We can easily see how the perversion of the truth by the Greeks came about, and how, when the true foreshadowings of this Mighty One had been lost, the many fables were invented to supply their place. The wiser sort of Greeks knew this perfectly well. ARISTOTLE (in his _Metaphysics_, x. 8) admits, with regard to Greek mythology, that religion and philosophy had been lost, and that much had been “added after the mythical style,” while much had come down, and “may have been preserved to our times as the remains of ancient wisdom.” Religion, such as it was (POLYBIUS confesses), was recognised as a “necessary means to political ends.” NEANDER says that it was “the fragments of a tradition, which transmitted the knowledge of divine things possessed in the earliest times.” ARATUS shews the same uncertainty as to the meaning of this Constellation of _Hercules_. He says: “Near this, and like a toiling man, revolves A form. Of it can no one clearly speak, Nor what he labours at. They call him simply ‘The man upon his knees’: In desperate struggle Like one who sinks, he seems. From both his shoulders His arms are high‐uplifted and out‐stretched As far as he can reach; and his right foot Is planted on the coiléd Dragon’s head.” Ancient authorities differ as to the personality of Hercules, and they disagree as to the number, nature, and order of what are sometimes called “the twelve labours of Hercules.” But there is no doubt as to the mighty foretold works which the woman’s Seed should perform.