Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent.

  • Beaumont, John, -1731.
Date:
1724
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Gleanings of antiquities / By John Beaumont, Gent. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    145/226 (page 133)
    Jnftance in the Athenians, who* being prefs'd by a Fa¬ mine* confulted the Oracle ; and the Pythia anfwered it would not ceafe till the Athenians fent feven young Men* and as many Virgins, to Minos, to be devour¬ ed by the Minotaur. Eufehius in his Prap. Evang. fays much on the fame Subjed. See alfo Dr. Clafen3 in his Book concerning the Oracles and Sibyls, c. 18, where he fets forth at large, many abfurd and im¬ pious Anfwers of the Oracles; and this Author may be look'd upon inflar omnium, he having written more comprehendvely on the Oracles and Sibyls, than any other Author. And any one that confiders the pernicious Confequences that followed on the ambi¬ guous Anfwers of the Oracles to Crajus, and many others, may eafily be fatisfied of the Folly of Men in applying to them; and indeed, it feems to me a wonder that they lafted fo long in the World. Plu¬ tarch, in his Trad, why the Prophetefs Pythia ceas'd, to deliver Oracles in Verfe, tells us, that they had lafted 3000 Years; whereas our learned Marfam, in his Canon Chronicus, under the fourth Age, from the Deluge, where he fpeaks of the Oracles of Egypt9 whence the Greeks are faid firft to have had their Oracles, fays, the chiefeft of the Oracles of Egypt, was that of Latona, in the Town Buti; and that an Oracle came thence to Mycerinus, King of Memphis, in the fifth Age, that he fhould live but fix Years* and die in the feventh ; nor was there found any Oracle more antient among the Gentiles. And how this will anfwer chronologically with Plutarch’s 3000 Years, will require Confideration; doubtlefs he went on another Chronology than we do, and we want him alive to make it out; but we may here note, that this Oracle of Latona, was about four hundred Years before Mo/es fet up an Oracle by God's Appoint¬ ment : For Mar {loam fays, that the going out of the IJraelites from Egypt, was in the ninth Age after the Floods m, in the 857th Year after it. As for the ceafing