[76] Xen. Sympos. 4. 6; 3. 5.
[77] Ps-Plutarch, de vita et poesi Homeri, vol. v. pp. 1056 sqq., chapters 148, 164, 182, 192, 216.
[78] The earliest expression of this feeling is that of Xenophanes, which is twice quoted by Sextus Empiricus, adv. Gramm. 1. 288, adv. Phys. 9. 193:
πάντα θεοῖς ἀνέθηκαν Ὅμηρος θ’ Ἡσίοδός τε
ὅσσα παρ’ ἀνθρώποισιν ὀνείδεα καὶ ψόγος ἐστί.
[79] Plutarch, de aud. poet. c. 4, pp. 24, 25.
[80] Lucian, Jupit. confut. 2.
[81] The connection of allegory with the mysteries was recognized: Heraclitus Ponticus, c. 6, justifies his interpretation of Apollo as the sun, ἐk τῶν μυστικῶν λόγων οὓς αἱ ἀπόρρητοι τελετὰι θεολογοῦσι: ps-Demetrius Phalereus, de interpret. c. 99, 101, ap. Walz, Rhett. Gr. ix. p. 47, μεγαλεῖόν τί ἐστι καὶ ἡ ἀλληγορία ... πᾶν γὰρ τὸ ὑπονοούμενον φοβερώτατον καὶ ἄλλος εἰκάζει ἄλλο τι ... διὸ καὶ τὰ μυστήρια ἐν ἀλληγορίαις λέγεται πρὸς ἔκπληξιν καὶ φρίκην: so Macrobius, in Somn. Scip. 1. 2, after an account of the way in which the poets veiled truths in symbols, “sic ipsa mysteria figurarum cuniculis operiuntur ne vel hæc adeptis nuda rerum talium se natura præbeat.” That a physical explanation lay behind the scenery of the mysteries is stated elsewhere, e.g. by Theodoret, Græc. Affect. Cur. i. vol. iv. p. 721, without being connected with the allegorical explanation of the poets.
[82] Pausan. 3. 25. 4-6.
[83] Plat. Phædr. p. 229 c.