_Cadmus_ lived in the time of, or very little after _Hercules_. Tho’ the _Parian_ marble is an invaluable monument, yet ’tis not an infallible one. If the learned _Bentley_ finds it erring about _Stesichorus_, we must not depend on its _æra_ of _Cadmus_, who lived a thousand years before that stone was made. Nor is the authority of _Eusebius_’s chronology in this particular, greater. _Bochart_ holds him older than the builder of _Tyre_; _there_ perhaps he heightens his date a little too much.
To have a proper notion of the history of this great man, bishop _Cumberland_ shews us, that the _Horites_ or _Hivites_, sons of _Canaan_, i. e. the colony or people of _Cadmus_ son of _Agenor_, or _Canaan_, went out of the land of _Canaan_ about the same time that _Misraim_ or _Osiris_, son of _Cham_, went to plant _Egypt_. They went likewise into _Egypt_. They lived quietly there for some time, but war arising between the _Misraimites_ and the pastors, they retir’d back again, probably a little before the expulsion of the pastors. Some went to the north of _Canaan_, about mount _Hermon_ under _Libanus_; some remain’d in the more southern parts, more particularly call’d _Horites_, or _Avim_, or _Hivites_.
In _Gen._ xv. 18. when God made his great covenant with _Abraham_, he tells him, he will give him the land of the _Kenites_, and _Kenizzites_, and _Kadmonites_, and _Hittites_, and _Perizzites_, and _Rephaims_, _Amorites_, &c. By _Kadmonites_ he means the people of _Cadmus_ son of _Canaan_. But afterward, in all those places where these nations are recited, they are called _Hivites_; _Cadmus_ was likewise call’d _Hyas_, _Hivæus_: _Hyas_ or _Cadmus_, one or both, being honorary names, or names of consecration, as was the mode of that time. The same is to be said of _Melchizedec_, _Abimelech_, _Pharaoh_, and many more. About this time there was likewise _Hyas_ a son of _Atlas_.
The name of _Hermon_ is probably deriv’d from his wife _Hermione_, as a compliment to her. And of this mountain is that saying in _Psalm_ cxxxiii. 3. The psalmist draws an elegant comparison of the holy unction of _Aaron_ running from his head to his beard, and so down his garments, “like as the dew of _Hermon_ which falls on the hill of _Sion_.” A difficulty that gave St. _Augustin_ a great deal of trouble; but must needs be an absurd reading, and ought to be corrected _Sirion_ for _Sion_. _Sirion_ is a lower part of the high ground at the bottom of mount _Hermon_, as that lies under the elated crest of _Libanus_. _Psal._ xxix. 6. “_Libanon_ also, and _Sirion_, like a young unicorn.” A mountain not a little remarkable, since we read, _Deut._ iii. 9. “which _Hermon_ the _Sidonians_ call _Sirion_, and the _Amorites_ call it _Shenir_;” _Hermon_ and _Sirion_ being parts of mount _Libanon_.