the mystical temple of god 630 of justice. He therefore that does good is recognized to be the Temple of God; he that does evil is a chapel of the devil. Do you say, or at least believe, that you have the Holy Spirit? The roof shows me what guest lives inside. Are you greedy? You are a temple to Plutus;142 proud? [a temple] of Juno;143 lustful?Of Venus;144 irascible? Of the infernal Furies;145 gluttonous? Of Bacchus;146 envious? Of Cerberus;147 sluggish? Of Night.148 “By their fruits you shall know them” (Mt 7:20) [LV]; Truth said this about false prophets, [that is] feigned Christians. Let us therefore prove our faith by works of faith, since by means of these roofs we both are and are acknowledged to be the Temples of the living God. 142 Plutus: “For the Greeks this was the name of an ancient god of agrarian nature …The name Pluto, indicating riches, was originally restricted to the idea of the fertility of the fields, but then it was extended to that of every form of well being;” Guarducci Margherita, Pluto: EI XXVII, 561. 143 Juno: “Ancient Latin divinity who developed as time passed into one of the principal goddesses of state and private Roman religion,” “identified with the star of night and in this way brought to be related to the calendar and life, and female nature...” She became “extremely important.” “In some cities of Latium and central Italy we find Juno first among the other deities as protectress and sovereign lady of the state.” Gianelli, Giulio, Juno: EI XVII, 329-330. For these reasons Juno suggests the notion of pride. 144 Venus: a Roman goddess of love, identified with the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. In sexual matters, Venus represents lust, the appetite for intercourse, and intercourse itself. Here, Venus refers to sensuality: lust or a life of pleasure. 145 The Furies: this is a poetic word for “madness,” denoting enraged fury, anger, frenzy. It is also a proper noun: the Furies are the goddesses of madness. There are three names for these goddesses of madness, those found in Heaven are called “Dirae,” on earth, “Furies”, and in the Underworld, “Eumenides.” The three Furies are the three passions that drive men headlong into all crimes: anger, avarice and lust. Thus according to Forcellini, Lexicon of All Latinity, II, 566-567. 146 Bacchus (Dionysus): “One of the most important … earthly divinities in ancient Greece. As the god of wine and drunkenness, Dionysus bears the names of Branius and Bacchus.” Gianelli G., Dionysus: EI XII, 944-945. 147 Cerberus: “the dog who guards the entrance to Hades, kind to him who enters, fierce and aggressive towards anyone who tries to get out of it”; idem, Cerberus: EI IX, 779 148 Night. The origin of this mythological divinity is explained as follows: “The tendency inherent in the religious spirit of the ancients to confer a personality, a human form, on all natural phenomena ensures that even the idea of Night is personified in mythology.” According to Hesiod, Night is the mother of Sleep and Death. And so it has a twofold nature, and as the mother of Sleep it is the “the giver of peace and repose to mortals.” Cf. Bendinelli, Goffredo, Night: EI XXIV, 982.
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