Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
[1] Not content, however, with declaring gods out of beings who were once seen, heard, and touched in the flesh, whose likenesses were drawn, whose doings were recorded, whose memory was handed down, [2] they also decree as gods certain bodiless, lifeless shades, demanding names to match their functions, parceling out every stage of a man's existence to individual powers, starting from the very conception in the womb: [3] so there is a god Conseuius, who presides over the acts of intercourse, and Fluvionia, who nourishes the infant in the womb; [4] then Vitumnus and Sentinus, through whom the infant comes alive and first gains sense; then Diespiter, who brings the child through to birth, [5] along with... and Candelifera, since women used to give birth by candlelight, and those... called... [6] Those born wrongly... but rightly the province belongs to Prosa Carmentis [7] ...and from the first utterance, Farinus, and another from speaking... supplies for taking precaution... and Albana and one Runcinia. A wonder... that they left nothing unprovided for! [8] Then, for taking the first food and the first drink, Potina and Edula, and for the infant's first standing, Statina. [9] From going to, Adeona; from going away, Abeona. They even have a goddess who leads one home, and one for good will and bad, likewise Volumnius and Voleta for the will. [10] They have Paventina over dread, Venilia over expectation, Volupia over delight, and Praestitia standing for merit; likewise, from doing, Peragenor, and from deliberating, Consus. [11] There is also Juventas for young men newly in the toga, and Fortuna Barbata for men already bearded. [12] If I should go on to the gods of the wedding-bed, there is Afferenda, appointed over the bringing of dowries; and there are — for shame! — Mutunus and Tutunus and the goddess Pertunda and Subigus and Mother Prema. [13] ...spare us, you shameless gods: no one interrupts a bridal couple wrestling in bed; it is the gods themselves, whose whole business this is, who blush with pleasure outside the door.
XII.