Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 4.djvu/139



has said somewhere, I think it is in his treatise, "On the Nature of the Gods," that there were many Jupiters—a Jupiter in Crete, another at Olympus, another somewhere else; so that in all Greece there was not a city of any importance whatever that did not possess a Jupiter of her own. From all these a single Jupiter has arisen, and to him have been attributed all the adventures of his namesakes. It is this fact which accounts for the prodigious number of exploits imputed to this god. The same confusion has obtained concerning Don Juan, a personage whose celebrity approaches closely to that of Jupiter. Seville alone claimed several Don Juans, and many another city had hers. In the beginning, each had his distinct legend, but in the course of time all became merged into one. Upon close examination, however, it is not difficult to assign to each his own share in the mythical story, or, at least, to distinguish two of these heroes, to wit: Don Juan Tenorio, who, as