ples and Priests and sacred Rites to themselves, caused the
nations to worship them after death as Gods: and that the Island _Gadir_ or
_Gades_, with all _Libya_, fell to the lot of him who after death was
Deified by the name of _Neptune_. The time therefore when these things were
done is by _Solon_ limited to the age of _Neptune_, the father of _Atlas_;
for _Homer_ tells us, that _Ulysses_ presently after the _Trojan_ war found
_Calypso_ the daughter of _Atlas_ in the _Ogygian_ Island, perhaps _Gadir_;
and therefore it was but two Generations before the _Trojan_ war. This is
that _Neptune_, who with _Apollo_ or _Orus_ fortified _Troy_ with a wall,
in the Reign of _Laomedon_ the father of _Priamus_, and left many natural
children in _Greece_, some of which were _Argonauts_, and others were
contemporary to the _Argonauts_; and therefore he flourished but one
Generation before the _Argonautic_ expedition, and by consequence about 400
years before _Solon_ went into _Egypt_: but the Priests of _Egypt_ in those
400 years had magnified the stories and antiquity of their Gods so
exceedingly, as to make them nine thousand years older than _Solon_, and
the Island _Atlantis_ bigger than all _Afric_ and _Asia_ together, and full
of people; and because in the days of _Solon_ this great Island did not
appear, they pretended that it was sunk into the sea with all its people:
thus great was the vanity of the Priests of _Egypt_ in magnifying their
antiquities.

The _Cretans_ [310] affirmed that _Neptune was the man who set out a fleet,
having obtained this Praefecture of _his father_ Saturn; whence posterity
reckoned things done in the sea to be under his government, and mariners
honoured him with sacrifices_: the invention of tall Ships with sails [311]
is also ascribed to him. He was first worshipped in _Africa_, as
_Herodotus_ [312] affirms, and therefore Reigned over that province: for
his eldest son _Atlas_, who succeeded him, was not only Lord of the Island
_Atlantis_, but also Reigned over a great part of _Afric_, giving his name
to the people called _Atlantii_, and to the mountain _Atlas_, and the
_Atlantic Ocean_. The [313] outmost parts of the earth and promontories,
and whatever bordered upon the sea and was washed by it, the _Egyptians_
called _Neptys_; and on the coasts of _Marmorica_ and _Cyrene_, _Bochart_
and _Arius Montanus_ place the _Naphthuhim_, a people sprung from
_Mizraim_, _Gen._ x. 13; and thence _Neptune_ and hi