Arnobius

“ Jupiter is troubled enough, being overwhelmed with fear, and cannot find means to soothe the rage of his violated mother. He pours forth prayers, and makes supplication; her ears are closed by grief. The whole order of the gods is sent to seek his pardon; no one has weight enough to win a hearing. ”

“ She, too, is in consequence filled with the seed of the most powerful Jupiter, but not as her mother was, for she [7] bore a daughter like herself; but from the maiden was born something like a bull, to testify to her seduction by Jupiter. If any one asks [8] who narrates this, then we shall quote the well-known senarian verse of a Tarentine poet which antiquity sings, [9] saying: “The bull begot a dragon, and the dragon a bull.” ”

“ Lastly, the sacred rites themselves, and the ceremony of initiation even, named Sebadia, [10] might attest the truth; for in them a golden snake is let down into the bosom of the initiated, and taken away again from the lower parts. ”