L/UCRETIUS\ was plainly seduced by the strong appearance of
allegory, which is observable in the pagan fictions. He first
addresses himself to V/ENUS\ as to that generating power, which
animates, renews, and beautifies the universe: But is soon betrayed
by the mythology into incoherencies, while he prays to that
allegorical personage to appease the furies of her lover M/ARS\; An
idea not drawn from allegory, but from the popular religion, and
which L/UCRETIUS\, as an E/PICUREAN\, could not consistently admit
of.
The deities of the vulgar are so little superior to human
creatures, that, where men are affected with strong sentiments of
veneration or gratitude for any hero or public benefactor, nothing
can be more natural than to convert him into a god, and fill the
heavens, after this manner, with continual recruits from among
mankind. Most of the divinities of the ancient world are supposed to
have once been men, and to have been beholden for their
to the admiration and affection of the people. The real history of
their adventures, corrupted by tradition, and elevated by the
marvellous, become a plentiful source of fable; especially in
passing through the hands of poets, allegorists, and priests, who
successively improved upon the wonder and astonishment of the
ignorant multitude.
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