or by Arês in her soul:
To that fair lecher, the strong god of arms."[1]
"The weapon pierced the flesh."[2]
He who was terrible in battle, the ally of Zeus against the Titans, is shown to be weaker than Diomedes:
"He raged, as Mars, when brandishing his spear."[3]
Hush! Homer, a god never rages. But you describe the god to me as blood-stained, and the bane of mortals:
"Mars, Mars, the bane of mortals, stained with blood;"[4]
and you tell of his adultery and his bonds:
"Then, nothing loth, th' enamour'd fair he led,
And sunk transported on the conscious bed.
Down rushed the toils."[5]
Do they not pour forth impious stuff of this sort in abundance concerning the gods? Ouranos is castrated; Kronos is bound, and thrust down to Tartarus; the Titans revolt; Styx dies in battle: yea, they even represent them as mortal; they are in love with one another; they are in love with human beings:
"Æneas, amid Ida's jutting peaks,
Immortal Venus to Anchises bore."[6]
Are they not in love? Do they not suffer? Nay, verily, they are gods, and desire cannot touch them! Even though a god assume flesh in pursuance of a divine purpose, is he therefore the slave of desire?
For goddess or for mortal, fill my soul;
Not for Ixion's beauteous wife, who bore
Pirithöus, sage in council as the gods;
Nor the neat-footed maiden Danäe,
Acrisius' daughter, her who Perséus bore,
Th' observ'd of all; nor noble Phœnix' child;
. . . . . nor for Semele;
