By all this it may be understood, that as the _Egyptians_ who Deified their Kings, began their monarchy with the Reign of their Gods and Heroes, reckoning _Menes_ the first man who reigned after their Gods; so the _Cretans_ had the Ages of their Gods and Heroes, calling the first four Ages of their Deified Kings and Princes, the Golden, Silver, Brazen, and Iron Ages. _Hesiod_ [190] describing these four Ages of the Gods and Demi-Gods of _Greece_, represents them to be four Generations of men, each of which ended when the men then living grew old and dropt into the grave, and tells us that the fourth ended with the wars of _Thebes_ and _Troy_: and so many Generations there were, from the coming of the _Phœnicians_ and _Curetes_ with _Cadmus_ and _Europa_ into _Greece_ unto the destruction of _Troy_. _Apollonius Rhodius_ saith that when the _Argonauts_ came to _Crete_, they slew _Talus_ a brazen man, who remained of those that were of the Brazen Age, and guarded that pass: _Talus_ was reputed [191] the son of _Minos_, and therefore the sons of _Minos_ lived in the Brazen Age, and _Minos_ Reigned in the Silver Age: it was the Silver Age of the _Greeks_ in which they began to plow and sow Corn, and _Ceres_, that taught them to do it, flourished in the Reign of _Celeus_ and _Erechtheus_ and _Minos_. Mythologists tell us that the last woman with whom _Jupiter_ lay, was _Alcmena_; and thereby they seem to put an end to the Reign of _Jupiter_ among mortals, that is to the Silver Age, when _Alcmena_ was with child of _Hercules_; who therefore was born about the eighth or tenth year of _Rehoboam's_ Reign, and was about 34 years old at the time of the _Argonautic_ expedition. _Chiron_ was begot by _Saturn_ of _Philyra_ in the Golden Age, when _Jupiter_ was a child in the _Cretan_ cave, as above; and this was in the Reign of _Asterius_ King of _Crete_: and therefore _Asterius_ Reigned in _Crete_ in the Golden Age; and the Silver Age began when _Chiron_ was a child: if _Chiron_ was born about the 35th year of _David_'s Reign, he will be born in the Reign of _Asterius_, when _Jupiter_ was a child in the _Cretan_ cave, and be about 88 years old in the time of the _Argonautic_ expedition, when he invented the Asterisms; and this is within the reach of nature. The Golden Age therefore falls in with the Reign of _Asterius_, and the Silver Age with that of _Minos_; and to make these Ages much longer than ordinary generations, is to make _Chiron_ live much longer than according to the course of nature. This fable of the four Ages seems to have been made by the _Curetes_ in the fourth Age, in memory of the first four Ages of their coming into _Europe_, as into a new world; and in honour of their country-woman _Europa_, and her husband _Asterius_ the _Saturn_ of the _Latines_, and of her son _Minos_ the _Cretan Jupiter_ and grandson _Deucalion_, who Reigned 'till the _Argonautic_ expedition, and is sometimes reckoned among the _Argonauts_, and of their great