Note 927 — GODS OF GREECE;

It was therefore idle in the antients to make a disquisition about the identity of any God, as compared with another; and to adjudge him to Jupiter rather than to Mars, to Venus rather than Diana. [927]Τον Οσιριν ὁι μεν Σεραπιν, ὁιδε Διονυσον, ὁιδε Πλουτωνα, τινες δε Δια, πολλοιδε Πανα νενομικασι. Some, says Diodorus, think that Osiris is Serapis; others that he is Dionusus; others still, that he is Pluto: many take him for Zeus, or Jupiter, and not a few for Pan. This was an unnecessary embarrassment: for they were all titles of the same God, there being originally by no means that diversity which is imagined, as Sir John Marsham has very justly observed. [928]Neque enim tanta πολυθεοτης Gentium, quanta fuit Deorum πολυωνυμια. It is said, above, that Osiris was by some thought to be Jupiter, and by others to be Pluto. But Pluto, among the best theologists, was esteemed the same as Jupiter; and indeed the same as Proserpine, Ceres, Hermes, Apollo, and every other Deity.