Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VIII/Pseudo-Clementine Literature/The Clementine Homilies/Homily V/Chapter 14

by Anonymous

Chapter XIV.—Jupiter’s Undisguised Amours.

“‘In the likeness of a shepherd he made Mnemosyne mother of the Muses.  Setting himself on fire, he married Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, of whom he begat Dionysus.  In the likeness of a dragon he deflowered his daughter Persephone, thought to be the wife of his brother Pluto.  He had intercourse with many other women without undergoing any change in his form; for the husbands had no ill-will to him as if it were a sin, but knew well that in associating with their wives he bountifully produced children for them, bestowing upon them the Hermeses, the Apollos, the Dionysi, the Endymions, and others whom we have spoken of, most excellent in beauty through his fatherhood.