XLI ETRUSCAN BELIEFS 89 



of his council, to which he summons the twelve 

 gods as assessors. This bolt is no doubt beneficial, 

 but not without doing damage to some extent. The 

 third kind of bolt is still of Jove s sending, but he 

 summons into council the so-called supreme veiled 

 gods. This bolt causes destruction of what it 

 encounters, and in particular it changes the existing 

 condition of private and public affairs that it finds 

 For fire allows nothing to remain as it is. 



XLII 



TAKING a superficial view one would pronounce i 

 these old beliefs all wrong. What could be more 

 absurd than to believe that Jupiter hurls bolts 

 from the clouds, aiming at pillars, trees, aye, and 

 statues of himself sometimes, or that, passing by 

 the sacrilegious unbelievers, he strikes sheep, 

 sets fire to altars, and smites innocent flocks ? or 

 can one imagine that great Jove should call the 

 gods into council, as if he were himself lacking 

 in counsel ? Or that those bolts bring promise of 

 peace and joy that he hurls unaided, and those 

 cause destruction in whose despatch a greater 

 crowd of deities was concerned? If you ask my 2 

 opinion on the point, however, I may tell you that 

 I do not for a moment suppose those people of old 

 were so obtuse as to believe that Jupiter was evilly 

 disposed or, to say the least of it, insufficiently 

 prepared with his missiles. When he issued fiery 

 bolts to pass over the heads of the wicked and 

 strike the innocent, as is alleged, did he, do you 

 suppose, refuse to send them with truer aim, or did 

 he miss his shot ? If that cannot be the explanation, 



