Hercules, an Egyptian so called; (for there were three of this name, and the first and most ancient was an Egyptian); embanked the river, retrieved the country, and hereby relieved the king from the grief and concern which preyed upon him. Now from what was mentioned in the Egyptian records of this fact, the Greek fabulists took occasion to say, that an eagle preyed upon the heart or liver of Prometheus, until Hercules delivered him. And thus this part of the Mythos was not originally intended of the Greek Prometheus; nor does it at all belong to him. However, he was bound down to mount Caucasus. I imagine Jupiter banished him to some uncultivated mountain called by that name,' where

P Diodor. lib. 3, p. 145.

9 Lib. 1, p. 11.

* Διο και των πας Ελλησι ποιητων τινας εις μύθον αγαγειν το πραχθεν, ως Ηρακλεως τον 'Αετον ανήρηκοτος τον το τη Προμηθέως ήπαρ εσθιονία. Diodor. p. 11.

The mountain Caucasus is generally placed by geographers between the Euxine and Caspian seas. Apollodorus calls it a mountain of Scythia; but we cannot conceive Jupiter should dispatch Prometheus to such a distance from Crete. I rather think some mountain of Crete was called by this name. As in after-ages very distant nations received the names of their deities from this island; so they might likewise the names of mountains, cities, and rivers. We find, the fable of Prometheus has travelled all over the world. In Alexander's time, mount Caucasus, the scene of his war, was said to be in India. See Strabo lib. 15, p. 688, as before it had been placed in Asia. The fable of one age perhaps removed it from Crete into Pontus;

he was obliged to confine himself to live, until after some years Jupiter recalled him again.'

The hints we have in the ancient writers, are too short to enable us to pretend to give a large account of the respective lives of the several persons, who engaged with Jupiter in the scenes of action, which made him and them conspicuous to the age in which they lived, and created them that fame, which has come down to all posterity. Fable has told us many par ticulars of them all; but much of this may be set aside, by considering what can, and what cannot belong to the age when they lived. I imagine they did not all settle in Crete during their whole lives. Apollo was a great traveller, and visited divers parts of Greece, endeavouring, to form all he conversed with to an orderly and social life." Whether he began his travels before or at the death of Jupiter, I cannot determine. He came to Athens, went thence to Panopæus, a city of Phocis," where he killed Tityus, a man of huge stature and strength," who opposed and domineered over that neighbourhood. From hence he

a still later, with as much truth, might carry it thence into India.

Apollodorus lib. 2, c. 4, sect. 11.

* Καθ' ον χρόνον τον Απόλλωνα την γην επιονία ημερών της άνθρωπος από το των ανημέρων καρπών και των βίων.

Strabo.

• Τιτυον εχονία τον τόπον, βίαιον ανδρα και παρανομον.. Strabo ubi sup.

went to Delphos, where Themis then lived ; who was the oracle of that place, being probably a very wise woman, capable of instructing the common people in many useful arts of life. Python governed here with violence and cruelty, and would not have had Apollo admitted amongst his people; but Apollo prevailed against him and killed him. Python was also surnamed Draco, and hence the fabulous writers might take occasion to invent what they say about Apollo's killing the huge serpent called Python. Apollo seems to have lived the rest of his life chiefly at Delphos; to have formed and instructed the people here; and to have been so much respected and admired by them, that posterity afterwards fixed him a temple in this place, and supposed him the god who gave the oracles here, which were so much sought to in after ages.

We read of Pluto, that he left Crete and went to Tartarus, and carried away Proserpine the daughter of Ceres with him." Ceres herself, after her travels in search of her daughter, settled in Attica ; where she became so famous for the method she taught in nursing Deiphon the son of Celeus king of Eleusis, as to be said by a particular regimen to have made him immortal. By agreement with Pluto, her daughter

Proserpine was to live with her two-thirds of the year, and the other third part in Tartarus; which occasioned the fable that Proserpine lived a thirdpart of the year with Pluto, and the rest of her time with the gods above." The Arundel Marble may seem to fix the time of Ceres' being in Attica some. thing late, namely to A. M. 2596," which is about eighty years after the ninety-fifth year of Jupiter." But Ceres was sister to Jupiter," and therefore can hardly be supposed to have come into Attica so many years after Jupiter must have been dead. But I would observe that the Marble Epoch records that Ceres taught Triptolemus the son of Celeus to sow corn, and sent him to teach other nations. It is not likely, that Triptolemus began his travels before he was two or three and thirty; and his father Celeus might be born forty years before him. Now Ceres nursed Coleus when an infant. Let us count back from Triptolemus" travels to teach the sowing of .corn, to the infancy of Celeus, when Ceres came into Attica seventy-three years, and we shall fix her coming into that country A. M. 2523. i. e. near the time of Jupiter's death, seven years after his ninety-fifty year; about which time she may indeed, be thought to have settled in Attica. Perhaps nothing more was intended in the Marble Epoch than to fix the time of Triptolemus? travels; and it seems to have fixed them agreeably

n Ep. xii.

Vid. quæ sup. Apollod. lib. 1, c. 1, Diodor. Sic. lib. 5, p. 232.

m Apoll. ubi sup.

Id. Ibid. lib. 1, c. 5.

enough to what might be the true time of his life; and Ceres might be said to teach him his art, merely because at the composing the Marble Epochs, Ceres was esteemed the goddess, who presided over this part of husbandry. Neptune was the great master of the seas, with Jupiter and his family; and we may suppose he managed and conducted all the voyages made by any of them. Plato tells us, that he settled and planted his children in the island Atlantis,' which seems from Strabo to have been either an island near Eubæa,* or in the Ionian Sea near to Elis a city of Peloponnesus. In these and the adjacent seas Neptune had exercised his skill in sailing; and in some işle of these seas we may well suppose him to have lived, when he gave over a seaman's life. Mars and Minerva were frequently at Athens, if they did not constantly live there." Vulcan is supposed to have gone to Lemnos ; * Ops, who was called Rhea, removed from Crete to Phrygia, and dwelt on mount Cybelum, and became famous there. The Arundel Marble fixes the time of her appearing there to A. M. 2499, which falls towards the latter end of Jupiter's life, and very well agrees to the times wherein we have supposed him to live. Ops was afterwards called Cybele from the mountain where she lived. She brought arts and

Plato in Critiâ. p. 1103.

lib. 1, p. 60, 61.

"Apollod. lib. 3, c. 4, c. 13.

C. 3.

* Epoch. x.

Strab. Geog.

+ Lib. 7, p. 346.

* Id. ibid. lib. 1,

y Diodor. lib. 3. Strabo lib. 10,