On the Nature of the Gods: Birth of Jupiter and Apollo in Arcadia

Latin Text

[3.53] Principio Ioves tres numerant ii, qui theologi nominantur, ex quibus primum et secundum natos in Arcadia; alterum patre Aethere, ex quo etiam Proserpinam natam ferunt et Liberum, alterum patre Caelo, qui genuisse Minervam dicitur, quam principem et inventricem belli ferunt; tertium Cretensem Saturni filium; cuius in illa insula sepulcrum ostenditur.

[3.57] Apollinum antiquissimus is, quem paulo antea e Volcano natum esse dixi custodem Athenarum; alter Corybantis filius natus in Creta, cuius de illa insula cum Iove ipso certamen fuisse traditur; tertius Iove tertio natus et Latona, quem ex Hyperboreis Delphos ferunt advenisse; quartus in Arcadia, quem Arcades Nomion appellant, quod ab eo se leges ferunt accepisse.

[3.53] In the first place the theologists, as they are called, enumerate three Jupiters, the first and second of whom were born in Arcadia, the one being the son of Aether, and also according to them the father of Proserpine and Liber, while the other was the son of Caelus, and is said to have been father to Minerva, the goddess whom they represent as the first author and founder of war; the third was the son of Saturn and belonged to Crete, and his tomb is shown in that island.

[3.57] The oldest Apollo is the one of whom I spoke just now as the son of Vulcan and protector of Athens; the second is the son of Corybas, and was born in Crete, and is said to have contended for that island with Jupiter himself; the third is the son of the third Jupiter and Latona, and there is a tradition that he came from the land of the Hyperboreans to Delphi; the fourth was born in Arcadia, and is called by the Arcadians Nomios, because, they say, they received laws from him.