AN
ACCOUNT OF
By
Herodotus
Translated
By G. C. Macaulay
CONTENTS:
BEING
THE SECOND BOOK OF HIS HISTORIES CALLED EUTERPE
HERODOTUS was born at
The subject of the history of Herodotus is the struggle
between the Greeks and the barbarians, which he brings down to the battle of
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
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
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."
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
With regard then to the rearing of the children they related
so much as I have said: and I heard also other things at
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
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
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
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
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
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
Of the
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
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
As regards the Oracles both that among the Hellenes and that
in
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
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
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
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
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
*****
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
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
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 who whose lands he had subdued, as follows:--these were they 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
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
Those whom her son himself the god-like of form Alexander
Carried from
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Such is this labyrinth: but a cause for marvel even greater
than this is afforded by the lake, which is called the
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
In the reign of Amasis it is said that
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
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
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
THE END