were equal; the land was to be cultivated by slaves; and individual rights were merged in those of the community. Minos raised a powerful navy, and cleared the sea of pirates. The ancient mythology makes him and Rhadamanthus, also a native of Crete, judges in the Infernal Regions. The formation of this kingdom may be regarded as a rea, event; and the great similarity between its constitution and that of Judæa, may have arisen from the common intercourse of the respective people with Egypt, the source of most of the earlier civilisation of Europe. Both have the same leading principle for the preservation of internal tranquillity. As in Lacedæmon, so also here, a people were formed with military habits for defence rather than aggression; they kept themselves apart from other nations; their religious ordinances were founded on divine order; and the property in land was inalienable. Minos II., grandson of the first of that name, was the contemporary of Theseus, and in his reign the celebrated architect Dedalus constructed the labyrinth of Crete. This extraordinary work was used as a prison for the Athenian hostages, and for the Minotaur, a fabulous monster, half-man half-bull. This king, who is often confounded with his ancestor, the lawgiver, died in Sicily (1320 B. C.,) being suffocated in a bath.

THIRTEENTH CENTURY.

JUDEA.-1249, Gideon Judge.-1235, Jotham's Parable. GREECE.-Pelopida.-126? Argonauts-Theseus.-1230, Ninus founds the Assyrian Empire (Herodotus.)

JUDEA.

THIS country was again under the iron rod of the oppressor, when Gideon, with a chosen band of 300 men, defeated a numerous army of Midianites by a most remarkable stratagem, 1245 B. C. During forty years he judged Israel, and at his death was succeeded by a natural son, Abimelech, who murdered his legitimate brothers, 1235. Jotham alone of seventy escaped, and he indignantly upbraided the ungrateful Shechemites by the beautiful apologue of the trees choosing a king-the most ancient parable extant.

GREECE.

PELOPIDAE.-Corinth is said to have been built by Sisyphus, "the inost crafty of men," 1404 B. C., whose descendants were driven from the throne by the Pelopida. These usurpers were the family of Pelops, son of Tantalus, who had quitted Asia, and settled in Southern Greece, which afterwards bore his name. His sons Atreus and Thyestes were noted for their cruelties and the misfortunes of their children.

Argonauts, 1263 B. C.-These were a company of knight-errants (for this was the age of Chivalry in Greece,) who, under the guidance of the Thessalian Jason, braved the dangers of the Symplegades and the tempests of the inhospitable Euxine in search of the Golden Fleece. Castor, Pollux, Orpheus, Hercules, Peleus, and Laertes, were among the number of these daring adventurers. Divested of the fictitious

colouring of the poets, this expedition was probably a commercial enterprise to the shores of Colchis for the purpose of turning the profits of its woollen trade to their native country.*

The conquests of Hercules, and the travels of Theseus and Perseus, pelong to this period; whence also may be dated the close connexion in language, religion, manners and consanguinity, which appears to have existed betweeen the heroes engaged in the Trojan war, whether of Asiatic or of European descent.

nent.

THESEUS was one of the greatest kings of the heroic age, and the national champion of Athens. With his reign the history of Attica begins to lose much of its mythic character. He was considered the founder of the Athenian constitution, and the introducer of the democratic form of government; but the satisfaction given by the measures which he pursued for establishing a popular constitution, was not very permaA strong party, headed by Menestheus, was formed against him on the pretext that he did not go far enough, when he was driven into exile by the fickle people, as were many of his successors, who became eminent for virtue or talent. His policy was to destroy the magistrates and courts of justice of the separate Attic towns, and centralize them in the capital. Menestheus, of the royal race, proposed to take away the administration of justice from the nobles and to confer it on the populace, making it in their hands a stipendiary duty.-Theseus is said to have given shelter to the descendants of Hercules, who had been expelled from the Peloponnesus; and about the same period the crimes of Edipus led to the celebrated war of the Seven Chiefs against Thebes, and also to that of the Epigoni, or Descendants, about 1225 B. C. Consult: Bulwer's Athens, book i. chap. iii. Plutarch's Life of Theseus.

TWELFTH CENTURY.

JUDEA.-1188, Jephtha's Vow.-1117, Death of Samson. GREECE.-1184, Siege of Troy-Grecian Mythology-Greek Colonies. INVENTIONS, &C.-Mariner's Compass in China-Buodhism Introduced in India.

JUDEA.

JEPHTHA.-Judæa, in 1188, B. C., was called to witness a remarkable sacrifice. Jephtha, who had been driven from Gilead by the violence

* M. Rabaut de St. Etienne ingeniously endeavours to explain these heroic allegories by showing that they were intended to represent the motions of the heavenly bodies. Thus the Argonautic expedition exhibits the course of the constellation Aries through the sky. Jason is Serpentarius. Scarcely has the Ship Argo begun her ethereal voyage, when Hylas, Aquarius, disappears, and Hercules follows him. All the crew of Jason claim their share in this astronomical voyage.

†Theseus died and was buried in the island of Scyros. At a later period his supposed remains were transported with great pomp to Athens, in the galley of Cimon, and welcomed "as if the living Theseus were come again." Games were instituted in honour of the event, 469, at which took place those poetical contests, in the first of which Sophocles carried off the prize from Eschylus. Mr. Fynes Clinton places the Argonautic expedition in 1225, sixteen years before the death of Hercules. This remarkable voyage has been sung by two Greek poets: Apollodorus of Rhodes, and another of uncertain name and age, who brings the heroes to the neighbourhood of the British Isles.

of his relatives, and put himself at the head of a band of robbers, vowed that if he returned successful from a certain expedition against the Ammonites, he would offer up, as a burnt-sacrifice, the first living being that met him on his return. This was his daughter, his only child, who came out to congratulate her parent on his safety. After a short respite she resolutely yielden herself a victim to her father's rashness. This event occupies a prominent place in Grecian story. The resemblance between Iphigenia and Jephthagenia (Jephtha's daughter) is very striking.

SAMSON.-During the period of the seventh servitude, which lasted forty years, a new deliverer appeared in the son of Manoah, of the tribe of Dan. By the command of the angel who foretold his birth, he was specially consecrated to the Lord. As he grew in years, he increased in strength; and in various encounters he slew an immense number of Philistines, but fell at last by the artifices of Delilah. During his sleep, the locks on which his strength depended were shorn, and he awoke weak as another man. He again recovered vigour upon the growth of his hair, and proved his renewed powers by tearing down the two pillars which supported the roof of a temple, and burying 3000 PhilisLines, with himself, in one undistinguished ruin, 1117 B. C.

The accounts of Hercules, Rustam in Persia, and Antar in Arabia, seem based on that of Samson. Ancient traditions furnish us with many curious coincidences with the history of Samson's locks.

Read: Milton's Samson Agonistes.

GREECE.

TROJAN WAR.-The history of Troy, a name rendered familiar to all by the genius of Homer, is so intermingled with fable, and its heroes are so confounded with gods and demigods, that it is not possible to arrive at historical truth. Mount Ida was the scene of the Judgment of Paris; the loves of Hero and Leander consecrated the promontories of Sestos and Abydos; the little streams of Simois and Scamander would have been unknown but for the combats of the Greeks. Teucer was the first king; he was succeeded by Dardanus, who brought the palladium from Samothrace. The last monarch was Priam, the richest and greatest potentate of Western Asia, his rule extending over several contiguous nations, as well as the coast of Thrace, and the confines of Thessaly. Frodigies attended the birth of his youngest son, Paris; his youth and manhood were equally eventful. During his travels he eloped with Helen, the most beautiful woman of the age. Her husband, Menelaus, roused all Greece in arms to avenge the violated rites of hospitality, and a fleet of 1200 ships set out for Troy. This town, seated on a gentle eminence at the foot of Ida, overlooking the Hellespont, resisted the efforts of the numerous besiegers during the long period of ten years. At length when the bravest warriors on both sides had fallen, and most of the Trojan allies had been reduced, the place was taken, according to the poets, by the stratagem of a wooden horse.* It was plundered and burnt, and its inhabitants led away captive, 1184 B. C. A few doubtfu ruins are now all that mark the site of this ancient and celebrated city.

* Arrestan, in Syria, was taken by a similar stratagem. See below, Seventh Cen tury A. D.