[Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations by Marcus Tullius Cicero]@TWC D-Link book
Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations

BOOK I
40/70

This, I perceive, is what you contend for, that the Gods have a certain figure that has nothing concrete, nothing solid, nothing of express substance, nothing prominent in it; but that it is pure, smooth, and transparent.

Let us suppose the same with the Venus of Cos, which is not a body, but the representation of a body; nor is the red, which is drawn there and mixed with the white, real blood, but a certain resemblance of blood; so in Epicurus's Deity there is no real substance, but the resemblance of substance.
Let me take for granted that which is perfectly unintelligible; then tell me what are the lineaments and figures of these sketched-out Deities.

Here you have plenty of arguments by which you would show the Gods to be in human form.

The first is, that our minds are so anticipated and prepossessed, that whenever we think of a Deity the human shape occurs to us.

The next is, that as the divine nature excels all things, so it ought to be of the most beautiful form, and there is no form more beautiful than the human; and the third is, that reason cannot reside in any other shape.
First, let us consider each argument separately.


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