Asterisms; and this is
within the reach of nature. The Golden Age therefore falls in with the
Reign of _Asterius_, and the Silver Age with that of _Minos_; and to make
these Ages much longer than ordinary generations, is to make _Chiron_ live
much longer than according to the course of nature. This fable of the four
Ages seems to have been made by the _Curetes_ in the fourth Age, in memory
of the first four Ages of their coming into _Europe_, as into a new world;
and in honour of their country-woman _Europa_, and her husband _Asterius_
the _Saturn_ of the _Latines_, and of her son _Minos_ the _Cretan Jupiter_
and grandson _Deucalion_, who Reigned 'till the _Argonautic_ expedition,
and is sometimes reckoned among the _Argonauts_, and of their great
grandson _Idomeneus_ who warred at _Troy_. _Hesiod_ tells us that he
himself lived in the fifth Age, the Age next after the taking of _Troy_,
and therefore he flourished within thirty or thirty five years after it:
and _Homer_ was of about the same Age; for he [192] lived sometime with
_Mentor_ in _Ithaca_, and there learnt of him many things concerning
_Ulysses_, with whom _Mentor_ had been personally acquainted: now
_Herodotus_, the oldest Historian of the _Greeks_ now extant, [193] tells
us that _Hesiod_ and _Homer_ were not above four hundred years older than
himself, and therefore they flourished within 110 or 120 years after the
death of _Solomon_; and according to my reckoning the taking of _Troy_ was
but one Generation earlier.

Mythologists tell us, that _Niobe_ the daughter of _Phoroneus_ was the
first woman with whom _Jupiter_ lay, and that of her he begat _Argus_, who
succeeded _Phoroneus_ in the Kingdom of _Argos_, and gave his name to that
city; and therefore _Argus_ was born in the beginning of the Silver Age:
unless you had rather say that by _Jupiter_ they might here mean
_Asterius_; for the _Phoenicians_ gave the name of _Jupiter_ to every King,
from the time of their first coming into _Greece_ with _Cadmus_ and
_Europa_, until the invasion of _Greece_ by _Sesostris_, and the birth of
_Hercules_, and particularly to the fathers of _Minos_, _Pelops_,
_Lacedaemon_, _AEacus_, and _Perseus_.

The four first Ages succeeded the flood of _Deucalion_; and some tell us
that _Deucalion_ was the son of _Prometheus_, the son of _Japetus_, and
brother of _Atlas_: but this was another _Deucalion_; for _Japetus_ the
father of _Prometheus_, _Epimetheus,_ and _Atlas_, was an