ines and
made use of myths. There is this first benefit from myths, that we have
to search and do not have our minds idle.

_That_ the myths are divine can be seen from those who have used them.
Myths have been used by inspired poets, by the best of philosophers, by
those who established the mysteries, and by the Gods themselves in
oracles. But _why_ the myths are divine it is the duty of Philosophy to
inquire. Since all existing things rejoice in that which is like them
and reject that which is unlike, the stories about the Gods ought to be
like the Gods, so that they may both be worthy of the divine essence and
make the Gods well disposed to those who speak of them: which could only
be done by means of myths.

Now the myths represent the Gods themselves and the goodness of the
Gods--subject always to the distinction of the speakable and the
unspeakable, the revealed and the unrevealed, that which is clear and
that which is hidden: since, just as the Gods have made the goods of
sense common to all, but those of intellect only to the wise, so the
myths state the existence of Gods to all, but who and what they are only
to those who can understand.

They also represent the activities of the Gods. For one may call the
World a Myth, in which bodies and things are visible, but souls and
minds hidden. Besides, to wish to teach the whole truth about the Gods
to all produces contempt in the foolish, because they cannot understand,
and lack of zeal in the good; whereas to conceal the truth by myths
prevents the contempt of the foolish, and compels the good to practise
philosophy.

But why have they put in the myths stories of adultery, robbery,
father-binding, and all the other absurdity? Is not that perhaps a thing
worthy of admiration, done so that by means of the visible absurdity the
Soul may immediately feel that the words are veils and believe the truth
to be a mystery?

IV. _That the species of Myth are five, with examples of each._

Of myths some are theological, some physical, some psychic, and again
some material, and some mixed from these last two. The theological are
those myths which use no bodily form but contemplate the very essences
of the Gods: e. g. Kronos swallowing his children. Since God is
intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses
in allegory the essence of God.

Myths may be regarded physically when they express the activities of the
Gods in the world: e. g. people