Part 10

_Lucian_ [168] lets us know that _Europa_ the mother of _Minos_ was worshipped by the name of _Rhea_, the form of a woman sitting in a chariot drawn by lions, with a drum in her hand, and a _Corona turrita_ on her head, like _Astarte_ and _Isis_; and the _Cretans_ [169] anciently shewed the house where this _Rhea_ lived: and [170] _Apollonius Rhodius_ tells us, that _Saturn_, while he Reigned over the _Titans_ in _Olympus_, a mountain in _Crete_, and _Jupiter_ was educated by the _Curetes_ in the _Cretan_ cave, deceived _Rhea_, and of _Philyra_ begot _Chiron_: and therefore the _Cretan Saturn_ and _Rhea_, were but one Generation older than _Chiron_, and by consequence not older than _Asterius_ and _Europa_, the parents of _Minos_; for _Chiron_ lived 'till after the _Argonautic_ Expedition, and had two grandsons in that Expedition, and _Europa_ came into _Crete_ above an hundred years before that Expedition: _Lucian_ [171] tells us, that the _Cretans_ did not only relate, that _Jupiter_ was born and buried among them, but also shewed his sepulchre: and _Porphyry_ [172] tells us, that _Pythagoras_ went down into the _Idæan_ cave, to see sepulchre: and _Cicero_, [173] in numbering three _Jupiters_, saith, that the third was the _Cretan Jupiter_, _Saturn_'s son, whose sepulchre was shewed in _Crete_: and the Scholiast upon _Callimachus_ [174] lets us know, that this was the sepulchre of _Minos_: his words are, Εν Κρητη επι τωι ταφωι του Μινωος επεγεγραπτο, ΜΙΝΩΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ ΤΑΦΟΣ. τωι χρονωι δε του Μινωος απηλειφθη, ‛ωστε περιλειφθηναι, ΔΙΟΣ ΤΑΦΟΣ. εκ τουτου ουν εχειν λεγουσι Κρητες τον ταφον του Διος. _In _Crete_ upon the Sepulchre of _Minos_ was written _Minois Jovis sepulchrum_: but in time _Minois_ wore out so that there remained only, _Jovis sepulchrum_, and thence the _Cretans_ called it the Sepulchre of _Jupiter__. By _Saturn_, _Cicero_, who was a _Latine_, understood the _Saturn_ so called by the _Latines_: for when _Saturn_ was expelled his Kingdom he fled from _Crete_ by sea, to _Italy_; and this the Poets exprest by saying, that _Jupiter_ cast him down to _Tartarus_, that is, into the Sea: and because he lay hid in _Italy_, the _Latines_ called him _Saturn_; and _Italy_, _Saturnia_, and _Latium_, and themselves _Latines_: so [175] _Cyprian_; _Antrum Jovis in Creta visitur, & sepulchrum ejus ostenditur: & ab eo Saturnum fugatum esse manifestum est: unde Latium de latebra ejus nomen accepit: hic literas imprimere, hic signare nummos in Italia primus instituit, unde ærarium Saturni vocatur; & rusticitatis hic cultor fuit, inde falcem ferens senex pingitur:_ and _Minutius Felix_; _Saturnus Creta profugus, Italiam metu filii sævientis accesserat, & Jani susceptus hospitio, rudes illos homines & agrestes multa docuit, ut Græculus & politus, literas imprimere, nummos signare, instrumenta conficere: itaque latebram suam, quod tuto latuisset, vocari maluit Latium, & urbem Saturniam de suo nomine. * * Ejus filius Jupiter Cretæ excluso parente regnavit, illic obiit, illic filios habuit; adhuc antrum Jovis visitur, & sepulchrum ejus ostenditur, & ipsis sacris suis humanitatis arguitur_: and _Tertullian_; [176] _Quantum rerum argumenta docent, nusquam invenio fideliora quam apud ipsam Italiam, in qua Saturnus post multas expeditiones, postque Attica hospitia consedit, exceptus ab Jano, vel Jane ut Salii volunt. Mons quem incoluerat Saturnius dictus: civitas quam depalaverat Saturnia usque nunc est. Tota denique Italia post Oenotriam Saturnia cognominabatur. Ab ipso primum tabulæ, & imagine signatus nummus, & inde ærario præsidet_. By _Saturn_'s carrying letters into _Italy_, and coyning money, and teaching agriculture, and making instruments, and building a town, you may know that he fled from _Crete_, after letters, and the coyning of money, and manual arts were brought into _Europe_ by the _Phœnicians_; and from _Attica_, after agriculture was brought into _Greece_ by _Ceres_; and so could not be older than _Asterius_, and _Europa_, and her brother _Cadmus_: and by _Italy_'s being called _Oenotria_, before it was called _Saturnia_, you may know that he came into _Italy_ after _Oenotrus_, and so was not older than the sons of _Lycaon_. _Oenotrus_ carried the first colony of the _Greeks_ into _Italy_, _Saturn_ the second, and _Evander_ the third; and the _Latines_ know nothing older in _Italy_ than _Janus_ and _Saturn_: and therefore _Oenotrus_ was the _Janus_ of the _Latines_, and _Saturn_ was contemporary to the sons of _Lycaon_, and by consequence also to _Celeus_, _Erechtheus_, _Ceres_, and _Asterius_: for _Ceres_ educated _Triptolemus_ the son of _Celeus_, in the Reign of _Erechtheus_, and then taught him to plow and sow corn: _Arcas_ the son of _Callisto_, and grandson of _Lycaon_, received corn from _Triptolemus_, and taught his people to make bread of it; and _Procris_, the daughter of _Erechtheus_, fled to _Minos_ the son of _Asterius_. In memory of _Saturn_'s coming into _Italy_ by sea, the _Latines_ coined their first money with his head on one side, and a ship on the other. _Macrobius_ [177] tells us, that when _Saturn_ was dead, _Janus_ erected an Altar to him, with sacred rites as to a God, and instituted the _Saturnalia_, and that humane sacrifices were offered to him; 'till _Hercules_ driving the cattle of _Geryon_ through _Italy_, abolished that custom: by the human sacrifices you may know that _Janus_ was of the race of _Lycaon_; which character agrees to _Oenotrus_. _Dionysius Halicarnassensis_ tells us further, that _Oenotrus_ having found in the western parts of _Italy_ a large region fit for pasturage and tillage, but yet for the most part uninhabited, and where it was inhabited, peopled but thinly; in a certain part of it, purged from the _Barbarians_, he built towns little and numerous, in the mountains; which manner of building was familiar to the ancients: and this was the Original of Towns in _Italy_.

_Pausanias_ [178] tells us that _the people of _Elis_, who were best skilled in Antiquities, related this to have been the Original of the Olympic Games: that _Saturn_ Reigned first and had a Temple built to him in _Olympia_ by the men of the Golden Age; and that when _Jupiter_ was newly born, his mother _Rhea_ recommended him to the care of the _Idæi Dactyli_, who were also called _Curetes_: that afterwards five of them, called _Hercules_, _Pœonius_, _Epimedes_, _Jasius_, and _Ida_, came from _Ida_, a mountain in _Crete_, into _Elis_; and _Hercules_, called also _Hercules Idæus_, being the oldest of them, in memory of the war between _Saturn_ and _Jupiter_, instituted the game of racing, and that the victor should be rewarded with a crown of olive_; and there erected an altar to _Jupiter Olympius_, and called these games Olympic: and that some of the _Eleans_ said, _that _Jupiter_ contended here with _Saturn_ for the Kingdom; others that _Hercules Idæus_ instituted these games in memory of their victory over the _Titans__: for the people of _Arcadia_ [179] had a tradition, that the Giants fought with the Gods in the valley of _Bathos_, near the river _Alpheus_ and the fountain _Olympias_. [180] Before the Reign of _Asterius_, his father _Teutamus_ came into _Crete_ with a colony from _Olympia_; and upon the flight of _Asterius_, some of his friends might retire with him into their own country, and be pursued and beaten there by the _Idæan Hercules_: the _Eleans_ said also that _Clymenus_ the grandson of the _Idæan Hercules_, about fifty years after _Deucalion_'s flood, coming from _Crete_, celebrated these games again in _Olympia_, and erected there an altar to _Juno Olympia_, that is, to _Europa_, and another to this _Hercules_ and the rest of the _Curetes_; and Reigned in _Elis_ 'till he was expelled by _Endymion_, [181] who thereupon celebrated these games again: and so did _Pelops_, who expelled _Ætolus_ the son of _Endymion_; and so also did _Hercules_ the son of _Alcmena_, and _Atreus_ the son of _Pelops_, and _Oxylus_: they might be celebrated originally in triumph for victories, first by _Hercules Idæus_, upon the conquest of _Saturn_ and the _Titans_, and then by _Clymenus_, upon his coming to Reign in the _Terra Curetum_; then by _Endymion_, upon his conquering _Clymenus_; and afterwards by _Pelops_, upon his conquering _Ætolus_; and by _Hercules_, upon his killing _Augeas_; and by _Atreus_, upon his repelling the _Heraclides_; and by _Oxylus_, upon the return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_. This _Jupiter_, to whom they were instituted, had a Temple and Altar erected to him in _Olympia_, where the games were celebrated, and from the place was called _Jupiter Olympius_: _Olympia_ was a place upon the confines of _Pisa_, near the river _Alpheus_.

In the [182] Island _Thasus_, where _Cadmus_ left his brother _Thasus_, the _Phœnicians_ built a Temple to _Hercules Olympius_, that _Hercules_, whom _Cicero_ [183] calls _ex Idæis Dactylis; cui inferias afferunt_. When the mysteries of _Ceres_ were instituted in _Eleusis_, there were other mysteries instituted to her and her daughter and daughter's husband, in the Island _Samothrace_, by the _Phœnician_ names of _Dii Cabiri Axieros_, _Axiokersa_, and _Axiokerses_, that is, the great Gods _Ceres_, _Proserpina_ and _Pluto_: for [184] _Jasius_ a _Samothracian_, whose sister married _Cadmus_, was familiar with _Ceres_; and _Cadmus_ and _Jasius_ were both of them instituted in these mysteries. _Jasius_ was the brother of _Dardanus_, and married _Cybele_ the daughter of _Meones_ King of _Phrygia_, and by her had _Corybas_; and after his death, _Dardanus_, _Cybele_ and _Corybas_ went into _Phrygia_, and carried thither the mysteries of the mother of the Gods, and _Cybele_ called the goddess after her own name, and _Corybas_ called her priests _Corybantes_: thus _Diodorus_; but _Dionysius_ saith [185] that _Dardanus_ instituted the _Samothracian_ mysteries, and that his wife _Chryses_ learnt them in _Arcadia_, and that _Idæus_ the son of _Dardanus_ instituted afterwards the mysteries of the mother of the gods in _Phrygia_: this _Phrygian_ Goddess was drawn in a chariot by lions, and had a _corona turrita_ on her head, and a drum in her hand, like the _Phœnician_ Goddess _Astarte_, and the _Corybantes_ danced in armour at her sacrifices in a furious manner, like the _Idæi Dactyli_; and _Lucian_ [186] tells us that she was the _Cretan Rhea_, that is, _Europa_ the mother of _Minos_: and thus the _Phœnicians_ introduced the practice of Deifying dead men and women among the _Greeks_ and _Phrygians_; for I meet with no instance of Deifying dead men and women in _Greece_, before the coming of _Cadmus_ and _Europa_ from _Zidon_.

From these originals it came into fashion among the _Greeks_, κτεριζειν, _parentare_, to celebrate the funerals of dead parents with festivals and invocations and sacrifices offered to their ghosts, and to erect magnificent sepulchres in the form of temples, with altars and statues, to persons of renown; and there to honour them publickly with sacrifices and invocations: every man might do it to his ancestors; and the cities of _Greece_ did it to all the eminent _Greeks_: as to _Europa_ the sister, to _Alymnus_ the brother, and to _Minos_ and _Rhadamanthus_ the nephews of _Cadmus_; to his daughter _Ino_, and her son _Melicertus_; to _Bacchus_ the son of his daughter _Semele_, _Aristarchus_ the husband of his daughter _Autonoe_, and _Jasius_ the brother of his wife _Harmonia_; to _Hercules_ a _Theban_, and his mother _Alcmena_; to _Danae_ the daughter of _Acrisius_; to _Æsculapius_ and _Polemocrates_ the son of _Machaon_, to _Pandion_ and _Theseus_ Kings of _Athens_, _Hippolytus_ the son of _Theseus_, _Pan_ the son of _Penelope_, _Proserpina_, _Triptolemus_, _Celeus_, _Trophonius_, _Castor_, _Pollux_, _Helena_, _Menelaus_, _Agamemnon_, _Amphiaraus_ and his son _Amphilochus_, _Hector_ and _Alexandra_ the son and daughter of _Priam_, _Phoroneus_, _Orpheus_, _Protesilaus_, _Achilles_ and his mother _Thetis_, _Ajax_, _Arcas_, _Idomeneus_, _Meriones_, _Æacus_, _Melampus_, _Britomartis_, _Adrastus_, _Iolaus_, and divers others. They Deified their dead in divers manners, according to their abilities and circumstances, and the merits of the person; some only in private families, as houshold Gods or _Dii Pænates_; others by erecting gravestones to them in publick, to be used as altars for annual sacrifices; others, by building also to them sepulchres in the form of houses or temples; and some by appointing mysteries, and ceremonies, and set sacrifices, and festivals, and initiations, and a succession of priests for performing those institutions in the temples, and handing them down to posterity. Altars might begin to be erected in _Europe_ a little before the days of _Cadmus_, for sacrificing to the old God or Gods of the Colonies, but Temples began in the days of _Solomon_; for [187] _Æacus_ the son of _Ægina_, who was two Generations older than the _Trojan_ war, is by some reputed one of the first who built a Temple in _Greece_. Oracles came first from _Egypt_ into _Greece_ about the same time, as also did the custom of forming the images of the Gods with their legs bound up in the shape of the _Egyptian_ mummies: for Idolatry began in _Chaldæa_ and _Egypt_, and spread thence into _Phœnicia_ and the neighbouring countries, long before it came into _Europe_; and the _Pelasgians_ propagated it in _Greece_, by the dictates of the Oracles. The countries upon the _Tigris_ and the _Nile_ being exceeding fertile, were first frequented by mankind, and grew first into Kingdoms, and therefore began first to adore their dead Kings and Queens: hence came the Gods of _Laban_, the Gods and Goddesses called _Baalim_ and _Ashtaroth_ by the _Canaanites_, the Dæmons or Ghosts to whom they sacrificed, and the _Moloch_ to whom they offered their children in the days of _Moses_ and the Judges. Every City set up the worship of its own Founder and Kings, and by alliances and conquests they spread this worship, and at length the _Phœnicians_ and _Egyptians_ brought into _Europe_ the practice of Deifying the dead. The Kingdom of the lower _Egypt_ began to worship their Kings before the days of _Moses_; and to this worship the second commandment is opposed: when the Shepherds invaded the lower _Egypt_, they checked this worship of the old _Egyptians_, and spread that of their own Kings: and at length the _Egyptians_ of _Coptos_ and _Thebais_, under _Misphragmuthosis_ and _Amosis_, expelling the Shepherds, checked the worship of the Gods of the Shepherds, and Deifying their own Kings and Princes, propagated the worship of twelve of them into their conquests; and made them more universal than the false Gods of any other nation had been before, so as to be called, _Dii magni majorum gentium_. _Sesostris_ conquered _Thrace_, and _Amphictyon_ the son of _Prometheus_ brought the twelve Gods from _Thrace_ into _Greece_: _Herodotus_ [188] tells us that they came from _Egypt_; and by the names of the cities of _Egypt_ dedicated to many of these Gods, you may know that they were of an _Egyptian_ original: and the _Egyptians_, according to _Diodorus_, [189] usually represented, that after their _Saturn_ and _Rhea_, Reigned _Jupiter_ and _Juno_, the parents of _Osiris_ and _Isis_, the parents of _Orus_ and _Bubaste_.

By all this it may be understood, that as the _Egyptians_ who Deified their Kings, began their monarchy with the Reign of their Gods and Heroes, reckoning _Menes_ the first man who reigned after their Gods; so the _Cretans_ had the Ages of their Gods and Heroes, calling the first four Ages of their Deified Kings and Princes, the Golden, Silver, Brazen, and Iron Ages. _Hesiod_ [190] describing these four Ages of the Gods and Demi-Gods of _Greece_, represents them to be four Generations of men, each of which ended when the men then living grew old and dropt into the grave, and tells us that the fourth ended with the wars of _Thebes_ and _Troy_: and so many Generations there were, from the coming of the _Phœnicians_ and _Curetes_ with _Cadmus_ and _Europa_ into _Greece_ unto the destruction of _Troy_. _Apollonius Rhodius_ saith that when the _Argonauts_ came to _Crete_, they slew _Talus_ a brazen man, who remained of those that were of the Brazen Age, and guarded that pass: _Talus_ was reputed [191] the son of _Minos_, and therefore the sons of _Minos_ lived in the Brazen Age, and _Minos_ Reigned in the Silver Age: it was the Silver Age of the _Greeks_ in which they began to plow and sow Corn, and _Ceres_, that taught them to do it, flourished in the Reign of _Celeus_ and _Erechtheus_ and _Minos_. Mythologists tell us that the last woman with whom _Jupiter_ lay, was _Alcmena_; and thereby they seem to put an end to the Reign of _Jupiter_ among mortals, that is to the Silver Age, when _Alcmena_ was with child of _Hercules_; who therefore was born about the eighth or tenth year of _Rehoboam's_ Reign, and was about 34 years old at the time of the _Argonautic_ expedition. _Chiron_ was begot by _Saturn_ of _Philyra_ in the Golden Age, when _Jupiter_ was a child in the _Cretan_ cave, as above; and this was in the Reign of _Asterius_ King of _Crete_: and therefore _Asterius_ Reigned in _Crete_ in the Golden Age; and the Silver Age began when _Chiron_ was a child: if _Chiron_ was born about the 35th year of _David_'s Reign, he will be born in the Reign of _Asterius_, when _Jupiter_ was a child in the _Cretan_ cave, and be about 88 years old in the time of the _Argonautic_ expedition, when he invented the Asterisms; and this is within the reach of nature. The Golden Age therefore falls in with the Reign of _Asterius_, and the Silver Age with that of _Minos_; and to make these Ages much longer than ordinary generations, is to make _Chiron_ live much longer than according to the course of nature. This fable of the four Ages seems to have been made by the _Curetes_ in the fourth Age, in memory of the first four Ages of their coming into _Europe_, as into a new world; and in honour of their country-woman _Europa_, and her husband _Asterius_ the _Saturn_ of the _Latines_, and of her son _Minos_ the _Cretan Jupiter_ and grandson _Deucalion_, who Reigned 'till the _Argonautic_ expedition, and is sometimes reckoned among the _Argonauts_, and of their great grandson _Idomeneus_ who warred at _Troy_. _Hesiod_ tells us that he himself lived in the fifth Age, the Age next after the taking of _Troy_, and therefore he flourished within thirty or thirty five years after it: and _Homer_ was of about the same Age; for he [192] lived sometime with _Mentor_ in _Ithaca_, and there learnt of him many things concerning _Ulysses_, with whom _Mentor_ had been personally acquainted: now _Herodotus_, the oldest Historian of the _Greeks_ now extant, [193] tells us that _Hesiod_ and _Homer_ were not above four hundred years older than himself, and therefore they flourished within 110 or 120 years after the death of _Solomon_; and according to my reckoning the taking of _Troy_ was but one Generation earlier.

Mythologists tell us, that _Niobe_ the daughter of _Phoroneus_ was the first woman with whom _Jupiter_ lay, and that of her he begat _Argus_, who succeeded _Phoroneus_ in the Kingdom of _Argos_, and gave his name to that city; and therefore _Argus_ was born in the beginning of the Silver Age: unless you had rather say that by _Jupiter_ they might here mean _Asterius_; for the _Phœnicians_ gave the name of _Jupiter_ to every King, from the time of their first coming into _Greece_ with _Cadmus_ and _Europa_, until the invasion of _Greece_ by _Sesostris_, and the birth of _Hercules_, and particularly to the fathers of _Minos_, _Pelops_, _Lacedæmon_, _Æacus_, and _Perseus_.

The four first Ages succeeded the flood of _Deucalion_; and some tell us that _Deucalion_ was the son of _Prometheus_, the son of _Japetus_, and brother of _Atlas_: but this was another _Deucalion_; for _Japetus_ the father of _Prometheus_, _Epimetheus,_ and _Atlas_, was an _Egyptian_, the brother of _Osiris_, and flourished two generations after the flood of _Deucalion_.

I have now carried up the Chronology of the _Greeks_ as high as to the first use of letters, the first plowing and sowing of corn, the first manufacturing of copper and iron, the beginning of the trades of Smiths, Carpenters, Joyners, Turners, Brick-makers, Stone-cutters, and Potters, in _Europe_; the first walling of cities about, the first building of Temples, and the original of Oracles in _Greece_; the beginning of navigation by the Stars in long ships with sails; the erecting of the _Amphictyonic_ Council; the first Ages of _Greece_, called the Golden, Silver, Brazen and Iron Ages, and the flood of _Deucalion_ which immediately preceded them. Those Ages could not be earlier than the invention and use of the four metals in _Greece_, from whence they had their names; and the flood of _Ogyges_ could not be much above two or three ages earlier than that of _Deucalion_: for among such wandering people as were then in _Europe_, there could be no memory of things done above three or four ages before the first use of letters: and the expulsion of the Shepherds out of _Egypt_, which gave the first occasion to the coming of people from _Egypt_ into _Greece_, and to the building of houses and villages in _Greece_, was scarce earlier than the days of _Eli_ and _Samuel_; for _Manetho_ tells us, that when they were forced to quit _Abaris_ and retire out of _Egypt_, they went through the wilderness into _Judæa_ and built _Jerusalem_: I do not think, with _Manetho,_ that they were the _Israelites_ under _Moses_, but rather believe that they were _Canaanites_; and upon leaving _Abaris_ mingled with the _Philistims_ their next neighbours: though some of them might assist _David_ and _Solomon_ in building _Jerusalem_ and the Temple.

_Saul_ was made King [194], that he might rescue _Israel_ out of the hand of the _Philistims_, who opressed them; and in the second year of his Reign, the _Philistims_ brought into the field against him _thirty thousand chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the sea shore for multitude_: the _Canaanites_ had their horses from _Egypt_; and yet in the days of _Moses_ all the chariots of _Egypt_, with which _Pharaoh_ pursued _Israel_ were but six hundred, _Exod._ xiv. 7. From the great army of the _Philistims_ against _Saul_, and the great number of their horses, I seem to gather that the Shepherds had newly relinquished _Egypt_; and joyned them: the Shepherds might be beaten and driven out of the greatest part of _Egypt_, and shut up in _Abaris_ by _Misphragmuthosis_ in the latter end of the days of _Eli_; and some of them fly to the _Philistims_, and strengthen them against _Israel_, in the last year of _Eli_; and from the _Philistims_ some of the Shepherds might go to _Zidon_, and from _Zidon_, by sea to _Asia minor_ and _Greece_: and afterwards, in the beginning of the Reign of _Saul_, the Shepherds who still remained in _Egypt_ might be forced by _Tethmosis_ or _Amosis_ the son of _Misphragmuthosis_, to leave _Abaris_, and retire in very great numbers to the _Philistims_; and upon these occasions several of them, as _Pelasgus_, _Inachus_, _Lelex_, _Cecrops_, and _Abas_, might come with their people by sea from _Egypt_ to _Zidon_ and _Cyprus_, and thence to _Asia minor_ and _Greece_, in the days of _Eli_, _Samuel_ and _Saul_, and thereby begin to open a commerce by sea between _Zidon_ and _Greece_, before the revolt of _Edom_ from _Judæa_, and the final coming of the _Phœnicians_ from the _Red Sea_.