Commodianus, Instructiones

Idola si uana relinquantur neque colantur.

if empty idols are abandoned and are not worshipped.

III. CVLTVRA DAEMONVM.

III. THE WORSHIP OF DEMONS.

Cum- m Deus / omnipotens exornasset mundi naturam,

When God almighty had adorned the nature of the world,

Visitari uoluit terram ab angelis istam;

he wished this earth to be visited by angels;

Legitima cuius spreuerunt illi dimissi;

his laws they, once sent down, despised;

Tanta fuit forma feminarum, quae flecteret illos.

so great was the beauty of women that it turned them aside.

Vt coinquinati non possunt caelo redire,

Since, defiled, they cannot return to heaven,

Rebelles ex illo contra Deum uerba misere.

rebels from then on, they hurled words against God.

Altissimus inde sententiam misit in illis;

Thereupon the Most High sent his sentence upon them;

De semine quorum Gigantes nati feruntur.

from their seed the Giants are said to have been born.

Ab ipsis in term artis prolatae fuere,

By them arts were brought forth on earth,

Et tingere lanas docuerunt et quaeque geruntur,

and they taught the dyeing of wool and everything that is done;

Mortales et illi mortuos simulacro ponebant.

They too were mortal, and set up the dead as images.

Omnipotens autem, quod essent de semine prauo,.

But the Almighty, because they were of a depraved seed,

Non censuit illos recipi defunctos e morte.

did not decree that, once dead, they be taken back from death.

Vnde modo uagi subuertunt corpora multa;

Hence now, wandering, they overthrow many bodies;

Maxime quos hodie colitis et deos oratis.

it is chiefly they whom today you worship and pray to as gods.

IIII. SATVRNVS.

IV. SATURN.

Saturnusque senex si deus, deus quando senescit?

And Saturn the old man, if a god: when does a god grow old?