tian_ original: and the _Egyptians_, according to
_Diodorus_, [189] usually represented, that after their _Saturn_ and
_Rhea_, Reigned _Jupiter_ and _Juno_, the parents of _Osiris_ and _Isis_,
the parents of _Orus_ and _Bubaste_.

By all this it may be understood, that as the _Egyptians_ who Deified their
Kings, began their monarchy with the Reign of their Gods and Heroes,
reckoning _Menes_ the first man who reigned after their Gods; so the
_Cretans_ had the Ages of their Gods and Heroes, calling the first four
Ages of their Deified Kings and Princes, the Golden, Silver, Brazen, and
Iron Ages. _Hesiod_ [190] describing these four Ages of the Gods and
Demi-Gods of _Greece_, represents them to be four Generations of men, each
of which ended when the men then living grew old and dropt into the grave,
and tells us that the fourth ended with the wars of _Thebes_ and _Troy_:
and so many Generations there were, from the coming of the _Phoenicians_
and _Curetes_ with _Cadmus_ and _Europa_ into _Greece_ unto the destruction
of _Troy_. _Apollonius Rhodius_ saith that when the _Argonauts_ came to
_Crete_, they slew _Talus_ a brazen man, who remained of those that were of
the Brazen Age, and guarded that pass: _Talus_ was reputed [191] the son of
_Minos_, and therefore the sons of _Minos_ lived in the Brazen Age, and
_Minos_ Reigned in the Silver Age: it was the Silver Age of the _Greeks_ in
which they began to plow and sow Corn, and _Ceres_, that taught them to do
it, flourished in the Reign of _Celeus_ and _Erechtheus_ and _Minos_.
Mythologists tell us that the last woman with whom _Jupiter_ lay, was
_Alcmena_; and thereby they seem to put an end to the Reign of _Jupiter_
among mortals, that is to the Silver Age, when _Alcmena_ was with child of
_Hercules_; who therefore was born about the eighth or tenth year of
_Rehoboam's_ Reign, and was about 34 years old at the time of the
_Argonautic_ expedition. _Chiron_ was begot by _Saturn_ of _Philyra_ in the
Golden Age, when _Jupiter_ was a child in the _Cretan_ cave, as above; and
this was in the Reign of _Asterius_ King of _Crete_: and therefore
_Asterius_ Reigned in _Crete_ in the Golden Age; and the Silver Age began
when _Chiron_ was a child: if _Chiron_ was born about the 35th year of
_David_'s Reign, he will be born in the Reign of _Asterius_, when _Jupiter_
was a child in the _Cretan_ cave, and be about 88 years old in the time of
the _Argonautic_ expedition, when he invented the