The City of God, Volume IIAugustine, of Hippo, Saint
ReligionChristian
The City of God, Volume II
Augustine, of Hippo, Saint
Apologetics -- Early works to 1800; Kingdom of God -- Early works to 1800
On the death of Phoroneus, his younger brother
Phegous built a temple at his tomb, in which he was worshipped as
God, and oxen were sacrificed to him. I believe they thought him
worthy of so great honour, because in his part of the kingdom (for
their father had divided his territories between them, in which they
reigned during his life) he had founded chapels for the worship of
the gods, and had taught them to measure time by months and years,
and to that extent to keep count and reckoning of events. Men still
uncultivated, admiring him for these novelties, either fancied he
was, or resolved that he should be made, a god after his death. Io
also is said to have been the daughter of Inachus, who was afterwards
called Isis, when she was worshipped in Egypt as a great goddess;
although others write that she came as a queen out of Ethiopia, and
because she ruled extensively and justly, and instituted for her
subjects letters and many useful things, such divine honour was given
her there after she died, that if any one said she had been human, he
was charged with a capital crime.
4. _Of the times of Jacob and his son Joseph._
In the reign of Balæus, the ninth king of Assyria, and Mesappus,
the eighth of Sicyon, who is said by some to have been also called
Cephisos (if indeed the same man had both names, and those who put
the other name in their writings have not rather confounded him with
another man), while Apis was third king of Argos, Isaac died, a
hundred and eighty years old, and left his twin-sons a hundred and
twenty years old. Jacob, the younger of these, belonged to the city
of God about which we write (the elder being wholly rejected), and
had twelve sons, one of whom, called Joseph, was sold by his brothers
to merchants going down to Egypt, while his grandfather Isaac was
still alive. But when he was thirty years of age, Joseph stood before
Pharaoh, being exalted out of the humiliation he endured, because,
in divinely interpreting the king's dreams, he foretold that there
would be seven years of plenty, the very rich abundance of which
would be consumed by seven other years of famine that should follow.
On this account the king made him ruler over Egypt, liberating him
from prison, into which he had been thrown for keeping his chastity
intact; for he bravely preserved it from his mistress, who wickedly
loved him, and told lies to his weakly credulous master, and did not
consent to commit adultery with her, but fled from her, leaving his
garment in her hands when she laid hold of him. In the second of the
seven years of famine Jacob came down into Egypt to his son with all
he had, being a hundred and thirty years old, as he himself said in
answer to the king's question. Joseph was then thirty-nine, if we add
seven years of plenty and two of famine to the thirty he reckoned
when honoured by the king.
5. _Of Apis king of Argos, whom the Egyptians called Serapis,
and worshipped with divine honours._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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