ex quibus supplicatum [sc. est] Vulcano et Cereri Proserpinaeque ac propitiata [sc. est] Iuno per matronas, primum in Capitolio, deinde apud proximum mare, unde hausta aqua templum et simulacrum deae perspersum est: ex quibus (the antecedent being Sibyllae libri) refers to the recommendations extrapolated (cf. ex) from the books. They included: (i) appeasing sacrifices to the god of fire, Vulcan; (ii) appeasing sacrifices to the goddess Ceres and her daughter Proserpina (their temples stood in the vicinity of the Circus Maximus near the Aventine Hill, i.e. close to where the fire broke out); (iii) appeasing sacrifices to Juno, first in her temple on the Capitol, then in Ostia at the sea, from where they brought ritually purified sea-water back to Rome for the cleansing of the temple and the cult-statue in the city.
Father And Daughter Incest Avi
But we are to observe with Pausani [...]s, Plotin. de Amo. that as there are two Veneres: the one Heavenly, called Ʋrania, the daughter of Coelum, brought forth without a Mother: the other the daughter of Iupiter and Di [...]ne, Cic. l. 3. de nat. deor. Fulgent. mythol. commonly called Pandemia, or Vulgar: so likewise are there two Amores, Sonnes of these two Godesses; the one Divine, and the other common and vulgar. Of these two kindes of Love, the Supernaturalists and Divines discourse of the essence and properties of the former: and the Physitian of the later. Which againe is either honest or dishonest: they teach the means of preserving the former, during the tearme of Marriage; and prescribe remedies for the cure, and prevention of the Later; with the fury whereof Ignoble and degenerate spirits are for the most part violently carried away.
[Page 18] Love is called by the Greeks [...], with Rhodig. l. 12. c. 37. o, when it signifies generally the desire of any thing, (although Pindarus uses it sometimes for Cupid:) and with [...], when it is to signifie the true Love we treat of. Some say that when it is written with, it signifies Lust, and with o, honest and chast Love. How ever it be, [...], or [...], i [...] is derived by the Etymologists [...], by changing [...], into [...] or else [...], the name of his father Mars: [...] perhaps [...], that is to say, strength or force. For Love is the most powerfull of all the Gods, as Agatho proves it a large in Plato's Conviv: and Lucian tell us, that Love, being as yet but in his cradle, overcame Pan, that is, Nature, [...] wrastling. Vnlesse you will rather have i [...] come from [...], which in Hesiods language signifies, to dedicate, or consecrate Because that he that is deeply in love, devotes and consecrates all his desires, will and actions, to the pleasure of his beloved Mistresse.
This is that undid the faire Deidamia, [...]aughter to Lycomedes, King of the Isle [...]cyros, whom Achilles got with child, being entertained in her fathers house under the habit of a Virgin: and also the beau [...]eous Helen. For from this familiarity, [...]rowing by continually conversing together, they come at length to Revel [...]ngs, Dauncings, Maskings, and other such [...]ke sports and pastimes, which are very dangerous for those that are inclinable to Love. As the Pike, saith Bapt. Mantua [...]us, is the proper weapon of the Macedo [...]ian, the Launce of the Amazons, the [...]avelin of the Romans, and the Arrow of [...]he Persian: so Mirth and Sports are the proper Armes of Cupid; especially that [...]inde of Laughing which is called by the Greeks [...], which, according to Ʋigenerius, signifies a Quaile, or, as Aristotle will have it, a Feildfare. Pausan. in Attic. Cicer. de nat. Deor. And for this cause Venus is called by the Poets, [...], as if we should say, Love- [...]aughter: [...], to Laugh, or Smile: Although Hesiods Scholiast will [Page 50] have it derived from [...], that is, [...], the Privy Members of Saturne, whence the Poets fetch Ʋenus Descent: as also Plato affirmes, in Phaedro. And her sonne Cupid also was drawne by the Painter Praxiteles with a smiling countenance.
But Avenzoar confutes Aristotles opinion Lib. 2. tr. 3. c. 1. by many forcible Arguments; which for brevity's sake I shall omit: only adding in confirmation hereof, the examples of King Masinissa, who got a child when Plin. l. 7. c, 14. he was fourescore yeare old: and Cato the Censor, who did the like at threescore and fifteene. Our Historians goe yet farther, and report for certaine, that Ʋladislaus, [Page 138] King of Polonia, had two sonnes, when he was fourescore and twelve, or thereabout. And Felix Platerus in his Medic. Observat. saies, that his Father had a Daughter at fourescore: and his Fathers great Grand-father had a sonne after he was a hundred yeares old.
Neverthelesse, seeing that Galen, the Prince of Rationall Physitians, Lib. 3. de Dieb. Decret. cap. 5. & 6. seemes to attribute great vertue to the Influences of the Planets over sublunary bodies, and divides [Page 152] them, as the Astrologers doe, into Influences Benigne, & Maligne. And because that many endeavour to prove, that no man can be a good Physitian, without the knowledge of Genethliacall Astrology, which, they say, is grounded on experience, as Physicke is; and hath its Aphorismes, as certaine, as any our Faculty hath: And on the other side againe, there are some that over-superstitiously abhorre the very name of an Astrologer; accounting them to be meere Magitians and Conjurers: I thinke it fit so farre to justify this Art, as to shew the certainty and profit of it, which I shall doe in the ensueing Chapter, and withall shall shew, what use it hath in Physicke: since that Hippocrates saies, that Physick and Astronomy are sisters, and Both daughters of one and the same Father, Apollo.
AStrology, as it is defined by some Philosophers, is a Part of Naturall Arist. 1. Phys. c. 2. Fonsec. 2. Met. c. 3. q. 3. Philosophy, discoursing of the Starres and their motion and Influences: and was found out at first by one Actinus, who Pol. Virg. de Invent. l. 17. c. 17. S. Aug. l. 18. de Civ. Dei. for this cause was surnamed, Solis Filius: or else, as some others will have it, by Mercury; or his Grandfather Atlas, who, for this reason, is fained by the Poets to beare up the Heavens with his shoulders. Servius, on the sixth of Virgils Eclogues, Plin. l. 1. c. 15. & 16. Diod. Sicul. l. 4. attributes the glory of this Invention to Promerheus; Pliny, to the Phoenicians; or else to Iupiter Belus: and Diodorus Siculus, to the Aegyptians; who were first instructed in this science, by the Patriarch Abraham, (as Iosephus in his Iewish Antiquities [Page 154] affirmes:) who, by considering the glory and beauty of the Heavens, [...] richly adorned and bespangled with so in numerable a company of starres, was stirred up to the Contemplation also of the Divine power and goodnesse and Providence: as afterwards, in imitation of him diverse other Philosophers also have been. For Astrology, saith Plato in Timaeo, & in Legib. recalls the minds of men Procl [...]in Cic. de nat. Deor. from Impiety and Atheisme, unto Religion, and the knowledge of one true God, the First Mover, and Principle of all things. And for this cause, Astrology i [...] called by diverse Authors Naturall Theology: and Ptolomy affirmes it to be the Clau. Praefat. in Io. de Sacrob. way and Path that leadeth to the knowledge of one God.
SOme Divines have been of opinion, that Irregular and Melancholy Love, extends its power and Iurisdiction, as farre as to the very Angells, and Divels also: and that this is the reason, why the women are commanded by S. Paul to have their heads covered in the Church. But, by this word Angell, some others will have the Ministers of the Church to be understood; who in their Sanctity of Life should be like unto the Angels: or else perhaps the Apostle meant, by Angels, [Page 207] all good Christians, who by the Integrity of their life, and purity of Conscience, doe differ as much from the common prophaner sort of men, as Angels doe from men. But those that hold the other opinion, urge for themselves that passage in Genesis, where Moses saies, that, the sonnes of God, seeing the daughters of Men, that they were faire, they fell in love with them. In the explication of which place, Iosephus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Justin Martyr, and others, by the Sonnes of God, understand the Angels. Notwithstanding R. Abraham Aben Ezra interprets this place of Vertuous Men, or else the sonnes of Righteous Seth: and by the Daughters of Men, he will have the daughters of wicked Cain to be meant. Rabbi Kimchi thinks that, by the Sonnes of God, men of great stature were meant: and that, according to the Idiotisme and usuall manner of speaking among the Hebrews, who are wont to call those men that are very tall, the Mountaines of God. And this interpretation of his seems also to be confirmed by that which followes; where it is said, that to [Page 208] of these mariages that were made betwixt the Sonnes of God and the Daughters of men, were brought forth Giants.
And for this cause the Ancient Poets fained, that Beauty was the daughter of Iris and Admiration: because that as the Sun, reflecting upon a watry Cloud, deceaves our Eyes, making us beleeve we see diverse various colours, which are not [Page 225] there, but only in Appearance: In like manner is Beauty, nothing else, but a false flash of Raies, which dazle our eyes, when it appeares from among the cloudes of so great variety of Allurements. Whence we may conclude, that the rarest and most excellent Beauties that are, are not such indeed, as they seeme to be; but onely appeare to be so, through the sole defect of the beholders, and through the weaknesse of their Eyes; who commonly judge that woman to be Beautifull, which is of a white complexion, and soft and tender: cleane contrary to the judgement of Galen, who saies, that those are the signes of a False and Counterfeit Beauty; and that true and Native Beauty consists in the just composure, and Symmetry of the Parts of the Body, a due proportion of flesh, & the goodnesse of the Colour. Now he that desires to know whether a body be Proportionable, or no, he must, according to our Anatomists, lay him all along, and cause him to extend his armes and legs equally as farre as he is able: and then taking the Navill for the Center, and measuring him round about, that part that either goes beyond [Page 226] the Circumference of this circle, o [...] else reacheth it not, is to bee accounted Improportionable. Vitruvius saies, that the length of the face from the end of the chinne, to the top of the forehead, is the tenth part of a mans height. If the Body be will set, and strong; it is seven times as long as the Head; & eight or nine times as long, if the body be slender and delicate. The eye-browes joyned together, make up the circle of both the eyes: and so is there a certaine proportion in all the rest of the parts of the Body: as you may read in Equicola, and le sieur de Ʋeyries, in his Genealogy of Love. 2ff7e9595c
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