AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT

By Herodotus

Translated By G. C. Macaulay

NOTE

HERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus, on the southwest coast of AsiaMinor, in the early part of the fifth century, B. C. Of his life we knowalmost nothing, except that he spent much of it traveling, to collectthe material for his writings, and that he finally settled down atThurii, in southern Italy, where his great work was composed. He died in424 B. C. 

The subject of the history of Herodotus is the struggle between theGreeks and the barbarians, which he brings down to the battle of Mycalein 479 B. C. The work, as we have it, is divided into nine books, named after the nine Muses, but this division is probably due to theAlexandrine grammarians. His information he gathered mainly from oralsources, as he traveled through Asia Minor, down into Egypt, roundthe Black Sea, and into various parts of Greece and the neighboringcountries. The chronological narrative halts from time to time to giveopportunity for descriptions of the country, the people, and theircustoms and previous history; and the political account is constantlyvaried by rare tales and wonders. 

Among these descriptions of countries the most fascinating to themodern, as it was to the ancient, reader is his account of the marvelsof the land of Egypt. From the priests at Memphis, Heliopolis, and theEgyptian Thebes he learned what he reports of the size of the country, the wonders of the Nile, the ceremonies of their religion, thesacredness of their animals. He tells also of the strange ways of thecrocodile and of that marvelous bird, the Phoenix; of dress and funeralsand embalming; of the eating of lotos and papyrus; of the pyramids andthe great labyrinth; of their kings and queens and courtesans. 

Yet Herodotus is not a mere teller of strange tales. However creduloushe may appear to a modern judgment, he takes care to keep separate whathe knows by his own observation from what he has merely inferred andfrom what he has been told. He is candid about acknowledging ignorance, and when versions differ he gives both. Thus the modern scientifichistorian, with other means of corroboration, can sometimes learn fromHerodotus more than Herodotus himself knew. 

There is abundant evidence, too, that Herodotus had a philosophy ofhistory. The unity which marks his work is due not only to the strongGreek national feeling running through it, the feeling that rises to aheight in such passages as the descriptions of the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis, but also to his profound belief in Fate andin Nemesis. To his belief in Fate is due the frequent quoting of oraclesand their fulfilment, the frequent references to things foreordained byProvidence. The working of Nemesis he finds in the disasters that befallmen and nations whose towering prosperity awakens the jealousy of thegods. The final overthrow of the Persians, which forms his main theme, is only one specially conspicuous example of the operation of this forcefrom which human life can never free itself. 

But, above all, he is the father of story-tellers. "Herodotus is suchsimple and delightful reading, " says Jevons; "he is so unaffected andentertaining, his story flows so naturally and with such ease thatwe have a difficulty in bearing in mind that, over and above the hardwriting which goes to make easy reading there is a perpetual marvel inthe work of Herodotus. It is the first artistic work in prose that Greekliterature produced. This prose work, which for pure literary merit nosubsequent work has surpassed, than which later generations, afterusing the pen for centuries, have produced no prose more easy or morereadable, this was the first of histories and of literary prose. "

AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT

BY HERODOTUS

BEING THE SECOND BOOK OF HIS HISTORIES CALLED EUTERPE

When Cyrus had brought his life to an end, Cambyses received the royalpower in succession, being the son of Cyrus and of Cassandane thedaughter of Pharnaspes, for whose death, which came about before hisown, Cyrus had made great mourning himself and also had proclaimed toall 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, regardedthe Ionians and Aiolians as slaves inherited from his father; and heproceeded to march an army against Egypt, taking with him as helpers notonly other nations of which he was ruler, but also those of the Hellenesover whom he had power besides. 

Now the Egyptians, before the time when Psammetichos became king overthem, were wont to suppose that they had come into being first of allmen; but since the time when Psammetichos having become king desired toknow what men had come into being first, they suppose that the Phrygianscame into being before themselves, but they themselves before all othermen. Now Psammetichos, when he was not able by inquiry to find out anymeans of knowing who had come into being first of all men, contrived adevice of the following kind:--Taking two newborn children belonging topersons of the common sort he gave them to a shepherd to bring up atthe place where his flocks were, with a manner of bringing up such asI shall say, charging him namely that no man should utter any word intheir presence, and that they should be placed by themselves in a roomwhere none might come, and at the proper time he should bring themshe-goats, and when he had satisfied them with milk he should do forthem whatever else was needed. These things Psammetichos did and gavehim this charge wishing to hear what word the children would let breakforth first after they had ceased from wailings without sense. Andaccordingly 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 openedthe door and entered, both children fell before him in entreaty anduttered the word _bekos_, stretching forth their hands. At first whenhe heard this the shepherd kept silence; but since this word was oftenrepeated, as he visited them constantly and attended to them, at lasthe declared the matter to his master, and at his command he brought thechildren before his face. Then Psammetichos having himself also heardit, began to inquire what nation of men named anything _bekos_, andinquiring he found that the Phrygians had this name for bread. In thismanner and guided by an indication such as this, the Egyptians werebrought to allow that the Phrygians were a more ancient people thanthemselves. That so it came to pass I heard from the priests of thatHephaistos who dwells at Memphis; but the Hellenes relate, besides manyother idle tales, that Psammetichos cut out the tongues of certain womenand then caused the children to live with these women. 

With regard then to the rearing of the children they related so much asI have said: and I heard also other things at Memphis when I had speechwith the priests of Hephaistos. Moreover I visited both Thebes andHeliopolis for this very cause, namely because I wished to know whetherthe priests at these places would agree in their accounts with those atMemphis; for the men of Heliopolis are said to be the most learned inrecords of the Egyptians. Those of their narrations which I heard withregard to the gods I am not earnest to relate in full, but I shall namethem only because I consider that all men are equally ignorant of thesematters: and whatever things of them I may record I shall record onlybecause I am compelled by the course of the story. But as to thosematters which concern men, the priests agreed with one another in sayingthat the Egyptians were the first of all men on earth to find out thecourse of the year, having divided the seasons into twelve parts to makeup the whole; and this they said they found out from the stars: and theyreckon to this extent more wisely than the Hellenes, as it seems tome, inasmuch as the Hellenes throw in an intercalated month every otheryear, to make the seasons right, whereas the Egyptians, reckoning thetwelve months at thirty days each, bring in also every year five daysbeyond number, and thus the circle of their season is completed andcomes round to the same point whence it set out. They said moreover thatthe Egyptians were the first who brought into use appellations for thetwelve gods and the Hellenes took up the use from them; and that theywere the first who assigned altars and images and temples to the gods, and who engraved figures on stones; and with regard to the greaternumber of these things they showed me by actual facts that they hadhappened so. They said also that the first man who became king of Egyptwas Min; and that in his time all Egypt except the district of Thebeswas a swamp, and none of the regions were then above water which now liebelow the lake of Moiris, to which lake it is a voyage of seven daysup the river from the sea: and I thought that they said well about theland; for it is manifest in truth even to a person who has not heard itbeforehand but has only seen, at least if he have understanding, thatthe Egypt to which the Hellenes come in ships is a land which has beenwon by the Egyptians as an addition, and that it is a gift of the river:moreover the regions which lie above this lake also for a distance ofthree days' sail, about which they did not go on to say anything ofthis kind, are nevertheless another instance of the same thing: for thenature of the land of Egypt is as follows:--First when you are stillapproaching it in a ship and are distant a day's run from the land, ifyou let down a sounding-line you will bring up mud and you will findyourself in eleven fathoms. This then so far shows that there is asilting forward of the land. Then secondly, as to Egypt itself, theextent of it along the sea is sixty _schoines_, according to ourdefinition of Egypt as extending from the Gulf of Plinthine to theSerbonian lake, along which stretches Mount Casion; from this lake thenthe sixty _schoines_ are reckoned: for those of men who are poor inland have their country measured by fathoms, those who are less poor byfurlongs, those who have much land by parasangs, and those who haveland in very great abundance by _schoines_: now the parasang is equalto thirty furlongs, and each _schoine_, which is an Egyptian measure, isequal to sixty furlongs. So there would be an extent of three thousandsix hundred furlongs for the coast-land of Egypt. From thence and asfar as Heliopolis inland Egypt is broad, and the land is all flat andwithout springs of water and formed of mud: and the road as one goesinland from the sea to Heliopolis is about the same in length as thatwhich leads from the altar of the twelve gods at Athens to Pisa and thetemple of Olympian Zeus: reckoning up you would find the differencevery small by which these roads fail of being equal in length, not moreindeed than fifteen furlongs; for the road from Athens to Pisa wantsfifteen furlongs of being fifteen hundred, while the road to Heliopolisfrom the sea reaches that number completely. From Heliopolis however, as you go up, Egypt is narrow; for on the one side a mountain-rangebelonging to Arabia stretches along by the side of it, going in adirection from the North towards the midday and the South Wind, tendingupwards without a break to that which is called the Erythraian Sea, inwhich range are the stone-quarries which were used in cutting stone forthe pyramids at Memphis. On this side then the mountain ends where Ihave said, and then takes a turn back; and where it is widest, as I wasinformed, it is a journey of two months across from East to West;and the borders of it which turn towards the East are said to producefrankincense. Such then is the nature of this mountain-range; and on theside of Egypt towards Libya another range extends, rocky and envelopedin sand: in this are the pyramids, and it runs in the same directionas those parts of the Arabian mountains which go towards the midday. Sothen, I say, from Heliopolis the land has no longer a great extent sofar as it belongs to Egypt, and for about four days' sail up theriver Egypt properly so called is narrow: and the space between themountain-ranges which have been mentioned is plain-land, but where it isnarrowest it did not seem to me to exceed two hundred furlongs from theArabian mountains to those which are called the Libyan. After this againEgypt is broad. Such is the nature of this land: and from Heliopolis toThebes is a voyage up the river of nine days, and the distance of thejourney in furlongs is four thousand eight hundred and sixty, the numberof _schoines_ being eighty-one. If these measures of Egypt in furlongsbe put together, the result is as follows:--I have already before thisshown that the distance along the sea amounts to three thousand sixhundred furlongs, and I will now declare what the distance is inlandfrom the sea to Thebes, namely six thousand one hundred and twentyfurlongs: and again the distance from Thebes to the city calledElephantine is one thousand eight hundred furlongs. 

Of this land then, concerning which I have spoken, it seemed to myselfalso, according as the priests said, that the greater part had been wonas an addition by the Egyptians; for it was evident to me that thespace between the aforesaid mountain-ranges, which lie above the cityof Memphis, once was a gulf of the sea, like the regions about Ilion andTeuthrania and Ephesos and the plain of the Maiander, if it be permittedto compare small things with great; and small these are in comparison, for of the rivers which heaped up the soil in those regions none isworthy to be compared in volume with a single one of the mouths of theNile, which has five mouths. Moreover there are other rivers also, notin size at all equal to the Nile, which have performed great feats; ofwhich I can mention the names of several, and especially the Acheloos, which flowing through Acarnania and so issuing out into the sea hasalready made half of the Echinades from islands into mainland. Now thereis in the land of Arabia, not far from Egypt, a gulf of the sea runningin 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 alongit, one who set out from the innermost point to sail out through it intothe open sea, would spend forty days upon the voyage, using oars; andwith respect to breadth, where the gulf is broadest it is half a day'ssail across: and there is in it an ebb and flow of tide every day. Justsuch another gulf I suppose that Egypt was, and that the one ran intowards 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, andpassing by one another with but a small space left between. If then thestream of the Nile should turn aside into this Arabian gulf, what wouldhinder that gulf from being filled up with silt as the river continuedto flow, at all events within a period of twenty thousand years? indeedfor my part I am of the opinion that it would be filled up even withinten thousand years. How, then, in all the time that has elapsed before Icame into being should not a gulf be filled up even of much greater sizethan this by a river so great and so active? As regards Egypt then, Iboth believe those who say that things are so, and for myself also I amstrongly of opinion that they are so; because I have observed that Egyptruns out into the sea further than the adjoining land, and that shellsare found upon the mountains of it, and an efflorescence of salt formsupon the surface, so that even the pyramids are being eaten away by it, and moreover that of all the mountains of Egypt, the range which liesabove Memphis is the only one which has sand: besides which I noticethat Egypt resembles neither the land of Arabia, which borders upon it, nor Libya, nor yet Syria (for they are Syrians who dwell in the partsof Arabia lying along the sea), but that it has soil which is black andeasily breaks up, seeing that it is in truth mud and silt brought downfrom Ethiopia by the river: but the soil of Libya, we know, is reddishin colour and rather sandy, while that of Arabia and Syria is somewhatclayey and rocky. The priests also gave me a strong proof concerningthis land as follows, namely that in the reign of king Moiris, wheneverthe river reached a height of at least eight cubits it watered Egyptbelow Memphis; and not yet nine hundred years had gone by since thedeath of Moiris, when I heard these things from the priests: nowhowever, unless the river rises to sixteen cubits, or fifteen at theleast, it does not go over the land. I think too that those Egyptianswho dwell below the lake of Moiris and especially in that region whichis called the Delta, if that land continues to grow in height accordingto this proportion and to increase similarly in extent, will suffer forall remaining time, from the Nile not overflowing their land, that samething which they themselves said that the Hellenes would at some timesuffer: for hearing that the whole land of the Hellenes has rain and isnot watered by rivers as theirs is, they said that the Hellenes would atsome time be disappointed of a great hope and would suffer the ills offamine. This saying means that if the god shall not send them rain, butshall allow drought to prevail for a long time, the Hellenes will bedestroyed by hunger; for they have in fact no other supply of waterto save them except from Zeus alone. This has been rightly said bythe Egyptians with reference to the Hellenes: but now let me tellhow matters are with the Egyptians themselves in their turn. If, inaccordance with what I before said, their land below Memphis (forthis is that which is increasing) shall continue to increase in heightaccording to the same proportion as in the past time, assuredly thoseEgyptians who dwell here will suffer famine, if their land shall nothave rain nor the river be able to go over their fields. It is certainhowever that now they gather in fruit from the earth with less labourthan any other men and also with less than the other Egyptians; for theyhave no labour in breaking up furrows with a plough nor in hoeing nor inany other of those labours which other men have about a crop; but whenthe river has come up of itself and watered their fields and afterwatering has left them again, then each man sows his own field and turnsinto it swine, and when he has trodden the seed into the ground bymeans of the swine, after that he waits for the harvest, and when he hasthreshed the corn by means of the swine, then he gathers it in. 

If we desire to follow the opinions of the Ionians as regards Egypt, whosay that the Delta alone is Egypt, reckoning its sea-coast to be fromthe watch-tower called of Perseus to the fish-curing houses of Pelusion, a distance of forty _schoines_, and counting it to extend inland as faras the city of Kercasoros, where the Nile divides and runs to Pelusionand Canobos, while as for the rest of Egypt, they assign it partly toLibya and partly to Arabia, --if, I say, we should follow this account, we should thereby declare that in former times the Egyptians had no landto 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 sayand as my opinion is. If then at the first there was no land for themto live in, why did they waste their labour to prove that they had comeinto being before all other men? They needed not to have made trial ofthe children to see what language they would first utter. However I amnot of the opinion that the Egyptians came into being at the same timeas that which is called by the Ionians the Delta, but that they existedalways ever since the human race came into being, and that as their landadvanced forwards, many of them were left in their first abodes and manycame down gradually to the lower parts. At least it is certain that inold times Thebes had the name of Egypt, and of this the circumferencemeasures six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs. 

If then we judge aright of these matters, the opinion of the Ioniansabout Egypt is not sound: but if the judgment of the Ionians is right, Ideclare that neither the Hellenes nor the Ionians themselves know howto reckon since they say that the whole earth is made up of threedivisions, Europe, Asia, and Libya: for they ought to count in additionto these the Delta of Egypt, since it belongs neither to Asia nor toLibya; for at least it cannot be the river Nile by this reckoning whichdivides Asia from Libya, but the Nile is cleft at the point of thisDelta so as to flow round it, and the result is that this land wouldcome between Asia and Libya. 

We dismiss then our opinion of the Ionians, and express a judgmentof our own on this matter also, that Egypt is all that land which isinhabited by Egyptians, just as Kilikia is that which is inhabited byKilikians and Assyria that which is inhabited by Assyrians, and weknow of no boundary properly speaking between Asia and Libya exceptthe borders of Egypt. If however we shall adopt the opinion which iscommonly held by the Hellenes, we shall suppose that the whole of Egypt, beginning from the Cataract and the city of Elephantine, is divided intotwo parts and that it thus partakes of both the names, since one sidewill thus belong to Libya and the other to Asia; for the Nile from theCataract onwards flows to the sea cutting Egypt through in the midst;and as far as the city of Kercasoros the Nile flows in one singlestream, but from this city onwards it is parted into three ways; andone, which is called the Pelusian mouth, turns towards the East; thesecond of the ways goes towards the West, and this is called the Canobicmouth; but that one of the ways which is straight runs thus, --when theriver in its course downwards comes to the point of the Delta, then itcuts the Delta through the midst and so issues out to the sea. In thiswe have a portion of the water of the river which is not the smallestnor the least famous, and it is called the Sebennytic mouth. There arealso two other mouths which part off from the Sebennytic and go tothe sea, and these are called, one the Saitic, the other the Mendesianmouth. The Bolbitinitic, and Bucolic mouths, on the other hand, arenot natural but made by digging. Moreover also the answer given by theOracle of Ammon bears witness in support of my opinion that Egypt is ofthe extent which I declare it to be in my account; and of this answerI heard after I had formed my own opinion about Egypt. For those of thecity of Marea and of Apis, dwelling in the parts of Egypt which borderon Libya, being of opinion themselves that they were Libyans and notEgyptians, and also being burdened by the rules of religious service, because they desired not to be debarred from the use of cows' flesh, sent to Ammon saying that they had nought in common with the Egyptians, for they dwelt outside the Delta and agreed with them in nothing;and they said they desired that it might be lawful for them to eateverything without distinction. The god however did not permit them todo so, but said that that land was Egypt where the Nile came over andwatered, and that those were Egyptians who dwelling below the city ofElephantine drank of that river. Thus was it answered to them by theOracle about this: and the Nile, when it is in flood, goes over not onlythe Delta but also of the land which is called Libyan and of that whichis called Arabian sometimes as much as two days' journey on each side, and at times even more than this or at times less. 

As regards the nature of the river, neither from the priests noryet from any other man was I able to obtain any knowledge: and I wasdesirous especially to learn from them about these matters, namelywhy the Nile comes down increasing in volume from the summer solsticeonwards for a hundred days, and then, when it has reached the number ofthese days, turns and goes back, failing in its stream, so that throughthe whole winter season it continues to be low, and until the summersolstice returns. Of none of these things was I able to receive anyaccount from the Egyptians, when I inquired of them what power the Nilehas whereby it is of a nature opposite to that of all other rivers. AndI 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 blowingfrom it. However some of the Hellenes who desired to gain distinctionfor cleverness have given an account of this water in three differentways: two of these I do not think it worth while even to speak of exceptonly to indicate their nature; of which the one says that the EtesianWinds are the cause that makes the river rise, by preventing the Nilefrom flowing out into the sea. But often the Etesian Winds fail and yetthe Nile does the same work as it is wont to do; and moreover, if thesewere the cause, all the other rivers also which flow in a directionopposed to the Etesian Winds ought to have been affected in the same wayas the Nile, and even more, in as much as they are smaller and presentto them a feebler flow of streams: but there are many of these rivers inSyria and many also in Libya, and they are affected in no such manner asthe Nile. The second way shows more ignorance than that which has beenmentioned, and it is more marvellous to tell; for it says that the riverproduces these effects because it flows from the Ocean, and that theOcean flows round the whole earth. The third of the ways is much themost specious, but nevertheless it is the most mistaken of all: forindeed this way has no more truth in it than the rest, alleging as itdoes that the Nile flows from melting snow; whereas it flows out ofLibya 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 partsto those which are cooler? And indeed most of the facts are such asto convince a man (one at least who is capable of reasoning about suchmatters), that it is not at all likely that it flows from snow. Thefirst and greatest evidence is afforded by the winds, which blow hotfrom these regions; the second is that the land is rainless always andwithout frost, whereas after snow has fallen rain must necessarily comewithin five days, so that if it snowed in those parts rain would fallthere; the third evidence is afforded by the people dwelling there, whoare of a black colour by reason of the burning heat. Moreover kites andswallows remain there through the year and do not leave the land; andcranes flying from the cold weather which comes on in the region ofScythia come regularly to these parts for wintering: if then it snowedever so little in that land through which the Nile flows and in whichit has its rise, none of these things would take place, as necessitycompels us to admit. As for him who talked about the Ocean, he carriedhis 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 thatHomer or one of the poets who were before him invented the name andintroduced it into his verse. 

If however after I have found fault with the opinions proposed, I ambound to declare an opinion of my own about the matters which are indoubt, I will tell what to my mind is the reason why the Nile increasesin the summer. In the winter season the Sun, being driven away from hisformer path through the heaven by the stormy winds, comes to the upperparts of Libya. If one would set forth the matter in the shortest way, all has now been said; for whatever region this god approaches most andstands directly above, this it may reasonably be supposed is most inwant of water, and its native streams of rivers are dried up most. However, to set it forth at greater length, thus it is:--the Sun passingin his course by the upper parts of Libya, does thus, that is to say, since at all times the air in those parts is clear and the country iswarm, because there are no cold winds, in passing through it the Sundoes just as he was wont to do in the summer, when going through themidst of the heaven, that is he draws to himself the water, and havingdrawn it he drives it away to the upper parts of the country, and thewinds take it up and scattering it abroad melt it into rain; so it isnatural that the winds which blow from this region, namely the Southand South-west Winds, should be much the most rainy of all the winds. Ithink however that the Sun does not send away from himself all the waterof the Nile of each year, but that also he lets some remain behind withhimself. Then when the winter becomes milder, the Sun returns back againto the midst of the heaven, and from that time onwards he draws equallyfrom all rivers; but in the meantime they flow in large volume, sincewater of rain mingles with them in great quantity, because their countryreceives rain then and is filled with torrent streams. In summer howeverthey are weak, since not only the showers of rain fail them, but alsothey are drawn by the Sun. The Nile however, alone of all rivers, nothaving rain and being drawn by the Sun, naturally flows during this timeof winter in much less than its proper volume, that is much less than insummer; for then it is drawn equally with all the other waters, but inwinter it bears the burden alone. Thus I suppose the Sun to be the causeof these things. He also is the cause in my opinion that the air inthese parts is dry, since he makes it so by scorching up his paththrough the heaven: thus summer prevails always in the upper parts ofLibya. If however the station of the seasons had been changed, and wherenow in the heaven are placed the North Wind and winter, there was thestation of the South Wind and of the midday, and where now is placedthe South Wind, there was the North, if this had been so, the Sun beingdriven from the midst of the heaven by the winter and the North Windwould go to the upper parts of Europe, just as now he comes to the upperparts of Libya, and passing in his course throughout the whole of EuropeI suppose he would do to the Ister that which he now works upon theNile. As to the breeze, why none blows from the river, my opinion isthat from very hot places it is not natural that anything should blow, and that a breeze is wont to blow from something cold. 

Let these matters then be as they are and as they were at the first: butas to the sources of the Nile, not one either of the Egyptians or ofthe Libyans or of the Hellenes, who came to speech with me, professed toknow anything, except the scribe of the sacred treasury of Athene at thecity of Sais in Egypt. To me however this man seemed not to be speakingseriously when he said that he had certain knowledge of it; and he saidas follows, namely that there were two mountains of which the tops ranup to a sharp point, situated between the city of Syene, which is inthe district of Thebes, and Elephantine, and the names of the mountainswere, of the one Crophi and of the other Mophi. From the middle betweenthese mountains flowed (he said) the sources of the Nile, which werefathomless in depth, and half of the water flowed to Egypt and towardsthe North Wind, the other half to Ethiopia and the South Wind. As forthe fathomless depth of the source, he said that Psammetichos king ofEgypt came to a trial of this matter; for he had a rope twisted of manythousand fathoms and let it down in this place, and it found no bottom. By this the scribe (if this which he told was really as he said) gave meto understand that there were certain strong eddies there and a backwardflow, and that since the water dashed against the mountains, thereforethe sounding-line could not come to any bottom when it was let down. From no other person was I able to learn anything about this matter;but for the rest I learnt so much as here follows by the most diligentinquiry; for I went myself as an eye-witness as far as the city ofElephantine and from that point onwards I gathered knowledge by report. From the city of Elephantine as one goes up the river there is countrywhich slopes steeply; so that here one must attach ropes to the vesselon both sides, as one fastens an ox, and so make one's way onward;and if the rope break, the vessel is gone at once, carried away by theviolence of the stream. Through this country it is a voyage of aboutfour days in length, and in this part the Nile is winding like the riverMaiander, and the distance amounts to twelve _schoines_, which one musttraverse in this manner. Then you will come to a level plain, in whichthe Nile flows round an island named Tachompso. (Now in the regionsabove the Elephantine there dwell Ethiopians at once succeeding, whoalso occupy half of the island, and Egyptians the other half. ) Adjoiningthis island there is a great lake, round which dwell Ethiopian nomadtribes; and when you have sailed through this you will come to thestream of the Nile again, which flows into this lake. After this youwill disembark and make a journey by land of forty days; for in the Nilesharp rocks stand forth out of the water, and there are many reefs, bywhich it is not possible for a vessel to pass. Then after having passedthrough this country in the forty days which I have said, you willembark again in another vessel and sail for twelve days; and after thisyou will come to a great city called Meroe. This city is said to bethe mother-city of all the other Ethiopians: and they who dwell in itreverence of the gods Zeus and Dionysos alone, and these they greatlyhonour; and they have an Oracle of Zeus established, and make warlikemarches whensoever the god commands them by prophesyings and towhatsoever place he commands. Sailing from this city you will come tothe "Deserters" in another period of time equal to that in which youcame from Elephantine to the mother-city of the Ethiopians. Now thename of these "Deserters" is _Asmach_, and this word signifies, whentranslated into the tongue of the Hellenes, "those who stand on the lefthand of the king. " These were two hundred and forty thousand Egyptiansof the warrior class, who revolted and went over to these Ethiopians forthe following cause:--In the reign of Psammetichos garrisons were set, one towards the Ethiopians at the city of Elephantine, another towardsthe Arabians and Assyrians at Daphnai of Pelusion, and another towardsLibya at Marea: and even in my own time the garrisons of the Persianstoo are ordered in the same manner as these were in the reign ofPsammetichos, for both at Elephantine and at Daphnai the Persians haveoutposts. The Egyptians then of whom I speak had served as outposts forthree years and no one relieved them from their guard; accordingly theytook counsel together, and adopting a common plan they all in a bodyrevolted from Psammetichos and set out for Ethiopia. Hearing thisPsammetichos set forth in pursuit, and when he came up with them heentreated them much and endeavoured to persuade them not to desert thegods of their country and their children and wives: upon which it issaid that one of them pointed to his privy member and said that whereverthis was, there would they have both children and wives. When these cameto Ethiopia they gave themselves over to the king of the Ethiopians; andhe rewarded them as follows:--there were certain of the Ethiopians whohad come to be at variance with him; and he bade them drive these outand dwell in their land. So since these men settled in the land ofthe Ethiopians, the Ethiopians have come to be of milder manners, fromhaving learnt the customs of the Egyptians. 

The Nile then, besides the part of its course which is in Egypt, isknown as far as a four months' journey by river and land: for that isthe number of months which are found by reckoning to be spent in goingfrom Elephantine to these "Deserters": and the river runs from the Westand the setting of the sun. But what comes after that point no one canclearly say; for this land is desert by reason of the burning heat. Thismuch however I heard from men of Kyrene, who told me that they had beento the Oracle of Ammon, and had come to speech with Etearchos king ofthe Ammonians: and it happened that after speaking of other matters theyfell 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 landto the East of the Syrtis reaching to no great distance), and when theNasamonians came and were asked by him whether they were able to tellhim anything more than he knew about the desert parts of Libya, theysaid that there had been among them certain sons of chief men, who wereof unruly disposition; and these when they grew up to be men had devisedvarious other extravagant things and also they had told off by lot fiveof themselves to go to see the desert parts of Libya and to trywhether they could discover more than those who had previously exploredfurthest: for in those parts of Libya which are by the Northern Sea, beginning from Egypt and going as far as the headland of Soloeis, whichis the extreme point of Libya, Libyans (and of them many races) extendalong the whole coast, except so much as the Hellenes and Phenicianshold; but in the upper parts, which lie above the sea-coast and abovethose people whose land comes down to the sea, Libya is full of wildbeasts; and in the parts above the land of wild beasts it is full ofsand, terribly waterless and utterly desert. These young men then (saidthey), being sent out by their companions well furnished with suppliesof water and provisions, went first through the inhabited country, andafter they had passed through this they came to the country of wildbeasts, and after this they passed through the desert, making theirjourney towards the West Wind; and having passed through a great tractof 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 whichwas upon the trees: but as they began to pluck it, there came upon themsmall men, of less stature than men of the common size, and these seizedthem and carried them away; and neither could the Nasamonians understandanything of their speech nor could those who were carrying them offunderstand anything of the speech of the Nasamonians; and they led them(so it was said) through very great swamps, and after passing throughthese they came to a city in which all the men were in size like thosewho carried them off and in colour of skin black; and by the city rana great river, which ran from the West towards the sunrising, and in itwere seen crocodiles. Of the account given by Etearchos the Ammonian letso much suffice as is here said, except that, as the men of Kyrene toldme, he alleged that the Nasamonians returned safe home, and that thepeople to whom they had come were all wizards. Now this river which ranby the city, Etearchos conjectured to be the Nile, and moreover reasoncompels us to think so; for the Nile flows from Libya and cuts Libyathrough in the midst, and as I conjecture, judging of what is not knownby that which is evident to the view, it starts at a distance from itsmouth equal to that of the Ister: for the river Ister begins from theKeltoi and the city of Pyrene and so runs that it divides Europe in themidst (now the Keltoi are outside the Pillars of Heracles and borderupon the Kynesians, who dwell furthest towards the sunset of all thosewho have their dwelling in Europe): and the Ister ends, having itscourse through the whole of Europe, by flowing into the Euxine Sea atthe place where the Milesians have their settlement of Istria. Now theIster, since it flows through land which is inhabited, is known bythe reports of many; but of the sources of the Nile no one can give anaccount, for the part of Libya through which it flows is uninhabited anddesert. About its course however so much as it was possible to learn bythe most diligent inquiry has been told; and it runs out into Egypt. Now Egypt lies nearly opposite to the mountain districts of Kilikia; andfrom thence to Sinope, which lies upon the Euxine Sea, is a journey inthe same straight line of five days for a man without encumbrance; andSinope lies opposite to the place where the Ister runs out into the sea:thus I think that the Nile passes through the whole of Libya and is ofequal measure with the Ister. 

Of the Nile then let so much suffice as has been said. Of Egypt howeverI shall make my report at length, because it has wonders more in numberthan any other land, and works too it has to show as much as any land, which are beyond expression great: for this reason then more shall besaid concerning it. 

The Egyptians in agreement with their climate, which is unlike anyother, and with the river, which shows a nature different from all otherrivers, established for themselves manners and customs in a way oppositeto other men in almost all matters: for among them the women frequentthe market and carry on trade, while the men remain at home and weave;and whereas others weave pushing the woof upwards, the Egyptians pushit downwards: the men carry their burdens upon their heads and thewomen upon their shoulders: the women make water standing up and themen crouching down: they ease themselves in their houses and they eatwithout in the streets, alleging as reason for this that it is rightto do secretly the things that are unseemly though necessary, but thosewhich are not unseemly, in public: no woman is a minister either of maleor female divinity, but men of all, both male and female: to supporttheir parents the sons are in no way compelled, if they do not desireto do so, but the daughters are forced to do so, be they never sounwilling. The priests of the gods in other lands wear long hair, butin Egypt they shave their heads: among other men the custom is that inmourning those whom the matter concerns most nearly have their hair cutshort, but the Egyptians, when deaths occur, let their hair grow long, both that on the head and that on the chin, having before been closeshaven: other men have their daily living separated from beasts, but theEgyptians have theirs together with beasts: other men live on wheat andon barley, but to any one of the Egyptians who makes his living on theseit is a great reproach; they make their bread of maize, which some callspelt: they knead dough with their feet and clay with their hands, withwhich also they gather up dung: and whereas other men, except such ashave learnt otherwise from the Egyptians, have their members as naturemade them, the Egyptians practice circumcision: as to garments, the menwear two each and the women but one: and whereas others make fast therings and ropes of the sails outside the ship, the Egyptians do thisinside: finally in the writing of characters and reckoning with pebbles, while the Hellenes carry the hand from the left to the right, theEgyptians do this from the right to the left; and doing so they say thatthey do it themselves rightwise and the Hellenes leftwise: and they usetwo kinds of characters for writing, of which the one kind is calledsacred and the other common. 

They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard tothis they have customs as follows:--they drink from cups of bronze andrinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they weargarments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a specialpoint of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake ofcleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely. The priestsshave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice orany other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister tothe gods; and the priests wear garments of linen only and sandals ofpapyrus, and any other garment they may not take nor other sandals;these wash themselves in cold water twice in a day and twice again inthe night; and other religious services they perform (one may almostsay) of infinite number. They enjoy also good things not a few, for theydo not consume or spend anything of their own substance, but there issacred bread baked for them and they have each great quantity of fleshof oxen and geese coming in to them each day, and also wine of grapes isgiven to them; but it is not permitted to them to taste of fish: beansmoreover the Egyptians do not at all sow in their land, and those whichthey grow they neither eat raw nor boil for food; nay the priests do notendure even to look upon them, thinking this to be an unclean kind ofpulse: 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 isappointed to his place. 

The males of the ox kind they consider to belong to Epaphos, and onaccount of him they test them in the following manner:--If the priestsees one single black hair upon the beast he counts it not clean forsacrifice; and one of the priests who is appointed for the purpose makesinvestigation of these matters, both when the beast is standing uprightand when it is lying on its back, drawing out its tongue moreover, tosee if it is clean in respect of the appointed signs, which I shall tellof in another part of the history: he looks also at the hairs of thetail to see if it has them growing in a natural manner; and if itbe clean in respect of all these things, he marks it with a piece ofpapyrus, rolling this round the horns, and then when he has plasteredsealing-earth over it he sets upon it the seal of his signet-ring, andafter that they take the animal away. But for one who sacrifices a beastnot sealed the penalty appointed is death. In this way then the beastis tested; and their appointed manner of sacrifice is as follows:--theylead the sealed beast to the altar where they happen to be sacrificing, and then kindle a fire: after that, having poured libations of wine overthe altar so that it runs down upon the victim and having called uponthe god, they cut its throat, and having cut its throat they sever thehead from the body. The body then of the beast they flay, but upon thehead they make many imprecations first, and then they who have a marketand Hellenes sojourning among them for trade, these carry it to themarket-place and sell it, while they who have no Hellenes among themcast it away into the river: and this is the form of imprecations whichthey utter upon the heads, praying that if any evil be about to befalleither themselves who are offering sacrifice or the land of Egypt ingeneral, it may come rather upon this head. Now as regards the heads ofthe beasts which are sacrificed and the pouring over them of thewine, all the Egyptians have the same customs equally for all theirsacrifices; and by reason of this custom none of the Egyptians eat ofthe head either of this or of any other kind of animal: but the mannerof disembowelling the victims and of burning them is appointed amongthem differently for different sacrifices; I shall speak however of thesacrifices to that goddess whom they regard as the greatest of all, andto whom they celebrate the greatest feast. --When they have flayed thebullock and made imprecation, they take out the whole of its lowerentrails but leave in the body the upper entrails and the fat; and theysever from it the legs and the end of the loin and the shoulders and theneck: and this done, they fill the rest of the body of the animal withconsecrated loaves and honey and raisins and figs and frankincense andmyrrh and every other kind of spices, and having filled it with thesethey offer it, pouring over it great abundance of oil. They make theirsacrifice after fasting, and while the offerings are being burnt, theyall beat themselves for mourning, and when they have finished beatingthemselves they set forth as a feast that which they left unburnt of thesacrifice. The clean males then of the ox kind, both full-grown animalsand calves, are sacrificed by all the Egyptians; the females howeverthey may not sacrifice, but these are sacred to Isis; for the figure ofIsis is in the form of a woman with cow's horns, just as the Hellenespresent Io in pictures, and all the Egyptians without distinctionreverence cows far more than any other kind of cattle; for which reasonneither man nor woman of the Egyptian race would kiss a man who is aHellene on the mouth, nor will they use a knife or roasting-spits ora caldron belonging to a Hellene, nor taste the flesh even of a cleananimal if it has been cut with the knife of a Hellene. And the cattle ofthis kind which die they bury in the following manner:--the females theycast into the river, but the males they bury, each people in the suburbof their town, with one of the horns, or sometimes both, protruding tomark the place; and when the bodies have rotted away and the appointedtime comes on, then to each city comes a boat from that which is calledthe island of Prosopitis (this is in the Delta, and the extent of itscircuit is nine _schoines_). In this island of Prosopitis is situated, besides many other cities, that one from which the boats come to take upthe bones of the oxen, and the name of the city is Atarbechis, and init there is set up a holy temple of Aphrodite. From this city many goabroad in various directions, some to one city and others to another, and when they have dug up the bones of the oxen they carry them off, andcoming together they bury them in one single place. In the same manneras they bury the oxen they bury also their other cattle when they die;for about them also they have the same law laid down, and these alsothey abstain from killing. 

Now all who have a temple set up to the Theban Zeus or who are of thedistrict of Thebes, these, I say, all sacrifice goats and abstain fromsheep: for not all the Egyptians equally reverence the same gods, except only Isis and Osiris (who they say is Dionysos), these they allreverence alike: but they who have a temple of Mendes or belong to theMendesian district, these abstain from goats and sacrifice sheep. Nowthe men of Thebes and those who after their example abstain from sheep, say that this custom was established among them for the cause whichfollows:--Heracles (they say) had an earnest desire to see Zeus, andZeus did not desire to be seen of him; and at last when Heracles wasurgent in entreaty Zeus contrived this device, that is to say, he flayeda 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. Hencethe Egyptians make the image of Zeus with the face of a ram; and theAmmonians do so also after their example, being settlers both fromthe Egyptians and from the Ethiopians, and using a language which is amedley of both tongues: and in my opinion it is from this god that theEgyptians call Zeus _Amun_. The Thebans then do not sacrifice rams buthold them sacred for this reason; on one day however in the year, on thefeast of Zeus, they cut up in the same manner and flay one single ramand cover with its skin the image of Zeus, and then they bring up toit another image of Heracles. This done, all who are in the temple beatthemselves in lamentation for the ram, and then they bury it in a sacredtomb. 

About Heracles I heard the account given that he was of the number ofthe twelve gods; but of the other Heracles whom the Hellenes know I wasnot able to hear in any part of Egypt: and moreover to prove that theEgyptians did not take the name of Heracles from the Hellenes, butrather the Hellenes from the Egyptians, --that is to say those of theHellenes who gave the name Heracles to the son of Amphitryon, --of that, I say, besides many other evidences there is chiefly this, namely thatthe parents of this Heracles, Amphitryon and Alcmene, were both of Egyptby descent, and also that the Egyptians say that they do not knowthe names either of Poseidon or of the Dioscuroi, nor have these beenaccepted by them as gods among the other gods; whereas if they hadreceived from the Hellenes the name of any divinity, they wouldnaturally have preserved the memory of these most of all, assuming thatin those times as now some of the Hellenes were wont to make voyagesand were seafaring folk, as I suppose and as my judgment compels me tothink; so that the Egyptians would have learnt the names of these godseven more than that of Heracles. In fact however Heracles is a veryancient Egyptian god; and (as they say themselves) it is seventeenthousand years to the beginning of the reign of Amasis from the timewhen the twelve gods, of whom they count that Heracles is one, werebegotten of the eight gods. I moreover, desiring to know somethingcertain of these matters so far as might be, made a voyage also toTyre of Phenicia, hearing that in that place there was a holy templeof Heracles; and I saw that it was richly furnished with many votiveofferings besides, and especially there were in it two pillars, the oneof pure gold and the other of an emerald stone of such size as to shineby night: and having come to speech with the priests of the god, I askedthem how long a time it was since their temple had been set up: andthese also I found to be at variance with the Hellenes, for they saidthat at the same time when Tyre was founded, the temple of the god alsohad been set up, and that it was a period of two thousand three hundredyears since their people began to dwell at Tyre. I saw also at Tyreanother temple of Heracles, with the surname Thasian; and I cameto Thasos also and there I found a temple of Heracles set up by thePhenicians, who had sailed out to seek for Europa and had colonisedThasos; and these things happened full five generations of men beforeHeracles the son of Amphitryon was born in Hellas. So then my inquiriesshow clearly that Heracles is an ancient god, and those of the Hellenesseem to me to act most rightly who have two temples of Heracles setup, and who sacrifice to the one as an immortal god and with thetitle Olympian, and make offerings of the dead to the other as a hero. Moreover, besides many other stories which the Hellenes tell withoutdue consideration, this tale is especially foolish which they tell aboutHeracles, namely that when he came to Egypt, the Egyptians put on himwreaths and led him forth in procession to sacrifice him to Zeus; and hefor some time kept quiet, but when they were beginning the sacrifice ofhim at the altar, he betook himself to prowess and slew them all. I formy part am of opinion that the Hellenes when they tell this tale arealtogether 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 areclean) and geese, how should these sacrifice human beings? Besides this, how is it in nature possible that Heracles, being one person only andmoreover a man (as they assert), should slay many myriads? Having saidso much of these matters, we pray that we may have grace from both thegods and the heroes for our speech. 

Now the reason why those of the Egyptians whom I have mentioned do notsacrifice goats, female or male, is this:--the Mendesians count Pan tobe one of the eight gods (now these eight gods they say came into beingbefore the twelve gods), and the painters and image-makers represent inpainting 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 butto resemble the other gods; the cause however why they represent him inthis form I prefer not to say. The Mendesians then reverence all goatsand the males more than the females (and the goatherds too havegreater honour than other herdsmen), but of the goats one especiallyis reverenced, and when he dies there is great mourning in all theMendesian district: and both the goat and Pan are called in the Egyptiantongue _Mendes_. Moreover in my lifetime there happened in that districtthis marvel, that is to say a he-goat had intercourse with a womanpublicly, 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 anddips himself forthwith in the water together with his garments; and thentoo swineherds, though they may be native Egyptians, unlike all others, do not enter any of the temples in Egypt, nor is anyone willing to givehis daughter in marriage to one of them or to take a wife from amongthem; but the swineherds both give in marriage to one another and takefrom one another. Now to the other gods the Egyptians do not think itright to sacrifice swine; but to the Moon and to Dionysos alone at thesame time and on the same full-moon they sacrifice swine, and then eattheir flesh: and as to the reason why, when they abominate swine at alltheir other feasts, they sacrifice them at this, there is a story toldby the Egyptians; and this story I know, but it is not a seemly one forme to tell. Now the sacrifice of the swine to the Moon is performed asfollows:--when the priest has slain the victim, he puts together theend of the tail and the spleen and the caul, and covers them up with thewhole of the fat of the animal which is about the paunch, and then heoffers them with fire; and the rest of the flesh they eat on that day offull moon upon which they have held sacrifice, but on any day after thisthey will not taste of it: the poor however among them by reason of thescantiness of their means shape pigs of dough and having baked them theyoffer these as a sacrifice. Then for Dionysos on the eve of the festivaleach one kills a pig by cutting its throat before his own doors, andafter that he gives the pig to the swineherd who sold it to him, tocarry away again; and the rest of the feast of Dionysos is celebratedby the Egyptians in the same way as by the Hellenes in almost all thingsexcept choral dances, but instead of the _phallos_ they have inventedanother contrivance, namely figures of about a cubit in height workedby strings, which women carry about the villages, with the privy membermade to move and not much less in size than the rest of the body: and aflute goes before and they follow singing the praises of Dionysos. Asto the reason why the figure has this member larger than is natural andmoves it, though it moves no other part of the body, about this there isa sacred story told. Now I think that Melampus the son of Amytheon wasnot without knowledge of these rites of sacrifice, but was acquaintedwith them: for Melampus is he who first set forth to the Hellenes thename of Dionysos and the manner of sacrifice and the procession of the_phallos_. Strictly speaking indeed, he when he made it known did nottake in the whole, but those wise men who came after him made it knownmore at large. Melampus then is he who taught of the _phallos_ which iscarried in procession for Dionysos, and from him the Hellenes learnt todo that which they do. I say then that Melampus being a man of abilitycontrived for himself an art of divination, and having learnt from Egypthe taught the Hellenes many things, and among them those that concernDionysos, making changes in some few points of them: for I shall not saythat that which is done in worship of the god in Egypt came accidentallyto be the same with that which is done among the Hellenes, for thenthese rites would have been in character with the Hellenic worship andnot lately brought in; nor certainly shall I say that the Egyptians tookfrom the Hellenes either this or any other customary observance: mattersconcerning Dionysos from Cadmos the Tyrian and from those who came withhim from Phenicia to the land which we now call Boeotia. 

Moreover the naming of almost all the gods has come to Hellas fromEgypt: for that it has come from the Barbarians I find by inquiry istrue, and I am of opinion that most probably it has come from Egypt, because, except in the case of Poseidon and the Dioscuroi (in accordancewith that which I have said before), and also of Hera and Hestia andThemis and the Charites and Nereids, the Egyptians say themselves: butas for the gods whose names they profess that they do not know, these Ithink received their naming from the Pelasgians, except Poiseidon;but about this god the Hellenes learnt from the Libyans, for no peopleexcept the Libyans have had the name of Poseidon from the first and havepaid honour to this god always. Nor, it may be added, have the Egyptiansany custom of worshipping heroes. These observances then, and othersbesides these which I shall mention, the Hellenes have adopted fromthe Egyptians; but to make, as they do the images of Hermes withthe _phallos_ they have learnt not from the Egyptians but from thePelasgians, the custom having been received by the Athenians first ofall the Hellenes and from these by the rest; for just at the time whenthe Athenians were beginning to rank among the Hellenes, the Pelasgiansbecame dwellers with them in their land, and from this very cause it wasthat they began to be counted as Hellenes. Whosoever has been initiatedin the mysteries of the Cabeiroi, which the Samothrakians perform havingreceived them from the Pelasgians, that man knows the meaning of myspeech; for these very Pelasgians who became dwellers with the Atheniansused to dwell before that time in Samothrake, and from them theSamothrakians received their mysteries. So then the Athenians were thefirst of the Hellenes who made the images of Hermes with the _phallos_, having learnt from the Pelasgians; and the Pelasgians told a sacredstory about it, which is set forth in the mysteries in Samothrake. Nowthe Pelasgians formerly were wont to make all their sacrifices callingupon 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 yetheard 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 ofeverything. Afterwards when much time had elapsed, they learnt fromEgypt the names of the gods, all except Dionysos, for his name theylearnt long afterwards; and after a time the Pelasgians consulted theOracle at Dodona about the names, for this prophetic seat is accountedto 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 theOracle at Dodona whether they should adopt the names which had come fromthe Barbarians, the Oracle in reply bade them make use of the names. From this time they sacrificed using the names of the gods, and from thePelasgians the Hellenes afterwards received them: but when the severalgods had their birth, or whether they all were from the beginning, andof what form they are, they did not learn till yesterday, as it were, orthe day before: for Hesiod and Homer I suppose were four hundred yearsbefore my time and not more, and these are they who made a theogony forthe Hellenes and gave the titles to the gods and distributed to themhonours and arts, and set forth their forms: but the poets who are saidto have been before these men were really in my opinion after them. Ofthese things the first are said by the priestesses of Dodona, and thelatter things, those namely which have regard to Hesiod and Homer, bymyself. 

As regards the Oracles both that among the Hellenes and that in Libya, the Egyptians tell the following tale. The priests of the Theban Zeustold me that two women in the service of the temple had been carriedaway from Thebes by Phenicians, and that they had heard that one of themhad been sold to go into Libya and the other to the Hellenes; and thesewomen, they said, were they who first founded the prophetic seats amongthe nations which have been named: and when I inquired whence they knewso perfectly of this tale which they told, they said in reply that agreat search had been made by the priests after these women, and thatthey had not been able to find them, but they had heard afterwards thistale about them which they were telling. This I heard from the priestsat Thebes, and what follows is said by the prophetesses of Dodona. Theysay that two black doves flew from Thebes in Egypt, and came one of themto Libya and the other to their land. And this latter settled upon anoak-tree and spoke with human voice, saying that it was necessary thata prophetic seat of Zeus should be established in that place; and theysupposed that that was of the gods which was announced to them, and madeone accordingly: and the dove which went away to the Libyans, they say, bade the Libyans make an Oracle of Ammon; and this also is of Zeus. Thepriestesses of Dodona told me these things, of whom the eldest was namedPromeneia, the next after her Timarete, and the youngest Nicandra;and the other people of Dodona who were engaged about the temple gaveaccounts agreeing with theirs. I however have an opinion about thematter as follows:--If the Phenicians did in truth carry away theconsecrated women and sold one of them into Libya and the other intoHellas, I suppose that in the country now called Hellas, which wasformerly called Pelasgia, this woman was sold into the land of theThesprotians; and then being a slave there she set up a sanctuary ofZeus under a real oak-tree; as indeed it was natural that being anattendant of the sanctuary of Zeus at Thebes, she should there, in theplace to which she had come, have a memory of him; and after this, whenshe got understanding of the Hellenic tongue, she established an Oracle, and she reported, I suppose, that her sister had been sold in Libya bythe same Phenicians by whom she herself had been sold. Moreover, I thinkthat the women were called doves by the people of Dodona for the reasonthat they were barbarians and because it seemed to them that theyuttered voice like birds; but after a time (they say) the dove spokewith human voice, that is when the woman began to speak so that theycould understand; but so long as she spoke a Barbarian tongue she seemedto them to be uttering voice like a bird: for if it had been really adove, how could it speak with human voice? And in saying that thedove was black, they indicate that the woman was Egyptian. The ways ofdelivering oracles too at Thebes in Egypt and at Dodona closely resembleeach other, as it happens, and also the method of divination by victimshas come from Egypt. 

Moreover, it is true also that the Egyptians were the first of men whomade solemn assemblies and processions and approaches to the temples, and from them the Hellenes have learnt them, and my evidence for thisis that the Egyptian celebrations of these have been held from a veryancient time, whereas the Hellenic were introduced but lately. TheEgyptians hold their solemn assemblies not once in the year but often, especially and with the greatest zeal and devotion at the city ofBubastis for Artemis, and next at Busiris for Isis; for in thislast-named city there is a very great temple of Isis, and this citystands in the middle of the Delta of Egypt; now Isis is in the tongue ofthe Hellenes Demeter: thirdly, they have a solemn assembly at the cityof Sais for Athene, fourthly at Heliopolis for the Sun (Helios), fifthlyat the city of Buto in honour of Leto, and sixthly at the city ofPapremis for Ares. Now, when they are coming to the city of Bubastisthey do as follows:--they sail men and women together, and a greatmultitude of each sex in every boat; and some of the women have rattlesand rattle with them, while some of the men play the flute during thewhole time of the voyage, and the rest, both women and men, sing andclap their hands; and when as they sail they come opposite to any cityon the way they bring the boat to land, and some of the women continueto do as I have said, others cry aloud and jeer at the women in thatcity, some dance, and some stand up and pull up their garments. Thisthey do by every city along the river-bank; and when they come toBubastis they hold festival celebrating great sacrifices, and more wineof grapes is consumed upon that festival than during the whole of therest of the year. To this place (so say the natives) they come togetheryear by year even to the number of seventy myriads of men and women, besides children. Thus it is done here; and how they celebrate thefestival in honour of Isis at the city of Busiris has been told byme before: for, as I said, they beat themselves in mourning after thesacrifice, 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 religionto say: and so many as there are of the Carians dwelling in Egypt dothis even more than the Egyptians themselves, inasmuch as they cut theirforeheads also with knives; and by this it is manifested that they arestrangers and not Egyptians. At the times when they gather togetherat the city of Sais for their sacrifices, on a certain night they allkindle lamps many in number in the open air round about the houses; nowthe lamps are saucers full of salt and oil mixed, and the wick floats byitself on the surface, and this burns during the whole night; and tothe festival is given the name _Lychnocaia_ (the lighting of lamps). Moreover those of the Egyptians who have not come to this solemnassembly observe the night of the festival and themselves also lightlamps all of them, and thus not in Sais alone are they lighted, but overall Egypt: and as to the reason why light and honour are allotted tothis night, about this there is a sacred story told. To Heliopolis andButo they go year by year and do sacrifice only: but at Papremis theydo sacrifice and worship as elsewhere, and besides that, when the sunbegins to go down while some few of the priests are occupied with theimage of the god, the greater number of them stand in the entrance ofthe temple with wooden clubs, and other persons to the number of morethan a thousand men with purpose to perform a vow, these also havingall of them staves of wood, stand in a body opposite to those: and theimage, which is in a small shrine of wood covered over with gold, theytake out on the day before to another sacred building. The few thenwho have been left about the image, draw a wain with four wheels, whichbears the shrine and the image that is within the shrine, and the otherpriests standing in the gateway try to prevent it from entering, andthe men who are under a vow come to the assistance of the god and strikethem, while the others defend themselves. Then there comes to be ahard fight with staves, and they break one another's heads, and I amof opinion that many even die of the wounds they receive; the Egyptianshowever told me that no one died. This solemn assembly the people of theplace say that they established for the following reason:--the motherof Ares, they say, used to dwell in this temple, and Ares, having beenbrought up away from her, when he grew up came thither desiring to visithis mother, and the attendants of his mother's temple, not having seenhim before, did not permit him to pass in, but kept him away; andhe brought men to help him from another city and handled roughly theattendants of the temple, and entered to visit his mother. Hence, theysay, this exchange of blows has become the custom in honour of Ares uponhis festival. 

The Egyptians were the first who made it a point of religion not to liewith women in temples, nor to enter into temples after going awayfrom women without first bathing: for almost all other men except theEgyptians and the Hellenes lie with women in temples and enter into atemple after going away from women without bathing, since they hold thatthere is no difference in this respect between men and beasts: forthey say that they see beasts and the various kinds of birds couplingtogether 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, bothin other matters which concern the sacred rites and also in those whichfollow:--Egypt, though it borders upon Libya, does not very much aboundin wild animals, but such as they have are one and all accounted by themsacred, some of them living with men and others not. But if I should sayfor what reasons the sacred animals have been thus dedicated, I shouldfall into discourse of matters pertaining to the gods, of which I mostdesire not to speak; and what I have actually said touching slightlyupon them, I said because I was constrained by necessity. About theseanimals there is a custom of this kind:--persons have been appointed ofthe Egyptians, both men and women, to provide the food for each kindof beast separately, and their office goes down from father to son; andthose who dwell in the various cities perform vows to them thus, thatis, when they make a vow to the god to whom the animal belongs, theyshave the head of their children either the whole or the half or thethird 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 providesfor the animals, and she cuts up fish of equal value and gives it forfood to the animals. Thus food for their support has been appointed andif any one kill any of these animals, the penalty, if he do it with hisown will, is death, and if against his will, such penalty as the priestsmay appoint: but whosoever shall kill an ibis or a hawk, whether it bewith his will or against his will, must die. Of the animals that livewith men there are great numbers, and would be many more but for theaccidents which befall the cats. For when the females have producedyoung they are no longer in the habit of going to the males, and theseseeking to be united with them are not able. To this end then theycontrive as follows, --they either take away by force or remove secretlythe young from the females and kill them (but after killing they do noteat them), and the females being deprived of their young and desiringmore, therefore come to the males, for it is a creature that is fondof its young. Moreover when a fire occurs, the cats seem to be divinelypossessed; for while the Egyptians stand at intervals and look afterthe cats, not taking any care to extinguish the fire, the cats slippingthrough or leaping over the men, jump into the fire; and when thishappens, great mourning comes upon the Egyptians. And in whatever housesa cat has died by a natural death, all those who dwell in this houseshave their eyebrows only, but those in which a dog has died shave theirwhole body and also their head. The cats when they are dead are carriedaway to sacred buildings in the city of Bubastis, where after beingembalmed they are buried; but the dogs they bury each people in theirown city in sacred tombs; and the ichneumons are buried just in the sameway as the dogs. The shrewmice however and the hawks they carry away tothe city of Buto, and the ibises to Hermopolis; the bears (which are notcommonly seen) and the wolves, not much larger in size than foxes, theybury on the spot where they are found lying. 

Of the crocodile the nature is as follows:--during the four most wintrymonths this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an animalbelonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and hatcheseggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains upon dryland, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water in truthis warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the mortalcreatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest bulkfrom the smallest beginning; for the eggs which she produces are notmuch larger than those of geese and the newly-hatched young one is inproportion to the egg, but as he grows he becomes as much as seventeencubits long and sometimes yet larger. He has eyes like those of a pigand teeth large and tusky, in proportion to the size of his body; butunlike all other beasts he grows no tongue, neither does he move hislower jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards the lower, being in this toounlike all other beasts. He has moreover strong claws and a scaly hideupon his back which cannot be pierced; and he is blind in the water, butin the air he is of a very keen sight. Since he has his living in thewater he keeps his mouth all full within of leeches; and whereas allother birds and beasts fly from him, the trochilus is a creature whichis at peace with him, seeing that from her he receives benefit; forthe crocodile having come out of the water to the land and then havingopened his mouth (this he is wont to do generally towards the WestWind), the trochilus upon that enters into his mouth and swallows downthe leeches, and he being benefited is pleased and does no harm tothe trochilus. Now for some of the Egyptians the crocodiles are sacredanimals, and for others not so, but they treat them on the contraryas enemies: those however who dwell about Thebes and about the lake ofMoiris hold them to be most sacred, and each of these two peoples keepsone crocodile selected from the whole number, which has been trainedto tameness, and they put hanging ornaments of molten stone and of goldinto the ears of these and anklets round the front feet, and they givethem food appointed and victims of sacrifices and treat them as wellas possible while they live, and after they are dead they bury themin sacred tombs, embalming them: but those who dwell about the cityof Elephantine even eat them, not holding them to be sacred. They arecalled not crocodiles but _champsai_, and the Ionians gave them the nameof crocodile, comparing their form to that of the crocodiles (lizards)which appear in their country in the stone walls. There are many ways inuse of catching them and of various kinds: I shall describe that whichto me seems the most worthy of being told. A man puts the back of a pigupon a hook as bait, and lets it go into the middle of the river, whilehe himself upon the bank of the river has a young live pig, which hebeats; and the crocodile hearing its cries makes for the direction ofthe sound, and when he finds the pig's back he swallows it down: thenthey pull, and when he is drawn out to land, first of all the hunterforthwith plasters up his eyes with mud, and having done so he veryeasily gets the mastery of him, but if he does not do so he has muchtrouble. 

The river-horse is sacred in the district of Papremis, but for theother Egyptians he is not sacred; and this is the appearance which hepresents: he is four-footed, cloven-hoofed like an ox, flat-nosed, witha mane like a horse and showing teeth like tusks, with a tail and voicelike a horse and in size as large as the largest ox; and his hide isso exceedingly thick that when it has been dried shafts of javelins aremade of it. There are moreover otters in the river, which they considerto 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 aresacred to the Nile: and of birds the fox-goose. 

There is also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I did notmyself see except in painting, for in truth he comes to them veryrarely, at intervals, as the people of Heliopolis say, of five hundredyears; and these say that he comes regularly when his father dies; andif he be like the painting he is of this size and nature, that is tosay, some of his feathers are of gold colour and others red, and inoutline and size he is as nearly as possible like an eagle. This birdthey say (but I cannot believe the story) contrives as follows:--settingforth from Arabia he conveys his father, they say, to the temple of theSun (Helios) plastered up in myrrh, and buries him in the temple of theSun; and he conveys him thus:--he forms first an egg of myrrh as largeas he is able to carry, and then he makes trial of carrying it, and whenhe has made trial sufficiently, then he hollows out the egg and placeshis father within it and plasters over with other myrrh that part of theegg where he hollowed it out to put his father in, and when his fatheris 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 thetemple of the Sun. Thus they say that this bird does. 

There are also about Thebes sacred serpents, not at all harmful to men, which are small in size and have two horns growing from the top of thehead: these they bury when they die in the temple of Zeus, for to thisgod they say that they are sacred. There is a region moreover in Arabia, situated nearly over against the city of Buto, to which place I came toinquire about the winged serpents: and when I came thither I saw bonesof serpents and spines in quantity so great that it is impossible tomake report of the number, and there were heaps of spines, some heapslarge and others less large and others smaller still than these, andthese heaps were many in number. This region in which the spines arescattered upon the ground is of the nature of an entrance from a narrowmountain pass to a great plain, which plain adjoins the plain in Egypt;and the story goes that at the beginning of spring winged serpents fromArabia fly towards Egypt, and the birds called ibises meet them at theentrance to this country and do not suffer the serpents to go by butkill them. On account of this deed it is (say the Arabians) that theibis has come to be greatly honoured by the Egyptians, and the Egyptiansalso agree that it is for this reason that they honour these birds. Theoutward form of the ibis is this:--it is a deep black all over, and haslegs like those of a crane and a very curved beak, and in size it isabout equal to a rail: this is the appearance of the black kind whichfight with the serpents, but of those which most crowd round men's feet(for there are two several kinds of ibises) the head is bare and alsothe whole of the throat, and it is white in feathering except the headand neck and the extremities of the wings and the rump (in all theseparts of which I have spoken it is a deep black), while in legs and inthe form of the head it resembles the other. As for the serpent its formis like that of the watersnake; and it has wings not feathered but mostnearly resembling the wings of the bat. Let so much suffice as has beensaid now concerning sacred animals. 

Of the Egyptians themselves, those who dwell in the part of Egypt whichis sown for crops practise memory more than any other men and arethe most learned in history by far of all those of whom I havehad experience: and their manner of life is as follows:--For threesuccessive days in each month they purge, hunting after health withemetics and clysters, and they think that all the diseases which existare produced in men by the food on which they live: for the Egyptiansare from other causes also the most healthy of all men next after theLibyans (in my opinion on account of the seasons, because the seasonsdo not change, for by the changes of things generally, and especiallyof the seasons, diseases are most apt to be produced in men), and as totheir diet, it is as follows:--they eat bread, making loaves of maize, which they call _kyllestis_, and they use habitually a wine made out ofbarley, for vines they have not in their land. Of their fish some theydry in the sun and then eat them without cooking, others they eat curedin brine. Of birds they eat quails and ducks and small birds withoutcooking, after first curing them; and everything else which they havebelonging to the class of birds or fishes, except such as have beenset apart by them as sacred, they eat roasted or boiled. In theentertainments of the rich among them, when they have finished eating, aman bears round a wooden figure of a dead body in a coffin, made as likethe reality as may be both by painting and carving, and measuring abouta cubit or two cubits each way; and this he shows to each of those whoare drinking together, saying: "When thou lookest upon this, drink andbe merry, for thou shalt be such as this when thou art dead. " Thus theydo at their carousals. The customs which they practise are derived fromtheir fathers and they do not acquire others in addition; but besidesother customary things among them which are worthy of mention, they haveone song, that of Linos, the same who is sung of both in Phenicia and inCyprus and elsewhere, having however a name different according to thevarious nations. This song agrees exactly with that which the Hellenessing calling on the name of Linos, so that besides many other thingsabout which I wonder among those matters which concern Egypt, I wonderespecially about this, namely whence they got the song of Linos. It isevident however that they have sung this song from immemorial time, andin the Egyptian tongue Linos is called Maneros. The Egyptians told methat he was the only son of him who first became king of Egypt, and thathe died before his time and was honoured with these lamentations bythe Egyptians, and that this was their first and only song. In anotherrespect the Egyptians are in agreement with some of the Hellenes, namelywith the Lacedemonians, but not with the rest, that is to say, theyounger of them when they meet the elder give way and move out of thepath, and when their elders approach, they rise out of their seat. Inthis which follows however they are not in agreement with any of theHellenes, --instead of addressing one another in the roads they doreverence, lowering their hand down to their knee. They wear tunics oflinen about their legs with fringes, which they call _calasiris_; abovethese they have garments of white wool thrown over: woolen garmentshowever are not taken into the temples, nor are they buried with them, for this is not permitted by religion. In these points they are inagreement with the observances called Orphic and Bacchic (which arereally Egyptian), and also with those of the Pythagoreans, for one whotakes part in these mysteries is also forbidden by religious rule to beburied in woolen garments; and about this there is a sacred story told. 

Besides these things the Egyptians have found out also to what god eachmonth and each day belongs, and what fortunes a man will meet with whois born on any particular day, and how he will die, and what kind ofa man he will be: and these inventions were taken up by those of theHellenes who occupied themselves about poesy. Portents too have beenfound out by them more than by all other men besides; for when a portenthas happened, they observe and write down the event which comes of it, and if ever afterwards anything resembling this happens, they believethat the event which comes of it will be similar. Their divination isordered thus:--the art is assigned not to any man but to certain of thegods, for there are in their land Oracles of Heracles, of Apollo, ofAthene, of Artemis, or Ares, and of Zeus, and moreover that which theyhold most in honour of all, namely the Oracle of Leto which is in thecity of Buto. The manner of divination however is not established amongthem according to the same fashion everywhere, but is differentin different places. The art of medicine among them is distributedthus:--each physician is a physician of one disease and of no more; andthe whole country is full of physicians, for some profess themselvesto 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 obscureailments. 

Their fashions of mourning and of burial are these:--Whenever anyhousehold has lost a man who is of any regard amongst them, the wholenumber of women of that house forthwith plaster over their heads or eventheir faces with mud. Then leaving the corpse within the house they gothemselves to and fro about the city and beat themselves, with theirgarments bound up by a girdle and their breasts exposed, and with themgo all the women who are related to the dead man, and on the other sidethe men beat themselves, they too having their garments bound up by agirdle; and when they have done this, they then convey the body tothe embalming. In this occupation certain persons employ themselvesregularly and inherit this as a craft. These, whenever a corpse isconveyed to them, show to those who brought it wooden models of corpsesmade like reality by painting, and the best of the ways of embalmingthey say is that of him whose name I think it impiety to mention whenspeaking of a matter of such a kind; the second which they show isless good than this and also less expensive; and the third is the leastexpensive of all. Having told them about this, they inquire of them inwhich way they desire the corpse of their friend to be prepared. Thenthey after they have agreed for a certain price depart out of the way, and the others being left behind in the buildings embalm according tothe best of these ways thus:--First with the crooked iron tool they drawout the brain through the nostrils, extracting it partly thus and partlyby pouring in drugs; and after this with a sharp stone of Ethiopia theymake 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-winethey cleanse it again with spices pounded up: then they fill the bellywith pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spices exceptfrankincense, and sew it together again. Having so done they keep it forembalming covered up in natron for seventy days, but for a longer timethan this it is not permitted to embalm it; and when the seventy daysare past, they wash the corpse and roll its whole body up in fine linencut into bands, smearing these beneath with gum, which the Egyptians usegenerally instead of glue. Then the kinsfolk receive it from them andhave a wooden figure made in the shape of a man, and when they have hadthis made they enclose the corpse, and having shut it up within, theystore it then in a sepulchral chamber, setting it to stand uprightagainst the wall. Thus they deal with the corpses which are prepared inthe most costly way; but for those who desire the middle way and wishto avoid great cost they prepare the corpse as follows:--having filledtheir syringes with the oil which is got from cedar-wood, with this theyforthwith fill the belly of the corpse, and this they do without havingeither cut it open or taken out the bowels, but they inject the oil bythe breech, and having stopped the drench from returning back they keepit then the appointed number of days for embalming, and on the lastof the days they let the cedar oil come out from the belly, which theybefore put in; and it has such power that it brings out with it thebowels and interior organs of the body dissolved; and the natrondissolves the flesh, so that there is left of the corpse only the skinand the bones. When they have done this they give back the corpse atonce in that condition without working upon it any more. The third kindof embalming, by which are prepared the bodies of those who have lessmeans, is as follows:--they cleanse out the belly with a purge and thenkeep the body for embalming during the seventy days, and at once afterthat they give it back to the bringers to carry away. The wives of menof rank when they die are not given at once to be embalmed, nor suchwomen as are very beautiful or of greater regard than others, but onthe third or fourth day after their death (and not before) they aredelivered to the embalmers. They do so about this matter in order thatthe embalmers may not abuse their women, for they say that one of themwas taken once doing so to the corpse of a woman lately dead, and hisfellow-craftsman gave information. Whenever any one, either of theEgyptians themselves or of strangers, is found to have been carried offby a crocodile or brought to his death by the river itself, the peopleof any city by which he may have been cast up on land must embalm himand lay him out in the fairest way they can and bury him in a sacredburial-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 asthat of one who was something more than man. 

Hellenic usages they will by no means follow, and to speak generallythey follow those of no other men whatever. This rule is observed bymost of the Egyptians; but there is a large city named Chemmis in theTheban district near Neapolis, and in this city there is a temple ofPerseus the son of Danae which is of a square shape, and round it growdate-palms: the gateway of the temple is built of stone and of verygreat 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 ofPerseus. These people of Chemmis say that Perseus is wont often toappear in their land and often within the temple, and that a sandalwhich has been worn by him is found sometimes, being in length twocubits, and whenever this appears all Egypt prospers. This they say, andthey do in honour of Perseus after Hellenic fashion thus, --they hold anathletic contest, which includes the whole list of games, and they offerin prizes cattle and cloaks and skins: and when I inquired why to themalone Perseus was wont to appear, and wherefore they were separated fromall the other Egyptians in that they held an athletic contest, they saidthat Perseus had been born of their city, for Danaos and Lynkeus weremen of Chemmis and had sailed to Hellas, and from them they traced adescent and came down to Perseus: and they told me that he had come toEgypt for the reason which the Hellenes also say, namely to bring fromLibya the Gorgon's head, and had then visited them also and recognisedall his kinsfolk, and they said that he had well learnt the name ofChemmis before he came to Egypt, since he had heard it from his mother, and that they celebrated an athletic contest for him by his own command. 

All these are customs practised by the Egyptians who dwell above thefens: and those who are settled in the fenland have the same customs forthe most part as the other Egyptians, both in other matters and alsoin that they live each with one wife only, as do the Hellenes; butfor economy in respect of food they have invented these thingsbesides:--when the river has become full and the plains have beenflooded, there grow in the water great numbers of lilies, which theEgyptians call _lotos_; these they cut with a sickle and dry in thesun, and then they pound that which grows in the middle of the lotos andwhich is like the head of a poppy, and they make of it loaves bakedwith fire. The root also of this lotos is edible and has a rather sweettaste: it is round in shape and about the size of an apple. There areother lilies too, in flower resembling roses, which also grow inthe river, and from them the fruit is produced in a separate vesselspringing from the root by the side of the plant itself, and verynearly resembles a wasp's comb: in this there grow edible seeds in greatnumbers of the size of an olive-stone, and they are eaten either freshor dried. Besides this they pull up from the fens the papyrus whichgrows every year, and the upper parts of it they cut off and turn toother uses, but that which is left below for about a cubit in lengththey eat or sell: and those who desire to have the papyrus at its verybest bake it in an oven heated red-hot, and then eat it. Some too ofthese people live on fish alone, which they dry in the sun after havingcaught them and taken out the entrails, and then when they are dry, theyuse them for food. 

Fish which swim in shoals are not much produced in the rivers, but arebred in the lakes, and they do as follows:--When there comes upon themthe desire to breed, they swim out in shoals towards the sea; and themales lead the way shedding forth their milt as they go, while thefemales, coming after and swallowing it up, from it become impregnated:and when they have become full of young in the sea they swim up backagain, each shoal to its own haunts. The same however no longer lead theway as before, but the lead comes now to the females, and they leadingthe way in shoals do just as the males did, that is to say they shedforth their eggs by a few grains at a time, and the males coming afterswallow them up. Now these grains are fish, and from the grains whichsurvive and are not swallowed, the fish grow which afterwards are bredup. Now those of the fish which are caught as they swim out towards thesea are found to be rubbed on the left side of the head, but those whichare caught as they swim up again are rubbed on the right side. Thishappens to them because as they swim down to the sea they keep close tothe land on the left side of the river, and again as they swim up theykeep to the same side, approaching and touching the bank as much as theycan, for fear doubtless of straying from their course by reason of thestream. When the Nile begins to swell, the hollow places of the landand the depressions by the side of the river first begin to fill, as thewater soaks through from the river, and so soon as they become full ofwater, at once they are all filled with little fishes; and whencethese are in all likelihood produced, I think that I perceive. In thepreceding year, when the Nile goes down, the fish first lay eggs in themud and then retire with the last of the retreating waters; and whenthe 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 Egyptianswho dwell in the fens use oil from the castor-berry, which oil theEgyptians call _kiki_, and thus they do:--they sow along the banksof the rivers and pools these plants, which in a wild form grow ofthemselves in the land of the Hellenes; these are sown in Egypt andproduce berries in great quantity but of an evil smell; and when theyhave gathered these some cut them up and press the oil from them, othersagain roast them first and then boil them down and collect that whichruns away from them. The oil is fat and not less suitable for burningthan olive-oil, but it gives forth a disagreeable smell. Against thegnats, which are very abundant, they have contrived as follows:--thosewho dwell above the fen-land are helped by the towers, to which theyascend when they go to rest; for the gnats by reason of the windsare not able to fly up high: but those who dwell in the fenland havecontrived another way instead of the towers, and this it is:--every manof them has got a casting net, with which by day he catches fish, butin the night he uses it for this purpose, that is to say he puts thecasting-net round about the bed in which he sleeps, and then creeps inunder it and goes to sleep: and the gnats, if he sleeps rolled up in agarment or a linen sheet, bite through these, but through the net theydo 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 thatwhich exudes from it is gum. From this tree they cut pieces of woodabout two cubits in length and arrange them like bricks, fasteningthe boat together by running a great number of long bolts through thetwo-cubits pieces; and when they have thus fastened the boat together, they lay cross-pieces over the top, using no ribs for the sides; andwithin they caulk the seams with papyrus. They make one steering-oar forit, which is passed through the bottom of the boat; and they have a mastof acacia and sails of papyrus. These boats cannot sail up the riverunless there be a very fresh wind blowing, but are towed from the shore:down-stream however they travel as follows:--they have a door-shapedcrate made of tamarisk wood and reed mats sewn together, and also astone of about two talents weight bored with a hole; and of these theboatman lets the crate float on in front of the boat, fastened with arope, and the stone drags behind by another rope. The crate then, as theforce of the stream presses upon it, goes on swiftly and draws on the_baris_ (for so these boats are called), while the stone dragging afterit behind and sunk deep in the water keeps its course straight. Theseboats they have in great numbers and some of them carry many thousandsof talents' burden. 

When the Nile comes over the land, the cities alone are seen risingabove the water, resembling more nearly than anything else the islandsin the Egean Sea; for the rest of Egypt becomes a sea and the citiesalone rise above water. Accordingly, whenever this happens, they passby water not now by the channels of the river but over the midst ofthe plain: for example, as one sails up from Naucratis to Memphis thepassage is then close by the pyramids, whereas the usual passage is notthe same even here, but goes by the point of the Delta and the city ofKercasoros; while if you sail over the plain to Naucratis from the seaand from Canobos, you will go by Anthylla and the city called afterArchander. Of these Anthylla is a city of note and is especiallyassigned to the wife of him who reigns over Egypt, to supply her withsandals, (this is the case since the time when Egypt came to beunder the Persians): the other city seems to me to have its name fromArchander the son-in-law of Danaos, who was the son of Phthios, the sonof Achaios; for it is called the City of Archander. There might indeedby another Archander, but in any case the name is not Egyptian. 

*****

Hitherto my own observation and judgment and inquiry are the vouchersfor that which I have said; but from this point onwards I am about totell the history of Egypt according to that which I have heard, to whichwill be added also something of that which I have myself seen. 

Of Min, who first became king of Egypt, the priests said that on theone hand he banked off the site of Memphis from the river: for the wholestream of the river used to flow along by the sandy mountain-range onthe side of Libya, but Min formed by embankments that bend of the riverwhich lies to the South about a hundred furlongs above Memphis, and thushe dried up the old stream and conducted the river so that it flowed inthe middle between the mountains: and even now this bend of the Nile isby the Persians kept under very careful watch, that it may flow in thechannel 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 dammedoff, on the one hand, I say, he founded in it that city which is nowcalled 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 lakecommunicating with the river, for the side towards the East is barred bythe Nile itself. Then secondly he established in the city the temple ofHephaistos a great work and most worthy of mention. After this man thepriests enumerated to me from a papyrus roll the names of other kings, three hundred and thirty in number; and in all these generations of meneighteen were Ethiopians, one was a woman, a native Egyptian, andthe rest were men and of Egyptian race: and the name of the woman whoreigned was the same as that of the Babylonian queen, namely Nitocris. Of her they said that desiring to take vengeance for her brother, whomthe Egyptians had slain when he was their king and then, after havingslain him, had given his kingdom to her, --desiring, I say, to takevengeance for him, she destroyed by craft many of the Egyptians. For shecaused to be constructed a very large chamber under ground, and makingas though she would handsel it but in her mind devising other things, she invited those of the Egyptians whom she knew to have had most partin the murder, and gave a great banquet. Then while they were feasting, she let in the river upon them by a secret conduit of large size. Ofher they told no more than this, except that, when this had beenaccomplished, she threw herself into a room full of embers, in orderthat she might escape vengeance. As for the other kings, they could tellme of no great works which had been produced by them, and they said thatthey had no renown except only the last of them, Moiris: he (theysaid) produced as a memorial of himself the gateway of the temple ofHephaistos which is turned towards the North Wind, and dug a lake, aboutwhich I shall set forth afterwards how many furlongs of circuit it has, and in it built pyramids of the size which I shall mention at the sametime when I speak of the lake itself. He, they said, produced theseworks, but of the rest none produced any. 

Therefore passing these by I will make mention of the king who cameafter these, whose name is Sesostris. He (the priests said) first of allset out with ships of war from the Arabian gulf and subdued those whodwelt by the shores of the Erythraian Sea, until as he sailed he cameto a sea which could no further be navigated by reason of shoals: thensecondly, after he had returned to Egypt, according to the report of thepriests he took a great army and marched over the continent, subduingevery nation which stood in his way: and those of them whom he foundvaliant and fighting desperately for their freedom, in their lands heset up pillars which told by inscriptions his own name and the name ofhis country, and how he had subdued them by his power; but as to thoseof whose cities he obtained possession without fighting or with ease, ontheir pillars he inscribed words after the same tenor as he did for thenations which had shown themselves courageous, and in addition he drewupon them the hidden parts of a woman, desiring to signify by this thatthe people were cowards and effeminate. Thus doing he traversed thecontinent, until at last he passed over to Europe from Asia and subduedthe Scythians and also the Thracians. These, I am of opinion, were thefurthest people to which the Egyptian army came, for in their countrythe pillars are found to have been set up, but in the land beyond thisthey are no longer found. From this point he turned and began to goback; and when he came to the river Phasis, what happened then I cannotsay for certain, whether the king Sesostris himself divided off acertain portion of his army and left the men there as settlers inthe land, or whether some of his soldiers were wearied by his distantmarches and remained by the river Phasis. For the people of Colchis areevidently Egyptian, and this I perceived for myself before I heard itfrom others. So when I had come to consider the matter I asked themboth; and the Colchians had remembrance of the Egyptians more than theEgyptians of the Colchians; but the Egyptians said they believed thatthe Colchians were a portion of the army of Sesostris. That this wasso I conjectured myself not only because they are dark-skinned and havecurly hair (this of itself amounts to nothing, for there are other raceswhich are so), but also still more because the Colchians, Egyptians, and Ethiopians alone of all the races of men have practised circumcisionfrom the first. The Phenicians and the Syrians who dwell in Palestineconfess themselves that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, andthe Syrians about the river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and theMacronians, who are their neighbors, say that they have learnt itlately from the Colchians. These are the only races of men who practisecircumcision, and these evidently practise it in the same manner as theEgyptians. Of the Egyptians themselves however and the Ethiopians, Iam not able to say which learnt from the other, for undoubtedly it is amost ancient custom; but that the other nations learnt it by intercoursewith the Egyptians, this among others is to me a strong proof, namelythat those of the Phenicians who have intercourse with Hellas ceaseto follow the example of the Egyptians in this matter, and do notcircumcise their children. Now let me tell another thing about theColchians to show how they resemble the Egyptians:--they alone work flaxin the same fashion as the Egyptians, and the two nations are like oneanother in their whole manner of living and also in their language: nowthe linen of Colchis is called by the Hellenes Sardonic, whereas thatfrom Egypt is called Egyptian. The pillars which Sesostris king of Egyptset up in the various countries are for the most part no longer to beseen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself saw them existing with theinscription upon them which I have mentioned and the emblem. Moreoverin Ionia there are two figures of this man carved upon rocks, one onthe road by which one goes from the land of Ephesos to Phocaia, and theother on the road from Sardis to Smyrna. In each place there is a figureof a man cut in the rock, of four cubits and a span in height, holdingin his right hand a spear and in his left a bow and arrows, and theother equipment which he has is similar to this, for it is both Egyptianand Ethiopian: and from the one shoulder to the other across the breastruns an inscription carved in sacred Egyptian characters, saying thus, "This land with my shoulders I won for myself. " But who he is and fromwhence, he does not declare in these places, though in other places hehad declared this. Some of those who have seen these carvings conjecturethat the figure is that of Memnon, but herein they are very far from thetruth. 

As this Egyptian Sesostris was returning and bringing back many men ofthe nations whose lands he had subdued, when he came (said the priests)to Daphnai in the district of Pelusion on his journey home, his brotherto whom Sesostris had entrusted the charge of Egypt invited him andwith him his sons to a feast; and then he piled the house round withbrushwood and set it on fire: and Sesostris when he discovered thisforthwith took counsel with his wife, for he was bringing with him (theysaid) his wife also; and she counselled him to lay out upon the pyre twoof his sons, which were six in number, and so to make a bridge overthe burning mass, and that they passing over their bodies should thusescape. This, they said, Sesostris did, and two of his sons were burntto death in this manner, but the rest got away safe with their father. Then Sesostris, having returned to Egypt and having taken vengeance onhis brother employed the multitude which he had brought in of thosewho whose lands he had subdued, as follows:--these were they drew thestones which in the reign of this king were brought to the temple ofHephaistos, being of very good size; and also these were compelled todig all the channels which now are in Egypt; and thus (having no suchpurpose) they caused Egypt, which before was all fit for riding anddriving, to be no longer fit for this from thenceforth: for from thattime forward Egypt, though it is plain land, has become all unfit forriding and driving, and the cause has been these channels, which aremany and run in all directions. But the reason why the king cut upthe land was this, namely because those of the Egyptians who had theircities not on the river but in the middle of the country, being in wantof water when the river went down from them, found their drink brackishbecause they had it from wells. For this reason Egypt was cut up: andthey said that this king distributed the land to all the Egyptians, giving an equal square portion to each man, and from this he made hisrevenue, having appointed them to pay a certain rent every year: andif the river should take away anything from any man's portion, he wouldcome to the king and declare that which had happened, and the king usedto send men to examine and to find out by measurement how much less thepiece of land had become, in order that for the future the man might payless, in proportion to the rent appointed: and I think that thus the artof geometry was found out and afterwards came into Hellas also. For astouching the sun-dial and the gnomon and the twelve divisions of theday, they were learnt by the Hellenes from the Babylonians. He moreoveralone of all the Egyptian kings had rule over Ethiopia; and he leftas memorials of himself in front of the temple of Hephaistos two stonestatues of thirty cubits each, representing himself and his wife, and others of twenty cubits each representing his four sons: and longafterwards the priest of Hephaistos refused to permit Dareios thePersian to set up a statue of himself in front of them, saying thatdeeds had not been done by him equal to those which were done bySesostris the Egyptian; for Sesostris had subdued other nations besides, not fewer than he, and also the Scythians; but Dareios had not been ableto conquer the Scythians: wherefore it was not just that he should setup a statue in front of those which Sesostris had dedicated, if he didnot surpass him in his deeds. Which speech, they say, Dareios took ingood 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 warlikeexpedition, and moreover it chanced to him to become blind by reason ofthe following accident:--when the river had come down in flood rising toa height of eighteen cubits, higher than ever before that time, and hadgone over the fields, a wind fell upon it and the river became agitatedby waves: and this king (they say) moved by presumptuous folly tooka spear and cast it into the midst of the eddies of the stream; andimmediately upon this he had a disease of the eyes and was by it madeblind. For ten years then he was blind, and in the eleventh year therecame to him an oracle from the city of Buto saying that the time of hispunishment had expired, and that he should see again if he washed hiseyes with the water of a woman who had accompanied with her own husbandonly and had not had knowledge of other men: and first he made trial ofhis own wife, and then, as he continued blind, he went on to try all thewomen in turn; and when he had at least regained his sight he gatheredtogether all the women of whom he had made trial, excepting her bywhose means he had regained his sight, to one city which now is namedErythrabolos, and having gathered them to this he consumed them all byfire, as well as the city itself; but as for her by whose means hehad regained his sight, he had her himself to wife. Then after he hadescaped the malady of his eyes he dedicated offerings at each one of thetemples which were of renown, and especially (to mention only that whichis most worthy of mention) he dedicated at the temple of the Sun workswhich are worth seeing, namely two obelisks of stone, each of a singleblock, measuring in length a hundred cubits each one and in breadtheight 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 isnow a sacred enclosure at Memphis, very fair and well ordered, lying onthat side of the temple of Hephaistos which faces the North Wind. Roundabout this enclosure dwell Phenicians of Tyre, and this whole region iscalled the Camp of the Tyrians. Within the enclosure of Proteus thereis a temple called the temple of the "foreign Aphrodite, " which templeI conjecture to be one of Helen the daughter of Tyndareus, not onlybecause I have heard the tale how Helen dwelt with Proteus, but alsoespecially because it is called by the name of the "foreign Aphrodite, "for the other temples of Aphrodite which there are have none of them theaddition of the word "foreign" to the name. 

And the priests told me, when I inquired, that the things concerningHelen happened thus:--Alexander having carried off Helen was sailingaway from Sparta to his own land, and when he had come to the Egean Seacontrary winds drove him from his course to the Sea of Egypt; and afterthat, 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 Nileand 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 havethe sacred marks set upon him, giving himself over to the god, it isnot lawful to lay hands upon him; but this custom has continued stillunchanged from the beginning down to my own time. Accordingly theattendants of Alexander, having heard of the custom which existed aboutthe temple, ran away from him, and sitting down as suppliants of thegod, accused Alexander, because they desired to do him hurt, tellingthe whole tale how things were about Helen and about the wrong done toMenalaos; and this accusation they made not only to the priests but alsoto the warden of this river-mouth, whose name was Thonis. Thonis thenhaving 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 wifeof his own host, and is come hither bringing with him this woman herselfand very much wealth, having been carried out of his way by winds to thyland. Shall we then allow him to sail out unharmed, or shall we firsttake away from him that which he brought with him?" In reply to thisProteus sent back a messenger who said thus: "Seize this man, whosoeverhe may be, who has done impiety to his own host, and bring him away intomy presence that I may know what he will find to say. " Hearing this, Thonis seized Alexander and detained his ships, and after that hebrought the man himself up to Memphis and with him Helen and the wealthhe had, and also in addition to them the suppliants. So when all hadbeen conveyed up thither, Proteus began to ask Alexander who he was andfrom whence he was voyaging; and he both recounted to him his descentand told him the name of his native land, and moreover related of hisvoyage, from whence he was sailing. After this Proteus asked him whencehe had taken Helen; and when Alexander went astray in his account and didnot speak the truth, those who had become suppliants convicted him offalsehood, relating in full the whole tale of the wrong done. At lengthProteus declared to them this sentence, saying, "Were it not that Icount it a matter of great moment not to slay any of those strangers whobeing driven from their course by winds have come to my land hitherto, I should have taken vengeance on thee on behalf of the man ofHellas, seeing that thou, most base of men, having received from himhospitality, didst work against him a most impious deed. For thou didstgo in to the wife of thine own host; and even this was not enough forthee, but thou didst stir her up with desire and hast gone away with herlike a thief. Moreover not even this by itself was enough for thee, butthou art come hither with plunder taken from the house of thy host. Nowtherefore depart, seeing that I have counted it of great moment not tobe a slayer of strangers. This woman indeed and the wealth which thouhast I will not allow thee to carry away, but I shall keep them safe forthe Hellene who was thy host, until he come himself and desire to carrythem off to his home; to thyself however and thy fellow-voyagers Iproclaim that ye depart from your anchoring within three days and gofrom my land to some other; and if not, that ye will be dealt with asenemies. "

This the priests said was the manner of Helen's coming to Proteus; andI suppose that Homer also had heard this story, but since it was not sosuitable 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 wasacquainted with that story also: and according to the manner in which hedescribed the wanderings of Alexander in the Iliad (nor did he elsewhereretract that which he had said) of his course, wandering to variouslands, and that he came among other places to Sidon in Phenicia. Of thisthe poet has made mention in the "prowess of Diomede, " and the versesrun thus:

 "There she had robes many-coloured, the works of women of Sidon, Those whom her son himself the god-like of form Alexander Carried from Sidon, what time the broad sea-path he sailed over Bringing back Helene home, of a noble father begotten. "

And in the Odyssey also he has made mention of it in these verses:

 "Such had the daughter of Zeus, such drugs of exquisite cunning, Good, which to her the wife of Thon, Polydamna, had given, Dwelling in Egypt, the land where the bountiful meadow produces Drugs more than all lands else, many good being mixed, many evil. "

And thus too Menelaos says to Telemachos:

 "Still the gods stayed me in Egypt, to come back hither desiring, Stayed me from voyaging home, since sacrifice due I performed not. "

In these lines he makes it clear that he knew of the wanderings ofAlexander to Egypt, for Syria borders upon Egypt and the Phenicians, ofwhom is Sidon, dwell in Syria. By these lines and by this passage it isalso most clearly shown that the "Cyprian Epic" was not written by Homerbut by some other man: for in this it is said that on the third dayafter leaving Sparta Alexander came to Ilion bringing with him Helen, having had a "gently-blowing wind and a smooth sea, " whereas in theIliad it says that he wandered from his course when he brought her. 

Let us now leave Homer and the "Cyprian Epic"; but this I will say, namely that I asked the priests whether it is but an idle tale whichthe Hellenes tell of that which they say happened about Ilion; and theyanswered me thus, saying that they had their knowledge by inquiries fromMenelaos himself. After the rape of Helen there came indeed, they said, to the Teucrian land a large army of Hellenes to help Menelaos; andwhen the army had come out of the ships to land and had pitched itscamp there, they sent messengers to Ilion, with whom went also Menelaoshimself; and when these entered within the wall they demanded back Helenand the wealth which Alexander had stolen from Menelaos and had takenaway; and moreover they demanded satisfaction for the wrongs done: andthe Teucrians told the same tale then and afterwards, both with oath andwithout oath, namely that in deed and in truth they had not Helen northe wealth for which demand was made, but that both were in Egypt; andthat they could not justly be compelled to give satisfaction for thatwhich Proteus the king of Egypt had. The Hellenes however thought thatthey were being mocked by them and besieged the city, until at last theytook it; and when they had taken the wall and did not find Helen, butheard the same tale as before, then they believed the former tale andsent Menelaos himself to Proteus. And Menelaos having come to Egypt andhaving sailed up to Memphis, told the truth of these matters, and notonly found great entertainment, but also received Helen unhurt, andall his own wealth besides. Then, however, after he had been thus dealtwith, Menelaos showed himself ungrateful to the Egyptians; for whenhe set forth to sail away, contrary winds detained him, and as thiscondition of things lasted long, he devised an impious deed; for he tooktwo children of natives and made sacrifice of them. After this, when itwas known that he had done so, he became abhorred, and being pursued heescaped and got away in his ships to Libya; but whither he went besidesafter this, the Egyptians were not able to tell. Of these things theysaid that they found out part by inquiries, and the rest, namely thatwhich happened in their own land, they related from sure and certainknowledge. 

Thus the priests of the Egyptians told me; and I myself also agree withthe story which was told of Helen, adding this consideration, namelythat if Helen had been in Ilion she would have been given up to theHellenes, whether Alexander consented or no; for Priam assuredly was notso mad, nor yet the others of his house, that they were desirous to runrisk of ruin for themselves and their children and their city, in orderthat Alexander might have Helen as his wife: and even supposing thatduring the first part of the time they had been so inclined, yet whenmany others of the Trojans besides were losing their lives as often asthey fought with the Hellenes, and of the sons of Priam himself alwaystwo or three or even more were slain when a battle took place (if onemay trust at all to the Epic poets), --when, I say, things were comingthus to pass, I consider that even if Priam himself had had Helen as hiswife, he would have given her back to the Achaians, if at least by sodoing he might be freed from the evils which oppressed him. Nor evenwas the kingdom coming to Alexander next, so that when Priam was old thegovernment was in his hands; but Hector, who was both older and moreof a man than he, would certainly have received it after the death ofPriam; and him it behoved not to allow his brother to go on with hiswrong-doing, considering that great evils were coming to pass on hisaccount both to himself privately and in general to the other Trojans. In truth however they lacked the power to give Helen back; and theHellenes did not believe them, though they spoke the truth; because, as I declare my opinion, the divine power was purposing to cause themutterly to perish, and so make it evident to men that for great wrongsgreat also are the chastisements which come from the gods. And thus haveI delivered my opinion concerning these matters. 

After Proteus, they told me, Rhampsinitos received in succession thekingdom, who left as a memorial of himself that gateway to the temple ofHephaistos which is turned towards the West, and in front of the gatewayhe set up two statues, in height five-and-twenty cubits, of which theone which stands on the North side is called by the Egyptians Summer andthe one on the South side Winter; and to that one which they call Summerthey do reverence and make offerings, while to the other which is calledWinter they do the opposite of these things. This king, they said, gotgreat wealth of silver, which none of the kings born after him couldsurpass or even come near to; and wishing to store his wealth in safetyhe caused to be built a chamber of stone, one of the walls whereof wastowards the outside of his palace: and the builder of this, having adesign against it, contrived as follows, that is, he disposed one of thestones in such a manner that it could be taken out easily from the walleither by two men or even by one. So when the chamber was finished, theking stored his money in it, and after some time the builder, being nearthe end of his life, called to him his sons (for he had two) and to themhe related how he had contrived in building the treasury of the king, and all in forethought for them, that they might have ample means ofliving. And when he had clearly set forth to them everything concerningthe taking out of the stone, he gave them the measurements, saying thatif they paid heed to this matter they would be stewards of the king'streasury. So he ended his life, and his sons made no long delay insetting to work, but went to the palace by night, and having found thestone in the wall of the chamber they dealt with it easily and carriedforth for themselves great quantity of the wealth within. And the kinghappening to open the chamber, he marvelled when he saw the vesselsfalling short of the full amount, and he did not know on whom he shouldlay the blame, since the seals were unbroken and the chamber had beenclose shut; but when upon his opening the chamber a second and a thirdtime the money was each time seen to be diminished, for the thievesdid not slacken in their assaults upon it, he did as follows:--havingordered traps to be made he set these round about the vessels in whichthe money was; and when the thieves had come as at former times and oneof them had entered, then so soon as he came near to one of the vesselshe was straightway caught in the trap: and when he perceived in whatevil case he was, straightway calling his brother he showed him what thematter was, and bade him enter as quickly as possible and cut offhis head, for fear lest being seen and known he might bring about thedestruction of his brother also. And to the other it seemed that hespoke well, and he was persuaded and did so; and fitting the stone intoits 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 verygreatly amazed, seeing the body of the thief held in the trap withouthis 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 thewall and set guards there, with charge if they saw any one weeping orbewailing himself to seize him and bring him before the king. And whenthe dead body had been hung up, the mother was greatly grieved, andspeaking with the son who survived she enjoined him, in whatever way hecould, to contrive means by which he might take down and bring home thebody of his brother; and if he should neglect to do this, she earnestlythreatened that she would go and give information to the king that hehad the money. So as the mother dealt hardly with the surviving son, andhe though saying many things to her did not persuade her, he contrivedfor his purpose a device as follows:--Providing himself with asses hefilled some skins with wine and laid them upon the asses, and afterthat he drove them along: and when he came opposite to those who wereguarding the corpse hung up, he drew towards him two or three of thenecks 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 cryout loudly, as if he did not know to which of the asses he should firstturn; and when the guards saw the wine flowing out in streams, they rantogether to the road with drinking vessels in their hands and collectedthe wine that was poured out, counting it so much gain; and he abusedthem all violently, making as if he were angry, but when the guardstried to appease him, after a time he feigned to be pacified and toabate his anger, and at length he drove his asses out of the road andbegan to set their loads right. Then more talk arose among them, and oneor 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 additionto what they had. Upon that they lay down there without more ado, beingminded to drink, and they took him into their company and invited himto remain with them and join them in their drinking: so he (as may besupposed) was persuaded and stayed. Then as they in their drinking badehim welcome in a friendly manner, he made a present to them also ofanother of the skins; and so at length having drunk liberally the guardsbecame completely intoxicated; and being overcome by sleep they went tobed on the spot where they had been drinking. He then, as it was now faron in the night, first took down the body of his brother, and then inmockery shaved the right cheeks of all the guards; and after that heput the dead body upon the asses and drove them away home, havingaccomplished that which was enjoined him by his mother. Upon this theking, when it was reported to him that the dead body of the thief hadbeen stolen away, displayed great anger; and desiring by all means thatit should be found out who it might be who devised these things, didthis (so at least they said, but I do not believe the account), --hecaused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and enjoined her to receiveall equally, and before having commerce with any one to compel him totell her what was the most cunning and what the most unholy deed whichhad been done by him in all his life-time; and whosoever should relatethat which had happened about the thief, him she must seize and not lethim 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 toget the better of the king in resource, did thus:--from the body of onelately dead he cut off the arm at the shoulder and went with it underhis mantle: and having gone in to the daughter of the king, and beingasked that which the others also were asked, he related that he had donethe most unholy deed when he cut off the head of his brother, who hadbeen caught in a trap in the king's treasure-chamber, and the mostcunning deed in that he made drunk the guards and took down the deadbody of his brother hanging up; and she when she heard it tried to takehold of him, but the thief held out to her in the darkness the arm ofthe corpse, which she grasped and held, thinking that she was holdingthe arm of the man himself; but the thief left it in her hands anddeparted, escaping through the door. Now when this also was reported tothe king, he was at first amazed at the ready invention and daring ofthe fellow, and then afterwards he sent round to all the cities and madeproclamation granting a free pardon to the thief, and also promising agreat reward if he would come into his presence. The thief accordinglytrusting to the proclamation came to the king, and Rhampsinitos greatlymarvelled at him, and gave him this daughter of his to wife, countinghim to be the most knowing of all men; for as the Egyptians weredistinguished from all other men, so was he from the other Egyptians. 

After these things they said this king went down alive to that placewhich by the Hellenes is called Hades, and there played at dice withDemeter, and in some throws he overcame her and in others he wasovercome by her; and he came back again having as a gift from her ahandkerchief of gold: and they told me that because of the going down ofRhampsinitos the Egyptians after he came back celebrated a feast, whichI 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 forsome other, I am not able to say. However, the priests weave a robecompletely on the very day of the feast, and forthwith they bind up theeyes of one of them with a fillet, and having led him with the robe tothe way by which one goes to the temple of Demeter, they depart backagain themselves. This priest, they say, with his eyes bound up is ledby two wolves to the temple of Demeter, which is distant from the citytwenty furlongs, and then afterwards the wolves lead him back again fromthe temple to the same spot. Now as to the tales told by the Egyptians, any man may accept them to whom such things appear credible; as for me, it is to be understood throughout the whole of the history that I writeby hearsay that which is reported by the people in each place. TheEgyptians say that Demeter and Dionysos are rulers of the world below;and the Egyptians are also the first who reported the doctrine that thesoul of man is immortal, and that when the body dies, the soul entersinto another creature which chances then to be coming to the birth, andwhen it has gone the round of all the creatures of land and sea and ofthe air, it enters again into a human body as it comes to the birth;and that it makes this round in a period of three thousand years. Thisdoctrine certain Hellenes adopted, some earlier and some later, as ifit were of their own invention, and of these men I know the names but Iabstain from recording them. 

Down to the time when Rhampsinitos was king, they told me there was inEgypt nothing but orderly rule, and Egypt prospered greatly; but afterhim Cheops became king over them and brought them to every kind ofevil: for he shut up all the temples, and having first kept them fromsacrifices there, he then bade all the Egyptians work for him. So somewere appointed to draw stones from the stone-quarries in the Arabianmountains to the Nile, and others he ordered to receive the stones afterthey had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw them to thosewhich are called the Libyan mountains; and they worked by a hundredthousand men at a time, for each three months continually. Of thisoppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by whichthey drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a work notmuch less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid; for the length of itis five furlongs and the breadth ten fathoms and the height, where itis highest, eight fathoms, and it is made of stone smoothed and withfigures carved upon it. For this they said, the ten years were spent, and for the underground he caused to be made as sepulchral chambers forhimself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the Nile. For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twentyyears; and the pyramid is square, each side measuring eight hundredfeet, and the height of it is the same. It is built of stone smoothedand fitted together in the most perfect manner, not one of the stonesbeing less than thirty feet in length. This pyramid was made after themanner of steps which some called "rows" and others "bases": and whenthey had first made it thus, they raised the remaining stones withmachines made of short pieces of timber, raising them first from theground to the first stage of the steps, and when the stone got up tothis it was placed upon another machine standing on the first stage, and so from this it was drawn to the second upon another machine; for asmany as were the courses of the steps, so many machines there were also, or perhaps they transferred one and the same machine, made so as easilyto be carried, to each stage successively, in order that they mighttake up the stones; for let it be told in both ways, according as itis reported. However that may be the highest parts of it were finishedfirst, and afterwards they proceeded to finish that which came next tothem, and lastly they finished the parts of it near the ground and thelowest ranges. On the pyramid it is declared in Egyptian writing howmuch was spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and ifI rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me thisinscription, a sum of one thousand six hundred talents of silver wasspent; and if this is so, how much besides is likely to have beenexpended upon the iron with which they worked, and upon bread andclothing for the workmen, seeing that they were building the works forthe time which has been mentioned and were occupied for no small timebesides, as I suppose, in the cutting and bringing of the stones and inworking at the excavation under the ground? Cheops moreover came, theysaid, to such a pitch of wickedness, that being in want of money hecaused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and ordered her to obtainfrom those who came a certain amount of money (how much it was they didnot tell me): and she not only obtained the sum appointed by her father, but also she formed a design for herself privately to leave behind hera memorial, and she requested each man who came in to give her one stoneupon her building: and of these stones, they told me, the pyramid wasbuilt which stands in front of the great pyramid in the middle of thethree, each side being one hundred and fifty feet in length. 

This Cheops, the Egyptians said, reigned fifty years; and after he wasdead his brother Chephren succeeded to the kingdom. This king followedthe same manner of dealing as the other, both in all the rest and alsoin that he made a pyramid, not indeed attaining to the measurementsof that which was built by the former (this I know, having myself alsomeasured it), and moreover there are no underground chambers beneath nordoes 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 roundan island within, where they say that Cheops himself is laid: but for abasement he built the first course of Ethiopian stone of divers colours;and this pyramid he made forty feet lower than the other as regardssize, building it close to the great pyramid. These stand both upon thesame hill, which is about a hundred feet high. And Chephren they saidreigned fifty and six years. Here then they reckon one hundred and sixyears, during which they say that there was nothing but evil for theEgyptians, and the temples were kept closed and not opened during allthat time. These kings the Egyptians by reason of their hatred of themare not very willing to name; nay, they even call the pyramids after thename of Philitis the shepherd, who at that time pastured flocks in thoseregions. After him, they said, Mykerinos became king over Egypt, who wasthe son of Cheops; and to him his father's deeds were displeasing, andhe both opened the temples and gave liberty to the people, who wereground down to the last extremity of evil, to return to their ownbusiness and to their sacrifices: also he gave decisions of their causesjuster than those of all the other kings besides. In regard to this thenthey commend this king more than all the other kings who had arisen inEgypt before him; for he not only gave good decisions, but also whena man complained of the decision, he gave him recompense from his owngoods and thus satisfied his desire. But while Mykerinos was actingmercifully to his subjects and practising this conduct which has beensaid, calamities befell him, of which the first was this, namely thathis daughter died, the only child whom he had in his house: and beingabove measure grieved by that which had befallen him, and desiring tobury his daughter in a manner more remarkable than others, he made a cowof wood, which he covered over with gold, and then within it he buriedthis daughter who as I said, had died. This cow was not covered up inthe ground, but it might be seen even down to my own time in the cityof Sais, placed within the royal palace in a chamber which was greatlyadorned; and they offer incense of all kinds before it every day, andeach night a lamp burns beside it all through the night. Near this cowin another chamber stand images of the concubines of Mykerinos, as thepriests at Sais told me; for there are in fact colossal wooden statues, in number about twenty, made with naked bodies; but who they are I amnot able to say, except only that which is reported. Some however tellabout this cow and the colossal statues the following tale, namely thatMykerinos was enamoured of his own daughter and afterwards ravished her;and upon this they say that the girl strangled herself for grief, andhe buried her in this cow; and her mother cut off the hands of the maidswho had betrayed the daughter to her father; wherefore now the images ofthem have suffered that which the maids suffered in their life. In thussaying they speak idly, as it seems to me, especially in what they sayabout the hands of the statues; for as to this, even we ourselves sawthat their hands had dropped off from lapse of time, and they were to beseen still lying at their feet even down to my time. The cow is coveredup with a crimson robe, except only the head and the neck, which areseen, overlaid with gold very thickly; and between the horns there isthe disc of the sun figured in gold. The cow is not standing up butkneeling, and in size is equal to a large living cow. Every year it iscarried forth from the chamber, at those times, I say, the Egyptiansbeat themselves for that god whom I will not name upon occasion of sucha matter; at these times, I say, they also carry forth the cow to thelight of day, for they say that she asked of her father Mykerinos, whenshe was dying, that she might look upon the sun once in the year. 

After the misfortune of his daughter it happened, they said, secondlyto 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 seventhyear to end his life: and he being indignant at it sent to the Oraclea reproach against the god, making complaint in reply that whereashis father and uncle, who had shut up the temples and had not only notremembered the gods, but also had been destroyers of men, had lived fora long time, he himself, who practised piety, was destined to end hislife so soon: and from the Oracle came a second message, which saidthat it was for this very cause that he was bringing his life to a swiftclose; 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 andfifty years, and the two kings who had arisen before him had perceivedthis, but he had not. Mykerinos having heard this, and considering thatthis sentence had passed upon him beyond recall, procured many lamps, and whenever night came on he lighted these and began to drink and takehis pleasure, ceasing neither by day nor by night; and he went about tothe fen-country and to the woods and wherever he heard there were themost suitable places of enjoyment. This he devised (having a mind toprove that the Oracle spoke falsely) in order that he might have twelveyears of life instead of six, the nights being turned into days. 

This king also left behind him a pyramid, much smaller than that of hisfather, of a square shape and measuring on each side three hundred feetlacking twenty, built moreover of Ethiopian stone up to half theheight. This pyramid some of the Hellenes say was built by the courtesanRhodopis, not therein speaking rightly: and besides this it is evidentto 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 apyramid like this, on which have been spent (so to speak) innumerablethousands of talents: moreover they do not know that Rhodopis flourishedin the reign of Amasis, and not in this king's reign; for Rhodopislived very many years later than the kings who left behind them thesepyramids. By descent she was of Thrace, and she was a slave of Iadmonthe son of Hephaistopolis a Samian, and a fellow-slave of Esop themaker of fables; for he too was once the slave of Iadmon, as wasproved especially by this fact, namely that when the people of Delphirepeatedly made proclamation in accordance with an oracle, to find someone who would take up the blood-money for the death of Esop, no one elseappeared, but at length the grandson of Iadmon, called Iadmon also, tookit up; and thus it is showed that Esop too was the slave of Iadmon. As for Rhodopis, she came to Egypt brought by Xanthes the Samian, and having come thither to exercise her calling she was redeemedfrom slavery for a great sum by a man of Mytilene, Charaxos son ofScamandronymos and brother of Sappho the lyric poet. Thus was Rhodopisset free, and she remained in Egypt and by her beauty won so much likingthat she made great gain of money for one like Rhodopis, though notenough to suffice for the cost of such a pyramid as this. In truth thereis no need to ascribe to her very great riches, considering that thetithe of her wealth may still be seen even to this time by any onewho desires it: for Rhodopis wished to leave behind her a memorial ofherself in Hellas, namely to cause a thing to be made such as happensnot to have been thought of or dedicated in a temple by any besides, andto dedicate this at Delphi as a memorial of herself. Accordingly withthe tithe of her wealth she caused to be made spits of iron of sizelarge enough to pierce a whole ox, and many in number, going as fartherein as her tithe allowed her, and she sent them to Delphi: theseare even at the present time lying there, heaped all together behind thealtar which the Chians dedicated, and just opposite to the cell of thetemple. Now at Naucratis, as it happens, the courtesans are rather aptto win credit; for this woman first, about whom the story to which Irefer is told, became so famous that all the Hellenes without exceptioncame to know the name of Rhodopis, and then after her one whose name wasArchidiche became a subject of song all over Hellas, though she was lesstalked of than the other. As for Charaxos, when after redeeming Rhodopishe returned back to Mytilene, Sappho in an ode violently abused him. OfRhodopis then I shall say no more. 

After Mykerinos the priests said Asychis became king of Egypt, and hemade for Hephaistos the temple gateway which is towards the sunrising, by far the most beautiful and the largest of the gateways; for whilethey all have figures carved upon them and innumerable ornaments ofbuilding besides, this has them very much more than the rest. In thisking's reign they told me that, as the circulation of money was veryslow, a law was made for the Egyptians that a man might have that moneylent to him which he needed, by offering as security the dead body ofhis father; and there was added moreover to this law another, namelythat he who lent the money should have a claim also to the whole of thesepulchral chamber belonging to him who received it, and that the manwho offered that security should be subject to this penalty, if herefused to pay back the debt, namely that neither the man himselfshould be allowed to have burial, when he died, either in that familyburial-place or in any other, nor should he be allowed to bury any ofhis kinsmen whom he lost by death. This king desiring to surpass thekings of Egypt who had arisen before him left as a memorial of himself apyramid which he made of bricks and on it there is an inscriptioncarved in stone and saying thus: "Despise not me in comparison with thepyramids of stone, seeing that I excel them as much as Zeus excels theother gods; for with a pole they struck into the lake, and whateverof the mud attached itself to the pole, this they gathered up and madebricks, and in such manner they finished me. "

Such were the deeds which this king performed: and after him reigned ablind man of the city of Anysis, whose name was Anysis. In his reignthe Ethiopians and Sabacos the king of the Ethiopians marched upon Egyptwith a great host of men; so this blind man departed, flying to thefen-country, and the Ethiopian was king over Egypt for fifty years, during which he performed deeds as follows:--whenever any man of theEgyptians committed any transgression, he would never put him to death, but he gave sentence upon each man according to the greatness of thewrong-doing, appointing them to work at throwing up an embankment beforethat city from whence each man came of those who committed wrong. Thusthe cities were made higher still than before; for they were embankedfirst by those who dug the channels in the reign of Sesostris, and thensecondly in the reign of the Ethiopian, and thus they were made veryhigh: and while other cities in Egypt also stood high, I think in thetown at Bubastis especially the earth was piled up. In this city thereis a temple very well worthy of mention, for though there are othertemples which are larger and build with more cost, none more thanthis is a pleasure to the eyes. Now Bubastis in the Hellenic tongueis Artemis, and her temple is ordered thus:--Except the entrance it iscompletely surrounded by water; for channels come in from the Nile, notjoining one another, but each extending as far as the entrance of thetemple, one flowing round on the one side and the other on the otherside, each a hundred feet broad and shaded over with trees; and thegateway has a height of ten fathoms, and it is adorned with figures sixcubits high, very noteworthy. This temple is in the middle of the cityand is looked down upon from all sides as one goes round, for since thecity has been banked up to a height, while the temple has not been movedfrom the place where it was at the first built, it is possible to lookdown into it: and round it runs a stone wall with figures carved uponit, while within it there is a grove of very large trees planted rounda large temple-house, within which is the image of the goddess: and thebreadth and length of the temple is a furlong every way. Opposite theentrance there is a road paved with stone for about three furlongs, which leads through the market-place towards the East, with a breadthof about four hundred feet; and on this side and on that grow trees ofheight reaching to heaven: and the road leads to the temple of Hermes. This temple then is thus ordered. 

The final deliverance from the Ethiopian came about (they said) asfollows:--he fled away because he had seen in his sleep a vision, inwhich it seemed to him that a man came and stood by him and counselledhim to gather together all the priests in Egypt and cut them asunder inthe midst. Having seen this dream, he said that it seemed to him thatthe 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 nothowever do so, but in truth (he said) the time had expired, duringwhich it had been prophesied to him that he should rule Egypt beforehe departed thence. For when he was in Ethiopia the Oracles which theEthiopians consult had told him that it was fated for him to rule Egyptfifty years: since then this time was now expiring, and the vision ofthe dream also disturbed him, Sabacos departed out of Egypt of his ownfree will. 

Then when the Ethiopian had gone away out of Egypt, the blind man cameback from the fen-country and began to rule again, having lived thereduring fifty years upon an island which he had made by heaping up ashesand earth: for whenever any of the Egyptians visited him bringing food, according as it had been appointed to them severally to do without theknowledge of the Ethiopian, he bade them bring also some ashes for theirgift. This island none was able to find before Amyrtaios; that is, formore than seven hundred years the kings who arose before Amyrtaios werenot able to find it. Now the name of this island is Elbo, and its sizeis ten furlongs each way. 

After him there came to the throne the priest of Hephaistos, whose namewas Sethos. This man, they said, neglected and held in no regard thewarrior class of the Egyptians, considering that he would have no needof them; and besides other slights which he put upon them, he alsotook from them the yokes of corn-land which had been given to them asa special gift in the reigns of the former kings, twelve yokes to eachman. After this, Sanacharib king of the Arabians and of the Assyriansmarched a great host against Egypt. Then the warriors of the Egyptiansrefused to come to the rescue, and the priest, being driven into astrait, entered into the sanctuary of the temple and bewailed to theimage of the god the danger which was impending over him; and as he wasthus lamenting, sleep came upon him, and it seemed to him in his visionthat the god came and stood by him and encouraged him, saying that heshould suffer no evil if he went forth to meet the army of the Arabians;for he would himself send him helpers. Trusting in these things seenin sleep, he took with him, they said, those of the Egyptians who werewilling to follow him, and encamped in Pelusion, for by this way theinvasion came: and not one of the warrior class followed him, butshop-keepers and artisans and men of the market. Then after they came, there swarmed by night upon their enemies mice of the fields, and ate uptheir quivers and their bows, and moreover the handles of their shields, so that on the next day they fled, and being without defence of armsgreat numbers fell. And at the present time this king stands in thetemple of Hephaistos in stone, holding upon his hand a mouse, and byletters inscribed he says these words: "Let him who looks upon me learnto fear the gods. "

So far in the story the Egyptians and the priests were they who madethe report, declaring that from the first king down to this priest ofHephaistos who reigned last, there had been three hundred and forty-onegenerations of men, and that in them there had been the same number ofchief-priests and of kings: but three hundred generations of men areequal to ten thousand years, for a hundred years is three generationsof men; and in the one-and-forty generations which remain, those I meanwhich were added to the three hundred, there are one thousand threehundred and forty years. Thus in the period of eleven thousand threehundred and forty years they said that there had arisen no god in humanform; nor even before that time or afterwards among the remaining kingswho arise in Egypt, did they report that anything of that kind had cometo pass. In this time they said that the sun had moved four times fromhis accustomed place of rising, and where he now sets he had thencetwice had his rising, and in the place from whence he now rises he hadtwice had his setting; and in the meantime nothing in Egypt had beenchanged from its usual state, neither that which comes from the earthnor that which comes to them from the river nor that which concernsdiseases or deaths. And formerly when Hecataios the historian was inThebes, and had traced his descent and connected his family with a godin the sixteenth generation before, the priests of Zeus did for him muchthe same as they did for me (though I had not traced my descent). Theyled me into the sanctuary of the temple, which is of great size, andthey counted up the number, showing colossal wooden statues in numberthe same as they said; for each chief-priest there sets up in hislifetime an image of himself: accordingly the priests, counting andshowing me these, declared to me that each one of them was a sonsucceeding his own father, and they went up through the series of imagesfrom the image of the one who had died last, until they had declaredthis of the whole number. And when Hecataios had traced his descent andconnected his family with a god in the sixteenth generation, they traceda descent in opposition to his, besides their numbering, not acceptingit from him that a man had been born from a god; and they traced theircounter-descent thus, saying that each one of the statues had been_piromis_ son of _piromis_, until they had declared this of the wholethree hundred and forty-five statues, each one being surnamed _piromis_;and neither with a god nor a hero did they connect their descent. Now_piromis_ means in the tongue of Hellas "honourable and good man. " Fromtheir declaration then it followed, that they of whom the images werehad been of form like this, and far removed from being gods: but in thetime before these men they said that gods were the rulers in Egypt, notmingling with men, and that of these always one had power at a time;and the last of them who was king over Egypt was Oros the son of Osiris, whom the Hellenes call Apollo: he was king over Egypt last, havingdeposed Typhon. Now Osiris in the tongue of Hellas is Dionysos. 

Among the Hellenes Heracles and Dionysos and Pan are accounted thelastest-born of the gods; but with the Egyptians Pan is a very ancientgod, and he is one of those which are called eight gods, while Heraclesis of the second rank, who are called the twelve gods, and Dionysos isof the third rank, namely of those who were born of the twelve gods. Nowas to Heracles I have shown already how many years old he is accordingto the Egyptians themselves, reckoning down to the reign of Amasis, andPan is said to have existed for yet more years than these, and Dionysosfor the smallest number of years as compared with the others; and evenfor this last they reckon down to the reign of Amasis fifteen thousandyears. This the Egyptians say that they know for a certainty, since theyalways kept a reckoning and wrote down the years as they came. Now theDionysos who is said to have been born of Semele the daughter of Cadmos, was born about sixteen hundred years before my time, and Heracles whowas the son of Alcmene, about nine hundred years, and that Pan who wasborn of Penelope, for of her and of Hermes Pan is said by the Hellenesto have been born, came into being later than the wars of Troy, abouteight hundred years before my time. Of these two accounts every man mayadopt 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. Forif these also, like Heracles the son of Amphitryon, had appeared beforeall men's eyes and had lived their lives to old age in Hellas, I meanDionysos the son of Semele and Pan the son of Penelope, then one wouldhave said that these also had been born mere men, having the namesof those gods who had come into being long before: but as it is, withregard to Dionysos the Hellenes say that as soon as he was born Zeussewed him up in his thigh and carried him to Nysa, which is above Egyptin the land of Ethiopia; and as to Pan, they cannot say whither he wentafter he was born. Hence it has become clear to me that the Helleneslearnt the names of these gods later than those of the other gods, andtrace their descent as if their birth occurred at the time when theyfirst learnt their names. 

Thus far then the history is told by the Egyptians themselves; but Iwill now recount that which other nations also tell, and the Egyptiansin agreement with the others, of that which happened in this land: andthere will be added to this also something of that which I have myselfseen. 

Being set free after the reign of the priest of Hephaistos, theEgyptians, since they could not live any time without a king, set upover them twelve kings, having divided all Egypt into twelve parts. These made intermarriages with one another and reigned, making agreementthat they would not put down one another by force, nor seek to get anadvantage over one another, but would live in perfect friendship: andthe reason why they made these agreements, guarding them very stronglyfrom violation, was this, namely that an oracle had been given to themat first when they began to exercise their rule, that he of them whoshould pour a libation with a bronze cup in the temple of Hephaistos, should be king of all Egypt (for they used to assemble together in allthe temples). Moreover they resolved to join all together and leave amemorial of themselves; and having so resolved they caused to be madea labyrinth, situated a little above the lake of Moiris and nearlyopposite to that which is called the City of Crocodiles. This I sawmyself, and I found it greater than words can say. For if one shouldput together and reckon up all the buildings and all the great worksproduced by Hellenes, they would prove to be inferior in labour andexpense to this labyrinth, though it is true that both the temple atEphesos and that at Samos are works worthy of note. The pyramids alsowere greater than words can say, and each one of them is equal to manyworks of the Hellenes, great as they may be; but the labyrinth surpasseseven the pyramids. It has twelve courts covered in, with gates facingone another, six upon the North side and six upon the South, joining onone to another, and the same wall surrounds them all outside; and thereare in it two kinds of chambers, the one kind below the ground and theother above upon these, three thousand in number, of each kind fifteenhundred. The upper set of chambers we ourselves saw, going through them, and we tell of them having looked upon them with our own eyes; but thechambers under ground we heard about only; for the Egyptians who hadcharge of them were not willing on any account to show them, saying thathere were the sepulchres of the kings who had first built this labyrinthand of the sacred crocodiles. Accordingly we speak of the chambers belowby what we received from hearsay, while those above we saw ourselves andfound them to be works of more than human greatness. For the passagesthrough the chambers, and the goings this way and that way throughthe courts, which were admirably adorned, afforded endless matter formarvel, as we went through from a court to the chambers beyond it, andfrom the chambers to colonnades, and from the colonnades to other rooms, and then from the chambers again to other courts. Over the whole ofthese is a roof made of stone like the walls; and the walls are coveredwith figures carved upon them, each court being surrounded with pillarsof white stone fitted together most perfectly; and at the end of thelabyrinth, by the corner of it, there is a pyramid of forty fathoms, upon which large figures are carved, and to this there is a way madeunder ground. 

Such is this labyrinth: but a cause for marvel even greater than this isafforded by the lake, which is called the lake of Moiris, along the sideof which this labyrinth is built. The measure of its circuit is threethousand six hundred furlongs (being sixty _schoines_), and this is thesame number of furlongs as the extent of Egypt itself along the sea. Thelake lies extended lengthwise from North to South, and in depth where itis deepest it is fifty fathoms. That this lake is artificial and formedby digging is self-evident, for about in the middle of the lake standtwo pyramids, each rising above the water to a height of fifty fathoms, the part which is built below the water being of just the same height;and upon each is placed a colossal statue of stone sitting upon a chair. Thus the pyramids are a hundred fathoms high; and these hundred fathomsare equal to a furlong of six hundred feet, the fathom being measured assix feet or four cubits, the feet being four palms each, and the cubitssix. The water in the lake does not come from the place where it is, forthe country there is very deficient in water, but it has been broughtthither from the Nile by a canal; and for six months the water flowsinto the lake, and for six months out into the Nile again; and wheneverit flows out, then for the six months it brings into the royal treasurya talent of silver a day from the fish which are caught, and twentypounds when the water comes in. The natives of the place moreover saidthat this lake had an outlet under ground to the Syrtis which is inLibya, turning towards the interior of the continent upon the Westernside and running along by the mountain which is above Memphis. Now sinceI did not see anywhere existing the earth dug out of this excavation(for that was a matter which drew my attention), I asked those who dweltnearest to the lake where the earth was which had been dug out. Thesetold me to what place it had been carried away; and I readily believedthem, for I knew by report that a similar thing had been done atNineveh, the city of the Assyrians. There certain thieves formed adesign once to carry away the wealth of Sardanapallos son of Ninos, theking, which wealth was very great and was kept in treasure-houses underthe earth. Accordingly they began from their own dwelling, and makingestimate of their direction they dug under ground towards the king'spalace; and the earth which was brought out of the excavation they usedto carry away, when night came on, to the river Tigris which flows bythe city of Nineveh, until at last they accomplished that which theydesired. Similarly, as I heard, the digging of the lake in Egypt waseffected, except that it was done not by night but during the day; foras they dug the Egyptians carried to the Nile the earth which was dugout; and the river, when it received it, would naturally bear it awayand disperse it. Thus is this lake said to have been dug out. 

Now the twelve kings continued to rule justly, but in course of time ithappened thus:--After sacrifice in the temple of Hephaistos theywere about to make libation on the last day of the feast, and thechief-priest, in bringing out for them the golden cups with which theyhad been wont to pour libations, missed his reckoning and brought elevenonly for the twelve kings. Then that one of them who was standing lastin order, namely Psammetichos, since he had no cup took off from hishead his helmet, which was of bronze, and having held it out to receivethe wine he proceeded to make libation: likewise all the other kingswere wont to wear helmets and they happened to have them then. NowPsammetichos held out his helmet with no treacherous meaning; but theytaking note of that which had been done by Psammetichos and of theoracle, namely how it had been declared to them that whosoever of themshould make libation with a bronze cup should be sole king of Egypt, recollecting, I say, the saying of the Oracle, they did not indeed deemit right to slay Psammetichos, since they found by examination that hehad not done it with any forethought, but they determined to strip himof almost all his power and to drive him away into the fen-country, andthat from the fen-country he should not hold any dealings with therest of Egypt. This Psammetichos had formerly been a fugitive from theEthiopian Sabacos who had killed his father Necos, from him, I say, hehad then been a fugitive in Syria; and when the Ethiopian had departedin consequence of the vision of the dream, the Egyptians who were of thedistrict 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 timeon account of the helmet, being driven by the eleven kings into thefen-country. So then holding that he had been grievously wronged bythem, he thought how he might take vengeance on those who had drivenhim 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 tohim the reply that vengeance would come when men of bronze appeared fromthe sea. And he was strongly disposed not to believe that bronze menwould come to help him; but after no long time had passed, certainIonians and Carians who had sailed forth for plunder were compelled tocome to shore in Egypt, and they having landed and being clad in bronzearmour, came to the fen-land and brought a report to Psammetichos thatbronze 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 afriendly manner with the Ionians and Carians, and with large promises hepersuaded them to take his part. Then when he had persuaded them, withthe help of those Egyptians who favoured his cause and of these foreignmercenaries he overthrew the kings. Having thus got power over allEgypt, Psammetichos made for Hephaistos that gateway of the temple atMemphis which is turned towards the South Wind; and he built a court forApis, in which Apis is kept when he appears, opposite to the gateway ofthe temple, surrounded all with pillars and covered with figures; andinstead of columns there stand to support the roof of the court colossalstatues twelve cubits high. Now Apis is in the tongue of the HellenesEpaphos. To the Ionians and to the Carians who had helped himPsammetichos granted portions of land to dwell in, opposite toone another with the river Nile between, and these were called"Encampments"; these portions of land he gave them, and he paid thembesides all that he had promised: moreover he placed with them Egyptianboys to have them taught the Hellenic tongue; and from these, who learntthe language thoroughly, are descended the present class of interpretersin Egypt. Now the Ionians and Carians occupied these portions of landfor a long time, and they are towards the sea a little below the city ofBubastis, on that which is called the Pelusian mouth of the Nile. Thesemen king Amasis afterwards removed from thence and established them atMemphis, making them into a guard for himself against the Egyptians:and they being settled in Egypt, we who are Hellenes know by intercoursewith them the certainty of all that which happened in Egypt beginningfrom king Psammetichos and afterwards; for these were the first men offoreign tongue who settled in Egypt: and in the land from which theywere removed there still remained down to my time the sheds where theirships were drawn up and the ruins of their houses. 

Thus then Psammetichos obtained Egypt: and of the Oracle which is inEgypt I have made mention often before this, and now I give an accountof it, seeing that it is worthy to be described. This Oracle which is inEgypt is sacred to Leto, and it is established in a great city near thatmouth of the Nile which is called Sebennytic, as one sails up the riverfrom the sea; and the name of this city where the Oracle is found isButo, as I have said before in mentioning it. In this Buto there is atemple of Apollo and Artemis; and the temple-house of Leto, in which theOracle is, is both great in itself and has a gateway of the height often fathoms: but that which caused me most to marvel of the things to beseen there, I will now tell. There is in this sacred enclosure a houseof Leto made of one single stone upon the top, the cornice measuringfour cubits. This house then of all the things that were to be seen byme in that temple is the most marvellous, and among those which comenext is the island called Chemmis. This is situated in a deep and broadlake by the side of the temple at Buto, and it is said by the Egyptiansthat this island is a floating island. I myself did not see it eitherfloating about or moved from its place, and I feel surprise at hearingof it, wondering if it be indeed a floating island. In this island ofwhich I speak there is a great temple-house of Apollo, and three severalaltars are set up within, and there are planted in the island manypalm-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, beingone of the eight gods who came into existence first, and dwelling in thecity of Buto where she has this Oracle, received Apollo from Isis as acharge and preserved him, concealing him in the island which is said nowto be a floating island, at that time when Typhon came after him seekingeverywhere and desiring to find the son of Osiris. Now they say thatApollo and Artemis are children of Dionysos and of Isis, and that Letobecame their nurse and preserver; and in the Egyptian tongue Apollo isOros, Demeter is Isis, and Artemis is Bubastis. From this story and fromno other AEschylus the son of Euphorion took this which I shall say, wherein he differs from all the preceding poets; he represented namelythat Artemis was the daughter of Demeter. For this reason then, theysay, it became a floating island. 

Such is the story which they tell; but as for Psammetichos, he was kingover Egypt for four-and-fifty years, of which for thirty years save onehe was sitting before Azotos, a great city of Syria, besieging it, untilat last he took it: and this Azotos of all cities about which we haveknowledge held out for the longest time under a siege. 

The son of Psammetichos was Necos, and he became king of Egypt. This manwas the first who attempted the channel leading to the Erythraian Sea, which Dareios the Persian afterwards completed: the length of this isa voyage of four days, and in breadth it was so dug that two triremescould go side by side driven by oars; and the water is brought intoit from the Nile. The channel is conducted a little above the city ofBubastis by Patumos the Arabian city, and runs into the Erythraian Sea:and it is dug first along those parts of the plain of Egypt which lietowards Arabia, just above which run the mountains which extendopposite Memphis, where are the stone-quarries, --along the base of thesemountains the channel is conducted from West to East for a great way;and after that it is directed towards a break in the hills and tendsfrom these mountains towards the noon-day and the South Wind to theArabian gulf. Now in the place where the journey is least and shortestfrom the Northern to the Southern Sea (which is also called Erythraian), that is from Mount Casion, which is the boundary between Egypt andSyria, the distance is exactly a thousand furlongs to the Arabian gulf;but the channel is much longer, since it is more winding; and in thereign of Necos there perished while digging it twelve myriads of theEgyptians. Now Necos ceased in the midst of his digging, because theutterance of an Oracle impeded him, which was to the effect that he wasworking for the Barbarian: and the Egyptians call all men Barbarians whodo not agree with them in speech. Thus having ceased from the work ofthe channel, Necos betook himself to raging wars, and triremes werebuilt by him, some for the Northern Sea and others in the Arabian gulffor the Erythraian Sea; and of these the sheds are still to be seen. These ships he used when he needed them; and also on land Necos engagedbattle at Magdolos with the Syrians, and conquered them; and after thishe took Cadytis, which is a great city of Syria: and the dress which hewore when he made these conquests he dedicated to Apollo, sending it toBranchidai of the Milesians. After this, having reigned in all sixteenyears, he brought his life to an end, and handed on the kingdom toPsammis his son. 

While this Psammis was king of Egypt, there came to him men sent by theEleians, who boasted that they ordered the contest at Olympia in themost just and honourable manner possible and thought that not even theEgyptians, the wisest of men, could find out anything besides, to beadded to their rules. Now when the Eleians came to Egypt and said thatfor which they had come, then this king called together those of theEgyptians who were reputed the wisest, and when the Egyptians had cometogether they heard the Eleians tell of all that which it was their partto do in regard to the contest; and when they had related everything, they said that they had come to learn in addition anything which theEgyptians might be able to find out besides, which was juster than this. They then having consulted together asked the Eleians whether their owncitizens took part in the contest; and they said that it was permittedto any one who desired it, to take part in the contest: upon which theEgyptians said that in so ordering the games they had wholly missed themark of justice; for it could not be but that they would take part withthe man of their own State, if he was contending, and so act unfairlyto the stranger: but if they really desired, as they said, to orderthe games justly, and if this was the cause for which they had come toEgypt, they advised them to order the contest so as to be for strangersalone to contend in, and that no Eleian should be permitted to contend. Such was the suggestion made by the Egyptians to the Eleians. 

When Psammis had been king of Egypt for only six years and had made anexpedition to Ethiopia and immediately afterwards had ended his life, Apries the son of Psammis received the kingdom in succession. This mancame to be the most prosperous of all the kings up to that time exceptonly his forefather Psammetichos; and he reigned five-and-twenty years, during which he led an army against Sidon and fought a sea-fight withthe king of Tyre. Since however it was fated that evil should come uponhim it came by occasion of a matter which I shall relate at greaterlength in the Libyan history, and at present but shortly. Apries havingsent a great expedition against the Kyrenians, met with correspondinglygreat disaster; and the Egyptians considering him to blame for thisrevolted from him, supposing that Apries had with forethought sent themout to evident calamity, in order (as they said) that there might be aslaughter of them, and he might the more securely rule over the otherEgyptians. Being indignant at this, both these men who had returnedfrom the expedition and also the friends of those who had perished maderevolt openly. Hearing this Apries sent to them Amasis, to cause themto cease by persuasion; and when he had come and was seeking to restrainthe Egyptians, as he was speaking and telling them not to do so, one ofthe Egyptians stood up behind him and put a helmet upon his head, sayingas he did so that he put it on to crown him king. And to him thisthat was done was in some degree not unwelcome, as he proved by hisbehaviour; for as soon as the revolted Egyptians had set him up as king, he prepared to march against Apries: and Apries hearing this sent toAmasis one of the Egyptians who were about his own person, a man ofreputation, whose name was Patarbemis, enjoining him to bring Amasisalive into his presence. When this Patarbemis came and summoned Amasis, the latter, who happened to be sitting on horseback, lifted up his legand behaved in an unseemly manner, bidding him take that back to Apries. Nevertheless, they say, Patarbemis made demand of him that he shouldgo to the king, seeing that the king had sent to summon him; and heanswered him that he had for some time past been preparing to do so, andthat Apries would have no occasion to find fault with him, for hewould both come himself and bring others with him. Then Patarbemis bothperceiving his intention from that which he said, and also seeing hispreparations, departed in haste, desiring to make known as quickly aspossible to the king the things which were being done: and when he cameback to Apries not bringing Amasis, the king paying no regard to thatwhich he said, but being moved by violent anger, ordered his ears andhis nose to be cut off. And the rest of the Egyptians who still remainedon his side, when they saw the man of most repute among them thussuffering shameful outrage, waited no longer but joined the others inrevolt, and delivered themselves over to Amasis. Then Apries havingheard this also, armed his foreign mercenaries and marched against theEgyptians: now he had about him Carian and Ionian mercenaries to thenumber of thirty thousand; and his royal palace was in the city of Sais, of great size and worthy to be seen. So Apries and his army were goingagainst the Egyptians, and Amasis and those with him were going againstthe mercenaries; and both sides came to the city of Momemphis and wereabout to make trial of one another in fight. 

Now of the Egyptians there are seven classes, and of these one class iscalled that of the priests, and another that of the warriors, whilethe others are the cowherds, swineherds, shopkeepers, interpreters, andboatmen. This is the number of the classes of the Egyptians, and theirnames are given them from the occupations which they follow. Of them thewarriors are called Calasirians and Hermotybians, and they are of thefollowing districts, --for all Egypt is divided into districts. Thedistricts of the Hermotybians are those of Busiris, Sais, Chemmis, Papremis, the island called Prosopitis, and the half of Natho, --ofthese districts are the Hermotybians, who reached when most numerous thenumber of sixteen myriads. Of these not one has been learnt anything ofhandicraft, but they are given up to war entirely. Again the districtsof the Calasirians are those of Thebes, Bubastis, Aphthis, Tanis, Mendes, Sebennytos, Athribis, Pharbaithos, Thmuis, Onuphis, Anytis, Myecphoris, --this last is on an island opposite to the city of Bubastis. These are the districts of the Calasirians; and they reached, when mostnumerous, to the number of five-and-twenty myriads of men; nor is itlawful for these, any more than for the others, to practise any craft;but they practise that which has to do with war only, handing down thetradition from father to son. Now whether the Hellenes have learnt thisalso from the Egyptians, I am not able to say for certain, since Isee that the Thracians also and Scythians and Persians and Lydians andalmost all the Barbarians esteem those of their citizens who learn thearts, and the descendants of them, as less honourable than the rest;while those who have got free from all practice of manual arts areaccounted noble, and especially those who are devoted to war: howeverthat may be, the Hellenes have all learnt this, and especially theLacedemonians; but the Corinthians least of all cast slight upon thosewho practise handicraft. 

The following privilege was specially granted to this class and to noneothers of the Egyptians except the priests, that is to say, each man hadtwelve yokes of land specially granted to him free from imposts: nowthe yoke of land measures a hundred Egyptian cubits every way, and theEgyptian cubit is, as it happens, equal to that of Samos. This, Isay, was a special privilege granted to all, and they also had certainadvantages in turn and not the same men twice; that is to say, athousand of the Calasirians and a thousand of the Hermotybians actedas body-guard to the king during each year; and these had besides theiryokes of land an allowance given them for each day of five pounds weightof bread to each man, and two pounds of beef, and four half-pints ofwine. This was the allowance given to those who were serving as theking's body-guard for the time being. 

So when Apries leading his foreign mercenaries, and Amasis at the headof the whole body of the Egyptians, in their approach to one another hadcome to the city of Momemphis, they engaged in battle: and although theforeign troops fought well, yet being much inferior in number they wereworsted by reason of this. But Apries is said to have supposed that noteven a god would be able to cause him to cease from his rule, so firmlydid he think that it was established. In that battle then, I say, he wasworsted, and being taken alive was brought away to the city of Sais, tothat which had formerly been his own dwelling but from thenceforth wasthe palace of Amasis. There for some time he was kept in the palace, andAmasis dealt well with him but at last, since the Egyptians blamedhim, saying that he acted not rightly in keeping alive him who wasthe greatest foe both to themselves and to him, therefore he deliveredApries over to the Egyptians; and they strangled him, and after thatburied him in the burial-place of his fathers: this is in the temple ofAthene, close to the sanctuary, on the left hand as you enter. Now themen of Sais buried all those of this district who had been kings, withinthe temple; for the tomb of Amasis also, though it is further fromthe sanctuary than that of Apries and his forefathers, yet this too iswithin the court of the temple, and it consists of a colonnade of stoneof great size, with pillars carved to imitate date-palms, and otherwisesumptuously adorned; and within the colonnade are double doors, andinside the doors a sepulchral chamber. Also at Sais there is theburial-place of him whom I account it not pious to name in connexionwith such a matter, which is in the temple of Athene behind the houseof the goddess, stretching along the whole wall of it; and in the sacredenclosure stand great obelisks of stone, and near them is a lake adornedwith an edging of stone and fairly made in a circle, being in size, as it seemed to me, equal to that which is called the "Round Pool" inDelos. On this lake they perform by night the show of his sufferings, and this the Egyptians call Mysteries. Of these things I know more fullyin detail how they take place, but I shall leave this unspoken; and ofthe mystic rites of Demeter, which the Hellenes call _thesmophoria_, ofthese also, although I know, I shall leave unspoken all except so muchas piety permits me to tell. The daughters of Danaos were they whobrought this rite out of Egypt and taught it to the women of thePelasgians; then afterwards when all the inhabitants of Peloponnese weredriven out by the Dorians, the rite was lost, and only those who wereleft behind of the Peloponnesians and not driven out, that is to say theArcadians, preserved it. 

Apries having thus been overthrown, Amasis became king, being of thedistrict of Sais, and the name of the city whence he was is Siuph. Nowat the first the Egyptians despised Amasis and held him in nogreat regard, because he had been a man of the people and was of nodistinguished family; but afterwards Amasis won them over to himself bywisdom and not wilfulness. Among innumerable other things of price whichhe had, there was a foot-basin of gold in which both Amasis himself andall 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 thecity, where it was most convenient; and the Egyptians went continuallyto visit the image and did great reverence to it. Then Amasis, havinglearnt that which was done by the men of the city, called together theEgyptians and made known to them the matter, saying that the image hadbeen produced from the foot-basin, into which formerly the Egyptiansused 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 hewas a man of the people, yet now he was their king, and he bade themaccordingly honour him and have regard for him. In such manner he wonthe Egyptians to himself, so that they consented to be his subjects; andhis ordering of affairs was this:--In the early morning, and until thetime of the filling of the market he did with a good will the businesswhich was brought before him; but after this he passed the time indrinking and in jesting at his boon-companions, and was frivolous andplayful. And his friends being troubled at it admonished him in somesuch words as these: "O king, thou dost not rightly govern thyself inthus letting thyself descend to behaviour so trifling; for thou oughtestrather to have been sitting throughout the day stately upon a statelythrone and administering thy business; and so the Egyptians would havebeen assured that they were ruled by a great man, and thou wouldesthave had a better report: but as it is, thou art acting by no means in akingly fashion. " And he answered them thus: "They who have bows stretchthem at such time as they wish to use them, and when they have finishedusing them they loose them again; for if they were stretched tightalways they would break, so that the men would not be able to use themwhen they needed them. So also is the state of man: if he should alwaysbe in earnest and not relax himself for sport at the due time, he wouldeither go mad or be struck with stupor before he was aware; and knowingthis well, I distribute a portion of the time to each of the two ways ofliving. " 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 ofjesting, and not at all seriously disposed; and whenever his means oflivelihood failed him through his drinking and luxurious living, hewould go about and steal; and they from whom he stole would charge himwith having their property, and when he denied it would bring him beforethe judgment of an Oracle, whenever there was one in their place;and many times he was convicted by the Oracles and many times he wasabsolved: and then when finally he became king he did as follows:--asmany of the gods as had absolved him and pronounced him not to be athief, to their temples he paid no regard, nor gave anything for thefurther adornment of them, nor even visited them to offer sacrifice, considering them to be worth nothing and to possess lying Oracles; butas many as had convicted him of being a thief, to these he paid verygreat regard, considering them to be truly gods, and to present Oracleswhich did not lie. First in Sais he built and completed for Athene atemple-gateway which is a great marvel, and he far surpassed herein allwho had done the like before, both in regard to height and greatness, so large are the stones and of such quality. Then secondly he dedicatedgreat colossal statues and man-headed sphinxes very large, and forrestoration he caused to be brought from the stone-quarries whichare opposite Memphis, others of very great size from the city ofElephantine, distant a voyage of not less than twenty days from Sais:and of them all I marvel most at this, namely a monolith chamber whichhe brought from the city of Elephantine; and they were three yearsengaged in bringing this, and two thousand men were appointed to conveyit, who all were of the class of boatmen. Of this house the lengthoutside is one-and-twenty cubits, the breadth is fourteen cubits, andthe height eight. These are the measures of the monolith house outside;but the length inside is eighteen cubits and five-sixths of a cubit, thebreadth twelve cubits, and the height five cubits. This lies by the sideof the entrance to the temple; for within the temple they did not drawit, because, as it is said, while the house was being drawn along, thechief artificer of it groaned aloud, seeing that much time had beenspent and he was wearied by the work; and Amasis took it to heart as awarning and did not allow them to draw it further onwards. Some say onthe other hand that a man was killed by it, of those who were heaving itwith levers, and that it was not drawn in for that reason. Amasis alsodedicated in all the other temples which were of repute, works which areworth seeing for their size, and among them also at Memphis the colossalstatue 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 thesame 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. Thereis also another of stone of the same size in Sais, lying in the samemanner as that at Memphis. Moreover Amasis was he who built and finishedfor Isis her temple at Memphis, which is of great size and very worthyto be seen. 

In the reign of Amasis it is said that Egypt became more prosperous thanat any other time before, both in regard to that which comes to the landfrom the river and in regard to that which comes from the land to itsinhabitants, and that at this time the inhabited towns in it numberedin all twenty thousand. It was Amasis too who established the law thatevery year each one of the Egyptians should declare to the ruler of hisdistrict, from what source he got his livelihood, and if any man didnot do this or did not make declaration of an honest way of living, he should be punished with death. Now Solon the Athenian received fromEgypt this law and had it enacted for the Athenians, and they havecontinued to observe it, since it is a law with which none can findfault. 

Moreover Amasis became a lover of the Hellenes; and besides other proofsof friendship which he gave to several among them, he also granted thecity of Naucratis for those of them who came to Egypt to dwell in; andto those who did not desire to stay, but who made voyages thither, hegranted portions of land to set up altars and make sacred enclosures fortheir gods. Their greatest enclosure and that one which has most nameand is most frequented is called the Hellenion, and this was establishedby 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 thisenclosure and these are the cities which appoint superintendents of theport; and all other cities which claim a share in it, are making a claimwithout any right. Besides this the Eginetans established on their ownaccount a sacred enclosure dedicated to Zeus, the Samians one to Hera, and the Milesians one to Apollo. Now in old times Naucratis alone was anopen trading-place, and no other place in Egypt: and if any one came toany other of the Nile mouths, he was compelled to swear that he came notthither of his own free will, and when he had thus sworn his innocencehe had to sail with his ship to the Canobic mouth, or if it were notpossible to sail by reason of contrary winds, then he had to carry hiscargo round the head of the Delta in boats to Naucratis: thus highlywas Naucratis privileged. Moreover when the Amphictyons had let out thecontract for building the temple which now exists at Delphi, agreeing topay a sum of three hundred talents (for the temple which formerly stoodthere had been burnt down of itself), it fell to the share of the peopleof Delphi to provide the fourth part of the payment; and accordingly theDelphians went about to various cities and collected contributions. Andwhen they did this they got from Egypt as much as from any place, forAmasis gave them a thousand talents' weight of alum, while the Helleneswho dwelt in Egypt gave them twenty pounds of silver. 

Also with the people of Kyrene Amasis made an agreement for friendshipand alliance; and he resolved too to marry a wife from thence, whetherbecause 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, andothers of Critobulos, a man of repute among the citizens; and her namewas Ladike. Now whenever Amasis lay with her he found himself unable tohave intercourse, but with his other wives he associated as he was wont;and as this happened repeatedly, Amasis said to his wife, whose name wasLadike: "Woman, thou hast given me drugs, and thou shall surely perishmore miserably than any other. " Then Ladike, when by her denials Amasiswas not at all appeased in his anger against her, made a vow in hersoul to Aphrodite, that if Amasis on that night had intercourse withher (seeing that this was the remedy for her danger), she would send animage to be dedicated to her at Kyrene; and after the vow immediatelyAmasis had intercourse, and from thenceforth whenever Amasis came in toher he had intercourse with her; and after this he became very greatlyattached to her. And Ladike paid the vow that she had made to thegoddess; for she had an image made and sent it to Kyrene, and it isstill preserved even to my own time, standing with its face turned awayfrom the city of the Kyrenians. This Ladike Cambyses, having conqueredEgypt and heard from her who she was, sent back unharmed to Kyrene. 

Amasis also dedicated offerings in Hellas, first at Kyrene an imageof Athene covered over with gold and a figure of himself made like bypainting; then in the temple of Athene at Lindos two images of stoneand a corslet of linen worthy to be seen; and also at Samos two woodenfigures of himself dedicated to Hera, which were standing even to my owntime in the great temple, behind the doors. Now at Samos he dedicatedofferings because of the guest-friendship between himself and Polycratesthe son of Aiakes; at Lindos for no guest-friendship but because thetemple of Athene at Lindos is said to have been founded by the daughtersof Danaos, who had touched land there at the time when they were fleeingfrom the sons of Aigyptos. These offerings were dedicated by Amasis; andhe was the first of men who conquered Cyprus and subdued it so that itpaid him tribute.