402 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



fome of them were called mew the pitiful conception en* 

 tertained of them by their adorers. What names more 

 unworthy of divinity than thofe of Jupiter Piftor, Venus 

 Calva, Pecunia Caca, Subigus and Cloacina? Who 

 would ever think that a flame formed by Tatius in the 

 principal fink of Rome was to become a goddefs with 

 the name of Cloacina ? This was certainly a mockery of 

 their religion, and rendering the very gods whom they 

 adored, vile and contemptible. 



But the Greeks and Romans fhewed the opinion they 

 had of their gods in nothing more flrong'ly than the vices 

 which they afcribed to them. Their whole mythology 

 is a long feries of crimes : the whole life of their gods 

 was compofed of enmities, revenge, incefl:, adultery, 

 and other bafe paflions, capable of defaming the mod 

 degenerate of men. Jove, that omnipotent father, that 

 beginning of all things, that king of men and of gods as 

 the poets call him, appears fometimes difguifed as a man 

 to threat with Alcmena, fometimes as a fatyr to enjoy 

 Antiope, fometimes as a bull to ravifh Europa, fome- 

 times as a fwan to abufe Leda, and fometimes in a fhow- 

 er of gold to corrupt Danae, and at other times afTumes 

 other forms to accomplifh his guilty defigns. In the 

 mean time the great goddefs Juno, mad with jealoufy, 

 thinks of nothing but having revenge of her difloyal 

 hufband. Of the fame ftamp were the other immortal 

 gods ; efpecially the dii majores, or Me£t gods, as they 

 were called by them ; felecl, fays St. Auguflin, for the 

 fuperiority of their vices, not for the excellence of their 

 virtues. But what good examples could thofe nations 

 imitate in the gods, who, while they boafred to teach 

 virtue to men, had nothing confecrated but their vices ? 

 What merits obtained deification to Leena among the 



Greeks, 



