Agamemnon
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Comparison of Greek and Phoenician (mytho.) chronology
GREECE
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1786 BC
[Paus. 9.27.2] Hesiod, or he who wrote the Theogony fathered on Hesiod,
writes, I know, that Chaos was born first, and after Chaos, Earth, Tartarus
and Eros.
1769 BC
Gia gave brith to Ouranos.
1750 BC
[Apoll. 1.1.1] Ouranos was the first who ruled over the whole world. And
having wedded Earth, he begat first the Hundred-handed, as they are named:
Briareus, Gyes, Cottus, who were unsurpassed in size and might, each of them
having a hundred hands and fifty heads.
[2] After these, Earth bore him the Cyclopes, to wit, Arges, Steropes,
Brontes, of whom each had one eye on his forehead. But them Ouranos bound
and cast into Tartarus, a gloomy place in Hades as far distant from earth as
earth is distant from the sky.
[3] And again he begat children by Earth, to wit, the Titans as they are
named: Ocean, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus, and, youngest of all, Cronus;
also daughters, the Titanides as they are called: Tethys, Rhea, Themis,
Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Dione, Thia.
1715 BC
[Apoll. 1.1.4] But Earth, grieved at the destruction of her children, who
had been cast into Tartarus, persuaded the Titans to attack their father and
gave Cronus an adamantine sickle. And they, all but Ocean, attacked him, and
Cronus cut off his father's genitals and threw them into the sea; and from
the drops of the flowing blood were born Furies, to wit, Alecto, Tisiphone,
and Megaera. And, having dethroned their father, they brought up their
brethren who had been hurled down to Tartarus, and committed the sovereignty
to Cronus.
[5] But he again bound and shut them up in Tartarus, and wedded his sister
Rhea; and since both Earth and Ouranos foretold him that he would be
dethroned by his own son, he used to swallow his offspring at birth. His
firstborn Hestia he swallowed, then Demeter and Hera, and after them Pluto
and Poseidon.
1703 BC
[Apoll. 1.1.6] Enraged at this, Rhea repaired to Crete, when she was big
with Zeus, and brought him forth in a cave of Dicte. She gave him to the
Curetes and to the nymphs Adrastia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus, to
nurse.
[7] So these nymphs fed the child on the milk of Amalthea; and the Curetes
in arms guarded the babe in the cave, clashing their spears on their shields
in order that Cronus might not hear the child's voice. But Rhea wrapped a
stone in swaddling clothes and gave it to Cronus to swallow, as if it were
the newborn child.
1685 BC
[Apoll. 1.2.1] But when Zeus was full-grown, he took Metis, daughter of
Ocean, to help him, and she gave Cronus a drug to swallow, which forced him
to disgorge first the stone and then the children whom he had swallowed, and
with their aid Zeus waged the war against Cronus and the Titans. They fought
for ten years, and Earth prophesied victory to Zeus if he should have as
allies those who had been hurled down to Tartarus. So he slew their
jailoress Campe, and loosed their bonds. And the Cyclopes then gave Zeus
thunder and lightning and a thunderbolt, and on Pluto they bestowed a helmet
and on Poseidon a trident. Armed with these weapons the gods overcame the
Titans, shut them up in Tartarus, and appointed the Hundred-handers their
guards; but they themselves cast lots for the sovereignty, and to Zeus was
allotted the dominion of the sky, to Poseidon the dominion of the sea, and
to Pluto the dominion in Hades.
[2] Now to the Titans were born offspring: to Ocean and Tethys were born
Oceanids, to wit, Asia, Styx, Electra, Doris, Eurynome, Amphitrite, and
Metis; to Coeus and Phoebe were born Asteria and Latona; to Hyperion and
Thia were born Dawn, Sun, and Moon; to Crius and Eurybia, daughter of Sea
Pontus ), were born Astraeus, Pallas, and Perses;
[3] to Iapetus and Asia was born Atlas, who has the sky on his shoulders,
and Prometheus, and Epimetheus, and Menoetius, he whom Zeus in the battle
with the Titans smote with a thunderbolt and hurled down to Tartarus.
[4] And to Cronus and Philyra was born Chiron, a centaur of double form;
and to Dawn and Astraeus were born winds and stars; to Perses and Asteria
was born Hecate; and to Pallas and Styx were born Victory, Dominion,
Emulation, and Violence.
[5] But Zeus caused oaths to be sworn by the water of Styx, which flows
from a rock in Hades, bestowing this honor on her because she and her
children had fought on his side against the Titans.
[6] And to Sea ( Pontus ) and Earth were born Phorcus, Thaumas, Nereus,
Eurybia, and Ceto. Now to Thaumas and Electra were born Iris and the
Harpies, Aello and Ocypete; and to Phorcus and Ceto were born the Phorcides
and Gorgons, of whom we shall speak when we treat [the story] of Perseus.
[7] To Nereus and Doris were born the Nereids, whose names are Cymothoe,
Spio, Glauconome, Nausithoe, Halie, Erato, Sao, Amphitrite, Eunice, Thetis,
Eulimene, Agave, Eudore, Doto, Pherusa, Galatea, Actaea, Pontomedusa,
Hippothoe, Lysianassa, Cymo, Eione, Halimede, Plexaure, Eucrante, Proto,
Calypso, Panope, Cranto, Neomeris, Hipponoe, Ianira, Polynome, Autonoe,
Melite, Dione, Nesaea, Dero, Evagore, Psamathe, Eumolpe, Ione, Dynamene,
Ceto, and Limnoria.
1684 BC
[Paus 2.15.4] [Apoll. 2.1.1a] The oldest tradition in the region now called
Argolis is that when Inachus the son of Ocean and Tethys was king he named
the river after himself and sacrificed to Hera. He and Melia, daughter of
Ocean, had sons, Phoroneus, and Aegialeus.
[Paus 2.15.5] Another legend says that Phoroneus was the first inhabitant of
this land, and that Inachus, the father of Phoroneus, was not a man but the
river. This river, with the rivers Cephisus and Asterion, judged concerning
the land between Poseidon and Hera. They decided that the land belonged to
Hera, and so Poseidon made their waters disappear. For this reason neither
Inachus nor either of the other rivers I have mentioned provides any water
except after rain. In summer their streams are dry except those at Lerna.
1675 BC
[Apoll. 1.3.1] Now Zeus wedded Hera and begat Hebe, Ilithyia, and Ares, but
he had intercourse with many women, both mortals and immortals. By Themis,
daughter of Sky, he had daughters, the Seasons, to wit, Peace, Order, and
Justice; also the Fates, to wit, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropus; by Dione he
had Aphrodite; by Eurynome, daughter of Ocean, he had the Graces, to wit,
Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia; by Styx he had Persephone; and by Memory
Mnemosyne ) he had the Muses, first Calliope, then Clio, Melpomene,
Euterpe, Erato, Terpsichore, Urania, Thalia, and Polymnia.
[4] Euterpe had by the river Strymon a son Rhesus, whom Diomedes slew at
Troy; but some say his mother was Calliope. Thalia had by Apollo the
Corybantes; and Melpomene had by Achelous the Sirens, of whom we shall speak
in treating of Odysseus.
[Apoll. 1.3.5] Hera gave birth to Hephaestus without intercourse with the
other sex, but according to Homer he was one of her children by Zeus. ...
[6] Zeus had intercourse with Metis, who turned into many shapes in order to
avoid his embraces. When she was with child, Zeus, taking time by the
forelock, swallowed her, because Earth said that, after giving birth to the
maiden who was then in her womb, Metis would bear a son who should be the
lord of heaven. From fear of that Zeus swallowed her. And when the time came
for the birth to take place, Prometheus or, as others say, Hephaestus, smote
the head of Zeus with an axe, and Athena, fully armed, leaped up from the
top of his head at the river Triton.
[Apoll. 1.4.1] Of the daughters of Coeus, Asteria in the likeness of a quail
flung herself into the sea in order to escape the amorous advances of Zeus,
and a city was formerly called after her Asteria, but afterwards it was
named Delos. But Leto for her intrigue with Zeus was hunted by Hera over the
whole earth, till she came to Delos and brought forth first Artemis, by the
help of whose midwifery she afterwards gave birth to Apollo.
[Apoll. 1.4.5] ... Poseidon wedded Amphitrite, daughter of Ocean, and there
were born to him Triton and Rhode, who was married to Helius.
1668 BC
[Apoll. 1.7.1] Prometheus moulded men out of water and earth and gave them
also fire, which, unknown to Zeus, he had hidden in a stalk of fennel. But
when Zeus learned of it, he ordered Hephaestus to nail his body to Mount
Caucasus, which is a Scythian mountain. On it Prometheus was nailed and kept
bound for many years. Every day an eagle swooped on him and devoured the
lobes of his liver, which grew by night. That was the penalty that
Prometheus paid for the theft of fire until Hercules afterwards released
him, as we shall show in dealing with Hercules.
[Paus 2.14.4] Aras, they say, was a contemporary of Prometheus, the son
of Iapetus, and three generations of men older than Pelasgus the son of
Arcas and those called at Athens aboriginals.
1667 BC
[Apoll. 2.1.3] Zeus seduced Io the daughter of Inachus while she held the
priesthood of Hera, but being detected by Hera he by a touch turned Io into
a white cow and swore that he had not known her; wherefore Hesiod remarks
that lover's oaths do not draw down the anger of the gods. But Hera
requested the cow from Zeus for herself and set Argus the All-seeing to
guard it. Pherecydes says that this Argus was a son of Arestor; but
Asclepiades says that he was a son of Inachus, and Cercops says that he was
a son of Argus and Ismene, daughter of Asopus; but Acusilaus says that he
was earth-born. He tethered her to the olive tree which was in the grove of
the Mycenaeans. But Zeus ordered Hermes to steal the cow, and as Hermes
could not do it secretly because Hierax had blabbed, he killed Argus by the
cast of a stone; whence he was called Argiphontes. Hera next sent a gadfly
to infest the cow, and the animal came first to what is called after her the
Ionian gulf. Then she journeyed through Illyria and having traversed Mount
Haemus she crossed what was then called the Thracian Straits but is now
called after her the Bosphorus. And having gone away to Scythia and the
Cimmerian land she wandered over great tracts of land and swam wide
stretches of sea both in Europe and Asia until at last she came to Egypt,
where she recovered her original form and gave birth to a son Epaphus beside
the river Nile. Him Hera besought the Curetes to make away with, and make
away with him they did. When Zeus learned of it, he slew the Curetes; but Io
set out in search of the child. She roamed all over Syria, because there it
was revealed to her that the wife of the king of Byblus was nursing her son;
and having found Epaphus she came to Egypt and was married to Telegonus, who
then reigned over the Egyptians. And she set up an image of Demeter, whom
the Egyptians called Isis, and Io likewise they called by the name of Isis.
The annalist Castor and many of the tragedians allege that Io was a daughter
of Inachus; and Hesiod and Acusilaus say that she was a daughter of Piren.
Others say Argus and Ismene, daughter of Asopus, had a son Iasus, who is
said to have been the father of Io.
1658 BC
[Paus. 7.1.1] [Apoll. 2.1.1b] [Paus 2.5.6] The land between Elis and
Sicyonia, reaching down to the eastern sea, is now called Achaia after the
inhabitants, but of old was called Aegialus and those who lived in it
Aegialians. According to the Sicyonians the name is derived from Aegialeus
the son of Inachus who was its first aboriginal inhabitant and was king
reigning in what is now Sicyonia; others say that it is from the land, the
greater part of which is coast ( aigialos ). Aegialeus founded the city
Aegialea on the plain. The citadel, was where is now the sanctuary of
Athena. They say Aegialeus begat Europs, Europs Telchis, and Telchis Apis.
Others say that Aegialeus died childless and that Europs was his succesor.
[Paus 2.15.5] [Apoll. 2.1.1b] Phoroneus, the son of Inachus, was the first
to gather together the inhabitants of the land afterwards named Peloponnese,
who up to that time had been scattered and living as isolated families. The
place into which they were first gathered was named the City of Phoroneus.
Phoroneus begat Apis and Niobe by a nymph Teledice.
1645 BC
[Apoll. 2.1.4a] Reigning over the Egyptians Epaphus married Memphis,
daughter of Nile, founded and named the city of Memphis after her, and begat
a daughter Libya, after whom the region of Libya was called.
1644 BC
[Apoll. 1.6.1] ... But Earth, vexed on account of the Titans, brought forth
the giants, whom she had by Ouranos. These were matchless in the bulk of
their bodies and invincible in their might; terrible of aspect did they
appear, with long locks drooping from their head and chin, and with the
scales of dragons for feet. They were born, as some say, in Phlegrae, but
according to others in Pallene. And they darted rocks and burning oaks at
the sky. Surpassing all the rest were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus, who was even
immortal so long as he fought in the land of his birth. He also drove away
the cows of the Sun from Erythia. Now the gods had an oracle that none of
the giants could perish at the hand of gods, but that with the help of a
mortal they would be made an end of. Learning of this, Earth sought for a
simple to prevent the giants from being destroyed even by a mortal. But Zeus
forbade the Dawn and the Moon and the Sun to shine, and then, before anybody
else could get it, he culled the simple himself, and by means of Athena
summoned Hercules to his help. Hercules first shot Alcyoneus with an arrow,
but when the giant fell on the ground he somewhat revived. However, at
Athena's advice Hercules dragged him outside Pallene, and so the giant died.
[2] But in the battle Porphyrion attacked Hercules and Hera. Nevertheless
Zeus inspired him with lust for Hera, and when he tore her robes and would
have forced her, she called for help, and Zeus smote him with a thunderbolt,
and Hercules shot him dead with an arrow. As for the other giants, Ephialtes
was shot by Apollo with an arrow in his left eye and by Hercules in his
right; Eurytus was killed by Dionysus with a thyrsus, and Clytius by Hecate
with torches, and Mimas by Hephaestus with missiles of red-hot metal.
Enceladus fled, but Athena threw on him in his flight the island of Sicily ;
and she flayed Pallas and used his skin to shield her own body in the fight.
Polybotes was chased through the sea by Poseidon and came to Cos; and
Poseidon, breaking off that piece of the island which is called Nisyrum,
threw it on him. And Hermes, wearing the helmet of Hades, slew Hippolytus in
the fight, and Artemis slew Gration. And the Fates, fighting with brazer
clubs, killed Agrius and Thoas. The other giants Zeus smote and destroyed
with thunderbolts and all of them Hercules shot with arrows as they were
dying.
1628 BC
[Apoll. 1.6.1] When the gods had overcome the giants, Earth, still more
enraged, had intercourse with Tartarus and brought forth Typhon in Cilicia,
a hybrid between man and beast. In size and strength he surpassed all the
offspring of Earth. As far as the thighs he was of human shape and of such
prodigious bulk that he out-topped all the mountains, and his head often
brushed the stars. One of his hands reached out to the west and the other to
the east, and from them projected a hundred dragons' heads. From the thighs
downward he had huge coils of vipers, which when drawn out, reached to his
very head and emitted a loud hissing. His body was all winged :unkempt hair
streamed on the wind from his head and cheeks; and fire flashed from his
eyes. Such and so great was Typhon when, hurling kindled rocks, he made for
the very heaven with hissings and shouts, spouting a great jet of fire from
his mouth. But when the gods saw him rushing at heaven, they made for Egypt
in flight, and being pursued they changed their forms into those of animals.
However Zeus pelted Typhon at a distance with thunderbolts, and at close
quarters struck him down with an adamantine sickle, and as he fled pursued
him closely as far as Mount Casius, which overhangs Syria. There, seeing the
monster sore wounded, he grappled with him. But Typhon twined about him and
gripped him in his coils, and wresting the sickle from him severed the
sinews of his hands and feet, and lifting him on his shoulders carried him
through the sea to Cilicia and deposited him on arrival in the Corycian
cave. Likewise he put away the sinews there also, hidden in a bearskin, and
he set to guard them the she-dragon Delphyne, who was a half-bestial maiden.
But Hermes and Aegipan stole the sinews and fitted them unobserved to Zeus.
And having recovered his strength Zeus suddenly from heaven, riding in a
chariot of winged horses, pelted Typhon with thunderbolts and pursued him to
the mountain called Nysa, where the Fates beguiled the fugitive; for he
tasted of the ephemeral fruits in the persuasion that he would be
strengthened thereby. So being again pursued he came to Thrace, and in
fighting at Mount Haemus he heaved whole mountains. But when these recoiled
on him through the force of the thunderbolt, a stream of blood gushed out on
the mountain, and they say that from that circumstance the mountain was
called Haemus. And when he started to flee through the Sicilian sea, Zeus
cast Mount Etna in Sicily upon him. That is a huge mountain, from which down
to this day they say that blasts of fire issue from the thunderbolts that
were thrown. So much for that subject.
[Apoll. 1.7.2] Prometheus had a son Deucalion. He reigning in the regions
about Phthia, married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, the
first woman fashioned by the gods. And when Zeus would destroy the men of
the Bronze Age, Deucalion by the advice of Prometheus constructed a chest,
and having stored it with provisions he embarked in it with Pyrrha. But Zeus
by pouring heavy rain from heaven flooded the greater part of Greece, so
that all men were destroyed, except a few who fled to the high mountains in
the neighborhood. It was then that the mountains in Thessaly parted, and
that all the world outside the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. But
Deucalion, floating in the chest over the sea for nine days and as many
nights, drifted to Parnassus, and there, when the rain ceased, he landed and
sacrificed to Zeus, the god of Escape. And Zeus sent Hermes to him and
allowed him to choose what he would, and he chose to get men. And at the
bidding of Zeus he took up stones and threw them over his head, and the
stones which Deucalion threw became men, and the stones which Pyrrha threw
became women. Hence people were called metaphorically people ( laos ) from
laas, " a stone. "
[Paus 2.5.7] [Apoll. 2.1.1c] Apis the son of Phoroneus reached such a height
of power before Pelops came to Olympia that all the territory south of the
Isthmus was called after him Apia. Apis converted his power into a tyranny;
but being a stern tyrant he was conspired against and slain by Thelxion and
Telchis. He left no child, and being deemed a god was called Sarapis. But
Niobe had by Zeus (and she was the first mortal woman with whom Zeus
cohabited ) a son Argus, and also, so says Acusilaus, a son Pelasgus, after
whom the inhabitants of the Peloponnese were called Pelasgians. However,
Hesiod says that Pelasgus was a son of the soil.
1610 BC
[Hdts. 1.94.1] The Lydians have very nearly the same customs as the Greeks,
with the exception that these last do not bring up their girls in the same
way. So far as we have any knowledge, they were the first nation to
introduce the use of gold and silver coin, and the first who sold goods by
retail. They claim also the invention of all the games which are common to
them with the Greeks. These they declare that they invented about the time
when they colonised Tyrrhenia, an event of which they give the following
account. In the days of Atys, the son of Manes, there was great scarcity
through the whole land of Lydia. For some time the Lydians bore the
affliction patiently, but finding that it did not pass away, they set to
work to devise remedies for the evil. Various expedients were discovered by
various persons; dice, and huckle-bones, and ball, and all such games were
invented, except tables, the invention of which they do not claim as theirs.
The plan adopted against the famine was to engage in games one day so
entirely as not to feel any craving for food, and the next day to eat and
abstain from games. In this way they passed eighteen years. Still the
affliction continued and even became more grievous. So the king determined
to divide the nation in half, and to make the two portions draw lots, the
one to stay, the other to leave the land. He would continue to reign over
those whose lot it should be to remain behind; the emigrants should have his
son Tyrrhenus for their leader. The lot was cast, and they who had to
emigrate went down to Smyrna, and built themselves ships, in which, after
they had put on board all needful stores, they sailed away in search of new
homes and better sustenance. After sailing past many countries they came to
Umbria, where they built cities for themselves, and fixed their residence.
Their former name of Lydians they laid aside, and called themselves after
the name of the king's son, who led the colony, Tyrrhenians.
1607 BC
[Paus. 2.16.1] [Apoll. 2.1.2] [Apoll. 2.1.2d] Argus, the grandson of
Phoroneus, succeeding to the throne [not long] after Phoroneus, gave his
name to the land (of the Peloponnese). Having married Evadne, daughter of
Strymon and Neaera, he begat Ecbasus, Pira[nta]s or Peirasus, Epidaurus, and
Criasus, who succeeded to the kingdom. Argus also begat Phorbas who reigned
after Criasus. He also avenged the murder of Apis by putting the guilty to
death.
1596 BC
[Apoll. 2.1.4b] Libya had by Poseidon twin sons, Agenor and Belus. Agenor
departed to Phoenicia and reigned there, and there he became the ancestor of
the great stock; hence we shall defer our account of him. But Belus remained
in Egypt, reigned over the country, and married Anchinoe, daughter of Nile,
by whom he had twin sons, Egyptus and Danaus, but according to Euripides, he
had also Cepheus and Phineus.
PHOENICIA
=========
1825 BC Misor, Suduc
[Philo.] 'From Misor was born Taautus, who invented the first written
alphabet; the Egyptians called him Thoyth, the Alexandrians Thoth, and the
Greeks Hermes.
'From Suduc came the Dioscuri, or Cabeiri, or Corybantes, or Samothraces:
these, he says, first invented a ship. From them have sprung others, who
discovered herbs, and the healing of venomous bites, and charms.
1775 BC Taautus, Dioscuri, or Cabeiri, or Corybantes, or Samothraces
In their time is born a certain Elioun called "the Most High," and a female
named Beruth, and these dwelt in the neighbourhood of Byblos.
1758 BC Elioun "the Most High", Beruth
'And from them is born Epigeius or Autochthon, whom they afterwards called
Uranus; so that from him they named the element above us Uranus because of
the excellence of its beauty. And he has a sister born of the aforesaid
parents, who was called Ge (earth), and from her, he says, because of her
beauty, they called the earth by the same name.
1740 BC Epigeius or Autochthon or Uranus, Ge
And their father, the Most High, died in an encounter with wild beasts, and
was deified, and his children offered to him libations and sacrifices.
1733 BC
'And Uranus, having succeeded to his father's rule, takes to himself in
marriage his sister Ge, and gets by her four sons, Elus who is also Kronos,
and Baetylus, and Dagon who is Siton, and Atlas. Also by other wives Uranus
begat a numerous progeny; on which account Ge was angry, and from jealousy
began to reproach Uranus, so that they even separated from each other.
'But Uranus, after he had left her, used to come upon her with violence,
whenever he chose, and consort with her, and go away again; he used to try
also to destroy his children by her; but Ge repelled him many times, having
gathered to herself allies.
1715 BC Elus or Kronos, Baetylus, Dagon who is Siton, Atlas, Hermes
Trismegistus
And when Kronos had advanced to manhood, he, with the counsel and help of
Hermes Trismegistus (who was his secretary), repels his father Uranus, and
avenges his mother.
'To Kronos are born children, Persephone and Athena. The former died a
virgin: but by the advice of Athena and Hermes Kronos made a sickle and a
spear of iron. Then Hermes talked magical words to the allies of Kronos, and
inspired them with a desire of fighting against Uranus on behalf of Ge. And
thus Kronos engaged in war, and drove Uranus from his government, and
succeeded to the kingdom.
Also there was taken in the battle the beloved concubine of Uranus, being
great with child, whom Kronos gave in marriage to Dagon. And in his house
she gave birth to the child begotten of Uranus, which she named Demarus.
'After this Kronos builds a wall round his own dwelling, and founds the
first city, Byblos in Phoenicia.
1710 BC Descendants of the Dioscuri
'Soon after this he became suspicious of his own brother Atlas, and, with
the advice of Hermes, threw him into a deep pit and buried him. At about
this time the descendants of the Dioscuri put together rafts and ships, and
made voyages; and, being cast ashore near Mount Cassius, consecrated a
temple there. And the allies of Elus, who is Kronos, were surnamed Eloim, as
these same, who were surnamed after Kronos, would have been called Kronii.
1701 BC Sadidus, Astarte, Ehea, Dione, Eimarmene and Hora
'And Kronos, having a son Sadidus, dispatched him with his own sword,
because he regarded him with suspicion, and deprived him of life, thus
becoming the murderer of his son. In like manner he cut off the head of a
daughter of his own; so that all the gods were dismayed at the disposition
of Kronos.
'But as time went on Uranus, being in banishment, secretly sends his maiden
daughter Astarte with two others her sisters, Ehea and Dione, to slay Kronos
by craft. But Kronos caught them, and though they were his sisters, made
them his wedded wives. And when Uranus knew it, he sent Eimarmene and Hora
with other allies on an expedition against Kronos. and these Kronos won over
to his side and kept with him.
'Further, he says, the god Uranus devised the Baetylia, having contrived to
put life into stones. And to Kronos there were born of Astarte seven
daughters, Titanides or Artemides: and again to the same there were born of
Rhea seven sons, of whom the youngest was deified at his birth; and of Dione
females, and of Astarte again two males, Desire and Love. And Dagon, after
he discovered corn and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrios.
'And one of the Titanides united to Suduc, who is named the Just, gives
birth to Asclepius.
'In Peraea also there were born to Kronos three sons, Kronos of the same
name with his father, and Zeus Belus, and Apollo.
In their time are born Pontus, and Typhon,
1697 BC Demarus, Pontus
'To Kronos are born children, Persephone and Athena. The former died a
virgin:
And to Demarus is born Melcathrus, who is also called Hercules.
'And from Pontus is born Sidon (who from the exceeding sweetness of her
voice was the first to invent musical song) and Poseidon.
1683 BC Titanides or Artemides, Desire, Love, Asclepius, Suduc, Kronos, Zeus
Belus, Apollo, Adodus, Muth or Thanatos or Pluto
'Then again Uranus makes war against Pontus, and after revolting attaches
himself to Demarus, and Demarus attacks Pontus, but Pontus puts him to
flight; and Demarus vowed an offering if he should escape.
but by the advice of Athena and Hermes Kronos made a sickle and a spear of
iron.
'And in the thirty-second year of his power and kingdom Elus, that is
Kronos, having waylaid his father Uranus in an inland spot, and got him into
his hands, emasculates him near some fountains and rivers. There Uranus was
deified: and as he breathed his last, the blood from his wounds dropped into
the fountains and into the waters of the rivers, and the spot is pointed out
to this day.'
This, then, is the story of Kronos, and such are the glories of the mode of
life, so vaunted among the Greeks, of men in the days of Kronos, whom they
also affirm to have been the first and 'golden race of articulate speaking
men,' that blessed happiness of the olden time!
Again, the historian adds to this, after other matters:
'But Astarte, the greatest goddess, and Zeus Demarus, and Adodus king of
gods, reigned over the country with the consent of Kronos. And Astarte set
the head of a bull upon her own head as a mark of royalty; and in travelling
round the world she found a star that had fallen from the sky, which she
took up and consecrated in the holy island Tyre. And the Phoenicians say
that Astarte is Aphrodite.
1680 BC Melcathrus Hercules
1673 BC Athena, Sidon, Poseidon
The same author, in his History of the Jews, further writes thus concerning
Kronos:
'Kronos also, in going round the world, gives the kingdom of Attica to his
own daughter Athena. But on the occurrence of a pestilence and mortality
Kronos offers his only begotten son as a whole burnt-offering to his father
Uranus, and circumcises himself, compelling his allies also to do the same.
And not long after another of his sons by Rhea, named Muth, having died, he
deifies him, and the Phoenicians call him Thanatos and Pluto.
And after this Kronos gives the city Byblos to the goddess Baaltis, who is
also called Dione, and Berytus to Poseidon and to the Cabeiri and Agrotae
and Halieis, who also consecrated the remains of Pontus at Berytus.
'But before this the god Tauthus imitated the features of the gods who were
his companions, Kronos, and Dagon, and the rest, and gave form to the sacred
characters of the letters. He also devised for Kronos as insignia of royalty
four eyes in front and behind . . . but two of them quietly closed, and upon
his shoulders four wings, two as spread for flying, and two as folded.
'And the symbol meant that Kronos could see when asleep, and sleep while
waking: and similarly in the case of the wings, that he flew while at rest,
and was at rest when flying. But to each of the other gods he gave two wings
upon the shoulders, as meaning that they accompanied Kronos in his flight.
And to Kronos himself again he gave two wings upon his head, one
representing the all-ruling mind, and one sensation.
1665 BC Nereus
and Nereus father of Pontus and son of Belus.
1658 BC Tauthus, Cabeiri
'And when Kronos came into the South country he gave all Egypt to the god
Tauthus, that it might be his royal dwelling-place. And these things, he
says, were recorded first by Suduc's seven sons the Cabeiri, and their
eighth brother Asclepius, as the god Tauthus commanded them.
And soon after he says:
'It was a custom of the ancients in great crises of danger for the rulers of
a city or nation, in order to avert the common ruin, to give up the most
beloved of their children for sacrifice as a ransom to the avenging daemons;
and those who were thus given up were sacrificed with mystic rites. Kronos
then, whom the Phoenicians call Elus, who was king of the country and
subsequently, after his decease, was deified as the star Saturn, had by a
nymph of the country named Anobret an only begotten son, whom they on this
account called ledud, the only begotten being still so called among the
Phoenicians; and when very great dangers from war had beset the country, he
arrayed his son in royal apparel, and prepared an altar, and sacrificed
him.'
1628 BC Iedud, Pontus, Typhon
In their time are born Pontus, and Typhon,
1596 BC Poseidon, Sidon
'And from Pontus is born Sidon (who from the exceeding sweetness of her
voice was the first to invent musical song) and Poseidon.
1437 BC Eisirius or Celix, Chna or Phoenix, Cadmus
'All these stories Thabion, who was the very first hierophant of all the
Phoenicians from the beginning, allegorized and mixed up with the physical
and cosmical phenomena, and delivered to the prophets who celebrated the
orgies and inaugurated the mysteries: and they, purposing to increase their
vain pretensions from every source, handed them on to their successors and
to their foreign visitors: one of these was Eisirius the inventor of the
three letters, brother of Chna the first who had his name changed to
Phoenix.'
Then again afterwards he adds:
'But the Greeks, surpassing all in genius, appropriated most of the earliest
stories, and then variously decked them out with ornaments of tragic phrase,
and adorned them in every way, with the purpose of charming by the pleasant
fables. Hence Hesiod and the celebrated Cyclic poets framed theogonies of
their own, and battles of the giants, and battles of Titans, and
castrations; and with these fables, as they travelled about, they conquered
and drove out the truth.
'But our ears having grown up in familiarity with their fictions, and being
for long ages pre-occupied, guard as a trust the mythology which they
received, just as I said at the beginning; and this mythology, being aided
by time, has made its hold difficult for us to escape from, so that the
truth is thought to be nonsense, and the spurious narrative truth.'
Let these suffice as quotations from the writings of Sanchuniathon,
translated by Philo of Byblos, and approved as true by the testimony of
Porphyry the philosopher.
c.1300 BC Sourmoubelos, Thuro Eusarthis
'Tauthus, whom the Egyptians call Thoyth, excelled in wisdom among the
Phoenicians, and was the first to rescue the worship of the gods from the
ignorance of the vulgar, and arrange it in the order of intelligent
experience. Many generations after him a god Sourmoubelos and Thuro, whose
name was changed to Eusarthis, brought to light the theology of Tauthus
which had been hidden and overshadowed, by allegories.'
Such then is the character of the theology of the Phoenicians, from which
the word of salvation in the gospel teaches us to flee with averted eyes,
and earnestly to seek the remedy for this madness of the ancients. It must
be manifest that these are not fables and poets' fictions containing some
theory concealed in hidden meanings, but true testimonies, as they would
themselves say, of wise and ancient theologians, containing things of
earlier date than all poets and historians, and deriving the credibility of
their statements from the names and history of the gods still prevailing in
the cities and villages of Phoenicia, and from the mysteries celebrated
among each people: so that it is no longer necessary to search out violent
physical explanations of these things, since the evidence which the facts
bring with them of themselves is quite clear. Such then is the theology of
the Phoenicia
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