Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Arnobius/Adversus Gentes/Book III/Chapter XXV

by Arnobius

25. Unxia, my opponent says, presides over the anointing of door-posts; Cinxia over the loosening of the zone; the most venerable Victa^[1] and Potua attend to eating and drinking. O rare and admirable interpretation of the divine powers! would gods not have names^[2] if brides did not besmear their husbands’ door-posts with greasy ointment; were it not that husbands, when now eagerly drawing near, unbind the maiden-girdle; if men did not eat and drink? Moreover, not satisfied to have subjected and involved the gods in cares so unseemly, you also ascribe to them dispositions fierce, cruel, savage, ever rejoicing in the ills and destruction of mankind.

Footnotes

1. The ms. reads Vita.
2. [i.e., these names are derived from their offices to men. Have they no names apart from these services?]