They had also a banquetand a dole. (c) Grandfather (Asclepius).] Asclepius in greeke is Esculapius: to this Asclepius, Augustine makes the Phisition Aesculapius grand-father, which o•…•… •…•…lly his 〈◊〉〈◊〉. desculapii this was, I know not: one of them (they say) was thunderstrucke, and buried at Cynosura in Achaia, Another neare the riuer Lusius in Arcadia, the third was the second Mercuries brother, sonne to Ualens and Pheronis, and him the Arcadians haue in much honor. Tacitus saith Osiris was called Aesculapius: it may be this. It is liker that Hermes spea∣keth of him, then any other. (f) Mount Libia.] It runnes along from the lowest part of Egypt vn•…•… 〈◊〉〈◊〉. Ptolomy takes it for many mountaines, & calles it the Libian coast. (g) Crocodile] A serpent that laies eges, foure-footed, growing to seauenteene cubites lenght, or more: hee moueth his vpper chappe, and so doth no creature liuing besides him: deuoureth man and beast, and liues part in the water and part on the dry. land. Herodot. Arist, & Plin. Senec. saith that it feareth one couragious, and insulteth ouer one that feares it. The Crocodile citty is in the heart of Egipt neare to the Libian Mountaine not farre from Ptolemais, in the end of the sixt Paralel of the third climat. The Egiptians saith Porphyry worshipped a Crocodile, because he was con∣secrated to the Sunne as the Ram, the Buzzard and the blacke beetle. (h) Hermes.] Cicero rec∣kneth fiue of them, two the Egyptians worrshipped: the first Nilus his sonne, whome it was sa∣•…•…dgeto name: second hee that killed Argus, was Egypts king, taught them letters and lawes, him they call Theut, after their first moneth. Euseb. lib. 1. saith that the Phaenician theolo∣gians held Trismegistus to be Saturnes secretary, Caelus his sonnes, and that hee vsed his helpe in defending his mother, giuing him at his going into the South, all Egypt. Dionisius saith he was counsellor to Isis and Osiris: and Osiris going forth to warre, left him at home to di∣rect his wife Isis: that hee was of singular prudence, and taught the world much knowledge in artes and sciences. This (I thinke) was graund-father to this Hermes that wrot thus: and that hee was called Theut, the Daemon (as Plato saith in his Phaed.) that inuented Mathemati∣ques, letters, and dice, and taught them to •…•…hamus King of Egypt afterward called Hammon. (f) T•…•…e of his surmane.] Hermopolis, a great city in Epipt, A marke (saith Ptolomy) to those that trauell from the West of Nile vnto our sea: beyond Crocadilopolis. in the seauenth Para∣lell the therd climate. (k) For the first.] For hee is but held a semigod, diefied for his merits, as Hercules, Bacchus, and Romulus, were, Theodoretus saith that in Homers time he was held no God: for hee maketh Paeon cure Mars, not Aesculapius, And speaking of Machaon, he calles him the Sonne of Aesculapius an absolute Phisitian, (l) Second, many.] He is one of the perpe∣tuall Gods counsellours (m). This is one.] The famous Mercury was sonne to Ioue and Ma∣ia, Atlas his Grand-child, for there were two other as I said, Egyptians, and two more, one the Sonne of Calus and Dies, the other, of Ualens and Phoronis: the first they picture with Erec∣ted priuities for hauing beheld Proserpina: the later, the Laebadians worshippe in a caue, and cal him Trophonius. (n) Trismegistus,] As the French say trespuissant, and we, thrice mighty. But the latter wrot not Trismegistus, but his grand-father did: yet both were called Hermes Trisme∣gistus. The first, Theut, was a great king, a great Priest &, a Philosopher. Thus it pleaseth some to describe his greatnesse. (o) Isis.] Isis & Osiris do much good (saith Hermes his booke.) (p) In both their natures.] Hermes had it without nature: extra naturam. (q) Adored.] The Egyptians had in∣numerable things to their gods. Garlike and Onions, by which they swore as Pliny saith: and many creatures, after whome they named their citties, Crocodilopol•…•…s, Lycopolis, Leontopolls, and L•…•…polis. vpon the crocodyle, the wolfe, the lion and the place-fish: So Apis first instituting the adoration of the Oxe, was adored himselfe in an oxes shape, Mercury in a dogs, Isis in a cowes, Diodorus write•…•…h that their leaders wore such crests on their helmets, Anubis a dog, Alexander the great a wolfe. &c. whence the reuerence of those creatures first arose, and there∣vpon those Princes being dead, they ordained them diuine worships in those shapes. This is that which Mercury saith, their soules were adored that in their liues had ordayned honor to those creatures, as indeed the Princes wearing them on their helmes and sheelds, made them venerable, and respected: and the simple people thought that much of their victories came from them, and so set them vp as deities.