was not the daughter of Agenor, but of Phoenix. Ovid relates at large an account of Cadmus' followers being devoured by a serpent; that Cadmus killed the serpent, and sowed his teeth in the ground; and that there sprang from this serpent's teeth a number of armed men, who as soon as they were grown up out of the ground, fell to fighting one another, and were all killed except five, and that these five, who survived the conflict, went with Cadmus and assisted him in building Thebes. I am sensible that the men who believed this strange story, may be justly thought as weak as the fiction is marvellous; but there are hints of it in writers not so poetically inclined as Ovid; and there is room to conjecture what might give the first rise to so wild and extravagant a fable. When Cadmus came into Boeotia, and had conquered the inhabitants, it might be recorded of him, in the Phoenician or Hebrew language, which anciently were

[עשה חיל חמש אנשים נושקים בשני נחש] the same, that he

Nasah Chail Chamesh Anoshim, Noshekim be Shenei Nachash-These words might begin the account, and in these words there are the following ambiguities. Chamesh signifies warlike or prepared for war, and a word of the same letters may be trans

• In Achaicis c. 4.

P Metamorph. lib. 3. fab. 1.

We may easily apprehend, that in a language where the vowels were originally not written, many words of exactly the same letters must have a very different signifi cation. If we were to write our English words in consonants only, leaving the reader to supply the vowels, as the Hebrew was anciently written, our own tongue would afford many instances.

VOL. II.

lated five. Shenei may signify spears, or it may be rendered teeth. Nachash is the Hebrew word for a serpent, or for brass; and these words being thus capable of denoting very different things, a fabulous translator might say,' he raised a force of fire men armed from the teeth of a serpent, when the words ought to have been translated, he raised a warlike force of men, or an army, armed with spears of brass. The Greeks in the mythological times were particularly fond of disguising all their ancient accounts with fable and allegory; therefore it is no wonder that they gave the history of Cadmus this turn, when the words in which his actions were recorded, gave them so fair an opportunity. Cadmus is said to have found out the art of working metals and making armour; and I suppose that some of his companions were the Idæi Dactyli mentioned by Pausanias, Diodorus, Strabo, and other writers; for these Idæi Dactyli made their first appearance near mount Ida in Phrygia,' and Cadmus travelled this way from Phoenicia into Greece, going out of Asia into Thrace, and from thence into Greece. Cadmus and his companions introduced the use of the Phoenician letters into Greece, their alphabet consisting only of sixteen letters,"

Danaus was another considerable person, who travelled about this time from Egypt into Greece; and the ancient writers agree pretty well in their accounts

x

of him. Chemnis, says Herodotus, is a large city near Nea, in Thebais; and the Egyptians say that Danaus and Lynceus were of Chemnis; and that they sailed into Greece. Apollodorus agreeing with the Parian marble, says, that Danaus built a ship and fled with it from Egypt. Diodorus gives a larger account of him; that he came from Egypt to Rhodes with his daughters, that three of his daughters died at Rhodes, and the rest went with him to Argos. Pausanias relates that Danaus came from Egypt, and obtained the kingdom of Argos from Gelanor the son of Sthenelus. Danaus was himself descended from a Grecian ancestor. Io the daughter of Iasus king of Argos married into Egypt, and when Iasus died, his brother's children came to the crown; Iasus having no other child but Io, and she being absent and married into a foreign country. Gelanor was a descendant of Iasus' brother, Danaus of Iasus by Io his daughter, and this must be the plea which he had to offer the Argives to induce them to accept him for their king. The dispute between him and Gelanor before the people of Argos, upon this point, was argued at large on both sides for a whole day. Gelanor was thought to have offered as weighty and strong arguments for his own right, as Danaus could offer for his; and the next day was appointed for the further hearing and determining their claims, when an accident put an end to the dispute, and obtained Danaus the crown. There happened a fight between a wolf and a bull

x Lib. 2. c. 91.

Y Lib. 2. p. 63. a Pausan. in Corinthiacis, c. 16. c. 19.

z Hist. 1. 5.

near the place where the people were assembled; and the wolf conquering the bull, the crown was hereupon adjudged to Danaus. The combat was thought ominous, and the wolf being a creature with which they were less acquainted than the bull, it was thought to be the will of the gods, declared by the event of this accidental combat, that the stranger should rule over them. Thus their superstition made them unanimous in a point of the greatest moment; which perhaps they would not else have determined without creating great factions among themselves. A case somewhat like what happened in Persia, when Darius the son of Hystaspes was made king. His horse being the first that neighed seemed unquestionably to give him, in the eyes of his superstitious subjects, a better title to the throne, and perhaps a securer possession of it, than any other agreement which he and his princes could have made, that had not had such appearing countenance from religion. Danaus came into Greece, when Erichthonius was king of Athens, 1247 years before the Parian Chronicon was composed, i. c. A. M. 2494, about eight years after Cadmus came into Boeotia. Castor's account of Danaus' coming to Argos, if we take out of it the years assigned to Apis' reign, agrees well with this computation from the Parian Chronicon. He computed that Inachus began to reign at Argos when Thurimachus was king of Sicyon, i. e. about A. M. 2154 ; *

d

b Herodot. 1. 3. Justin. lib. 1. c. 10. Prideaux Connect. vol. i. b. 3. Epoch. Marmor. 9. d Vid. quæ supra. Vide quæ supra.

с

from the first year of Inachus (including the reign of Apis) he reckons three hundred and eighty-two years to the death of Sthenelus, which would place Danaus A. M. 2536; but if we deduct thirty-five years for the insertion of Apis' reign, it will place him A. M. 2501, seven years only later than the marble.

h

f

Very little can be offered about the affairs of Greece, before the times when these men came to settle in it; though it is certain that Greece was inhabited long before these days, and that in some parts of it kingdoms were erected, and men of great figure and eminence lived in them. Ægialeus began a kingdom at Sicyon A. M. 1920, above five hundred years before Cecrops came to Athens; during which interval they had thirteen kings according to Castor, and Pausanias found memoirs of the lives and families of twelve of them. Inachus erected a kingdom at Argos A. M. 2154, two hundred and sixty-nine years before Cecrops, and they had six kings in this interval.* Now these accounts are in all respects so reasonable in themselves, and so well suit with every fragment of ancient history; that no one can fairly reject them, unless antiquity alone be a sufficient reason for not admitting annals of so long standing. Kingdoms did not begin so early in other parts of Greece; but we find Thessalus, a king of Thessaly, A. M. 2332, his father's name was Graicus; Deucalion reigned king there A. M. 2431, i. e. eight years after Cecrops came

f

i

See above Book vi.

h In Corinthiacis.

* Castor & Pausan.

8 In Chronic. Euseb. part i. i See book vi.

Euseb. Chron. Num. 224.