ls us, "came to pay him a visit, and complimented him with a scepter
and a branch of laurel, when he was feeding his flock on the mountain of
Helicon[32]." Some tale of this kind it was usual with the Poets to
invent, that the vulgar in those ages of fiction and ignorance might
consider their persons as sacred, and that the _offspring of their
imaginations_ might be regarded as _the children of Truth_.

[Footnote 31: ---- +Hesin aoide
Membletai, en stethessin akedea thumon echousais
Tutthon ap' akrotates koruphes niphentos Olumpou.
Entha sphin liparoi te choroi, kai domata kala.+
Theog. a lin. 61.]

[Footnote 32:
+Hos ephasan Eourai Megalou Dios artiepeiai;
Kai moi skeptron edon, daphnes eritheleos ozon
Drepsasthai theeton; epeneusan de moi auden+ &c.
Theogon. l. 30.]

From the same licentious use of Allegory and Metaphor sprung the Fables
of the wars of the Giants, of the birth and education of Jupiter, of the
dethroning of Saturn, and of the provinces assigned by the Supreme to
the Inferior Deities; all of which are subjects said to have been
particularly treated by Orpheus[33]. The love of Fable became indeed so
remarkably prevalent in the earliest ages, that it is now impossible in
many instances to distinguish real from apparent truth in the History of
these times, and to discriminate the persons who were useful members of
society, from those who exist only in the works of a Poet, whose aim was
professedly to excite Admiration. Thus every event of importance was
disfigured by the colouring of poetic narration, and by ascribing to one
man the separate actions which perhaps were performed by several persons
of one name[34], we are now wholly unable to disentangle truth from a
perplexed and complicated detail of real and fictitious incidents.

[Footnote 33: Orph. Hym. in Apollon. Rhod.]

[Footnote 34: Of this, History furnisheth many examples. When one
man made an eminent figure in any profession, the actions of other
persons who had the same name were ascribed to him; and it was
perhaps partly for this reason that we find different cities
contending for the honour of giving birth to men of Genius, or
eminence. Callimachus in his Hymn to Jupiter makes an artful use
of this circumstance.

+En doie mala thumos; epei genos ampheriston.
Zeu se men I' daioisin en ouresi phasi genesthai
Zeu se d' en