& upon the flight of Asterius some of his friends might retire with him into their own country & be pursued & beaten there by the Idæan Hercules. The Eleans dd. Pausan. l. 5. c. 8, 14. said also that Clymenus the grandson of the Idæan Hercules about fifty years after Deucalions flood, coming from Crete, celebrated these games again in Crete Olympia, & erected there an altar to Iuno Olympia, that is, to Europa, & another to this Hercules & the rest of the Curetes, & reigned in Elis till he was expelled by Endymion d who thereupon celebrated these games again. And so did Pelops d who expelled Ætolus the son of Endymion. And so also did Hercules the son of Alcmena, & Atreus the son of Pelops; & Oxylus. And at length Iphitus made them quadrennial. They might be celebrated originally in triumph for victories, first by Hercules Idæus upon the conquest of Saturn & the Titans, & then by Clymenus upon his coming to reign in the Terra Curetum, & then by Endymion upon his conquering Clymenus, & afterwards by Pelops upon his conquering Ætolus, & by Hercules upon his killing Augeas, & by Atreus upon his repelling the Heraclides, & by Oxylus upon the return of the Heraclides into Peloponesus. This Iupiter to whom they were instituted had a temple & altar erected to him in Olympia where the games were celebrated, & from the place was called Iupiter Olympius. Olympia was a place upon the confines of Pisa near the river Alpheus.

In the aa Herod l. 2. c. 44. island Thasus where Cadmus left his brother Thasus the Phenicians built a Temple to Hercules Olympius, that Hercules whom Cicero bb Cic. de natura Deorum lib. 3. calls ex Idæis cui inferias afferunt. When the mysteries of Ceres were instituted in Eleusis there were other mysteries instituted to her & her daughter & daughter's husband in the island Samothrace by the Phenician names of Dij Cabiri Axieros, Axiokersa, & Axiokerses, that is, the great gods Ceres, Proserpina & Pluto. For cc Diodor. l. 5, c. 3. Iasion a Samothracian whose sister married Cadmus, was familiar with Ceres; & Cadmus & Iasion were both of them initiated in these mysteries. Iasion was the brother of Dardanus & married Cybele the daughter of Meones king of Phrygia, & by her had Corybas; & after his death Dardanus, Cybele, & Corybas went into Phrygia, & carried thither the mysteries of the mother of the Gods, & Cybele called the goddess after her own name, & Corybas called her priests Corybantes. Thus c Diodorus. But Dionysius dd Dionys. l. 1, p. 38, 42. saith that Dardanus instituted the Samothracian mysteries, & that his wife Chryses learnt them in Arcadia, & 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, & had a corona turrita on her head & a drum in her hand like the Phænician goddess Astarte, & the Corybantes danced in armour at her sacrifices in a furious manner like the Idæi Dactyli; & Lucian ee Lucian. de saltatione. tells us that she was the Cretan Rhea, that is, Europa the mother of Minos. And thus the Phenicians introduced the practise of deifying dead men & weomen among the Greeks & Phrygians. For I meet with no instance of deifying dead men & weomen in Greece before the coming of Cadmus & Europa from Sidon.

From these originals it came into fashion among the Greeks χτερίζειν, parentare, to celebrate the funerals of dead parents with festivals & invocations & sacrifices offered to their ghosts, & to erect magnificent sepulchres in the form of Temples with Altars & Statues to persons of renown; & there to honour them publickly with sacrifices & invocations. Every man might do it to his ancestors, & the cities of Greece did it to all the eminent Greeks, as to Europa the sister, to Atymnus the brother, & to Minos & Rhadamanthus the nephews of Cadmus; to his daughter Ino, & her son Melicertes; to Bacchus the son of his daughter Semele, Aristarchus the husband of his daughter Autonoe, Iasion the brother of his wife Harmonia, Hercules a Theban & his mother Alcmena; to Danae the daughter of Acrisius; to Æsculapius & Palemocrates the son of Machaon; to Pandion & Theseus kings of Athens, Hippolytus the son of Theseus, Pan the son of Penelope, Proserpina, Triptolemus, Celeus, Trophonius, Castor, Pollux, Helena, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Amphiaraus & his son Amphilochus, Hector & Alexandra the son & daughter of Priam, Phoroneus, Orpheus, Protesilaus, Achilles & his mother Thetis, Ajax, Arcas, Idomeneus, Meriones, Æacus, Melampus, Britomartis, Adrastus, Iolaus, & divers others. They deified their dead in divers manners according to their abilities & circumstances, & the merits of the person; some only in private families as312r as houshold gods or Dij Penates, 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, & some by appointing mysteries & ceremonies & set sacrifices & festivals & initiations, & a succession of priests for observing & performing those institutions in the temples & 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 a little after. For aa Arnob. adv. Gent. l. 6. p. 131. Æacus the son of Ægina, who was two generations older then the Trojan war, was one of the first who built a temple in Greece. Oracles came first from Ægypt into Greece about the same time, as did also the custome of forming the images of the Gods with their leggs bound up in the shape of the Egyptian mummies. For idolatry began in Chaldea & Egypt, & spread thence into Phænicia & the neighbouring countries long before it came into Europe; & the Pelasgians propagated it in Greece by the dictates of the Oracles. The countries upon the Tigris & the Nile being exceeding fertile, were first frequented by mankind & grew first into kingdoms, & therefore began first to adore their dead kings & queens. Hence came the Gods of Laban, the Gods & Godesses called Baalim & Ashteroth by the Canannites, the dæmons or Ghosts to whom they sacrificed, & the Moloch to whom they offered their children in the days of Moses & the Iudges. Every city set up the worship of its own founder & kings, & by alliances & conquest they spread this worship, & at length the Phenicians brought into Europe the practise of deifying the dead, & Sesostris instituted & by conquest spread the worship of the twelve Gods of Egypt into all his conquests, & made them more universal then the consecrated Gods of any other nation had been before, so as to be called Dij magni majorum gentium. He conquered Thrace, & Amphictyon the son of Prometheus an Ægyptian brought the twelve Gods from Thrace into Greece. Herodotus bb Herod. l. 2 initio. 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 cc Diodor. l. 1, c. 1. p. 8. Diodorus) usually represented that after their Saturn & Rhea reigned Iupiter & Iuno the parents of Osiris & Isis the parents of Orus & Bubaste.

By all this it may be understood that as the Egyptians who deified their kings began their kingdom monarchy with the reign of their Gods & Heros, recconing Menes the first man who reigned after their Gods: so the Cretans had the ages of their Gods & Heros, calling the first four ages of their deified kings & princes the golden, silver, brazen, & iron ages. Hesiod aa Hesiod. Opera. p. 108. describing these four ages of the Gods & Demi-gods of Greece, represents them to be four generations of men, each of which ended when the men then living grew old & dropt into the grave, & tells us that the fourth ended with the warrs of Thebes & Troy. And so many generations generations there were from the coming of the Phenicians & Curetes with Cadmus & Europa into Greece to 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 & guarded that island. Talus was reputed bb Apollodor Argonaut. lib. IV. vers. 1643. the son of Minos, & therefore the sons of Minos lived in the brazen age, & Minos reigned in the silver age. It was the silver age of the Greeks in wchwhich they began to plow & sow corn, & Ceres who taught them to do it flourished in the reign of Celeus Erechtheus & Minos. Mythologists tell us that the last woman with whom Iupiter lay was Alcmena: & thereby they seem to put an end to the reign of Iupiter among mortals (that is to the silver age) when Alcmena was with child of Hercules, who therefore was born about the eighth or ninth year of Rehoboam & was about 35 years old at the time of the Argonautic Expedition. as above Chiron was begot by Saturn of Philyra in the golden age when Iupiter was a child in the Cretan cave as above, & this was in the reign of Asterius king of Crete, And therefore Asterius reigned in Crete in the golden age, & the silver age began when Chiron was a child. And unless Chiron was above eighty years old in the time of the Argonautic Expedition when he invented the Asterisms, the golden age will reach down to the end of Davids reign, & might reach five or ten years into the reign of Solomon. If Chiron was born about the 26th year of Davids reign, he will be born when Iupiter was a child in the Cretan Cave & be about 87 years old in yethe reign of Asterius in the time of the Argonautic Expedition when he invented the Asterisms. And this within the reach of nature The golden age therefore falls in with the reign of Asterius, & the silver age with that of Minos. This fable of the four ages seems to have been made by the Curetes in the beginning of the fourth age in memory of the first four ages of their coming into Europe as into a new world, & in honour of their country woman Europa & her husband Asterius the Saturn of the Latines, & of her son Minos the Cretan Iupiter, & grandson Deucalion who reigned till the Argonautic Expedition323r expedition & is sometimes recconed among the Argonauts, & of their great grandson Idomeneus who warred at Troy. Hesiod tells us that he himself lived in the fift age, the age next after the taking of Troy; & therefore he flourished within twenty or thirty years after it. And Homer was of about the same age. For he cc Vita Homeri Herodoto ascripta lived sometime with Mentor in Ithaca & there c learnt of him many things concerning Vlysses with whom c Mentor had been personally acquainted. Now Herodotus, the oldest historian of the Greeks now extant, dd Herod. l. 2. tells us that Hesiod & Homer were not above 400 years older then himself, & therefore they flourished within 1210 115 years after the death of Solomon. And according to my recconing the taking of Troy was but one generation earlier.

Mythologists tell us that Niobe the daughter of Phoroneus was the first woman with whom Iupiter lay, & that of her he begot Argus, who succeeded Phoroneus in the kingdom of Argus, & 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 Iupiter they might here mean Asterius. For the Phænicians gave the name of Iupiter to every king from the time of their first coming into Greece with Cadmus & Europa untill the invasion of Greece by Sesostris, & the birth of Hercules, & particularly to the fathers of Minos, Pelops, Lacedæmon, Æacus & Perseus.

The four first ages succeeded the flood of Deucalion, & some tell us that Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, the son of Iapetus & brother of Atlas. But this was another Deucalion. For Iapetus the father of Prometheus Epimetheus & Atlas was the brother of Osiris, & flourished after the flood of Deucalion.

I have now carryed 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 & iron, the beginning of the trades of smiths, carpenters, joyners, Turners, brickmakers, stonecutters, & potters in Europe: the first walling of cities about, the first building of temples, & the original of Oracles in Greece; the beginning of navigation by the starrs in long ships with sails; the erecting of the Amphictyonic Councils; the first ages of Greece called the golden, silver copper & iron ages, & the flood of Deucalion which immediately preceded them. Those ages could not be earlier then the invention & use of the four metalls in Greece from whence they had their names; & the flood of Ogyges could not be above much above two or three ages earlier then 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, & to the building of houses & villages in Greece, was scarce earlier then the days of Eli & Samuel. For Manetho tells us that when they were forced to quit Abaris & retire out of Egypt, they went through the wilderness into Iudæa, & built Ierusalem. I do not think with Manetho that they were the Israelites under Moses, but rather believe that they were Canaanites, & upon leaving Abaris mingled with the Philistims their next neighbours; though some of them might assist David & Solomon in building the Ierusalem & the Temple.

Saul was made king aa 1 Sam. ix.16. & xiii.19, 20. that he might rescue Israel out of the hand of the Philistims who oppressed them. And in the second year of his reign the Philistims brought into the feild against him, thirty thousand chariots & six thousand horsmen, & foot without number; & the Canaanites had their horses from Egypt: & 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 & the great number of their horses I seem to gather that the shepherds had newly relinquished Egypt & ioyned them. The shepherds might be beaten, & driven out of the greatest part of Egypt, & shut up in Abaris by Mephramuthosis in the latter end of the days of Eli; & some of them fly to the Philistims & strengthen them against Israel in the last year of Eli. And from the Philistims some of them shepherds34r of them shepherds might go to Zidon & from Zidon by sea to Asia minor & Greece. And afterwards in the beginning of the reign of Saul the shepherds who still remained in Egypt might be forced by Thummosis or Amosis the son of Mephramuthosis to leave Abaris & retire in very great numbers to the Philistims. And upon these occasions several of them as Pelasgus, Inachus, Lelex, Cecrops & Abas might come with their people by sea from Egypt to Sidon & Cyprus & thence to Asia minor & Greece in the days of Eli, Samuel, & Saul, & thereby begin to open a commerce by sea between Sidon & Greece before the revolt of Edom from Iudæa & the final coming of the Phænicians from the red sea.

Pelasgus reigned in Arcadia & was the father of Lycaon (according to Pherecides Atheniensis) & Lycaon dyed just before the flood of Deucalion. He sacrificed children & therefore his father Pelasgus might come into Greece about two generations before Cadmus, or in the latter part of the days of Eli. Lycaon sacrificed children & therefore his father might come with his people from the shepherds & perhaps from the regions of Heliopolis in Egypt where they sacrificed men till Amosis abolished that custome. Mepharmuthosis the father of Amosis drove the shepherds out of of a great part of Egypt & shut the remainder up in Abaris. And then great numbers might escape to Greece: some from the regions of Heliopolis under Pelasgus, & others from Memphis & other places under other capitains. And hence it might come to pass that the Pelasgians were at the first very numerous in Greece & spake a different language from the Greek, & were the ringleaders in bringing into Greece the worship of the dead.

Inachus is called the son of Oceanus perhaps because he came to Greece by sea. He might come with his people from Egypt to Argos in the days of Eli, & seat himself upon the river Inachus so named from him, & leave his territories to his sons Phoroneus, Ægialeus, & Phegeus in the days of Samuel. For Car the son of Phoroneus built a temple to Ceres in Megara, & therefore was contemporary to Erechtheus. Ægialeus Phoroneus reigned at Argos & Ægialeus at Sicyon & founded those kingdoms. And yet Ægialeus is made above five hundred years older then Phoroneus by some Chronologers. But Acusilaus, aa Clem. Alex. Strom. 1, p. 321.a. Anticlidesbb Plin. l. 7 & Platocc Plato in Timæo. accounted Phoroneus the oldest king in Greece, & Apollodorus dd Apollod. l. 3, c. 1. tells us that Ægialeus was the brother of Phoroneus. Ægialeus died without issue, & after him reigned Europs, Telchin, Apis, Lamedon, Sicyon, Polybus, Adrastus & Agamemnon &c And Sicyon gave his name to the kingdom. Herodotus ee Herod. l. 2 saith that Apis in the Greek tongue is Epaphus & Hyginus ff Hygin. Fab that Epaphus the Epaphus the Sicyonian got Antiopa with child. But the later Greeks have made two men of the two names Apis & Epaphus or Epopeus, & between them inserted twelve feigned kings of Sicyon who made no warrs nor did any thing memorable & yet reigned 520 years, wchwhich is one with another above 43 years a piece. If these feigned kings be rejected, & the two kings Apis & Epopeus be reunited, Ægialeus will become contemporary to his brother Phoroneus, as he ought to be. For Apis or Epopeus & Nicteus the grandson of guardian of Labdacus were slain in battel about the tenth year of Solomon as above; & the first four kings of Sicyon, Ægialeus, Europs, Telchin, Apis, after the rate of about twenty years to a reign, take up about eighty years. And these years counted upwards from the tenth year of Solomon, place the beginning of the reign of Ægialus upon the twefttwelft year of Samuel, or thereabout. And about that time began the reign of Phoroneus at Argos. Apollodorus gg Apollodor. l. 3, c. 6. calls Adrastus king of Argos: but Homer hh Homer. Il. 3, vers. 572. tells us that he reigned first at Sicyon. He was in the first warr against Thebes. Some place Ianiseus & Phæstus between Phrates & Polybus & Adrastus, but without any certainty.