De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, Book II (the allegory of the wedding), part 2 of 2 (about §§ 141-218)
But the goddess, when she saw that she had drunk the cup of immortality by which, as if by the riddle of a headband, she taught that she was going from the earth to heaven and had been made immortal, crowned the virgin with a certain rustic herb, bidding her cast off everything which, while still mortal, she had fitted as a defense against the power above. For she declared that these were the least things of a perishable and mortal substance. All these her mother took away from her, after she recognized that she had passed beyond worldly pursuits. Then Philologia, with the prepared spice and her own censer, first made supplication to Athanasia, and paid her mother thanks with much sacrifice, because she had neither looked on Vedius with his wife, as Etruria advised, nor feared the Eumenides and the Chaldean marvels, nor burned herself with fire, nor washed herself with water, nor scourged the image of the soul by the dogma of some Syrian, nor, in the rite of the Phasian old man, consecrated immortality wrapped in the hands of Charon under the auspice of death. Meanwhile, being ordered to mount the litter, which, since it seemed to be on a very high platform, she reckoned difficult for herself, not to say impossible, she called together, to accomplish this matter, her nursling, beloved above the rest, leaning on whom she overcame all difficulty of the ascent to the seat; and he, who was called by her Labor, not only lifted her to the top of the litter but, unwearied, went through heaven with his mistress. Indeed, having associated with himself a certain smiling boy, who was not the son of voluptuous Venus and yet was called Love by the wise, they are said to have borne up the litter in front. For at the back Epimelia and Agrypnia, beloved servants of the virgin, lifted it. For so Athanasia had commanded, that both sexes might ascend to heaven with Philologia. As she ascended, the procession of the singing Muses and the venerable multitude of the aforesaid companions went before at once. Periergia, however, accompanied by other attendants and dowry slaves, followed, curiously searching and questioning about everything. But the company with the virgin was approaching the summits of the airy citadel. And behold, the Pronuba of the gods is suddenly announced as arriving, before whom Concord, Faith, and Chastity run ahead.
For Cupid, the allurer of bodily pleasure, although he always flies before her, did not dare to take part in the meetings with Philologia. But when the goddess came into the sight of the bride and, as was the virgin’s custom, she had sacrificed spices, she addressed the goddess with such prayers: ‘Fair Juno, although the heavenly company has given you another name, and we call you Juno from helping, whence we also say Jove; or Lucina, because you grant light to those being born, and it is fitting to call you also Lucetia, for I need not ask for Fluonia and Februalis and Februa, since in my virginity I have borne no bodily contagion; Iterduca and Domiduca, Unxia, Cinxia: mortal maidens ought to call upon you for their marriages, that you may protect their journeys and lead them into the desired homes, and as they anoint the doorposts strike an auspicious omen, and not leave them as they lay aside the girdle in the bridal chambers; those whom you have protected in the peril of childbirth or in war will pray to you as Opigena; the people as Populona; they who wage war ought to name you Quiritis. Here I call you rather Hera, named from the realm of the air: grant me, who ask, to know what this airy expanse, and the fields of living things shining through with atoms running together, bear, and what is said to fly about here of divinities. For I do not ask about the lowness of that air which is traversed by birds, which the summit of Mount Olympus exceeds, which is hardly raised to a height of ten stadia, but I inquire into higher things, and now I think it right to behold whatever I had understood by reading on daemons.’ Here Juno, not resisting the prayers of the one ascending, leads her with her into the airy citadels and thence teaches her the diversities of many powers. ‘Those,’ she said, ‘which we look up to, of fiery and flaming substance, passing down from the very circuit of the ether and the higher sphere as far as the solar circle, are themselves called gods, and are held to be other heaven-dwellers, and they compose the secrets of hidden causes. For they are purer, and the vows of mortal cares do not greatly disturb them, and they are called impassible. There it is most certain that Jove reigns. But within the course of the Sun as far as the lunar globe are the divinities of second blessedness and of a nearly equal power, through whom, however, prophecies, dreams, and prodigies are composed. These cleave the entrails for divination, giving certain warnings; they send voices and speak by augural omens. For the most part they warn those who inquire, either by the course of a star or by the dart of lightning or by the novelty of a portent. But since single ones of these serve each one of the higher gods, by the will of those and by the retinue of these a general presider over all and a special Genius for individual mortals is appointed, whom they have also called Praestes, because he presides over all that is to be done: for to the Genius of the people, too, when the general one is invoked, supplication is made, and each one pays his service to his own governor. And he is called Genius because, when any man has been begotten, he is soon joined to him. This most faithful guardian and brother watches over the minds and souls of all. And since he announces the secrets of thoughts to the higher power, he can also be called Angel. All these the Greeks call daemons, from the word for knowing, and the Latins have named Medioxumi. These are all approved as of a less lucid and shining nature than those celestials, as you see. Yet they are not so corporeal as to be caught by the gaze of men. Here, then, dwell the Lares; here, after the bond of the members, the purer souls, which for the most part, if they are exalted by excellence of merits, cross even the circle of the sun and the flaming barriers. Then from the lunar circle as far as the earth, whatever intervening space lies between is distinguished by its own partition, and the middle space poured in is separated from the lunar orb. But the upper portion encloses, as you see, those whom they call half-gods, and whom in Latin it is fitting to call Semones or Semidei. These bear heavenly souls and sacred minds, and under human form are begotten for the advantage of the whole world, who indeed for the most part made proof of the heavenly ones by a miracle of their own: as at the birth of Hercules the service of the doubled night, and the same, as a child, strangling the serpents, approved the power of the divinity; Tages leaped out in the furrows and at once showed the rite of the nation and the Etruscan sign; Hammon appeared with ram’s horns and a woolen garment and showed the water of a fountain to the thirsty. Why should I speak of those who first furnished mortals with the use of things and greater advantages? As Dionysus among the Thebans taught the vine, Osiris among the Egyptians, discovering the drink of wine and its use, Isis in Egypt, Triptolemus among the Attic people grain. And the same Isis showed the use of flax and the sowing. To Pilumnus Italy assigns the crushing of grain and the fragments of spelt. Greece ascribes medicine to Asclepius. Other men of this kind were also begotten for the use of divination and foreknowledge, as Carmentis in Arcadia, remembered for the song poured forth in prophecies, the Sibyl, either the Erythraean or she who is the Cumaean or the Phrygian: whom you are not unaware were not ten, as they assert, but two, that is, Herophila the Trojan, daughter of Marmensus, and Symmachia, daughter of Hippotes, who, born at Erythrae, prophesied also at Cumae. From this power of divining Amphiaraus and Mopsus were celebrated. But from the middle of the air as far as the borders of the mountains and the earth the Demigods and Heroes dwell, who from the fact that the ancients called the earth hera were named Heroes. And there the Manes, that is, presiders over the body of the Lunar, were assigned, who flowed forth from the seeds of the parents. Finally all this diffusion of the air from the moon stands under the power of Pluto, who is also called Summanus, as if the highest of the Manes. Here the Moon, who presides over this air, is called Proserpina. But those Manes, since they are assigned to bodies at the time when the first conception takes place, also after life delight in the same bodies and, remaining with them, are called Lemures. These, if they have been helped by the honorable character of their former life, are turned into the Lares of houses and cities.
‘But if they are depraved by the body, they are called Larvae and Maniae. Manes, therefore, here are established, as good as they are fierce, whom the Greek distinction records as good and evil daemons. In these places, too, dwell the Summanes and their presiders Mana and Mantuona, the gods also whom they call Aquili, likewise Fura and Furina and mother Mania and Intemperiae and other thripes of the divinities. But around the very circle of the earth the air, disturbed by heat from above and by exhalation and moisture from below, by a certain flowing surge colliding with the souls issuing from bodies, does not easily suffer them to fly out. Hence the skill of poetic shadowing alluded to the tract of Pyriphlegethon, and in it, rolled in perennial din, are dashed the souls whom Vedius, that is Pluto, has adjudged for impiety, whom they have also called Dis and Veiovis. The very earth also, where it is impassable to men, the choirs of the long-lived fill: they who dwell in woods, groves, lakes, fountains, and rivers, and are called Pans, Fauns, Fontes, Satyrs, Silvani, Nymphs, Fatui and Fatuae, or Fantuae, or also Fanae, from whom the fana are named because they are wont to divine. All these die after a long age like men, but yet have a most present power of foreseeing, of rushing upon, and of harming. Among the former Genii, therefore, your goddess, still the mortal virgin, will take her place. For behold, ethereal Juno, or Vesta, is here for you,’ as she now bids the immortal goddess, saying: ‘Be beloved in the council of Jove.’ And at last she takes a part from the virgin’s censer. Then the bearers of the goddess, seizing the litter, bore her up with great effort. But after they had ascended, carried by airy lightness, a hundred and twenty-six thousand stadia, and had completed the first tone of the heavenly sounds, the virgin, having entered the lunar circle, while she supplicated with the fumes suited to the goddess, beholds near at hand a certain globular and tender body, compacted of the lightness of upper dew, gleaming like a mirror, reflecting the rays of a darting brightness. In it appeared the Nilotic sistra, the Eleusinian torch, the bow of Dictynna, and the tympana of Cybele. A triform and many-colored whirl also glowed with a certain terrible majesty. Which, though believed to be horned and rough, yet, favorable to heapings, displayed in its faces both a cat and a deer and twice-two turnings.
Thence, in the middle of the way, having ascended as far as the moon, she came to the circle of Cyllenius. The semitone having been crossed, a manifold people of servants, rejoicing, ran to meet her, as to a bride and mistress. Among whom a woman of shining form and bearing, rich in adornments of ready abundance, having greeted the virgin, came, trusting, as far as her kiss. But that multitude of attendants, which, as a certain Syrian asserts, had been fixed at the number of two thousand, wondered that the woman whom the Etruscans said had been wedded to the god Cyllenius himself, touched by no jealousy at all, had embraced and clasped the virgin. This was Facundia, for that was her name, and she declared that she had been born and reared in Philologia’s household, and that it was not unworthy that the nursling had been preferred before her, who had always furnished her both adornment and nourishment with many disciplines. There came also a certain comely and most modest girl, who was presider and guardian of the Cyllenian house, but was called Themis or Astraea or Erigone: she brought ears of grain in her hand and a tablet carved of ebony with devices of such kind. In the middle was an Egyptian bird, which is called Ibis by the natives. But with the cap the head and most beautiful face seemed to appear, which the coil of a twin serpent licked. Beneath was a certain shining rod, whose head was gilded, the middle gray-blue, the end pitch-black.
Under the right hand a tortoise and a threatening scorpion, on the left a she-goat. But a crested bird, which is milder than the oscines, she struck up in the trials of contest. The Ibis itself bears the previously noted name of a certain Memphitic month. When the virgin recognized that this tablet had been brought to her, she venerated it, and though she recognized it as the device of her bridegroom, yet did not dare to pass by without supplication. Then also the whiter one of the Atlantides, advanced by the union with Jove and the summit of her pledge, came up, who indeed did not deign to appear even in the office of daughter-in-law without the balance, the scales. Whom the virgin venerated, since she recognized her as sufficiently associated with her son, and she began to honor her with two sacrificial animals dedicated to the one powerful in gains. Hence the ascent is hastened, and she flies over a semitone as far as the circle of Venus, and having besought Venus herself, who was favoring the marriage, as far as was fitting, this is reported to have been observed in her: that, though very beautiful, yet encircled with dragons and often plucked at the hair, she reconciles those who meet her in double-sided generation. Soon the effort is directed toward the solar circle, for she was wearied by the ascent of a sesquialter, which was reckoned as a tone and a half. There she beholds a certain ship, steering by diverse desire the courses of all nature, and wholly full of the heaping of flames, driven about with blessed merchandise. Seven sailors, brothers yet like themselves, presided over it. On the prow the form of a cat was depicted, a lion’s on the tree, a crocodile’s at the extremity. In the same vessel a certain fountain of ethereal light, flowing with secret streams, was poured out into the lights of the whole world. Having seen this, Philologia rose and, supplicating with all veneration and closing her eyes a little, addressed the god with such prayers: ‘High power of the unknown Father, or first offspring, sense-giving fuel, fountain of mind, origin of light, kingdom of nature, glory and assertion of the gods, eye of the world, brightness of shining Olympus, to whom it is permitted to behold the Father beyond the world and to look upon the great god, whom the circle of ether obeys and you govern the orb with immense impulses: for you run the middle way, alone giving friendly temperateness to the higher ones, driving and restraining the sacred stars of the gods when you add law to their courses; hence it is that you have the right to run in the fourth circle, that the number may be approved to you by perfect reason: do you not from the beginning give the twofold tetrachord? The Latin race calls you Sol because you alone, after the Father, are the summit of light in honor, and they say that the head consecrated with rays bears golden lights twice six, because you complete as many months and as many hours. They say you guide four winged steeds with reins, because you alone tame the quadriga which the elements give. For you keep off darkness and uncover the sky-blue with light, hence they call you Phoebus, revealing the hidden things of the future, or because you dissolve nocturnal sins. The Nile and Memphis venerate you as Iseum, Serapis, Osiris, with discordant rites; as Mithras and Dis and fierce Typhon; the fair Attis likewise, and the boy kindly of the curved plough, Ammon of arid Libya and Byblian Adon. So the whole world calls you together by varied names. Hail, true face of the gods and paternal countenance, by eight and six hundred numbers, whose triple letter conforms the sacred cognomen and omen of mind. Grant, Father, that my mind ascend the ethereal assemblies and know the star-bearing heaven under the sacred name.’
These things having been heard, she was bidden to pass through the seats of the gods. But, lifted by a semitone, the circle of Pyrois delays her, in which had been Jove’s greatest son. From this circle the river Pyriphlegethon was seen flowing down to the lower world. Having passed this (for it was no labor to run across the interposed semitone), they came to the gleams of the Jovian star, whose circle resounded with the Phrygian note. There was a star of life-giving and healthful temperament, shining and quivering with gentle whiteness. The nature of its light, glowing from hot and moist mixtures, gleamed with a certain calm of prosperity. But there the star of Jove, for he himself, lighting up the members of the whole world, was said to have come to the empire of the gods and the assembled senate. Passing beyond this circle too, and rising by a like interval, she beheld the sternest creator of the gods clinging in the cold and the snowy frosts; yet the very orb which she strove to go round rang with a Dorian melody. But to its very ruler there appeared now the face of a dragon, now the gape of a lion, now crests with boar’s tusks, and he raged with a wholly deadly horror, though his power, by the greatness of his circuit, was held greater and set before the others. At last, terrified by harpies and by the booming, the virgin fled from so intolerable an encounter. Thence with the greatest efforts they are borne up by a sesquialter journey. For by a tone and a half one comes to the globe of the heavenly sphere itself and its circuit paneled with stars. And so, in six tones of ascent, wearied by the fatigue of the stadia, when they perceived that all they had traversed sounded together in the diapason concord with the perfection of a complete modulation, refreshed after their greatest labors, they rested a little. Philologia herself too, leaping down from the litter, when she beheld the immense fields of light and the springtime of ethereal calm, and now discerned so many diversities and the forms of the decans, then marveled that eighty-four ministers stood in the heaven, and saw besides the gleaming globes of the crowded stars and the webs of the circles bound alternately together, and the sphere itself, which restrains the outermost circuit, driven with wondrous rushings, and the poles and the axis quivering from the summit of heaven passing through the deep earth, and the whole mass and engine of heaven turned by it; not unaware that the Father and God of so great a work and so great a design had withdrawn even from the knowledge of the gods itself, since she knew that he had passed beyond the extramundane breadths, rejoicing in a certain empyrean and intellectual world: pressing close on her knees at the very wall of the outermost circuit, and with the whole edge of her mind drawn tight, she long prays in silence, and, after the manner of the ancients, calling aloud in the voice of the mind certain names, varied in number according to discordant nations, unknown in sound, inspired by letters yoked and alternated, she venerates in words the presiding gods of the intellectual world and their ministers, to be venerated among the powers of the sensible sphere, and the whole universe enclosed in the depth of the infinite Father; and she asks for certain three gods and others radiant on the seventh of day and night. She also entreats a certain fountain-virgin, according to the mysteries of Plato too, and these powers. Having prayed for a very long time with her whole heart to the flower of fire and to that truth existing from things not existing, she then seemed to discern her apotheosis and to have deserved the sacred rites. For certain whitenesses of a milky stream flowed down, blazing with stars, along its course. Rejoicing, therefore, and having testified her thanks, she turned her journey to the Galaxy, where she knew the senate of the gods had been gathered by Jove. There was there the house of Jove, which by its wondrous greatness possessed the circuit of the world, surpassed the gleam of the stars in conspicuous beauty, and by the obliquity of its position crossed the zodiacal circle. Besides, it shone with such splendor that it was believed fashioned of silver; there the shining enclosures and the fenced summit gleamed white with snowy borders.
There Jupiter, already seated with Juno and all the gods on a lofty dais and milk-white benches, awaited the bridal arrival. As soon as he heard the voices of the Muses and the sweet melodies in their discordant songs as the virgin approached, he commanded Cyllenius to come first, and with him Liber and Delius, faithful and most loving brothers, Hercules also, both of the Castors and Gradivus, and whatever of the gods was begotten of Jove, clung to Cyllenius’s service. The presiders of the elements, too, and the most beautiful multitude of the angelic people, and besides these the souls of the blessed ancients, who had already deserved the temples of heaven, followed the steps of Maia’s son. You might have seen Linus, Homer and the Mantuan bard, garlanded and singing; Orpheus and Aristoxenus sounding on strings; Plato and Archimedes rolling golden spheres. Heraclitus was burning, Thales dripping wet, Democritus appeared surrounded with atoms. Samian Pythagoras repeated certain heavenly numbers, Aristotle searched more scrupulously even through the heights of heaven for the Entelechy, Epicurus brought roses mixed with violets and all the allurements of pleasure. Zeno led a woman, Providence; Arcesilas gazed at a dove-like neck; and besides, a great crowd of cloaked philosophers clamored in conflicting pursuits, all of whom, though they made a din, could not be heard among the songs of the Muses singing together, nor make any echo. Cyllenius, therefore, coming and entering, all that senate of the gods rose, venerating the head of him who entered. Jupiter himself placed him in the middle beside his own seat, with Pallas allied on the right. And after no long interval Philologia herself also, surrounded by the Muses and her mother going before, is summoned. As she entered, and the attendant of Vesta, nurse of the gods, poured back that fragrant censer of spice, all that order of the heaven-dwellers, assigning to itself the portions fitting, rejoiced in the Arabian breaths. But the virgin, as she is modest in all things, although she was bidden by Jove to sit at his side, yet preferred to sit where she had seen the Muses, near the company of Pallas. Then the virgin’s mother rose and asked of Jove and all the gods that, in the sight of all, whatever Maia’s son had prepared under the name of betrothal gifts be handed over, and that the dowry should at last not be lacking from the virgin, and that they should then permit the tablets and the Papian and Poppaean law to be recited. To her most just petition the senate of the gods granted that the gifts be approved as offered in the assembly of the heaven-dwellers. Here Phoebus rises, not refusing his brother’s office, and begins to bring forward one by one those of the household and choice of Cyllenius, who shone forth as beautiful as they were most richly adorned. Reader, a great part of the tale has been run through, which, entangled in such slow windings, has forced the lamp to flicker with its thin light, the twilight pressing on; and had not Aurora reddened the couches with roses, making them lovely with her first breath, and, rising, cleft the windows with light, the yoked page would still be preparing a wider circle wherever drawn. Now, therefore, the fable is ended; the liberal arts who follow will maintain it. For with true fruit they remove everything feigned, and will note sober disciplines for the most part, nor will they forbid sport. You have what is at hand, if the power of the heaven-dwellers favor, and the Muses and the Latonian lyre.