Chapter X.—All Such Stories are Allegorical.

“And I must ask you to think of all such stories as embodying some such allegory.  Look on Apollo as the wandering Sun (peri-polôn), a son of Zeus, who was also called Mithras, as completing the period of a year.  And these said transformations of the all-pervading Zeus must be regarded as the numerous changes of the seasons, while his numberless wives you must understand to be years, or generations.  For the power which proceeds from the æther and passes through the air unites with all the years and generations in turn, and continually varies them, and so produces or destroys the crops.  And ripe fruits are called his children, the barrenness of some seasons being referred to unlawful unions.”