The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended · Isaac Newton
CHAP. I.
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_.
_Lucian_ [168] lets us know that _Europa_ the mother of _Minos_ was worshipped by the name of _Rhea_, the form of a woman sitting in a chariot drawn by lions, with a drum in her hand, and a _Corona turrita_ on her head, like _Astarte_ and _Isis_; and the _Cretans_ [169] anciently shewed the house where this _Rhea_ lived: and [170] _Apollonius Rhodius_ tells us, that _Saturn_, while he Reigned over the _Titans_ in _Olympus_, a mountain in _Crete_, and _Jupiter_ was educated by the _Curetes_ in the _Cretan_ cave, deceived _Rhea_, and of _Philyra_ begot _Chiron_: and therefore the _Cretan Saturn_ and _Rhea_, were but one Generation older than _Chiron_, and by consequence not older than _Asterius_ and _Europa_, the parents of _Minos_; for _Chiron_ lived 'till after the _Argonautic_ Expedition, and had two grandsons in that Expedition, and _Europa_ came into _Crete_ above an hundred years before that Expedition: _Lucian_ [171] tells us, that the _Cretans_ did not only relate, that _Jupiter_ was born and buried among them, but also shewed his sepulchre: and _Porphyry_ [172] tells us, that _Pythagoras_ went down into the _Idæan_ cave, to see sepulchre: and _Cicero_, [173] in numbering three _Jupiters_, saith, that the third was the _Cretan Jupiter_, _Saturn_'s son, whose sepulchre was shewed in _Crete_: and the Scholiast upon _Callimachus_ [174] lets us know, that this was the sepulchre of _Minos_: his words are, Εν Κρητη επι τωι ταφωι του Μινωος επεγεγραπτο, ΜΙΝΩΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΔΙΟΣ ΤΑΦΟΣ. τωι χρονωι δε του Μινωος απηλειφθη, ‛ωστε περιλειφθηναι, ΔΙΟΣ ΤΑΦΟΣ. εκ τουτου ουν εχειν λεγουσι Κρητες τον ταφον του Διος. _In _Crete_ upon the Sepulchre of _Minos_ was written _Minois Jovis sepulchrum_: but in time _Minois_ wore out so that there remained only, _Jovis sepulchrum_, and thence the _Cretans_ called it the Sepulchre of _Jupiter__.
By _Saturn_, _Cicero_, who was a _Latine_, understood the _Saturn_ so called by the _Latines_: for when _Saturn_ was expelled his Kingdom he fled from _Crete_ by sea, to _Italy_; and this the Poets exprest by saying, that _Jupiter_ cast him down to _Tartarus_, that is, into the Sea: and because he lay hid in _Italy_, the _Latines_ called him _Saturn_; and _Italy_, _Saturnia_, and _Latium_, and themselves _Latines_: so [175] _Cyprian_; _Antrum Jovis in Creta visitur, & sepulchrum ejus ostenditur: & ab eo Saturnum fugatum esse manifestum est: unde Latium de latebra ejus nomen accepit: hic literas imprimere, hic signare nummos in Italia primus instituit, unde ærarium Saturni vocatur; & rusticitatis hic cultor fuit, inde falcem ferens senex pingitur:_ and _Minutius Felix_; _Saturnus Creta profugus, Italiam metu filii sævientis accesserat, & Jani susceptus hospitio, rudes illos homines & agrestes multa docuit, ut Græculus & politus, literas imprimere, nummos signare, instrumenta conficere: itaque latebram suam, quod tuto latuisset, vocari maluit Latium, & urbem Saturniam de suo nomine. * * Ejus filius Jupiter Cretæ excluso parente regnavit, illic obiit, illic filios habuit; adhuc antrum Jovis visitur, & sepulchrum ejus ostenditur, & ipsis sacris suis humanitatis arguitur_: and _Tertullian_; [176] _Quantum rerum argumenta docent, nusquam invenio fideliora quam apud ipsam Italiam, in qua Saturnus post multas expeditiones, postque Attica hospitia consedit, exceptus ab Jano, vel Jane ut Salii volunt.
Mons quem incoluerat Saturnius dictus: civitas quam depalaverat Saturnia usque nunc est. Tota denique Italia post Oenotriam Saturnia cognominabatur. Ab ipso primum tabulæ, & imagine signatus nummus, & inde ærario præsidet_. By _Saturn_'s carrying letters into _Italy_, and coyning money, and teaching agriculture, and making instruments, and building a town, you may know that he fled from _Crete_, after letters, and the coyning of money, and manual arts were brought into _Europe_ by the _Phœnicians_; and from _Attica_, after agriculture was brought into _Greece_ by _Ceres_; and so could not be older than _Asterius_, and _Europa_, and her brother _Cadmus_: and by _Italy_'s being called _Oenotria_, before it was called _Saturnia_, you may know that he came into _Italy_ after _Oenotrus_, and so was not older than the sons of _Lycaon_. _Oenotrus_ carried the first colony of the _Greeks_ into _Italy_, _Saturn_ the second, and _Evander_ the third; and the _Latines_ know nothing older in _Italy_ than _Janus_ and _Saturn_: and therefore _Oenotrus_ was the _Janus_ of the _Latines_, and _Saturn_ was contemporary to the sons of _Lycaon_, and by consequence also to _Celeus_, _Erechtheus_, _Ceres_, and _Asterius_: for _Ceres_ educated _Triptolemus_ the son of _Celeus_, in the Reign of _Erechtheus_, and then taught him to plow and sow corn: _Arcas_ the son of _Callisto_, and grandson of _Lycaon_, received corn from _Triptolemus_, and taught his people to make bread of it; and _Procris_, the daughter of _Erechtheus_, fled to _Minos_ the son of _Asterius_.
In memory of _Saturn_'s coming into _Italy_ by sea, the _Latines_ coined their first money with his head on one side, and a ship on the other. _Macrobius_ [177] tells us, that when _Saturn_ was dead, _Janus_ erected an Altar to him, with sacred rites as to a God, and instituted the _Saturnalia_, and that humane sacrifices were offered to him; 'till _Hercules_ driving the cattle of _Geryon_ through _Italy_, abolished that custom: by the human sacrifices you may know that _Janus_ was of the race of _Lycaon_; which character agrees to _Oenotrus_. _Dionysius Halicarnassensis_ tells us further, that _Oenotrus_ having found in the western parts of _Italy_ a large region fit for pasturage and tillage, but yet for the most part uninhabited, and where it was inhabited, peopled but thinly; in a certain part of it, purged from the _Barbarians_, he built towns little and numerous, in the mountains; which manner of building was familiar to the ancients: and this was the Original of Towns in _Italy_.
_Pausanias_ [178] tells us that _the people of _Elis_, who were best skilled in Antiquities, related this to have been the Original of the Olympic Games: that _Saturn_ Reigned first and had a Temple built to him in _Olympia_ by the men of the Golden Age; and that when _Jupiter_ was newly born, his mother _Rhea_ recommended him to the care of the _Idæi Dactyli_, who were also called _Curetes_: that afterwards five of them, called _Hercules_, _Pœonius_, _Epimedes_, _Jasius_, and _Ida_, came from _Ida_, a mountain in _Crete_, into _Elis_; and _Hercules_, called also _Hercules Idæus_, being the oldest of them, in memory of the war between _Saturn_ and _Jupiter_, instituted the game of racing, and that the victor should be rewarded with a crown of olive_; and there erected an altar to _Jupiter Olympius_, and called these games Olympic: and that some of the _Eleans_ said, _that _Jupiter_ contended here with _Saturn_ for the Kingdom; others that _Hercules Idæus_ instituted these games in memory of their victory over the _Titans__: for the people of _Arcadia_ [179] had a tradition, that the Giants fought with the Gods in the valley of _Bathos_, near the river _Alpheus_ and the fountain _Olympias_.
In the [182] Island _Thasus_, where _Cadmus_ left his brother _Thasus_, the _Phœnicians_ built a Temple to _Hercules Olympius_, that _Hercules_, whom _Cicero_ [183] calls _ex Idæis Dactylis; cui inferias afferunt_. When the mysteries of _Ceres_ were instituted in _Eleusis_, there were other mysteries instituted to her and her daughter and daughter's husband, in the Island _Samothrace_, by the _Phœnician_ names of _Dii Cabiri Axieros_, _Axiokersa_, and _Axiokerses_, that is, the great Gods _Ceres_, _Proserpina_ and _Pluto_: for [184] _Jasius_ a _Samothracian_, whose sister married _Cadmus_, was familiar with _Ceres_; and _Cadmus_ and _Jasius_ were both of them instituted in these mysteries. _Jasius_ was the brother of _Dardanus_, and married _Cybele_ the daughter of _Meones_ King of _Phrygia_, and by her had _Corybas_; and after his death, _Dardanus_, _Cybele_ and _Corybas_ went into _Phrygia_, and carried thither the mysteries of the mother of the Gods, and _Cybele_ called the goddess after her own name, and _Corybas_ called her priests _Corybantes_: thus _Diodorus_; but _Dionysius_ saith [185] that _Dardanus_ instituted the _Samothracian_ mysteries, and that his wife _Chryses_ learnt them in _Arcadia_, and that _Idæus_ the son of _Dardanus_ instituted afterwards the mysteries of the mother of the gods in _Phrygia_: this _Phrygian_ Goddess was drawn in a chariot by lions, and had a _corona turrita_ on her head, and a drum in her hand, like the _Phœnician_ Goddess _Astarte_, and the _Corybantes_ danced in armour at her sacrifices in a furious manner, like the _Idæi Dactyli_; and _Lucian_ [186] tells us that she was the _Cretan Rhea_, that is, _Europa_ the mother of _Minos_: and thus the _Phœnicians_ introduced the practice of Deifying dead men and women among the _Greeks_ and _Phrygians_; for I meet with no instance of Deifying dead men and women in _Greece_, before the coming of _Cadmus_ and _Europa_ from _Zidon_.
From these originals it came into fashion among the _Greeks_, κτεριζειν, _parentare_, to celebrate the funerals of dead parents with festivals and invocations and sacrifices offered to their ghosts, and to erect magnificent sepulchres in the form of temples, with altars and statues, to persons of renown; and there to honour them publickly with sacrifices and invocations: every man might do it to his ancestors; and the cities of _Greece_ did it to all the eminent _Greeks_: as to _Europa_ the sister, to _Alymnus_ the brother, and to _Minos_ and _Rhadamanthus_ the nephews of _Cadmus_; to his daughter _Ino_, and her son _Melicertus_; to _Bacchus_ the son of his daughter _Semele_, _Aristarchus_ the husband of his daughter _Autonoe_, and _Jasius_ the brother of his wife _Harmonia_; to _Hercules_ a _Theban_, and his mother _Alcmena_; to _Danae_ the daughter of _Acrisius_; to _Æsculapius_ and _Polemocrates_ the son of _Machaon_, to _Pandion_ and _Theseus_ Kings of _Athens_, _Hippolytus_ the son of _Theseus_, _Pan_ the son of _Penelope_, _Proserpina_, _Triptolemus_, _Celeus_, _Trophonius_, _Castor_, _Pollux_, _Helena_, _Menelaus_, _Agamemnon_, _Amphiaraus_ and his son _Amphilochus_, _Hector_ and _Alexandra_ the son and daughter of _Priam_, _Phoroneus_, _Orpheus_, _Protesilaus_, _Achilles_ and his mother _Thetis_, _Ajax_, _Arcas_, _Idomeneus_, _Meriones_, _Æacus_, _Melampus_, _Britomartis_, _Adrastus_, _Iolaus_, and divers others.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.