Lactantius — Divine Institutes 1.15
From which things, since it is established that those were humans, it is not obscure by what reason they began to be named gods. For if there were no kings before Saturn or Uranus because of humans' scarcity—who lived a rural life without any ruler—there is no doubt that in those times humans began to honor the king himself and the whole clan with highest praises and new honors, so that they even called them gods, whether because of a marvel of virtue—which the still rude and simple truly thought—or, as usually happens, in flattery of present power, or because of benefits by which they were fitted for civilized life.
Then the kings themselves, when they had been dear to those whose life they had ordered, left a great longing for themselves when dead. And so humans fashioned their images, that they might have some consolation from contemplating likenesses, and going further began through love to cultivate the memory of the deceased, that they both might seem to return favor to the well-deserving and might draw successors to desire of ruling well. Which Cicero teaches On the Nature of the Gods, saying: But the life of humans and common custom took it up, that by fame and willing they should lift into heaven men outstanding in benefits. Hence Hercules, hence Castor and Pollux, hence Aesculapius, hence Liber. And elsewhere: And in most cities it can be understood that for the sake of sharpening virtue, or that each best man might more gladly meet danger for the republic, the memory of brave men has been consecrated with the honor of the immortal gods.
By this reason of course the Romans consecrated their Caesars and the Moors their kings. Thus little by little religions began to exist, while those first who knew them imbued their children and grandchildren, then all posterity, with that rite, and at last these highest kings because of the celebrity of the name were worshiped in all provinces. But privately each peoples worshiped with highest veneration the founders of their clan or city—whether men notable for fortitude or women marvelous for chastity—as Egypt Isis, the Moors Juba, Macedonians Cabirus, Carthaginians Urania, Latins Faunus, Sabines Sancus, Romans Quirinus; and in the same way Athens Minerva, Samos Juno, Paphos Venus, Lemnos Vulcan, Naxos Liber, Delos Apollo. Thus through peoples and regions varied rites were taken up, while humans desire to be grateful to their princes and cannot find what other honors to confer on those lacking life.
Moreover the piety of those who succeeded contributed most to the error: who, that they might seem born of divine stock, conferred divine honors on parents and ordered them conferred. Or can anyone doubt how the religions of the gods were instituted, when in Vergil he reads Aeneas's words commanding his companions: Now pour bowls to Jupiter and call with prayers Anchises the father—? To whom he attributed not only immortality but even power over winds: Let us ask the winds, and may he wish that these rites yearly, with a city founded, be brought to him in dedicated temples. The same of course Liber and Pan and Mercury and Apollo did concerning Jupiter, and afterward their successors concerning these themselves. Poets also came and with songs composed for pleasure lifted them into heaven, as those do who flatter even bad kings with lying panegyrics. Which evil arose from the Greeks, whose lightness, equipped with faculty and abundance of speaking, it is incredible what clouds of lies it raised. And so admiring them they both first took up their rites and handed them to all nations. For this vanity the Sibyl so rebukes them: Greece, why do you trust in leader-men? And why do you furnish empty gifts to the perished? Do you sacrifice to idols? Who put this error in your mind, to do these things having left the face of the great God?
Marcus Tullius, who was not only a finished orator but also a philosopher—since he alone stood out as Plato's imitator—in that book in which he consoled himself on his daughter's death did not doubt to say that the gods who are publicly worshiped had been humans. Which testimony of his ought to be judged most weighty, because he both held the augural priesthood and testifies that he himself worships and venerates the same. And so within a few little verses he gave us two things. For while he professes he will consecrate his daughter's image in the same way those were consecrated by the ancients, he both taught that those are dead and showed the origin of empty superstition.
But when he says: And since we see many males and females from humans to be in the number of the gods and venerate their most august shrines in cities and fields, let us assent to the wisdom of those by whose talents and discoveries we have all life cultivated and established with laws and institutions. But if any animal ever was to be consecrated, that one certainly was. If Cadmus's offspring or Amphitryon's or Tyndareus's was to be lifted to heaven by fame, to this one the same honor is certainly to be dedicated. Which indeed I will do and, with the immortal gods themselves approving, I will consecrate you, best and most learned of all, placed in their assembly to the opinion of all mortals. Perhaps someone may say Cicero raved from excessive grief. And yet that whole speech, finished with teaching and examples and the very manner of speaking, was of a firm mind and judgment, not a sick one, and this very sentence shows no mark of pain.
What of this—that the same says in the books On the Republic, the same On Glory? For On the Laws, in which work following Plato he wished to set laws which he thought a just and wise city would use, he thus ordained about religion: Let them worship the divine ones and those who have always been held heavenly, and those whom merits have placed in heaven—Hercules, Liber, Aesculapius, Castor, Pollux, Quirinus. Likewise in the Tusculans, when he said almost the whole heaven was filled with the human race: But if, he says, I try to search the old and dig from them those things which Greece's writers handed down, those very gods of the greater clans who are held will be found to have set out from us into heaven. Wherefore since tombs are shown in Greece, remember, since you are initiated, what is handed in the mysteries: then at last you will understand how widely this extends. He clearly attested Atticus's knowledge, that from the mysteries themselves it can be understood that all those who are worshiped were humans.
And when he unhesitatingly confessed about Hercules, Liber, Aesculapius, Castor, Pollux, about Apollo and Jupiter their fathers, likewise about Neptune, Vulcan, Mars, Mercury—whom he called gods of the greater clans—he feared to attempt openly. And therefore he says this extends widely, that we may understand the same about Jupiter and the other older gods, whose memory if the ancients consecrated by the same reason by which he says he will consecrate his daughter's image and name, pardon can be given to the grieving, not to the believing. For who is so mad as to think heaven is opened to the dead by the consensus and vote of countless fools, or that someone can give another what he himself does not have? Among the Romans Julius is a god because this pleased the criminal man Antony; Quirinus is a god because this seemed good to shepherds—when the one was the twin brother's killer, the other the fatherland's parricide.
Latin
Quibus ex rebus cum constet illos homines fuisse, non est obscurum qua ratione dii coeperint nominari. si enim nulli reges ante Saturnum uel Uranum fuerunt propter hominum raritatem, qui agrestem uitam sine ullo rectore uiuebant, non est dubium quin illis temporibus homines regem ipsum totamque gentem mactare summis laudibus ac nonis honoribus coeperint, ut etiam deos appellarent siue ob miraculum uirtutis — hoc uere putabant rudes adhuc et simplices — siue, ut fieri solet, in adulationem praesentis potentiae siue ob beneficia quibus erant ad humanitatem conpositi. deinde ipsi reges cum cari fuissent iis quorum uitam composuerant, magnum sui desiderium mortui reliquerunt. itaque homines eorum simulacra finxerunt, ut haberent aliquod ex imaginum contemplatione solacium, progressique longius per amorem memoriam defunctorum colere coeperunt, ut et gratiam referre bene meritis uiderentur et successores eorum adlicerent ad bene imperandi cupiditatem. quod Cicero de natura deorum docet dicens: suscepit autem uita hominum consuetudoque communis, ut beneficiis excellentis uiros in caelum fama ac uoluntate tollerent. hinc Hercules, hinc Castor, hinc Pollux, hinc Aesculapius, hinc Liber. et alio loco: atque in plerisque ciuitatibus intellegi potest acuendae uirtutis gratia aut quo libentius rei publicae causa periculum adiret optimus quisque, uirorum fortium memoriam honore deorum inmortalium consecratam. hac scilicet ratione Romani Caesares suos consecrauerunt et Mauri suos reges. sic paulatim religiones esse coeperunt, dum illi primi qui eos nouerant eo ritu suos liberos ac nepotes, deinde omnes posteros imbuerunt, et hi tandem summi reges ob celebritatem nominis in prouinciis omnibus colebantur. priuatim uero singuli populi gentis aut urbis suae conditores, seu uiri fortitudine insignes erant seu feminae castitate mirabiles, summa ueneratione coluerunt, ut Aegyptus Isidem, Mauri Iubam, Macedones Cabirum, Poeni Uraniam, Latini Faunum, Sabini Sancum, Romani Quirinum, eodem utique modo Athenae Mineruam, Samos Iunonem, Paphos Venerem, Vulcanum Lemnos, Liberum Naxos, Apollinem Delos. sic per populos atque regiones uaria sacra suscepta sunt, dum homines grati esse in suos principes cupiunt et quos alios honores uita carentibus deferant, inuenire non possunt. praeterea pietas eorum qui successerant plurimum contulit ad errorem: qui ut • diuina stirpe nati uiderentur, diuinos honores parentibus detulerunt deferrique iusserunt. an potest aliquis dubitare, quomodo religiones deorum sint institutae, cum apud Maronem legat Aeneae uerba sociis imperantis: nunc pateras libate Ioui precibusque uocate Anchisen genitorem — ? cui non tantum immortalitatem, uerum etiam uentorum tribuit potestatem: poscamus uentos, atque haec me sacra quotannis urbe uelit posita templis sibi ferre dicatis. idem scilicet de Ioue Liber et Pan et Mercurius et Apollo fecerunt ac postea de his ipsis successores eorum. accesserunt etiam poetae et compositis ad uoluptatem carminibus in caelum eos sustulerunt, sicut faciunt qui apud reges etiam malos panegyricis mendacibus adulantur. quod malum a Graecis ortum est, quorum leuitas instructa dicendi facultate et copia incredibile est quantas mendaciorum nebulas excitauerit. itaque admirati eos et susceperunt primi sacra illorum et uniuersis gentibus tradiderunt. ob hanc uanitatem Sibylla sic eos increpat: Ἑλλὰς δὴ, τί πέποιθας ἐπ᾽ ἀνδράσιν ἡγεμόνεσσι; πρὸς τί δὲ δῶρα μάταια καταφθιμένοις πορίζεις; θύεις εἰδώλοις; τίς σοι πλάνον ἐν φρεσὶ θῆκεν ταῦτα τελεῖν προλιπόντα θεοῦ μεγάλοιο πρόσωπον . M. Tullius, qui non tantum perfectus orator, sed etiam philosophus fuit, siquidem solus extitit Platonis imitator, in eo libro quo se ipse de morte filiae consolatus est, non dubitauit dicere deos qui publice colerentur homines fuisse. quod ipsius testimonium eo debet grauissimum iudicari, quod et augurale habuit sacerdotium et eosdem se colere uenerarique testatur. itaque intra paucos uersiculos duas res nobis dedit. nam dum imaginem filiae eodem se modo consecraturum esse profitetur quo illi a ueteribus sint consecrati, et illos mortuos esse docuit et originem uanae superstitionis ostendit. cum uero inquit et mares et feminas complures ex hominibus in deorum numero esse uideamus et eorum in urbibus atque agris augustissima delubra ueneremur, adsentiamur eorum sapientiae quorum ingeniis et inuentis omnem uitam legibus et institutis excultam constitutamque habemus. quod si ullum umquam animal consecrandum fuit, illud profecto fuit. si Cadmi progenies aut Amphitryonis aut Tyndari in caelum tollenda fama fuit, huic idem honos certe dicandus est. quod quidem faciam teque omnium optimam doctissimam adprobantibus diis inmortalibus ipsis in eorum coetu locatam ad opinionem omnium mortalium consecrabo. fortasse dicat aliquis prae nimio luctu delirasse Ciceronem. atquin illa omnis oratio et doctrina et exemplis et ipso loquendi genere perfecta non aegri, sed constantis animi ac iudicii fuit et haec ipsa sententia nullum praefert indicium doloris. neque enim puto illum tali uarie, tam copiose, tam ornate scribere potuisse, nisi luctum eius et ratio ipsa et consolatio amicorum et longitudo temporis mitigasset. quid quod idem dicit in libris de re publica, idem de gloria? nam de legibus, quo in opere Platonem secutus leges uoluit ponere, quibus putaret usuram esse iustam et sapientem ciuitatem, de religione ita sanxit: diuos et eos qui caelestes semper habiti sunt colunto et ollos quos endo caelo merita locauerunt, Herculem Liberum Aesculapium Castorem Pollucem Quirinum. item in Tusculanis, cum diceret totum paene caelum humano genere conpletum, si uero inquit scrutari uetera et ex illis ea quae scriptores Graeciae prodiderunt eruere coner, ipsi illi maiorum gentium di qui habentur hinc a nobis profecti in caelum reperientur. quare quoniam demonstrantur sepulchra in Graecia, reminiscere, quoniam es initiatus, quae tradantur mysteriis: tum denique quam hoc late pateat intelleges. testatus est uidelicet Attici conscientiam, ex ipsis mysteriis intellegi posse quod omnes illi homines fuerint qui coluntur, et cum de Hercule Libero Aesculapio Castore Polluce incunctanter fateretur, de Apolline ac Ioue patribus eorum, item de Neptuno Uulcano Marte Mercurio, quos maiorum gentium deos appellauit, timuit aperte coner. et idcirco ait late hocpatere, ut idem de Ioue ceterisque antiquioribus diis intellegamus, quorum memoriam si eadem ratione ueteres consecrauerunt, qua se imaginem nomenque filiae consecraturum esse dicit, ignosci maerentibus potest, credentibus non potest. quis enim tam demens, qui consensu et plaCitO innumerabilium stultorum aperiri caelum mortuis arbitretur aut aliquem quod ipse non habeat dare alteri posse? apud Romanos deus Iulius, quia hoc scele- rato homini placuit Antonio, deus Quirinus, quia hoc pastoribus uisum est, cum alter gemini fratris extiterit, alter patriae parricida. quodsi non consul fuisset Antonius, Gaius Caesar pro suis in rem publicam meritis etiam defuncti hominis honore caruisset, et quidem consilio Pisonis soceri et Lucii Caesaris propinqui, qui uetabant funus ei fieri, et Dolabellae consulis, qui columnam in foro id est tumulum eius euertit ac forum expiauit. nam Romulum desiderio suis fuisse declarat Ennius, apud quem populus amissum regem dolens haec loquitur: o Romule, Romule die, qualem te patriae custodem di genuerunt! tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras, o pater, o genitor, o sanguen dis oriundum. ob hoc desiderium facilius creditum est Iulio Proculo mentienti, qui subornatus a patribus est, ut nuntiaret plebi uidisse se regem humano habitu augustiorem eumque mandasse ad populum, ut sibi delubrum fieret, se deum esse et Quirinum uocari. quo facto et ipsi populo persuasit Romulum ad deos abisse et senatum suspicione caedis regiae liberauit.