[23] Question 23. Why do they sell things which pertain to funerals in the temple of Libitina, seeing they are of opinion that Libitina is Venus?
Solution. Was it that this was one of the wise institutions of King Numa, that they might learn not to esteem these things irksome nor fly from them as a defilement? Or rather is it to put us in mind that whatever is born must die, there being one Goddess that presides over them that are born and those that die? And at Delphi there is the statue of Venus Epitymbia (on a tomb), to which at their drink-offerings they call forth the ghosts of the deceased.