LETTER XV. more just accounts cannot now be obtained. Let us take a fair review of them as men desirous to ascertain only what is true, and therefore giving to each its due weight and estimation, and observing, likewise, what coincidences they display with the Hebrew history, amid those divergencies, which all traditions and popular narratives and foreign representations usually exhibit, wherever a solemn record has not been kept and faithfully transmitted. The Mosaic document is the only account which possesses this character.10 10 The vast quantity of the works of ancient writers on the history of the world which have perished since the Gothic abruptions of the Roman empire, is what very few persons have any idea of. A proportionate multitude of events narrated by them, and not in the few which have been preserved to us, has therefore passed into irretrievable oblivion. It is this loss which causes the Hebrew history to stand so insulated in its great facts, because they all took place so long before the existing histories were written. But this circumstance makes them more invaluable to us, for without them we should be in total darkness as to the real origin of things, and of all the first part of the authentic history of the world. A very long catalogue of the ancient histories which have disappeared, but which some of the classical authors have incidentally mentioned, might be made: but as a specimen only of the loss, I will notice a few which happen to be alluded to by Plutarch in only one of his works. ANCIENT HISTORIANS lost, mentioned by PLUTARCH: Dositheus, 3d Book of.-Plut. vol. i. p. 544. Aristides, Milesius, in 1 Zuɛλikov, ib.; 3 'Iσтopikov, p. 545. Agatharchides, Samius, in 2 Iερσкшv. Χρυσερμος, in 3 Πελοποννησιακων, 545. Aristides, Milesius, 3 'Iraλıxwv, 546; 40 '17. 547, 549. Tarq. Sup. 550. Manlius, 551. Tarp. Aristides, 1 Περσικων, 546. Kallisthenes, 2 Μεταμορφωσεων, 546. Trisimachus, 3 KriσEwv Found. 547. Κριτολας, 3 Επιροτικων. Alexarchus, 4 'Iraλikov, on Tullus Hostil. Kallisthenes, 3 Μακεδονικων, 548. Theotimus, 2'Iraλikov, on Horat. Cocles. Eratosthenes, Aretades, the Κνίδιος, in 3 Μακεδ. Ktesiphos, in 3 Βεοτικων, 549. Epaminondas killed his son for disobedience, tho victorious, 550. Nicias of Malea, 550. Theophilus, in 3 Ιταλικων, Roman. Clusium. Pythocles, 3 Ιταλικων, 550, Carthag. et Sicul. Meryllus, 3 Βοιωτιακών. Κλειτοφων, 1 Γαλατικων, 551, Brennus. Dymaratos, 2 Αρκαδικών. Aristides the Milesian, in Ιταλικ. in Horat. et Curat. 551. Rom. 552. ib. 3'Ir. 554. ib. Hannib. 5. 7. 61. ib. Dercyllus, 1 Κτίσεων. Socrates, 2 Θρακικων. Dositheus, 3 Σικελικων, ib. 3 Ιταλ. 1 'IT. 62. Parthenius, the Poet. Κλειτώνυμος, 2 Συβαρτικων. Theodosius, 3 Μεταμορφ. Iobas, 3 Λιβυκων, 554. Juba. Esianax, 3 Λιβυκων. Δωρόθεος, 1 Μεταμορφ. 555. Μενυλος, 3 Ιταλ. 555. Marius Cimb. 553. 9. 61. 'Αρητάδης Κνίδιος, 2 Νησιωτικών, 556. Insula. Σώστρατος, 2 Τυῤῥενικών. Χρύσιππος, 1 Ιταλικ. Rem. Aristotle, 2 Παραδόξων. Agesilaus, 3 Ιταλικ. Dositheus, 3 Λυδιακών, 557. Αγαθων Σαμιος, 561. Δερκυλλος, 3 Ιταλ. Alex. Polyphist., 3 'Iraλ. 502. Pythocles Samnius, 3 Γεωργικών. Aristocles, 3 'Iraλ. 503. Plut. in his Parallels, vol. i. pages as marked. LETTER XV. LETTER XVI. XVI. ANCIENT TRADITIONS OF THE DELUGE IN CHALDEA, ASSYRIA, LETTER THE most ancient account of the Deluge, except that of the Pentateuch, but much later, which has escaped the ravages of time, is the narrative which Berosus has inserted in his Chaldean Annals. He lived in the period of the Macedonian dynasties, but what he mentions, he declares that he compiled from the written documents kept at Babylon; so that it is their evidence we are reading when we peruse his statement. These described Chronos, one of their worshipped deities, as having appeared in a dream to the King Xisuthrus, to apprize him that mankind would be destroyed by a flood; and commanding him to build a naval vessel to contain his relations, the necessary food, and also birds and quadrupeds. The brief detail which the historian of Chaldea has thus preserved of this people's tradition, and public memorials of the event, comes nearest of any others to the Hebrew account; and being derived from an independent source, and coinciding with it in the most essential points of the Divine premonition and causation of the preservation of one family, and of the enjoined fabrication of a floating ark for that purpose, with the conservation of animals likewise, and even of birds sent out to ascertain the state of the coast this Chaldean record is an impressive testimony to the reality of the catastrophe, and of its LETTER moral causes.1 2 Abydenus was another ancient author, who, in his Median and Assyrian History, had notices of the same catastrophe, with some circumstances similar to the Chaldean account. We learn from Diodorus Siculus that the EGYPTIANS had likewise preserved a memory of it, and discussed their origin from the calamitous event, either as having been preserved from its general devastation, or as springing up afterwards anew from the teeming earth. All these allusions imply an universal Deluge. This account was part of the second book of the Annals of Berosus, from which Alexander Polyhistor extracted the passage quoted by Eusebius in his Greek Chronicle, p. 8, and by Syncellus, p. 28. Berosus also narrates, that this king built a vessel five stadia long by two broad, and entered it with his wife, children, and nearest friends. The flood came, and when it abated, Xisuthrus sent out some birds, which, not finding any food, returned. Some days after they again flew out, and came back with muddy feet. Put out a third time, they returned no more. Thinking from this that the ground had become cleared of the waters, Xisuthrus opened his vessel, and found it resting on a mountain, on which he descended. Ib. Josephus also cites Berosus to the same effect, in his first book against Appion. Apollodorus likewise more briefly quotes the Chaldean historian. Euseb. p. 5. Sync. Chron. p. 39. 2 Abydenus, as Eusebius quotes his writings on 'ra Mydika Ka1 Aroupia,' states that Chronos signified to Xisuthrus that there should be vast rains, πληθος ομβρων. He mentions the birds going out and returning, but the third time came back with mud on their claws. Prep. Ev. p. 414, and Chron. p. 13. Cyril also gives the passage in his first book against Julian. It is likewise in Syncellus, p. 44. " Mentioning the persuasion of the Egyptians that they were the first of mankind, this historian adds, They say, on the whole, that either in the flood, which occurred in the time of Deucalion, the greatest part of living things perished, but that it was likely that those who inhabited Egypt so much to the south, and so free from rain, were mostly preserved; or, as some declare, that all that were alive being destroyed, the earth again brought forth new natures of animals from their beginning.' Diod. Sic. l. i. p. 10. XVI. LETTER The destruction of the whole living world, in its primordial times, by a Deluge to which, as in Egypt, the name of Deucalion was attached, was the prevalent opinion in GREECE. From him and his wife Pyrrha the human race were stated to have been renewed. Individual writers occasionally arose who confined the incident to Greece; but this was not the popular or predominant impression. According to that, it was a general destruction of the existing mankind. The Greek mythologist, Apollodorus, details the tradition as it was usually accredited, and makes the third generation of men, or the Brazen Age, which preceded our Iron one, to have been that which so perished; tho, as Deucalion's antediluvian abode was in Greece, he only specifies the local effects there.* 1 Our former Letter mentioned that Hesiod inculcated that the second race of mankind had been removed by the Divine power from the earth on account of their wickedness. Neither account limits the destruction to Grecians only, but both apply it to the entire race of men then subsisting, called the Second or Silver Generation in the one, and the Brazen in When Jupiter determined to destroy the brazen race, Deucalion, by the advice of Prometheus, made a great ark, λapvara, put into it all necessary things, and entered it with Pyrrha. Jupiter then, pouring down heavy rains from heaven, overwhelmed the greatest part of Greece, so that all men perished except a few who fled to the highest mountains. He floated nine days and nights on the sea of waters, and at last stopped on Mount Parnassus. Then Jupiter sent Mercury to ask him what he wished, and he solicited that mankind might be made again. Jupiter bade him to throw stones over his head, from which men should come, and that those cast by Pyrrha should be turned into women.' Apoll. 1. i. p. 23. Tho Greece is only mentioned, being the country Deucalion was by Grecians supposed to be living in, the rest of the account refers to all the human race. |