254 History of Nature. [ BOOK VII. 



and Amphion sung with it, or, according to some, Linus. 

 Terpander adapted Songs to the Lute. Dardanus, the Tro3- 

 zenian, began first vocal Music to the Flute. 1 The Curetes 

 taught to dance in Armour ; and Pyrrhus the Pyrrhic Dance ; 

 and both these were first practised in Crete. The Heroic 

 Verse we owe to the Oracle of Pythius (Apollo}. About the 

 Original of Poems there is a great Question. They are 

 proved to have existed before the Trojan War. Pherecydes 

 of Syros, in the Days of King Cyrus, invented the Writing 

 in Prose. Cadmus the Milesian founded History. Lycaon 

 appointed the first public Games of Strength in Arcadia ; 

 Acastus in lolcum, the first solemn Games at Funerals ; and 

 after him Theseus, in the Isthmus. Hercules instituted the 

 Athletic Exercises at Olympia : and Pythus those of Play at 

 Ball. Gyges the Lydian first practised Painting in Egypt; 

 but in Greece, Euchir, a Relative of Dcedalus, as Aristotle 

 supposeth ; and according to Theophrastus, it was Polygnotus 

 the Athenian. Danaus was the first that sailed with a Ship, 

 and so he passed the Sea from Egypt to Greece ; for before 

 that time they used Rafts, which were invented by King 

 Erythra, to cross from one Island to another in the Red Sea. 

 But we meet with some Writers who suppose that the Tro- 

 jans and Mysians were the first that devised Navigation be- 

 fore them in the Hellespont, when they passed over-against 

 the Thracians. And even at this Day in the British Ocean, 

 there are made W T icker Boats covered with Leather, and 

 stitched round about ; in the Nile, of Papyrus, Cane-reed, 

 and Rushes. Philostephanus witnesseth, that Jason first used 

 in Navigation the long Ship ; but Egesias saith, that it was 

 Paralus. Ctesias attributeth it to Samyras ; Saphanus, to 

 Semiramis ; and Archimackus, to JEgeon. Damastes testi- 

 fieth, that the Erythraeans first made the Bireme (or Galley 

 with two Ranks of Oars) : Thucydides, that Aminocles the 

 Corinthian built the first Trireme (with three Rows of Oars) : 

 Aristotle saith, that the Carthaginians were the first that set 

 to Sea the Quadrireme (with four Ranks of Oars): and 



1 Tibia. Wern. Club. 



