[25] The hypotheses here are obviously questionable; it is not always possible to extrapolate from myth to social circumstance, as myth can act as compensatory gratification for a culture. See Preston, introduction. Early Irish literature is particularly complicated in these regards because most of the supernatural figures have been euhemerized and it is difficult to unravel the mythological from the historical; see Mac Cana, "Aspects of the Theme"; Tymoczko, "Unity and Duality."