government & mariners honoured him with sacrifices. The inventi-
on of tall ships with sails ^b 1 is also ascribed to him. He was first worship-
ped in Africa as Herodotus ^c 2 affirms, & 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 Atlantij & to the mountain Atlas & the
Atlantic ocean. The ^d 3 outmost parts of the earth & promontories & what-
ever bordered upon the sea & was washed by it, the Egyptians called
Neptys, & on the coasts of Marmorica & Cyrene Bochart & Arius
Montanus place the Naphthuhim a people sprung from Misraim, Gen. x.
13. And thence Neptune & his wife Neptys might have their names,
the words Neptune, Neptys, & Naphtuim signifying the King, Queen,
& people of the sea coasts. The Greeks tell us that Iapetus was
the father of Atlas, & Bochart derives Iapetus & Neptune from the
same original. He & his son Atlas are celebrated in the ancient fables
for making war upon the Gods of Egypt: as when Lucian ^e 4 saith that Corinth
being full of fables, tells the fight of Sol & Neptune, that is, of Apollo
& Python or Orus & Typhon; & where Agatharcides ^f 5 relates how the
Gods of Egypt fled from the Gyants till the Titans came in & saved them
by putting Neptune to flight: & where Hyginus ^g 6 tells the war between
the Gods of Ægypt & the Titans commanded by Atlas. The Titans
are the posterity of Titæa, some of whom under Hercules assisted
the Gods, others under Neptune & Atlas warred against them: for
which reason, saith Plutarch, ^h 7 the priests of Egypt abominated the
sea, & had Neptune in no honour. By Hercules I understand here
the General of the forces of Thebais & Ethiopia whom the Gods or
great men of Egypt called to their assistance against the Giants
or great men of Libya who had slain Osiris & invaded Egypt. For
Diodorus ⁱ 8 saith that when Osiris made his expedition over the world,
he left his kinsman Hercules general of his forces over all his domi-
nions & Antæus governor of Libya & Æth\i/opia. Antæus reigned over
all Afric to the Atlantic ocean & built Tingis or Tangieres. Pindar ^k 9 tells
us that he reigned at Irasa a town of Libya where Cyrene was afterwards
built. He invaded Egypt & Thebais: for he was beaten by Hercules &
the Egyptians near Antæa or Antæopolis a town of Thebais, & Diodo-
rus ^l 10 tells us that this town had its name from Antæus whom Hercules
slew in the days of Osiris. Hercules overthrew him several times, & every
time he grew stronger by recruits from Libya his mother earth. But
Hercules intercepted his recruits & at length slew him. In these warrs
Hercules took the Libyan world from Atlas, & made Atlas pay tribute
out of his golden [illeg] Orchard, the kingdom of Afric. Antæus & Atlas
were both of them sons of Neptune, both of them reigned over all
Libya & Afric between mount Atlas & the mediterranean to the very
Ocean, both of them invaded Egypt & contended with Hercules in the
wars of the Gods, & therefore they are but two names of one & the
same man. And even the name Atlas [illeg] in the oblique cases seems
to have been compounded of the name Antæeus & some other word
(perhaps the word Atal, cursed) put before it. The invasion of Ægypt
by Antæus, Ovid hath relation unto where he makes Hercules say –

This warr was at length composed by the intervention of Mercury, who
in memory thereof was said to reconcile two contending serpents by
casting his embassadors rod between them. And thus \much/ concerning the ~
ancient state of Egypt, Libya, & Greece described by Solon.

The mythology of the Cretans differed in some things from that