Note 42 — Chapter XIII · THE RELATION OF THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY TO RELIGION.

The Stoics are not the first who resorted to allegorical explanations of myths. Just as, before philosophy had broken away from mythology, a Pherecydes, an Empedocles, the Pythagoreans had, whether consciously or unconsciously, veiled their thoughts in the language of legend, and even subsequently Plato had used a veil of poetry; so, now that the breach between the two was open, many attempts were made to conceal its breadth, and individual beliefs were represented as the real meaning of popular beliefs, it being always supposed that the original framers had an eye to this meaning. Thus a twofold method of treating the myths resulted—that by natural explanation, and that by allegorical interpretation. The former method referred them to facts of history, the latter to general truths, whether moral or scientific. Both methods agreed in looking for a hidden meaning besides the literal one. This method of treating myths had been already met with among the older teachers, such as Democritus, Metrodorus of Lampsacus, and other followers of Anaxagoras (according to Hesych. even Agamemnon was explained to be the ether). It appears to have been a favourite one in the time of the Sophists (Plato, Theæt. 153, C; Rep. ii. 378, D; Phædr. 229, C; Crat. 407, A, to 530, C; Gorg. 493, A; Xen. Sym. 3, 6), as appears from Euripides and Herodotus. It follows naturally from the view of Prodicus on the origin of belief in the Gods. Plato disapproved of it. Aristotle occasionally appealed to it to note glimmers of truth in popular notions without attributing to it any higher value. The founder of Cynicism and his followers pursued it zealously. From the Cynics the Stoics appear to have taken it. They carried it much further than any of their predecessors, and they, too, exercised a greater influence on posterity than the Cynics. ↑