to many Princes upon the sea-coasts of the Euxine and Mediterranean seas, was too great an undertaking to be set on foot, without the concurrence of the Princes and States of Greece, and perhaps the approbation of the Amphictyonic Council; for it was done by the dictate of the Oracle.  This Council met every half year upon state-affairs for the welfare of Greece, and therefore knew of this expedition, and might send the Argonauts upon an embassy to the said Princes; and for concealing their design might make the fable of the golden fleece, in relation to the ship of Phrixus whose ensign was a golden ram:  and probably their design was to notify the distraction of Egypt, and the invasion thereof by the Ethiopians and Israelites, to the said Princes, and to persuade them to take that opportunity to revolt from Egypt, and set up for themselves, and make a league with the Greeks:  for the Argonauts went through [326] the Kingdom of Colchis by land to the Armenians, and through Armenia to the Medes; which could not have been done if they had not made friendship with the nations through which they passed:  they visited also Laomedon King of the Trojans, Phineus King of the Thracians, Cyzicus King of the Doliones, Lycus King of the Mariandyni, the coasts of Mysia and Taurica Chersonesus, the nations upon the Tanais, the people about Byzantium, and the coasts of Epirus, Corsica, Melita, Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Gallia upon the Mediterranean; and from thence they [327] crossed the sea to Afric, and there conferred with Euripylus King of Cyrene:  and [328] Strabo tells us that in Armenia_ and Media, and the neighbouring places, there were frequent monuments of the expedition of Jason; as also about Sinope, and its sea-coasts, the Propontis and the Hellespont, and in the Mediterranean_:  and a message by the flower of Greece to so many nations could be on no other account than state-policy; these nations had been invaded by the Egyptians, but after this expedition we hear no more of their continuing in subjection to Egypt.

The [329] Egyptians originally lived on the fruits of the earth, and fared hardly, and abstained from animals, and therefore abominated Shepherds:  Menes taught them to adorn their beds and tables with rich furniture and carpets, and brought in amongst them a sumptuous, delicious and voluptuous way of life:  and about a hundred years after his death, Gnephacthus one of his successors cursed him for it, and to reduce the luxury of Egypt, caused the curse to be entered in the Temple of Jupiter at Thebes; and by this curse the honour of Menes was diminished among the Egyptians.