Preface.

This objection, however, applies firstly only to those translations that stand directly opposite the text, and of which I myself do not hold a high opinion because they can easily seduce one into consulting them more often than would be necessary; secondly, only to those youths who have no drive to make themselves familiar with the languages of the ancients, of whom I strongly doubt, however, whether they will ever come upon the idea of reading an ancient writer on their own and, in order to learn to understand him better, purchasing a translation of him. On the other hand, youths who are convinced of the utility that the languages of the ancients have, who wish to see the beauties of these writers with their own eyes and consequently wish to be familiar with their language itself, will never take refuge in a translation before they have seen themselves abandoned by all their other tools.

For this class of eager young students I have translated Palaephatus a Greek mythographer who sought rational explanations for myths, a writer who is uncommonly capable of sustaining their private study, and whom they can now easily obtain in the original through the scholarly efforts of Professor Fischer. Since, in general, mythology also finds many friends among others who are not actually scholars