“He is said to have transmitted to mankind the knowledge of grammar and mathematics, and of all the arts, of the polity of cities, the construction and dedication of temples, the introduction of laws (καί νομων εἰσηγήσεις); to have taught them geometry, and to have shown them by example the modes of sowing the seed and gathering the fruits of the earth,” [the “vir agricola” of Genesis], and along with them to have tradited all the secrets which tend to humanise life. And no one else at that time was found more super-eminent than he.”—Vide Rawlinson, i. 155.
We have seen that he was known to “the first settlers on the Euphrates and Tigris.” The Abbé de Tressan says, Berosus begins his history with these words:—“In the first year appeared this extraordinary man” (Oannes). Now, with “the early settlers” on the Euphrates and Tigris the commencement of all things would have been naturally dated from the Deluge.
It appears to me worth while, in conclusion, to place more succinctly before the reader the identical terms in which the ancients (various authors) spoke of the first founders of states or their earliest progenitor—compelling the conclusion that allusion was made to one and the same individual and epoch.
Bryant (“Myth.” ii. 253) says that Noah was represented as Thoth, Hermes, Menes, Osiris, Zeuth, Atlas, Phoroneus, and Prometheus, &c. &c. “There are none wherein his history is delineated more plainly, than in those of Saturn and Janus.” These I will now omit, as we have just seen them to be identical—and so too Bacchus, who equally with them plants the vine, teaches them to sow, and gives them laws.
Phoroneus, “an ancient poet quoted by Clemens Alex. (i. 380) calls him the first of mortals, φυρονευς πατηρ θνητων ανθρωπων.” The first deluge took place under Phoroneus: “He was also the first who built an altar. He first collected men together and formed them into petty communities.”—Pausanias, lib. 2, 145. He first gave laws and distributed justice.—Syncellus, 67, 125. They ascribed to him the distribution of mankind, “idem nationes distribuit” (Hyginus’ Fab. 143), “which is a circumstance very remarkable.”
Poseidon’s epithets connected with the ark are very striking (Bryant, ii. 269, Deucalion, vide ante, [p. 232]); but he is also said (Apollon. Rhod. lib. 3, v. 1085) to have been “the first man through whom religious rites were renewed, cities built, and civil polity established in the world.”
Cecrops (vide ante, [p. 220]), the identical terms are used.
Myrmidon, “a person of great justice.” “He is said to have collected people together, humanised mankind, enacted laws, and first established civil polity.”—Scholia in Pindar, Ode 3, v. 21.
Cadmus, vide ante, [p. 221].
Pelasgus also is described as equally a benefactor to mankind, and instructed them in many arts.—Pausanias, 8, 599. He is said to have built the first temple to the deity “ædem Jovi Olympis primum fecit Pelasgus.”—Hyginus’ Fab. 225, 346. Bryant says, “I have taken notice that as Noah was said to have been ἁνθρωπος γης,” a man of the earth—this characteristic is observable in every history of the primitive persons; and they are represented as ‘νομιοι,’ ‘αγριοι’, and ‘γηγενεις.’ Pelasgus accordingly had this title (Æschy. “Supplicants,” v. 250), and it is particularly mentioned of him that he was the first husbandman. Pelasgus first found out all that is necessary for the cultivation of the ground.”—Schol. in Eurip. “Orestes,” v. 930.