And although this cannot be believed literally, in some respects it may metaphorically.

Doubtless the poets took their descriptions from popular traditions; but they made those traditions immortal.

Jupiter could never become symbolical to a people who had once pictured to themselves the nod and curls of the Jupiter of Homer.
[36] Cicero de Natura Deorum, b.

ii .-- Most of the philosophical interpretations of the Greek mythology were the offspring of the Alexandrine schools.

It is to the honour of Aristarchus that he combated a theory that very much resembles the philosophy that would convert the youthful readers of Mother Bunch into the inventors of allegorical morality.
[37] But the worship can be traced to a much earlier date than that the most plausibly ascribed to the Persian Zoroaster.
[38] So Epimenides of Crete is said to have spent forty-five years in a cavern, and Minos descends into the sacred cave of Jupiter to receive from him the elements of law.