That Hesiod’s description of the three subsequent ages appears to relate entirely to the history of Greece, is the opinion of Dr. Hales. Without disputing the general accuracy of this opinion, we still think that we can perceive traces of the history of other countries. The allusions to Scripture are, it is true, more obscure in this part of the poem; but they are not wholly imperceptible. Indeed, the ingenuity of the “cunningly devised fables” which it contains, would not be deemed complete without the admixture of some sacred truth, without the addition of some egregious perversion of the Inspired records. The description of the _Third_ or _Brazen age_, extends from v. 143 to v. 155, and refers to the time when the men, “wholly unlike those of the _Silver age_, were strong and mighty in the use of the spear, rejoicing in war and deeds of rapacity; they ate not (σιτον) the food of culture, but, unyielding in their disposition, they had minds as hard as adamant; possessing immense force and unpolished hands, nature furnished them with powerful limbs, from the shoulders downwards; they had _brazen_ armour, _brazen_ houses, and they worked in _brass_; for _iron_ was not yet in use; these, indeed, slain by their own hands, went to the dark domains of gloomy Pluto, unrecorded in song; for sable death seized them, though mighty in strength, and they left the shining light of the Sun.” This passage seems very clearly to describe the state of the world in the days of Abraham. The battle of the four kings against five in the Vale of Siddim (Destruction), the slaughter of the kings and the sacking of their cities, the capture of Lot and all his family and property, as recorded in Genesis xiv., is a sufficient proof of the warlike and rapacious character of this age; and then, no doubt, originated the migration of those marauding parties which, proceeding from Assyria, Phenicia, and Egypt, spread themselves over Greece and her islands for colonization and settlement, and founded the early kingdoms of Sicyon and Argos. The testimony of the Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, respecting the state of society during this period, confirms the description of the Poet; and, according to Dr. Hales, the rape of Io, the daughter of Inachus, which was followed more than a century afterwards by that of Europa, the daughter of Agenor, king of Tyre, are instances of the wicked conduct of those whom Jove is reported to have sent a flood to destroy, at the close of the _Brazen age_. Dr. Hales, however, is in error when he refers this flood to the age of Deucalion; it appears more clearly to belong to that of Ogyges, who was earlier than Deucalion by more than _two centuries_, and in whose reign, according to Dr. Russell,[62] the inhabitants of Bœotia were compelled to leave the plains of their native country, which was that of our poet, and to seek an asylum in the mountains of Attica.