City of God (Penguin Classics) (201 page)

BOOK: City of God (Penguin Classics)
11.59Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub

9
. Gen. 47, 9.

 

10
. The name Serapis is probably a combination of Osiris and Apis; cf. Bk VI,10; VIII, 26; 27. Serapis was a syncretistic deity, combining Egyptian and Greek elements and his worship was introduced by Ptolemy I, to unite the mixed population, especially in Alexandria.

 

11
. Gen. 30, 37ff.

 

12
. Gen. 49, 10.

 

13
. Mamylus, according to Eusebius.

 

14
. Sphaenis, according to Eusebius.

 

15
. Paus., 10, 4, 4; cf. Hor., Carm., 1, 16, 13ff.

 

16
. Plin. 7, 56, 283.

 

17
. Hes., Theog., 517ff; 746.

 

18
. Mythical first king; civilizer and benefactor, cf. Eur., Ion, 116 3f; Apollod., 3, 177ff.; Paus., 1, 5, 3.

 

19
. Especially the lyre, and the literary accomplishments in general.

 

20
. The theory known as Euhemerism; cf Bk IV, 27n.

 

21
. In Libya.

 

22
. cf. Bk IV, 3; 4; 5.

 

23
. cf. Apollod., 3, 14, 1. This account says that Zeus entrusted the verdict to a jury, of twelve gods; cf. also
Hdt
., 8, 55; Ovid,
Met
., 6,
70ff
.

 

24
. Acts 17, 19ff.

 

25
. For the murder of Halirrhothius, cf. Appollod., 3, 14. 2.

 

26
. cf. Bk II, 10.

 

27
. Phthiotis, in Thessaly. Strab., 8, 7, 1. The story of the Flood is told in Ovid,
Met
., 1, 262–437.

 

28
. 1 Cor. 15, 46f.

 

29
. At the Feast of Lupercalia on 15 February, goats and a dog were sacrificed to Lupercus (identified, it seems, with Faunus) in a cave below the Palatine called the Lupercal. Two youths belonging to the college of Luperci, chosen from certain noble families, were smeared with the sacrificial blood and ran naked (or clad in the skins of the goats) round the Palatine ‘beating the bounds’ of the original city with thongs (
februa
) cut from the skins of the goats. This was a purificatory ceremony (
februa
= ‘means of purification’) and from this is derived the name of the month. It was also a fertility rite, in which women desiring children tried to incur blows from the
februa
. cf. Ovid, Fast., 2, 267–428; and Shakespeare, Julius
Caesar
, I, ii.

 

30
. cf. Bk VI, 9; VII, 2; VII, 16.

 

31
. Apollod. 3, 14, 7.

 

32
. The authority for this has not been traced.

 

33
. Erichthonius (Erechtheus) traditionally founded the temple of Apollo at Delos.

 

34
. The Panathenaic festival of Athena. Apollod., 3, 14, 6.

 

35
. The standard myth told how Europa, daughter of Agenor of Tyre, was carried off to Crete by Zeus in the form of a bull (or by a bull sent by Zeus). There she bore to Zeus the three sons mentioned, and afterwards married Asterius, king of Crete. Apollod., 3, 1, 1; Ovid,
Met
., 2, 836–875; Fast. 5. 603ff.

 

36
. Asterius, in Diod. Sic. 4, 60.

 

37
. According to Diodorus Siculus (3, 82) one tradition spoke of three Dionysi, Herodotus (2, 44) mentions two-Heracles, a god and a hero; Diodorus (3, 73) says that there were three, Cicero (
De Nat. Deor
., 3, 16, 42) six. Servius (on Virg. Aen., 8, 564) quotes Varro as saying that Hercules was a title given to mighty heroes in general, and that hence we find the Tirynthian, the Argive, the Theban and the Libyan Hercules.

 

38
. Apollod., 2, 5,10—supplementary to the Twelve Labours.

 

39
. Busiris, king of Egypt, used to sacrifice strangers to Zeus in order to avert drought. He was killed by Heracles. Apollod., 2, 5, 11; Diod. Sic., 4, 18; Ovid.
Met
, 9,182t.; Ars
Amal
., 1, 647–52.

 

40
. Apollod., 3, 14, 6; cf. Eur., Ion, 20ff; 266ff.

 

41
. There was a temple of Hephaestus above the Ceramicus, and an image of Athena nearby. Paus., 1, 14, 5.

 

42
. The winged dragons are mentioned in Paus. 8, 18, 2; cf. Ovid, Met., 5, 64 2ff. Triptolemus, a fertility god, was associated with Demeter in the Eleusinian mysteries.

 

43
. Virg., Aen., 6, 14–30; Ovid,
Met
. 8, 152ff.

 

44
. In the story of Alcestis. Cicero (De Nat.
Dear
., 3, 25, 57) says that there were four distinct Apollos.

 

45
. Diod. Sic., 4, 3. For Liber cf. ch. 12n.

 

46
. In 186
B.C.
(Liv., 39,18; cf. Bk VI, ch. 9).

 

47
. Herodotus (2, 53)
so
describes Homer and Hesiod.

 

48
. Many poems were ascribed to Orpheus in early times; Plato quotes some, and Aristotle refers to them. Clement of Alexandria gives a list of Orphic poems compiled by Epigenes, an Alexandrian scholar, and Neoplatonists quote a
Rhapsodic Theogony
, of uncertain date, which went under the name of Orpheus. A collection of oracles was attributed in classical times to the mythical singer Musaeus. Linus was the name of a mournful song with a repeated sound,
ailinon
, which was assumed to mean ‘Alas, for Linus!’ and stories were told to explain why Linus should be lamented. Suidas mentions Linus (with Orpheus) as a pre-Homeric poet, but there is no record of any poems attributed to him in antiquity.

 

49
. cf. Judg. 4; 5.

 

50
.
Aen
., 8, 321–5 (There is a play on
Latium
and
latuisset
, ‘had lain hid’).

 

51
. Picus, an Italian agricultural deity, generally described as the first king of Italy and as a warlike hero; he was also associated with the woodpecker (
picus
), a bird sacred to Mars and important in augury. Virgil (
Aen
., 7, 187–9) makes him the father of Faunus and grandfather of Latinus. Ovid (
Met
, 14, 320? ff.) tells the story of his transformation into a woodpecker by Circe, whose love he rejected.

 

52
. Legend said that Diomede, after his return from Troy, left home because of his wife’s unfaithfulness and wandered to Italy, where he founded various towns in Magna Graecia, and was buried on one of the islands of Diomedes, near the Apulian coast, where he received divine or heroic honours as a founder of Greek culture in Italy; cf. Pind., Nem., 10, 7. Strab., 6, 3,
9f
.

 

53
. cf. Virg.,
Aen
., 11, 252–80; Ovid,
Met
., 14, 455–511.

 

54
. Plin., 8, 22.

 

55
. This story is not found elsewhere.

 

56
. Hdt. 4, 203. ‘The hill of Zeus Lycaeus.’

 

57
. cf. ch. 12n.

 

58
. Is. 48, 20.

 

59
. Gal. 5, 6.

 

60
. cf. Bk iv, 2n.

 

61
. Virg.,
Ecl
., 8, 70.

 

62
. Eur.
Iph
. T., 26–30.

 

63
. Ovid,
Met
, 14, 581–608.

 

64
.
Semo Sancus Dius Fidius
, apparently a god of sewing, of Sabine origin. He had a temple on the Quirinal.

 

65
. Virg.,
Ecl
., 5, 11. There is no evidence that Codrus received more than a hero-cult. For this story cf. Val. Max., 5, 6.

 

66
.
Aen
., 6, 767.

 

67
.
Sibyls
. The earliest of the inspired prophetesses, according to tradition, was the Erythraean Sibyl, so called either from the red soil of Marpessus, near Troy, or from Erythrae in Ionia. Her prophecies related to the Trojan war; but she is not mentioned by Homer or Herodotus. According to Varro there were ten Sibyls in all, the most famous being the Sibyl of Cumae, the reputed source of the Sibylline books kept on the Capitol. These were destroyed by fire in 83
B.C.
, and a collection was then made of similar documents from various places. The surviving oracles are of late Judaeo-Hellenic or Judaeo-Christian provenance, containing warnings of dreadful calamities.

 

68
.
Oracc
. Sibyll. (ed. Geffcken) viii, 217ff.

 

69
. This does not appear in the English translation. The Latin translator did not attempt to find words beginning in U (they are rare in Latin) to preserve the acrostic.

 

70
. One of the commonest symbols of the early Church.

 

71
.
Div. Inst
., 4, 18f.

 

72
. The Sibyl is addressing Judea.

 

73
. cf. Bk Viii, 2n.

 

74
. In 712
B.C.

 

75
. Cic,
De Rep
., 2, 10, 18. On the deification of Romulus cf. Bk IIi, 15.

 

76
. Tradition said that he was sawn in two (Just. Mart., Dial., 120, 14).

 

77
. 586
B.C.

 

78
. Jer., 25, 11.

 

79
. Plato’s list (
Prot
., 343A) gives Myson instead of Periander.

 

80
. On Anaximander and Anaximenes, cf. Bk Viii, 2. On Xenophanes, cf. Bk Vii, 17n.

 

81
. In 538
B.C
. cf. Bk xvii, 23.

 

82
. Darius came to the throne in 521
B.C
. The captivity, as a compulsory exile, ended in 538.

 

83
. The Chronicle of Eusebius-Jerome.

 

84
. Hos. 1, 10.

 

85
. cf. Rom. 9, 26.

 

86
. Hos. 1, 11.

 

87
. cf. Eph. 2, 14; 20.

 

88
. cf. Acts 1, 25.

 

89
. Hos. 3, 4f.

 

90
. Rom. 1, 3.

 

91
. Hos. 6, 2.

 

92
. Col. 3, 1.

 

93
. Amos 4, 12f.

 

94
. Amos 9, 11f.

 

95
. e.g. by Jerome (
Praef. in Is
.).

 

96
. Is. 52, 13–53, 12 (Lxx).

 

97
. Is. 54, 1–5 (Lxx).

 

98
. Mic. 4, 1ff.

 

99
. Mic. 5, 2ff.

 

100
. Joel 2, 28f.; cf. Acts 2,17f.

 

101
. Obad. 17; 21.

 

102
. Nah. 1, 14f.; 2, 1 (Lxx).

 

103
. John 20, 22f.

 

104
. Hab. 2, 2f. (Lxx).

 

105
. Hab. 3 (Lxx).

 

106
. Luke 23. 34.

 

107
. Ps. 57, 5.

 

108
. John 3,17.

 

109
. Joel 2, 13.

 

110
. cf. Matt. 5, 4.

 

111
. Matt. 10, 27.

 

112
. Ps. 116, 16.

 

113
. cf. John 3, 2; 19, 38.

 

114
. Rom. 12, 12.

 

115
. cf. Rom. 10, 3.

 

116
. Ps. 40, 2.

 

117
. 1 Cor. 1, 31.

 

118
.
Jesus
is Greek for
Joshua
which in Hebrew differs in only one letter from the Hebrew for ‘God my saviour’; cf. Bk XVII, 18n.

 

119
. Lam. 4, 20.

Other books

The 9/11 Wars by Jason Burke
John Brunner by A Planet of Your Own
El uso de las armas by Iain M. Banks
Beach Season by Lisa Jackson
Wounds by Alton Gansky
Goodbye Ruby Tuesday by A. L. Michael
(2006) When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin
Keeping Victoria's Secret by Melinda Peters
Stranger At The Wedding by Barbara Hambly
The Apartment by S L Grey