Part 9

Upon the return of _Sesostris_ into _Egypt_, his brother _Danaus_ not only attempted his life, as above, but also commanded his daughters, who were fifty in number and had married the sons of _Sesostris_, to slay their husbands; and then fled with his daughters from _Egypt_, in a long ship of fifty oars. This Flight was in the fourteenth year of _Rehoboam_. _Danaus_ came first to _Lindus_, a town in _Rhodes_, and there built a Temple, and erected a Statue to _Minerva_, and lost three of his daughters by a plague which raged there; and then sailed thence with the rest of his daughters to _Argos_. He came to _Argos_ therefore in the fifteenth or sixteenth year of _Rehoboam_: and at length contending there with _Gelanor_ the brother of _Eurystheus_ for the crown of _Argos_, was chosen by the people, and Reigned at _Argos_, while _Eurystheus_ Reigned at _Mycenæ_; and _Eurystheus_ was born [139] the same year with _Hercules_. _Gelanor_ and _Eurystheus_ were the sons of _Sthenelus_, by _Nicippe_ the daughter of _Pelops_; and _Sthenelus_ was the son of _Perseus_, and Reigned at _Argos_, and _Danaus_, who succeeded him at _Argos_, was succeeded there by his son in law _Lynceus_, and he by his son _Abas_; that _Abas_ who is commonly, but erroneously, reputed the father of _Acrisius_ and _Prætus_. In the time of the _Argonautic_ expedition _Castor_ and _Pollux_ were beardless young men, and their sisters _Helena_ and _Clytemnestra_ were children, and their wives _Phœbe_ and _Ilaira_ were also very young: all these, with the _Argonauts_ _Lynceus_ and _Idas_, were the grandchildren of _Gorgophone_, the daughter of _Perseus_, the son of _Danae_, the daughter of _Acrisius_ and _Eurydice_; and _Perieres_ and _Oebalus_, the husbands of _Gorgophone_, were the sons of _Cynortes_, the son of _Amyclas_, the brother of _Eurydice_. _Mestor_ or _Mastor_, the brother of _Sthenelus_, married _Lysidice_, another of the daughters of _Pelops_: and _Pelops_ married _Hippodamia_, the daughter of _Evarete_, the daughter of _Acrisius_. _Alcmena_, the mother of _Hercules_, was the daughter of _Electryo_; and _Sthenelus_, _Mestor_ and _Electryo_ were brothers of _Gorgophone_, and sons of _Perseus_ and _Andromeda_: and the _Argonaut_ _Æsculapius_ was the grandson of _Leucippus_ and _Phlegia_, and _Leucippus_ was the son of _Perieres_, the grandson of _Amyclas_ the brother of _Eurydice_, and _Amyclas_ and _Eurydice_ were the children of _Lacedæmon_ and _Sparta_: and _Capaneus_, one of the seven Captains against _Thebes_, was the husband of _Euadne_ the daughter of _Iphis_, the son of _Elector_, the son of _Anaxagoras_, the son of _Megapenthes_, the son of _Prætus_ the brother of _Acrisius_. Now from these Generations it may be gathered that _Perseus_, _Perieres_ and _Anaxagoras_ were of about the same age with _Minos_, _Pelops_, _Ægeus_ and _Sesac_; and that _Acrisius_, _Prætus_, _Eurydice_, and _Amyclas_, being two little Generations older, were of about the same age with King _David_ and _Erechtheus_; and that the Temple of _Juno Argiva_ was built about the same time with the Temple of _Solomon_; the same being built by _Eurydice_ to her daughter _Danae_, as above; or as some say, by _Pirasus_ or _Piranthus_, the son or successor of _Argus_, and great grandson of _Phoroneus_: for the first Priestess of that Goddess was _Callithea_ the daughter of _Piranthus_; _Callithea_ was succeeded by _Alcinoe_, about three Generations before the taking of _Troy_, that is about the middle of _Solomon_'s Reign: in her Priesthood the _Siculi_ passed out of _Italy_ into _Sicily_: afterwards _Hypermnestra_ the daughter of _Danaus_ became Priestess of this Goddess, and she flourished in the times next before the _Argonautic_ expedition: and _Admeta_, the daughter of _Eurystheus_, was Priestess of this _Juno_ about the times of the _Trojan_ war. _Andromeda_ the wife of _Perseus_, was the daughter of _Cepheus_ an _Egyptian_, the son of _Belus_, according to [140] _Herodotus_; and the _Egyptian_ _Belus_ was _Ammon_: _Perseus_ took her from _Joppa_, where _Cepheus_, I think a kinsman of _Solomon_'s Queen, resided in the days of _Solomon_. _Acrisius_ and _Prætus_ were the sons of _Abas_: but this _Abas_ was not the same man with _Abas_ the grandson of _Danaus_, but a much older Prince, who built _Abæa_ in _Phocis_, and might be the Prince from whom the island _Eubœa_ [141] was anciently called _Abantis_, and the people thereof _Abantes_: for _Apollonius Rhodius_ [142] tells us, that the _Argonaut_ _Canthus_ was the son of _Canethus_, and that _Canethus_ was of the posterity of _Abas_; and the Commentator upon _Apollonius_ tells us further, that from this _Abas_ the inhabitants of _Eubœa_ were anciently called _Abantes_. This _Abas_ therefore flourished three or four Generations before the _Argonautic_ expedition, and so might be the father of _Acrisius_: the ancestors of _Acrisius_ were accounted _Egyptians_ by the _Greeks_, and they might come from _Egypt_ under _Abas_ into _Eubœa_, and from thence into _Peloponnesus_. I do not reckon _Phorbas_ and his son _Triopas_ among the Kings of _Argos_, because they fled from that Kingdom to the Island _Rhodes_; nor do I reckon _Crotopus_ among them, because because he went from _Argos_, and built a new city for himself in _Megaris_, as [143] _Conon_ relates.

We said that _Pelops_ came into _Greece_ about the 26th year of _Solomon_: he [144] came thither in the days of _Acrisius_, and in those of _Endymion_, and of his sons, and took _Ætolia_ from _Aetolus_. _Endymion_ was the son of _Aëthlius_, the son of _Protogenia_, the sister of _Hellen_, and daughter of _Deucalion_: _Phrixus_ and _Helle_, the children of _Athamus_, the brother of _Sisyphus_ and Son of _Æolus_, the son of _Hellen_, fled from their stepmother _Ino_, the daughter of _Cadmus_, to _Æetes_ in _Colchis_, presently after the return of _Sesostris_ into _Egypt_: and _Jason_ the _Argonaut_ was the son of _Æson_, the son of _Cretheus_, the son of _Æolus_, the son of _Hellen_: and _Calyce_ was the wife of _Aëthlius_, and mother of _Endymion_, and daughter of _Æolus_, and sister of _Cretheus_, _Sisyphus_ and _Athamas_: and by these circumstances _Cretheus_, _Sisyphus_ and _Athamas_ flourished in the latter part of the Reign of _Solomon_, and in the Reign of _Rehoboam_: _Aëthlius_, _Æolus_, _Xuthus_, _Dorus_, _Tantalus_, and _Danae_ were contemporary to _Erechtheus_, _Jasius_ and _Cadmus_; and _Hellen_ was about one, and _Deucalion_ about two Generations older than _Erechtheus_. They could not be much older, because _Xuthus_ the youngest son of _Hellen_ [145] married _Creusa_ the daughter of _Erechtheus_; nor could they be much younger, because _Cephalus_ the son of _Deioneus_, the son of _Æolus_, the eldest son of _Hellen_, [146] married _Procris_ the daughter of _Erechtheus_; and _Procris_ fled from her husband to _Minos_. Upon the death of _Hellen_, his youngest son _Xuthus_ [147] was expelled _Thessaly_ by his brothers _Æolus_ and _Dorus_, and fled to _Erechtheus_, and married _Creusa_ the daughter of _Erechtheus_; by whom he had two sons, _Achæus_ and _Ion_, the youngest of which grew up before the death of _Erechtheus_, and commanded the army of the _Athenians_, in the war in which _Erechtheus_ was slain: and therefore _Hellen_ died about one Generation before _Erechtheus_.

_Sisyphus_ therefore built _Corinth_ about the latter end of the Reign of _Solomon_, or the beginning of the Reign of _Rehoboam_. Upon the flight of _Phrixus_ and _Helle_, their father _Athamas_, a little King in _Bœotia_, went distracted and slew his son _Learchus_; and his wife _Ino_ threw her self into the sea, together with her other son _Melicertus_; and thereupon _Sisyphus_ instituted the _Isthmia_ at _Corinth_ to his nephew _Melicertus_. This was presently after _Sesostris_ had left _Æetes_ in _Colchis_, I think in the fifteenth or sixteenth year of _Rehoboam_: so that _Athamas_, the son of _Æolus_ and grandson of _Hellen_, and _Ino_ the daughter of _Cadmus_, flourished 'till about the sixteenth year of _Rehoboam_. _Sisyphus_ and his successors _Ornytion_, _Thoas_, _Demophon_, _Propodas_, _Doridas_, and _Hyanthidas_ Reigned successively at _Corinth_, 'till the return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_: then Reigned the _Heraclides_, _Aletes_, _Ixion_, _Agelas_, _Prumnis_, _Bacchis_, _Agelas II_, _Eudamus_, _Aristodemus_, and _Telestes_ successively about 170 years, and then _Corinth_ was governed by _Prytanes_ or annual Archons about 42 years, and after them by _Cypselus_ and _Periander_ about 48 years more.

_Celeus_ King of _Eleusis_, who was contemporary to _Erechtheus_, [148] was the son of _Rharus_, the son of _Cranaus_, the successor of _Cecrops_; and in the Reign of _Cranaus_, _Deucalion_ fled with his sons _Hellen_ and _Amphictyon_ from the flood which then overflowed _Thessaly_, and was called _Deucalion_'s flood: they fled into _Attica_, and there _Deucalion_ died soon after; and _Pausanias_ tells us that his Sepulchre was to be seen near _Athens_. His eldest son _Hellen_ succeeded him in _Thessaly_, and his other son _Amphictyon_ married the daughter of _Cranaus_, and Reigning at _Thermopylæ_, erected there the _Amphictyonic_ Council; and _Acrisius_ soon after erected the like Council at _Delphi_. This I conceive was done when _Amphictyon_ and _Acrisius_ were aged, and fit to be Counsellors; suppose in the latter half of the Reign of _David_, and beginning of the Reign of _Solomon_; and soon after, suppose about the middle of the Reign of _Solomon_, did _Phemonoë_ become the first Priestess of _Apollo_ at _Delphi_, and gave Oracles in hexameter verse: and then was _Acrisius_ slain accidentally by his grandson _Perseus_. The Council of _Thermopylæ_ included twelve nations of the _Greeks_, without _Attica_, and therefore _Amphictyon_ did not then Reign at _Athens_: he might endeavour to succeed _Cranaus_, his wife's father, and be prevented by _Erechtheus_.

Between the Reigns of _Cranaus_ and _Erechtheus_, Chronologers place also _Erichthonius_, and his son _Pandion_; but I take this _Erichthonius_ and this his son _Pandion_, to be the same with _Erechtheus_ and his son and successor _Pandion_, the names being only repeated with a little variation in the list of the Kings of _Attica_: for _Erichthonius_, he that was the son of the Earth, nursed up by _Minerva_, is by _Homer_ called _Erechtheus_; and _Themistius_ [149] tells us, that it was _Erechtheus_ that first joyned a chariot to horses; and _Plato_ [150] alluding to the story of _Erichthonius_ in a basket, saith, _The people of magnanimous _Erechtheus_ is beautiful, but it behoves us to behold him taken out_: _Erechtheus_ therefore immediately succeeded _Cranaus_, while _Amphictyon_ Reigned at _Thermopylæ_. In the Reign of _Cranaus_ the Poets place the flood of _Deucalion_, and therefore the death of _Deucalion_, and the Reign of his sons _Hellen_ and _Amphictyon_, in _Thessaly_ and _Thermpolyæ_, was but a few years, suppose eight or ten, before the Reign of _Erechtheus_.

The first Kings of _Arcadia_ were successively _Pelasgus_, _Lycaon_, _Nyctimus_, _Arcas_, _Clitor_, _Æpytus_, _Aleus_, _Lycurgus_, _Echemus_, _Agapenor_, _Hippothous_, _Æpytus_ II, _Cypselus_, _Olæas_, &c. Under _Cypselus_ the _Heraclides_ returned into _Peloponnesus_, as above: _Agapenor_ was one of those who courted _Helena_; he courted her before he reigned, and afterwards he went to the war at _Troy_, and thence to _Cyprus_, and there built _Paphos_. _Echemus_ slew _Hyllus_ the son of _Hercules._ _Lycurgus_, _Cepheus_, and _Auge_, were [151] the children of _Aleus_, the son of _Aphidas_, the son of _Arcas_, the son of _Callisto_, the daughter of _Lycaon_: _Auge_ lay with _Hercules_, and _Ancæus_ the son of _Lycurgus_ was an _Argonaut_, and his uncle _Cepheus_ was his Governour in that Expedition; and _Lycurgus_ stay'd at home, to look after his aged father _Aleus_, who might be born about 75 years before that Expedition; and his grandfather _Arcas_ might be born about the end of the Reign of _Saul_, and _Lycaon_ the grandfather of _Arcas_ might be then alive, and dye before the middle of _David_'s Reign; and His youngest son _Oenotrus_, the _Janus_ of the _Latines_, might grow up, and lead a colony into _Italy_ before the Reign of _Solomon_. _Arcas_ received [152] bread-corn from _Triptolemus_, and taught his people to make bread of it; and so did _Eumelus_, the first King of a region afterwards called _Achaia_: and therefore _Arcas_ and _Eumelus_ were contemporary to _Triptolemus_, and to his old father _Celeus_, and to _Erechtheus_ King of _Athens_; and _Callisto_ to _Rharus_, and her father _Lycaon_ to _Cranaus_: but _Lycaon_ died before _Cranaus_, so as to leave room for _Deucalion_'s flood between their deaths. The eleven Kings of _Arcadia_, between this Flood and the Return of the _Heraclides_ into _Peloponnesus_, that is, between the Reigns of _Lycaon_ and _Cypselus_, after the rate of about twenty years to a Reign one with another, took up about 220 years; and these years counted back from the Return of the _Heraclides_, place the Flood of _Deucalion_ upon the fourteenth year of _David_'s Reign, or thereabout.

_Herodotus_ [153] tells us, that the _Phœnicians_ who came with _Cadmus_ brought many doctrines into _Greece_: for amongst those _Phœnicians_ were a sort of men called _Curetes_, who were skilled in the Arts and Sciences of _Phœnicia_, above other men, and [154] settled some in _Phrygia_, where they were called _Corybantes_; some in _Crete_, where they were called _Idæi Dactyli_; some in _Rhodes_, where they were called _Telchines_; some in _Samothrace_, where they were called _Cabiri_; some in _Eubœa_, where, before the invention of iron, they wrought in copper, in a city thence called _Chalcis_ some in _Lemnos_, where they assisted _Vulcan_; and some in _Imbrus_, and other places: and a considerable number of them settled in _Ætolia_, which was thence called the country of the _Curetes_; until _Ætolus_ the son of _Endymion_, having slain _Apis_ King of _Sicyon_, fled thither, and by the assistance of his father invaded it, and from his own name called it _Ætolia_: and by the assistance of these artificers, _Cadmus_ found out gold in the mountain _Pangæus_ in _Thrace_, and copper at _Thebes_; whence copper ore is still called _Cadmia_. Where they settled they wrought first in copper, 'till iron was invented, and then in iron; and when they had made themselves armour, they danced in it at the sacrifices with tumult and clamour, and bells, and pipes, and drums, and swords, with which they struck upon one another's armour, in musical times, appearing seized with a divine fury; and this is reckoned the original of music in _Greece:_ so _Solinus_ [155] _Studium musicum inde cœptum cum Idæi Dactyli modulos crepitu & tinnitu æris deprehensos in versificum ordinem transtulissent_: and [156] _Isidorus_, _Studium musicum ab Idæis Dactylis cœptum_. _Apollo_ and the Muses were two Generations later. _Clemens_ [157] calls the _Idæi Dactyli_ barbarous, that is strangers; and saith, that they reputed the first wise men, to whom both the letters which they call _Ephesian_, and the invention of musical rhymes are referred: it seems that when the _Phœnician_ letters, ascribed to _Cadmus_, were brought into _Greece_, they were at the same time brought into _Phrygia_ and _Crete_, by the _Curetes_; who settled in those countries, and called them _Ephesian_, from the city _Ephesus_, where they were first taught. The _Curetes_, by their manufacturing copper and iron, and making swords, and armour, and edged tools for hewing and carving of wood, brought into _Europe_ a new way of fighting; and gave _Minos_ an opportunity of building a Fleet, and gaining the dominion of the seas; and set on foot the trades of Smiths and Carpenters in _Greece_, which are the foundation of manual trades: the [158] fleet of _Minos_ was without sails, and _Dædalus_ fled from him by adding sails to his vessel; and therefore ships with sails were not used by the _Greeks_ before the flight of _Dædalus_, and death of _Minos_, who was slain in pursuing him to _Sicily_, in the Reign of _Rehoboam_. _Dædalus_ and his nephew _Talus_, in the latter part of the Reign of _Solomon_, invented the chip-ax, and saw, and wimble, and perpendicular, and compass, and turning-lath, and glew, and the potter's wheel; and his father _Eupalamus_ invented the anchor: and these things gave a beginning to manual Arts and Trades in _Europe_.

The [159] _Curetes_, who thus introduced Letters, and Music, and Poetry, and Dancing, and Arts, and attended on the Sacrifices, were no less active about religious institutions, and for their skill and knowledge and mystical practices, were accounted wise men and conjurers by the vulgar. In _Phrygia_ their mysteries were about _Rhea_, called _Magna Mater_, and from the places where she was worshipped, _Cybele_, _Berecynthia_, _Pessinuntia_, _Dindymene_, _Mygdonia_, and _Idæa Phrygia_: and in _Crete_, and the _Terra Curetum_, they were about _Jupiter Olympius_, the son of the _Cretan Rhea_: they represented, [160] that when _Jupiter_ was born in _Crete_, his mother _Rhea_ caused him to be educated in a cave in mount _Ida_, under their care and tuition; and [161] that they danced about him in armour, with great noise, that his father _Saturn_ might not hear him cry; and when he was grown up, assisted him in conquering his father, and his father's friends; and in memory of these things instituted their mysteries. _Bochart_ [162] brings them from _Palestine_, and thinks that they had the name of _Curetes_ from the people among the _Philistims_ called _Crethim_, or _Cerethites_: _Ezek._ xxv. 16. _Zeph._ ii. 5. 1 _Sam._ xxx. 14, for the _Philistims_ conquered _Zidon_, and mixed with the _Zidonians_.

The two first Kings of _Crete_, who reigned after the coming of the _Curetes_, were _Asterius_ and _Minos_; and _Europa_ was the Queen of _Asterius_, and mother of _Minos_; and the _Idæan Curetes_ were her countrymen, and came with her and her brother _Alymnus_ into _Crete_, and dwelt in the _Idæan_ cave in her Reign, and there educated _Jupiter_, and found out iron, and made armour: and therefore these three, _Asterius_, _Europa_, and _Minos_, must be the _Saturn_, _Rhea_ and _Jupiter_ of the _Cretans_. _Minos_ is usually called the son of _Jupiter_; but this is in relation to the fable, that _Jupiter_ in the shape of a bull, the Ensign of the Ship, carried away _Europa_ from _Zidon_: for the _Phœnicians_, upon their first coming into _Greece_, gave the name of _Jao-pater_, _Jupiter_, to every King: and thus both _Minos_ and his father were _Jupiters_. _Echemenes_, an ancient author cited by _Athenæus_, [163] said that _Minos_ was that _Jupiter_ who committed the rape upon _Ganimede_; though others said more truly that it was _Tantalus_: _Minos_ alone was that _Jupiter_ who was most famous among the _Greeks_ for Dominion and Justice, being the greatest King in all _Greece_ in those days, and the only legislator. _Plutarch_ [164] tells us, that the people of _Naxus_, contrary to what others write, pretended that there were two _Minos's_, and two _Ariadnes_; and that the first _Ariadne_ married _Bacchus_, and the last was carried away by _Theseus_: but [165] _Homer_, _Hesiod_, _Thucydides_, _Herodotus_, and _Strabo_, knew but of one _Minos_; and _Homer_ describes him to be the son of _Jupiter_ and _Europa_, and the brother of _Rhadamanthus_ and _Sarpedon_, and the father of _Deucalion_ the _Argonaut_, and grandfather of _Idomeneus_ who warred at _Troy_, and that he was the legislator of Hell: _Herodotus_ [166] makes _Minos_ and _Rhadamanthus_ the sons of _Europa_, contemporary to _Ægeus_: and [167] _Apollodorus_ and _Hyginus_ say, that _Minos_, the father of _Androgeus_, _Ariadne_ and _Phædra_, was the son of _Jupiter_ and _Europa_, and brother of _Rhadamanthus_ and _Sarpedon_.