resembles that of cattle, and they themselves have the form of brutes, and are ugly to behold?
Chap. xxi.—Impure loves ascribed to the gods.
But should it be said that they only had fleshly forms, and possess blood and seed, and the affections of anger and sexual desire, even then we must regard such assertions as nonsensical and ridiculous; for there is neither anger, nor desire and appetite, nor procreative seed, in gods. Let them, then, have fleshly forms, but let them be superior to wrath and anger, that Athênâ may not be seen
"Burning with rage and inly wroth with Jove;"[1]
nor Hera appear thus:
"Juno's breast
Could not contain her rage."[2]
And let them be superior to grief:
"A woful sight mine eyes behold: a man
I love in flight around the walls! My heart
For Hector grieves."[3]
For I call even men rude and stupid who give way to anger and grief. But when the "father of men and gods" mourns for his son,
"Woe, woe! that fate decrees my best belov'd
Sarpedon, by Patroclus hand to fall;"[4]
and is not able while he mourns to rescue him from his peril:
"The son of Jove, yet Jove preserv'd him not;"[5]
who would not blame the folly of those who, with tales like these, are lovers of the gods, or rather, live without any god? Let them have fleshly forms, but let not Aphrodité be wounded by Diomedes in her body:
"The haughty son of Tydeus, Diomed,
Hath wounded me;"[6]
