The history of the world

§. IIII. Of the instauration of ciuilitie in Europe about these times, and of PROMETHEVS and ATLAS.

THere liued at this time, and in the same age together with Moses, ma∣ny men exceeding famous, aswell in bodily strength, as in all sorts of learning. And as the World was but euen now enriched with the written Law of the liuing God, so did Art and Ciuilitie (bred and fo∣stered [unspec 50] farre off in the East, and in Aegypt) beginne at this time to dis∣couer a passage into Europe, and into those parts of Greece, neighbouring Asia and Iu∣daea. For if Pelasgus besides his bodily strength, was chosen King of Arcadia, because he taught those people to erect them simple Cottages, to defend them from raine

and storme: and learned them withall to make a kinde of Meale, and bread of Acornes, who before liued for the most part, by Hearbs and Rootes: we may there∣by iudge how poore, and wretched those times were, and how falsly those Nations haue vaunted of that their antiquities accompanied not onely with ciuill learning, but with all other kinds of knowledge, And it was in this age of the World, as both Eusebius and S. Augustine haue obserued, that 〈◊〉〈◊〉 flourished: Quem propterea ferunt de luto formasse homines, quia optimus sapientiae Doctor fuisse perhibetur; Of whom it is reported that he formed men out of clay, because he was an excellent teacher of Wisedome: and so Theophrastus expoundeth the inuention of fire ascribed to PROMETHEVS, Adinuenta sapientiae pertinere; To haue reference to wise inuentions: and Aeschylus affir∣meth, [unspec 10] That by the stealing of Iupiters fire was meant, that the knowledge of Prome∣theus reached to the Starres, and other celestiall bodies. Againe, it is written of him, that hee had the art so to vse this fire, as thereby hee gaue life to Images of Wood, Stone, and Clay: meaning that before his birth and being, those people among whom hee liued had nothing else worthy of men, but externall forme and figure. By that fiction of Prometheus, being bound on the top of the Hill Caucasus, his entrailes the while deuoured by an Eagle, was meant the inward care and rest∣lesse desire hee had to inuestigate the Natures, Motions, and Influences of Heauenly bodies, for so it is sayde: Ideò altissimum ascendisse Caucasum, vt 〈◊〉〈◊〉 coelo quàm longissimè astra, signorum obitus & ortus spectaret; That hee ascended Cau∣casus, [unspec 20] to the end that hee might in a cleere skie discerne a farre off the settings and ri∣sings of the Starres: though Diodorus Siculus expound it otherwise, and others diuersly.

Of this mans knowledge AESCHYLVS giues this testimonie.

Ast agebant omnia Vt fors ferebat: donec ipse repperi [unspec 30] Signorum obitus, ortus{que} qui mortalibus Sunt vtiles: & multitudinem artium His repperi: componere inde liter as; Matrem{que} Musarum auxi ego Memoriam Perutilem cunctis, &c.

But Fortune gouern'd all their works, till when I first found out how Starres did set and rise: A profitable art to mortall men: And others of like vse I did deuise: [unspec 40] As letters to compose in learned wise I first did teach: and first did amplifie The Mother of the Muses Memorie.

Africanus makes Prometheus farre more ancient, and but 94. yeeres after Ogyges. Porphyrius sayes that hee liued at once with 〈◊〉〈◊〉, who liued with Isaac.

There liued also at once with Moses, that famous Atlas, brother to Prometheus, both being the Sonnes of Iapetus, of whom though it bee saide, that they were borne before Moses dayes, and therefore are by others esteemed of a more an∣cient [unspec 50] date: yet the aduantage of their long liues gaue them a part of other ages among Men, which came into the World long after them. Besides these Sonnes of Iapetus, Aeschylus findes two other, to wit, Oceanus, and Hespe∣rus, who being famous in the West, gaue name to the Euening, and so to the

euening Starre. Also besides this Atlas of 〈◊〉〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉〈◊〉, there were others, which bare the same name: but of the Libyan, and the brother of Prometheus, it was that those Mountaines which crosse Africa, to the South of Marocco, Sus, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉, with the Sea adioyning tooke name, which memorie Plato in 〈◊〉〈◊〉 〈◊〉〈◊〉 on Atlas, the Sonne of Neptune.

〈◊〉〈◊〉 in the fifth of his Tusculan questions, affirmeth that all things written of Prometheus and Atlas, were but by those names to expresse diume knowledge. Nec verò ATLAS sustinere coelum, nec PROMETHEVS as fixus Caucaso, nec stellatus CE∣PHEVS cum Vxore traderetur, nisi diuina cognitio nomen 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ad er rorem fabulae tra∣duxisset; Neither should ATLAS bee said to beare vp heauen, nor PROMETHEVS to [unspec 10] be 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to Caucasus, nor CEPHEVS with his Wife to bee 〈◊〉〈◊〉; vnlesse their diuine knowledge had raised vpon then names these erroneous fables.

Orpheus sometime exprest Time by Prometheus, sometime hee tooke him for Sa∣turne; as Rheae coniux alme Prometheu. But that the storie of Prometheus was not altogether a fiction: and that he liued about this time, the most approued Historians and Antiquaries, and among them Eusebius and S. Augustine haue not doubted, For the great iudgement which Atlas had in Astronomie, saith S. Augustine, were his Daughters called by the names of constellations, Pleiades and 〈◊〉〈◊〉: Others attri∣bute vnto him the finding out of the Moones course, of which Archas the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 of Orchomenus challengeth the inuention. Of this 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉 in Peloponnesus tooke [unspec 20] name, and therefore did the Arcadians vaunt that they were more ancient than the Moone. Et Luna gens prior illa fuit: which is to bee vnderstood, saith 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Comes, before there had beene any obseruation of the Moones course: or of her working in inferiour bodies. And though there bee that bestow the finding out there of vpon Endymion: others (as Xenagor as) on Typhon: yet Isacius Tzetzes, a curious searcher of antiquities, gaue it Atlas of 〈◊〉〈◊〉: who besides his gifts of minde, was a man of vn∣equalled and incomparable strength: from whom Thales the Milesian, as it is saide, had the ground of his Philosophie. [unspec 30]

Notes

• Aug. l. 18. c. 8. de Ciuit. Dei.
• 〈◊〉〈◊〉. in Prom. vinct. In c. 8. lib. 18. de Ciuit. Dei.
• L. Viue sex Hes.
• 〈◊〉〈◊〉. in. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. vinct.
• Aug. lib. 〈◊〉〈◊〉. c. 3. 〈◊◊〉〈◊◊〉. Dei.
• Lib. 18. cap. 8. de Ciuit. Dei.
• 〈◊〉〈◊〉. de fast. l. 1.