The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended | Page 8

the daughters of Pierus a Thracian, imitating them, were celebrated by the same name.
964. Minos, making war upon Cocalus King of Sicily, is slain by him. He was eminent for his Dominion, his Laws and his Justice: upon his sepulchre visited by Pythagoras, was this inscription, [Greek: TOU DIOS] the Sepulchre of Jupiter. Danaus with his daughters flying from his brother Egyptus (that is from _Sesac_) comes into Greece. Sesac using the advice of his Secretary Thoth, distributes Egypt into xxxvi Nomes, and in every Nome erects a Temple, and appoints the several Gods, Festivals and Religions of the several Nomes. The Temples were the sepulchres of his great men, where they were to be buried and worshipped after death, each in his own Temple, with ceremonies and festivals appointed by him; while He and his Queen, by the names of Osiris and Isis, were to be worshipped in all Egypt. These were the Temples seen and described by Lucian eleven hundred years after, to be of one and the same age: and this was the original of the several Nomes of Egypt, and of the several Gods and several Religions of those Nomes. Sesac divided also the land of Egypt by measure amongst his soldiers, and thence Geometry had its rise. Hercules and Eurystheus born.
963. Amphictyon brings the twelve Gods of Egypt into Greece, and these are the Dii magni majorum gentium, to whom the Earth and Planets and Elements are dedicated.
962. Phryxus and Helle fly from their stepmother Ino the daughter of Cadmus. Helle is drowned in the Hellespont, so named from her, but Phryxus arrived at Colchos.
960. The war between the _Lapith?_ and the people of Thessaly called Centaurs.
958. Oedipus kills his father Laius. Sthenelus the son of Perseus Reigns in Mycene.
956. Sesac is slain by his brother Japetus, who after death was deified in Afric by the name of Neptune, and called Typhon by the Egyptians. Orus Reigns and routs the Libyans, who under the conduct of Japetus, and his Son _Ant?us_ or Atlas, invaded Egypt. Sesac from his making the river Nile useful, by cutting channels from it to all the cities of Egypt, was called by its names, Sihor or Siris, Nilus and Egyptus. The Greeks hearing the Egyptians lament, O Siris and Bou Siris, called him Osiris and Busiris. The Arabians from his great acts called him Bacchus, that is, the Great. The Phrygians called him _Ma-fors_ or Mavors, the valiant, and by contraction Mars. Because he set up pillars in all his conquests, and his army in his father's Reign fought against the Africans with clubs, he is painted with pillars and a club: and this is that Hercules who, according to Cicero, was born upon the Nile, and according to Eudoxus, was slain by _Typhon_; and according to Diodorus, was an Egyptian, and went over a great part of the world, and set up the pillars in Afric. He seems to be also the Belus who, according to Diodorus, led a Colony of Egyptians to Babylon, and there instituted Priests called Chaldeans, who were free from taxes, and observed the stars, as in Egypt. Hitherto Judah and Israel laboured under great vexations, but henceforward Asa King of Judah had peace ten years.
947. The Ethiopians invade Egypt, and drown Orus in the Nile. Thereupon Bubaste the sister of Orus kills herself, by falling from the top of an house, and their mother Isis or _Astr?a_ goes mad: and thus ended the Reign of the Gods of Egypt.
946. Zerah the Ethiopian is overthrown by Asa. The people of the lower Egypt make Osarsiphus their King, and call in two hundred thousand Jews and Phoenicians against the Ethiopians. Menes or Amenophis the young son of Zerah and Cissia Reigns.
944. The Ethiopians, under Amenophis, retire from the lower Egypt and fortify Memphis against Osarsiphus. And by these wars and the Argonautic expedition, the great Empire of Egypt breaks in pieces. Eurystheus the son of Sthenelus Reigns in _Mycen?_.
943. Evander and his mother Carmenta carry Letters into Italy.
942. Orpheus Deifies the son of Semele by the name of Bacchus, and appoints his Ceremonies.
940. The great men of Greece, hearing of the civil wars and distractions of Egypt, resolve to send an embassy to the nations, upon the Euxine and Mediterranean Seas, subject to that Empire, and for that end order the building of the ship Argo.
939. The ship Argo is built after the pattern of the long ship in which Danaus came into _Greece_: and this was the first long ship built by the Greeks. Chiron, who was born in the Golden Age, forms the Constellations for the use of the _Argonauts_; and places the Solstitial and Equinoctial Points in the fifteenth degrees or middles of the Constellations of Cancer, _Chel?_, Capricorn, and Aries. Meton in