Mitto enim dicere alta illa et divina Platonica, rarissimo cuique piorum gnara, ceterum omnibus profanis incognita: geminam esse Venerem deam, proprio quamque amore et diversis amatoribus pollentis; earum alteram vulgariam, quae sit percita populari amore, non modo humanis animis, verum etiam pecuinis et ferinis ad libidinem imperitare ui immodica trucique, perculsorum animalium serva corpora complexu vincientem; alteram vero caelitem Venerem, praedita quae sit optimati amore, solis hominibus et eorum paucis curare, nullis ad turpitudinem stimulis vel illecebris sectatores suos percellentem;
For I pass over those lofty, godlike doctrines of Plato, known to only a very few pious souls, but unknown to all the uninitiated, which say that there are twin Venuses, each presiding over her own kind of love and over opposite kinds of lovers. One of these Venuses is plebeian, provoked by ordinary passion, who forces not only human souls but those of tame and wild animals into deeds of lust by her unbridled and savage power, locking in embrace the enslaved bodies of the creatures that she strikes; the other by contrast is the heavenly Venus, the mistress of exalted love, who cares only for humans and for few of them, and does not drive her devotees to commit shameful acts by means of goads or allurements.
final_alignments\Apuleius_Apologia.json