When they shall fad Triennial Games ordain And difmal story of Opheltes flain. } H. H. Others are of Opinion, that thefe Games were inftituted by Hercules after his Victory over the Nemean Lion (a), in Honour of Jupiter, who, as Paufanias tells us, had a magnificent Temple at Nemea, where he was honour'd with folemn Games, in which Men ran Races in Armour; but perhaps thefe might be diftinct from the Solemnity I am now Speaking of. Laftly, others grant indeed, they were firft inftituted in memory of Archemorus, but will have them to have been intermitted and reviv'd by Hercules, and confecrated to Jupiter. The Victors were crown'd with Parfly; which was an Herb us'd at Funerals, and feign'd to have sprung out of Archemorus's Blood: Concerning it Plutarch relates a remarkable Story (b), with which it will not be improper to conclude this Chapter; "As Timoleon (faith he) "was marching up an Afcent, from the Top of which they might take a view of the Army and Strength of the Carthaginians, there met "him by chance a Company of Mules loaden with Parfly, which his "Soldiers conceived to be an ill-boding Omen, because this is the very et c Herb wherewith we adorn the Sepulchres of the Dead, which Custom gave Birth to that defpairing Proverb, when we pronounce of one "that is dangerously fick, that he does fedal íve, i. e. want no "thing but Parfly, which is in effect to fay, he is a dead Man, juft dropping into the Grave: Now, that Timoleon might eafe their "Minds, and free them from thofe fuperftitious Thoughts, and fuch "a fearful Expectation, he put a stop to his March, and, having al"ledg'd many other things in a Difcourfe fuitable to the Occafion, he "concluded it by faying, that a Garland of Triumph had luckily faln «into their Hands of its own accord, as an anticipation of Victory, inafmuch as the Corinthians do crown thofe that get the better in "their Ifthmian Games with Chaplets of Parfly, accounting it a facred Wreath, and proper to their Country; for Parfly was ever the con"quering Ornament of the Ifthmian Sports, as it is now alfo of the "Nemean; it is not very long fince Branches of the Pine-tree came "to fucceed, and to be made ufe of for that purpose: Timoleon there"fore, having thus befpoke his Soldiers, took part of the Parfly, wherewith he first made himself a Chaplet, and then his Captains "with their Companies did all crown themselves with it in imitation "of their General." (a) Pindari Schol. (b) Timoleonte. С НА Р. E THE CHA P. XXV. Of the Ifthmian Games. HE Ifthmian Games were fo call'd from the Place where they were celebrated, viz. the Corinthian Ifthmus, a neck of Land by which Peloponnefus is join'd to the Continent: They were inftituted in Honour of Palamon, or Melicertes, the Son of Athamus King of Thebes, and Ino, who for fear of her Husband (who had killed her other Son Learchus in a Fit of madness) caft herself with Melicertes in her Arms, into the Sea, where they were receiv'd by Neptune into the number of the Divinities of his Train, out of a compliment to Bacchus nurs'd by Ino. At the change of their Condition, they alter'd their Names; Ino was call'd Leucothea, and her Son Palamon; however Pale mon's Divinity could not preferve his Body from being tofs'd about the Sea, till at length it was taken up by a Dolphin, and carried to the Corinthian Shore, where it was found by Sifyphus, at that time King of Corinth, who gave it an honourable Interment, and inftituted thefe Funeral Games to his Memory; thus Paufanias (a). Others report, that Melicertes's Body was caft upon the Ifthmus, and lay there fome time unburied; whereupon a grievous Peftilence began to rage in those Parts, and the Oracles gave out, that the only Remedy for it was to inter the Body with the ufual Solemnities, and celebrate Games in memory of the Body: Upon the performance of thefe Commands the Diftemper ceas'd; but afterwards when the Games were neglected, broke out again, and the Oracles being confulted, gave Anfwer, that they muft pay perpetual Honours to Melicertes's Memory, which they did accordingly, erecting an Altar to him, and enacting a Law for the perpetual celebration of these Games. Others report that they were inftituted by Thefeus in Honour of Neptune; others are of Opinion, that there were two distinct Solemnities obferv'd in the Ifthmus, one to Melicertes, and another to Neptune which Report is grounded upon the Authority of Mufaus, who wrote a Treatife about the Ifthmian Games. Phavorinus reports, that thefe Games were first instituted in Honour of Neptune, and afterwards celebrated in Memory of Palamon. Plutarch on the contrary tells us, that the first Institution of them was in Honour of Melicertes, but afterwards they were alter'd, enlarg'd, and re-inftituted to Neptune by The feus: He gives alfo feveral other Opinions concerning the Original of them: His Words are thefe in the Life of Thefeus; " Thefeus infti"tuted Games in Emulation of Hercules, being ambitious, that as the "Greeks, by that Hero's Appointment, celebrated the Olympian Games, "to the Honour of Jupiter, fo by his Inftitution they fhould celebrate the Ifthmian Games to the Honour of Neptune; for thofe that "were before, dedicated to Melicertes, were celebrated privately in the (a) Initio Corinthiac. Gg 4 "Nigh Night, and confifted rather of religious Ceremonies, than of any open Spectacle, or publick Festival. But fome there are, who say that "the Ifthmian Games were first inftituted in memory of Sciron, at the "Expiation which Thefeus made for his Murder upon the Account of "the nearness of Kindred between them, Sciron being the Son of "Canethus and Heniocha, the Daughter of Pittheus; tho others write "that Sinnis, and not Sciron, was their Son, and that to his Honour, "and not to Sciron's, thefe Games were ordain'd by Thefeus. Hella«nicus and Andro of Halicarnaffus write, that at the fame time he "made an Agreement with the Corinthians, that they should allow "them that came from Athens to the celebration of the Ifthmian Games, as much Space to behold the Spectacle in, as the Sail of the Ship that "brought them thither ftretched to its full extent could cover, and that "in the firft and moft honourable Place:" Thus Plutarch. The Eleans were the only Nation of Greece, that abfented themselves from this Solemnity, which they did for this Reafon. Paufanias (a) relates, the Corinthians having appointed the Ifthmian Games, the Sons of Actor came to the celebration of them, but were furpriz'd and flain by Hercules, near the City Cleona: The Author of the Murder was at the first unknown, but being at length difcover'd by the industry of Molione the Wife of Actor, the Eleans went to Argos and demanded Satisfaction, because Hercules at that time dwelt at Tiry ns, a Village in the Argian Territories. Being repuls'd at Argos, they apply'd themselves to the Corinthians, defiring of them that all the Inhabitants and Subjects of Argos might be forbidden the Ifthmian Games, as disturbers of the publick Peace; but meeting with no better Succefs in this Place, than they had done at Argos, Molione forbad them to go to the Ifthmian Games, and denounced a dreadful Execration against any of the Eleans that fhould ever be prefent at the Celebration of them; which Command was fo religiously obferv'd, that none of the Eleans dare venture to go to the Ifthmian Games to this Day, (faith my Author) for fear Molione's Curfes fhould fall heavy upon them. Thefe Games (b) were obferv'd every third, or rather every fifth Year, and held fo facred and inviolable, that when they had been intermitted for fome time, thro' the Oppreffion and Tyranny of Cypfelas, King of Corinth; after the Tyrant's Death the Corinthians, to renew the Memory of them. which was almoft decay'd, employ'd the utmoft Power and Industry they were able in reviving them, and celebrated them with fuch Splendor and Magnificence as was never prac tis'd in former Ages. When Corinth was fack'd and totally demolish'd by Mummius the Roman General, thefe Games were not difcontinu'd, but the care of them was committed to the Sicyonians till the rebuilding of Corinth, and then restored to the Inhabitants of that City, as Paufanias reports (c). The Victors were rewarded with Garlands of Pine-leaves; afterwards Parfly was given them, which was also the Reward of the Ne (a) Eliac. a. (b) Alex, ab Alexandro Gen. Dier, lib. V. cap. VIII. (c) Inizio Corinthiac mean 457 mean Conquerors, but with this difference, that there it was frefh and green, whereas in the Ifthmian Games it was dry and wither'd, Afterwards the ufe of Parfly was left off, and the Pine-tree came again into requeft, which Alterations Plutarch has accounted for in the Fifth Book of his Sympofiacks (*). T CHA P. XXVI. Of the Greek Year. HE Writers of antient Fables report, that Overos, whom the Latins call Cœlus, King of the Atlantick Islands, was reputed the Father of all the Gods, and gave his Name to the Heavens, which from him were by the Greeks term'd segvòs, and by the Latins, Cœlum, becaufe he invented Aftrology, which was unknown till his Time (a). Others afcribe the Invention both of Aftrology, and the whole 60s aparends, Science of the Celestial Bodies, to Atlas: From him these dif. coveries were communicated to Hercules, who firft imparted them to the Greeks. Whence the Authors of Fables took occafion to report, that both these Heroes fupported the Heavens with their Shoulders (b). The Cretans pretended that Hyperion first observ'd the Motions of the Sun, Moon, and Stars (c). He was Son to the primitive God Uranus, and from his Knowledge of the Celestial Motions, is fometimes taken by the Poets and other fabulous Authors for the Father of the Sun, fometimes for the Sun himself. The Arcadians reported that their Countryman Endymion first discover'd the Motion of the Moon (d): which gave occafion to thofe early Ages to feign, that he was belov'd by that Goddefs. Lastly, others reported that Actis, by fome call'd Acteus, who flourish'd in the Ifle of Rhodes about the time of Cecrops King of Athens, invented the Science of Aftrology, which he communicated to the Egyptians (e). But to pafs from fabulous to more authentick Hiftories, the first improvement and study of Aftronomy is generally afcrib'd to the Grecian Colonies, which inhabited Afia. And it is thought to have been first learnt from the Babylonians or Egyptians, and communicated to the Grecians either by Thales of Miletus, Pythagoras of Samos, Anaximander of Miletus, Anaximenes the Scholar and fellow Citizen of Anaximander, Cleoftratus of Tenedus, Oenopidas of Chios, or Anaxagoras of Clazomena, the Mafter of Pericles, who was the firft that taught the Ionick Philofophy at Athens, where he open'd his School in the fame Year that Xerxes invaded Greece. Every one of these seems to (*) Quæft. III. (a) Diodorus Siculus lib. III. p. (b) Diodorus Siculus lib. III. pag. 135. lib. IV. Strom. I. p. 306. Plinius lib. VII. cap. LVI. (d) Lucianus in comment, de Aftrologia, (e) Diodorus Siculus lib. V. pag. 247. 231. 132. & Scriptores Mythologici. pag. 163. Clemens Alexandrinus (c) Diodorus Siculus lib. V. pag. Apollonii Scholiaftes in lib. IV. have cultivated and improved this Science, and on that account by dif ferent Men to have been reputed the Inventor, or first Master of it in Greece (a). Before the time of these Philofophers, it is certain that the Greeks were entirely ignorant of the Motions of the Heavenly Bodies; infomuch that Thales first observ'd a folar Eclipfe in the fourth Year of the Forty-eighth Olympiad. A long time after that, in the Fourth Year of the Ninetieth Olympiad, an Eclipfe of the Moon prov'd fatal to Nicias the Athenian General, and the Army under his Command, chiefly because the reafon of it was not understood (6). And Herodotus feems to have been wholly unacquainted with this part of Learning; whence he describes the Solar Eclipfes after the Poetical manner, by the Disappearance of the Sun, and his leaving his accuftom'd Seat in the Heaven (c), never mentioning the Moon's Interpofition. From the forementioned Inftances it appears, that the Greeks had no knowledge of Aftronomy, and by confequence no certain measure of Time, till they began to converfe with the Babylonians, Egyptians, Perfians, or other Eastern Nations. For tho it be eafy from the re turns of the feveral Seasons of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, to discover that a Year is already paft; yet to determine the exact number of Days, wherein these Viciffitudes happen, and again, to divide them into Months, answering the Motion of the Moon, requires much Study and Obfervation. Hence in the Heroical Ages, the Years were numbred by the return of Seed-time and Harvest, and the feveral Seafons of labouring and refting. The Day it self was not then diftinguish'd into certain and equal Portions, but meafur'd T t í ἄλλως ἁπλέςερον κινήσει, rudely and unaccurately by the Accels and Re cefs of the Sun, as Euftathius has obferv'd, in his Comment upon those Verfes of Homer, wherein that Poet describes the time of a certain Battle ageeeably to the way of reckoning, which was us'd in the antient times (d). Οφρα μ' πὼς ἦν, καὶ αέξετο ἱερὸν ἦμαρ, Τόφρα μάλ' ἀμφοτέρων βέλε πλετο, είπε λαός τε Τάμνων δένδρεα μακρά, ἄδο τέ μεν ἵκετο θυμόν, Τῆμος σφῇ ἀρετῆ Δαναοὶ ῥήξαντο φάλαγγα. In another place (e) Achilles is introduced dividing the Day, not into Hours, which were the Invention of more polith'd Ages, but into the more obvious parts of Morning, Noon, and Afternoon : (a) Suidas. Diogenes Laertius in Vitis Philofophorum. Plinius lib. II. cap. LXXVI. (b) Plutarchus Nicia. XXXVII. lib. IX. cap. X. (d) Iliad. x'. (c) Lib. I. cap. LXXIV. lib. VII. cap. verf. 84. p. 765. (e) Iliad. q'. vers, |