20
Or is it because they remain pure from many things, particularly from venery, when they perform this holy service? For they not only exclude their husbands, but they also drive everything male out of the house Cf. Life of Caesar, ix. (711 e), Life of Cicero, xix. (870 b); Juvenal, vi. 339. whenever they conduct the customary ceremonies in honour of the goddess. So, because the myrtle is sacred to Venus, they religiously exclude it. For she whom they now call Venus Murcia, in ancient days, it seems, they styled Myrtia.
21
Why do the Latins revere the woodpecker and all strictly abstainNo doubt this means from eating it since they used to eat all small birds. from it?
21
Is it because, as they tell the tale, Picus, Cf. Ovid, Metamorphoses, xiv. 320 ff. transformed by his wife’s magic drugs, became a woodpecker and in that form gives oracles and prophecies to those who consult him?
21
Or is this wholly incredible and monstrous, and is that other tale Cf. 278 c, 320 d, infra; Life of Romulus, iv. (19 e), vii. (21 c). more credible which relates that when Romulus and Remus were exposed, not only did a she-wolf suckle them, but also a certain woodpecker carne continually to visit them and bring them scraps of food? For generally, even to this day, in foot-hills and thickly wooded places where the woodpecker is found, there also is found the wolf, as Nigidius records.
21
Or is it rather because they regard this bird as sacred to Mars, even as other birds to other gods? For it is a courageous and spirited bird and has a beak so strong that it can overturn oaks by pecking them until it has reached the inmost part of the tree.
22
Why do they suppose Janus to have been twofaced and so represent him in painting and sculpture?
