Nay, when they wanted me to write another work, likely to be as popular, they said they could not afford to give more than 150l. […] Whatever tales they learned, they interwove into their own system ; taking care, however, to avoid contradiction as far as was possible. […] Yet still we must not always expect to find in poets all the knowledge of the age they live in ; they love to imitate their predecessors, they often are unacquainted with the advance of knowledge, they write for the people, who still retain old prejudices. […] The aged pair obeyed : ere they reached the summit they turned round to look, and beheld a lake where the town had stood. […] On being desired by Zeus to express their wishes, they prayed that they might be appointed to officiate in that temple, and that they might be united in death as in life.