DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.13851#0025
(/F THE CIVIL GOVERNMENT OF ATHENS,,
3
l^hisisnot Peloponnesus, but Ionia.
And on the south side this :
Tliis is not Ionia, but Peioponncsii".
This name is thought to have been given them from Javah, which bears
a near resemblance to IepW* and much nearer, if (as grammarians tell us)
the ancient Greeks pronounced the letter a broad, like the diphthong xv,
as in our English word all; and so Sir George Wheeler reports the mo-
dern Greeks do at this day. This Javan was the fourth son of Japheth,
and is said to have come into Greece after the confusion of Babel, and
seated himself in Attica. And this report receiveth no small confirmation
from the divine writings, where the name of Javan is in several places
put for Greece. Two instances we have in Daniel(l) ; 'And when I
am gone forth, behold the Prince of Grajcia shall come.' And again(2),
< He shall stir up all against the realm of Graecia.' Where, though the
vulgar translations render it not Javan, yet that is the word in the original,
And again in Isaiah, ' And I will send those that escape of them to the na-
tions in the sea in Italy, and in Greece/ Where the. Tigurine. version, with
that of Geneva, retains the Hebrew words, and uses the names of Tubal
and Javan, instead of Italy and Greece. But the Grecians themselves
having no knowledge of their true ancestor, make this name to be of much
later date, and derive it from Ion the son of Xnthus. This Xuthus (as
Pausanias reports) having robbed his father Deucalion of his treasure,
conveyed himself, together with his ill-gotten wealth, into Attica, which
was at that time governed bj Erectheus, who courteously entertained
him, and gave him his daughter in marriage, by whom he had two sons,
Ion and Achaeus, the former of which gave his name to the Ionians, the
latter to the Achaeans. It is not improbable that Ion himself might re-
ceive his name from Javan ; it being a custom observable in the histories
of all times, to keep up the ancient name of a forefather, especially such
as had been eminent in the times he lived in, by reviving it in some of the
principal of his posterity.
From the first peopling of Attica till the time of king Ogyges, we have
no account of any thing that passed there ; only Plato(3) reports, they
had a tradition, that the Athenian power and glory were very great in
those days ; that they were excellently skilled both in civil and military
affairs, were governed by the justest and most equitable laws, and lived in
far greater splendour than they had arrived to in his time. But of the
transactions of these and the following ages till Theseus, or the Trojan
war, little or nothing of certainty must be expected ; partly because of the
want of records, in rude and illiterate ages : partly, by reason of the vast
distance of time, wherein those records they had (if they had any) were
lost and destroyed ; and partly through the pride and vain glory of the
ancient Greeks, who, out of an affectation of being thought to have been
descended from some divine original, industriously concealed their pedi-
grees, and obscured their ancient histories with idle tales, and poetical
fictions ; and to use the words of Plutarch(4), ' As historians in their geo-
graphical descriptions of countries, crowd into the farthest part of their
maps those things they have no knowledge of, with some such remarks in
(1) Cap \. 20.
(») Can. si. 2.
(3) Tim«fi
(4) Theses.
3
l^hisisnot Peloponnesus, but Ionia.
And on the south side this :
Tliis is not Ionia, but Peioponncsii".
This name is thought to have been given them from Javah, which bears
a near resemblance to IepW* and much nearer, if (as grammarians tell us)
the ancient Greeks pronounced the letter a broad, like the diphthong xv,
as in our English word all; and so Sir George Wheeler reports the mo-
dern Greeks do at this day. This Javan was the fourth son of Japheth,
and is said to have come into Greece after the confusion of Babel, and
seated himself in Attica. And this report receiveth no small confirmation
from the divine writings, where the name of Javan is in several places
put for Greece. Two instances we have in Daniel(l) ; 'And when I
am gone forth, behold the Prince of Grajcia shall come.' And again(2),
< He shall stir up all against the realm of Graecia.' Where, though the
vulgar translations render it not Javan, yet that is the word in the original,
And again in Isaiah, ' And I will send those that escape of them to the na-
tions in the sea in Italy, and in Greece/ Where the. Tigurine. version, with
that of Geneva, retains the Hebrew words, and uses the names of Tubal
and Javan, instead of Italy and Greece. But the Grecians themselves
having no knowledge of their true ancestor, make this name to be of much
later date, and derive it from Ion the son of Xnthus. This Xuthus (as
Pausanias reports) having robbed his father Deucalion of his treasure,
conveyed himself, together with his ill-gotten wealth, into Attica, which
was at that time governed bj Erectheus, who courteously entertained
him, and gave him his daughter in marriage, by whom he had two sons,
Ion and Achaeus, the former of which gave his name to the Ionians, the
latter to the Achaeans. It is not improbable that Ion himself might re-
ceive his name from Javan ; it being a custom observable in the histories
of all times, to keep up the ancient name of a forefather, especially such
as had been eminent in the times he lived in, by reviving it in some of the
principal of his posterity.
From the first peopling of Attica till the time of king Ogyges, we have
no account of any thing that passed there ; only Plato(3) reports, they
had a tradition, that the Athenian power and glory were very great in
those days ; that they were excellently skilled both in civil and military
affairs, were governed by the justest and most equitable laws, and lived in
far greater splendour than they had arrived to in his time. But of the
transactions of these and the following ages till Theseus, or the Trojan
war, little or nothing of certainty must be expected ; partly because of the
want of records, in rude and illiterate ages : partly, by reason of the vast
distance of time, wherein those records they had (if they had any) were
lost and destroyed ; and partly through the pride and vain glory of the
ancient Greeks, who, out of an affectation of being thought to have been
descended from some divine original, industriously concealed their pedi-
grees, and obscured their ancient histories with idle tales, and poetical
fictions ; and to use the words of Plutarch(4), ' As historians in their geo-
graphical descriptions of countries, crowd into the farthest part of their
maps those things they have no knowledge of, with some such remarks in
(1) Cap \. 20.
(») Can. si. 2.
(3) Tim«fi
(4) Theses.