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This feries is fuppofed to be connected with a known epoch in the Grecian history, by a remark of Dicæarchus, Ariftotle's scholar, who fays, that 2500 years elapfed from the reign of Sefonchofis, who fucceeded Orus, the fon of Ifis and Ofiris, to the reign of Nilus; and from Nilus to the firft Olympiad, 436 years 9. Who Sefonchofis was, is very uncertain; the firft king of the twelfth dynasty of Manetho feems to have borne this name, or one very near it; but he must have lived too late to be the perfon here meant; and if he be taken to be the immediate fucceffor of Orus, he must have been one of the demi-gods, and the fame with Ares, or Mars, which carries us back into fable. The first of these observations therefore can be of no great ufe; for the time of Sefonchofis, after this way of reckoning, will precede the deluge, even according to the Samaritan chronology, near 700 years. But the other king, named by Dicæarchus, is found in the catalogue of Eratofthenes, the last king but one there being Phruron, or Nilus; and therefore his time being known, the years of all the preceding kings are eafily adjufted to any system of chronology. This feems plaufible enough; yet are we afraid it will not altogether agree with the account of Diodorus. It is plain Dicæarchus fuppofed Nilus reigned at the time of the Trojan war, for his calculation will carry us up thither, but according to Diodorus, Nilus must have been several generations later than Proteus, who reigned in Egypt at the time of the Trojan war, by the joint teftimony of him and Herodotus; fo that Dicæarchus feems only to have given a tolerable guefs at his age, and not fixed it with fuch certainty as to enable us to determine it within a century at least. Befides, it is more than probable, that this table of Eratofthenes has fuffered by time and transcribers, as well as the dynafties of Manetho; and there are doubtlefs feveral miftakes in the numbers as well as names; the fum total, for example, which Syncellus reckons to be 1075, will not agree with the particulars; for if carefully caft up, they amount to no more than 1055.

As to the series of Syncellus, on which Sir John Marfham built much, we have a worse opinion of it

4 Dicæarchus, apud Scholiaft. Apollon. Argon. lib, iv. ver. 272. r Diodor. Sic. lib. i. p. 56. Herod. lib. ii. cap. 112.

Can, Chron. p. 7.

s Vide

than

than of any of the other, especially in the more early ages, where it is fupported by no concurring evidence at all. He feems to have compofed it by picking here and there fuch names and numbers, and fometimes adding both out of his own head, as he fancied, in order to accommodate it to the facred chronology.

We need not spend many words to fhew that it is next to impoffible to frame a confiftent chronology ", from the fucceffions of kings in Herodotus and Diodorus. For befides their irreconcileable difagreement in feveral inftances, they confeffedly omit a great number of princes, and mention no years of the reigns of others; fo that fuch chafms are left, as no body can tell how to fill up; and their manner of reckoning by defcents, or generations, is too vifibly uncertain. Before Pfammetichus, the Egyptian chronology is very dark; and though after that prince's time it begins to clear up, yet the variations between all the hiftorians fince his reign are confiderable.

We shall not therefore waste our time in composing an hypothetical scheme of these kings of Egypt; of fuch performances there are choice already; and they are much more easy to frame than to fupport: calculations by numbers of years, which are so liable to mistake and corruption, must needs be very precarious; and it seems much more reasonable to rely on the coincidence of facts, and hiftorical fynchronisms, from which chiefly we fhall, in the course of our hiftory of Egypt, endeavour to fix the times of events. This we think is the moft that can be done with any degree of certainty; for it is amazing to us, that men should pretend to adjust the Egyptian chronology, from the most early times, to fo great a nicety as a few years, and dictate dogmatically in a matter of such absolute uncertainty and confufion.

t Vide Perizon. Orig. Ægyp. p. 53, &c.

u Vide Conring. adv. Chronol. cap. 17, 18. Stillingfl. Orig. Sacr. lib. i. cap. 5.

Of the fucceffions according to and Diadorus.

Herodotus

SECT.

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The Hiftory of Ofiris, Ifis, Typhon, and Orus.

BEFORE

EFORE we enter upon the hiftory of the mortal kings of Egypt, we are in fome manner obliged to infert the following dark and ancient fiction. Oliris and Ifis were faid to be the fon and daughter of Saturn and Rhea; but, according to others, their grandfon and granddaughter, being defcended from Jupiter and Juno, who had a deity born to them on each of the five intercalary days of the Egyptians. These five deities were called Ofiris, Ifis, Typhon, Apollo, and Venus". We have their origin and generation again differently, and with the feveral particulars, related as follows; Sol, surpris ing Rhea in a private congrefs with Saturn, prayed that The might not be delivered in the space of any one month, or day of the year. Mercury, afterwards, falling in love with the goddefs, embraced her alfo; and beating Luna at dice, took from the lunar year the, feventyfecond part of every day, and compofed five days, and adding them to the year of three hundred and fixty days, that the might bring forth in them; and thefe they celebrated as the birth-days of Ofiris, Ifis, Typhon, Orus, and Nephthe. On the first day Ofiris was born, and at his birth a voice was heard crying out, "the lord of all things is come into the world;" or, according to others, a damfel called Pamyles, going to fetch water from the temple of Jupiter at Thebes, hearing a loud voice commanding to proclaim, "the great and beneficent king Ofiris is born." He was delivered to this damfel, who was directed to nurse him; which fhe did with all the veneration due to fuch a charge, performing the mysteries called Pamylia, like thofe ftyled Palephoria, in honour of the infant. On the second day Arueris was brought forth whom fome called Apollo, and others the elder Orus. The third was the birth-day of Typhon, who came not into the world in proper time and place, but by a violent eruption leaped out of his mother's fide. On the fourth day Ifis, and on the fifth Nephthe, or Nephthys, saw the light; which laft was alfo called Finis, and Venus, and Victoria. Sol was the father of Ofiris and Arueris;

* Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. p. 13.

Mercury

Mercury of Ifis; and Saturn of Typhon and Nephthe. The third, being the birth-day of Typhon, was counted inaufpicious, or unlucky; fo that the kings thereon fufpended all business, and abftained from eating and drinking. Nephthe married Typhon, and Ifis efpoufed Ofiris. As for these laft, it is faid, that, enticed by a mutual love, they embraced whilst yet in their mother's womb; and it was thought, that Arueris, the elder Orus of the Egyptians, and the Apollo of the Greeks, fprang from that early conjunction (B). Ofiris no fooner obtained the kingdom of Egypt, than he reclaimed the inhabitants from their favage and brutal way of living, fhewed them the fruits of the earth, and instituted divine worfhip building the city of Thebes, and erecting several temples, among the reft, one to Jupiter Uranius, and another to Jupiter Ammon, his father, who reigned before him but, that his beneficence might not be confined to the bounds of his own country, he undertook to visit the feveral nations on the earth, all which he civilized, not by the forcible constraint of arms, but by dint of perfuahion, and by the allurements of music and poetry. His

x Plut. de Ifid. & Ofirid. p. 355. Plutarch, ubi fupra.

(B) Herodotus gives them a daughter Bubaftis, or Diana; and feems to have heard the ftory of these fabulous princes, with fome variation from what is related by Diodorus and Plutarch, the only authors extant who have written this fiction at length. And particularly, fpeaking of the floating ifland Chemmis, near the city of Butus, he writes that, by an Egyptian tradition, Latona, one of the primary deities, refiding at Butus, had Orus committed to her care, at a time when Typhon was in fearch after him to deftroy him; and the accordingly concealed him in the abovefaid ifle. Now, according to Plu

y Diod. Sicul. ubi fupra.

tarch, Typhon was kept within bounds by the prudence of Ifis during all the expedition of Ofiris; with which account this violent proceeding cannot confift: and Herodotus does not in the leaft hint at this fearch afterwards. Diodorus fays Orus accompanied his father in his travels; he was therefore out of the reach of his enemy; and after his father's murder, this author fays, he was fo far from flying from Typhon, that he made head against him, overcame him in battle, and flew him. It appears then, that Herodotus heard this fiction related in a third and different manner (1).

(1) Herodotus, lib. ii. c. 156.

fetting

fetting out, and the more remarkable particulars of his travels, are thus narrated.

Having in view the vaft and beneficial defign above mentioned, he raifed a great number of followers, amongst whom was his brother Apollo, who claimed the laurel as facred to him, as the ivy was to Ofiris. He took alfo his two fons with him, Anubis, and Macedo. Thefe two wore coats of mail, and over them the fkins of fuch beafts as correfponded with the nature of their courage; fo Anubis had a dog's fkin, and Macedo the skin of a wolf; and hence, faid they, the dog and the wolf were worfhipped in Egypt. Pan alfo was of the company; he was afterwards highly revered over all the country, infomuch. that he had not only ftatues and temples erected to him, but also the city of Chemmis, which fignified Pan's city. Add to thefe Maro, famous for planting and dreffing of vines; and Triptolemus for fowing corn, and gathering in the harvest. Finally, Ofiris took with him nine virgins, proficients in mufic, who being committed to the care of Apollo, he thence obtained the title of master of the nine fifters, or Mufes; fome fatyrs he met as he went towards Ethiopia, who were acceptable for their jocund difpofition, and diverting by their antic behaviour, fkipping, and dancing.

But, before he left Egypt, he provided against any difturbances that might arife in his abfence, by committing the administration to trufty and fagacious perfons. He invefted Ifis with the regency, in which he left his friend Hermes to affift her. Hermes was alfo called Mercury, Thoth, Thoyth, Tauautes, Trifmegiftus, and by other names. It is a common opinion, that there were two perfons, or more, who bore these feveral appellations; but, leaving the discussion of so dark a point, we will here fpeak of them as one person, and enumerate the inventions and books afcribed to him. He invented articulate founds, appellatives, letters, religion, aftronomy, mufic, wrestling, arithmetic, ftatuary, the three-ftringed lyre, and the use of the olive. He was ftyled the father of eloquence, and thence he derived his name of Hermes, the interpreter or speaker 2. As to the books he wrote, Seleucus reckoned them at no less than twenty thousand . And Manetho exceeds him, computing them at thirty-fix thousand five hundred and twenty-five. This number

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