Vessels of the The expedition appears, from the best authority, to have
rgonauts. keen 0f gome extent, for it consisted of six ships, manned by
Grecian princes and their followers.1 The principal vessel,
(the galley of Jason, the admiral,) the celebrated Argo, was,
according to some, so called from Argos, the builder; but the
name was more probably derived from Argha, signifying, in
the Egyptian language, a sacred vessel, she having been taken
to the temple of Delphos, and there consecrated.8
Voyage to the The flotilla reached the coast of Colchis safely, where every
Black Sea. . 1 t t success attended the land operations under the Theban Her-
cules;3 and some enterprises of minor importance appear to
have been undertaken in the countries lying northward of the
Euxine, particularly towards the Ister, the Tanai's, and the
Don, which have given rise to some geographical difficulties,
in consequence of the poetical effusions of the narrators. The
Argonauts are described as shaping their course down the
middle of the Pontic Sea, where they escaped with difficulty
from a violent tempest, and finally reached the straits, which
they entered in safety, with all the treasures they had acquired
Return from during their forays.4 In passing, they visited the country of
Coiehis to Byzas, afterwards the seat of Byzantium, and, having erected
altars and offered sacrifices, they proceeded through the Propontis
and Hellespont to Troy.
After plundering the city, Hercules bestowed Hesione, the
daughter of Laomedon, upon his friend Telamon, who carried
her to Greece. The Argonauts now continued their enter-
The fleet prise, by proceeding through the Mediterranean to Spain, in
proceedsto which part of the world colonies were already established, both
from Egypt and Phoenicia. They then returned to Greece
with great spoils, part of them by sea, sweeping the Mediterranean,
and the remainder by land; and these brought with
them immense herds of cattle.
Rise of Lydia. Lydia had already become an important kingdom, Alcaeus,
the son of Omphale, the twelfth sovereign from Menes, or
1 Iliad, V., 641, and Diod. Sic., lib. IV ., cap. xi.
2 Herod., lib. IV ., cap. clxxix.
8 Apollodorns Atheniensis, de Hercule, p. 45.
4 Diod. Sic., lib. IV ., cap. xiii.
Manes, (possibly Noah,) being on the throne. Belus, his successor,
is said to have subdued Assyria, and having expelled
the Egyptian colony left by Sesostris on the northern frontier
of Colchis, he became possessed of the whole empire, instead of
being monarch of Lydia only. This sovereign was succeeded Ninus mc-
by Ninus, who was probably born about the time his father father Belus,
took the capital of Assyria, which from henceforth bore his
name, in accordance with the custom of that period, of attaching
to places the names of distinguished individuals; and
during his campaigns in Asia he obtained the name of Picus.1
We are elsewhere told that Ninus arose from the south,2 and
came to the Black Sea, and the extreme north, destroying
everything.8 Diodorus Siculus4 also gives nearly the same
account, adding, that Ninus had conquered Bactria before
Semiramis reigned alone, and perhaps whilst she was still the
wife of Menon. The latter, who was one of the principal
officers attached to the army, is supposed to have put himself
to death through jealousy, and this event opened the way for
the union of Semiramis with Ninus. Semiramis thus obtained and marries
scope for the exercise of her great talents, which were after-Semiram,s-
wards employed most effectively in consolidating her second
husband’s conquests in Bactria.5 Here Ninus died, and
Semiramis became, in consequence, mistress of the greater
part of the world, one of her capitals being Babylon.6 Remarkable
specimens of the arts belonging to this period
were not, however, confined to Babylonia; they have also
been discovered near Malatiyah,7 and in many other places
throughout her dominions. These remains are particularly
noticed by Diodorus,8 especially the magnificent road con-Road exea-
structed at great expense by the Assyrian queen across the
1 From Scaliger: Ancient Fragments by I. P . Cory, Esq., p. 76.
2 The Red, or the Erythrean Sea.
8 Orosius* Hist., lib. I., cap. iv.
4 Lib. I I ., cap. vi. 5 Ibid., cap. vii.
6 Strabo., lib. X V I., p. 737. Compared with Diod. Sic., lib. H ., cap.
viii.
7 On a tablet between Malatiyah and Kharput. Vol. X ., p. 25, Journal of
the Royal Asiatic Society.
8 Lib. I I ., cap. xii.
I 2