emselves; and
gave out that he was a native of Argos. He travelled to the temple of
[790]Ammon; and from thence traversed the whole extent of Africa. He
subdued the [791]Gorgons, who lived in Mauritania, and at Tartessus in
Boetica; and defeated the Ethiopians upon the western ocean, and the
nations about mount _Atlas_: which [792]mountain he only and Hercules are
said to have passed. Being arrived at the extremity of the continent, he
found means to pass over, and to get possession of all the western islands.
He warred in the East; where he freed [793]Andromeda, the daughter of
Cepheus king of the eastern Ethiopia, who was exposed to a sea-monster.
Some imagine this to have happened at [794]Joppa in Palestine, where the
[795]bones of this monster of an extraordinary size are supposed to have
been for a long time preserved. He is said to have built [796]Tarsus in
Cilicia, reputed the most antient city in the world; and to have planted
the peach tree at [797]Memphis. The Persians were supposed to have been his
descendants. He travelled through Asia Minor, to the country of the
[798]Hyperboreans upon the Ister, and the lake Maeotis; and from thence
descended to Greece. Here he built Mycene, and Tiryns, said by many to have
been the work of the Cyclopians. He established a seminary at Helicon: and
was the founder of those families, which were styled Dorian, and Herculean.
It is a doubt among writers, whether he came into Italy. Some of his family
were there; who defeated the giant race in Campania, and who afterwards
built Argiletum, and Ardea in Latium. Virgil supposes it to have been
effected by Danae, the mother of this Hero:

[799]Ardea ---- quam dicitur olim
Acrisioneis Danaee fundasse colonis.

But [800]Servius says, that Perseus himself in his childhood was driven to
the coast of Daunia. He is represented as the ancestor of the Grecian
Hercules, supposed to have been born at Thebes in Boeotia. In reality
neither [801]Hercules, nor Perseus, was of Grecian original;
notwithstanding the genealogies framed in that country. The history of the
latter came apparently from Egypt, as we may learn from Diodorus[802]:
[Greek: Phasi de kai ton Persea gegonenai kat' Aigupton.] Herodotus more
truly represents him as an [803]Assyrian; by which is meant a Babylonian:
and agreeably to this he is said to have married [804]Asterie, the daughter
of Belus, the same as Astaroth and Astarte of Canaan; by whom he had a
daughter Hecate