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. Εν δοιη μαλα θυμος· επει γενος αμφεριστον. Ζευ σε μεν Ι’ δαιοισιν εν ουρεσι φασι γενεσθαι Ζευ σε δ’ εν Αρκαδιη· ποτεροι Πατερ εψευσαντο Κρητες αει ψευσται· και γαρ ταφον, ὡ ανα σειο Κρητες ετεκτηναντο· συ δ’ ου θανες· εσσι γαρ αιει. Callim. p. 4.] It appears likewise from these shreds of antiquity, that the subjects of the Hymn were not sufficiently limited, as we sometimes find one of them addressed to several Deities, whose different functions recurring constantly to the mind must have occasioned unavoidable obscurity[35]. The Poet by this means was led into numberless digressions, in which the remote points of connection will be imperceptible to the reader, who cannot place himself in some situation similar to that of the Writer, and attend particularly to the character and manners of the period at which he wrote. [Footnote 35: Thus Theocritus. Ὑμνεομες Ληδας. Τε και αιγιοχω Διος Ὑιω, Καστορα και φοβερον Πολυδευκεα πυξ ερεθιζεν Ὑμνεομες και Δις, και το Τριτον.]