make a smoke, such as arose from incense upon these Tupha, or eminences. Besides, if these were deified men, who were buried under these hills; how can we explain the difficulty of the same person being buried in different places, and at different times? To this it is answered, that it was another Bacchus, and another Jupiter. Yet this still adds to the difficulty: for it is hard to conceive, that whoever in any country had the name of Jupiter, should be made a God. Add to this, that Homer and Hesiod, and the authors of the Orphic poetry, knew of no such duplicates. There is no hint of this sort among the antient writers of their nation. It was a refinement in after ages; introduced to obviate the difficulties, which arose from the absurdities in the pagan system. Arnobius justly ridicules the idle expedients, made use of to render a base theology plausible. Gods, of the same name and character, were multiplied to make their fables consistent; that there might be always one ready at hand upon any chronological emergency. Hence no difficulty could arise about a Deity, but there might be one produced, adapted to all climes, and to every age. [400]Aiunt Theologi vestri, et vetustatis absconditæ conditores, tres in rerum naturâ Joves esse--quinque Soles, et Mercurios quinque. Aiunt iidem Theologi quatuor esse Vulcanos, et tres Dianas; Æsculapios totidem, et Dionysos quinque; ter binos Hercules, et quatuor Veneres; tria genera Castorum, totidemque Musarum. But Arnobius is too modest. Other writers insist upon a greater variety. In respect to Jupiters, Varro according to Tertullian makes them in number three hundred. [401]Varro trecentos Joves, sive Jupiteres, dicendum, ---- introducit. The same writer mentions forty heroes of the name of Hercules; all which variety arose from the causes above assigned: and the like multiplicity may be found both of kings and heroes; of kings, who did not reign; of heroes, who never existed. The same may be observed in the accounts transmitted of their most early prophets, and poets: scarce any of them stand single: there are duplicates of every denomination. On this account it is highly requisite for those, who suppose these personages to have been men, and make inferences from the circumstances of their history, to declare explicitly which they mean; and to give good reasons for their determination. It is said of Jupiter, that he was the son of Saturn; and that he carried away Europa, before the arrival of Cadmus. He had afterwards an amour with Semele, the supposed daughter of Cadmus: and they mention his having a like intimacy with Alcmena an age or two later. After this he got acquainted with Leda, the wife of Tyndarus: and he had children at the siege of Troy. If we may believe the poets, and all our intelligence comes originally from the poets, Jupiter was personally interested in that war. But this interval contains little less than two hundred years. These therefore could not be