numerous army into Ethiopia, which he rendered tributary, and penetrated near to the straits of Babelmandel. As he now perceived that he could not carry on his great designs without a navy, he fitted out two fleets, notwithstanding the aversions of the Egyptians to maritime occupations, one in the Mediterranean, and the other in the Red Sea. By means of the former he reduced the countries of Phoenicia, Cyprus, and several of the Cyclades, and with the latter he sailed into the Indian gulf, and made himself master of its coasts. Then, pursuing his conquests by land, he is represented as having overrun all Asia, and even as having crossed the Ganges. On his return, he invaded the country of the Scythians and Thracians, in which, however, he lost a great part of his army. It is commonly thought that he left an Egyptian colony at Colchis, but Thrace was his farthest progress westward. On his arrival at Pelusiam, after an absence of nine years, laden with spoils, and attended with a vast number of captives, he was received by his brother Armais with pretended joy and submission, though he had formed a plot against him. For this traitorous attempt he expelled Armais from Egypt, and then, disbanding his army, he sat down to the improvement of his country. He erected magnificent temples in all the cities of Egypt, in the building of which none but his captives were employed. He raised obelisks, with inscriptions recording his conquests and revenues. He built a wall of great length, on the eastern boundary of Egypt, to protect it from the incursions of the Arabians, and he dug a number of canals, branching from the Nile in all directions, for the purpose both of commerce and navigation. He is said, in the height of his pride, to have harnessed tributary kings to his chariots, till one of them, pointing out to him the rotation of the wheels, by which each part was successively at top and bottom, brought him to reflection. Becoming blind in his advanced years, he finished his course by a voluntary death.

BUSIRIS, of Egypt, infamous for his cruelties, exercised his tyranny at this time on the banks of the Nile; and barbarously cut the throats of all foreigners, who landed in his country; this was probably during the absence of Sesostris.

PHERON, of Egypt, succeeded Sesostris in his kingdom, but not in his glory. Herodotus relates but one action of his, which shows how greatly he had degenerated from the religious sentiments of his ancestors. In an extraordinary inundation of the Nile, which exceeded eighteen cubits, this prince enraged at the wild havock which was made by it, threw a javelin at the river, as though he intended thereby to chastise its insolence; but was himself immediately punished for his impiety, if the historian may be credited, with the loss of sight.

DANAUS, who reigned conjointly with his brother Ægyptus on the throne of Egypt. Some time after, a difference arose

between the brothers, and Danaus set sail with his fifty daughters in quest of a settlement. He visited Rhodes, where he consecrated a statue to Minerva, and arrived safe on the coast of Peloponnesus, where he was hospitably received by Gelanor, king of Argos. Gelanor had lately ascended the throne, and the first years of his reign were marked with dissensions with his subjects. Danaus took advantage of Gelanor's unpopularity, and obliged him to abdicate the crown. The success of Danaus, invited the fifty sons of Ægyptus to embark for Greece. They were kindly received by their uncle, who either apprehensive of the number, or terrified by an oracle, which threatened his ruin by one of his sons-in-law, caused his daughters, to whom they were promised in marriage, to murder them the first night of their nuptials. His fatal orders were executed, but Hypermnestra alone spared the life of Lynceus. Danaus at first persecuted Lynceus with unremitted fury, but he was afterwards reconciled to him, and he acknowledged him for his son-in-law, and successor, after a reign of 50 years. He died about B. C. 1425 and after death he was honoured with a splendid monument in the town of Argos, which still existed in the age of Pausanius. According to Eschylus, Danaus left Egypt, resolving not to be present at the marriage of his daughters, with the sons of his brother, a connection which he deemed unlawful and impious. The ship in which Danaus came to Greece, was called Armais, and was the first that had ever appeared there. It is said that the use of pumps was first introduced into Greece by Danaus.

NITOCRIS, a celebrated queen of Babylon, who built a bridge across the Euphrates, in the middle of that city, and dug a number of reservoirs for the superfluous waters of that river. She ordered herself to be buried over one of the gates of the city, and had an inscription on her tomb, which signified that her successors would find great treasures within, if ever they were in need of money; but that their labours would be but ill repaid if ever they ventured to open it without necessity. Cyrus opened it through curiosity, and was struck to find within it these words: If thy avarice had not been insatiable, thou never wouldst have violated the monuments of the dead.

PANDION I., a king of Athens, son of Ericthon and Pasithea, who succeeded his father; became father of Procne and Philomela, Erectheus and Butes. During his reign, there was such an abundance of corn, wine and oil, that it was publicly reported that Bacchus and Minerva had personally visited Attica. He waged a successful war against Labdacus, king of Boeotia, and gave his daughter Procne in marriage to Tereus, king of Thrace, who had assisted him. The treatment which Philomela received from her brother-in-law, Te

reus, was the source of much grief to Pandion, and he died through excess of sorrow, after a reign of forty years.

ERECTHEUS, son of Pandion I., was the sixth king of Athens. He was father of Cecrops II., Metion, Pandorus, and four daughters, Creusa, Orithya, Procris, and Othonia, by Praxithea.

CECROPS II., was the seventh king of Athens, and the son and successor of Erectheus. He married Metiadusa a daughter of Eupalemus, by whom he had Pandion. reigned 40 years.

He

PYLAS, a king of Megara, who having accidentally killed his uncle Bius, resigned his kingdom to his son-in-law Pandion. PANDION II., son of Cecrops II., by Metiadusa, who succeeded his father on the throne of Athens. He was driven from his paternal dominions, and fled to Pylas, king of Megara, who gave him his daughter Pelia in marriage, and resigned his crown to him. Pandion became the father of four children, called from him Pandionidæ, Ægeus, Pallas, Nisus, and Lycus. The eldest of these children recovered his father's kingdom.

ÆGEUS, king of Athens, son of Pandion, being desirous of having children, he went to consult the oracle, and in his return, stopped at the court of Pittheus, king of Trozene, who gave him his daughter Athra in marriage. He left her pregnant, and told her, that if she had a son, to send him to Athens as soon as he could lift a stone under which he had concealed his sword. By this sword he was to be known to Ægeus, who did not wish to make any public discovery of a son, for fear of his nephews, the Pallantides, who expected his crown. Æthra became the mother of Theseus, whom she accordingly sent to Athens with his father's sword. When Theseus came to Athens, an attempt was made to poison him; but he escaped, and upon showing geus the sword he wore, discovered himself to be his son. When Theseus returned from Crete, after the death of the Minotaur, he forgot, agreeable to the engagement made with his father, to hoist up white sails as a signal of his success; and Ægeus, at the sight of black sails, concluding that his son was dead, threw himself from a high rock into the sea; which from him, as some suppose, has been called the Ægean. Egeus reigned 48 years, and died B. C. 1235.

ABAS, the eleventh king of Argos, was famous for his genius and valour. He was father to Protus and Acrisius, and built Abæ. He reigned 23 years.

MINOS I., king of Crete. He gave laws to his subjects, which remained in force in the age of the philosopher Plato. His justice and moderation procured him the titles of the favourite of the gods, the confident of Jupiter, and the wise le

gislator in every city of Greece; and, according to the poets, he was rewarded for his equity after death, with the office of supreme judge of the infernal regions. In this character he is represented sitting in the shades and holding a sceptre in his hand. The dead plead their causes before him; and the impartial judge shakes the fatal urn, which is filled with the destinies of mankind. He married Ithona, by whom he had Lycastes, the father of Minos II.

LABDACUS, king of Thebes. He was father to Laius. LAIUS, son of Labdacus, king of Thebes, married Jocasta, by whom he had Edipus; but understanding by the oracle he should be killed by his own son, he delivered the babe to a shepherd to destroy it, who bound the infant's legs with a twisted twig, and hanging him on a tree, left him there to perish; but Phorbus, shepherd to Polybus, king of Corinth, found him, and presented him to the king, who brought him up, and Edipus fulfilled the oracle.

JOCASTA, daughter of Creon, king of Thebes, and wife of Laius, was mother to Edipus, whom she afterwards ignorantly married, and had by him Polynices and Eteocles, who having killed one another in a battle for the succession, Jocasta destroyed herself for grief.

POLYBUS, king of Corinth, who preserved Edipus when he was exposed, educated him at his court, and owned him for his son.

CEDIPUS, the unfortunate king of Thebes, whose history is partly fabulous, flourished about 1266 B. C. He was given by his father to a shepherd, who was ordered to put him to death, to prevent misfortunes with which he was threatened by an oracle. But the shepherd unwilling to kill him with his own hands, tied him by the feet to a tree, that he might be devoured by wild beasts. The infant was however found in this situation by another shepherd named Phorbas, who carried him to Polybus king of Corinth, where the queen having no children, educated him with as much care as if he had been her own son. When he was grown he was informed that he was not the son of Polybus, on which, by order of the oracle, he went to seek for his father in Phocis; but scarce was he arrived in that country, when he met his father on the road, and killed him without knowing him. A short time after, having delivered the country from the monster called the Sphinx, he married Jocasta, without knowing that she was his mother, and had four children by her, but afterwards being informed of his incest, he quitted the throne, and, thinking himself unworthy of the light, put out his eyes. Eteocles and Polynices, who were celebrated amongst the Greeks, were born of this incestuous marriage.

ANTIGONE, the daughter of Edipus, king of Thebes,

who led her father, when blind and banished. She was slain by the usurper Creon, whose son Hæmon, being in love with her, killed himself upon her tomb. Her death was avenged upon Creon by Theseus.

MINOS II. the grandson of Minos I. and king of Crete. He increased his dominions by the conquest of the neighbouring islands, but showed himself cruel in the war against the Athenians, who had put to death his son Androgeus. He took Megara by the treachery of Scylla; and obliged the vanquished to send annually to Crete, seven chosen boys and seven virgins to be devoured by the Minotaur*. This bloody tribute was abolished when Theseus destroyed the monster. Minos was slain by Cocalus, king of Sicily, about 35 years before the Trojan war.

ANDROGEUS, son of Minos, king of Crete, was murdered by the Athenians for his success at the Attic games.

LITERATURE.

CADMUS, king of Thebes, the son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and the brother of Phoenix, Cilix, and Europa. Cadmus was the first who introduced the use of letters into Greece; but some maintain, that the alphabet which he brought from Phoenicia, was only different from that which was used by the ancient inhabitants of Greece. This alphabet consisted of only 16 letters, to which Palamedes afterwards added four, and Simonides of Melos, the same number. By some, the invention of letters is attributed to Cadmus, as in the following lines:

The worship of many of the Egyptian and Phoenician deities was also introduced by Cadmus, who is supposed to have come into Greece 1493 years before the Christian æra, and to have died 61 years after.

POLYDORUS, a king of Thebes, the son of Cadmus and Hermione, who married Nycteis, by whom he had Labdacus the father of Laius and grandfather of Edipus.

* A celebrated monster.