we can suppose that every person so denominated had the same
relations and connexions, and the same occurrences in life reiterated:
which is impossible. It is therefore, I think, plain, that the Grecian
Deities were not the persons [406]supposed: and that their imputed names
were titles. It is true, a very antient and respectable writer,
[407]Euhemerus, of whom I have before made mention, thought otherwise. It
is said, that he could point out precisely, where each god departed: and
could particularly shew the burying-place of Jupiter. Lactantius, who
copied from him, says, that it was at Cnossus in [408]Crete. Jupiter, aetate
pessum acta, in Creta vitam commutavit.--Sepulchrum ejus est in Creta, et
in oppido Cnosso: et dicitur Vesta hanc urbem creavisse: inque sepulchro
ejus est inscriptio antiquis literis Graecis, [Greek: Zan Kronou]. If
Jupiter had been buried in Crete, as these writers would persuade us, the
accounts would be uniform about the place where he was deposited.
Lactantius, we find, and some others, say, that it was in the city Cnossus.
There are writers who mention it to have been in a cavern upon [409]Mount
Ida: others upon Mount [410]Jasius. Had the Cretans been authors of the
notion, they would certainly have been more consistent in their accounts:
but we find no more certainty about the place of his burial, than of his
birth; concerning which Callimachus could not determine.

[411][Greek: Zeu, se men Idaioisin en ouresi phasi genesthai,]
[Greek: Zeu, se d' en Arkadiei.]

He was at times supposed to have been a native of Troas, of Crete, of
Thebes, of Arcadia, of Elis: but the whole arose from the word [Greek:
taphos] being, through length of time, misunderstood: for there would have
been no legend about the birth of Jupiter, had there been no mistake about
his funeral. It was a common notion of the Magnesians, that Jupiter was
buried in their country upon Mount Sipylus. Pausanias says, that he
ascended the mountain, and beheld the tomb, which was well worthy of
[412]admiration. The tomb of [413]Isis in like manner was supposed to be at
Memphis, and at Philae in Upper Egypt: also at Nusa in Arabia. Osiris was
said to have been buried in the same places: likewise at Taphosiris, which
is thought by Procopius to have had its name, [414]because it was the place
of sepulture of Osiris. The same is said of another city, which was near
the mouth of the Nile, and called Taphosiris parva. But they each of t