Sister Projects: Wikichristian | WikiMD
BelieversCafe is a large collection of christian articles with over 40,000 pages
Our sponsors:
80 Lit., "must rut"-suriant, as deer. The ms., first four edd., and Elm. read surgant-"rise," corrected as above in the margin of Ursinus.
82 The ms. reads des-, emended as above ded-ignatus by Stewechius, followed by Heraldus and Orelli.
83 i.e., he-goats are made to yield milk.
86 So the ms., both Roman edd., LB., Hild. and Oehler, reading rursus, for which the others receive the emendation of Gelenius, regis-"the king's carelessness."
89 The ms. reads satietati-s objecisset offensi, corrected as above by Hild., (omitting s), followed by Oehler. The conjectures of previous edd. are very harsh and forced.
91 Lit., "herself with sacred, herself with divine."
92 [graw/deij mu/qouj 1 Tim. iv. 7. Compare Ignatius, vol. i. p. 62, note 3. But even the old wives' tales among Hebrews were clean in contrast with the horrible amusements here imputed even to the girls at the loom, and children, among the Gentiles.]
94 i.e., the part cut off and buried separately.
95 So the ms., according to Crusius, the edd. inserting s, di-s-cere-"to learn."
96 Lit., "on firmness of faith."
97 Lit., "sent to public testifying."
98 The festival of Cybele began on the 22d of March, when a pine tree was introduced into the mysteries, and continued until the 27th, which was marked by a general purification (lavatio), as Salmasius observed from a calendar of Constantine the Great. [An equinoctial feast, which the Church deposed by the Paschal observances. March 22 is the prima sedes Paschae.]
99 Lit., "for solace of so great a wound."
100 So Stewechius, followed by Orelli and Oehler, reading quibus Ia for the ms. jam, which would refer the action to Cybele, whereas Arnobius expressly says (c. 7) that it was the newly wedded wife who covered the breast of Attis with wools. Jam is, however, received from the ms. by the other edd., except Hild., who asserts that the ms. reads Iam, and Elmenh., who reads Ion.
101 i.e., priests of Cybele, their names being derived from the Phrygian river Gallus, whose waters were supposed to bring on frenzy ending in self-mutilation.
104 Lit., "and the duty of defence itself."
105 i.e., secret rites, to which only the initiated were admitted.
106 Lit., "which you deliver"-traditis; so Elmenh., LB., and later edd., for the unintelligible ms. tradidisse, retained in both Roman edd.
107 Lit., "deformity affixed to all."
108 ms. fetam f. Cf. i. 36, n. 2, p. 422, supra.
109 So Heraldus, from Plutarch, Rom., 21, where Butas is said to have written on this subject (ai0ti/ai) in elegiacs, for the ms. Putas.
110 Lit., "in like manner and with dissimulation."
111 i.e., heart, lungs, and liver, probably of a sacrifice.
112 i.e., "divination, augury," etc.
113 Vis Lucilii, i.e., semen. [He retails Pliny xxxvi. 27.]
115 So the ms. and edd., reading gens illa, for which Memmius proposed Ilia-"and all the Trojan race."
116 Lit., "riding upon"-inequitare.
119 Lit., "growling"-fremitum.
120 The ms. reads primo, emended as above by the brother of Canterus, followed by later edd.
123 So Ursinus suggested, followed by Stewechius and later edd., concepti foetus revocatur ad curam; the ms. reads concepit-"is softened and conceived," etc.
124 Jupiter may be here called Verveceus, either as an epithet of Jupiter Ammon-"like a wether," or (and this seems most probable from the context), "dealing with wethers"referring to the mode in which he had extricated himself from his former difficulty, or "stupid." The ms. reads virviriceus.
125 Lit., "encountered"-aggressus.
128 Lit., "will any one want."
129 i.e., handed down by antiquity. [Vol. ii. p. 176, this series.]
130 These seem to have been celebrated in honour of Dionysius as well as Zeus, though, in so far as they are described by Arnobius, they refer to the intrigue of the latter only. Macrobius, however (Saturn., i. 18), mentions that in Thrace, Liber and Sol were identified and worshipped as Sebadius: and this suggests that we have to take but one more step to explain the use of the title to Jupiter also.
132 Lit., "that he might be a crop of"-seges, a correction in the margin of Ursinus for the ms. sedes-"a seat."
133 So all edd., reading scenarum (ms. scr-, but r marked as spurious), except LB, followed by Orelli, who gives sentinarum-"of the dregs." Oehler supplies e, which the sense seems to require. [Note our author's persistent scorn of Jove Opt. Max.]
134 Lit., "neigh with appetites of an enraged beast."
135 This clearly refers to the Aeneid, x. 18.
138 So the margin of Ursinus, Elmenh. L.B., Oberth., Orelli, and Oehler, reading molli fimo for the ms. molissimo.
140 Lit., "rage with thunders."
141 So Gelenius, followed by Stewechius and Orelli, reading smilia for the corrupt and unintelligible ms. nullas.
142 Infulae, besides being worn by the priest, adorned the victim, and were borne by the suppliant. Perhaps a combination of the two last ideas is meant to be suggested here.
144 Lit., "under this axis of the world."
145 So the ms., followed by Hild. and Oehler; the other edd. reading gens for mens.
146 Lit., "felt himself to be."
147 Lit., "would the thing not be worthy that angry and roused."
148 i.e., reduce to chaos, in which one thing would not be distinguished from another, but all be mixed up confusedly.
149 Lit., "what are your proper things."
150 Every one since Salmasius (ad solinum, p. 750) has supposed Arnobius to have here fallen into a gross error, by confounding the Eleusinian mysteries with the Thesmophoria; an error the less accountable, because they are carefully distinguished by Clemens Alexandrinus, whom Arnobius evidently had before him, as usual. There seems to be no sufficient reason, however, for charging Arnobius with such a blunder, although in the end of ch. 26 he refers to the story just related as showing the base character of the Eleusinia (Eleusiniorum vestrorum notas); as he here speaks of mysteria (i.e., Eleusinia, cf. Nepos, Alc., 3, 16) et illa divina quae Thesmophoria nominantur a Graecis. It should be remembered also that there was much in common between these mysteries: the story of Ceres' wanderings was the subject of both; in both there was a season of fasting to recall her sadness; both had indecent allusions to the way in which that sadness was dispelled; and both celebrated with some freedom the recovery of cheerfulness by the goddess, the great distinguishing feature of the Thesmophoria being that only women could take part in its rites. Now, as it is to the points in which the two sets of mysteries were at one that allusion is made in the passage which follows, it was only natural that Arnobius should not be very careful to distinguish the one from the other, seeing that he was concerned not with their differences, but with their coincidence. It seems difficult, therefore, to maintain that Arnobius has here convicted himself of so utter ignorance and so gross carelessness as his critics have imagined [Vol. ii. p. 176.]
153 The ms. is utterly corrupt-flammis onere pressas etneis, corrected as above by Gelenius from c. 35., f. comprehensas.-Ael.
155 Lit,, "(they were) earth-born who inhabited."
156 The ms. wants this name; but it has evidently been omitted by accident, as it occurs in the next line.
160 Cinnus, the chief ingredients, according to Hesychius (quoted by Oehler), being wine, honey, water, and spelt or barley. [P. 503, inf.]
161 Lit., "offices of humanity."
162 Lit., "common health." Arnobius is here utterly forgetful of Ceres' divinity, and subjects her to the invariable requirements of nature, from which the divine might be supposed to be exempt.
163 So the conjecture of I.ivineius, adopted by Oehler, gene-t-ri-cum for the ms. genericum.
164 So Stewechius, followed by Oehler, reading redit ita for the ms. redita; the other edd. merely drop a.