M. C. 12

178 BOOK I CH. XXVIII § 77.
ut essent simulacra. The second explanation of anthropomorphism is no better than the first. The images which bring the Gods near need not be in human shape, witness the Gods of Egypt referred to in § 82.
deos ipsos se adire: cf. Leg. 11 26 (religion is felt most strongly in temples) est enim quaedam opinione species deorum in oculis, non solum in mentibus ; Sch. compares the complaint of the Sicilians in Verr. Div. 3 sese jam ne deos quidem in suis urbibus ad quos confugiant habere, quod eorum simulacra sanctissima C. Verres e delubris religiosissimis abstultsset ; Plut. Af, p. 379 reprobates those who thought the images to be not dyad- pata kal tTipas Oeway adda Geov’s. See Nigelsb. Nach-Homerische Theol. p. 5.
auxerunt...opifices : cf. Quintil. x11 10 9 (of the Zeus of Phidias) cujus pulchritudo adjecisse aliquid etiam receptae religiont videtur, quoted by Nagelsb. l. c. p. 6. Poets and artists in giving expression to the popular conception of divinity, added to it clearness, elevation and refinement, but they did not change its nature.
erat enim non facile—servare: ‘It was not easy to give a consistent representation of divine activity under any other form than that of man’.
accessit...quod...videatur. The Subj., which is found in all the mss, is changed into videtur or videbatur by the later editors. May it not be explained on the same principle as diverit in § 20? where see n.; ‘perhaps too the idea to which you referred (§ 48) may have contributed to this result, I mean man’s belief in his own superior beauty’. Vderetur would have been more regular after accessit; the Pres. is used in order to denote that the proposition is of general import, not limited to the time of its original utterance. For the pleonasm with opinio cf. Niigelsb. Sti/. § 186 2.
physice. So Metrodorus, in the ep. alluded to § 113, addresses his brother as & dvawdAdye, and Timon (ap. Diog. L. x 3) styles Epic. dararos ad dvotkov kai xvvtatos. The Epicureans prided themselves on their physics as the Stoics on their dialectics, see § 83, 11 48, Fin. 11 102, 1 63 in physicis plurimum posuit Ep., Plut. Def. Or. p. 484 D ’Emixoupeious 81a thy Kadnv Oy dvowdroyiav evuBpifovras, ws avtot A€youst, Tois ToLovTo.s (oracles) ; Zeller Stoics tr. p. 399, and esp. Hirzel p. 157 foll.
quam blanda—lena: ‘ What an insinuating go-between, or pander, if I may say so, of her own charms’. Cf. Sest. 21 (alter) erat hominum opinion? nobilitate ipsa, blanda conciliatricula, commendatus ; Lael. 37 conciliatrix amicitiae virtutis opinio; Ov. A. A. tt 815 res est blanda canor, discant cantare puellae, pro facie multis vox sua lena fuit; Acad. fr. 34 quast lenocinante mercede ; N. D. 11 147 corporum lenocinia.
an putas—delectetur ? So Epicharmus ap. Diog. L. 111 16 davpaorov ovdév eati pe Tavl ovtw Aéyew, | oS avddvew adtoicw avrods Kai Soxety | Kaas mepvxew" kal yap a Kvwy Kuvi | KaddLoTov elpev aiverat, Kai Bods Bot" | évos 8 dvm Kaddrorov €or, bs 8 vi.
beluam: apparently used synonymously with Uestia, cf. § 78, 97, and esp. 101, and 11 100 (of shellfish).
contrectatione : properly ‘stroking’ ‘caressing’; for its force here cf.