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mainly in English with some Latin, Greek and Hebrew
Section 2A of a huge collection of disordered fragmentary drafts on ancient history in which Newton correlates Jewish, Greek and Egyptian chronology. Much of the historical material later found its way into the posthumous 'Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended' (1728). These papers also contain a draft interpretation of the visions of Daniel.
Bought at the Sotheby sale by Gabriel Wells for £90 and presumably acquired by Yahuda not long afterwards.
The Egyptians seem to have been called Coptites
from the Citizens of Coptus growing potent & by degrees
conquering all Egypt; & of
formed the words Ægypt. For nations had their names
originally from the Kings Cities & Provinces ch
subdued & reigned over them. While the shepherds reigned
in the lower Egypt, the Coptites grew potent in Theba
is, & then conquering & expelling the Shepherds became
reduced all Egypt into one Monarchy; & this was done by
T
time that Saul began to reign over Israel as was shewed
above, & laid the foundation of a very great Empire,
the successors of T
round about. Thomosis may be therefore recconed the
founder of the Monarchy of Egypt, he being the first
king in history who reigned over the whole. He reigned
after the expulsion of the shepherds 25 years & 4 months
according to Manetho, & by consequence died about the
12th or 15th year of David.
When David smote Edomchth
year of his reign as above) the king of Edom's servants
fled into Egypt with Hadad a little child of the kings
seed, & Pharaoh gave Hadad a house & victuals & land &
Hadad found great favour in the sight of the Pharaoh so
that he gave him to wife the sister of his own wife
Taphenes the Queen. And the sister of Taphenes bare
him Genubath, & Genubath was in Pharaohs' house among
the sons of Pharaoh untill the death of David. Whence
it appears that this King of Egypt was of about the
same age thh
fled from David being then very young & therefore suc
ceeded Thmosis, & that at the death of David he had
a family of young children contemporary to
Amongst these children I reccon Solomons young Spouse
the chief (or first born) of her mothers children, & her
little sister who by reason of her childhood had no
breasts, & her brother who suc
mother, & to whom she wishes Solomon were like
that she might kiss him whenever she finds him,
& lead him & bring him to her mothers house. And
sak, so that he may be r
this king. For he led the armies of his father before
his own reigned & reigned in the days of Solomon & Reho
boam. And therefore the King of Egypt who succeeded
Thmosis was called Ammon. For Ammon was the father
of Sesostris.
th & 12th Dynasties &c✝Manetho in his 11th & 12th Dynasties, as he is cited by Afrc
names these four kings of Thebes i
Gesongoses or Sesonchoris the son of Ammenemes, Ammenemes who
was slain by his Eunuchs & Sesotris who subdued all Asia & part of
Europe. Gesongoses & Sesonchoris are corruptly written for Sesonchosis
& the two first of these four kings Ammenemes & Sesonchosis are
the same with the two last Ammenemes & Sesostris, that is with
Ammon & Sesak. For we have shewed that Sesonchosis Sesostris &
Sesak are the same. So then the three first Monarchs of Egypt
were Thomosis Ammon & Sesak.
Diodorus tells us
gathered together out of all Egypt the male children
who were born the same day with Sesostris & placed
them with nurses & governours & prescribed to them
all the same form of education & discipline being
perswaded that they who were so brought up with
his son would be most faithfull & usefull to him
in his wars. These children he brought up with exer
cises of daily labours, commanding that none of them
should eat till he had run 180 furlongs. By ch
they became endued with strong & active bodies &
great aspiring minds. Hence I gather that Ammon
the father of Sesostris began his reign in Egypt before Sesak Sesostris (or Sesak) was born, & by consequence
in the reign of David as above, & therefore he was
that Pharaoh king of Egypt who married hos wifes
sister to Hadad & his daughter to Solomon & took
Gezar from the Canaanites & gave it to his daugh
ter for a present & whose
before Hadad fled from David. And considering the
age of his children he seems to have been about
35 or 40 years old at the death of David.
Amosis & the Monarchy of Egypt was established at
home, Ammon send an army under the command of his
son Sesostris into Arabia (perhaps that Arabia ch
lyes between Egypt & the red Sea) & Sesostris accom
panied with those who were brought up with him,
destroyed the serpents, & overcoming the want of water
& food conquered all that barbarous nation ch
then had been unconquered. Then being sent against
the nations ch
part of Libya altho hitherto a very youth. By the
first of these conquests the Troglodytes & some of
the Arabic Ethiopians, by the latter the ns of as far as the
Marmarica & Cyrene & Ammonia
river Triton or Capes, came under the dominion of Egypt.
And this seems to have given occasion to the trafic of Solo
mon into Egypt for horses. For Egypt was supplied with
horses from Cyrene, a country famous for ho breeding a
Ammonians being colonies of the Egyptians & Ethiopi
ans spake a language between them both, & that the
inhabitants as far as the river Triton used the Egyp
tian manners but beyond that river lived much other
wise. Ammon therefor in peopling upon conquering this
large region peopled it with colonies from Egypt & called
it Ammonia. For in those days it was very usuall to
call peoples & regions by the names of their first
kings; & Stephanus tell us
part of Libya & even all Libya was called Ammo
nia from Ammon. And tho Egypt kept its dominion
only to the river Triton yet Sesostris seems to have
gone westward to the furthest parts of Afric & there
to have erected pillars as he did in all his conquestsVenit ad occasum, mundi
After the death of Ammon a5Sesostris succeeded in the throne & being encouraged by his former successes aimed at conquering the world. And afirst he set upon the Ethiopians southward & compelled that nation to pay tribute, Ebony & Gold & Ivory. Strabo b
the straits of the red sea at Dira a promontory of
Ethiopia tells us that a pillar of Sesostris the Egyptian was standing there, w, said Strabo, chhe seems first to have subdued Ethiopia & Troglodytica, & then passing over
[those straits] into Arabia [Felix] to have gone over . In this expedition before
he past his army over the straits of the red sea at
Dira, che went through all Ethiopia to the Cinnamon bearing region or promontory Mossylites at
the south east corner of Afric, & there were extant in Strabo's days some monuments of this his expedition, & columns & inscriptions. And for dbuilt a navy of 400 long ships on the Red sea, being the first who built such ships, & thereby he subdued the Islands of the Red sea & the adjoyning continent going as far as India. Pliny e
of stone with inscriptions in unknown characters. Dio
dorus relates these conquests of Ethiopia & Arabia fælix
as made in the reign of Sesostris. But I suspect that
they were made in the reign of his father Ammon
because Ammon was worshipped as a God in all these
countries Quamvis Æthiopum populis Arabum qꝫ Gentibus at qꝫ.
After these conquests & the invasion of the sea
coasts on both sides the mediterranean as fas as
the straits mouth,Sesak in the fift year of Rehoboam came out of Egypt with 1200 chariots & 60000 horsmen & foot without number of Libyans Troglodytes & Ethiopians & took the fenced cities of Iudah & came to Ierusalem. And God said, the Princes of Israel shall be his servants, that they may know my servitude {that is the servid
my people) & the servitude of the kingdoms of the earth. So Sesak came up against Ierusalem & took away the treasures of the house of the Lord & the treasures of the kings house. He took all. He carried away also the shields of gold w. 2 Chron. 12. The Lich
byans, Troglodytes & Ethiopians were therefore sub
dues & became the servants of Sesak before the
fift year of Rehoboam, & by the conquest of
Cyrene having procured horses for 60000 horsmen
he came out with a very great army raised out
of the conquered nations & subdued Iudea & the
kingdoms of the earth.
He left Egypt Libya & Ethiopia under the govern
ment of several Princes, & aa Manetho apud Ioseph. cont. Apion. l. 1. p. 1041.having forces by sea & land he invaded Cyprus & Phenicia & the Assyrians & Medes subduing by force as many as would not submit & being lifted up with the success went on more confidently, subverting the provinces of the east.
Thus bleading his army by land he subdued all Asia. For he did not only invade those countries w: Sesoosis King of chHe5r He subdued also the Scythians as far as the river Tanais wch
Kings & and Lord of Lords overcame this country
by his arms.In these pillars the privy member of a man was exprest where the nations were stout & warlike & that of a woman where they were timorous & made no resistance. In some places he erected also his own statue in stone holding a bow & lance & being four cubits & four palms high w.chc Anthen. apud Clement. Alexandr. Admon. ad Gent. p. 31. Et Porphyr. apud. Euseb. Præp. l. 4. c. 16.
nodorus & Porphyry say that he conquered most of the
nations of Greece & Herodotus that he passed over
subdued the Scythians upon the Danube. His words are: dSesostris having a great army went through the continent subduing all nations before him untill passing over from Asia into Europe he subdued the Scythians & Thracians to whom & no farther the Egyptian army seems to have come because in their territories there appear pillars erected & not beyond them. Most of those pillars were gone
before the days of Herodotus, but some he saw in Pa
lestine with the Egyptian writing & weomens genitalls,
& in Ionia there were two statues of Sesostris then
remaining one in the way from Ephesus
the other between Sardes & Smyrna, each holding
a dart in the right hand & a bow in the left & the
rest of their armature being Ethiopic & Egyptian
& upon the breast this inscription in sacred Egyptian
letters: I obteined this region by my arms.
In his return aaVide Bochart. Geog. l. IV c. 31.
at Colchos upon the river Phasis as Herodotus Diodorus
& others affirm. Whence it came to pass that the people
at Colchos anciently spake the Egyptian language
& like the Egyptians used circumcision
linnen garments & had crisp hair & a dark complex
ion & had commerce with the Egyptians, one bb Pindar. Isthm. Ode. 11.
crates sailing in summer to Phasis & in winter to
Egypt. And c
his wife & his daughters were very famous for skill in
the vertues of plants like the Egyptians. For d
mer tells us that Egypt abounded with plants both
medicinal & deadly & that the Egyptians were skilled
in medicine above all other mortals being the progeny
of Apollo. Also Sesostris left with the people at
Colchos geographical Tables ch
conquests. For e
such Tables, & communicated them not only to e
Egyptians, but also to the Scythians, by the Scy
thians meaning the people at Colchos: and f
nius Rhodius, that say thatthat the posterity of them whom he
placed at Æe kept these Tables, in ch
journeys & the bounds of sea & land were described
And these Tables gave a beginning to Geography.Sesonchosis king of all Egypt, invading all Asia & a great part of Europe peopled many of the cities w These Tables chch
therefore gave a beginning to Geography. Bochart derives gg Bochart. Geogr. l. 4. c. 31.
the Colchi from the hh Gen. 10.4.
Egypt.
Pliny aa repulse at Colchos. Iam regnaverat, saith he, in Colchsis Salauces & Esubopes qui terram virgineam nactus plurimum argenti auri.✝Colchidis populi a Strabone Soanes dicti: Suanorum gente & alioqui velleribus aureis inclyto regno. Sed et illius aureæ cameræ et argenteæ trabes narrantur & columnæ at‡ And
‡Strabo
north of Colchos & Dioscurias, & Ptolomy on the north side of the mount
tain. And Strabo saith that they were the stoutest of all the
Scythian nations & had a king & had a Council of 300 men & could raise
an army of 200000, & that the torrents brought gold to them ch
they gathered with woolly sheepskins, whence the fable of the
golden fleece might be occasioned. It seems the progress of Se
sostris, after his conquest of Persia & India was stopt by this
nation, & therefore he left Prometheus at mount Cauca
with a part of his army to guard his conquests from them &
proceeded through Asia minor into Europe, & there meeting
with new repulses, he returned through Asia into Europe
Egypt, leaving Colonies to cultivate & guard the pass between the
Euxine & Caspian seas. So Valerius Flaccus
Iustin bb Iustin l. 2
Sesostris as far as Egypt & being stopt by the lakes
& fenny places, to have returned thence & subdued
all the east 1500
Monarchy. Others cc
colony of the Scythians who seated themselves there
in the reign of Sesostris. But these things happenedrather in the latter end of the Assyrian Monarchy.
The Scythians at that time, as Herodotus dd Herod. l. 1.
an inrode through Colchos into Media & Syria as
as far as Egypt & reigned over the east 28 years till
the Medes slew most of them. And they
might fly into Parthia & give the name to the place
For Parthians in the language of the Scythians signifies
fugitives.
ans of Colchos but conquered them & carried on his vic
tories into Europe & then met
back & left a part of his army to guard the pass between
the Euxine & Caspian seas &
So ee Argonauticon l. V. v. 42
The forces
Æetes their first king seem to have been
lower Egypt f
Colchi, as Bochart well observes. And for the greater
security of the pass he seems to have left in that part
of Cappadoccia
his army mixt of Egyptians Philistines & the Shepherds
those old inhabitants of Egypt. For there g
Caphtor & the Caphtorianother a people who h
originally out of Egypt & from whom the Philistines
afterward returned back from their captivity into their
own land. Have not I brought up Israel out of y. Amos IX.7 eThe lord will spoile the Philistines the remnant of the country of Caphtor. Ier.
XLVII.4. Also upon the Euxine sea at the river
Tha
sostris placed a colony of his weomen whom the Greeks
called Amazons. Slets
Sesostris having spent nine years in this expedition
commanded the nations according to their ability to bring
guifts yearly into Egypt, & having outdone all former
kings with the greatness of his actions he returned into
Egypt with the captives & other spoiles of ch
gathered a vast quantity. Among other captives he seems
to have carried away Tithonus a youth beutifull to a
proverb: chTithonus, saith Diodoruswas the son of Laomedon & brother of Priam & warring in the eastern parts went as far as Ethiopia, whence came the fable of Memnons being the son of Aurora. Homer
Tithonus the husband & Memnon the son of Aurora. He
Pindar
Troilus on of the sons of Priam. He lived to a very
great days & spent his days in the court & army
of the kings of Egypt. If when he was led away
captive, chth year of Rehoboam
we may
a child, the taking of Troy which happened when
Priam began to be infirm th
recconed about 55 or 60 years later then the
return of Sesostris into Egypt, or 70 years later
then the death of Solomon as above.
When Sesostris in returning home
to Pelusium, his brother Armais who
& usurped the crown of Egypt, plotted to destroy
him by inviting him to a feast & setting fire to
the house in the night when he was heavy
with wine & asleep, & having by his wiv
cubines many daughter whom during his government
of Egypt he had married to the sons of Sesostris, he
commanded his daughters to kill their husbands the
same night. But Sesostris with his wife & four
sons escaping the fire recovered his kingdom, & Armais whom the Greeks call Danaus fled with
his daughters in a long ship of 50 oars to Rhodes
where they built a Temple & thence they sailed
to Greece. This flight was therefore in the 14th
& 15th years of Rehobam
this ship the Greeks built the ship Argoch
the first long ship built by the Greeks. And
thence I collect that the Argonautic expedition
was
of Solomon. For it was in the reign of Æetes the
founder a. Steph. in
or first Egyptian king of Colchos, who being one
of the Captaines of Sesostris was left there by
him to govern that Province.
Clemens Alexandrinus tells us
had conquered many nations of Greece & had returned into Egypt
he got together many artificers & Diodorus that he adorned
all the Temples of Egypt with exellent gifts & the spoiles
of his enemies and in every city built a new Temple to t
God ch
captives in these works, wrote upon every Temple that
ditches from the river Nile into all the parts of Egypt
as high as Memphys for supplying the cities with water
& for carrying to them corn & other commodities by
water, & with the earth dug out he raised broad areas
of ground commanding the cities to remove thither that
they might be defended from the inundation of the
river. And amongst other cities it is to be conceived
that he new built &
bly to his conquests. He erec This city the Egyptians dedi
cated to Ammon calling it No-Ammon & Ammon-no,
that is the city of Ammon, or as the seventy render
the word, the city of Iupiter Diospolis, the city of Iu
piter Ammon. This city therefore was the seat of
the Empire in Ammon's reign. He began to build it suitably
to his empire & his son s
Hyginus tells us
Ammon. His words are Iovis in India Thebas Thebaidos condidit, nomine nutricis suæ, quæ Hecatompylæ appellantur ; , ideo quod centum portas habebat habent.
tris erected also in Heliopolis two Obelisks of 120
cubits inscribing on them the greatness of his domi
nion & tribute with the number of the conquered
nations, one of ch
veyed to Rome. He erected his own & his wives statues
of 30 cubits & four others of 20 cubit his sons of 20 cubits
& dedicated them to Vulcan in memory of their escaping
being burnt by the stratagem of his brother, & these sta
tues were afterwards placed before the Temple of Vulcan
at Memphys. He attempted to cut a navigable ditch from
the Nile to the Red sea, & the eastern side of Egypt
from Pe
of 1500 furlongs he fortified th
tions of the Syrians & Arabians. He built a ship of
280 cubits long covered over with gold without & with
silver within & dedicated it to the God which the Thebans
chiefly worshipped. The grownd of Egypt (except the
portion of the Priests) he distributed in equal squares among
the soldiers who were to hold it by a yearly rent, whence
Geometry had its rise. He divided Egypt into 36 Nomes
or Provinces & set a Iudge over every Nome & appointed
their laws, ordeining that every artificer should follow
his fathers imployment. And in doing these things he
advised with his secretary Thoth. Ægyptij dicunt Sesostridem a Mercurio solertiam & consilia didicisse.
lib. XII. c. 4.
Diodorus tells us
Mnevis, Sasyches, Sesostris, Boccharis & Amasis, & that
& worship of the Gods & found out Geometry & taught
Astronomy. Sasyches is the same name with Sesach
& therefore denotes the same king with Sesostris, espe
cially since both of them found out Geometry.Thus this
& Sesostris taught Astronomy to the Chaldeans as shall be
shewn hereafter. Thus this king in the greatness of his
conquests abroad & multitude of his gifts & works at home
exceeded all other kings that ever were & gave laws to
Egypt & his way of triumph was suitable to his great
ness.
into Egypt with gifts at the times appointed, he treated
them with great honour excepting that when he
was to enter a Temple or City he ordered the
horses to be taken out of his chariot & four kings
to draw in their room.
As Sesostris by his conquests & magnificence
outdid all other kings, so the Egyptians for his
greatness & his benefactions towards them honoured
him after his death above all their kings, erecting
Temples to him & worshipping him under the name
of Sirius or O-sth
anniversary solemnities throughout all Egypt, &
dedicating to him the Ox ch
long before in the lower Egypt in memory of the
first invention of plowing & sowing. For the
Egyptians tell usDiosp.
an hundred gates & magnificent Temples, one to
his parents Iupiter & Iuno, another to Iupiter
cælestis, a third to his father who reigned there
before him & whom they call Ammon, & others
to others; & in his days Projectors & ingeno
Artists were in great esteem, & in Thebes were
Goldsmiths & Brasiers for making arms & in
struments for husbandry & images of the Gods
& golden Altars, & that he went through
the world with a great army & taught men to
plant vines & sow corn & reduced them from
those that were skilled in husbandry, as Maro
in planting of vines & Triptolemus in sowing of corn s
That in passing through Ethiopia Arabia & India
he built many cities & took care to have statues
of himself set up in every place as lasting mo
numents of his expedition, that having passed
through the rest of Asia he transplan
over the Hellespont into Europe & Thrace
killed Lycurgus king of the barbarians & appointed
Triptolemus to till the land in Attica & where
wines would not grow he taught to make drink
of barley, & brought back with into Egypt
the most pretious & richest things that every place
did afford. All these things are the history of
Sesostris & point out the time of his reign. For
Lycurgus & Triptolemus lived but one or two
generations before the expedition of the Argo
nauts, Lycurgus being contemporary
the grandfather of Orpheus, & Triptolemus
Persephone the wife of Aidoneus king of the
Molossi in Epire whose
Perithous attempted to steale away. Dicæarchus
makes Osyrus two generations older then s
other make him still older: but by his being
contemporary to Lycurgus & Triptolemus he lived
but two or three generations before the Trojan
war, & so can be no other then Sesostris. For
all agree that Sesostris was older then the Trojan
war. Some make Io the sister of Phoroneus
to be the Egyptian Isis; Others say that Iupiter
begat Apis Serapis or Osiris of Niobe the daughter
of Phoroneus; others that Apis was the brother
of Niobe & the son of Phoroneus. Which fictions
are very ancient & were founded upon the
Synchronisms of Osiris & Isis with Io Niobe &
her children & by consequence with David Solo
mon & Rehoboam or some of them.
Osiris
little use of arms using rather musick & verses
by ch
the nations. For
great pleasure in music & dancing & carried along
virgins & excellent singers & skilled in the liberal
sciences (whom the Greeks call Muses) over whom
Apollo (who accompanied Osiris in this expedition)
was captain, being thence called
Satyrs, that is, men skilled in dancing or naturally
inclined to skipping dancing & singing & other sorts
of mirth were taken as part of his army under
the command of Pan. These Satyrs seem to be E
thiopians: for
dancing & no Ethiopian emits a dart untill he
hath danced & by dancing struck terror into his
enemy. Certainly Pan was an Ethiopian God:
for
were Hercules Pan Isis & Iupiter, besides their
other kings & benefactors pu both publick & private.
Sesostris having derived the river Nile
into all the lower Egypt by new canales, the
Egyptians consecrated that river to him & worship
ped him & the river together & called them
both by the same names. So Homer calls that
river Ægyptus & Manetho tells us that Sethosis
was called Ægyptus. Also the river was called
Sihor Siris & O-Siris, & the king was called
Siris or Sirius & by the Greeks O-Siris. After
wards from the word
River was called Nilus & then the River & the King were worshipped b together by that name.
For Diodorus tells us
who cut Egypt into canales to make the river
more usefull. Cicero makes Nilus the father
of Mercury Minerva Vulcan & Bacchus, but
he was rather Bacchus himself.
For several nations worshipped Sesostris
by several names. And as the Egyptians worshipped
him by the name of Osiris, so the Arabians
worshipped him by the name of Bacchus. For
Bacchus is generally accounted one & the same
God with Osiris. So Liberum Orpheus a gigantibus dixit esse discerptum. Nam idem est Liber pater cum Osiride.Os i yris in the Greek tongue is Dionysus that is Bacchus. And
again: All the Egyptians do not worship the same Gods13r Gods except Isis & Osiris whom they affirm to be Bacchus.
And Diodorus:Some of the ancient Greek Mythologists call Osiris Dionysus & sirname him Sirius, & particularly Eumolpus & Orpheus call him Dionysus. And again: The Egyptians interpret Osiris to be Bacchus & Isis Ceres.
And again: The Egyptians say that Orpheus brought over most of the religious rites & ceremonies concerning y. So e
also Plutarch tells usBacchus is no other then Osiris. & that Anticlides saith that Isis was the daughter of Prometheus & wife of Bacchus, and tI. chch
ration of any thing extraordinary they say Bacche, Bac
che, that is Great, Great, whence came the name of Bacchus. And the word D name Dionysus is also Arabic
signifying the God of the city Nysa: for the word Du
& in the obli
guage, as Dr Pocock has informed us. And thence pro
bly came the words
That Bacchus & Osiris are the same
ther by the agreement of their history. For this Bacchus
with his armies went through Egypt, Syria, Phrygia,
Thrace, Persia, Bactria, Media, all Asia & all India
on both sides Ganges, taught the nations the planting
of vines & the use of wine, slew Lycurgus in Thrace,
& leaving pillars there & in the eastern bounds of the
Indies with inscriptions returned back to Thebes & built
that city. He overcame the nations of India in three years
& the third year returned& upon a river there c upon a river thence called Callichorusbefore
he returpast returned from invaded upon a river thence called Callichorus before heThrace & Greece & re
turned thence into Ereturned from Thrace into Egypt. And ith this expedition he made a bridgei
phrates at the city Zeugma where they kept a rope
till the days of Pausanias, twisted of vine & ivy branches
wherewith he tied the bridge. This Bacchus
son of Semele was enterteined in Attica by Semachus
in the reign of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion: &
to him
which were earthen statues of Amphictyon enterteining
Bacchus & other Gods & of Pegasus who taught the wor
ship of Bacchus in Attica by authority of the Delphic
Oracle ch
the son of Semele but another Bacchus whom the
Athenians reputed the son of Iupiter & Proserpina, &
who was the first
oxen when men before tilled the ground with own handy
labours & invented many other things usefull in the
art of husbandry, for ch
by all adored as a God with divine worship & solemn
sacrifices. He brought vines from the red sea into Greece
& taught the Greeks to mingle wine with water. Being
enterteined by Icarius & his daughter Erignona
them a vessel of wine commanding that they should
impart it to their neighbours. Icarius carried it in a
cart to the shepherds of Attica, & they drinking till
they were drunk took it for poison & slew Icarius
whereupon Erigone hanged her self & the Athenians
honoured them with an anniversary festival. Bacchus
in his marches was accompanied with dancing
Satyrs commanded by Pan & with musick & the
nine Muses & is by Lycophron called
ἠνόρχης
things & of the noisy marching of his furious weomen
& of his returning out of India the third year of that
war the Bacchinalia were instituted & celebrated every
other year. For he had an army of weomen
with garlands & flowers & armed with launces & darts thch
slew the kings who were ignorant of the stratagem
& despised them because they were weomen. Strabo
lets us know
Apollo & the Muses & ascribed to them the Orgia &
Choruses & sacred initiations & mysteries, calling
Bacchus the Prince of the mysteries, that in Thrace
which was conquered by Bacchus the Muses were celebrated originally celebrated, Pieria, Olympus,
Pimpla & Lebethrum being places in Thrace, & Heli
con being consecrated to the Muses by the Thracians
of Bœotia, & the Europeans who first cultivated the
ancient Music, as Orpheus, Musæus, Thamyris, Linus
& Eumolpus being Thracians of Pieria, and that
while all Asia as far as India was con secrat
Bacchus a great part of the ancient music was brought
from Thence. The mountain Parnassus had two tops
Citheron consecrated to Bacchus & Helicon to Apollo &
the Muses. From the day of This Bacchus was powerful at
sea &
the time of his reign began to be frequented by merchants
Athenæum l. 1. p. 27. And as Sesostris conquered from the
straits mouth to India beyond Ganges & from the southern
borders of Arabia felix to the river Tanais & triumphed
in a singular manner, so Bacchus was
the first author of triumphing. Triumphum primus mortalium post Indicam victoriam ostendit Bacchus, nomenΘριαdicuntur vultus cooperuerunt & Iambos & scommata canentes. Pompon. Læt. in Dioclesiano. Pleriἐνυάλιοςcognominatur, quod est inter propria Martis nomina. Colitur etiam apud Lacedemonios simulachrum Liberi patris hasta insigne non thyrso, sed et cum thyrsum tenet quid aliu – Hinc etiam Liber pater bellorum potens probatur quod eum primum ediderunt authorem triumph. Macrob.
the statue of Sesostris was
& accordingly as the spear was covered or not
covered with ivy they called him Bacchus or
Mars.
When Bacchus
pont with some part of his army, Lycurgus who
was king of some part of Thrace slew them
treacherously in the night, & Bacchus by the in
formation of Tharops grandfather of Orpheus
escaping brought over his whole army, slew
Lycurgus & gave
one of the nine singsters he gave to Oeagrus
the son of Tharops. For Orpheus was the son
of Oeagrus & Calliope the chief of the Muses.
And hence it came to pass that Orpheus became
so skilful in mu
Egyptian Theology & Sciences, being instructed by
his mother & taught the Orgia & mysteries of
Bacchus the benefactor of his family & spread
them in Thrace under the colour of worship
ping the son of Semele. And by the like occa
sion Linus became famous for music, being
the son of another of the Muses, or as some
say, the mother
So then Bacchus Apollo & the Muses were but
one generation older then Orpheus & Linus, &
therefore Bacchus was contemporary to Osiris &
Sesostris.
All three were Egyptians of the same age &
reigned over Egypt. All three had great armies
&great fleets & were the greatest conquerers that
ever were & conquered the same regions subduing
all Asia & India to Egypt. All three passed over the
Hellespont into Thrace & were there in danger of
losing their army. All three subdued Thrace
& there put and end to their progress & returned
back from thence into Egypt. All three left
pillars with inscriptions in their conquests. And
it is not likely that all these character can agree
to more persons then one. Add that all three were
the sons of Ammon. For the Greeks reccon Osiris &
Bacchus to be the sons of Iupiter, & the Egyptian name of
Iupiter is Ammon. And Thymætes who was contemporary
to Orpheus & wrote a Poesy called Phrygia of the actions
of Bacchus in very old language & character, saith
expresly that the father of Bacchus was Ammon a king
reigning over part of Libya, that is a king of Egypt
reigning over all that part of Libya called Ammonia.
Thymætes saith further
Bacchus were bred up with him, chs
who were both warriors & virgins & followed him for the
sake of Minerva; that Minerva was born at the
river Triton in Libya & minded the same course of
life with the Amazons being a virgin all her life
& that in the war against the Titans Bacchus com
manded the men & Minerva the weomen. Diodorus
places the Amazons in an Island called Hesperia
the Morass or Fen Tritonides, into ch
runs. This
runs into the lesser Syrtis & is now called Capes. The
country of the Gorgons was also there. Diodorus saith further
that when Myrina was Queen of the Amazons, she
raised an army of 30000 foot & 2000 horse & conquered
the neighbouring Atlantides & Gorgons with a great part
of Afric, & passing into Ægypt made a league with
Orus the son of Isis who then reigned there & then made
war upon the Arabians & destroyed many of them, and
afterwards subdued Syria & Cilicia, & having conquered
the nations about mount Taurus, she descended
self of several islands amongst ch
wards being attackt by the Thracians & Scythians under
the conduct of Sipylus a Scythian & Mompsus a Thra
cian whom Lycurgus king of Thrace had banished, she
was overcome in battel & slain with many of the
Amazons, & the rest after some other foiles retired into
Libya. By the progress of this army, & their being
contemporary to Orus & Lycurgus, it's plain that these
weomen were the Mænades who warred under Bacchus.
When he was repulsed & returned from the war some
of them he left upon the river Thermodon neare Col
chos & others he carried back with him into Egypt
whence they went into Libya. For Dionysius
of the Amazons who were seated at Thermodon tells
us that they dwelt originally in Libya & there reigned
over the Atlantides a potent nation & invading their
neighbours conquered as far as Europe & built many
cities there. And Ammianus saith
Amazons invading their neighbours were encouraged
by the successes & breaking through many nations
attact the Athenians & being there beaten in a sharp
battel & their horse laid open on each side they
received a great slaughter & the rest who staid at
home seeking a safer & que
modon. And Iustin tells us
first two Queens Marthesia & Lampeto who called them
having their built Ephesus & many other cities sent
back part of their army to Thermodon with great
booty; that Marthesia being afterwards slain was succeeded
by her daughter Orithya & she by Penthesilea, that Theseus
captivated & married Antiopa the sister of Orithya, Hercules
made war upon the Amazons in the reign of Orithya &
Penthesilea came to the Trojan war. Whence the first wars
of the Amazons in Europe & Asia & their setling at Ther
modon were but one generation before that war of Hercules
& two before the Trojan war & so fell in with the wars
of Bacchus, thereforethe Amazons were part of his army, & Myrina and their Queen who led them from the river Triton & comfurthe commanded them in those wars
being slain in Europe as above
therefore the Amazons were part of his army & My
rina their Queen being slain in Europe who led
them from the river Triton & commanded them in in his wars, being slain in Europe
der hiswas
above, was succeeded by Marthesia in that part
of them which stayed at Thermodon. Myrina was
therefore the greatest warrior among weomen &
therefore might be the Minerva of the ancients: Libyans Quens
zons warring under Bacchus king of Egypt, & even
their names Myrina & Minerva differ so little
that they might be the same originally.
When Bacchus came into Europe
Argos & was beaten by the forces of Perseus the son
of Danae who slew many of the Mænades. They had a
common monument except one of them called Choria who
being more honorable then the rest had a monument apart.
And perhaps this was the famous victory of Perseus over
the Gorgons. Cicero naming several Minervas tells us
that one of them was called Coria by the Arcadians.
And if the name of Minerva was given to a subordinate
commander of the Amazons, much more was it given to
their soveraih2
paid great honour to Bacchus & built a temple to him
at Argos, ch
ple because he buried Ariadne there.
at sea took had taking many Islands of the Cyclades, in one
of them called Dia or Naxus they found Ariadne deserted
by Theseus & he
became sacred to Bacchus. When he returned into Egypt
he seems to have required the honour done him at Argos
by building a temple to Perseus. For in Thebais
was a temple built to Perseus with the statue of Perseus
in it.
Diodorus tells uswhen Osiris undertook his expedition through the world he left the government of Egypt to Isis his wife & joyned with her Mercury his sacred Scribe or Secretary as chief c Councellour of state. Hercules his neare kinsman a man of a strong body & great courage he left General of all his forces, & the government of his territories neare Phœnicea he & on the sea coasts he left to of Egypt he committed to Busiris, & that of Ethiopia & Libya to Anitæus.This
Ethiopia called Chus being under H Thebais & by consequence
under Hercules. Sometimes Hercules is taken for Osiris
himself, as where they call him the companion of the Muses and
Musagetes
the straits mouth
& his statues erected in a triumphal habit
by Typhon
war, calling the star of Mars the star of Hercules.
rus here takes Hercules for the General of the forces of
Osiris in the parts of Egypt
in the/ lower Egypt & Antæus in Libya & the regions adjoyning. This
is that Hercules who assisted the Gods of Egypt against Typhon
& whom Clearchus calls the Hercules of Briareus.
Antæus who reigned in Libya had his royal seal at
Hirassa or IrasaPindar. Pyth. Ode 915
of Antæus. There Battus afterwards built the city Cyre
ne the metropolis of the Province. In all the sea co
of Libya Egypt from Ioppa in Palestine to Parætonium in
Libya for the space of about 600 miles there was not one
safe harbour except Pharus, but from Parætonium along
the sea coasts of Marmarica & Cyrene were several good
ones. And therefore the Egyptians before the conquest of
Libya could not be potent at sea for want of Ports. But
upon the conquest of Lybia meeting there with several convenient Ports & plenty of timber, they set out a
good
potent fleet of long & tall ships: & this region being at t
time under the government of Antæus, he had the care of
this matter & therefor was the Neptune of the ancients.
For Herodotus
in Africa & that his worship was propagated from thence
into other countries; & therefore he reigned in Africa. And
the Cretans affirmedthat Neptune was the first who set out a fleet, having obteined this Prefecture of Saturn, whence posterity recconed things done in the sea to be under his government, & mariners hon oured him with sacrifices.
By Saturn I understand here the father of Iupiter Belus
Neptune & Pluto & shall presently shew that Iupiter Belus
was Sesostris.
brother of Osiris & by consequence the Typhon of the
Egyptians, & therefore Ammon their father was the
first king of Egypt who set out a fleet in the Medi
terranean. For Typhon was the husband of Nephtys
was interpreted by the Egyptians to signify the sea, and
the Priest of Egypt abominated the sea
in no honour. They saidch
signified by Isis, & in running into the sea & being dissi
pated therein perished by Typhon. And in telling the
story of the war between the God of Egypt & the Giants
they sometimes put Neptune for Typhon, as where
Lucian saith
the fight of Sol & Neptune & where Agatharcides
relates
the Titans came in & saved them by putting Neptune to
flight. The outmost parts of the earth & promontories
& whatsoever borders upon the Sea, the Egyptians call
Neptys.the sea Marmorica & Cyrene
Bochart & Arius Mona
people sprung from Misraim Gen. 10.13. And therefore
Neptune & his wife Nephtys are also to be placed there
the words Neptune, Nephtys & Naphtuim signifying in the
language of the Egyptians the king & queen & people of
the sea coasts. In the reign of Laomedon king of Troy
that is, in fortifying it for Sesostris. Glaucus the son of
Neptune took Ariadne from Theseus in the island Dia31
& lay with her. Others of his sons, as Euphemus, Erginus,
Nauplius & Ancæus, were in the Argonautic expedition,
& his son Atlas was contemporary to the Argonauts, being
the father of Calypso who flourished in the time of the Tro
jan war, & after that war conversed with Vlysses. Nep
tune therefore being two generations older then the warriors
at Troy & one generation older then the Argonauts, was
contemporary to Sesostris & therefore was his aAdmiral, & he
& Antæus reigned at once over the
one & the same king, & his son Atlas was his successor in
the kingdom. For the gardens of the Hesperides were in the
kingdom of Atlas & are placed by Ptolomy Pliny & Strabo
neare Cyrene. And Atlas inherited the skill of Neptune
in sea affairs & had a potent fleet in the Mediterranean.
For Homer saith of himHe knows the depths of all the sea, and others
who reigned over Sardinia & Corsica was overcome by
Atlas in a sea fight & drowned, & Clemens Alexandrinus
that Atlas was the first who built a ship & sailed upon
the seas, that is, in the reign & by the direction of his father
Neptune. And in the war between the Gods of Egypt & the
Titans, Atlas was captain of the Titans
war had the heavens placed upon his sholders, that is, he
assisted his father Typhon or Neptune in the
ed him in the kingdom of Afric. For the ancients represented
a kingdom by the world putting the Sun Moon & stars for the
king people & great men of the kingdom.
The country of Cyrene was reputed famous for the breed
& management of good horses. And from the great military
force thchA Ly
mon & Sesak for invading the nations
is reputed the author of the oldest Hymns amongst the
Athenians, called Neptune
Pliny
out by Ægæon, & others make Ægæon the s
of Neptune. Whence we may conclude that he assisted Nep
tune in sea-affairs.
✝Iapetus was the brother of Hyperion
Atlas, & therefore one & the same man th
proved
original. But Bochart erroneously takes this Iapetus to be Iaphet the son of
Noah. Sesostris therefore was the Vnkle & Neptune the father of Prome
theus Epimetheus & Menæcius the brothers of Atlas. For Prometheus467 296, 467.in was the grandson
vented ships with sails ascribed to Neptunethe daughter of Oceanus
Iapetus & mother of Prometheus & his brothers his mother
of Oceanus & son of Clymene Oceanine & being very ingenious & prudent
invented many things & particularly ships with sails; & therefore he was skilled
in sea affairs & assisted Neptune in inventing such ships & setting forth a
fleet of them. Cælus & Tellus or Vranus & Titæa that is Ammon & Rhea
had many children called Titans for their mothers ch
language signifies mud or earth.
& Isis the parents of Apollo & Diana, Cæus & Phœbe the pant
Tethys the parents of Clymene, Iapetus &
Briareus who married Cymopolea the daughter of Neptune, & Perseis the mother of Ætes
& Circe.
that they might leave the sea coasts by ch
hitherto sailed, & guide themselves in the middle of the
seas by the sun moon & stars, their k
their commanders at sea, applyed themselves to the observation of
the heavens & study of Astronomy. Atlas was eminent for
his skill in science.Antæus ch
was instructed in Libya by Aristæus in the reign of Ammon &
Aristæus brought Astronomy into Greece & there married the
daughter of Cadmus. The Atlantides
neare the lesser Syrtes say that Vranus was their first
king who reduced them from a salvage course of life &
taught them to live in towns & cities & that he reigned
over a great part of the world & measured the year by
the course of the Sun & the Months by the course of the
Moon & divided the day into hours & was familiarly
acquainted with the rising & setting of the stars & after
death for his merits & skill in Astronomy was honoured
as a God. They say also that he married his sister Titæa
or Terra & by her had many children called Titans, two
of ch
& Selene, & that the Titans asassinated Hyperion & drowned
Helio in Eridanus (not in the Po but in the river Nile
thereupon Selene threw her self up from a house top &
her mother Basilea went distracted & disappeared, & all
of them were deified. By ch
Cælus, Hyperion,
Isis, Orus & Bus
of Vranus or Iupiter Vranius. And the Cretans reported
that Hyperion the son of Cælus was the first that by his
own industry found out the motions of the Sun Moon & other
stars & the seasons & distinctions of time measured out by
them, that is, he assisted his father in these matters for
advancing navigation. And hence it appears that he was
the Iupiter Belus of the Chaldæans. For tells
usthat Iupiter Belus in Babylon had his name from Belus the son of Neptune & Libya led an an Egyptian the son of Libya who built the Temple in Babylon. And StraboStrabo7Durat ibi (Babylone) Iovis Beli templum: inventor hic fuit sideralis scientiæ.The Egyptians report that many colonies out of Egypt were dispersed over all parts of the world (t& that Belus the son of Neptune & Libya (so called from his valour &
the place of his education) led a colony of into the Province of Babylon, & fixing his seat at the river Euphrates, consecrated Priests, & according to the custome of the Egyptians freed them from all publick taxes & impositions. These Priests the Babylonians call Chaldæans who observe the motions of the stars in imitation of the Priests Naturalists & Astrologers of Egypt. And againThe Egyptians affirm that the Chaldeans in Babylon are Egyptian colonies, & their Astrologers have attained to that degree of reputation by the knowledge they have learnt of the Egyptian Priests. Cheræus wrote that there was ch
it appears that Bacchus & his compa companions were at
Babylon, this wine being the drink of the Gods.
When Ammon conquered Libya they fought
with clubs. So HyginusAfri et Ægyptij primum fustibus dimicaverunt, postea, Belus Neptuni filius gladio belligeratus est, unde bellum dictum.
mus was the first who exercised mining. He found out
copper & from him the copper stone has been ever
called Cadmia. The the Idæi Dactyli found
out a
use of iron tools Minos was enabled to prepare
a fleet by ch
But weapons of war were first made of brass & con
tinued to be made of brass till after the Argonautic
expedition, iron being scarce. The islands Cyclades
were at first uninhabited but Minos & his brother
Rhadamanthus peopled several of them
thus giving to each of his captains some island or
city placed on Thoas in Lemnos, & Thoas
And when Sesostris, the gre great Mars of the ancients, inva
ded the Greek islands by his fleet & became Lord of Lem
nos, Thoas having lost his dominion & being lame exer
cised himself in the Smiths trade & made armour
for the conqueror in a city of Lemnos thence called
Hephæstia, &
at length taking Mars in bed with his wife
sed the matter so as to obtain the government of Cyp
& Byblus. Then Mars went presently with violence
(that is with his army) over the Hellespont into Thrace,
& Calycopis sailed in rich apparell apparell by Cythara
to Cyprus & landed at Paphus where she was washed
& adorned by her weomen called the Graces & lived splendidly in costly apparell adorned with gold
Vulcan married V These
things the ancients have signified by feigning that
Vulcan was thrown down from heaven into Lemnos
being lamed with the fall exercised the smith trade, took
Mars in bed thm was made drunk & reduced
back into heaven by Bacchus.
Thoas for his skill upon the harp was called
Cinyras. For Cinyras lived with Venus in Cyprus
was an inventor of Arts, & found out tiles, & copper
in Cyprus, & the hammer & anvil & tongues & laver
& imployed workmen in making armour & other things.
against Troy he sent Agamemnon a breastplate.
By his arts he became very rich
to occasion the proverb: Richer then Miy
ni
was famous, & entirely beloved of Apollo
an Artist in music contended with Apollo on the Harpy
that Apollo & Osiris invaded the nations till the
times of the Trojan war. And after the death
of his wife he deified her with lustfull Orgia
by she became the Cyprian Venus.
a city ch
to her & became himself her chief Priest or Pon
tifex maximus
& her Priests were called Cinyradæ
were of the posterity of Cinyras, & in this Temple
Cinyras & his posterity were buried.
was taken
nia or Asteroth the old God
Ascalon as was also that at Cythara. This is that
Venus born of the froth of the sea. Fama tradit a Cinyra consecratum vetustissimum Paphiæ Veneris templum deam.
before she went to Cyprus lay with Anchises on
mount Ida, & at Cyprus she lived in adultery
with Cinar Gingris the son of Cinyras & when Ciny
ras deified his Venus he deified also his son by
the name of Adonis building Temples to Venus
& Adonis
in Phœnicia & instituting their worship with Orgia
& lamentations for the death of Adonis much after
the manner that Osiris was worshipped in Egypt.
Or rather, he instituted the worship of his great
benefactor Osiris under the name of Adonis, & the
Cyprians applied the name & worship to his son. For
the word Adonis signifies The Lord & so agrees much
better to Osiris then to Gingris, & Lucian
that he saw at Byblus a great Temple of Venus
Byblia in which they perform certain rites to Adonis
after the manner of the worship of Apis in Egypt
rection, & some of Byblus say that he
& that this mourning was performed not to Adonis
but to Osiris, & confirm it with this circumstance that
the head of Osiris was yearly brought out of Egypt
to Byblus by sea being made of Egyptian papyr. Lu
cian adds that he went a days journey from Byblus
up mount Libanus & there saw another old Temple
of Venus chy
set on foot her worship as well in Syria as in Cyprus
& thence it came to pass that she was worshipped
principally in those two places & called Dea Syria as
well as Dea Cypria. And from Temples erected to her in
several places she was also called Cytharea, Amathusia, Byblia,
Salaminia, Gnydia, Erycina, Idalia.
Cinyras lay with his own daughter Smyrna & of her begat Ado
nis, & the same story is reported of Thoas or Theias
pyla another one of his daughter in Lemnos & gave her a purple
cloak ch
Lemnos slew their husbands, she became Queen of the island &
Ariadne. Antonius Liberalis saith
Smyrna was the son of Belus, & Apollonius
Hypsipyla was the son of Bacchus, & Panyasis
father of Smyrna was king of the Assyrians & HyginusCyn Cinyras the father of Smyrna was king of the Assyrians.
So that Theias the father of Smyrna, Thoas the father of Smyrna Hypsipyla, Thoas the father of Smyrna & Cinyras e
father of Smyrna were one and the same man. Argentum invenit Erecthonius Atheniensis, ut alij Æacus; auri metalla et conflaturam Cadmus Phœnix ad Pangæum montem, ut alij Thoas aut Æac hus.
c. 56.By the Assyri. By his being placed in Lemnos by Rhadamanthus he seems to have been a Cretan &
rians are to be understood the Syrians
by his working in metals
men were some of the Curetes. For the sacred rites Lemnos were of the same kind with those by the
Curetes in Samothrace & other places thth
in Cyprus: for Pindar the discourses of the inhabitants of Cyprus resounded about Cy Cinyras whom Apollo loved (that is
Orus the son of Osiris) loved extreamly, & who was the chief Priest of Venus as a Ram is the captain of the flock, & that they were impelled thus to celebrate him out of gratitude for the benefits they had received of him.
So then the great Gods of Egypt, t
Isis, Typhon, Apollo, Diana, Mercury, Latona, Minerva,
Pan, Hercules, Venus, Vulcan, Bacchus, Neptune &c were
the Princes of Egypt in the reign of Ammon & Sesostris
when the Monarchy of Egypt was erected & in its
The it came in Greece & other nations to ch
of Egypt extended,
funerals of their dead fathers with funerals
in the form of Temples with Altars & statues to
persons of renown & there to honour them with sacri
fices & invocations. Every man might do it to all his Ancestors & the Greeks did it to
the eminent Greecia
all the eminent Greecians, as to Hercules the son of
Alcmena, Bacchus the son of Semele, Pan the son
of Penelope, Æsculapius the son of Apollo, Machaon
the son of Æsculapius, Palemocrates the son of Machaon,
Theseus king of Athens, Hippolytus the son of Theseus, Ino the daughter of Cadmus, Melicerta the son of Ino,
Amphiaraus & his son Amphilochus, Hector & Alexandra
the son & daughter of Priam, Phoroneus, Orpheus, Tropho
nius, Protesilaus, Achilles & his mother, Ajax, Aga
memnon, Menelaus, Castor, Pollux, Hellena, Arcas,
Persèus, Pandion, Minos, Rhadamanthus, Idomeneus, Me
rion, Æacus, Iasion, Cybele, Ceres, Proserpina, Tripto
lemus, Celeus, Melampus, Britomartis, Adrastus, Iolaus,
Aristæus & divers others. They deified their dead in
various manners according to their circumstances &
abilities & merits of the persons, some only in
private families as houshold Gods or
by erecting Altars or Grave-stones to them in publick
for annual sacrifices, others by building also to them se
pulchres in the form of houses or temples & some by appoint
ing also mysteries & ceremonies & set sacrifices & festivals
& initiations & a succession of Priests for observing & per
forming those institutions in the Temples & handing them
down to all posterity. Altars might begin to be erected
before the days of Cadmus, but Temples began a little
after. For Æacus the son of Ægina who
older then the Trojan war was one of the first, some
say the first, who built a Temple in Græce.
of deifying men founded upon the doctrine of Dæmons or
transmigration of souls, the Greeks & Asiaticks had from
the Egyptians, & therefore formed the first images of e
Gods in the shape of Egyptian Mummies. But Idolatry
began in Egypt & Assyria & spread thence into the
neighbouring countries long before it came into Greece
Europe. For the countries upon the Nile & Tigris being
exceeding fertile were first frequented by mankind & grew
first into kingdoms & therefore first began to adore their
kings. But every kingdGods
kings untill they conquered one another, & Sesostris by
conquest spread the worship of the Gods of Egypt into
all his conquests & made them more famous & universal Dij magni maijorum Gentium.
the cities of Egypt: for Sesotris built them upon new
foundations raised higher then the former as you heard
above. He built them by the hands of his Princes, & Hero
dotusof all the Provinces of the world there were in Egypt alone many cities built by ancient Gods as by Iupiter, Sol, Hermes, Apollo, Pan Eilithyia & many others. These were the
Gods who sat together in Council & feasted together,
the Gods to whom Vulcan shewed Mars & Venus, the
twelve Gods to whom Deucalion erected an altar
in Thessaly, the Gods who upon the death of Osiris
fled from Typhon & therefore lived together with
Osiris & were the great men of his kingdom. These
were Ilus & his companions whom the Phenicians
called Eloim, as Sanchoniatho affirms, who describes
Orus to be the son, Atlas the brother, Venus the con
cubine & Mercury Trismegist the secretary of
Ilus, & that Ilus went over the whole world &
gave the kingdom of Attica to Minerva. Lucian
Assyrian accounted the Temples of Egypt very old
those in Phœnicia built by Cinyras as old, & those
in Assyria almost as old as the former but not al
together so old. Which shews that the Monarchy
of Assyria rose up after the Monarchy of Egypt
& that the Monarchy of Egypt rose up when the
Temples of Phenicia & Cyprus were built by Cinyras
Hiram Adad & Philistims. For the building of the
temples was occasioned by the rise & growth of the
kingdoms of Cinyras Hiram & the Philistims & of the
Monarchies of Damascus Egypt & Assyria.
In three of the Dynasties of Manetho Sesostris is
said to have reigned 48 years. During his reign there
were great vexations upon all the inhabitants of the
countries & nation was destroyed of nation & city of city
for
the reign of Asa king of Iudah the land was quiet
ten years untill Zerah the Ethiopian came against it.
built & fortified the cities of Iudah & prepared an
army of five hundred & eighty thousand men with
which in the 15th year of his reign he met & fought
fore vexed till the fift year of Asa, & then began to
revolt, that is at the death of Sesostris. For Herodotus
tells us that Sesostris was the only king that enjoyed
the Empire. Vpon his death Egypt fell into civil
wars as shall be presently explained, & these wars
set Asa at liberty to
sostris therefore began his reign in the 17th year of Solomon
& warred till the 14th or 15th year of Rehoboam, & then
returned from his wars into Egypt & reigned there till the fift
year of Asa cht year more, in ch
he imployed the conquered nations in building the cities &
temples of Egypt & doing other great works
He was slain in autumn being murdered, by saith Diodorus,by his wicked brother Typhon who mangled his body into many pieces & gave to each of his confederates in the treason a piece, by that means to bring them all within the same guilt, & thereby the more to engage them to advance him to the throne & to defend & preserve him in the possession.
Then Typhon invaded Egypt with an army from Libya, & the
Princes of Egypt fled & by the advice of Minerva (for so they
still called the Queen of the Amazons) sent for Hercules
from the parts above Egypt, & he coming with his army to
their assistance a civil war ensued. This is that famous
war between the Gods of Egypt & the Giants so much cele
brated by the Poets in ch
from Typhon & hide themselves in various shapes till Her
cules came to their assistance & the Giants were feigned to
have many heads & hands to signify that they were not single
persons but bodies politi
with the forces under his command, not men of a gigantic
stature but great in power & in the number of their forces.
In this war Orus & Hercules th
& overcame Typhon at a village of the upper Egypt called
Antæa from Typhons namæ
And to this action Ovid relates when he makes Hercules say,
This was the celebra victory of Apollo over Python so much
celebrated by the Poets. And now Isis & Orus took upon
them the government of Egypt, but Isis afterwards let go
Typhon whereupon followed another battel or two in which
Hercules was taken prisoner. But after 13 months he was
set at liberty by Mercury, the wife of Typhon shewing him
where Hercules was in fetters. And then Mercury inter
ceding composed the war, & in memory thereof is painted
with an embassadors thch
signify the two contending nations reconciled by his embassy. were to retained
their proper governments, Orus & Isis the
of Egypt, Hercules his government above Egypt, & Typhon
or his son & successor Atlas the government of Libya
this war the Greeks called the Nile Eridanus, the river of conten
tion.
Orus the son & successor of Osiris is by Diodorus called Sesostris
the second, by Pliny Nuncoreus (a name perhaps compounded of Orus)
& by Herodotus Phero, that is Pharaoh, the common name of the
kings of Egypt. He placed in Heliopolis two Obelisks each an
hundred cubits long & eight broad one of which was carried to
Rome by Caius.
sight by such miracles as make that part of his story look
fabulous. He made no wars abroad and seems to have reigned but
a short time, being drowned in the Nile by the Titans & found
dead in the water.story fable of Phaeton
the son of the Sun, a title ch
In his reign Isis & Mercury made laws for Egypt, & as Diodorus
tells us, celebrated the funerals of Osiris with sacrifices & divine
honours as to one of the Gods, & instituted many sacred rites
& mystical ceremonies in memory of the mighty works wrought
by this Hero now deified.
The Titans who drowned Orus seem to be Hercules &
his associates who after they had rescued Egypt from the
invasion of Typhon & returned into their own seats, after
a while returned & invaded the kingdom of Egypt. For
PlinyÆgyptiorum bellis attrita est Æthiopia, vicissim imperitando serviendo.
served Egypt in the reign of Sesostris & no longer. For
Herodotushe alone enjoyed the Empire of Ethiopia; & within ten years after his death the Ethio
pians were Lords of Egypt th year of
Asa king of Iudah
of a thousand thousand Ethiopians & Libyans invaded
Iudea. The way of the Libyans was through Egypt &
therefore the Zerah was lord of Egypt. Before this in
vasion, Asa had peace ten years & in all that time pre
pared against a storm. For while the land was yet
before him he sought the Lord & destroyed idolatry &
fortified the cities of Iudah with walls & towers & gates
& barrs & prepared an army of five hundred & eighty
thousand men. This he did without any che
Egyptians they having work enough at home. At length
when Zerah with an army of Ethiopians & Libyans ad
vanced from Egypt, Asa met them with his army &
routed them totally at Maresah a town of Iudea towards
Egypt & pursued them to Gerar & smote the cities about
Gerar, & as he returned with much spoile, Azariah the
Prophet went out to meet him & said: Hear ye me Asa & Iudah & Benjamin; The Lord is with you while ye be [with29r with him, but if ye forsake him he will forsake you. Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God & without a teaching Priest & without the Law. And in those timest
the death of Sesostris] there was no peace to him that went out nor to him that came in, but great vexations were upon all the inhabitants of those countries, & nation was destroyed of nation, & city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. But when Israel in trouble their trouble did turn unto the Lord & sought him he was found of them. 2 Chron. XV.
By this victory of Asa the Iews shook off the domi
nion of Egypt. For whereas Sesak had taken away all
the treasures of the Temple
Temple the silver & gold & vessels ch
dedicated in the room of what Sesak had taken away, &
renewed the Altar, assembling
month to a sacrifice of the spoiles, they entred into
a covenant upon oath to seek Lord & that whoever
would not seek the Lord should be put to death. And
henceforward Asa & his son Iehoshaphat flourished in power &
wealth for many years & Egypt continued in troubles. And
as the Machabees after the persecution of Antiochus
Epiphanes, & Ezra after the Babylonian captivity, collected
the sacred writings for the use of the people, so the
Prophets in the days of Asa seem to have done the like.
For Iehosaphat in the third year of his reign sent Princes
& Priests & Levites to teach in the cities of Iudah, & they
had the book of the Law with them & went throughout
the cities of Iudah & taught the people. By the book
of the law I understand all the Pentateuch in the form
that we now have it, the copy thereof found in the
Temple in Iosiahs' reign being ever since followed.
Vpon this victory of Asa the Egyptians fell into
great troubles & their Empire flew in pieces. For the
people of the lower Egypt revolted from the Ethiopians
calling in to their assistance 200000 Iews & Phœnicians,
& the Greeks sent the Argonauts to the nations upon the
Euxin & Mediterranean seas to sollicit them to revolt,
& Prometheus with his people after 30 years stay at
the Scythians was released, and the Philistims whom
Sesostris had carried into captivity & placed in Caphtor
or Cappadocia were set at liberty to return home,
& did so according to the Prophet. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt & the Philistims from Caphtor. Amos IX.7. And thus ended the great
Empire of the Egyptians seated at Thebes.
This Empire may be distinguished into four ages
according to the reigns of the Kings Thomosis, Ammon,
Osiris & Orus. For these were the ages of the great Gods
of Egypt, & seem to be the four ages of those Gods in
imitation of which the Greeks formed the four ages
of their Gods. Certainly Ammon was the Iupiter of
the Egyptians & their
And the ages of Saturn Iupiter & the sons of Iupiter
were the golden the silver & the brazen ages. The
Ancients represented people by water, kingdoms by rivers
& invasions by floods, & after the invasion of the lower Egypt
& the erecting creating
that country, the reign of Thomosis might be peaceable,
that of Ammon was splendid & victorious, that of Osiris
was warlike victorious & turbulent, & that of Orus an
iron age to the Egyptians by reason of their civil wars.
The Saturn of the Egyptians had two faces because he
had two kingdoms an old one & a new. For two or more
faces of a man or beast denote two or more
dominions. He was painted with a sithe in memory of his
conquering the lower Egypt an exceeding fertile corn country. And their Iupiter had Ram's horns in memory of his con
quering Libya a country abounding with sheep. Mars being
the son of Iupiter reigned in the brazen age, & Osiris was
the greatest warrior of all the kings of Egypt. The fourth
& last age of the Gods of Egypt was the reign of Orus
& his reign was the worst. Vpon his death his sister Di
ana slew her self & his mother Isis vanished
Then reigned Menes & his is generally reputed the
first king of Egypt who reigned after the Gods.
In the time of this Empire of the Gods of Egypt, the
Oracles of the heathens had their rise. The oldest Oracle
in history was that in the royal city of Thebes, the next
was erected in Libya, the third at Dodona in Greece: all three of Iupiter. Herodotus
Theban Iupiter that two weomen Priestesses were carried
from thence, the one into Libya the other into Greece
& erected the first Oracles in those countries. These
were the Oracles of Iupiter Ammon & Iupiter Do
donæus. He was told also by the chief Priestesses of Dodo
na that two black Doves flew from the Egyptian Thebes
the one to them ch
with a humane voice that an Oracle should be erected
there to Iupiter, & the other to the Libyans ch
manded them to erect an Oracle to Iupiter Ammon. language fables of the Greeks are put for Priestesses,
as Bochart, Marsham & Potter have shewed.
the Oracle at Dodona is the oldest in Greece & is very like that
at the Egyptian Thebes, & the way of divining in Temples came
from Egypt. Oracles were set up by Politica
to dead men & laws to the living. Zaleucus pretended to receive
his laws from the Goddess Vesta, Nuna his from the Goddess Ege
ria, Minos his from the Cretan Iupiter, Lycurgus backt his
by the authority of the Delphic Oracle. When Acrisius erected
the Amphictyonic Council & a Temple was built at Delphos for
them to meet in, the Temple was furnished th
for governing the Council but for influencing the people &
for bringing wealth to the Temple & credit to the God. And the
same is to be understood of all the Oracles in temples built by
publick authority, such as were the temple of Iupiter in Thebes Ammon in Libya, built by Dariaus in the reign of his
built by
brother Sesostris
Provinces
36 Nomes & built a temple for every Nome or Church & all
these Nom Temples had their Councils of Senators or Elders who
met at set times of the year to consult of & regulate the
affairs of the Nome & Temple; the people of the Nome also
coming together to sacrifice & feast & buy & sell. For the
several Nomes had their several Gods & several ways of
worshipping their Gods & these Gods had their Oracles some of
which continued in vogue till the days of Herodotus, as the
Oracles of Hercules & Apollo in their cities, that of Minerva
in the city Sais, that of Diana in the city Bubastis, that
of Mars in the city Pampremis, that of Iupiter in Thebes &
those of Apis & Serapis in their temples; but of all the
Oracles that of Latona in the city Buti remained most
in repute. And these Oracles were not all alike, but delivered
themselves in different manners. And indeed I do not see how
Sesostris could have set up so many Gods & so many religions
in Egypt as there were Nomes & Temples, if he had not furnished
the temple of every Nome with an Oracle in the beginning.
And after the example of Egypt much after the same manner example of Egypt
men was set up almost at the same time by in Greece by Oracles two Priestesses being sent at
brought from Egypt, the first Oracle in Greece being that of
the Pelasgians at Dodona
time from the temple of the Theban Iupiter, the one to set up the
Oracle of Iupiter Ammon in Libya in the reign of Danaus &
the other to set up the Oracle of Iupiter at Dodona che
oldest Oracle in Greece & became a presa
that of Iupiter Olympius in the temple of at Olympia near
Elis
Iupiter Trophonius in a cave
a temple at Didyma built by the Milesians. & frequented
by all the Ionians & Æoliansfort
temple at Larissa a fort of the Argives
in a temple at Abæ in Phocis
at Patræ a city of Laconia
at Thalamiæ a city of Laconia
Cadmus
captains who warred against Thebes, that of Mercury at Pharæ
a city of Archaia, that of the Muses at Træzen a city of
Peloponnesus set up by Ardalus the son of Vulcan from whence
they were called Ardalides, that of Hercules at Bura in Archaia
Tiresias in the time of the second Theban war called the war
of the Epigoni. These & several others were set up in the
ages chth
in vogue till the times of the Roman & Empire & then grew silent
for want of encouragement to speak, e
Herodotus
up Oracles they had no variety of names for various Gods
but called
dictates of the Oracle of Dodona the Pelasgians first received
the names of the Gods of Egypt & propagated them into all
Greece. And others say that And soon after
Oracle & prophesying of Pegasus, Melampus & Orpheus the Greeks
received the worship of Bacchus.
Greeks worshipped their own dead men, it being usual to conse
crate the dead by new names for promoting their worship; as
by giving the name of Iupiter to Minos Trophonius Agamem
non & other kings, that of Hercules to Alcæus the son of Alc
mena, that of Bacchus to the son of Semele, that of Nep
tune to Erechtheus & Æolus, that of Pan to the son of Penelope,
that of Mars to the father of Alcippa, that of Leucothea to
Ino the daughter of Cadmus, that of Palæmon to her son
Melicertes, that of Mercury to the son of Maia, that of
Thetis to the mother of Achilles, those of the Muses to the
daughters of Pierus, those of the Graces to weomen attending
on Venus. And by honouring great men after death with glori
ous new names, & with Hymns composed in their praise & with
altars & temples & priests & sacrifices, & Oracles to make the
nations beleive that the dead were still alive & knew things
present & to come & governed humane affairs, the Gods of Greece
increased so fast that Hesiod who lived in the age next after
the Trojan war wrote that there were then thirty thousand
Gods of Greece.
of the more eminent being once established remained in all
following ages till the Christian religion prevailed We have told
We have told you that Bacchus invaded Greece in the
days of Amphictyon the son of Deucalion & was enterteined
by Amphictyon at Athens. This was that Amphictyon who by
the advice assistance of Acrisius erected the Amphictyonic Council
appointing it to meet every spring & autumn at Delphos in the
temple of Apollo & at Thermopylæ in the temple of Ceres,
& whose father Deucalion built an altar to the twelve Gods,
& thereby made the first step of introducing the worship of
those Gods into Greece. Some say that he built the temple of Iu
piter at Dodona: & this makes it probable that he set up the worship
of e
Deucalion, Greece was overflowed, not by a flood of real waters
but by the armies of Sesostris. For in the
of the ancients, nations & people were represented by waters &
an invasion by a flood.
father of Hellen & king of Athens, I leave to be considered.
Solon having travelled in Egypt &
the Priest of Sais about their antiquities, wrote a Poem
of what he had learnt, but did not finish it. And this
Poem fell into the hands of Plato who relates out of it
that at the mouth of the straits neare Hercules's pillars
there was an Island called Atlantis, the people of
which nine thousand years before the days of Solon
reigned over Libya as far as Egypt & over Europe
as far as the Tyrrhene sea, & all this force collec
ted into one body invaded Egypt & Greece & whatever
was conteined within the pillars of Hercules but
was resisted & stopt by the Athenians & other Greeks
& thereby the rest of the nations not yet conquered
were preserved. He saith also that in those days
the Gods by consent divided the whole earth amongst
themselves partly into larger partly into smaller
portions & instituted Temples & sacred rites to them
selves & that the island Atlantis fell to the lot
of Neptune who made his eldest son Atlas king of
the whole island a part of ch
that in the history of the said wars mention was made
of Cecrops, Erechtheus, Erechthonius, Erisichton & others
before Theseus, & also of the weomen who warred
with the men & of the habit & statue of Minerva,
the study of war in those days being common to men
& weomen. By all these circumstances it is manifest
that these Gods lived in the ages between Cecrops &
Theseus & that the wars ch
nations by land & sea are here described & the invasion
of Egypt by Antæus Typhon
the death of Sesostris his captains shared his con
quests among themselves (as the captains of Alexander
the great did his conquests long after) & instituting
Temples & Priests & sacred rites to themselves caused them
selves to be worshipped as g
Gadir or Gades was a part of the lot of Neptune.
For there Homer
a little after the Trojan war when Vlysses being ship
wrackt escaped thither. Homer calls it the Ogygian
island & places it
island Corcyra Pheacia or Corcyra. And so many
days sail Gades is from Corcyra, recconing with the
ancients about a thousand stadia to a days sail.
This Island
shipping & cities & inhabited only by Calypso & her
weomen who dwelt in a cave in the middle of a wood,
a new ship or to accompany him from thence to Corcyra: ch
when the Gods made war & shared the earth & caused
themselves to be worshipped as Gods is by Solon limited
to the age of Neptune the brother of Sesostris & grand
father of Calypso & so was but two generations before
the destruction of Troy or about 400 years before
Solon went into Egypt. But the Priests of Egypt in
those 400 years had magnified the stories & antiquity
of their Gods so exceedingly as to make them nine
thousand years older then Solon & the island Atlantis
bigger then all Afric & Asia together & full of
people. And because in the days of Solon this great
island did not appear they pretended that it was
sunk into the sea with all its people. Thus great
was the vanity of the Priests of Egypt in magnifying their antiquities.