Roman Stoicism being lectures on the history of the Stoic...

[81] ‘aer autem, ut Stoici disputant, Iunonis nomine consecratur ... effeminarunt autem eum Iunonique tribuerunt, quod nihil est eo mollius’ ib. ii 26, 66.

[82] ‘quoniam tenuitate haec elementa paria sunt, dixerunt esse germana’ Serv. ad Verg. Aen. i 47 (Arnim ii 1066).

[83] Rival philosophers in the earlier times, and the church fathers later, concurred in reviling Chrysippus because he extended this principle of interpretation to a ‘disgraceful’ representation found in Argos or Samos, in which Hera receives the divine seed in her mouth; yet Christian antiquity was about to absorb the similar notion of the conception of the Virgin Mary through the ear (‘quae per aurem concepisti’ in an old Latin hymn). Chrysippus of course rightly estimated the absurdity of criticising cosmic processes as if they were breaches of social decency, and by so doing relieved the pious souls of his own day from a real source of distress. See Arnim ii 1071-1074.

[84] Cic. N. D. ii 26, 66.

[85]ib. i 15, 40 and ii 26, 66.

[86] ‘Proserpinam, quam frugum semen esse volunt absconditamque quaeri a matre fingunt’ ib.

[87]ib. 27, 68.

[88] καὶ ὁ χρόνος δὲ τοιοῦτόν τί ἐστι· δαπανᾶται γὰρ ὑπ’ αὐτοῦ τὰ γινόμενα ἐν αὐτῷ Cornutus N. D. 6. The castration of Uranus by Cronus is thus explained by the Stoics: ‘caelestem naturam, id est igneam, quae per sese omnia gigneret, vacare voluerunt ea parte corporis, quae coniunctione alterius egeret ad procreandum’ Cic. N. D. ii 24, 64.

[89] Justin Apol. i 64 (Arnim ii 1096).

[90] Sen. Ben. i 3, 9.

[91] Aët. plac. i 6, 13.

[92] φασὶ δὲ εἶναι καί τινας δαίμονας ἀνθρώπων συμπάθειαν ἔχοντας, ἐπόπτας τῶν ἀνθρωπείων πραγμάτων Diog. L. vii 151.

[93] ‘ásya [váruṇasya] spáśo ná ní miṣanti bhūrṇayaḥ’ Rigv. ix 73, 4.

[94] τρὶς γὰρ μυρίοι εἰσὶν ἐπὶ χθονὶ πουλυβοτείρῃ | ἀθάνατοι Ζηνὸς φύλακες θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων Hes. Op. et Di. 252, 253; see also § 33.

[95] ‘et alia signa de caelo ad terram accidunt; | qui’st imperator divum atque hominum Iuppiter, | is nos per gentis hic alium alia disparat, | hominum qui facta mores pietatem et fidem | noscamus’ Plaut. Rud. 8-12.

[96] καὶ τούτῳ συμφωνεῖ τὸ τοὺς Διοσκούρους ἀγαθούς τινας εἶναι δαίμονας “σωτῆρας εὐσέλμων νεῶν” Sext. math. ix 86 (Arnim ii 1014); ‘clarum Tyndaridae sidus ab infimis | quassas eripiunt aequoribus rates’ Hor. C. iv 8, 31 and 32.

[97] φαύλους δαίμονας ἀπέλιπε Χρύσιππος Plut. def. orac. 17.

[98] καθάπερ οἱ περὶ Χρύσιππον οἴονται φιλόσοφοι φαῦλα δαιμόνια περινοστεῖν, οἷς οἱ θεοὶ δημίοις χρῶνται κολασταῖς ἐπὶ τοὺς ἀνοσίους καὶ ἀδίκους ἀνθρώπους qu. Rom. 51.

[99] Arnim ii 1101.

[100] ‘Posidonius censet homines somniare, quod plenus aer sit immortalium animorum’ Cic. Div. i 30, 64.

[101] ‘Genius, natale comes qui temperat astrum | naturae deus humanae, mortalis in unum | quodque caput’ Hor. Ep. ii 2, 187-189; ‘sepone in praesentia, quae quibusdam placent, uni cuique nostrum paedagogum dari deum, ex eorum numero quos Ovidius ait “de plebe deos”’ Sen. Ep. 110, 1; ‘Zeus has placed by every man a guardian, every man’s daemon, to whom he has committed the care of the man; a guardian who never sleeps, is never deceived’ Epict. Disc. i 14, 12. M. Aurelius identifies this daemon with the principate (To himself v 27).

[102] Aët. plac. i 6, 9 and 15; Cic. N. D. ii 24, 62.

[103] Arnim i 264. The feeling is reflected by Lucan: ‘estne dei sedes, nisi terra et pontus et aër, | et caelum et virtus? superos quid quaerimus ultra?’ Phars. ix 578-9.

[104] ‘Varro dicit antiquos Romanos plus annos centum et septuaginta deos sine simulacro coluisse: “quod si adhuc mansisset, castius di observarentur”’ August. Civ. De. iv 31.

[105] ‘ne in victimis quidem deorum est honor’ Sen. Ben. i 6, 3.

[106] ‘To make libations and to sacrifice and to offer first-fruits according to the custom of our fathers, purely and not meanly nor scantily nor above our ability, is a thing which belongs to all to do’ Epict. Manual 31, 5.

[107] ‘si conferre volumus nostra cum externis; ceteris rebus aut pares aut etiam inferiores reperiemur, religione, id est cultu deorum, multum superiores’ Cic. N. D. ii 3, 8.

[108] See above, § 250.

[109] ὄφρ’ ἂν τιμηθέντες ἀμειβώμεσθά σε τιμῇ, | ὑμνοῦντες τὰ σὰ ἔργα διηνεκές, ὡς ἐπέοικε Hymn 36, 37.

[110] περὶ τοίνυν τῆς διὰ τ(ῶν μου)σικῶν (τ)οῦ θείου τει(μῆς εἴρη)ται μὲν αὐτάρκως καὶ πρότερον Philod. mus. iv 66 (Arnim iii Diog. 64).

[111] ‘cultus autem deorum est optimus idemque castissimus atque sanctissimus plenissimusque pietatis, ut eos semper pura integra incorrupta et mente et voce veneremur’ Cic. N. D. ii 28, 71.

[112] Epict. Disc. i 16, 17.

[113]ib. iii 5, 10.

[114]ib. i 16, 15.

[115] See above, § 121.

[116] ‘non sunt ad caelum elevandae manus, nec exorandus aedituus, ut nos ad aurem simulacri admittat; prope est a te deus’ Sen. Ep. 41, 1.

[117] ‘turpissima vota dis insusurrant; si quis admoverit aurem, conticescent’ ib. 10, 5.

[118] Sen. Dial. x 11, 1.

[119]ib. xi 4, 2.

[120]Ben. ii 14, 5.