_parentare_, to celebrate the funerals of dead parents with festivals and
invocations and sacrifices offered to their ghosts, and to erect
magnificent sepulchres in the form of temples, with altars and statues, to
persons of renown; and there to honour them publickly with sacrifices and
invocations: every man might do it to his ancestors; and the cities of
_Greece_ did it to all the eminent _Greeks_: as to _Europa_ the sister, to
_Alymnus_ the brother, and to _Minos_ and _Rhadamanthus_ the nephews of
_Cadmus_; to his daughter _Ino_, and her son _Melicertus_; to _Bacchus_ the
son of his daughter _Semele_, _Aristarchus_ the husband of his daughter
_Autonoe_, and _Jasius_ the brother of his wife _Harmonia_; to _Hercules_ a
_Theban_, and his mother _Alcmena_; to _Danae_ the daughter of _Acrisius_;
to _Æsculapius_ and _Polemocrates_ the son of _Machaon_, to _Pandion_ and
_Theseus_ Kings of _Athens_, _Hippolytus_ the son of _Theseus_, _Pan_ the
son of _Penelope_, _Proserpina_, _Triptolemus_, _Celeus_, _Trophonius_,
_Castor_, _Pollux_, _Helena_, _Menelaus_, _Agamemnon_, _Amphiaraus_ and his
son _Amphilochus_, _Hector_ and _Alexandra_ the son and daughter of
_Priam_, _Phoroneus_, _Orpheus_, _Protesilaus_, _Achilles_ and his mother
_Thetis_, _Ajax_, _Arcas_, _Idomeneus_, _Meriones_, _Æacus_, _Melampus_,
_Britomartis_, _Adrastus_, _Iolaus_, and divers others. They Deified their
dead in divers manners, according to their abilities and circumstances, and
the merits of the person; some only in private families, as houshold Gods
or _Dii Pænates_; others by erecting gravestones to them in publick, to be
used as altars for annual sacrifices; others, by building also to them
sepulchres in the form of houses or temples; and some by appointing
mysteries, and ceremonies, and set sacrifices, and festivals, and
initiations, and a succession of priests for performing those institutions
in the temples, and handing them down to posterity. Altars might begin to
be erected in _Europe_ a little before the days of _Cadmus_, for
sacrificing to the old God or Gods of the Colonies, but Temples began in
the days of _Solomon_; for [187] _Æacus_ the son of _Ægina_, who was two
Generations older than the _Trojan_ war, is by some reputed one of the
first who built a Temple in _Greece_. Oracles came first from _Egypt_ into
_Greece_ about the same time, as also did the custom of forming the images
of the Gods with their legs bound up in the shape of the _Egyptian_
mummies: for Idolatry began in _Chaldæa_ and _Egypt_, and spread thence
into _Phœnicia_ and the neighbouring countries, long before it came into
_Europe_; and the _Pelasgians_ propagated it in _Greece_, by the dictates
of the Oracles. The countries upon the _Tigris_ and the _Nile_ being
exceeding fertile, were first frequented by mankind, and grew first into
Kingdoms, and therefore began first to adore their dead Kings and Queens:
hence came the Gods of _Laban_, the Gods and Goddesses called _Baalim_ and
_Ashtaroth_ by the _Canaanites_, the Dæmons or Ghosts to whom they
sacrificed, and the _Moloch_ to whom they offered their children in the
days of _Moses_ and the Judges. Every City set up the worship of its own
Founder and Kings, and by alliances and conquests they spread this worship,
and at length the _Phœnicians_ and _Egyptians_ brought into _Europe_ the
practice of Deifying the dead. The Kingdom of the lower _Egypt_ began to
worship their Kings before the days of _Moses_; and to this worship the
second commandment is opposed: when the Shepherds invaded the lower
_Egypt_, they checked this worship of the old _Egyptians_, and spread that
of their own Kings: and at length the _Egyptians_ of _Coptos_ and
_Thebais_, under _Misphragmuthosis_ and _Amosis_, expelling the Shepherds,
checked the worship of the Gods of the Shepherds, and Deifying their own
Kings and Princes, propagated the worship of twelve of them into their
conquests; and made them more universal than the false Gods of any other
nation had been before, so as to be called, _Dii magni majorum gentium_.
_Sesostris_ conquered _Thrace_, and _Amphictyon_ the son of _Prometheus_
brought the twelve Gods from _Thrace_ into _Greece_: _Herodotus_ [188]
tells us that they came from _Egypt_; and by the names of the cities of
_Egypt_ dedicated to many of these Gods, you may know that they were of an
_Egyptian_ original: and the _Egyptians_, according to _Diodorus_, [189]
usually represented, that after their _Saturn_ and _Rhea_, Reigned
_Jupiter_ and _Juno_, the parents of _Osiris_ and _Isis_, the parents of
_Orus_ and _Bubaste_.
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
grandson _Idomeneus_ who warred at _Troy_. _Hesiod_ tells us that he
himself lived in the fifth Age, the Age next after the taking of _Troy_,
and therefore he flourished within thirty or thirty five years after it:
and _Homer_ was of about the same Age; for he [192] lived sometime with
_Mentor_ in _Ithaca_, and there learnt of him many things concerning
_Ulysses_, with whom _Mentor_ had been personally acquainted: now
_Herodotus_, the oldest Historian of the _Greeks_ now extant, [193] tells
us that _Hesiod_ and _Homer_ were not above four hundred years older than
himself, and therefore they flourished within 110 or 120 years after the
death of _Solomon_; and according to my reckoning the taking of _Troy_ was
but one Generation earlier.
Mythologists tell us, that _Niobe_ the daughter of _Phoroneus_ was the
first woman with whom _Jupiter_ lay, and that of her he begat _Argus_, who
succeeded _Phoroneus_ in the Kingdom of _Argos_, and gave his name to that
city; and therefore _Argus_ was born in the beginning of the Silver Age:
unless you had rather say that by _Jupiter_ they might here mean
_Asterius_; for the _Phœnicians_ gave the name of _Jupiter_ to every King,
from the time of their first coming into _Greece_ with _Cadmus_ and
_Europa_, until the invasion of _Greece_ by _Sesostris_, and the birth of
_Hercules_, and particularly to the fathers of _Minos_, _Pelops_,
_Lacedæmon_, _Æacus_, and _Perseus_.
The four first Ages succeeded the flood of _Deucalion_; and some tell us
that _Deucalion_ was the son of _Prometheus_, the son of _Japetus_, and
brother of _Atlas_: but this was another _Deucalion_; for _Japetus_ the
father of _Prometheus_, _Epimetheus,_ and _Atlas_, was an _Egyptian_, the
brother of _Osiris_, and flourished two generations after the flood of
_Deucalion_.
I have now carried up the Chronology of the _Greeks_ as high as to the
first use of letters, the first plowing and sowing of corn, the first
manufacturing of copper and iron, the beginning of the trades of Smiths,
Carpenters, Joyners, Turners, Brick-makers, Stone-cutters, and Potters, in
_Europe_; the first walling of cities about, the first building of Temples,
and the original of Oracles in _Greece_; the beginning of navigation by the
Stars in long ships with sails; the erecting of the _Amphictyonic_ Council;
the first Ages of _Greece_, called the Golden, Silver, Brazen and Iron
Ages, and the flood of _Deucalion_ which immediately preceded them. Those
Ages could not be earlier than the invention and use of the four metals in
_Greece_, from whence they had their names; and the flood of _Ogyges_ could
not be much above two or three ages earlier than that of _Deucalion_: for
among such wandering people as were then in _Europe_, there could be no
memory of things done above three or four ages before the first use of
letters: and the expulsion of the Shepherds out of _Egypt_, which gave the
first occasion to the coming of people from _Egypt_ into _Greece_, and to
the building of houses and villages in _Greece_, was scarce earlier than
the days of _Eli_ and _Samuel_; for _Manetho_ tells us, that when they were
forced to quit _Abaris_ and retire out of _Egypt_, they went through the
wilderness into _Judæa_ and built _Jerusalem_: I do not think, with
_Manetho,_ that they were the _Israelites_ under _Moses_, but rather
believe that they were _Canaanites_; and upon leaving _Abaris_ mingled with
the _Philistims_ their next neighbours: though some of them might assist
_David_ and _Solomon_ in building _Jerusalem_ and the Temple.
_Saul_ was made King [194], that he might rescue _Israel_ out of the hand
of the _Philistims_, who opressed them; and in the second year of his
Reign, the _Philistims_ brought into the field against him _thirty thousand
chariots, and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the
sea shore for multitude_: the _Canaanites_ had their horses from _Egypt_;
and yet in the days of _Moses_ all the chariots of _Egypt_, with which
_Pharaoh_ pursued _Israel_ were but six hundred, _Exod._ xiv. 7. From the
great army of the _Philistims_ against _Saul_, and the great number of
their horses, I seem to gather that the Shepherds had newly relinquished
_Egypt_; and joyned them: the Shepherds might be beaten and driven out of
the greatest part of _Egypt_, and shut up in _Abaris_ by _Misphragmuthosis_
in the latter end of the days of _Eli_; and some of them fly to the
_Philistims_, and strengthen them against _Israel_, in the last year of
_Eli_; and from the _Philistims_ some of the Shepherds might go to _Zidon_,
and from _Zidon_, by sea to _Asia minor_ and _Greece_: and afterwards, in
the beginning of the Reign of _Saul_, the Shepherds who still remained in
_Egypt_ might be forced by _Tethmosis_ or _Amosis_ the son of
_Misphragmuthosis_, to leave _Abaris_, and retire in very great numbers to
the _Philistims_; and upon these occasions several of them, as _Pelasgus_,
_Inachus_, _Lelex_, _Cecrops_, and _Abas_, might come with their people by
sea from _Egypt_ to _Zidon_ and _Cyprus_, and thence to _Asia minor_ and
_Greece_, in the days of _Eli_, _Samuel_ and _Saul_, and thereby begin to
open a commerce by sea between _Zidon_ and _Greece_, before the revolt of
_Edom_ from _Judæa_, and the final coming of the _Phœnicians_ from the _Red
Sea_.
_Pelasgus_ Reigned in _Arcadia_, and was the father of _Lycaon_, according
to _Pherecydes Atheniensis_, and _Lycaon_ died just before the flood of
_Deucalion_; and therefore his father _Pelasgus_ might come into _Greece_
about two Generations before _Cadmus_, or in the latter end of the days of
_Eli_: _Lycaon_ sacrificed children, and therefore his father might come
with his people from the Shepherds in _Egypt_, and perhaps from the regions
of _Heliopolis_, where they sacrificed men, 'till _Amosis_ abolished that
custom. _Misphragmuthosis_ the father of _Amosis_, drove the Shepherds out
of a great part of _Egypt_, and shut the remainder up in _Abaris_: and then
great numbers might escape to _Greece_; some from the regions of
_Heliopolis_ under _Pelasgus_, and others from _Memphis_ and other places,
under other Captains: and hence it might come to pass that the _Pelasgians_
were at the first very numerous in _Greece_, and spake a different language
from the _Greek_, and were the ringleaders in bringing into _Greece_ the
worship of the dead.
_Inachus_ is called the son of _Oceanus_, perhaps because he came to
_Greece_ by sea: he might come with his people to _Argos_ from _Egypt_ in
the days of _Eli_, and seat himself upon the river _Inachus_, so named from
him, and leave his territories to his sons _Phoroneus_, _Ægialeus_, and
_Phegeus_, in the days of _Samuel_: for _Car_ the son of _Phoroneus_ built
a Temple to _Ceres_ in _Megara_, and therefore was contemporary to
_Erechtheus_. _Phoroneus_ Reigned at _Argos_, and _Aegialeus_ at _Sicyon_,
and founded those Kingdoms; and yet _Ægialeus_ is made above five hundred
years older than _Phoroneus_ by some Chronologers: but [195] _Acusilaus_,
[196] _Anticlides_ and [197] _Plato_, accounted _Phoroneus_ the oldest King
in _Greece_, and [198] _Apollodorus_ tells us, _Ægialeus_ was the brother
of _Phoroneus_. _Ægialeus_ died without issue, and after him Reigned
_Europs_, _Telchin_, _Apis_, _Lamedon_, _Sicyon_, _Polybus_, _Adrastus_,
and _Agamemnon_, _&c._ and _Sicyon_ gave his name to the Kingdom:
_Herodotus_ [199] saith that _Apis_ in the _Greek_ Tongue is _Epaphus_; and
_Hyginus_, [200] that _Epaphus_ the _Sicyonian_ got _Antiopa_ with child:
but the later _Greeks_ have made two men of the two names _Apis_ and
_Epaphus_ or _Epopeus_, and between them inserted twelve feigned Kings of
_Sicyon_, who made no wars, nor did any thing memorable, and yet Reigned
five hundred and twenty years, which is, one with another, above forty and
three years a-piece. If these feigned Kings be rejected, and the two Kings
_Apis_ and _Epopeus_ be reunited; _Ægialeus_ will become contemporary to
his brother _Phoroneus_, as he ought to be; for _Apis_ or _Epopeus_, and
_Nycteus_ the guardian of _Labdacus_, were slain in battle about the tenth
year of _Solomon_, as above; and the first four Kings of _Sicyon_,
_Ægialeus_, _Europs_, _Telchin_, _Apis_, after the rate of about twenty
years to a Reign, take up about eighty years; and these years counted
upwards from the tenth year of _Solomon_, place the beginning of the Reign
of _Ægialeus_ upon the twelfth year of _Samuel_, or thereabout: and about
that time began the Reign of _Phoroneus_ at _Argos_; _Apollodorus_ [201]
calls _Adrastus_ King of _Argos_; but _Homer_ [202] tells us, that he
Reigned first at _Sicyon_: he was in the first war against _Thebes_. Some
place _Janiscus_ and _Phæstus_ between _Polybus_ and _Adrastus_, but
without any certainty.
_Lelex_ might come with his people into _Laconia_ in the days of _Eli_, and
leave his territories to his sons _Myles_, _Eurotas_, _Cleson_, and
_Polycaon_ in the days of _Samuel_. _Myles_ set up a quern, or handmill to
grind corn, and is reputed the first among the _Greeks_ who did so: but he
flourished before _Triptolemus_, and seems to have had his corn and
artificers from _Egypt_. _Eurotas_ the brother, or as some say the son of
_Myles_, built _Sparta_, and called it after the name of his daughter
_Sparta_, the wife of _Lacedæmon_, and mother of _Eurydice_. _Cleson_ was
the father of _Pylas_ the father of _Sciron_, who married the daughter of
_Pandion_ the son of _Erechtheus_, and contended with _Nisus_ the son of
_Pandion_ and brother of _Ægeus_, for the Kingdom; and _Æacus_ adjudged it
to _Nisus_. _Polycaon_ invaded _Messene_, then peopled only by villages,
called it _Messene_ after the name of his wife, and built cities therein.
_Cecrops_ came from _Sais_ in _Egypt_ to _Cyprus_, and thence into
_Attica_: and he might do this in the days of _Samuel_, and marry _Agraule_
the daughter of _Actæus_, and succeed him in _Attica_ soon after, and leave
his Kingdom to _Cranaus_ in the Reign of _Saul_, or in the beginning of the
Reign of _David_: for the flood of _Deucalion_ happened in the Reign of
_Cranaus_.
Of about the same age with _Pelasgus_, _Inachus_, _Lelex_, and _Actæus_,
was _Ogyges_: he Reigned in _Bœotia_, and some of his people were
_Leleges_: and either he or his son _Eleusis_ built the city _Eleusis_ in
_Attica_, that is, they built a few houses of clay, which in time grew into
a city. _Acusilaus_ wrote that _Phoroneus_ was older than _Ogyges_, and
that _Ogyges_ flourished 1020 years before the first Olympiad, as above;
but _Acusilaus_ was an _Argive_, and feigned these things in honour of his
country: to call things _Ogygian_ has been a phrase among the ancient
_Greeks_, to signify that they are as old as the first memory of things;
and so high we have now carried up the Chronology of the _Greeks_.
_Inachus_ might be as old as _Ogyges_, but _Acusilaus_ and his followers
made them seven hundred years older than the truth; and Chronologers, to
make out this reckoning, have lengthened the races of the Kings of _Argos_
and _Sicyon_, and changed several contemporary Princes of _Argos_ into
successive Kings, and inserted many feigned Kings into the race of the
Kings of _Sicyon_.
_Inachus_ had several sons, who Reigned in several parts of _Peloponnesus_,
and there built Towns; as _Phoroneus_, who built _Phoronicum_, afterwards
called _Argos_, from _Argus_ his grandson; _Ægialeus_, who built _Ægialea_,
afterwards called _Sicyon_, from _Sicyon_ the grandson of _Erechtheus_;
_Phegeus_, who built _Phegea_, afterwards called _Psophis_, from _Psophis_
the daughter of _Lycaon_: and these were the oldest towns in _Peloponnesus_
then _Sisyphus_, the son of _Æolus_ and grandson of _Hellen_, built
_Ephyra_, afterwards called _Corinth_; and _Aëthlius_, the son of _Æolus_,
built _Elis_: and before them _Cecrops_ built _Cecropia_, the cittadel of
_Athens_; and _Lycaon_ built _Lycosura_, reckoned by some the oldest town
in _Arcadia_; and his sons, who were at least four and twenty in number,
built each of them a town; except the youngest, called _Oenotrus_, who grew
up after his father's death, and sailed into _Italy_ with his people, and
there set on foot the building of towns, and became the _Janus_ of the
_Latines_. _Phoroneus_ had also several children and grand-children, who
Reigned in several places, and built new towns, as _Car_, _Apis_, &c. and
_Hæmon_, the son of _Pelasgus_, Reigned in _Hæmonia_, afterwards called
_Thessaly_, and built towns there. This division and subdivision has made
great confusion in the history of the first Kingdoms of _Peloponnesus_, and
thereby given occasion to the vain-glorious _Greeks_, to make those
kingdoms much older than they really were: but by all the reckonings
abovementioned, the first civilizing of the _Greeks_, and teaching them to
dwell in houses and towns, and the oldest towns in _Europe_, could scarce
be above two or three Generations older than the coming of _Cadmus_ from
_Zidon_ into _Greece_; and might most probably be occasioned by the
expulsion of the Shepherds out of _Egypt_ in the days of _Eli_ and
_Samuel_, and their flying into _Greece_ in considerable numbers: but it's
difficult to set right the Genealogies and Chronology of the Fabulous Ages
of the _Greeks_, and I leave these things to be further examined.
Before the _Phœnicians_ introduced the Deifying of dead men, the _Greeks_
had a Council of Elders in every town for the government thereof, and a
place where the elders and people worshipped their God with Sacrifices: and
when many of those towns, for their common safety, united under a common
Council, they erected a _Prytaneum_ or Court in one of the towns, where the
Council and People met at certain times, to consult their common safety,
and worship their common God with sacrifices, and to buy and sell: the
towns where these Councils met, the _Greeks_ called δημοι, peoples or
communities, or Corporation Towns: and at length, when many of these δημοι
for their common safety united by consent under one common Council, they
erected a _Prytaneum_ in one of the δημοι for the common Council and People
to meet in, and to consult and worship in, and feast, and buy, and sell;
and this δημος they walled about for its safety, and called την πολιν the
city: and this I take to have been the original of Villages, Market-Towns,
Cities, common Councils, Vestal Temples, Feasts and Fairs, in _Europe_: the
_Prytaneum_, πυρος ταμειον, was a Court with a place of worship, and a
perpetual fire kept therein upon an Altar for sacrificing: from the word
‛Εστια fire, came the name _Vesta_, which at length the people turned into
a Goddess, and so became fire-worshippers like the ancient _Persians_: and
when these Councils made war upon their neighbours, they had a general
commander to lead their armies, and he became their King.
So _Thucydides_ [203] tells us, that _under_ Cecrops _and the ancient
Kings, untill _Theseus_; _Attica_ was always inhabited city by city, each
having Magistrates and _Prytanea_: neither did they consult the King, when
there was no fear of danger, but each apart administred their own
common-wealth, and had their own Council, and even sometimes made war, as
the _Eleusinians_ with _Eumolpus_ did against _Erechtheus_: but when
_Theseus_, a prudent and potent man obtained the Kingdom, he took away the
Courts and Magistrates of the other cities, and made them all meet in one
Council and _Prytaneum_ at _Athens__. _Polemon_, as he is cited by [204]
_Strabo_, tells us, _that in this body of _Attica_, there were 170 _δημοι_,
one of which was _Eleusis__: and _Philochorus_ [205] relates, that _when
_Attica_ was infested by sea and land by the _Cares_ and _Bœoti_, _Cecrops_
the first of any man reduced the multitude, _that is the 170 towns_, into
twelve cities, whose names were _Cecropia_, _Tetrapolis_, _Epacria_,
_Decelia_, _Eleusis_, _Aphydna_, _Thoricus_, _Brauron_, _Cytherus_,
_Sphettus_, _Cephissia_, and _Phalerus_; and that _Theseus_ contracted
those twelve cities into one, which was _Athens__.
The original of the Kingdom of the _Argives_ was much after the same
manner: for _Pausanias_ [206] tells us, _that _Phoroneus_ the son of
_Inachus_ was the first who gathered into one community the _Argives_, who
'till then were scattered, and lived every where apart, and the place where
they were first assembled was called _Phoronicum_, the city of
_Phoroneus__: and _Strabo_ [207] observes, _that _Homer_ calls all the
places which he reckons up in _Peloponnesus_, a few excepted, not cities
but regions, because each of them consisted of a convention of many_ δημοι,
_free towns, out of which afterward noble cities were built and frequented:
so the _Argives_ composed _Mantinæa_ in _Arcadia_ out of five towns, and
_Tegea_ out of nine; and out of so many was _Heræa_ built by _Cleombrotus_,
or by _Cleonymus_: so also _Ægium_ was built out of seven or eight towns,
_Patræ_: out of seven, and _Dyme_ out of eight; and so _Elis_ was erected
by the conflux of many towns into one city._