Palaephatus uses four principal devices for explaining the wonders of myth, and a number of minor devices:  Palaephatus is a very rare name, and many scholars have concluded that it is a pseudonym; as an adjective in epic poetry, it meant "of ancient fame"; it could also mean "speaker of old tales". If Palaephatus wrote (as is perhaps most likely) in Athens in the fourth century BC, rationalizing Greek mythology could be dangerous; Anaxagoras had been sent into exile in the previous century for no more. The only accounts of the life of any Palaephatus are four entries in the "Suda" (pi 69, 70, 71, 72), a Byzantine biographical dictionary, compiled about 1000 AD:  Palaephatus of Athens, an epic poet, to whom a mythical origin was assigned. According to some he was a son of Actaeus and Boeo, according to others of Iocles and Metaneira, and according to a third statement of Hermes. The time at which he lived is uncertain, but he appears to have been usually placed after Phemonoe, though some writers assigned him even an earlier date. He is represented by Christodorus ("Anth. Graec.", p. 27, ed. Tauchnitz) as an old bard crowned with laurel. The "Suda" has preserved the titles of the following poems of Palaephatus:  Palaephatus of Paros, or Priene, attested to have lived in the time of Artaxerxes, however it is unknown which specific ruler this was. Suidas attributes to him the five books of "Incredible Things" (also five books of "On Troy"), but adds that many persons assigned this work to Palaephatus of Athens. Palaephatus of Abydos, an historian who lived in the time of Alexander the Great, and is stated to have been loved (παιδικά) by the philosopher Aristotle, for which the "Suda" quotes the authority of Philo, "Peri paradoxou historias", and of Theodorus of Ilium, "Troica", Book 2. Suidas gives the titles of the following works of Palaephatus: "Cypriaca", "Deliaca", "Attica", "Arabica". Palaephatus, an Egyptian or Athenian, and a grammarian, as he is described by Suidas, who assigns to him the following works:  Of these, the first Palaephatus is, like Phemonoe, entirely legendary; modern scholars regard the other three as different literary traditions relating to the author of "On Incredible Things".