PREFACE

...things, are also counted by Cornutus (a) among the writers of fabulous theology original: Fabelachtige godgeleerdheid; referring to the study of myths as a form of ancient religious teaching. Some fables, he says, originated from the Magi Ancient Persian priests or sages, some from the Egyptians, others from the Celts and Africans. Lucian (b) makes mention of interpreters of fables among the Assyrians and Arabians. Strabo (c) says of the Indian Brahmans original: Brachmannen, that they forged some fables, just like Plato did, concerning the immortality of the soul, and concerning the trials held by the judges of the underworld. Even among the Northern peoples, who, according to the testimony of Diodorus Siculus (d), used to have a great deal of contact with the Greeks, that style of writing was also in vogue, as appears from a book written in the year 1250 by one Snorri Sturluson original: Snorro Sturla, and called Edda Islandorum, that is, the Philosopher of the Icelanders (e) While "Edda" is today understood as a collection of Old Norse poems, the author here translates it as "Philosopher". But to speak no more of other nations, it is well known how obsessed the Greeks were with this fabulous manner of writing, and how they were the primary ones who adorned their theological, philosophical, and historical works with such ornaments. Indeed, for what is known of fables today, we are primarily indebted to their writers. Orpheus (for that such a man existed, I believe can be clearly demonstrated (f)) is the oldest writer of whom we have knowledge among that people. Lactantius An early Christian author (c. 250–c. 325) even calls him a contemporary of the gods themselves (g), as if wishing to mock their recent origin. He lived in the time of Gideon (h), a generation before the Trojan War (i), and accompanied the Argonauts on that famous journey to Colchis An ancient region on the Black Sea, famous in myth as the destination of Jason and the Golden Fleece. He had adopted his system of fables from the Egyptians: for he traveled to that land (k), which was the nursery where most ancient poets and philosophers learned their wisdom, and brought from there to Greece, as a rich booty of learning, everything we find told in the fables of the Gods, Demigods, and Heroes, and of their various deeds. Mixing those fables into his poems in a charming manner, and reciting them with a smooth-flowing tone, he knew how to captivate the common people, who were exceedingly wild, and by that means civilized their customs; which gave rise to the fiction that he drew the trees and wild beasts to himself and made them listen to his songs. Indeed, the Venusinian referring to the Roman poet Horace, born in Venusia