Note 790 — ANTIENT HEROES.

Perseus was one of the most antient heroes in the mythology of Greece: the merit of whose supposed achievements the Helladians took to themselves; and gave out that he was a native of Argos. He travelled to the temple of [790]Ammon; and from thence traversed the whole extent of Africa. He subdued the [791]Gorgons, who lived in Mauritania, and at Tartessus in Bœtica; and defeated the Ethiopians upon the western ocean, and the nations about mount Atlas: which [792]mountain he only and Hercules are said to have passed. Being arrived at the extremity of the continent, he found means to pass over, and to get possession of all the western islands. He warred in the East; where he freed [793]Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus king of the eastern Ethiopia, who was exposed to a sea-monster. Some imagine this to have happened at [794]Joppa in Palestine, where the [795]bones of this monster of an extraordinary size are supposed to have been for a long time preserved. He is said to have built [796]Tarsus in Cilicia, reputed the most antient city in the world; and to have planted the peach tree at [797]Memphis. The Persians were supposed to have been his descendants. He travelled through Asia Minor, to the country of the [798]Hyperboreans upon the Ister, and the lake Mæotis; and from thence descended to Greece. Here he built Mycene, and Tiryns, said by many to have been the work of the Cyclopians. He established a seminary at Helicon: and was the founder of those families, which were styled Dorian, and Herculean. It is a doubt among writers, whether he came into Italy. Some of his family were there; who defeated the giant race in Campania, and who afterwards built Argiletum, and Ardea in Latium. Virgil supposes it to have been effected by Danae, the mother of this Hero: