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Address to the Greeks

Tatian

Chapter 39

About this work

Tatian attacks Greek claims to cultural and philosophical superiority, defends Christian teaching about God, creation, resurrection, and ethics, and argues for the antiquity of biblical wisdom.

Author: Tatian
Date: c. AD 165–175
Origin: Rome or the eastern Mediterranean
Genre: Apology

Catalogue of the Argive Kings.

The kings of the Argives were these: Inachus,

‹ Chapter 38 Chapter 40 ›

Phoroneus

,

Apis

,

Criasis

,

Triopas

,

Argeius

,

Phorbas

,

Crotopas

,

Sthenelaus

,

Danaus

,

Lynceus

,

Prœtus

,

Abas

,

Acrisius

,

Perseus

,

Sthenelaus

,

Eurystheus

,

Atreus

,

Thyestes

,

and

Agamemnon

,

in

the

eighteenth

year

of

whose

reign

Troy

was

taken

.

And

every

intelligent

person

will

most

carefully

observe

that

,

according

to

the

tradition

of

the

Greeks

,

they

possessed

no

historical

composition

;

for

Cadmus

,

who

taught

them

letters

,

came

into

Bœotia

many

generations

later

.

But

after

Inachus

,

under

Phoroneus

,

a

check

was

with

difficulty

given

to

their

savage

and

nomadic

life

,

and

they

entered

upon

a

new

order

of

things

.

Wherefore

,

if

Moses

is

shown

to

be

contemporary

with

Inachus

,

he

is

four

hundred

years

older

than

the

Trojan

war

.

But

this

is

demonstrated

from

the

succession

of

the

Attic

,

[

and

of

the

Macedonian

,

the

Ptolemaic

,

and

the

Antiochian

]

kings

.

Hence

,

if

the

most

illustrious

deeds

among

the

Greeks

were

recorded

and

made

known

after

Inachus

,

it

is

manifest

that

this

must

have

been

after

Moses

.

In

the

time

of

Phoroneus

,

who

was

after

Inachus

,

Ogygus

is

mentioned

among

the

Athenians

,

in

whose

time

was

the

first

deluge

;

and

in

the

time

of

Phorbas

was

Actæus

,

from

whom

Attica

was

called

Actæa

;

and

in

the

time

of

Triopas

were

Prometheus

,

and

Epimetheus

,

and

Atlas

,

and

Cecrops

of

double

nature

,

and

Io

;

in

the

time

of

Crotopas

was

the

burning

of

Phaëthon

and

the

flood

of

Deucalion

;

in

the

time

of

Sthenelus

was

the

reign

of

Amphictyon

and

the

coming

of

Danaus

into

Peloponnesus

,

and

the

founding

of

Dardania

by

Dardanus

,

and

the

return

of

Europa

from

Phœnicia

to

Crete

;

in

the

time

of

Lynceus

was

the

abduction

of

Koré

,

and

the

founding

of

the

temple

in

Eleusis

,

and

the

husbandry

of

Triptolemus

,

and

the

coming

of

Cadmus

to

Thebes

,

and

the

reign

of

Minos

;

in

the

time

of

Prœtus

was

the

war

of

Eumolpus

against

the

Athenians

;

in

the

time

of

Acrisius

was

the

coming

over

of

Pelops

from

Phrygia

,

and

the

coming

of

Ion

to

Athens

,

and

the

second

Cecrops

,

and

the

deeds

of

Perseus

and

Dionysus

,

and

Musæus

,

the

disciple

of

Orpheus

;

and

in

the

reign

of

Agamemnon

Troy

was

taken

.

Notes

91
The words within brackets, though they occur in the mss. and in Eusebius, are supposed by some scholars to be a very old interpolation.