CHAP. Xn. NO MEN DESCENDED FROM GODS. 1^9 



on this subject;" and Plato tells us that " when 

 Solon inquu'ed of the priests of Egypt about ancient 

 affairs, he perceived that neither he nor any one of 

 the Greeks (as he himself declared) had any know- 

 ledge of very remote antiquity." "• And as soon 

 as he began to discourse about the most ancient 

 events which happened among the Greeks, as the 

 traditions concerning the first Phoroneus and Niobe, 

 and the deluge of Deucalion and Pyrrha*, one of 

 the more ancient priests exclaimed, ' Solon, Solon, 

 you Greeks are always children, nor is there such 

 a thing as an aged Grecian among you : all your 

 souls are juvenile ; neither containing any ancient 

 opinion derived from remote tradition, nor any dis- 

 cipline hoary from its existence in former periods 

 of time.' "t 



Justly did the priests deride the ridiculous vanity 

 and ignorance of the Greeks, in deriving their 

 origin from Gods ; and they assured Herodotus t, 

 that dining the long period which elapsed from the 

 commencement of the Egyptian monarchy, to the 

 reign ofSethos, (comprising 341 generations,) "no 

 Deity had appeared on earth, in a human form, 

 nor even before, nor since that time ; " and when 

 *' Hecatgeus," says the historian, " boasted of his 

 genealogy to the priests of Jupiter at Thebes, 

 claiming for his family the honour of being de- 

 scended from a God, whom he reckoned as his 



* Tlie priests said to Solon, " You mention one deluge on!y, whereas 

 many liii|)i)enctl." Plat, in Tim. p. 46G. trans. Ta\lor. 

 f Plat, in Tim. p. 467. 

 ± Ilcrodot. ii. 142. 



