordered for some allegorical sense, and thus, to say that Tethys was the daughter of Heaven and Vesta is because, according to John Bocacio, it is a water that by virtue of the force of heavenly heat is drawn from the bowels of the earth. And so from Heaven, and not from men, and from Vesta, which is the earth, she is born; and because this water, understood by Tethys, is united with the sea water, by which Ocean is understood, for this reason they say she is his wife. And that one of these waters is different from another, it is seen from experience (according to the opinion of navigators), that the salty water overwhelms the not so salty, so that ten feet from the seawater it is sweeter. And the reason that Tethis is made a woman of Ocean, Ocean also being water, is because those who pretended this wanted to understand by Ocean the pure element of water, and by Tethys the elemented water, I mean water that has a mixture of other elements, by means of which mixture something can be created; so that when water or a simple element acts something, it is called Ocean, because it acts like a man; and when she suffers or receives material to engender, as a female, she is called Tethys, and some call her Tethys. There is a great difference from Thetis written with aspiration in the first syllable, who was the daughter of Chiron Centaurus (according to Epicharmus), and although according to Homer she was the daughter of Nereus and mother of Achilles, the wife of Peleus, king of Thesalia, of whose marriage we will say in another place, dealing with Peleus, of whom Ovid mentions, and it is worth noting that, like the one like the other, both were considered goddesses of the sea or the same thing. The first Tethys, a woman they pretended to be from Oceanus, was called by Servius, by another name, Doris, which is interpreted as bitterness, which by virtue of the heat of the Sun joins with sea water. They said she was the Mother of the Goddesses, for the reason that Oceanus said she was the Mother of the gods.
From Nereus
Nereus, according to Hesiod, was the son of Oceanus and Tethys; and according to Apollodorus, of Ocean and the Earth; He married his sister Doris in whom there were nymphs, who from his name were called Nereides, who were fifty in number. The wise men said of this Nereus that he was old, and that he had a very white beard, and that he was a fortune teller, and that he changed into various figures.
Nereus is said to be Neros, which in Greek means water; and because the municipality of the waters is in the sea, this is why they said Nereus was god of the sea, and thus the poets by Nereus understand the sea itself. This is how Ovid and Vergil used it, where it begins: Grandaevus Nereus, etc., and Valerius Flaccus said he was the son of Oceanus and Tethys, because by Nereus some understood sea water or the mixture that is made in the sea of water when it is pure element , understood by Oceano; and the elemented or mixed water, understood by Thetys, or they wanted to understand by Neptune, according to John Bocacio, the Mediterranean Sea, because according to Pomponius Mela, Hercules, opening the Strait of Gibraltar, caused the water of the Ocean to enter through the mountain. Abila, from Mauritania, and Mount Calpe, from Spain, as first both were together; and because water from the Ocean entering there created the Mediterranean Sea, this is why they say that Nereus, understood by the Mediterranean Sea, is the son of Oceanus and Tethys. Those who say they are the son of Ocean and the Earth understand what we first said, that by Nereus we understand both qualities of water, the simple elemental and the mixed of elements, because by virtue of the heat of the Sun, it comes out of the bowels. from the earth a water different from the elemental, which we said is understood as Tethys, and the mixture of both is understood as Nereus, and for this reason he is the son of Oceanus and the earth, or of Oceanus and Tethys, as has been said. That he married his sister Doris, that is, with the bitterness of water, because this bitterness comes out of the earth, like Nereus himself, and so they are brothers, and she is his wife, because through this mixture she becomes capable of engender.
Nereus having many daughters called Nereydes is because the sea, understood by Nereus, generates many fountains and humidity, in various parts of the earth, and they call these nymphs Nereydes. To say that there were fifty is to put a certain number as uncertain, or because these nymphs were many, it is understood, according to some, the many inventions and changes of advice pertaining to navigation. And to note this better, they said that Nereus was old, because to navigate the experience of an old man is necessary, and not of a young man, but that he have a white beard, because in these the experience resides, or giving him a white beard denotes the foam that the sea makes with its movements.
That Nereus was a fortune teller means that he who has to steer ships must be a fortune teller of what will happen in the sea ahead of time, it means that he must have experience to predict before the changes of the sea come, which are waxing and waning, and changes of winds, and by signs of birds and other things, to know the coming storm.
That Nereus changed into vain figures denotes the change of the sea, which never remains much in a being, because it is already calm, now not, now in one way, now in another.
For this reason the ancients wanted to exhort us to be prudent, not only in sailing, but even in other businesses, and not to complain about our fate when through imprudence or recklessness we put ourselves in danger.
Of Triton
Theodontius says that Triton was the son of Oceanus and Tethys. Servius makes him the son of Neptune and Salatia. Hesiod, of Neptune and Amphitrite. Lycophron claimed to be the son of Nereus. Triton was messenger and trumpeter, who played with a shell, of Oceanus and Neptune, according to Ovid, where it begins: Caeruleum Tritona vocat, etc.; and Vergil, in four verses that begin: Hunc vehit immanis Triton, etc. From the navel above he has the shape of a man, and from there below he has the shape of a dolphin; the first feet of a horse, the large tail, folded into the shape of a moon; His voice is human. They gave him a chariot in which he rode, taking him some black-green horses, according to what Ovid says, where he begins:
Caeruleis Triton per mare curret equis.
Triton's blue horses run through the sea.
He means, Triton runs some black-green horses through the sea. They say that when he found a shell or horn and blew it in the war of the Giants, believing it to be some large animal, and because of the unheard sound, they fled, with which the gods easily achieved victory.
By Triton the ancients understood a divine thing that was present with the navigators, because there was no place that seemed to lack favor or a divine thing. And their introduction, they say, was that when some were in a storm, they saw some monster in the sea that had never been seen before, and as superstitious people they asked for a favor and perhaps they were freed. They attributed deity to him and called him Triton, which means sound, because of the noise of the stormy weather. ; and because of this noise they say that he is a trumpeter of Ocean or Neptune, and that they play with a shell, which was what they first used instead of a trumpet, and because of this noise they pretend that he rides in a chariot. The black-green horses that bring his chariot denote the color of the sea, meaning that they are black-green; and in being horses it is to denote the speed with which the waves move. That it has a human voice is because the noise of the sea seems like a living or animated thing. Some say that the tritons are fish that have the shape of a man, about which Alexander says of Alexander, that in Epirus there was a fountain near the sea, where the girls went for water, and a seaman came up, which they say Triton. , and he hid in a cave near the road, where the women passed, and was on the lookout until he saw one, who, taking her, entered the sea with her. And Petro Gelio says that in Marseilles they caught a merman or seaman, and presented him to King Renato. The females of these newts, who give birth to women, are called Nereydas, from Nereus.
Of the dangers of the sea
The poets who are in the sea mention seven dangers, which are Syrtes, Cycladas, Acloceramina, Scilla, Charybdis, Carina, Cafareo.
Sirtes are sandy places at the end of the African sea, where the sand moves with the wind and waves; and what is now deeper has soon been filled with sand and become a shoal, because of which many perish there, becoming stranded in the earth.
The second danger they say Cyclades; It is a dangerous place of sea, which submerges and swallows ships, and it is not one of the seventy-three islands that they call Cyclades.
The third danger is called Acloceramine; It is danger where ships swirl and become upset and sink.
The fourth is called Scilla, and there were two of this name: one was the daughter of Phorcus, according to Servius and Leontius, who pretend that because Neptune loved her, Amphitrite, Neptune's wife, out of jealousy, infected a fountain in which Scilla used to bathe. and as she entered it, madness came upon her and she fell into the sea, and Neptune turned her into a sea monster.
Others say she became a rock. Ovid says that as Glaucus despised Circe for love of Scilla, Circe infected the fountain where Scilla used to wash, and entering it, she changed into a disformed figure, which, frightened by its disformity, fell into the sea, and as a result By her lover Glaucus she was turned into a marine goddess. Homer says that Scilla was a woman who had the voice of a dog, of frightful appearance, and twelve feet and six heads, and in each head a large mouth, with three rows of teeth; the eyes of fire, and the middle of the body below like a snake; her long tail, to reach the ships that far away, and that she lived in a cave, from where she stuck her head out and fished for dolphins and whales. They say that Hercules killed her, but her father Phorcus brought her back to life.
Saint Fulgentius, moralizing this fable, says that Scilla means confusion or lust. This lust loves Glaucus, which means blindness, because every man who loves lust is blind.
The historical meaning of this poetic pretense is that between the strait that separates Calabria from Sicily there are some sharp and cavernous stones and rocks, which with the continuous shaking of the waves make a noise that seems like the beating of a dog. He says that it had a frightful appearance, because the noise and the danger that was there made it seem to those who passed by there to be a frightening thing. Having many heads means that there are many rocks, and since they are high, they look like heads. The many mouths and teeth are the waves that hurt there, dangerous to sink those who arrive there. Fishing for dolphins and whales was said because that place is always full of large and monstrous fish.
He says that he loved Neptune because the rock that Scilla pretends to have become is in the sea, and because there is always fortune and continuous noise there, he pretended that the water had been infected with Amphitrite. That Hercules killed her, Theodontius says, was thus feigned, because a son of Cyclops died among the rocks of Sicily, where Cyclops, to take revenge, threw many rocks and brambles there, covered the mouths of Scilla and made the sea navigable, and For this Scilla was said to have been killed. Then, by time, the sea removed those rocks and brambles lying there, and he restored the place to its original form, and thus Phorco's daughter was resurrected. And according to Philocoros, Scilla was a woman, daughter of Phorcus, who, leaving Sardinia for Corintho, because she was given to a Corinthian, named Stellenus, in marriage, died there, and this dangerous place of the sea took her name, called Scillallo. Others say that among the inhabitants of some islands called Tyrrhenas, in the Ionian Sea, there was a beast that from the navel above was a woman, and the head was a dog, and the rest was a snake. And the story of this is that these people had a ship whose name was called Scilla, with an insignia of the shape that the fable says, and with it they plundered all the ships they found, and Ulysses escaped from Scilla, with good weather he had.
The second Scilla was the daughter of Nissus, of whom Ovid writes that when Minos fought against him and had him surrounded in a city to avenge the death of his son Androgeus, who had been killed by the Athenians, Nissus had hair dyed in such a way that between As long as his head was strong, the city had no fear of war that anyone could wage against it, no matter how powerful. Scilla climbed a high tower to see the enemy's field from there, and saw Minos, and fell so in love with him that she cut her father's hair while he was sleeping, and brought it to Minos to please him, declaring that this was where her father's strength lay. ; And since Minos was despised and hated as a bad and cruel woman, he threw her off the cliff. Others say that she herself, considering the betrayal committed against her father, and seeing herself despised by Minos, fell from the cliff. Ovid says that she was turned into a lark, and her father Nisso, after being defeated and dead, into an eagle or merlin, birds that are mutually contrary to each other. Virgil mentions this, where he begins: Apparet liquido, etc. And Servius on Virgil.
Nisso, father of Scilla, is figured by reason, which while it has absolute empire in man, is seen to have a fatal hair, which is the true love of God and neighbor, for which he cannot be thrown out of the kingdom by no artificial evil from his enemies, nor dead. Minos is the world, which lays traps for reason and fence as Minos for Nisso. Scilla, daughter of Nisso, is the bad taste and will, in love with the world and its things; She alone can arrest Nisso, her father, extinguishing her charity, so that she comes to lose her reason, her life and the kingdom. Later, this bad hobby, desperate for not being able to fully enjoy the pleasures of the world, is transformed into a rock of its error, or into a lark, a bird that continually jumps and flies and never stays still; Thus the will that betrays reason and causes it to lose life and the kingdom, not being able to establish itself in things of the world, wanders through the waves of the sea of this world, pursued by reason, which is represented by the eagle, because just as the eagle looks at the Sun more fully than any other bird, so reason guides the understanding, the knowledge of God, better than any other part of the soul, like the one that would want to return it to a better path, making it die to things. transitory and return it to the love of the eternal and divine, in which it will have true rest. And as Scilla fell in love with Minos, so the will falls in love with the things of the world, climbing the tower of comfort and occasion of propincular objects and of pleasure in delights.
Charybdis is a dangerous place, in the strait of the Sea of Sicily, which is near Scilla, daughter of Phorcus, where the water rises and falls three times a day, and the ship that passes there at low tide runs aground in the sandy sea. floor.
Carina is a danger that comes from large waves of the sea.
Cafareo is a great gulf where sailors lose the order in which to guide.
These seven dangers the poets pretend to subdue the ships and whips that roam the sea. Ovid puts this fiction in the book of her epistles, in the letter that Ariana, daughter of Minos and Pasiphe, writes to Theseus, when she was left alone on an island and went with her sister Phedra. These dangers are compared to the seven mortal sins, because just as the ship is submerged and drowned by any of them in the sea, so men, whose bodies are like ships of the soul, are drowned in the sea of this world, by each of them. the mortal sins they commit.
Of Pluto and Proserpina and Ceres
Pluto, whom the ancients considered god or lord of hell, was the son of Saturn and Opis, and brother of Iupiter, and of Iuno, and Neptune. This Vergil pretends to have a large and strong city in hell, whose walls are made of iron, which could not be broken by the forces of men, nor perish for centuries, where Thesiphon, one of the three infernal furies, is guarded by day. and at night he never sleeps, giving in no good.
He has the dog Cerberus, which is a three-headed dog, as the general guard of his entire kingdom, who does not let out any of those who enter there. He had as his insignia keys that closed and did not open, just like Jupiter the scepter and Neptune the trident. They pretended to ride in a three-wheeled chariot, called Trigae, which was carried by three horses called Metheo, Abastro, Nuvius, as Ovid says, in three verses that begin: Hanc metuens cladem, etc. They painted his image, according to Alberic, a terrible man, with a very ferocious face, sitting on a dais of sulfur stone, with a scepter in his right hand, and in his left a soul that he held tightly, and at his feet the dog Cerberus, and next to him to him the three infernal furies. Proserpina was at her side, with a gesture no less terrible than her husband. The Romans worshiped this Pluto and offered him men's heads as a sacrifice. They had a temple in Ellis, a city in Greece, and it was not opened more than once a year.
Pluto means rich, and that is the reason why Pluto is understood as the strength or virtue of the entire earth or the element itself, and because everything that men have as wealth comes from the earth; This is why in Greek they call him Pluto, which sounds like dis in Latin, which means rich. That's what Cicero called him, and because it meant reverence and authority, they called him dispater, which means rich father. This is what Saint Isidro says. Attributing the earth to him is because when the children of Saturn divided the world, it fit by luck. His proper name, according to Lactantius, was Agesilaus; others called him Aydoneo; the other names are false; For this reason he said himself to be the son of Opis, which among other meanings, means the earth. Furthermore, being the son of Saturn and brother of Iupiter and of Iuno and Neptune, is nothing other than warning us that all this wealth understood by Pluto comes and is born naturally by succession of time, understood by Saturn, and because of heat, understood by Jupiter; and the temperance of air, understood by Iuno, and of water, understood by Neptune.
That Pluto has his lordship or is god of hell is the reason that Pluto was lord of the land of the Molossians, which is a province of Greece called Epirus or Chaonia, which falls at the end of the western part of Greece, or because, According to Strabo, he lived in Spain near the Pyrenees mountains, and because walking from eastern parts to more western parts is going down, and the lower part is called hell; That's why they said Pluto was the god or lord of hell, because hell is in the center of the earth, and Pluto was the earth.
Saint Isidro calls Pluto Orcus, which means swallower or receiver, which name suits him for many reasons: one, because he was a cruel man, who showed a dog (called Cerberus) to tear and eat men, and thus They gave this name as a blemish; The second, in that they pretended to be the god of hell, where he receives or swallows all the souls of the bad people who die, or because as an earth, he receives into himself all who die, both good and bad, or because the rich (understood by Pluto ) they swallow everything with works or desire.
He was called Februo, a name derived from febrius, which in Greek means purifications or ceremonies with which they purified the souls; which purifications the ancients performed in the month of February, and for this reason this month is called that. This is done because the ancients believed that the souls of the dead were purged or appeased by certain ceremonies. Or because Pluto was the god of those souls, to whom he performed those purifications, he was called Februus, because the purifications were called februa; So says Macrobius. Diodorus Siculus says that this was the first inventor of graves and burying men, and of the gifts and honors they give to the dead, which before him among the Gentiles had never been customary, but they were left to bury them in the fields. for the beasts.
Having Pluto as a strong city, this suggests how the greedy rich keep their wealth, putting it in strong places, where it cannot be stolen.
Being an iron fence denotes the hardness of the wills of the misers, who are like iron, who do not bend to compassion or pity for the poor, to distribute the riches with them.
That this city of Pluto could not be destroyed by men, nor fall, or perish for countless centuries, means the need to die, because there is no force of men that cannot excuse death, when God is pleased to reach each one.
Guarding this city Thesiphon denotes the anxiety and greed of the soul of the rich in guarding and acquiring wealth. That this guard did not sleep at night or day denotes that the rich sleep little, thinking about how they will preserve the property and multiply it. The fact that not a single good person enters that city, but all the bad ones, means that riches, without evil, cannot be gained and retained.
Cancerberus, a dog with three mouths or heads, which guards the kingdom of Pluto, denotes the greed and insatiable hunger of the greedy, or means the earth, which swallows all those who die. Having this three-headed dog denotes the three parts of the world, which are Asia, Africa, Europe, from which the earth receives meat, as in all the lands of the world men die; or they mean three ages, in which some depart from this life, which are puerice, youth and old age, in each of which a man happens to die; These three mouths of Cancerbero also denote that although the greedy man's desire for cudiciary is fulfilled, then another arises, and another, and thus there is no end to cudiciary; and put determined number for indeterminate.
Not letting out any of those who entered this city denotes that the greedy receive everything that comes to them, and never give it, or because he who dies cannot take life, which they also denoted by the keys that they give. as insignia to Pluto, which they close and do not open. And for this very reason they said they were lord of the dead, because all those who are born are resolved again on earth, according to Cicero. The figure of how they painted Pluto is clear from what has been said.
The Romans sacrificing men's heads to him was because, since he was a cruel man, they planned to please him with cruelties.
They opened his temple rarely, because when it was opened Pluto and the infernal furies were loose, of which the people were afraid. Festo Pompey says that it was opened three times a year.
The cart is nothing more than the rolling traces of those who want to get rich. The three wheels or horses that pull this chariot denote the fatigue in which such greedy people put themselves and the danger and uncertainty that their plans have. The first of the horses is called Metheo, which means dark, so that by him we understand the crazy deliberation of getting things, of which he has little need, with which he is driven by his greed. The second is called Abastro, which means the same as black, so that one knows the fear and fear of the danger that is almost always around the businesses and cases in which they are put in place. The third is called Nuvius, which means a warm thing, so that we consider that with the fear of danger sometimes the boiling desire to reach out catches a cold.
Of the theft of Proserpina
Proserpina was a goddess among the Gentiles, daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, which according to Ovid, meant three things: the seeds or harvests; Moon; and the queen of hell; and for this reason the things that are said about Proserpine were attributed to these three meanings, as Diodorus Siculus and Claudianus say. About how Pluto stole her, the poets write that considering that all the goddesses refused to receive him as a husband, both because of his ugliness and because of the darkness of his kingdom, he climbed into a chariot, which was drawn by three black horses, and came to Sicily, and arriving to a very beautiful forest of trees, where at that time Proserpine was relaxing, picking flowers in the company of other virgins, who, like the others, exceeded in gentleness of body and beauty, seen by Pluto, falling in love with her and suddenly taking her as his. startled, he took her with him. She cried out, asking a favor from her mother and her colleagues to help her. Pluto, in great haste, whipped the horses as hard as he could. There were two fountains on the path through which Pluto was to pass, which were called Ciane and Arethusa. Ciane was named after a nymph who lived there named by the same name, who, seeing them coming and knowing Proserpina, was very upset to see her carried away against her will; She tried to hinder Pluto's steps, extending her arms in many places. Pluto seeing that she could not pass, there was great anger, and striking him with her furious scepter, she opened the earth there, through which she entered into hell with her chariot and her maiden. Cyane, when she saw that she had not been able to remedy Proserpina, and also the water of her lost fountain, which had been consumed by the opening that Pluto had made, seeing herself dry, cried loudly and revealed to Ceres the theft of her daughter. ; And because Ciane loved that fountain that she kept very much, she entered it and was then turned into water.
Pluto was a true man and not a god of hell, but king of the Molossos, a province in the western part of Greece, and thus close to the island of Sicily, and for this reason it is credible that Pluto stole Proserpine, because it suited him. more this one for a woman than another from a more remote land; and one kingdom and the other being close would be more advantageous, and there would be hope that through this marriage both kingdoms would be united. And Proserpine was a maiden of that name, daughter of Ceres, queen of Sicily, and of king Sicanus. And Ovid and the poets, to ennoble the lineage and because for her purposes it was more appropriate for her, said that she was the daughter of Iupiter, and Ceres the sister of Iupiter himself. This maiden, being one day near the city of Zaragoza, in Sicily, with her other companions in a forest picking flowers, Pluto stole her with the intention of receiving her as his wife.
We have said that Pluto, according to Cicero, denotes the strength or virtue of the earth. Now we say that Proserpine denotes the sown seeds; The reason for this is that Proserpina is interpreted: Quasi, prope nos serpens. She means, creeping close to us. This suits the seed, which, cast into the ground, makes roots, and from there it begins to rise up over the earth, and this rising is like tracking, because it is above the earth and close to us, since it is together with our feet. By Ceres we understand the harvests or past fruits, and other times the earth or its surface. Ceres being mother of Proserpina is because what is sown was taken from the past fruits. Stealing Pluto from Proserpina denotes that when farmers sow and it is not born as quickly as they would like, it seems that they took it or stole it; and because there is no one who carries it, except the one who lives beneath the earth, and this is Pluto, by whom the depth of the earth is also understood, that the hidden seeds could be there; and for this reason it is said that he stole from Proserpina, who are the seeds.
Sinking Pluto with Proserpine below the ground means that the seeds have to be buried or hidden so that they are born, or that the rich hide the seeds underground in silos, to wait for the time when they are worth more.
Proserpina being stolen while picking flowers in Sicily, these flowers denote the fertility and temperance of the air, which is why almost every month of the year there are flowers on that island, and because of its fertility it is called alhori panera of the Romans.
Cyane or Arethusa who discovered to Ceres where her daughter was denotes the virtue of the seed, which virtue at the same time expels and makes what is sown discovered, appearing on the earth.
Proserpine is the daughter of Ceres insofar as Ceres is understood as the earth, which nourishes the seeds, with the substance of humor, from which it reforms every body of the harvest, and this generation takes place within the earth, taking root first. and then going outside, which are mother's jobs. She is the daughter of Iupiter, because by Iupiter the sky is understood, as Tullius says, and because from the sky and stars comes the virtue to alter the matter from which generation is made, because although this virtue is given by Aristotle to the Sun, by whose movement It says that all things that are corrupted and engendered are generated and corrupted, however it is better for the entire sky together than for the Sun alone; Therefore they attribute Proserpina to being the daughter of Iupiter. Other things that are missing to fulfill this fable will be said later, dealing with Ceres.
Of a daughter, who without female council there was Pluto, called veneration
The poets not saying that there were children from the marriage of Pluto and Proserpine is to imply that from the disorderly gathering of riches no praiseworthy thing or famous fruit follows, but they are always sterile because they are not distributed; But the poets give Pluto a daughter, whom Servius the poet calls Veneration, and Theodontius, Reverence, and this is more reasonable, because Veneration, according to the propriety of the Latin word, means that honor which they gave to the gods. And Reverence is the honor that we give to men, and this is the daughter of Pluto, because they give honor to all the rich just for being rich, from which it follows that even if they have all the opposite faults and lack nobility, as long as they only have riches , they honor him; and therefore it was a convenient thing to say that Pluto begat Reverence without a mother. This is understood by indiscreet people who do not know virtues, who think there is no greater excellence than being rich. But the rich do not properly deserve honor if they are not virtuous, because according to Aristotle he defines it: Honor est exhibitio reverentiae in testimonium virtutis. Honor is an offer of reverence made to someone as a sign of virtue; virtue is taken in general, not only for the moral virtues, which are good habits caused in us by use, but for all feats and riches are not feats, since they are nothing in man, but outside of him, for which reason One should not be given honor just for being rich, if with it one does not achieve some virtue.
Of the two Paliscos brothers, places where Pluto passed carrying Proserpina
In Simeto, the river of Sicily, there was a nymph named Thalia, who, being loved by Iupiter, became pregnant with two sons. Therefore, fearing the harshness of Iuno, who greatly mistreated the concubines of her husband Iupiter, she asked to the gods that the earth be opened to receive it; When the time of childbirth came, the earth opened and two children were born, and they named Paliscos, which became two lakes, close to each other, very deep, boiling and smelling bad of sulfur stone; Ovid calls them lakes of the Paliscos; Macrobius tells this fable.
Thalia was neither a nymph nor a person, but a cave in Sicily. But because according to poetic speech, because she was to be a mother, it was necessary to say that she was female; And because among the nymphs they put the Naiades, who are water nymphs, and since rainwater was collected in this cave, they said Thalia was a nymph and that she lived in the river Simeto. To say that Iupiter loved her and that she conceived of him is that Iupiter means the sky and natural heat, from whose virtue come the waters; and because these waters descending from Mount Ethna, when it rained, were collected in that cave called Thalia, in such abundance that it was filled, she says that she became pregnant with Jupiter. Saying that after she was pregnant she asked the gods to open the earth and receive her for fear of Iuno, she said it because as far as the fable goes, Iuno was very cruel towards all of Iupiter's friends, according to Ovid, that when Callisto gave birth or Callistome, Iuno dragged her and turned her into a bear. And so Thalia, when she didn't look pregnant, she didn't fear Iuno; But after she was pregnant, she feared that she would find out, and because of this fear she asked the gods to open the earth. The significance of this is, that when that cave had no water, there was no movement in itself; When she was full, she sank underneath, as if hiding, and then she said she was pregnant. To say that the earth opened when it was time to give birth, and that two brothers were born who were called Paliscos, that is, with the much water it burst in two parts, and from the water that came out of the cave two lakes were made, one nearby from the other, and because they came out of the same cave, as from the same womb, they were called brothers, and because they made two lakes or lagoons, they were called Paliscos, from palus, which means lagoon in the Latin language, which lakes were deep and smelled bad. the water to stone sulfur, and its water boiled, as Ovid says, where it begins:
Perque lacus alto, et olentia sulfura fertur
Stagna Paliscorum rupta feruencia terra.
Through the deep lake, and the smell of sulfur is carried
The pool of the Palisques was broken and the earth was burning.
It means: Pluto passed through the lakes of Paliscos, which boil as the earth is broken, and are the deep, bad-smelling lakes with sulfur stone. He says that they boiled because they rise high, growing with the water that came out through the said openings or springs of the Thalia cave. He says deep, because they are very deep. Aristotle also says that they smell bad, because the sulfur stone has a bad smell, and the water that touches it and is heated, smells like it. And that there is sulfur stone there is credible, since it is next to Mount Ethna or Mongibel, which has a lot of sulfur stone, as evidenced by the flames of fire that are said to come out of it.
From Ceres
Although the poets speak of Ceres as if it were only one, it is known that there were many, of which we will say only two, of which the authors make more mention. The first, according to Lactantius, was the daughter of Caelius and Vesta and sister of Saturn, and this is the mother of Acheron, an infernal river, conceived without a father, of whom a fable says that like Ceres's belly grew, she was ashamed and hid in a cave isolated from Tierra de Candia, where she gave birth to Acheron, who, out of shame, not daring to leave on land, entered hell and was there turned into an infernal river, of whom we will deal in another place. This Ceres married Sicanus, a very ancient king of Sicily, according to Theodoncio, in whom there was Proserpina; And since at that time there was no use for bread in Sicily, because they neither sowed it nor ate it, but they lived on the fruits of the trees, Ceres, according to Solinus, found the use of the seeds and taught the men how to till the land. Sicilians and to pick fruits; and for these benefits, although she was a woman, she was called the bread-maker and consecrated to Sicily.
The other Ceres was the daughter of Saturn and Opis and sister of Jupiter; This, as he affirms, was very beautiful, for which Iupiter loved her, and he begot Proserpina in her; and this is the one who is said to be the goddess of the harvest, which is false, because Ceres, the mother of Proserpine and the goddess of the harvest, is the sister of Saturn, and not the sister of Jupiter; but the poets (as we have said), attribute everything that is appropriate to all the named Ceres to one, as if there had been no other, or to honor Iupiter they give it to his sister. They also say that by adulterating Neptune with Ceres a monster was born so hideous that it was shameful to name it. Ceres is called, according to Saint Isidro, Quasi creas res; It means that Ceres creates all things. Tullius says: Ceres quasi gerens, quia omnia gerit. She means, Ceres she is called because she engenders all things. Saint Fulgentius says that Ceres means contentment or joy, and for this reason they make her the goddess of wheat, because where there is an abundance of fruits they have contentment. Proserpina says they are the seeds or roots, which in Greek are called Hecate, from hecaton, which means a hundred, because Ceres gives a hundred when the fruit is doubled. They sacrificed the pig to Ceres.
Ceres sometimes means the earth, and not all of it, because this is what Pluto means, but the face or coast of the earth, with some coarseness in which is the greatest virtue of being born what is sown on the earth; other times it means the harvest; others, the seeds; others, something else. Proserpina sometimes means the seeds; others, the roots; others, the Moon; others, other things. That Ceres was the daughter of Saturn and Opis means that by Saturn we understand time and by Opis the earth, and by Ceres the virtue of what is sown; and because virtue or that divine fire that is in natural things, to procreate its likeness, requires time, for this reason she is the daughter of Saturn; and because what is sown is in the earth and is born and raised in it, for this reason Opis is its mother. Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, denotes the roots of herbs and plants, and for this reason it was called Proserpina, because the roots spread and crawl secretly beneath the earth; and they said they were born from Iupiter, by whom the heavenly heat or virtue is understood, and from Ceres, his sister, who denotes the seeds, because whatever of this is missing, Proserpina, who is the harvest of bread, would not be generated. Those who said that Ceres gave birth to a monster from Neptune that it was shameful to name, say so because they take Ceres to be the earth, and Neptune to be the water. From the mixture of these two things or participation of water and earth, various monsters believed to be born, due to the excessive abundance of matter. To say that it was embarrassing to name him is that because the diversity of what is generated in this way is so great, it is difficult to give him every name. This denotes the fertility of the water. To say that Sicily was consecrated to Ceres is because that island was very fertile with bread. Sacrificing the pig to Ceres is because this animal is harmful to crops and harvests.
How Ceres Missed His Daughter Proserpine
Ovid writes that Ceres, missing her daughter Proserpina, walked days and nights, with burning brands and pines from Mount Ethna in Sicily, and having traveled almost the farthest places in the world, he finally returned to Sicily, and walking everywhere, He arrived at a fountain called Ciane, where there was a nymph of the same name, who, although she could not speak because she was turned into water, showed him by signs the whole deed of her daughter, showing him the place where she was submerged. When Ceres understood what was happening to her, he began to mourn her, as if she were already completely lost, since she does not know where she is; and so she curses the lands, that they may never bear harvest, Mainly Trinacria, and she killed the oxen, and broke the plows, and scattered the seeds, so that they would never sow or be born. At that time, Arethusa, a nymph, stuck her head out from under the water and said: "Strike now, Ceres, and don't want to do so much harm to the earth, which is not to blame, because I now walk in many places, sometimes under land, sometimes on it; When I run across the earth, I see in hell Proserpina, your daughter, who, although you are sad for her, is happy and rejoices in her, because she is queen of hell and wife of Pluto. » Others want to say that Jupiter declared to Ceres where Proserpina was; When Ceres heard this, she felt it more than if she were dead, she dressed in mourning and locked herself in a cave, where she remained for some time; Then she climbed into her chariot and went to heaven, and standing before Iupiter, with great complaint and feeling, she said: “O Iupiter, I beseech you to have pain for me or for your daughter, who has been so badly reviled and mocked; You may know that I do not consider myself honest with such a son-in-law; but we would suffer all her affront, as long as she wanted to give it to us. » Iupiter said: "Although it is true that Proserpina is my daughter and yours, you have no reason for the grievance that you complain about your son-in-law, since you should not consider yourself insulted by such a son-in-law, since you know that Pluto is my brother, and he does not I have no other advantage except that I remain in heaven by luck, and he in hell; But if you have such great regret for not being able to enjoy Proserpina, take comfort in the fact that your daughter may well ascend to heaven, if she has not tasted the fruit of hell, and you eat poppies; Therefore, go, find out, and if she does not like it, let me know. » Ceres was very happy to think that she had her daughter; but the fates prevented him, because Proserpina, while one day she was relaxing in the garden of hell, picked a pomegranate and ate seven grains of it, which Escalapho, son of Acheron and the nymph Ornia, saw, who was lying in wait for her. Which, when Proserpina already wanted to leave hell, Escalapho accused her, and thus her exit was prevented. At this Proserpine became very angry, and she then changed Escalapho into an owl, by wetting his head with water from Phlegethon, an infernal river, and ordering him to never fly except at night. After this, all the other gods of Ceres, sympathizing, urged Jupiter to have pity for his daughter and pity for his mother. There were so many requests that they moved Iupiter to get involved in making a real agreement between Ceres and her son-in-law, and he ordered that Proserpine be with her mother for half a year, and the other half be in hell with her husband; With this Ceres lost her anger and she was very happy.
To understand what we have to say, it is worth noting that the intention of Ovid (whom I try to follow most in these fables) is to chain many, and for this reason many are introduced in this one about the theft of Proserpina. With this assumption, the fable of Ceres had no other purpose than to declare the manner and reason for sowing and the diligence that was appropriate in gathering the seeds; and what is said about Ceres is understood only in the island of Sicily, where she was the first to show farming, but in other places others showed it first, because Adam and Cain were farmers long before. Ceres walking days and nights looking for Proserpina denotes the care of the farmers, which is a job that never ends, because they have to do it all the time they use it.
The burning brands or pines denote that sometimes the lands do not bear fruit due to the abundance of too much humidity, which the heat of the Sun does not consume; These purge the farmers, burning the earth, with which it bears fruit better, which Vergil shows; or in another sense, these fires denote that at the time of picking the loaves a lot of heat from the Sun is required. To say that the burning brands were from Mount Ethna, denotes that this mountain spews out mouths of fire, which they call volcanoes, or wants to say that those sown with heavenly heat, understood by the lights, grow, or that the seeds having heat under the ground, as they have when winter enters, through which the roots grow, and then in the summer, leaving them outside as well. Ceres searches for Proserpina throughout the world because the defect of the seeds not being born after hiding in the earth for a few days occurs throughout the lands of the world.
Returning later to Sicily again to look for it is because there are the thickest lands in the world and the most fruitful of bread, and for this reason there is more hope of being born there than in other parts.
That the Ciane fountain, because it could not prevent Pluto from carrying Proserpina with pain of tears, became a fountain. Ovid wanted to mean a natural thing, insofar as Proserpine means the Moon, of a source near the city of Zaragoza in Sicily, that in the time of the waxing Moon its waters grow, and in the waning Moon it wanes; and for this reason he says that the nymph Ciane loves Proserpina, in so far as she means the Moon, because every thing loves growth and being hers, and dislikes and hates diminishing things and not being hers; And since the Moon is stolen and taken to hell, which is being under the earth, and decreasing in light, Ciane disapproves of this, because from here follows the diminishing of its waters, and this is dissolving into tears. As soon as he says that in anger Pluto broke through the Ciane fountain, making an opening through which he entered hell, he says this because in the waning of the Moon this water wanes, as we said above, and because when it wanes it appears to the vulgar that it sinks beneath from the earth; Pluto makes this opening by stealing Proserpine, and this decrease is a natural thing, because all the humid things in the crescent of the Moon (which is the mother of humidity) grow, and in the waning they decrease, as is seen by experience in the sea. Ceres cursing the lands that cannot bear fruit, mainly Mount Trinacria, denotes that naturally there are some lands that cannot bear fruit, and so is Mount Trinacria.
Killing the oxen and breaking the plows denotes that the farmers, not harvesting fruit from what they sow, thinking this will happen if they barely plow the land, plow it with more diligence, in which they tire the oxen and the lads and break plows, and this is killing. the oxen, tiring them too much. Or because the farmers, understood by Ceres, seeing that they do not harvest nor the land comes, leave the work, not being able to sustain it, and kill the oxen to eat, and even burn the plows to prepare them.
Spilling the seeds means that out of necessity they eat and sell them, with the intention of not sowing them.
Saying that she dressed in mourning and locked herself in a cave denotes that the seed that is sown is hidden and hidden for some time, which does not appear while it takes root. Those who said that Iupiter told Ceres where her daughter Proserpine was is saying that with natural heat, understood by Iupiter, what is sown comes to light, turned into grass; and here they understand Ceres as the seed and Proserpine as the roots born by their father Jupiter, which is the heavenly heat or virtue, which makes things sprout by order of the first cause, which is God.
Ceres got into his chariot, which brought him snakes or dragons: By this chariot the Zodiac is understood; by the serpents the signs that they imagine to be in it, in which, while the Sun in it rotates, it not only moves the seeds or harvests understood by Ceres, but even brings them to maturity.
Iupiter telling Ceres to eat poppies, a herb that makes people sleep, denotes that the earth sometimes, even if they sow it, does not bear fruit because it is very depleted and worked, which is why it lacks the nutritional humor, and for this it does not take advantage of the to work it a lot, but to let it rest, because by resting it receives virtue from heaven and thus it thickens and regains nutrition for the seeds. This is to say Jupiter that Ceres ate poppies, which make us sleep, because as in sleep we cease all works, so the earth when it strikes is as if it were sleeping, since it does not engender or do anything.
Iupiter later told Ceres that if there was a great desire to take Proserpine to earth, what would he return if he had not eaten something in hell: Proserpine is the grain cast on the ground, from which seeds must be born, and this grain, if not it rots and takes nourishment from the earth, it will be able to come out whole as it was thrown into it; But if it eats something, which is taking nourishment from the earth, like making roots with it, it will not come out unless it is a branch.
Ovid says that Proserpina ate seven pomegranate grains, and others three: They say pomegranate grains because they are russet or red, similar to blood, which is russet. And Ovid wanted to signify in this the beginning of vegetative life in crops that are grasses, meaning it by that which is the beginning of life in the animal, which is blood, and in grass the principle of life is the nutritional terrestrial humor.
These grains being seven or three, by this number seven meant the fulfillment of the nutrition, because if the grain did not have all the necessary alteration under the ground, it would not be born nor will it come to perfection of harvest. This fulfilled nutrition is signified by any of these numbers, because seven are the planets by whose movement the generation and corruption of the things of the world are caused, and seven are the days with which our life is measured, and when finished they themselves begin anew. , again and again, and there is no more, and this is a finite number that is taken for infinite. Three is also a number that means fulfillment, since three are the dimensions of every body, as Aristotle proves. These dimensions of every body that we say are three, are width, length and depth or thickness as we declare in our Geometry.
From Ascalapho turned into an owl
By Ascalapho the poets want to signify the condition of the accusers and nothing else, according to John Boccatius, since Ascalapho accused Proserpine of having eaten the fruits of hell, and thus they turned him into such a thing as to signify the conditions of the accusers. accusers, and said that he was the son of Acheron and the nymph Orna. Acheron means sadness or without joy, because the accusers make the accused lose the joy they had or be sad for fear of the humiliation they do to them. The nymph Oma means grave, changed one letter, because they call the grave Urn; This is how Vergil puts it: Coelo tegitur qui non habet urnam. He means, heaven covers him who has no grave. This is because accusations lead to deaths, and the dead are buried.
That Proserpina, to turn him into an owl, wet his head with water from Phlegethon, the river of hell, which has boiling water, denotes that those who have great thoughts have their heads on fire; It is, therefore, necessary for accusers to have great thoughts, to feign false crimes against the accused, to prove them to be true, since the accuser who does not prove the crime he proposes is obliged to the penalty of retaliation. It was turned into an owl more than into another bird because the conditions of the owl are very suitable for the accuser, for many reasons: one, because just as this bird is sad in itself, so the accuser is not happy. Furthermore, due to the condition of this bird's voice it suits the accuser. The owl is a vocal bird; Such are the accusers, that many voices try to accuse more and show what they affirm to be credible. The owl has a lot of feathers and for the greatness of its body it has little meat; This is the case with accusers, who have many appearances of words and sometimes have little truth in what they say. Furthermore, the owl is a bird abhorrent to all other birds; Thus the accuser is hated by all men, as this office of accuser benefits no one and harms many.
In another sense, Ascalapho was a philosopher of the ancients. Who first found the account of the Moon and who showed the Moon must be in hell, because this showed the Moon to be lower than all the planets, and how and when she is in hell, which is to be below the earth, and when it is in heaven, which is being on earth. This made Proserpina spend half the time on earth and half in hell; and because he found this account, he is said to have only known how Proserpine ate in hell, and for this reason she must have remained there. Being the son of the river Acheronte and the infernal nymph Orna: Acheron means sadness or joylessness; This befits the wise, for in order to be wise they must depart from the delights of sense, in which all other men rejoice; therefore the life of the wise is little pleasure according to the flesh, but they have joy according to the flesh. the understanding. Ascalapho's mother is Orna, which means grave; This suits the wise, because they are locked in their recollection, as if they were buried, excusing the conversation of others. Being turned into an owl more than another bird is because this bird suits the condition of the wise man, because the owl is a nocturnal bird. Thus, the night belonged to Ascalapho, because he found the reason for the movement of the Moon, which is nocturnal movement, and for this he had to keep watch at night, waiting for when the Moon would rise and hide on the horizon. Furthermore, the night is the most suitable time for study, and thus the wise have the condition of the owl. To say that Proserpina turned Ascalapho into an owl is because because of the Moon (which is Proserpine) Ascalapho gave himself to the great study of the Moon, according to which he was called an owl, and thus she turned him into this bird.
The hot water of the Flegeton River, which she poured on him to turn him into an owl, denotes that those who have to apply their hearts to study must have a great ardor of desire to know. Furthermore, those who seek high things of ingenuity, thoughts must make them sweat or burn.
Pouring this water on the head more than elsewhere denotes that the senses that serve understanding are there. The owl is a bird with a lot of feathers and body, and little meat; This suits men given to continuous study, who are of little flesh, since the ardor of study dries them up, according to Aristotle's doctrine: Ex multum speculari marcescit corrupt animal quoddam interius. It means that from too much thinking the animal's body dries up, corrupting something inside. The owl is a bird of bad omen; This also suits the wise man, because just as the voices or movement or presence of the owl are thought by the common people to mean the evil to come, so the wise know and predict the coming things of evil or good.
Jupiter arranging with Ceres and Pluto that Proserpina would spend half a year in hell with Pluto, and the other half with Ceres, is to declare the movement of the Moon, that half the year is sometimes under the earth, and to this they say they are with her husband in hell, and the other half on earth, in respect of the horizons, and this is being with her mother Ceres, understood by the earth that each one inhabits. And this can be understood in another way, that in all the first fifteen days that pass from any conjunction of the Moon, until it is full, the Moon is on the earth, when the Sun sets, and the other fifteen days, from when it is full Until the next conjunction, the Moon is under the earth, because when the Sun sets it does not yet appear, but it rises later every day three-quarters of an hour later, until it returns to the conjunction again. This wise Ascalapho found, with other considerations pertaining to the motion of the Moon.
Proserpina being with Pluto for half a year, etc., denotes ultra of what has been said, now understanding by Proserpina the harvests that come from the sown grain, that the wheat that is sown is six months below the earth and another six months above the ground. land, because considering the time from when the seedlings of the crop begin to appear on the ground until they are harvested, it is six months or almost, and the same amount of time from when they are harvested until they appear again. This presupposes that all the time when there are no harvests on earth, Proserpina is said to be in hell with Pluto. And all the time that the crops are on the earth, she says that she is in heaven with her mother Ceres.
Of Arethusa and Alpheus
After Ceres was happy with the convenience that Iupiter had made, in which half of the year Proserpina was with Pluto and half of her with her, she demanded that Arethusa tell her how she had become a fountain. Arethusa raised her head under the water and said: Know, lady, that I used to be one of the deities who lived in Achaya, and if I gave myself to the exercise of hunting and one day I came tired and very hot, I found a clear river , whose banks were very populated with large and thick trees, among which it ran, without being noticed by those who passed by if they were not warned, because it ran without making a sound; And so I, very careless, arrived at it, and seeing the clarity of the water, I undressed and began to bathe; I, who was safe without any suspicion, heard a noise under the water, which scared me, and I went out to the bank. Alpheo raised his head from the water, and seeing him immediately, I fled, and although he called me, not caring about his words, naked as I was, I began to flee as far as I could, and he followed after me; and not being able to endure the work, I begged Diana to help me; She was sorry for me, and covered me with a cloud of very thick fog. Alpheus, when he did not see me, was looking for me around the cloud, saying: Where are you, my Arethusa? Seeing that he did not respond, he said: Because I believe that your goddess Diana has hidden you in this little cloud, wishing to defend you from me, I promise not to take you away from here until she sees you in my power. At the moment of fear of her words, I began to tremble so strongly that in a short time I began to sweat all over my body, and little by little I turned into water. Alpheo, who was attentive, watching the water flow, then realized how it had changed, and he left the figure of a man and changed into water as before, and wanted to join his waters with mine. Seeing it, I returned with loud voices to call my defender; When Diana saw this, she opened the earth and then put me under her; but this was of little use, because Alpheus threw himself at me, and in the end she had to be married to him; and later, always in his company, I have been and we traveled to many places, among which he came with me to this island called Sicily, where, because it was a delightful place, I wanted to stay there.
Ovid pretends to be the nymph Arethusa when he introduces her to speak with the goddess Ceres about the state of her daughter Proserpina. However, as to the truth, there is no such nymph; but it is the custom of poets to introduce them, and since Arethusa is a fountain, they gave to this fountain a nymph, which others called Arethusa. The historical truth of this fountain is that it is born in Greece, in the province of Achaia, where the Alpheo river is also born, whose waters from both, joining in Greece and then entering under the earth, seem to be in Sicily, next to the city of Syracuse. , which is in the sea port; and to pass from one land to another it is necessary to run under the entire sea, which is between Greece and Sicily; and this is a wonder, and that is why Ovid tells it with these poetic detours. And it is an argument for this truth, according to what Seneca says, that by pouring something into the source of this source in Greece, it comes out after five years in Sicily, which is an obvious argument. Crossing the river Alpheus and Arethusa together from Greece to Sicily under the sea, says Saint Isidro and Vergil, where it begins:
Sic tibi cum fluctus subter labere Sicanos.
Doris amara suam non intermisceat vndám.
So when the waves slide beneath the Sicans.
Doris do not mix her bitter wine.
He means: May God grant you that when you pass under the seas of Sicily, Doris, the bitter goddess, does not mix her waves with you. This is the nymph or goddess Arethusa, whom Vergil begs to give him grace to finish the bucolic songs, where he says:
Extremum hunc Arethusa mihi concede laborem.
Arethusa grant me this last labor.
She wants to say: Oh nymph Arethusa, grant me that I can finish the last work, and she says last work, because that was the final song of her Bucolics.
In what says that Arethusa told Ceres where her daughter was, as she was passing near hell, this belongs to the fable, as Ceres did not ask Arethusa, nor could she answer, because she was not a person, but a source; but this is granted, taking the poetic principles as true, that the rivers and fountains have nymphs who are people. And with this budget, Arethusa nymph could speak and inform Ceres better than any other, since she passes under the earth near hell, in which Proserpina was supposed to be.
From another source Arethusa who is on the island Ithacia mentions Leontius, and took this name from the mother of a hunter named Corazo, called Arethusa, who drowned in it. To these he adds another Solinus of the same name, which is in the land of Thebes.
How Cres turned Stellio into an animal of the same name
When Ceres walked days and nights through the mountains, hills and valleys, without eating or drinking, looking for Proserpina, but could not find her, seeing herself very tired with the pain and work of the road, her thirst tiring her greatly, she saw a poor straw hut, where Upon arrival, an old woman named Messie came out and saw Ceres asking for a drink. She then gave him a stew cooked in a pot mixed with water and thin flour, like talvinas, which could be drunk rather than eaten. While Ceres was eating of it, a boy named Stellio stood before her, and laughing at her, called her glutton; Angry, Ceres threw the puchas in the face of the badly behaved young man, and in the hour he was changed into an animal of the same name, which they call a tarantola, smaller than a lizard, very envious, which fled through the mountains and hid underground.
Conceiving Ceres thirsty with the heat and work of searching for her daughter denotes that the earth, understood by Ceres, dries up with the heat of the summer, and so she is thirsty until she comes to old Messie's house, understood by autumn. , in which time the earth begins to be temperate, and Ceres has not drunk until Messie's house, because in the summer it is not a natural time to rain, and if it rains it is accidentally. She claims to be Messie old and her house is covered with straw and small to signify the smallness of the generative virtue in the autumn, caused by the poverty of the mood, because the waters are not natural, especially in the beginning of it. Ceres going to look for Proserpine means that Ceres, who is the earth, is looking for the rain, which comes from the Moon, understood by Proserpine, with which she tempers herself and has the virtue to engender, and then, when she arrives at Messie's house , which is the time of autumn, drink because some rain, although small, usually falls on the earth. Give Messie to Ceres thin talvinas, which could be drunk rather than eaten, by this we understand the waters of autumn, which are not clean like those at the end of winter, nor are they convenient for something to be generated from them. The child Stellio that this old woman has denotes the fruits of that time being small, as if born against natural conditions. He says that this child was badly punished, with a pitiful mouth, that seeing the deessa drink from the pot, he laughed and called her a sweet tooth. This means (ultimately what is put into stating the fable) the cause of Stellio's conversion, that the fruits of autumn are so small and out of natural condition that it seems that they mock the earth, since being so large and of so much virtue, engenders things of small moment. This child becoming a tarantola or a small lizard means not being those fruits of natural condition; But just as the child ceased to be a man, turning into a lizard, losing his natural condition, so the fruits of autumn leave the condition of natural fruit, turning into a lizard. The first is because it is spotted animals and not of a single color, thus the fruits of autumn, although at the beginning they have a natural color, later begin to corrupt, unless they are generated in time, and taking on different colors that are like spots. The other thing is because just as the lizard hides in the caves under the earth, where winter is, and then appears in the summer, so the fruits generated in the autumn, then like they begin to grow, winter comes, which does not allow them to grow, they dry out again, and seem to enclose themselves in the earth, and appear again in the summer, like the lizard or tarantola does.
How Ceres loved Iasius and fathered Pluto
The poets say that Ceres fell in love with Iasius, son of Iupiter and Electra, while sleeping in a fallow field, from whose loves Pluto was born (according to Leontius), god of wealth. Angry at this, Iupiter killed Iasius with a thunderbolt. This Pluto was one of the ancients held in higher regard than the other gods for being the most destroyer and killer of all, and as such they gave him greater gifts. They also said that this god was blind, and that Jupiter deprived him of his sight.
By this Iasio the ancients understood the strength and nature of the earth, to whom they attributed the strength of riches.
The historical and true meaning (according to Leontius) of this fable is that at the time of the flood, of Ogygio, king who was on the island of Candia, one named Iasius had a large quantity of wheat, and because of the flood, being worth very dear, He sold it as he wanted, from which he gained much wealth. Others say that he was the first to acquire wealth acquired with wheat, as before him no one had cared about it. That Iupiter, angry, killed Iasius with a thunderbolt was because after he became rich, he died quickly of fever, and it seemed to his friends, because he was young, that Iupiter, out of envy of his wealth, had killed him, or because he was his competitor about Ceres, who was a friend of Jupiter; And because lightning is fire and this Iasius died of heat, they said he died with lightning, and because lightning was the weapons they attributed to Iupiter, they said that Iupiter killed him with lightning. Ceres getting together with Iasio is because Ceres is a fan of bread, and Iasio had a lot of it. To be born from this town Pluto is to say that he became rich, since Pluto means rich or wealth.
Iasio being the son of Iupiter and Electra means that Iupiter means heat or celestial virtue, and Electra means the diligence that awakens men; and so loving Ceres to Iasius is loving the heat in the seedbed that is made in fallow land, which matters a lot for the fruitfulness of the land. From here comes Pluto, which is wealth, because the fertility of the earth is great with the diligence of man and the kindness of heaven.
To say that Iasius found Ceres sleeping on a fallow ground, or on the contrary, Ceres found Iasius, is to say that in the way we say he who sleeps rest, so sleeping Ceres is that of the earth, by Ceres understood, fallow and left to rest, Pluto is born, which is wealth.
Iasius being blinded by Iupiter is that as by Iupiter one understands that force of divine understanding that governs human things, passing on riches, now here and there, according to the secret and inexplicable judgment of God, some thinking that this was done without advice and Without reason, they said that the god of wealth was blind.
That the ancients considered this god to be very powerful and noble is because the common people commonly equate riches with virtue, whereas for true nobility and wealth only virtue is, of which since the common people lack, they introduced riches through it.
Of the Sirens
Ovid pretends that the Sirens were some maidens who were companions of Proserpina, who, after Pluto's robbery of her, searched for her throughout the land, and not finding her, they wanted to search for her by sea, and in this attempt climbed onto some high rocks that were They stayed on its shore for some time, until later, with the regret of having lost their companion Proserpina, they wanted to plunge into the sea. The gods, having compassion on them, changed their shapes, turning them from the navel above into maidens and from there below into fish, and the feet of chickens with bird wings, according to what Alberic and Saint Isidro say.
These Sirens, according to Saint Isidro in the alleged place, and Saint Fulgentius, were three daughters of Acheloos and the muse Calliope, which is why Ovid calls them acheloydas, from Acheloos, river. One of these sang from the throat; the other was playing a zither; the other, with a flute. Leontius said there were four Sirens, and that they were named: Aglaosi, Thelciopi, Pysmoy, Eligi, and he made them daughters of Achelous and the muse Thersichore, the three of whom sang, like those that Fulgentius said, and the other with adufle .
They also pretend to sing so sweetly that the sailors who hear them, amazed by the melody, fall asleep, and not looking at themselves, the Sirens, when they feel them asleep, upset their whips and then eat their flesh, which is why the ancients painted the Sirens lying in green meadows, among the bones of many dead.
Aristotle says that there were three of them and that their names were Parthénope, Leucosa, Lygia, and that they lived near Mount Peloro, where Italy is near Sicily. Others name them Aglaope, Pisinoe, Thelxi, Epta. Others Thelgiope, Molpe, Aglaope. Others Leucosia, Lygia, Parthénope. The poets say that these Sirens died once Ulysses, passing by the place where they were, covered his ears a lot so as not to hear them, and since because of this the Sirens could not attract him to kill him, they died of grief.
Paléfato, and Saint Isidro, and Dorion, say that the Sirens were beautiful harlots who lived on a shore of the sea, who with soft music attracted the sailors, and brought them, they kept them for so long until they came to extreme poverty. Therefore it was said that these Sirens caused shipwreck to those who contributed where they were. They called themselves Sirens, which means attractive sweet song, because they attracted the travelers' whips, which means their assets.
Others said that the Sirens were birds from India, which attracted sailors with their soft songs to the banks, and there they lulled them to sleep and then tore them to pieces and ate them.
Others said that they were rocks where ships fell into pieces. Horace, where it begins: Contemnere miser, etc., says that the Sirens were neither sorrows, nor harlots, nor birds of the Indies, but rather a laziness and negligence and clumsy carelessness, which flatters everyone and brings destruction to many. Natalis Commitis says that the Sirens are the delights and their tickles or appetites of each one, to whom by listening, they are destroyed, finding our little ship abeam. But finally the intention of the poets was to make understood by this fiction the art of women given to dishonesty and lust, that men attract themselves more for what they have than for any love they have for them, or any passion that they have for them. have; and to signify the customs of such and the dirty delight, and the damage that this vice causes to men, the Sirens were faked, because there is no such animal in the sea, since there are fish that emit in the figure the man, as Alexander brings from Alexander and Peter Gellius, because if any true thing were from the sea, that sang (as said it is), they would not claim to be daughters of the river Acheloos or of the muse Calliope or of Thersicore, since the muses are not people , but a fake thing. The other thing, if there were Sirens in the sea, they would not have started since Proserpine was stolen, because since the beginning of the world there had been them, or if there were in the sea, they would not be just three or four as they say, but almost infinite; Nor would Homer say that they perished because Ulysses was not in danger; and if they were something of the sea, they would not have such sorrow, which is why it is clear that they are a fabulous pretense to give us doctrine.
They claim to be daughters of Calliope for declaring that they sang, because Calliope is a muse to whom both among the muses give the excellence of singing; and that others claim to be daughters of Thersíchore, is no more true than that of Calliope, because they are muses, and to all muses belongs the delight of song; and Caliope's knowledge meant sound or good talk. It is derived from calon and phonos, Greek words, which mean this, and this is appropriate for all women of this art, because they use flattering words to attract men to their clumsy life, with which they rob them. Being daughters of Acheloos is because just as the river is a humid thing, so all the delights of such are the flow of humor, which in substance and similarity is more suitable with water than with anything else. And although he could say this in the sea, since it is water, he did not say it, because river water has two conditions: it is humid and it is current, which passes and does not return. The water of the sea is humid, but it is not current, because although it has movement, it is in a position like lake water, to mean combining these two things in lustful delights, because there is nothing that happens more quickly than carnal joys, like river water that rushes by; and if this could be said of any other river, it was necessary this one, because this way of living dishonestly was first begun in Achaia, of Greece, where the river Acheloos is, near which lived these women who first used this, and therefore This they said to be the Sirens daughters of Acheloo river. Ovid calls it the Acarnama River; everything is close to each other.
They said there were three because the music is based on the tuning fork, and diapente and diatesaron, which are three things, if they did not want to declare by this number those three famous harlots, Thays, Layda and Flora. Those who put four, later wanted to imply that the number of these had grown in abundance throughout the world; by this number four, which according to the natural order of counting, to count four ten units must precede it, and this number ten is the most abundant and of which the other numbers greater than it are composed.
The first was called Parthenope, according to Aristotle; she means virgin in Greek; that is, because such women, with strangers, pretend to have the gestures and customs of a virgin and honest woman, lowering their eyes to the ground and speaking little, all of which they pretend to make themselves more esteemed and loved and to be more loved, because Honesty, even if it is feigned, moves men to love.
The second was called Leucosa; It means white, because in such women beautiful colors and beautiful body shapes and trappings are required, because without these things they will not move men to love them.
The third was called Ligia, which means return or encirclement; This belongs to the love of fools, who give their riches to such, that even though they receive insults and contempt from them and see their clumsiness, they do not depart, and if they depart in some anger, then they return, for foolish love does not let them leave, in which they walk as if surrounded, not being able to get away from them; and in this way they can be understood from the other names that other authors give them.
In what he says that they played various instruments and sang loudly, he denotes that their exercise is music and songs with which they move lust, because with the sweetness of the song they attract men to their love.
Having the gesture of women at the top and the gesture of fish at the bottom is the first thing to signify the beauty of their gestures being fake, which without this they will bring few, because beauty is only seen in the face. Or he denotes that these such women do not have all human parts, but some are bestial and not subject to reason. They have the highest part of women, because in them there seems to be some act of reason, regarding speech and appearance; However, in appetite they are not governed with reason, but like beasts they give themselves without some compliance to the careless clumsiness of lust.
He considered this part to be more of a fish than anything else, because fish are of the complexion of water, and water is suitable for lust, in that it has a flow like water; He says from the navel below because all the ardor and lust of women is near it, just as in men the force of lust is in the loins. Living on the shore of the sea is because the maritime parts are more given to lust than those within the land, and for this reason the poets pretended that Venus was born in the sea. Sirens having wings means the instability and lack of firmness of the lovers, because they suddenly love and unlove, and almost simultaneously they quarrel and appease each other; This comes because they have more care about their money than about their people; And seeing these damages, they love and unlove and pass as if flying from one desire to another, or because they do not love just one, but many, because they have more to despoil, and they pass from one to another like a flying bird.
Having feet like chickens more than any other bird is to signify the condition of such women, who, just as hens scratch and spill what they have to eat, so bad women indiscreetly spend what they have and earn with their bad art.
They paint the Sirens in green meadows among the bones of the dead; By green meadows we understand the pleasures of grass in eating and drinking, which such women take from the goods of the mean people who deceive, because in the meadow there are two things, which are grass and delight, when it is green. Being among the bones denotes that those who get close to them pressure them by having them under them in servitude.
That the Sirens died of regret because they could not attract Ulysses to them, this is because all the gain and joy of such lies in bringing men to them to plunder them. And so the men who prudently distance themselves from them kill them, because they cannot have anything of what they desire. And if all men did this, their state would completely perish, and this would mean dying for them, as soon as their office ceased. They said more about Ulysses than about another because Homer wanted to praise him for being prudent and virtuous by saying that they could not attract him like the others, because he closed his ears to his songs or flattery.
To say that the Sirens were companions of Proserpine, a Sicilian virgin, this suits them in that Proserpine means the harvests born from the earth, and this supply is her companion; or because neither men nor women can use carnal acts much, without abundance of eating and drinking, because the abundance of this moves carnal desires, and without it they grow cold, as Terence says: Sine Cerere, et Bacho frigescit Venus. Without the deesa Venus and the god Bacho, the deesa Venus grows cold; By Ceres we mean eating and by Bacchus we mean drinking, and by Venus we mean carnal acts. In another way it is understood to be Proserpina's companions, understanding that they were raised in gift and abundance; And because Proserpina was stolen, they lacked this, they looked for it, and not being able to find it in any other way, they took themselves Sirens, which is to be public women, given to all men. The Sirens' search for Proserpina, which is abundance, means that the harlots never know how to put a stop to their most dishonest wills, rather they want to satisfy them abundantly.
Ovid's attempt to introduce the changing of the Sirens was to imply that some women, out of desire to have abundance of things, submit to the clumsiness of lust, which is to be sirens. And since the devil is so miserable, he makes such people use grace, adding hunger and work to them as payment and reward for his bad living.
Of Erisichton and Metra, and how Ceres sent him hungry
Erisichton, Ovid says, was a man who despised the gods, and that in contempt of the goddess Ceres he ordered the cutting of an oak or cork oak where the nymphs and other half-gods gathered to have their festivals, because it was a tree consecrated to such a great goddess. ; and although a nymph that was inside her warned her that she would be harmed by the evil that she did in cutting down the tree dedicated to Ceres, the unfortunate man therefore did not abandon her obstinacy, and finished cutting it. Ceres, angry, sent her so hungry that having consumed what she had, she sold her daughter Metra to a merchant, for the love of having more money to eat. Metra, not wanting to go on a ship with which he had bought her, fled along the sea shore, and to better escape from it, she begged Neptune to turn her into a male figure, giving her nets and other equipment with which to fish; and since the buyer of her did not know her when looking for her, he left her to him. When Metra saw that her master was gone, she turned into the figure of a woman, as she was before. When Erisichton understood that her daughter was turning into so many figures, he sold her many times to various lords, whom she mocked whenever she wanted, once taking herself as an ox, another time as a bird, another time as a deer, with which she supported herself. But after they understood her deception, none of them wanted to buy it; Her father, for this reason, not having anything to eat, he himself ate her meat, and thus it ended bitterly, which is what is expected after a sweet life.
He cuts down the oak sacred to Ceres, goddess of abundance, who cuts the way to her intention with the knife of her poison, greedily appropriating to himself all the goods of Ceres, which are for universal benefit.
He comes in such rage for revenge of the goddess, that the more he eats, the more he gains from eating, like the miser who, the more he has, the more he desires, and this greed goes so far as to sell his daughters, as Erisichton sold his daughter. Metra. To become Metra a fisherman and an ox and other animals is to subject oneself to many, some of whom gave him fish, others oxen in price, each one according to his occupation, and what he had, for at that time there was still no currency. This fable denotes the greed that makes men despise God, because they know no other but gold, and the end that gluttons bring to those who are not enough for any riches, no matter how great they may be, who then pretend to eat themselves. themselves, like Erisichton, who can rightly be said to have eaten himself, since he ate what the dishonest young men gave him, so that he would let them enjoy his daughter Metra. According to historical sense, Erisichton was a man from Thesalia, who, consuming his goods in gluttony, became so needy that he supported himself with the bad living of his daughter.
From Vulcan
Tulio mentions four Vulcans. The first was the son of Caelius; He had as his wife Minerva, daughter of the second Jupiter, in whom he fathered Apollo, and this was the first, according to Theodontius, who was called Vulcan, which is a name belonging to fire, because he had a very fiery heart and wit, and so famous that he deserved to be considered a god.
The second was the son of Nile, whom the Egyptians worshiped and had as guardian of their province, and called him Opas or Apis; and although there is no written record of his exploits, nor of his parents or lineage, it is to be believed that he was an excellent man, since those of his time considered him a god, because they did not call gods except those who, due to some form of excellence over The other men thought they had the nature of divinity. He called himself Vulcan, because he must have had some eminence of something that is forged in fire. He was called the son of Nile because he was an Egyptian or because near this river he had dominion over it; or according to Eusebius, it was the custom of gentility that all those who wanted to deify them called them children of rivers or of gods, ignoring their natural parents, because when they said whose children they were, they declared that they were children of mortal and common men; and because by chance this would be one of poorly born people. For this they claimed to be the son of Nile River, wanting to deify him, because the poets and Gentiles gave divinity and personality to the rivers, and the river had to be one thing and the god of the river another, and this god they pretended to live there within the waters, and there they give him the power to beget children, and speak, and the other acts of man. Vergil used this, saying that when Aeneas was on the bank of the river Tiber, the god of the river, whom he called Tibirinus, raised his head from the water at night, and revealed to him the things he was going to do and what was going to happen to him. . And Ovid claims to be Danes, a nymph, daughter of Peneus, river of Thesalia, and I, daughter of Inacho, river of Archadia. The third Vulcan was the son of Iupiter and Iuno. The fourth was the son of Menalion, king of the islands near Sicily, which they called Vulcanias after him. Of all these, the most named and to whom they attribute all the acts of the others, as if only one had been, is the third, son of Iupiter and Iuno, although some make him the son of only Iuno, of whom they say that because he favored Her mother, wanting to release her from a prison in which she was, Jupiter threw her down from heaven. Homer says that it was not Vulcan thrown off a cliff by Jupiter, but only his mother Iuno, who threw him into the sea, where she raised him Thetis and Eurynus, daughter of Oceanus. Theodontius and Servius say that the Ximias raised him. Others, that the sea nymphs, and from the fall he became lame. But Eusebius says that Vulcan was born lame, and because of this ugliness his parents did not want to have him with them, but they threw him on the island of Lemnos, which Vergil mentions in the last two verses that begin: Incipe parve puer, etc. Vulcan married, according to Macrobius, Maya or Mila, daughter of Athlante; and according to others, with Mageta; and according to others, with Venus, and Aglaia, one of the Graces. Vulcan was the architect of Minerva and a blacksmith; and as such, according to Dionysius Halicarnassus, he made lightning bolts for Jupiter and weapons for the other gods; They give him the Liparean or Vulcanean islands as his forge, and the Cyclopes as officers, especially three, named Brontes, Steropes and Pyracmon. It is about Vulcan Saint Augustine. They painted Vulcan, according to Alberic, as the figure of a blacksmith covered in soot, and smoked, and very ugly, and lame in one leg, with a hammer in his hand, and the painting showing that the gods impetuously threw him out of heaven. . Venus, his wife, loved the god Mars, and had a relationship with him, which the god Apollo, knowing as he was not aware of, revealed this to Vulcan; who, when he found out, made chains so subtle that they could not even be seen, and so strong that they could seize the men, which, placed with great ingenuity and subtlety in the place where adulterers used to gather, that With little weight or movement they closed, they were then locked in them. Sensing it, Vulcan opened the doors and found Venus and Mars naked; and clumsily standing thus, he called upon the gods and deities to see them; The girls, out of shame, did not go there. The gods went and everyone laughed at them; Only Neptune felt sorry for those thus imprisoned, and begged them to be released; and their prayers were so many that they moved Vulcan to release them. Ovid plays this fable.
Vulcan is the son of Iupiter and Iuno, because by Iupiter is understood the fire or celestial region, and by Iuno the air, and as this celestial heat raises vapors from the earth and water, which, raised high in the air, are they generate comets and rays and other inflammations that we see, by which Vulcan is understood; For this reason they said he was the son of Iupiter and Iuno; This is how Saint Isidro understands it, where he says that Vulcan is called volans candor or Volando Cadere, which means whiteness that flies or something that falls while flying, by which the inflammations that we have said appear in the air are understood, because they are all luminous. and they fly through the air and fall. Fire, also, generated on the earth, which is the artificial fire made from stones, or water, or glass, and other things, is meant by Vulcan, because it is something that shines and flies through the air, rising from the earth. to the sky; and for this reason Vulcan was said to have been born from Iuno alone, since this fire, understood by Vulcan, is generated from things belonging to the earth, as well as stones, iron, firewood, water, glass and crystal. And because by Iuno the earth is understood, only Iuno generates Vulcan, since fire is generated in it; or because when the thickness of the air is thinned, it becomes fire (understood by Vulcan) for this reason Iuno is born alone. But in truth, Vulcan cannot be born alone, because without natural heat (understood by Iupiter) nothing is generated; and thus it is better to understand that Vulcan was born from Iupiter and Iuno, that is, from the altered air, from the virtue of the heat and movement of the upper heavens.
That Iupiter expelled him from heaven because he wanted to favor his mother is said as an ornament to the fable, because there must be some guilt on Vulcan, so that Iupiter would become angry and banish him from himself. Although in saying that Vulcan wanted to release his mother from prison Iuno means that she is pretending to be hanging from the sky, tied with a chain; and because the lightning, understood by Vulcan, when generated makes great movement in the air, for this reason it is said that he wanted to release it with the violence of it; And because the lightning, after being generated, then falls downwards, for this reason they say that Jupiter cast it from himself; and because lightning falls from the air, and by it is understood Iuno, this is why they say that Iuno cast it.
That Vulcan was thrown out from his father, or according to some, from his mother, for his ugliness, is because the fire generated in the clouds, by which Vulcan is understood, as part of gross matter, compared to the elemental, which is very pure, It seems crass and ugly, and hardly worthy of being called fire, and for this reason it was cast into the place of impure things, as a legitimate possession, by the force of superior bodies or by the superior nature of the air. That he became lame from the fall, this is to show the cause of how Vulcan was lame, although he was lame from his birth, as it means fire, which is caused in the air, and the same material, any of them say that he is lame, because Its movements do not make it straight, as it seems in the fire of lightning, which does not descend straight, but rather twists and turns; and the fire generated in the earth also does not have straight movement, because its flames rising upward, twist to one side and another to the sides, and at times rising it seems that it shrinks and turns downward and falls like a lame man, who while walking seems to It falls towards the side of the foot that is lame.
That Iupiter did not want to have him at his table, nor Iuno, his mother, in his bed, as Vergil says, is because the celestial heat or elemental fire (understood by Iupiter), is always in its place, and the elemental fire, nor the one that is generated in the clouds, are very separated from the elementar, and thus are not together. Furthermore, Iuno did not want to have him in his bed because the lightning or inflammation generated in the air, understood by Iuno, then falls and is thrown down to the earth, and for this reason Vergil calls him a little child, because he is not in the air, as they say.
Attributing the island Lemnos to Vulcan, or that he was banished there, denotes many things: one is to declare the sterility of that place, that no plant produces due to its great heat, and in fire nothing is bred or sustained as in the others. elements is made, or because everything of fire belongs to Vulcan, they threw it here, because on that island mouths of fire emerge, which they call vulcans, like on Mount Ethna, in Sicily, because on this island, first of all, The art and effects of fire were understood, and metals were worked and weapons made, as Hellanico says; or because on this island they worshiped Vulcan more than in other places, according to Solinus, where he had a very celebrated temple on Mount Ethna, where there were some dogs around, which, when they saw virtuous and chaste people coming, They went out to receive her, reaching out to her and accompanying her to the temple, like friends and family of the gods. But if they were vicious and bad men, they would jump with them and tear them to pieces or kill them, and they would bark at those who were not so bad. These dogs have doctors who were demons in the form of dogs, or if they were natural dogs, they were brought there by them, in which they were clothed and performed the said effects, to make people understand that the gods loved virtues and that That temple was sacred and they did not allow anything bad to enter inside, and thus idolatry grew more every day.
That the Ximias created Vulcan, that is, that just as the Ximias emit what men do, so with fire, understood by Vulcan, things are made with ingenuity and art that imitate those created by nature. For this reason, Saint Augustine calls him the architect of the goddess Minerva, because without fire, understood by Vulcan, no art understood by Minerva can be exercised. Or because on that island there were many Ximios, as they were deserted of people, and as there was nothing but Ximios, it could be said that Ximios had raised him.
Raising Thetis and the sea nymphs, according to others, means that with the humor of water, understood by Thetis, and nymphs, and with natural or celestial heat, Vulcan is raised (as we said before).
The diversity of women given to Vulcan was not because he married many times; But since there were many Vulcans, as we said at the beginning, and all of them had wives as men, so they could all have been Vulcan's wives. But the poets have that Vulcan, son of Iupiter and Iuno, married Venus; and because by Vulcan heat is understood and by Venus the carnal council, Venus being married to Vulcan denotes that just as marriage is a perpetual bond that cannot be dissolved, so the carnal council cannot be separated from the heat, as without it. It is impossible to finish the seminal resolution, as Saint Isidro says. Furthermore, to say that Vulcan had Aglaia, one of the three Graces, and Venus as his wife, is because the general generation of human things is made from heat and humor, and Aglaia is nothing other than the radiance of the fertility and copy of things that are achieved with natural heat through humidity, which means the same name, and because no human thing can be raised without heat, as we have said. And for this reason, at weddings in ancient times axes were lit, in which Vulcan thought to preside. Furthermore, in honor of Vulcan himself they played a game that the Greeks called lampadophoria and that was that they ran with burning axes from one post to another, and whoever while running lost his ax before reaching the post, they ordered him to stop running. Lucretius mentions this game, where he begins: Et quasi cursors, with which they implied that when the heat ceases, the life of all things ends and ceases. And in this game taking the burning axes of others, and others of others, was fiction to denote the change and succession of all things and elements. This festival was celebrated more for Vulcan than for other gods, because some, like Lucretius, believe he was the inventor of fireworks, although others attribute him to Prometheus. It may be that Prometheus found it and that Vulcan showed use of it in all the arts that can be used. About how he invented fire they say that like lightning would have lit a tree, to which Vulcan arrived, feeling the benefit and protection of fire, and seeing that when matter ceased the fire ceased, he added firewood and came to understand the nature of artificial fire. be preserved with firewood, which, summoning other men, showed them the usefulness and nature of it.
Vulcan was a great artist of pyromancy, the art of divination by fire, just as Nereus was the inventor of hydromancy, which is divination made by water.
That Vulcan was the inventor of blacksmithing is because without fire no metal can be worked or extended. That he made thunderbolts for Jupiter and weapons for the gods is because the hot exhalations that rise from the earth and water, rise high, where surrounded by the air of the cold region they are pressed, and wanting to escape from their opposite, the cold, They forcefully break the cloud through the thinnest part they find in it, and in this breaking, lightning and thunder and lightning are caused; and as this is generated from the said vapors that arise from the earth and water, the fable arose of saying that Vulcan makes lightning bolts for Jupiter. And because after being generated they fall back to the earth, they say that Jupiter throws them and that they are weapons with which he fights, which were supposed to be in the sky or on high from where the lightning falls; and because the rays are made of fiery matter, this is why Vulcan makes them; And not only this, but all the other things that require fire to be done, the poets say Vulcan has done.
Furthermore, to say that Vulcan made weapons for the gods is that heat is the creator of all the works of nature.
Having Vulcan to make these rays as servants and helpers to the Cyclopes, especially three named Brontes, Steropes and Piracmon, is because Vulcan's forge is in the Vulcanean islands, and all the land, from those islands to Mongivel, Mount Sicily. , is full of caves of fire; and because in Mongivel, and near it, the Cyclopes anciently dwelt, for this reason it was convenient for them to be officers of Vulcan; or because Cyclops, in Greek, means round eye, and we call the understanding eye, according to Aristotle; Round is called after the shape of the circle, in which there is no beginning or end, and similar are the arts, which at least have no end, or in another way they are called Cyclopes, after masters of artifices; because the Greeks call the artifices Cyclades, and all these things agree with this meaning of these official Cyclopes of Vulcan. They name three according to their meanings, because Brontes means thunder; Steropes, clarity; Piracmon, fire, which are things that are caused in the generation of lightning, which is thunder and lightning and lightning, which is fire. The painting of Vulcan denotes everything that is said about it. That Venus adulterated with Mars denotes a conjunction of two so-called planets, and this conjunction is called adulterous, because damage comes from it, according to astrologers.
Discovering this adultery Apollo, which is the Sun, means that this planet mitigates the damage that Venus and Mars cause in conjunction, or because Mars has a house in the sign of Aries and Scorpio. And when the Sun comes, according to its own movement, to be in Aries, house of Mars, summer begins and moves the venereal heat; and because this belongs to Venus and comes from heat, which is too much in Mars; and thus from both, Mars and Venus, the act of carnal council results; and because this venereal desire seems to arise when the Sun enters the first house of Mars, which is Aries, they say that Apollo discovers the adultery of Venus and Mars. Or this adulterous city of Mars and Venus discovered by the Sun, is understood by Apollo some wise man who deeply sees things.
This, seeing the disordered libidinous desire of the vicious, rebukes it and declares it to Vulcan, who is the master of Venus, wanting to turn the illicit council to that which is licit. However, the blind lover, wanting to pursue his sensual desires, not obeying good advice, grows so much in his desire, until in the chains of his disordered desire he is imprisoned, no longer able to bear his clumsy desires. get away from him. Then Mars and Venus, thus clumsily found, are seen of all the gods, which some of them laugh at greatly, because seeing them in their obstinate life and dirty living, not wanting to take the virtuous correction of all the wise and virtuous men who for the gods They are meanings, they begin to be considered clumsy and vile, and they have to be mocked. Vulcan not wanting to release them from their chains, until Neptune begged him to do so, means that the clumsy and foolish lovers, in chains of their vile desires imprisoned, never cease to be considered vicious nor from their evil deeds to be published, until the Such ardor in them is tempered, obeying virtue, which is conveniently signified by Neptune, who is god of the sea, and the waters with their coldness cool the libidinous heat, and this is releasing him from the prisons, which are due to them. understood the libidinous desires in which lovers are entangled.
This Vulcan was a man truly so called, son of Iupiter and Iuno, who was born with a very ugly face, and as according to the custom of lords he was raised, and his parents lived on Mount Olympus or near it, and this mountain gave him The Greeks call it heaven, the fable arose of saying that they threw it out of heaven, not wanting to have it because of its ugliness.
In what it says that he sent him to Lepno, it is said because Vulcan lived in that land and had dominion, and the land was named after his name, according to Vergil, and there are seven islands, which are all named Vulcanias, according to Solinus. San Isidro says there are nine. That Venus, daughter of Dion, was the wife of Vulcan, is true history.
They attributed to him that he made thunderbolts for Jupiter and that he made the weapons of Aeneas and Achilles, and those of Meno, and the necklace or jewelry of Hermione, and other similar things, and that he had his forge near or on the island of Liparea. This was because Vulcan found new and subtle artifices, which at that time did not exist, and thus he is truly called master of all artifices. The rays are not manufactured by Vulcan or by anyone else, but are naturally generated in the air, as we declare in our Philosophy, but since at first they believed they were manufactured, it seemed to them that it was not appropriate to be made, except by the greatest teacher in the world, which they affirm. having been Vulcan.
The adultery of Mars and Venus is history, because as Vulcan was very ugly and Venus was very beautiful and vicious, and great lords, among other servants they had a man of arms, who, according to Leontius, was the son of Neptune; Venus loved him because of her kindness and she dealt with him carnally, which, having come to Vulcan's ears, he pretended to be absent from there for some time, and when this opportunity was found, Venus and the squire continued in their usual love affairs. Vulcan, who was waiting for this, who was hidden, took the lovers into the clumsy town hall. But the squire, being light, escaped by fleeing from the hands of Vulcan; He was able to catch Venus, but he loved her so much that although he found her in this error, she did not suffer her heart to do him harm; and because this one with whom he committed adultery was a man of arms, and we have said that these are called Mars, therefore they said that Mars committed adultery with Venus.
What they say Vulcan made ties or networks so subtle that they could not be seen, and so strong that they could catch the lovers, is a poetic pretense, to signify his ingenuity and the tricks and subtle ways that Vulcan had to catch the foolish lovers, which they could not understand: thus he took them, which things were conveniently signified by bodily ties.
That Vulcan invoked the gods to see the lovers thus clumsily found denotes the publication of this curse that Vulcan would do, complaining to everyone about his wife and servant, and declare the clumsiness of the fact, because it is poetic to say that he arrested them both, since according to Leoncio, the servant, escaped on foot.
In what he says that he released them at the request of Neptune, he denotes that he never wanted to stop from that defamation that Vulcan committed, until at Neptune's request he was defeated, which Neptune could achieve better than another, because he was Vulcan's uncle, brother of his father, and Neptune agreed to be importunate to him, because he was the father of the adulterer.
From Erythonius
Erithonius was the son of Vulcan, of whose birth Ovid tells that since Vulcan had made lightning bolts with which Iupiter fought against the Giants, and therefore deserved favors, Iupiter swore by the Stygia lagoon to grant him whatever he asked of him. Vulcan was very happy with this, and he asked Minerva for his wife, and since she could not give it to him, because she was consecrated to her chastity, nor could he break her oath, he granted it to her; But secretly and secretly he warned Minerva to beware of Vulcan if she did not want to endanger his promised virginity. Minerva did so, with great vigilance she moved away from the places where Vulcan walked. But it happened one day, unexpectedly, that Vulcan found her, whom he then attacked, for doing what he so desired; but as Minerva defended herself, it happened that Vulcan, fighting with her, poured the seminal humor into the ground, from which they say that Erythonius was born, a monstrous man, who had the feet of a snake, for which reason, reaching an age to cover up the ugliness of the legs, he was the first to ride in a four-horse chariot, as Vergil writes, where it begins: Primus Eriehthonius currus.
Erithonio is derived from eris, which in Greek means war or contention, and oton, earth, means that there was a fight or war between Vulcan and Minerva, over the carnal council, the earth received the distilling humor from which this child Erithonio was formed; When the child was born, Minerva put him in a very closed basket and gave him to Pandrose, Aglauros and Herse, daughters of King Cyclops, to keep, ordering them not to let anyone see, nor let them see what the basket carried, otherwise They wanted to be punished for it. Pandrose and Herse kept Minerva's commandment; but Aglauros, being daring, could not bear it, for when the goddess left there, she was not only content with seeing what the basket had, but even making fun of it and having the basket open, she called her sisters to see it too; of which Minerva, angry, sent Envy to tire her, and thus turned her into stone; Others say he fell off the cliff.
This mode of birth that they attribute to Erythonius was not true, but rather a poetic pretense, because it was not Erythonius in the time of Vulcan; but the fiction of it, according to Saint Augustine, was that in Athenas, in the temple of Vulcan and Minerva, which was one for both, a child was found lying, with a snake or dragon twisted around him, which meant that the child had of being a great man, and they kept him; And because this temple was one of these two gods and they did not know its parents, they gave it to them as parents, and this is a true story. It was Erithonius, according to Eusebius, fourth king of Athenas; He was born in the time of Cyclops, the first king, and between this Cyclops and Erythonius, passed Cranaus, who reigned nine years, and Amphiton, who reigned ten; and thus, from the death of Cyclops to the beginning of the kingdom of Erithonius, nineteen years passed. To say that to cover up the ugliness of his legs he rode in a car: he had no ugliness in them; But because he was the first to use a four-horse chariot, for majesty and grandeur, where the legs are covered, it was said that it was because of ugliness.
The reason for claiming to be Erithonio was the son of Vulcan and Minerva, although it was only their responsibility to have found him in their temple, as we said, is because they wanted to exalt the lineage of Erithonio, saying that he descended from gods. They said that Erithonius was part man and part snake because he used severity and clemency at times, or they said he had a snake or snake surrounded by his feet, because he was a prudent king, and prudence is denoted by the snake.
That Iupiter swore to do favors to Vulcan: he Admonishes the great lords to be grateful and to satisfy the services.
That envy turned Aglauros into stone is because the poets want envy to turn men into stones. Aglauros was the daughter of King Cyclops, as has been said, because of the envy that Mercury loved her sister Herse, she was very touched, which means, it is said that she was turned into a somewhat dark black stone. ; and that is, envy comes from the melancholic mood, which is terrestrial, cold and black, and because the stone is cold, they wanted the great envy to turn men into stone.
This Erithonius, according to truth, was the son of one of the three daughters of Cyclops, first king of Athenas; and since he was not conceived by legitimate marriage, they wanted to conceal it, ordering how he was raised, and so that they would not know whose son he was, they had to be sensible and wise so as not to be discovered; and because the knowledge belongs to Minerva, he says that she gave it to him closed in the basket, because the concealments of things belong to prudence and knowledge alone. Unlike the simple ones, who don't know how to do anything that everyone else doesn't know how to do. In what the fable says, that one of them opened the basket and declared the child that was inside, it means that the two sisters had wisely covered up what they had done, and it was never known to them; but the one was foolish, because through her it was learned whose son was Erythonius.
To say that Minerva got angry at this denotes that knowledge is contrary to ignorance, and that Minerva, out of this anger that she felt for not having kept a secret, sent envy against her is because ignorance, or the fool, is very jealous of those who know. . That Erithonio had the feet of a snake: we will say that Erithonio had feet like other men; But because when he was found they found a snake at his feet, so they took advantage of the fact that he had the feet of a snake, and the devil ordered this to deceive the people, so that they would understand that the child was something divine.
Minerva being consecrated to virginity is because she is understood to be a very pure part of the ether, born from the head of Jupiter, from which no animal is born; However, Vulcan, who is impure and a matter of fire or heat, which helps generation, and by striking this heat in the earth he generates many animals, for which reason he declares that he is Erithonio, his son and son of the earth, and to denote the diversity that This is how Erithonio, said to be half man and half snake, was born.
That Aglauros fell off the cliff warns us not to be curious in scrutinizing the commandments of God nor to discover the secrets of great lords, if they come to our attention.
Of the sun
Although Sol and Apollo are names of the same thing, it must be noted that there were many called Sol and many called Apollo, and both were mortal men; but because of the brilliance of their fame they took the name of the planet that we call Sun. We will say about the Apollos after having discussed those who called themselves Sun, being men, and about the Sun itself as a planet. Tulio mentions six men who were called Sol. The first they say is the son of the first Jupiter, and no mother is given to him; They said he was the son of Iupiter to exalt his lineage and to declare his antiquity from the first of those called Iupiter, and he was so ancient that there is no other information about him. There was another Sol who was the third in order, leaving the second to deal with after all those so called, who according to Tullius, was an Egyptian man, son of Vulcan; He was first called by his own name (according to Theodontius), Merope. He had the nymph Clymene as a friend, and in her there was Phaeton, called by other names Eridanus and Astarcho, who asked the Sun, his father, to govern his chariot, as it seems from what Ovid says, that Epapho, son of Iupiter, contending with Phaethon, told him that he was not the son of the Sun, but of Merope, so Phaethon asked the Sun, his father, for the chariots, which, not being able to govern, Ovid says that Phaethon would like to be called the son of Merope. more than the Sun. From which it clearly seems that this man called Sun, father of Phaethon, first called himself Merope; but because of his excellence and clarity they called him Sun. The fourth Sun was the son of Oceanus, god of the sea, about whom little is found written by authors. The fifth was a famous man who lived on the island of Rhodes. Theodoncio says that he was the father of Pasiphe, wife of Minos, king of Candia. The sixth Sun is said to have been king of Colchos, father of Oethas; and although the poets claim to be this second son of Hyperion, Theodontius must be believed, who says that this was another Sun who reigned in Colchos. The second, according to the order of Tullius and sixth of mine, and to whom all the feats of the others are attributed, and by whom they understood the same planet Sun, whose son he was, the authors do not agree. Theodontius said he was the son of Hyperion, and that this Hyperion begat the Sun and the Moon. Others make him the son of Hyperion and Thia. Homer makes him the son of Hyperion and Euriphaesa; Hyperion was (according to Theodontius) son of Titan and the Earth, and according to others, of Celo. Ovid sometimes says that the son of Hyperion gives light to the world, and that the Titan gives light, which is himself; other times he says that the father of Phaethon, who was the third we said, was the Sun, and that he gave him the chariots that Phaethon one day ruled. And this is because Ovid treats all those named Sol as if there had truly been only one; They say that as it was at the time of the war that the Titans waged against the gods, and Titanus being as Ovid implies, in the verse that begins: Nullus adhuc Titan prebebat lumina mundo, meaning, there was not yet any of the Titanos, who gave light to the world, not only did not favor his grandfather Titanus and relatives against Iupiter, but he followed Iupiter's part, from which it happened that after Iupiter was victorious, in gratitude for his service, Iupiter gave him to walk in chariot and that it had a crown adorned with twelve gems, and a palace, and many insignia that belonged to his excellence. This chariot of the Sun, according to Ovid, in the verse that begins: Interea volucres, was brought by four horses called Pyrois, Eous, Aetón and Plegón. Homer gives him only two horses, named Lampus and Phaeton. Saint Fulgentius gives him four, and names them differently, although they denote the same as those of Ovid; It is worth knowing: Eritrean, Ateon, Lampos, Philegio. These horses breathed fire from their noses, as Vergelius says in three verses that begin: Postea vix summo spargebat. Furthermore, they believed that the Sun would put the horses of the chariot to bathe in the Ocean, as Vergil says in three verses that begin: Tum Sol pallentes. They say more: that the Oras yoked the cart and Aurora pulled it out.
They call him lord and ruler of the Moon and stars and heart of the sky; They sacrificed him to God, they consecrated the rooster to him, they gave him the Oras and the Eonas as daughters, among many other sons and daughters; They called him by various names.
They say they are the Sun, son of Thía, because all good and every gift descends from the divine nature, because Thía means divine. Hyperion means "above all," because he sends divine providence through all the upper and lower bodies. With reason they gave the Sun this father, whether by him understood divine providence, or the heavenly bodies, which with perpetual movements revolve. But since Hyperion means "above all", this can only be God, creator of everything visible and invisible. Give the Sun as its mother Euryphaesa, from eurys, which means to carry or bring, and phaos, which is radiance or clarity or light, as this planet more than any other no celestial body shines and gives light.
That the Sun favored Jupiter in the war waged against him by the Titans, his relatives, is because this Sun was a man of divine ingenuity and peace, and for this reason they say that he did not give favor to his relatives, but to the gods, meaning the proud by the Titans, and the virtuous and famous by the gods. Of this so-called Sun, although he may have been a man, the poets speak of him as if he were the planet Sun and celestial God, attributing to him everything that truly belongs to the Sun.
They pretended that the Sun rode in a chariot, because at first it was not easy for men to understand the movements of the celestial bodies, nor who or how they moved, and so there were many and vain opinions: some said that an intelligence they called anima moved them to all; others gave it to every orb and star; Others believed that the heavens and stars were staying still, and that the earth was the one that moved around, which we will not say anything about here because we have done so in our Astronomy books. Those who were most involved in this said that the chariot in which the Sun rides is the natural day, which day takes him from the East to the West, and from here he returns to the East.
Give the Sun four horses to carry his chariot to denote the four times of the year that he causes with his movement, which are of four qualities, or by four parts, or conditions that he causes in the day, from which the horses take names: Pyrois o Eritrean (name of the first horse) means something inflamed, or lit, or russet, because in the morning the Sun rises red, or because with its rays it makes the air a little russet.
Aethon or Actaeon means a burning or shining thing, because when the Sun rises, it gives heat and a radiance of clarity. Others call this horse Etheous, which means yellow; It corresponds to the second part of the movement of the Sun, which is the third hour or earlier, when the Sun rises above the earth, dissolves the vapors and there is no reddish color left, which is a burning thing, but there is yellowness left that turns clearly, and This is from the resolution of the vapors.
Lampus or Lampos denotes resplendent or means when it reaches the meridian. Phlegon means something that burns, according to those who believed that the planets and stars were fire. Saint Fulgencio calls this fourth horse Philogeus, he means the one who loves the earth, because in the afternoon he goes down, to hide under the hemisphere, as if he kneaded it.
Those who give the Sun two horses, one white and the other black, wanted to denote by them that the Sun hides under the hemisphere for half a year, that they do not see it, sometimes, and it is seen for the same amount of time, or that the Sun splits the natural day in two parts, it is worth knowing, day and night. The crown attributed to the Sun, according to Alberic, is the Zodiac, and the twelve Gems or precious stones of great value are the twelve signs that are imagined in it.
The palace they give it are the three orbs or heavens that the Sun has, with which the diversities of its movements are saved, as we declare in our Astronomy.
The horses blowing fire out of their noses is to denote the great heat that the Sun brings, because even the horses were breathing fire.
That the Sun puts its horses into the Ocean when it places them to bathe, and keeps them in it until it rises in the morning, this was the opinion of the common people, not understanding that everywhere in the roundness of water and land it is equally The Sun was distant and it seemed to them that when it set it went into the sea water, and when it rose it came out of it.
That the Hours unite the chariot of the Sun is because they make it come out because, happening one after another, the time comes for the Sun to rise, and since the Aurora is a light or clarity before the Sun rises, the horses of the Sun said to bring out Aurora. Sun.
And because the Sun gives clarity to the Moon and the other planets and stars, they call him lord and ruler of the stars.
And because it is in the middle of the seven planets, like the heart in the middle of the body of man, they said it was the heart of heaven.
And since he is the author of the generation and corruption of things, and the cause of diseases and health and fruits, for these things he was considered God and of the very ancient of the gods, and as such they made sacrifices, mainly those of Libya, and with it the Moon, seeing the effects and control they had over humidity and diseases.
They consecrated the rooster because it announced the sunrise.
They give him the Oras as daughters, because the Sun makes the diversity of times with its movement, and for this reason he is the father of the Oras and the Ages, understood by the Aeons, his daughters. And so Ovid pretends that these daughters were sitting under the feet of the Sun, with the days, months, years, centuries, and the four times of the year, because everything is caused by its movement. And thus the children that they give to the Sun are the forces and effects that with its movement and rays it causes in the natural bodies, as is evident from the interpretation of the same words, of those that they give as children, as well as Pasiphe, who say Being a daughter of the Sun means something that illuminates everyone. Phaetusa, thing that burns. Heliades means forces of the Sun, and so of others. The various names they give him will be said when referring to Apollo.
Of Phaeton
Phaethon was the son of the Sun and the nymph Clymene. This, being a contemporary of Epapho, son of Iupiter, and both young men, walking together one day enjoying themselves, the Phaethon was equal to Epapho, it seemed to him that he was not unreasonable in this, since he was of divine lineage; which, Epapho, estimating him little, told him not to pretend to have so much lineage, as Ovid says, where he begins: Nunc Epaphus, etc. Phaethon, greatly enraged and outraged by Eparho's contempt for him, to show to all men the nobility of his lineage, went to his father the Sun, before whom he prayed and granted him a gift with an oath. Phebo, wanting to please him, told him to demand whatever he wanted, for he would not be denied. Then Phaeton asked him to let him rule his heavenly chariot for just one day. Phebo was very sorry for the word he had offered, and since he could not deny what he had promised with an oath, he tried to persuade him to depart from his crazy audacity, telling him the difficulties that there were in it; However, as she could not remove him from his intention, neither with warnings, nor scares, nor entreaties, she handed over the chariot and horses to him against his will. Phaethon entering the chariot and taking the reins in his hand, the horses rose into the air, beginning to walk back and forth; and as they felt the car did not have the usual load, they began to run, leaving the usual path, turning aside. Phaethon, who no longer wanted to have ridden in the chariot, nor even to have known his lineage, loosed the reins of fear of the sign of Scorpio, which, when the horses on their backs felt, seeing themselves loose, began to move from one side to the other. the air to flow; The cities and trees, with the proximity of the Sun, burned, and the rivers and mountains burned with fire; Even the Ethiopians turned black from the great heat. Then Jupiter, at the request of the goddess of the earth, sent lightning against Phaeton, which deprived him of his soul and his chariot; and Phaethon, falling burning, fell far from his land, into the river Eridanus. Phebo, in great sadness at the death of his son, covered his face in tears; and then no one ruling his chariots, the world spent a day without the Sun, only the fires that were not yet dead giving light that day. The nymphs Naiades, his sisters, felt the death of Phaethon so much that, crying continually, they were turned into black poplars, as Ovid says, where it begins: Vos quoque foelices, etc. The tears of which, as the same poet says, where it begins: Inde fluunt lacryme, etc., became the gum of a certain tree which they call amber.
This whole narrative is fabulous, because in heaven there are no horses or chariots; But the ancients pretended this to make those who came to understand a great heat or dryness that occurred in the thirty-first year of the reign of Cecrops the first, king of Athens, which was the sixty-fifth year of the life of Moysen, fifteen years. before the Hebrews left Egypt, according to Eusebius; near the Deucalion flood, in which time the fountains and rivers dried up, and it seemed that all things wanted to perish from the heat; And because the Gentiles thought that Phebo could not err, they believed that his son Phaethon, that day or time, had ruled the chariot, and coming very close to the earth, burned it, and it was called the fire of Phaethon. Phaethon was a true man, and although he was not the son of the planet Sol, he was the son of a powerful king of the Argives, called Merope or Apis, who was considered a god for the fame of his exploits, and they called him Sol or Phebo. This Merope fell in love with Clymene, daughter of Oceanus, in whom there was a son called Astarchus or Eridanus, who was later named Phaethon. This Eridano came with great companies of people by sea in Italy, and contributed to the place that is now the famous city of Genoa; and after passing the mountains, he descended to the flat land that is now Lombardy, through which the river commonly called Po runs, sailing with his fleet down the river (according to Paulo Perusino), in a time of excessive heat; He was killed by lightning, which is why from then on the river was called Eridano, from the name of the one who died in it, or because he ruled that land for some time. And from here he had the origin of telling the fable that, struck down by lightning, he fell into the river; and due to the event of such a disastrous death from lightning, they named Eridanus Phaethon, which means burning thing or thing of fire, because he had died with the fire of lightning, or because of the excessive heat that it was at that time, and to tell these Two things that happened, heat and death, ingeniously introduced this fable by saying things that seemed somewhat reasonable; and because he was called the son of the Sun, they wanted to attribute him to the planet Sun, who was their son, saying that he would govern his father's chariot, and because he did not govern him well, the heat came, and to avoid the damage from his growth, having him dead Jupiter with lightning. The poets also wanted to imply through this fable that Phaethon was vainglorious and arrogant, and presuming himself to be very wise without being so, he sowed many confusions and false doctrines among the simple people; and for this reason they say they have scorched the earth, with infinite errors; They called him son of the Sun, because the ancients called all the wise men children of Phebo, whom they worshiped as the god of knowledge. And in Ovid's desire to make the Sun appear to be an animated man, as he pretends, and to have a son and a chariot and horses, he intended, in order to under this fabulous story, to show the natural course of the Sun, and the firmaments and their effects, and natural things pertaining to astronomy.
And to declare how Phaeton came from Egypt to Italy, they pretended to have gone to his father Phebo's house to ask for the heavenly chariots; and also to rebuke those who know little and use science worse; and that the great empires, administrations, and republics should not be entrusted to young men or men of little knowledge, but to wise and experienced ones. Also admonish us that children do not disregard the advice of their parents, otherwise there will be a bad end.
That the Ethiopians became black due to this heat: It is known that Ovid, giving causes of what is natural, follows poetic foundations, and to say that the Ethiopians are black, he said it was because Phaethon walked among them when he ruled one day. chariot of the Sun, and that day burned them forever.
He says that Phaeton was the son of the Sun and Clymene, because Phaeton means burning or inflammation that comes from the Sun, because Phaeton in Greek means the same as in Latin ardeo, which in English means to burn. That he was the son of Clymene, Clymi is what in Latin innundare, overflow or come out of the mother, and because this is understood in water, and because the Sun making a copy of exhalations of the water and of humid parts, understood by Clymene nymph, and inflamed by the Sun itself, great heat is caused, as happens in the summer time; For this reason he was said to be Phaethon, son of the Sun and Clymene.
That, seeing the fate of the Scorpion, there would be fear is that in the Zodiac in the space from the twentieth degree of Libra, to the tenth of Scorpio, at this distance the philosophers called the burned path, because every year as the Sun walks through that space it seems to burn the entire earth. earth, pay attention that the grass dries up and the leaves turn white.
That his sisters mourned his death so much that the gods, moved with mercy, turned them into black poplars: In this they wanted to declare that from the heat of the Sun and abundant humidity, trees and plants usually grow later. However, when the matter of heat surpasses humidity, it is not the cause of generation, but is the author of corruption, and because the juice that flows from the bodies of animals or trees is driven by a force that expels it and thickens it, therefore This is what they said that these trees sweated amber. This, according to historical sense, is that when Phaeton died on that trip that his story is told, his sisters felt it so much and cried so much that they were as if stunned or frightened, and for this reason they said that they turned into trees, remaining soulless like trees.
Lucian says that Phaethon taking charge of the chariot of the Sun was to have been the first to find or consider the course of the Sun, like Endymion of the Moon. That Jupiter struck him down with lightning is because since Jupiter means heat, and lightning is fire, for this reason they said Jupiter struck him down with lightning.
From Apollo
Apollo was the son of Iúpiter and Latona, born from the same birth with Diana. Many things are said about him, which were no less from others than his, because as Tullius writes, there were three others, without him, who called themselves Apollo. The one, and oldest, was the son of Vulcan. The second was the son of Corybantes, a native of the island of Crete. The third was from Archadia, from whom the Arcades received laws. But because all the poets attribute to the son of Iupiter and Latona what is said of all, as if it had only been, we will leave the others, since there is no certainty about the particular facts of each one, and we will deal with them. They said, then (ultra of the fable of his birth that we will put later), that this Apollo was the inventor of medicine and wisdom, and god of divination, and that he killed the Cyclops, makers of Jupiter's rays. Of which Jupiter, angry, deprived him of the deity for many years; and having come into need for this reason, he was forced to become a shepherd and guard the cattle of Admetus, king of Thesalia, according to what Ovid and Seneca say. To this Apollo Mercury gave the seven-stringed zither, to the sound of which the Muses sang on Mount Parnassus; They paint him beardless, they sacrifice the arrows to him, they dedicate the laurel to him, and the Griphos of the Hyperborean Mountains, and the raven, and the bucolic verses. They called him many names and gave him many children; He built the walls of Troy in the company of Neptune.
How Apollo is the son of Jupiter and Latona, and of his birth
They say he is Apollo, son of Jupiter and Latona, born on the island of Delos, because after that confusing matter, called chaos, from which things were made, according to those who did not know the power of God, who had the opinion that nothing something could be done; By this Chaos they understood Latona, and by Iupiter is understood the true God our lord. This creator of everything first made two luminaries, which are the Sun and the Moon, first the Sun and then the Moon, as it is read in Genesis. But the poets pretend that they were born to Latona, daughter of Coeus, and that before she gave birth, Iuno understanding that she was pregnant with Jupiter, very angry as she usually was with all her husband's girls, sent Phiton, a warp serpent, after her. greatness, which followed her, not letting her stop anywhere. Latona fled, not finding a place where she could give birth, went to the island Ortigia, from which she was received, and there she gave birth first to Diana, who then as she was born served as midwife so that her mother gave birth to her brother Apollo, who both left a belly When Apollo was born, he later became a crossbowman, and he killed the snake Phiton that had persecuted his mother with arrows, and began to give answers about things to come. Furthermore, they say that due to this birth the name of the island changed, calling it Delos, as Ortygia was first called. Ovid plays this fable. When these two children were born, Latona, carrying them to her breasts and passing one day through the land of Lycia, felt great thirst due to the heat, and arriving at a lake near which some men from that land were, she asked them for a drink; They were so excessive that not only did they deny her the drink, but even, to take away the hope that she would never drink, they jumped on their feet into the lake and muddied the water, and not content with this, they said clumsy words against her. Angry Latona, she prayed to the gods that those villains would remain in the lake where they jumped forever. The gods heard it, and they turned the villains into frogs, and just as at first they were chattering and annoying, so after the frogs were done, they became angry with their voices.
The statement of this fiction touches Barlaam, saying that when the flood ceased, which was at the time of King Ogige, due to the great humidity of the earth and the heat of the celestial bodies, so many vapors arose that very thick clouds were generated, which in many places of the Aegean Sea and Achaia, for a long time, neither day nor night, the rays of the Sun or Moon were not seen, it happened that on the island Ortygia, the clouds becoming thinner, due to the sea, the exhalations of the earth thickened them, one night, shortly before dawn, the inhabitants of that island saw the rays of the Moon, and consequently in the morning they saw the Sun, which, to the great joy of all, as if they had found what they had already considered lost, it was said about those of this island, to be Diana and Apollo born, and for this reason the name was changed to the island, and Ortygia was said Delos, which means discovery or appearance, according to Saint Isidore, because after of the said flood of Ogige, there first appeared the Moon and the Sun, understood by Diana and Apollo. And by this they said that Latona was understood as this island, in which this manifestation of these two planets was made.
Saying that Iuno, intended that Latona would not give birth: by Iuno is understood the earth, from which vapors rise. And the serpent Phiton were the vapors that came out of the earth, which, covering up the sky, understood by Latona in another sense, caused the Sun and Moon not to be seen. And these vapors are called snakes because in the air the clouds look like figures of snakes and various animals. To say that Latona wanted to give birth and could not because Iuno sent the serpent Phiton against her, who never let her rest, that is, since the sky always moves around, this is why she says that she always fled, because if she gave birth in one place she would not could, give birth to another; To say that the snake Phiton did not let her give birth was that wherever the Sun and Moon moved in their skies, they found fogs and clouds.
That Ortigia Latona could give birth on the island was because Phiton did not pursue her there; and this is to say that the Sun and Moon first manifested themselves there, and so it seemed that they were then born; and the reason for this was that this island is small, and for this reason few vapors rose from it, and for this reason the Sun and the Moon appeared there first than in other islands of the Aegean Sea. As soon as it says that Diana was born first than Apollo, her brother, it is because it was night, and it could not be the Sun, but the Moon. To say that when Diana was born, her mother served as her midwife so that Apollo, her brother, was born, is that as the Moon appeared first, she seemed to receive her brother with her horns, who behind her appeared . That Apollo at birth used crossbows and killed the serpent Phiton is because when the Sun rose, with the heat of its rays, which are like arrows, it consumed the clouds and vapors from which they were generated, which first obscured it. Alberic says that it was pretended to have Apollo killed Phiton, because Phiton is interpreted as belief, and because all false belief perishes with clarity, which is why they say Apollo killed the serpent Phiton.
That Apollo then began to give answers is taken from what happened later, which was that on that island, I don't know whose illusion, a demon deceiver of the human race, under the title of Apollo, began to give answers to the things that he they asked.
What he says about the villains who were turned into frogs at the request of Latona was a historical event (according to what Philocoro says), that the Rodians waged war against those of Lycia, and to the aid of the Rodians the Delians came, who, wanting to do water of a certain lake in Lycia, some villainous inhabitants of it wanted to defend the water, so those from the island of Delos, getting angry with them, killed them and threw the dead bodies into the water; Then, after some time, those from the Lycian mountains came to the lake, and not finding the bodies of the dead, and hearing the hoarse voices of the frogs, they thought they were the souls of the dead, and thus they gave material to this fable of saying that they had become frogs.
What does it mean to be Apollo, inventor of medicine and god of wisdom?
They say that Apollo was the inventor of medicine because the Sun, understood by Apollo, according to Ovid, gives virtue to herbs and the other simple things that medicine uses; and the herbs that receive the most sunlight are of more virtue than those that are in dark, humid places and that participate less in it. Or because the Sun, understood by Apollo, is a planet that, according to astrologers, inclines those born in its ascendant to know sciences, or because this Apollo, as a man, was, according to Theodontius, the first to know many virtues of herbs and the one who applied them to diseases, for which reason, and because of the consideration that many sick people achieved health with his remedies and healthy advice, they not only considered him the inventor of medicine, but even the god of wisdom.
How to understand being Apollo god of divination
Because those in whom the nature of the Sun greatly dominates, according to the opinion of astrologers, feel many things more easily before they come, attributed to Apollo the science of divination, inasmuch as he is the inventor of medicine, and the wise doctor, knowing the condition of the disease, predict and announce life or death before it comes. Or because wisdom is attributed to Apollo, and wisdom is by which they know some things to come, and the simple when knowing future things call guessing. Or this is said inasmuch as Apollo is a planet, because the Sun is the source of all light, which gives clarity with which dark and dark things are manifested.
In another way, this is understood in that Apollo was a man who reigned in Delphos, near Mount Parnassus, to whom, after he died, they built a magnificent temple there, in which divine answers were heard, the Priestess of Apollo entering a cave; and for this reason they called him the god of divinations, as if he were the one who answered, being a demon who did it to deceive people, as we said in chapter ten of the first book.
How Apollo killed the Cyclopes, servants of Vulcan, and why
The reason that the poets give as to why Apollo killed the Cyclops who were making lightning bolts for Iupiter was that as Phaethon, his son, wanted one day to govern the chariot of the Sun, and not knowing how to govern the horses, Iupiter burned the earth, to avoid the damage, he killed him with lightning. Apollo, angry at this, wanted to take revenge, and since he could not do it with Jupiter, because he was older, he turned his anger against the Cyclopes who made lightning bolts for Jupiter, being officers of Vulcan. Apollo killing the Cyclopes means the death of all the men of such blacksmithing trades, both because of the great work and because of the continuous heat of the fire, which desiccates and consumes life; and because this heat is attributed to Apollo, because the Sun is understood, and the Sun is the father of all heat, for this reason it is said to kill the Cyclopes; and although this is more properly meant by Vulcan, since the Cyclopes were his officers, it is not said that he killed them, but Apollo, because the latter seems to have more cause than another for it, for having killed his son with lightning. . Or they say this because the Cyclopes understand the vapors from which lightning and winds and clouds are made; They are called Cyclopes because they continually move around, and because the Sun, which is Apollo, usually resolves and undoes them; This is why the Cyclops say Apollo died. Lucretius mentions this in four verses that begin: Et primum fatiunt, etc.
How Apollo guarded Admetus' cattle
The fable says that Jupiter, angry because Apollo had killed the Cyclops, deprived him of his deity; And for this reason, Apollo being in need, was forced to become a shepherd of Admetus, king of Thesalia, and pasture his cattle. This is, according to Theodoncio, that Apollo as a man was a king of Archadia, who, giving them laws, made them kept with great rigor. Angry at this, the Arcanes, with the favor of Aristheus, expelled him from the kingdom, and he went to Admetus, king of Thesalia, who, wanting to honor Apollo and favor him, gave him a certain part of his land, next to the river Amphrisus, which others call Ampheriso. , where he was like a king, having vassals and government; and this is called being a shepherd, because kings are called shepherds of people. And so Homer called Agamemnon shepherd of peoples; And because these people that Apollo dominated were from Admetus, the fable says that he kept his cattle or that she was his shepherd. He remained like this for seven years, and then, with the favor of Admetus, he forcibly subjugated the arcades and deprived Aristaeus of the kingdom that he tyrannically held over him. And according to this, when they had a kingdom, they first claimed to have a deity; and when he was thrown from it, they would say that he was deprived of the deity. By the Cyclopes that Apollo killed we can understand the arcades who died with his cruel laws, or because they felt his laws so much for being harsh, as if he killed them, and for this he was deprived.
Or in another sense, taking Apollo for the Sun, it can be said that he pastured the cattle of Admetus, understanding that the temperance of the Sun, between cold and heat, benefits the animals.
How is it understood to give Mercury the Apollo zither?
That Mercury gave the zither to Apollo is because, according to historians, Mercury found the lyre, which some call the zither; Saint Isidro speaks of its invention, and for this reason all those who had excellence in singing or playing the lyre, the poets say that they received it from Mercury, because Mercury was the author of it; and since Apollo, according to the poets, was famous for playing the lyre, they say that he received it from Mercury; And so poets often say that some have been stubborn or disputed with Apollo over the art of playing, as was Marsyas, shepherd of Phrygia, and Pan, god of shepherds, according to Ovid. He says this because Apollo was a doctor, and it belongs to doctors to know the pulse, which consists of a certain proportion, which proportion is found in the various sounds and voices of the lyre; and for this reason, Apollo, who has the knowledge of the pulses, they say that he has the lyre, in which the proportions are found. However, because all proportions are born from numbers, and numbers suit Mercury, according to poets and astrologers; And Apollo, having the knowledge of proportions, received the lyre from Mercury, because just as from various playing of the lyre done according to art a sweet song comes out, according to good proportions, so from various pulsations or strokes of our pulse, if they are ordered, a disposition of health comes out of the body, the knowledge of which belongs to the doctor; and so Apollo, who is a doctor, has the lyre, which he receives from Mercury.
How is it understood that the muses dance to the sound of the lyre that Apollo plays on Mount Parnassus, on the summit called Elicón?
That the muses dance to the sound of the lyre that Apollo plays on Mount Parnassus means that Apollo is understood to be the beginning of all wisdom or the giver of wisdom; and by the Muses, who are many, are understood those who receive knowledge, who do not receive it all, but the parts that are given to them; and because the recipient receives as he is given, he is like the one who dances with respect to the one who plays; And because this player plays as he pleases, and the dancer dances according to the sound, this is why he says the Muses dance to the sound of Apollo's lyre, which means that every man speaks according to what the giver of everything is pleased to make him understand.
In another way this can be understood, insofar as Apollo means the Sun, which and the other planets and heavens, understood by the Muses, move with great proportion; and because through the Sun we have all times, and the day, month, and year, etc., which are times, are caused, and through the movement of the Sun we have a measure of all the planets and celestial bodies, and this is what the Muses say dance to his sound, since all are known by him, and from him they receive light and brilliance. Having this lyre with seven strings denotes the seven planets, in the middle of which is the Sun, and because according to the opinion of Pythagoras the movement of the heavens causes music, for this reason music was attributed to Apollo or the Sun.
Why do they paint Apollo without a beard?
Painting Apollo without a beard is because by Apollo the Gentiles understood a single God, creator of the Universe, to mean that God never aged, and that he is immortal, and always remaining a being. Or paint him without a beard and as a child, because the Sun rises every day like children, and children do not have beards, and so they do not give them to Apollo, according to Saint Isidro. From here Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, had the opportunity to remove the beard of Aesculapius, son of Apollo, who, once entering a temple that was on the island of the Tiber, near Rome, wishing to rob it, seeing among others gods the statue of Apollo without a beard, and that of Aesculapius, his son, with beards made of gold, said: It is an unreasonable thing, since the father is without beard, for the son to have them so long; and so, he took the gold from the beard of Aesculapius, according to Lactantius, in the Divine Institutions of him. Furthermore, Valerius Maximus says that Dionysus himself, seeing the image of Jupiter in a temple with a golden garment, took it off and put another cloth one on it, saying that in winter it would keep him warmer, and in summer it would be less heavy, making fun of such gods.
Why they sacrifice to Apollo the arrows and the laurel and the griffins of the Hyperborean Mountains
They consecrated the arrows to Apollo because he killed the serpent Phiton, as we said at his birth, which they pretend to have killed with arrows, and for this reason he praised the arrow and bow, speaking with Cupid, as Ovid writes; This is because the rays of the Sun, understood by Apollo, pass like arrows and come straight, and for this reason Apollo and Diana, his sister, are called gods archers and shooters with arrows, because these two luminaries send rays of light, which which other planets or stars do not do.
They dedicated the laurel to it, because by rubbing two dry sticks of this tree together a fire is lit, or because by placing its leaves on the head of the sleeper, he dreams, according to Serapion, of true things, which is a type of riddle, an art attributed to Apollo. or because they pretend to have received Apollo for his tree, when Daphne, his friend, became him, as we will say elsewhere.
They dedicated to him the griffins of the Hyperborean mountains, which according to Saint Isidro are animals that have a body in the shape of a lion, and wings and beak like an eagle, very enemies of the horse, because Apollo came from the Hyperboreans, which are mountains in Scithia, whose zenith corresponds near the Arctic Pole, to the land of the Delphi, and everything in the said mountains belongs to Apollo; and since the main thing there is are the griffins, as they are not found in any other land but there, this is why they were attributed to Apollo.
Dedicate the raven to Apollo
They also dedicated the raven to Apollo; and thus, Ovid claims to be his bird, of which he tells this fable. Apollo loving Coronis, he gave her the raven to guard and serve her. This crow, finding his lady Coronis one day with a young man in bed, abhorring the evil that was done to her lord, agreed to leave immediately to account for it; And walking with this embassy he met the crow, a very great friend of his, and as such he told her about her journey; The crow, having heard her case, being very sorry that he had brought such sad news about her and trying to hinder her message, told her what had happened to her in the same way. The raven, not giving him any of the advice, was so eager to tell about his message that he did not stop until he found Apollo and told him the case. When Apollo heard of the great sin that the beloved Coronis had committed against him, he felt it so much that she remained for a long time without speaking, all color losing her face; and with great viciousness, he took her bow and her arrows, and pulling one of them, he threw it with great force through the breasts of her friend; repentant after having killed her, he curses the bow and the arrow and the crow that bad news it brought him, and from the white that it was at first, he made it always black.
It is true that the crow would not speak to the crow nor the crow to him, since birds cannot do this, nor would the crow carry such an embassy to Apollo, but it is fiction. To say that when crows are born they are not black, but white, and then they become black, which is why, when they are small in the nest, the parents seeing that they are not black like them, believing they are not their children, do not want to give them to eat, and in this time God, ministering to them nature, provides them with necessary maintenance, until they begin to blacken, when then the parents are satisfied and provide for them. This is what the doctors understand that verse: Qui dat iumentis escam ipsorum, et pullis corvorum invokentibus eum. It means: God gives the beasts the maintenance of him, and the children of the crows when they call him, and so from this change that becomes black and white, they want to understand this fable. To say that this change was made by Apollo more than another is because as this is done naturally and in nature they say that the black comes from heat and the white from coldness, although sometimes they have the opposite causes. And because Apollo denotes the Sun, and the Sun is the beginning and father of all heat, among the celestial bodies, they attributed to Apollo having turned the raven black and white. This fable also admonishes the ambassadors of bad news, that there can be no good reward, because what is said in this way, although it is convenient for the person it is said to know, is not good to be the bearer of such news, because in the end those to whom it is bad Angry at them, they become angry at the bearer and reduce the anger in them, as they are the cause or announcers of their pain, they give them a bad reward; And Ovid wants to warn about this by introducing the crow to hinder the crow from this embassy, giving her examples of how bad things happened to her because of such news, even if she said it with good intent. In not wanting to take his advice, the foolish men understand that, seeing the evils that came to others through such embassies, they care little, for their own pleasure, that punishments instead of rewards follow.
These authors give another historical meaning, that Apollo as a man loved Coronis, and she, being his, did evil to him with a young man from Thesalia. Apollo must have known this without anyone telling him, but through the use of omens and sorceries, because he was an omen, and he knew he killed Coronis, and since it was known through omens, they placed the raven more than another bird, because this bird makes more differences in omens, according to Juan Bocacio, where he says that the raven has fifty-four differences of voices, and Saint Fulgentius says he has seventy-four. This crow that they attribute to Apollo is understood to be the rooks or stings, which are very talkative birds, and not crows; This is what Saint Isidro and Ovid say, telling this fable, where he says: Corve loquax, which means: The crow is a talker, which belongs more to the rooks and stings than to the crow.
Why did they consecrate the bucolic verse or song to Apollo?
The bucolic verse is a song of shepherds, although it means singing of herdsmen, because they are the largest cattle among the shepherds; and the name is taken from the most dignified, but it is understood from all the shepherds, it does not matter whether they are of cows than of sheep, than of other livestock; This is what Saint Isidro says, where he begins: Appellatur autem bucolicum a bobus de maiori parte, quamvis. caprariorum, et opiliorum, in iis sermones et cantica inserantur. He means: bucolic singing is named after the oxen, because it is the largest or most main part, although words from goatherds' and sheepherds' songs are introduced, and because the shepherds are consecrated to Apollo, and these songs are from shepherds. ; For this reason the bucolic song is dedicated to Apollo. And the reason why the shepherds are consecrated to Apollo is said to be because Apollo, being deprived of the deity, guarded the cattle of King Admetus, and for this reason, restored to his deity, he considered the shepherds recommended, as he would have been their companion. . And according to Saint Isidro, the heroic verses were consecrated to Apollo, because these verses were the ones with which those of Delphi received him, when he killed the serpent Phiton, and they are called fician or hexameter verses or six-foot verses, called datylic or spondaic verses; but later, in the time of Homer, they were called heroic, because in this type of verse Homer wrote the deeds of the enlightened men who are called heroes. Or because Apollo fought twice with these songs with shepherds, as well as Marsyas Satyrus and Pan, and defeated them, which is why they dedicated the bucolic songs to him.
Of various names with which they named Apollo
Apollo has several names, because the poets mixed the Sun and Apollo as if they were one; the names are Apollo, Phebo, Delius, Delphicus, Cintius, Nonius, Licio, Timbraeus, Gocomas, Argitorosus, Titan, Sol, Paean, Phitonius, Horus, Latonius, Latonigena.
Apollo: this name suits him as a man, because that is how the son of Jupiter and Latona was called, and it also suits him as a planet in the sky, because Apollo in Greek means destroyer, and this is because with his heat he destroys and consumes the things, as Saint Isidro says.
Phebo: this suits him better as a planet than as a man, and it is said of phos: Quod est ignis. Or he is called Phebo, because he is new and like a child, because in Latin they call those who do not yet have beards, such as children, ephebes, and this suits the Sun, because every day he is born anew, rising over the horizon, like the one who comes out of its mother's womb.
Delio: this name suits him as a planet, because he and Diana pretend to have been born on the island of Delos.
Delphic they say because of the towns called Delphi, from Mount Parnassus, where there was a cave in which answers were given. This name means the divine virtue of responding to doubtful things, in which Apollo exceeded the other gods or demons of the Gentiles, as we said in the tenth chapter. Cintio is derived from cinthus, the name of the mountain, where Apollo and Diana, his sister, had a temple of great sumptuousness.
Nonius is a Greek name; It means shepherd, and it suits Apollo as a man and not as a planet, because deprived of the kingdom or divinity, he was a shepherd and guarded the cattle of Admetus. Lycio means, according to Macrobius, wolf-bearer, because licos in Greek means wolf; and this name is appropriate for the Sun as a planet, because just as the wolf is a very gluttonous animal, and a tearer, and a consumer of meat, so the Sun with its heat dries up the moisture and consumes it, just as if it swallowed them. Timbreo: Vergil used this name, where he introduces Anchises, begging Apollo for an answer, and says: Da Timbreae domun, etc. It is derived from timbra, which is an herb called lemon balm, as appears from Vergil, where he orders it to be placed in apiaries, because it is a herb that bees love very much.
Gocomas: this one suits Apollo as a planet that has rays; and in the Assyrian language, according to Macrobius, it means golden hair; So are the rays of the Sun, like golden hair.
Argitoroso, according to Macrobius, means silver, because the rays of the Sun are like white silver, and so it fits Apollo as a planet.
Titan: this name suits him as a man; and by Titan is meant the second Sun, son of Hyperion, and because he was of the lineage of the Titans, he was called Titan. That is what Vergil called him, in the verse that begins: Extullerit Titan.
Sun: this name suits Apollo as a planet; It is called Sun, which means alone, because this planet is the only one that has light from itself, and is the one from whom others receive it.
Pean: This name is brought in joy; uses Vergilio.
Phitonio: this name fits Apollo as a planet; It is derived from Phiton, the name of the serpent that followed Latona, which they pretend Apollo killed.
Horus means giant or big man. This name suits Apollo as a planet, because among the celestial bodies there is none as large as the Sun; It is the name used by the Egyptians, according to Macrobius.
Latonius means son of Latona, because they pretend that Apollo was born to Latona.
Latonigena means the same as son of Latona.
Of Laomedon, and how Apollo and Neptune surrounded Troy
Laomedon, the Trojan king, began to found the walls of Troy, according to Ovid, and as it was a work of great expense and long work, it grew little. Neptune and Apollo, gods, taking the figures of mortal men and pretending to be officers, made a contract with Laomedon, in which for a certain price of gold they were obliged to build all the Trojan walls.
The two gods finished their work and Laomedon denied them payment, saying that he had not promised them such a thing. Angry at this, Neptune made the waters of the sea bathe the city and occupy the fields of Troy and destroy the crops. Apollo, again, sent pestilence on the city. The Trojans asked the oracle of Apollo for advice on the remedy that would be found in such works. They were answered that to tame the wrath of the gods it was necessary to place each year, in a certain place on the sea coast, one of the Trojan virgins, whom a large fish would come to swallow. This maiden used to be drawn by lot. Once the lot fell on Hesiona, daughter of King Laomedon himself, who was standing on the rock waiting for the terrible fish. It happened that Hercules (who was trying adventures around the world) came to that place, and he, out of desire to honor and benefit, he asked King Laomedon what he would give to whom his daughter saved from death. He promised to give him horses begotten of divine seed, which Laomedon had. Hercules fought with the fierce fish and freed the maiden, and restoring her to her father and asking for her promise, not only did Laomedon deny her, but he swore not to promise her. Angry Hercules, he moved war against Troy, which he took, killing Laomedon and many other Trojans.
By this fiction the ancients wanted to declare the way in which Troy was surrounded and the things that occurred at that time. Laomedon, son of Ilion, wanted to surround Troy, and since he did not have an abundance of money that was necessary for such famous walls, there were two temples in that city, one of Apollo and the other of Neptune, in which great treasures were deposited. In protection of some Trojans, Laomedon wanted to take them, and so that the citizens would consent, he swore that not only would he return all that money, but he would even give more of his treasures, for the honor of the said temples; With this they consented to take them, of which the walls were made. Later asking Laomedon to return the money, he did not want to. At this time the sea rose greatly and entered the Trojan fields, from which pestilence also followed because it was not purged from the Sun, which is Apollo, from putrefaction. And because these things belong to Apollo and Neptune, they said that the plague came because of the anger of the gods and because of the perjury of denying the money that he took from the temples; From this the application of the fable is clear. That Apollo and Neptune offered themselves to him as builders, taking the form of mortal men, is said because of their money; And because some temples of the gods did not take money from others, they say that these gods did this. As soon as he says that they took the form of mortal men, this belongs to making the fable credible, because saying that these were gods, it would not seem right to come and hire Laomedon. To say that they agreed to make them for a certain price, this was to mean that they were built from the treasures of the temples of Apollo and Neptune. That once the walls were built, Laomedon did not want to pay the gods, as he had agreed to with them and he perjured himself, means that once the walls were built, Laomedon did not want to return to the temples the money that he took from them, and so he perjured himself. He says that Apollo sent pestilence and Neptune waters: it is because the waters of the sea belong to Neptune, and the pestilence to Apollo. That in response to the oracle they placed a Trojan virgin every year on the coast of the sea for the whale to swallow, is believed to be history and that the Trojans used to do so, because other Gentiles have been found to have done this, as is said of Andromeda, daughter of King Cepheus and Cassiopeia, which was truly, according to Solinus says, that it occurred near the city called Iope, and, in common, Iafa. Apollo was a demon who responded most among the Gentiles, and demons like innocent people to die; And so, it is to be believed that he was able to place Hesiona, the king's daughter, there, because everyone was drawn by lot. That Hercules freed her was a matter of belief, because Hercules was the bravest of those of his time, and thus he was able to free Hesiona, like Perseus freed Andromeda. That it was agreed with Laomedon to give him the horses that he had of divine seed, in the world there are no such horses; However, the poets understand some horses by this in a certain way, and call them engendered by divine seed, as they pretend that they were the horses of the Sun, saying that the Sun walks through the sky every day in a chariot, which is brought by four horses, and that There were some of these seeds in the world; and the way in which they say that Circe, daughter of the Sun, having familiarity in her father's house, was able to get to the horses of the Sun some mares of mortal lineage, which they conceived, as Vergil introduces it by saying that King Latinus had horses of the caste of horses of the Sun; and thus, Laomedon could be said to have such horses. The truth is that the ancients, with great ignorance, when they saw some excellence in animals, more than in others, said that they belonged to divine lineage, and because they believed there were living horses in heaven. Hence it was their custom, when some highly praised horses were seen, both for lightness and for other good natural conditions, to call them of lineage from the celestials, because they could hardly otherwise be so good, if they were not of that breed; and because Laomedon had very chosen and precious horses, they were called divine seed. These Hercules would look after, and would ask for some if he would free Hesiona, his daughter.
By Laomedon's perjury against Apollo and Neptune, they paint us an ungrateful man, who in his needs turns to God with great prayers and promises, and when he achieves what he intends, he does not remember it, for which he deserves the punishment of the enundation of the waters that take away all his property, leaving him in the misery that is said of this king. Being also perjured to Hercules denotes that those who are ungrateful to God are also ungrateful to men. Finally, the ancient sages exhort us for this fable of religion and truth in contracts.
Of Apollo and Cupid, and how Daphne moved into laurel
After Apollo had killed the serpent Phiton, being greatly lifted up in pride by the victory, he met Cupid, son of Venus, seeing him bringing a bow and arrows, and said to him: It is not fitting for you, young man, to bring these weapons, which are ours. Cupid, very angry, flying through the air, settled on the height of Mount Parnassus and took out two arrows from his arrow, one that made people love, which had a gold tip, and another boot, with a lead tip, that made people hate; With the one he made loved he wounded Apollo, and with the one he made unloved he wounded Daphne, Nimpha, daughter of the river Peneus. After this, Apollo walking carelessly, he found Daphne, and after seeing her, he was captivated by her love, he began to follow her, telling her how sorry he was for her. Because she did not hear him, she fled through the harshest places she could; They both ran, one loving and the other unloving. Apollo was brave and light, and approaching Daphne, whose strength he was losing, as she was near the waves of her father Peneus, he said: Oh father, see if there is any divine power in these waters. Oh land; swallow me or change me into another figure. Barely had Daphne finished these prayers, when her entire body felt cold and the bark of the tree covered her insides; Her hair became her leaves, her feet became lazy roots. Apollo, even to the one thus changed, did not cease to love; and as if he placed his hand on the bark and felt the hot limbs boiling beneath it, he embraced and kissed the tree, although the tree still fled from being kissed. Tornado Daphne in laurel Apollo said: Oh laurel, well you cannot be my wife, you will be my tree; And for this reason, from then on, the laurel had the power to give off fire similar to the arrows or hot rays of Apollo.
By Daphne is meant humity, which is the daughter of Peneus, a river. Apollo is the Sun, who loved Daphne, because the Sun with her great virtual heat wants to consume all humities; and here what is said about the love of Apollo and the lack of love of Daphne takes place, because each thing destroys its opposite; and thus, Daphne or the humidity of Apollo's heat fleeing, wants to lock herself underground to defend herself. Daphne, fleeing, turned into a laurel, because humidity, wanting to escape and preserve itself in its being, encloses itself in the earth, and then the Sun with its virtue turns it into a laurel, being in the place of the seed or seminal virtue of the laurel or another any tree. Daphne being the daughter of the Peneus river and becoming a laurel more than another tree, is because near the Peneus river of Thesalia, many laurels are born.
That the laurel, after Apollo received it by its tree, had the power to give off fire from itself is to declare how with the wood of the laurel, rubbing one against the other, a fire is lit, as we show in one of our treatises on natural things.
The arrow with which Cupid struck Apollo was sharp and made of gold, and the one with which he struck Daphne was sharp and made of lead; It was sharp, because love happens more than heartbreak; heartbreak is boto, because it does not penetrate or pass through, but rather it separates itself from itself; For this reason the one is sharp and pierces; the other boot and does not pass. It is said to be one of gold and the other of lead to denote dignity. Love is greater dignity than lack of love, and one differs as much from the other as gold from lead; and because love comes from a sharp and fiery condition, they gave it gold, which is a fiery condition. Heartbreak comes from a melancholic, black, heavy and earthly mood, like lead.
By this fable the ancients wanted to praise chastity, pretending that those who kept it became evergreen trees, like Daphne into laurel and Lotus into another tree of that name, implying by these trees the virtue of chastity.
Of Apollo and of Boreas and Iacinthus
The fabulists say that Boreas loved a beautiful young man named Iacinthus; He was also Iacinthus, beloved of the god Apollo; and because Boreas felt Iacinthus's will to be more inclined to love Apollo than him, he became angry. Apollo loved this young man so much that, forgetting himself, he spent most of his time in his company. It happened that once, wanting to exercise with the game they say of chueca, Apollo first took the ball, and throwing it high until it passed the clouds, after a long time it fell to the ground. Iacinthus, inflamed with the desire to play, indiscreetly went to take it when it fell from a height, and as it hit the ground, he recovered so strongly, Boreas helping him, that he wounded Iacinthus who wanted to take it, according to Ovid's longest account. Confused Apollo, he took the young man in his arms; He took pity on him by giving him herbs that would slow down his life (which was already leaving him); but this was of no avail, because the wound was mortal. Seeing that Apollo had been the cause of the death of his beloved, and that because he was a god he could not follow him, he told him that it would always be with him in his mouth and in his songs and zithers. You will be a new flower, he told her more, and my groans will be written on you. While Apollo spoke this, the blood of the young man Iacinthus, which was spilled on the grass, ceased to be blood and began to have the color of very fine scarlet; And not only did Apollo do him this honor, but he even wrote in it his groans, and it was left to that land as a memory that every year they celebrate the death of Iacinthus.
With this fable the poets wanted to give the cause of the generation of flowers, which are generated from the tender humidity, which the Sun brings out with the heat of its rays, and alters them, and altering them, turns them into herbs and flowers.
That Boreas loved Iacinthus is because this wind often blew in the meadows where these flowers called hyacinths were.
Iacinthus inclining more to the love of Apollo than to that of Boreas is because the heat of the Sun, understood by Apollo, engenders the hyacinth and the other flowers. To say that Boreas was angry because he understood Iacinthus to lean more towards the love of Apollo, which is why he caused his death, this is because when the Boreas wind blows with fury, with its coldness it corrupts the hyacinth and the other flowers, and for this reason he says that it killed.
In the game, in which Iacinthus died by raising the ball high, it means the corruption of the flowers, because they are short-lived, and after the summer they dry up with the great heat of Apollo himself, because by raising the too much heat in high the humidity, or consuming it, from which the flowers are sustained and engendered, they perish, which is denoted by Apollo throwing the ball high, and this is Iacinthus dying because of Apollo.
In what it says that the herbs were dyed with the blood of Iacinthus, and shortly afterwards it stopped being blood and was the color of a flower, because Apollo ordered it and commanded it, it means the renewal of the flower called hyacinth and of all the others. ; because just as they are generated in the summer and perish in the summer, they return again, after the winter, to be generated with the virtue of the Sun, and this is because the seminal virtue remained in the earth from the grass that was first there, which In itself it had some kind of seed, that falling on the ground, the grass drying up, the herbs or hyacinth are born again, as if the grass called hyacinth was born from the blood that was shed from the young man Iacinto.
From Aesculapius
Aesculapius, according to Homer and the most authors, was the son of Apollo and the nymph Coronis, daughter of Phlegia. Lactantius says that he was of uncertain parents and that he was thrown into a field to perish; But when he was found by hunters, they raised him on bitch's milk. He learned medicine from Chiron. Others say that he was born from a crow's egg (because according to Lucian, this name Coronis means the crow in Greek) and a nymph called Coronis. And in the order of how he was born they say that a priest of old put a small snake into an empty crow's egg, and curiously covered the opening with white wax, and hid it in a certain place; Then he called the people together and made an altar there, where, invoking Apollo and Aesculapius, they visited that city, and drawing water from a deep well, he made sure that the egg that he had hidden came out with it; who, with many present, so that they could believe his lie, broke it, and seeing the snake or snake inside (everyone admiring it), he sold it to Aesculapius, and as such he pretended to want to raise and honor it. After a few days he showed in a dark place an artificially made serpent, which moved, and made it understood that he had been bred from the one that came out of the egg, and that it was Aesculapius, son of Apollo. From here came the origin that on a rod they showed a snake surrounded by Aesculapius, and that Ovid says that Aesculapius was at some time changed into a snake. Furthermore, Ovid says how she was born to Coronis, a friend of Apollo, and it was that the raven having brought news to Apollo, who had seen her with a man, killed her, and from the body of the dead mother a child was taken out who was called Aesculapius; And being given to Chirán to learn medicine, he was so distinguished in it that he resurrected the dead, as he did to Hypolitus, who brought him back to life from death; of which Jupiter, angry, killed him with a thunderbolt, and thus he was the first and last of those who resurrected with his knowledge, but after death he was worshiped by god; And the sick who came to his temple, which he had near the city of Epidaurus, dreamed of the remedy for his illnesses, and then putting it into practice, they were cured of any illness. They built the temples of Aesculapius outside the towns, because the air is healthier when it flows freely. They paint him with a big beard and with a staff in his hand, as a remedy and support for the sick, when they are convalescing, or because the doctor gives help to health, like the staff or staff to the weak. Ovid tells of Aesculapius that at the time of a great pestilence that occurred in Rome they asked Delphic Apollo for advice, who responded that they had a remedy closer to them, and that was that they should go to the said Aesculapius, to the temple of Epidaurus, and take him with them to Rome, and then they would be healthy. He sent ambassadors from Rome to the princes of Epidaurus asking them to Aesculapius, who, although it was wrong for them to give him, told the ambassadors that it was at Aesculapius's will, and if he wanted to go with them, let him go. At night Aesculapius appeared to the ambassador of the Romans (the devil intervening in this to further deceive, God allowing it), warning them that when they went to the temple the next day, he would descend from the altar in the form of a great serpent, and would go to the port, and He would enter the main ship of the Romans, in which he wanted to go to Italy. Another day he descended from the altar, and crawling through the earth, which the people had covered with flowers and garments, he came to the Roman ship, in which entering he sailed with the Romans and the plague ceased. They built him a magnificent temple on the island of the Tiber River, where they worshiped him as a foreign god.
To say that Coronis, mother of Aesculapius, was the daughter of Phlegia, is because phlegin means to burn; This was the daughter of Coronis, a nymph, which means temperance or the virtue or force of the air that moistens, with which and with the heat of the Sun, understood by Apollo, medicinal things are born, such as herbs and other plants; and because the temperance of the heat of the Sun preserves the health of things, they said he was the father of Aesculapius, which denotes health; and because the heat of the Sun alone is not enough for this, without the mixture of some humidity, they claimed to be the son of Apollo and Coronis; and thus Aesculapius is the architect of health and a great doctor. In another way it is understood that Aesculapius is the son of Apollo, because when his mother died, her womb was opened and Aesculapius was taken out, which cannot be done without the work of a doctor. And since Apollo was the inventor of medicine, this is why he was said to be the son of Apollo, because he was born by his work.
The ancients understood by Apollo a single God, creator of the Universe, and by Aesculapius, time, with what is generated and spent and consumed in it, which because it was created by God, understood by Apollo, they called him son.
From here it came out that they painted Apollo as young and without a beard, to signify that God never grew old and that he is immortal and always one and in one being. They painted Aesculapius old and with a big beard, to imply that time with creatures is transitory, and everything is consumed and ages and wears out. So by Aesculapius, who was a doctor and inventor of medicine, they wanted to imply that medicine was invented by the discourse of time with its experience, and not by the artifice of doctors, although they increase it with time and expiration.
Painting Aesculapius bearded and old, ultra of what has been said, denotes that the doctor must be old, because he has more experience.
What the fable says about the snake that the priest put in the egg could have been done with the devil's ingenuity, to with that deception attract the will of the people, and become a priest of Aesculapius by greedily taking advantage of the offerings.
The rod or staff that they gave Aesculapius, with a snake or two around it, was because medicine is the sustenance or staff of human life, and the snake is suitable for many medicinal remedies, or because the doctor must be wise. , which wisdom is understood by the snake, or because as the snake refreshes itself by removing its skin, so the doctor refreshes the humors that excite the patient.
Being Aesculapius taken from the body of his mother, that is, according to historical sense, because her mother had a bad birth, and when her mother died, they opened it to take out the child, as happens every day.
That he was such a famous doctor that he resurrected Hypolitus or Castor, son of Tyndareus (as Pliny wants), this was because Hypolitus or Castor, one of these, stole Lynceus's wife, and for this reason Lynceus himself was very wounded, so much so that he left for dead; and as with the art of medicine and with the diligence of Aesculapius he recovered health, it was said that he had brought him back from dead to life.
To say that this is why Iupiter had killed him with a lightning bolt is not credible, but because after Hypolitus had been cured, a fever happened to him, which truly is a burning and deadly lightning bolt, from which he died; and the rustics believed that this had happened by having brought Hypolitus back from death to life, this fable began.
Aesculapius, according to historical truth, was the son of a man named Apollo, a native of Messina, although he lived in Epidaurus, and. After he died, for the excellence of his medicine, he was worshiped by God, according to Tullius.
That the sick, sleeping in that temple of Aesculapius, in the city of Epidaurus, dreamed of the remedy for their illnesses and were healed is credible, not because Aesculapius was a god in life nor did he have such a virtue after death; which is only God's to give health to the sick, or to the saints by virtue of his holy name. But the demons, to further deceive men to attract them to their service, revealed to the sick that that temple was the remedy for their illnesses, and this was not general with all the sick, but with those who could naturally heal; and for this the temple of Aesculapius in Epidaurus was famous throughout the world.
That the Romans attacked the oracle in a pestilence gives us an example of what we should do in our afflictions, and with greater confidence and faith, the more we know that our religion is truer than theirs, which was extremely false. When the ambassadors brought Aesculapius to Rome transformed into a snake, many say it is because the doctor must be wise, and wisdom is understood by the snake.
Other things are read different from those that have been said about Aesculapius, which may be history, considering that there was not only one, but there were three of this name, as Tullius says. The first was the son of Apollo, and he was the one who invented the mirror, and the one who used surgery and healed wounds, and was highly revered in Arcadia. The second says that he was the brother of the second Mercury, son of Valens and Coronis, who died of lightning. The third was the son of Asipho Casinoe, and he was the first to invent purgation of the womb and pulling teeth, and his tomb is in Arcadia, not far from the river Lusio, and it could be that some of these were taken from the mother's womb. dead, and some born of an uncertain father, with which what is said about Aesculapius can be saved.
From Hypolitus
Hypolitus was the son of Theseus and Hypolita, an Amazon. This one, living chastely, and giving himself everything to the chase with the purpose of despising all libidinous love of women, was loved in the absence of Theseus by his stepmother Phaedra, as Seneca says, whom, like him, he would not have wanted to please, When Theseus returned, he was accused of having forced him. Theseus, taking credit, wanted to kill his son; but Hypolitus, fearing the wrath of his father, got into a chariot and fled. From this escape it happened that passing by the sea shore, some sea oxen that had come out to the shore, hearing the noise of the chariot, moved in fury to return to the water, and at their noise, the horses of Hypolitus' chariot, frightened, began to ran, leaving the road, over some large rocks, and they broke the chariot, and Hypolitus's hands were not enough to govern them with the brake, he was received by the inhabitants of that land as almost dead, although, according to Seneca, he says that he was torn to pieces. and dead; but by the work of Aesculapius he was brought back to life, and to flee from the wrath of his father, he went to Italy, not far from the place where Rome was later built, and changing his name he was called Virbius, which means twice born. , because one was when he was born and the other when through Aesculapius he seemed to be brought back to life; Ovid mentions this.
Hypolitus, banished by Theseus for the false accusation of his stepmother, gives us an example of a truly chaste and faithful spirit, just as the shameless stepmother gives us an example of the evil spirit of a woman upset by the fiercest passion of lascivious love. Hypolitus being dragged and torn to pieces, and then brought back to life by Aesculapius, we can say that the man of valor does not allow himself to be intimidated by the monsters of the sea, which are the works of this world, although his mortal part is torn to pieces and made into various parts. of his own passions, because in the end Aesculapius, which is true prudence, heals them all with his virtue.
Of Mercury
According to Tullius, there were five men in ancient times named Mercury. The first they said was the son of Celio and Día; They appeared to him as very ugly, that is, with the genital instrument raised, because according to Barlaam and other authors he had a clumsy birth, because in Sicyon, a province of Greece, there was a man named Philo; He had a daughter named Proserpina, who, being a beautiful and mature maiden, was bathing in her father's house, without having previously thought of it, the father stalked her, and seeing her naked, moved his naked beauty with clumsy desire, which followed the ugly carnal council, of which Proserpine gave birth to a son. The father, being ashamed that a son had been born to him in this way, ordered him to be thrown away, in a place where he would die; However, when he asked an astrologer about the fortune of the said child, and he answered that he would be a very famous, wise and well-known man, he changed his mind and had him raised and named him Hermes, which in Greek means interpreter, meaning by this word that there was to be known and spread his name throughout the world. After Hermes grew up and learned of his clumsy birth, out of shame for his natives he left his land and went to Egypt, where at that time there were wise men; and there, with the greatness of his ingenuity, he profited so much in letters, mainly in arithmetic and astrology, that he was called Mercury, for which the sciences, and mainly the two mentioned, are attributed to Mercury; Later he gave himself to medicine, in which he benefited so much that, not leaving the first name of Mercury, he deserved to be called Apollo, because because of his great knowledge he was equal to Apollo. Whence afterwards, to conceal the ugliness of his birth and exalt his lineage, he was called the son of the god Caelius and the Day. Cello was said to declare that he was not the son of mortal man. They said of the Day because just as the day gives clear knowledge of things, so Hermes, previously not known to people for his high knowledge, was the clear and well-known name of him throughout the world. Saint Isidro says that Hermes is derived from hermenias, a Greek name, which means interpretation, which is proven by Aristotle's book called Periarmenias, that is, the book of interpretations. And because the father with the daughter cannot have a licit, but nefarious and ugly carnal union, which is never followed, except by clumsy inflammation of the flesh moved against reason, they placed this Hermes's genital clumsily raised, thus wanting to declare the sin of his generation. The second Mercury was the grandson of Hermes, and according to Tullius, he was the son of Valens and Coronis, and Leontius confirms the same, and says that this Mercury and Aesculapius were brothers, sons of one father, and that when Aesculapius was struck by lightning , because he resurrected Hypolitus, from pain he descended into hell beneath the earth. That is, this Mercury came to Spain, and because from Egypt, where he was born, coming to the westernmost part of Spain, which the poets call low, with respect to Egypt, which is more eastern, which is called high, and because they call hell below, which is why it is said that he descended into hell. To say that he came because of the pain of his brother's death, to give reason that something had to move him to come, but the reason for his coming was to gain fame. Coming to Spain, he showed the mercantile art and all kinds of exchange, for which things he was called among those people the god of merchants. They call it Trophono, which in Greek means convertible; and this is because merchants of large merchandise have to travel with different people by sea and by land, and they have to convert and conform to the layout or manner of all of them, because otherwise there would be no communication between buying and selling. This Mercury, in times of gentility, was held in great honor among those of Spain and France, in which lands he was well known; And Julius Caesar says that the French worshiped this Mercury and considered him to be the finder of many arts, and the lord and guide of the roads, and to have much power in the profits of merchandise. They painted it with a rooster on the ribbon, to denote that men of trade and business have to stay awake and sleep little, as these birds do. The third was the son of Jupiter the third and Maya, from whom Pan, god of shepherds, is said to have been born to Penelope.
The fourth was a son of the Nile River; This, according to Theodoncio, was a man of Egyptian nation, of great fame, that the Egyptians called him Theut and the Greeks Mercury Trismegistus or Trismagistus, as if it were said ter maximus, which means three times very great; he was a priest and a philosopher and a king. This name was attributed to him because he had the greatest excellence that can be affirmed of any man, since in grammar we do not find more than three degrees to denote the excellence of the thing, which are: positive, as in saying good; comparative, as if to say better; superlative, as if to say beautiful. And thus it is understood that this Mercury was so excellent that he could not be more excellent, which is why they called him Trismegistus, a name that they did not give to another. His excellence was in knowing wonderful inventions; He made some books, among which is named the book of Idolus, which he sent to Aesculapius, according to Theodontius. After his death he was considered a God, and anyone who called him by his name except Mercury, which was the name of God, was considered a blasphemer, because by saying his name proper to him, he would not seem to have been a mortal man. . They call him the son of Nile, because the poets give the rivers deity and personality, and because the river as water could not engender; and by saying he was the son of Nile, they understood he was the son of the god who lived in the water of the Nile River. And by saying this the Greeks meant to praise two things: Trismegistus for being the son of Nile, and Nile for having such a wise son. This, Lactantius says, was the fifth in order of the Mercurys. The fifth was the son of Mercury, the son of the Nile, who killed the shepherd Argos, whose story is touched upon when dealing with I or Ysis; For this reason, he was governor of the Egyptians, and showed them the letters and established laws by which they lived. All of these had this name of Mercury for a planet so called, because this planet influences men's desire to know what they knew, to honor them for their excellences with the name of God, as the stars and planets had to be. And it is to be known that the poets do not keep this order, but thus they speak of Mercury as if there had only been one, and they attribute the things that belong to all to only one.
They paint Mercury with wings or heels at his feet; They called him a trotter, a runner, a young man, a beardless man, a farmer, a messenger of the gods. Cyllenius received from Apollo the caduceus or staff with snakes around it; They said they were god or master of thieves and evildoers. They sometimes understood by Mercury the reason for our soul; others the wisdom of the divine will. He spoke with Plato and Iupiter, took the souls back and forth to hell, and other times returned them to the bodies. He took away dreams; They attributed the instrument called syrinx to him; he was the inventor of the zither; paint him as a stork; They dedicated some columns to him where he gave answers.
Give Mercury wings or heels to his feet, as Vergil says, where it begins: Tunc sic Mercurium alloquitur. Because the poets called him messengers of the gods, and the messengers must be light and diligent, or because they considered him the god of businessmen, and these should have light feet as if they had wings, or because they understood the word through Mercury, according to Saint Isidro, and it leaves very quickly, and once it leaves, it flies in such a way that we will no longer be able to reach it to take it, or because Mercury is a planet so called that is in the second heaven, that there is no other more move quickly, the moon risen. Some say that they gave him wings by declaring the alacrity and vigilance with which we must put into execution what we would have maturely thought and determined to do. Because of this brevity with which he moves, they call him a trotter or runner; and because running and walking quickly is not for old people, but for young people, they call him a young man; and because the young men do not have beards, they call him beardless; or because Mercury denotes, according to astrologers, wisdom, and wisdom is what manifests things openly and leaves them unconcealed, they call it unburdened; or they paint him beardless, to show discovery, as the beard is a covering for the face, and this was because of the manifestation of the answers he gave, because some of the Gentile gods responded very obscurely, such as Themis and Apollo, but Mercury responded openly, and where these answers were given were the columns that say of Mercury, office of errors, where fake gods and superstitions were forged.
They call him a farmer, because he who has knowledge speaks a lot by showing, and because from the cunning and delicate wit, as Mercury pretends to have, the copy of speech is born, as from an abundant source, they believed that Mercury was the god of eloquence; and to declare the power of eloquence or prayer and wisdom that they attributed to Mercury, they said he was a messenger of the gods; and because the ambassadors must be prudent, this is denoted by the snakes of the caduceus that they give to Mercury; or the snakes denote[n] the symbol of harmony that is followed through embassies.
They call him Cyllenio, because he is the god of eloquence and wisdom, and this wisdom works all things without hands, and those who lack hands are called in Greek cylloe; Others say that Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia, where he was born, was named after that. And because wisdom and cunning can greatly harm others, this is why they said they were god or master of thieves and deceivers; or because those born in the ascendant of Mercury, according to astrologers, are inclined to theft and deceit and cunning; And since the ancients looked at the changes of things that were born and died, and thought that this was not done without the will of the gods, they called this divine will and force, which brought things to birth or death, Mercury; so that sometimes Mercury is called the reason of our soul; others the reason and wisdom of the divine will, from which our soul came. And these things were attributed to Mercury, because he was the first to say that the world was created by God, and that this great wonder of diverse things could not be governed without divine providence, and he who instituted among men the cult of the gods and declared that without the will of God no birth or death could take place; For these reasons and for having brought the knowledge of divine things, he was believed to be a messenger of the gods. And because he taught that being born and dying was done divinely, it is said that he spoke with Pluto and Iupiter, and declared to men the secret of the laws of dying and living, for which reason they thought that he was a guide to the souls of the dead. , sometimes taking them to hell and other times returning them to the bodies, and taking away dreams; and for this they attributed to him the staff that they say had a snake or two wrapped around it, which belonged to Apollo. This rod denotes the virtue and wisdom of medicine; and because Apollo was the first to find medicine or the one who invented it, according to Saint Isidro, and because Mercury, after him, was learned in it, this is why Apollo is said to have given this rod to Mercury, because the knowledge that one reaches It is attributed to God, and to the teacher secondarily, as his instrument. The snake that this rod had denotes the prudence that doctors must have, which if lacking, kills like the bite of a poisonous snake, and because through medicine the sick are saved from death, when their end has not come. And because the Gentiles believed that those who died all went to hell, for this reason, those who were healed by medicine said that Mercury took them out of hell or returned them to their bodies. In what he says that he removed dreams, the doctor with his medicine can remove the materials that cause daydreams and dreams, and vice versa; or because those who die seem to be like those who sleep, removing sleep means that curing them frees them from death, or because death is compared to sleep.
They attribute to him the instrument called syrinx; This instrument is said by some to be composed of reeds bound with wax, and the shepherds call it alborgues, which Ovid wants to denote, claiming to be made of the gray hair into which the nymph Syringa was transformed. Others say that the syringa is an instrument similar to a lute or vihuela, and that it must be an instrument that receives air, and that on top has extended strings, which with art when played make a pleasant consonance. And the invention of this instrument was the tortoiseshell, which, left above the earth after death and dried, the thin stretched nerves, wounded by the wind, made sound, which Mercury seeing, thought to make such an instrument, and did so; It was first called lyre, because lirin in Greek means diversity, and this is because of the diversity of the voices, and thus it was said that he invented the lyre.
They paint Mercury in the shape of a stork, because just as the stork cleans the earth of bad and harmful vermin, so Mercury, who is the father of eloquence, with good speech removes enmities, quarrels and other things that usually worry men.
Of Hermaphroditus, son of Mercury and Venus
The poets say that the Mercury who was called Hermes had carnal intercourse with his sister Venus, and that Hermaphroditus or Carnaphroditus was born from him, which means a man who has both sexes, male and female; This name is composed of Hermes and Aphrodite, which are names of the father and mother, because Venus was first called Aphrodite, which means foam of the sea, according to what she affirms when speaking with Neptune, as Ovid relates in four verses that begin: Mercury, etc
They claimed to be Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes, not because that was true, but because Hermes was the first to show the Egyptians by reason that such conceptions were natural, because before Hermes they had that such births were not naturally generated, more than once. monstrous or of various species, for which reason, when these were born, they were thrown away as a bad thing and were not raised; and because later, by the persuasion of Hermes, they raised them, for this reason they said they were the son of Hermes. Venus means all natural council to generate, and because it is understood that hermaphrodites are not by way of monstrosity, as those people first thought, but of natural council of male and female conceived, for this reason they say that Hermes had Hermaphroditus in his sister Venus. It says sister to imply that hermaphrodites are engendered by individuals of the same species, because they could understand that a woman coupled with a male conceived a female or male, and when coupled with some animal of a different nature, she conceived a hermaphrodite. To explain this, Hermes showed them that in the woman's womb there were seven breasts or chambers, three on the left side and three on the right, and one in the middle of them; When the virile matter is received in any of the three places of the right hand, the male is generated, and when in those of the left, the female is generated; and when in the middle, it says to be communicative in both natures, called hermaphrodites, which means male and female.
Of Trochus or Androgyne, and of the nymph Salmacis
The same thing that has been said in the previous article Ovid wanted to declare with another example, to cover up the fable of Trochus or Androgyne, of whom he says: that being loved by Salmacis one of the nymphs Naiades, deessa of the so-called fountain, of its same name, Salmacis, when Trochus, not suspecting anything, entered naked into the water of the fountain to bathe, the nymph, who first with great urgency of love had requested him, and he, secretly rejecting her, out of snares, She took him into the fountain by force, wanting to attract him to the fulfillment of her love, in which, as their desires were contrary, as much as Trochus worked to escape, so much did Salmacis the nymph strive to reach him; and since neither he could free himself from it, nor she could force him to fulfill her love, by the will of the gods they were both made into one body, in which the signs of both remained, although the body was only one, so They prayed to the gods that anyone who would enter that fountain ahead would enter just as they turned, which request was granted.
The significance of this is that by the source Salmacis is understood the middle place among the six aforementioned, and when the virile seed descends in that place, and from the female, since the virtue is not determined for male or female, it is linked a combat of the seminal parts, denoted by the nymph Salmacis and by Trochus, the masculine wanting to attract the feminine to itself, and the other; and in the end, not being able to overcome the other, something is done that both virtues seem like, marking in a single body the vessel of a woman and a man, and thus the request that Trochus and the nymph asked of the gods is fulfilled, that all those who entered that fountain, such as they turned.
Alberic wants the hermaphrodite begotten of Mercury and Venus to be the man who speaks lascivious words without reason; This one, having to be male, due to the delicacy of such words seems female. In this regard, Saint Isidro says that Mercury means the word, and that when the word is more than it should and said without the need and weight of a sentence, the one who says it is called hermaphrodite, because he is not entirely male, but has part of female; because the word spoken, when it suits its gravity, has the firmness of a man, and if this is not the case, it ceases to be a man and begins to be a woman, because women use language and chatter not only to entertain themselves, but even to defend themselves.
Astrologers believe that the reason why Mercury is said to have begotten Hermaphroditus is because among the other planets it is masculine with males and feminine with females, which is why those who consider it ascendant at birth, without opposition from another planet are very covetous of the delight of both sexes. To be a masculine planet is to have strength or virtue as a man; and to be feminine is to have little strength or virtue, like a female.
From Mars
Mars, according to Hesiod, was the son of Iupiter and Iuno, and according to Ovid of Iuno, begotten without a father, of whose birth he relates that the goddess Iuno, seeing that her husband Iupiter, without a woman, had shaken her head and had begotten to the goddess Pallas, she decided to go to the Ocean, the father that the poets say is of the gods, to complain about her husband Jupiter and to ask him how she could also give birth without a man; And as she grew tired of the journey, she sat at the door of the goddess Flora, woman of the wind Zephyr, who, asking her the cause of her journey, as her beloved, told him what she was going for. Then Flora, promising that she would give him the ability to achieve what she asked for, if he made sure that Iupiter would not discover her at her command, Iuno, very happy, swore by the Stygia lagoon to keep her secret. Flora then declared to him that she had in her garden an herb that had been sent to her from the Olenean fields of Greece, of such virtue that if she touched it she would later conceive without a man. Iuno experienced this, and found it to be true, and gave birth to Mars, god of wars. Mars had a woman called Thero as his mistress, and although the poets do not give him a wife, they wanted him to have many children and to be very much in love; Among other friends he loved Venus, according to Homer, whom Vulcan arrested and found in adultery. Give him a chariot to ride in, and Bellona, his sister, as guide or charioteer of his chariot; The horses that bring him are called Terror and Dread. They dedicate to him the wolf from the animals, and the beak from the birds, and the grass from the herbs.
Many ancients did not want Mars to be the son of Jupiter because he did not seem to degenerate, because Jupiter was benign and meek, and Mars, on the contrary, was bad and cruel.
That Iuno decided to go to Ocean to ask for advice on how he could engender without a male, as Iupiter did without copulating with a female, is because by the Ocean they understood water, and by water the matter of the generation of things. That Flora should advise her what she should do, for this Flora the ancients wanted to declare the menstruation that women suffer once every month, in order to conceal the filth of this mood with the beauty of the word. To say that this flower, which is commonly called shirt or ruler, was born in the Olenian fields is either because olisse means stench, or because this blood comes from a stinking place. Flora asking Iuno not to let Iúpiter know is that this illness or passion is hidden by women with great secrecy, so that their husbands do not see it or understand it. And to say that Mars was born from only Iuno is because they pretend that from this menstruation (which only women among animals suffer from) Mars was born, because the works of Mars agree with the effects of this blood, of which we deal in another work, where we said that if the woman, while doing this work, steps on the crops and vegetables and other legumes, such as melons, cucumbers, eggplants, cucumbers, they will not grow; and if some are born, they are bitter; If blood falls on a tree, it dries up to the roots, which never sprout; If a dog eats it, it rabies. Mars, god of wars, has all these effects, because in this exercise they shed blood, destroy crops where the field passes, and the herbs on which blood is shed are lost, they destroy trees, even the fortresses turn to dust, and die of the opposites rage; and for this they make Mars the son of only Iuno.
For another reason, Mars is the son of only Iuno, because among other meanings that Iuno has, one is to be that of kingdoms and riches, for which things arise jealousy and the questions and wars understood by Mars, and for this reason they make him god, and very brave, of war, and son of only Iuno. Others say Mars is the god of wars and battles, because one of this name was the first who found the industry of arming men and the first who ordered squadrons and showed many uses of war; Mars said to himself, moreover, maris, which means man, because wars were ordered and followed by men.
To say that Thero raised him, which denotes bravery, is to denote the condition of Mars, because that is what those who follow war are.
They don't give Mars a wife, because she is an embarrassing burden for soldiers.
Give him many children to declare that many people are needed in war.
Saying that he was in love and the adultery of Venus means the execution of lust, which is very close to men of this way of life, more than to those of other exercises. And for this reason the poets put Venus and Mars together, because men of war are very passionate about this vice and have little chastity, and this opinion is Aristotle's.
That Mars, being the strongest of all the gods and the most powerful and light, was imprisoned by Vulcan in a net, while Vulcan was lame and weak, and lazy, this, morally speaking, means that vicious men who live badly and act worse, in no strength or speed of trusting feet, will they be able to avoid the punishment of God's wrath. Vulcan seizes Mars with a subtle network: Vulcan denotes the heat or libidinous ignition, from which a network of thoughts is made that entangles every cowardly and vicious male, who will not come out of it until Neptune prays for him. That is, until he catches a cold, as is water by Neptune signified, or with consideration of the offense of God. According to natural sense, Mars, destroyer of things, coming together with Venus, which produces light in all things and plants, and finding them Vulcan in crime, denotes that the strife and friendship understood by Mars and Venus being together, usually oppresses Vulcan. , by whom we understand excessive heat, which overcomes and prevents the principles from using their forces, so that there is no commensurability that is necessary for the generation of natural things.
By this fable the ancients wanted to declare the generation of animals to consist of commensurate qualities of the elements, because by Mars (as has been said) contrariety or agent is denoted, and by Venus the friendship or generative matter, and by Vulcan the heat. or disproportionate or excessive quality, because nothing is generated from a single quality of element or from similar ones, but from many moderately and proportionately mixed together.
Give him a car to ride in because in the old days they used cars a lot in wars.
Claim to be Bellona her sister and guide the chariot, as Vergil says, where he begins: Quam cum sanguineo sequitur Bellona flagello. She claims to be her sister because this goddess is very cruel and fond of shedding blood, like Mars. She says she guides the chariot or is her charioteer because Bellona means putting the war into execution and starting the battle, and shedding the blood of those who die in the war. The horses that carry this chariot are called Terror and Dread, which means terror and fear, things that are in the soldiers, who although they scare, when attacking they are afraid of being defeated.
They dedicate the wolf to Mars, according to Vergil, where they begin: Quaesitum aut matri, etc. It is because it is a very predatory or predatory animal, very gluttonous and greedy, to denote the conditions of some soldiers, who go more to emit this animal than to exalt their faith and serve their king and their country.
They dedicate their beak to it, because just as this bird pierces the oaks and depopulates the beehives, so some soldiers, penetrating the walls of the cities, depopulate the houses of what their owners have.
They dedicated the grass to it because the ancients were of the opinion, according to what Alberic says, from Pliny's sentence, that this grass was born from human blood; and as Mars caused it to be poured, they gave him the fruit that was born from it; But this opinion is a matter of ridicule, because grass grows like other herbs; It seems to me that this dedication is made to Mars, because in the same way that where this herb grows it attracts to itself the substance of the earth, so the victorious warriors attract to themselves the substance of the defeated; And since this is enough about Mars, let's move on to discuss Cupid, his son.
From Cupid
Tullius mentions three Cupids: the first was the son of Mercury and the first Diana. The second was the son of Mercury and the second Venus. The third was the son of the third Venus and Mars; and according to Seneca, of the third Venus and Vulcan; and although Simonides says that he was born of Venus alone, without a father, he is commonly said to be the son of Venus and Mars or of Vulcan, because this fits better what the poets pretend about Cupid, to whom the Gentiles gave power to move, not only men, but even the gods, to love, according to Seneca, where it begins: Diva non miti. And not only could he move to love, but even to unlove, as Ovid writes, where he introduces Cupid, son of Venus, who wounded Apollo with a golden arrow, whose power was to make him love; and he wounded Daphne with a lead-tipped arrow, the virtue of which was to undo her, as we said when dealing with Apollo. They paint him as a young man or child, beardless, naked, with wings, wearing a quiver of arrows and a bow, and having burning axes, and with hearts hanging from the ribbon; his eyes covered with a bandage that deprives him of sight. Give him feet like a griffin and big nails, and they pretend to have argued with Apollo about archery. Give him seniority above all the gods.
The first thing they attribute to Cupid is being a young man or child; That is what Seneca called him, where he says: Iste puer lascivus. And again he says right here: Haec regna tenet puer, etc. Where he speaks of Cupid and called him a fresh child or a fierce child, the reason is because of the significance. Children are foolish, because according to their age there can be no fulfillment of knowledge. Love like this is foolish, because the men in whom it settles, although they themselves are wise and prudent, it makes them commit great errors, as if they were completely foolish. And Saint Isidro says: Puer pingitur Cupid. It means that Cupid is painted as a boy and a young man, because love is crazy and without reason, or because he is the god of love, and all lovers are not very sane and of little peace and changeable, just like children, or because love is generated a lot in young people.
Paint him naked, because love cannot be hidden.
They paint him with wings for two things. The first, to make credible what the poets affirm; They say that Cupid throughout the world strikes all men with arrows and with ardor, and all those who love are inflamed by him; However, Cupid could not do this if he did not fly very fast, because in all places he could do this. This is how Seneca puts it, where he says
Natum per omniis celere terras.
Vagum Hericina mittit, ille volans per coelum:
Protect fabric molitur manu.
Born through all the swift lands.
He sends a wandering Hericinus, flying through the sky:
Protect the fabric by hand.
She means: Venus, called Hericina, sends her son to wander the world, and he, flying through the sky, sends very rich arrows with a tender hand.
The second reason is because of the meaning: Cupid means love, which makes men more unstable than any other passion; and as wings are instruments to suddenly fly from one place to another, so love makes the lover of little peace and much movement; Suddenly they believe and do not believe, always being hung on a thought and possessed by fear, as Ovid says: Res est soliciti plena timoris amor. He means: love is a thing full of fear and suspicion.
They paint him with a quiver and a bow and arrows, for the significance. Cupid, which is love or carnal desire, makes wounds in the heart, because the one he loves is no longer healthy in his thoughts and desires, as he wishes that the death of virtue and honesty would bring. Furthermore, love is called a wound, because just as a wound brings pain, which takes away the rest of the body, so love brings so much care that it leaves no physical or spiritual rest in the lover, but is always full of suspicions.
These arrows with which Cupid struck were not all of one type, but some had points or irons of gold, others of lead. This is because the Gentiles and poets gave Cupid the power to move people to love and to unlove, and for both things he had arrows. It was the cause, because both love and lack of love are wounds and are inflicted with some weapon, and as they put arrows to wound the heart to love, so they put arrows to hurt it to unlove it; and as love is a passion that does not let the lover rest, so heartbreak is a passion that afflicts the one who has it to flee from what he does not love, and both passions are in the same part of the soul, since as the soul is meant by the heart, a weapon is necessary that penetrates, and so for both things they gave Cupid arrows; That the points of the arrows for loving are made of gold, and those for unloving are made of lead, is the reason: gold is the best of metals; Lead is of little value, to denote that love is better than lack of love, as love is convenient for the conservation of nature, and lack of love is a hindrance to this conservation; and for this it must have meant the love for gold and the lack of love for lead; of the burning axes, says Seneca:
Quam vocat matrem geminus Cupid.
Impotens flammis simul, et sagittis.
What the twin Cupid calls his mother.
Impotent at the same time with flames and arrows.
He means: Cupid calls Venus mother; This Cupid is very powerful in arrows and the fiery axe. Item, Seneca himself says:
Volucrem esse amorem fingit inuictum Deum,
Mortalis error, armat, et telis manus:
Arcusque sacros instruit faeva face, etc.
He pretends to be a flying love, an invincible God,
Deadly error, arms, and armed hands:
And he instructs the sacred bows with the fava flag, etc.
He means: the error of men pretended to love to be a flying and fierce or harsh god. He gave him arrows in his hands and a burning ax in his sacral limbs. The poets say this because of the meaning, because just as they gave Cupid arrows, signifying that his heart was burning, so they gave him a burning axe, signifying that he burns the heart. And we will say that although Cupid can do both, wounding and burning with an axe, it is more appropriate for him to burn with the ax than to wound with the arrow. And although love, according to the truth, is neither an arrow wound nor an ax burn, by metaphor one and the other are said; However, the reason for the metaphor applies more to burning, because love is a great care, and all cares are hot and burning; and for this care they say in Latin: Cura, quasi cor urens, which means something that ignites the heart. Thus said the Apostle on this subject: Melius est cloudre, quam uri. He wants to say: it is better to marry than to burn; He calls burning the pain that comes from suffering libidinous desires.
Having many hearts hanging on the ribbon was to signify that lovers have no power in their hearts, but Cupid has them; Where he goes, there he takes them; This is done because desire or love is a very strong passion, and all such passions have the capacity to take the one they possess outside of themselves, not leaving them in control of themselves. And since love is the greatest of these passions, it forces man greatly, forsaking him from himself and making him neither willing nor unwilling, but only that which he wants or does not want to which desire moves him, which is Cupid, and so Cupid. owns his heart and not him; Therefore Hugo de Santo Victore says: Anima verius est, ubi amat quam ubi animat. The soul is more truly where it loves than where it gives being; and just as love is said to be in the heart and the thing loved is outside the lover, the heart of the lover will be more truly outside of him than in him. And as Cupid moves him, he will have it; Putting many hearts on it is to denote that there are many lovers. Not only did they say that Cupid had the hearts of lovers, but even that he carried them hanging from the ribbon; This was because it meant two things, which are: pain and danger; The penalty means how much they are hanging, because everything that is hanging is in pain; This is convenient for lovers, because while they do not achieve their desire they live in anxiety and afflicted thought; and if they achieve it, they live in suspicion of losing what they have achieved.
The second is danger; The hanging thing is not firm, as it moves and is not fixed, and thus it can fall. Such are the lovers, whose life is in many dangers of being lost, as one reads in various stories, that many for loving crudely ended their days, as Francisco Barbarino, poet, says. Cupid brings a cloth blindfold before his eyes; This is to mean that Cupid does not see. The understanding is the eye, according to Aristotle, in which is the reason; For this reason, those who use reason say that they see; Those who do not use it, we say that they do not see, even though they have eyes. Such are the lovers, who although they have eyes, do not see, and thus it can be said that their eyes are covered or that they are blind. This is general in all strong passions that disturb reason and it cannot judge what is appropriate, just as Cato said: Ira impedit animum ne possit cernere verum. That is, anger prevents the heart from looking at the truth. Or they paint him blind, because of the clumsiness that is committed by the lustful, and because they do not see what the divine counsels advise them.
Giving Cupid the feet of a griffin is to imply that Cupid is something feigned, to mean something, because if it were a real thing, since he had a human figure, he had the feet of a man; but since it was fiction, they give it the feet of a griffin and other members, as appropriate, to signify the strength of love. The griffin is part bird and part beast, very large and strong, and has great prey and claws, and it has so firm what it snatches that it cannot escape if taken in hand, from which the authors affirm that it is the enemy of the horse, and to seize the horse, he sometimes grabs the man on it and lifts him into the air. By this force of grasping and holding they give Cupid the feet of a griffin, because love so strongly grasps and holds the one who once possesses that it will not be possible to separate it without great difficulty; and for this very reason they say they have nails.
The archery contest between Apollo and Cupid is nothing other than what is useful and delighting in the world; The rays of the Sun, which are understood as arrows, are very useful for the production of the earth and the fruits, and those of Cupid, although they seem very gentle, poison and kill.
They said that Cupid was the son of Venus and Vulcan, as Seneca writes, because from delight, understood by Venus, greed and desire are born, and it cannot be born in any other way. They claimed to be the son of Vulcan because Vulcan was called the husband of Venus by the ancients as the god of fire, according to Saint Isidro, and this desire does not arise without heat, and all heat is attributed to Vulcan; and so it is right that Cupid is the son of Vulcan; and for this same reason they said that Venus was the wife of Vulcan, because venereal works are not done without heat, belonging to Vulcan; and for this reason Vergil said, the old man is cold towards the things of Venus, implying that coldness spoils the things of Venus, and heat gives them help.
Tulio claims to be Cupid of Venus and Mars; This is also appropriate, since Mars committed adultery with Venus, according to Ovid, and a child could be born from there.
The other by significance, regarding the property of Mars, is Mars planet, according to astrologers, of intemperate heat, and because the desire of carnal councils is born from heat, they said that Cupid was born from Venus and Mars, or because if in the nativity If Mars is in one of the houses of Venus, which are Taurus and Libra, the one born then will be very lustful and inclined to all forms of lust.
These two parents give different to Cupid to declare for them two different loves: one is honest carnal love, which can justly be executed; another is dishonest, which cannot, without foulness and sin, be satisfied. The first is meant by Cupid, son of Venus and Vulcan, since it is pretended to have been born of a legitimate marriage, understood by this as matrimonial councils. The second is meant by Cupid, son of Venus and Mars, who was born from an adulterous and illicit council and against the law. This is why Ovid said that Venus was the mother of the two loves or Cupids; and in this way Seneca and Tullius would not disagree, for one speaks of Cupid the son of Vulcan, and the other of Cupid the son of Mars.
Simenides saying that Cupid was born from Venus alone, without a father, is the reason that since by Venus we understand carnal delight, and by Cupid the desire for this delight, from Venus thinking about desire, delight is born, which is Cupid.
In saying that Cupid was the oldest of all the gods, it seems that they meant what Empedocles felt, that friendship and hatred separated things from each other, that they were first confused among themselves, in a way that they cannot in themselves, without This love and hate, engender no great thing.
He continues the matter of Cupid, and says what the ancients understood by Cupid
By Cupid all those who spoke of him understood nothing else, except a desire that is born in us to enjoy carnal delights, with those figures that were judged beautiful in our thoughts. This desire in all the animals in which generation is done by council gave nature a strong ardor, which harshly moves the acts of engendering, so that the animals cannot depart from them, and thus the species or nature does not perish; However, this ardor is not the same in all animals, but in some it is greater than in others, according to the diverse condition of their natures; and thus, Vergil believed that this furious ardor was greater in the mares than in all animals; and from this he concluded that they alone could conceive of wind. And so it seems that in the brute animals for venereal works there is no other reason except the natural inclination, whereby even if there were some Cupid god, as the poets pretended, it would be that one for single men, but not for the brute animals, for whose movement supplies nature alone. In imperfect animals, whose generation is not by council, because there is no distinction between them between masculine and feminine, which is only distinguished from the perfect ones, they are generated from corruptions of rotten things alone. In men, we will say that the desire for councils does not come from Cupid or Venus, as there are no such gods; but they can come in three ways: either from nature, or from vice, or from diabolical temptation. The first is proven by the fact that man is of an animal nature like all other animals, and what is perfection in them suits him more fully than it does the other animals; And if to the others, for the sake of preserving the species, God, founder of nature, gave that ardent desire for venereal acts, it was all the more necessary for this to be in men, as their species is more noble and more worthy of being preserved. ; This proves Seneca, where he begins: Hanc esse vitae maximan causam reor, per quam voluptas oritur, interitu caret cum procreetur semper humanum genus amore grato, qui semper mulcet feras. It means, love is the greatest cause of preserving life, through which delight is born, and nature never perishes, as the human lineage of this gracious love is always bred, which softens the desire of wild beasts.
The second way is vice, and this is engendered in youth, and is raised by idleness, which makes the careless fall into the disease of disordered love; and if idleness itself motivates such venereal desires, much more will it do so, feeding itself with abundance and excess of goods, as Seneca touches: Vis magna mentis blandus atque cum calor amor est inventa gignitur luxu, leisure nutritur inter laeta fortunee bona. He wants to say: Love is a strength of the heart and is great warmth in the youth generated. He grows up in abundance and idleness among the joyful goods of fortune, because he who can do much wants in fact what he cannot by right. This vicious love does not enter into the poor, with whom idleness does not dwell, because in seeking the needs of things, they do not have vicious love, only that which is natural and ordered; This is what Seneca says, where he begins: Vana ista demens animus, etc.
The third is the diabolical temptation, because the devil, who moves all other evils, incites and inclines man to this one, because it is evil and many other evils come from it, from which Holy Scripture says there is a demon, to which it mainly belongs. tempting carnal sin, which is called Asmodeus, according to what is written in the book of Thobia; It was this man who killed the men who took Sarra, Raguel's daughter, as their wife.
The ancient poets did not know anything about this, because they did not set up demons to tempt men, to lead them to sin, as all these, on the contrary, they call gods; However, Saint Isidro says: Est enim Cupido demon fornicationis. He means: That Cupid whom the Gentiles call god is the demon of fornication, and thus there will be a demon who tempts men with this sin, and when by his impulse men sin, they may be said to be wounded and inflamed by Cupid. This is what the Gentiles called Cupid, and he is neither god nor anything; But some vicious Gentiles pretended it to excuse their bad desires and clumsy acts and illicit loves, affirming that this God moved and constrained them to it, as if it were in their power to repress him, if he wanted to hurt them with his arrow, which Seneca declares, where it begins: O magna vasti. Where Phaedra, the one who loves Hypolitus, introduces herself to speak with her mistress, saying that she could not stop loving, because Cupid, a powerful God, compelled her, to whom the mistress contradicts, telling her that there is no god called Cupid who such have strength, but men faked it to enjoy their clumsy desires.
From Bacho
Bacho, according to Ovid and other poets, was the son of Iupiter and Semele, of whose birth it is said that Iupiter loved Semele, daughter of Cadmus, and became pregnant by her, Iuno, who greatly hated the girls under his command Iupiter, went to look for her. , changing into the form of old Veroe, Semele's mistress; and talking to her about various things, he asked her if Jupiter loved her and loved her well. To whom Semele replied that she believed she did. Iuno replied: Look, daughter, it could not be Jupiter, because many men deceive some women, coming disguised in the figures of the gods; But you have known him, in that he promises you with an oath that, coming to be with you, he will embrace you with that majesty and garrisons with which he embraces Iuno, wanting to sleep with her. Semele, eager to make an experience, begs Iupiter (first making him swear by the Stygia) to grant her a gift, as Ovid says in the alleged place, where it begins: Rogat illa Iovem sine nomine munus, that he embrace her with the garrisons with which he used to hug Iuno. When Iupiter heard this, it weighed on his soul, because he had sworn to fulfill what he had promised, and since he could not break his oath, he went up to heaven very sad, and brought the clouds and thunder and lightning, because that was how Iuno was reached. , and with this he immediately descended; and entering the house of Semele, and she being unable to bear the rays of Iupiter, he was burned; And so that the child with whom she was pregnant would not perish, Iupiter took it out of the womb, and since it had not yet completed the time that they usually spend before giving birth, he ingested it in his thigh, where it would remain until the time that was given was fulfilled. requires a creature to be in the mother's womb. Once the child was born, she gave him to her aunt Yno to raise, who, not daring to have him for fear of Iuno, gave him to the nymphs of Nifa, and even among them, as one day the suspicious stepmother Iuno searched for the child, the nymphs, above all. In the cradle, they put ivy branches, with which, deceived, she stopped looking for him, so the ivy later always took Bacho for her tree. Some say that he was begotten of fire and born of two mothers and raised by Silenus. Others said that Bacho was the son of Jupiter and Proserpine, in the house of which he slept for three years. Others make him the son of Iupiter and Ceres, and that he had been torn to pieces by the sons of the earth and cooked, but that Ceres reunited his members and he lived again as a young man. They sometimes paint him with a very severe figure, with a long beard; others with the cheerful face of a young man and without a beard; others with a long owner's habit; other times naked and crowned with vine branches, with bull's horns, with a sickle in his hand; and they say that when he moved to the vineyard, he enjoyed the daughter of Icarus. Give him a car to ride in, which they want tigers, or panthers, and bears or wolves to carry; They consecrate the ivy to him: they dedicate the goat or goat and the lynx and the sting; They make him the father of oblivion and the discoverer of truth. Give him the invention of the crosier or staff that the old people bring, according to Rabano. They paint some unsteady steps between Bacho and his companions; They say they are fearful Bacho; They name him with vain names, as well as Bacho Bromio, Lieo, Lineo, Nictileo, Ignigena, Nato, Euhan, Reformer of the grapes, Dionysius, Nyseo, Father Eleo or Father Liber, Hiaco. Alberic and Ausonius give him other names, as well as Briseo, Basareo.
Bacho, according to historical sense, was the son of the second Iúpiter and a captain of such great value that he was considered God for the great feats he did, such as calming discord and building cities. As Archos, coming into Greece, he conquered all India with battle, he was king of Thebes; He gave laws to men, as Oratius says, in four verses that begin: Romulus, et liber pater. And although in this he was not so esteemed, as for having been the first (according to Saint Augustine) who planted vineyards and invented wine and mixed it with various liquors so that it would be more pleasant and tasty to drink, from which the poets took their origin to understand wine through Bacho. Regarding this invention of wine, it is worth knowing that there have been vines since the beginning of the world, like other trees; but they did not know how to make wine: they only used grapes to eat, and this lasted one thousand and six hundred and fifty-six years; of the first age of the century, that men drank no wine nor ate meat. Noah, at the beginning of the second age, began to make wine, and the people began to eat meat, as it is read in Genesis: Tanquam olera virentia tradidi vobis cuncta proprer hoc, quos carnem sanguine non comedatis. He means: I give you permission to eat all the things you want, just as you freely eat herbs and fruits, leaving only this: that you do not eat meat with blood. This meant that they did not eat any animal while it was alive, or that they did not eat meat that had not been bled, because eating it with blood seemed cruelty and beastly; But since Bacho was later the first to invent wine in his land, the ancients wanted to attribute to him the cultivation of vineyards, and the making of wine, and to show the properties, damages, and benefits that follow from wine, using it disorderly. in moderation, as we will declare in all the following articles, in which everything that is pretended about Bacho will be said.
How Bacho is the son of Iúpiter and Semele
Semele becomes pregnant with Jupiter when the vine, represented by Semele, in the spring swells with the heat of the Sun and becomes pregnant with Bacho; and then it is struck by lightning in the greatest heat of the summer, when due to the great force of the Sun its fruit begins to sprout. Bacho pretends to be the son of Semele, because wine is the son of the vine, because Semele was called from siintameli, which means to shake the limbs, or because this tree has its limbs, which are the branches, more mobile than other trees. , and that they are easily moved by the air.
He was also called the son of Jupiter because wine has a natural heat drawn from nature itself, and the vine cannot grow except in hot places or at least where there is moderate heat. It is pretended to have been born from the ashes of burned Semele, because it is the nature of the ash to have the heat locked within itself, and I don't know how thick it is that it benefits the vines a lot.
It says what is meant by majesty, or garrisons with which Iupiter embraced Iuno
The gift that Semele asked for Iupiter means that we asking God for favors without knowing what we ask for, most of the time we come to ask for things that are harmful and deadly to us, as if convinced of our insatiable greed, which is our master.
That Iupiter could not break the oath is the cause where the Stygian lagoon is concerned. That Jupiter summoned clouds, and caused lightning and thunder, when he embraced Iuno, which was what Semele asked for, and this was called garrisons or majesty. The ancients wanted to declare with this how from the hot exhalations, which rise from the earth and water, arriving at the middle region of the air, lightning is generated and from it thunder and lightning; and because Iupiter denotes heat however it may be, and Venus means air, this is why Iupiter was said to wear these ornaments when he embraced Iuno. The rest that the fable says about this that we do not declare here serves only as ornament.
How Semele was killed by lightning or fire
That Semele died from lightning or fire can be understood, according to historical sense, as having died from some kind of fever, which is enough fire to end a man's life, as from lightning. Iupiter bears the child on his thigh, it is worth knowing, the daytime heat, so that as (from the father the grape receives the ripening, which it has not been able to receive from the mother, who is the vine, or because the vine is very friendly from the heat and cannot live or bear fruit without it, which is why in the harsh winters many vines perish; and this provides the heat understood by Jupiter; or because Bacho was raised in a cave on Mount Neros, which is near Nysa, city of Indies, which mountain was consecrated to Iúpiter; for this reason they said that Iúpiter had grown pregnant in his thigh. Give him to Yno to raise: by Yno is understood the jar or glass in which the wine is preserved and covered, for fear of Iuno, which is the air with which it is usually corrupted. Or to keep Yno the child secretly is to have the grapes from which it is made covered with the branches and leaves, so that they will not be offended by the superb air, which is Iuno, or by the too much Sun. The nymphs then raise it when the clusters are restored with the humidity of the night, that which had become too warm due to the great heat of the day. Or to say that the nymphs raised him, receiving him from the ashes of his mother, is that the vine is the most humid of all trees, whose fruit, if it receives moderate water, becomes healthier and grows more.
The nymphs cover the child while in the cradle, so that one who was looking for him would not see him; by the cradle we mean the glass, and by Ione the corrupted air; Covering it with ivy is that, according to the natives, the ivy being on the jars preserves the wine so that the corrupt air does not damage it when it is made, or the coldness of the ivy prevents it from coming out and pouring out when the wine boils. To say that with this he did not seek more Iuno is that after the wine has been cooked, and the glass has been mudded, the air does not harm it, although with it it moves just by hitting the glass. That Bacho was generated from fire, because the grape ripens due to great heat or because the wine is usually cooked, because it is stored longer that way.
That Bacho is called vimatrem, which means two mothers, because they pretend that taken from his mother's womb he was in Iúpiter's thigh, until he completed the time that children need to be in the mother's womb to live, this It is because the wine placed in a glass as in its mother's womb needs to be racked at a certain time into another glass, removing it from the mother in which it was cooked.
Making Bacho the son of Iupiter and Proserpine is because the first principles of the vine are from the earth, understood by Proserpine, and this earth is as matter, and heat understood by Iupiter as an artificer. That Bacho slept for three years in Prosérpina's house is because before this time the vines that are planted are said to sleep, because they do not bear fruit because they grow roots at this time. Bacho being the son of Iúpiter and Ceres is the same as what was said to make him the son of Iúpiter and Proserpina, because by Ceres we mean the earth.
That the Giants cut Bacho to pieces, and buried him, and return Ceres to life, whole and young: This means the plantation, because from each branch that is cut buried under the ground, understood by Ceres, a vine is born again from which it engenders wine, which is Bacho. The children of the earth or Giants are the farmers; and according to historical sense, as Eusebius says, when Pandion reigned in Athens, in the year of the world 3896, Bacho, fighting against Perseus, was killed in battle. And Marcus Varro, a poet, says that his tomb is seen in Delphos, next to golden Apollo.
According to Diodoro, Bacho is painted in two ways: one with a very severe and cruel figure, with a long beard and the figure of an old man, with a bald head, without hair; and another with a happy and beautiful face, like a young man, without a beard. By the first, they understood that wine drunk excessively makes men terrible and angry, and because too much drinking attracts old age, for this reason they paint him as old, bald, because the wine, since it is humid, is so hot in virtue and power that dries and rinses very quickly. On the other hand, they denoted that drunk in moderation it is of great benefit and usefulness, because when used in moderation, doctors say that it consumes the excessive moisture of the delicacies in the stomach, as if drunk too much, with its excess heat it kills the humid radical and weakens the strength. , and makes the man weak and trembling. They make him a boy or a young man, because those who are very fond of wine are always careless, like children, or because as the child is ignorant, so the one loaded with wine is blameless in all his actions and sayings.
They paint him in a woman's habit, because too much drinking weakens and effeminates his strength, or because when Bacho went from Greece to India and other nations, disturbing them, he not only brought men into his squads, but also women, not so much because there was a need for them. for war, because there would always be vices and clumsiness before him; and for this reason they said that he brought satyrs in his company, vicious and lustful animals. And so Paulo Orosio said that Bacho filled the world with lust and bathed India in blood, because as those people were not given to war, the equipment that he brought to destroy made him the winner, with those who were fearlessly unnoticed. Paint him naked, because drinking too much heats you up so much that clothing is not necessary; or because whoever is touched reveals all things and has nothing hidden; and this is why the adage says: The truth is in the wine. Crown him with branches, because he was the first to plant vineyards in his land, and invented the use of wine and how to make it and benefit it. And because he showed pruning, they painted him with a sickle in his hand, and he was the first to wear a crown and the one who found triumph. They paint him with bull horns, because with too much drinking the great ones begin to become enraged and filled with fury like bulls, or because the ancients drank from glasses made of ox horns. Or because, according to Diodorus, Bacho showed how to harness oxen to cultivate the land.
Bacho, moved to the vineyard, enjoyed the daughter of Icarus. This means that wine drunk somewhat cheerfully has the power to put dishonest thoughts in chaste hearts. The wolves denote the virtue of wine, which, taken moderately, increases spirit and sight, and taken too much, makes man changeable, like his chariot. The tigers that pull the car denote the cruelties of drunks. The bears and griffins are the rages and madness about which the wine headdresses fiercely rise, because they are so careless that they would unrestrainedly throw themselves into any danger. They consecrate ivy to him, because with his coldness it is used against drunkenness, or because it is pretended that the nymphs hid Bacho with ivy, so that one would not see him. Or because just as ivy entangles everything it gets close to, so wine binds human understandings. Or because just as ivy is always green, so wine does not lose strength, like things that age, but the older it is, the more power and virtue it has, and this is why poets crown themselves with ivy, to denote the perpetuity of the verses. They sacrifice the bastard, because this animal is very fond of branches and damages the vines, or because just as wine is prepared for lust, so the bastard is one of the warmest animals there is and very lustful. And for this reason they painted Bacho drunk and lustful under the figure of a bastard. Bacho invented the staff, so that the losers of wine would have something to rely on, and thus Bacho was called a staff. They call the picaza a bird, a chattering bird, because that's what the drinker does, who by talking discovers the secrets that can harm him. They also said Bacho was the father of oblivion, because too much drinking damages memory and makes man rude and forgetful. And to declare this they dedicated the lynx to him, which, since it is an animal with very keen eyesight, is so forgetful that while grazing, if he turns his eyes somewhere, he forgets the grass in front of him and goes to look for other. Or dedicating forgetfulness to it is to imply that it is not advisable for men to remember those things that are done or said, while eating and drinking, while hot with wine, because they are not worth doing or remembering after they have been said, because between cups, as the understanding is moved and half disturbed, men often say that they have to do things beyond all reason, which, given that they are promised then, it is not good that they have memory to do them later. That is why the old proverb was said: I hate a guest who remembers.
The unsteady steps that are counted among Bacho's companions mean those various and diverse unsteady steps taken by those who have drunk too much.
Those who give themselves to wine are also fearful or fearful, like those who, having lost their reason, do not know how to discern what they should fear or what they should not.
Of Bacho's names
They name it Bacho, which sounds the same as fury, because wine makes those who drink it furious without measure, or because new wine is of the most fiery fury, which cannot be kept locked up, as it seems when it boils. The Thebans call him by this name. Others say that Bacho was called vox, vocis, which means voice, because the women who offered him sacrifices went before him shouting loudly, and with torches and other lights lit at night.
Bromio is said from bromin, which means to consume, because the love of this drink of good wine consumes the superfluity of delicacies and helps to digest, as physicists say; but drinking it out of measure, dries up the substance and good moisture and consumes the strength of the niervos.
Lieo is called ligo, leagues, for tying or joining, because when the wine is drunk with temperance it gathers the lost strength and gathers and increases it; but drunk inordinately, it binds or binds sense and reason.
Leneo and Brisseo: these two names were given to him from the two differences in painting that we first mentioned, which were two statues of him that were in Greece: one had a happy face and a delicate young man, and this one was called Lineo, and the other was with a rough and terrible face, and his name was Brisseo.
Nicteleo said it was because he made darkness come to meaning. Ignigena means thing of fire, because it generates heat in those who drink it.
Born, again, because he was born again, and for this reason they call him the son of two mothers, because first the grape is born, and from the grape comes the wine.
Ehuan is an interjection of praise to Bacho, which means good boy, grape reformer, because he was the first to plant vines in his land.
He was called Dionysus, according to Saint Isidro, because he was born or raised on a mountain in India, called Nisa. Or he called himself like this, almost god of Nyssa, because that is why they worshiped him there, like someone who said god of Nyssa.
Niseo is said of the city of Nysa, where he was worshiped, or of Nysa, one of the peaks of Mount Parnassus, consecrated to him.
Eleo is said of Elea, a city where he was greatly revered.
Liber Pater is said, according to Seneca, because when one is drunk, he is free from all care and other business in which the sane usually occupy themselves, and it brings freedom to men, because the servants, being drunk, seem to be free from subjection. of servitude, or they think they have broken the bonds or chains of servitude. But according to the opinion of Macrobius, by this Father Liber they understood the Sun, which was of the ancients considered the father of all things, and this is how Vergil understood it, where it begins: Vos o clarissima mundi, etc. Because Bacho, who we are talking about, is not the one who makes the year, as Vergil and Macrobius say; but this is the Sun. Bassareus, it is said because his ministers who made sacrifices to him were called that, or were dressed in garments so called.
By Hymineo
Hymineo, according to Alberic, was the son of Bacho and Venus. They had him as the god of godparents or weddings. Other authors say he is the son of Apollo and Calliope. Catullus gives him Urania as his mother. They carried her statue with songs at weddings. According to the truth, Hymineus is not anything that is a god of weddings, unless there is such a divinity. But the Gentiles, according to their opinions or poetic principles, gave gods for all things, as there could not be any god who was sufficient for all things, and they feigned these divinities, as they seemed appropriate to those things in which they gave their opinion. divinity. Weddings consist of a new carnal council, from which those things must be said of the god of weddings that move this council. This is what Bacho and Venus do: by Bacho we mean wine, and by Venus we mean carnal delights. These two things are what move the city and the desire for delights, signified by Venus, and inner ardor, caused by wine, which is Bacho, because wine, warming the bowels, moves us greatly to lust, and the ardor causes the desire; and for this reason the Apostle says: Nolite inebriari vino in quo est luxuria. He means: Do not get drunk with wine, in which is lust. And for this reason the authors said Hymineo was god of weddings, son of Bacho and Venus. Hymineo is derived from hyemen, a Greek name, which means a gut in which the creature, commonly called the mother, is wrapped in the womb; In it all conceptions are made; and they gave such a name to this god because it seems that all weddings are done in order to procreate.
Others say that Hymineo is the son of Bacho and Venus, because at weddings there are two things: one is a joyful celebration, like singing and joy and music. This denotes Bacho, that the poets named him the god of joy, as Oracio says: Ascit letitiae Bacus dactor. He wants to say: Come the god Bacho, who is the giver of joy. Because of these music and joys, others said that Calliope and Urania were his mothers; the other, the carnal town hall, this is understood by Venus. Others say that Hymineus was a true man and was received among the Gentiles as the god of weddings, because he was the inventor of them; And because while he was at a wedding party he was killed, the house falling on him, it was for this reason that it was customary for all those who were getting married to make sacrifices to him, to appease his anger, so that he would not harm them. They believed that this man, being among the infernal souls would regret that others had weddings or that they took joy in what cost him his life; And so that this anger would not harm them, they honored him as superstitious, who honored all the things that he could harm or benefit them as gods.
Of Silenus
Although there were many Sileni, writers make mention of one, the oldest of all; It is not known which son he was, but that he was born in Malea, a city in the province of Laconia. Catullo says that he was born in Nisa, a city in the Indies, where we say Bacho was raised. Of this Silenus Vergil says, where he begins: Silenum pueri, etc., that he was almost always drunk. And Ovid, in two verses that begin: Ebrius ecce senex, says that he always seemed to sleep and walk drunk. And in another place he also says that he was hesitating, or half falling, with a reed in his hand as a staff, and on a donkey, and in the company of the satyrs accompanying Bacho, and that he was an old belly-bellied man.
They also say that because he helped Jupiter against the Giants, that his donkey with which he had served in the war placed him among the stars.
From what is said of Silenus, the ancients wanted to declare the damage that wine causes to those who use it inordinately, because wine and drunkenness make them fat and belly-bellied; and for the most part it burdens the head and makes one walk haltingly and leads more quickly to old age; This is why they say they are old and belly-bellied Silenus and fall with a staff. And because those who indulge in wine without measure are lustful, this is why they say that Silenus and the satyrs, who denote lust, accompany Bacho; And because those who tend to drink more than they should are most often slow and spacious and useless for business, this is why they say that he rode on a donkey, a spacious animal, and that he always seemed to sleep. And because wine gives courage to those who continue the work of war, it is said that Silenus helped Jupiter against the Giants; and to demonstrate the harm that wine does, the ancients said that its donkey had been placed among the stars.
Of Midas
Midas, son of Gordius and grandson of Oriconio, king of Dardania, which later called Troy, was the richest king of all the kings of his time. Of whom the poets say that Silenus, companion or, according to others, master of Bacho, as once due to drunkenness he could not follow Bacho and stayed on the road, some servants of Midas finding him on a certain mountain in Phrigia, took him away. ; And since Midas knew that Silenus was Bacho's servant, he treated him well, and then, according to Ovid, he went to introduce him to Bacho. Others say that Bacho, missing Silenus, returned to look for him, and knowing that he was in the power of Midas, he went there; And since Midas received him and hosted him well, and spent a lot in one way or another, Bacho, as more powerful, offered that he ask him for the gift and favor that seemed best to him, because he would grant it to him. Midas, who was very greedy, demanded that everything he touched with his hands turn to gold. Bacho was very sorry for such a crazy and misguided gift as Midas demanded; but as he had promised it, he granted it to her. Midas, very happy, couldn't wait to go and experience it; He tried to leave Bacho's presence quickly, and walking as he went, he then grabbed an ash stick, and in an hour it turned into gold; He was very happy with the experience, because he understood he would be the richest of the kings; And when he arrived at his house, he ordered that they give him food, and when he washed his hands, the drops that fell from the water in the fountain turned into drops of gold, which he ordered to be observed; but when he came to eat the bread and food, as everything turned to gold, he died of hunger, for which he was very afflicted; and considering himself deceived, seeing that he could neither sustain himself nor live on gold, he had to return to Bacho to beg him to take away that virtue. Bacho, having shown him pity, said to him: Midas, go to a river that is in the land of the Sardinians and bathe your head there and wash it off. Midas went and did what Bacho told him, and took it away. And the poets say that the virtue of Midas still remained in the river, that they find gold there today, and that Midas's hands still remained trembling.
Through this story of Midas the poets declare to us the damage that results from greed, so that we can see that wealth kills more than poverty. Midas is said ofmedinidon, which means he knows nothing, because the miser, like Midas was, is only a humble fool who does not know how to benefit himself, but only serves money. And so because Midas was very greedy, he asked Bacho, who was a great prince of his time, to give him something. This Bacho gave him a sea port where there were great mountains. In what the fable says that to test virtue he took an ash rod in his hands and that it turned into gold, it is nothing other than that he sent a quantity of wood from his mountains, which he had very good, to other lands, that there was a lot of gold. In what he says that when he washed the drops of water they became grains of gold, it was nothing more than that all those profits came to him on the water. Turning everything he touched into gold for Midas means that, being a miserly man, he was so happy that everything he undertook happened well for him, and the closer he got, the more the desire to have more grew, according to what Ovid says: As wealth grows , greed grows so much; or because the more he had, the less he spent; and so what he saved became gold, failing to spend what suited his state. To say that he was starving is that every man who loves greed dies of hunger.
Midas turning to Bacho to beg him to take away his virtue or ardent desire or greed for riches, and sending him to the river Pactolus to wash himself, this is nothing other than an appearance of good in the miser, who is a despicable thing and who flees like Water. Or according to Socrates, Midas spent his wealth on irrigation ditches so that the river Pactolus would irrigate his province, and because of the fertility that followed, he says that he was left with golden sands. Or according to others, it was that Bacho, hearing his shortage, ordered him to build a building at a very high cost, because he found no better way to alleviate his shortage than by inciting him to build, because greed escapes from this, always inviting him to extend his hand. , so that many become impoverished by the sweetness of it. And so some say that he not only took greed to finish the building that Bacho ordered him, but even began the walls of Troy with his will, although he did little in them. Sending Bacho to go wash in that river more than in another was to declare the property that that river had, which was to find gold in its sands, according to what Ovid says, in six verses that begin: Rex Iussae succedit, etc.
That Midas's hands remained trembling or trembling is to say that he never lost scarcity, that even what he spent he gave greedily with too much modesty.
The fable of Midas continues
After the god Bacho took away from Midas the right to convert whatever he touched into gold, the poets say that, hating riches and forsaking the cities, he went to live in the villages, where in some fields there was a high mountain, called Timolo, surrounded by many meadows, where Pan, god of shepherds, who was half man and half goat, was always singing and playing with his alborgues, with which he made such good sounds that Midas did not serve or sacrifice another God, it seemed to him that there was no In the world who plays and sings best. It came to pass that Apollo (which others call Phebo) came down from heaven to contend with Pan, as to who he played best; and for this they appointed an old man named Timolo as judge, as well as the mountain, because he was a wise and just person. And having both played and sung, as Ovid plays at length, in nine verses, which begin: Pana iubet Timolus. He means: Timolo ordered Pan to surrender and gain advantage over Phebo. This judgment of Timolo pleased everyone present, except Midas, who said that Pan had done better. Phebo, having great resentment at this, treated him like a fool; and seeing his obstinacy, he said: Since your sense of hearing is so keen, I will make it greater; and he then changed his ears into donkey's ears, making them long and hairy. Midas, when he felt that he had the ears of an ass, there was great shame and no less pain; But as quickly as he could, after he left there, he covered them with red veils, so that no one would know, and for this reason he had one of his servants shave him, whom he trusted a lot. This servant, as he alone knew it, did not dare to reveal it to anyone; but in the end he could not keep it so silent that he did not even say it to the earth; and for this he went one day to a meadow, where he made a large hole, and putting his head in there, he said several times: My lord Midas, he has the ears of a donkey. When he was satisfied to say so, he again covered the hole with the earth he had taken out and stones, and went out. A few days later, cane branches were born in that place, and what the servant had said: My lord Midas, he has the ears of a donkey, the reeds are made into flutes, they also said it, so the secret was little by little discovered and divulged. around the world.
That Midas went to the villages and did not make sacrifices to any other god but to the god Pan means that he gave himself to raising cattle and tilling the land; And because shepherds and farmers live little in the cities, more in the mountains and farmhouses, this is why he says that he left the cities. To say that the god Pan, whom the rustic shepherds venerate, was half man and half goat is to declare that many shepherds and men of the countryside, having the figure of a man, spend their lives like animals, spending the year without seeing God or hear his word. Pan always playing and singing denotes that the shepherds are always watching over their livestock and thinking about how they will multiply them.
That Midas judged Pan to sing better than Apollo is not surprising, because those whose judgment is corrupted always value the earthly things of Pan more than the heavenly things of Apollo. Or because those with a coarse understanding have no room for delicacy, which is why the rustic music of Pan seemed better to him than the delicate music of Apollo. That between Apollo and Pan there was competition or dispute over playing and singing, that is, one day those of that region got together and had a dispute about which was more reason to be worshiped, the god Pan or the god Apollo. He means, which was better, following cattle and farming, or the sciences. And because this Midas did not cure knowledge, this is why he says that he judged the music of Pan to be better than that of Apollo; because he was foolish, he did not grant advantage to Apollo.
Turning Apollo's ears into donkey's ears means that he lived as foolish as a donkey, that he is an animal without brains, which this means ass. Others say that because he heard a lot he pretended to have donkey ears, because the donkey has this sense more acutely than any other animal. Others say that they faked this because he had many stalkers or spies who brought him news of what was happening among his vassals and enemies. Callisthenes says that in Phrygia there were two hills or hills that were called donkey's ears, and in them there were strong cities, from which many robbers attacked travelers. And when Midas fought these cities and surrendered them to his dominion, and punished the thieves, this fable began, that it was said that he had the ears of a donkey. Saying that because they couldn't see her ears she covered herself with red veils, this means that those who suffer some affront or shame draw blood to their face, which is the part with which they sit, turning their face red. Fearing that no one would see him having donkey ears is because, being a fool, he pretended to be wise, and the more he tried to cover it up with gold and dignity and greatness, the more his own customs, which are criers, revealed him to his servants, and they to everyone. the world, figured by the earth that produces the reeds, which are the trumpets of the writers and poets, who everywhere discover all the bestialities and events of men.
From Iano
Iano was a man the most excellent among the Aruncos and the oldest king of Italy, and the first who minted money there with weapons and letters, and the one who began to build temples in honor of the gods, and ordered the manner of sacrifices, where later he was worshiped by God and was used as the finder or inventor of sacrifices by the Romans, who never made sacrifices to the gods who did not first call or invoke Iano. This is what Macrobius and Cicero say, and for this very reason they sacrificed him the first month of the year, which is January, and called him Ianuario in Latin, from the name of Iano, as can be gathered from the last chapter of the eighth book of the Etymologies of Saint Isidro. ; They did this because they believed that Iano was permanently at the gate of heaven, so that the prayers and prayers of mortals could not pass to the other gods if Iano did not grant them entrance, and for this reason they told him Iano, of ianua, What does door mean? They said that there were two doors to heaven, one to the East, through which the Sun rises when it comes to give light to the world, and the other to the West, through which it enters when it gives way to night. From here the Sun is understood by Iano, and for this reason they say Iano has the guard of the doors of heaven, because he has the freedom to enter and leave; and for this reason they paint him on a royal throne with keys in his hands and two faces, one in front and one in the back; and by this they understood the Sun, to denote that the Sun does not need to turn its face to see one side or another of the world, or to denote the prudence with which the king must be adorned. The first side denotes the memory of past things and events. The second denotes the just and discreet provision in things to come. In memory of these two faces the Romans worshiped two goddesses, called Anteverta and Postverta, implying that the king must know and prevent all things past and future, to govern well the present. These two faces, one was a young man's, beardless; the other is old, with a beard; By the old face they denoted the past time, and by the young face the future. And Terence called this prudence or wisdom, when he said: Istuc est sapere non quod ante pedes es videre, sed future prospicere. He means: This is knowing, not only seeing what is before our feet, but also what is to come.
Others understood from the two faces of Iano two lights that the soul has: one natural, which is born together with it, with which it knows the things of the world, and the other divine and infused with the goodness of God, with which it rises to the heaven and contemplate divine things; and by this the face of a cheerful young man is understood, and by the old and bearded one the natural one is denoted, because things that come from nature change and age and see as if in darkness; the other is resplendent and goes to look at the Eternal God.
The keys or scepter with which they paint it is to denote that the Sun governs the world, opening when the day comes and closing when the night comes. And from here it comes that Iano was believed to be the same as the god Portunus, who was considered the guardian or guardian of the doors, who was attributed to having a key in his hand like Iano. And from here came another god called Gardini, who was god of door handles. Iano, who is the Sun, not only opens in the morning and closes at night, but he makes the year, because he opens it when in spring he makes the earth begin to produce herbs and flowers, and closing everything in the winter, depriving it of this freshness, covering it with white snow. Some said that Iano was Chaos, that it was that confusion of all things from before the world was made, according to Ovid in the first book of the Fasti, he says that that is why Iano has a bearded, frightful and dark face, and the other of a young man, beautiful and cheerful, which denotes the beauty that came from the distinction of the things that came from Chaos and from the admirable order of the Universe, and that for this reason he was worshiped by God of the beginning, to whom the principles of things. Others painted him with four faces, which looked with them at the four parts of the world: East and West, South and North, to denote that Iano embraced and considered them all, because the ancient poets used to say that Iano was the world; but all these paintings disgust Saint Augustine. Others want these four faces to denote the four times of the year, which are summer, summer, autumn, winter; and since these times are diverse, they painted them with different appearances. And for this very reason they placed twelve altars at the feet of Iano, by which they understood the twelve months. These four times of the year, or the twelve signs of the Zodiac, through which the Sun makes its course throughout the year. And to denote the days of the year, Pliny and Macrobius write that Numa, king of the Romans, made a statue of Iano, which with the fingers of the right hand showed three hundred, and with the fingers of the left hand sixty-five, which They all made three hundred and sixty-five, as many as there are days in the year, as we show in our Arithmetic, and for this reason they gave the impression that Iano was president of the year. Iano was also considered the god of war and peace; and these two things had to be in his power, and for this purpose Numa Pompilius built a temple to Iano in Rome. And when it was decided in the Senate to have war, a consul opened the doors of this temple, and they were open while the war lasted, and this was to give a good omen to those who waged war for their return. And when they were closed it was a sign of peace, thereby denoting that the war was locked and imprisoned in that temple. This Iano received Saturn as a companion in his reign, when he was fleeing from Jupiter. Some say that Iano was Noah, whom the Armenians nicknamed Iano, according to Berossus and this because of the invention he found about wine, because in the Armenian language Iano means venifer, which means the one who brings wine or vines, because he He planted a vineyard after the universal flood, and invented wine, as read in the sacred volume. They also say that he taught sacred theology, and how God was to be revered and worshiped with sacrifices, and thus he taught other very necessary and useful things; It is believed that it was Iano Noah himself, due to the various names that different people gave him, because he was called Sun, Chaos, Sky, seed of the world, father of the gods, soul of the world, who moves the heavens and the elements, the animals. and to the men. God of peace, justice, holiness, who rejects the bad and keeps the good, although some doubt that he is Noah Iano.
Of Aeolus
Aeolus, according to Theodoncio and Paulo Perusinus, was the son of Iupiter and Sergesta, daughter of Hippotes Troyano, and brother of Acestes; Ovid and other poets say that he was the god of the winds, and that Jupiter had given them to him so that he could be king of them, and that he gave them to him locked in a deep, dark cave, and above the cave was placed the greatness of the earth. from a mountain, in which the winds fought against the mountain, violently trying to get out.
There was Aeolus in a high tower, with a royal scepter in his hand; and if he did not tame the viciousness of the winds, they would drag the sea, the lands, and the sky with them through the air, and thus he restrained the winds when he wanted, and let them leave.
They say more: that Aeolus had the kingdom in the hand of Iuno, and not of Iupiter.
Pliny says that Aeolus was the son of a Hellene, who found the reason for the winds and had great experience with them. He reigned on some islands near Sicily, which some called Eolas; From Aeolus, as first, according to Strabo, they were called Strongyle, because of the roundness of their places, and others called them Vulcanias, from Vulcan. Aeolus was very skilled in predicting by the vapors when the winds would arise and when they would cease, and what winds they were, as if he had them locked up, so that they would cease when he said or come out when he pleased. And from here the ignorant people of his time came to consider him the god of the winds; But it is certain that Aeolus was a true man and, consequently, had had a father and mother. That they call Iupiter his father belongs more to poetic pretense than to the truth, although Iupiter was also a true man and had children; However, it was not Aeolus in his time, according to Eusebius, who was older; But the poets said it this way, according to their custom, because when some men had accomplished great things or found some novelties of great benefit, even if they were of low place, to exalt their lineage they called them children of some gods, and even if they were of high lineage, because every lineage of men is mortal, they said they were children of gods; and this mostly suited Aeolus, to whom they not only gave some great facts, but they even attributed divine power to him, saying that he had power over the winds to keep them imprisoned and release them, and for this they made him the son of some god; and because the greatest of all the gods was Iupiter, they said that he was the son of Iupiter, although he was the son of Helen, as we said at the beginning.
By Aeolus they understand the reason; by the winds, the sensual desires of man. To say that Jupiter gave the winds into the power of Aeolus so that he could be king of them, this denotes that God, who is above all things, although he made our passionate desires (according to nature), did not want them to be free, so that according to they would have to act; but he made them subject to reason, by which he wanted them to be governed, and he made reason so powerful that he could command and govern them. He says that he locked them in a deep, dark cave. This cave denotes our bodies, where our desires and appetites are and arise from. The Apostle calls these passions desires of the flesh. He says it is this deep and dark cave, because what is inside our body is not known, much less the desires, and they are secret. And thus says the Apostle: Nemo novit quae sunt in homine, nisi spiritus hominis qui est in eo. That is to say, there is no one who knows what is in man, except his spirit, which is in him.
He says that the greatness of the land of a mountain is placed on this cave. This means the strength and power that reason has over desires, and the difficulty or impossibility that desires have in leaving reason's command, if reason does not surrender and give way; And for this reason he says that the winds walk inside the cave making a great noise, seeing if they can knock it down, so that the thoughts and passions come out in this way, they walk inside the man, disturbing him and giving him war, as the Apostle says: Caro concupiscit adversus spiritum, spiritus adversus carnem. He means: The flesh covets against the spirit, and the spirit. lust against the flesh. He calls passionate desires flesh; He calls reason spirit, since evil desires are from the body or flesh, and reason is from the spirit.
To say that Aeolus is in a high tower and that he has the royal scepter in his hand denotes that reason, understood by Aeolus, is in a high chair, because reason is, according to the wise, in the brain, and the passions in other lower members. . The scepter that he has in his hands means the natural strength and power that reason has over evil desires; and because this power uses the understanding over desires, he says that he has the scepter in his hand.
What Vergil says that if Aeolus did not tame the viciousness of the winds they would drag with them through the air, the sea and the lands and sky, means that reason, if it did not tame or subjugate the desires of bad appetite, some completely removing them, others, tempering them and measuring less than what they want, all things would perish, because if each man gave rise to all his desires, without restraining them with something, the being would lose and destroy other men, because all the evils that in the world Until today they came and will come because they give rise to bad desires; and because if these were not restrained, not letting them loose for love of God or for fear of greater evils, or for shame of the good, or for other respects that prevent men from fulfilling all their desires, great evils would come. For this reason he says the fable, the sea, and earth, and sky, because in the world we see nothing else, and this is the whole world; and by the whole world we understand the entire state of man, high and low, great or small, because man is called a microcosm, which means a small world, which would not be completely lost or put in danger of being lost, if Aeolus, which is reason, tempering desires with its strength and suffering, does not tame them, so that they do less harm. And it is known that the members of our body, as well as the hands, eyes, obey our will and reason, just like servants, not being able to do anything except what we command them, and they do it so quickly that we can barely even know if We command it or if they do it themselves; passionate desires, as Aristotle says, do not obey what we command them, or how we command it, but they resist a lot as long as we have great difficulty and work in subduing them; However, in the end with this resistance they obey, although reluctantly, as if begging them or declaring that what they incline is evil.
How Iuno begged Aeolus to send contrary winds upon the Trojan fleet.
Vergil writes that Iuno, angry against Aeneas and the Truyan fleet, begged Aeolus to send winds against it; And to make her eager to do what he entrusted to her, he offered her Deiopea as a wife, one of the most beautiful fourteen-year-old nymphs that he had in his service.
They pretend that Iuno, after Paris in the judgment of the golden apple judged against her in favor of Venus, took great enmity against the Trojans, of whose generation were Paris and Aeneas and all those who escaped from the cruelty of the Greeks; And because in common men are usually moved by the desire for noble and beautiful figures, and since love is a strong passion, to move Iuno to Aeolus, he offered Deiopea, one of the fourteen nymphs who pretend to serve him. These nymphs denote the clouds, and put a certain number for an uncertain one; and because the clouds are generated in the air, understood by Iuno, and are in it, for this reason they say they serve Iuno.
Promising Aeolus as a wife to the nymph Deiopea is that water is usually generated from clouds, and winds are generated from moving waters. And they give the cloud as a wife to Aeolus so that he may always have the winds from which they are generated, whose king or father is Aeolus. This is what Servius declares.
Of what Aeolus responded to Iuno's request or request
Aeolus, showing gratitude, told the goddess Iuno that she gave him that kingdom as it was, and her royal scepter, and reconciled him with Jupiter, also making him sit at the table of the gods. This is what Vergil says, where he begins:
Your mihi quodcumque hoc Regni, your sceptra Iouemque.
Concilias, tudas epulis, accumbere diuinum,
Nimbrorumque facis, tempestatumque potentm.
Your scepter is yours for me in this Kingdom.
Conciliate, feast well, sit down with the gods,
You make clouds and powerful storms.
He means: O goddess; You give me this my kingdom as it is; you give me the royal scepter; you make Jupiter love me; You give me a place to sit at the table with the gods, and you make me powerful over the rains and storms of winds.
In that Aeolus, needing one to tell so much what he owed her, is denoted as a grateful man who does not look at what he does, nor can he do for the benefit of another, nor does he remember anything other than recounting what he he has received; and this was because Jupiter had given him the winds in his power, and he had them at his hand, and because he could take them from him whenever he wanted, and give them to another; and Iuno could make him take them off, and he didn't do it, rather he helped him to persevere in his grace and love, for this he thanked him; and thus he recounted what he had received from her, without taking into account the large payment that he was offered for it.
To say that Aeolus has the kingdom by Iuno is that Iuno means the air, and because the vapors from which winds are generated, as we declare in our natural Philosophy, cannot move except in the air, unless there is another element or body through which the winds can run and blow, for this is wind as it moves; Therefore Vergil says that Iuno gives the kingdom to Aeolus. In what he says that Iuno reconciles Aeolus with Iupiter it means the approach of the place. Jupiter denotes the elemental fire and the sky, according to poetic fiction. And because the winds, rising greatly through the air, which is Iune, approach the element of fire and the sky, and because preserving one thing with another through proximity is a more sign of love and friendship than separation, therefore This coming together of the wind to the fire is called reconciliation. To say that Iuno was the reason for Aeolus to sit at the table of the gods is that because in the sky there are the planets and stars, which the poets call gods, to make one close to the place of the stars, this is to sit to the table with the gods, which approach the winds make through the air, which is Iuno. This meaning is given by Ovid and Lactantius, saying that Tantalus was the son of Jupiter, and that he sat many times at the table of the gods. And the wise men declaring this, say that this pretense was nothing else, except that Tantalus, being king of the city of Chorintho, made a tower so high that it seemed to reach heaven, and that the one who climbed on top seemed to be in the sky. darling. And so the vulgar affirmed that Tantalus ascended to heaven through that tower and settled down to eat with the gods; And because no king had such a high tower, this is why the fable says that he only sat down to eat at the table of the gods.
Of six sons and as many daughters of Aeolus
The poets say that Aeolus, among many other sons, had six main sons, and as many daughters, and that he married the sons to the daughters.
By this pretense they wanted to declare the number of the main winds and their qualities or forces, and because they had Aeolus to be lord and father of the winds they said they had children; And because the ancients said the main winds were twelve (although there is no determined number of them, as we said in our Philosophy), therefore Aeolus said he had twelve sons; and because the winds, some have qualities according to their effects as male, by attributing to them active virtues to generate on the earth, and others as female, by attributing to them passive virtues to dispose the earth; To receive this virtue of engendering, they said that these twelve children of Aeolus, the six were males and the six females. In what it says that the six daughters married the six sons, it is that as marriage or matrimony is a council that does not separate while those who contract the marriage live, so the winds are together, and the order that they have among themselves and not from each other They separate, because those who arrange the earth always dispose, and those who have the virtue of generating, always, without disagreeing on anything, generate, the arrangement of the other winds being made; We deal with the number of the winds and their order and qualities or properties in our Philosophy.
What we have said about the winds, sons of Aeolus, I previously gave to Astreus, because Aestreus pretended to be lord of the winds, and Astreus father of them.
Of Astreus, father of the winds
Of Astreus, son of Titan and the Earth, they say that as he was already old at the time of the wars against the gods, he armed his sons with the twelve winds against Jupiter. Lactantius says of these winds that by the birth of Epaphus, son of Iupiter, Iuno was moved to have great dispute among themselves; and for this reason Jupiter locked them up in prisons, giving power over them to Aeolus, as we said in the preceding chapter.
Astreus was a powerful man in his time, who reigned in a very windy land, and for this reason he called himself father of the winds. He was of lineage of the Titans, who waged war against Iupiter; And because the poets considered the winds to be gods that had personality, they judged that they were engendered, and for this they gave them father and mother, and these were Astreus and Aurora, in whose land they were born. By Astraeus we understand the first eight heavens, and by Aurora the morning. These two things are causes of their generation, because the winds are generated according to the movement of the heavens, and giving them the Aurora as their mother is because the morning is their head, as by experience one sees this time being born or changing; because as at this time the Sun returns over the land where we live, it raises vapors from which winds are generated. In what he says that Astreus, his father, armed them against Iupiter, it is because this was Titanus, and the Titans fought against Iupiter, and so he wanted his sons to help his relatives against Iupiter. And according to the truth, this means that the movement that the winds make causes many damages and disturbances, and since the ancients believed the world to be a thing of Jupiter, everything that is done in harm in it had to be done against Jupiter; or because the sky and elemental fire is called Jupiter, and the winds, clouding the air, darken the sky, which is why they say that they took up arms against Jupiter. To say that Iuno armed them, because Iuno sometimes means the air and other times the earth, now it means the earth, and because vapors arise from the earth, which are the material for generating the winds, for this reason he says that the earth, which is Iuno, gave weapons to the winds; And because women find it difficult that their husbands have children of adultery, this is why she says that, angry at the birth of Epaphus, which Jupiter, her husband, had in I, she armed the winds against him.
Of Boreas and Orithia
Ovid says that when the wind Boreas demanded Orithia, daughter of Erytheus, as a wife, and they did not want to give her to him, angry at this, he said: With reason I suffer this, because I wanted to beg, being able to use strength and use my weapons, and take father-in-law and don't beg him. Then his wings moved, all the air moved with them and lifted the sea; and wearing her dusty cloak, sweeping the earth covered in darkness, she snatched Orithia, and did not stop flying until she reached the land of Thrace, where the cold god received her as his wife, and had in her two sons named Zetho and Calays. , that if they did not have wings like the father, they had the figure of the mother in everything.
Eritheus, sixth king of Athenas, had four sons and as many daughters; Two of the daughters were more beautiful, and for this reason they were sought after by great men. Procris was given as a wife to Cephalus, son of the god Aeolus. Orithia was demanded by Boreas, king of Thrace, and they did not give it to him; Therefore, he, angry with her, stole her from her father's house and took her to Thrace, and took her as his wife, and she had two sons, among whom were those two famous young men, Zethus and Calays. Ovid says that it was not Boreas himself who came to rob Orithia, but one of its towns in Thrace, of the same name. The reason why they did not give it to Boreas was because those from Thrace were considered very cruel and fierce. To say that he flew her by force means that he carried her away stolen, and so quickly, that she seemed to fly; and they could well steal, because Athenas is a city located on the coast of the Thracian Sea, and by sea they could come and wait for Orithia to come out (as maidens usually do) to recreate on the coast, where Boreas would have spies, as Jupiter did. to Europe. This fable was invented by the name of the man and the earth. The land was Thrace and the man was called Boreas, and because the wind blows he is called Boreas.
And again, it comes from Thrace, a very cold northern region, in which this man Boreas reigned. That the wind comes from Thrace is what Boethius says, where he begins: Hanc si trahitio Boreas, etc., and for this reason they pretended that Boreas carried Orithia, as well as wind. In what he says that by moving his wings he moved the air and the sea, it is to denote that the wind is different from the air and the fury of the gale.
This theft of Orithia, allegorically, is the pleasure that is gained in alacrity, not letting the opportunity slip away.
How Boreas loved the mares of Dardanus
The poets say that Boreas loved the mares of King Dardanus, and mixing with them carnally, he begat twelve very light horses. Homer plays this fable.
This pretense can be understood in two ways: one, as Boreas was a man; and the other, as it is wind. If we take him for a man, we will say that Boreas was king of Thrace, who, hearing that Dardanus, king of Troy, had good mares, sent for them to breed in his land, from which horses famous for their lightness and body and other qualities were born. benefits that are considered in horses, and this is to say that he loved the mares of King Dardano, because the horses of Boreas mated with the mares of Dardano. And this is a credible thing to have been true, because Dardanus and Boreas were kings of one time and neighbors, that between the kingdom of the one and the other there was no more of the sea in between, from the south to the wind; and since these two kings were powerful and neighbors, there would be one of the things that would be in the other's land. The second way in which Boreas's love for the mares of Dardanus can be understood, inasmuch as Boreas is wind; and this being so, we will say that Boreas loved the mares of Dardanus with carnal love out of poetic pretense, to declare that mares can become pregnant and give birth by wind alone; and according to this, the mares of Dardanus could give birth to the true wind, called Boreas. And because the horses that are born from mares that engender from the wind are lighter, and the horses of Dardano were light, they said that they were conceived of the deer wind or of divine seed. Saint Isidro, regarding this matter, says that near Lisbon, a city in Portugal, there are some mares, which, when they are with great ardor or desire to mate with horses, open their mouths against the Cephirus wind, which is the one that says Favorinus, who runs from the West, and receiving that wind, they conceive without another carnal council, and the horses that are born in this way are very light, although they do not live long. Pliny and Vergil have this same opinion, in nine verses, which begin: Continuoque avidis, etc. They have to conceive and engender mares, not only from the Cephirus wind, but from any other cold winds, without the guidance of a horse. He means: Then like ardor it enters the greedy marrows of the mares. El Tostado says that the reason for conceiving the mares of the wind is because of the little difference there is between the active seed of the horses, at the beginning, or the passive material seed of the mares, and since they are close, they, by themselves, can conceive and give birth, as we see in trees and plants, that because there is a virtue in them that there is no difference between masculine and feminine, they engender their similarity; and although the virtue of the mares is not like that of the trees, it lacks little, and this supplies the air or wind, because the wind comes fresh, and with its coldness it presses the heat that it finds in the body of the mare in the generative place, and the tight heat becomes greater and stronger, as we see when they pour water on the fire of the forge, which becomes greater and burns with more fury, and this heat can often form and figure that seed of the mare ; and the male seed is always warmer than the female, and this heat that the mare lacks supplies the air; But this rarely happens in a few mares, because mares do not approach the masculine condition equally, nor is the ardor in time of carnal desire the same in all mares. Furthermore, the temperate wind does not always come like this, because it is equal to the masculine heat. Horses born this way are very light; This is due to the condition of the wind, which supplied the place of the masculine seed; And because these do not have everything that the other horses have by nature, unless the father has done something there, from whom the son's body brings virtue, they are not as lively as the others nor even as strong. And this is how Homer wanted Achilles' horses to be generated because of their lightness.
Of how Cephirus loved the nymph Cloris
Cephyrus wind, proceeds from the point of the West, and is Greek name, to which the Latins call Favonius, though some think they are two diverse winds. This does not agree with the meaning of them, because what zephirus means in Greek means fabonius in Latin. Cephirus is derived from cephis, which means life, and this is because it gives life to flowers and they breed with it, and it gives maintenance to herbs. Faborius in Latin means maintainer or nurturer, because to flowers and herbs and seeds he gives growth, and so seem to be names of the same thing, put in various languages. This is what St. Isidro says: Cephirus Graeco names the appellation eo, what flowers, and germina eius flatu vivificentur, hic Latin Fauonius dicitur, propter what foueat ea quad nascuntur. It means: Cephyrus is Greek name, and call it so because the flowers and herbs receive life or begin to be blowing it. This Latin word call itself Favonio, because it breeds or keeps the things that are born; it is wind that blows softly and it is humid, of a very natural humidity for the generation of flowers and other things, and it commonly runs from the beginning of summer to the end of autumn, and blows after noon till night. This speaks Ovid, where he says: Mulcebant Cephiri natos sine semine flowers. It means: The wind cephire nurtured the seedless born flowers, and it says here summer was perpetual and in it ran this wind cephire. That this wind comes from the West, be proved from what Ovid says in the alleged place, which only four winds put, which are the principal ones issuing from the four points or cardines of the world; and he placed sapphire on the West side, saying:
Vesper, et Occiduo qui littora sole te pescunt,
Nearby sunt Cephirus, etc.
Evening, and the West, who fish for you on the shores of the sun,
Nearby are Cephirus, etc.
It means: The afternoon and the seashore that are warmed by the setting Sun are close to cephyr. Of this wind cephyrus the poets put fabulous narratives, saying that he loved a fair nymph named Cloris, whom for wife he received; and in reward of her virginity he bestowed upon her that she was lady of all floras, whence Cloris came to change the name and call herself Flora, because she was lady of floras.
This fable signifies the natural virtue of this wind be to engender the flowers; and for this they gave Cephyrus personality, though he be wind, because he can love and beget. The nymph Cloris, whom she loves, is the moisture of the earth, for nymphs commonly signify moisture; these humidities love the wind Cephyrus, because with its natural warmth tempered it makes for the begetting of flowers. It says that Cephyrus gave the nymph Cloris to be lady of all flowers in award of his carnal town hall, to signify the natural generation which is made from the operation of the hot, temperate wind, upon the moisture denoted by the nymph, because of such town hall is followed by the generation of the flowers. He granted this Cephyrus to Cloris, of whom she was lady of flowers, inasmuch as he is the wind, to which more than any other befits naturally to engender flowers (as has been said), and this he bestowed on Cloris because she is moisture, . from which flowers are engendered, touched moisture by Cephyrus understood. And the poets will that that nymph Cloris, after there was this power of Cephyrus, was called Flora, because of the flowers, whose lordship she had. Although Ovid wants in this to manifest the cause as the ramera which he left by heir to the Roman people, who celebrated her feasts and games as a goddess, and was called Flora.
Of genius
Genius, according to Saint Augustine, was considered the god of generation and president of things that were generated. The Gentiles believed, according to Servius, that each man, after he was born, had two spirits: one, which induces and persuades to good; and another, which inclines to evil. They call Genio a gignendo, because they thought they would be born with us, or they called them Gerulos, from gero, because we brought them with us. These say that they secretly persuade or dissuade in the government of our whole life, and that they are moderators of the will of our understanding, and that they incline us to do good and evil, imprinting on themselves, as in a mirror, the fantasies, images of the things that want to persuade us; which is very easy in them, to which, having secretly looked at our soul, they later come to mind; and if they are considered with reason, then the good determination of the spirit is made. But if anyone, postponing reason, allows himself to be carried away by bad images and visions, he will fall into many errors; Mainly, if these imaginations and fantasies have been offered to you by the evil spirit, libidinous works and thoughts, and cruelties, and greed, and other vices attributed to the evil Genius will emerge. By these spirits or geniuses the ancients understood the mixture or composure of the elements from which individuals are generated and human bodies are preserved and become, or by the God of nature, who has vigor or strength to generate and produce anything. . Furthermore, the ancients understood that the Geniuses not only accompanied man after he was born, but also to buildings and places and plants, as Vergil felt, where he begins: Sic deinde efatus. Others understood by Genius the hidden forces of the planets or influences with which they incline animals to good and bad things. They celebrated a festival to the Genius on the day of each one's birth, making great joys, and calling themselves Genius festivals, and at their sacrifices they scattered many flowers on the ground, and placed glasses with wine, as Oracio mentions, where it begins: Tellurem porco. They dedicated the face of the man's body to him, because this part is an indication that shows what we do of our will or forced.
By these geniuses we Christians can understand the Guardian Angel, that God, by his mercy, at birth gives us to have as a consultant, and guards us, and inspires us to do virtue, and flee the evil to which he incites or invites us. the bad angel; and then we disappoint or do not obey this Genius or good angel of ours, when we close our ears to the virtuous inspirations, and do what inclines us or incites our bad appetites, with which the bad angel invites us.
Of the gods who say Penates
The ancient gods had other gods, so that when the children were born, when Lucina finished her job, they would receive them, and to this they called Penates, called penus, an indeclinable name, for the provision of a house to eat, because at birth the creature needs maintenance to live. Some understood these Penates to be the elements in which we are born and with which we sustain ourselves and live. Others understood the Penates to be the inclinations with which we are born and the events that must occur in the discourse of life. They are called Penates, as if we were saying: Penes nos nati. Born near our dominion; and it is worth knowing that although it is true that the influences of the heavenly bodies incline us to good and bad things, they do not force us. But God leaves man with his free will to choose what he wants from good or bad.
They also call these Penates patriotic and family gods, who presided over the cities and were guardians of private things, as can be gathered from a prayer of Cicero made for his house, where it begins: Vosque qui maxime, etc. And Antonio de Librija confirms the same in a salutation he makes to his country and home, which begins: Salve parva domus par iet salvete Penates. They were gods that they honored within their homes, according to Servius; And so Tulio says, that they were called Penates because they were deep inside the houses.
The Greeks call them Patrios Genethlios, Vetesios, or Michios or Hercios. The poets call them Penetral, because they are endearingly based on the inclinations of men.
These are the gods that Aeneas brought with him from Troy to Italy, as Vergil says, where he begins: Sacra suosque tibi comendat Troy. Macrobius writes some of them.
From Lares
Lares, according to Plautus, were domestic gods, because just as the Genius was set to guard the body, so Lares was set to guard the house, like the Penates, which is why some had to be the same Lares as Penates. They used to have a common place in their houses, which was in the fires, where they made great and joyful sacrifices, in memory of which, to this day, the andirons and the chains on which the cauldrons hang to the fire are called llares, of lares; And so they made these presidents who would take care of the fire, which is why they are called focal gods by another name, of focus, which is the home, the place where the fire is made. The ancients also believed that the Lares took care of crossroads and cities, as can be inferred from some verses by Ovid, which begin: Jupiter intumuit. Tibulus, in two verses that begin: Vos quoque felicis, etc., had the Lares as gods who guarded the fields and inheritances.
From Priapus
Priapus, according to Strabo, was the son of Bacho and the nymphs Naiades; and according to Diodorus Siculus, Bacho and Venus. He was famous god among the Greeks. This Priapus was a man from Lampsacus, a city in the strait of the Hellespont, according to true history, who emerged from such a monstrous virile member that they banished him because they considered it a matter of infamy that such a clumsy and ugly man should be born in their city. But the devil, deceiver of the human race, ordered (God allowing it) a great pestilence, and the citizens sent the oracle to find out the causes from which those harms came to them, and they were answered that for having unjustly exiled Priapus; They looked for him, and not being able to find him, they believed the offense they had done in this was great. They built a temple for him and painted a figure of him, who was a man with a very unevenly grown member of the generation, according to Herodotus, and in his right hand a sickle. They had Priapus as the god of the gardens, because of the fertility and abundance that was meant and figured in the member of the generation; And for this reason, they not only painted this painting in the temples and public places, but even in the fields they placed a large instrument of those, and they believed that by hanging it there they would be safe for their crops, both from thieves and from storms.
They said they were the son of Bacho and Venus, because he who gives himself to wine out of necessity becomes vicious in the sensual vice, understood by Venus; or he is the son of Bacho and the Naiad nymphs, because by Priapus they wanted to understand the seeds, and by Bacho the heat, and by the Naiads the humidity with which natural things are generated. They paint him with the virile member and the sickle in his hands, to denote that everything that is born at a certain time is granted to have an end.
From the descendants of the Modorros
They say that lost Time married Ignorance, and they had a son, whose name was Pensequé, who married youth and they had the following children: I didn't know, I didn't think, I didn't look into it, whoever said. Whoever said he married Carelessness, and they had children: It's fine, Tomorrow it will be done, There is time, There will be another occasion. Some time ago he married Mrs. Doña I didn't think: they had children, Don't worry about me, I understand myself, No one will deceive me, Stop that, I'll get through it. I understand myself married to Vanity; They had as children: Even if you don't want to, I have my way, I want Galas, There will be no shortage. I won't miss marrying Galas; They had as children: Let's Enjoy and Misfortune, who married Little Brain and they had as children Well that's it, What's wrong with him, It seems like me, It's not possible, Don't tell me more, I owe a death to God, I have my way, It will be said, You see it, At a certain will the advice is an excuse, Even if they kill me, Whoever says it, Prisoner for a thousand, Prisoner for a thousand and five hundred; What do I care, Nobody died of hunger, They are not thrown, what money they are. Galas I want was widowed, and married Folly for the second time; and having spent all his assets, they said to each other: Be patient, for we will take money as a census with which we can enjoy ourselves this year, and the next year, God will provide. And advised with It will not fail, they did so; and since there was no way to pay what they owed on the census, Deception put them in prison; were visited by God will grant mercy. Poverty took them to the hospital, where the authority of Galas I want and Don't look into it died. They buried them with their great-grandmother La Necedad; They left many children and grandchildren scattered throughout the world.
This fiction tells us what happens to the negligent, lazy and inconsiderate, who, without taking advice, are governed by their opinions, taking into account only the day they live, without considering their end and what is to come.
From Momo
The poets pretended that Momo was a very lazy god, who used to do nothing but rebuke the works and works of others, both men and gods. Hesiod makes him the son of Sleep and Night. Leontius and other writers say that as Neptune, Vulcan, and Minerva once contended about the perfection of his works, they appointed him as judge. And although because they were the works of gods there could be no imperfection, with all that, the god Momo did not lack something to cross out, because when Neptune presented a very perfect bull that he had made, confident that there would be nothing to despise in it, he rebuked that he had not named it. the horns before the eyes. A man who made Vulcan was reproached for forgetting what was most necessary of everything that the craftsman did not see; and it was because he caused deception to be born secretly inside the man's chest, that such a work was a praiseworthy thing that had a door in the chest, that with it one could know what he ordered inside; and if he said with his mouth what he had in his heart, and if he told the truth or a lie. Minerva, very happy, seeing how poorly her competitors had negotiated, considering herself the winner with the perfection of the architecture of a house that she presented by her work, was reprimanded, according to Policharmo, because she was not allowed to move around, because if you had a bad neighbor, you could go around it to move the door to another street; and so she dismissed all three of them, as men who knew little of her arts. Because of this job he had, they called him Stygio Momo, which means hatred of all gods and mortals.
They said they were the son of Dream and Night, because it is lazy and dark people to murmur and judge what they do not know and even if they do know, because one thing has been established: it is not possible to satisfy all tastes with a single stew.
By this pretense the ancients wanted to imply that there is no human thing, no good or bad feat, that can escape any reprehension from enemies or envious people.
END OF BOOK TWO
It deals with these females, with the historical and allegorical meanings of their fables.
From Vesta, daughter of Saturn
Lactantius Firmianus and Posidonius mention two named Vesta: one was the mother of Saturn and the other a daughter. Of the daughter, Diodorus Siculus says that she was a virgin and the first to invent building houses. And the poets want fire to be understood by it, as Ovid testifies, in two verses that begin: Nec tu aliud Vestam, etc. This fire is understood as that of the ethereal region, which is pure and inviolable, and nothing is born in it, nor does any animal live in it. The sacrifices of this goddess appear to be very ancient, which, according to Vergil, where it begins: Sic ait, et manibus, Aeneas brought from Troy to Italy, whence the poets call the fire of Vesta sometimes Trojan, sometimes Troico, sometimes Laomedonteo. . Theodoncio writes that this goddess was one of the Penates, and Penates were all the gods who honored them in the houses; And because of this as well as because her sacrifices were very famous in Rome, and because she was an advocate and preserver of the houses, as their inventor, the emperor Octavian made part of his houses a temple for this goddess, as Ovid writes, and all In common they painted it in their homes. Furthermore, Numa Pompilius, second king of Rome, in the fortieth year of the building of the city, according to Perotus, built a temple, where they placed certain virgins to serve him, who were called Vestales after his name, like nuns who they perpetually conserved the fire; and if by chance it went out due to carelessness, it was not to be lit with the other common one, but with tinder lit in the rays of the Sun, by the order that we show in our Sylva Eutrapelias, so that it would be pure and heavenly. These virgins had to be sixteen years old and virgin until they were thirty, and then they had a license to marry; And if, within the said temple and time, someone was found in the sensual sin of adultery, they buried her alive. Whoever long wants to know about the sacrifices and temple of Vesta, read Dionysius Halicarnasseus and Aulus Gellius, and Herodian and Plutarch. They say that Vesta was loved by Priapus. These are very contrary things, because Vesta was that virgin separated from all carnal acts. Priapus was the god given to all the clumsiness of lust; But they said this because it signifies the condition of our desires and because men are inclined to desire those things that are most forbidden to them. The lustful desires nothing more than to touch those who intend to maintain perpetual virginity. Or to denote that by Vesta, who understand fire, that venereal acts cannot be done without natural heat; and thus Priapus loving Vesta is saying that without heat he cannot act.
From Vesta, mother of Saturn
Vesta, who by another name they called Tellus, which means earth, was considered by all the ancients to be the first of all the gods; And since she naturally generates so many things from herself and is the seat of some of her, they called her the great mother of things and gods, and since her properties and effects are many, they gave her many names and worshiped her in various ways. . They called her Ops, Vesta, Verrecithia, Pesinuncia, Openuncia, Materalma, Rhea, Cibile, Alma, Great Pallas, Earth, Tellus, Humus, Tellumon, Arida, Good Goddess, Great Mother, Donor or giver of life, Proserpine, Phrygia, Fauna , Fauta, Mother of the Gods, Rich, Ancient and Cana. Pliny says that she is more deserving of being called mother than anything else in the Universe, and for that reason she is revered, because after we mortals are born, she receives us, according to the ancient custom, that children were dropped on the ground after they were born, as if in the arms of the general mother, who as a loving mother sustains us; and when at death our natural parents reject us, she lovingly receives us and encloses us in her womb, which is the grave, for which reason she was rightly called the great mother and mother of the gods, because the gods of the ancient gentility They were mortal and lived on the things that the earth produces, as all the animals that live on it live.
Ops seems to have been the name of the mother of Jupiter, sister and wife of Saturn, according to Lactantius; but as soon as it is taken for the earth, it is called Deope, which means help, because although the earth in itself has the virtue to generate, it helps itself with our work, and it takes on more virtue to generate, the more it is worked. And so, says Saint Isidro, dealing with the land: Opem eam vocant quod ope melior fiat. He wants to say: They call the land Ops, because with help it becomes better. Marcus Varro calls her Ops, because she is a worker in human things, and rightly so, because there is nothing that helps the lives of mortals more.
Vesta is said because the earth dresses all things or because it dresses itself with green grass. Or it is called Vesta, from vi, which is strength, and this is for being, because with its gravity and force it is firm and does not move, like the planets and heavens; This is what Ovid says: Stat vi terra sua. Vi being Vesta vocatur It means: The earth with its strength is firm, and being with its strength, it is called Vesta.
Vericithia: that is what Saint Augustine called her; She means lady of the mountains, because they had her as the mother of the gods, which are understood as the mountains, because they are high, just as the gods are high in power. Others say that she said this about a high mountain in Phrygia, called Verecithio, in which the inhabitants of it honored her greatly, and she had a temple there. The Romans, in the time of Domitian, built a temple to this goddess, and it was called Pantheon, which later Pope Boniface consecrated to Our Lady, who is called Santa María la Redonda. They brought the image of Berecithia to Rome from Phrygia; It was a very large marble stone, on which a woman was depicted, whom, according to Titus Livy, they received with great ceremonies and rejoicings. And Herodian says that they were so blind to its deity that they believed it to be something divine, and that it was not known what material it was made of, nor was it even believed to have been made by the hands of men; They only had that it had fallen from the sky in a field in Phrygia, called Pesinunto, from which it was called Pesinuncia or Pennuncia. They held her in such devotion and reverence that her captains, when they made a vow to her to get out of some danger and achieve victory, if they returned to Rome to triumph, they first fulfilled the vow that they would not enter the triumph or enter her house.
Rhea is a Greek name; It means the same as Ops Cibele; according to Fexto Pompeo; It was said this way of the figure or body that in geometry they call a cube, which is like a dice with six sides or equal surfaces, because this figure shows the firmness of the earth, and that it is not movable, the other things being the same. world, and because by releasing or throwing a die, however it falls, it then settles and affirms. Thus, the cube body means in Greek the firm or stable thing, or it is said that way about a Phrygian mountain of the same name, where sacrifices were made to it, or by a priest of his so called.
Alma, which means holy or nurturing thing, and this name is very appropriate for the earth, because it raises us with its fruits and things that it engenders. It is called alma, ab alendo, which is to create, and that is what Vergil calls it, where it begins: Alma parens, etc. And because she who raises is called mother, that is why they call the earth mater alma, which means mother who raises.
Magna Pales. Palas means pastures, and it suits the land, because it gives all the pastures to the animals; and for this reason she was a deacon of shepherds, since shepherds do not seek anything other than maintenance for their livestock; so Vergil called it, where he begins: Te quoque magna Pallas, etc. And it is called magna, which means great, because it has great virtue to provide pasture in all parts of the world, for as many animals as there are in it. there is. They call it earth, a terendo, for trampling or stepping on.
It is called Tellus from the seminal force that the earth has to raise or give birth, because it raises everything that is born.
Humus, they call it that because the earth is humid, because it has water in itself, both in its face and in its bowels.
Telumon: This name means the deep earth; It is the one that we neither step on nor from it fruits are generated, as the roots of the seeds do not reach it. This is a name more of a deesa than an element; It is called Telumon, Quasi Tellus humens, meaning humid earth, and this is because the waters that are enclosed in the bowels of the earth make that part humid.
Arid; This name God gave to the earth, and it is the name of the earth, as to that part that was open to the waters, which remained dry; and this is a proper name, insofar as it is an element; Others say that it is called Arida, plowing, because the land is only that which is plowed for its firmness.
Bonadea means good goddess. This is because there is none among all the goddesses of the Gentiles of as many benefits as the earth, because she is the giver of all goods, such as all things she generates and all animals she maintains.
Great mother. This is what Ovid calls her in the fable of the goddess Themis and her bones to the stones. She is called great because of dignity and virtue. She is a mother because she begets things and raises and maintains them.
Donor or giver of life, because she helps us with it, supporting us and sustaining us with what she creates, and the things that medicine uses, with which life is preserved, are born in her.
Prosérpina is said from pro, which means for, and serpo serpis, for spreading what grows or crawling along the ground, and thus the most that is born on earth, goes as if crawling.
She is called Phrigia, because in this province they made sacrifices to her.
Fauna is called fouendo, which is to maintain, and this is appropriate after mother, because just as by engendering she is called mother, so by maintaining the thing engendered she is called Fauna; So says Macrobius.
Fatua, which means crazy, according to usage; but according to the Latin derivation, it is said for faris, because when children are born they do not speak until they touch the earth, and for this reason the earth is called talkative, because it seems that it teaches them to speak.
They say the mother of the gods, because one, called Ops, who was the sister or wife of Saturn, according to Lactantius, was the mother of Iupiter, and Neptune, and Pluto, and Iuno, and others who were considered the first and greatest gods. ; and because the rest came from these, since she was the mother of these, she would be the mother of all. And according to this, Ops sometimes means the mother of Jupiter, sometimes the earth; or because the ancients believed that the heavens and stars were generated from the earth, and these they called gods.
Call her Rich, because all riches come from the earth.
Cana calls it Martian, because the earth is very old. Pausanias says that in a certain part of Greece, near the river Crasides, there was a temple dedicated to the earth, where she was called the long-breasted goddess, who gave birth a lot and had many children around her, for which reason they gave her a painted garment. of various colors and a mantle woven of green herbs, so that the earth and the variety of fruits and metals and benefits that are generated from the earth, and from the abundance of all things, could be seen more clearly.
What the poets pretend about this goddess
The ancients pretend, as well as Homer, in the Hymn, that she was the wife of Titan; others of Zeal; and it was the cause of her seeing that the Sun constantly gives her, and that she, as a female, with her humidity, with the heat of Titan, which is the Sun, condenses her and incites her to generation of things.
They gave this goddess a chariot for her to sit on and lions to carry her, and on her head they put a crown full of towers, and she had a scepter in her hand as queen; They played tambourines and caskets and copper basins. Furthermore, the Corybantes were armed and with drawn swords, and near her were many wild animals of which she believed she was the mother, as Lucretius says, in four verses that begin: Quare magna Deum, etc. They placed empty chairs around these chairs, which moved with the movement of the cart, so that no one would sit on them. They sacrificed the sow and the ox to him, and consecrated the pine for her tree.
She is sitting in the middle of a chariot, to denote that the earth is firm and immobile, in the middle of the world in the air, equally distant from the sky, not resting on anything else except itself. The wheels on which this chariot moves denote that the heavens move around the earth. This is what Saint Isidro says, where he begins: Quod curru vehitur, quia ipsa terra, quae pendet in aere quod sustinetur rotis quia mundus rotatur, et est volubilis. He means: This goddess brings a chariot, because she is the earth that is hanging in the air.
That it is founded on wheels means that the whole world is surrounded and turns around. Furthermore, they denote that the works of the earth go around, like a circle, like plowing, sowing, harvesting, and then doing the same thing again, another and other years. This goddess rides in a chariot, to signify the royal state, as used by ancient kings.
By the lions that move this chariot they denote that all things in the world, no matter how wild they are, are tamed; This is what Saint Isidro says, where he begins: Leones illi subiiciunt mansuetos ostendant nullum genus esse terrae tam ferum, quod non possit subici, aut superari in ea. He means: To this chariot they harness lions, to imply that there is no lineage of things born on earth, so fierce, that it cannot be subdued or defeated in some way. And to denote that just as the lions, being so brave and kings of the other animals, are subject to man, so, the lords of the world, no matter how powerful they are, are equally subject to the laws of nature and have need of the things of the earth, like the others.
By the crown, which is round, the roundness of the earth is denoted; Because of the towers that this crown had, it means that the circuit or roundness of the earth is like a crown full of cities and castles, because of the buildings that it has itself.
The scepter that this goddess had in her hand meant that the royal state, power and riches were on earth, and that the power of the lords was all earth.
With the copper instruments that these priests brought, like barber's basins, shaped like half balls, they denoted the two hemispheres, the upper and lower; They were made of copper, because they worked the land with it before the secret of iron was discovered.
The Corybantes going before the goddess with drawn swords and armed denotes that everything on earth is preserved and engendered and corrupted through its opposite. Or according to Saint Isidro, it denotes that men must fight to defend their country and their king.
They placed empty chairs around these chairs, which moved with the movement of the cart, to denote that all things in the world are movable and move, except the earth. Being empty denotes many parts of the earth being empty, or that many parts of the earth are depopulated by plagues or wars or other accidents, or by meaning that the earth always keeps empty chairs for those who are to be born, and for many living ones who There is always room for those who will come. Furthermore, it is denoted by these empty chairs that on earth no one has rest, because each one in his state does not lack work and unrest, or that men do their jobs and are not sitting, because whoever is sitting strikes.
They sacrificed the sow to this goddess because the fertility of this animal denoted the fertility of the earth. They sacrificed calves and oxen to her, to denote that they were useful animals for cultivating the land.
They consecrated the pine tree to her, because Athis became this tree in love with her, according to what Ovid says, where it begins: Et succinta comas, etc.
How the great mother loved Athis
Ovid says that the goddess called the great Mother, in love with the pure and chaste love of Athis, a most beautiful young man, gave him care of his sacrifices, on the condition that he would remain virginal and modesty forever, and he promised so. with an oath, which he did not fulfill, because he fell in love with a beautiful nymph, daughter of Sagari, a river from a Phrygian forest. The deessa, angry, seeing that she had been slighted, suddenly caused the nymph to die, and dismissed the young man Athis from her service. Who, contrite for his sin, became so furious that he went around like a madman, running through the mountains always shouting and howling and shaking his head from side to side, and castrated himself, so as not to further offend his friend.
According to Macrobius and Saint Augustine, Athis is understood as the Sun, and they call him young man because every day he is born anew. To love the great Mother, who is the earth, Athis, is to say that all the conceptions and engenderings of things are caused by the influence of the sky and the Sun, and because this effect makes the Sun more than any other of the celestial bodies, For this reason the earth loves Athis, which is the Sun. It says that it castrated itself, because at a certain time of the year the rays of the Sun do not generate, but rather consume, as in it is seen in winter time, that nothing is destroyed. He breeds outside of the earth, as if he were castrated. To say that he castrated him because he found him with the nymph is to say that at this time there is too much humidity and rainfall. That Athis walked like crazy over hills and mountains denotes the continuous movement that the Sun makes around the entire earth, tilting either to one side of the equinoctial, or to the other, which they call the declination of the Sun, which we show in our Astronomy.
Of Moon
Moon is the name of a planet and of a woman who would be excellent in some virtues or inventions in her time, and due to her excellence there would not only be this name of Moon, which is a name of light and enlightenment, but even by way of flattery they almost applied it to her. everything that is said about the planet Moon. Ioan Bocacio claims to be the Moon, daughter of Hyperion; others say of Jupiter and Latona; Euripides makes her the daughter of the Sun; others her sister. They named her variously, calling her Luna, Delia, Phebea, Lucina, Elecina, Hecate, Diana, Proserpina, Argentea, Mena, Cinthia, Trevia or Tresvia. They make her male and female; give him a two-horse chariot to ride in, as Marcus Manilius writes, where he says: Quadri iugis, et Phoebus equis, et Delia Bigis. She means: Phebo, who [is] the Sun, rides with four horses, and Delia, who is the Moon, rides with two, one white, the other black. Ovid wants them both to be white, where he begins: Ut solet in niveis, etc. Others say that this cart of the Moon brought bulls; others, that a single mule; others, two deer. They give her wings, and they want her to dress and change clothes of various colors, and to wash in the Ocean first before she dresses, and to be younger than the Sun, and to have horns, and to carry arrows and to be a hunter and a virgin. ; others that she is not, because she was a woman of the Air, in whom there was Dew as a son; Others say that she conceived a daughter named Ersa by Jupiter. Nicander says that she was loved by Pan, god of Arcadia, who for the price of a fleece of white wool brought her to his love and consent; Others say that the shepherd Endymion loved her, and that at a certain time she left him, until Endymion pastured the white cattle of the Moon for thirty years, and then the Moon returned so much in love with her that she began to kiss him. Endymion had fifty daughters on the Moon.
For greater clarity of these fictions of the Moon, it must be noted that when the poets speak of the gods and deities, they sometimes meant by them things that are in nature; other times not. And when they meant something, they meant it in two ways. The one is that by a single name of a god or deesa they meant many things of nature. The other, that with many gods and goddesses, they meant one thing. The former seems to be an example in Iuno, which sometimes means the earth, sometimes the air, sometimes the riches, as we said elsewhere. And this did not happen due to the error of those who spoke these words, but it was because that thing was put by the wise to mean various things; other times by many gods and goddesses they meant one thing, just as with Oceanus, Neptune Nereus, Thetis, Doris, who are three different gods and two goddesses, and but all of them meant only the waters, although in the motives and reasons they differed. Likewise with Pallas, Mars, Belona, being diverse, they meant war and the things belonging to it. Apollo and Sun, being diverse, as there are many sun gods and many Apollos, yet in nature they do not mean more than one thing, which is the planet Sun; and in this way Iuno, Luna, Lucina, Diana, Proserpina, Hecate, are six different goddesses, according to the poets; However, they all mean the same thing, which is the planet Moon.
From the parents of the Moon
They say they are the Moon, daughter of Hyperion, because this Hyperion was the first to observe the movement of the planets and stars, which is why he was called the father of astrologers, who began the practice of the movements of the planets, mainly of the Sun. and Moon. Although according to Diogenes Laertius, the first to declare the eclipse of the Moon to mortals was Anaxagoras, although others attribute this principle to Typhon, others to Endymion, others to Atlante. She says that she is the daughter of Jupiter and Latona; By Latona we mean Heaven, and by Iupiter we mean our powerful and sovereign God, creator of everything. And because God created the greater and lesser lights, which are the Sun and the Moon, in the sky, this is why they gave him these parents. They say they are the daughter of the Sun because the Moon receives its clarity from the Sun. She is the sister of the Sun because she and the Sun are children of Hyperion, or because at the same time they were made from the same Father, creator of all things, or because as brothers they divided times, illuminating the Sun by day and the Moon by night. , or because so much of the year is night as it is day, or because of the similarity of the light, that in the sky there are no other bodies that give such clarity, or because the bodies are similar in size, according to the opinion of the vulgar, although in truth the Sun is often larger, as we said in our Astronomy.
Of the names of the Moon
It was called the Moon of Light, which is a name of enlightenment, because after the Sun it is the one that illuminates the most.
Her name is Delia, because they pretend to have been born on an island called Delos; This is what Ovid called it, in two verses that begin: Iam mihi prima dea est, etc.
Her name is Phoebea, because she is the daughter or sister of the Sun, who is called Phebo; so Vergil called it, in two verses that begin: Noctivago Phoeve, etc.
It is called Lucina, because it shines at night or because it brings to light the newborns that are in the darkness of the womb; because among the planets the Moon has the main power over conceptions and births, according to astrologers, for which reason it happens that women sometimes give birth to living creatures in the seventh month, and before that they cannot, and this is because in the seventh month it has The Moon has power over all the creatures that are in the womb. In the eighth month no living creature comes out, because then Saturn reigns, which is a bad planet, and its condition is to kill by intemperate coldness. In the ninth month Iupiter has power over the creature, and in this month childbirth is common, since Iupiter is of noble quality and influencer of life. However, although the creatures are born in the ninth month, which is from Jupiter, they did not give power over those who give birth except to the Moon. The reason for this is because one thing is what belongs to the creature that is born, and another thing is what belongs to the mother who gives birth to it. It belongs to the creature that is born that when it is born it is in such a disposition that it will not die while being born, but that it can live; This influences Jupiter, according to the work of the second cause. What matters to the mother who wants to give birth is to be able to give birth without danger, and this cannot be done without sufficiently opening those places through which the child has to come out, and this opening is done with the humidity of the Moon, relaxing the tight and tenderizing the hard; and for this reason they attribute to this planet Moon what belongs to those that give birth and not to Jupiter; and for this reason the Greeks call it 'Tlithya, because it favors those who are in labor. Which opinion Ovid writes, introducing Almena, mother of Hercules, when she gave birth to him, how Iuno had with her, where he puts the Moon, and for this reason among the Gentile poets the women who were in labor pains called Iuno Lucina, I mean by Iuno meaning Lucina. This is how Terence introduces it, that she who gave birth wanted to say: Miseram me differor doloribus, Iuno, Lucina fer opem. And Plautus introduces a pregnant girl, who says: Perii mea nutrix, obsecro te, uterum dolet Iuno, Lucina tuam fidem. She means: I am lost, she loves me; I beg you, my belly hurts, oh Iuno Lucina, for your faith. They are reasons why she is in pain, that she does not finish what she begins to say; and for this very reason it is called Elicina from Elicio, because it is brought by force, that is, because the creatures are tied to the mothers with a belly, which is the navel in the creature, and until it matures and by movement of nature is cut, the creature does not come out.
She is called Hecate, because the ancients believed that the Moon presided over matters of spells; As the sorcerer women invoked Hecate and the Moon, they believed they were both (although different) the same thing, and thus by Hecate they understood the planet Moon; and this is how Medea understood it, when she conjured her to do the work of Aeson's removal, according to Seneca and Ovid. Others say that Hecate is a Greek name, which means hundred, in order to understand by this certain number an uncertain number of the greatness of the power of the Moon.
She is called Diana because just as arrows and a bow are attributed to Diana, so the Moon has rays of light that hurt like arrows, as is seen by experience in the wounds of animals, which are touched by the rays of the Moon, when The rest of the body is not touched by having a torn blanket. From its rays comes the disease they call lunatics; or give them arrows, because pain comes to those who give birth when the Moon with its humidity does not soften or widen the places where the creatures come out, which are no less than from wounds made with arrows. The arc they give denotes the revolution that the Moon makes around the world. She is a hunter like Diana, because as the Moon shines at night and at this time the animals come out of their herds to look for food, it is the ideal time to hunt. They apply hunting to Diana as long as she is a virgin, because just as a virgin does not engender or give birth to anything, so hunting is of no benefit. She is a virgin like Diana when she is waning, in which time she engenders nothing, but rather causes the humidity to diminish, as seen in the waxing and waning of the sea, and in the fish that say wafers, and the marrow of animals. Or the Moon is a virgin because it influences coldness and humidity, and humidity is something contrary to carnal council, and because not having carnal desires helps virginity; For this reason they say that the Moon or Diana, understood by her, maintains perpetual virginity, and that she was a virgin. Diana is called duana, which means two, because she shines at two times during the day and at night, or because her light sometimes reaches into the day; or from dian, which means new, and neos, light, almost new light, because in each of the months it receives new light from us, although the Moon is always half illuminated by the Sun.
By the nymphs who give Diana service, we understand the humities, of which the Moon is the cause. They say that they serve it because the humities help things as ministers or devices to the influence of the Moon; which is better received in something moist and tender than in something hard and dry. Theodoncio differentiates between Diana and Luna, saying that when the Moon comes with her light, until the morning it is called Diana, and when it shines in the evening, it is called Luna. And it is worth knowing that, according to Tullio, there were many women called Dianas, at least three mentioned. The first was the daughter of Iupiter and Proserpine, who they say gave birth to Cupid. The second, daughter of the third Iúpiter and Latona. The third, daughter of Upis and Glauca. Destas, the daughter of Iupiter and Latona, was the most famous, to whom the poets attribute everything that is said about them all; and it was possible for her to have loved virginity, as there are many women who hate the company of men, and thus she would gain an illustrious name for her perpetual virginity; and having been fond of hunting and having applied to it to exalt it what is attributed to the Moon by way of comparison, due to her merits or because of her father Iupiter.
It is called Proserpine, because as Proserpine was stolen from Pluto and hidden in hell, and kept there by his wife, so the Moon is stolen for a certain time and is in hell, because all the time that the Moon does not appear to set on the Sun they say be in hell with her husband Pluto. Or because when the Moon is crescent, I mean when it comes out of conjunction and grows to the point of fullness, it is not a virgin, because it engenders by growing humities and other things, and then the name Proserpine fits it, because it is as a married owner. Furthermore, they call the Moon and the sown seeds and harvests Proserpine, and then this name Proserpine has a derivation and means: Quasi prope nos serpens, which means walking or tracking close to us, which fits the Moon, since among the There are no celestial bodies that walk closer to the earth than the Moon.
They call it Argent, which means silver thing, this is because it influences silver to be generated more than another planet. And for this reason the alchemists, giving the planets names of metals, or the opposite, call the silver Moon, and the gold Sun, and the lead Saturn, the tin Jupiter, the iron Mars, the copper or brass Venus, the quicksilver. Mercury, whose names they give because of the property that the planets have over such metals.
It is called Mena from mene, which in Greek means death, because in the presence of the Sun it loses its light, or because of the many defects and changes it has; It is already in conjunction, it is already decreasing, it is already growing, it is already undergoing eclipse, never persevering in a being. Which they wanted to imply by the clothing of various colors that they attributed to him.
Cynthia is called a famous mountain so called on the island of Delos, where Apollo and Diana, who is the Moon, are pretended to have been born.
It is called Trivia or Tresvia, because in three places the poets give it different names. In the forests they call her Diana, in heaven, Luna, in hell, Prosérpina. This is how Vergil used it, where he begins: Tria virginis ora Diana, etc. It means: The virgin Diana has three gestures, because the ancients painted her with three habits, that is: when she is new, she shows a very thin face, and when she is medium she shows a different one, and when she is full, she shows another different one from all; and for this reason Seneca calls it Triforme, which means three forms.
How to understand being the Moon male and female
They say the Moon is male and female because sometimes it has active virtue, and this is attributed in things of nature to the male, and other times it has passive virtue, which is attributed to the female. That its operation and virtue is active is seen in the generation of dew, because rising from the earth and water, with some heat from the Sun, exhalations and vapors, which due to lack of heat, because the Sun is removed, cannot rise high. , and although they rise somewhat, when night comes with their humidity they thicken and with the coldness they tighten and freeze and fall on the earth and grasses; and since this coldness and humidity of the night comes mainly from the Moon, and because the mother gives place where generation takes place, and the air is the place of this, for this reason the air will be called mother, and the Moon, which work, father. That other times it is female or that it has passive virtue is proven by what is generated from the humidity understood by the Moon, and the heat understood by the Sun. Or they said that the Moon is male and female, because with its humidity and coldness it gives nourishment. to some things and corrupts others; and to denote this the men made sacrifices to him in women's habits, and the women in men's habits.
What is dalle a la luna car
They give it a chariot to denote that it walks around the earth, as well as the wheels of the chariot around the axle. This chariot they pretend to have been given to her by Iupiter, because she, being of the lineage of the Titans, as John Bocacio says, not only did she not want to give them favor, but she helped Iupiter and the other gods against them. And to say that the Moon, being of the Titans, helped Iupiter, is that the Titans denote the proud, and the gods and Iupiter the virtuous; and it is the Moon against the Titans, because its complexion as a planet is contrary to pride, because it is cold and humid, and coldness and humidity repress the fumosities belonging to pride, which arises from heat. Giving it two horses to carry this chariot is to denote its movement, because at night and day it walks and appears, which was best denoted by saying that these horses, one was white and the other black: when it appears during the day, it denotes the white horse. , and when at night, the black; or when it appears at any time, it is denoted by white, and when it does not appear, by black, which does not happen with the Sun, which only appears during the day. Or give him two horses, to denote his two qualities of coldness and humility; and because these are qualities of the night, and because the Moon walks at night and her dominion is of the night, they call her a night walker, and they call her horses Noturnus; This is what Vergil called it, in the verses that begin:
Iamque dies coelo concesserat alma quae curru,
noctiuago Phoebe medium pulsabat Olympum.
And now the day had been granted by heaven to the soul which was in the car,
At night, Phoebe struck the middle of Olympus.
It means: now the day of heaven will be removed, and the holy Moon in its night chariot touched the middle of the sky. And Seneca also calls the cart night carts. Some say that these two horses were both white is to denote the light or clarity of the Moon, which best suits the color white. Bringing this cart with bulls was to denote that the Moon is the cause of the generation of many things and is necessary for the tillage of the land, denoted by the bulls with which it is worked. Others said that this cart carried a mule, as Fextus Pompey said, was to denote that the Moon itself is sterile due to its natural coldness, and the mule is an animal that does not engender; Or for this reason the ancients wanted to declare that the Moon does not have light from itself, but rather receives it from the Sun, just as this animal is not born from an animal of its own breed, but from another, such as from a donkey and a horse, or from a mare and stallion Those who said that the chariot carries two deer was to signify the hasty movement of the Moon, which, among all the planets, there is no one that completes its circle faster, and that is why they said deer, because they are very light in their movement. And this is what they meant when they pretended that the Moon had wings.
The clothing of different colors that they attribute to the Moon is to denote its many mutations, as we said.
To say that it washes in the sea is because the simple think when it is placed that it goes into the water, and that it remains in it until it is seen again, as everywhere you gave the earth and water equally from the sky; and for this reason they said that he was washed before he was dressed, that is, before he came out to our eyes.
That the Moon is younger than the Sun is because they believed the Sun was her father, as has been said.
Giving it horns is to declare that just as many animals have horns as weapons with which they harm, so the rays of the Moon harm, as we have said. Or because when it comes out of conjunction it has thin tips like horns.
How is it understood to conceive the Moon of Air the dew, or from Jupiter to Ersa
To say that she was a woman of the Air and that she generated the dew, in this they wanted to declare the natural generation of the dew, of which the Air must be the mother and the Moon the father, as we said in the third article; but because the Moon has the name of a female and the Air of a male, and because the dew is generated from these things, they said the Moon was the mother and the Air the father; but according to natural reason, it is the opposite, because the air gives place as a mother and the Moon acts as a father, and the passive virtue in nature takes the place of the mother and the active virtue of the father. Those who said that the Moon conceived a daughter named Ersa from Jupiter wanted to declare this, because ersa in Greek means dew, and Jupiter, among other meanings, denotes air; and thus, because the dew is generated from the Moon and Air (as has been said), this is why the fable says that the Moon generates Ersa from Jupiter. Whoever wants to see the causes of how dew, fog, hail, snow, water and other natural things are generated, read our Astronomy or Natural Philosophy.
How Pan loved the Moon
That Pan loved the Moon means that Pan, the god of Arcadia, is understood by all shepherds; and to love Pan is to say that shepherds love the Moon, because its clarity is very useful for them to defend their livestock from beasts, and because with its humidity it keeps the grasses of the forests and meadows fresh for their sustenance. To say that Pan, for a fleece of white wool that he offered, got what he wanted from it and brought it to the mountains with him, is that the shepherds had her as a goddess of the mountains and pastures, and as such they offered sacrifices, killing a lamb. white; and for this reason she is said to have been defeated and deceived by Pan by a fleece of white wool, because by this sacrifice it seemed to them that it gave them light and gave sustenance to their livestock. They said that what they offered her was a lamb because the Moon is female, and they sacrificed female animals to the female goddesses; She was white because the Moon was a celestial goddess, and white animals were sacrificed to such, and black animals were sacrificed to those infernal. Vergil mentions this deception or love that Pan used with the Moon, where he says: Munere sic niveo lanae si credere dignum est, etc. He means: With the gift of wool so white, if it is worth believing, Pan, god of Arcadia, deceived you, oh Moon, by calling you to the high mountains, and you did not hesitate to follow them.
How Endymion loved the Moon
Endymion loved the Moon, as Pliny says, and was rejected by it until Endymion kept the Moon's cattle for thirty years; that he returned so much in his love that he decided to kiss her, and had fifty daughters by her, although some say that there were only three, it is known that the poets faked many things for the pure history and memory of some illustrious men, disguising their exploits with fabulous ornaments; and thus what is said of Endymion was said for perpetual memory of the life of this man. Endymion was the son of Acthilius and lived in a cave on a mountain in Ionia, a region of Asia, called Latmus, of whom they say that he perpetually slept and was loved by the Moon. Endymion, according to Saint Fulgentius, was a great wise man, who first found the art and order of the movement of the Moon. And because for this he had needed many times of consideration, because he had no principles from anyone, he spent thirty years on the said mountain; and because to observe this it was necessary to watch at night, this is why they say that he came out at night. And to say that he always slept is because he was very attentive to the considerations of the movement of the Moon; and because those who sleep do not do anything, so those who go on strike and do not do something manual usually say that the vulgar say they sleep; Such was Endymion, who was so attentive to this that he did not concern himself with anything else; This is why he tells the fable that he always slept. To say that Endymion initially rejected the Moon for a certain time, that is, Endymion began this speculation and left it for a few days, and thus he would not love the Moon. To say that after he grazed the white cattle of the Moon he loved him again is that just as grazing cattle is taking care of them, not falling asleep at night to protect them from the wolves, so consideration is great care; Therefore, this speculation of Endymion is called feeding. To say that these cattle were white, is that Endymion had this consideration in places and high mountains, and in such places the white snow always comes, because such places are convenient for considering the things of heaven, to avoid the conversations of other men. . They said they were white cattle of the Moon because he did not care about anything else, except what the movement and effects of the Moon pertained to. That the Moon descended at night, and the shepherd Endymion kissed it while sleeping, means that Endymion by long consideration found the truth of the Moon's movement; and when he found the reason for it, because it is the act of lovers to kiss when they first see each other: then, when Endymion finished finding the art and order and certainty of his movement, he began to kiss her. To say that he had three daughters in her, or fifty, is to declare the many diversities and effects of the Moon, he put a finite number by an infinite number. This was the first, according to Lucian, who showed mortals the account of the Moon. There were those who said that Endymión was a lazy man and so given to sleep that an adage was ordained for this reason that says: The dream of Endymión is said by those who do things very slowly, or so carelessly or with so much phlegm, that it seems that they are sleeping. In saying that he began this speculation and left it and then returned to it, it means that diligence and perseverance in all things is useful. Some believe that Endymion was a shepherd who took pleasure in grazing his cattle at night, when the other shepherds had gathered theirs and were sleeping; and as with this diligence they gained great weight, the fable gave rise.
From Venus
Tulio mentions three Venuses. The first says she is the daughter of Caelius and Dia, who was honored in Elis, a city in the Peloponnese, in Greece, and they called her Venus the great. She had this ribbon called in Greek ceston; The poets make her the mother of the two Cupids, according to Ovid: Alma fave dixi geminorum mater amorum. She wants to say: "Oh lady, give me a favor, mother of two loves." Give them daughters to the three Thank you. The second Venus was also the daughter of Caelius, born without a mother; and of the manner of her birth they say that Saturn, using cruelty to her father Caelius, cut off her genitals, and falling into the sea, from her blood, mixing with the foam of the sea, he was engendered. Venus. This is what Ovid says, introducing Venus who speaks with Neptune, saying that she is related to the sea, because she was born from it, where it begins: Aliqua et mihi gratia, etc., and because she was born like that, the Greeks called her Aphrodisa or Aphroditi, from aphros, which is foam; or because, according to Saint Fulgentius, she says that she said this because the humor or virile seed imitates the foam of the sea. Those of the island of Cyprus held her in great veneration, about which Pomponius Mela says that the inhabitants of Papho, a city of Cyprus, claim to have first seen Venus emerge naked from the sea, and grow up there, and Ovid says the same. This is the one who began to form a congregation of public women in Cyprus, being a virgin girl of high lineage; She had so ardent sensual desire for it that not only to some, but to all she gave herself; and to cover up her dishonesty, by common custom she led those of Cyprus to use the same thing. Namely, that her daughters, her maidens, earned money from foreigners to marry, which custom spread in the lands of Apulia and Calabria, according to Theodoncio writes.
The third of those named Venus was the daughter of Jupiter and Dion, and this is the one who was given as a wife to Vulcan and the one who loved Mars. Some give Venus as parents to Saturn; others to Bacho. Saint Augustine puts three others: one was the one they adored and served the virgins, and this one they called Vesta; the married women revered the other; the third, public women. Other authors add another Venus, four in number, and they say that she was born in Syria and was the daughter of Cyrrho, called Astarte, according to Iosepho dealing with Salamon, where he says that although some call her Asterte, it must be said Astarte. Others put only two: one they honored the virgins and the married ones who were honest and chaste, and they called this Venus Verticorda, as if it were said: Venus the one who turned hearts, because they believed that she had the power to upset the hearts of women. , so that they would separate themselves from bad thoughts and maintain chastity. Pliny and Valerius Maximus mention this, telling how the ten men who governed Rome gave orders to consecrate and honor this goddess, and chose Sulpicia, wife of Fulvius Flaccus, to serve as her. The other Venus was served by women who lived freely and freely in lustful exercises. Pausanias put three, and called one heavenly, the other popular, and the third Apostraphia. Plato puts only two and only two Cupids; but in truth it is common that no Venus is understood without Cupid; so that if we make only one Venus, there is only one Cupid, because by Venus the ancients wanted to mean, according to Saint Fulgentius, the voluntary life of delights, similar to epicuria, which life was eating and drinking, of which begets Venus, which is the carnal city hall; and from Venus comes Cupid, which is the desire to experience or put into execution such carnal council, and for this reason as many Cupids have to pretend to be as many Venuses as there are; and thus those who put two Venuses understand two Cupids, which are the divine and the human, or the licit and the illicit sensual delight; Those who put three mean three loves and three Cupids. By one we understand love without desire for sensual delight, which is what we have for God and our country, and for virtuous men, and for those who do us good, and this is called heavenly and pure love, as lacks libidinous stain, and this Venus is called celestial. By the other Venus that they say is popular, we understand the natural inclination that every animal has by order of God, through which it is moved to engender its similar, for the preservation of individuals, and this includes the matrimonial council, and Cupid's son. of this is lawful. But by the third Venus, which Pausanias calls Apostraphia, the forbidden dishonest love is understood, and thus mother and child must be hated by the Christian. This presupposes, we will now speak of Venus as if she had been one, to declare the poetic pretenses, although the poets attribute everything that is said about Venus to the second, born from the foam of the sea, and to the third, woman of Vulcan. They give this one a car that is carried by swans; They dedicate to him the dove from the birds and the myrtle from the trees, and the rose from the flowers. She is a friend of laughter; They paint her swimming and naked with a shell in her hand; other times with a turtle at her feet. They named her by various names; the most used are: Venus, Citherea, Acidalia, Hesperus, Vesperugo, Lucifer, Ericina, Salamina, Paphia, Adalia, Gnidia, Cyllenia, Melanis, Migonites, Aserea, Colias, Epistropha, Euplea, Ambologera, Olympia, Speculatria, Ontica, and so others.
Venus being the daughter of Iupiter and Dion is because the virtue and cudicia that God put in the generation of each similar thing is conceived of the elemental heat understood by Iupiter, and of the corruptible matter of the elements, understood by Dion, and this generation It is understood by Venus.
Giving Venus Saturn or Bacho as parents is because as Saturn showed sowing and gathering bread and other fruits, and Bacho showed the use of wine; and since the appetite or desire for sensual vice understood by Venus is generated from the abundance of eating and drinking, for this reason they give it these parents. That she was born from the foam of the sea is because the seed of the generation of the animal is nothing else, according to Aristotle, but foam of blood that swims on top of it, and from here came the origin of saying that she was generated from the foam; and because dealing with Saturn this was stated, it will not be said here. Give them the three Graces as daughters, because all the things that are generated come from love and grace and concord, which come from Venus.
Give Venus a car because as soon as the planet turns around its circle; Swans carry this car to denote by the cleanliness and whiteness of this bird that the cleanliness and ornamentation of the body incites love, or because as this bird sings softly, so love is incited with music. Others say that doves and brown birds carry this chariot, to denote the lust of Venus with birds that are such. They dedicate the dove to Venus as Ovid says in two verses that begin: Perque slight auras, etc., because it is a lustful bird, and of such great multiplication that it breeds during most months of the year. They dedicate the myrtle to it, as Vergil says where it begins: Formose veneri myrtus, etc., because this tree was crowned when it contended with the other deesas in the Judgment of Paris. Others say that because this tree is on the shore of the sea where Venus was born; others because the smell incites lust, or because it is an odorous tree, and Venus delights in good smells; or because they say they have the virtue of creating love between people and preserving it. The rose was given to Venus, because as beneath her beauty there are points that sting very sharply, so vicious love stings the conscience; or because, according to Saint Fulgentius, things of lust cannot be understood without shame, understood by the redness of the rose, or because just as the rose seems beautiful and then withers, so lust seems like a good thing and quickly comes to repentance and abhorrence of her.
They said Venus was a friend of laughter because joy falls in love and wins friendship.
They paint her naked because they pretend to have been born in the sea, and in the water there is little need for clothing, or because good or bad love cannot be hidden for long. They paint it swimming, to declare that just as those who walk in the water swimming are always worried about whether they will encounter some stumbling block, so those who walk in this delight walk with a thousand fears, or to denote that the life of unhappy lovers is mixed with bitterness. , and fought like the sea, with various fortunes, as Plautus declares.
The seashell in her hand denotes the insatiable libidinous desire of the lustful, because as the natives say, the shell with the entire body open leads to intercourse.
They paint Venus with a turtle at her feet to denote that after the women are married they are silent, so that the ruler speaks for them; and this denotes the tortoise because it has no tongue. Furthermore, Pliny writes that the tortoise, knowing the danger that comes from mating with the male, refuses it and flees from it as much as it can, because the female stands upright, and once the act is over, many times not being able to return to her feet. , birds hunt it; but the incitement of her generation makes her put delight before death. With this they warn that they have to suffer the dangers that those who give birth put themselves in, due to generation.
The first and most used name is Venus, and this is the name of a woman and a planet, although it suits her better since she was the woman who ordered the clumsy public councils. Venus is called, according to Seneca: Quasi vana res. Their delights are vain, because they do not fulfill what the desires inclined to them promise. This is what the Stoics said, as virtuous and teachers of virtues, who said non-legitimate desires were vain. The Epicureans derive Venus: Quasi bona res, because they are lovers of delight, and as masters of vices, they praised delight, even if it was clumsy. Tullius derives: Quasi omnia uniat, and this can be understood insofar as all perfect things in the animals are generated from council, and without it there is no nascent thing; and this derivation fits with reason, because concords come from Venus, taking poetic principles as their foundation, because they say that Venus is the mother of the two loves, which are good and bad.
Cytherea: this is a very common name for Venus, since she was a woman, because of the place where they claim to have been born, which is the island of Cytherea, which was first called Porphiris. And according to Saint Isidro, we will say that she is called Citherea after a high mountain where she was very honored, having a famous temple on it. This seems to have Virgil, where he begins:
Hunc ego sopitum somno super high Cythera.
Aut super idalium sacrata seed recondam.
This I slumbered in a sleep on high Cythera.
Or I will store the sacred seed on the idols.
These are words that Venus spoke to Cupid, her son, saying that she hid Ascanius, son of Aeneas, in the high mountains, called Cytherea, or over Idalio, which were consecrated places, where they had her temples.
Acidalia: this name was appropriate to Venus because of a fountain so called, consecrated to her in Boeotia, in which the Gentiles believed to wash the Graces serving and consecrated to Venus. Others say that acides, in Greek, means care, and this name suits Venus because she is truly the mother of care, making lovers abound in it.
Hesperus and Vesperugo and Lucifer, suits Venus in that she is the planet that has more light than the others after the Sun and Moon; She is called Hesperus among the Greeks, which name suits her for the time in which she appears, because at some times of the year she appears before the Sun rises, and at other times after it has set. When she appears after the setting Sun the Greeks call her Hesperus, and the Latin Vesper; That is what Vergil calls it, where it begins: Ante diem clauso COMPOSTO vesper Olympo. He means: Before Venus will clear the day, closing the sky. Vesperugo means the same as vesperus or vesper, which means this planet, in the time that appears after the setting of the Sun; It is derived from vespere, which means night. Use this name Marco Varrón.
Lucifer: this name suits this planet, in the time that seems before the day; It is a Latin name thus said: Quasi luzem ferat. He means: That after it it brings, because after it the Sun rises; and the Greeks at this time call it phosphoros, which means the same as Lucifer, according to Tullius, and thus this star has two names among the Latins, such as vesper or vesperus or vesperugo, which is all one, and Lucifer. Among the Greeks it is called Hesperus and Phosphorus.
Erecina or Ericina. This name fits Venus as long as she was a woman. And she said this of a very famous temple that she had on Mount Erice, in Sicily, according to Ovid, Seneca mentions this name, where she begins: Natura per omneis, etc. And all the other names that they attribute to her belong to places where they honored her and temples that they built for her vocation; and because they considered her to be a star or a woman who had become a star, and they called the stars and the other luminous celestial bodies gods, as the Book of Wisdom testifies, where they say: Solem, et Lunam, et girum Stellarum Rectores orbis terrarum Deos putaverunt. She means: "They thought the Sun and the Moon and the wheel or circle of the stars that govern the earth were gods."
From Adonis
Of Adonis, son of Myrrha, Ovid writes where he begins: Per iuga per Sylvas, etc. Because he was a very gentle young man, he was so loved by Venus that in the mountains and forests, and day and night, he never left her company, and enjoying her love, he showed her how to hunt, admonishing her as much as she could to always be careful not to go. hunting lions, wolves, bears, wild pigs; He told her that they were fierce beasts and difficult to kill, and Venus did this because she was very afraid that some harm would be done to her. It happened that on the shortest day of the year, Adonis, forgetful of the advice of Venus, attacked a fierce boar and was killed. Afterwards, Venus, weeping bitterly, placed him among the lettuces and made an agreement with Proserpina that he would be with her for six months of the year, and another six with Venus, with such a condition that Proserpina would not lay him in her bed or hug him. They say that from the blood that was shed from the death of Adonis the roses turned red, as they were first white.
Macrobius says that by Adonis, in this pretense, is meant the Sun, a body more beautiful and resplendent than any other of the celestials. By Venus we mean the upper hemisphere, and by Proserpina the lower one. Venus loving Adonis very much is because without the strength and virtue of the Sun nothing would be Venus, because the earth without the virtue of the Sun would engender nothing of itself. The wild boar that wounded Adonis means winter, a cold and harsh time contrary to the generation or production of things; and because at this time the forces of the Sun are lacking, Adonis claims to be dead. The agreement that Venus made with Proserpina that Adonis would be with her for six months is the six months that the Sun spends in the southern signs, in which the days are short and the nights long; and because at this time the power of the Sun to heat the upper hemisphere is weak, they say that they are dead and live with Proserpine; and when it walks in the other six boreal or northern signs, where the nights are small and the days large, it is said to live with Venus, which is why all beauty and production is returned to the fields. This is what Orpheus wanted to feel, when in a hymn he says that Adonis is sometimes with the living and other times with the dead, or because the Sun, telling throughout the year what it seems on one hemisphere and what it hides while being in the other, It comes to light half a year for one and half for the other. To say that when Adonis died they covered him with lettuce, this is said because of the great cold that he experiences in the winter, understood by the lettuce, which is cold. That Adonis died on the shortest day of the year means that at this time, for the aforementioned reasons, the generation of herbs and plants, and many other things, ceases; because at this time the days are short and the Sun strikes obliquely, because it does not rise very high, it provides little heat, and thus cold reigns on the horizon, which is contrary to generation; For this reason on this day they pretend to have wounded Adonis with the boar.
That the roses took color from the blood of Adonis, as they were first white, this is said because at the time when they are born, which is in the spring, it seems that all hearts are lit with the loving desire and eagerness to engender. Being the white roses first denotes that the effect of the cold is to make white. The pig is compared to winter, because just as this weather is humid, this animal is affected by humid and muddy places. Adonis, according to others, is the wheat and the other crops; and to love Venus is that lust loves to eat. The point of spending six months with Proserpina is that the wheat is sown for so long; and to be with Venus for as many months is to be at the temperance of the air, from where they take it later.
From Myrrha, mother of Adonis
Myrrha, according to Ovid, was the daughter of Cinara, of whom Saint Fulgentius says that she loved her father, with whom she had carnal council, having first given him drink; And when Cinara knew that she was pregnant, and his evil, as he began to follow her with his sword drawn, with an attempt to kill her, Myrrha, very afraid, fleeing and crying, asking the gods for favor, was turned into a tree of her own name. ; From this tree, being wounded by Cinara, Adonis was born.
By Cinara, father of Myrrh, is understood the Sun; for Mirra, his daughter, trees that sweat the liquor that they say Mirra, like the tree itself. The Sun is Mirra's father because she helps raise all the trees, like the father helps her children. Myrrha loves her father when through the heat of the Sun she generates a liquor within herself, which, being wounded with its hot rays, sweats and Adonis is born, which in Greek means softness; And because myrrh has a sweet smell, they say that Venus loved it, because it is a very hot liquor that incites lust, or because lustful people love odors very much.
From Minerva
According to Tulio, there were five women called Minerva. The first was the daughter of Iupiter, of whose birth the poets pretend that Iupiter, seeing that his wife Iuno could not have children, because he did not lack them, moved his head and out of the movement Minerva came out armed. Others say she is the daughter of Neptune and the Tritonia lagoon. The birth of Minerva is said to have been on the fifth of the Moon. Name her with several names, give her three garments and a cap of different colors. She had a dispute with the god Neptune over naming the city of Athenas, and with Aragnes Rosin over the art of weaving. She fought with Vulcan to defend his virginity, she found the use of the olive, from whose fruit oil is made. They attribute to him the invention of many arts and the numbers and letters with which we write.
The second Minerva was the daughter of the Giant Palene, one of the sons of Titan, who waged war against Jupiter and the other gods. Of this Theodoncio says that her father Palene or Palante, with crazy love wanted to force her, and she, defending her virginity from her, killed him, as otherwise she could not defend herself against her. Tulio calls this the fifth of the Minervas; They gave her wings, because after her father Palante died, fearing that they would not kill her, she fled so quickly that she seemed to fly rather than run.
The third was the daughter of Jupiter the second, whom Tullius calls Tritonia, and they make her the sister of Mars; and some called her Bellona and that she was the mother of the first Apollo, and she was pregnant with Vulcan, son of Caelius. According to Leontius, the ancients painted this one armed, with troubled eyes, with a long spear and a crystal shield on her breasts, and on it the head of Gorgon or Medusa, and a helmet on her head. . Some have this one because we said she was born from the head of Jupiter, and she is not, because she was a virgin and she had children.
The fourth Minerva was a daughter of the river Nile, according to Tullius, and he says that she was worshiped by the Egyptians. This, according to the truth, was a woman of great prudence, who found some new devices, for which she earned the name Minerva, to whom the arts and devices belong, and they say that she was a daughter of the river Nile, because she lived next to it. or had his lordship.
The fifth was the daughter of Iupiter and Corypha nymph, daughter of Oceanus. It was this Minerva who first invented the four-horse chariot; The history of all will be treated as if it were one. They dedicate to Minerva the rooster and the owl or owl, which took the place of the crow, which she first walked in her company. They say more: that like a Theban Tiresias, once seeing her naked washing, she deprived him of sight, so that he could not boast of having seen Minerva naked. However, Chariclo, mother of Tiresias, obtained from her that instead of her bodily vision she gave him clarity of understanding to know how to divine. She accompanied Minerva to Perseus on his and the nine Muses' adventures. They said she was a virgin; They called her the destroyer of cities. Orpheus claimed to be male and female Minerva.
How does it mean to be Minerva, daughter of Jupiter?
It may be doubted, as there were three named Iupiter, who were at different times, whose daughter Minerva was. To this Eusebius says that she was not the daughter of any of them, because those so called were Greeks, and Minerva was born in Africa; but wanting to make her the daughter of Iupiter, and Minerva being very old, the one who can agree with her in time must be given, which is why they usually give her to the first, and make Minerva the daughter of Iupiter, not being one, it was because of Minerva they understood The ancients understood wisdom, and by Jupiter they understood the greatest god of the gods, to declare that wisdom is such a gift that it cannot come to man except from God, as his own; and this is what Aristotle says, where he begins: Sapientia non est humano, sed divina possessio. He means: Wisdom is not something that men possess, but only God has it all in himself as his own; or because if we have any part of wisdom, we do not have it from ourselves, but from God, who is the source from which all knowledge flows; Thus says the Ecclesiasticus: Omnis sapientia a Domino Deo est. He means: All wisdom comes from God, and this is why Horace says: Proximus illi tamen occupavit Pallas honores. He means: Minerva alone among the gods is on a par with Jupiter; and they did not say that Minerva was the daughter of Iupiter and Iuno together, his wife, as well as other children, because Iuno means the earth or the air, and knowledge does not come from the earth or the air or from any created thing, but from God comes to all who have it. To say that Minerva was born without a mother means that wisdom and reason have no kinship with the carnal councils, from which nothing is born except corporeal and corruptible things, and science and reason is an incorruptible and incorporeal thing; and thus it should not have been meant by something that was born in such a way. They said they were born from the head more than from any other part to denote that just as the head is the noblest member of the body, so wisdom is the greatest gift of gifts, or because the reason and ingenuity and sense of the wise man, which all things are found in the head, according to Saint Isidro. That Minerva was born with Jupiter shaking his head is to declare that wisdom is not achieved without much work and diligence, and although knowledge comes to us from God, we must work to achieve it, and after having learned it, preserve it by continuing to speculate on it; and for this reason they said that it came out through the mouth, because by speaking and communicating it increases. Saying that Minerva was born from Neptune and the Tritonia lagoon is to mean that wisdom is born from the disturbances that men experience in life, and mainly in water. Who ignores having as much care and work in continuous study as the sea (understood by Tritonia or Neptune), storms and movements?
She is born armed because the mind of the wise man is never unarmed to suffer the events of fortune with patience, if they could not be avoided with advice, or because she was the inventor of weapons, or because the poets speak of the Minervas as if they were one. And because Minerva is called Pallas, and she was supposed to be the goddess of war and always be armed, because without wisdom you cannot find a good way to fight or defend against the tricks and deceptions that enemies make against you.
Why do they say Minerva was born on the fifth day of the Moon?
That Minerva was born on five days of the Moon came from a false opinion among poets, who believed that the fifth Moon was always bad for all works, and that things that were to be sterile were born in it; and for this reason Vergil set rules for which days of the Moon were good and which were bad, and he said that the fifth Moon was bad and the seventh and tenth were good, and that the ninth was good for fleeing or hiding something, and the reason they gave for this , that the Giants, enemies of the gods, were born in it, where it begins: Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna. He goes on to say: the Moon gave different orders, some bad days and others very good to work. Flee from the fifth Moon, because the yellow hole and the infernal furies were born in it. Furthermore, in her the earth gave birth to Zetus, and Iapetus, and Typhoeus the brave, brothers sworn to each other to destroy the sky; and if Vergil did not believe this, he would not warn the farmers, telling them to flee from the farm and pick the seventh or tenth; and for this reason when something was sterile, or they called it sterile, they said that it had been born on the fifth day of the Moon. And because they make Minerva a virgin, and virgins do not conceive or give birth, they said that she was born on the fifth Moon; and this means Minerva insofar as she is taken as a wife, but insofar as she means wisdom, there is no basis for saying that on that day she was truly born.
Of various names given to Minerva
They call Minerva by several names, speaking as if she had been only one: Minerva, Tritonia, Pallas, Athena, Viragoflava.
Minerva is a Latin name, pretended to mean wisdom and ingenuity, and it suits her in that they say she found various arts. Minerva is called, according to Saint Isidro: Quasi manus, vel munus varium artium. It means: Hand or gift of various arts. It is called hand because the arts that she found (as soon as she was a woman) were mechanical or manual, such as weaving, sewing, spinning, according to Saint Isidro himself. Saying that she is a gift of various arts suits her as she is a goddess of knowledge. Cicero derives this name Minerva from minuo, minuis, to crumble; or minor, minaris, for threatening, and for this reason she is painted as armed and fierce and the inventor of war, because in war they crumble and frighten. But it is worth knowing that although this name Minerva suits the five named above, because all of them brought some novelty of ingenuity to the world, nevertheless this name belongs more to the first Minerva than to the others, because she found more arts. and first than the others.
Tritonia is said, according to Callisthenes, because she was born on the third day of the Moon, and it is an argument for this that the Athenians consecrated this day to Pallas, and it squares her because just as the Moon usually appears on this day, so, according to Saint Isidro and Saint Augustine, the first Minerva was found or suddenly seen near a lake called Triton, which is in Africa, and it was not known where she came from or what lineage she was from, and she appeared in a virginal habit, not as an old woman or as a married woman, but as a girl. not touched by a man, which is why she was always called a virgin by the poets. And this, according to Eusebius, happened about the twelfth year of the reign of Phoroneus 1792 years before the birth of our Lord Iesu Christo, and this was called the first Minerva; and Pomponio Mela says that the natives of Lake Tritonio celebrate with games ordered by virgins, in memory of Minerva having been first seen there. Tritonia has another derivation: Quasi terrens, and according to this derivation she fits the third, who was the finder of wars; and it is said that way because in wars there are great fears. Or it is called Tritonia, because there are three parts of wisdom: knowing the present things, providing for the future, and memory or agreement of the past; or because a wise man must do three things mainly: give good advice, judge rightly, and act justly.
Pallas: this name is widely used among poets; suits the second and third Minerva. Pallas has three derivations: one to Pallene Ínsula; the other to Pallante Gigante; the third to Pallin, which means fear. Pallene is an island in the Aegean Sea, Greece, on which Minerva was raised, and from there she was named Pallas, according to Paulo Perusino. The second derivation that Pallante says is also appropriate for this same Minerva, because she was the daughter of the Giant Pallante, lord of the Pallene island. The third derivation is Pallen, which means fear; According to this, this name may suit the second Minerva and more so the third; to her second, because of her fear that they would kill her because she had killed her father; The third is even more appropriate, because she is a fan of war, and in war there are many movements and fears.
The fourth name is Athena; This belongs to the first for two reasons: one, by derivation that is derived from athenatos, which means immortal in Greek, which suits this Minerva because it means wisdom, because of the many things of ingenuity that she found, and Wisdom is immortal, because this in itself is not an incorruptible thing, however immaterial. Furthermore, wisdom makes things incorruptible, giving form and memory to them, so that they always persevere, and there is nothing else that can do this, except wisdom, according to Ovid. The other reason is because there was a dispute between Neptune and Minerva over who would name the city, and ruling that she should name it after her, he called it Athenas, as she was called, according to Eusebius. This name is Athena among the Greeks, as well as Minerva among us. According to Saint Isidro, Athena means female; And so the Greeks call women Athena, because she was one of that female among the Greeks; To honor her, they named her city after her.
The fifth name is Viragoflava, which means dark female. This name suits the second and third Minerva, and even more to the third than to the second; She is called Varona, because of her strength, because she is Minerva, goddess of war, and the poets always put her armed; and because the exercise of arms is more suitable for brave men; And because Minerva was considered a goddess of war and armor, they meant that she was not tender like a maiden, but she was tough like a man, and so they called her a man, which means a woman who has the condition and strength of a man. They called her Flava, which means dark, to mean strength, because the color white is always encouraged in women or men with tender and delicate flesh; but the hard and strong meat does not have a white color; or to declare the exercise of weapons by color, and this is the main one, because it happens that one is white and brave, but it does not happen when using weapons that someone remains white, especially in the face, because with the fatigue of the weight and work one becomes hot, and from the heat one sweats, which is done more in the face than in any other part of the body (according to Aristotle's explanation), because the tender moisture of the face is consumed, with which the face is burned, and Because the property of what is burned in general is to turn black, hence it is necessary that those who use war cannot have a white face, but a darker one.
Of the garments they give to Minerva
They attribute to Minerva three garments and a cap or covering called a peplum, which was painted in many colors. By these three garments the concealments of knowledge are denoted, because wisdom is not a manifest thing, but it is so hidden that men can hardly find it; This is what Iob says: De occultis trahitur sapientia. He means: Wisdom is brought out from hidden places; and just as the garment conceals the body, so wisdom is concealed; And so that they do not think this is a small concealment, they put three covering garments. Furthermore, by this number three denote the many meanings of the scriptures of the wise men who do not have just one, but many, just as the Holy Scripture has in some places four or five meanings, which are: Historical or Literal, Allegorical or Tropological, Anagoric. , Parabolic or Metaphorical, as in the first book we declared, by which the wise understand the three garments that they give to Minerva, putting a certain number for uncertain, or because this number three means any crowd, because this number fulfills the measures of things, like the body, which is the most complete thing of geometric figures, which only consists of three dimensions, which are: length, width and depth, as we declare in our Geometry and Aristotle touches on it. The headdress or covering that they give him in vain colors means the eloquence of the wise men, whose speech is with wit and order and composure of figures of Rhetoric; or paint her dressed because good knowledge is often hidden in people we don't think about. According to what we have said, these dresses belong to Minerva insofar as she denotes wisdom and not insofar as she was a woman.
Of the quarrel of Minerva and Neptune
The dispute between Neptune and Minerva over naming the city of Athenas is put by Ovid saying that as these two gods contended over who would name that city, which was called Cecopria after Cecrope, twelve gods sat in judgment, and in the middle of them Iupiter, so that they would be thirteen, because the sentence of the most valuable; They then ordered each of the contenders to show some sign, and whoever showed the best sign would have the right to name the city. Neptune then struck the rocks of the sea with his royal three-toothed scepter and made a fierce horse leap. The judge gods, frightened, wanted to sentence him; Then Minerva, with the spear that she had in her hand, struck the earth, and then made an olive come out with its leaves and fruit. This sign pleased all the gods more, and they granted Minerva the power to name the city.
This is fabulous, as it is true that there were no such gods who contended nor the thirteen gods who settled in judgment; and even though it was granted that the Gentiles called some feigned thing gods, some so-called gods could not perform such signs, because raising horses and olives belongs to God alone; but from this Ovid understood part of the truth of the things that happened in giving name to that city of Athenas. In saying that twelve gods were placed and in the middle of them Jupiter, Ovid wanted to declare the way of judging Athenas by likeness, in which city some claim that in the Ariopagus, which was a place of judgment, the Athenians placed thirteen judges, because the sentence that most of them gave would be valid. Commanding the judges to Neptune and Minerva to show a sign, because whoever showed it best would have the right to name the city, denotes that those who contend in court, the one who best proves his right, wins.
That Neptune with his three-toothed scepter wounding the rocks made a horse come out, and Minerva an olive, and that he valued the sign of Minerva more than that of Neptune, and gave her the power to name the city, says Saint Augustine, following Marcus. Varro, that Minerva was in the time of Cycrops, first king of Athenas, which did not even have this name, because when it was founded two wonderful things appeared in the city, and they were that in one part of it an olive appeared, as it would not have been there. of some known, and in another part they seemed like waters that boiled; and Cicrops, amazed at this, sent to consult Apollo Delphicus, who at this time gave the answers, and the water responded to mean the god Neptune and the olive the goddess Minerva, and it was in the power of the citizens to name the city, from the name of these two gods. As this was known, everyone in the city, men and women, gathered together in the consistory, because it was the custom of that time for women to enter it. All the men gave their vows to Neptune; The women all gave their votes to Minerva, who was deese and female like them, and because there was more one in women than in men, the women's votes were valid, and the city was named after Minerva. And because they call her Athenas in Greek, which means female, they called the city Athenas. Neptune was angry with the city, because they rejected him, taking Minerva as his mistress and queen, using her power, sending the waters of the sea against the city, destroying many of its borders and putting it in danger. The Athenians, to appease the wrath of Neptune, from whom they knew this punishment was coming, took revenge against the females, giving them three punishments forever. One, that they could never again have a voice in council, nor give votes for anything. The second was that children never took the names of their mothers or their lineage, but always of their fathers. The third, that they no longer called Athenian women in that city. Marcus Varro relates these things, which Saint Augustine states as truth, who proves that it is true and credible that the waves of the sea come out through the lands of the Athenians, and he says that this was not difficult for the demons to do, and so he wants it to be done. All of this is accepted as historical truth. Or Minerva won, because the olive denotes peace and the horse war, and the cities and town halls of men love peace more than war. John Bocacio says about this contest between Minerva and Neptune that the city of Athens being maritime, a division arose between the sailors and the mechanics, and that the navigators said that the city was increased by sea navigation, which should be understood by the horse, and that the mechanics and farmers against it said that the city was sustained and increased with manual arts and agriculture, which arts were meant by the olive, because its liquor was necessary for all trades, which is why , of the gods, that is, of the judges named above, the ruling in favor of the mechanics was published, from which, not without reason, Neptune came to be understood by the art of navigation, and Minerva by the mechanical arts, which they pretend to be the inventor of. of most of them. The reason why Cycrops, king of Athenas, wanted to consecrate this city to Minerva was because Minerva was the finder of ingenuity and arts, and thus the city of Athenas was the mother of the arts and all sciences; This opinion is held by Saint Isidro. This dispute between Neptune and Minerva about naming Athenas belongs to Minerva insofar as she was a woman and a goddess, and not insofar as her wisdom was understood by her. It could be doubted by saying that the first Jupiter was king of Athenas long before Cicrops, and with all this we have said that Cicrops was the builder of Athenas, which doubt Leontius resolves by saying that Athenas was not built again by Cicrops, but was set aside by him. a little of the sea
Of the quarrel of Pallas and Aragnes
Minerva, according to Eusebius, was three hundred and sixty-three years before Aragnes, and thus the dispute that the poets pretend to have happened between them is fabulous and fiction of Ovid to tell of the change of Aragnes, because he defeated Minerva and turned her into a spider to signify the knowledge of Minerva and Aragnes in the art of weaving, and we give by this change an example that even if one is very learned in an art, someone who surpasses him can come later, adding some novelties, as in all trades and sciences are made, that the new ones add to the old ones, because time is the great teacher to increase the sciences, as Aristotle says: Tempus bonum cooperatur est horum, et per tempus artium additamenta facta sunt. He means: Time is a good helper for these things, and through time the arts were added. This fable suits the first Minerva, since this contest was about weaving, and the first is the one to whom these devices are attributed. Furthermore, he gives us an example that, no matter how much excellence we seem to have, we should not equate ourselves with God, nor become arrogant in such a way that by not recognizing all of his goodness he punishes us and makes us know what we are, being separated from his grace, and that everything we know It is fragile like a spider's web, as Aragnes experienced, turned into such a small and vile animal.
The dispute between Minerva and Vulcan over defending her virginity was dealt with in chapter sixteen, dealing with Erithonius.
About the arts that Minerva found, and why they dedicate the olive to her
They dedicated the olive to Minerva because she was the first to create the industry of making olive oil; and because all other arts need this liquor either to be enlightened by it or to spend it on art; For this reason she called herself the inventor of many arts. Thus, they attributed many arts to Prometheus, because he brought fire from heaven, which helps them. Or to say that Minerva found many ingenuities and arts can be understood insofar as Minerva means reason and ingenuity, things that without them no art can be found. In another way it can be understood historically that it was true that Minerva was a woman of that name, who found many and very different arts necessary for human life.
Those who attribute to Minerva the invention of the numbers and figures with which we write did not consider it well, because a long time before Minerva there were numbers and letters, as Minerva was in the time of Phoroneus, second king of the Argives, and they were already past. more than three thousand and four hundred years of the world, according to Eusebius' account, and in that time there was not only an account, but also pesos and currency, because as we read in Genesis, in the time of Abraham there was silver currency, and Abraham was long before the first Minerva. And Iosepho says that the sons of Seth, son of Adam, wrote Astrology on columns, so that what they had achieved would come to the notice of those to come. But Minerva could have been the first to invent it in her land, as they attributed the invention of seeds to Ceres and that of wine to Bacchus, as these things were invented long before by others in the world.
Why they say they are Minerva, sister of Mars
In making Minerva the sister of Mars, the wise men wanted to show that it was necessary to have two things: the captain, namely, prudence to be able to govern in the things that should be done in war, and effort to execute what prudence finds should be done. The first is denoted by Minerva. The second for Mars, because the poets attributed more effort than advice to Mars; and because these two things are diverse, the Gentiles created different gods; and thus Pallas differs from Mars, in that by the one they understand wisdom and by the other effort.
From the painting of Minerva
They paint Minerva with black eyes and a very long spear in her hand, with the crystal shield and her armed body, and in front of her the head of Medusa or Gorgon, and a helmet on her head; black and crooked eyes is the continuous thought that the prudent man has in the discourses of human things, because the wise man, understood by Minerva, has crooked eyes, which do not look straight, but rather at two sides: this suits the wise man. because he should not look at just one part, but at many, because he sees the evils that can come to him from various parts; and the warrior must look everywhere to see the deceptions and damage that his enemy can do to him. The long spear denotes that one cannot be prudent who does not look at things very far away, especially in matters of war, where the enemies' snares must be repaired, and kept far away from us. The crystal shield means wisdom, and this weapon stops two things: one as a shield; the other as it is made of glass; As it is a shield, it covers and protects; As it is made of glass, the one behind it sees the things that are on the other side; This suits the wise man, inasmuch as through his prudence he knows how to conceal his advice and desires, and other men cannot know what he wants. The same is true for the warrior who must work to conceal his designs and actions, so that his enemy does not know what he wants to do. Furthermore, he must work, on the contrary, to know the designs of his enemy, so that he can hinder him in what he wants to do. Carrying on the breasts on the shield the head of Gorgon, who had serpentine hair, denotes the knowledge that the captain must have, because prudence is attributed to snakes, as Saint Matheus says: Estote prudentes, sicut serpentes; or because, as Ovid writes, to whomever this head was shown, it turned into stone; This is because it is only reason and knowledge that makes foolish men be like stones, and convinces them that they cannot speak or move; And since this Minerva was so wise, the head of Gorgon suited her well, because with her knowledge she convinced the ignorant and made them dumb as a stone. To say that he had this shield or head of Gorgon on his chest is because the heart is close to the chest, in which some place knowledge. Or the head of Medusa on the chest is prudence in our actions and operations, which we must always have on our chest. The secret of the militia is denoted by the helmet that Minerva wore on her head.
Why the rooster was dedicated to Minerva, and how she admitted it into her company to the crow, and why she then rejected it.
They dedicated the rooster to Minerva because she is a lover of war, and the rooster is a very courageous bird, and a fighter, and vigilant, and knowing of things to come, which announces midnight and dawn, as it is appropriate for the attentive warrior and careful, and not sleepy, and aware of the opponent's tricks.
Ovid writes about how he received the crow in his company, where he introduces the crow to say to the crow that she was of very high lineage, the daughter of a very brave king, and that while walking one day along the seashore, Neptune seeing her so beautiful, was fell in love with her and began to express his great desire to her with loving prayers and honest words; and seeing that everything was of little use to attract her love, he agreed to try if by force she could achieve more; and seeing Neptune approach, she began to flee from her, and considering that she could not escape from her, she began with exclamations to call on the gods to help her; But no one heard her except Diana, goddess of virginity, who, feeling compassion for her because she was a virgin, transformed her into the bird they call a crow. Then the dear Minerva, seeming to him wise and diligent, especially because he had loved her chastity so much, received her for her bird. This is what Ovid tells to give the cause of the crow's change. The poets' intention in this fiction was to declare wisdom for Minerva; and giving him the crow as his companion is because this bird has some virtue of guessing, and because knowing things to come is very high to know. And Saint Isidro says that the soothsayers use this bird as signs to declare things to come. That he later discarded it is because just as due to the condition of divination it belonged to the company of Minerva, which is wisdom, so due to the condition of chatter, as this bird is, it is rejected from the wise, because the wise are of little importance. talk, if they don't ask them something. And this is because the wise continue not to take knowledge with the mouth, but with the ears, and thus those such are quick to hear and slow to speak without need, as Iacobo admonishes, saying:
Sit omnis homo velox ad audiendum, et tardus ad loquendum.
Let every man be quick to hear, and slow to speak.
And to signify this the poets say that at some time the crow was in the company of Minerva, and then was rejected by her.
Why the owl was received in the company of Minerva
Having discarded the crow from Minerva's company (as was said in the previous article), he received the owl or owlet, because this bird sees at night, and from the wise man, understood by Minerva, nothing should be hidden from him no matter how secret it may seem; and because just as this bird is hidden and withdrawn by day in dark places, separated from the conversation of other birds, so the wise man with a desire for speculation withdraws to solitary places, because in the familiarity and frequency of people there is no quiet rest to philosophize, and because contemplation and consideration has more strength at night than during the day, and the spirit shows more vigor at this time, this is why this is more denoted with these nocturnal birds than with others. The reason why these birds hide during the day is because they have very tender eyes and cannot tolerate the clarity or light of day, and they suffer that of the night because they are smaller.
How Minerva blinded Tyresias, because she saw her naked washing
The fabulists say that when Tyresias Thebano, son of Peneto, once saw Minerva naked, who was washing in a fountain, he deprived her of bodily sight because none of her could boast of having seen her naked; However, Chariclo, mother of Tyresias, with great entreaties obtained from her that, for the sight that she had taken from her son, she would grant him clarity of understanding to know how to divine, and so she was granted. Others say that Iupiter and Iuno, his wife, were one day in a jocular and peaceful dispute, saying which ones wanted more, the men to the women or the women to the men, to determine this question they called Tyresias, because there was been a woman for seven years and used all the feminine uses in them; and the accident that caused her to become a woman was that one day, while Tyresias was walking on a mountain, he saw two snakes that were jealous of each other, and with a rod that he had in his hand, he wounded them, and then, being incontinent, he was turned into a woman, and so lived seven years. After this time, she passed by that same place and saw other snakes being like the others; Then she struck them with a rod, saying: May it please the gods that by wounding you now you were able to take me back to my first nature. Having said this, Tyresias then found himself converted into a man as he first was. And because he knew the desires of the states of man and woman, for this reason Jupiter was appointed judge between Iuno and her husband, who pronounced that the man had about three ounces of desire for carnal love, and the woman as nine. From this trial, Iuno, considering herself aggrieved, deprived Tyresias of bodily sight of her, blinding his eyes. He weighed heavily on Jupiter, and since some gods did not contradict what the others did, he could not look back at him; But in return for it he gave him to know things to come, from which this Tyresias came to be a most accurate soothsayer and to have everyone come to him with their doubts.
Minerva taking Tyresias's sight away denotes that women blind men with their silent and loving words. That Iupiter gave Tyresias grace to guess after being blind denotes that he who does not see the world or love it, truly guesses its being, or that the blind are more equipped to speculate secrets of nature than others. Or he means that he who tastes the sweet fruit of wisdom, understood by Minerva, remains blind to other outdated and worldly things; or that when we look into the divine wisdom of God we remain blind and know that we absolutely do not know anything. Later receiving sight with the eyes of the soul and guessing denotes that after, helped by God, we consider things, then what had been removed from the body, we recover great acuity with the eyes of the soul or understanding, with which we will wisely predict what is to come.
By Tyresias they understood time, and by snakes the revolution of the year. Tyresias is male in winter because just as the male does not engender anything in himself, so at this time the force of the shoots of the trees and plants does not produce, and everything seems to be enclosed. But after it has seen the animals gather affectionately with one another, and wounded them with a rod, that is, with the boiling of spring, it becomes the feminine sex by generation and springs from the things that are then done, coming out of its skins. And because autumn presses all things in such a way that, resisting the veins of all the trees, squeezing from the inside the pores through which the vital juice passes, it shakes the withered baldness of the leaves with which it hurts the animals, and He returns to the first form of man as he first was. With this fiction they wanted to denote the variation of things in the time that the Sun completes its circle. Finally, Tyresias is received as an arbiter or judge between two gods, Iupiter and Iuno, that is, two elements, fire and air, who fight over the very natural reason for love, and pronounces a just sentence, because to justify the plants , the air has twice as much matter as the fire, because the air houses or gathers and produces in the leaves and swells in the skins, and the Sun only matures in the grains. And although this is true, Tyresias is blinded by Minerva because the winter weather stands dark with the darkness of the cloudy air; but Iupiter then gives hidden things, when summer comes, sight, causing future plants to sprout, which is like divination.
Why do they say that Minerva accompanied Perseus on his adventures?
That Minerva always accompanied Perseus, as Ovid brings, in Medusa's undertaking, gives us to understand that prudence never leaves effort and courage in great undertakings. That Minerva climbed Mount Parnassus to see the fountain of Aganipe and the nine sisters shows us that wisdom likes to entertain itself with glory (which is the muse Clio) and with the pleasure that is derived from honesty, which is what which means Euterpe; and be in happy company, who always find beautiful and new concepts, like Talía does. She also loves the softness of harmony, which is Melpomene, with Thersecore, which is the delight she takes from knowledge; and Erato, love, which always has the true sciences; and Polymnia, that most gentle song that makes poets immortal, and Urania, that celestial happiness that enjoys among the high and divine concepts of it, just as Calliope is also the inestimable beauty of the sciences. Minerva has a lot of fun with these nine sisters, as she can hardly be without them, nor can they without Minerva.
Concludes other things that are said about Minerva
They pretend to be a virgin Minerva because there is no person more prepared for science than one who is separated from the sensual appetite of the flesh, or because just as virgins do not receive foreign stains or clumsiness in their bodies, so knowledge is a clean and noble thing, without council of falsehood, error or evil.
They call Minerva destroyer of cities, because she makes great use of wisdom and advice in matters of war, with which fortresses and cities are destroyed.
They say they are male and female Minerva because it is wise to give advantage to times, and to resist times like a man, and use the right time.
From the palladium of Troy to Ilion
The palladium of Minerva, the poets pretend to have fallen from the sky in Pesinunte, a city of Phrygia, from which it took its name, because Palladios are called all the images that they believed were not made by human hands and all those that had been cast from heaven to earth. . Apollodorus says that when Illus built the Ilium, following an ox of two colors, he prayed to the gods that a sign would appear to him, and then the three-cubit palladium fell, who seemed to walk on his own, and had a spear in his right hand. and on the left the spinning wheel and the spindle. The oracle later responded to this Ilus that the city of Troy would remain standing as long as that palladium was kept inviolate in it, and thus they had him at the entrance of a door, in great veneration and guard.
It would be great nonsense to say that in heaven there are statues that make images that cast on earth; but the poets say this because they wanted by this fable to signify wisdom, by the name of palladium, derived from Pallas; and because wisdom is a divine and celestial thing and came from heaven, for this reason they say that it fell from heaven, and because the principles of wisdom are the fear of God and religion and justice, the city will therefore be preserved and impregnable from the enemies, where the palladium will be kept inviolate. It means: The city where God is feared and governed with wisdom, not harming anyone, will be preserved without being able to be destroyed by any human forces. And so if Paris did not touch what was not his, insulting him with the theft of Helen, and if Priam returned what was wrongly taken, Troy would last until today in his being.
Iuan Antiocheno writes that the palladium was made in a very good horoscope by a philosopher and mathematician named Asius, after whom a part of the world was called Asia, made in such a way that that city would be impregnable, that it would preserve inviolate that palladium, which he gave to the Trojans.
From the goddess Belona
Some have wanted Minerva to be the same as Bellona, who was similarly considered a goddess of war, of whom Caesar writes that in Cappadocia they revered her so much that her priest had to be second, after the king, in authority, seeming to them that The deese deserved it. But they are diverse, and the difference is that Minerva showed the good government and wise counsel that prudent and courageous captains use in war, and Belona is the execution or death and fury of war, because Belona was a deesa (about the ancients) all full of wrath and fury, who delighted in seeing human blood shed, for which reason their temples and honors were built outside the cities, and their priests were full of fury, who wounded their arms with knives as Lucano and Lactantius Fermiano write. Of this Bellona Seneca says: Follow the sad Bellona with her bloody hand. And for this reason the poets conveniently pretend that this goddess is furious and full of blood, because she is the goddess of war, in which these two things reign, fury and blood. They make her the sister of Mars and the guide of her car, for the reason she said she was about Mars.
From me
The authors mention two women named I: one was the daughter of Prometheus; the other of Inacho, first king of the Argives, after whose name a famous river in that land was called Inacho, according to Saint Isidro, and for this reason they pretended to be the daughter of the river Inecho, a nymph; and although they spoke of them as if they had been one, it is known that the one Theodontius says became a cow was not the daughter of Prometheus, as he says, but the daughter of Inachus, as Ovid says, where it begins: Inachus unus ab est, etc. Which opinion most authors follow as truer; But these two authors reconcile that Theodontius said it about I, daughter of Prometheus, it is nothing other than what Ovid said about I, daughter of Inachus, except that Ovid spoke as a poet, with figures that conceal the story. And Theodoncio wrote openly according to the true story, whose fable, according to Ovid in the alleged place, reads as follows: She was a nymph, daughter of the river Inacho, who, coming one day from the waves of her father's river, was forced by Jupiter. This was at midday and very clear weather; but Iupiter, because the goddess Iuno, her wife, did not understand it, who was vengeful against her lovers, she closed the day with very thick fogs. Iuno, amazed at such a sudden change, caused at the wrong time, and remembering that I had committed adultery many times with Iupiter, suspecting it must be a reason for them to cover up something, looked everywhere, and not seeing Iupiter in the sky, He suspected she would be with one of her friends; And to better verify this, she descended to the earth and dispersed the mists, to know the secret that was hidden within them. Iupiter, knowing beforehand what I wanted to do, so as not to be clearly caught in sin, changed the nymph I into a very beautiful white cow. Iuno, frightened by such a beautiful cow, asked Iupiter whose cow she was, and where she had come from, and how she was alone, because she suspected that she was not a cow, but one of Iupiter's friends in another guise. Jupiter, to close paths and avoid questions, said: this cow was born from the earth; and so there was no longer any reason to explain who she was, or where she came from, or how she was alone. Iuno asked for this cow for himself; Here Jupiter felt very confused, because it was hard for him to put his beloved in the hands of his cruel enemy, and not giving her away was very suspicious, because if he refused to give his wife a cow, for which he had been begging so much, she might to think not to be that cow, but to be a false cow hidden as a true friend; With anguish of heart he determined to give it to her. Iuno, fearing that Jupiter would secretly steal it from him, entrusted it to Argus to keep it for him. Argus was a shepherd who had a hundred eyes around his head, and when some of them slept, others kept awake. Argos very diligently guarded I, leaving her to graze in the fields during the day in her presence; At night he locked her in a harsh prison. Iupiter, unable to bear that I should suffer so much bitterness, sent Mercury, his son, so that by killing Argus he would free the cow. Who, pretending to be a shepherd who guarded goats in the fields, playing bells, passed near Argos. Argus, in love with Mercury's playing and singing, begged him to stop and sing for a while. Mercury, having found an opportunity for what he desired, worked with all his strength to make the eyes of all of Argos fall asleep with an abundance of sweet songs; and although with the strength of the very sweet song, in the most of the eyes of Argos the unused sleep came, Mercury could not put everyone to sleep so much, he began to tell the reason and art of the alborgues or zampoña, a musical instrument of seven pipes joined together by marvelous newly found ingenuity. At which, with great delight, Argus, deeply imbibed, his eyes perpetually watchful, everyone fell asleep. Mercury then snatched the hidden cutlass from him, and struck down the head of Argus to the ground, and freed the cow from the unaccustomed rock. Iuno, grieving for the death of his shepherd Argos, because so many beautiful eyes did not perish due to his death, put them on the tail of his bird the peacock, and was very angry at the freedom of I, which although it remained vacant as first, He expended all his anger on her, putting gadflies on her tail and the furies of hell, as Virgil says, where he begins: Hoc quodam monster, etc. And from these two continuous torments he ran, fleeing throughout the world, until he came to the Nile River, where with great efforts on the ground, as best he could, with his eyes raised to heaven, he begged all the gods and deities to put an end to their work. Iupiter then, moved with great mercy, begged Iuno to have compassion on her, first making a promise that she would never anger her again. Iuno, now moved by pity, turned I into a true figure; Then I, in Egypt, by that great goddess in the temples of the Nile was worshiped.
I was a leading woman, whom Iupiter knew by deceit, and gave birth to Epapho. This woman, either because of the trust of her lover, or because she must have been of a manly spirit, desired to reign, and so with the help of Jupiter and her royal spirit, she waged war against Argos, king of the Argives. ; and coming to battle, I happened to be defeated and captured by Argos and put in prison. When he learned of Iupiter, he sent Strillon, his son, who was later called Mercury, a very eloquent man, full of cunning and industry, who worked so much with his deceit that he killed old Argus and freed I from the prison; and as, even after being released from this prison, there were no good fortunes in his land, trusting in his diligence, knowledge and manly spirit, he entered a ship, whose insignia was a cow, and passed through Egypt in the company of Stilon, who was banished from Greece. for the crime committed, and Apis being a powerful king in Egypt, he received her as his wife. And because I gave the people of Egypt characters of letters and showed them the cultivation of the land and various arts that were very useful to the lives of men, she gained such a reputation that she came to be considered not as a mortal female, but as a very great goddess, building temples to her and making divine sacrifices to her, even in life, and establishing a law that no one would dare, under penalty of death, to say that I would have been a mortal woman at some time, but always a goddess; That's what Saint Augustine says. And they called her Isis, which in the Egyptian language means earth, and this was because she showed how to till and sow the earth, as Saint Isidro says. Of this I Barlaam says that before she passed into Egypt she had married Apis, third king of the Argives; and then, when she committed adultery with Jupiter, Apis left her and her kingdom as well, and went to Egypt, whom I later followed, and received her again, and when Apis died he remarried Thelegonus; but in this matter of Barlaam there is so much diversity that it obscures the truth of history, because the time of Jupiter does not agree with that of Apis.
The allegorical meaning of this fable, according to Macrobius, is that Iúpiter means the Sun. By I, daughter of the river Inacho, the vital humor of the human seed is understood, because Inacho, because it is running water, means the human seed that has a flow. . Loving Iupiter, which is the Sun, is because the Sun acts on the virile seed and on the feminine menstruation, arranging it and making it convenient for the formation of the body; and thus Aristotle says: Sol, et homo, generant hominem. Not Jupiter coming to me, although he loved her, except first covering the world of dark mists is to imply that the Sun does not carry out its operation on the seeds, arranging them by formation of a body, until they are cut and joined together within the darkness. of the womb, and being thus the Sun works in the formation of the body. What says that Iuno threw away the mists means the operation that the Moon performs near the thing conceived, because Iuno means the Moon, and the Moon with its humidity loosens and softens, widens the pores of the body, and this widening belongs to a way of manifestation, because it brings the creatures out of the mother's womb, and so the ancients believed that without Lucina or Iuno or Luna (which is all one), women could not give birth, as we said when dealing with the Moon.
Iupiter turning I into a cow, because Ione did not understand love, that is, the Sun acting on the seeds in the hidden darkness of the womb, before the Moon by its force takes them out of the body, turns them into animals, because the Moon He cannot bring them out until they become a living body, and this is asking Iuno for the cow from Jupiter. He turned her into a beautiful cow because man is more beautiful than any other animal, and because the cow is a fruit-producing animal and capable of much work, which is all suitable for man. Giving Iuno the cow in charge of Argos is because the Moon, understood by Iuno, after removing the creature from the body, guards reason, understood by Argos, and for this reason he says that Argos had a hundred eyes, because all reason is eyes; because not only a hundred parts, but even infinite ones he must look at and respect. Or by Argos we mean the sky, and the eyes mean the stars, which like eyes continually look at the earth, and those who live in it and surround it; and with its continuous movement, it makes the earth, understood by the cow or by Me, fertile, influencing virtue. To say that the eyes of Argos, some slept and others watched, this is because half of the sky is always seen illuminated by the Sun; and in the stars that with the clarity of the Sun do not show their brilliance like small candles in the presence of axes, therefore they say that some sleep and others are awake, because in the part of the sky where the Sun does not shine they seem to be awake, and where Yes, they are sleeping, because with their great clarity they obscure the stars.
Kill Mercury to Argos and take him to Me: Mercury means the bad acuity of the flesh and carnal flattery and delights, which deceive reason. Mercury deceived Argos by singing, because reason, seeing before it the carnal delights that flatter man, like the ears of the sweet song, falls asleep, not turning away from that which is the occasion of evil, and then sleeping he dies. With Argos dead, Iuno places gadflies and furies on I: the gadflies and furies mean riches, honors, powers, whose cares disturb us, until we come to Egypt, which means darkness, because those who serve their desires come to such an extent. , who lose the light of reason, since they do not know what it is to be governed by reason. I, living in Egypt, change the name and call it Ysis, which means earth, because those who abandon reason and follow greed become low and vile like the earth. Afterwards I is delivered by the mercy of the gods, because if the true God did not deliver such people, removing the darkness of their desires, they would never emerge from his misery. The other things that are said in this fable are for its adornment and to make it credible.
The Egyptians put a portrait of the goddess Ysis in their temples, with horns on her head, to signify how she came to Egypt in the form of a cow, or because the land is tilled with oxen, or to imply that the main tillage to get bread is the one made with oxen. She had ears of corn to signify that she gave the Egyptians the industry or art of tilling the land. She had a gold crown to denote that she was queen of the Argives and wife of Apis. They made Mercury the companion of Isis in memory of the freedom that I achieved by freeing her from Argos. They also make Aesculapius a companion of Isis, because Isis means the earth and Aesculapius means medicine, and because the things with which doctors cure are born from the earth, this is why they put him in the company of Isis.
To say that I was the daughter of Inacho and that to sleep with her Iúpiter made a fog, Iúpiter denotes the Sun and I denotes the Moon; and because most of the time in the conjunction of these planets, Sun and Moon, clouds or fogs are generated, this is why it is said that Jupiter created clouds, so that Iuno would not see the adultery. Changing into a cow for the coming of Iuno is because always on the third day of the Moon after the conjunction the Moon appears with horns and imitates the horns of the cow. The fact that Jupiter does not turn I into a cow until the arrival of Iuno, which denotes the air, is because the earth is not fertile with the heat alone, but mixed with air it causes a temperance that makes the earth fertile, and things are generated. Rise of the Moon from the conjunction or tornado I in cow, give it Iuno to guard Argos, which is the sky and stars, this is because the Moon is more inferior and reach us than any other planet and star, and it is seen or seen of the stars of heaven, understood by Argos.
Argos being killed by Jupiter's command and the cow being free is because the Sun, distributing light to the Moon, surpasses all the stars in clarity and strength, and it does more effects and works in human bodies than any of the stars, which it does. when something is grown.
To say that I, dead Argus, traveled the entire globe of the earth and swam the entire sea, and that once he went to Scithia, a northern region; others to Egypt, a southern region, this denotes the speed of the movement of the Moon, and how because of it the waters move and surround them with its movement; He says she swam the waters. By saying that she went to the northern parts and the southern parts, the latitude of the Moon or distance from the eclitic line is understood. To say that upon arrival in Egypt she became a goddess, who was painted with horns, and recovered her first form, this is because the first of the mortals who called the Sun, Moon and stars gods were the Egyptians, seeing the benefits that they Their movements caused the earth, which is why they were respected with divine honors, as Eusebius testifies.
Of Voluptia and Angerona
The ancients had two goddesses in the same temple, one of joy, called Voluptia, and the other of sadness, called Angerona, and they painted this one with a sealed padlock in her mouth. Pliny and Macrobius make mention of this.
Moral application
Through the mouth with a sealed padlock, he implied that whoever hides his pain and work and silences the insults received, and restrains his evil appetites, will come to be contented by the benefit of patience and his sorrow will become pleasure, because For this reason these goddesses are together in the same temple, to denote that there is no Voluptia without Angerona, nor Angerona without Voluptia. It means that there is no joy or contentment that is not watered down with some displeasure, nor sadness or work that does not have hope of some remedy. Apuleius Mandarense says in this regard: No one is granted so much prosperity that he does not have some mixture of sadness and discontent. Seneca says: No state lasts long; pain and delight sometimes follow each other, and in a short time the high states turn into low ones. Plautus says: Thus it pleases God that sadness be the companion of delight, and that if some good comes to a person, then double work follows.
From Flora
Saint Augustine mentions a famous harlot, who the Romans canonized as a deesa, called Flora. She, being extremely beautiful, sold her body to anyone who wanted it, but if they did not give her a large sum of money, she would not admit anyone; and as with this clumsy job he would have gained a lot, when he died, leaving a large amount of money, he left the Roman people for his heir, ordering to buy rents so that each year they would hold solemn festivals in memory of him. The Roman people accepted the inheritance with charge and obligation to solemnize the feast of a certain woman, and not being content with this, they went further than what he had requested, which was to make it a temple and mark sacrifices for it and dedicate it to that woman. And since, upon closer inspection, they considered it an affront to have a public woman as a deity, to remove the bad sound, they ordered that they call her the deessa of the flowers, and that she preside over them, and that she be in charge of ensuring that the trees bloom well, so that that fruit in abundance came from it, and that dedicated by that of these things she could very well be worshiped by that, and so she was canonized by that; And so that the people would receive this well, they held very rejoicing and dishonest festivals, in accordance with the clumsiness of the goddess whose they were.
Of the Occasion and Metanoea
The Occasion, a highly esteemed goddess of the ancient Romans, is the daughter of the works and diligence of man; and it is nothing more than an Occasion, according to Tullio, but a part of time that has in itself some opportunity or ideal situation to do or not do something. They painted her on a wheel that moves, with wings at her feet, and with a bunch of hair in front of her forehead, which covered her face, and everything else on her head was shaved. By the wheel and wings they imply that the Occasion does not stop and that it is going fast. The bunch of hair she has in front of her shows that when an opportunity is offered, she can easily grab it and take advantage of it. Having the rest of the head shaved denotes that once the opportunity has passed it will be difficult to grasp, because there is no where else, if not from its companion Metanoea, that of the regret or regret that follows from not having taken advantage of the Opportunity that was passed, He was inviting her to grab the bundle of hair that he offered in front of her. Covering the hair over the face denotes that few or none see the Occasion. Ausonius mentions this.
Of Peace, Friendship and three Graces
The ancients wanting to exhort men to have Love, Peace and Friendship among themselves, invented a goddess in the figure of three maidens, holding each other's hands, all naked, who were laughing. One had her entire face uncovered, and another had everything covered. The third had part of it covered and part uncovered; They were called the three Graces; They gave him Jupiter as his father; They accompanied Venus; Her names were: Pasythea, which others call Aglaia, and Euphrosyne and Acgialis; They said that the riches and peace and rest of men come from them.
There are three Graces because in friendship there are sometimes giving, other times receiving, and sometimes giving and receiving all together, and for this reason they are painted holding hands. Or there are three because perfect love consists of loving, fearing, honoring. Or there are three because the three Graces some wanted to exhort us to the most honest exercise of agriculture, and in it we take into account many other things, which are trees, livestock and seeds. They are maidens or virgins, because in good friendship everything must be chaste, incorrupt and sincere. They are young, because the memory of the benefits must not grow old. They are naked because there should be nothing hidden among friends, or because to do good to a friend the man must be quick and light, just as the naked person is lighter than the clothed person, as Phornuto says. They are laughing because those who give must show a happy face. The one who reveals the face denotes that the one who receives the benefit must publish it. The one who covers the face denotes the one who covers what he gives. And the one whose face is half covered and half uncovered denotes the one who gives and receives, who covers what he gives and publishes what he receives. They are daughters of Iúpiter to denote that peace, love and friendship are heavenly things. They accompany Venus because Venus loves friendship and peace. That abundance and riches and tranquility and rest come to men from grace is because the abundance of the fields does not come except from the benefit of having peace, for with wars there is no tranquility or rest or any wealth. Read Pierio Valeriano about this.
From Gigantea
Gigantea was one of fame; She is called Gigantea because she was a daughter of the earth and of the lineage of the Giants. She had a thousand ears and as many eyes and wings to fly.
For this reason the ancients wanted to paint the fame, which flows from good and evil, and she is said to be a daughter of the earth, because she rises above earthly things. They say that she had a thousand ears and as many eyes because fame is a gossip about many things and she sees and hears various facts. They said that she had wings to fly because fame lightly flies and spreads throughout the world.
From Nemesis
Nemesis was a goddess who showed everyone to do what is good, and challenged what was evil, for which she was called a daughter of Justice, and she was worshiped as an avenger of Justice. They paint her with a bit in her hand to denote that she curbed her evil desires, and they considered her to be the lover of revenge. Angelo Policiano is about her.
From the goddess of Faith
The ancients painted the goddess of the Faith of the word covered with a veil so white that with a single speck she could be stained. To declare therefore that the word must not fail even in things of little moment to anyone who promises.
From Feronia
Feronia was one of the cool mountains or forests of her relatives; and land where she was raised, the authors do not write anything. Strabo says that she had a temple in the city of Sorate, where she was served with great religion, and her priests walked on hot coals with bare feet, which the devil would order to cause more idolization. By Feronia the ancients understood, according to Comitis Natalis, the virtue or divine force that is in the trees, which preserves them and makes them sprout. And we call this vegetative soul with which the fruits are preserved and flourish and bring to maturity, because as the ancients understood that nothing could consist or be without some God to preserve it, they honored natural things as gods, and thus they honored this as such, because all this was easy to introduce among vulgar and ignorant people by demons.
Aurora
Aurora, according to Hesiod, was the daughter of Hyperion and Thía, sister of the Moon and the Sun; and according to Paulo Perusino, she was the daughter of Titano and the Earth. The poets say that she rides in a chariot brought to her by four red horses, as Vergil attests, where he begins: Haec vice sermonum, etc. Others attribute only two horses to him. Theocritus says these horses are white and not red. Homer says that she comes out of the Ocean, like the Sun and the other stars.
She says that she was the daughter of Hyperion and Thía, because Divine goodness instituted the light to come to mortals from the Sun.
Those who said they brought white horses did not consider the colors that the vapors cause before they leave the Sun, but rather the nature of its light; But they give Aurora three colors in common, which are: dark, russet, and clear. These come in order, because the Aurora when it begins is dull or black due to the darkness of the darkness of the night, from which it begins. From time to time it has a russet color, which is between light and black, and it appears to the East, in the part where the Sun is about to rise, as time progresses when the Sun is close to rising, it stops being russet and becomes clear. If we wanted to say that Aurora was a woman, from what Ovid says, we can understand that she was some woman of great power and wonderful beauty. But it is common for poets to understand Aurora as what we call dawn, which is the glow of the morning that we see before the sun rises, whitening in the sky. They say they are Titano's daughter; This is because that whiteness of the sky that we call Aurora comes from the Sun, which was from the Titans. She is called the daughter of the Earth or the Ocean, because when we see her on the horizon she seems to come out of the land or the sea.
Of Fortune and Case and Fate
Fortune, Case and Fate, in itself is nothing, nor are there such things, although there are such names, because among the errors that the Gentiles had in the time of Homer (because in the authors before him there is no mention of this) was this a very great one, who, not knowing the causes of where things came from or who made and ordered them, called all sudden and unplanned occurrences works of fortune. That the Aeseans, among the Jews, attributed under this name Fate, and believed to be a divinity and goddess to whom they attributed the power to move human things from top to bottom at their will, having dominion among men to give them all events and prosperous and adverse events, such as riches, kingdoms and poverty, as Seneca declares, in twenty verses that begin: O regnorum magnis falax. And so having the luck that by another name they call case and fortune or occurrence, by God, as such they made temples and statues, in which the devil, to deceive and introduce his idolatry into the world, entering them gave answers, and they adored her, believing that whoever was devoted to her would have good things happen to him, and vice versa. And to generally signify their condition and power, they painted it with two large arks, one full of goods, on the right hand, and the other full of evils, on the left, and they thought that when someone was born, that then fortune would give him He gave the good or evil that would be in his life, and for this they took the children to the temple with ceremonies that made people laugh; and for this reason they believed they were two fortunes, prosperous and adverse; They call the prosperous fortune good and the adverse fortune bad. And to worship them both together they made a statue with two faces, one white, which denoted the good, and the other black, which denoted the bad. Others painted her in the figure of a furious, brainless woman, standing on a round stone, signifying her lack of firmness; others made it of glass, to denote that it was brittle. Others painted it moving a wheel, by which some were climbing to the top, and others who were on it, others who were falling. Others painted her with the sky on her head and Amalthea's horn of plenty in one hand. Others painted her as a lame woman; others without feet but with wings and hands. They called her lame or without feet, to denote her lack of firmness, and with wings because of the haste with which she walks. They painted her as blind, as something that gives her wealth without examination of merit. They called her inconstant, unfaithful, despicable and more of a friend to bad people than to good people. Thales said that fortune was like the representatives of comedies, where sometimes they appear as kings, other times as slaves, and that in this life he who is poor one day is rich another day. Socrates said that it was like a theater or plaza without order, where parties are held, that sometimes it happens that the best are in the worst place. The first among the Romans to honor her was Servius Tullius, who, being the son of a slave, became the sixth king of Romans who succeeded Tarquin Priscus; and attributing his status to fortune, he built a sumptuous temple for her in the Capitol and ordered everyone to worship her for that reason. Everything was vanity and deceptions of dazzled men, who trusted in their knowledge alone, because all the things that happen and are done in the world and in heaven and hell come and flow from the providence and supreme knowledge of God, and there is no fortune nor occurrence: everything has a cause and admirable order; and although we do not understand or know them as men, some things cause others that are irrelevant, and in the end everything ends up in the first cause, which is God, maker and preserver and governor of all things visible and invisible, and this is what every Christian must have and believe as truth. This blasphemy of Fortuna destroyed Aristotle by absolute demonstrations. Sallust still did not stop falling into this account with being gentile, as he implies when he says that each one is an officer of his fortune. And in the proem of the war of Iugurta, he says that the lazy and careless who are not diligent and virtuous, without cause complain about Fortune, since Fortune is nothing other than a vain name that demonstrates the little knowledge of man, because As Iuvenal says, where there is prudence, Fortune has neither strength nor dignity.
Tulio says that the name Fortuna was introduced to cover up human ignorance, who is blamed for bad and good events, and making it so that we want good things to come to us in search of leisure. There were other philosophers who said that fortune, by virtue and power of its own, could do nothing; They believed that it was a minister and instrument of divine Providence, as if God needed another to work for Him, which is no less vanity than those reported; Therefore, let the Christian people lose the bad habit they have of complaining or praising fortune, since there is no fortune or fate, and ask God for favor, since they must expect a remedy and help in their work and remuneration for their works. ; and the two types of good or evil are not in our hands, but it is in taking it well, cautiously anticipating what may happen, so that if it is good, it benefits us more, and if it is bad, it harms us less.
Of Nymphs
As the ancients believed that there was no public or secret place that lacked some power of God, to incite men to fear and love Him, and to show them that being in every place, He saw and governed everything, they ordained female goddesses, called nymphs, who particularly presided over fountains, rivers, forests and trees, and said to be daughters of Oceanus and Thetis, and mistresses of Bacho and Ceres, and mothers of all things, and goddesses of grasses and shepherds. They called them the daughters of Oceanus and Thetis because the sea is the main origin of the generation of the sources, understood by the nymphs. That some lived in fountains, others in rivers, others in ponds, others in mountains and jungles, others in trees, is because in all these parts there are forces of humor, understood by the nymphs, suitable for the generation of all things and of themselves.
To say that the nymphs are mothers of all things, and mistresses of Bacho and Ceres, is to say that the wine and the other fruits that come from trees, and the crops and flowers, and the other plants and animals, are raised with the humidity of the water; and for this very reason they are deeses of the pastures and shepherds.
Of these nymphs, some said they were celestial and others terrestrial; By the celestial they understood the vegetative souls or forces or influences of the heavenly orbs and bodies, and they called these by another name Muses. Of the terrestrial ones, because they are understood to preside in different parts of the earth, some preside in mountains, others in meadows, others in trees, others in flowers and grasses, others in fountains.
Those who preside or live in the mountains are called Oreades or Orestiades. Of these Strabo says that there were five. Vergil, in three verses that begin: Qualis in Eurote ripis, etc., says that there were many and that they accompanied Diana on her hunts; They believed they were taking care of the wild animals that were in the mountains.
The meadow nymphs were called Henides, those of the trees Hamadryades, and they say they were born and died with them, according to Callimachus. Some understood by this the vegetative soul of the tree. They are called hama, which means jungle, and drys, holm oak; or drynus, a thing of oak, taking oak for every tree, because this tree was the most esteemed of the ancients, for its fruit, which was at that time its most main sustenance. Vergil mentions these, where he begins: Ferte simul faunique, etc.
The nymphs of the grasses and flowers were called Napeas, from napos, which is grass; and some say they are these nymphs of hills; those of the forests are called Dryades; The nymphs of the sea were called Nereydes, from Nereus, the sea god. Of these Vergil names the nymph Galatea, and understands by her the city of Mantua; Those of the rivers and streams were called Naiads, because the rivers run, from nayn, which means to run. Vergil mentions these.
Those of the ponds were called Limniades, from limin, which is a pond.
Those who believed they were hidden in the fountains were called Ephydriades. The ancients, when digging they found some fresh water, had it where nymphs, which is why they used to offer water in their sacrifices, and they said their nymph lived in each source. The nymphs sometimes walked naked, like Cyane and Arethusa, which Ovid introduces, who took part of their body out into the water, to tell Ceres who was to blame for the theft of her daughter Proserpina, and he made them naked because being in the water they couldn't help them. They took advantage of the clothes, more than not having them; and other times they were dressed, like I, a nymph, daughter of the river Inacho, who Iúpiter found among others dressed, as Ovid introduces.
These nymphs were considered by the poets to be of the lowest lineage of the gods. They gave them figures of women, and life, and all personal acts, and to love, and to be loved, and to conceive, and to give birth, either from men, or from the gods. Read Statius.
Of Muses
Cicero says that four goddesses called Muses were born from the second Jupiter, who were named Telxiope, Mhemen, Aoedes and Meletes. And from the third Iupiter, Antiopia, or from Memosyne, according to others, the nine Muses, which they call Pierias. Minermo says that the Muses are daughters of Celo and older than Jupiter; others say they are daughters of Memnon and Thespia; and it is worth knowing that although they were given several fathers, they are all wise men attributed to the same purpose, and although some said the Muses were three, others four, the most have to be nine. These claim to have drunk at the Pegasea or Castalia fountain, on Mount Parnassus, which they call Elicón by another name, and to live there; They carried scepters in their hands; They are named Urania, Polymnia, Terpsichore, Clio, Melpomene, Erato, Euterpe, Thalia, Calliope. The ancients had these as the government of all song and poetry and the other sciences; and to denote this they pretended to carry scepters in their hands, by which the virtue of the science that grows from it is understood, because it sustains the man who follows it, in remembrance of a good reputation, after death, and in the habit of sweet glory in honest life; and to denote this same wisdom, they say that they drank from the Pegasea fountain, which was on Mount Parnassus, which was the mountain of wisdom, and that they lived there; or that they were children of Celo, which means Heaven, or of Iupiter, because Iupiter in the Gentiles was considered the greatest of the gods, and because of the wisdom denoted by these Muses. This gift of wisdom cannot come to man except from God, denoted by Jupiter, or from above, denoted by the mountain, or from Heaven, denoted by Caelius, which is all one. And so, whoever intends to drink from the Pegasea or Castalia fountain, who is unable to know Mount Parnassus, which is God, must go up and fear, because the beginning of wisdom is the fear of it. The wise men wanted to denote this by saying that the Muses are daughters of Memnon and Thespia, because Memnon means memory, and Thespia, divine knowledge, because to know memory and divine knowledge are necessary. And to denote that wisdom is increased by trying and disputing, or by persisting in it, they say that they are daughters of Iupiter and Antiope, because Antiope means the one who tires or competes with all her strength not to be defeated in the art of singing; and it says more in this art than in another, because the ancients, as we will later say, had Music as a divine science.
Those who said they were the three Muses understood the three sermotional arts, through which one reaches the knowledge of wisdom, which are: Grammar, Rhetoric and Dialectic. Those who said they were four, understood by the three sayings, and by the fourth, the wisdom that resulted from them, declared by Calliope, which was the principal among all; because according to Aristarchus, they attributed the wisdom of all the Muses to her, in such a way that by calling Calliope they are all understood. Those who said they were nine understood themselves to be the soul Muses of the celestial orbs or the forces or influences of the celestial bodies. It is worth knowing: Urania, soul of the starry sky or firmament; Polymnia, from the orbs or skies of Saturn; Terpsichore, from the orbs of Jupiter; Clio, of those from Mars; Melpómene, of those of the Sun; Erato, of those of Venus; Euterpe, of those of Mercury; Thalia, those of the Moon. Which orbs, according to the opinion of Pythagoreans, considering that they moved in a great and continuous order, and some slower than others, and some made one band, others towards another, had to cause eight tones by touching each other, of which resulted in a soft sound or music, which they attributed to the ninth Muse, called Calliope, which means good sound. And since, according to Strabo, all the ancients believed they influenced or were governed by human things in the celestial bodies, they had to be the soul Muses of the said orbs. And not only did they attribute to them having strength and wisdom in matters of music and poetry and in all science, but they also considered them to be desirous of consolation in adversity, and as incitors of honors, and of good and bad customs, and of tempering the spirits. encouragement, and give wisdom, and that influenced men various inclinations. This is because they attributed the effects of astrology to them, and they believed that those who had the Moon at their birth, understood by Thalía, being of a humid temperament, inclined them to wanton things and to be variable and changeable. And those who were Saturnines (understood by Polyhymnia), because they have a cold and dry temperament, promise them a lot of memory of past things and inclination to various studies, according to various aspects of planets. Exempli, gratia: If Mercury, understood by Euterpe, is in good aspect, it influences wisdom and softness in speaking, and ingenuity for science, mainly for mathematical arts. If Mercury is in aspect with Jupiter, those born in its ascendant are said to incline to philosophy and theology. If Mercury looks favorably on Mars, he makes happy and very wise doctors; but if he is looking bad, he inclines to the contrary. Mercury with Venus inclines towards things of music and poetry. Mercury with Moon inclines us to be negotiating and diligent merchants, and astute and cautious. And so with other planets and aspects, he causes diversity of inclinations in human bodies, which inclinations reason restrains. Piero Valeriano understands by these nine Muses the nine instruments with which man speaks, which are the lips, four main teeth with which the pronunciation is made, the wounding with the tongue, and through which the air passes for the pronunciation, and the concavity of the lungs in which the matter from which the voice is made is generated. These instruments are called Muses a moys, which means humid, because without humidity the voice cannot be generated, and to declare this the Muses pretended to live near fountains, as in humid parts understood by water. For this same reason they are also called nymphs, because a nymph is water or humidity.
From this power that the ancients attributed to the nymphs or Muses arose the custom of poets asking the Muses for help in all the beginnings of their works, to be able to speak well and proceed in their poetry. They give the Muses various names, according to the places where they pretend they lived, or were born, or from sources that consecrated them. Some call them Elicónidas, from Mount Elicón. Other Parnasiades, from Mount Parnassus, which is the same as Elicón, because they pretended to live there. Others name them Cytheriades, from Mount Cytheron, which is near Thebes, because they said they had lived there; Others call them Pierides, from the nine daughters of Pierius, whom the poets pretend to have competed with.
Muses about singing and were turned into pikes in punishment for their daring; others, like Ovid, name them Thespiades or Mnemosynides, mothers who pretended to be of the Muses; others call them Pegasides or Castalias, from the source Pegaseia and Castalia, who pretend to have made the horse Pegasus on Mount Parnassus, near which they lived; others name them Hippocrénides, from another Greek source named that way; other Libertrides, from a Macedonian source of the same name (according to Pliny), to the Muses consecrated; others name them Nereides, from Nereus, god of the sea. Ovid calls them Aonias, from a so-called source near Thebes, consecrated to the Muses. Similar to the daughters of Pierio, whom we mentioned above, are some ignorant people, who, moved by a great desire to become poets, foolishly give themselves to writing verses, and are so pleased with themselves that they think that they are considered very perfect composers; But when they come to trial with true poets, they soon turn into stings, who know nothing but imitating other people's voices.
They are not very different from those who look like Pirenaeus, who tries to lock up and force the Muses in his palace, when with beautiful bookcases and with the appearance of wise men, they try to make it understood that they possess the Muses, who are the sciences, which They have nothing more than in the books, because they have not drunk as they should to be held for what they want from the Castalia fountain.
END OF THE THIRD BOOK
It deals with heroic men who said they were half-gods, with the historical and allegorical meanings of their fables.
Of Hercules
According to Marcus Varro, there were forty-three famous men in ancient times named Hercules; and although these and those who were noted for wisdom or bravery were called Hercules, Tullius lists only six, of whom the poets most commonly speak. The first was the son of Iupiter and the nymph Lyceses, who they say had a dispute with Apollo about matters of divination, understood by the Tripods, which is a type of laurel that has three roots, a tree consecrated to Apollo because they have the virtue of guess, and the guesses are attributed to Apollo; and this tree is said to belong to divination, because according to some, if the leaves of this laurel are placed under the head of someone who is going to sleep, he will see true dreams. And thus, to say that the dispute was between the Tripods is to say that they disputed something of divination; and because he won in this contest, they called him Hercules, a word derived, according to Leontius, from Hera, which is earth, and Cleos, glory, which means everything glorious on earth; or of Heros and Cleos, which means glorious Heros. Paulo Perusino derives it from Erix, which is fighting or quarrel, and Cleos, glory; and thus he will mean glorious in strife, from which it seems that the name of Hercules was put at first more for the excellence of knowledge than for the strength and bravery of the body or some other feat. The second Hercules was the son of Nile; He gave letters to those of Finicia, and thus he was glorious in knowledge, and for this reason they called Hercules. Theodoncio says that this was the one who fought with Antheus, and because he lived near the river Nile he was called the son of Nile. The third was a priest of Cybele, who, made god, offered him sacrifices of the dead. The fourth was the son of Jupiter the second and Asterie, sister of Latona, who was very honored in the land of Tire and had a daughter named Carthage. The fifth was one from India, which was called Belo. The sixth was a Theban, son of the third Iupiter and Alcmene, who some call Alcumene, wife of Amphitryon, of whose birth they say that when Amphitryon was absent, occupied in war, Iupiter took the form of Amphitryon, and one night he went to the house of Alcmena, whom she received, believing him to be her husband, as Plautus says, and thus with this deception he used her, and from this council Hercules was born; and according to Apollodorus and Theodoncio, because Alcmene was the wife of Amiphitryon, Hercules was believed to be the son of Alcmene and Amphitryon, and not of Iupiter. This Hercules lived 52 years, according to Eusebius, and died in the year of the world 4400, leaving his bow and arrows to Philotectes to destroy Troy. Saint Augustine makes him the first of those named Hercules, and this is the one that poets and wise men commonly speak of, and when we call Hercules, we understand him. Because it is the general custom of poets that when there are many of one name, everything that suits all is attributed to one, as if it had only existed. He had many jobs and overcame very arduous and difficult things; He killed horrible beasts and evildoers, he wounded Iuno with a three-pointed dart, because he understood that he was contrary to him. Diodorus Siculus and Alberic and Boethius wrote his works. They paint Hercules naked or dressed in a single skin, with a mace in his right hand and three golden apples in his left.
He was held for the excellence of his virtues in life as a hero, and after death, as a god, and in such veneration that they swore by him to be believed, saying: Hercle, Hercules. Me Hercule. Me Hercules. Which are adverbs of swearing, which means: By Hercules, which is true.
To say that Iupiter to beget Hercules took the form of Amphitryon is because man is to beget as an instrument; However, the divine will, understood by Jupiter, and the force of the stars, as a second cause, are an instrument to procreate clear males.
Being Hercules, son of Iupiter and Alcmene, is nothing other than the goodness and strength and excellence of the forces of the soul and the body, which launches and thwarts the battle of all the vices of the soul, as is implied by their names. because he was first called Alcides, from elk in Greek, which means strength; then Hercules, which means strength and prudence, and the reason that is in man, and perseverance, without divine goodness, and without a good subject of mind it does not happen.
Some say that the strength of Hercules was of the spirit and not of the body, with which he conquered all those disordered appetites, which, being rebellious to reason, like most ferocious monsters, continually disturb man, and annoy and tire him. In this regard, Suidas writes that in order to demonstrate to the ancients that Hercules was a great lover of virtue, they dressed him in a lion's skin; and to signify the greatness and generosity of the spirit, the mace in the right hand, which denotes the desire for prudence and knowledge, which is why they faked the fable that the fierce dragon tamed and took out the three golden balls that it kept, because He surpassed the sensual appetite, in which he freed the three powers of the soul, adorning them with virtue and just and honest works. Either the three apples are virtue and fame in this life and the immortality of glory in the next, or they denote three virtues that Hercules had. The first, never get angry; the second, not to be miserly; the third, being an enemy of gifts. These are the three excellent apples of the finest gold of inestimable value and admirable beauty; but there is a dragon that works to not let anyone catch them, and this is the temptation of the deceptive softness and pestiferous vanity with which the devil works to deceive us to prevent us from reaching these three things, signified by the three golden apples; They paint him naked, to denote his virtue, because they paint virtue naked, without any care for riches.
Macrobius wants to understand that Hercules is the Sun and that his twelve most celebrated feats are the twelve signs of the Zodiac, surpassed by the Sun, passing through them in one year. Others wanted Hercules to mean time, which conquers and tames and consumes all things. They crowned it with branches of white elm, and the poets called this crown Herculean Fronde, and by the two colors that the leaves of this tree have, they denoted two parts of time: one, white, which denotes the day; and the other dark, which denotes the night. And they pretend to be the cause of these two colors of these two leaves, that when Hercules descended into hell to remove the Cancerberus, he surrounded his head with leaves from this tree, and that due to the part that the infernal smoke gave them, the leaves remained brown or dark, and the part that touched Hercules's head remained white. Hercules descending into hell denotes the setting of the Sun. Iuno's pursuit of Hercules denotes that in nature everything is contrariness, or that the good are always troubled and persecuted.
How Hercules wounded Iuno
Hercules wounding Iuno with the three-pointed dart denotes the work of the prudent, because the prudent for three reasons despises and makes little use of the riches and powers, understood by Iuno, aware that governing temporal things requires great effort and care. , and keeping them full of suspicions and thoughts and in the doubtful and changeable state, and thus with this three-pointed dart Ione of Hercules is wounded. That he later reconciled with Iuno denotes that after being stripped of life, man cannot be disturbed by lust for kingdom or other mortal dominion. To say that Hercules left his bow and arrows to Philotectes, his friend, is to declare that he was his heir.
Of the snakes that Iuno sent against Hercules
Of the works attributed to Hercules, the first was that of the two snakes that Iuno sent to his cradle to kill him; Others say that Amphitryon sent them to find out which of the two children that Alcmene gave birth to was his son. Amphitryon's son then fled from these two snakes; but Hercules, without being frightened, took them with his hands and squeezed them so much that he killed them. Seneca mentions this. Apollodorus says that when these snakes came, Hercules was eight months old.
These snakes denote the imitation of another's virtue, because it is somewhat cold, almost any virtue that does not try to imitate anyone. Then it was with good reason that the beginning of all his work came to Hercules from the snakes, because while he was still a child he was inflamed by the glory and exploits of past heroes, to imitate them with his virtue or surpass them.
Of the serpent Hydra
The poets say that Hercules went to Thesalia to free that land from much damage caused by the serpent Hydra, which was in the Lernea lagoon, which had, according to Naucrates, seven heads, and according to Cenodotus, nine, and according to Heraclides, fifty. When he reached her, he took his sword and struck her head in the neck and cut it off. But later, in its place, two others were born. Seeing this, Hercules no longer wanted to fight with the sword, and taking hold of his bow and arrows, he shot an arrow right in the heart, and after that two others. Others say there were seven right there, and she was so right that he made her stay quiet; And since he saw her weakened like that, from the much blood that was coming out of her, he took her with his hands, and squeezing her, he drowned her. Others say that he killed her with fire, and that many had come to test her fortune with her, and he had killed them all. Ovid and Seneca mention this.
The fiction of this fable is that in Thesalia there was a lagoon called Lernea, which was three leagues long in circuit and was made up of seven springs that arose near it, and because it had no outlet or current it was joined together; and because at the edge of this lagoon there were islands and reed beds where many vermin bred, for this reason they said that it was a snake; and because this lake came from seven sources, they said it had seven heads. He says that he did great harm to the locals; This is because the water usurped a large part of their very fertile land, and also because of the vapors that came out of the water due to its proximity, and the putrifaction and bad smell that come out of the dammed waters caused diseases. In what it says that Hercules took his sword and cut off one head, and then two grew, this was when he began to close one of the fountains, and then the water burst in two places, which Hercules saw, threw him an arrow through the part of the heart, that is, it pierced the lagoon in the deepest part, where it was draining, and shooting it with two more was to increase this drain, and because the land remained dry, this is why it says that he drowned it by squeezing it with his hands, or that he killed it with fire, because it is the job of fire or heat to dry out what is humid; And so he converted the lagoon and the water of the seven fountains into a narrow river through which the waters flowed, and that land remained very good and the best for farming of all those in the region. And this is one of the greatest feats attributed to Hercules, because in it he was helped by his industry and knowledge, more than by strength, and they count it as his second labor.
Hydra in Greek is water, and snake in Latin is a creeping thing, to declare that it was not a snake, but only water.
Eusebius, from Plato's sentence, says that Hydra was a very famous sophist, who, by solving one question, proposed many more difficult ones.
Others say that Sthenelos, son of Perseus, had a populous city called Mycenae, and King Lerno, not wanting to subject him, both brought war at the entrance to that region. King Lerno had a very strong little city, called Hydra, which was guarded by fifty men, strong shooters, who were inside a tower to defend it. Eurystheus sent Hercules to fight this fort. In this fight, those inside the tower threw burning balls at those outside and many arrows; and when it happened that one of those inside fell dead, then in the place of the missing one two were placed, which, as Hercules saw the entrance to be difficult, he took as the shortest means to set fire to it, and so he took the fort and killed the that they defended it, and this opinion is held by Paléphato; and for this reason the fable says that the serpent Hydra was defeated by Hercules with fire.
Of the Nemean lion
Among the works that the authors write about Hercules was one of the lion of Mount Boethia, which others say the Nemean lion; and this happened to him when he was sixteen or eighteen years old, Amphitryon sending him to guard the cattle, because Linus had killed his teacher; So that he would not sin again with another teacher, he killed a very brave lion, which he found tearing up the cattle; and when the lion died, he brought the hide as a shield, from which the custom arose from then on that many who performed heroic deeds used skins for shields, in imitation of Hercules.
This denotes that after one has been incited to virtue, he must appease and kill the strongest of all monsters, which is the pride and fury of the spirit, which is the Nemean lion, which feeds in the forest of little suffering and little knowledge of our spirit, which destroys the gains of all virtues.
From Phineas and the Harpies
Phineus, king of Paeonia, province of Greece, uncle of Andromeda on her father's side, was twice married. From the first wife there were children; and the second, as a stepmother, she hated alnadoes; and seeking cause for her to turn them against her father, she ordered to tell Phineas that they had tried to make love to her. Phineas, giving credence to this, became so indignant against them that he deprived them of their sight. The gods, angry with Phineas, gave him the same punishment, blinding him and adding the Harpies who came to him at mealtime and not only snatched his food, but even soiled his table with filth. Zetes and Calays saved him from this task by the hand of Hercules, because passing through there, when Iason was going to Colchos to conquer the Golden Fleece, as he received them kindly in his house and when he placed the food on the table, the Harpies came to snatch food, angry Hercules began to follow them, and seeing that due to the lightness of his wings he could do nothing, he ordered Zetes and Calays to follow them. These were brothers and sons of the Borean wind or Cerro, according to Ovid. And so the Harpies were banished to the Estrophades Islands, where Aeneas found them coming from Troy, as he tells Queen Dido, as Vergil attests. Then, Phineus being freed from the importunate Harpies, the gods restored sight to him and his children. The Harpies had the face of a woman, their mouths yellow; feathers and wings and sharp nails, like birds.
By Phineas's first wife is meant the age of a young man; for his children, the virtues that he had when he was young, distributing his property in lawful and charitable things.
Widowing this woman and marrying another who was the stepmother of the first's children is understood as her second age, in which she changed the good customs that she had at first in great covetousness, and for this reason the fable says that the second wife stirred up the children. with his father Phineas. And this is because the great carelessness of this age made Phineas deprive his children of their sight. He means: he closed his eyes to the virtues that he first had when he was young, becoming an achiever, which means Phineas, from foenus in Latin, which is achievement. And for this reason the fable says that the angry gods blinded him, because all greed is blind, that he does not see his own things, nor that the life of men is very short and that he is content with little; or he is blind, because by persevering in bad works God forgot him, blinding him from the first judgment.
By the three Harpies that the gods added to his pain, which made his table dirty, we understand covetousness and avarice and scarcity, because the life of the achievers is a dirty delicacy to be had, and for this reason he was tormented with perpetual hunger, and he could not eat the delicacies, because the Harpies took them from him; This is because the greed he had did not allow him to spend, and so he spent a sad and narrow life, trying to get a lot of treasure. Or the dirty Harpies denote the continuous and very sharp stings of saving, which did not allow him to spend on food or drink.
These are cast by the great and liberal spirits (understood by Hercules). Or because with the weapons of his great discretion and prudence, when Phineas was rebuked, he made him cast away from himself that covetousness and avarice and scarcity in which he lived; and thus he and his children were restored to physical and first sight, that is, he returned to his judgment and understanding to see the error that had bound him in that blindness of vision; They drive away Cetes and Calays from their presence, because in Greek Ceton calon means one who seeks good, they pretend to be these flying children of the wind because all the inquisition and search for good is never mixed with things of the earth.
The Harpies having yellow mouths, which comes from great hunger, and that no matter how much they ate they could not get enough, denotes the condition of the greedy, because no matter how much the miser snatches or grabs or appropriates, he never gets fed up, but rather his hunger grows more. greed and hunger. To say that the Harpies had feathers on their bodies, by the feathers we understand the deceptions and malice and intricate reasons that the miserly put forward to give color to what was poorly earned, which has no more firmness than feathers in the presence of the wind, with which they dilate. the wages of sweat, of the service of servants. That the Harpies had sharp nails is to denote the reluctance that the misers have in not restoring what they badly earned or in keeping what they lawfully earn, not helping the needs of their neighbors. These Harpies removing the food that they put on Phineus' table denotes that they have lost any good reputation that may exist from the virtuous habit, which are like food that keeps a man, even after death, in the glory of good reputation.
Some say that Phineas the king, when he was old, lost his sight and his sons died, leaving him with two daughters called Piria and Erasia, who destroyed their father's substance, and for this reason they said that the Harpies did not let him eat. . Moved to pity Cetes and Calays, brothers, who were sons of a famous man named Boreas, who were their neighbors, they put a remedy to their work, driving the daughters out of the city and collecting what they had wasted and giving it to whoever would keep it.
Of the Harpies or Stimphalides birds
The Harpies that some call Stimphalides, birds, were daughters of Taumantus and Electra, daughter of Oceanus and sisters of Iris, according to Hesiod. Others say that they were daughters of Phineas; others from Neptune and the Earth. These were three; Their names were Ocípite, Aello and Celeno. Some called Celeno Iris. They are called Harpies, from Arpe in Greek, for snatching away; They had the faces of virgins; the yellow mouths, like a hungry thing; the body like that of a vulture, with feathers and wings like birds; human feet and arms, with sharp ones like monsters. This is how Vergil paints them, in four verses that begin: Tristius haud illis monstrum. The poets called them, according to Apollonius, dogs of Jupiter, who were sent to torment Phineus.
Through the Harpies the ancients wanted to declare the generation and strength of the winds. In giving their parents Thaumanto and Electra, daughter of Oceanus, or Neptune and the Earth, they wanted to signify that the winds are generated from the purest part of the waters or the humidity of the earth, because from these things exhalations come out that, when thinned and turned into vapors, they rise high, by virtue of the heat of the Sun, which vapors then sometimes thicken and freeze in rains, other times they thin out in winds. Being sisters of Iris is because of these vapors raised in this way, when the cloud dissolves into water, an Iris appears or is generated, which is what we call the arc of the Sun, as we declare in our natural Philosophy.
The names of the Harpies mean the impetus of the winds, or their lightness or their effects or form, because Ocípite means: Bolans, or celeriter, which means lightness. Aello means storm, Celeno darkness of the clouds that the winds move; They pretend to have wings due to the lightness of the movement of the wind, which they also denoted by saying that the sons of Boreas could not reach them.
Of Hercules and Antheus
As Hercules walked through various parts of the world, he came to the land of Libya, where Antheus, son of the Earth, born without a father, lived; He was a great fighter, who knocked down everyone he tested his strength; and he had such a property that if he ever fell or failed to fall to the ground, he would rise up with two as much strength, and thus in the end he could not be defeated; And those he defeated, he would take, as he was a Giant, and he would take down the big trees, and put them there, and then he would leave the tree and throw them very far. With this Hercules wanted to prove himself; and when they came to the fight, as Hercules was braver, he knocked him to the ground, and Antheus then got up stronger than first, because the Earth his mother gave him new and doubled strength, which so many times caused Hercules to already become weak, and He felt that he could not bear it for long, and noticing Antheo's deception, in which he regained his strength from the earth, he lifted him up off the ground and so much in the air he pressed him with his arms that he killed him; and this was the victory of the fight and one of the works or feats of Hercules.
The historical meaning of this fable is that Antheo was a king of Morocco, in Mauritania, and he said he was a son of the Earth, because he was helped by those of his land, in the same way that the son receives substance and strength from the mother. He says he was born without a father because his descendants were not known. Against this came Hercules in the times when Aegeus reigned in Athenas, according to Eusebius, and according to Leontius, Argus reigning over the Argives, with whom he had many encounters; and how Hercules defeated him, and then Antheus returned to the battle with more cavalry and people, as if he had not received some damage. For this reason the fable says that every time he fell he regained double his strength. Hercules considering that Antheus was being rescued by being on the ground suddenly, he pretended to flee in a fight: Antheus followed him. And when Hercules had him separated from his land of Morocco, he returned to him and fought and Antheus was defeated, and since he could not recover he was killed. Pomponio Mela makes mention of this Antheus in the De situ orbis.
Hercules means the virtuous man who desires to overcome the desire of his flesh, with whom he has great combat and ordinary struggle. Covetousness or carnal desire is said to be a daughter of the earth, understood by Antheus, because this covetousness is not born of the spirit, but of the flesh, as the Apostle says, and when the virtuous man, who is Hercules, fights with carnal desire , overcome him sometimes, but as Antheus, falling to the ground, regained strength, so carnal greed, already mortified or pacified, once usually rises stronger with the occasion; and so for Hercules to defeat Antheus it is necessary to remove him from his land. He means to set aside occasions and conversations, and warm food, and wine, and gifted beds, and many other things that incite lust.
Some wanted to understand the generation of plants by this fable; by Hercules they understood the Sun; by Antheo the seeds. These, touching the earth while sown, by virtue of the Sun receive and rise aloft with greater strength, and come to fruition.
Of Hixiona, which others say Exiona
The poets say that the gods Apollo and Neptune, angry with the Trojans, committed great cruelties in the city, and asked for advice on how they would escape. They were told to give one of the virgin Trojan maidens every year to the sea beast, which would come out to swallow it, and thus the plague would cease; This was done, and by lot it once behooved King Laomedon to place her daughter Egiona, a virgin, there, and it was done so, and she was delivered from Hercules by Hercules. This is history, because the demons, coveting the death of the innocent, ordered these things, as we said when dealing with Andromeda.
To say that the gods Apollo and Neptune of the Trojans were angry is that as the sea grew, understood by Neptune, and made pools of water in many parts of the fields of Troy, and then as with the heat of the Sun, understood by Apollo, plague was caused, they asked the oracle how to stop it; and the demon, who spoke in oracles, gave them the answer that has been said.
Of Hesperus and the Esperides
Hesperus was the brother of Atlante and son of Iapetus and the nymph Asia. This Hesperus, as a child, was called Philotetes and when he was little he went with his brother Atlante to the western land of Mauretania, called Morocco, where Atlante was king; And because this Philotetes crossed from the other part of the islands of the Ocean Sea, they changed his name and called him Hesperus, which in Greek means Western, since the whole land is called Hesperia, from the name of a star that appears after the Sun set, to the western part, which we call Vesper or Venus. This Hesperus or Hesperus had three daughters whom the poets called Espérides, who were called Egle, Beretusa and Espertusa. These three sisters had an orchard in which golden apples were born, guarding a dragon that never slept, ensuring that none reached the orchard. Eurystheus, who at that time was using Hercules, hearing the fame of the orchard, sent Hercules for the apples, which he brought back, stealing them from the dragon.
The daughters of Hesperus had some islands under their dominion near Mount Atlante, according to Pomponius, and on these islands there were a multitude of sheep, whose wool was very good, which was made into cloth of great value, for which reason they said that these sheep were apples. of gold, because its wool was esteemed as gold; And they called these islands the orchard of the Hesperides, because those sheep were inside them, like the esteemed fruits inside an orchard.
The dragon that guarded this garden, which never slept, was the rough sea that surrounded the islands, with poor navigation and worse ports; And they called this sea a dragon because it surrounded them, like the serpent always turns around. He says that this dragon always watched because the movement of the water waves did not stop at night or day near those islands. But Hercules waited time and time, and took the sheep to his king Eurystheus, and this was one of the works or deeds of Hercules. Ovid attributes this feat to Perseus, and said that he stole them from Atlante and not from the Hesperides, in which there is little difficulty, except that there was not a single Hercules whose deeds are famous, but there were many, as we have said; and all the historians of that time wrote of many Hercules, of which Perseus was one of the famous ones that existed in his time.
Others say that Atlante was very wise in the liberal arts, and his daughters were so learned in it that they did not grant any advantage to his father; And when Hercules came there, he learned from them some things that until then had been hidden from him, and these were the golden apples from the garden of King Atlante.
Others tell this story saying that there were two brothers very famous in fame, called Hesperus and Atlas, who had sheep; Hesperus had a daughter named Hesperis, whom he gave to her brother in marriage, after whom Hesperia was named; In this Atlas there were six daughters who were called Atlantis, and of the mother Hesperides; Because of the fame of Busiris's love of beauty, he sent some thieving cossaries to steal them and bring them to him; The Cossaries, finding the maidens playing in a garden, stole them. It happened that these thieves, while eating, met Hercules, who came from the land of Antheus, and informed of the case, he killed the cossaries and returned the maidens to his father, for which benefit Atlas gave him very beautiful sheep and many other things. , and he learned things about astronomy, which, as he later showed in Greece, they said had supported the sky on his shoulders, by Adante.
From Geryon
Historians say that Hercules, as a man who hated the proud, learned of a giant called Geryon, son of Chalcidoes and Chrysaor, who had three heads, a very cruel man, which could not be discovered with him. Hercules had two battles with him: in the first he made him flee, in memory of which he ordered the games in honor of Pallas. Then he went after him and had another battle, and at last he killed him; And in memory of this victory, he built a superb tower, which had eyes to see those who came to that port, and sent out fire, with whose clarity the ships could travel at night. Geryon had a brave two-headed dog.
The historical meaning of this fable is that in the land of Estremadura there lived a powerful king named Gerión, who put all his diligence into raising cattle, and was very brave and poorly treated towards those who were under his dominion. When his vassals saw Hercules and understood his exploits, they joined him, complaining about Geryon's bravery; He gave Hercules a desire to take away this power. To say that he had three heads was to be lord of the three islands that are called Gades, Mallorca and Menorca. Others say that he had three kingdoms, which were Andalusia and Estremadura with Portugal and the mountains of Galizia. Rabano says that they were three brothers who reigned together, so harmonious that they seemed to be ruled by a single soul; and Trogus Pompey says the same. Hercules went to him, and found him on a bank of the Guadiana River, in the part where the city of Mérida is now, and fighting there, he defeated him, and Geryon fled to Galizia. Hercules built a room in Mérida in which he placed many pillars, some of which are standing today, and in memory of this battle he ordered some games in honor of Pallas, which today are called shovel games, and he named that land Lusitania. which means games of Guadiana, which the ancients called Topo, by another name, because just as this animal perpetually burrows and lives underground, so Guadiana, a river, goes many leagues underground, which cannot be seen.
After this victory, Hercules followed Geryon to Galizia, and found him with many people on the seashore, where they now call Coruña. They fought a brave battle on both sides, and at last, after many people had died on both sides, Hercules killed Geryon, and then built a large tower, on top of which he placed a lamp, which without filling it with oil. It illuminated, giving great clarity day and night. Furthermore, he placed in it a mirror that had a copper image in its hand, by such art that in whatever land ships were armed, it would immediately appear in the mirror, and for this reason the fable says that this tower had eyes, and who cast fire from himself through the lamp. This lasted until some Chaldeans came there, fleeing from the conquest of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who, knowing the secret of the mirror, covered their ships with branches, so that it looked like a mountain, so the one who kept the mirror The mirror did not see a fleet, but a mountain, and so they were able to enter the port of La Coruña without finding anyone to resist them, and they took possession of that land; The mirror and lamp lasted almost three hundred years. Diodorus says that Geryon was a very powerful king of Spain, and that he possessed very great wealth, and that he had three very strong and warrior sons, each of whom went with his army of people. King Eurystheus, who ordered the work to Hercules, believed that it would be a very difficult and dangerous thing to defeat such a powerful king. He ordered him to come to Spain against him, and to take with him the cattle that the king grazed in the nearby parts. to the ocean sea. Hercules, obeying the commandment of Eurystheus and not forgetting the clear things that he had done in the past, came to Spain and defeated the sons of Geryon and carried away all the king's cattle.
The two-headed dog that Geryon had was that he had great power by sea and by land. He makes mention of Geryon Pomponius Mela and Seneca, where he says: Pastor triformis littoris Carthessii, etc. He means: Hercules killed the three-figured shepherd, from the coast of Spain, called the Cartesian coast. He called Geryon a shepherd because he had many cattle, of which the kings of old paid much attention. Call it three figures, for the reasons that have been stated in the declaration of this fable.
Of Augeas
Augeas, king of some towns in the Peloponnese, was the son of the Sun, according to some, and according to others of Neptune or Phorbantes; He had eyes so brilliant that they seemed to come out of the rays like the Sun. It is said that since he had stables in which three thousand oxen slept, very full of manure, he made an agreement with Hercules to clean them in one day, and promised to give him a tenth of them. of all their livestock, considering it impossible to clean themselves in many days, much less in one. Hercules, guiding a quantity of water through the stables, cleaned them in the proposed time; and when Augeas refused him payment, he killed him. And because a son of Augeas, named Pylus, said that his father had done wrong in not fulfilling what he had promised, he caused him to succeed to the kingdom. Augeas denied Hercules his salary because it seemed to him that he had had almost no work cleaning those stables, because fools most reward the strength and work of the body, and not those of the mind.
From Caco, thief
Cacus, wild son of Vulcan, was a famous thief, of whom it is said that Hercules returned victorious from Spain, with the cattle that he had taken from Geryon, arriving in the land of Cacus, he stole many cows, bringing them by the tail, walking backwards, so that they could not be found by the trail, and he put them in his cave. But when Hercules, looking for them, heard them bellowing, he entered the cave and killed Cacus and took his oxen. This fable is all history, and so it only has to be said that they called Cacus the son of Vulcan, because for his pastime and recreation he came out of his cave to put fire in the places and crops in his region. Ovid mentions this.
Of Centaurs
The Centaurs were children of Ixion and a cloud, and Ovid mentions them, saying that Theseus defeated them at the wedding of Pirithous and Hyppodamia, and that they are animals that are half men and half horses, very light and invincible, and extremely lustful.
All this is fiction, that there are no such animals, nor could two such diverse forms exist together, although Pliny mentions them, as Lucretius proves in four verses that begin: Sed neque centauri fuerant, nec tempore ullo, etc. Palefacto says that if these animals had existed at some time, they would also exist now, and that the historical truth is that in the time of Ixion, on Mount Pelius, in Thesalia, there was such an abundance of bulls that they spoiled the fruits and sown; and to remedy this damage, Ixion ordered to proclaim that whoever killed them or expelled them from there would give them great rewards. One hundred horsemen came, inhabitants of a mountainous place called Nube. For this number they were called Centaurs, from the hundred who came, and from Taurus, which is a bull, or from a hundred, which is a hundred, and Aryans, which in Greek means Mars, and means one hundred Tuesdays or fighters or warriors, which are They became so arrogant due to the lightness of the horses that they caused great damage in the region, and even against Ixion himself. And since, being evil and arrogant, they wanted to steal the wife at the wedding of Pirithous, they could not because they were defeated by Theseus, which Hercules said; And as they were fleeing they saw the horse's haunches and the rest of the man up there, they seemed to be all one piece. And since these, by order of Ixion, came from the mountain called Cloud, the fable arose that they were children of Ixion, born of the cloud. Others write that they called themselves Centaurs, Quasi Gentauri, as if they were generated in the air, because just as the wind flies quickly, so it seemed to fly in its running, or because they pretended to have been generated in the air from the embrace that Ixion had with the cloud, believing to be Iuno. Some of them were the first to tame horses in Thesalia and were famous riders.
The ancients faked these Centaurs to denote by them the brevity of life and the brutality of some men. The part of the ribbon at the top, which is the figure of a man, denotes human life, and the light horse on which it rides, which is the part in the middle below, denotes the lightness with which we run to death; And for this very reason they said that they were very light animals, because there is no eagle that flies faster than our life. To say that they are invincible is because there is no power or lordship that can stop this course of life, so that it always stops eating or sleeping from walking towards death. In saying that these animals were lustful, they wanted to imply that there were half-brute men given over to their vices and sensualities, governed by appetite and not by reason, who, having figures of men, live like animals, surrendered to dirty lust, to whom multitude accompany all other vices.
From Nesso
Nesso, among the Centaurs, was very famous; Living near the river Hebeno, in Calydonia, he fell in love with Dejanira, daughter of King Oeneus, whom Hercules married. It happened that Hercules was taking her to his land, reaching the bank of the river, and not being able to cross, since the many waters were very swollen, and not being able to find a ford, Nesso, who was very cunning, approached him, and as he wanted him to do service, he offered, as a man who knew the fords well, to go over to Dejanira. Hercules accepted the offer; Nesso having passed Dejanira faster than Hercules, who was swimming, fled with her; But Hercules, who was about to leave it, seeing him, took his bow and struck him dead with an arrow. Considering that Nesso could not escape, lest he die without revenge, he imagined a new deception, and immediately, undressing his shirt from the very bloody wound, he gave it to Dejanira as a gift of the great love he had for her, making her understand that he had such a virtue that if she had Hercules wear it, she would be sure that no woman would ever fall in love with another woman. Dejanira received this gift with great joy, giving credence to what Nesso told her. After some time, Hercules falling in love with Iole, believing she would return him to her love and take away the love he had for Iole, she sent him the shirt with a servant of hers named Lichas, with whom he died by throwing himself into a fire, from where, when he came back to life, he was placed in heaven, as Ovid says.
This fable admonishes us that we must carefully watch how we trust what we want well from others, as Hercules mistrusted his beloved Dejanira, from Nesso. It can be deduced from this that the one who loves glory (which is what Hercules means), seeing himself robbed of the fame that he had acquired with much work and sweat, which is figured in Dejanira, by the lasciviousness figured in Nesso, shoots him an arrow dyed in his own virtue, and kills him.
The Centaur giving his shirt is like when lasciviousness wanes, but in such a way that he still leaves his spoils to fame, to give the man greedy for glory and fame the same death that has been given to her. Who, after inflamed by the vain, dishonest and lascivious love of Iole, puts on the shirt of his error, which fame sent him, for which he remains so afflicted that he burns himself. It is renewed again, because after we pass from a lascivious, dishonest and vicious life, to a temperate, honest and praiseworthy life, burning away bad affections, we become young men in virtue and glory, and then we are exalted to heaven, for the contemplation, and counted in the number of the gods, who are the saints.
From Acheloo
Acheloo, according to Paulo Perusino, was the son of Ocean and the Earth. Theodoncio claims to be the son of the Sun and the Earth. Of this Ovid writes that having intended to marry Dejanira, daughter of Oeneus, who some say Caeneus, king of Calydonia, who had first been betrothed to Hercules, they came to battle; and as Achelous had the ability to change into various figures, Hercules having defeated him once in his true figure of a warped Giant, and a second time in the figure of a fearful dragon, changing for the third time into a brave bull, Hercules took off a horn, which now missing.
The struggle of Hercules with Acheloos is pure history, because Oeneus having promised his daughter Dejanira as a wife to Hercules, on condition that he reduce the two river Acheloos to a mother and stream, because it did much damage to the bread and fruits of the field, For this reason it is said that Hercules, after much work, defeated him in the form of a bull, taking away one of its horns.
By the fathers and mothers that the ancients gave to Acheloo they wanted to signify the generation of the fountains and rivers; and thus, to say that Ocean is the father of Acheloo is to say that the sea is the main generation of the rivers and fountains, because oozing through the pores or springs of the earth they are generated. Giving the earth its mother is saying that the air, entering the cavernous parts of the earth, thickening with the moisture of the earth itself and celestial virtue, generates water, from which the fountains are caused, and from the fountains the rivers.
To say that he was the son of the Sun and the earth is to say that by raising the Sun with its heat vapors from the earth and water, clouds are generated, which, taken aloft to the first or second region of the air, become water. or hail or fog, as we show in our Natural Philosophy, which with its weight or coarseness falls again on the earth, from which rivers and fountains are caused.
Hercules once defeated Achelous in the form of a man because when Hercules tried to reduce his two arms to a single mother, it was at a time when he did not receive water from the rains, which are sometimes many; but when he was in the common being of the current of the waters of him, and this he calls human form. And because of the turns and waves that the river makes, they say it becomes a snake, because this animal does not move in the right direction. And because of the noise or sound that the water of the rivers makes, and because of its strength or because it plows or breaks the earth, they pretend to look like a bull. And because with fences and aqueducts he prevented this river from damaging the land of the province, he says that he defeated it. And because of two arms that he had he removed one, guiding it with the other, they say that he removed the top or removed a horn; mentions this river Strabo. They wanted to declare through this fiction that things, even if they are very harmful and sterile, with prudence they become useful and fruitful.
Vergil, where it begins: Poculaque inventisi, etc., says that Achelous was the first to put wine in cups because a man of that name was the first in Greece to plant vineyards and make wine. Others understand by Acheloo the power of good waters, and for this reason they called all water that they offered in sacrifices Acheloo.
In the transmutations in which Acheloo pretends to change, the ancients wanted to declare the conditions of our minds to be changeable, and that they vary in various ways, now desiring one and then hating this and loving another; and sometimes with pride, boasting a lot, we take the form of a bull or a lion. Others being shy, like a hare or a deer, and so on in other ways, according to other passions. This is why Boethius said: Those who live according to the customs and inclinations of brutes, in themselves can be said to have been converted.
From Amalthea's horn
The poets say that the horn that Hercules took from Achelous, Jupiter filled with herbs and fruits, and gave it to the nymph Amalthea, for having been her mistress and receiving milk from her teats.
The fable says that the horn that Hercules removed from Achelous was filled with herbs and fruit by Iupiter, and gave it to Amalthea, is that how Hercules guided a branch of the river Achelous that went through the main mother, and with this a piece of water was left undone. earth, which in its seat makes the shape of an ox horn, and the heat, understood by Iupiter, dried it and caused it to produce many trees and grasses; and since Amalthea belonged to this land, due to the fertility of that region, which produced many and diverse fruits, it was called the horn of Amalthea. Strabo mentions this.
Of Diomedes, the Thracian
Of Diomedes of Thrace, not the Greek who went to conquer Troy, Ovid says that he fattened his horses with human blood, whom Hercules threw into the mangers where countless other men he had thrown to them had eaten, for whose sake His punishment was according to that which he gave to all the foreigners who came to his kingdom.
To say that Diomedes of Thrace fed men to his horses, and that the mangers were full of human bodies, and Hercules, on the contrary, made the horses eat the body of his master, putting him dead in the mangers, is that Diomedes, having horsemen, forced and robbed other people with those horses, and this was eating the men's horses, because they ate the property that Diomedes stole from them. And because Hercules made it so that Diomedes could not steal, and Diomedes had nothing to give them to eat from theft, the horses ate his property, and for this they say that they ate him, just as they said that the dogs tore and ate Atheon, because they spent him his estate.
Of Busiris, and of sacrificing human blood
Busiris was the son of Neptune and Libya, daughter of Epapho, a cruel man, who took to making sacrifices to the gods of human blood, and the first one he sacrificed was to a soothsayer of his, who told him that to avoid the great sterility of fruits of their kingdom the gods wanted to be sacrificed with human blood. Then having finished telling him, he sacrificed the same fortune teller, so as not to go look for another one, and from then on he sacrificed many others. Busiris believed that in this he was doing pleasure and great service to the gods, for which they would increase his status, and this is what the gods promised him. Lactantius proves that the cruelty of sacrificing men was very ancient among many and diverse people who fell into this error. And Eusebio shows that no nation was free from this great sin, as touched upon by Florián de Ocampo and the general history of King Don Alonso. And it is true that the demons, who were the gods of the Gentiles, to whom they made such sacrifices, greatly rejoiced that they were offered the blood of men, because the demons desire to bring the human race into sin, and the greater the sins, the more they enjoy it; and because killing men caused a great sin on the part of the one who killed them and endangered the souls of those who died, for this reason it was a very acceptable sacrifice to the gods; and this Busiris did with great care, and it lasted until Hercules, pretending to go through his land and becoming his guest, when Busiris at night was going to do to him what he usually had with the other guests, Hercules, being braver, acted as Busiris what he had done to many, of whom nothing else needs to be said, because it is true history without pretense, and considered one of the labors of Hercules.
The first to institute the sacrifice of men was Apollo, according to Eusebius, because as once the Athenians suffered great famine due to the death of Androgeus, son of Minos, king of Crete, who they killed out of envy, for being among all the young men of Athenas. victorious in the fight, as Vergil says, they asked Apollo what they would do to temper him, he responded like a cruel demon, that if they wanted to appease the gods, they should choose seven maidens each year and as many young men, and take them to Crete so that there they were sacrificed, which lasted for five hundred years, until the time of the philosopher Socrates, who, being a virtuous and wise man, persuaded that such an abominable thing not be done, and prevented neither Athenas from giving the young men and maidens, nor the Cretans would use such cruelty of sacrifices. But that did not mean that it ceased in other parts of the world, since this beginning of Athenas had spread throughout it, until the coming of our Redeemer Iesu Christo, which was all full of love and piety.
From Alcestes or Alcesta
The authors write that when Admetus, king of Thesalia, a province of Greece, was ill, they went to the oracle to find out what had happened. And they were told that if someone did not die for him, he would not escape the illness in which he was. Seeing by Alcestes, her wife, that this would not be found, she wanted to allow herself to be sacrificed for the health of her husband. They now pretend that Admetus, seeking to return her to life, begged Hercules to go down to hell for her; Saint Fulgentius and Valerius Maximus tell this story.
The moral meaning of this fiction is that Admetus means rational soul. Alcestes, who is his wife, denotes sensuality, which had to be subject to reason, as the wife to the husband. She goes to hell Alcestes when sensuality, following her desires, occupies herself with low and clumsy things. From there Hercules, who is the wise man or man strong in virtue, at the request of the anima, which is reason, with virtuous acts and admonitions brings Alcestes to the virtuous life, removing her from hell, making her subject to reason, separating her from her vicious desires.
Del Cancerbero
Cancerberus was a very brave dog with three throats or heads, whom Vergil and Horace attest to being the guardian of hell, who was in a cave in front of the houses of Pluto, and who received all who entered it with much flattery, and left none of them. go out, because with loud barking he scared them away. Cerberus was born to Typhon and Echidna, according to Hesiod. It is called Cancerbero, from caro which means meat, and vero, to swallow. Horacio says that snakes hung from his head. Cicero says this dog has fifty heads; Horacio gives him a hundred, but the common opinion is that he only has three; so says Vergil, where he begins: Eumenides tenuitque inhians Cerberus ora, etc. This dog is said to have been taken out of hell by Hercules through a cave near the Tenaro River, which after he felt the clarity, vomited; And Strabo says that realgar was born from the foam that came out of his mouth and what he vomited. And this feat is counted as one of the works of Hercules.
Those who gave Tiphon and Echidna as parents to Cerberus wanted to declare the engenerative virtue of nature, because Tiphon means a burning thing of fire, and Echidna is the viper, a very frigid animal. And by this they meant that the generation of natural things is made from the commission of the warm and the cold. Where does it come from that virtue that comes from the heavens to generate something on earth, by which hell is understood, because it is low, where the Cancerbero pretends to be, flatters it and strikes with it. And on the contrary, wanting to get out of this thing generated from this hell, that is, wanting to leave life or get out of living, Cerberus frightens the souls, and this is what nature demands, not being able to suffer with good spirit the death or end of the individuals, as is the natural attempt of every individual to preserve as much as he can in the being that God gave him. The warp that was attributed to him as snakes and the fact that he lived in a dark cave denotes the ignorance that generations have of many things or dirt from which they are generated. Others understood Cerberus to be the earth, and then the name Cerberus fits well, because the earth universally swallows all things and spares none. Others understand by it death, which swallows all living things. By the three throats or heads that they give it, they understood the three parts of the world, Europe, Asia and Africa, because hell is maintained by the people of all of them, that is, of the souls that live badly, of the whole world, as Trabeto notices it. Others understand by Cancerberus all the vices that Hercules conquered and subdued.
Saint Fulgencio says that giving this Cancerbero three heads is due to the quarrel or contrariety of things, it is in three ways: natural, causal and accidental. Natural quarrel or hatred is like that between the cat and the mouse, or the kite and the chicken. The causal, like envy. The accidental is what is born from words or from claims about sustenance, like that of beasts.
Others say that Cerberus denoted avarice and greed for wealth; for the whole hobby of the miser is to acquire, and if any need brings riches to light, then the miser cries out, and despise them without regard or judgment. Therefore they say that Cerberus vomited when he saw the light.
He has many heads because greed is the beginning and source of many evils and sins. Or because he attracts many miseries to men, since for the love of riches some are killed and oppressed by iron, others by poison and others by other means of snares. Or in another way, the three heads of Cerberus denote three needs that lead the good man to the contemplation of everlasting things, and to the bad they are poison; These are hunger, thirst and sleep.
They say that Cerberus lives in a dark cave because the Avarian is almost the most foolish and foolish of all vices, because he neither benefits himself nor others, nor seeks to gain glory for himself or his descendants, but always deals among vile men. and low.
Hercules bringing forth Cerberus: Hercules, who is virtue and greatness of spirit, acquired for himself perpetual glory and fame. Paléphatus says that with the cattle that Hercules took from Geryon there was a very brave dog, which was guarded by one named Molato; As he asked for it and they did not want to give it to him, he bribed the shepherds to let him, and once he was in his possession, he hid it in a cave called Laconia, near the Tenaro River. Hercules, looking for his dog, came to where he was and took him out of the cave, from where the fable that Hercules took Cancerberus out of hell originated.
The poets tell more: that Theseus and Pirithous, famed for the beauty of Proserpina, descended into hell to steal her, and being sensed, Cancerberus killed Pirithous, and Theseus was very close to dying if Hercules did not favor him. This fable is all history. And since Pirithous helped Theseus in the theft of Helen, Theseus was forced to swear that he would help Pirithous, so that he would also steal some notable woman. Hearing, then, that in Epirus there was a daughter of Aidoneus, king of the Molossians, who was very beautiful, they went there with the intention of stealing her. This king, by whom Pluto is understood, was cruel, and had a very brave dog, called Cerberus; To those who wanted to marry Proserpina, he first ordered them to fight with Cerberus, and being defeated, they were torn to pieces. Pirithous tried to steal her by means of tricks, Theseus helping him, and Aidoneus understanding that they did not come as competitors to ask for his daughter, but, as thieves, to steal her, he threw them in prison, and then he threw Pirithous to the dog that would swallow him; Theseus he forgave, knowing that he had not come of his will; but he was imprisoned, because the virtue and greatness of spirit which was in Theseus and was said to be denoted by Hercules. For this reason it is said that it was in Hercules' favor that Theseus also died.
Of Ioles
Ioles was the daughter of Eurytho, king of Aetolia; Her father having offered her to Hercules as a wife, and later due to a certain event he was denied her, as we said in another work, Hercules became angry and moved to war with her, and he killed Eurytho, and took possession of the province, and arrested Ioles. Which, more out of passion for her father's death than out of love for her marriage, she accepted it; greedy for revenge, with wonderful and constant cunning, with feigned love she hid her heart, and with pretense she brought Hercules to love her to such a degree that she not only made him strip off his rough clothes and dress in other springy and womanly clothes, but put on rings and rings on their fingers, and anointing themselves with precious ointments, and combing their hair, and even touching caps, and other women's things; And since even with all these things she did not seem to have satisfied her anger, after having brought him to such softness, she made him, sitting like a woman on the ground, spin with her mistresses and tell the stories of her work. her. It seemed to this woman to be a greater honor to have effeminate such a robust and brave man than to have killed him with a knife or poison. This fact is attributed by Statius to Omphale, and is related to one of his works.
The ancients gave us this story as an example of human weakness, to consider what the lustful affection for women brings to man. He is the author of this Tarcanota.
From Hebe
Hebe, according to Theodoncio, was the daughter of Iuno and sister of Mars, conceived without a man's council, of whose birth it is said that Apollo prepared a treat for Iuno, her stepmother, in the house of Iupiter, her father, and among other food he put lettuce for her. wild or peasant women, of whom one eating with desire, then became pregnant; As before she was sterile and from this birth she gave birth to Hebe, who because she was so beautiful, Iupiter received her as her cup page, and gave her the title of being the goddess of youth. It happened that one day, while she was very adorned and crowned with flowers, serving her job at the table of Jupiter and the other gods who went to eat with the Ethiopians, she slipped, so that in front of everyone she revealed the shameful parts of her body. Because of this misfortune, Jupiter deprived her of her office and admitted in her place Ganymede, son of Laomedon, who others say Tros, third king of Troy. Iuno greatly felt the loss of her daughter, Hercules being already placed in heaven, among the gods, according to what Ovid says, he married her to him.
The natural meaning of this fable is that astrologers attribute two houses in the Zodiac to Jupiter, which are Sagittarius and Pisces. And to say that Apollo invited Iuno to his father's house is to say that when the Sun, which is Apollo, arrives in the sign of Sagittarius, his father's house, he gives lettuce to Iuno, because the lettuce is cold, so at this time the earth, now understood by Iuno, is occupied with cold, driving away the heat with the contrariness of the nature of that time, hiding in the low and deep parts, and warming the humidity of the earth, the roots of the plants and herbs grow. , and this is to become pregnant Ione by whom the earth is understood. As it was sterile before, it means as in the autumn that preceded it it was sterile, because it did not then engender anything. When the time for giving birth comes, which is in the summer, I give birth to Hebe, goddess of Youth, because in the spring, represented by Hebe, she removes and renews all the plants, and everything seems to resurrect, the trees and flowers sprouting; And because this time of summer, which is hot, comes, the Sun draws out exhalations and carries them high, for this reason they said that Hebe served as a cup page to Jupiter and the other gods, because some thought that they were sustained by drinking with these vapors the heavenly bodies; that using Hebe of her office, being crowned with flowers, that is to say that at that time of spring the fields are like this. Come autumn, in which time the Sun begins to decline towards the winter solstice, which is the Ethiopians, which fall towards the Antarctic pole, all the vegetables and freshness begin to cease, and the leaves of the trees to fall. Hebe, goddess of youth, falls and reveals the private parts of her body, that is, the trees, dropping their leaves, reveal their trunks, which compared to the beauty they first had with the leaves and flowers, seem ugly; and this is to say that by slipping she discovered the immodest parts of her body and for this reason Hebe was deprived of her office, and given to Ganymede, by whom the sign of Aquarius is understood, in which sign, when the Sun arrives, it causes many rains. and many humid vapors come out of the earth; For this reason they say that Ganymede succeeded to the office of Hebe. That Iuno married Hebe to Hercules, being already placed among the number of the other gods, denotes that the vigor of the works of heroic and very illustrious men, such as Hercules, is always together with youth, understood by Hebe, because good fame never perishes nor weakens with age.
Homer says Hebe is the daughter of Iuno and Iupiter, because from the heat, understood by Iupiter, and from the good temperance of the air, understood by Iuno, all herbs and trees sprout and flower.
Furthermore, because some believed that Hercules was the Sun, as we said in his history, and as the Sun turning, according to its own movement to the Zodiac, awakens things and plants to be born and grow, this is why it is said that Iuno, which is the temperance of the air, he gave Hebe as his wife, by whom is understood the youth and renewal of plants and fruits. Hebe being the sister of Mars is because due to the fertility of the regions and abundance, dissensions and wars arise for the most part, understood by Mars, as almost no one uses to fight over a sterile place or thing; and this is why Hebe is the sister of Mars.
This fable admonishes us in that it says that Hebe was deprived of the office of cupbearer for such a light thing, as it seems to be due to stumbling and falling while serving, that the benevolence and love of princes is extremely inconstant, and that it is sometimes lost for very small reasons. because the same thing doesn't always seem good to them.
From Ganymede
Ovid and other poets pretend that Ganymede was snatched from the eagle and taken to heaven to serve as cupbearer to Jupiter in place of Hebe, daughter of Iuno. Ganymede was the son of Tros, who by another name was called Laomedon, third king of Troy. This one, as he was admirable and of almost unheard of beauty, was worthy to serve Jupiter, as Homer says. Others, like Apollonius, say that he was not taken to be a cup page of Jupiter, but so that he could enjoy and converse with the gods. He was stolen on a mountain in Phrigia, named Ida, while riding in hunting, according to what Vergil says in four verses that begin: Intextusque puer, etc. Others say that he was robbed at the Dardanio Promontory. Strabo says that in the Priapenus field. Others say that Jupiter, turned into an eagle, took him to heaven. Others say that Ganymede was not stolen from Jupiter, nor from the eagle, nor from other gods, but rather from Tantalus.
Tantalus, tyrant king of Phrygia, bordered the kingdom of Troy; One day Ganymede was hunting with his servants, as he was beautiful, and Tantalus, a bad man, prepared for all evil, lay in wait for him and stole him, taking him with him, and he never wanted to return him to his father, for which reason great people rose up. wars between Tros and Tantalus; and since Ganymede did not appear, the flatterers said that Jupiter had taken him. And since Jupiter was supposed to be in heaven, they said that he should be taken there; They say that an eagle snatched him away so he could fly there. To say that the gods wanted Ganymede to serve as cupbearer to Iupiter was to declare his merit, and to fit this position to the thing in which they pretend to have changed, which is a sign called Aquarius, which they paint with a pitcher of water on the hand; This is because when the Sun is in this sign it usually rains a lot, and for this reason they called him the cupbearer of Jupiter.
For this fable the wise men wanted to paint a prudent man. That Ganymede was loved by Jupiter is to say that the prudent man is loved by God, and this is the only one who reaches the divine nature through wisdom, because if God is wisdom, the wise man imitates him by being virtuous. They said that Ganymede was most beautiful because the soul of the prudent man, which is not stained with human dirt, is most beautiful in divine respect, and being such, it is easily stolen from God; and Ganymede being stolen is so that we know that God deprives the world of the things that please him most and esteems him, as unworthy of them.
From Periclymenoe
Of Periclymenoe Ovid writes that he turned into as many figures as he wanted; And fighting with Hercules in the form of an eagle, Hercules seeing that he could not defeat him with spear or sword, he wounded him with an arrow, from which blow he fell to the ground, and was soon killed.
Periclymenoe, killed by Hercules, shows us that the glory of print, represented by Hercules, often fights with jealousy, represented by Periclymenoe, which takes various forms. Finally, taking the form of an eagle, which is represented by pride, it is wounded by an arrow of glory, which is the lightning bolt that comes from honorable and praiseworthy works, which sustain glory, which has the power to kill humanity. pride and extinguish envy.
Of Minos and the labyrinth of Crete, and of the Minotaur and Pasipha
The poets say that Minos made a vow to Neptune that he would sacrifice whatever first appeared before him, and when a bull of great beauty appeared to him, he covered it a lot and gave it to the shepherds to guide the herds, and he sacrificed another for it, so Like angry Neptune, he put in Queen Pasipha, his wife, daughter of the Sun, such a passion for Cupid that while her husband Minos was absent, as Ovid writes, she fell in love with that beautiful bull that Minos stopped sacrificing; and to have intercourse with him, she got into a wooden cow, made by Daedalus, a singular architect, carved so naturally and covered with a cow's skin, that she seemed alive; And so she became pregnant and gave birth to a creature whose half body from the waist up was that of a man, and the rest of that of a bull. Minos, when she found out, had him hidden so that he would never appear; And for this he ordered Daedalus to build a wooden house, of wonderful grandeur, very dark and with many separations and entanglements, so that whoever once entered inside would not know where to get out. Daedalus made a work so intricate and difficult and full of so many embarrassments that the men, unable to find the way out, walked in that entanglement or labyrinth until they were completely lost. In this place they imprisoned that horrendous creature, named Minotaur, whose sustenance was the human flesh of the Athenians. The reason why they targeted him with Athenians was that this king Minos had a son named Amdrogeus, who came to live in the city of Athenas, with the consent and will of Aegeus, king of the Athenians. This Amdrogeus was a very brave young man, and in the exercises of the fight and the other palestric games he defeated all the Athenians, which King Aegeus saw, fearing that at some time the sons of Pallante, his brother, with the friendship of Amdrogeus and with the help of Minos, his father, who expelled him from the kingdom, he killed Amdrogeus. Angered by Minos, he came with great power and surrounded Athenas, and made it so strait that the Athenians gave themselves at his mercy. Minos imposed this tribute, that every year they would send him seven sons and as many daughters to Crete, so that the Minotaur could eat. When the Athenians were to send these men, they were drawn by lot, and those who were fit were to go; For this reason, in the third year the lot fell to Theseus, son of King Aegeus (according to Plutarch), a very brave and brave young man; and as he was already in Crete, where they were going to throw him to the Minotaur, he raped Ariadne, daughter of King Minos; and seeing his kindness and knowing that he was the son of a king, she fell in love with him, and having pity that such a gentleman and brave man should perish from such a disastrous death, wishing to free him, they say that she asked Daedalus for advice, and so for his industry, leaving Theseus at the door From the labyrinth he tied a thread from a ball that Ariadne gave him, and carrying the ball with him, he entered the labyrinth, and fought with the Minotaur, and having achieved victory, he left, following his thread in his hand with great glory.
Others say that after the Sun declared the adultery of Venus and Mars, Venus became very cruel towards the generation of the Sun; and for this reason Ariadne, daughter of the Sun, was despised by Theseus, and he made Pasipha, her mother, feel ardor and desire for the bull.
Some want this pretense to be history, because to say that a bull was to be mixed with an image of a cow made of wood, and with Pasipha inside, to conceive of it, is something against natural order. The truth is that while Minos was at war against the Athenians, he left his secretary named Torus as governor, and Pasipha fell in love with him, and through his waiter she enjoyed him, and she became pregnant, and gave birth to a son, who in part resembled Minos. and partly Toro the adulterer, and that is why they called him Minotaur. Others say that at a certain time, when King Minos was ill with a certain illness, a very handsome young man named Taurus, which means Bull, had a love affair with Pasipha, and they had a son, who Minos saw and counted the time he had been there. Sick, he found he could not be his son, and he understood that he had belonged to the young man called Taurus; and he did not want to kill the child, seeing that in some way he resembled his children, but he sent him to be raised among his shepherds, so that he could serve in that office; who in no way wanted to allow himself to be subjugated by any shepherd, nor to do anything he was told. Knowing about Minos, he had some servants call him, and if he did not want to come, they would bring him tied up, which, understanding from the young man, he went to the mountains, where he spent his life hunting. And when Minos sent copies of people who arrested him, he made a deep cave where he locked himself up. This young Minotaur being like this, if Minos found any unjust man, he would be sorry that he would kill the Minotaur. It came to pass that Theseus, an ancient enemy of his, was at his hands, and he sent him to the Minotaur, so that he might die at his hands. When he heard from Ariadne, his daughter, he sent him a sword to prison, with which he killed the Minotaur. Others said Taurus was a captain of Minos, who was very cruel against the Athenians, who sent tribute in his name, as Plutarch says in the life of Theseus.
Through this labyrinth the ancients wanted to declare that man's life was intricate and hindered by many anxieties, that from some minor ones are born other major ones. Or the world full of deceptions and misfortunes, where men are immersed, without knowing how to find the way out or their damage, entangled in so many vain hopes, tied in contentments that they cannot satisfy, forgotten about themselves, immersed in their vices, fond of their perdition. ; finally, surrendered to their unbridled appetites.
By Theseus is understood the perfect man who follows the thread of self-knowledge; This one comes out of this dangerous labyrinth, who, never letting go of his hand, understands that the body is mortal and transitory, and the soul immortal and eternal, created for heaven, and that what is there is his earth, and this of here it is exile; and with this knowledge of himself, defeated the terrible Minotaur, which is his own disordered concupiscence, he leaves the world with a wonderful victory.
In another way, Pasipha, daughter of the Sun, is our soul, daughter of the true Sun, who is God, who although she is married to reason that must always guide her, so that she does not slip, and gives with her the delights that she They deviate from the right path, every path has Venus as its enemy, because most times through her it deviates from reason, and approaches the bull, which is the bestial likeness that man takes when distancing himself from virtue. Stop the Minotaur, who is a man half beast and half man, who is locked in the labyrinth full of crooked paths, which never lead to the desired end. Thus pleasures and delights convolute and stir man in this world that has become monstrous, which can never reach its true end. The inexplicable detour of the streets of the labyrinth means that he who has once given himself over to illegitimate things cannot later be untangled without great difficulty and without great artifice of Daedalus, an ingenious counselor, because aged custom and usage becomes in nature the men accustomed to it, and this was one of the works of Hercules.
Of Daedalus and Icarus
Daedalus was the son of Eupolemus or Euphemio and Alcipa; others say that he was the son of Erechtheus, an Athenian man; He was a clear man by the variety of his achievements and excellences of his arts and wisdom; He was the one who first made portraits; He made a simulacrum of Venus out of wood, which, pouring quicksilver inside, moved like an animated thing; he made the labyrinth of Crete. He killed his nephew Attalo, who others say Ealo, inventor of the potter's wheel and the saw, for which he moved to Crete, where he became very familiar with Minos and Pasipha, the woman of the. The poets say that he made a wooden cow, so beautiful and so natural, that when Pasipha was placed inside, he committed adultery with a bull, from whose town Minotaur was born. Others say that he helped Theseus enter the labyrinth and kill the Minotaur. For any of these things, they say that Minos suspecting that Daedalus had given orders for this, he ordered him to be arrested, together with his son Icarus, and put in a large prison. Seeing Daedalus so confined, desiring freedom, he thought of an invention worthy of his delicate ingenuity, with which he could escape from the power of Minos; And thus disguising his purpose, he begged all his friends who came to console him to bring him many feathers of all kinds, both small and large, pretending to want to do wonderful things with them, so that he would have something to entertain himself and occupy his closed prison. Provided with feathers, he made two pairs of wings, one for himself and the other for his son Icarus, and having practiced flying with them and seeing that they could now imitate birds, they began to rise above the earth, as if they were eagles. . Going thus high, Daedalus admonished his son, saying: Look, son, I command you to go near me; do not deviate to one side or the other, because if you fly higher, the heat of the Sun will melt the wax with which the feathers of your wings are fastened; and if you fly lower, the mists of the sea will wet your feathers; and if you take my advice, by going close to me you will be safe. Having said this, the father led ahead of him, and after having passed many lands, Icarus, with the presumption of his wings, forgetting the advice, abandoned his father and began to fly high; But after a short time he repented, because the Sun softened the wax with which the wings were glued, and by force, and against his will, he let himself fall into the sea, which from then on will be named after him. called Ycareo. Write this Ovid and Diodorus Siculus.
Through this fable the poets wanted to give us a very excellent doctrine, that in all things we love the mean, because this is what virtue consists of, and that we keep the advice of our fathers and flee from pride, if we do not want to fall off a cliff like Icarus and drown in the sea of this vain world, which we will do by loving humility, which has no fall.
Furthermore, it gives us to understand that when ambition and the desire for high things is restrained by reason and prudence, it does not exceed the limits, rising above what its merits are worth; and thus, after the course of this life, man reaches the desired end, as Daedalus did. But those like Icarus who want to rise higher than they should, transported by a disordered desire, come to fall into the miseries of the world, represented by the waves of the sea, with affront and irreparable damage.
That Daedalus was an ingenious craftsman and that he killed his nephew Attalus, and that for this he went to Crete, where he became very familiar with Minos, that Pasipha committed adultery with that captain Taurus, that not only Daedalus was aware of this adultery, but even He was adjutor, for which Minos put him in prison, along with his son Icarus: everything is true history and nothing fabulous.
In what he says about him and his son flying out, this is that through a window of the room where they kept him locked up and they went out to the sea, they got out in two small boats. Due to lack of navigation experience, Icaro flooded. It's all true history. The wings that they say they made were the sails that he put on the small ships, to whom they attribute their invention.
By Bellerophon
Bellerophon was the son of Glaucus, a native Corinthian, a young man of extreme virtue and beauty. Of this Homer says that he was king of Ephira, and because he killed a Corinthian, he lost the lordship, so he went with Pritus, king of Argives, where it happened that Anthia or Stenobea, wife of Pritus, fell in love with his kindness. It required love; and as she could not attract him to her desire, she accused him before her husband, saying how Bellerophon had tried to force her. Pritus was very indignant at this, and not wanting to get his hands bloodied, he sent a letter to Lycia to her son-in-law named Ariobates, in which he told him to put him to death. Ariobates, because she was his guest, ordered him to kill the Chimera, believing that in an undertaking so difficult to defeat he would die, that it was a terrifying monster, that spewed flames of fire from its mouth, that burned everything. However, the gods, seeing his ignorance, having mercy on him, sent him the horse Pegasus, which had wings. And Minerva also, seeing how little guilt he had, helped him in that, since the horse was untamed, he was saddled and bridled, and Bellerophon, getting on it, killed the Chimera. Afterwards, Ariobates greatly trusting Bellerophon's courage, she ordered him to go against some who had made war on him, whom he also defeated and subjected to the lordship of Ariobates. Seeing how brave Bellerophon was, he sent him to another third war against the Amazons, and he conquered and defeated them, and returned. Ariobates, who was admired by Bellerophon's virtue and strength, gave him his daughter Achimene, according to Lactantius, in marriage, with a part of his kingdom. And when Bellerophon's ignorance was known to all, Pritus's wife, unable to bear her affront, took the hemlock, with which she died.
According to Paléphato, Bellerophon was a Phrygian man, of Corinthian generation, good and gentleman; He had a ship called Pegasus, as is the custom of naming ships; And because with it he conquered a mountain in Lycia called Chimera, the inhabitants of that mountain were said to have said that Bellerophon had gone on the horse Pegasus and killed the Chimera.
Bellerophon means advisor of wisdom, and thus he despised as wise the lustful love with which Anthia, Prito's wife, invited him. Anthia is said of Antho, who is contrary. Anthia being Prito's wife, Pritos in panphilic language means dirty thing; Of this dirt, lust is a woman, contrary to virtue. The Pegasus on which Bellerophon attacked is a source of wisdom, because the wisdom of good counsel is an eternal source. He had wings, because the theoretical acceleration of thoughts illustrates the entire nature of the world.
From the Chimera
The Chimera, so celebrated among the poets, was the daughter of Typhon and Echidna, of whom Apollodorus says that she was a monster of three different forms. These three forms Hesiod declares, saying that she had three heads, one of a lion, another of a goat, another of a snake, and she spewed flames from her mouth. Others say that he had the head of fire, and the breast of a lion, and the belly of a goat, and the tail of a dragon, and that he did much harm in Lycia; They say that Bellerophon was sent to kill her, who, mounting the horse Pegasus, which had wings, passed her with arrows and killed her.
Alcimus says that Chimera was a mountain in Lycia, on the summit of which fire came out like on Mount Ethna, in Sicily, and in the highest part near the fire, there were many lions, and in the middle ibexes, and very grasses. fertile places for cattle, and at the root of the mountain many snakes, which is why this fable arose. This place, as Bellerophon made habitable, they said they killed this Chimera with arrows.
Theopompus says that the Chimera was not killed with arrows, but with a spear that had a lead tip, which broke, as Bellerophon put it in the Chimera's mouth, the lead melting with the heat, it entered its belly, from which he died. That is, Chimera was a woman who reigned in Lycia, who had two brothers, called Lion and Dragon, and because of the great concord that existed between the two brothers and the sister, they said that body or monster had three heads, which at everyone who went there killed. These Bellerophon conquered, and took them as slaves, and for this reason they say that he put lead in the Chimera's mouth, because he brought them into servitude. Nicander wanted by this pretense to signify the nature of rivers and streams. He said that the Chimera had three heads and three body shapes: the first, the head of a lion; the second, goat; the third, a dragon; Because with the abundance of winter waters, the rivers and streams are like untamable lions, because everything they find they take and destroy, and they make a noise that seems to roar like a lion. The middle part is called goat, because just as the goat gnaws at the vines and trees, so the water grazes everything it reaches, destroying it. The last part, which is a dragon, is denoted by the rivers, because just as the snake does not go straight, so the rivers and streams make their movement crooked, turning around.
Killing Bellerophon on the horse Pegasus This monster is that Bellerophon and Pegasus denote the heat of the Sun, which, when the rains cease and the summer comes, with the great heat the streams and even the rivers dry up. Or by Bellerophon death is understood. For the Pegasus horse, which has wings, time, because there is nothing that is lighter. The arrows with which he killed her are the hours and days, that as many as they pass through the man, so many of them lose his life, and so he leaves or reaches death.
Others understand by this Chimera the passion of anger, because anger makes man furious like a lion; and boiling his blood near his heart, it incites him and makes his eyes burn like fire, and this is the first part of the Chimera.
The second, which was a goat, an animal harmful to plants, is denoted by anger, which is very harmful to the property, because it neither considers honor, nor usefulness, nor maintains the use of reason.
The other part that says it is a dragon is because the angry man does not do work that is right, like the movement of the dragon or snake, which does not make him right.
Of the Pegasus horse
The poets say that from the meeting that Neptune had with Medusa in the temple of Minerva, or when Perseus killed Medusa, from the blood of the head a horse was born that they call Pegasus, which has wings and horns and feet of iron, the which as soon as it was born, it flew, and with a kick that it gave on Mount Parnassus, breaking much of the earth, it made the Castalia fountain, which has the virtue of bringing thoughts to men, and giving them knowledge, near which the Muses pretend to live. , and Pegasus will be in the sky; and it is a constellation of stars, near Andromeda and Perseus.
Pegasus means the fame that is born from the things we do; They say they have wings because of the lightness and brevity with which fame spreads; They say it is a horse, because it is a very fast animal in its running. That it was born from Neptune and Medusa is to declare that fame is born from the things that are done on land and in the sea, understood by Neptune and Medusa, which means tiller of the earth. That Pegasus was born in the temple of Minerva: by Minerva is understood prudence, to declare that fame is born and comes from things that come from sense, and not from those without agreement or thought; and because there is fame and infamy, this is why they give two ways of the birth of the Pegasus horse: one, that it was born from the union of Neptune and Medusa, and this means bad fame, as it was fornicating in sacred places. The other, that was born from the blood of the head of Medusa; This means the fame of good deeds, such as Perseus defeating Medusa. Giving this horse horns is to denote the pride that is born from a good reputation. And because the horns are the highest part of the animal that has them, and pride is born from high things, this is why the Holy Scripture calls the highness of men horns, making a difference that in good men it calls their honor horns. , which God justly gives them, and in the wicked he calls horns to their pride or to the unjust power that they usurp. This is what the psalmist said: Et omnia cornua peccatorum constringam, ex exaltabuntur cornua iusti, etc. Having this horse with iron feet means that fame does not tire, but rather grows, each person who gives news adding what he sees fit. That the Castalia fountain came out from the earth's wound denotes that fame is of such a nature that many men do not use their desires for anything else, but to have fame. Which is conveniently meant by the fountain, because just as the fountain is from which the waters from which men quench their thirst come, so fame is with which many satisfy their desires, not coveting other things. Or by the fountain is meant the matter of speech or head, from which waters come forth in abundance of wisdom. Such is fame, because it discovers matter in which there is an abundance of speech, and for this reason the poets placed the Muses near this source. The Muses denote by their diverse knowledge that they must look for great and famous things to say, and not small and vulgar ones.
To say that Pegasus is in heaven is because good fame, according to the opinion of the ancients, is what takes men to heaven, when it is based on good works.
That this fountain incited those who drank from it to think and made them wise is, according to historical sense, that Cadmus, son of King Agenor, coming from Finicia, in Greece, in search of his sister Europa, as his father ordered him to He did not return to her presence without her, and not finding her, walking around looking at that land, near where he founded the city of Thebas, he found two springs called Aganipe and Ipocrene; And because Cadmus was riding a horse, when he discovered and found those fountains, they say that the nail of Pegasus made them; And because near them he retired to think about things of knowledge, and near them he found the invention of letters, the fable says that the Muses were there, and that by drinking that water they stirred thoughts and made men wise. This is because Cadmus while there drank and thought, and found things of wisdom and government for his city.
From Danae
Acrisius, king of Argives, son of king Abante, who succeeded his brother Pritus in the kingdom, according to Lactantius, had a daughter named Danae; And since the father wanted to know the outcome of his condition, he asked an oracle, and was answered: That whoever was born to his daughter Danae would kill him. Acrisius, wishing to excuse this sad fortune, locked up her daughter Danae in a strong tower, giving her guards so that no man could reach her; because Danae, thus condemned to maintain perpetual virginity, could not give birth to a child, of whom Acrisius, her father, had nothing to fear. Danae was very beautiful; whose beauty Jupiter, hearing about her, began to love her in her heart, as he was a man inclined to all carnal desires; He proposed to work as much as possible, which the great diligence of Acrisius' guard made it impossible for Jupiter; and since there could be no other way, it turned into golden rain, whose drops, getting between the tiles, fell into Danae's lap, with which she became pregnant. When Acrisius found out, fearing that he would be embarrassed by what would be answered, he proposed to kill the daughter, so that the one he would be afraid of would not come to light, and for this he ordered to make a very closed ark, in which they would put Danae and They threw her into the sea to perish. Danae, placed in this box, governed by her fortune, having given birth on the way to Perseus, brought it to the land of Apulia, in Italy, and being found by a fisherman, took it to King Pilunus (who reigned there at the time), and Knowing the lineage of Danae, from Pilunus, who was young, and seeing her beauty and discretion, he took her as his wife, by whom there was later a son named Daunus, who succeeded to his kingdom, of whom Ovid tells the story. But Perseus, coming to Argos, turned his grandfather Acrisius into stone, showing her the head of Medusa.
Through this fable the poets wanted to declare that what is determined about God can in no way be avoided. Danae being corrupted by Iupiter in the figure of a rain of gold is to imply that this metal strengthens the highest walls, and the most chaste breasts, faith, honor, and all the things that are of greatest price in this life. Because according to Lactantius and Saint Augustine, Danae bowed down with the gifts of gold that Iupiter sent, she consented to have a town hall with her, and because she could not enter through the door due to the guards, she entered through the roof. Theodoncio says that Danae being loved by Iupiter, and knowing that out of fear her father had condemned her to perpetual virginity and imprisonment (in order to be able to escape), taking what wealth she could, she entered a ship, and came from Greece to Italy, where Piluno reigned, from whom she was received as his wife.
That Perseus turned his grandfather Acrisius into stone means, according to Eusebius, that Acrisius having reigned in the Argives for thirty-one years, he was killed by his grandson Perseus, and this is what they say turned into stone, because after death a man cools like a stone. .
Of the Gorgons and Medusa
The Gorgons were three sisters named Stenia, Euryale and Medusa, daughters of Phorco, conceived of a sea beast. They had only one eye, with which all three could see; It was his home on some islands called Dorcas, at the end of Africa, opposite the Esperid Islands.
The poets attributed the virtues of the first two to Medusa, and thus treat her as if she had only been, of whom they say that Neptune, in love with Medusa's hair, which were like strands of fine gold, had carnal intercourse with her in the temple of Minerva. At which Minerva, very angry, as she could not punish Neptune, punished Medusa, turning her hair, which was the cause of her beauty, into snakes, so that she would be hated by all, and then gave her the virtue that anyone who looked at her would turned into stone; And since with this virtue from then on she turned many men into stones, and wreaked great havoc in the towns near Lake Triton, in Libya, which is Africa, the mercy of the gods moved Perseus to kill her. Others say, like Ovid, that when Polydetus learned of the virtue of Medusa's head, he sent Perseus for it. Perseus, to go out with his company, asked Mercury for his wings and cutlass, and Pallas for his shield; and mounting the horse Pegasus, which had wings, with one blow he cut off Medusa's head, which Pallas then carried on her fixed shield. They say more: that when Perseus cut off Medusa's head, many and diverse lineages of snakes were born from the drops of her blood that fell on the land of Libya.
According to historical sense, Medusa and her two sisters were maidens, daughters of a rich father, natives of Africa, and they later became much richer; The father died, due to farming, and for this reason they were called Gorgons, which in Greek means farmers. The father's name was Phorcus, according to Pausanias, and it is said that he was a king, who after his death all succeeded in the kingdom, and for this reason they said that they had only one eye, or because they were all of a similar beauty, or because they looked very alike; and for this reason, what is said of all three is attributed to the largest, called Medusa. And when Polydetus, king of Seripho, became aware of her wealth and fame throughout the world, he sent Perseus with armed men against her, to take her possessions; and Medusa, not being equal in strength and weapons, was taken by surprise, was defeated and stripped of her wealth and her kingdom.
That Medusa was loved by Neptune for the beauty of her golden hair means because of her wealth, that she possessed a lot of gold, which made her be held in great honor, just as golden hair gives great beauty. Being loved by Neptune means being loved by strangers, because poets make foreigners, whose lineage is unknown, children of Neptune. Committing adultery in the temple of Minerva: by Minerva is understood the prudence of understanding and speaking, and by the Temple is understood holiness; and all this means that foreigners love riches, signified by the hair of Medusa, which they try to obtain with deception and well-spoken words, founded on sanctity. Hence when someone with feigned sanctity wants to deprive another of his wealth, they say that Neptune sat down with Medusa in the temple of Minerva. Minerva turning Medusa's hair into snakes denotes that when those who are not so knowledgeable listen to artificial and false words, it is necessary that they be deceived and stripped of their property.
To say that those who saw Medusa's head turned into stones, this was the fear or fear that those who looked at her took at her extreme beauty. And because fear makes the frightened immovable like a stone and almost out of sense, this is why they said Medusa turned everyone she saw into stones.
That Perseus went to this war on the horse Pegasus, which had wings, or that he asked Mercury for his wings, is to denote the brevity with which he did this act, which seemed to have flown, since it was not known until it was concluded, with what They also denote the haste that warriors must have. Or he was said to have gone on the Pegasus horse, because the riding crop on which he went from Greece to Africa (where Medusa was) had an insignia of the Pegasus horse painted on it. Or the whip was called Pegasus, and it was called a horse because you walk with them in the water, as on land with a horse.
Carrying the cutlass of Mercury, which was an instrument that cut and jammed, denotes that in war two things must be attempted to do to the enemies: harm to their persons and destruction of their assets, so that they do not have the means to support the war. The first is understood by the cutting of the cutlass. The second thing is the blocking, which is taking away the goods or supplies.
In this conquest Perseus carried Minerva's crystal shield, which was transparent, by this shield is understood the captain's discretion to consider all things of war, as in the mirror the things of the face. Being this shield made of steel, according to Ovid, denotes the same as glass, and more than steel shields are suitable for war.
Perseus cuts off the head of Medusa, who had snakes for hair, when we remove the force from the machinations and deceptions and other effects done against us, by the prudence of our enemies, who then flee, seeing their evil thoughts on the shield of our perseverance and our value.
That snakes were born from the blood of Medusa's head in Libya means that snares and machinations engender poison in the minds of enemies, sometimes more cruel than that of snakes, or because Ovid, giving causes of what is natural , follows poetic foundations, and so because in Africa, where Medusa lived, there are many snakes, he meant that the cause was the drops of blood from the serpentine head of Medusa, which fell on that land.
Saint Fulgentius says that the three Gorgons mean frights, as their names denote, and it was convenient because all of them gave the act of frightening, which was to take men into stones; and since there were three, this denotes as many other degrees of terror that there are. The first, which is called Stenia, is a Greek name, it means weakness or weakness, and so in Greek they call the disease asthenia. The second is called Euryale, which in Greek means wide depth, and is appropriate for the second degree of fear, which is when fear enters the heart a lot, because the first degree is when fear touches the heart little and does not seem to enter. in it. The second is when fear takes great lordship in the heart, entering the entire width and depth of it. The third is called Medusa, which in Greek means something that cannot be seen, and this is because fear, when it reaches its highest state, takes away the sight and deprives the senses, and the fear is so great that all that remains is to die, and therefore This, although they give all three sisters the power to change the things they see into stones, this is more suitable for Medusa than for the others.
Perseus defeated these three sisters, because by Perseus we mean the virtue of effort. He carries with him the shield of Minerva, which is understood as wisdom or prudence, and when these two things are together in a man, he will overcome the three terrors, which are the three Gorgons. And virtue alone, which is an effort of the heart, does not overcome fears if it does not have prudence, because effort without prudence will not know which things are to be feared and which are not, and will turn away from all things in one way, or from all things in one way. will make an effort, and this is a great error, as Aristotle says, that those who have natural virtue of strength without prudence will make greater mistakes than those who do not have it, like the one who goes without light, that the stronger his movement, the harder he finds himself and is injured if he stumbles. Furthermore, prudence alone is not enough to overcome fears without strength of heart, because those who do not have effort, the more they know the dangers, the more fearful they become and the more quickly they are overcome by fears. But when effort and prudence come together, the fears will be conquered, because prudence shows what things we have to fear and what not, and effort has its effect by setting itself against those things that are not to be feared and rejecting the others. , distrusting them and distancing themselves from them in that manner or degree that prudence commands.
As soon as it says that Perseus, covered with Minerva's shield, came to Medusa and without looking at her killed her, without being able to turn him into stone, as she did to others, to understand this one must know that these three sisters were so beautiful that they attracted one another. They attacked the men and stripped them, and they could not leave them, frightened by their beauty, so much so that they remained frozen and mute like stones. And Perseus, just like a virtuous man, covered himself with Minerva's shield, that is to say, he buckled himself with prudence, so as not to see Medusa or notice anything of her beauty. The fact that Perseus needed Minerva's help denotes that if we are instructed with the divine precepts, and God helps us, with work we will be able to temper ourselves from the flattery of delights.
From Atlante
According to Lactantius, Atlante was the son of Iapetus and Clymene, and according to Theodontius, of Iapetus and Asia. Others give a damn to Libya. The cause of this diversity came from the fact that there were many of this name; The writers mention at least three, and because there is no certainty about the exploits of all of them, they write about them as if there had only been one; The one we are talking about here was a son of Iapetus and Clymene, who had in the land of Morocco, in Africa, a very large kingdom of whom the fable says that Perseus, son of Iupiter, having defeated Medusa, becoming victorious, came to Stopping where Atlante was, and with the desire to rest there, and so that he would receive him with more honor and with greater willingness, he told Atlante of the exploits he had done and how he was the son of Jupiter. Atlante, who was warned by an oracle to guard against the lineage of Iupiter, because one of his sons was going to deprive him of the kingdom, was afraid, and not only did he not want to receive him, but even with insults he expelled him from his city, punishing him. the hands, when words were no longer enough. Perseus, angry that Atlante had acted so recklessly, how with words he could not move the head of Medusa (which he always carried hidden so as not to see it) showed him, and by the terrible virtue of that monstrous head, Atlante, then on a high mountain of his same name he became. The poets say more about Atlante, that he was so great that he supported the heavens on his shoulders, and that he had the stars called Pleiades and Hyades as daughters, and that when Atlante got tired of having the sky on his shoulders, Hercules helped him. Others say that the gods established the axis of the sky on the mountain that Atlante became.
The historical meaning of this fiction, according to Fulgentius, is that when Medusa was defeated, Perseus with the people and treasure he had taken from him, passed where Atlante reigned, and forced him to flee to the mountains, where he remained as a mountain man for a long time; And as he left his royal palace, the fable began to be told that he had become a mountain because he had seen the head of Medusa, which Perseus showed him. And this was the strength of people he brought from the war he had waged against Medusa.
What Atlante says supported the heavens with his shoulders is that, according to Rabano, he was the first to use the art of astrology, and Pliny testifies to the same. Saint Augustine affirms that this Atlantean was a famous astrologer, and because of the sweat and work he went through, trying and occupying himself with it, it was said that he supported the heavens with his shoulders; and because he considered the movements of the stars, those stars called Pleiades and Hyades were said to be his daughters. And because Hercules, according to Seneca and Boethius, succeeded Atlante in this same art, studying it and showing it to others, they say that it helped him to have heaven when Atlante rested.
To say that the gods established the axis of the sky on this mountain is because the simple think that the heavens cannot move without being founded on an axis, and because there is in this kingdom a mountain of great height, called Atlante, from the name of the same king, They pretended to move in the axis of the heavens.
From Andromeda
Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Caseopea, of whom the poets say that since Caseopeia was very beautiful, she became so proud that she said that she was more beautiful than all the goddesses, and even than Iuno, the wife of Iupiter. The nymphs became angry and accused her before Jupiter, who unjustly ordered her daughter Andromeda to be tied to a rock on the coast of the sea, so that a sea beast could come out to eat her. Since this punishment was better deserved by her mother who committed the crime than by her ignorant daughter, they say that when she was already placed where the sea beast was going to eat her, Perseus freed her and married her.
The unpretentious historical meaning of this fable, although hidden with poetic colors, is that Perseus coming to conquer Medusa and the Atlantean king, found Andromeda tied to a rock on a sea coast (for the reasons mentioned above), and knowing that There was no one who wanted to free her, he offered to do so by being given her as his wife. And although she was betrothed to Phineus, seeing that he did not dare to free her, they not only promised her to Perseus as a wife, but even to her to his entire kingdom as a dowry, because they had no other children except Andromeda, nor did they expect to have any, for be old Perseus fought with the beast and defeated it, and received Andromeda as his wife. At these weddings great wars broke out between the people of Perseus and Phineus, and at last, Perseus emerging victorious, having killed and surrendered his enemies, he returned to his land with great honor. It was Perseus's fight with the sea beast in the Mediterranean Sea, in the land of Iudea, near the place called Iafa in vulgar and Iopen in Latin. Regarding this story, El Tostado says that this was done by the power of the demon, allowing it to be done by God, because in the ancient times demons had great power, and this came from the responses that in some temples in idols responded that they sacrificed men, which they desired much more than other things, because since the devil has such enmity with the human lineage, he found great benefit in this sacrifice, because he knew that once a man who had no light of faith died, he was lost after being sacrificed. And for this reason they gave answers that it was appropriate for some men to die, promising them much good and that they would get things back on track.
As it was with Ephigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, prince of the Greeks, who, while waiting for time in the port of Aulide, with a thousand whips, there being no wind to sail to Troy, asking the oracles for advice, they were answered that There would never be wind until they tamed Diana's anger, offering her Ephigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, as a sacrifice. The Greeks cried a lot about it; but Agamemnon, as a noble captain, loving the public good more than the entire state of Greece, and for his honor more than his daughter, ordered her to be sacrificed, according to Ovid. Other times the demons told them that some evils would be excused if some men of their will offered themselves to the gods or killed them, as happened when in Rome a mouth opened in the earth, according to what Valerius Maximus writes, of great depth, which looked like hell. . The citizens fearing that the entire city would be devastated, they demanded an answer from the oracles as to what they would do. They responded that for this to stop it was necessary that they put in the best thing that there was in Rome. Then Marcus Curio, a noble knight, thinking that there was nothing else in the city as good as him in the state of chivalry (wanting to gain a name), armed on his horse, jumped into that dark depth, which he did afterward was closed. Thus it would now be for Andromeda, that the demons, covering the death of the ignorant, sent some plague upon that land of King Cepheus, her father, would be asked how that evil would cease, and would answer that it could not otherwise cease, except putting Andromeda tied to the rocks, so that the beast from the sea could eat her. Then, the father and mother, to excuse the greatest evil they feared, which by chance would be that the entire land of the kingdom would perish, would place their daughter there, although against her will and great heartache, and the same demons who ordered this. They would make that beast come out of the sea to kill it. And it is worth knowing that Ovid's attempt in this story is to tell the battle of Perseus at his wedding. And to say that with Medusa's head he turned those who showed it to him into stones is to say that he killed them with the great company he had brought from the conquest of Medusa, and this killing was to turn them into stones, because as the stone is cold and It does not move or make sense, thus the dead lack movement and heat. Or because poets call death cold. This is what Ovid calls it, where he begins: O genus attonitum gelide formidine mortis, etc. He means: Oh lineage frightened by fear of frozen or cold death!
Andromeda paying for the sin her mother committed warns that many tend to pay for the sin of others or that unjust justice always takes effect on weak and ignorant things, or that children usually pay for the sins of their parents, and vice versa.
Of Romulus, what Quirinus said
The divinity of Romulus, according to Tullius and Titus Livy, was that one stormy and dark day, when the Senate was together, the senators themselves killed him, and to apologize to the people, they spread the word that he had been killed by lightning. And seeing that the people were in an uproar, Lullius Proculus prayed before everyone in a public place, and told them that Romulus was in heaven, and that he had appeared to him and said that Romulus would be head of the world, and that this was what the gods had determined. gods. With this lie Romulus was canonized by God; And the demon, so that this would happen and they would believe it more, made them believe that the spear of Romulus, as a sign of his sanctity, had put forth leaves and flowers, and thus it was seen by all the people on the Palatine Hill. And because the spear means quiris in Greek, from there it came to be called Romulus Quirinus, and the Romans Quiritis, as Saint Isidore notes. Ovid says that Romulus was immortal, because the brave remain forever alive in the memory of men, because death has no power against courage and good fame.
Of Pollux and Castor
Pollux and Castor, according to Saint Fulgentius, were sons of Iupiter and Leda, of whose birth they say that when Iupiter fell in love with Leda, daughter of Tyndareus, he became a Swan, and began to sing; whose softness Leda was fond of, not only stopped to listen to him, but to take him in her hands; and as they were in a secret place, she became pregnant and gave birth to an egg, from which Pollux and Castor and Helen were born, according to Ovid, where she begins: Da mihi Leda Iouem, etc. Others say that Pollux and Helen were born from this egg, and that Castor was the son of Tyndareus, and that he was mortal, because he was the son of a mortal father. Others, like Paulo Perusino, say that two eggs were born from this town hall, and that Pollux and Castor were born from one, and Helena and Cletemnestra from the other. And Castor being killed by Lynceus, Pollux asked Iupiter to make him immortal, which was not granted, and he was able to share his immortality with him, and thus they remained equally half mortal and half immortal, and made gods, and placed in heaven in the sign of Gemini.
Pollux and Castor were, according to the common opinion of historians, two famous brothers, sons of the third Iupiter and Leda, who accomplished many feats. They accompanied Iason in the conquest of the Golden Fleece, and then went to the siege of Troy, from where, according to some, they did not return. Ovid says that when they stole two daughters of Leucippus, who were betrothed to Lynceus and Ida, war broke out between them, and Castor died in it for Lynceus, against whom Pollux came and killed him, and Pollux would have been killed by Going; And so for clear things that they did in life, as well as for great benefits that they worked for men, killing many evildoers and being very humane with the people, they were placed in the number of the gods of the Gentiles, just as they did others. And when Pollux and Castor died, his father, who was very learned in Astrology, made the ignorant crowd understand that they had become celestial stars, and it was not difficult to make them believe because of the love that everyone had for them. And as, while sailing in a storm, they once saw two little lights over the heads of Pollux and Castor, and then tranquility and prosperity happened, they believed there was something of divinity in these young men. And as these fires sometimes appeared to the navigators, they believed that they appear according to the will of Pollux and Castor in great dangers, as a sign of coming tranquility. And they had that if only one small fire appears, it is only Castor, and that because it is mortal it was a sign of danger, and if it appears to be two small flames, they considered it healthy; and if three, they said that Helena attended, and they considered it a prodigy and a mortal shipwreck. The Greeks call these lights Polideuzes, the Latins Pollux and Castor, and the sailors Santelmo. These flames are made (as we show in our Natural Philosophy) from the thickest of the exhalations that come out of the earth and water, mainly from the land on the banks of the sea or rivers. Which vapor with the air of the first region, which is cool with the coldness of the night, shrinks and thickens next to the earth, and lights up and shines like scattered fire. And when this fire catches fire and finds some body on which it sticks, it remains on it until it is consumed by burning without burning the thing on which it settles, as burning water does. And since this is heat, and its life and duration consist of it, try to look for these places, which is why they usually seem to be where there is a congregation of people, because of the heat that comes out of it. And so they are usually generated on ships from the smoke of the ship itself and the heat of the people who are gathered there in a small place, and when a storm arises this smoke thickens, and with the winds it spreads downwards, and traveling along a From one side to the other, it hits the high things it finds, and thus settles on the antennas and masts of the ships, and on the pikes of the soldiers and the heads of the men. And so Vergil says that it appeared in Ascanio's head.
That Leda slept with Jupiter turned into a swan means that a king had Leda near the river of Lacedaemon, called Eurota, not with a royal apparatus nor on a soft platform, but in a humid place, like a swan; and this is why the fable of Jupiter turning into a swan arose. And he says Iúpiter because the kings were called Iúpiter; Or it could be possible that as the swan sings softly, Jupiter has reached Leda through music, because music or songs are hooks from Venus. Or it can be understood that this happened to Jupiter at a time when he was white as a swan in old age. That Leda gave birth to an egg is said to be similar, because pregnant women have a round, egg-shaped belly. Or because whatever the female gives birth curdles in an egg-like skin.
That Pollux divided his immortality with Castor, and that thus they both remained half mortal and half immortal, is said because they pretended to have become two stars that are located in the sky, in such a way that when one rises the other sets in, and so when the One becomes as if descending to what they call hell, like a mortal thing; and the one that comes out or ascends is like a divine thing in heaven.
They say that Pollux was all immortal because the star into which he pretends to have become is larger and more resplendent than Castor's, which is often obscured by the coarseness of the vapors so that it cannot be seen, Pollux's lacking this impediment. , who pretend to be in Gemini's head.
That through Pollux's intercession Castor became half immortal is because of Pollux's fame they put his brother Castor in the catalog of the gods, and thus he was made immortal.
From Asopo
Asopus, a river, according to Lactantius, was the son of Oceanus and the Earth; others give him other parents. And he writes that he married Merope, by whom there were many children, and that Iupiter having stolen Aegina, his daughter, he felt it so much that with her waves he moved war, until reaching the stars, according to says Stacio. And at last he was defeated by Jupiter and killed by lightning.
Asopus, a river, was said to be the son of Ocean and the Earth because the sea is the general source from which fountains and rivers are generated. And because the air that enters the cavernous parts of the earth usually turns into water, this is why they call the earth the mother. Some believed that he was a man who was very dedicated to drawing water by digging the ground, with which he found sources, from which a river was made and he named it after him. The many sons and daughters attributed to him are streams or fountains that came out of it, or properties of water that took various names. Saying that his daughter being stolen moved war with his waves, until reaching the stars, and that Jupiter defeated or killed him with a lightning bolt, denotes that as the Sun draws exhalations from the water and raises them to the top, this is what they said to follow Iúpiter with its waves, until they reach the stars. And since with great heat the waters of the rivers decrease and dry up, this is why they said Iúpiter (by whom heat is understood) was killed with lightning, which is also fire. And because at one time a great drought occurred on an island near Thebes, called Aegina, and certain water that entered the island from this river dried up, for this reason Jupiter is said to have stolen Aegina, daughter of Asopus. According to Leoncio Asopus he was a king of Boemia whose dominion was next to the river called Asopus; and since Iupiter of Arcadia had brought him a daughter named Aegina, Asopus made war on him, and was defeated by Iupiter. Saying that he killed him with a thunderbolt is because these weapons were attributed to Iupiter, and since he was going to hurt him, it had to be with these weapons.
From Proteus
Proteus, a very famous fortune teller, was the son of Neptune and the nymph Phoenica, according to some authors. Theodontius says that he was the son of Oceanus and Thetis. Of this Proteus the poets write that he changed into various forms, now in water, now in fire; other times in snakes, other times in trees and birds. Orpheus said that Proteus was the oldest of the gods, and that he had keys to the sea, and presided over all things as the principle of all nature. They give him a cart that brings him some horses that they call Bípides, which means two feet.
By Proteus some understood the primary matter from which things are formed and generated. And because from the same matter, due to heat and humidity, trees and animals are born, or the same matter is converted into elements, this is why they said that it became various things; Others, by this very meaning, understood by Proteus the nature of air, through temperance, from which all things are born, and for this reason they said it was the origin and principle of plants and animals, as Homer means. They wanted to understand the same thing from the parents they gave it, because the ancients had to be water understood by Ocean or Neptune or Thetis, the beginning of all things (as we have often said). Or according to some, they gave him these parents because he was a great hydromantic man, which is divination made by water, as the name declares, because hydromancy is said of hydros, which is water, and mancia, divination. And he says that he rides in a chariot to denote the circular movement of the water of the Ocean Sea.
Let horses or fish carry this chariot, which Vergil calls bipids, in three verses that begin: Est in carpathio Neptuni. This is said by stating some animals that are in the sea, which they call sea oxen, which have the middle below like a fish, and the middle above like a calf, with two hands or feet. Some attribute this to the historical sense, and say that Proteus was a very wise man, who wrote much about natural philosophy and the nature of beasts, and the mutation of the elements, and how they are the beginning of everything that is generated. , and what forces each thing takes, and how herbs and trees are generated, which gave rise to the fable of saying that Proteus became all these things. They also thought he was a fortune teller, because many times, with observations of the stars, he told things to come. Others said that he was a very experienced man in the art of rhetoric, who with sweetness of words moved the minds of men in various opinions and desires, and for this reason they said that he changed his mind in vain things, tempering the movements of the minds, using in some events were merciful and others cruelty, and this was sometimes turning into fire, other times into water. Others wanted to say that Proteus was one of the sea gods, who predicted everything that was to happen. Diodorus says that Proteus was elected king of Egypt as the most prudent they found in that province and the wisest in all arts. And the change in various forms was that with his great prudence he accommodated himself to all things, from which it became a custom among those of Egypt, when the kings used to wear in public on their heads (as a royal insignia) a sign of a lion, sometimes of a bull, sometimes of a snake, sometimes of a flame of fire, and so on of other things, thereby implying that they were wise, like Proteus.
From Orpheus
Of Orpheus, son of Apollo and the muse Calliope, Rabano writes that he was so excellent at the lyre or guitar that he received from Mercury that not only did he drive men out of their minds, but he even made the rocks run, and the rivers stand. , and tame the fierce beasts. And so he moved the nymph Eurydice, who was one of the Dryades, to love him, and at last he received her as his wife. The shepherd Aristaeus loved this Eurydice because of her great beauty, and since he could no longer fulfill her desire through her prayers, he wanted to use his strength. And one day, while Eurydice was with the other nymphs Dryades, her sisters, near the banks of the Ebro River in Thrace, he wanted to snatch her away. She, unable to escape by any other means, fled; It happened to be among the grasses where a large snake was walking, according to Vergil, where it begins: Immanem ante pedes, etc. Which Eurydice, not seeing, stepped on the snake with her bare foot; then, wanting to avenge her injury, she bit her, from which she then died; When Eurydice died, according to universal custom or law, she descended into hell. Meanwhile the nymphs, her sisters, were crying; Her husband Orpheus cried even more bitterly, who, not happy with this, took a new boldness, descending into hell alive to demand his wife from the infernal gods. It was his descent through the gate of Mount Tenaro, where while he was there, he sang so sweetly that he moved the underground gods, unaccustomed to any mercy, to mercy, and the three Eumenides sisters, furies or infernal rages, which even hearing is wonder, then mourning Orpheo, they began to cry. So powerful was her eloquence and so great sweetness was her song that Pluto and Proserpine, gods of the underworld, gave Eurydice to Orpheus; However, they tempered the favor with this condition, that Orpheus would not look at Eurydice until he came out of hell. Orpheus, with this condition, his wife received, with whom walking into the clear world, a crazy and very unfortunate desire began to tire him of turning his head back to see, and then at this point he lost her, because the infernal furies with alacrity They took her to hell. At the first boldness, Orpheus returned to the underground gods with songs to tame them, but the infernal porter did not grant him entrance. His hope lost, Orpheus turned to the world, and near the always frozen waves of the Strimon River, in a cave for seven months he sang his sad loves, his perpetual crying that did not ease. Many mistresses and maidens at this time prayed to the sacred Orpheus that through marriage or in some other way they would receive his love. Orpheus loved Eurydice so much that not only did he want to receive none of them, but he also warned all the males that his words came to hear his words, he warned the females to stay away, so all the insulted women, death to Orpheus as a mortal enemy. they wanted. It happened that the Thracian owners (according to their custom, celebrating Bacho's festivals) got together, and stoned Orpheo to death, and threw his head and guitar into the Ebro River. The gods, rightly moved by this fact, transferred Orpheus's guitar to heaven. Her head swam through the river until she entered the sea, a snake that tried to swallow her, turned into stone, out of pain for her disrespect. Ovid and Boethius play this fable.
Orpheus was a man very learned in rhetoric and poetry; He wrote, first than any other of the Greeks, in astrology, according to Lucian. This Orpheus, according to Lactantius Firmiano, first introduced Bacho's sacrifices in Greece; He invented many police for the most useful human life; he gave remedies for various diseases; He wrote of the generation and corruption of the elements, and of the force of love in natural things, and of the Giants who waged war against Jupiter, of the theft of Proserpina, of the interpretation of dreams and of riddles; He was a disciple of Lino, an ancient Theban poet, and since the men of his time lived without virtuous customs and without laws, like wild beasts, in the fields, without houses, he had so much power in gently persuading them with reasons that he brought them to life. citizen, and showed them to build cities, and to govern them by laws, and to keep the matrimonial order, as first in this they had no more than that which brute animals have. All of which Horace says, briefly, in eight verses, where he begins: Silvestres homines, etc. He used seven strings in the first musical instrument, in imitation of the seven planets. He had a father and mother like other men, whose names the poets did not want to declare in order to extol the excellence of Orpheus. And wanting to deify and ennoble him greatly, they said he was the son of gods, giving him Apollo as his father, because Orpheus seemed to them to be a great orator; and because he was a musician they said his mother was Calliope, one of the nine Muses. Calliope is called kaliophones, which means good sound, and this is understood in the orators, who make sweet sound of words, which greatly move the ears and hearts of the listeners. And this means Orpheo, which means auroaphones, that is, golden sound, as if to say: They are very sweet.
To say that Mercury gave him the lyre or guitar denotes the knowledge that Orpheus had as an orator, in which, just as the lyre has a diversity of voices, so the art of oratory has a diversity of speech or demonstration, and this diversity is attributed to Mercury. because he was learned in medicine, and in arithmetic, and astrology, and in various natural sciences.
For Orpheus to move the mountains with his music is to convey the great force of eloquence, with which the orator moves the hearts of men to various passions of good or evil, and to this end the fable says that Orpheus with his Music made the mountains move, the rivers stopped, the wild beasts tamed. By mountains men understand that what they believe or affirm cannot be torn away without great persuasion and eloquence. By rivers we mean mobile and variable men, who do not know how to be firm in one thing, and if they did not have it, they would not stop, like rivers, until they entered the sea, which means bitterness; Eloquence makes these firm. By taming beasts we mean those who are arrogant in conversation, who do not know how to be at peace with others; these are mitigated by virtue of eloquence. And to praise Orpheus's marriage they said that he had not married a woman, but a nymph, who was of the lineage of gods. That Eurydice, moved with the delight of the song of Orpheus' lyre, loved him is a credible thing; Orpheo's descent into hell is fabulous. Orpheus admonished men not to reach out to women because he gave instructions to men not to reach out to women when they are on his period, which is once a month.
The snake that had tried to swallow Orpheus's head denotes time, because the ancients denoted the year with the snake. The head denotes the wit and works of Orpheus, because in the head are all our senses; And in the serpent's desire to swallow this head it denotes that as with the distance of time the memory of the name of some is usually lost, time wanted to hide the memory of Orpheus, and could not. Having turned the snake into a stone means that time cannot damage Orpheus' memory, any more than it can eat a stone. That the lyre of Orpheus is in the sky among the stars is to declare the excellence of the songs of the lyre of Orpheus, which remains in perpetual memory his fame and praise. And because everything that has perpetual memory the poets said to be in heaven, because as in the heavens there is no generation or corruption (as we declare in our Natural Philosophy); as in elemental things, and what is not corrupted always remains; and because as this fame of the lyre does not lose its memory, this is why it says it is in heaven; And so astrologers pretend that the lyre of Orpheus is one of the forty-eight images or celestial constellations.
Orpheus is understood as the wise man; by his wife Eurydice the natural desires or appetites. The wise man takes this woman to be her wife because no matter how wise a man is, he cannot stop having lusts, of which as long as he lives we cannot be stripped. Eurydice walks with the other nymphs, her sisters, in the meadows: By the meadows the delights of this world are denoted, by which the natural desires are understood. Aristaeus the shepherd falling in love with Eurydice means virtue, because Aristaeus means something that has virtue, and virtue loves Eurydice, because virtue would like to attract natural desires to order and rule, separating them from carnal desires. Eurydice's flight from Aristaeus is that natural desires or concupiscence flee from virtue, thinking that what they deny is good. Eurydice, fleeing through the meadows, is bitten by the poisonous snake hidden in the grass: By the snake we understand the deception that is hidden in delights. Eurydice dies bitten because natural desires, following delights, cause the soul to die. Once Eurydice dies, she descends to hell because those who die living in delight go there. Orpheus bringing Eurydice out of hell means that the wise man, understood by Orpheus, with beautiful and true reasons sometimes attracts sinners to depart from vices and delights. Eurydice not being able to leave hell with Orpheus, except with the law of not touching until she is outside, means that the wise man who, with true reasons for his natural or foreign desires, wants to remove from hell, which is one of worldly delights, has not to please Eurydice, that is, he must hate delights, because if the wise man, moved by his natural desires, listens to them, wanting to follow what they incline him, Eurydice will return to hell; Because if the wise man, who admonishes others to flee from worldly delights, and he looks at them with a good face, not fleeing from them, his teaching will benefit little, because no one will follow him, looking more to his works than to his words. To say that before Eurydice had finished leaving hell, Orpheus wanted to look at her is to declare that love has no law or that the war of evil thoughts has no end.
From Prometheus
Prometheus was the son of Iapetus and Asia nymph (according to Marcus Varro); others give her Themis as their mother. Deste Prometheo, says Ovid, where he begins: Quam satis Iapetus, etc. He means, the son of Iapetus, who is Prometheus; He took earth and mixed it with water, and made the image and likeness of the gods who govern all things. Seeing this image or man, the goddess Minerva marveled at something so beautiful and so natural to man, and having pleasure in such a figure, she told Prometheus that if there was anything needed from Heaven to complete his work, that she would give it to him. Prometheus replied that he did not know what was in heaven, so that he would know what could benefit him. Minerva then took Prometheus and lifted him up to heaven, showing him the things that were in him. And he, seeing that all the heavenly bodies had souls of fire, wanting to give soul to his man, secretly brought an instrument that he carried to the wheels of Phebo's chariot, and stole fire to take to the earth. This is what Horace says, where it begins: Audax Iapeti genus, etc. And that fire reached the breasts of the man that he had formed of clay, made him live, and named him Pandora. The gods, knowing about the theft of Prometheus, were very angry about it, and ordered Mercury to place him on Mount Caucasus tied to a rock, and near him an eagle or vulture, which would eat his entrails and heart, as Vergil says, where begins: Caucaseasque refert, etc. And that he never finished eating, giving him at night what they ate during the day, because he always suffered sorrow.
They also pretend that Hercules killed the eagle that continually ate Prometheus's liver. Furthermore, out of punishment for this theft, the gods sent weakness, sadness, illnesses and women to earth.
The historical and allegorical meaning of this fable is that Iapetus had Prometheus and two other sons; and although Prometheus was the eldest and was to succeed his father's estate, the desire to know grew in him, and for this it was better to reach the province of Assyria, and after having heard the doctrine of the Chaldean wise men he went to Mount Caucasus, where he understood the movement of the stars and their natures, and other things of natural philosophy, and after a long time he returned to the Assyrians, who still had no order of political life, but rather savage, whom he brought with laws and customs to civil conversation, by which it seems that he made these men again, since they were not men before because of their grossness of understanding. Either because of this, or because, according to Lactantius, he was the first to make clay statues of men that moved by themselves, therefore he is attributed, as the fable says, with having made man. This Prometheus invented setting the ring and wearing it on the finger, as they say, of the heart.
Minerva marvels at the work of Prometheus because Minerva means the wise man, and the wise man is the one who marvels at the man who is not understood and lives like a savage, being of such a good nature and capable of all good, and seeing him lacking of wisdom, cudicia and desires that such a good work receive its perfection and be not lacking; and for this reason Minerva promises to help Prometheus for his work. To make mention here of Minerva more than of another of the gods or goddesses is for the reason that Minerva pretends to be the goddess of wisdom, and therefore this belonged more to her than to another. Reply Prometheus who did not know what was in the sky, this belongs to making the creedera fable. That Minerva took Prometheus to heaven means the height of contemplation, and how the understanding is taken from knowledge or speculation to the top, separating it from lower things, through which knowledge of the truth and order for the government of the world is achieved. political life, through which things, what was first made of clay, that is, the ignorant, began to be men, that is, to know how to use reason. Prometheus seeing in heaven that the heavenly bodies were souls of fire means that man raised to a height of speculation finds the truths of manifest things. And because clarity is the principle of manifesting, and clarity belongs to fire, this is why he says that they are all animated by fire and resplendent. Prometheus stole fire from Phebo, because just as the Sun, denoted by Phebo, is the most resplendent of the celestial bodies, so from speculations one must take those that seem closest to the clarity of the truth. He says stealing because as the theft is done secretly and without being seen, so the speculation of high things cannot be achieved or learned while being among a crowd of people. Or they say that he stole fire, because according to Pliny, Prometheus was the first who taught how to get fire from flint or reed.
Putting this fire or science that Prometheus stole later in the chest of the clay man is because knowledge is received in the soul, which is in the chest, as the heart is there, which is the beginning of life; This is why it is said that he gave him life, because in knowing we say life. To say that Prometheus took this fire from the wheel of Phebo's chariots is because just as the wheel or circular thing has no beginning or end, so the eternal wisdom of God, from which all our knowledge descends and is derived, has no beginning. no end. That the angry gods ordered Mercury to tie Prometheus on the Caucasus mountain to a rock: Sending this to Mercury more than to another is because the poets pretend to be Mercury, messenger of the gods, or because Mercury, who is the desire to know, carried to Prometheus (as Lactantius says) to Mount Caucasus, where he spent a long time in speculation, as if tied, considering the secrets of astrology and meteoric philosophy. And because he was in continuous work of speculation, and the common people think that when one is at work that God is angry with him, for this reason they said that the angry gods put him in that rock and work; and it is true that it is work to try to know, as it is read in the sacred volume: Qui addit scientiam, addit laborem, etc. Saying that they tied him to a rock denotes the firmness and perseverance that Prometheus had there in his studies, in which he was so firm, and he remained as if he were tied with ropes. That the vulture or eagle is eating the heart, without ever finishing eating it, denotes two things: the eagle, which is a bird that flies very high and sees a lot, means the subtle and high considerations that, with speculation and care, scholars always they discover. By the vulture, which is a bird that loves darkness and darkness, the dark doubts or difficulties that are offered in the studies of science are understood; that the one and the other, both what the eagle denotes and what the vulture means, costs fatigue and kills the scholar, and this is eating his entrails. The fact that he never finishes eating these entrails denotes that with much study, the pleasure of what is discovered again makes one's strength grow and one is always encouraged to work harder and learn more, which is something that never ends, because as long as the scholar lives, You will never cease to be fatigued with thoughts of speculation. Calling Prometheus Pandora the man who made of clay, which in Greek means all things or a thing assembled from many parts, is because the wise man has within himself all the virtues of the things of the world together. In this fable of Prometheus the poets changed the order, because first he was studying in the Caucasus mountain and in other places that would make or instruct man with doctrine, and this because that is how it belonged to the fable.
What he says that at night Prometheus's liver used to grow as much as the eagle had eaten during the day, is to declare that nature determined alternate times for rest and for the cares and thoughts of the heart.
In what it says that Hercules killed the eagle that continually ate Prometheus's liver, according to historical sense, it is that sometimes the Nile River, of Egypt, at the time of the heat waves, when due to the sharp winds and the getting rid of the snow It usually grows a lot, broke the dams and flooded Egypt, mainly that part where Prometheus ruled; and there were so many avenues that almost all men were often in danger of perishing, for which Prometheus was extremely afflicted and careful, desiring a remedy; and because of the rapid movement and fury of this river it was called the eagle. And because according to fame, Hercules with his industry removed the impetus and reduced the river to its current, for this reason the Greeks pretended that Hercules had killed the eagle that continually ate the liver of Prometheus, which gave him birth again.
The weakness, sadness, illnesses and women that the gods sent to the world due to the theft of Prometheus denote that these works, some are caused by the speculative life and others are contrary to it, and prevent it.
The emaciation is caused by the specular, as Aristotle said, because the body of the animalia becomes dry and dry from too much specular, corrupting something inside. Sadness is understood as the bodily afflictions and anguish that we contract from original sin.
Illnesses and fevers are thus placed as impediments, because these things take away the strength of the head and weaken the instruments of speculation.
Women. Furthermore, they are a hindrance to speculation, because as in many other good works, the conversation of the females prevents the man, very mostly it is done close to speculation, because the study requires lifting up the understanding and turning away from the flesh, and the conversation From women he takes everything carnal ingenuity, and wraps it in the sole dregs of the earth; or he says that women were given by natural necessity, because man cannot persevere for long without generation, which is not made without a woman; and since Prometheus had not formed her, but only a man named Pandora, it was necessary that in some way the fable had women; and there was no better way than to say that they came from the wrath of the gods, as well as fevers and diseases.
They also wanted to declare in these diseases and fevers how the part of man in terms of the body is subject to work and corruption.
Theophrastus says that Prometheus brought fire to men, from heaven, because he was the first of mortals who gave news of divine things and philosophy, and the first who raised his eyes to speculate on the things of the heavenly bodies. Prometheus is said to have a Greek name that means providence, and he was the eldest son of the three who entered the ark with Noah. The fire that he brought from heaven with which he gave birth to the statue of him that he had formed is the divine fire or soul that God inspired in man. And so by Prometheus is meant the powerful God who created the world and man from nothing. To say that he formed Pandora, which means every gift, is that the anima is a general gift of all gifts. Others understand Prometheus as the understanding that prevents things to come. Orpheus understood time by Prometheus, because he is the inventor and master of all arts.
The wise Greeks wanted to declare the beginning of human life through this fable of the formation of man. Giving Prometheus as a father Iapetus is nothing other than the rapture movement of heaven, because in Greek they call this movement Iapetus; give her Themis as her mother, because by Themis we understand the effects and good properties of our spirits, which are born from the movement of the heavens with us. O Themis denotes the justice and equity from which good advice is born, and the prudence of administering and governing in private and public things, and the inventions and arts necessary to human life.
Of Decaulion and Pyrrha
He was Deucalion, according to Apollonius, son of Prometheus. Herodotus gives him the same father, and Clymene as his mother. Hesiod makes him the son of the said Prometheus and Pandora, and Strabo confirms the same, and Homer says he is the son of Minos and Pasipha. Others make him the son of Asterius and Crete. The cause of this diversity of fathers is that there were many of this name. But the poets, what can be said of all, apply to Deucalion son of Prometheus, and as Prometheus was wise, so was his son Deucalion, and very powerful, and after his father he reigned in Thessaly. . He was very named because of a flood, which according to Lucian occurred in his land and in his time. He married Pyrrha, daughter of Pandora and Epimetheus, brother of his father Prometheus, and thus they were cousins, sons of brothers. Pyrrha was very famous because in her work she was her companion, and although both were very powerful lords, they were very just and humane, and very fearful of the gods and a good example, as Ovid testifies in these verses:
Non illo melior quisquam, nec amantior aequi.
Vir Fuit, aut illa reverentior vlla Deorum.
No one is better than him, nor more loving to the fair.
He was a man, or she was more reverent than the gods.
He means that among the men of that time there was no one better, nor so loving of justice, nor so fearing of the gods; nor among women was there any other so honorable of the gods as Pyrrha; For this reason the poets pretend that, wanting the gods to destroy the human lineage, they alone through their goodness spared them; whom Ovid says escaped this flood in a small boat, and finding themselves alone, they went to ask advice from the goddess Themis (who in her time gave answers), to know how the human generation could be recovered, having been left alone. . The deessa responded that they should leave the temple, with their heads covered, loosen the ribbons and throw the bones of the great mother behind her back, and these bones thus thrown would multiply the world. Deucalion, as a wise man, understood that the great mother was the earth, and the bones were stones; and thus determining to make an experiment, Deucalion threw stones back, little by little they became men, and those that Pyrrha threw became women; and so the earth was repopulated by Deucalion and Pyrrha.
San Isidro, speaking of floods, mentions three. The first was that of Noah, which was universal throughout the world, covering the entire earth and the water rising fifteen cubits over the highest mountains; It was this flood of Noah (according to Eusebius) in the year 2656 of the creation of the world. The second was in Achaya, in the time of Ogige and the patriarch Iacob. Between Noah's flood and this one 546 years passed, according to the account of the Vulgate Bible, and according to others six hundred years passed. The third was in the time of Moyssén and Deucalion, which covered most of Thesalia. From the flood of Ogyge to that of Deucalion 237 years passed, according to Eusebius at the alleged location. These last two floods, that of Ogyge and that of Deucalion, were not general nor could they have been, because God promised that there would never again be a general flood that would destroy all the lands. The flood of Ogyge, according to Saint Augustine, was greater than that of Deucalion. The one we are dealing with here was that when Deucalion reigned in Thesalia, being in that part near Mount Parnassus, so many great waters came that they covered almost the entire land of Thesalia, and most of the people of that province perished in it. and the regions close to it. Deucalion took all the people he could to Mount Parnassus, and there he sustained them and gave what was necessary, until the flood ceased; and this is why they say that Deucalion repaired the human lineage, and this is true history, and this is what Paulo Orosius affirms. That Deucalion and Pyrrha escaped in a boat is not true, because as they lived next to Mount Parnassus, seeing the water rising, they climbed onto it; and thus those who lived near the mountain would escape into it. But it says that they escaped in a small boat, because Ovid's intention was to declare the reparation of the human lineage, and that there was no more of Deucalion and Pyrrha left, the boat being large, the man and woman who were left could not govern it, or for declaring that because the boat was small, no more people could be saved.
The goddess Themis was the one who answered the questions at that time, whose temple was at the root of Mount Parnassus; and it is to be known that Pyrrha and Deucalion did not ask for advice nor did Themis respond, but it is a poetic pretense; and it is assumed that to repair the human lineage they had to ask for advice, and it would respond to them.
That Themis ordered Deucalion and Pyrrha to cover their heads, and loosen the ribbons, and leave the temple, to throw the stones back, is because when the flood began, the women, as if more fearful, immediately fled, and the men, many of them waiting longer. They stayed still, and when they tried to flee, they found themselves short of water; and for this reason many women and few men remained in that province, and they agreed that any man should have a council with any woman, not keeping any law of marriage, because in this way the human lineage would be quickly increased; and this license they pretend was given by the goddess Themis. She ordered them to leave the temple, because for the carnal councils men must separate themselves from the temples. And although the idols of the Gentiles, which were dirty demons, as the Holy Scripture calls them dirty spirits, with all that, their temples and priests were separated from carnal stupidity. And this license is denoted by Themis telling them to cover their heads, which means removing the shame for that shameful act, and to remove the ribbons, which is the freedom of a man to be able to associate with as many women as he pleases, and any woman with any man. And so the girding denotes chastity or narrowness and marital rule. This way of speaking is used by the expounders of Holy Scripture, saying: Sint lumbi vestri praecincti, et luzernæ ardentes in manibus vestris. It means: let your loins be girded and candles in your hands, which Saint Gregory declares and says: We girdle our loins when we restrain carnal desires with chastity; that is, because in the loins is the force of lust in the man, and in the loins we put the ribbon; and thus girding the ribbon around the loins denotes chastity; releasing the ribbon, denotes lust.
Ovid says that the stones thrown back gradually became men. It is to declare the succession of time that nature has in its works, because if it wanted to make a man out of stone, it would first make them soft and springy, like the flesh of men. And to declare that when nature forms the body in the mother's womb it does not appear suddenly, but little by little, with a succession of many days. Or it is denoted in this that as with the flood the people had gathered themselves into caves in the mountains, they were hard as stones, to make them go down to the plains, due to the fear they had conceived; and because just as when one asks another to do something, and he does it, we say that it softens him, this is why he says that the stones lost their hardness and became soft and became men; And because Deucalion begged the men and finished what he wanted with them, and Pyrrha with the women, the fable says that the stones that Deucalion threw turned into men, and those that Pyrrha threw into women, because Deucalion removed the hardness of the men and Pyrrha that of the women.
They meant in all this that Deucalion and Pyrrha took men out of the caves like stones, and took them to the plains; and after being taken away they were moved to multiply the human lineage of that province, with the license of free council, without any rule or reward of chastity, as if there were no shame in it. Furthermore, they wanted to imply that there are men and women who are lazy and hard as stones for things of virtue, and cannot be tamed to anything outside of their will.
From Paris
Paris, who was called Alexander by another name, was the son of Priam and Hecuba, of whom Tullius says that when Hecuba was pregnant with him, she dreamed of giving birth to an ax that burned and destroyed all of Troy. Priam, full of fear, went to consult with Apollo, and being told that Troy would be destroyed by the work of that son who was to be born, he ordered Hecuba to kill the creature that was first born to her. But Hecuba, having given birth to him, seeing him being extremely beautiful, moved with compassion, gave him to a servant who would take him to the king's shepherds, by whom he would be raised on Mount Ida. When he came of age, and was very fair among litigants, they called him Paris, because of the equality that he maintained in judging. And thus Pallas, Iuno and Venus litigating over his beauties, for the claim of the golden apple, which the goddess of discord threw at the wedding banquet of Peleus, he was elected as judge. Homer writes that he was so strong in the exercises of strength used by the Trojans that he defeated everyone, and even Hetor himself, who, moved with anger at being defeated, drew his sword to kill him, calling him a shepherd; and he would do it, if he did not immediately tell him that he was his brother, which he confirmed by showing him a handcuff that he had on his arm, which was hidden under the shepherd's clothing, which his mother Hecuba had put on him, so that it could be seen, wherever he contributed, his generation. After thus meeting, he was well received by his father; and from there twenty ships were equipped, he was ordered to go to Greece as a legate to sue Hesiona, whom, according to Ovid, Menelaus received honorably, and then in payment for the good lodging he robbed Helen, taking with her all the royal treasure. Because of this theft, the war of the Greeks against Troy arose, in which, after Hetor and Troilus, his brothers, were killed by Achilles, Paris, at the induction of his mother Hecuba, killed him one night when Achilles came alone to Troy. , under the color of receiving Policena as his wife, and finally Paris was killed by Pyrrhus, son of Achilles. All this is history, and it will only be noted that the wrath and harsh punishment of God cannot escape the one who ungratefully insults someone who does him good, as Paris insulted Menelaus. Hecuba's desire to protect Paris against what was predicted is an example to us that we should not oppose God's judgments out of foolish and harmful piety.
Of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, and Paris's judgment on the golden apple
He was Peleus, according to Ovid, brother of Telamon and grandson of Iupiter; Thetis, according to Epicharmus, was the daughter of Chiron, and according to Homer, of Nereus. The poets said that she surpassed all women in beauty, and that a son would succeed her who would be stronger and more powerful than his father. Therefore, Jupiter, although he loved her very much, did not dare to reach out to her, fearing that no son would be born later who would do with him what he had done with her father Saturn, nor did he allow her to marry any of the gods; but he gave her a mortal marriage, marrying her to Peleus. It was bad for Thetis, being one of that navy, to have to be the wife of a mortal man. Peleus, who was walking along the shore of the sea, to begin her wedding, seeing her sleeping next to a cave, where he used to live, worked to have an affair with her. Thetis, to defend herself against it (like another Proteus), sometimes changed into fire, sometimes into a lion, sometimes into various other forms. Peleus, on the advice of Chiron, who had told him not to be afraid of those figures, nor to be frightened by the flames, nor by the teeth or claws of a lion, in order to stop holding her tight, did not leave her with him. Seeing this by Thetis, he had to consent to the marriage; And so, having returned to her first form, the wedding was celebrated on Mount Peleus, and all the gods and goddesses came, except the goddess of discord, who did not invite her. The three goddesses ate at a table: Iuno, goddess of riches and lordships; and Pallas, goddess of wisdom and battles; and Venus, goddess of love. Seeing that the goddess of discord had not paid attention to her, there was great regret, and she tried to find a way to move some anger there; and for this, she made a golden apple, wonderfully beautiful, with a sign written on it, which said: Beautiful is the gift of the rich apple; Take it from you, the most luxuriant. When the girls saw this, each one of them coveted it for themselves, not so much because of its great value, but because of the honor of the condition placed in it; because suspecting that she was being thrown out by order of Iupiter, they understood that whoever took her from her would improve her over the others. They went to Jupiter to determine it; Jupiter excused himself by saying that because he was indebted to all of them, his judgment would be suspect. At last, remembering the rectitude of Paris, it was decided that he should judge him. The three deessas appeared in her presence, and when the case was made, the deessa Iuno promised him that if he ruled in her favor, she would give him great riches and lordships. Pallas promised him wisdom and victory in battles. Venus offered him a woman as he pleased, warning him that what Iuno and Pallas had promised her, she did not need, since he had wealth, lordship and knowledge. Seeing by Paris the reasons that each one alleged in her favor, and the title of the apple that he said should be given to the most luxuriant, he gave his ruling that Venus should take it, being mainly due to Minerva, or at least to Iuno. Whereupon Venus promised him that she would rob Helen, from which the destruction of Troy followed. From this marriage Achilles was born, a very perfect man, whose mother bathed him in the Stygian waters, allowing him to wet his heel, and after having raised and trained him Chiron, she sent him to the house of King Lycomedes. Peleus would be blessed, both for the woman he had won and for such a noble and perfect son as her, if it were not that one day, without thinking about it, he killed his brother named Phocus with an arrow, for which reason, abandoning his land, with his son and wife and some property, he spent in Thrace, where a terrifying wolf destroyed him and slaughtered his cattle and shepherds.
This fable was invented by the ancient philosophers to declare the cause of the generation and corruption of things. The wedding of Thetis and Peleus denotes that all bodies are naturally generated from the commissure of water and earth, aided by natural heat; because Peleus is derived from pylos, which in Greek means mud, and Thetis means water. And Iupiter, as god, by whom heat is understood, joins Peleus with Thetis because of matter alone, without God, the creator of everything, nothing is made. That Iupiter wanted to join with Thetis, and left him so that he would not father another greater than him, who would expel him from the kingdom, denotes that the fire, which is Iupiter, mixing only with water, is extinguished because it has opposite qualities. The conflict between Peleus and Thetis denotes the contrary qualities of the two elements, earth and water; The earth is extremely dry, with which it works, exceeding the other elements in this, and cold temperately, with which it suffers, being superior to water in this; The water is extremely cold, with which it works, and temperately humid, with which it suffers. Fire has great heat, with which it works, because with it it resists the qualities of the other elements and the dryness with which it suffers. We deal with these qualities of the elements in our Natural Philosophy.
Thetis changing into various forms, with Peleus embracing her, denotes the diversity of things that are generated from the combination of the elements. And because the ancients believed that all celestial bodies influence and have virtues in the things of natural generation, this is why the fable says that all the gods and goddesses attended the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, because they called the stars gods. Only the goddess of discord was absent; This is because without friendship and love things cannot be preserved. The golden apple that discord cast denotes covetousness, because as the golden apple is to be seen and not eaten, so covetousness knows how to have and does not know how to enjoy. It means that when discord comes, that is, the inequality of natural forces, then not only does the temperament suffer, but even the entire composition is corrupted and destroyed, because as friendship is the beginning of generation, so discord It is from corruption. The differences and discords between these deities, Iuno, Pallas and Venus, there are almost always in the world, as it seems annoying to the cities, which for the most part happens, that the fools, who know little, dominate the wise and experts; and the vicious and dirty send good and temperate men, because to have all these things happen in one, to be wise and temperate and rich, is the most difficult thing of all.
Iupiter excuses himself from being the judge of giving the apple among the dees, this is because if Iupiter as a god (which they did) judged by condemning the two, he would leave only one life on earth; but for this reason the judgment passes to man, to whom the free will to choose is owed. Paris was a brutal shepherd, for he cast his eyes on delight and lust, which he wanted more than strength or riches. And finally, Achilles having been born from this disorder, as a perfect man, his mother bathes him in the Stygian waters, that is, which strengthens him and makes him tough against all labors. She alone did not wet his heel, meaning that the veins in the heel belong to the kidneys, thighs and member of the man, which is why they sometimes go to the thumb; and Orpheus says that this is the main place of lust. All this is to imply that human virtue, although it is strengthened in all things, is still subject to the blows of lust, which is why it is given to breeding in the house of King Lycomedes, as they say in the kingdom of lust, because Lycomedes in Greek is said as glycomiden, which means sweet nothing, because all lust is sweet and is nothing; and so, finally, he died for the love of Policena, and for lust he is killed by the heel. Policena in Greek means pilgrim of many, because love makes the understandings of her ingenuity go on a pilgrimage, or because lust wanders in many as if on a pilgrimage. The wolf that swallows and destroys the cows and cattle of Peleus, in revenge for the death of Focus, denotes that crimes are always accompanied by God's revenge, with many damages and miseries.
Thetis was a noble lady, at whose nativity it was judged that a man would be born from her who would surpass her father by virtue. Because of this, her father doubting who he would give her to, Peleus demanded her in marriage; At the first time he was expelled, and persevering in asking for it some times, and many other times denying it, all the transformations Ovid says, but with the strength of her perseverance, they were finally given to him. That the gods and goddesses came to the wedding is because of the perfection of Achilles, son of Peleus in Thetis, it seems that all the stars and celestial bodies, whom the ancients called gods, acted. Discord was not called so that it would not set aside the work begun and prevent it; but it comes together later, while man begins to think which of the three things is the best life: the contemplative, which is denoted by Pallas; or the active one, which is understood as Iuno; or the willful, denoted by Venus; Of which Iupiter, it is worth knowing, God, did not want to give the sentence because the other things did not seem to be condemned by his mouth; But he commits this business to Paris to denote that God leaves man free will to take what he wants. This is what Saint Fulgentius implies.
Also give us an example of this fable that it is good to honor everyone and not despise any, and that Paris had erred, because it was not enough for his apology that he said the letter that that apple should be given to the most beautiful, because this was understood as beauty. of the soul, which is the immortal virtue, and not of that of the body, which is a transitory and expired beauty, which was and is the cause of many misfortunes. Venus being considered by Paris to be more beautiful than Iuno and Pallas is to declare that there are many more who follow the delights of the body than those who follow those of the soul; more to the vices than to the virtues; more the clumsiness than the glory. And for this reason there were many who, through filthy delights, left dignity and glory and good opportunities in business, and fell into great misery.
From Chiron
Chiron Centauri was the son of Saturn, according to Ovid, where he begins: Ut Saturnus, etc. Apollonius, leaving him the same father, gives him Philira, daughter of Oceanus, as his mother. Lactantius says that he was conceived by Pelopeia, of whose origin he relates that Saturn, falling in love with Philira, so that his wife Ops would not find him in adultery, changed into a horse, and converted into this animal he met Philira and conceived Chiron, who from the navel Above it had the likeness of a man, and from below it resembled a horse. Suidas says that Chiron, with the other centaurs, were children of Ixion. This one, growing in age, went to the jungles; He married Chariclo, daughter of Apollo, and according to others, of Oceanus or Persian. This Chiron was entrusted by Thetis to have charge of Achilles; He was teacher of Aesculapius. Finally, when Hercules came to visit him, taking in his hands the arrows that he was carrying in his quiver, one fell on his foot, which, because it was tipped with the blood of the lion Lerneus, was mortal; but since Chiron was the immortal begotten of his parents, he could not die, so, in order for Chiron's prognosis to be fulfilled, which was that he would wish to be mortal, tired of illness, desiring to die, he prayed to the gods for they granted death; which attaining, he was translated into heaven and placed in the number of the signs of the Zodiac, and called Sagittarius.
Chiron was the son of Saturn, because he invented the art of agriculture, according to Theodontius; but according to others, because he was the inventor of wisdom with experience of zurugy; and because this knowledge came out of time, denoted by Saturn, they say they are his son. He was said to be the son of Philira, because he invented watering gardens, according to Barlaam. Philidros means water-loving or water-friendly thing; or according to others, Philira is said from phili, which means friend, and pyra, experience; After removing the first letter of pyra, the name Philyra remains, because experience came first rather than theory in zurugy.
Saturn becoming more of a horse than another animal, so as not to be found by his wife in sin, was to justify himself with his angry wife, saying that because of his promise to Titan he could not keep any male child born to her, and for this attempt he had changed into another figure; and since this was a fair excuse, he moved on a horse, which in Latin is called equus, whose word, the diphthongized e, also means fair thing. Others want that time, understood by Saturn, discovered the medicine and surgery of man and beasts. He was said to be the son of man and horse, and named Chiron, because he was understood to have invented surgery, and not medicine; and because surgery is a manual art, I mean that it needs the hands to work, which is why it was called Chiron, because chiros in Greek means hand; and because surgery is not only necessary for men, but also for other animals; For this reason they said that one part of his body was a man and the other a horse. He says that Chiron had been begotten immortal to denote infinite knowledge of surgery and its precepts. That after many years it was possible for the gods to be able to die denotes that many times the knowledge of all sciences is changed over time and left for other more convenient ones. That he was wounded with the arrow of Hercules means that since he was once wounded, it was considered impossible to live, and they considered him dead, his friends, seeing this, said he was immortal, since the force of the poison means, The severe wounds could not kill him.
They say that he was Aesculapius's teacher because since he found the surgery of Chiron, adding it and having knowledge of some roots of herbs and mixtures of pharmacy things, and since medicine is based on this, Chiron was considered a teacher, and Aesculapius, his disciple, inventor and god of medicine. Finally, as the time of his death arrived, by merit of his virtue and knowledge of him, by perpetual memory of his name, they said he had been placed among the stars. Some write that this was said because he was very learned in matters of astrology.
From Ulysses
Ulysses, according to Homer, was the son of Laertes and Anticlea. All historians write about him that when the Trojan War was being fought, in order not to separate himself from Penelope, his wife, he pretended to be crazy; and to show that he was so, he yoked together two different animals, and began to plow with them, and to sow salt for seeds. However, Palamedes, suspecting his cunning, to verify this, put the child Thelemachus, son of Ulysses, in a furrow; When Ulysses saw this, so as not to hurt his son, he stopped the animals; and in this way it was understood that that madness was feigned, and so he had to go to war with the other Greeks, where with his singular prudence he did great things in Troy during the siege. With his industry, according to Theodontius, he found Achilles, who was hidden in a maiden's habit, in the company of the daughters of Lycomedes; and the arrows that Hercules had given to Philotetes at his death were collected. He stole the ashes of Laomedon from the Scea gate, which they guarded with great modesty, and the fatal Palladius of Troy. He became a spy and cut off the head of Rhesus, king of Thrace, and brought his white horses to the army of the Greeks, all things without which Troy could not be taken. He had a dispute with Ajax over the weapons of Achilles, where with elegance of words and evident reasons he showed that to conquer cities prudence and cunning were more necessary than strength, and thus the weapons were given to him as he was more deserving of them.
Destroyed Troy, sailing for its land, he experienced great hardships and storms at sea. On the island they call Gelves, in the African Sea, his companions, enjoying the fruits, forgetting their homeland, did not want to return to the ships. From here he was thrown on the island of Sicily, where he entered with twelve companions into the cave of Polyphemus, who, having eaten the six, Ulysses, presenting him with some flasks of wine, intoxicated him and deprived him of the sight of only one eye that he had. had; and dressed he and his remaining companions in sheepskins, they left the cave among the cattle. Once out of this danger, he returned, according to Ovid, to one of the Aeolian islands, where Eulus gave him all the winds enclosed in a hide, except the Zephiro, which he let loose because it was useful for Ulysses' path. He had this leather and a silver chain with which he tied his mouth, so that the winds would not come out. His companions, thinking there was some treasure inside the hide, cautiously untied him, Ulysses not seeing it, and all the winds leaving, with their violence they returned Ulysses again to the same Aeolian island, from where he was harshly thrown out of Aeolus, as a thing hated by the gods.
From here he ended up in some towns in Italy, which they call Campania, populated by some cruel children of Neptune, who ate human flesh; from where, with the loss of some of his companions, he crossed to the island of Circe, a sorceress woman, who turned Ulysses' companions into beasts, who went out ahead to discover land; whom Ulysses, prepared with an ointment that Mercury gave him against spells, visited without fear, and with his sword drawn made him restore his companions in his first form; and staying there a year, he had a son in Circe, named Thelegon, and a daughter named Ardea. From here he went to the island of the Sirens, where he had the ears of his companions covered with wax, and ordered that he be tied tightly to the mast of the ship, so that the softness of the song would not overcome him. From there passing through Scilla and Charybdis, not without the loss of some of his people, he returned again to Sicily, where seeing the daughters of the Sun guarding his father's cattle, he admonished his companions not to would hurt them. However, while he was sleeping (forced by hunger and the little food they brought from the long voyage), they killed many of the Sun's cattle. It happened because of this sin that he was harassed for nine days by the waves and winds of the sea, and at the end he was thrown into the sea. Ogygia island and received as a guest by Calypso the nymph, with whom he stopped and talked for seven years, having many children there. And after this time, he left there with a single old ship, which broke in a storm that Neptune moved, because of what Ulysses had done to his son Polyphemus, on whom Leucothoe, having mercy, threw him a board, on which He left naked in a port on the island of the Ionian Sea. And there, being hidden among trees, Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, gave him a garment by Pallas's industry, and he was taken to Arete, wife of Alcinous, from whom he received ships and companions, he was placed in Ithaca sleeping, and arrived at Ithaca, awakened by Pallas. And taking on an old habit, as Pallas admonished him, he came to his own, and cleansed his house of Penelope's pretensions. And last of all, Telegon, who was in Circe, was killed by his son.
Through this fable the ancients wanted to declare the entire life of man, as well as exploits, government and customs, to inform us so that we suffer in encounters of fortune and do not listen to the flattery of vices. By Ulysses we mean a wise and prudent man, who goes through the storms of the sea of this world with fearless suffering. That his companions forgot to go to his lands, tasting the fruits of the lotus-eaters, or the drinks of Circe, denotes how pernicious the force of delights is to mortals.
The harm that happened to Polyphemus by tasting the wine that Ulysses presented to him represents the harm that comes to those who intemperately use it. And to show that the help and favor of God comes to all the good who call him in their needs and hardships, the poets said that Aeolus gave Ulysses the winds with which he would go to his land. By the winds we understand desires or appetites, because just as the winds blow everywhere, so desires move men to all things; and just as the winds are contrary to each other, so the desires are contrary to each other. Aeolus, who gives the winds, is God, because He is the universal formator and establisher of nature, who, giving to her, gives these natural desires. The oxhide in which he enclosed them is our body, within which are all desires. It is called more ox leather than any other animal because it implies that the ox is a fruitful and hard-working animal; This is how man must be for works and good works. And because thoughts are hidden, because they are generated within our bodies, the fable says that Aeolus gave them enclosed in a skin. Give them tied because these thoughts are not free, but subject to reason.
That they were all closed, except for the Zephiro, because with this wind Ulysses was to walk to his land, is because by this wind we understand soft and gentle desires, such as the Zephiro, which comes from the West. Zephiro said more than anyone else, because just as this wind does little harm, so we must leave and consent to the desires that do not harm; the harmful ones, restrain them. Being the binding of these silver winds denotes the great price of the order that God placed between reason and desires, wanting reason to be their mistress, and for them to serve him, and not be able to carry out any execution, except when reason commands it. The natural senses are understood by the companions of Ulysses who untied the leather. These are companions of Ulysses because they always accompany man, as in all men they always are or are companions of reason, because it is necessary, according to natural order, where there is reason, there are senses. These companions opened the leather thinking there was treasure: This suits the senses, because just as those were deceived into thinking that what was nothing but wind was treasure, so the senses are deceived, thinking in another way that the thing is good. Ulysses, who is reason, is not deceived, but he has the thing in being and estimates what he is; and so he has what is in the skin in possession of wind and not of treasure; or because the senses are what make the desires come out, considering them to be very good things, and thus they ensure that the desires are released, to get what they want. And because the letting go of desires does not come from reason, but from the depraved senses, this is why he says that Ulysses' companions let go of the winds, and not Ulysses. Released the leather winds, they endangered Ulysses and his riding crop, taking him to the difficult and dangerous and remote places of the earth; that is, when man, following the judgment of sense, gives place and freedom to his desires, they then bring him into danger from himself and from others, punishing him with many tasks, through which man cannot go straight to his goal. earth, which is heaven, desires being so powerful in it. And for this reason, Ulysses returned again where Aeolus was, he is received and rejected from evil, as a man hated by the gods, because God hates the sinner who gives rein to his evil appetites.
Many of their companions being eaten by the sons of Neptune, and others by the Cyclops, and others swallowed by Scilla and Charybdis, very great monsters, and others converted into beasts of Circe, these companions are the movements of our spirit, some that surrender to anger and other vices and delights.
Covering one's ears and having oneself tied to the mast of the ship so as not to be defeated by the soft song of the Sirens denotes that the discreet man must be deaf and not listen to the flattery of delights and unjust things, and that he must be very tied and obedient to reason. Passing Ulysses through Scilla, and Circe, and Sirens without any harm, denotes that wisdom, understood by Ulysses, despises lust. And to declare that human strength is not enough to overcome and overcome the dangers or flattery of delights without prudence and great modesty, he says that Mercury has given him a gift against spells and poisons; This means that Ulysses had prudence to distance himself from everything bad.
The death of Ulysses' companions with fire and storms, for having died from the cattle of the Sun, denotes that those who despise God cannot stop at anything else.
Escaping alone Ulysses denotes that the blameless ignorant are defended and helped; and for this, coming out naked, he was given clothing and ships and companions. Being all this guided by Pallas's industry means that Ulysses was freed from all vices and dangers with his knowledge.
Wearing a poor dress when you arrive in your land, to be informed in this way about the things of your home, denotes that to reach our land everything in the world must be left behind, or that we die and are born poor and naked.
Paléphatus says that Aeolus was an astrologer and knew a lot about winds, and knew when they should flow and when they should not, from experience; and as Ulysses returned to his island, he informed him at what time he would leave; and as he succeeded him well and he sailed with a good wind, they pretended that he had given him the winds in a leather.
From Circe
Circe, according to Hesiod, was the daughter of the Sun and Perseyeles, daughter of Oceanus; others make her the daughter of Hiperýon and Asterope; She was exalted in beauty and the first to concoct poisons and medicines. She made experiences on her guests. She married a king of Samaria, whom she killed with poison, and being left alone and her people dispossessing her of the kingdom, because she treated them cruelly, she went to Italy, and made her habitation on a promontory whose name was called Circeo. Others, like Herodian, say that her father, the Sun, took her in a chariot to Italy, and put her on an island near the Sea of Sicily, which after her, from her name, was called Circea. The ancients believed Circe to be immortal; They gave her four maids who helped her gather herbs and make confections. Ovid, where it begins: Nereides Nimphae, quae simul, etc., says that these maids were Nereydes; With these herbal confections and forces, she converted men into vain animals, as Vergil says in six verses that begin: Hinc ex audiri gemitus, etc. To do this she gave various delicacies, according to the ways in which she seemed to convert men, as Ovid means in four verses that begin: Nec mora misceri, etc., and she suddenly turned them into beasts. Thus she turned Ulysses' companions into pigs, as Homer says, but she could not convert Ulysses, although he had her love and had children in her, because he had a remedy that Mercury had given him against spells.
Some say that this was history and that there were two women called Circe by that name, and the things of both are attributed to one of them, who lived in the strait that separates Calabria from Sicily, a woman of such extreme beauty as she was filled with so much lasciviousness that She met with everyone who passed by, because she provoked every man who saw her to sensual sin; and she did it with so much secrecy and art that few fell into it; and because of her modesty and good manner, she was considered most chaste by all, with which she stripped the miserable passengers of their money and merchandise, which is why they later said that it was a dangerous passage of the sea, which turned the sailors into beasts and stones.
Circe is that natural passion that they call dishonest love, which most often transforms the wisest and most judgmental into fierce animals full of fury, and sometimes makes them more insensitive than stones, regarding the honor and reputation that they conserved with so much diligence before they let themselves be blinded by this fierce passion. And because he who greatly delights in enjoying himself with common and dirty women is compared to a pig, this is why the wise men pretended that Circe had turned Ulysses' companions into these animals. Circe is said to have had nothing to do with anyone else, but with Ulysses. By Ulysses we mean the part of our soul that participates in reason. Circe is nature. Ulysses' companions are the powers of the soul, who conspire with the affections of the body and do not obey reason. Nature, then, is the desire for things that are not legitimate, and the good law is the restraint and restraint of depraved ingenuity. But reason, understood by Ulysses, remains firm without being defeated, against these flattery of appetite.
Being Circe, daughter of the Sun and Perseides, daughter of Ocean, means that inclinations and appetites are engendered in animals by humor and heat, because these, with other celestial influences, naturally (if they dominate us) incite or incline us to bestial delights. some to food, some to lust, some to anger, which Circe, not resisting, turns us into various beasts, just as there can be various things in which man takes delight, if divine mercy does not help us, not allowing us to slip, which is understood by the gift that Mercury gave to Ulysses. Or Circe being the daughter of the Sun and Perseides, or of Hyperion and Asterope (as it seems better to others), is that everything is born from humor and the Sun. It is called Circe a miscendo, because for generation it is necessary that these things that we call elements be mixed, which is done with the movement of the Sun. Perseis or Perse is the humidity of Ocean, which is water, which has times or matter of female. The Sun has it as an actor or a man, who is the author of forms in natural things, which is why that combination that is made in the generation of natural bodies is rightly called Circe, and daughter of the Sun, and of the daughter of Ocean The four maids who gathered herbs and flowers for spells denote the four elements that minister to all natural movement with their virtues and forces.
For the ancients to consider Circe immortal is to say that generation and corruption are perpetual among the elements.
That it changed men into various animals is to say that from the corruption of one thing another thing is not born in the same way, but very different from what is corrupted. Not being able to turn Ulysses into a beast, as he did other men, denotes being the anima, understood by Ulysses, immutable and immortal, for the benefit of the powerful God, to which the Sun, nor the elements, nor any other force of nature. It can corrupt, although the body is subject to many diseases and toil and alterations and corruptions. And since Circe understands the mixture (as has been said in natural things) by the movement of the Sun, they rightly said that so many things are done by sorcery, such as descending or removing the Moon from the sky, stopping the rivers, changing the trees and crops to another place, and other things to this purpose, which the poets attribute to Circe. Because as many vapors arise, they make the Moon hide, as if it were in conjunction; other times, because it does not rain, the fountains dry up and the rivers do not flow, and due to lack of this, the bread does not grow in some parts, and is born in others; The reason for which is that nature acts at times, which proceeds from the mixture of the elements, according to what it is more or less.
Of Aeneas
Of Aeneas, son of Anchises and Venus, the poets say that, having destroyed Troy, he entered the sea with his father and his son Ascanius in twenty ships, where he made long detours, passing through various lands with great storms and hardships, and who descended into hell, and passed at the end of the Elysian Fields, where he saw all his descendants. And having done this, he returned to earth, and arriving at a valley of the Tiber River, his mother Venus appeared to him, predicting that he would stop there; and being well received by King Latinus, he gave him his daughter Labinia as a wife, for because Latinus had first betrothed her to Turnus, king of the Rutilians, great wars arose between Aeneas and Turnus, at whose hands Aeneas died, although Virgil feigned poetic conceals it.
The ships of Aeneas are the human hopes that take us through the passage of this sea of the world. The long detours that Aeneas made through the sea, before he reached the promised land, and the many dangers he endured, show that we can never, in the sea of this world, reach a port that will give us some rest without running into many misfortunes and dangers.
That Aeneas descended into hell denotes wanting to be certified by the bad art of necromancy of future things, which in order to do so he went to the port of Baie, near Lake Avernus, which was a place prepared for it; and there, killing Messenus, he made a sacrifice with his blood to the infernal gods, and with these ceremonies he worked some evil spirit, brought with the force of the enchantment; and he came out taking the form of some body, and gave him an answer to his question of things that were to happen to him, and of what he was to do.
To say that Aeneas was the son of Venus is that at his birth Venus ascended, or that Venus ruled the sky. Others say that he was called the son of Venus because he was not born of legitimate marriage, to cover up the infamy of being born as a naughty girl. Others say that Aeneas's mother would call herself Venus for some good merits.
That Venus appeared to him denotes the work of her constellation, close to the concupiculous appetite, attentive that he navigated so much until he reached that place that he thought he would stop and build.
From Orion
Orion was the son of Jupiter and Neptune and Mercury; and because men pride themselves on naming themselves as the most important member of their family (as Theodontius pleases), he wants him to be called only the son of Iupiter. About his birth they say that while Jupiter, Mercury and Neptune were visiting the earth, when night came upon them, they took lodgings in a small hut of old Hyrieus, a poor farmer; He, even though he did not know them, welcomed them kindly and friendly; but after he understood that they were gods, he killed an ox and made sacrifices to them. Iúpiter, moved by his liberality and devotion, told him to demand mercy for what he most desired. The old man asked him for a son, so Jupiter, with all the other gods, took the hide of the dead ox and urinated on it, and gave it to the old guest, telling him: By burying him, let him remain until the tenth month, which he did. At the end of this time the child Urion was born, so called from urine; but because this is not an honest word, it was later called Orion. As he grew older, he became Diana's hunting companion. Diocles says that Orion, being loved by Diana, determined to marry him. Angry at this Apollo, as he had often rebuked his sister in vain, he determined to kill him; And to put his determination into practice, one day seeing Orion coming in a wave of water, the head from outside, he bet with his sister Diana that he would not hit that signal with her arrows, and he set a certain price. Diana, to be the winner in pulling her, aimed at the sign that Apollo told her, and stuck an arrow into Orion's forehead, with which she killed him; and moved by pain, she asked Jupiter to place him among the stars. Others say that because he tried to force Diana, he moved a scorpion to sting him from the carcañal, from whose sting he died. Horacio says that Diana, being tempted by her modesty, shot an arrow at him and killed him. Others say that Orion presumed that there would be no beast that would not be defeated by his hand, the gods, angry at such great pride, caused a scorpion to be outbid and killed. They say that Neptune, his father, granted him the ability to walk on water, and that no depth of water reached his shoulders. This is what Vergil says, where he begins: Turbidus ingreditur, etc. Furthermore, they say that he was banished and deprived of sight because he tried to rape Candiope, who some call Aerope.
By this pretense of Orion the ancients wanted to declare the generation of man and other things, because by Jupiter and Neptune they wanted to understand heat and humidity, which, mixing with the seed in the oxhide, by which is understood the matrix of the female, through coldness, understood by Mercury, which is a planet of cold complexion, gathers and freezes, by succession of time in the said buried matrix; It means: surrounded or surrounded by the body machine, after nine months, entering the tenth, the child is born. That Orion tried to demand love from Diana is because by Orion they understand a celestial image, that when it begins to rise with the Sun around the month of October, it happens to cause rain and winds and storms, through which the rise of the sea and movement in which is caused. It seems to want to surpass the Moon, by whom Diana is understood, which is the cause of the movement and crescents of water; or because as the vapors, understood by Orion, rise to the highest region of the air, in such a way that it seems to us to touch the Moon, this is why they say that he tried to love her.
That Diana wounded or killed him with an arrow is because, by virtue of the rays and force of the Moon, she gathers and converts these vapors into rain or winds, and dissolves them and casts them down, which is why he says that Diana wounds him.
That Orion was defeated or killed by Scorpio is because the image of Orion, which is in the sign of Gemini, is set or hidden shortly before Scorpio comes out; And because Orion has hidden himself at the exit of Scorpio, this is why they say that Scorpio killed him. That this Scorpio came out of the earth is because when they come out over the horizon the stars seem to come out of it. That Orion boasts that there is no beast that he does not kill, and that he is killed by the Scorpion, denotes that the pride of men is usually defeated by weak and vile animals. That Orion was given many fathers is because in the elements he can be, because it is clear that water, understood by Neptune, by the heat of the Sun, understood by Apollo, working the celestial virtue, understood by Jupiter, undergoes mutations, because by the heat of the Sun, vapors rise from the water, understood by Orion; and from the combination of the qualities of these three gods are generated winds and clouds and rain and all the other works of nature that we call meteors, of which we deal in our Natural Philosophy.
Those who said that Orion had obtained from his father Neptune that he could walk on the waters understood by Orion the humidity or subtle part of the water, from which exhalations are generated, which always supervenes on the surface of the water itself; and because that thinned matter, being lifted by virtue of the natural heat, spreads in the air or spills (leaving its first place) in various places, they say it was banished or went to Chío, a place so called for spilling. That he was deprived of his sight because he tried to rape Aerope is because the vapors that arise from the earth and water must pass through the air, where they lose their first form, changing into other vain things.
Of Europe
Europa was the daughter of Agenor, according to Ovid, who says that being greatly loved by Iupiter, she ordered Mercury to go to the land of Phenicia, and bring King Agenor's cows near the shore, to a place where Europa, with other maidens, he used to go out to relax; which being done, Jupiter, leaving the royal scepter (as love and gravity cannot live long in the same house), moved into a beautiful white bull, and joined the cows. Europe, admired by the beauty of the bull, approached him, and although he seemed tame to her, she was afraid; But little by little, losing her fear, she began to give him gifts and put flowers on his head. The bull, very humble, licked her hands and played with her; The maiden, completely losing her fear, climbed on top of him. The bull, seeing her above him, went little by little towards the sea, and entered it. When Europa felt herself in the water, she was afraid, and in order not to fall she held on tightly to its horns; and so, filled with terror, she was taken to Crete, where Jupiter became the first figure of her, and knowing her, she became pregnant with Minos; She later gave birth to others. And for eternal memory of this maiden she was called the third part of the world Europe; and because of this event they paint her sitting on a bull.
Mercury, who drives the cows to the shore, denotes the eloquence and sagacity of some pimp, who made Europe leave from the city to the shore, or some merchant who would show him some colorful little things, who with offers that there were things on his ship If I saw it, I would steal it. Others have that a man from Crete, whose name was Toro, brought war to that region; among other maidens he captured there was Europe and brought her to Crete. Or coming on the bull was that the ancients, on their houses and ships, painted figures of animals, as is done today, to distinguish one from another; and because the ship that Europe came to Crete had a white bull insignia, this is why they gave rise to the fable. And however it was, it is true history, that Europa was stolen and carried to Crete, and given to Jupiter, according to Eusebius, in the fortieth year of the reign of Danaus, king of the Argives. And afterwards Asterius, king of Crete, received her as his wife in the year of the world one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine. Others say that she was stolen in the year of the world 1878, reigning in Argos Acrisius. Some want it to have been stolen at the time when Pandion reigned in Athens, namely, in the year of the world 1816, which time most agrees with what is read about Minos, son of Europe. They paint Europe on a bull, because of the virtue and strength of this land, or because the bull is the main thing for agriculture, which Noah came to teach those of Europe.
Of Cadmus
Cadmus, son of Agenor, according to what Ovid writes, Iupiter having stolen Europa from her sister, her father ordered him to go look for her, warning him that if she did not bring him back from her, he would suffer much greater pain than death. With this commandment, Cadmus went into exile throughout the world, and as he could not find it, he determined to look for a home, and for this he arrived at a temple of Phebo, before whom he prayed, humbly asked him for advice, asking him to show him some land where can populate and make its habitation. Phebo told him to follow an ox that he would find in some fields, which had yet to be tamed, and where he stopped and lay down, there he would make a city. Cadmus had barely descended from the mountain where the oracle had answered him, when he saw an ox going alone, whom he began to follow, and after a short distance he lay down in a very beautiful meadow. Cadmus, giving thanks to God, began to lay out a city, and called it Boethia, from the name of the ox, and later it was called Thebas; And he ordered his companions to look for water to make sacrifices, and they found a very deep fountain in a cave; Putting the buckets into the fountain, making some noise, a large snake came out, which made the servants, with fear (fleeing their blood), remain as if dead, whom the snake killed some with bites, others with poison, that none escaped. Cadmus, amazed at the delay of his companions, went to look for them; And seeing the snake and the damage done, he became so angry that by wounding it with a spear, he killed it. While he was looking at the greatness of the snake, Pallas appeared to him and told him to pull out the snake's teeth and sow them; He did so, and then armed men were born. Cadmus, hiding his fear of seeing so many armed men, took his weapons to defend himself against them; But one of the newly born said to him: Be calm, do not want to take up arms to fight with us; And with this said, they began to kill each other, until of all only five remained, who, making peace among themselves, joined with Cadmus and helped him build the city. He married first Sphinx and then Harmonia, daughter of Mars and Venus. Afterwards, being expelled by Amphion and Zetho from the kingdom, he went to Sclavonia, where he, together with the woman Harmonia, changed into snakes.
This fable of Cadmus means that the foreign man who goes to seek a new land has many concepts of those new places, which, casting out to verify them, are all killed by prudence, signified by the serpent, which dwells in a cave, in the middle of a very thick forest of errors. Prudence is fierce like the snake, because it kills all the things that please us most, and it is properly compared to the snake, because this animal ages a lot, and also prudence, the older it is, the safer it is. Prudence is killed by youthful impetus, represented by Cadmus, who pulls out his teeth, sows them, and armed men are born who fight with each other. The armed men are the youthful thoughts, born from the teeth of the serpent, which are the reasons for prudence, which are so confused and contrary to one another, that they fight one another, until they are reduced to a few. , they make friends with Cadmus, and take new advice about living in the new land, to live happily, as Cadmus lived for a time. That Cadmus and his wife Harmonia, in old age, turned into snakes, is because the old, like snakes, are prudent, due to the experience of the things that have happened to them; and because with age full of years, lack of strength, they walk bent like snakes, and not upright, and tilting, or tripping; or because the exiles, such as Cadmus and his wife, go like snakes through low places, aware that being in the kingdom they are in highness.
Cadmus waged war against Dracon, king of Thebes, son of Mars, and killed him and occupied his kingdom. The friends and sons of Draco who rose up against Cadmus, after they saw themselves with less strength than Cadmus and almost defeated, stole some ivory teeth that Draco had, and fled wherever their momentum took them, and they scattered, and sowed each other. one part and others to another; and then, coming from these places, they made war on the Thebans, until the few who remained became friends of Cadmus. And from here the fable arose of saying that Cadmus killed the dragon and sowed its teeth and armed men were born who consumed each other until there were five who became companions of Cadmus. He put a certain number as uncertain.
Of Harmony
Harmony, the poets say that she was the daughter of Mars and Venus, and the wife of Cadmus, king of Thebas for whom she left Sphinge. For this Harmony Vulcan made a necklace of great beauty, but a bad omen to whoever wore it; and this was done because of the hatred he had for her, because he had been born of adultery by his wife Venus.
They say she is Harmony, the daughter of Venus, because with her beauty she incited the libidinous appetite of Cadmus, which is typical of Venus because of her desire, for which she repudiated Sphinge, her first wife. She claims to be the daughter of Mars, considering that it was a cause of war, because as Paléphatus says, Sphinge, out of jealousy of Harmonia, separated herself from Cadmus, and suddenly war broke out against him, whence in this way Cadmus comes to take a daughter of Mars as his wife. woman, it is convenient to know, an occasion of war. By the ill-omened necklace, made from Vulcan, we can understand the unfortunate end of this marriage, considering that Amphion and Zetho were banished and Cadmus and Harmony were expelled from the kingdom.
From Frixo and Helle
Reigning in Thebas Athamas, he married Neiphile, by whom there was a son named Phrixus and a daughter named Helle. Afterwards, either because of the death of Neiphile, or because I don't know why, he married Ino a second time, by whom he had Learcho and Palemon as children. This lady, as is the general custom, then began to have great hatred for the alnadoes, out of concern that her children would inherit her kingdom from her; And so that her father would disown them, so that they could never fall into his favor, she cooked the seeds that the farmers had to take to sow, so that they would not be born. She then persuaded the priests to tell King Athamas that the seeds were not born because it was necessary to sacrifice a son of Neiphile. Hearing this Athamas (says Apollodorus Grammaticus), who was forced to decide to sacrifice Phrixus; However, before this term came, Neiphile took their children from Phrixus and Helle, and gave them a golden fleece ram that he took from Mercury, and ordered them to both get on it and let him go, because he would pass them over to the other side. from the sea, and doing so, reaching a strait that is between the Sigaeo promontory and the Chersonesos, Helle fell and was drowned, so from there onwards from the name of Helle this strait was called Hellesponto. Ovid mentions this, where it begins: Fluctibus inmodicis, etc. Phrixus, although distressed to see the disastrous case of his sister, did not stop moving forward, and he traveled so much that he arrived at an island called Colchos, where he then consecrated the ram to the god Mars, and the skin he placed in a tall tree in a forest, consecrated to Mars himself. Whom the poets later say was guarded by a great dragon that spewed terrifying flames from its mouth, and two very brave bulls that had iron horns and flames of fire came out of their nostrils, which the god Mars had ordered to defeat. the one that that fleece with his consent wanted to take.
Others say that Athamas gave great treasures to his sons and sent them on his adventures. Ino, when he learned of the flight of the alnadas from him, very angry, he made a conspiracy with all the men of the kingdom against Athamas, as a dissipator of the royal treasures. But after Athamas understood it, he became so furious that he killed all the children that Ino had. And she, fleeing from Athamas with the companions who followed him, for having spoken freely in her favor against him, became stones and boulders.
The historical meaning of this fable is that Phrixus had a tutor or Crio, which in Greek means the same as ram; This tutor, understanding the hatred that the stepmother Ino had for the children of Neiphile, notified Phrixus, and both of them, together with Helle, fled on a ship with their father's treasure, and on the way Helle fell ill and died. Others say he fell from the ship and drowned. Others say that the ship she was on had an insignia of a golden ram on the stern, and this is why the fable originated.
Arriving at Colchos, Oethes, king of that island, welcomed him well, marrying him to one of his daughters, and Phrixus consecrated his golden ram to Mars, and dedicated the hide to him, placing a guard over it, understanding that his lordship would last as long as the hide was worn. keep it by not stealing it. He means: that wise kings gather treasures and save them for wars. And because the ancients had their treasure in cattle, this is why the golden fleece ram meant the great treasures that Phrixus had brought to Colchos. And saying that the state of Colchos would last as long as the golden fleece was there is because without money no warlike people can be sustained to defend the kingdom. And for this reason they say that Mars gave the fleece that guard of the dragon and bulls.
That the seeds by Ino's industry were not born denotes that from the evil ones, such as this Ino was, nothing of benefit is born, but tares and revolts.
That Ino, and those who wanted to follow him, became rocks and stones because they spoke freely against Athamas, admonishes us that we must remain silent and not speak ill of the kings and great princes, who can at their will make us remain cold as stones.
Of Medea
Medea was the daughter of Oaetes, king of Colchos, and Idya, disciple of Hecate, according to Apollonius. She was a great magician and very learned in all types of poison that was generated from the earth. For this reason they say that he turned the rivers and their sources back, and the Moon and the stars descended from the sky, and he changed the forests and crops, he resurrected the dead and renewed the old, as Ovid writes of Circe, where it begins: Exiluere loco , etc. She helped Iason win the Golden Fleece. She left her father and her land and kingdom to come with him. She killed her brother, leaving him dead on the road, where her father stopped, as he was following her.
By Medea we mean her advice, and for this reason they make her the daughter of Idya, which she means the one she knows. Iason can mean doctor, from iasthe, which means to cure.
Medea going with him means that he who has to seek medicine for his soul (which is prudence) to become a good and prudent man, has to consider everything else in little, even if it is what he wants very much, because he who does not despise the desire for delights and shatter the dishonest appetite in the path of her unbridled life, she can do nothing admirable or glorious, which is why it is said of Medea, as a knower of good, she shattered her children and her brother, and left her land and his father for following Iason; and because he who is wise will easily dominate the stars that invite him to lust and will moderate the desires that move him to clumsiness.
They say that Medea or the council used to take the Moon and the stars out of the sky, and stop the rivers of covetousness, and do many things that seemed admirable to the common people, which in reality really happened in no time, and with this advice Iason conquered. the golden fleece What she says about renewing old hair is that she was the first to find a flower that had the power to turn gray hair black, and she did this by washing it with hot water from the decoction of that flower. To say that he killed Pellas was that since he was very old and used this decoction, not being able to suffer it, he died.
Of the significance of some fables in short, for the sake of brevity
Thamyris's competition with the Muses (according to Plutarch and Homer), exhorts us to fear and reverence God, and to flee from presumption and arrogance, and to be grateful for the benefits and graces that we receive from God, and that in the Let us not faint through adversities, nor exalt ourselves with prosperity, because both are vices that do not please God.
Through the fable of Chione they represent the pride of women, who believe that their beauty is perpetual and dare to equate it with the divine. Therefore, after they begin to give birth, due to their pride, they are wounded by Diana's arrow (which represents chastity), which kills her beauty.
The death of Turnus and the burning of Ardea, from which the bird is born, shows us that after the expulsion and victory of our enemies, the fame of our valor is exalted to heaven, and the greater the enemies, the greater the praise. that fame spreads throughout the world.
The story of Cyppo, who covered his horns with the laurel, shows us that many cover their vices with the veil of virtue. Fleeing the Empire from Rome to avoid becoming a tyrant suggests how much strength temperance has in a noble spirit, since Cyppo wanted more to live perpetually exiled from his land than to live in it as a cruel tyrant.
By the fable of Arion the musician, they meant that God is the avenger of warp sins, and that no evil, no matter how hidden and secret it is done, can fail to be, sooner or later, discovered and punished. Through the fable of the death of Iphis because of Anaxarete, we are warned how vehement the flames of love and kindness of some women are, that with nothing their hearts are set on fire to maintain chastity, more than if they were a stone.
In the fable of Cephalus and Procris it will be noted that the dog that Diana gave to Procris means the loyalty that a chaste woman must always have to her husband. The dart that never hurts in vain is that it kills dishonest lasciviousness, represented by the monster that Cephalus fancied, which is a fox, because dishonest love is always deceitful, like a fox. That Procris dies at the hands of her husband means that lack of prudence most often guides us to search for what we would not want to find, and thus we remain dead from the dart of lack of continence, that is, from the passion that we contain within ourselves, for having madly believed other people's words.
The fable of Pymaleon warns us that there are some who love things of little moment, only for their pleasure, such as paintings, medals and similar things, which they love with such ardor that the same things satisfy their desires. Others want to understand that Pymaleon being angry with the love of women decided to leave them, and out of his happiness he took up a little girl, who, growing in beauty, fell in love so much that he prayed to God that he would soon reach the age to marry her. , as he later did. This story admonishes us to say that Pymaleon hating women created a woman to marry her, that many, although they hate sin, love it and are in it.
END OF THE FOURTH BOOK
It contains fables to exhort men to flee from vices and follow virtue.
Of Ixion
Ixion was the son of Phlegia and grandson of Mars, according to Iuan Bocacio. The poets say of him that he was taken to heaven to be secretary of Iupiter, with which office, elevated in pride, he tried to demand Iuno's love; For this reason, Iupiter formed a lump from a thick cloud similar to Iuno, with which Ixion embraced, believing himself to be Iuno, and from the libidinous humor that fell in the cloud the Centaurs were generated, which were half men and half horses. Jupiter, hating such evil, expelled him from heaven. Ixion, seeing himself on earth, praised himself that he had joined Iuno. Angry Jupiter, striking him with a lightning bolt, sentenced him to hell, where he would suffer by spinning on a wheel full of snakes, which never stops spinning, as Ovid writes, where it begins: Voluitur Ixion, et se sequiturque fugitque, etc. And Boethius, where it begins: Foelix qui potuit, etc.
Ixion is understood as an ambitious man who places his hope in temporal goods and lordships, understood by Iuno. Ixion falling in love with Iuno (who is the goddess of air), denotes the lack of firmness of temporal things. It is called deesa, which is a divine name, because it is part of the goods, something that belongs to the lives of men, and this is what is necessary, taken with temperance, without putting all affection into it; and because temporal goods not rightly sought cause error, they denote this error with the cloud, because the goods are represented in their likeness in the eyes of the covetous like Ixion, in which the deceived cloud delights; and by attempting to commit acts that are not due, monstrous effects are generated, like the Centaurs, who at first appear human and whose ends are bestial. These Centaurs of that town hall generated pretend to be armed at the front, defending their malice, giving them color; but its end is naked and known, leaving a tail of bad name, having no firmness, thus fleeing like a cloud, showing that the life of the cuddly is short.
Ixion was called axiotis, which in Greek means dignity. He was from Thesalia, lord of the Lapiths, and so rose in desire and cudicia that he tyrannically attempted to take over the entire kingdom of Greece. And as Iuno takes herself sometimes to the air and sometimes to the earth, and queen of kingdoms and riches, Ixion desiring to reign, she loved Iuno. And because he was the first to have a hundred horsemen as guard, they said that the Centaurs were born from him, as if someone said a hundred armed. And when he was expelled from the kingdom, he said to himself that he had been thrown into hell and tied to a wheel, because the life of man is like a wheel that changes; what is below is now above, now on one side, now on the other; and because this one went up and down, they say they tormented his wheel. Having snakes, this wheel denotes the passions and envies that those who descend from some state have. They wanted to show through this fable that all those who claim kingdom by weapons and violence, suddenly rise and suddenly descend, like the wheel, which has no stable height.
From Sisypho
Whose son was Sisyphos from no author is certain; but some, like Ovid and Horace, and others, give Aeolus or some descendant of his as his father; He married (as Ovid attests) Merope, daughter of Atlante, by whom he had many children. They write of this that Iupiter took Aegina, daughter of Asopus, to a place called Phliunte, to take advantage of her, and looking for Asopus, not only did Sisyphos tell her where she was, but he even declared to her the wrong that Iupiter had done to her. Asopo then, to confirm the case, went there; Iupiter, understanding this, so as not to be caught with the theft, turned Aegina into a high mountain of the same name, and he gave Sisyphos a large stone on his back to carry up the mountain from the underworld, and reaching the top He returned to the root of the mountain, no force being able to prevent this, and so he then returned for it, and this is his perpetual punishment because of his sin. Homer plays this fable. Others say that since Sisyphos was of the council of the gods, he divulged secrets, and for this he deserved the punishment that has been said. Others say that because he killed the guests and those in his power with severe forms of torture, of whom Lactantius says that when Sisyphos usurped a mountain located between the Ionian and Aegean seas, which is called Isthmus, by robbery, he killed the men. with the weight of a huge rock that was placed on top of them. Other times, according to Servius, he would call the travelers and have them wash his feet near a high cliff, and while they were careless in washing him, he would kick them, with which he would throw them down there.
Through this pretense of Sisyphos, the wise men wanted to warn us to stay away from ambitions and gossip, and from cautious, cruel and deceitful men, and not to discover secrets of the elders, or to restrain our tongue and not be cruel.
The stone that Sisyphos tried to climb is applied by some to the study of men; and the high mountain, the course of the student's life; The summit where Sisypho tries to climb the stone is the calm and rest of the spirit. Sisyphos is the anima, because as the soul, according to the opinion of the Pythagoreans, was divinely sent from heaven to these bodies, which was aware of all the divine secrets, it tries with all its strength to reach the happiness and rest of life. , which is knowledge, which others put into accumulating wealth or long life.
of tantalum
Tantalus (according to Lactantius) was the son of Iupiter and the nymph Plote. Others say that he was the son of Imolo, king of Lydia, and the nymph Pluto. Others make him the son of Aeton; Eusebius says that Tantalus was king of Phrygia, Eritrea reigning in Athenas. Of this Tantalus, Ovid writes that one day he made a feast for the gods and killed one of his sons, and cut him into pieces and had him cooked, thus wanting to know if the gods had divine virtue, because if they did not know the food he gave them, it would be none. his virtue. When the delicacy was placed before all the gods, no one wanted to eat it, except Ceres, who, being more greedy and tired of hunger, without warning, ate a small shoulder. Iupiter said to the other gods: Indeed, it is right that we should give some reward to the man who gave us such a rich delicacy, and that it be such that it does not benefit him or harm you more than his reward does to us. And so, he was condemned to hell to perpetual punishment, in this way: that he was immersed in the waters up to the lowest part of his mouth, and trees loaded with fruit hung down to the highest part, and when he wanted to eat from the fruit, the trees will rise, and when you drink the water, it will lower; and due to such sad condition, Tantalus was placed among fruits and drink, suffering continuous thirst and hunger. And the gods having compassion on the innocent dead son, gathered all the members and restored the young man to his first form; and because they saw that he was missing a shoulder, in its place they put another one of white ivory, and since he still lacked a soul, which had been absent due to death, brought by Mercury from hell, they put it on him, so that he remained completely in better to be than first; Virgil and Homer also touch on this fable. Some say that this punishment of Tantalus was given to him because he gave the nectar or potion that the gods drank, and the delicacies they ate, to his equals. Ovid, where it begins: Quaerit aquas in aquis, etc., says that this punishment was because he declared the secrets of the gods to mortals. They also said that Tantalus had a large stone on his head, so that whenever he tried to drink or eat, it hurt him.
Giving Tantalus vain fathers was for declaring that there had been many named Tantalus. Lactantius mentions two: one was lord of the Corinthians, who was a good king; The other was king of Phrygia, father of Pelops and Niobe, of whom they pretended this fable. The reason why they say he was the son of Iupiter was because Tantalus, king of the Corinthians, was a man very learned in natural and divine things, and the ancients were of the opinion that this did not happen to everyone, but only to those who had Iupiter when they were born in their birth. ascending, and for this reason they claimed to be the son of Jupiter; and since they speak of Tantalus as if he had only been one, they said to all those of this name that they were sons of Jupiter. This good Tantalus gave himself so much to the contemplation of divine things that, despising riches, he also despised all the delights of the body, for which reason some said that, being in great abundance of all delights, he neither ate nor drank. The stone that hung above him, which prevented him from enjoying them, is the care that the servants of God take not to lose temper in eating and drinking, so as to be more equipped to contemplate; And so that the body does not take weapons against the soul, and this care as it separates us from the delights of the body, the vicious and foolish said that it was one of the furies, and the greatest of all, that it prevented them from eating the delicacies that they present. He had it, because although he could have had an abundance of delights through riches, he did not enjoy them because of the care of his heart. To say that he gave men nectar, which was a drink and food of the gods, this means that he was the inventor of the most sweet knowledge of heavenly things, because no nectar or delicacy is sweeter than the knowledge of God. They also warn in this that the secrets of religion should not be revealed to profane men, because these things among the wicked are like hard food in the stomach of a sick person, which brings greater illness.
Tantalus, king of Phrigia, was very scarce and greedy and fond of enriching himself, which he did by selling wheat at a very high price, with which he attracted all the money of the poor into his power, for which reason he loved wheat as he loved his son. .
And to say that he had placed his son at the table of the gods is that he sowed the wheat, because he who sows places the seed before the gods, which are the stars of heaven, which the Gentiles called gods, by whose virtue in order of the first cause it is born.
That Ceres ate like a glutton means that the seeds sown are hidden in the earth, which is understood by eating, because what we eat is hidden in our body; and just as what is eaten is altered and corrupted and changes into something else, so the earth (understood by Ceres), which itself receives the seeds, alters and rots them and converts them into something else, causing them to be born, and thus only Ceres eats from the son of Tantalus, and not of the other gods.
That she ate the shoulder, in whose place the gods put another of ivory, means that instead of what the earth altered and corrupted from the seed, fruit was born much more than the seed was; and for this reason he said the shoulder more than another part, because the shoulder is one of the parts of the body that denotes the strength in suffering a load, which happens in sowing, because instead of a little seed it becomes a greater quantity and of more strength, which means of more weight, and more profitable than the seed that was sown, and to last longer, because it is less old than the one that was sown.
In what it says that the gods joined the members and made the shoulder of ivory, without Ceres understanding it, it is to denote that the heavenly bodies give birth to what is sown on earth.
That Mercury returned the soul to the body belongs to the fable; and attributing this to Mercury is because of what we said about Mercury. The sorrow of Tantalus denotes the life of the greedy man; Therefore Saint Fulgentius says: Tantalus interprets voluntary vision; which denotes the condition of the miser, who, having riches, does not dare to reach for them, even to sustain himself honestly, and, enthralled in obtaining them, he allows himself to perish from hunger and nakedness.
Others say that Tantalus was a very spending king on banquets, and because of how much he spent on them, the fable says that he had given his son delicacies, as if to say, that he spent everything and that he did not leave his son anything. but he remained as poor as if he were dead. In what he says that the goddess Ceres ate the shoulder, it is to say that by eating she lost her strength, understood by the shoulder, and that she became poorer than due to any other expense, because the Gentiles call Ceres the goddess of fruits, which are the work of food. .
What says that the gods brought him back to life is that since Pelops, son of Tantalus, was an ingenious young man, he lived well, and became richer again, helped by those kings who were called gods.
Regarding Tantalus's punishment, it is because Tantalus had spent his money through gluttony, they did not want to help him, and they left him poor, thereby implying that poverty is an infernal punishment. What it says is that when he wanted to eat the branches with the apples that were close to his mouth rose up, and when he wanted to drink the waters went down, is that it happens to the poor to see the food and drinks among the people, and they cannot reach them. , and die of hunger and thirst.
From Ticyo
Ticyo (according to Leontius) was the son of Iupiter and Elara the nymph, daughter of Orchomenus, who, being pregnant, Iupiter hid underground for fear of the wrath of Iuno, her wife; and for this reason, when the child was born, according to Servius, they said that he had been born from the earth, and they also raised him; and so not only was the earth his mother, but he loved it. Being, then, Ticyo of full age, he loved Latona, mother of Apollo, and tried to shame her by requiring her love. From which Apollo and Diana, angry, killed him with arrows, and condemned him to hell, where he was bound so that he could not move, and was immortal; with such a law that vultures would eat his gizzard, and once he had eaten, he would be reborn again, and thus the vultures would never cease to eat nor Ticyo to suffer. Tibullus says of the greatness of Ticyus that he occupied nine yugas of land, in two verses that begin: Porrectusque nouem Ticyus, etc.
Leontius says that Ticyus about the Boeotians, region of Achaia, was a great man, and that trying with all his might to drive Apollo out of Delphos, Apollo was defeated and deprived of his dignity; and almost reduced to a private man, it was said that Apollo had cast him into hell, because he demolished his dignity and made him humiliate himself. The pain they say of having the vultures eat their insides is the worm of the memory of having descended, which those who lose their status and look dejected have.
Lucretius attributes the significance to the desire or appetite for sensual vice and to the care of it. Macrobius says that the torments received from the memory of bad conscience are understood by the vultures that eat Ticyo's gizzards, a pain so harmful that it gnaws at the insides of the body. Strabo says that at the time when Apollo was said to have walked on the earth taming men, and showing them how to lead a citizen's life, as they first walked like animals, sustaining themselves with fruits from the mountains, Ticyo was a tyrant, and a very cruel man, and vicious in sensual sin, whom Apollo killed with arrows. And later, because he was a warning to all the wicked, he was said to be tormented in hell with great punishments.
Others wanted to imply by this fable that no human forces can be so many that the force of justice cannot punish and oppress them, when something is unjustly committed against anyone, no matter how brave, great and powerful he may be, nor can there be a number of armed, nor guards so vigilant, nor a fortress so strong, nor a conspiracy so firm, that lacking equity, the justice of God cannot easily repress it.
Ticyo denotes the harvest cane. To say that he is the son of Iupiter and the nymph Elara, daughter of the river Orchomeno, is to say that the crops are born through natural heat, understood by Iupiter, and humidity, understood by the nymph Elara, daughter of Orchomeno, which is a river of Thesalia, because humidity and heat are the beginning of the generation of things. Iupiter hiding Elara under the ground, so that Iuno, his wife, would not be angry with her, is because Iuno denotes the air, and it is not good for it to give the seeds, which must be covered under the ground, otherwise which is then born Ticyo, which is the reed in which the ear is raised; and because it is born from the earth and is raised in it, this is why they say that the earth was mother and mistress of Ticyo. Ticyo's love for Latona is that when the harvest reed grows it seems to rise towards the sky (by whom Latona is understood), like someone reaching out to what they love.
That Apollo and Diana felled it with arrows means that when the crops have grown what they have to grow, then the rays of the Sun and Moon, understood by Apollo and Diana, bring it to maturity, so that it comes to be felled by the reapers. ; He says about the Sun and the Moon because just one is not enough to cure the bread, because being only the Sun, drying it would make it fruitless; and the Moon alone would never dry up, and thus there is a need for the humidity and freshness of the Moon and the heat of the Sun for the fruits.
That he was thrown into hell tied up, where he suffers many torments, is because the reapers knock him down from his height, and put him in tied bundles on the ground, lower than he was first, and the poets call the lower hell. The torment they give it is to thresh it and remove the edge of the grain, and then grind it and make bread out of it, by which is understood the liver or gizzards that the vultures eat, because just as this is the intestine of the animal's body, so Bread is made from what is inside the crusts of the grain.
Being Ticyo immortal is that from the consumed liver or intestine, another was born; It is because of the divine fire that is imagined to be within any grain of all seed, being sown another is born again.
That Ticyo was so large in body that it occupied nine yokes or yugas of land, here the finite number is put by infinite, because an infinite number of yugas of land are covered with the harvest.
Through this fiction the ancients wanted to declare the doctrine of sowing and harvesting wheat, and of preparing it so that men could eat it.
Of Actaeon
Actaeon was the son of Aristaeus and Antonoe, daughter of Cadmus. Of this Ovid writes that once, at midday, having hunted a lot, and feeling hot, he entered a valley called Gargaphie in search of a very cool and clear spring, which at last was in a very beautiful cave, where the Maybe Diana was washing in the company of her virgins. When the naked nymphs saw the man nearby, they tried to join their lady Diana, to hide from him seeing them; But since Diana was taller, he couldn't help but see her from the shoulders up, and while they were like that they cried out. Angry Diana of Actaeon, who saw her naked, would like to have her arrows close to her to kill him; And because she could not do anything else, she took water with her palms and poured it on Actaeon's face, saying viciously: From now on, tell, if you can, how you saw Diana naked. Then Actaeon was turned into a deer, and when he wanted to speak he could not, and although his first understanding remained, he would like to return to the royal palace, and there was shame, he would like to hide in the deserts, and he did not dare. While they were detaining him in these thoughts, they saw his dogs in the shape of a deer, whom they killed and ate with raw wounds.
By Actaeon we can understand any man of great status, who instead of giving himself to learning good customs to become capable of administering his republic well, gives himself to hunting, distributing everything he has in dogs and birds, not seeking the honor and growth of the republic. , nor fighting to defend it; This one is eaten and dissipated from his cane, because they spoil him; and those hunting gear spend and eat what he has, which is maintenance of his life. Therefore the fable says that this guy came where Diana was bathing. Through Diana we can understand the greed of the hunt that brings such people in the middle of the festivities, undoing and diminishing their strength and lives. That Diana seemed taller than the others from the shoulders up, we can understand (since Diana was a devotee of chastity) that chastity is higher than all the others, and surpasses them in excellence and deserving of greater reward.
Saint Fulgentius declares the historical meaning of this fable by referring to what Anaximenes says, that Actaeon loved hunting very much, signified by Diana, and followed it, and after reaching an age, he found it to be a useless thing and no less dangerous than harmful. To say it was noontime is to say half her age; then he knew the damage of the hunt, as before in the other half he had not warned. To see Diana naked is to say that Actaeon then clearly and openly knew that hunting was a useless thing, because the clothing, denoted by the age of childhood or little experience, had it hidden, just as clothing conceals many stains on the body. body; but when she is naked, she knows herself well; then, at noon, with the light of day or middle age or experience, he knew her clearly.
Actaeon seeing the damage and little benefit of the hunt, he feared, and this is turning into a deer, which is a very fearful animal, and he turned away from it; But he had so much love for dogs and hunters that he did not leave them, and since he had many, to support them he almost destroyed his entire estate. And this is to say that his dogs killed him and ate him because they consumed his wealth, so much so that he came to die poor and unfortunate.
This fable also admonishes us that we avoid knowing other people's secrets.
In another way it can be understood that those who give themselves with all diligence to consider the mysterious order of the heavens and the variation of the Moon, figured by Diana, are changed into a deer while in the forests and solitary places, carried away by the curiosity of that science, where found of its own cares, familiar to its cause (which are dogs), is eaten by them, because they do not allow man to live for himself.
From the Calidonia pig
Ovid writes, where it begins: Sus erat infestae famulus vindexque Dianae, etc., that Oeneus, father of Meleager, king of Calydonia, having one day made a sacrifice to the gods, so that he would give prosperous years of harvest and fruits, forgot Diana. The gods, angry at seeing Diana so despised, and wanting that such an act not go unpunished, allowed Diana to send a wild pig, larger than a bull, which destroyed everything it found in the land of Calydonia, both crops and vineyards. and cattle and men. They all fled and locked themselves in strong places, not daring to walk or go outside for fear of him. Meleager, who was wise and courageous, gathered a group of young men to go kill him. Among these young men who gathered for this hunt were Arcas Ancaeus, and Castor and Pollux, brothers, and Theseus, and Thelamon, and Iasson, and two uncles of Meleager, and many other brave young men, and a maiden named Athalanta, daughter of the king. Iasio, who, because she was very brave in hunting cases, wanted to accompany them. Arriving at the place where she was, many of them threw their darts and other weapons at her, and they could not hurt her; Athalanta alone was the first to hurt him. Arcas Ancaeus, with a lot of fantasy about the others, arrogant, although they warned him not to arrive, reached him, valiantly to wound him, to which the pig gave him such a wound that on the ground, dead, he threw his entrails out of their place.
Through this fable the poets warn us that there should be no neglect in religion, and that the sterility and plagues that occur are due to the sins of men.
That in the sacrifices they made to the gods they forgot to honor Diana, goddess of chastity, means that they did not maintain chastity, and that those of Calidonia were vicious and fornicating in those times. That the gods were angry, seeing that no sacrifice had been made to Diana, is to tell us that God makes a lot of use of dishonest vice. That an angry Diana sent a pig that destroyed and killed everything, by the pig we understand the mortal sin of lust, which destroys the soul and the life and health of those who follow it. That the virgin Atalanta first wounded the pig denotes that dishonest sin is wounded with the weapons of virginity. That Arcas Ancaeus, attacking to hurt him, was killed by the pig: by Arcas is understood any lustful person, who without fear of God gives himself to this vice and perseveres in it until the sin kills him. By the companions who warned Arcas not to approach the pig, to whom he did not want to listen to them, we understand those who, grieving for the evil of their neighbor, warn the sinner not to commit sin. Not giving anything of this admonition to Arcas Ancaeus denotes those who flee good advice, nor are they curing themselves of it, and they come to sin, until they die at his hands and fall into the land of hell. This being more of a pig than another animal is because the vice of lust is dirty like a pig.
Of Meleager, and fatal blight
Of Meleager, son of Oeneus and Althea, kings of Calydonia, the poets say that, when he was born, the three Fairies or Fates were sitting at the fire twisting yarn of his life, which they placed a small green piece of wood in the fire and said: This child's life will be as long as this wood lasts to burn. Having done this, the Fates left, leaving the green wood in the fire. Althea, mother of Meleager, who heard them, hastily got up, and putting out the fire of the fatal brand, she diligently kept a secret part, as something in which the life of her beloved son consisted. But when the pig was dead (as we said in the previous chapter) Meleager gave the head to Athalanta, because he first wounded it, or the hide, as Lactantius wants, according to the custom of hunters, his companions were envious, especially two of Meleager's uncles, brothers. from their mother, who violently took the prize from Athalanta, whereupon Meleager, angry, killed them. When he heard about Althea, he shouted loudly, and to avenge the death of her brothers, he wanted to throw the brand he had saved into the fire; But even before she cast him out she was confused, like the ship fought by contrary winds, that she does not know which way she should lean; In this way Althea, sometimes putting the brand in the fire and sometimes throwing it, until still affirming the worst, wanting to be more vengeful sister than pious mother, threw the fatal brand into the middle of the fire, for which Meleager, her son, little by little getting weaker, expired.
With this poetic pretense they wanted to imply that the life of each of the men consists of radical humor, and life is as great as this humor can be sustained. Compare this radical humor to a burning candle, in which there are two things, which are fire and humidity; Humidity is consumed by fire, and as long as there is humidity, whoever the fire consumes, the fire will live, but when the humidity is finished, the fire will cease. Thus the life of man is a humidity, and a natural heat, which lasting, life lasts. This heat continually consumes that radical humor, like a lit wick in oil; and just as if we did not put oil in the lamp the fire would go out, so if we did not add something to this heat to repair it, life would end in a short time; This objection is made with the delicacy, which becomes a suitable substance for him. To say that this brand that the Fairies put in the fire was green, by the green the radical humor is denoted, and by the fire in which this wood burns the natural heat is understood. The Fairies saying that Meleager's life would last as long as that wood would burn, means that the life of any animal lasts as long as its radical humor lasts to be spent with the same natural heat. And just as it is in the hand of the one who puts a piece of wood in the fire, whether it is of a quality that lasts a little or lasts a long time, whether it is very green or very dry, so it is in the will and power of the one who gives radical humidity, which is God, whether man's life be long or short, because God causes man to be born when he wants, and his body to be composed as he wants; and according to this, to some it gives the virtue of a long time to live, and to others a short time. And thus this will of God is understood by the Fairies, because there is no other fate except the will or disposition of God. The Fairies put the wood in the fire and let it burn, this is because God makes man be born when he pleases, in which he then gives him radical humility, as long as he is served; and in giving it being, it is putting the wood on fire, because together it gives heat with the radical humidity, and the heat begins to consume the humidity, and that is to say that the wood burns. Removing the mother of Meleager, in the Fairies leaving, the brand from the fire, and killing it, and keeping it, the mother of Meleager means the nature or second cause, working and obeying the first cause, which is God; We say of this nature that she is the mother of all because from her all things are born as from a mother, and she gives maintenance to all. For nature to remove the wood or brand from the fire is to say that it causes the brand or life not to burn or spend quickly, giving delicacies with which something of what is lost is restored and recovered, due to the consumption that the natural heat; and thus all the intermediate time that one lives we will say that the wood is stored, and that it does not burn, because although it is always consumed, a little or a lot, it is always repaired through the delicacy that one eats. Meleager's mother hesitating whether to throw the brand into the fire or not to throw it, denotes the illnesses that naturally happen to men due to various causes and accidents, in which it seems that they want to end their life, but not anymore. This radical heat that our life consists of, since we cannot make a point last longer than God when he infuses the soul into the body, it is good that it lasts, no matter how much we give ourselves, it is in our will, that it ends sooner. ; and although God, as supreme wisdom, knows it before we think about it, the blame for our demise will not be attributed to God, because just as it will not be the chandler's fault that the candle that I bought from him soon wears out because I use it. in the street or in airy places, which I would not do if it were light in a room. In this way, if we spend the life that God gives us sooner, it will be at our expense. That Meleager's mother decided to throw the brand into the fire so that it burns and burns, with which Meleager dies, means the end of our life, which is caused when nature cannot preserve us by maintaining us, then he throws the brand into the fire, which means letting the heat consume the radical, until it is finished; then death follows.
Of Narcissus
Narcissus was the son of Lithiope nymph and the river Sephissus, according to Ovid, where he begins: Prima fide vocis, etc. Who says that his parents, wanting to know what would become of his life, took him to Terisias; He said that he would be beautiful and that he would have a long life if he did not know himself. Being already young and adorned with great beauty of face, he was loved by many mistresses and nymphs, and mainly by Echo, and he rejected them all, not valuing any of them in any way. It happened that one day, while hunting, tired and hot, he went to a very clear and large fountain, and wanting to drink from it, looking at the water, he fell in love with a figure that looked like his own in the water. Narcissus, believing he was some nymph from the same source, fell so much in love with her and was so passionate that after very sad words of anguish, that he could not have her in his hands, he died. And when later the nymphs, searching for his body, could not find him where he died, and saw a flower that they called a lily, they said that the body of Narcissus would be turned into that flower. Vergil mentions this, where he begins: Pro molli violi, etc.
Narcissus can be understood as any person who receives a lot of vainglory and presumption about himself and his beauty or strength, or any other grace; in such a way that, esteeming everyone in little and despising them, he believes that he is nothing good except himself, whose self-love is the cause of perdition: By Terisias, a soothsayer, who told him that he would live if he did not know himself, it is understood the sane man, who knows himself and lives according to the respect for which he was raised, considering how little value bodily beauty is, and that sooner or later the bodies of the living must turn to dust, with which consideration, never the The beautiful will boast of his beauty, nor the strong of his strength, nor the wise of his wisdom. But those who imitate Narcissus, taking pleasure in nothing else and paying nothing but themselves and their vain virtues, fall in love and turn into a flower, that is, everything will last as little as a flower, which then dries up and withers. Let the virtuous man flee from his own love and from his bodily beauty as something that does more harm than fire, because fire burns what comes close to it, and beauty from near and far. By Echo, which no word utters except the last syllable, is understood the immortality of name and fame, which high and noble spirits highly esteem as a firm thing, this being nothing.
Of Ero and Leandro
Because the story or fiction of Leandro and Ero is known to everyone, I will only say that love is most often accompanied and consistent with dangers. Eros in Greek means love, and Leandro means freedom of men, because the freedom and freedom of man breeds love. Nothing at night: this means that in dark weather he tempts dangers. Ero, also in the likeness of love, pretends to bring the light, because love brings nothing but a flame, and shows the dangerous path to the desirous, but it is quickly killed, because the love of the young man does not last long. Nothing naked, because love knows how to undress those who follow it and throw them into dangers and bitterness, as in the sea, because once the candle was dead, it brought about the maritime death of both; that is, the vapor of age is extinguished in man and woman, lust dies together, and they are thrown dead into the sea, as in the mood of cold old age, because every fire of fiery youth cools in this age.
Of Pelops and Ypodamia
Toasted writes that Pelops, son of Tantalus and Taygetes, demanded Ipodamia as a wife, and they did not give her to him except with the condition that she be given to others; Because Ypodamia was very beautiful, she was sought after by many in marriage, and her father made it a condition for her that whoever had the most money for her would have her as a wife; and whoever was defeated in the contest would die, because out of fear of such a harsh condition they would withdraw from the lawsuit. This race had to be in a four-horse chariot; Pelops, not being able to have Ypodamia in any other way, accepted the condition, although very dangerous, due to the great lightness of her chariot; but confident of the help of Myrtilus, son of Mercury, guide of the chariot of Ypodamia, to whom he promised that by giving order how he defeated Ypodamia, he would give it to him so that he could enjoy her virginity, although such a promise was not her intention. achieve. Myrtilus, eager for the deceptive promise, accepted the agreement, and promised Pelops that her victory would be certain; And so that this would be the case, he put wax nails in the hubs of the wheels in the chariot in which Ypodamia was to run, so that later they would break and Pelops would run more. And so when the day of the contest came, Pelops won, and having Ypodamia in her power, according to the proposed condition, Myrtilus asked for the fulfillment of his promise. Pelops, very angry at this request, threw Myrtilus into the sea, where he drowned, which from then on was called the Myrthous sea, from the name of the one who had drowned in it, in memory of this fact.
Ypodamia was the daughter of Oenomaus, who was called Helis by another name, and of Pisa, his wife; She was wanted by Pelops, son of Tantalus, king of Phrygia, and since they did not want to give her to her, she waged war against Oenomaus, and each one summoned and brought to her favor the regional kings that she could. At this time, Niobe was given as a wife to Amphion, king of Thebes, on condition that she help Pelops, her brother. To say that she had to run in a chariot is to declare that in those times they used chariots in wars. That Ypodamia's chariot was very light means that King Oenomaus' side was more powerful than Pelops', and Pelops expected to be defeated; However, Pelops had secret dealings with Myrtilus, captain of the people of Oenomaus. Pelops offering such an arduous thing to Myrtilus is to denote that for one to betray his lord, great promises are necessary. Putting wax nails in the hubs of the wheels of Ypodamia's chariot means that this Myrtilo, being his captain, committed treason, ruling the people badly so that they would be defeated. That Myrtilus was the son of Mercury, he was not, but because Mercury was one who was called the god of thieves and deceitfuls and evildoers, and all those who lived by this art, according to the poets, claimed to be children of Mercury. That Pelops, after he defeated Oenomaus and had Ypodamia in his power, threw Myrtilus into the sea was true, because this is how traitors deserve to be rewarded.
Of Polyphemus and Cyclopes
The Cyclopes, according to Euripides, were children of Neptune, and according to Hesiod, of Zeal and the Earth; These were said to be a hundred, and the chief was Polyphemus, as he surpassed them all in power and strength. Deste Apollonius says that because of his greatness he called himself the son of Neptune and Europa, daughter of Ticyo. Homer makes him the son of Neptune and the nymph Thoosa. Ovid says he had one eye. Homer tells that Ulysses brought, after the destruction of Troy, to Sicily, leaving with twelve companions from the ship, he entered a cave of Polyphemus, and telling him who he was and where he came from, and asking him for favor and help on his journey, the Cyclops, arrogantly, replied that he did not fear Jupiter, and that he was better than him. Having said this, Polyphemus seized two of Ulysses' companions, and in the presence of the others ate them. Ulysses then wanted to kill him, but seeing that the mouth of the cave was blocked with a rock that twenty yoke of oxen could not move, he stopped; When morning came, the Cyclops ate two other companions, and leaving Ulysses with the others locked in the cave, he went to graze his cattle. Returning in the afternoon, the Cyclops ate two more of his companions. Ulysses, who when he entered there had brought some flasks of wine, presented one to Polyphemus, begging him for mercy and for his few remaining companions.
The Cyclops, having drunk the wine, promised to do so if Ulysses gave him more, which Ulysses did, Polyphemus demanded his name, and Ulysses told him that his name was None. To this the Cyclops said: You, None, as a reward for the drink you have given me, will be the last one I will eat. Saying this Polyphemus, with the strength of the too much wine he had drunk, fell asleep. Ulysses, seeing this opportunity, took a piece of wood and set the tip on fire, and encouraging his companions to help him, they put it in the eye of the Cyclops, so that they deprived him of his sight. Polyphemus, with the great pain that he felt, rose up shouting loudly, and calling to his aid the other Cyclops and his neighbors, many came. They told him who had upset him or who he was complaining about. Polyphemus said that it was from None, and when they heard that it was from None, believing it to be a natural illness, they returned. The Cyclops, having removed the rock from the entrance to the cave, and sitting at the door, made his cattle come out, testing each head, so that none of his enemies would come out among him. Seeing this, Ulysses dressed himself and his companions in sheepskins, and they went out on four feet among the cattle, without being noticed or known to the Cyclops, and returned to his ship.
Polyphemus was a cruel tyrant of Sicily, arrogant and very contemptuous of the gods. To say that he was the son of Neptune is because just as the sea, understood by Neptune, is inexorable in times of storm, so tyrants, moved by anger or cudicia, are implacable. To say that he was of great stature and of great power, that he had many cattle, is to say that he was a tyrant of many people. Having only one eye denotes that tyrants do not care for anything other than utility and profit, not respecting God, nor the people, nor the common benefit; These such take out the entrails, and tear the living men to pieces, and despoil the substance of the subjects. Getting drunk with the wine that Ulysses gave him shows that many are lulled to sleep by the flattery of cunning men, so that they see his vices. To lose sight is to be deprived of dominion and substance thereby.
Some wanted to apply the meaning of this fable to things of nature, saying that the Cyclopes denote the vapors from which lightning and thunder are generated. These said they were children of Heaven and Earth, because the vapors do not rise from the earth except through the heat of heaven, nor can they be thinned in the air without it. And since many also come out of the water, they rightly say they are Polyphemus and Cyclopes, sons of Neptune. Give Polyphemus as a mother the nymph Thoosa, which means a common thing, because the vapors being ignited many times, they run, as we see comets do, and because these comets shine, they give her as a mother Stilbis, which means a shining thing.
To say that the Cyclopes live on Mount Aetna, in Sicily, abundant with fires, is because these things of comets and lightning are not done without heat.
Of the daughters of Danaus
Paulo Orosius y Lactantius writes that Danaus, son of Belus, had fifty daughters by various wives, who, having been demanded by Egestus, his brother, for daughters-in-law and wives of as many other sons that he also had, Danaus, consulting this with the Oracle of Apollo, he was told that he would die at the hand of his son-in-law, so, to excuse the danger, he fled with his daughters to Argos. Egestus, angry at seeing himself despised by his brother, ordered his sons to follow him and not return before his eyes without avenging Danaus. It turned out from this war that Danao allowed his nephews to marry his daughters, and once the wedding was over for the first night they were to sleep together, Danao secretly gave each of his daughters a knife, strongly instructing them that if they desired his health and condition, They killed their husbands, which they all did, except for Hypermestra, who, having compassion on her husband Lynceus or Linus, forgave him, and discovered the case and made him flee from Danaus. Eusebius writes, that he began to reign in Egypt this Danaus in the year three thousand and seven hundred and sixteen of the creation of the world. But driven out of Egypt for the aforementioned cause, he came to Argos, from where he expelled Steleno, who had first ruled there for ten years. And at last, after Danaus had reigned for fifty years, Linus came to take away his state and kill him, and thus the oracle of Apollo was fulfilled. The daughters, out of grief for their sin of having killed their husbands, the poets pretended to be in hell condemned to perpetual punishment; And each one of them tries to fill a pitcher without soil with water from a deep well, which they cannot finish, they always live in torment. Horace mentions this work, where he begins: Stetit urna paulum, etc. And Ovid, where it begins: Assiduas repetunt, etc. And call them Bélides, because they were Belo's granddaughters. And Seneca calls them Danaydas, which means daughters of Danaus.
The pain or care of filling the jars that the daughters of Danaus have denotes the fatigue of lustful and effeminate men, who seek satiety in their lusts, where they will never find it. Filling them with water and then pouring water into them because they do not have floors denotes that the natural substance and strength, and beauty, heat, wisdom, and health, virtue, and every feat that the man of God had taken and received, destroys and uproots and dirty the foolish carnal desire.
Others apply this to avarice, understanding the miser by the soilless pitcher, because just as it is too much to fill it by pouring water into it, so it is too much for the miser to fill himself no matter how much he collects and pours into himself; They only increase more care and work, the more they put into the coffers; because by the just judgment of God those who greedily seek to gain wealth cannot have rest.
Consulting Danao with the oracle about whether he would marry his daughters denotes that in all things, first that they begin, advice must be taken. The water with which they tried to fill the jugs was more like a well than elsewhere because, according to Pliny, Danaus was the first to dig wells to find water.
We can deduce from this fable that no one should obey the commandment of a father, mother, or any other superior or inferior who is led to evil ends, much less put it into execution, because if he complies with the evil commandment he will displace God, and For this reason, he assigns them endless punishment, understood by the care they took to fill their jugs.
From Sphinx
Lactantius says that Sphinx was a monster that had wings and nails like the Harpies, who was on Mount Phycaeus, from where he came out to walkers and proposed the most obscure riddles, and whoever could not be absolved, he tore them to pieces with his nails. and took them away. Clearcho said that this monster had the head and breasts of a woman, the voice of a human, the tail of a dragon, the wings of a bird, and the claws of a lion. Pliny and Ausonius say that Sphinx was a monster that was part of a bird, part of a lion, and part of a virgin. It was given as an answer to Sphinx that he would then die when someone explained his riddles. And since they did not find anyone who knew how to declare them and had killed many men, the Thebans, to free themselves from their trouble and danger, published with a general proclamation that whoever defeated her would marry Creon's wife, successor of that kingdom. The enigma that was proposed in common was this: Quod animal bipes, idemque tripes, ac quadrupes esset, etc. He means: What is the animal with two feet, that walks with three and four feet. Oedipus declared this enigma, on the advice of Minerva, saying that this animal was man, who, having two feet in infancy, stepping with feet and hands, walked with four feet, and being a man he walked with two, and in old age, Lacking strength, using a staff it is made three feet long. From this interpretation that Oedipus gave, what Terence says began: Dauus sum, non Oedipus. He means: For a servile office he is Davus, and he is not Oedipus to divine or absolve questions. Defeated by Oedipus, he took her to Thebas on a donkey.
This monster was called Sphinx, which in Greek means what in Latin constringere, vel vincere, which is to press or conquer, because it bothered and put the walkers in trouble, because Sphinx was a robber who lived on a mountain called Phyceo, of Thebas, who killed and robbed everyone who passed by; Of which Strabo says that she was first a cossary in the sea, and then, leaving the sea, she went to the land, to the said mountain, in order to ensure her life with the harshness of the place. Some want to say that it was true that she proposed riddles to the travelers who came to her hands, and if they answered her correctly, she let them go free with everything they carried, and if not, she took away what they had and even killed them. .
That she proposed enigmas almost unknown to anyone denotes that due to the difficulty of the place where she lived, no one could defeat her before Oedipus, who with Minerva's advice declared her enigma; It means that Oedipus, with knowledge and cunning, became Sphinx's companion, pretending to be a robber and receiving companions every day with the same pretense, until he had people to be able to arrest her with all his company, and in this way he expired. And seeing by those of Thebes the bravery and learning of Oedipus, and the profitable deed that he had accomplished in his service, they chose him as king. He says that he took her to Thebas on a donkey to denote by the lazy movement of this animal the long time that he stopped to wait for an opportunity to catch her. They attributed members of various animals to Sphinx, for declaring her cruelty. Her wings denoted the lightness of the robbers in her company, who walked like birds through the mountains. The lion's or griffin's nails denoted her cruelty.
Others declare this story saying that Cadmus had with him an Amazon woman, called Sphinx, when he came to Thebes, and how there he killed Dragon and occupied that kingdom, taking Harmonia, Dragon's sister, as his prisoner, Sphinx understanding that Cadmus would marry With her or would love her more, she summoned many citizens who promised to serve her, and taking great wealth and quickly went to a mountain, from where she waged war against Cadmus, causing great damage to him with many ambushes, killing many men every day; The Thebans called these encounters or damage that Sphinx caused enigmas. Seeing from Cadmus the damage that she did to her, she announced that anyone who captured her or killed her would give her great rewards. To this end, among others who came, a Corinthian named Oedipus, a man of great skill and skill in matters of war, came, and gathering some Thebans into his company, he went up at night to the mountain where Sphinx was and captured her.
Because of the enigma that they say Sphinx used to propose to walkers, the ancients wanted to declare the weakness of man and his weakness, subject to many miseries and calamities, considering that the most animals in being born walk and seek sustenance, and man, at On the contrary, he comes out so incapable of everything that he would die if he did not find someone to provide for his needs.
Having Sphinx part of a lion denotes that man suffers his trials and calamities with the effort of a lion, since whether he wants to or not, he must suffer whatever comes to him. The wings denote the haste with which the works fight and overtake men. The human face that Sphinx had denotes being human and subject to Fortuna's changes. Griffon nails denote that disasters can overtake anyone. Sphinx tearing apart the one who did not know how to answer his riddles denotes that he who does not suffer adversity with patience, having dealt with them wisely, attributing it to the fact that God sends them for his demerits or to do him good, will be torn to pieces and tormented by his little suffering. and little consideration.
END OF THE FIFTH BOOK
In which fables pertaining to transmutations are put
In which some budgets are put, to better understand Ovid's transmutations
To understand the transmutations that Ovid and other poets write, it will be noted that to denote chastity those who loved her pretend to have become evergreen trees, like Daphne into laurel. And when a young man died who left a sign of some special grace, they pretended to become tender and delicate flowers, which briefly dried, like Iacinto. And, on the contrary, to rebuke cruelties and tyrannies and other ugly things, they pretended by this way of comparisons to become beasts, like Lycaon and Lynco into wolves. And to rebuke theft and those who live off the sweat of others pretend to become birds of prey. And so that envy and its properties are abhorred, they introduce the story of Aglauros. And to declare those who, due to dirty errors, do not dare to appear in the presence of people, say they become nocturnal birds, which only fly at night, hating the clarity of virtue, like Victimine, who pretend to have become an owl. Other times, because the dead become immovable and cold like stone, many pretended to have become stones; and such always becoming things of their own names was to denote that man becomes the same thing he loves. The monsters that are named in the fables also have their mystery, such as the Cyclops, who pretended to be monstrous men, who had only one eye on their forehead, through this single eye the ignorant and those who have no account wanted to understand. but with ourselves; others without mouths, for those who sustain themselves with little; others with their eyes in their stomachs, to denote those who have their bellies for their God.
The conversion of Alcytoe and her sisters means that chastity, figured by Alcytoe, knowing how fierce enemies wine and idleness are, despising the foolish pleasure of drinking too much, seeks by continuous exercise to defend itself and preserve itself in its own virtue, hiding as morciélago of what they can incite him to do.
By the fable of Ceys and Alcyón, converted into a bird of the same name, he exhorts us to repress pride and arrogance, and that we should not glory in riches or nobility of lineage or strength and beauty of body, since all these things are borrowed of God, author of every gift. And because we understand that there is no happiness so firm that it cannot be missing, they give us an example in Alcyón.
The daughters of Anio turned into doves declare to us the parts of contemplation, which is about the things that we do not have before our eyes; and also about the divine that everything becomes the maintenance of the soul, which delicacy is represented by wheat, wine, and oil.
The fable of Polymestor and Hecuba is an example of the damage of greed; They are the misers blinded by patience (figured by Hecuba), by God's very just judgment, Hecuba turned into a dog and stoned to death, makes us aware that offended patience often turns into fury and rage, which later She is killed by the force of the stones of persecution and little patience.
The fable of Terreo and Philomela is fiction to tell us the damage of lust, and to say that the lustful person is dirty, Terreo pretended to have become a hoopoe, a dirty and stinking bird, which feeds on dung. Progne became a swallow to denote the sadness she had, signified by mourning or the blackness of this bird. Philomela became a nightingale, because the more vice tries to oppress virtue, the more it exalts itself. Ithis changed into pheasant means the simplicity and ignorance of a child, because the pheasant is an unwary and simple bird.
With the fable of Philimon and Bauci turned into oaks they wanted to declare that they were made immortal, the gods paying them for the benefit received; because the oak lasts longer than any other tree, and for this reason wreaths were made from it before Apollo made the laurel known.
The fable of Marsyas turned into a river gives us to understand that when we want to contend with God, not fearing him as we should, he quickly makes us know that we are more despicable than a river, taking away all our strength by depriving ourselves of his grace, so that by falling our strength on land, it becomes river water that never stops.
Arme turned into a rook means greed, because like this bird steals it wherever there is gold and hides it, so Arne, for the price of money, sold his father's fortress.
Rodopus and Haemo turned into mountains denotes the pride of men of small account, who are swollen with vainglory; But lacking the strength to carry out their actions, they can no more move than if they were mountains.
The shepherd of Pulla changed into an olive tree, a tree that still retains its fruit, and its juice is bitter, gives us an example that the bad guy will always be the same, even if he changes his place, habit and appearance, like this shepherd, who although he changed his bark, did not changed its natural bitterness.
In Perimele thrown into her father's sea and turned into a rock for having been corrupted by the river Aquiloo, we see how much strength the preservation of honor has in a generous spirit, when by having it clean and clear one has no respect for a woman, nor to children, nor to any state in the world.
Iolao renewed means that when the desire for glory and fame moves us to do honorable and virtuous things, leaving old works that are not very praiseworthy, we are renewed in new works that are highly praiseworthy.
Macario's companions give an example of how crazy and reckless those who dare to contend with the sky are, because in the end they are changed into birds; that is, they resolve themselves into foolish and vain thoughts.
The aconite or realgar caught on Mount Citoriaco and spread over Aragnes, which turns her into a spider, is the anger that occupies those who see the works that they have done with much industry and long work despised and debased, as was what Aragnes knitted
The transformation of Galantis into a weasel gives us an example that God gives us punishment on the part with which we have offended him. The weasel, according to the natives, stopped through the mouth, carrying the punishment in the part with which Galantis made fun of Lucina.
The fable of Ciparisso changed into a cypress by the death of his deer gives us an example not to put so much love into mortal things, that by failing us they need us to have the rest of our lives in tears. It became more like a cypress than another tree because the ancients adorned the tombs of their very dear friends with branches of this tree.
The fable of Vertunus becoming an old woman to enjoy Pomona is an example for us to beware of old women who deal with maidens, because many girls will be very constant with the present requests of lovers and any force to persuade; The more they let themselves be overcome by the words of a wicked old woman, because of the reverence they have for her age.
The incestuous and infamous love of Biblis with his brother gives us to understand how fierce and cruel the power of lascivious love is, since it does not keep laws of blood or kinship, and it gets between brothers. It is Biblis transformed into the source of it to make us understand that after we have come to repent of some sin, we must become fountains by resolving ourselves in tears, as a sign that we truly repent and not feignedly.
From Epimetheus
Epimetheus was the son of Iapetus and Asia; This, according to Leontius, was the first to make a statue of a man out of clay, like that of his brother Prometheus; For this reason, according to Theodontius, angry Jupiter turned him into a monkey and banished him to the island of Pytagusa.
The understanding of this fiction is that because the monkey is an animal that by nature has that what it sees man doing it desires to do and puts it into practice, and because this Epimetheus (who was a statuette) wanted by art to make a likeness of what nature, The fable says that Jupiter turned her into a monkey, because she took on the condition of a monkey in wanting to imitate nature as this animal imitates man. In what it says that Iúpiter is angry, it belongs to the fable, because in order to convert and banish him, Iúpiter had to have received some anger. What she says is that she sent him away after being a monkey to the island of Pitagusa (which some call Buxia), is that in those lands there was a great copy of monkeys, or that they were ingenious men, who imitated nature in their works. This Epimetheus they say that he was Chan, son of Noah; they wanted by it to mean the sensual appetite; And because this appetite made him act, doing what he wanted, they said he was a monkey, an animal that imitates everything it sees.
From Cenis turned into a man
Ovid tells that Cenis, daughter of Elatheus, did not want to marry, and for this reason, separating herself from the conversation of men, she walked along the seashore; Seeing Neptune, she forced him, and in payment for her lost virginity, she told him to demand the gift of her that most pleased him, which he would grant; She demanded that he turn her into the form of a man, so that she would not suffer another similar disgrace; She became as she demanded, and from a woman she became a man, and changed her name with her sex; and as before being a woman she was called Cenis, later when she became a man she was called Caeneus.
In this fable the poets wanted to show that it is not a new thing for women to change into men and vice versa, whether the creature is in the body or outside, according to the opinion of doctors, who say that many times it has happened that nature has become a female and that It has been one and two months in the mother's womb, and if the genital members experience a copy of heat (on some occasions), they come out and become a man. Those who this transmutation has occurred in their mother's womb will be known (according to what Dr. Iuan Huarte, a very learned doctor, says), in certain feminine movements, and in their soft and honeyed voice, and in what they have an inclination to do. womanly things. Other times it has nature, becoming a male with its genital members outside, and when coldness occurs, it turns them inside and becomes female. And when this has happened in the mother's womb, it is later known that she has the air of a man, both in speech and in movements and actions, because man differs from woman (according to Galen) only in having the genital members outside the body. And this is said to be true in such a way that if nature had finished creating a perfect man and wanted to turn him into a woman, she had no other job than to take the instruments of generation into him; and if, having become a woman, he wanted to turn her into a man, by throwing her uterus and testicles out of her, there was nothing more to do. This opinion is verified by Pliny, where he writes that when Licinius Crassus and Gaius Cassius were Consuls, a young man named Longinus, in Casino, a place in Italy, was first a woman. And Licinius Mutianus reports that he saw in Argos, a city of Greece, a man named Aristonte, who had first been a woman and when married became a man. Amato Lusitano tells that in Esgueyra, near Coimbra, there was a lady named María Pacheca, who when she reached the age when women usually undergo purgation, a man's genital member grew out of her, and then they dressed her as a man. and calling her Manuel, she came to marry as a man. Many in Madrid today remember that a nun from Santo Domingo, lifting a great weight, became a man, and his name was Rodrigo Montes, and later he became a friar. These conversions not only happen in men, but even in [ir]rational animals, as Ausonius the poet attests, saying that in Vallebana there happened to be a bird that was converted from a male into a female, and suddenly appeared as a turkey. Ovid wanted to confirm this opinion with the fable of Iphis, which says that when Iphis's mother was pregnant, her father ordered him to kill her if he gave birth to her daughter, and if he gave birth to her son, to keep him. The time came and she gave birth to a daughter, and she told the father that she had given birth to a son, and ordered the mistress not to reveal it. The father, very happy, believing that he had a son, named him Yphis; and so he was brought up in a man's habit. When he reached the age of thirteen, his father married him to Yante, daughter of Telestis, who were both of the same age, and extremely equally beautiful. When the wedding day arrived, at the request of the mother to Yphis, she says that he became a man. This fable can be applied by saying that Yphis becoming a man is when women are also raised virtuous and of good understanding, who give us the advice of men. Or this is painting a soul that after having given itself some time to pleasures returns to the manly virtues, with the favor of which it bravely fights against all vices, without fear of anything; and for this reason it is pretended that Cenis could not be wounded; It is, therefore, oppressed with the great force of vices and changed into a bird, that is, cleansed of many passions, it flies to heaven.
Of Lycaon
Lycaon, whom Theodontius says to have been king of Arcadia, was the son of Titan and the Earth, of whom Ovid writes that raising the cries of mortals to heaven, because on earth everything was happening badly and they lived worse, Iupiter wanted to see how they There were men in living, he was transformed into a man, and he descended to the earth, and walking from one place to another, he came to where Lycaon was; and manifesting to everyone that he was a God, the lesser people immediately began with great humility to honor him; Only Lycaon mocked and mocked those who did such things; and not content with this, he wanted to prove if he was God, and for this he killed a man he had imprisoned, and had him prepared, and invited Jupiter to eat, and placed him before him. Jupiter, knowing that he was human flesh, was very angry and set fire to his house. Lycaon, frightened by this, began to flee, and wanting to speak, he could no longer, because he was transforming into the form of a wolf, which, just as he was bad before being a man, so in the form of a wolf he later practiced slaughtering cattle.
That Lycaon was Titanus, he was not, but because of similar customs he is said to be evil and arrogant and despiser of God, as were all the sons of Titan. Saying that his mother was the Earth was because the Titans said the poets were children of the Earth. That Iupiter was transformed into a man to see with his own eyes how men treated each other: it is given to understand how much God has always been eager to see that his noblest creatures have love and affection for each other, and that he looks a lot into the works that men do.
That the people or minor town then began to worship Iupiter, making sacrifices to him because he gave a sign that he was God, and Lycaon began to mock, is to imply the evil of Lycaon and the ignorance of the people.
That Lycaon wanted to test if he was God, giving him human flesh to eat to see if he knew how to distinguish or understand it, was not Lycaon's attempt, but rather to insult some ambassadors and tell them what he had done with a prisoner that he killed. To understand this story, it is necessary to know that the Molossians, who were first called Epirotes, as Leontius writes and Saint Isidro affirms, waged war with the Pelasgians, who were later called Sicyonians or Arcanes. This war was when Lycaon reigned in Arcadia, at which time there was a noble man of great lineage there named Lysanias, who later called himself Jupiter, and was the second of this name. Lycaon came into concord with the Molossians, and in order to keep the capitulated things, Lycaon asked for one of the noblest of the land of the Molossians as hostages, aware that the discord had first arisen from them. They gave it to them, and it was a condition that Lycaon had to return this prisoner at a certain time, returning him to the Molossians healthy and good as they gave him. When the time was up, they sent ambassadors to deliver him. Lycaon, then angry, either because he was asked or because of another accident (as he was a man of bad condition), told the ambassadors to come and eat with him the next day and he would give them the prisoner. That same night Lycaon slew the throat of his prisoner, and ordered part of it to be boiled and part to be roasted, and so he placed it on the table before the guests, as Ovid plays it, where it begins: Foeda Lycaoniae, etc. Lycaon was among those at the aforementioned party, who, knowing that it was man's flesh, angrily slammed the table to the ground, and waged war against Lycaon, to whose side all the towns of Arcadia bowed, and they expelled Lycaon from the kingdom. and they burned their house.
Lycaon, stripped of all his honor and power and wealth, not being able to live in any other way, began to steal with a few who came to him; and as if to rob them they jumped and killed the walkers, they said that he turned into a wolf, which does the same to animals; and because although he had the form of a man, in his works he was a wolf, and this animal agrees very much with his name and works; because Lycaon in the Greek language means wolf, and all this means the change of his state or the cruelty that he had when he was king, and after his expulsion from the kingdom.
Of Callistome, daughter of Lycaon and mother of Arcas
After Lycaon was expelled from the kingdom by Iupiter and turned into a wolf (according to Paulo Chrysippus), leaving Callistome, her daughter, unprotected, she joined Diana's company, continuing her practice in hunting and virginity; and being very beautiful, she was loved by Jupiter, who, as Ovid says, taking the form of Diana, deceived her; from where her belly was growing and being one of the other nymphs, her companions, invited to wash where Diana also bathed, fearing that she would be seen undressing herself, she resisted washing. Finally, forced naked and knowing Diana was her owner, he dismissed her from her company.
Callistome seeing that Diana did not blame her in any way to hear what she wanted from her, very sad and disconsolate, she left for some large and shady mountains, begging the gods to have mercy on her.
Walking, as I say, through fierce and lonely forests, she gave birth to him and gave birth to a child whom she named Arcas. Seeing this, Iuno descended to her, and taking her by her hair, he dragged her along the ground. Callistome, clasping her hands, wanted to ask for mercy, when Iuno, upon hearing her speak more angrily, then turned her into a bear, and thus made her go through the forest, taking away her speech and figure in such a way that neither Iupiter nor any other I could never please; and the child being left alone, he was raised by some nymphs. Arcas was fifteen years old, when he was hunting and found his unknown mother, and wanting to hurt her, she, out of fear, went to help the temple of Jupiter, where, wanting to kill her (according to Theodoncio), she was freed from Jupiter, because he converted Arks in bear, and he put both of them in the sky around the Arctic pole; and Callistome was said Ursa minor and Arcas Ursa major. Iuno, disturbed that her husband's friend and her son were placed in the sky, begged Thetis and Neptune, gods of the sea, not to let these bears wash in their waters, as the other stars do, which they promised her. and to this day they keep it.
Leontius says that when the state of Lycaon's house was troubled, Callistome, his daughter, fled to the mountains, and there she joined some virgins, who, like the nuns of old, were serving the god Pan, maintaining virginity. Iupiter, after having expelled Lycaon from the kingdom, was a great lord, and being informed of the beauty of Callistome, he coveted her; And knowing that he was among the virgins of the god Pan, he took on a woman's habit, and entering her with various forms of speech, brought her to her consent. When the time for giving birth came, Callistome's shame was discovered, and since the sacred virgins did not suffer in her company, they threw her away with her son, wanting to give her greater pains, but they did not dare for fear of Iupiter. When Callistome left the company of these virgins, she separated from her to the mountains, not wanting to appear ashamed among the people, where she and her son were hidden for fifteen years. Arcas grew up and had a big heart, and not being able to bear her life and the mandate of her mother, one day he wanted to kill her; She went to Jupiter, complaining about her son. Iupiter then recognized Arcas with her mother Callistome, causing them to return to the kingdom that her father had taken from Lycaon. When the Arcadians saw Callistome, whom they had not seen for a long time, and thought she was dead, they called her Bear; because like the bear, according to the natives, for a long time of the year she is hidden underground in caves, from where she does not come out, and when it seems that she must be already killed she comes out; And because of her mother they called her son Arcas Bear, and from this Arcas this kingdom was called Arcadia.
That Iuno dragged her by her hair and turned her into a bear is a poetic pretense, to beautify her fable. And although Iuno was not the wife of this second Iupiter to whom this event happened, all the poets want all those called Iupiter to be reduced to one, and this one to be the third Iupiter, son of Saturn and commander of Iuno, who was a long time later .
That Iupiter placed Callistome and Arcas in the sky, converted into the stars that we call the Chariot and the Horn, which they call Ursa Major and Minor, was, according to historical sense, that Iupiter restored to them the kingdom of his father. These stars were called Bears, because they have a property like the bear, and that is that if they tie it to a column, whenever it does not sleep it walks around; This is how these stars do, which walk around the Arctic pole. That Iuno begged the gods of the sea not to let them bathe in its waters: for this reason they wanted to declare that these two images of stars (which are what the common people call Cart and Horn) are never hidden from the northerners, with the movement of the heavens, like all the others do. And because the vulgar think that when the stars disappear, crossing the horizon, they go into the sea and bathe or wash, and these stars do not hide, therefore, this request of Iuno is the proper condition of these stars according to their position. , and for this reason he says that the gods of the sea promised it to Iuno, and that they keep it until today, and they will keep it (even if they don't want to) for as long as there are heavens and movement.
Of the daughters of Cinara
Ovid tells that King Cinara had seven daughters so beautiful and arrogant that it seemed to them that they could be equal to the gods of heaven, for whose sake an angry Jupiter turned them into steps or steps of stone, and placed them at the entrance to a temple. , so that all those who were to enter it would necessarily pass over them.
To declare how great a sin pride, vainglory and greed are, the ancient wise men give this example of the daughters of Cinara, who, because their father was powerful and rich, despised those who could do little and did not remedy the needs of the poor. , for which God brought them to such poverty and misery that it was necessary for them to ask for alms; And because they never left the doors of the temples to ask, the fable says that they were converted into steps, because they were as continuous there as if they were stones. This was a just punishment, because whoever exalts himself with the wings of pride will be humiliated with the scourge of despondency, and will be trampled on by everyone like steps.
From Niobe
Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, as Ovid testifies, where he says: Mihi Tantalus autor, cui soli ficuit superum contingere mensas, etc., means: Tantalus is my father, to whom it was only granted to sit at the tables of the gods. Although according to John Bocacio, Tantalus was not a friend of the gods, as Ovid says, because he was a good king who ruled the Corinthians long before. Lactantius says that Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus and Penelope. Others say that she is from Tantalus and Euryanassa. Others make her the daughter of Tantalus and Taygetes. He married Niobe (according to Theodontius) to Amphion, king of Thebes, by whom she had seven sons and as many daughters. Although Homer says she had six boys and six girls, others say much less. Hesiod says that she had ten males and as many females. And as she was a lady of haughty spirit, while the Thebans were making sacrifices to the goddess Latona, Niobe began to rebuke them with harsh words and to prefer herself to her, saying bad things about Latona, as Ovid writes in the alleged book, in thirteen verses, which begin: Quis , fury audits inquit, etc. Of which Latona, angry, complained to her sons Apollo and Diana. And they, to avenge the injury of her mother, killed all the sons and daughters of Niobe with arrows. And Jupiter, again, turned all the men of that land into stones for nine days, and on the tenth day he allowed them to return to their first form. Niobe, being deprived of the command and of her children, near their grave while crying, was turned into stone, and taken from the Thebans, she was placed on the top of said mountain, where perpetual crying continues to this day. There was another Niobe, daughter of Phoroneus, a woman who was from Inacho, older than her by four hundred and seventy years.
The historical meaning is that in Phrigia all the sons and daughters of Niobe died in one day of pistilence; And because the Sun and the Moon, understood by Apollo and Diana, sons of Latona, are the cause of pestilence, because they are generated by a great abundance of vapors, the fable says that Apollo and Diana had killed them with arrows. That after the children of Niobe were dead, Iupiter turned all the men of that land into stones for nine days, and on the tenth day he returned them to their first form, is because in times of plague men are cruel and inhuman due to fear in these opportunities, because there is no knot of affinity or friendship that is firm; And as on the tenth day the pestilence ceased and they were buried near Mount Siphilo, the fable says that in nine days Jupiter had turned them into stones, because that time they had been cold in charity like stones; and when the tenth did what men were obliged to do, it says that Jupiter returned them to their first being. And because with these calamities Niobe was so stunned and lost her senses, or, according to Tulio, because of her perpetual silence that she had not speaking or complaining, they said that she turned into stone. In what it says that, turned into stone, it was taken from the Thebans and placed on the top of the mountain, where the crying continues to this day, this is, according to Theodoncio, that the ancients, in memory of the great fortune of the proud lady, made a stone statue in the shape of a crying woman, and they put it in the tomb. And as humid vapors rising from the earth near it, entering the concavities of the statue's eyes, and due to the coldness of the stone, become drops of water resembling tears, from here it emerged that the ignorant have to Niobe cries to this day.
Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus and Euryanassa. Tantalus means avarice, and Euryanassa, abundance or wealth; From these arises the pride of mortals (understood by Niobe), from which follows the contempt of the gods, and the disregard of friends and the poor, and the forgetfulness of the goods received from God. By Niobe we understand pride or boldness, because seeing that she was rich and of lineage, with many sons and daughters, and many friends and relatives, and honor that everyone did and esteemed her, she thought she would surpass all human power and consider herself more blessed. than the gods. This fable admonishes us that when any house or city grows in such pride, that its fall will be rapid, and that there is no power that can be lost in a moment that cannot be lost by the will of God, as happened to Niobe, who quickly lost everything. Or it denotes that those who arrogantly want to be equal to God are deprived of that which they boast most about. Because of Niobe's patience we are also admonished to depart from her arrogance and recklessness, and to endure prosperous and adverse changes with equal spirit.
From Aiax, turned into a flower
Ovid says that when Ulysses defeated Aiax in the claim that both had over the weapons of Achilles, Aiax considered himself insulted, and said: Well, my sad luck and contrary fortune has brought me to such a time that Ulysses is rewarded for what for many reasons. It was mine, at least I trust that even if he is more eloquent and orator, he will not be so powerful that it will be enough to knock this sword out of my hand; and saying this, he killed himself with her. Then Jupiter, moved with compassion, turned it into a flower; Because Aiax did not know how to overcome his appetites, although he defeated many with the sword, the ancients pretended that he was turned into a flower, fragile and deciduous, that is born in the morning and withers in the afternoon. Admonishing us in this that it is of little use to conquer others, if one does not know how to conquer oneself, so that he who tames his spirit is better than he who conquers cities, as Solomon says. In this contest between Ulysses and Aiax we see how much value in the armies is a captain who is prudent and meek in matters of war, as Ulysses was. Because the fierceness and bravery of Aiax is beneficial when it is regulated with the wisdom and prudence of another, which in itself is nothing other than furious and hasty madness, prepared to stir up everything; But if both things are found together in a subject, he will deserve the praise of a perfect captain. It is also seen how much the desire to excel in things of honor can do in the generous hearts that profess arms, since they do not value life for it.
From Eaco
Of Aeacus, son of Jupiter and Aegina, Ovid writes that he reigned in a city called Oenopia, which later, from the name of his mother, he called Aegina. He hated this city, because Aegina was a friend of Jupiter, and to depopulate it, he sent very thick fogs into it, and enclosed in them great heat, from which hot and humid winds later arose, which poisoned the rivers, that a great pestilence occurred among the animals and people, and the city became very small. Aeacus, in a dream, saw an oak full of ants, some ascending and others descending, and it seemed to him that he was begging Jupiter to grant that those ants could become men, which was done, and in this way his city was restored and populated. of people, as he first used to. And he called those men myrmidons, bearing in mind that mirmex in Greek means ant.
The historical meaning of this fable (according to Theagenes) is that at one time, because the Aeginetans were tired with the continuous raids of the Cossaries and other nations, and not knowing how to resist them, they were hidden in caves, where like ants they gathered food supplies. fruits that the land produces without cultivating it, because they did not even know anything about agriculture. But since Aeacus taught them to make ships, and practice war, through which, fear being cast aside, they would go out into the open country, resist the forces of their enemies, and begin to lead a citizen's life, the fable says that about ants They were turned into men.
Others say that when this city was depopulated by a plague, it was populated by farmers, who, like ants, collected fruit from the fields in August to sustain themselves during the winter. They also wanted to declare that the stench of corrupt, infected air comes from this pretense; and because by Iuno is meant the air, and from it comes pestilence, the fable says that it was angry with this city. The corruption from which plague is generated proceeds to the air in one of three ways. The first, by communication from the earth, as happens after the battles where a large number of dead were left without burial, from which evil vapors arise and corrupt them. The second, due to lack of temperate air itself, especially hot and humid, as happens in very humid and rainy years, or in dry, open years. The third, due to the influence of the sky (according to the opinion of astrologers), malignant and poisonous. Plague is a contagious disease, from which many are injured in different parts, and most of them die. From this definition it follows that the disease caused by drinking the same water or eating the same food, or living in the same room, even if it is common to many and most of them die, will not be called plague, because it is not in different places, which which will never happen until it is based on infected and contagious air.
Of Psitacus
Psitacus says Theodontius that he was the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and grandson of Prometheus; At one time he was a very wise man, who taught his grandson Psitachus many sciences, and after becoming very learned in them he went to live in the land of Ethiopia, where he achieved great reputation and honor. And being very old, he prayed to the gods to save him from being a man. They, hearing his prayers, changed him into Psitachus, a bird of the same name, which is what we call a parrot.
The historical truth of this fable is that Psitachus was a wise man, and as in life he was of great honor, in death after a long time he was of great fame; and with his name and praise always steadfast, they said that he had become a bird of his name, as if to say: He died, but his name and fame remained unchanged. The reason why they said they have changed into a parrot more than into another bird is because these birds are green, and this color means life and strength, because the thing that perishes dries up and turns black. And thus, the fame of those who persevere in the memory of the people is conveniently signified by the green color of these birds; and because this bird sings and chirps, and as singing is a sweet thing and gladdens the heart, so the fame and memory of the wise and virtuous is sweet to those who come after them; or because according to Saint Isidro, since there are no other birds in Ethiopia, and this one lived there and died, it was therefore appropriate to say that he changed into this bird more than into another. This Psitacus was almost a thousand years before another Psitacus, one of the seven wise men of Greece; He warns himself because some think they are all one.
From Hyppomenes and Atalanta
Atalanta, daughter of Schaeneus, pretends to have been a very beautiful maiden and so light, according to Ovid, that she ran faster than a deer. She asked Phebo if she could marry; She was told that it was not convenient for her to marry, but in the end she would marry at the loss of herself and her husband. With this omen, very frightened, she decided to leave the cities and walk through the mountains, fleeing all male conversation. And so that no one would ask for her as a wife, she made it a condition that if anyone wanted to marry her, both of them would run; and if she were defeated, the victor would receive her as a wife, and if the man was defeated, he would immediately lose her life. And although this harsh condition and law was imposed, many young men, moved by the beauty of Atalanta, came to the game and it cost them no less than their lives. Among whom came Hyppomenes, whom others named Milanione, not to run with her, which she considered madness, since it was certain that there was no man who could defeat Atalanta, but to see such a terrible test and the noble young men who ventured such a hard thing. , who condemned them as crazy when he had not seen the maiden. But after he saw her, having lost her good sense, he became so fond of the strength of her beauty that she wanted to compete in this rigorous contest. The maiden, who saw Hyppomenes more beautiful than all the others, hearing that he was of Neptune's lineage, having compassion for her youth, was sorry that he put himself in such fierce danger; Therefore, moving in her heart various and contrary desires of hers, she did not know whether she coveted to win or to be defeated, because if she conquered her, Hyppomenes, whom she already loved very much, would die, for which reason there was compassion for her; and if she were defeated, she feared incurring what the gods had predicted, despite the praise that if she were defeated she would lose, for both reasons it was a great pain for her to bear it; but in the end she chose to win, and not have him as her husband. Hyppomenes was already about to want to run when the goddess Venus invisibly came to him (all the others not seeing her), who gave him three very precious golden apples with the warning of what she was going to do with them. Hippomenes and Atalanta, already placed evenly on the field, and the race begun, such was the lightness of the maiden that soon Hyppomenes moved far away from her; But Hyppomenes, taking advantage of the remedy that Venus gave him, threw one of the apples away from the race away from her. Atalanta, frightened by such a beautiful thing, moved by cudicia, turned back for it, while Hyppomenes ran as best he could, although his effort was of little use to him, because she soon caught up with him again and passed him, for which Hyppomenes threw the second apple, which Atalanta similarly moved; Meanwhile Hyppomenes was already passing, but the maiden quickly overtook him. They were both close to the end of the race, and there was no doubt that Atalanta would arrive first. Hyppomenes, turning to his last remedy, cast the third apple. Atalanta then doubted whether he would return for her, to whom Venus loved her, so that her help would not be in vain, her heart moved her to care for her. Meanwhile Hyppomenes first reached the end of the race, and according to his great desire, he received the defeated maiden into his power. With such high prosperity, Hyppomenes, of the mercy of Venus forgotten, did not thank her; Therefore, in fury and anger, the Venus moved, he thought of such ingratitude without regret not leaving. Hyppomenes, who was carrying the defeated maiden to his land, it happened that they arrived at a large temple, which was in some mountains consecrated to the mother of the gods, where there was an opportunity to fully avenge Venus (as it is in her power to move hearts). of the lovers), put such great ardor in the desire of Hyppomenes, that he could not wait any longer, and there was no other secret place where such a council could fulfill it, withdrawing to a dark chapel, in which The priests had placed many statues of old gods, and when they began this clumsiness, all the gods who were there, ashamed of such disgrace, turned their faces. The mother of the gods (whose was the main insult), very angry because of such disrespect being done in her temple, once alive wanted to throw them into hell, but seeing it as a small punishment and revenge, she turned them into lions, fierce beasts, which in turn tied chariot walked, with which what Phebo had told him was fulfilled.
In the narration of this fable many things are put in for beauty and good composition, without any significance. In what she says that Atalanta asked the gods for advice on whether she would marry, she declares in this the condition of the ancients who worshiped demons and turned to them in their doubts; and he puts himself like this because there is some reason for the answer that the gods gave him. To say that Atalanta, knowing this answer, went to the mountains and left the conversation of men, and fled marriages, means the chaste women, who consider the harm that could come to them in the carnal council, and moved by fear they flee the conversation. and there is an opportunity to incline them to this, which helps to live in seclusion.
The condition that Atalanta made with those who would have married her denotes the harsh responses that honest women give to those requesting her freedom, punishing them with harsh or impossible conditions, so that they turn away from crazy love. That Atalanta beat the young men in running means the firm purpose of honest women, which lasts for some time, according to which they defeat all lovers by discarding them.
That Atalanta began to love Hyppomenes, and still did not allow herself to be defeated, and that after the apples were thrown she was defeated, means that two things move women to lose their chastity: beauty and covtity. Venus giving the golden apples to Hyppomenes means that lovers with boiling desire that moves them give what they have, and because these gifts are not given by reason, but only carnal desire, says that Venus brought them, because Venus is the goddess of carnal love. Venus giving these apples, and no one seeing her but only Hyppomenes, denotes carnal loves being secretly in the hearts of lovers, like the other lineages of desires. The fact that Atalanta is not defeated by the first two apples, until the third is cast, denotes that some are not then defeated with the first gifts (although they are inclined), but continuing the gifts (which by this number of three means) are finally those who receive are defeated.
What Venus is said to have been angry with Hyppomenes for not giving her thanks for her gratitude for her cause means that ingratitude never goes unpunished. That Hyppomenes, with the great boiling of desire, could no longer suffer her to stop enjoying Atalanta in the temple, means the excesses that men usually have in the acts of Venus, which do not respect reverence for place or person, nor to anything else that reason demands. That the mother of the gods, out of restraint, turned them into lions and tied them in her chariot, is because as lions are sad animals, with their faces lowered towards the ground, so the great lovers of meat (understood by Hyppomenes and Atalanta) incur many thoughts and suspicions, fears and anger, and cannot long enjoy what they thought was bliss, because the laws of mortality (to which their bodies are tied), as they have the need to die and If they are of ordinary corruption (since they are of earth), it makes them sad, because nothing is possessed with great joy that is not lost with great sadness. Ultra of this, by Atalanta the ancients wanted to mean the delight that overcomes reason.
Palefatus says that these two lovers, while out hunting, fell in love and entered a cave to enjoy its lightness, and they found inside a lion and a lioness who tore them to pieces, and when the servants found them thus killed by lions, they spread fame. who had turned into lions.
END OF THE BOOK
He tells fables to persuade man to fear God, and to make him take into account what he has to give of his life, because according to this, he will receive the reward.
Of Acheronte, river
It was Plato's opinion that the souls, after they left the bodies, went to an unknown place under the earth, where the kingdom of Pluto was, and that before they reached the palaces, they had to pass through a river called Acheronte, son who some say is Ceres; others from Earth; others of Herebus and Night, of whom they say that because he gave drink to the Titans who fought against Jupiter, he was cast into hell; Its water is very tasteless. They pretend to be old, although robust and fierce, and to walk around dressed in black and dirty.
Acheronte is a river that rises from the source Arethusa (according to Strabo), and because it sinks under the land and sea, and then emerges far away in the land of Sicily, near Zaragoza, for this reason they pretend to pass through the hells or palaces of Pluto. . That Acheron was thrown into hell by Iupiter, because he gave drink to the Titans, is because someone so called, who reigned in those parts, who favored the Titans with supplies, and Iupiter defeated him with them, and never again appeared, They said they had thrown him into hell. Or giving the Titans a drink when they fought against Jupiter, denotes that many evil thoughts arise against the sacred commandments of God, which, if the heart maintains for a long time, will make a fountain that passes through the kingdom of Pluto.
Acheron receiving first the souls that go to hell means that when men feel they are dying, a dullness and weakness of spirit comes to them, due to the memory of the works they have done, and their conscience disturbs them, so that they make a fountain or lagoon of fearful thoughts, from which tears often come, from which the river Acheron is generated; and because this is the first step for the soul to say goodbye to the body, they said it was the first step over this river to go to Pluto's palace.
To be Acheron, son of the Earth or of Ceres, is to imply that annoyances and disturbances arise from the study of acquiring or storing wealth, understood by Ceres and by the Earth.
Being the son of Herebus and Night is because Acheron denotes time (according to Servius), who is the son of Herebus, which is taken by the secret counsel of the divine mind, from which time and all other things are created. The mother was Night, because before time was no light was seen, and for this reason they say he was made in darkness and was born from darkness. He was placed in hell later, because those who are in heaven have no need of time, like us mortals who live in the lowest part of the world, where in respect to heaven we can say hell.
Because this river has very tasteless water, in this life, if you consider it carefully, it has many tasteless things. Charonte passing mortals from one bank to the other is because at birth time takes us to death, and thus makes the river Achironte pass, which means without joy, because we pass through this fragile and expired life, all full of miseries He is older, more robust and fierce, because his strength does not lose time over the years. They paint him dressed in black because while we are subject to time and live, we do not heal anything other than earthly things, which are vile and dirty, if we compare them to that of heaven, in which we should always be occupying our understanding.
From the Stygia lagoon
After Acheronte we follow the lagoon Stygia, which Hesiod says is the daughter of Oceanus and Thetis; others say of Acheronte; others from Earth. He married Palante, by whom there was a daughter named Victoria; and since in the war that Iupiter had with the Titans, Victoria helped Iupiter a lot (according to Theodoncio) she granted him as a reward for his good services, that the gods would swear by the lagoon Stygia, his mother (not being able to give her much more), and they honored her so much that they did not dare to fail what they had sworn in her name. As Homer feels, and Apollonius and Vergil, where it begins: Dii cuius iurare Stygiamque paludem timent, et fallere numen. He means: and the lagoon Stygia, by which the gods who swear are afraid to break the oath; and if anyone broke the oath, he would be deprived for a hundred years of divinity and of the heavenly Nectar and sweet pottage of the gods. Stygia is called stygestos, which in Greek means sadness, because it engenders sadness, since it is often understood as hell (a place where there can be no joy), and for this reason in another way Stygia means hateful, as hell is. Claudianus says that Victoria, daughter of Stygia, has wings, and carries a palm in her hands.
These things are said poetically, because Victory is not a maiden, nor does she have a mother or father, nor can she give favor, nor do such gods have to swear that they can; but they fake it to allegorize something. By Stygia we mean sadness, although Stygia, according to the truth, is a large lake in the other part of Egypt, as Seneca affirms. The reason for swearing by Stygia is that the oath is usually sworn by the thing we fear most, and such is Stygia, which means sadness, since the gods mean blessed men, who lack nothing; and thus they do not swear by what they desire, as something they do not desire, since they have everything, but they were afraid of losing the good they have, which would cause them great sadness, and this is one of their fears, and so they had to swear by it.
Aristotle gives another reason, saying that the ancients believed that water was the beginning and principle of things, and from this the poets put Oceanus and Thetis as the begetters and parents of the gods and things; and concludes that for this reason the poets said that the Stygia was an oath of the gods, because the oath must be taken by the most honored and oldest of all things, and the principle of them is older than all of them, and as By this principle they understood water, by this they had to swear by the Stygia, which is water from hell, which seems to be the mother of all the waters that come out, like the waters they see coming out of the bowels of the earth, where they imagine themselves to be. Hell.
That Stygia was the daughter of Oceanus and Thetis is because the sea, understood by Oceanus and Thetis, is the main source from which fountains and rivers and lagoons are generated.
That she is the daughter of Acheronte: we already said in the preceding chapter that Acheronte is a passion that moves one to tears, and a sadness that is born in the understanding of man, who sees himself dying from the consideration of his past works. However, Stygia is an anger or abhorrence of past events with which penance is followed when we begin to hate the sins committed, and then the soul is said to pass the Stygia lagoon that is born from Acheron. And because the air curdled in the concavities beneath the earth becomes water and lagoons and rivers are generated from it, they say that the Stygia lagoon was a daughter of the Earth.
That the Stygian lagoon has achieved that honor, because her daughter Victoria helped Jupiter against the Titans, or because she discovered Jupiter's ambushes, meant that all nations must (as far as they could) preserve their princes in their lordship, especially if are good. And that princes must give favors to those who discover the betrayals and snares of the evil ones, because nothing can be more suitable than this for the preservation of the lordships.
Others say it is Stygia, a small river near Mount Nonacro in Arcadia, whose water is so poisonous that anyone who drinks it dies; and for this reason Stygia means something hateful or abhorrent or that engenders sadness.
From Cocytus infernal river, or Phlegeton
What has been said in the preceding chapters, they pretend by the river called Cocyto, or Phlegethon: Cocyto means quarrel, and crying, because those who die, for the most part after knowing their sins, cry for not having done penance for them. for having been committed against the supreme goodness of God. Others say that it was said this way because they complain and feel it is a great effort to leave behind the things that they love very much in this world, such as relatives and friends and children and temporal goods. Others called this same river Phlegethon, which means burning repentance for offenses done to God.
Of the ages of man and of the same rivers that have been treated in the preceding chapters
Dante pretends to be a statue on top of a large Candian mountain, resembling an old man; the head of gold, and the breasts and arms of silver, the rest of the body up to the groin, of copper, the legs and left foot of iron, and the right foot of baked earth. By this statue the life of man is understood, according to all his ages: and although by these metals the ages of the world can be signified (as Ovid says), it fits better with the ages of man. The head, which is the first and beginning of the body, which is made of gold, means childhood, or ignorance; This is gold because just as gold is the best of all metals, so this is the best of all ages, because in this age man cannot do anything that he will regret later, as in the others, as no other. have the use of reason. By the second part of the silver breasts and arms is understood the second age, which is from six years to fourteen: this is stronger than the first, but it is not so noble, because this age [is] signified by the breasts and arms; and in the breasts is the breadth and strength of the body, and in the arms the power to act: and thus in this age the man is stronger to act than in the first, and he understands something that he did not have in the first: however This is less noble than the first, because in it men begin to sin; and he who is without sin is more noble before God; and of this the first age was certain. And thus the first is denoted by gold, and the second by silver, a metal of lesser value. The third part, which is from the breasts to the legs, is made of copper: this means the third age, which they say youth; It is suitable for a harder metal than silver, and they make more works out of it and it is much less valuable. Thus the third age of youth is harder than the second age of puerice and is for suffering greater labors and doing greater deeds. This is the one that begins the wars and damages that some men do to others, which are not started in the first and second. This is why this age is worse than the last, and sins make man less valuable. The fourth part of the body, which is the legs and the left foot, are made of iron; By this is meant the fourth age, which is called virility, in which the man is a complete male, just as he is thirty years old or older; This age is suitable for this metal, because iron is applied to more works than copper, in more damage, and harder than the metals of the other ages. And just as iron is of lower value than other metals, so is this age of lower value because more sins are committed in it than in the others. The fifth part of the body is the right foot, and this is made of baked earth: it means the last age, which is old age, or senetity: because just as the feet denote the end of the body, so this age denotes the end of the life. And he did not place both feet on the ground, but only the right one, because the movement is made more on that foot than on the other, and just as we affirm more on it, so old age is what the entire age of man lies against; and as this part is made of baked earth, which is weaker than metals and of less value, so this age is weaker than the other ages: it is in which the body breaks, because in the other ages the man can not to die, but in this it is necessary to die, due to the disposition of the body at that age; And although average old age is good for advice, great or decrepit old age takes away even good sense. Furthermore, it is worse as some vices are more confirmed in old age, as well as greed and envy, hatred and other things that are more reprehensible in the old than in the young.
This statue pretended to have small openings in all parts of the body, through which drops of water ran, except on the head: this denotes that men in all ages, signified by those openings in the body, committed some faults, of which The man may regret it and cry. And for this reason the first part, which is the golden head, does not have any opening, because in that age (by it meant) the man does not commit anything with ignorance for which he can be guilty. These drops that are distilled from this statue through the feet and the ground go to hell, and from this the river Acheron is caused: and in this way all the three rivers of hell can be given birth, which are: Acheron, Stygia, Phlegethon, because from tears Acheron is born, and from Acheron is born Stygia, and from Stygia is born Flegeton. Acheron means joyless. Stygia means sadness. Phlegethon means ardor, because from the thought of past evils one gains loss of joy: because although someone is in joy, if he begins to think, or past evils occur to his memory, he loses joy and is without it, and this It is Acheron, and from here follows sadness; and although being without joy and having sadness are not the same thing, the one follows from the other; because he who does not have something in which he rejoices, then he incurs sadness. And from here comes the Stygia lagoon, and from Stygia is born Phlegethon, which means ardor, because from sadness comes burning pain, which is a great burning of the heart; and this is the greatest passion. They are called rivers of hell because these passions are in ourselves within our thoughts, and what is within our soul is a hidden and dark thing, just as hell is dark.
From the lethian waters
The poets pretend that he who drank the waters of the river Letheo forgot all things past, and that man walks in it as in a boat without oars.
By this river is understood the forgetting of the continuation and perseverance of the virtues, and it is compared to this world: and thus he who drinks of the waters of this world, which are evil works, this one forgets the things that are past; It is important to know his birth, and God who created him, and the good things that he did and does for him every day. So this world is a river, because it slides like a river and never remains in one state. The boat without oars in which man walks is our body, which is like a boat in which the soul navigates the river that is this world. He says that he is without oars: for the reason that just as in the boat without oars he cannot go to the place he wants, nor move without there being wind to help him, so the body cannot act without the perfection of the soul.
Charon Boatman
Charon, son of Herebus and of the night, according to Hesiod, is the boatman that the poets pretend passes the souls along the Phlegethon and the other rivers. They say that he is old, sad and terrible and full of mold, eyes of fire, as Vergil says where he begins: Portior has horrendus aquas, etc. He makes all mortals equal, making no difference between the rich and the poor, as he passes all of them in his boat naked, and stripped of dignities and goods. Lucian says that it was customary among the ancients to give to those who died a coin called Obolus, so as to transport it to Charon by his ship. They say they are the son of Herebus and the Night because that mind and heart of men that was first confused and enveloped in the darkness of sins, and the conscience unexamined, those movements in the preceding chapters mentioned first come out through those rivers. Later, when the opinion of innocence has been raised, or the determination to keep forward integrity (which is close to ignorance) which is acquired by repentance of past sins, when we regret having offended our great God through greed, or impiety, or cruelty. Then hope arises in the goodness of God, and from there joy signified by Charon, which passes to us from the other side of those turbulent rivers. This one brings us without fear before the serious and rigorous judges: this one consoles us and helps us in the most serious dangers: this one serves as our viaticum and provision wherever we go.
The Obolus denotes that every man must give account of the talent that God gave him. He who considers it well will find that the ancients understood under the fictions of rivers, all those movements and thoughts of the spirit that are born in man at the time of death. Because being old Charon, what else does it mean but good advice and the joy that comes from taking it? Or what other joy will there be in the man who wants to die, that is equal to that which is born from the opinion of his ignorance, or from the hope of forgiveness?
Give us to understand these things further, that it is convenient for us to live in such a way that the memory of the past comforts our hearts greatly at the time of death, for the ignorance and integrity of life, and brings us without fear before any severity and harshness of judges.
Of the Fates
The Fates pretend that they were three sisters so concordant that no disagreement was ever heard between them, as between the other gods. The ancients had that not only could nothing be done without the will of the Fates, but even the lives of men were in the hands of these three sisters. Their names are: Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis. They call themselves Fates, by antiphrase, because they forgive none, because they say that when a man is born they spin his life on a spinning wheel: Clotho gives the tow, or has the spinning wheel: Lachesis spins it: Atropos cuts the thread. Some said they were daughters of Jupiter and Themis: others thought they were born from unformed matter, which they said Chaos: others make them children of the night, others of the sea, others of necessity. They said they lived in a cave and from there they went out to human works when necessary.
By this fiction the ancients wanted to declare three ages, or times, it is worth knowing: the time in which we are born and in which we live, and the time in which we depart from life: because it is necessary that all mortals be in one of these times. By Clotho (who gives the tow, or has the spinning wheel) is understood the time in which we enter life. By Lachesis (which spins it) is understood the time that we remain in life. By Atropos, which cuts the thread, is understood the time in which we emerge from it, which is death, and they call this inexorable, or immutable; because prayers are not enough so that the thread of man's life is not cut, when God commands that he die. Clotho in another understanding means caller, Lachesis luck, Atropos without order. Because of this, they wanted to feel that the first was the calling of the birth of man: and hence some call them Parcas a partu, for childbirth; the second, luck; the third, the condition of death, which keeps no law to anyone. Atropos, according to another meaning, denotes things past, Clotho what is present, Lachesis what is to come: what was in use spun, was like what was past; the thread between the fingers and the flake, the present; what was on the spinning wheel, what is to come.
In saying that the Fates were daughters of Jupiter and Themis, who is justice, they meant that whatever happens to each person, happens with justice and reason, according to merits and things done, and by the advice and judgment of the Most High. God.
Those who thought that evils occurred due to the lack of knowledge of men called the Fates daughters of the night. And those who were even more stupid and did not understand that human things were governed by divine providence, nor that anything was governed by divine counsel, but only considered the cruelty of the punishments, without considering the seriousness of the crimes. , they thought that the Fates were daughters of the sea because all the sons of the sea were cruel and disconcerted.
The divine Plato called the Fates daughters of Necessity, because the punishments that are due to men, for their works and deeds, must necessarily be passed, and no bad man can escape at the end of the just vengeance of God.
That the Fates used to live in a dark cave means that the judgments of God are hidden, and the punishments do not come soon to bad men, but when the convenient time for their punishment arrives, no fortress, no matter how strong and well-equipped it may be, nor Companies of people on foot, nor of horses, nor the prisons of men at arms, can separate the vengeance and punishment of God from the evil man, nor stop it. This is enough of the Fates, at whose will it was thought that souls departed from this life.
Of the night
The honor and honor that the ancients gave to Night was not small, which they believed to be older than any of the gods. Hesiod says he was born from Chaos. Orpheus calls her mother of the gods and men, because everyone thought she was born from her. Others make her the daughter of Cupid, or of the Earth: they paint her dressed in black and with black breasts. This is what Vergil says where he begins: Et nox atra, etc. Also give her wings, as Vergil attests, where she begins: Nox ruit, etc. Others want her to come out of the Ocean, when day falls, like Vergil where she begins: Vertitur interea coelum, etc. They sacrificed a rooster to him, as an animal contrary to silence. Call rage a daughter, according to Euripides. Hesiod gives him as children strife, and envy, and evil fate, and the Fates, and death, and sleep. Cicero says that Night had as children of Herebus, Fear, and Work, and Old Age, Death, and Darkness, Misery, and Complaint, and Grace, and Deceit, and Penance, and the Hesperides.
They called the most ancient Night, because before the Sun and the Sky were made there was no light: they make it the daughter of the Earth because, when the Sun is hidden under the Horizon, or the Earth, there must necessarily be a shadow of the night near us. Earth, and they call this Night. They said she was the mother of all, because she preceded the birth of all things: and according to some, she was called Night a nocendo, which means to harm, because the humidity of the night is harmful to men; which seems clear in those who have scabies, or fevers, or other diseases, which are aggravated and fatigue more at night than during the day.
Those who said that Night was the daughter of Cupid was because love cannot be given a reason: or because most of the time it is convenient for the cause of it to be covered up with the night of blindness.
They pretended to be dressed in black, even down to their headdresses to denote their darkness. That the pestilences, or infernal furies, and the other children named above were born from the night is because the not knowing and the malice of men (which is the night of understanding) are parents, and masters of almost all the disasters that attack the lineage. human; being so, that equity can drive them from the presence of men, as the Aquilus wind cleanses the Heavens of the light clouds.
Of death
Death (which requires mortals to cross the Acheron River) is the sister of Sleep, and daughter of Night, according to Homer. The Elios painted for Death a woman who was sleeping two children that she had in her arms, one was black and the other white. Death is given black nails, according to Oratius where she begins: Seu mors atris, etc., and elsewhere: Et mors atra caput, etc.
Death is given to men as a remedy for all evils and troubles. He says that he needs to pass the Acheron River to mortals because by dying he must appear before the Court of God to give an account of the life he left behind. She claims to be the sister of Dream: because just as he who sleeps gives little care to everything, so he who dies loses care of the things of the world. She is the daughter of Night, because Death is uncertain and doubtful, and dark as Night. By one child is meant Death, and by the other is Dream. The wings denote that it comes quickly like the walk of the bird; It is black because it is sad for those who poorly live their memory. Death was considered the most unremitting and harsh of all the Gods, because it forgives no one, not for gifts, nor prayers, nor friendships, nor favors, for which reason they neither made temples nor sacrifices to it, nor attributed priests to it: although The ancient wise men praised it with admirable praise, saying that it was a seat and a safe harbor of quiet, and a remover of poverty, a deliverer of physical and spiritual illnesses: it is equal to princes, good men receive it with joy, as the beginning of rewards for their jobs; The wicked fear it, because they feel that they must be punished for it. It is called Death because it bites, or from the bite of the forbidden fruit of the first father, for which his successors die.
Of the Dream
Sleep is the son of Night, and the brother of Death. They pretend to the Dream with wings, as Tibullus says, where he begins: Post que venit tacitus, etc. Orpheus calls her sister of Lethes, and rest of things, and king of men. Ovid counts him among the gods, for the benefits he brings to men, where he begins: Somne qui es rerum. They attribute a thousand children to him. Euripides says that he is the thief of half our lives. Homer introduces that all the gods and men slept, except Jupiter. They pretend to have the dream of a city near the Ocean.
They make Dream the child of Night because the humidity of Night increases the vapors that rise from the stomach to the upper parts of the body, which after becoming colder, with the cold of the brain descend below and engender Dream; and for this reason they rightly call him Sleep, son of Night. That he is the brother of Death is to warn men that not only did God give Sleep so that we might recover our strength, and our work would say goodbye, but so that through Sleep we would remember Death, since everything that needs sleep, at some time he must die, or because the one who sleeps looks like the dead. They pretend to have wings, because in a moment the one who sleeps, while dreaming, seems to surround the world. They call him brother of Lethes and rest of things because Lethes means oblivion, and he who sleeps forgets all the works and evils and all the cares; and by this they say it is rest from things, it means from the cares that bother men. Ovid places him among the gods of gentility because of the benefits he brings to men; Because Sleep is the most useful thing (if it is used moderately) of all things there are, to which all animals submit, and without it one could hardly live: for which reason they rightly call it king of men. They attribute many children to it, because from the vapors increasing with the humidity of the night, an infinite number of dreams are born and engendered, according to the variety of delicacies, and the regions and times, and the affairs that are imprinted in the mind, and of the temperaments of each one: which everything must be considered to declare dreams because dreams are sometimes to doctors as guides, or spies, to know diseases; as Michael Scoto writes. Sometimes dreams are forms of things desired, which fantasy puts before us. To say that all the Gods, except Iupiter, slept: it is to imply that it is not advisable for those who are careful to manage many things to sleep: or that the divine nature, understood by Iupiter, has no need to sleep, so that by He gains strength like animals do, like no work or discomfort he can endure. And because dreams are caused by an abundance of humor: this is why we pretend to have a city near the Ocean, because the water is humid.
Of the infernal judges
Because the common people did not understand that our thoughts and works were known to God, no matter how hidden and secret they may be, the wise men, in order to warn him that he must take account of the works, pretended that there were judges in hell who, after death, They forced each one to confess their evil deeds, so that through their works they would receive the reward or punishment that each one deserved. These judges pretended to be Minos king of Crete, son of Iupiter and Europa: and Rhadamanthe, king of Lycia, son of Iupiter and Astheria: and Aeacus son of Iupiter and Aegina. These said more than others, due to the thoroughness and rectitude with which they pretend to have judged in life, or to hear the significance of their names; because Minos means the one who threatens, or the one who is threatened and constrained to tell the truth. Rhadamanthe means seeker of truth. Eaco means punisher of evil. The poets gave these names to these judges because the trial requires: Inquisition of the truth and promulgation of the sentence and its execution. By these three judges (according to Saint Isidro) divine justice is denoted, and its judgment and execution: and it was pretended like this, because with the memory of the justice and judgment of God, and that they do not let evil pass without penalty, nor good without reward, let the man refrain from turning his head back; It is convenient to know the sin from which he came out, or into which his inclination invites him to enter.
From Tartarus or Herebo
After the souls of the wicked have been known to the judges for many very serious vices, living in pleasure, with insults from other men, and engaging in greed and deceit; and despising the religion and worship of God, they are handed over to be taken to Tartarus, or Herebus, which is a place of unbelievable punishments. They gave Tartarus antiquity, saying that it was from a time with Night and Chaos, which was the confusing matter of the world.
Tartarus is a Greek name, it means to be scared with cold, or to have disgust, or fear, or darkness; It is a very deep place where the damned are, located in the center of the earth, a place as far away from heaven as it can be. It differs from hell in that hell, they say, is a deep and low thing, from where God, when he redeemed the world, brought out the souls of the holy fathers, who were awaiting his holy and merciful advent. And Tartarus is the lowest place where the damned are, from where he wanted to remove none. The merchandise of this place is crying, and gnashing of teeth, and fear, darkness, and cold, and heat, and no order. They called this one by another name Avernus; although they call this a lake in Campania, a province of Italy, where the birds that pass over it are said to fall, dead from the bad smell that comes from it, which is why it was believed to be the mouth of Tartarus. It is called Tripersola Lake in the vulgar language. Averno is a Greek name, it means sinave. They call Tartarus by other names Herebo, Orco, Dite, Averno, Báratro. Therefore, the wise men wanted in the invention of these things of hell to separate men from evil: which if this were believed, as it is true, in all ages there would have been few evil people.
Of the furies, or Eumenides, who continually tormented Orestes
The infernal furies that the poets pretended to be executioners or executioners and witnesses of whom the judges have condemned to suffer torments in the place that we called Tartarus are: Thisiphone, Megoera and Alecto; According to some, they were daughters of Night, and Acheron: and according to Orpheus, of Pluto and Proserpina: according to Hesiod, of the Earth and the blood that came out to Saturn when Jupiter cut off his genitals. These furies were the ones that the poets say bothered Orestes, king of Greece, that they seemed to put burning brands or axes in front of his eyes, with which they always made him walk in fear, that day and night they did not stop him. torment.
Because the opinion that those who go to hell can cover up their sins could deceive many, because for many sins there are few men who are witnesses; And because since there were men who were witnesses, since they do not all die at the same time, and first the dead who were the witnesses would be judged, remaining in the world, it was necessary to persuade the multitude of those who little knew that there were witnesses of life there. of each one, and also that they served as ministers of the punishments to which those guilty who confessed to having done clumsy things in their lives were condemned. They added those that for different reasons the Latins sometimes called Furies, or Severas, or infernal dogs, or wraths of the gods, and the Greeks Erinnyes, or Eumenides. They are called Furies, or infernal dogs, because of the fury with which the accused men are disturbed of their conscience, knowing that they have done evil; Erinnyes are called from erinnyo, a Greek verb, which means to become indignant and greatly moved; They are called severe because of their cruelty; Eumenides means death, because where they go there is no contentment. Lucanus says that in hell they are called dogs, and among mortals Furies; and Eumenides near the Gods. Iras, that is what Vergil called them where he begins: Discurrunt magnisque, etc. And in the same book he tells them dirae, where it begins: Dicuntur, geminae pestes, etc. By these furies we understand the disturbances of the spirit, which day and night punish the bad for the sins committed, and their bad thoughts, which are the cause of the crimes. These are understood to be the three vices, anger, cudicia, lust, which destroy men for all their evil deeds; and these are the axes, or burning brands, that the furies placed before the eyes of Orestes, which disturbed him day and night. Thisiphone in Greek means revenge, or punishment of death, from Thesis, which means revenge, or punishment; and Phonos which is death. Or Tisis is said to be composure, and Phonos sound: that is, composure of bad sound; that is, bad thinking. Megera is said from Megerim, which means to have hatred, or envy; or Megan, which is bad, and gero, which is bringing, because she carries bad. Alecto means the one that never ceases, or is calm, or the one that is not lazy: it is composed of A, which means without, and lectos laziness, which means something without laziness. It is the tickling and flattering of delights, by which Alecto punishes those who sin, never ceasing as they do. They say they are daughters of the Night: by Night we understand the ignorance and blindness that is dark like the Night, due to the little knowledge of some men, who are unaware of the damage that sin brings. It is great ignorance and little consideration to commit things for the briefest of delights that result in eternal punishment. Others said they were daughters of Pluto and Proserpine, and this with great reason, because Pluto presiding over riches, and Proserpine being the strength and virtue of the harvest, from what parents will the Furies be born more comfortably than from riches? Or where will they take their most convenient origin, since all evils and delights flow from the greater part (as from a mighty fountain) of the abundance of riches, or of their cudicia?
From the Elysian fields
Having painted the places from which the souls of evil people and monsters pass to whom they surrender to be tormented, they then pretended the Elysian fields to be a place of rest; because in this way men could be attracted to love goodness, showing them that God was not negligent in punishing the sins of the bad, nor lacking in rewarding the good, taking them to the Elysian fields, a place where the souls of the virtuous pretended to rest. and good. They are called Elysios from E which means estra, and Lysio, lysion, almost outside of lysion. According to truth, by these fields we understand the blessedness where the saints and the other souls of those who served God are and where those who die in his grace will go through the merits of the Passion of Our Redeemer Jesus Christ.
Quote of the Day
“Quick-silver assumes different natures and qualities in things familiar unto it, and throughly mixt with it: as if it be joyned to the Sun, the qualities of the Sun; if to the Moon, those of the Moon; if to Venus, of Venus: and so in other kinds of Metals.”
Bernard Trevisan
The Answer of Bernardus Trevisanus, to the Epistle of Thomas of Bononia
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