{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/007/0070019.htm","path":"chr/ecf/007/0070019.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/007/0070019.htm","text":"If therefore these speculations of the philosophers are trifling, what remains, except that we believe it to be a matter of fact that, being a man, he suffered mutilation from a man? Unless by chance any one esteems him as a god who feared a co-heir; whereas, if he had possessed any divine knowledge, he ought not to have mutilated his father, but himself, to prevent the birth of Jupiter, who deprived him of the possession of his kingdom. And he also, when he had married his sister Rhea, whom in Latin we call Ops, is said to have been warned by an oracle not to bring up his male children, because it would come to pass that he should be driven into banishment by a son. And being in fear of this, it is plain that he did not devour his sons, as the fables report, but put them to death; although it is written in sacred history that Saturn and Ops, and other men, were at that time accustomed to eat human flesh, but that Jupiter, who gave to men laws and civilization, was the first who by an edict prohibited the use of that food. Now if this is true, what justice can there possibly have been in him? But let us suppose it to be a fictitious story that Saturn devoured his sons, only true after a certain fashion; must we then suppose, with the vulgar, that he has eaten his sons, who has carried them out to burial? But when Ops had brought forth Jupiter, she stole away the infant, and secretly sent him into Crete to be nourished. Again, I cannot but blame his want of foresight. For why did he receive an oracle from another, and not from himself? Being placed in heaven, why did he not see the things which were taking place on earth? Why did the Corybantes with their cymbals escape his notice? Lastly, why did there exist any greater force which might overcome his power? Doubtless, being aged, he was easily overcome by one who was young, and despoiled of his sovereignty. He was therefore banished and went into exile; and after long wanderings came into Italy in a ship, as Ovid relates in his Fasti:\u2014\n \u201cThe cause of the ship remains to be explained. The scythe-bearing god came to the Tuscan river in a ship, having first traversed the world.\u201d\nJanus received him wandering and destitute; and the ancient coins are a proof of this, on which there is a representation of Janus with a double face, and on the other side a ship; as the same poet adds:\u2014\n \u201cBut pious posterity represented a ship on the coin, bearing testimony to the arrival of the stranger god.\u201d\nNot only therefore all the poets, but the writers also of ancient histories and events, agree that he was a man, inasmuch as they handed down to memory his actions in Italy: of Greek writers, Diodorus and Thallus; of Latin writers, Nepos, Cassius, and Varro. For since men lived in Italy after a rustic fashion, 62 \u2014\n \u201cHe brought the race to union first,\nErewhile on mountain tops dispersed,\nAnd gave them statutes to obey,\nAnd willed the land wherein he lay\nShould Latium\u2019s title bear.\u201d\nDoes any one imagine him to be a god, who was driven into banishment, who fled, who lay hid? No one is so senseless. For he who flees, or lies hid, must fear both violence and death. Orpheus, who lived in more recent times than his, openly relates that Saturn reigned on earth and among men:\u2014\n \u201cFirst Cronus ruled o\u2019er men on earth,\nAnd then from Cronus sprung the mighty king,\nThe widely sounding Zeus.\u201d\nAnd also our own Maro says: 63\n \u201cThis life the golden Saturn led on earth;\u201d\nand in another place: 64 \u2014\n \u201cThat was the storied age of gold,\nSo peacefully, serenely rolled\nThe years beneath his reign.\u201d\nThe poet did not say in the former passage that he led this life in heaven, nor in the latter passage that he reigned over the gods above. From which it appears that he was a king on earth; and this he declares more plainly in another place: 65 \u2014\n \u201cRestorer of the age of gold,\nIn lands where Saturn ruled of old.\u201dp. 26\nEnnius, indeed, in his translation of Euhemerus says that Saturn was not the first who reigned, but his father Uranus. In the beginning, he says, C\u0153lus first had the supreme power on the earth. He instituted and prepared that kingdom in conjunction with his brothers. There is no great dispute, if there is doubt, on the part of the greatest authorities respecting the son and the father. But it is possible that each may have happened: that Uranus first began to be pre-eminent in power among the rest, and to have the chief place, but not the kingdom; and that afterwards Saturn acquired greater resources, and took the title of king.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VII: Lactantius: Chap. XIII.\u2014How vain and trifling are the interpretations of the stoics respecting the gods, and in them concerning the origin of Jupiter, concerning Saturn and Ops","type":"page"}