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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of An Account of Egypt, by Herodotus
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: An Account of Egypt
+
+Author: Herodotus
+
+Translator: G. C. Macaulay
+
+Release Date: February 25, 2006 [EBook #2131]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by John Bickers; Dagny; David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT
+
+By Herodotus
+
+
+Translated By G. C. Macaulay
+
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+HERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus, on the southwest coast of Asia
+Minor, in the early part of the fifth century, B. C. Of his life we know
+almost nothing, except that he spent much of it traveling, to collect
+the material for his writings, and that he finally settled down at
+Thurii, in southern Italy, where his great work was composed. He died in
+424 B. C.
+
+The subject of the history of Herodotus is the struggle between the
+Greeks and the barbarians, which he brings down to the battle of Mycale
+in 479 B. C. The work, as we have it, is divided into nine books,
+named after the nine Muses, but this division is probably due to the
+Alexandrine grammarians. His information he gathered mainly from oral
+sources, as he traveled through Asia Minor, down into Egypt, round
+the Black Sea, and into various parts of Greece and the neighboring
+countries. The chronological narrative halts from time to time to give
+opportunity for descriptions of the country, the people, and their
+customs and previous history; and the political account is constantly
+varied by rare tales and wonders.
+
+Among these descriptions of countries the most fascinating to the
+modern, as it was to the ancient, reader is his account of the marvels
+of the land of Egypt. From the priests at Memphis, Heliopolis, and the
+Egyptian Thebes he learned what he reports of the size of the country,
+the wonders of the Nile, the ceremonies of their religion, the
+sacredness of their animals. He tells also of the strange ways of the
+crocodile and of that marvelous bird, the Phoenix; of dress and funerals
+and embalming; of the eating of lotos and papyrus; of the pyramids and
+the great labyrinth; of their kings and queens and courtesans.
+
+Yet Herodotus is not a mere teller of strange tales. However credulous
+he may appear to a modern judgment, he takes care to keep separate what
+he knows by his own observation from what he has merely inferred and
+from what he has been told. He is candid about acknowledging ignorance,
+and when versions differ he gives both. Thus the modern scientific
+historian, with other means of corroboration, can sometimes learn from
+Herodotus more than Herodotus himself knew.
+
+There is abundant evidence, too, that Herodotus had a philosophy of
+history. The unity which marks his work is due not only to the strong
+Greek national feeling running through it, the feeling that rises to a
+height in such passages as the descriptions of the battles of Marathon,
+Thermopylae, and Salamis, but also to his profound belief in Fate and
+in Nemesis. To his belief in Fate is due the frequent quoting of oracles
+and their fulfilment, the frequent references to things foreordained by
+Providence. The working of Nemesis he finds in the disasters that befall
+men and nations whose towering prosperity awakens the jealousy of the
+gods. The final overthrow of the Persians, which forms his main theme,
+is only one specially conspicuous example of the operation of this force
+from which human life can never free itself.
+
+But, above all, he is the father of story-tellers. "Herodotus is such
+simple and delightful reading," says Jevons; "he is so unaffected and
+entertaining, his story flows so naturally and with such ease that
+we have a difficulty in bearing in mind that, over and above the hard
+writing which goes to make easy reading there is a perpetual marvel in
+the work of Herodotus. It is the first artistic work in prose that Greek
+literature produced. This prose work, which for pure literary merit no
+subsequent work has surpassed, than which later generations, after
+using the pen for centuries, have produced no prose more easy or more
+readable, this was the first of histories and of literary prose."
+
+
+
+
+
+AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT
+
+BY HERODOTUS
+
+
+
+
+BEING THE SECOND BOOK OF HIS HISTORIES CALLED EUTERPE
+
+
+When Cyrus had brought his life to an end, Cambyses received the royal
+power in succession, being the son of Cyrus and of Cassandane the
+daughter of Pharnaspes, for whose death, which came about before his
+own, Cyrus had made great mourning himself and also had proclaimed to
+all those over whom he bore rule that they should make mourning for her:
+Cambyses, I say, being the son of this woman and of Cyrus, regarded
+the Ionians and Aiolians as slaves inherited from his father; and he
+proceeded to march an army against Egypt, taking with him as helpers not
+only other nations of which he was ruler, but also those of the Hellenes
+over whom he had power besides.
+
+
+Now the Egyptians, before the time when Psammetichos became king over
+them, were wont to suppose that they had come into being first of all
+men; but since the time when Psammetichos having become king desired to
+know what men had come into being first, they suppose that the Phrygians
+came into being before themselves, but they themselves before all other
+men. Now Psammetichos, when he was not able by inquiry to find out any
+means of knowing who had come into being first of all men, contrived a
+device of the following kind:--Taking two newborn children belonging to
+persons of the common sort he gave them to a shepherd to bring up at
+the place where his flocks were, with a manner of bringing up such as
+I shall say, charging him namely that no man should utter any word in
+their presence, and that they should be placed by themselves in a room
+where none might come, and at the proper time he should bring them
+she-goats, and when he had satisfied them with milk he should do for
+them whatever else was needed. These things Psammetichos did and gave
+him this charge wishing to hear what word the children would let break
+forth first after they had ceased from wailings without sense. And
+accordingly it came to pass; for after a space of two years had gone by,
+during which the shepherd went on acting so, at length, when he opened
+the door and entered, both children fell before him in entreaty and
+uttered the word _bekos_, stretching forth their hands. At first when
+he heard this the shepherd kept silence; but since this word was often
+repeated, as he visited them constantly and attended to them, at last
+he declared the matter to his master, and at his command he brought the
+children before his face. Then Psammetichos having himself also heard
+it, began to inquire what nation of men named anything _bekos_, and
+inquiring he found that the Phrygians had this name for bread. In this
+manner and guided by an indication such as this, the Egyptians were
+brought to allow that the Phrygians were a more ancient people than
+themselves. That so it came to pass I heard from the priests of that
+Hephaistos who dwells at Memphis; but the Hellenes relate, besides many
+other idle tales, that Psammetichos cut out the tongues of certain women
+and then caused the children to live with these women.
+
+With regard then to the rearing of the children they related so much as
+I have said: and I heard also other things at Memphis when I had speech
+with the priests of Hephaistos. Moreover I visited both Thebes and
+Heliopolis for this very cause, namely because I wished to know whether
+the priests at these places would agree in their accounts with those at
+Memphis; for the men of Heliopolis are said to be the most learned in
+records of the Egyptians. Those of their narrations which I heard with
+regard to the gods I am not earnest to relate in full, but I shall name
+them only because I consider that all men are equally ignorant of these
+matters: and whatever things of them I may record I shall record only
+because I am compelled by the course of the story. But as to those
+matters which concern men, the priests agreed with one another in saying
+that the Egyptians were the first of all men on earth to find out the
+course of the year, having divided the seasons into twelve parts to make
+up the whole; and this they said they found out from the stars: and they
+reckon to this extent more wisely than the Hellenes, as it seems to
+me, inasmuch as the Hellenes throw in an intercalated month every other
+year, to make the seasons right, whereas the Egyptians, reckoning the
+twelve months at thirty days each, bring in also every year five days
+beyond number, and thus the circle of their season is completed and
+comes round to the same point whence it set out. They said moreover that
+the Egyptians were the first who brought into use appellations for the
+twelve gods and the Hellenes took up the use from them; and that they
+were the first who assigned altars and images and temples to the gods,
+and who engraved figures on stones; and with regard to the greater
+number of these things they showed me by actual facts that they had
+happened so. They said also that the first man who became king of Egypt
+was Min; and that in his time all Egypt except the district of Thebes
+was a swamp, and none of the regions were then above water which now lie
+below the lake of Moiris, to which lake it is a voyage of seven days
+up the river from the sea: and I thought that they said well about the
+land; for it is manifest in truth even to a person who has not heard it
+beforehand but has only seen, at least if he have understanding, that
+the Egypt to which the Hellenes come in ships is a land which has been
+won by the Egyptians as an addition, and that it is a gift of the river:
+moreover the regions which lie above this lake also for a distance of
+three days' sail, about which they did not go on to say anything of
+this kind, are nevertheless another instance of the same thing: for the
+nature of the land of Egypt is as follows:--First when you are still
+approaching it in a ship and are distant a day's run from the land, if
+you let down a sounding-line you will bring up mud and you will find
+yourself in eleven fathoms. This then so far shows that there is a
+silting forward of the land. Then secondly, as to Egypt itself, the
+extent of it along the sea is sixty _schoines_, according to our
+definition of Egypt as extending from the Gulf of Plinthine to the
+Serbonian lake, along which stretches Mount Casion; from this lake then
+the sixty _schoines_ are reckoned: for those of men who are poor in
+land have their country measured by fathoms, those who are less poor by
+furlongs, those who have much land by parasangs, and those who have
+land in very great abundance by _schoines_: now the parasang is equal
+to thirty furlongs, and each _schoine_, which is an Egyptian measure, is
+equal to sixty furlongs. So there would be an extent of three thousand
+six hundred furlongs for the coast-land of Egypt. From thence and as
+far as Heliopolis inland Egypt is broad, and the land is all flat and
+without springs of water and formed of mud: and the road as one goes
+inland from the sea to Heliopolis is about the same in length as that
+which leads from the altar of the twelve gods at Athens to Pisa and the
+temple of Olympian Zeus: reckoning up you would find the difference
+very small by which these roads fail of being equal in length, not more
+indeed than fifteen furlongs; for the road from Athens to Pisa wants
+fifteen furlongs of being fifteen hundred, while the road to Heliopolis
+from the sea reaches that number completely. From Heliopolis however,
+as you go up, Egypt is narrow; for on the one side a mountain-range
+belonging to Arabia stretches along by the side of it, going in a
+direction from the North towards the midday and the South Wind, tending
+upwards without a break to that which is called the Erythraian Sea, in
+which range are the stone-quarries which were used in cutting stone for
+the pyramids at Memphis. On this side then the mountain ends where I
+have said, and then takes a turn back; and where it is widest, as I was
+informed, it is a journey of two months across from East to West;
+and the borders of it which turn towards the East are said to produce
+frankincense. Such then is the nature of this mountain-range; and on the
+side of Egypt towards Libya another range extends, rocky and enveloped
+in sand: in this are the pyramids, and it runs in the same direction
+as those parts of the Arabian mountains which go towards the midday. So
+then, I say, from Heliopolis the land has no longer a great extent so
+far as it belongs to Egypt, and for about four days' sail up the
+river Egypt properly so called is narrow: and the space between the
+mountain-ranges which have been mentioned is plain-land, but where it is
+narrowest it did not seem to me to exceed two hundred furlongs from the
+Arabian mountains to those which are called the Libyan. After this again
+Egypt is broad. Such is the nature of this land: and from Heliopolis to
+Thebes is a voyage up the river of nine days, and the distance of the
+journey in furlongs is four thousand eight hundred and sixty, the number
+of _schoines_ being eighty-one. If these measures of Egypt in furlongs
+be put together, the result is as follows:--I have already before this
+shown that the distance along the sea amounts to three thousand six
+hundred furlongs, and I will now declare what the distance is inland
+from the sea to Thebes, namely six thousand one hundred and twenty
+furlongs: and again the distance from Thebes to the city called
+Elephantine is one thousand eight hundred furlongs.
+
+Of this land then, concerning which I have spoken, it seemed to myself
+also, according as the priests said, that the greater part had been won
+as an addition by the Egyptians; for it was evident to me that the
+space between the aforesaid mountain-ranges, which lie above the city
+of Memphis, once was a gulf of the sea, like the regions about Ilion and
+Teuthrania and Ephesos and the plain of the Maiander, if it be permitted
+to compare small things with great; and small these are in comparison,
+for of the rivers which heaped up the soil in those regions none is
+worthy to be compared in volume with a single one of the mouths of the
+Nile, which has five mouths. Moreover there are other rivers also, not
+in size at all equal to the Nile, which have performed great feats; of
+which I can mention the names of several, and especially the Acheloos,
+which flowing through Acarnania and so issuing out into the sea has
+already made half of the Echinades from islands into mainland. Now there
+is in the land of Arabia, not far from Egypt, a gulf of the sea running
+in from that which is called the Erythraian Sea, very long and narrow,
+as I am about to tell. With respect to the length of the voyage along
+it, one who set out from the innermost point to sail out through it into
+the open sea, would spend forty days upon the voyage, using oars; and
+with respect to breadth, where the gulf is broadest it is half a day's
+sail across: and there is in it an ebb and flow of tide every day. Just
+such another gulf I suppose that Egypt was, and that the one ran in
+towards Ethiopia from the Northern Sea, and the other, the Arabian,
+of which I am about to speak, tended from the South towards Syria,
+the gulfs boring in so as almost to meet at their extreme points, and
+passing by one another with but a small space left between. If then the
+stream of the Nile should turn aside into this Arabian gulf, what would
+hinder that gulf from being filled up with silt as the river continued
+to flow, at all events within a period of twenty thousand years? indeed
+for my part I am of the opinion that it would be filled up even within
+ten thousand years. How, then, in all the time that has elapsed before I
+came into being should not a gulf be filled up even of much greater size
+than this by a river so great and so active? As regards Egypt then, I
+both believe those who say that things are so, and for myself also I am
+strongly of opinion that they are so; because I have observed that Egypt
+runs out into the sea further than the adjoining land, and that shells
+are found upon the mountains of it, and an efflorescence of salt forms
+upon the surface, so that even the pyramids are being eaten away by it,
+and moreover that of all the mountains of Egypt, the range which lies
+above Memphis is the only one which has sand: besides which I notice
+that Egypt resembles neither the land of Arabia, which borders upon it,
+nor Libya, nor yet Syria (for they are Syrians who dwell in the parts
+of Arabia lying along the sea), but that it has soil which is black and
+easily breaks up, seeing that it is in truth mud and silt brought down
+from Ethiopia by the river: but the soil of Libya, we know, is reddish
+in colour and rather sandy, while that of Arabia and Syria is somewhat
+clayey and rocky. The priests also gave me a strong proof concerning
+this land as follows, namely that in the reign of king Moiris, whenever
+the river reached a height of at least eight cubits it watered Egypt
+below Memphis; and not yet nine hundred years had gone by since the
+death of Moiris, when I heard these things from the priests: now
+however, unless the river rises to sixteen cubits, or fifteen at the
+least, it does not go over the land. I think too that those Egyptians
+who dwell below the lake of Moiris and especially in that region which
+is called the Delta, if that land continues to grow in height according
+to this proportion and to increase similarly in extent, will suffer for
+all remaining time, from the Nile not overflowing their land, that same
+thing which they themselves said that the Hellenes would at some time
+suffer: for hearing that the whole land of the Hellenes has rain and is
+not watered by rivers as theirs is, they said that the Hellenes would at
+some time be disappointed of a great hope and would suffer the ills of
+famine. This saying means that if the god shall not send them rain, but
+shall allow drought to prevail for a long time, the Hellenes will be
+destroyed by hunger; for they have in fact no other supply of water
+to save them except from Zeus alone. This has been rightly said by
+the Egyptians with reference to the Hellenes: but now let me tell
+how matters are with the Egyptians themselves in their turn. If, in
+accordance with what I before said, their land below Memphis (for
+this is that which is increasing) shall continue to increase in height
+according to the same proportion as in the past time, assuredly those
+Egyptians who dwell here will suffer famine, if their land shall not
+have rain nor the river be able to go over their fields. It is certain
+however that now they gather in fruit from the earth with less labour
+than any other men and also with less than the other Egyptians; for they
+have no labour in breaking up furrows with a plough nor in hoeing nor in
+any other of those labours which other men have about a crop; but when
+the river has come up of itself and watered their fields and after
+watering has left them again, then each man sows his own field and turns
+into it swine, and when he has trodden the seed into the ground by
+means of the swine, after that he waits for the harvest, and when he has
+threshed the corn by means of the swine, then he gathers it in.
+
+If we desire to follow the opinions of the Ionians as regards Egypt, who
+say that the Delta alone is Egypt, reckoning its sea-coast to be from
+the watch-tower called of Perseus to the fish-curing houses of Pelusion,
+a distance of forty _schoines_, and counting it to extend inland as far
+as the city of Kercasoros, where the Nile divides and runs to Pelusion
+and Canobos, while as for the rest of Egypt, they assign it partly to
+Libya and partly to Arabia,--if, I say, we should follow this account,
+we should thereby declare that in former times the Egyptians had no land
+to live in; for, as we have seen, their Delta at any rate is alluvial,
+and has appeared (so to speak) lately, as the Egyptians themselves say
+and as my opinion is. If then at the first there was no land for them
+to live in, why did they waste their labour to prove that they had come
+into being before all other men? They needed not to have made trial of
+the children to see what language they would first utter. However I am
+not of the opinion that the Egyptians came into being at the same time
+as that which is called by the Ionians the Delta, but that they existed
+always ever since the human race came into being, and that as their land
+advanced forwards, many of them were left in their first abodes and many
+came down gradually to the lower parts. At least it is certain that in
+old times Thebes had the name of Egypt, and of this the circumference
+measures six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs.
+
+If then we judge aright of these matters, the opinion of the Ionians
+about Egypt is not sound: but if the judgment of the Ionians is right, I
+declare that neither the Hellenes nor the Ionians themselves know how
+to reckon since they say that the whole earth is made up of three
+divisions, Europe, Asia, and Libya: for they ought to count in addition
+to these the Delta of Egypt, since it belongs neither to Asia nor to
+Libya; for at least it cannot be the river Nile by this reckoning which
+divides Asia from Libya, but the Nile is cleft at the point of this
+Delta so as to flow round it, and the result is that this land would
+come between Asia and Libya.
+
+We dismiss then our opinion of the Ionians, and express a judgment
+of our own on this matter also, that Egypt is all that land which is
+inhabited by Egyptians, just as Kilikia is that which is inhabited by
+Kilikians and Assyria that which is inhabited by Assyrians, and we
+know of no boundary properly speaking between Asia and Libya except
+the borders of Egypt. If however we shall adopt the opinion which is
+commonly held by the Hellenes, we shall suppose that the whole of Egypt,
+beginning from the Cataract and the city of Elephantine, is divided into
+two parts and that it thus partakes of both the names, since one side
+will thus belong to Libya and the other to Asia; for the Nile from the
+Cataract onwards flows to the sea cutting Egypt through in the midst;
+and as far as the city of Kercasoros the Nile flows in one single
+stream, but from this city onwards it is parted into three ways; and
+one, which is called the Pelusian mouth, turns towards the East; the
+second of the ways goes towards the West, and this is called the Canobic
+mouth; but that one of the ways which is straight runs thus,--when the
+river in its course downwards comes to the point of the Delta, then it
+cuts the Delta through the midst and so issues out to the sea. In this
+we have a portion of the water of the river which is not the smallest
+nor the least famous, and it is called the Sebennytic mouth. There are
+also two other mouths which part off from the Sebennytic and go to
+the sea, and these are called, one the Saitic, the other the Mendesian
+mouth. The Bolbitinitic, and Bucolic mouths, on the other hand, are
+not natural but made by digging. Moreover also the answer given by the
+Oracle of Ammon bears witness in support of my opinion that Egypt is of
+the extent which I declare it to be in my account; and of this answer
+I heard after I had formed my own opinion about Egypt. For those of the
+city of Marea and of Apis, dwelling in the parts of Egypt which border
+on Libya, being of opinion themselves that they were Libyans and not
+Egyptians, and also being burdened by the rules of religious service,
+because they desired not to be debarred from the use of cows' flesh,
+sent to Ammon saying that they had nought in common with the Egyptians,
+for they dwelt outside the Delta and agreed with them in nothing;
+and they said they desired that it might be lawful for them to eat
+everything without distinction. The god however did not permit them to
+do so, but said that that land was Egypt where the Nile came over and
+watered, and that those were Egyptians who dwelling below the city of
+Elephantine drank of that river. Thus was it answered to them by the
+Oracle about this: and the Nile, when it is in flood, goes over not only
+the Delta but also of the land which is called Libyan and of that which
+is called Arabian sometimes as much as two days' journey on each side,
+and at times even more than this or at times less.
+
+As regards the nature of the river, neither from the priests nor
+yet from any other man was I able to obtain any knowledge: and I was
+desirous especially to learn from them about these matters, namely
+why the Nile comes down increasing in volume from the summer solstice
+onwards for a hundred days, and then, when it has reached the number of
+these days, turns and goes back, failing in its stream, so that through
+the whole winter season it continues to be low, and until the summer
+solstice returns. Of none of these things was I able to receive any
+account from the Egyptians, when I inquired of them what power the Nile
+has whereby it is of a nature opposite to that of all other rivers. And
+I made inquiry, desiring to know both this which I say and also why,
+unlike all other rivers, it does not give rise to any breezes blowing
+from it. However some of the Hellenes who desired to gain distinction
+for cleverness have given an account of this water in three different
+ways: two of these I do not think it worth while even to speak of except
+only to indicate their nature; of which the one says that the Etesian
+Winds are the cause that makes the river rise, by preventing the Nile
+from flowing out into the sea. But often the Etesian Winds fail and yet
+the Nile does the same work as it is wont to do; and moreover, if these
+were the cause, all the other rivers also which flow in a direction
+opposed to the Etesian Winds ought to have been affected in the same way
+as the Nile, and even more, in as much as they are smaller and present
+to them a feebler flow of streams: but there are many of these rivers in
+Syria and many also in Libya, and they are affected in no such manner as
+the Nile. The second way shows more ignorance than that which has been
+mentioned, and it is more marvellous to tell; for it says that the river
+produces these effects because it flows from the Ocean, and that the
+Ocean flows round the whole earth. The third of the ways is much the
+most specious, but nevertheless it is the most mistaken of all: for
+indeed this way has no more truth in it than the rest, alleging as it
+does that the Nile flows from melting snow; whereas it flows out of
+Libya through the midst of the Ethiopians, and so comes out into Egypt.
+How then should it flow from snow, when it flows from the hottest parts
+to those which are cooler? And indeed most of the facts are such as
+to convince a man (one at least who is capable of reasoning about such
+matters), that it is not at all likely that it flows from snow. The
+first and greatest evidence is afforded by the winds, which blow hot
+from these regions; the second is that the land is rainless always and
+without frost, whereas after snow has fallen rain must necessarily come
+within five days, so that if it snowed in those parts rain would fall
+there; the third evidence is afforded by the people dwelling there, who
+are of a black colour by reason of the burning heat. Moreover kites and
+swallows remain there through the year and do not leave the land; and
+cranes flying from the cold weather which comes on in the region of
+Scythia come regularly to these parts for wintering: if then it snowed
+ever so little in that land through which the Nile flows and in which
+it has its rise, none of these things would take place, as necessity
+compels us to admit. As for him who talked about the Ocean, he carried
+his tale into the region of the unknown, and so he need not be refuted;
+since I for my part know of no river Ocean existing, but I think that
+Homer or one of the poets who were before him invented the name and
+introduced it into his verse.
+
+If however after I have found fault with the opinions proposed, I am
+bound to declare an opinion of my own about the matters which are in
+doubt, I will tell what to my mind is the reason why the Nile increases
+in the summer. In the winter season the Sun, being driven away from his
+former path through the heaven by the stormy winds, comes to the upper
+parts of Libya. If one would set forth the matter in the shortest way,
+all has now been said; for whatever region this god approaches most and
+stands directly above, this it may reasonably be supposed is most in
+want of water, and its native streams of rivers are dried up most.
+However, to set it forth at greater length, thus it is:--the Sun passing
+in his course by the upper parts of Libya, does thus, that is to say,
+since at all times the air in those parts is clear and the country is
+warm, because there are no cold winds, in passing through it the Sun
+does just as he was wont to do in the summer, when going through the
+midst of the heaven, that is he draws to himself the water, and having
+drawn it he drives it away to the upper parts of the country, and the
+winds take it up and scattering it abroad melt it into rain; so it is
+natural that the winds which blow from this region, namely the South
+and South-west Winds, should be much the most rainy of all the winds. I
+think however that the Sun does not send away from himself all the water
+of the Nile of each year, but that also he lets some remain behind with
+himself. Then when the winter becomes milder, the Sun returns back again
+to the midst of the heaven, and from that time onwards he draws equally
+from all rivers; but in the meantime they flow in large volume, since
+water of rain mingles with them in great quantity, because their country
+receives rain then and is filled with torrent streams. In summer however
+they are weak, since not only the showers of rain fail them, but also
+they are drawn by the Sun. The Nile however, alone of all rivers, not
+having rain and being drawn by the Sun, naturally flows during this time
+of winter in much less than its proper volume, that is much less than in
+summer; for then it is drawn equally with all the other waters, but in
+winter it bears the burden alone. Thus I suppose the Sun to be the cause
+of these things. He also is the cause in my opinion that the air in
+these parts is dry, since he makes it so by scorching up his path
+through the heaven: thus summer prevails always in the upper parts of
+Libya. If however the station of the seasons had been changed, and where
+now in the heaven are placed the North Wind and winter, there was the
+station of the South Wind and of the midday, and where now is placed
+the South Wind, there was the North, if this had been so, the Sun being
+driven from the midst of the heaven by the winter and the North Wind
+would go to the upper parts of Europe, just as now he comes to the upper
+parts of Libya, and passing in his course throughout the whole of Europe
+I suppose he would do to the Ister that which he now works upon the
+Nile. As to the breeze, why none blows from the river, my opinion is
+that from very hot places it is not natural that anything should blow,
+and that a breeze is wont to blow from something cold.
+
+Let these matters then be as they are and as they were at the first: but
+as to the sources of the Nile, not one either of the Egyptians or of
+the Libyans or of the Hellenes, who came to speech with me, professed to
+know anything, except the scribe of the sacred treasury of Athene at the
+city of Sais in Egypt. To me however this man seemed not to be speaking
+seriously when he said that he had certain knowledge of it; and he said
+as follows, namely that there were two mountains of which the tops ran
+up to a sharp point, situated between the city of Syene, which is in
+the district of Thebes, and Elephantine, and the names of the mountains
+were, of the one Crophi and of the other Mophi. From the middle between
+these mountains flowed (he said) the sources of the Nile, which were
+fathomless in depth, and half of the water flowed to Egypt and towards
+the North Wind, the other half to Ethiopia and the South Wind. As for
+the fathomless depth of the source, he said that Psammetichos king of
+Egypt came to a trial of this matter; for he had a rope twisted of many
+thousand fathoms and let it down in this place, and it found no bottom.
+By this the scribe (if this which he told was really as he said) gave me
+to understand that there were certain strong eddies there and a backward
+flow, and that since the water dashed against the mountains, therefore
+the sounding-line could not come to any bottom when it was let down.
+From no other person was I able to learn anything about this matter;
+but for the rest I learnt so much as here follows by the most diligent
+inquiry; for I went myself as an eye-witness as far as the city of
+Elephantine and from that point onwards I gathered knowledge by report.
+From the city of Elephantine as one goes up the river there is country
+which slopes steeply; so that here one must attach ropes to the vessel
+on both sides, as one fastens an ox, and so make one's way onward;
+and if the rope break, the vessel is gone at once, carried away by the
+violence of the stream. Through this country it is a voyage of about
+four days in length, and in this part the Nile is winding like the river
+Maiander, and the distance amounts to twelve _schoines_, which one must
+traverse in this manner. Then you will come to a level plain, in which
+the Nile flows round an island named Tachompso. (Now in the regions
+above the Elephantine there dwell Ethiopians at once succeeding, who
+also occupy half of the island, and Egyptians the other half.) Adjoining
+this island there is a great lake, round which dwell Ethiopian nomad
+tribes; and when you have sailed through this you will come to the
+stream of the Nile again, which flows into this lake. After this you
+will disembark and make a journey by land of forty days; for in the Nile
+sharp rocks stand forth out of the water, and there are many reefs, by
+which it is not possible for a vessel to pass. Then after having passed
+through this country in the forty days which I have said, you will
+embark again in another vessel and sail for twelve days; and after this
+you will come to a great city called Meroe. This city is said to be
+the mother-city of all the other Ethiopians: and they who dwell in it
+reverence of the gods Zeus and Dionysos alone, and these they greatly
+honour; and they have an Oracle of Zeus established, and make warlike
+marches whensoever the god commands them by prophesyings and to
+whatsoever place he commands. Sailing from this city you will come to
+the "Deserters" in another period of time equal to that in which you
+came from Elephantine to the mother-city of the Ethiopians. Now the
+name of these "Deserters" is _Asmach_, and this word signifies, when
+translated into the tongue of the Hellenes, "those who stand on the left
+hand of the king." These were two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians
+of the warrior class, who revolted and went over to these Ethiopians for
+the following cause:--In the reign of Psammetichos garrisons were set,
+one towards the Ethiopians at the city of Elephantine, another towards
+the Arabians and Assyrians at Daphnai of Pelusion, and another towards
+Libya at Marea: and even in my own time the garrisons of the Persians
+too are ordered in the same manner as these were in the reign of
+Psammetichos, for both at Elephantine and at Daphnai the Persians have
+outposts. The Egyptians then of whom I speak had served as outposts for
+three years and no one relieved them from their guard; accordingly they
+took counsel together, and adopting a common plan they all in a body
+revolted from Psammetichos and set out for Ethiopia. Hearing this
+Psammetichos set forth in pursuit, and when he came up with them he
+entreated them much and endeavoured to persuade them not to desert the
+gods of their country and their children and wives: upon which it is
+said that one of them pointed to his privy member and said that wherever
+this was, there would they have both children and wives. When these came
+to Ethiopia they gave themselves over to the king of the Ethiopians; and
+he rewarded them as follows:--there were certain of the Ethiopians who
+had come to be at variance with him; and he bade them drive these out
+and dwell in their land. So since these men settled in the land of
+the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians have come to be of milder manners, from
+having learnt the customs of the Egyptians.
+
+The Nile then, besides the part of its course which is in Egypt, is
+known as far as a four months' journey by river and land: for that is
+the number of months which are found by reckoning to be spent in going
+from Elephantine to these "Deserters": and the river runs from the West
+and the setting of the sun. But what comes after that point no one can
+clearly say; for this land is desert by reason of the burning heat. This
+much however I heard from men of Kyrene, who told me that they had been
+to the Oracle of Ammon, and had come to speech with Etearchos king of
+the Ammonians: and it happened that after speaking of other matters they
+fell to discourse about the Nile and how no one knew the sources of it;
+and Etearchos said that once there came to him men of the Nasamonians
+(this is a Libyan race which dwells in the Syrtis, and also in the land
+to the East of the Syrtis reaching to no great distance), and when the
+Nasamonians came and were asked by him whether they were able to tell
+him anything more than he knew about the desert parts of Libya, they
+said that there had been among them certain sons of chief men, who were
+of unruly disposition; and these when they grew up to be men had devised
+various other extravagant things and also they had told off by lot five
+of themselves to go to see the desert parts of Libya and to try
+whether they could discover more than those who had previously explored
+furthest: for in those parts of Libya which are by the Northern Sea,
+beginning from Egypt and going as far as the headland of Soloeis, which
+is the extreme point of Libya, Libyans (and of them many races) extend
+along the whole coast, except so much as the Hellenes and Phenicians
+hold; but in the upper parts, which lie above the sea-coast and above
+those people whose land comes down to the sea, Libya is full of wild
+beasts; and in the parts above the land of wild beasts it is full of
+sand, terribly waterless and utterly desert. These young men then (said
+they), being sent out by their companions well furnished with supplies
+of water and provisions, went first through the inhabited country, and
+after they had passed through this they came to the country of wild
+beasts, and after this they passed through the desert, making their
+journey towards the West Wind; and having passed through a great tract
+of sand in many days, they saw at last trees growing in a level place;
+and having come up to them, they were beginning to pluck the fruit which
+was upon the trees: but as they began to pluck it, there came upon them
+small men, of less stature than men of the common size, and these seized
+them and carried them away; and neither could the Nasamonians understand
+anything of their speech nor could those who were carrying them off
+understand anything of the speech of the Nasamonians; and they led them
+(so it was said) through very great swamps, and after passing through
+these they came to a city in which all the men were in size like those
+who carried them off and in colour of skin black; and by the city ran
+a great river, which ran from the West towards the sunrising, and in it
+were seen crocodiles. Of the account given by Etearchos the Ammonian let
+so much suffice as is here said, except that, as the men of Kyrene told
+me, he alleged that the Nasamonians returned safe home, and that the
+people to whom they had come were all wizards. Now this river which ran
+by the city, Etearchos conjectured to be the Nile, and moreover reason
+compels us to think so; for the Nile flows from Libya and cuts Libya
+through in the midst, and as I conjecture, judging of what is not known
+by that which is evident to the view, it starts at a distance from its
+mouth equal to that of the Ister: for the river Ister begins from the
+Keltoi and the city of Pyrene and so runs that it divides Europe in the
+midst (now the Keltoi are outside the Pillars of Heracles and border
+upon the Kynesians, who dwell furthest towards the sunset of all those
+who have their dwelling in Europe): and the Ister ends, having its
+course through the whole of Europe, by flowing into the Euxine Sea at
+the place where the Milesians have their settlement of Istria. Now the
+Ister, since it flows through land which is inhabited, is known by
+the reports of many; but of the sources of the Nile no one can give an
+account, for the part of Libya through which it flows is uninhabited and
+desert. About its course however so much as it was possible to learn by
+the most diligent inquiry has been told; and it runs out into Egypt.
+Now Egypt lies nearly opposite to the mountain districts of Kilikia; and
+from thence to Sinope, which lies upon the Euxine Sea, is a journey in
+the same straight line of five days for a man without encumbrance; and
+Sinope lies opposite to the place where the Ister runs out into the sea:
+thus I think that the Nile passes through the whole of Libya and is of
+equal measure with the Ister.
+
+
+
+Of the Nile then let so much suffice as has been said. Of Egypt however
+I shall make my report at length, because it has wonders more in number
+than any other land, and works too it has to show as much as any land,
+which are beyond expression great: for this reason then more shall be
+said concerning it.
+
+The Egyptians in agreement with their climate, which is unlike any
+other, and with the river, which shows a nature different from all other
+rivers, established for themselves manners and customs in a way opposite
+to other men in almost all matters: for among them the women frequent
+the market and carry on trade, while the men remain at home and weave;
+and whereas others weave pushing the woof upwards, the Egyptians push
+it downwards: the men carry their burdens upon their heads and the
+women upon their shoulders: the women make water standing up and the
+men crouching down: they ease themselves in their houses and they eat
+without in the streets, alleging as reason for this that it is right
+to do secretly the things that are unseemly though necessary, but those
+which are not unseemly, in public: no woman is a minister either of male
+or female divinity, but men of all, both male and female: to support
+their parents the sons are in no way compelled, if they do not desire
+to do so, but the daughters are forced to do so, be they never so
+unwilling. The priests of the gods in other lands wear long hair, but
+in Egypt they shave their heads: among other men the custom is that in
+mourning those whom the matter concerns most nearly have their hair cut
+short, but the Egyptians, when deaths occur, let their hair grow long,
+both that on the head and that on the chin, having before been close
+shaven: other men have their daily living separated from beasts, but the
+Egyptians have theirs together with beasts: other men live on wheat and
+on barley, but to any one of the Egyptians who makes his living on these
+it is a great reproach; they make their bread of maize, which some call
+spelt: they knead dough with their feet and clay with their hands, with
+which also they gather up dung: and whereas other men, except such as
+have learnt otherwise from the Egyptians, have their members as nature
+made them, the Egyptians practice circumcision: as to garments, the men
+wear two each and the women but one: and whereas others make fast the
+rings and ropes of the sails outside the ship, the Egyptians do this
+inside: finally in the writing of characters and reckoning with pebbles,
+while the Hellenes carry the hand from the left to the right, the
+Egyptians do this from the right to the left; and doing so they say that
+they do it themselves rightwise and the Hellenes leftwise: and they use
+two kinds of characters for writing, of which the one kind is called
+sacred and the other common.
+
+They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard to
+this they have customs as follows:--they drink from cups of bronze and
+rinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they wear
+garments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a special
+point of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake of
+cleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely. The priests
+shave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice or
+any other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister to
+the gods; and the priests wear garments of linen only and sandals of
+papyrus, and any other garment they may not take nor other sandals;
+these wash themselves in cold water twice in a day and twice again in
+the night; and other religious services they perform (one may almost
+say) of infinite number. They enjoy also good things not a few, for they
+do not consume or spend anything of their own substance, but there is
+sacred bread baked for them and they have each great quantity of flesh
+of oxen and geese coming in to them each day, and also wine of grapes is
+given to them; but it is not permitted to them to taste of fish: beans
+moreover the Egyptians do not at all sow in their land, and those which
+they grow they neither eat raw nor boil for food; nay the priests do not
+endure even to look upon them, thinking this to be an unclean kind of
+pulse: and there is not one priest only for each of the gods but many,
+and of them one is chief-priest, and whenever a priest dies his son is
+appointed to his place.
+
+The males of the ox kind they consider to belong to Epaphos, and on
+account of him they test them in the following manner:--If the priest
+sees one single black hair upon the beast he counts it not clean for
+sacrifice; and one of the priests who is appointed for the purpose makes
+investigation of these matters, both when the beast is standing upright
+and when it is lying on its back, drawing out its tongue moreover, to
+see if it is clean in respect of the appointed signs, which I shall tell
+of in another part of the history: he looks also at the hairs of the
+tail to see if it has them growing in a natural manner; and if it
+be clean in respect of all these things, he marks it with a piece of
+papyrus, rolling this round the horns, and then when he has plastered
+sealing-earth over it he sets upon it the seal of his signet-ring, and
+after that they take the animal away. But for one who sacrifices a beast
+not sealed the penalty appointed is death. In this way then the beast
+is tested; and their appointed manner of sacrifice is as follows:--they
+lead the sealed beast to the altar where they happen to be sacrificing,
+and then kindle a fire: after that, having poured libations of wine over
+the altar so that it runs down upon the victim and having called upon
+the god, they cut its throat, and having cut its throat they sever the
+head from the body. The body then of the beast they flay, but upon the
+head they make many imprecations first, and then they who have a market
+and Hellenes sojourning among them for trade, these carry it to the
+market-place and sell it, while they who have no Hellenes among them
+cast it away into the river: and this is the form of imprecations which
+they utter upon the heads, praying that if any evil be about to befall
+either themselves who are offering sacrifice or the land of Egypt in
+general, it may come rather upon this head. Now as regards the heads of
+the beasts which are sacrificed and the pouring over them of the
+wine, all the Egyptians have the same customs equally for all their
+sacrifices; and by reason of this custom none of the Egyptians eat of
+the head either of this or of any other kind of animal: but the manner
+of disembowelling the victims and of burning them is appointed among
+them differently for different sacrifices; I shall speak however of the
+sacrifices to that goddess whom they regard as the greatest of all, and
+to whom they celebrate the greatest feast.--When they have flayed the
+bullock and made imprecation, they take out the whole of its lower
+entrails but leave in the body the upper entrails and the fat; and they
+sever from it the legs and the end of the loin and the shoulders and the
+neck: and this done, they fill the rest of the body of the animal with
+consecrated loaves and honey and raisins and figs and frankincense and
+myrrh and every other kind of spices, and having filled it with these
+they offer it, pouring over it great abundance of oil. They make their
+sacrifice after fasting, and while the offerings are being burnt, they
+all beat themselves for mourning, and when they have finished beating
+themselves they set forth as a feast that which they left unburnt of the
+sacrifice. The clean males then of the ox kind, both full-grown animals
+and calves, are sacrificed by all the Egyptians; the females however
+they may not sacrifice, but these are sacred to Isis; for the figure of
+Isis is in the form of a woman with cow's horns, just as the Hellenes
+present Io in pictures, and all the Egyptians without distinction
+reverence cows far more than any other kind of cattle; for which reason
+neither man nor woman of the Egyptian race would kiss a man who is a
+Hellene on the mouth, nor will they use a knife or roasting-spits or
+a caldron belonging to a Hellene, nor taste the flesh even of a clean
+animal if it has been cut with the knife of a Hellene. And the cattle of
+this kind which die they bury in the following manner:--the females they
+cast into the river, but the males they bury, each people in the suburb
+of their town, with one of the horns, or sometimes both, protruding to
+mark the place; and when the bodies have rotted away and the appointed
+time comes on, then to each city comes a boat from that which is called
+the island of Prosopitis (this is in the Delta, and the extent of its
+circuit is nine _schoines_). In this island of Prosopitis is situated,
+besides many other cities, that one from which the boats come to take up
+the bones of the oxen, and the name of the city is Atarbechis, and in
+it there is set up a holy temple of Aphrodite. From this city many go
+abroad in various directions, some to one city and others to another,
+and when they have dug up the bones of the oxen they carry them off, and
+coming together they bury them in one single place. In the same manner
+as they bury the oxen they bury also their other cattle when they die;
+for about them also they have the same law laid down, and these also
+they abstain from killing.
+
+Now all who have a temple set up to the Theban Zeus or who are of the
+district of Thebes, these, I say, all sacrifice goats and abstain from
+sheep: for not all the Egyptians equally reverence the same gods,
+except only Isis and Osiris (who they say is Dionysos), these they all
+reverence alike: but they who have a temple of Mendes or belong to the
+Mendesian district, these abstain from goats and sacrifice sheep. Now
+the men of Thebes and those who after their example abstain from sheep,
+say that this custom was established among them for the cause which
+follows:--Heracles (they say) had an earnest desire to see Zeus, and
+Zeus did not desire to be seen of him; and at last when Heracles was
+urgent in entreaty Zeus contrived this device, that is to say, he flayed
+a ram and held in front of him the head of the ram which he had cut off,
+and he put on over him the fleece and then showed himself to him. Hence
+the Egyptians make the image of Zeus with the face of a ram; and the
+Ammonians do so also after their example, being settlers both from
+the Egyptians and from the Ethiopians, and using a language which is a
+medley of both tongues: and in my opinion it is from this god that the
+Egyptians call Zeus _Amun_. The Thebans then do not sacrifice rams but
+hold them sacred for this reason; on one day however in the year, on the
+feast of Zeus, they cut up in the same manner and flay one single ram
+and cover with its skin the image of Zeus, and then they bring up to
+it another image of Heracles. This done, all who are in the temple beat
+themselves in lamentation for the ram, and then they bury it in a sacred
+tomb.
+
+About Heracles I heard the account given that he was of the number of
+the twelve gods; but of the other Heracles whom the Hellenes know I was
+not able to hear in any part of Egypt: and moreover to prove that the
+Egyptians did not take the name of Heracles from the Hellenes, but
+rather the Hellenes from the Egyptians,--that is to say those of the
+Hellenes who gave the name Heracles to the son of Amphitryon,--of that,
+I say, besides many other evidences there is chiefly this, namely that
+the parents of this Heracles, Amphitryon and Alcmene, were both of Egypt
+by descent, and also that the Egyptians say that they do not know
+the names either of Poseidon or of the Dioscuroi, nor have these been
+accepted by them as gods among the other gods; whereas if they had
+received from the Hellenes the name of any divinity, they would
+naturally have preserved the memory of these most of all, assuming that
+in those times as now some of the Hellenes were wont to make voyages
+and were seafaring folk, as I suppose and as my judgment compels me to
+think; so that the Egyptians would have learnt the names of these gods
+even more than that of Heracles. In fact however Heracles is a very
+ancient Egyptian god; and (as they say themselves) it is seventeen
+thousand years to the beginning of the reign of Amasis from the time
+when the twelve gods, of whom they count that Heracles is one, were
+begotten of the eight gods. I moreover, desiring to know something
+certain of these matters so far as might be, made a voyage also to
+Tyre of Phenicia, hearing that in that place there was a holy temple
+of Heracles; and I saw that it was richly furnished with many votive
+offerings besides, and especially there were in it two pillars, the one
+of pure gold and the other of an emerald stone of such size as to shine
+by night: and having come to speech with the priests of the god, I asked
+them how long a time it was since their temple had been set up: and
+these also I found to be at variance with the Hellenes, for they said
+that at the same time when Tyre was founded, the temple of the god also
+had been set up, and that it was a period of two thousand three hundred
+years since their people began to dwell at Tyre. I saw also at Tyre
+another temple of Heracles, with the surname Thasian; and I came
+to Thasos also and there I found a temple of Heracles set up by the
+Phenicians, who had sailed out to seek for Europa and had colonised
+Thasos; and these things happened full five generations of men before
+Heracles the son of Amphitryon was born in Hellas. So then my inquiries
+show clearly that Heracles is an ancient god, and those of the Hellenes
+seem to me to act most rightly who have two temples of Heracles set
+up, and who sacrifice to the one as an immortal god and with the
+title Olympian, and make offerings of the dead to the other as a hero.
+Moreover, besides many other stories which the Hellenes tell without
+due consideration, this tale is especially foolish which they tell about
+Heracles, namely that when he came to Egypt, the Egyptians put on him
+wreaths and led him forth in procession to sacrifice him to Zeus; and he
+for some time kept quiet, but when they were beginning the sacrifice of
+him at the altar, he betook himself to prowess and slew them all. I for
+my part am of opinion that the Hellenes when they tell this tale are
+altogether without knowledge of the nature and customs of the Egyptians;
+for how should they for whom it is not lawful to sacrifice even beasts,
+except swine and the males of oxen and calves (such of them as are
+clean) and geese, how should these sacrifice human beings? Besides this,
+how is it in nature possible that Heracles, being one person only and
+moreover a man (as they assert), should slay many myriads? Having said
+so much of these matters, we pray that we may have grace from both the
+gods and the heroes for our speech.
+
+Now the reason why those of the Egyptians whom I have mentioned do not
+sacrifice goats, female or male, is this:--the Mendesians count Pan to
+be one of the eight gods (now these eight gods they say came into being
+before the twelve gods), and the painters and image-makers represent in
+painting and in sculpture the figure of Pan, just as the Hellenes do,
+with goat's face and legs, not supposing him to be really like this but
+to resemble the other gods; the cause however why they represent him in
+this form I prefer not to say. The Mendesians then reverence all goats
+and the males more than the females (and the goatherds too have
+greater honour than other herdsmen), but of the goats one especially
+is reverenced, and when he dies there is great mourning in all the
+Mendesian district: and both the goat and Pan are called in the Egyptian
+tongue _Mendes_. Moreover in my lifetime there happened in that district
+this marvel, that is to say a he-goat had intercourse with a woman
+publicly, and this was so done that all men might have evidence of it.
+
+The pig is accounted by the Egyptians an abominable animal; and first,
+if any of them in passing by touch a pig, he goes into the river and
+dips himself forthwith in the water together with his garments; and then
+too swineherds, though they may be native Egyptians, unlike all others,
+do not enter any of the temples in Egypt, nor is anyone willing to give
+his daughter in marriage to one of them or to take a wife from among
+them; but the swineherds both give in marriage to one another and take
+from one another. Now to the other gods the Egyptians do not think it
+right to sacrifice swine; but to the Moon and to Dionysos alone at the
+same time and on the same full-moon they sacrifice swine, and then eat
+their flesh: and as to the reason why, when they abominate swine at all
+their other feasts, they sacrifice them at this, there is a story told
+by the Egyptians; and this story I know, but it is not a seemly one for
+me to tell. Now the sacrifice of the swine to the Moon is performed as
+follows:--when the priest has slain the victim, he puts together the
+end of the tail and the spleen and the caul, and covers them up with the
+whole of the fat of the animal which is about the paunch, and then he
+offers them with fire; and the rest of the flesh they eat on that day of
+full moon upon which they have held sacrifice, but on any day after this
+they will not taste of it: the poor however among them by reason of the
+scantiness of their means shape pigs of dough and having baked them they
+offer these as a sacrifice. Then for Dionysos on the eve of the festival
+each one kills a pig by cutting its throat before his own doors, and
+after that he gives the pig to the swineherd who sold it to him, to
+carry away again; and the rest of the feast of Dionysos is celebrated
+by the Egyptians in the same way as by the Hellenes in almost all things
+except choral dances, but instead of the _phallos_ they have invented
+another contrivance, namely figures of about a cubit in height worked
+by strings, which women carry about the villages, with the privy member
+made to move and not much less in size than the rest of the body: and a
+flute goes before and they follow singing the praises of Dionysos. As
+to the reason why the figure has this member larger than is natural and
+moves it, though it moves no other part of the body, about this there is
+a sacred story told. Now I think that Melampus the son of Amytheon was
+not without knowledge of these rites of sacrifice, but was acquainted
+with them: for Melampus is he who first set forth to the Hellenes the
+name of Dionysos and the manner of sacrifice and the procession of the
+_phallos_. Strictly speaking indeed, he when he made it known did not
+take in the whole, but those wise men who came after him made it known
+more at large. Melampus then is he who taught of the _phallos_ which is
+carried in procession for Dionysos, and from him the Hellenes learnt to
+do that which they do. I say then that Melampus being a man of ability
+contrived for himself an art of divination, and having learnt from Egypt
+he taught the Hellenes many things, and among them those that concern
+Dionysos, making changes in some few points of them: for I shall not say
+that that which is done in worship of the god in Egypt came accidentally
+to be the same with that which is done among the Hellenes, for then
+these rites would have been in character with the Hellenic worship and
+not lately brought in; nor certainly shall I say that the Egyptians took
+from the Hellenes either this or any other customary observance: matters
+concerning Dionysos from Cadmos the Tyrian and from those who came with
+him from Phenicia to the land which we now call Boeotia.
+
+Moreover the naming of almost all the gods has come to Hellas from
+Egypt: for that it has come from the Barbarians I find by inquiry is
+true, and I am of opinion that most probably it has come from Egypt,
+because, except in the case of Poseidon and the Dioscuroi (in accordance
+with that which I have said before), and also of Hera and Hestia and
+Themis and the Charites and Nereids, the Egyptians say themselves: but
+as for the gods whose names they profess that they do not know, these I
+think received their naming from the Pelasgians, except Poiseidon;
+but about this god the Hellenes learnt from the Libyans, for no people
+except the Libyans have had the name of Poseidon from the first and have
+paid honour to this god always. Nor, it may be added, have the Egyptians
+any custom of worshipping heroes. These observances then, and others
+besides these which I shall mention, the Hellenes have adopted from
+the Egyptians; but to make, as they do the images of Hermes with
+the _phallos_ they have learnt not from the Egyptians but from the
+Pelasgians, the custom having been received by the Athenians first of
+all the Hellenes and from these by the rest; for just at the time when
+the Athenians were beginning to rank among the Hellenes, the Pelasgians
+became dwellers with them in their land, and from this very cause it was
+that they began to be counted as Hellenes. Whosoever has been initiated
+in the mysteries of the Cabeiroi, which the Samothrakians perform having
+received them from the Pelasgians, that man knows the meaning of my
+speech; for these very Pelasgians who became dwellers with the Athenians
+used to dwell before that time in Samothrake, and from them the
+Samothrakians received their mysteries. So then the Athenians were the
+first of the Hellenes who made the images of Hermes with the _phallos_,
+having learnt from the Pelasgians; and the Pelasgians told a sacred
+story about it, which is set forth in the mysteries in Samothrake. Now
+the Pelasgians formerly were wont to make all their sacrifices calling
+upon the gods in prayer, as I know from that which I heard at Dodona,
+but they gave no title or name to any of them, for they had not yet
+heard any, but they called them gods from some such notion as this,
+that they had set in order all things and so had the distribution of
+everything. Afterwards when much time had elapsed, they learnt from
+Egypt the names of the gods, all except Dionysos, for his name they
+learnt long afterwards; and after a time the Pelasgians consulted the
+Oracle at Dodona about the names, for this prophetic seat is accounted
+to be the most ancient of the Oracles which are among the Hellenes,
+and at that time it was the only one. So when the Pelasgians asked the
+Oracle at Dodona whether they should adopt the names which had come from
+the Barbarians, the Oracle in reply bade them make use of the names.
+From this time they sacrificed using the names of the gods, and from the
+Pelasgians the Hellenes afterwards received them: but when the several
+gods had their birth, or whether they all were from the beginning, and
+of what form they are, they did not learn till yesterday, as it were, or
+the day before: for Hesiod and Homer I suppose were four hundred years
+before my time and not more, and these are they who made a theogony for
+the Hellenes and gave the titles to the gods and distributed to them
+honours and arts, and set forth their forms: but the poets who are said
+to have been before these men were really in my opinion after them. Of
+these things the first are said by the priestesses of Dodona, and the
+latter things, those namely which have regard to Hesiod and Homer, by
+myself.
+
+As regards the Oracles both that among the Hellenes and that in Libya,
+the Egyptians tell the following tale. The priests of the Theban Zeus
+told me that two women in the service of the temple had been carried
+away from Thebes by Phenicians, and that they had heard that one of them
+had been sold to go into Libya and the other to the Hellenes; and these
+women, they said, were they who first founded the prophetic seats among
+the nations which have been named: and when I inquired whence they knew
+so perfectly of this tale which they told, they said in reply that a
+great search had been made by the priests after these women, and that
+they had not been able to find them, but they had heard afterwards this
+tale about them which they were telling. This I heard from the priests
+at Thebes, and what follows is said by the prophetesses of Dodona. They
+say that two black doves flew from Thebes in Egypt, and came one of them
+to Libya and the other to their land. And this latter settled upon an
+oak-tree and spoke with human voice, saying that it was necessary that
+a prophetic seat of Zeus should be established in that place; and they
+supposed that that was of the gods which was announced to them, and made
+one accordingly: and the dove which went away to the Libyans, they say,
+bade the Libyans make an Oracle of Ammon; and this also is of Zeus. The
+priestesses of Dodona told me these things, of whom the eldest was named
+Promeneia, the next after her Timarete, and the youngest Nicandra;
+and the other people of Dodona who were engaged about the temple gave
+accounts agreeing with theirs. I however have an opinion about the
+matter as follows:--If the Phenicians did in truth carry away the
+consecrated women and sold one of them into Libya and the other into
+Hellas, I suppose that in the country now called Hellas, which was
+formerly called Pelasgia, this woman was sold into the land of the
+Thesprotians; and then being a slave there she set up a sanctuary of
+Zeus under a real oak-tree; as indeed it was natural that being an
+attendant of the sanctuary of Zeus at Thebes, she should there, in the
+place to which she had come, have a memory of him; and after this, when
+she got understanding of the Hellenic tongue, she established an Oracle,
+and she reported, I suppose, that her sister had been sold in Libya by
+the same Phenicians by whom she herself had been sold. Moreover, I think
+that the women were called doves by the people of Dodona for the reason
+that they were barbarians and because it seemed to them that they
+uttered voice like birds; but after a time (they say) the dove spoke
+with human voice, that is when the woman began to speak so that they
+could understand; but so long as she spoke a Barbarian tongue she seemed
+to them to be uttering voice like a bird: for if it had been really a
+dove, how could it speak with human voice? And in saying that the
+dove was black, they indicate that the woman was Egyptian. The ways of
+delivering oracles too at Thebes in Egypt and at Dodona closely resemble
+each other, as it happens, and also the method of divination by victims
+has come from Egypt.
+
+Moreover, it is true also that the Egyptians were the first of men who
+made solemn assemblies and processions and approaches to the temples,
+and from them the Hellenes have learnt them, and my evidence for this
+is that the Egyptian celebrations of these have been held from a very
+ancient time, whereas the Hellenic were introduced but lately. The
+Egyptians hold their solemn assemblies not once in the year but often,
+especially and with the greatest zeal and devotion at the city of
+Bubastis for Artemis, and next at Busiris for Isis; for in this
+last-named city there is a very great temple of Isis, and this city
+stands in the middle of the Delta of Egypt; now Isis is in the tongue of
+the Hellenes Demeter: thirdly, they have a solemn assembly at the city
+of Sais for Athene, fourthly at Heliopolis for the Sun (Helios), fifthly
+at the city of Buto in honour of Leto, and sixthly at the city of
+Papremis for Ares. Now, when they are coming to the city of Bubastis
+they do as follows:--they sail men and women together, and a great
+multitude of each sex in every boat; and some of the women have rattles
+and rattle with them, while some of the men play the flute during the
+whole time of the voyage, and the rest, both women and men, sing and
+clap their hands; and when as they sail they come opposite to any city
+on the way they bring the boat to land, and some of the women continue
+to do as I have said, others cry aloud and jeer at the women in that
+city, some dance, and some stand up and pull up their garments. This
+they do by every city along the river-bank; and when they come to
+Bubastis they hold festival celebrating great sacrifices, and more wine
+of grapes is consumed upon that festival than during the whole of the
+rest of the year. To this place (so say the natives) they come together
+year by year even to the number of seventy myriads of men and women,
+besides children. Thus it is done here; and how they celebrate the
+festival in honour of Isis at the city of Busiris has been told by
+me before: for, as I said, they beat themselves in mourning after the
+sacrifice, all of them both men and women, very many myriads of people;
+but for whom they beat themselves it is not permitted to me by religion
+to say: and so many as there are of the Carians dwelling in Egypt do
+this even more than the Egyptians themselves, inasmuch as they cut their
+foreheads also with knives; and by this it is manifested that they are
+strangers and not Egyptians. At the times when they gather together
+at the city of Sais for their sacrifices, on a certain night they all
+kindle lamps many in number in the open air round about the houses; now
+the lamps are saucers full of salt and oil mixed, and the wick floats by
+itself on the surface, and this burns during the whole night; and to
+the festival is given the name _Lychnocaia_ (the lighting of lamps).
+Moreover those of the Egyptians who have not come to this solemn
+assembly observe the night of the festival and themselves also light
+lamps all of them, and thus not in Sais alone are they lighted, but over
+all Egypt: and as to the reason why light and honour are allotted to
+this night, about this there is a sacred story told. To Heliopolis and
+Buto they go year by year and do sacrifice only: but at Papremis they
+do sacrifice and worship as elsewhere, and besides that, when the sun
+begins to go down while some few of the priests are occupied with the
+image of the god, the greater number of them stand in the entrance of
+the temple with wooden clubs, and other persons to the number of more
+than a thousand men with purpose to perform a vow, these also having
+all of them staves of wood, stand in a body opposite to those: and the
+image, which is in a small shrine of wood covered over with gold, they
+take out on the day before to another sacred building. The few then
+who have been left about the image, draw a wain with four wheels, which
+bears the shrine and the image that is within the shrine, and the other
+priests standing in the gateway try to prevent it from entering, and
+the men who are under a vow come to the assistance of the god and strike
+them, while the others defend themselves. Then there comes to be a
+hard fight with staves, and they break one another's heads, and I am
+of opinion that many even die of the wounds they receive; the Egyptians
+however told me that no one died. This solemn assembly the people of the
+place say that they established for the following reason:--the mother
+of Ares, they say, used to dwell in this temple, and Ares, having been
+brought up away from her, when he grew up came thither desiring to visit
+his mother, and the attendants of his mother's temple, not having seen
+him before, did not permit him to pass in, but kept him away; and
+he brought men to help him from another city and handled roughly the
+attendants of the temple, and entered to visit his mother. Hence, they
+say, this exchange of blows has become the custom in honour of Ares upon
+his festival.
+
+The Egyptians were the first who made it a point of religion not to lie
+with women in temples, nor to enter into temples after going away
+from women without first bathing: for almost all other men except the
+Egyptians and the Hellenes lie with women in temples and enter into a
+temple after going away from women without bathing, since they hold that
+there is no difference in this respect between men and beasts: for
+they say that they see beasts and the various kinds of birds coupling
+together both in the temples and in the sacred enclosures of the gods;
+if then this were not pleasing to the god, the beasts would not do so.
+
+Thus do these defend that which they do, which by me is disallowed:
+but the Egyptians are excessively careful in their observances, both
+in other matters which concern the sacred rites and also in those which
+follow:--Egypt, though it borders upon Libya, does not very much abound
+in wild animals, but such as they have are one and all accounted by them
+sacred, some of them living with men and others not. But if I should say
+for what reasons the sacred animals have been thus dedicated, I should
+fall into discourse of matters pertaining to the gods, of which I most
+desire not to speak; and what I have actually said touching slightly
+upon them, I said because I was constrained by necessity. About these
+animals there is a custom of this kind:--persons have been appointed of
+the Egyptians, both men and women, to provide the food for each kind
+of beast separately, and their office goes down from father to son; and
+those who dwell in the various cities perform vows to them thus, that
+is, when they make a vow to the god to whom the animal belongs, they
+shave the head of their children either the whole or the half or the
+third part of it, and then set the hair in the balance against silver,
+and whatever it weighs, this the man gives to the person who provides
+for the animals, and she cuts up fish of equal value and gives it for
+food to the animals. Thus food for their support has been appointed and
+if any one kill any of these animals, the penalty, if he do it with his
+own will, is death, and if against his will, such penalty as the priests
+may appoint: but whosoever shall kill an ibis or a hawk, whether it be
+with his will or against his will, must die. Of the animals that live
+with men there are great numbers, and would be many more but for the
+accidents which befall the cats. For when the females have produced
+young they are no longer in the habit of going to the males, and these
+seeking to be united with them are not able. To this end then they
+contrive as follows,--they either take away by force or remove secretly
+the young from the females and kill them (but after killing they do not
+eat them), and the females being deprived of their young and desiring
+more, therefore come to the males, for it is a creature that is fond
+of its young. Moreover when a fire occurs, the cats seem to be divinely
+possessed; for while the Egyptians stand at intervals and look after
+the cats, not taking any care to extinguish the fire, the cats slipping
+through or leaping over the men, jump into the fire; and when this
+happens, great mourning comes upon the Egyptians. And in whatever houses
+a cat has died by a natural death, all those who dwell in this house
+shave their eyebrows only, but those in which a dog has died shave their
+whole body and also their head. The cats when they are dead are carried
+away to sacred buildings in the city of Bubastis, where after being
+embalmed they are buried; but the dogs they bury each people in their
+own city in sacred tombs; and the ichneumons are buried just in the same
+way as the dogs. The shrewmice however and the hawks they carry away to
+the city of Buto, and the ibises to Hermopolis; the bears (which are not
+commonly seen) and the wolves, not much larger in size than foxes, they
+bury on the spot where they are found lying.
+
+Of the crocodile the nature is as follows:--during the four most wintry
+months this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an animal
+belonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and hatches
+eggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains upon dry
+land, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water in truth
+is warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the mortal
+creatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest bulk
+from the smallest beginning; for the eggs which she produces are not
+much larger than those of geese and the newly-hatched young one is in
+proportion to the egg, but as he grows he becomes as much as seventeen
+cubits long and sometimes yet larger. He has eyes like those of a pig
+and teeth large and tusky, in proportion to the size of his body; but
+unlike all other beasts he grows no tongue, neither does he move his
+lower jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards the lower, being in this too
+unlike all other beasts. He has moreover strong claws and a scaly hide
+upon his back which cannot be pierced; and he is blind in the water, but
+in the air he is of a very keen sight. Since he has his living in the
+water he keeps his mouth all full within of leeches; and whereas all
+other birds and beasts fly from him, the trochilus is a creature which
+is at peace with him, seeing that from her he receives benefit; for
+the crocodile having come out of the water to the land and then having
+opened his mouth (this he is wont to do generally towards the West
+Wind), the trochilus upon that enters into his mouth and swallows down
+the leeches, and he being benefited is pleased and does no harm to
+the trochilus. Now for some of the Egyptians the crocodiles are sacred
+animals, and for others not so, but they treat them on the contrary
+as enemies: those however who dwell about Thebes and about the lake of
+Moiris hold them to be most sacred, and each of these two peoples keeps
+one crocodile selected from the whole number, which has been trained
+to tameness, and they put hanging ornaments of molten stone and of gold
+into the ears of these and anklets round the front feet, and they give
+them food appointed and victims of sacrifices and treat them as well
+as possible while they live, and after they are dead they bury them
+in sacred tombs, embalming them: but those who dwell about the city
+of Elephantine even eat them, not holding them to be sacred. They are
+called not crocodiles but _champsai_, and the Ionians gave them the name
+of crocodile, comparing their form to that of the crocodiles (lizards)
+which appear in their country in the stone walls. There are many ways in
+use of catching them and of various kinds: I shall describe that which
+to me seems the most worthy of being told. A man puts the back of a pig
+upon a hook as bait, and lets it go into the middle of the river, while
+he himself upon the bank of the river has a young live pig, which he
+beats; and the crocodile hearing its cries makes for the direction of
+the sound, and when he finds the pig's back he swallows it down: then
+they pull, and when he is drawn out to land, first of all the hunter
+forthwith plasters up his eyes with mud, and having done so he very
+easily gets the mastery of him, but if he does not do so he has much
+trouble.
+
+The river-horse is sacred in the district of Papremis, but for the
+other Egyptians he is not sacred; and this is the appearance which he
+presents: he is four-footed, cloven-hoofed like an ox, flat-nosed, with
+a mane like a horse and showing teeth like tusks, with a tail and voice
+like a horse and in size as large as the largest ox; and his hide is
+so exceedingly thick that when it has been dried shafts of javelins are
+made of it. There are moreover otters in the river, which they consider
+to be sacred: and of fish also they esteem that which is called the
+_lepidotos_ to be sacred, and also the eel; and these they say are
+sacred to the Nile: and of birds the fox-goose.
+
+There is also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I did not
+myself see except in painting, for in truth he comes to them very
+rarely, at intervals, as the people of Heliopolis say, of five hundred
+years; and these say that he comes regularly when his father dies; and
+if he be like the painting he is of this size and nature, that is to
+say, some of his feathers are of gold colour and others red, and in
+outline and size he is as nearly as possible like an eagle. This bird
+they say (but I cannot believe the story) contrives as follows:--setting
+forth from Arabia he conveys his father, they say, to the temple of the
+Sun (Helios) plastered up in myrrh, and buries him in the temple of the
+Sun; and he conveys him thus:--he forms first an egg of myrrh as large
+as he is able to carry, and then he makes trial of carrying it, and when
+he has made trial sufficiently, then he hollows out the egg and places
+his father within it and plasters over with other myrrh that part of the
+egg where he hollowed it out to put his father in, and when his father
+is laid in it, it proves (they say) to be of the same weight as it was;
+and after he has plastered it up, he conveys the whole to Egypt to the
+temple of the Sun. Thus they say that this bird does.
+
+There are also about Thebes sacred serpents, not at all harmful to men,
+which are small in size and have two horns growing from the top of the
+head: these they bury when they die in the temple of Zeus, for to this
+god they say that they are sacred. There is a region moreover in Arabia,
+situated nearly over against the city of Buto, to which place I came to
+inquire about the winged serpents: and when I came thither I saw bones
+of serpents and spines in quantity so great that it is impossible to
+make report of the number, and there were heaps of spines, some heaps
+large and others less large and others smaller still than these, and
+these heaps were many in number. This region in which the spines are
+scattered upon the ground is of the nature of an entrance from a narrow
+mountain pass to a great plain, which plain adjoins the plain in Egypt;
+and the story goes that at the beginning of spring winged serpents from
+Arabia fly towards Egypt, and the birds called ibises meet them at the
+entrance to this country and do not suffer the serpents to go by but
+kill them. On account of this deed it is (say the Arabians) that the
+ibis has come to be greatly honoured by the Egyptians, and the Egyptians
+also agree that it is for this reason that they honour these birds. The
+outward form of the ibis is this:--it is a deep black all over, and has
+legs like those of a crane and a very curved beak, and in size it is
+about equal to a rail: this is the appearance of the black kind which
+fight with the serpents, but of those which most crowd round men's feet
+(for there are two several kinds of ibises) the head is bare and also
+the whole of the throat, and it is white in feathering except the head
+and neck and the extremities of the wings and the rump (in all these
+parts of which I have spoken it is a deep black), while in legs and in
+the form of the head it resembles the other. As for the serpent its form
+is like that of the watersnake; and it has wings not feathered but most
+nearly resembling the wings of the bat. Let so much suffice as has been
+said now concerning sacred animals.
+
+
+
+Of the Egyptians themselves, those who dwell in the part of Egypt which
+is sown for crops practise memory more than any other men and are
+the most learned in history by far of all those of whom I have
+had experience: and their manner of life is as follows:--For three
+successive days in each month they purge, hunting after health with
+emetics and clysters, and they think that all the diseases which exist
+are produced in men by the food on which they live: for the Egyptians
+are from other causes also the most healthy of all men next after the
+Libyans (in my opinion on account of the seasons, because the seasons
+do not change, for by the changes of things generally, and especially
+of the seasons, diseases are most apt to be produced in men), and as to
+their diet, it is as follows:--they eat bread, making loaves of maize,
+which they call _kyllestis_, and they use habitually a wine made out of
+barley, for vines they have not in their land. Of their fish some they
+dry in the sun and then eat them without cooking, others they eat cured
+in brine. Of birds they eat quails and ducks and small birds without
+cooking, after first curing them; and everything else which they have
+belonging to the class of birds or fishes, except such as have been
+set apart by them as sacred, they eat roasted or boiled. In the
+entertainments of the rich among them, when they have finished eating, a
+man bears round a wooden figure of a dead body in a coffin, made as like
+the reality as may be both by painting and carving, and measuring about
+a cubit or two cubits each way; and this he shows to each of those who
+are drinking together, saying: "When thou lookest upon this, drink and
+be merry, for thou shalt be such as this when thou art dead." Thus they
+do at their carousals. The customs which they practise are derived from
+their fathers and they do not acquire others in addition; but besides
+other customary things among them which are worthy of mention, they have
+one song, that of Linos, the same who is sung of both in Phenicia and in
+Cyprus and elsewhere, having however a name different according to the
+various nations. This song agrees exactly with that which the Hellenes
+sing calling on the name of Linos, so that besides many other things
+about which I wonder among those matters which concern Egypt, I wonder
+especially about this, namely whence they got the song of Linos. It is
+evident however that they have sung this song from immemorial time, and
+in the Egyptian tongue Linos is called Maneros. The Egyptians told me
+that he was the only son of him who first became king of Egypt, and that
+he died before his time and was honoured with these lamentations by
+the Egyptians, and that this was their first and only song. In another
+respect the Egyptians are in agreement with some of the Hellenes, namely
+with the Lacedemonians, but not with the rest, that is to say, the
+younger of them when they meet the elder give way and move out of the
+path, and when their elders approach, they rise out of their seat. In
+this which follows however they are not in agreement with any of the
+Hellenes,--instead of addressing one another in the roads they do
+reverence, lowering their hand down to their knee. They wear tunics of
+linen about their legs with fringes, which they call _calasiris_; above
+these they have garments of white wool thrown over: woolen garments
+however are not taken into the temples, nor are they buried with them,
+for this is not permitted by religion. In these points they are in
+agreement with the observances called Orphic and Bacchic (which are
+really Egyptian), and also with those of the Pythagoreans, for one who
+takes part in these mysteries is also forbidden by religious rule to be
+buried in woolen garments; and about this there is a sacred story told.
+
+Besides these things the Egyptians have found out also to what god each
+month and each day belongs, and what fortunes a man will meet with who
+is born on any particular day, and how he will die, and what kind of
+a man he will be: and these inventions were taken up by those of the
+Hellenes who occupied themselves about poesy. Portents too have been
+found out by them more than by all other men besides; for when a portent
+has happened, they observe and write down the event which comes of it,
+and if ever afterwards anything resembling this happens, they believe
+that the event which comes of it will be similar. Their divination is
+ordered thus:--the art is assigned not to any man but to certain of the
+gods, for there are in their land Oracles of Heracles, of Apollo, of
+Athene, of Artemis, or Ares, and of Zeus, and moreover that which they
+hold most in honour of all, namely the Oracle of Leto which is in the
+city of Buto. The manner of divination however is not established among
+them according to the same fashion everywhere, but is different
+in different places. The art of medicine among them is distributed
+thus:--each physician is a physician of one disease and of no more; and
+the whole country is full of physicians, for some profess themselves
+to be physicians of the eyes, others of the head, others of the teeth,
+others of the affections of the stomach, and others of the more obscure
+ailments.
+
+Their fashions of mourning and of burial are these:--Whenever any
+household has lost a man who is of any regard amongst them, the whole
+number of women of that house forthwith plaster over their heads or even
+their faces with mud. Then leaving the corpse within the house they go
+themselves to and fro about the city and beat themselves, with their
+garments bound up by a girdle and their breasts exposed, and with them
+go all the women who are related to the dead man, and on the other side
+the men beat themselves, they too having their garments bound up by a
+girdle; and when they have done this, they then convey the body to
+the embalming. In this occupation certain persons employ themselves
+regularly and inherit this as a craft. These, whenever a corpse is
+conveyed to them, show to those who brought it wooden models of corpses
+made like reality by painting, and the best of the ways of embalming
+they say is that of him whose name I think it impiety to mention when
+speaking of a matter of such a kind; the second which they show is
+less good than this and also less expensive; and the third is the least
+expensive of all. Having told them about this, they inquire of them in
+which way they desire the corpse of their friend to be prepared. Then
+they after they have agreed for a certain price depart out of the way,
+and the others being left behind in the buildings embalm according to
+the best of these ways thus:--First with the crooked iron tool they draw
+out the brain through the nostrils, extracting it partly thus and partly
+by pouring in drugs; and after this with a sharp stone of Ethiopia they
+make a cut along the side and take out the whole contents of the belly,
+and when they have cleared out the cavity and cleansed it with palm-wine
+they cleanse it again with spices pounded up: then they fill the belly
+with pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spices except
+frankincense, and sew it together again. Having so done they keep it for
+embalming covered up in natron for seventy days, but for a longer time
+than this it is not permitted to embalm it; and when the seventy days
+are past, they wash the corpse and roll its whole body up in fine linen
+cut into bands, smearing these beneath with gum, which the Egyptians use
+generally instead of glue. Then the kinsfolk receive it from them and
+have a wooden figure made in the shape of a man, and when they have had
+this made they enclose the corpse, and having shut it up within, they
+store it then in a sepulchral chamber, setting it to stand upright
+against the wall. Thus they deal with the corpses which are prepared in
+the most costly way; but for those who desire the middle way and wish
+to avoid great cost they prepare the corpse as follows:--having filled
+their syringes with the oil which is got from cedar-wood, with this they
+forthwith fill the belly of the corpse, and this they do without having
+either cut it open or taken out the bowels, but they inject the oil by
+the breech, and having stopped the drench from returning back they keep
+it then the appointed number of days for embalming, and on the last
+of the days they let the cedar oil come out from the belly, which they
+before put in; and it has such power that it brings out with it the
+bowels and interior organs of the body dissolved; and the natron
+dissolves the flesh, so that there is left of the corpse only the skin
+and the bones. When they have done this they give back the corpse at
+once in that condition without working upon it any more. The third kind
+of embalming, by which are prepared the bodies of those who have less
+means, is as follows:--they cleanse out the belly with a purge and then
+keep the body for embalming during the seventy days, and at once after
+that they give it back to the bringers to carry away. The wives of men
+of rank when they die are not given at once to be embalmed, nor such
+women as are very beautiful or of greater regard than others, but on
+the third or fourth day after their death (and not before) they are
+delivered to the embalmers. They do so about this matter in order that
+the embalmers may not abuse their women, for they say that one of them
+was taken once doing so to the corpse of a woman lately dead, and his
+fellow-craftsman gave information. Whenever any one, either of the
+Egyptians themselves or of strangers, is found to have been carried off
+by a crocodile or brought to his death by the river itself, the people
+of any city by which he may have been cast up on land must embalm him
+and lay him out in the fairest way they can and bury him in a sacred
+burial-place, nor may any of his relations or friends besides touch him,
+but the priests of the Nile themselves handle the corpse and bury it as
+that of one who was something more than man.
+
+Hellenic usages they will by no means follow, and to speak generally
+they follow those of no other men whatever. This rule is observed by
+most of the Egyptians; but there is a large city named Chemmis in the
+Theban district near Neapolis, and in this city there is a temple of
+Perseus the son of Danae which is of a square shape, and round it grow
+date-palms: the gateway of the temple is built of stone and of very
+great size, and at the entrance of it stand two great statues of stone.
+Within this enclosure is a temple-house and in it stands an image of
+Perseus. These people of Chemmis say that Perseus is wont often to
+appear in their land and often within the temple, and that a sandal
+which has been worn by him is found sometimes, being in length two
+cubits, and whenever this appears all Egypt prospers. This they say, and
+they do in honour of Perseus after Hellenic fashion thus,--they hold an
+athletic contest, which includes the whole list of games, and they offer
+in prizes cattle and cloaks and skins: and when I inquired why to them
+alone Perseus was wont to appear, and wherefore they were separated from
+all the other Egyptians in that they held an athletic contest, they said
+that Perseus had been born of their city, for Danaos and Lynkeus were
+men of Chemmis and had sailed to Hellas, and from them they traced a
+descent and came down to Perseus: and they told me that he had come to
+Egypt for the reason which the Hellenes also say, namely to bring from
+Libya the Gorgon's head, and had then visited them also and recognised
+all his kinsfolk, and they said that he had well learnt the name of
+Chemmis before he came to Egypt, since he had heard it from his mother,
+and that they celebrated an athletic contest for him by his own command.
+
+All these are customs practised by the Egyptians who dwell above the
+fens: and those who are settled in the fenland have the same customs for
+the most part as the other Egyptians, both in other matters and also
+in that they live each with one wife only, as do the Hellenes; but
+for economy in respect of food they have invented these things
+besides:--when the river has become full and the plains have been
+flooded, there grow in the water great numbers of lilies, which the
+Egyptians call _lotos_; these they cut with a sickle and dry in the
+sun, and then they pound that which grows in the middle of the lotos and
+which is like the head of a poppy, and they make of it loaves baked
+with fire. The root also of this lotos is edible and has a rather sweet
+taste: it is round in shape and about the size of an apple. There are
+other lilies too, in flower resembling roses, which also grow in
+the river, and from them the fruit is produced in a separate vessel
+springing from the root by the side of the plant itself, and very
+nearly resembles a wasp's comb: in this there grow edible seeds in great
+numbers of the size of an olive-stone, and they are eaten either fresh
+or dried. Besides this they pull up from the fens the papyrus which
+grows every year, and the upper parts of it they cut off and turn to
+other uses, but that which is left below for about a cubit in length
+they eat or sell: and those who desire to have the papyrus at its very
+best bake it in an oven heated red-hot, and then eat it. Some too of
+these people live on fish alone, which they dry in the sun after having
+caught them and taken out the entrails, and then when they are dry, they
+use them for food.
+
+Fish which swim in shoals are not much produced in the rivers, but are
+bred in the lakes, and they do as follows:--When there comes upon them
+the desire to breed, they swim out in shoals towards the sea; and the
+males lead the way shedding forth their milt as they go, while the
+females, coming after and swallowing it up, from it become impregnated:
+and when they have become full of young in the sea they swim up back
+again, each shoal to its own haunts. The same however no longer lead the
+way as before, but the lead comes now to the females, and they leading
+the way in shoals do just as the males did, that is to say they shed
+forth their eggs by a few grains at a time, and the males coming after
+swallow them up. Now these grains are fish, and from the grains which
+survive and are not swallowed, the fish grow which afterwards are bred
+up. Now those of the fish which are caught as they swim out towards the
+sea are found to be rubbed on the left side of the head, but those which
+are caught as they swim up again are rubbed on the right side. This
+happens to them because as they swim down to the sea they keep close to
+the land on the left side of the river, and again as they swim up they
+keep to the same side, approaching and touching the bank as much as they
+can, for fear doubtless of straying from their course by reason of the
+stream. When the Nile begins to swell, the hollow places of the land
+and the depressions by the side of the river first begin to fill, as the
+water soaks through from the river, and so soon as they become full of
+water, at once they are all filled with little fishes; and whence
+these are in all likelihood produced, I think that I perceive. In the
+preceding year, when the Nile goes down, the fish first lay eggs in the
+mud and then retire with the last of the retreating waters; and when
+the time comes round again, and the water once more comes over the land,
+from these eggs forthwith are produced the fishes of which I speak.
+
+Thus it is as regards the fish. And for anointing those of the Egyptians
+who dwell in the fens use oil from the castor-berry, which oil the
+Egyptians call _kiki_, and thus they do:--they sow along the banks
+of the rivers and pools these plants, which in a wild form grow of
+themselves in the land of the Hellenes; these are sown in Egypt and
+produce berries in great quantity but of an evil smell; and when they
+have gathered these some cut them up and press the oil from them, others
+again roast them first and then boil them down and collect that which
+runs away from them. The oil is fat and not less suitable for burning
+than olive-oil, but it gives forth a disagreeable smell. Against the
+gnats, which are very abundant, they have contrived as follows:--those
+who dwell above the fen-land are helped by the towers, to which they
+ascend when they go to rest; for the gnats by reason of the winds
+are not able to fly up high: but those who dwell in the fenland have
+contrived another way instead of the towers, and this it is:--every man
+of them has got a casting net, with which by day he catches fish, but
+in the night he uses it for this purpose, that is to say he puts the
+casting-net round about the bed in which he sleeps, and then creeps in
+under it and goes to sleep: and the gnats, if he sleeps rolled up in a
+garment or a linen sheet, bite through these, but through the net they
+do not even attempt to bite.
+
+Their boats with which they carry cargoes are made of the thorny acacia,
+of which the form is very like that of the Kyrenian lotos, and that
+which exudes from it is gum. From this tree they cut pieces of wood
+about two cubits in length and arrange them like bricks, fastening
+the boat together by running a great number of long bolts through the
+two-cubits pieces; and when they have thus fastened the boat together,
+they lay cross-pieces over the top, using no ribs for the sides; and
+within they caulk the seams with papyrus. They make one steering-oar for
+it, which is passed through the bottom of the boat; and they have a mast
+of acacia and sails of papyrus. These boats cannot sail up the river
+unless there be a very fresh wind blowing, but are towed from the shore:
+down-stream however they travel as follows:--they have a door-shaped
+crate made of tamarisk wood and reed mats sewn together, and also a
+stone of about two talents weight bored with a hole; and of these the
+boatman lets the crate float on in front of the boat, fastened with a
+rope, and the stone drags behind by another rope. The crate then, as the
+force of the stream presses upon it, goes on swiftly and draws on the
+_baris_ (for so these boats are called), while the stone dragging after
+it behind and sunk deep in the water keeps its course straight. These
+boats they have in great numbers and some of them carry many thousands
+of talents' burden.
+
+When the Nile comes over the land, the cities alone are seen rising
+above the water, resembling more nearly than anything else the islands
+in the Egean Sea; for the rest of Egypt becomes a sea and the cities
+alone rise above water. Accordingly, whenever this happens, they pass
+by water not now by the channels of the river but over the midst of
+the plain: for example, as one sails up from Naucratis to Memphis the
+passage is then close by the pyramids, whereas the usual passage is not
+the same even here, but goes by the point of the Delta and the city of
+Kercasoros; while if you sail over the plain to Naucratis from the sea
+and from Canobos, you will go by Anthylla and the city called after
+Archander. Of these Anthylla is a city of note and is especially
+assigned to the wife of him who reigns over Egypt, to supply her with
+sandals, (this is the case since the time when Egypt came to be
+under the Persians): the other city seems to me to have its name from
+Archander the son-in-law of Danaos, who was the son of Phthios, the son
+of Achaios; for it is called the City of Archander. There might indeed
+by another Archander, but in any case the name is not Egyptian.
+
+
+*****
+
+
+Hitherto my own observation and judgment and inquiry are the vouchers
+for that which I have said; but from this point onwards I am about to
+tell the history of Egypt according to that which I have heard, to which
+will be added also something of that which I have myself seen.
+
+Of Min, who first became king of Egypt, the priests said that on the
+one hand he banked off the site of Memphis from the river: for the whole
+stream of the river used to flow along by the sandy mountain-range on
+the side of Libya, but Min formed by embankments that bend of the river
+which lies to the South about a hundred furlongs above Memphis, and thus
+he dried up the old stream and conducted the river so that it flowed in
+the middle between the mountains: and even now this bend of the Nile is
+by the Persians kept under very careful watch, that it may flow in the
+channel to which it is confined, and the bank is repaired every year;
+for if the river should break through and overflow in this direction,
+Memphis would be in danger of being overwhelmed by flood. When this Min,
+who first became king, had made into dry land the part which was dammed
+off, on the one hand, I say, he founded in it that city which is now
+called Memphis; for Memphis too is in the narrow part of Egypt;
+and outside the city he dug round it on the North and West a lake
+communicating with the river, for the side towards the East is barred by
+the Nile itself. Then secondly he established in the city the temple of
+Hephaistos a great work and most worthy of mention. After this man the
+priests enumerated to me from a papyrus roll the names of other kings,
+three hundred and thirty in number; and in all these generations of men
+eighteen were Ethiopians, one was a woman, a native Egyptian, and
+the rest were men and of Egyptian race: and the name of the woman who
+reigned was the same as that of the Babylonian queen, namely Nitocris.
+Of her they said that desiring to take vengeance for her brother, whom
+the Egyptians had slain when he was their king and then, after having
+slain him, had given his kingdom to her,--desiring, I say, to take
+vengeance for him, she destroyed by craft many of the Egyptians. For she
+caused to be constructed a very large chamber under ground, and making
+as though she would handsel it but in her mind devising other things,
+she invited those of the Egyptians whom she knew to have had most part
+in the murder, and gave a great banquet. Then while they were feasting,
+she let in the river upon them by a secret conduit of large size. Of
+her they told no more than this, except that, when this had been
+accomplished, she threw herself into a room full of embers, in order
+that she might escape vengeance. As for the other kings, they could tell
+me of no great works which had been produced by them, and they said that
+they had no renown except only the last of them, Moiris: he (they
+said) produced as a memorial of himself the gateway of the temple of
+Hephaistos which is turned towards the North Wind, and dug a lake, about
+which I shall set forth afterwards how many furlongs of circuit it has,
+and in it built pyramids of the size which I shall mention at the same
+time when I speak of the lake itself. He, they said, produced these
+works, but of the rest none produced any.
+
+Therefore passing these by I will make mention of the king who came
+after these, whose name is Sesostris. He (the priests said) first of all
+set out with ships of war from the Arabian gulf and subdued those who
+dwelt by the shores of the Erythraian Sea, until as he sailed he came
+to a sea which could no further be navigated by reason of shoals: then
+secondly, after he had returned to Egypt, according to the report of the
+priests he took a great army and marched over the continent, subduing
+every nation which stood in his way: and those of them whom he found
+valiant and fighting desperately for their freedom, in their lands he
+set up pillars which told by inscriptions his own name and the name of
+his country, and how he had subdued them by his power; but as to those
+of whose cities he obtained possession without fighting or with ease, on
+their pillars he inscribed words after the same tenor as he did for the
+nations which had shown themselves courageous, and in addition he drew
+upon them the hidden parts of a woman, desiring to signify by this that
+the people were cowards and effeminate. Thus doing he traversed the
+continent, until at last he passed over to Europe from Asia and subdued
+the Scythians and also the Thracians. These, I am of opinion, were the
+furthest people to which the Egyptian army came, for in their country
+the pillars are found to have been set up, but in the land beyond this
+they are no longer found. From this point he turned and began to go
+back; and when he came to the river Phasis, what happened then I cannot
+say for certain, whether the king Sesostris himself divided off a
+certain portion of his army and left the men there as settlers in
+the land, or whether some of his soldiers were wearied by his distant
+marches and remained by the river Phasis. For the people of Colchis are
+evidently Egyptian, and this I perceived for myself before I heard it
+from others. So when I had come to consider the matter I asked them
+both; and the Colchians had remembrance of the Egyptians more than the
+Egyptians of the Colchians; but the Egyptians said they believed that
+the Colchians were a portion of the army of Sesostris. That this was
+so I conjectured myself not only because they are dark-skinned and have
+curly hair (this of itself amounts to nothing, for there are other races
+which are so), but also still more because the Colchians, Egyptians,
+and Ethiopians alone of all the races of men have practised circumcision
+from the first. The Phenicians and the Syrians who dwell in Palestine
+confess themselves that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and
+the Syrians about the river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the
+Macronians, who are their neighbors, say that they have learnt it
+lately from the Colchians. These are the only races of men who practise
+circumcision, and these evidently practise it in the same manner as the
+Egyptians. Of the Egyptians themselves however and the Ethiopians, I
+am not able to say which learnt from the other, for undoubtedly it is a
+most ancient custom; but that the other nations learnt it by intercourse
+with the Egyptians, this among others is to me a strong proof, namely
+that those of the Phenicians who have intercourse with Hellas cease
+to follow the example of the Egyptians in this matter, and do not
+circumcise their children. Now let me tell another thing about the
+Colchians to show how they resemble the Egyptians:--they alone work flax
+in the same fashion as the Egyptians, and the two nations are like one
+another in their whole manner of living and also in their language: now
+the linen of Colchis is called by the Hellenes Sardonic, whereas that
+from Egypt is called Egyptian. The pillars which Sesostris king of Egypt
+set up in the various countries are for the most part no longer to be
+seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself saw them existing with the
+inscription upon them which I have mentioned and the emblem. Moreover
+in Ionia there are two figures of this man carved upon rocks, one on
+the road by which one goes from the land of Ephesos to Phocaia, and the
+other on the road from Sardis to Smyrna. In each place there is a figure
+of a man cut in the rock, of four cubits and a span in height, holding
+in his right hand a spear and in his left a bow and arrows, and the
+other equipment which he has is similar to this, for it is both Egyptian
+and Ethiopian: and from the one shoulder to the other across the breast
+runs an inscription carved in sacred Egyptian characters, saying thus,
+"This land with my shoulders I won for myself." But who he is and from
+whence, he does not declare in these places, though in other places he
+had declared this. Some of those who have seen these carvings conjecture
+that the figure is that of Memnon, but herein they are very far from the
+truth.
+
+As this Egyptian Sesostris was returning and bringing back many men of
+the nations whose lands he had subdued, when he came (said the priests)
+to Daphnai in the district of Pelusion on his journey home, his brother
+to whom Sesostris had entrusted the charge of Egypt invited him and
+with him his sons to a feast; and then he piled the house round with
+brushwood and set it on fire: and Sesostris when he discovered this
+forthwith took counsel with his wife, for he was bringing with him (they
+said) his wife also; and she counselled him to lay out upon the pyre two
+of his sons, which were six in number, and so to make a bridge over
+the burning mass, and that they passing over their bodies should thus
+escape. This, they said, Sesostris did, and two of his sons were burnt
+to death in this manner, but the rest got away safe with their father.
+Then Sesostris, having returned to Egypt and having taken vengeance on
+his brother employed the multitude which he had brought in of those
+whose lands he had subdued, as follows:--these were they who drew the
+stones which in the reign of this king were brought to the temple of
+Hephaistos, being of very good size; and also these were compelled to
+dig all the channels which now are in Egypt; and thus (having no such
+purpose) they caused Egypt, which before was all fit for riding and
+driving, to be no longer fit for this from thenceforth: for from that
+time forward Egypt, though it is plain land, has become all unfit for
+riding and driving, and the cause has been these channels, which are
+many and run in all directions. But the reason why the king cut up
+the land was this, namely because those of the Egyptians who had their
+cities not on the river but in the middle of the country, being in want
+of water when the river went down from them, found their drink brackish
+because they had it from wells. For this reason Egypt was cut up: and
+they said that this king distributed the land to all the Egyptians,
+giving an equal square portion to each man, and from this he made his
+revenue, having appointed them to pay a certain rent every year: and
+if the river should take away anything from any man's portion, he would
+come to the king and declare that which had happened, and the king used
+to send men to examine and to find out by measurement how much less the
+piece of land had become, in order that for the future the man might pay
+less, in proportion to the rent appointed: and I think that thus the art
+of geometry was found out and afterwards came into Hellas also. For as
+touching the sun-dial and the gnomon and the twelve divisions of the
+day, they were learnt by the Hellenes from the Babylonians. He moreover
+alone of all the Egyptian kings had rule over Ethiopia; and he left
+as memorials of himself in front of the temple of Hephaistos two stone
+statues of thirty cubits each, representing himself and his wife,
+and others of twenty cubits each representing his four sons: and long
+afterwards the priest of Hephaistos refused to permit Dareios the
+Persian to set up a statue of himself in front of them, saying that
+deeds had not been done by him equal to those which were done by
+Sesostris the Egyptian; for Sesostris had subdued other nations besides,
+not fewer than he, and also the Scythians; but Dareios had not been able
+to conquer the Scythians: wherefore it was not just that he should set
+up a statue in front of those which Sesostris had dedicated, if he did
+not surpass him in his deeds. Which speech, they say, Dareios took in
+good part.
+
+Now after Sesostris had brought his life to an end, his son Pheros,
+they told me, received in succession the kingdom, and he made no warlike
+expedition, and moreover it chanced to him to become blind by reason of
+the following accident:--when the river had come down in flood rising to
+a height of eighteen cubits, higher than ever before that time, and had
+gone over the fields, a wind fell upon it and the river became agitated
+by waves: and this king (they say) moved by presumptuous folly took
+a spear and cast it into the midst of the eddies of the stream; and
+immediately upon this he had a disease of the eyes and was by it made
+blind. For ten years then he was blind, and in the eleventh year there
+came to him an oracle from the city of Buto saying that the time of his
+punishment had expired, and that he should see again if he washed his
+eyes with the water of a woman who had accompanied with her own husband
+only and had not had knowledge of other men: and first he made trial of
+his own wife, and then, as he continued blind, he went on to try all the
+women in turn; and when he had at least regained his sight he gathered
+together all the women of whom he had made trial, excepting her by
+whose means he had regained his sight, to one city which now is named
+Erythrabolos, and having gathered them to this he consumed them all by
+fire, as well as the city itself; but as for her by whose means he
+had regained his sight, he had her himself to wife. Then after he had
+escaped the malady of his eyes he dedicated offerings at each one of the
+temples which were of renown, and especially (to mention only that which
+is most worthy of mention) he dedicated at the temple of the Sun works
+which are worth seeing, namely two obelisks of stone, each of a single
+block, measuring in length a hundred cubits each one and in breadth
+eight cubits.
+
+After him, they said, there succeeded to the throne a man of Memphis,
+whose name in the tongue of the Hellenes was Proteus; for whom there is
+now a sacred enclosure at Memphis, very fair and well ordered, lying on
+that side of the temple of Hephaistos which faces the North Wind. Round
+about this enclosure dwell Phenicians of Tyre, and this whole region is
+called the Camp of the Tyrians. Within the enclosure of Proteus there
+is a temple called the temple of the "foreign Aphrodite," which temple
+I conjecture to be one of Helen the daughter of Tyndareus, not only
+because I have heard the tale how Helen dwelt with Proteus, but also
+especially because it is called by the name of the "foreign Aphrodite,"
+for the other temples of Aphrodite which there are have none of them the
+addition of the word "foreign" to the name.
+
+And the priests told me, when I inquired, that the things concerning
+Helen happened thus:--Alexander having carried off Helen was sailing
+away from Sparta to his own land, and when he had come to the Egean Sea
+contrary winds drove him from his course to the Sea of Egypt; and after
+that, since the blasts did not cease to blow, he came to Egypt itself,
+and in Egypt to that which is now named the Canobic mouth of the Nile
+and to Taricheiai. Now there was upon the shore, as still there is now,
+a temple of Heracles, in which if any man's slave take refuge and have
+the sacred marks set upon him, giving himself over to the god, it is
+not lawful to lay hands upon him; but this custom has continued still
+unchanged from the beginning down to my own time. Accordingly the
+attendants of Alexander, having heard of the custom which existed about
+the temple, ran away from him, and sitting down as suppliants of the
+god, accused Alexander, because they desired to do him hurt, telling
+the whole tale how things were about Helen and about the wrong done to
+Menalaos; and this accusation they made not only to the priests but also
+to the warden of this river-mouth, whose name was Thonis. Thonis then
+having heard their tale sent forthwith a message to Proteus at Memphis,
+which said as follows: "There hath come a stranger, a Teucrian by race,
+who hath done in Hellas an unholy deed; for he hath deceived the wife
+of his own host, and is come hither bringing with him this woman herself
+and very much wealth, having been carried out of his way by winds to thy
+land. Shall we then allow him to sail out unharmed, or shall we first
+take away from him that which he brought with him?" In reply to this
+Proteus sent back a messenger who said thus: "Seize this man, whosoever
+he may be, who has done impiety to his own host, and bring him away into
+my presence that I may know what he will find to say." Hearing this,
+Thonis seized Alexander and detained his ships, and after that he
+brought the man himself up to Memphis and with him Helen and the wealth
+he had, and also in addition to them the suppliants. So when all had
+been conveyed up thither, Proteus began to ask Alexander who he was and
+from whence he was voyaging; and he both recounted to him his descent
+and told him the name of his native land, and moreover related of his
+voyage, from whence he was sailing. After this Proteus asked him whence
+he had taken Helen; and when Alexander went astray in his account and did
+not speak the truth, those who had become suppliants convicted him of
+falsehood, relating in full the whole tale of the wrong done. At length
+Proteus declared to them this sentence, saying, "Were it not that I
+count it a matter of great moment not to slay any of those strangers who
+being driven from their course by winds have come to my land hitherto,
+I should have taken vengeance on thee on behalf of the man of
+Hellas, seeing that thou, most base of men, having received from him
+hospitality, didst work against him a most impious deed. For thou didst
+go in to the wife of thine own host; and even this was not enough for
+thee, but thou didst stir her up with desire and hast gone away with her
+like a thief. Moreover not even this by itself was enough for thee, but
+thou art come hither with plunder taken from the house of thy host. Now
+therefore depart, seeing that I have counted it of great moment not to
+be a slayer of strangers. This woman indeed and the wealth which thou
+hast I will not allow thee to carry away, but I shall keep them safe for
+the Hellene who was thy host, until he come himself and desire to carry
+them off to his home; to thyself however and thy fellow-voyagers I
+proclaim that ye depart from your anchoring within three days and go
+from my land to some other; and if not, that ye will be dealt with as
+enemies."
+
+This the priests said was the manner of Helen's coming to Proteus; and
+I suppose that Homer also had heard this story, but since it was not so
+suitable to the composition of his poem as the other which he followed,
+he dismissed it finally, making it clear at the same time that he was
+acquainted with that story also: and according to the manner in which he
+described the wanderings of Alexander in the Iliad (nor did he elsewhere
+retract that which he had said) of his course, wandering to various
+lands, and that he came among other places to Sidon in Phenicia. Of this
+the poet has made mention in the "prowess of Diomede," and the verses
+run thus:
+
+     "There she had robes many-coloured, the works of women of Sidon,
+     Those whom her son himself the god-like of form Alexander
+     Carried from Sidon, what time the broad sea-path he sailed over
+     Bringing back Helene home, of a noble father begotten."
+
+And in the Odyssey also he has made mention of it in these verses:
+
+     "Such had the daughter of Zeus, such drugs of exquisite cunning,
+     Good, which to her the wife of Thon, Polydamna, had given,
+     Dwelling in Egypt, the land where the bountiful meadow produces
+     Drugs more than all lands else, many good being mixed, many evil."
+
+And thus too Menelaos says to Telemachos:
+
+     "Still the gods stayed me in Egypt, to come back hither desiring,
+     Stayed me from voyaging home, since sacrifice due I performed not."
+
+In these lines he makes it clear that he knew of the wanderings of
+Alexander to Egypt, for Syria borders upon Egypt and the Phenicians, of
+whom is Sidon, dwell in Syria. By these lines and by this passage it is
+also most clearly shown that the "Cyprian Epic" was not written by Homer
+but by some other man: for in this it is said that on the third day
+after leaving Sparta Alexander came to Ilion bringing with him Helen,
+having had a "gently-blowing wind and a smooth sea," whereas in the
+Iliad it says that he wandered from his course when he brought her.
+
+Let us now leave Homer and the "Cyprian Epic"; but this I will say,
+namely that I asked the priests whether it is but an idle tale which
+the Hellenes tell of that which they say happened about Ilion; and they
+answered me thus, saying that they had their knowledge by inquiries from
+Menelaos himself. After the rape of Helen there came indeed, they said,
+to the Teucrian land a large army of Hellenes to help Menelaos; and
+when the army had come out of the ships to land and had pitched its
+camp there, they sent messengers to Ilion, with whom went also Menelaos
+himself; and when these entered within the wall they demanded back Helen
+and the wealth which Alexander had stolen from Menelaos and had taken
+away; and moreover they demanded satisfaction for the wrongs done: and
+the Teucrians told the same tale then and afterwards, both with oath and
+without oath, namely that in deed and in truth they had not Helen nor
+the wealth for which demand was made, but that both were in Egypt; and
+that they could not justly be compelled to give satisfaction for that
+which Proteus the king of Egypt had. The Hellenes however thought that
+they were being mocked by them and besieged the city, until at last they
+took it; and when they had taken the wall and did not find Helen, but
+heard the same tale as before, then they believed the former tale and
+sent Menelaos himself to Proteus. And Menelaos having come to Egypt and
+having sailed up to Memphis, told the truth of these matters, and not
+only found great entertainment, but also received Helen unhurt, and
+all his own wealth besides. Then, however, after he had been thus dealt
+with, Menelaos showed himself ungrateful to the Egyptians; for when
+he set forth to sail away, contrary winds detained him, and as this
+condition of things lasted long, he devised an impious deed; for he took
+two children of natives and made sacrifice of them. After this, when it
+was known that he had done so, he became abhorred, and being pursued he
+escaped and got away in his ships to Libya; but whither he went besides
+after this, the Egyptians were not able to tell. Of these things they
+said that they found out part by inquiries, and the rest, namely that
+which happened in their own land, they related from sure and certain
+knowledge.
+
+Thus the priests of the Egyptians told me; and I myself also agree with
+the story which was told of Helen, adding this consideration, namely
+that if Helen had been in Ilion she would have been given up to the
+Hellenes, whether Alexander consented or no; for Priam assuredly was not
+so mad, nor yet the others of his house, that they were desirous to run
+risk of ruin for themselves and their children and their city, in order
+that Alexander might have Helen as his wife: and even supposing that
+during the first part of the time they had been so inclined, yet when
+many others of the Trojans besides were losing their lives as often as
+they fought with the Hellenes, and of the sons of Priam himself always
+two or three or even more were slain when a battle took place (if one
+may trust at all to the Epic poets),--when, I say, things were coming
+thus to pass, I consider that even if Priam himself had had Helen as his
+wife, he would have given her back to the Achaians, if at least by so
+doing he might be freed from the evils which oppressed him. Nor even
+was the kingdom coming to Alexander next, so that when Priam was old the
+government was in his hands; but Hector, who was both older and more
+of a man than he, would certainly have received it after the death of
+Priam; and him it behoved not to allow his brother to go on with his
+wrong-doing, considering that great evils were coming to pass on his
+account both to himself privately and in general to the other Trojans.
+In truth however they lacked the power to give Helen back; and the
+Hellenes did not believe them, though they spoke the truth; because,
+as I declare my opinion, the divine power was purposing to cause them
+utterly to perish, and so make it evident to men that for great wrongs
+great also are the chastisements which come from the gods. And thus have
+I delivered my opinion concerning these matters.
+
+After Proteus, they told me, Rhampsinitos received in succession the
+kingdom, who left as a memorial of himself that gateway to the temple of
+Hephaistos which is turned towards the West, and in front of the gateway
+he set up two statues, in height five-and-twenty cubits, of which the
+one which stands on the North side is called by the Egyptians Summer and
+the one on the South side Winter; and to that one which they call Summer
+they do reverence and make offerings, while to the other which is called
+Winter they do the opposite of these things. This king, they said, got
+great wealth of silver, which none of the kings born after him could
+surpass or even come near to; and wishing to store his wealth in safety
+he caused to be built a chamber of stone, one of the walls whereof was
+towards the outside of his palace: and the builder of this, having a
+design against it, contrived as follows, that is, he disposed one of the
+stones in such a manner that it could be taken out easily from the wall
+either by two men or even by one. So when the chamber was finished, the
+king stored his money in it, and after some time the builder, being near
+the end of his life, called to him his sons (for he had two) and to them
+he related how he had contrived in building the treasury of the king,
+and all in forethought for them, that they might have ample means of
+living. And when he had clearly set forth to them everything concerning
+the taking out of the stone, he gave them the measurements, saying that
+if they paid heed to this matter they would be stewards of the king's
+treasury. So he ended his life, and his sons made no long delay in
+setting to work, but went to the palace by night, and having found the
+stone in the wall of the chamber they dealt with it easily and carried
+forth for themselves great quantity of the wealth within. And the king
+happening to open the chamber, he marvelled when he saw the vessels
+falling short of the full amount, and he did not know on whom he should
+lay the blame, since the seals were unbroken and the chamber had been
+close shut; but when upon his opening the chamber a second and a third
+time the money was each time seen to be diminished, for the thieves
+did not slacken in their assaults upon it, he did as follows:--having
+ordered traps to be made he set these round about the vessels in which
+the money was; and when the thieves had come as at former times and one
+of them had entered, then so soon as he came near to one of the vessels
+he was straightway caught in the trap: and when he perceived in what
+evil case he was, straightway calling his brother he showed him what the
+matter was, and bade him enter as quickly as possible and cut off
+his head, for fear lest being seen and known he might bring about the
+destruction of his brother also. And to the other it seemed that he
+spoke well, and he was persuaded and did so; and fitting the stone into
+its place he departed home bearing with him the head of his brother.
+Now when it became day, the king entered into the chamber and was very
+greatly amazed, seeing the body of the thief held in the trap without
+his head, and the chamber unbroken, with no way to come in by or go out:
+and being at a loss he hung up the dead body of the thief upon the
+wall and set guards there, with charge if they saw any one weeping or
+bewailing himself to seize him and bring him before the king. And when
+the dead body had been hung up, the mother was greatly grieved, and
+speaking with the son who survived she enjoined him, in whatever way he
+could, to contrive means by which he might take down and bring home the
+body of his brother; and if he should neglect to do this, she earnestly
+threatened that she would go and give information to the king that he
+had the money. So as the mother dealt hardly with the surviving son, and
+he though saying many things to her did not persuade her, he contrived
+for his purpose a device as follows:--Providing himself with asses he
+filled some skins with wine and laid them upon the asses, and after
+that he drove them along: and when he came opposite to those who were
+guarding the corpse hung up, he drew towards him two or three of the
+necks of the skins and loosened the cords with which they were tied.
+Then when the wine was running out, he began to beat his head and cry
+out loudly, as if he did not know to which of the asses he should first
+turn; and when the guards saw the wine flowing out in streams, they ran
+together to the road with drinking vessels in their hands and collected
+the wine that was poured out, counting it so much gain; and he abused
+them all violently, making as if he were angry, but when the guards
+tried to appease him, after a time he feigned to be pacified and to
+abate his anger, and at length he drove his asses out of the road and
+began to set their loads right. Then more talk arose among them, and one
+or two of them made jests at him and brought him to laugh with them;
+and in the end he made them a present of one of the skins in addition
+to what they had. Upon that they lay down there without more ado, being
+minded to drink, and they took him into their company and invited him
+to remain with them and join them in their drinking: so he (as may be
+supposed) was persuaded and stayed. Then as they in their drinking bade
+him welcome in a friendly manner, he made a present to them also of
+another of the skins; and so at length having drunk liberally the guards
+became completely intoxicated; and being overcome by sleep they went to
+bed on the spot where they had been drinking. He then, as it was now far
+on in the night, first took down the body of his brother, and then in
+mockery shaved the right cheeks of all the guards; and after that he
+put the dead body upon the asses and drove them away home, having
+accomplished that which was enjoined him by his mother. Upon this the
+king, when it was reported to him that the dead body of the thief had
+been stolen away, displayed great anger; and desiring by all means that
+it should be found out who it might be who devised these things, did
+this (so at least they said, but I do not believe the account),--he
+caused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and enjoined her to receive
+all equally, and before having commerce with any one to compel him to
+tell her what was the most cunning and what the most unholy deed which
+had been done by him in all his life-time; and whosoever should relate
+that which had happened about the thief, him she must seize and not let
+him go out. Then as she was doing that which was enjoined by her father,
+the thief, hearing for what purpose this was done and having a desire to
+get the better of the king in resource, did thus:--from the body of one
+lately dead he cut off the arm at the shoulder and went with it under
+his mantle: and having gone in to the daughter of the king, and being
+asked that which the others also were asked, he related that he had done
+the most unholy deed when he cut off the head of his brother, who had
+been caught in a trap in the king's treasure-chamber, and the most
+cunning deed in that he made drunk the guards and took down the dead
+body of his brother hanging up; and she when she heard it tried to take
+hold of him, but the thief held out to her in the darkness the arm of
+the corpse, which she grasped and held, thinking that she was holding
+the arm of the man himself; but the thief left it in her hands and
+departed, escaping through the door. Now when this also was reported to
+the king, he was at first amazed at the ready invention and daring of
+the fellow, and then afterwards he sent round to all the cities and made
+proclamation granting a free pardon to the thief, and also promising a
+great reward if he would come into his presence. The thief accordingly
+trusting to the proclamation came to the king, and Rhampsinitos greatly
+marvelled at him, and gave him this daughter of his to wife, counting
+him to be the most knowing of all men; for as the Egyptians were
+distinguished from all other men, so was he from the other Egyptians.
+
+After these things they said this king went down alive to that place
+which by the Hellenes is called Hades, and there played at dice with
+Demeter, and in some throws he overcame her and in others he was
+overcome by her; and he came back again having as a gift from her a
+handkerchief of gold: and they told me that because of the going down of
+Rhampsinitos the Egyptians after he came back celebrated a feast, which
+I know of my own knowledge also that they still observe even to my time;
+but whether it is for this cause that they keep the feast or for
+some other, I am not able to say. However, the priests weave a robe
+completely on the very day of the feast, and forthwith they bind up the
+eyes of one of them with a fillet, and having led him with the robe to
+the way by which one goes to the temple of Demeter, they depart back
+again themselves. This priest, they say, with his eyes bound up is led
+by two wolves to the temple of Demeter, which is distant from the city
+twenty furlongs, and then afterwards the wolves lead him back again from
+the temple to the same spot. Now as to the tales told by the Egyptians,
+any man may accept them to whom such things appear credible; as for me,
+it is to be understood throughout the whole of the history that I write
+by hearsay that which is reported by the people in each place. The
+Egyptians say that Demeter and Dionysos are rulers of the world below;
+and the Egyptians are also the first who reported the doctrine that the
+soul of man is immortal, and that when the body dies, the soul enters
+into another creature which chances then to be coming to the birth, and
+when it has gone the round of all the creatures of land and sea and of
+the air, it enters again into a human body as it comes to the birth;
+and that it makes this round in a period of three thousand years. This
+doctrine certain Hellenes adopted, some earlier and some later, as if
+it were of their own invention, and of these men I know the names but I
+abstain from recording them.
+
+Down to the time when Rhampsinitos was king, they told me there was in
+Egypt nothing but orderly rule, and Egypt prospered greatly; but after
+him Cheops became king over them and brought them to every kind of
+evil: for he shut up all the temples, and having first kept them from
+sacrifices there, he then bade all the Egyptians work for him. So some
+were appointed to draw stones from the stone-quarries in the Arabian
+mountains to the Nile, and others he ordered to receive the stones after
+they had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw them to those
+which are called the Libyan mountains; and they worked by a hundred
+thousand men at a time, for each three months continually. Of this
+oppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by which
+they drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a work not
+much less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid; for the length of it
+is five furlongs and the breadth ten fathoms and the height, where it
+is highest, eight fathoms, and it is made of stone smoothed and with
+figures carved upon it. For this they said, the ten years were spent,
+and for the underground he caused to be made as sepulchral chambers for
+himself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the Nile.
+For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty
+years; and the pyramid is square, each side measuring eight hundred
+feet, and the height of it is the same. It is built of stone smoothed
+and fitted together in the most perfect manner, not one of the stones
+being less than thirty feet in length. This pyramid was made after the
+manner of steps which some called "rows" and others "bases": and when
+they had first made it thus, they raised the remaining stones with
+machines made of short pieces of timber, raising them first from the
+ground to the first stage of the steps, and when the stone got up to
+this it was placed upon another machine standing on the first stage,
+and so from this it was drawn to the second upon another machine; for as
+many as were the courses of the steps, so many machines there were also,
+or perhaps they transferred one and the same machine, made so as easily
+to be carried, to each stage successively, in order that they might
+take up the stones; for let it be told in both ways, according as it
+is reported. However that may be the highest parts of it were finished
+first, and afterwards they proceeded to finish that which came next to
+them, and lastly they finished the parts of it near the ground and the
+lowest ranges. On the pyramid it is declared in Egyptian writing how
+much was spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and if
+I rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me this
+inscription, a sum of one thousand six hundred talents of silver was
+spent; and if this is so, how much besides is likely to have been
+expended upon the iron with which they worked, and upon bread and
+clothing for the workmen, seeing that they were building the works for
+the time which has been mentioned and were occupied for no small time
+besides, as I suppose, in the cutting and bringing of the stones and in
+working at the excavation under the ground? Cheops moreover came, they
+said, to such a pitch of wickedness, that being in want of money he
+caused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and ordered her to obtain
+from those who came a certain amount of money (how much it was they did
+not tell me): and she not only obtained the sum appointed by her father,
+but also she formed a design for herself privately to leave behind her
+a memorial, and she requested each man who came in to give her one stone
+upon her building: and of these stones, they told me, the pyramid was
+built which stands in front of the great pyramid in the middle of the
+three, each side being one hundred and fifty feet in length.
+
+This Cheops, the Egyptians said, reigned fifty years; and after he was
+dead his brother Chephren succeeded to the kingdom. This king followed
+the same manner of dealing as the other, both in all the rest and also
+in that he made a pyramid, not indeed attaining to the measurements
+of that which was built by the former (this I know, having myself also
+measured it), and moreover there are no underground chambers beneath nor
+does a channel come from the Nile flowing to this one as to the other,
+in which the water coming through a conduit built for it flows round
+an island within, where they say that Cheops himself is laid: but for a
+basement he built the first course of Ethiopian stone of divers colours;
+and this pyramid he made forty feet lower than the other as regards
+size, building it close to the great pyramid. These stand both upon the
+same hill, which is about a hundred feet high. And Chephren they said
+reigned fifty and six years. Here then they reckon one hundred and six
+years, during which they say that there was nothing but evil for the
+Egyptians, and the temples were kept closed and not opened during all
+that time. These kings the Egyptians by reason of their hatred of them
+are not very willing to name; nay, they even call the pyramids after the
+name of Philitis the shepherd, who at that time pastured flocks in those
+regions. After him, they said, Mykerinos became king over Egypt, who was
+the son of Cheops; and to him his father's deeds were displeasing, and
+he both opened the temples and gave liberty to the people, who were
+ground down to the last extremity of evil, to return to their own
+business and to their sacrifices: also he gave decisions of their causes
+juster than those of all the other kings besides. In regard to this then
+they commend this king more than all the other kings who had arisen in
+Egypt before him; for he not only gave good decisions, but also when
+a man complained of the decision, he gave him recompense from his own
+goods and thus satisfied his desire. But while Mykerinos was acting
+mercifully to his subjects and practising this conduct which has been
+said, calamities befell him, of which the first was this, namely that
+his daughter died, the only child whom he had in his house: and being
+above measure grieved by that which had befallen him, and desiring to
+bury his daughter in a manner more remarkable than others, he made a cow
+of wood, which he covered over with gold, and then within it he buried
+this daughter who as I said, had died. This cow was not covered up in
+the ground, but it might be seen even down to my own time in the city
+of Sais, placed within the royal palace in a chamber which was greatly
+adorned; and they offer incense of all kinds before it every day, and
+each night a lamp burns beside it all through the night. Near this cow
+in another chamber stand images of the concubines of Mykerinos, as the
+priests at Sais told me; for there are in fact colossal wooden statues,
+in number about twenty, made with naked bodies; but who they are I am
+not able to say, except only that which is reported. Some however tell
+about this cow and the colossal statues the following tale, namely that
+Mykerinos was enamoured of his own daughter and afterwards ravished her;
+and upon this they say that the girl strangled herself for grief, and
+he buried her in this cow; and her mother cut off the hands of the maids
+who had betrayed the daughter to her father; wherefore now the images of
+them have suffered that which the maids suffered in their life. In thus
+saying they speak idly, as it seems to me, especially in what they say
+about the hands of the statues; for as to this, even we ourselves saw
+that their hands had dropped off from lapse of time, and they were to be
+seen still lying at their feet even down to my time. The cow is covered
+up with a crimson robe, except only the head and the neck, which are
+seen, overlaid with gold very thickly; and between the horns there is
+the disc of the sun figured in gold. The cow is not standing up but
+kneeling, and in size is equal to a large living cow. Every year it is
+carried forth from the chamber, at those times, I say, the Egyptians
+beat themselves for that god whom I will not name upon occasion of such
+a matter; at these times, I say, they also carry forth the cow to the
+light of day, for they say that she asked of her father Mykerinos, when
+she was dying, that she might look upon the sun once in the year.
+
+After the misfortune of his daughter it happened, they said, secondly
+to this king as follows:--An oracle came to him from the city of Buto,
+saying that he was destined to live but six years more, in the seventh
+year to end his life: and he being indignant at it sent to the Oracle
+a reproach against the god, making complaint in reply that whereas
+his father and uncle, who had shut up the temples and had not only not
+remembered the gods, but also had been destroyers of men, had lived for
+a long time, he himself, who practised piety, was destined to end his
+life so soon: and from the Oracle came a second message, which said
+that it was for this very cause that he was bringing his life to a swift
+close; for he had not done that which it was appointed for him to do,
+since it was destined that Egypt should suffer evils for a hundred and
+fifty years, and the two kings who had arisen before him had perceived
+this, but he had not. Mykerinos having heard this, and considering that
+this sentence had passed upon him beyond recall, procured many lamps,
+and whenever night came on he lighted these and began to drink and take
+his pleasure, ceasing neither by day nor by night; and he went about to
+the fen-country and to the woods and wherever he heard there were the
+most suitable places of enjoyment. This he devised (having a mind to
+prove that the Oracle spoke falsely) in order that he might have twelve
+years of life instead of six, the nights being turned into days.
+
+This king also left behind him a pyramid, much smaller than that of his
+father, of a square shape and measuring on each side three hundred feet
+lacking twenty, built moreover of Ethiopian stone up to half the
+height. This pyramid some of the Hellenes say was built by the courtesan
+Rhodopis, not therein speaking rightly: and besides this it is evident
+to me that they who speak thus do not even know who Rhodopis was,
+for otherwise they would not have attributed to her the building of a
+pyramid like this, on which have been spent (so to speak) innumerable
+thousands of talents: moreover they do not know that Rhodopis flourished
+in the reign of Amasis, and not in this king's reign; for Rhodopis
+lived very many years later than the kings who left behind them these
+pyramids. By descent she was of Thrace, and she was a slave of Iadmon
+the son of Hephaistopolis a Samian, and a fellow-slave of Esop the
+maker of fables; for he too was once the slave of Iadmon, as was
+proved especially by this fact, namely that when the people of Delphi
+repeatedly made proclamation in accordance with an oracle, to find some
+one who would take up the blood-money for the death of Esop, no one else
+appeared, but at length the grandson of Iadmon, called Iadmon also, took
+it up; and thus it is showed that Esop too was the slave of Iadmon.
+As for Rhodopis, she came to Egypt brought by Xanthes the Samian,
+and having come thither to exercise her calling she was redeemed
+from slavery for a great sum by a man of Mytilene, Charaxos son of
+Scamandronymos and brother of Sappho the lyric poet. Thus was Rhodopis
+set free, and she remained in Egypt and by her beauty won so much liking
+that she made great gain of money for one like Rhodopis, though not
+enough to suffice for the cost of such a pyramid as this. In truth there
+is no need to ascribe to her very great riches, considering that the
+tithe of her wealth may still be seen even to this time by any one
+who desires it: for Rhodopis wished to leave behind her a memorial of
+herself in Hellas, namely to cause a thing to be made such as happens
+not to have been thought of or dedicated in a temple by any besides, and
+to dedicate this at Delphi as a memorial of herself. Accordingly with
+the tithe of her wealth she caused to be made spits of iron of size
+large enough to pierce a whole ox, and many in number, going as far
+therein as her tithe allowed her, and she sent them to Delphi: these
+are even at the present time lying there, heaped all together behind the
+altar which the Chians dedicated, and just opposite to the cell of the
+temple. Now at Naucratis, as it happens, the courtesans are rather apt
+to win credit; for this woman first, about whom the story to which I
+refer is told, became so famous that all the Hellenes without exception
+came to know the name of Rhodopis, and then after her one whose name was
+Archidiche became a subject of song all over Hellas, though she was less
+talked of than the other. As for Charaxos, when after redeeming Rhodopis
+he returned back to Mytilene, Sappho in an ode violently abused him. Of
+Rhodopis then I shall say no more.
+
+After Mykerinos the priests said Asychis became king of Egypt, and he
+made for Hephaistos the temple gateway which is towards the sunrising,
+by far the most beautiful and the largest of the gateways; for while
+they all have figures carved upon them and innumerable ornaments of
+building besides, this has them very much more than the rest. In this
+king's reign they told me that, as the circulation of money was very
+slow, a law was made for the Egyptians that a man might have that money
+lent to him which he needed, by offering as security the dead body of
+his father; and there was added moreover to this law another, namely
+that he who lent the money should have a claim also to the whole of the
+sepulchral chamber belonging to him who received it, and that the man
+who offered that security should be subject to this penalty, if he
+refused to pay back the debt, namely that neither the man himself
+should be allowed to have burial, when he died, either in that family
+burial-place or in any other, nor should he be allowed to bury any of
+his kinsmen whom he lost by death. This king desiring to surpass the
+kings of Egypt who had arisen before him left as a memorial of himself a
+pyramid which he made of bricks and on it there is an inscription
+carved in stone and saying thus: "Despise not me in comparison with the
+pyramids of stone, seeing that I excel them as much as Zeus excels the
+other gods; for with a pole they struck into the lake, and whatever
+of the mud attached itself to the pole, this they gathered up and made
+bricks, and in such manner they finished me."
+
+Such were the deeds which this king performed: and after him reigned a
+blind man of the city of Anysis, whose name was Anysis. In his reign
+the Ethiopians and Sabacos the king of the Ethiopians marched upon Egypt
+with a great host of men; so this blind man departed, flying to the
+fen-country, and the Ethiopian was king over Egypt for fifty years,
+during which he performed deeds as follows:--whenever any man of the
+Egyptians committed any transgression, he would never put him to death,
+but he gave sentence upon each man according to the greatness of the
+wrong-doing, appointing them to work at throwing up an embankment before
+that city from whence each man came of those who committed wrong. Thus
+the cities were made higher still than before; for they were embanked
+first by those who dug the channels in the reign of Sesostris, and then
+secondly in the reign of the Ethiopian, and thus they were made very
+high: and while other cities in Egypt also stood high, I think in the
+town at Bubastis especially the earth was piled up. In this city there
+is a temple very well worthy of mention, for though there are other
+temples which are larger and build with more cost, none more than
+this is a pleasure to the eyes. Now Bubastis in the Hellenic tongue
+is Artemis, and her temple is ordered thus:--Except the entrance it is
+completely surrounded by water; for channels come in from the Nile, not
+joining one another, but each extending as far as the entrance of the
+temple, one flowing round on the one side and the other on the other
+side, each a hundred feet broad and shaded over with trees; and the
+gateway has a height of ten fathoms, and it is adorned with figures six
+cubits high, very noteworthy. This temple is in the middle of the city
+and is looked down upon from all sides as one goes round, for since the
+city has been banked up to a height, while the temple has not been moved
+from the place where it was at the first built, it is possible to look
+down into it: and round it runs a stone wall with figures carved upon
+it, while within it there is a grove of very large trees planted round
+a large temple-house, within which is the image of the goddess: and the
+breadth and length of the temple is a furlong every way. Opposite the
+entrance there is a road paved with stone for about three furlongs,
+which leads through the market-place towards the East, with a breadth
+of about four hundred feet; and on this side and on that grow trees of
+height reaching to heaven: and the road leads to the temple of Hermes.
+This temple then is thus ordered.
+
+The final deliverance from the Ethiopian came about (they said) as
+follows:--he fled away because he had seen in his sleep a vision, in
+which it seemed to him that a man came and stood by him and counselled
+him to gather together all the priests in Egypt and cut them asunder in
+the midst. Having seen this dream, he said that it seemed to him that
+the gods were foreshowing him this to furnish an occasion against him,
+in order that he might do an impious deed with respect to religion,
+and so receive some evil either from the gods or from men: he would not
+however do so, but in truth (he said) the time had expired, during
+which it had been prophesied to him that he should rule Egypt before
+he departed thence. For when he was in Ethiopia the Oracles which the
+Ethiopians consult had told him that it was fated for him to rule Egypt
+fifty years: since then this time was now expiring, and the vision of
+the dream also disturbed him, Sabacos departed out of Egypt of his own
+free will.
+
+Then when the Ethiopian had gone away out of Egypt, the blind man came
+back from the fen-country and began to rule again, having lived there
+during fifty years upon an island which he had made by heaping up ashes
+and earth: for whenever any of the Egyptians visited him bringing food,
+according as it had been appointed to them severally to do without the
+knowledge of the Ethiopian, he bade them bring also some ashes for their
+gift. This island none was able to find before Amyrtaios; that is, for
+more than seven hundred years the kings who arose before Amyrtaios were
+not able to find it. Now the name of this island is Elbo, and its size
+is ten furlongs each way.
+
+After him there came to the throne the priest of Hephaistos, whose name
+was Sethos. This man, they said, neglected and held in no regard the
+warrior class of the Egyptians, considering that he would have no need
+of them; and besides other slights which he put upon them, he also
+took from them the yokes of corn-land which had been given to them as
+a special gift in the reigns of the former kings, twelve yokes to each
+man. After this, Sanacharib king of the Arabians and of the Assyrians
+marched a great host against Egypt. Then the warriors of the Egyptians
+refused to come to the rescue, and the priest, being driven into a
+strait, entered into the sanctuary of the temple and bewailed to the
+image of the god the danger which was impending over him; and as he was
+thus lamenting, sleep came upon him, and it seemed to him in his vision
+that the god came and stood by him and encouraged him, saying that he
+should suffer no evil if he went forth to meet the army of the Arabians;
+for he would himself send him helpers. Trusting in these things seen
+in sleep, he took with him, they said, those of the Egyptians who were
+willing to follow him, and encamped in Pelusion, for by this way the
+invasion came: and not one of the warrior class followed him, but
+shop-keepers and artisans and men of the market. Then after they came,
+there swarmed by night upon their enemies mice of the fields, and ate up
+their quivers and their bows, and moreover the handles of their shields,
+so that on the next day they fled, and being without defence of arms
+great numbers fell. And at the present time this king stands in the
+temple of Hephaistos in stone, holding upon his hand a mouse, and by
+letters inscribed he says these words: "Let him who looks upon me learn
+to fear the gods."
+
+So far in the story the Egyptians and the priests were they who made
+the report, declaring that from the first king down to this priest of
+Hephaistos who reigned last, there had been three hundred and forty-one
+generations of men, and that in them there had been the same number of
+chief-priests and of kings: but three hundred generations of men are
+equal to ten thousand years, for a hundred years is three generations
+of men; and in the one-and-forty generations which remain, those I mean
+which were added to the three hundred, there are one thousand three
+hundred and forty years. Thus in the period of eleven thousand three
+hundred and forty years they said that there had arisen no god in human
+form; nor even before that time or afterwards among the remaining kings
+who arise in Egypt, did they report that anything of that kind had come
+to pass. In this time they said that the sun had moved four times from
+his accustomed place of rising, and where he now sets he had thence
+twice had his rising, and in the place from whence he now rises he had
+twice had his setting; and in the meantime nothing in Egypt had been
+changed from its usual state, neither that which comes from the earth
+nor that which comes to them from the river nor that which concerns
+diseases or deaths. And formerly when Hecataios the historian was in
+Thebes, and had traced his descent and connected his family with a god
+in the sixteenth generation before, the priests of Zeus did for him much
+the same as they did for me (though I had not traced my descent). They
+led me into the sanctuary of the temple, which is of great size, and
+they counted up the number, showing colossal wooden statues in number
+the same as they said; for each chief-priest there sets up in his
+lifetime an image of himself: accordingly the priests, counting and
+showing me these, declared to me that each one of them was a son
+succeeding his own father, and they went up through the series of images
+from the image of the one who had died last, until they had declared
+this of the whole number. And when Hecataios had traced his descent and
+connected his family with a god in the sixteenth generation, they traced
+a descent in opposition to his, besides their numbering, not accepting
+it from him that a man had been born from a god; and they traced their
+counter-descent thus, saying that each one of the statues had been
+_piromis_ son of _piromis_, until they had declared this of the whole
+three hundred and forty-five statues, each one being surnamed _piromis_;
+and neither with a god nor a hero did they connect their descent. Now
+_piromis_ means in the tongue of Hellas "honourable and good man." From
+their declaration then it followed, that they of whom the images were
+had been of form like this, and far removed from being gods: but in the
+time before these men they said that gods were the rulers in Egypt, not
+mingling with men, and that of these always one had power at a time;
+and the last of them who was king over Egypt was Oros the son of Osiris,
+whom the Hellenes call Apollo: he was king over Egypt last, having
+deposed Typhon. Now Osiris in the tongue of Hellas is Dionysos.
+
+Among the Hellenes Heracles and Dionysos and Pan are accounted the
+lastest-born of the gods; but with the Egyptians Pan is a very ancient
+god, and he is one of those which are called eight gods, while Heracles
+is of the second rank, who are called the twelve gods, and Dionysos is
+of the third rank, namely of those who were born of the twelve gods. Now
+as to Heracles I have shown already how many years old he is according
+to the Egyptians themselves, reckoning down to the reign of Amasis, and
+Pan is said to have existed for yet more years than these, and Dionysos
+for the smallest number of years as compared with the others; and even
+for this last they reckon down to the reign of Amasis fifteen thousand
+years. This the Egyptians say that they know for a certainty, since they
+always kept a reckoning and wrote down the years as they came. Now the
+Dionysos who is said to have been born of Semele the daughter of Cadmos,
+was born about sixteen hundred years before my time, and Heracles who
+was the son of Alcmene, about nine hundred years, and that Pan who was
+born of Penelope, for of her and of Hermes Pan is said by the Hellenes
+to have been born, came into being later than the wars of Troy, about
+eight hundred years before my time. Of these two accounts every man may
+adopt that one which he shall find the more credible when he hears it.
+I however, for my part, have already declared my opinion about them. For
+if these also, like Heracles the son of Amphitryon, had appeared before
+all men's eyes and had lived their lives to old age in Hellas, I mean
+Dionysos the son of Semele and Pan the son of Penelope, then one would
+have said that these also had been born mere men, having the names
+of those gods who had come into being long before: but as it is, with
+regard to Dionysos the Hellenes say that as soon as he was born Zeus
+sewed him up in his thigh and carried him to Nysa, which is above Egypt
+in the land of Ethiopia; and as to Pan, they cannot say whither he went
+after he was born. Hence it has become clear to me that the Hellenes
+learnt the names of these gods later than those of the other gods, and
+trace their descent as if their birth occurred at the time when they
+first learnt their names.
+
+Thus far then the history is told by the Egyptians themselves; but I
+will now recount that which other nations also tell, and the Egyptians
+in agreement with the others, of that which happened in this land: and
+there will be added to this also something of that which I have myself
+seen.
+
+Being set free after the reign of the priest of Hephaistos, the
+Egyptians, since they could not live any time without a king, set up
+over them twelve kings, having divided all Egypt into twelve parts.
+These made intermarriages with one another and reigned, making agreement
+that they would not put down one another by force, nor seek to get an
+advantage over one another, but would live in perfect friendship: and
+the reason why they made these agreements, guarding them very strongly
+from violation, was this, namely that an oracle had been given to them
+at first when they began to exercise their rule, that he of them who
+should pour a libation with a bronze cup in the temple of Hephaistos,
+should be king of all Egypt (for they used to assemble together in all
+the temples). Moreover they resolved to join all together and leave a
+memorial of themselves; and having so resolved they caused to be made
+a labyrinth, situated a little above the lake of Moiris and nearly
+opposite to that which is called the City of Crocodiles. This I saw
+myself, and I found it greater than words can say. For if one should
+put together and reckon up all the buildings and all the great works
+produced by Hellenes, they would prove to be inferior in labour and
+expense to this labyrinth, though it is true that both the temple at
+Ephesos and that at Samos are works worthy of note. The pyramids also
+were greater than words can say, and each one of them is equal to many
+works of the Hellenes, great as they may be; but the labyrinth surpasses
+even the pyramids. It has twelve courts covered in, with gates facing
+one another, six upon the North side and six upon the South, joining on
+one to another, and the same wall surrounds them all outside; and there
+are in it two kinds of chambers, the one kind below the ground and the
+other above upon these, three thousand in number, of each kind fifteen
+hundred. The upper set of chambers we ourselves saw, going through them,
+and we tell of them having looked upon them with our own eyes; but the
+chambers under ground we heard about only; for the Egyptians who had
+charge of them were not willing on any account to show them, saying that
+here were the sepulchres of the kings who had first built this labyrinth
+and of the sacred crocodiles. Accordingly we speak of the chambers below
+by what we received from hearsay, while those above we saw ourselves and
+found them to be works of more than human greatness. For the passages
+through the chambers, and the goings this way and that way through
+the courts, which were admirably adorned, afforded endless matter for
+marvel, as we went through from a court to the chambers beyond it, and
+from the chambers to colonnades, and from the colonnades to other rooms,
+and then from the chambers again to other courts. Over the whole of
+these is a roof made of stone like the walls; and the walls are covered
+with figures carved upon them, each court being surrounded with pillars
+of white stone fitted together most perfectly; and at the end of the
+labyrinth, by the corner of it, there is a pyramid of forty fathoms,
+upon which large figures are carved, and to this there is a way made
+under ground.
+
+Such is this labyrinth: but a cause for marvel even greater than this is
+afforded by the lake, which is called the lake of Moiris, along the side
+of which this labyrinth is built. The measure of its circuit is three
+thousand six hundred furlongs (being sixty _schoines_), and this is the
+same number of furlongs as the extent of Egypt itself along the sea. The
+lake lies extended lengthwise from North to South, and in depth where it
+is deepest it is fifty fathoms. That this lake is artificial and formed
+by digging is self-evident, for about in the middle of the lake stand
+two pyramids, each rising above the water to a height of fifty fathoms,
+the part which is built below the water being of just the same height;
+and upon each is placed a colossal statue of stone sitting upon a chair.
+Thus the pyramids are a hundred fathoms high; and these hundred fathoms
+are equal to a furlong of six hundred feet, the fathom being measured as
+six feet or four cubits, the feet being four palms each, and the cubits
+six. The water in the lake does not come from the place where it is, for
+the country there is very deficient in water, but it has been brought
+thither from the Nile by a canal; and for six months the water flows
+into the lake, and for six months out into the Nile again; and whenever
+it flows out, then for the six months it brings into the royal treasury
+a talent of silver a day from the fish which are caught, and twenty
+pounds when the water comes in. The natives of the place moreover said
+that this lake had an outlet under ground to the Syrtis which is in
+Libya, turning towards the interior of the continent upon the Western
+side and running along by the mountain which is above Memphis. Now since
+I did not see anywhere existing the earth dug out of this excavation
+(for that was a matter which drew my attention), I asked those who dwelt
+nearest to the lake where the earth was which had been dug out. These
+told me to what place it had been carried away; and I readily believed
+them, for I knew by report that a similar thing had been done at
+Nineveh, the city of the Assyrians. There certain thieves formed a
+design once to carry away the wealth of Sardanapallos son of Ninos, the
+king, which wealth was very great and was kept in treasure-houses under
+the earth. Accordingly they began from their own dwelling, and making
+estimate of their direction they dug under ground towards the king's
+palace; and the earth which was brought out of the excavation they used
+to carry away, when night came on, to the river Tigris which flows by
+the city of Nineveh, until at last they accomplished that which they
+desired. Similarly, as I heard, the digging of the lake in Egypt was
+effected, except that it was done not by night but during the day; for
+as they dug the Egyptians carried to the Nile the earth which was dug
+out; and the river, when it received it, would naturally bear it away
+and disperse it. Thus is this lake said to have been dug out.
+
+Now the twelve kings continued to rule justly, but in course of time it
+happened thus:--After sacrifice in the temple of Hephaistos they
+were about to make libation on the last day of the feast, and the
+chief-priest, in bringing out for them the golden cups with which they
+had been wont to pour libations, missed his reckoning and brought eleven
+only for the twelve kings. Then that one of them who was standing last
+in order, namely Psammetichos, since he had no cup took off from his
+head his helmet, which was of bronze, and having held it out to receive
+the wine he proceeded to make libation: likewise all the other kings
+were wont to wear helmets and they happened to have them then. Now
+Psammetichos held out his helmet with no treacherous meaning; but they
+taking note of that which had been done by Psammetichos and of the
+oracle, namely how it had been declared to them that whosoever of them
+should make libation with a bronze cup should be sole king of Egypt,
+recollecting, I say, the saying of the Oracle, they did not indeed deem
+it right to slay Psammetichos, since they found by examination that he
+had not done it with any forethought, but they determined to strip him
+of almost all his power and to drive him away into the fen-country, and
+that from the fen-country he should not hold any dealings with the
+rest of Egypt. This Psammetichos had formerly been a fugitive from the
+Ethiopian Sabacos who had killed his father Necos, from him, I say, he
+had then been a fugitive in Syria; and when the Ethiopian had departed
+in consequence of the vision of the dream, the Egyptians who were of the
+district of Sais brought him back to his own country. Then afterwards,
+when he was king, it was his fate to be a fugitive a second time
+on account of the helmet, being driven by the eleven kings into the
+fen-country. So then holding that he had been grievously wronged by
+them, he thought how he might take vengeance on those who had driven
+him out: and when he had sent to the Oracle of Leto in the city of Buto,
+where the Egyptians have their most truthful Oracle, there was given to
+him the reply that vengeance would come when men of bronze appeared from
+the sea. And he was strongly disposed not to believe that bronze men
+would come to help him; but after no long time had passed, certain
+Ionians and Carians who had sailed forth for plunder were compelled to
+come to shore in Egypt, and they having landed and being clad in bronze
+armour, came to the fen-land and brought a report to Psammetichos that
+bronze men had come from the sea and were plundering the plain. So he,
+perceiving that the saying of the Oracle was coming to pass, dealt in a
+friendly manner with the Ionians and Carians, and with large promises he
+persuaded them to take his part. Then when he had persuaded them, with
+the help of those Egyptians who favoured his cause and of these foreign
+mercenaries he overthrew the kings. Having thus got power over all
+Egypt, Psammetichos made for Hephaistos that gateway of the temple at
+Memphis which is turned towards the South Wind; and he built a court for
+Apis, in which Apis is kept when he appears, opposite to the gateway of
+the temple, surrounded all with pillars and covered with figures; and
+instead of columns there stand to support the roof of the court colossal
+statues twelve cubits high. Now Apis is in the tongue of the Hellenes
+Epaphos. To the Ionians and to the Carians who had helped him
+Psammetichos granted portions of land to dwell in, opposite to
+one another with the river Nile between, and these were called
+"Encampments"; these portions of land he gave them, and he paid them
+besides all that he had promised: moreover he placed with them Egyptian
+boys to have them taught the Hellenic tongue; and from these, who learnt
+the language thoroughly, are descended the present class of interpreters
+in Egypt. Now the Ionians and Carians occupied these portions of land
+for a long time, and they are towards the sea a little below the city of
+Bubastis, on that which is called the Pelusian mouth of the Nile. These
+men king Amasis afterwards removed from thence and established them at
+Memphis, making them into a guard for himself against the Egyptians:
+and they being settled in Egypt, we who are Hellenes know by intercourse
+with them the certainty of all that which happened in Egypt beginning
+from king Psammetichos and afterwards; for these were the first men of
+foreign tongue who settled in Egypt: and in the land from which they
+were removed there still remained down to my time the sheds where their
+ships were drawn up and the ruins of their houses.
+
+Thus then Psammetichos obtained Egypt: and of the Oracle which is in
+Egypt I have made mention often before this, and now I give an account
+of it, seeing that it is worthy to be described. This Oracle which is in
+Egypt is sacred to Leto, and it is established in a great city near that
+mouth of the Nile which is called Sebennytic, as one sails up the river
+from the sea; and the name of this city where the Oracle is found is
+Buto, as I have said before in mentioning it. In this Buto there is a
+temple of Apollo and Artemis; and the temple-house of Leto, in which the
+Oracle is, is both great in itself and has a gateway of the height of
+ten fathoms: but that which caused me most to marvel of the things to be
+seen there, I will now tell. There is in this sacred enclosure a house
+of Leto made of one single stone upon the top, the cornice measuring
+four cubits. This house then of all the things that were to be seen by
+me in that temple is the most marvellous, and among those which come
+next is the island called Chemmis. This is situated in a deep and broad
+lake by the side of the temple at Buto, and it is said by the Egyptians
+that this island is a floating island. I myself did not see it either
+floating about or moved from its place, and I feel surprise at hearing
+of it, wondering if it be indeed a floating island. In this island of
+which I speak there is a great temple-house of Apollo, and three several
+altars are set up within, and there are planted in the island many
+palm-trees and other trees, both bearing fruit and not bearing fruit.
+And the Egyptians, when they say that it is floating, add this story,
+namely that in this island which formerly was not floating, Leto, being
+one of the eight gods who came into existence first, and dwelling in the
+city of Buto where she has this Oracle, received Apollo from Isis as a
+charge and preserved him, concealing him in the island which is said now
+to be a floating island, at that time when Typhon came after him seeking
+everywhere and desiring to find the son of Osiris. Now they say that
+Apollo and Artemis are children of Dionysos and of Isis, and that Leto
+became their nurse and preserver; and in the Egyptian tongue Apollo is
+Oros, Demeter is Isis, and Artemis is Bubastis. From this story and from
+no other AEschylus the son of Euphorion took this which I shall say,
+wherein he differs from all the preceding poets; he represented namely
+that Artemis was the daughter of Demeter. For this reason then, they
+say, it became a floating island.
+
+Such is the story which they tell; but as for Psammetichos, he was king
+over Egypt for four-and-fifty years, of which for thirty years save one
+he was sitting before Azotos, a great city of Syria, besieging it, until
+at last he took it: and this Azotos of all cities about which we have
+knowledge held out for the longest time under a siege.
+
+The son of Psammetichos was Necos, and he became king of Egypt. This man
+was the first who attempted the channel leading to the Erythraian Sea,
+which Dareios the Persian afterwards completed: the length of this is
+a voyage of four days, and in breadth it was so dug that two triremes
+could go side by side driven by oars; and the water is brought into
+it from the Nile. The channel is conducted a little above the city of
+Bubastis by Patumos the Arabian city, and runs into the Erythraian Sea:
+and it is dug first along those parts of the plain of Egypt which lie
+towards Arabia, just above which run the mountains which extend
+opposite Memphis, where are the stone-quarries,--along the base of these
+mountains the channel is conducted from West to East for a great way;
+and after that it is directed towards a break in the hills and tends
+from these mountains towards the noon-day and the South Wind to the
+Arabian gulf. Now in the place where the journey is least and shortest
+from the Northern to the Southern Sea (which is also called Erythraian),
+that is from Mount Casion, which is the boundary between Egypt and
+Syria, the distance is exactly a thousand furlongs to the Arabian gulf;
+but the channel is much longer, since it is more winding; and in the
+reign of Necos there perished while digging it twelve myriads of the
+Egyptians. Now Necos ceased in the midst of his digging, because the
+utterance of an Oracle impeded him, which was to the effect that he was
+working for the Barbarian: and the Egyptians call all men Barbarians who
+do not agree with them in speech. Thus having ceased from the work of
+the channel, Necos betook himself to raging wars, and triremes were
+built by him, some for the Northern Sea and others in the Arabian gulf
+for the Erythraian Sea; and of these the sheds are still to be seen.
+These ships he used when he needed them; and also on land Necos engaged
+battle at Magdolos with the Syrians, and conquered them; and after this
+he took Cadytis, which is a great city of Syria: and the dress which he
+wore when he made these conquests he dedicated to Apollo, sending it to
+Branchidai of the Milesians. After this, having reigned in all sixteen
+years, he brought his life to an end, and handed on the kingdom to
+Psammis his son.
+
+While this Psammis was king of Egypt, there came to him men sent by the
+Eleians, who boasted that they ordered the contest at Olympia in the
+most just and honourable manner possible and thought that not even the
+Egyptians, the wisest of men, could find out anything besides, to be
+added to their rules. Now when the Eleians came to Egypt and said that
+for which they had come, then this king called together those of the
+Egyptians who were reputed the wisest, and when the Egyptians had come
+together they heard the Eleians tell of all that which it was their part
+to do in regard to the contest; and when they had related everything,
+they said that they had come to learn in addition anything which the
+Egyptians might be able to find out besides, which was juster than this.
+They then having consulted together asked the Eleians whether their own
+citizens took part in the contest; and they said that it was permitted
+to any one who desired it, to take part in the contest: upon which the
+Egyptians said that in so ordering the games they had wholly missed the
+mark of justice; for it could not be but that they would take part with
+the man of their own State, if he was contending, and so act unfairly
+to the stranger: but if they really desired, as they said, to order
+the games justly, and if this was the cause for which they had come to
+Egypt, they advised them to order the contest so as to be for strangers
+alone to contend in, and that no Eleian should be permitted to contend.
+Such was the suggestion made by the Egyptians to the Eleians.
+
+When Psammis had been king of Egypt for only six years and had made an
+expedition to Ethiopia and immediately afterwards had ended his life,
+Apries the son of Psammis received the kingdom in succession. This man
+came to be the most prosperous of all the kings up to that time except
+only his forefather Psammetichos; and he reigned five-and-twenty years,
+during which he led an army against Sidon and fought a sea-fight with
+the king of Tyre. Since however it was fated that evil should come upon
+him it came by occasion of a matter which I shall relate at greater
+length in the Libyan history, and at present but shortly. Apries having
+sent a great expedition against the Kyrenians, met with correspondingly
+great disaster; and the Egyptians considering him to blame for this
+revolted from him, supposing that Apries had with forethought sent them
+out to evident calamity, in order (as they said) that there might be a
+slaughter of them, and he might the more securely rule over the other
+Egyptians. Being indignant at this, both these men who had returned
+from the expedition and also the friends of those who had perished made
+revolt openly. Hearing this Apries sent to them Amasis, to cause them
+to cease by persuasion; and when he had come and was seeking to restrain
+the Egyptians, as he was speaking and telling them not to do so, one of
+the Egyptians stood up behind him and put a helmet upon his head, saying
+as he did so that he put it on to crown him king. And to him this
+that was done was in some degree not unwelcome, as he proved by his
+behaviour; for as soon as the revolted Egyptians had set him up as king,
+he prepared to march against Apries: and Apries hearing this sent to
+Amasis one of the Egyptians who were about his own person, a man of
+reputation, whose name was Patarbemis, enjoining him to bring Amasis
+alive into his presence. When this Patarbemis came and summoned Amasis,
+the latter, who happened to be sitting on horseback, lifted up his leg
+and behaved in an unseemly manner, bidding him take that back to Apries.
+Nevertheless, they say, Patarbemis made demand of him that he should
+go to the king, seeing that the king had sent to summon him; and he
+answered him that he had for some time past been preparing to do so, and
+that Apries would have no occasion to find fault with him, for he
+would both come himself and bring others with him. Then Patarbemis both
+perceiving his intention from that which he said, and also seeing his
+preparations, departed in haste, desiring to make known as quickly as
+possible to the king the things which were being done: and when he came
+back to Apries not bringing Amasis, the king paying no regard to that
+which he said, but being moved by violent anger, ordered his ears and
+his nose to be cut off. And the rest of the Egyptians who still remained
+on his side, when they saw the man of most repute among them thus
+suffering shameful outrage, waited no longer but joined the others in
+revolt, and delivered themselves over to Amasis. Then Apries having
+heard this also, armed his foreign mercenaries and marched against the
+Egyptians: now he had about him Carian and Ionian mercenaries to the
+number of thirty thousand; and his royal palace was in the city of Sais,
+of great size and worthy to be seen. So Apries and his army were going
+against the Egyptians, and Amasis and those with him were going against
+the mercenaries; and both sides came to the city of Momemphis and were
+about to make trial of one another in fight.
+
+Now of the Egyptians there are seven classes, and of these one class is
+called that of the priests, and another that of the warriors, while
+the others are the cowherds, swineherds, shopkeepers, interpreters, and
+boatmen. This is the number of the classes of the Egyptians, and their
+names are given them from the occupations which they follow. Of them the
+warriors are called Calasirians and Hermotybians, and they are of the
+following districts,--for all Egypt is divided into districts. The
+districts of the Hermotybians are those of Busiris, Sais, Chemmis,
+Papremis, the island called Prosopitis, and the half of Natho,--of
+these districts are the Hermotybians, who reached when most numerous the
+number of sixteen myriads. Of these not one has been learnt anything of
+handicraft, but they are given up to war entirely. Again the districts
+of the Calasirians are those of Thebes, Bubastis, Aphthis, Tanis,
+Mendes, Sebennytos, Athribis, Pharbaithos, Thmuis, Onuphis, Anytis,
+Myecphoris,--this last is on an island opposite to the city of Bubastis.
+These are the districts of the Calasirians; and they reached, when most
+numerous, to the number of five-and-twenty myriads of men; nor is it
+lawful for these, any more than for the others, to practise any craft;
+but they practise that which has to do with war only, handing down the
+tradition from father to son. Now whether the Hellenes have learnt this
+also from the Egyptians, I am not able to say for certain, since I
+see that the Thracians also and Scythians and Persians and Lydians and
+almost all the Barbarians esteem those of their citizens who learn the
+arts, and the descendants of them, as less honourable than the rest;
+while those who have got free from all practice of manual arts are
+accounted noble, and especially those who are devoted to war: however
+that may be, the Hellenes have all learnt this, and especially the
+Lacedemonians; but the Corinthians least of all cast slight upon those
+who practise handicraft.
+
+The following privilege was specially granted to this class and to none
+others of the Egyptians except the priests, that is to say, each man had
+twelve yokes of land specially granted to him free from imposts: now
+the yoke of land measures a hundred Egyptian cubits every way, and the
+Egyptian cubit is, as it happens, equal to that of Samos. This, I
+say, was a special privilege granted to all, and they also had certain
+advantages in turn and not the same men twice; that is to say, a
+thousand of the Calasirians and a thousand of the Hermotybians acted
+as body-guard to the king during each year; and these had besides their
+yokes of land an allowance given them for each day of five pounds weight
+of bread to each man, and two pounds of beef, and four half-pints of
+wine. This was the allowance given to those who were serving as the
+king's body-guard for the time being.
+
+So when Apries leading his foreign mercenaries, and Amasis at the head
+of the whole body of the Egyptians, in their approach to one another had
+come to the city of Momemphis, they engaged in battle: and although the
+foreign troops fought well, yet being much inferior in number they were
+worsted by reason of this. But Apries is said to have supposed that not
+even a god would be able to cause him to cease from his rule, so firmly
+did he think that it was established. In that battle then, I say, he was
+worsted, and being taken alive was brought away to the city of Sais, to
+that which had formerly been his own dwelling but from thenceforth was
+the palace of Amasis. There for some time he was kept in the palace, and
+Amasis dealt well with him but at last, since the Egyptians blamed
+him, saying that he acted not rightly in keeping alive him who was
+the greatest foe both to themselves and to him, therefore he delivered
+Apries over to the Egyptians; and they strangled him, and after that
+buried him in the burial-place of his fathers: this is in the temple of
+Athene, close to the sanctuary, on the left hand as you enter. Now the
+men of Sais buried all those of this district who had been kings, within
+the temple; for the tomb of Amasis also, though it is further from
+the sanctuary than that of Apries and his forefathers, yet this too is
+within the court of the temple, and it consists of a colonnade of stone
+of great size, with pillars carved to imitate date-palms, and otherwise
+sumptuously adorned; and within the colonnade are double doors, and
+inside the doors a sepulchral chamber. Also at Sais there is the
+burial-place of him whom I account it not pious to name in connexion
+with such a matter, which is in the temple of Athene behind the house
+of the goddess, stretching along the whole wall of it; and in the sacred
+enclosure stand great obelisks of stone, and near them is a lake adorned
+with an edging of stone and fairly made in a circle, being in size,
+as it seemed to me, equal to that which is called the "Round Pool" in
+Delos. On this lake they perform by night the show of his sufferings,
+and this the Egyptians call Mysteries. Of these things I know more fully
+in detail how they take place, but I shall leave this unspoken; and of
+the mystic rites of Demeter, which the Hellenes call _thesmophoria_, of
+these also, although I know, I shall leave unspoken all except so much
+as piety permits me to tell. The daughters of Danaos were they who
+brought this rite out of Egypt and taught it to the women of the
+Pelasgians; then afterwards when all the inhabitants of Peloponnese were
+driven out by the Dorians, the rite was lost, and only those who were
+left behind of the Peloponnesians and not driven out, that is to say the
+Arcadians, preserved it.
+
+Apries having thus been overthrown, Amasis became king, being of the
+district of Sais, and the name of the city whence he was is Siuph. Now
+at the first the Egyptians despised Amasis and held him in no
+great regard, because he had been a man of the people and was of no
+distinguished family; but afterwards Amasis won them over to himself by
+wisdom and not wilfulness. Among innumerable other things of price which
+he had, there was a foot-basin of gold in which both Amasis himself and
+all his guests were wont always to wash their feet. This he broke up,
+and of it he caused to be made the image of a god, and set it up in the
+city, where it was most convenient; and the Egyptians went continually
+to visit the image and did great reverence to it. Then Amasis, having
+learnt that which was done by the men of the city, called together the
+Egyptians and made known to them the matter, saying that the image had
+been produced from the foot-basin, into which formerly the Egyptians
+used to vomit and make water, and in which they washed their feet,
+whereas now they did to it great reverence; and just so, he continued,
+had he himself now fared, as the foot-basin; for though formerly he
+was a man of the people, yet now he was their king, and he bade them
+accordingly honour him and have regard for him. In such manner he won
+the Egyptians to himself, so that they consented to be his subjects; and
+his ordering of affairs was this:--In the early morning, and until the
+time of the filling of the market he did with a good will the business
+which was brought before him; but after this he passed the time in
+drinking and in jesting at his boon-companions, and was frivolous and
+playful. And his friends being troubled at it admonished him in some
+such words as these: "O king, thou dost not rightly govern thyself in
+thus letting thyself descend to behaviour so trifling; for thou oughtest
+rather to have been sitting throughout the day stately upon a stately
+throne and administering thy business; and so the Egyptians would have
+been assured that they were ruled by a great man, and thou wouldest
+have had a better report: but as it is, thou art acting by no means in a
+kingly fashion." And he answered them thus: "They who have bows stretch
+them at such time as they wish to use them, and when they have finished
+using them they loose them again; for if they were stretched tight
+always they would break, so that the men would not be able to use them
+when they needed them. So also is the state of man: if he should always
+be in earnest and not relax himself for sport at the due time, he would
+either go mad or be struck with stupor before he was aware; and knowing
+this well, I distribute a portion of the time to each of the two ways of
+living." Thus he replied to his friends. It is said however that Amasis,
+even when he was in a private station, was a lover of drinking and of
+jesting, and not at all seriously disposed; and whenever his means of
+livelihood failed him through his drinking and luxurious living, he
+would go about and steal; and they from whom he stole would charge him
+with having their property, and when he denied it would bring him before
+the judgment of an Oracle, whenever there was one in their place;
+and many times he was convicted by the Oracles and many times he was
+absolved: and then when finally he became king he did as follows:--as
+many of the gods as had absolved him and pronounced him not to be a
+thief, to their temples he paid no regard, nor gave anything for the
+further adornment of them, nor even visited them to offer sacrifice,
+considering them to be worth nothing and to possess lying Oracles; but
+as many as had convicted him of being a thief, to these he paid very
+great regard, considering them to be truly gods, and to present Oracles
+which did not lie. First in Sais he built and completed for Athene a
+temple-gateway which is a great marvel, and he far surpassed herein all
+who had done the like before, both in regard to height and greatness,
+so large are the stones and of such quality. Then secondly he dedicated
+great colossal statues and man-headed sphinxes very large, and for
+restoration he caused to be brought from the stone-quarries which
+are opposite Memphis, others of very great size from the city of
+Elephantine, distant a voyage of not less than twenty days from Sais:
+and of them all I marvel most at this, namely a monolith chamber which
+he brought from the city of Elephantine; and they were three years
+engaged in bringing this, and two thousand men were appointed to convey
+it, who all were of the class of boatmen. Of this house the length
+outside is one-and-twenty cubits, the breadth is fourteen cubits, and
+the height eight. These are the measures of the monolith house outside;
+but the length inside is eighteen cubits and five-sixths of a cubit, the
+breadth twelve cubits, and the height five cubits. This lies by the side
+of the entrance to the temple; for within the temple they did not draw
+it, because, as it is said, while the house was being drawn along, the
+chief artificer of it groaned aloud, seeing that much time had been
+spent and he was wearied by the work; and Amasis took it to heart as a
+warning and did not allow them to draw it further onwards. Some say on
+the other hand that a man was killed by it, of those who were heaving it
+with levers, and that it was not drawn in for that reason. Amasis also
+dedicated in all the other temples which were of repute, works which are
+worth seeing for their size, and among them also at Memphis the colossal
+statue which lies on its back in front of the temple of Hephaistos,
+whose length is five-and-seventy feet; and on the same base made of the
+same stone are set two colossal statues, each of twenty feet in length,
+one on this side and the other on that side of the large statue. There
+is also another of stone of the same size in Sais, lying in the same
+manner as that at Memphis. Moreover Amasis was he who built and finished
+for Isis her temple at Memphis, which is of great size and very worthy
+to be seen.
+
+In the reign of Amasis it is said that Egypt became more prosperous than
+at any other time before, both in regard to that which comes to the land
+from the river and in regard to that which comes from the land to its
+inhabitants, and that at this time the inhabited towns in it numbered
+in all twenty thousand. It was Amasis too who established the law that
+every year each one of the Egyptians should declare to the ruler of his
+district, from what source he got his livelihood, and if any man did
+not do this or did not make declaration of an honest way of living,
+he should be punished with death. Now Solon the Athenian received from
+Egypt this law and had it enacted for the Athenians, and they have
+continued to observe it, since it is a law with which none can find
+fault.
+
+Moreover Amasis became a lover of the Hellenes; and besides other proofs
+of friendship which he gave to several among them, he also granted the
+city of Naucratis for those of them who came to Egypt to dwell in; and
+to those who did not desire to stay, but who made voyages thither, he
+granted portions of land to set up altars and make sacred enclosures for
+their gods. Their greatest enclosure and that one which has most name
+and is most frequented is called the Hellenion, and this was established
+by the following cities in common:--of the Ionians Chios, Teos,
+Phocaia, Clazomenai, of the Dorians Rhodes, Cnidos, Halicarnassos,
+Phaselis, and of the Aiolians Mytilene alone. To these belongs this
+enclosure and these are the cities which appoint superintendents of the
+port; and all other cities which claim a share in it, are making a claim
+without any right. Besides this the Eginetans established on their own
+account a sacred enclosure dedicated to Zeus, the Samians one to Hera,
+and the Milesians one to Apollo. Now in old times Naucratis alone was an
+open trading-place, and no other place in Egypt: and if any one came to
+any other of the Nile mouths, he was compelled to swear that he came not
+thither of his own free will, and when he had thus sworn his innocence
+he had to sail with his ship to the Canobic mouth, or if it were not
+possible to sail by reason of contrary winds, then he had to carry his
+cargo round the head of the Delta in boats to Naucratis: thus highly
+was Naucratis privileged. Moreover when the Amphictyons had let out the
+contract for building the temple which now exists at Delphi, agreeing to
+pay a sum of three hundred talents (for the temple which formerly stood
+there had been burnt down of itself), it fell to the share of the people
+of Delphi to provide the fourth part of the payment; and accordingly the
+Delphians went about to various cities and collected contributions. And
+when they did this they got from Egypt as much as from any place, for
+Amasis gave them a thousand talents' weight of alum, while the Hellenes
+who dwelt in Egypt gave them twenty pounds of silver.
+
+Also with the people of Kyrene Amasis made an agreement for friendship
+and alliance; and he resolved too to marry a wife from thence, whether
+because he desired to have a wife of Hellenic race, or, apart from that,
+on account of friendship for the people of Kyrene: however that may be,
+he married, some say the daughter of Battos, others of Arkesilaos, and
+others of Critobulos, a man of repute among the citizens; and her name
+was Ladike. Now whenever Amasis lay with her he found himself unable to
+have intercourse, but with his other wives he associated as he was wont;
+and as this happened repeatedly, Amasis said to his wife, whose name was
+Ladike: "Woman, thou hast given me drugs, and thou shall surely perish
+more miserably than any other." Then Ladike, when by her denials Amasis
+was not at all appeased in his anger against her, made a vow in her
+soul to Aphrodite, that if Amasis on that night had intercourse with
+her (seeing that this was the remedy for her danger), she would send an
+image to be dedicated to her at Kyrene; and after the vow immediately
+Amasis had intercourse, and from thenceforth whenever Amasis came in to
+her he had intercourse with her; and after this he became very greatly
+attached to her. And Ladike paid the vow that she had made to the
+goddess; for she had an image made and sent it to Kyrene, and it is
+still preserved even to my own time, standing with its face turned away
+from the city of the Kyrenians. This Ladike Cambyses, having conquered
+Egypt and heard from her who she was, sent back unharmed to Kyrene.
+
+Amasis also dedicated offerings in Hellas, first at Kyrene an image
+of Athene covered over with gold and a figure of himself made like by
+painting; then in the temple of Athene at Lindos two images of stone
+and a corslet of linen worthy to be seen; and also at Samos two wooden
+figures of himself dedicated to Hera, which were standing even to my own
+time in the great temple, behind the doors. Now at Samos he dedicated
+offerings because of the guest-friendship between himself and Polycrates
+the son of Aiakes; at Lindos for no guest-friendship but because the
+temple of Athene at Lindos is said to have been founded by the daughters
+of Danaos, who had touched land there at the time when they were fleeing
+from the sons of Aigyptos. These offerings were dedicated by Amasis; and
+he was the first of men who conquered Cyprus and subdued it so that it
+paid him tribute.
+
+
+
+
+
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