Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Julius Africanus/Extant Fragments of the Chronography/Part 12

by Julius Africanus

XII.^[1]

From this record,^[2] therefore, we affirm that Ogygus,^[3] from whom the first flood (in Attica) derived its name,^[4] and who was saved when many perished, lived at the time of the exodus of the people from Egypt along with Moses.^[5] (After a break): And after Ogygus, on account of the vast destruction caused by the flood, the present land of Attica remained without a king till the time of Cecrops, 189 years.^[6] Philochorus, however, affirms that Ogygus, Actæus, or whatever other fictitious name is adduced, never existed. (After another break): From Ogygus to Cyrus, as from Moses to his time, are 1235 years.

Footnotes

1. In the same, p. 148, al. 118, from the Third Book of the Chron. of Africanus.
2. συντάγματος.
3. Others write Ogyges. Josephus (in Apionem), Euseb. (de Præpar.). Tatian [vol. ii. p. 81], Clemens [not so, vol. ii. p. 324], and others write Ogygus.
4. The text is, ὃς τοῦ πρωτοῦ κατακλυσμοῦ γέγονεν ἑπώνυμος. The word ἑπώνυμος is susceptible of two meanings, either “taking the name from” or “giving the name to.” ᾽Ωγυγια κακα was a proverbial expression for primeval ills.
5. The text is here, κατὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον τοῦ λαοῦ μετὰ Μωυσέως ἔξοδον γενέσθαι, for which we may read κατὰ τὴν ἑξ Αἱγυπτου, etc.
6. ῞Ωγυγον ᾽Ακταῖον ἢ τὰ πλασσόμενα τῶν ὀνομάτων. Compare xiii. 6, where we have τὸν γὰρ μετὰ ῞Ωγυγον ᾽Ακταῖον, etc.