The epithets of gods, when their true origin was unknown or had been lost, were usually explained by some legend. […] Night and Day, he says, are there by turns ; when one goes in the other goes out. […] their ship became motionless when the sacred image was brought on board. […] He was also by his shafts the sender of pestilence, and he removed it when duly propitiated. […] It was then summer, and the very middle of it, when Alcæus leads Apollo back from the Hyperboreans ; for when summer shines and Apollo journeys, the lyre itself whispers in a summer-tone of the god.