Helladius [262] tells us, that a man called Oes, who appeared in the Red Sea with the tail of a fish, so they painted a sea-man, taught Astronomy and Letters:  and Hyginus, [263] that Euhadnes, who came out of the Sea in Chaldaea, taught the Chaldaeans Astrology the first of any man; he means Astronomy:  and Alexander Polyhistor [264] tells us from Berosus, that Oannes taught the Chaldaeans Letters, Mathematicks, Arts, Agriculture, Cohabitation in Cities, and the Construction of Temples; and that several such men came thither successively. Oes, Euhadnes, and Oannes, seem to be the same name a little varied by corruption; and this name seems to have been given in common to several sea-men, who came thither from time to time, and by consequence were merchants, and frequented those seas with their merchandise, or else fled from their enemies:  so that Letters, Astronomy, Architecture and Agriculture, came into Chaldaea by sea, and were carried thither by sea-men, who frequented the Persian Gulph, and came thither from time to time, after all those things were practised in other countries whence they came, and by consequence in the days of Ammon and Sesac, David and Solomon, and their successors, or not long before.  The Chaldaeans indeed made Oannes older than the flood of Xisuthrus, but the Egyptians made Osiris as old, and I make them contemporary.

The Red Sea had its name not from its colour, but from Edom and Erythra, the names of Esau, which signify that colour:  and some [265] tell us, that King Erythra, meaning Esau, invented the vessels, rates, in which they navigated that Sea, and was buried in an island thereof near the Persian Gulph:  whence it follows, that the Edomites navigated that Sea from the days of Esau; and there is no need that the oldest Oannes should be older.  There were boats upon rivers before, such as were the boats which carried the Patriarchs over Euphrates and Jordan, and the first nations over many other rivers, for peopling the earth, seeking new seats, and invading one another’s territories:  and after the example of such vessels, Ishhmael and Midian the sons of Abraham, and Esau his grandson, might build larger vessels to go to the islands upon the Red Sea, in searching for new seats, and by degrees learn to navigate that sea, as far as to the Persian Gulph:  for ships were as old, even upon the Mediterranean, as the days of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 13. Judg. v. 17. but it is probable that the merchants of that sea were not forward to discover their Arts and Sciences, upon which their trade depended:  it seems therefore that Letters and Astronomy, and the trade of Carpenters, were invented by the merchants