Ovid. Fast. l. 1.

Altars were at first erected without Temples, and this custom continued in Persia 'till after the days of Herodotus: in Phœnicia they had Altars with little houses for eating the sacrifices much earlier, and these they called High Places: such was the High Place where Samuel entertained Saul; such was the House of Dagon at Ashdod, into which the Philistims brought the Ark; and the House of Baal, in which Jehu slew the Prophets of Baal; and such were the High Places of the Canaanites which Moses commanded Israel to destroy: he [[287]] commanded Israel to destroy the Altars, Images, High Places, and Groves of the Canaanites, but made no mention of their Temples, as he would have done had there been any in those days. I meet with no mention of sumptuous Temples before the days of Solomon: new Kingdoms begun then to build Sepulchres to their Founders in the form of Sumptuous Temples; and such Temples Hiram built in Tyre, Sesac in all Egypt, and Benhadad in Damascus.

For when David [[288]] smote Hadad Ezer King of Zobah, and slew the Syrians of Damascus who came to assist him, Rezon the son of Eliadah fled from his lord Hadad-Ezer, and gathered men unto him and became Captain over a band, and Reigned in Damascus, over Syria: he is called Hezion, 1 King. xv. 18. and his successors mentioned in history were Tabrimon, Hadad or Ben-hadad, Benhadad II. Hazael, Benhadad III. * * and Rezin the son of Tabeah. Syria became subject to Egypt in the days of Tabrimon, and recovered her liberty under Benhadad I; and in the days of Benhadad III, until the reign of the last Rezin, they became subject to Israel: and in the ninth year of Hoshea King of Judah, Tiglath-pileser King of Assyria captivated the Syrians, and put an end to their Kingdom: now Josephus [[289]] tells us, that the Syrians 'till his days worshipped both Adar, that is Hadad or Benhadad, and his successor Hazael as Gods, for their benefactions, and for building Temples by which they adorned the city of Damascus: for, saith he, they daily celebrate solemnities in honour of these Kings, and boast their antiquity, not knowing that they are novel, and lived not above eleven hundred years ago. It seems these Kings built sumptuous Sepulchres for themselves, and were worshipped therein. Justin [[290]] calls the first of these two Kings Damascus, saying that the city had its name from him, and that the Syrians in honour of him worshipped his wife Arathes as a Goddess, using her Sepulchre for a Temple.

Another instance we have in the Kingdom of Byblus. In the [[291]] Reign of Minos King of Crete, when Rhadamanthus the brother of Minos carried colonies from Crete to the Greek islands, and gave the islands to his captains, he gave Lemnos to Thoas, or Theias, or Thoantes, the father of Hypsipyle, a Cretan worker in metals, and by consequence a disciple of the Idæi Dactyli, and perhaps a Phœnician: for the Idæi Dactyli, and Telchines, and Corybantes brought their Arts and Sciences from Phœnicia: and [[292]] Suidas saith, that he was descended from Pharnaces King of Cyprus; Apollodorus, [[293]] that he was the son of Sandochus a Syrian; and Apollonius Rhodius, [[294]] that Hypsipyle gave Jason the purple cloak which the Graces made for Bacchus, who gave it to his son Thoas, the father of Hypsipyle, and King of Lemnos: Thoas married [[295]] Calycopis, the mother of Æneas, and daughter of Otreus King of Phrygia, and for his skill on the harp was called Cinyras, and was said to be exceedingly beloved by Apollo or Orus: the great Bacchus loved his wife, and being caught in bed with her in Phrygia appeased him with wine, and composed the matter by making him King of Byblus and Cyprus; and then came over the Hellespont with his army, and conquered Thrace: and to these things the poets allude, in feigning that Vulcan fell from heaven into Lemnos, and that Bacchus [[296]] appeased him with wine, and reduced him back into heaven: he fell from the heaven of the Cretan Gods, when he went from Crete to Lemnos to work in metals, and was reduced back into heaven when Bacchus made him King of Cyprus and Byblus: he Reigned there 'till a very great age, living to the times of the Trojan war, and becoming exceeding rich: and after the death of his wife Calycopis, [[297]] he built Temples to her at Paphos and Amathus, in Cyprus; and at Byblus in Syria, and instituted Priests to her with Sacred Rites and lustful Orgia; whence she became the Dea Cypria, and the Dea Syria: and from Temples erected to her in these and other places, she was also called Paphia, Amathusia, Byblia, Cytherea Salaminia, Cnidia, Erycina, Idalia. Fama tradit a Cinyra sacratum vetustissimum Paphiæ Veneris templum, Deamque ipsam conceptam mari huc appulsam: Tacit. Hist. l. 2. c. 3. From her sailing from Phrygia to the island Cythera, and from thence to be Queen of Cyprus, she was said by the Cyprians, to be born of the froth of the sea, and was painted sailing upon a shell. Cinyras Deified also his son Gingris, by the name of Adonis; and for assisting the Egyptians with armour, it is probable that he himself was Deified by his friends the Egyptians, by the name of Baal-Canaan, or Vulcan: for Vulcan was celebrated principally by the Egyptians, and was a King according to Homer, and Reigned in Lemnos; and Cinyras was an inventor of arts, [[298]] and found out copper in Cyprus, and the smiths hammer, and anvil, and tongs, and laver; and imployed workmen in making armour, and other things of brass and iron, and was the only King celebrated in history for working in metals, and was King of Lemnos, and the husband of Venus; all which are the characters of Vulcan: and the Egyptians about the time of the death of Cinyras, viz. in the Reign of their King Amenophis, built a very sumptuous Temple at Memphis to Vulcan, and near it a smaller Temple to Venus Hospita; not an Egyptian woman but a foreigner, not Helena but Vulcan's Venus: for [[299]] Herodotus tells us, that the region round about this Temple was inhabited by Tyrian Phœnicians, and that [[300]] Cambyses going into this Temple at Memphis, very much derided the statue of Vulcan for its littleness; For, saith he, this statue is most like those Gods which the Phœnicians call Patæci, and carry about in the fore part of their Ships in the form of Pygmies: and [[301]] Bochart saith of this Venus Hospita, Phœniciam Venerem in Ægypto pro peregrina habitam.

As the Egyptians, Phœnicians and Syrians in those days Deified their Kings and Princes, so upon their coming into Asia minor and Greece, they taught those nations to do the like, as hath been shewed above. In those days the writing of the Thebans and Ethiopians was in hieroglyphicks; and this way of writing seems to have spread into the lower Egypt before the days of Moses: for thence came the worship of their Gods in the various shapes of Birds, Beasts, and Fishes, forbidden in the second commandment. Now this emblematical way of writing gave occasion to the Thebans and Ethiopians, who in the days of Samuel, David, Solomon, and Rehoboam conquered Egypt, and the nations round about, and erected a great Empire, to represent and signify their conquering Kings and Princes, not by writing down their names, but by making various hieroglyphical figures; as by painting Ammon with Ram's horns, to signify the King who conquered Libya, a country abounding with sheep; his father Amosis with a Scithe, to signify that King who conquered the lower Egypt, a country abounding with corn; his Son Osiris by an Ox, because he taught the conquered nations to plow with oxen; Bacchus with Bulls horns for the same reason, and with Grapes because he taught the nations to plant vines, and upon a Tiger because he subdued India; Orus the son of Osiris with a Harp, to signify the Prince who was eminently skilled on that instrument; Jupiter upon an Eagle to signify the sublimity of his dominion, and with a Thunderbolt to represent him a warrior; Venus in a Chariot drawn with two Doves, to represent her amorous and lustful; Neptune with a Trident, to signify the commander of a fleet composed of three Squadrons; Ægeon, a Giant, with 50 heads, and an hundred hands, to signify Neptune with his men in a ship of fifty oars; Thoth with a Dog's head and wings at his cap and feet, and a Caduceus writhen about with two Serpents, to signify a man of craft, and an embassador who reconciled two contending nations; Pan with a Pipe and the legs of a Goat, to signify a man delighted in piping and dancing; and Hercules with Pillars and a Club, because Sesostris set up pillars in all his conquests, and fought against the Libyans with clubs: this is that Hercules who, according to [[302]] Eudoxus, was slain by Typhon; and according to Ptolomæus Hephæstion [[303]] was called Nilus, and who conquered Geryon with his three sons in Spain, and set up the famous pillars at the mouth of the Straits: for Diodorus [[304]] mentioning three Hercules's, the Egyptian, the Tyrian, and the son of Alcmena, saith that the oldest flourished among the Egyptians, and having conquered a great part of the world, set up the pillars in Afric: and Vasæus, [[305]] that Osiris, called also Dionysius, came into Spain and conquered Geryon, and was the first who brought Idolatry into Spain. Strabo [[306]] tells us, that the Ethiopians called Megabars fought with clubs: and some of the Greeks [[307]] did so 'till the times of the Trojan war. Now from this hieroglyphical way of writing it came to pass, that upon the division of Egypt into Nomes by Sesostris, the great men of the Kingdom to whom the Nomes were dedicated, were represented in their Sepulchers or Temples of the Nomes, by various hieroglyphicks; as by an Ox, a Cat, a Dog, a Cebus, a Goat, a Lyon, a Scarabæus, an Ichneumon, a Crocodile, an Hippopotamus, an Oxyrinchus, an Ibis, a Crow, a Hawk, a Leek, and were worshipped by the Nomes in the shape of these creatures.

The [[308]] Atlantides, a people upon mount Atlas conquered by the Egyptians in the Reign of Ammon, related that Uranus was their first King, and reduced them from a savage course of life, and caused them to dwell in towns and cities, and lay up and use the fruits of the earth, and that he reigned over a great part of the world, and by his wife Titæa had eighteen children, among which were Hyperion and Basilea the parents of Helius and Selene; that the brothers of Hyperion slew him, and drowned his son Helius, the Phaeton of the ancients, in the Nile, and divided his Kingdom amongst themselves; and the country bordering upon the Ocean fell to the lot of Atlas, from whom the people were called Atlantides. By Uranus or Jupiter Uranius, Hyperion, Basilea, Helius and Selene, I understand Jupiter Ammon, Osiris, Isis, Orus and Bubaste; and by the sharing of the Kingdom of Hyperion amongst his brothers the Titans, I understand the division of the earth among the Gods mentioned in the Poem of Solon.

For Solon having travelled into Egypt, and conversed with the Priests of Sais; about their antiquities, wrote a Poem of what he had learnt, but did not finish it; [[309]] and this Poem fell into the hands of Plato who relates out of it, that at the mouth of the Straits near Hercules's Pillars there was an Island called Atlantis, the people of which, nine thousand years before the days of Solon, reigned over Libya as far as Egypt; and over Europe as far as the Tyrrhene sea; and all this force collected into one body invaded Egypt and Greece, and whatever was contained within the Pillars of Hercules, but was resisted and stopt by the Athenians and other Greeks, and thereby the rest of the nations not yet conquered were preserved: he saith also that in those days the Gods, having finished their conquests, divided the whole earth amongst themselves, partly into larger, partly into smaller portions, and instituted Temples and Sacred Rites to themselves; and that the Island Atlantis fell to the lot of Neptune, who made his eldest Son Atlas King of the whole Island, a part of which was called Gadir; and that in the history of the said wars mention was made of Cecrops, Erechtheus, Erichthonius, and others before Theseus, and also of the women who warred with the men, and of the habit and statue of Minerva, the study of war in those days being common to men and women. By all these circumstances it is manifest that these Gods were the Dii magni majorum gentium, and lived between the age of Cecrops and Theseus; and that the wars which Sesostris with his brother Neptune made upon the nations by land and sea, and the resistance he met with in Greece, and the following invasion of Egypt by Neptune, are here described; and how the captains of Sesostris shared his conquests amongst themselves, as the captains of Alexander the great did his conquests long after, and instituting Temples and Priests and sacred Rites to themselves, caused the nations to worship them after death as Gods: and that the Island Gadir or Gades, with all Libya, fell to the lot of him who after death was Deified by the name of Neptune. The time therefore when these things were done is by Solon limited to the age of Neptune, the father of Atlas; for Homer tells us, that Ulysses presently after the Trojan war found Calypso the daughter of Atlas in the Ogygian Island, perhaps Gadir; and therefore it was but two Generations before the Trojan war. This is that Neptune, who with Apollo or Orus fortified Troy with a wall, in the Reign of Laomedon the father of Priamus, and left many natural children in Greece, some of which were Argonauts, and others were contemporary to the Argonauts; and therefore he flourished but one Generation before the Argonautic expedition, and by consequence about 400 years before Solon went into Egypt: but the Priests of Egypt in those 400 years had magnified the stories and antiquity of their Gods so exceedingly, as to make them nine thousand years older than Solon, and the Island Atlantis bigger than all Afric and Asia together, and full of people; and because in the days of Solon this great Island did not appear, they pretended that it was sunk into the sea with all its people: thus great was the vanity of the Priests of Egypt in magnifying their antiquities.

The Cretans [[310]] affirmed that Neptune was the man who set out a fleet, having obtained this Præfecture of his father Saturn; whence posterity reckoned things done in the sea to be under his government, and mariners honoured him with sacrifices: the invention of tall Ships with sails [[311]] is also ascribed to him. He was first worshipped in Africa, as Herodotus [[312]] affirms, and therefore Reigned over that province: for his eldest son Atlas, who succeeded him, was not only Lord of the Island Atlantis, but also Reigned over a great part of Afric, giving his name to the people called Atlantii, and to the mountain Atlas, and the Atlantic Ocean. The [[313]] outmost parts of the earth and promontories, and whatever bordered upon the sea and was washed by it, the Egyptians called Neptys; and on the coasts of Marmorica and Cyrene, Bochart and Arius Montanus place the Naphthuhim, a people sprung from Mizraim, Gen. x. 13; and thence Neptune and his wife Neptys might have their names, the words Neptune, Neptys and Naphthuhim, signifying the King, Queen, and people of the sea-coasts. The Greeks tell us that Japetus was the father of Atlas, and Bochart derives Japetus and Neptune from the same original: he and his son Atlas are celebrated in the ancient fables for making war upon the Gods of Egypt; as when Lucian [[314]] saith that Corinth being full of fables, tells the fight of Sol and Neptune, that is, of Apollo and Python, or Orus and Typhon; and where Agatharcides [[315]] relates how the Gods of Egypt fled from the Giants, 'till the Titans came in and saved them by putting Neptune to flight; and where Hyginus [[316]] tells the war between the Gods of Ægypt, and the Titans commanded by Atlas.

The Titans are the posterity of Titæa, some of whom under Hercules assisted the Gods, others under Neptune and Atlas warred against them: for which reason, saith Plutarch, [[317]] the Priests of Egypt abominated the sea, and had Neptune in no honour. By Hercules, I understand here the general of the forces of Thebais and Ethiopia whom the Gods or great men of Egypt called to their assistance, against the Giants or great men of Libya, who had slain Osiris and invaded Egypt: for Diodorus [[318]] saith that when Osiris made his expedition over the world, he left his kinsman Hercules general of his forces over all his dominions, and Antæus governor of Libya and Ethiopia. Antæus Reigned over all Afric to the Atlantic Ocean, and built Tingis or Tangieres: Pindar [[319]] tells us that he Reigned at Irasa a town of Libya, where Cyrene was afterwards built: he invaded Egypt and Thebais; for he was beaten by Hercules and the Egyptians near Antæa or Antæopolis, a town of Thebais; and Diodorus [[320]] tells us that this town had its name from Antæus, whom Hercules slew in the days of Osiris. Hercules overthrew him several times, and every time he grew stronger by recruits from Libya, his mother earth; but Hercules intercepted his recruits, and at length slew him. In these wars Hercules took the Libyan world from Atlas, and made Atlas pay tribute out of his golden orchard, the Kingdom of Afric. Antæus and Atlas were both of them sons of Neptune both of them Reigned over all Libya and Afric, between Mount Atlas and the Mediterranean to the very Ocean; both of them invaded Egypt, and contended with Hercules in the wars of the Gods, and therefore they are but two names of one and the same man; and even the name Atlas in the oblique cases seems to have been compounded of the name Antæeus and some other word, perhaps the word Atal, cursed, put before it: the invasion of Egypt by Antæus, Ovid hath relation unto, where he makes Hercules say,

Sævoque alimenta parentis