But woe to you, torrent of human custom! Who can resist you? When will you run dry? How long will you drag the sons of Eve down to that vast and dreadful sea which even those who cling to wood can barely cross? Did I not read in you of Jupiter the thunderer and adulterer—he surely could not have been both, but was presented as such so that a fictitious thunder might mimic and pander to real adultery. For who among our robed orators will lend a sober ear to a colleague from his own forum crying out: “These are Homer’s inventions, transferring human qualities to the gods; how much better if Homer had transferred divine qualities to us!” It would have been truer to say that these are indeed Homer’s inventions, but that he is attributing a divine nature to dissolute men so that their shameful acts will no longer be shameful, and that those who commit them are seen to be imitating not fallen men but celestial gods.