Herodotus
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
HERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus,
on the
southwest coast of Asia Minor, in the
early
part of the fifth century, B. C. Of
his life
we know almost nothing, except that
he spent
much of it traveling, to collect the
material
for his writings, and that he finally
settled
down at Thurii, in southern Italy,
where
his great work was composed. He died
in
424 B. C.
The subject of the history of Herodotus
is
the struggle between the Greeks and
the barbarians,
which he brings down to the battle
of Mycale
in 479 B. C. The work, as we have it,
is
divided into nine books, named after
the
nine Muses, but this division is probably
due to the Alexandrine grammarians.
His information
he gathered mainly from oral sources,
as
he traveled through Asia Minor, down
into
Egypt, round the Black Sea, and into
various
parts of Greece and the neighboring
countries.
The chronological narrative halts from
time
to time to give opportunity for descriptions
of the country, the people, and their
customs
and previous history; and the political
account
is constantly varied by rare tales
and wonders.
Among these descriptions of countries
the
most fascinating to the modern, as
it was
to the ancient, reader is his account
of
the marvels of the land of Egypt. From
the
priests at Memphis, Heliopolis, and
the Egyptian
Thebes he learned what he reports of
the
size of the country, the wonders of
the Nile,
the ceremonies of their religion, the
sacredness
of their animals. He tells also of
the strange
ways of the crocodile and of that marvelous
bird, the Phoenix; of dress and funerals
and embalming; of the eating of lotos
and
papyrus; of the pyramids and the great
labyrinth;
of their kings and queens and courtesans.
Yet Herodotus is not a mere teller
of strange
tales. However credulous he may appear
to
a modern judgment, he takes care to
keep
separate what he knows by his own observation
from what he has merely inferred and
from
what he has been told. He is candid
about
acknowledging ignorance, and when versions
differ he gives both. Thus the modern
scientific
historian, with other means of corroboration,
can sometimes learn from Herodotus
more than
Herodotus himself knew.
There is abundant evidence, too, that
Herodotus
had a philosophy of history. The unity
which
marks his work is due not only to the
strong
Greek national feeling running through
it,
the feeling that rises to a height
in such
passages as the descriptions of the
battles
of Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis,
but
also to his profound belief in Fate
and in
Nemesis. To his belief in Fate is due
the
frequent quoting of oracles and their
fulfilment,
the frequent references to things foreordained
by Providence. The working of Nemesis
he
finds in the disasters that befall
men and
nations whose towering prosperity awakens
the jealousy of the gods. The final
overthrow
of the Persians, which forms his main
theme,
is only one specially conspicuous example
of the operation of this force from
which
human life can never free itself.
But, above all, he is the father of
story-tellers.
"Herodotus is such simple and
delightful
reading," says Jevons; "he
is so
unaffected and entertaining, his story
flows
so naturally and with such ease that
we have
a difficulty in bearing in mind that,
over
and above the hard writing which goes
to
make easy reading there is a perpetual
marvel
in the work of Herodotus. It is the
first
artistic work in prose that Greek literature
produced. This prose work, which for
pure
literary merit no subsequent work has
surpassed,
than which later generations, after
using
the pen for centuries, have produced
no prose
more easy or more readable, this was
the
first of histories and of literary
prose."
AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT
BY HERODOTUS
BEING THE SECOND BOOK OF HIS HISTORIES
CALLED EUTERPE
When Cyrus had brought his life to
an end,
Cambyses received the royal power in
succession,
being the son of Cyrus and of Cassandane
the daughter of Pharnaspes, for whose
death,
which came about before his own, Cyrus
had
made great mourning himself and also
had
proclaimed to all those over whom he
bore
rule that they should make mourning
for her:
Cambyses, I say, being the son of this
woman
and of Cyrus, regarded the Ionians
and Aiolians
as slaves inherited from his father;
and
he proceeded to march an army against
Egypt,
taking with him as helpers not only
other
nations of which he was ruler, but
also those
of the Hellenes over whom he had power
besides.
Now the Egyptians, before the time
when Psammetichos
became king over them, were wont to
suppose
that they had come into being first
of all
men; but since the time when Psammetichos
having become king desired to know
what men
had come into being first, they suppose
that
the Phrygians came into being before
themselves,
but they themselves before all other
men.
Now Psammetichos, when he was not able
by
inquiry to find out any means of knowing
who had come into being first of all
men,
contrived a device of the following
kind:--Taking
two new- born children belonging to
persons
of the common sort he gave them to
a shepherd
to bring up at the place where his
flocks
were, with a manner of bringing up
such as
I shall say, charging him namely that
no
man should utter any word in their
presence,
and that they should be placed by themselves
in a room where none might come, and
at the
proper time he should bring them she-goats,
and when he had satisfied them with
milk
he should do for them whatever else
was needed.
These things Psammetichos did and gave
him
this charge wishing to hear what word
the
children would let break forth first
after
they had ceased from wailings without
sense.
And accordingly it came to pass; for
after
a space of two years had gone by, during
which the shepherd went on acting so,
at
length, when he opened the door and
entered,
both children fell before him in entreaty
and uttered the word /bekos/, stretching
forth their hands. At first when he
heard
this the shepherd kept silence; but
since
this word was often repeated, as he
visited
them constantly and attended to them,
at
last he declared the matter to his
master,
and at his command he brought the children
before his face. Then Psammetichos
having
himself also heard it, began to inquire
what
nation of men named anything /bekos/,
and
inquiring he found that the Phrygians
had
this name for bread. In this manner
and guided
by an indication such as this, the
Egyptians
were brought to allow that the Phrygians
were a more ancient people than themselves.
That so it came to pass I heard from
the
priests of that Hephaistos who dwells
at
Memphis; but the Hellenes relate, besides
many other idle tales, that Psammetichos
cut out the tongues of certain women
and
then caused the children to live with
these
women.
With regard then to the rearing of
the children
they related so much as I have said:
and
I heard also other things at Memphis
when
I had speech with the priests of Hephaistos.
Moreover I visited both Thebes and
Heliopolis
for this very cause, namely because
I wished
to know whether the priests at these
places
would agree in their accounts with
those
at Memphis; for the men of Heliopolis
are
said to be the most learned in records
of
the Egyptians. Those of their narrations
which I heard with regard to the gods
I am
not earnest to relate in full, but
I shall
name them only because I consider that
all
men are equally ignorant of these matters:
and whatever things of them I may record
I shall record only because I am compelled
by the course of the story. But as
to those
matters which concern men, the priests
agreed
with one another in saying that the
Egyptians
were the first of all men on earth
to find
out the course of the year, having
divided
the seasons into twelve parts to make
up
the whole; and this they said they
found
out from the stars: and they reckon
to this
extent more wisely than the Hellenes,
as
it seems to me, inasmuch as the Hellenes
throw in an intercalated month every
other
year, to make the seasons right, whereas
the Egyptians, reckoning the twelve
months
at thirty days each, bring in also
every
year five days beyond number, and thus
the
circle of their season is completed
and comes
round to the same point whence it set
out.
They said moreover that the Egyptians
were
the first who brought into use appellations
for the twelve gods and the Hellenes
took
up the use from them; and that they
were
the first who assigned altars and images
and temples to the gods, and who engraved
figures on stones; and with regard
to the
greater number of these things they
showed
me by actual facts that they had happened
so. They said also that the first man
who
became king of Egypt was Min; and that
in
his time all Egypt except the district
of
Thebes was a swamp, and none of the
regions
were then above water which now lie
below
the lake of Moiris, to which lake it
is a
voyage of seven days up the river from
the
sea: and I thought that they said well
about
the land; for it is manifest in truth
even
to a person who has not heard it beforehand
but has only seen, at least if he have
understanding,
that the Egypt to which the Hellenes
come
in ships is a land which has been won
by
the Egyptians as an addition, and that
it
is a gift of the river: moreover the
regions
which lie above this lake also for
a distance
of three days' sail, about which they
did
not go on to say anything of this kind,
are
nevertheless another instance of the
same
thing: for the nature of the land of
Egypt
is as follows:--First when you are
still
approaching it in a ship and are distant
a day's run from the land, if you let
down
a sounding-line you will bring up mud
and
you will find yourself in eleven fathoms.
This then so far shows that there is
a silting
forward of the land. Then secondly,
as to
Egypt itself, the extent of it along
the
sea is sixty /schoines/, according
to our
definition of Egypt as extending from
the
Gulf of Plinthine to the Serbonian
lake,
along which stretches Mount Casion;
from
this lake then the sixty /schoines/
are reckoned:
for those of men who are poor in land
have
their country measured by fathoms,
those
who are less poor by furlongs, those
who
have much land by parasangs, and those
who
have land in very great abundance by
/schoines/:
now the parasang is equal to thirty
furlongs,
and each /schoine/, which is an Egyptian
measure, is equal to sixty furlongs.
So there
would be an extent of three thousand
six
hundred furlongs for the coast-land
of Egypt.
From thence and as far as Heliopolis
inland
Egypt is broad, and the land is all
flat
and without springs of water and formed
of
mud: and the road as one goes inland
from
the sea to Heliopolis is about the
same in
length as that which leads from the
altar
of the twelve gods at Athens to Pisa
and
the temple of Olympian Zeus: reckoning
up
you would find the difference very
small
by which these roads fail of being
equal
in length, not more indeed than fifteen
furlongs;
for the road from Athens to Pisa wants
fifteen
furlongs of being fifteen hundred,
while
the road to Heliopolis from the sea
reaches
that number completely. From Heliopolis
however,
as you go up, Egypt is narrow; for
on the
one side a mountain-range belonging
to Arabia
stretches along by the side of it,
going
in a direction from the North towards
the
midday and the South Wind, tending
upwards
without a break to that which is called
the
Erythraian Sea, in which range are
the stone-
quarries which were used in cutting
stone
for the pyramids at Memphis. On this
side
then the mountain ends where I have
said,
and then takes a turn back; and where
it
is widest, as I was informed, it is
a journey
of two months across from East to West;
and
the borders of it which turn towards
the
East are said to produce frankincense.
Such
then is the nature of this mountain-range;
and on the side of Egypt towards Libya
another
range extends, rocky and enveloped
in sand:
in this are the pyramids, and it runs
in
the same direction as those parts of
the
Arabian mountains which go towards
the midday.
So then, I say, from Heliopolis the
land
has no longer a great extent so far
as it
belongs to Egypt, and for about four
days'
sail up the river Egypt properly so
called
is narrow: and the space between the
mountain-
ranges which have been mentioned is
plain-land,
but where it is narrowest it did not
seem
to me to exceed two hundred furlongs
from
the Arabian mountains to those which
are
called the Libyan. After this again
Egypt
is broad. Such is the nature of this
land:
and from Heliopolis to Thebes is a
voyage
up the river of nine days, and the
distance
of the journey in furlongs is four
thousand
eight hundred and sixty, the number
of /schoines/
being eighty-one. If these measures
of Egypt
in furlongs be put together, the result
is
as follows:--I have already before
this shown
that the distance along the sea amounts
to
three thousand six hundred furlongs,
and
I will now declare what the distance
is inland
from the sea to Thebes, namely six
thousand
one hundred and twenty furlongs: and
again
the distance from Thebes to the city
called
Elephantine is one thousand eight hundred
furlongs.
Of this land then, concerning which
I have
spoken, it seemed to myself also, according
as the priests said, that the greater
part
had been won as an addition by the
Egyptians;
for it was evident to me that the space
between
the aforesaid mountain-ranges, which
lie
above the city of Memphis, once was
a gulf
of the sea, like the regions about
Ilion
and Teuthrania and Ephesos and the
plain
of the Maiander, if it be permitted
to compare
small things with great; and small
these
are in comparison, for of the rivers
which
heaped up the soil in those regions
none
is worthy to be compared in volume
with a
single one of the mouths of the Nile,
which
has five mouths. Moreover there are
other
rivers also, not in size at all equal
to
the Nile, which have performed great
feats;
of which I can mention the names of
several,
and especially the Acheloos, which
flowing
through Acarnania and so issuing out
into
the sea has already made half of the
Echinades
from islands into mainland. Now there
is
in the land of Arabia, not far from
Egypt,
a gulf of the sea running in from that
which
is called the Erythraian Sea, very
long and
narrow, as I am about to tell. With
respect
to the length of the voyage along it,
one
who set out from the innermost point
to sail
out through it into the open sea, would
spend
forty days upon the voyage, using oars;
and
with respect to breadth, where the
gulf is
broadest it is half a day's sail across:
and there is in it an ebb and flow
of tide
every day. Just such another gulf I
suppose
that Egypt was, and that the one ran
in towards
Ethiopia from the Northern Sea, and
the other,
the Arabian, of which I am about to
speak,
tended from the South towards Syria,
the
gulfs boring in so as almost to meet
at their
extreme points, and passing by one
another
with but a small space left between.
If then
the stream of the Nile should turn
aside
into this Arabian gulf, what would
hinder
that gulf from being filled up with
silt
as the river continued to flow, at
all events
within a period of twenty thousand
years?
indeed for my part I am of the opinion
that
it would be filled up even within ten
thousand
years. How, then, in all the time that
has
elapsed before I came into being should
not
a gulf be filled up even of much greater
size than this by a river so great
and so
active? As regards Egypt then, I both
believe
those who say that things are so, and
for
myself also I am strongly of opinion
that
they are so; because I have observed
that
Egypt runs out into the sea further
than
the adjoining land, and that shells
are found
upon the mountains of it, and an efflorescence
of salt forms upon the surface, so
that even
the pyramids are being eaten away by
it,
and moreover that of all the mountains
of
Egypt, the range which lies above Memphis
is the only one which has sand: besides
which
I notice that Egypt resembles neither
the
land of Arabia, which borders upon
it, nor
Libya, nor yet Syria (for they are
Syrians
who dwell in the parts of Arabia lying
along
the sea), but that it has soil which
is black
and easily breaks up, seeing that it
is in
truth mud and silt brought down from
Ethiopia
by the river: but the soil of Libya,
we know,
is reddish in colour and rather sandy,
while
that of Arabia and Syria is somewhat
clayey
and rocky. The priests also gave me
a strong
proof concerning this land as follows,
namely
that in the reign of king Moiris, whenever
the river reached a height of at least
eight
cubits it watered Egypt below Memphis;
and
not yet nine hundred years had gone
by since
the death of Moiris, when I heard these
things
from the priests: now however, unless
the
river rises to sixteen cubits, or fifteen
at the least, it does not go over the
land.
I think too that those Egyptians who
dwell
below the lake of Moiris and especially
in
that region which is called the Delta,
if
that land continues to grow in height
according
to this proportion and to increase
similarly
in extent, will suffer for all remaining
time, from the Nile not overflowing
their
land, that same thing which they themselves
said that the Hellenes would at some
time
suffer: for hearing that the whole
land of
the Hellenes has rain and is not watered
by rivers as theirs is, they said that
the
Hellenes would at some time be disappointed
of a great hope and would suffer the
ills
of famine. This saying means that if
the
god shall not send them rain, but shall
allow
drought to prevail for a long time,
the Hellenes
will be destroyed by hunger; for they
have
in fact no other supply of water to
save
them except from Zeus alone. This has
been
rightly said by the Egyptians with
reference
to the Hellenes: but now let me tell
how
matters are with the Egyptians themselves
in their turn. If, in accordance with
what
I before said, their land below Memphis
(for
this is that which is increasing) shall
continue
to increase in height according to
the same
proportion as in the past time, assuredly
those Egyptians who dwell here will
suffer
famine, if their land shall not have
rain
nor the river be able to go over their
fields.
It is certain however that now they
gather
in fruit from the earth with less labour
than any other men and also with less
than
the other Egyptians; for they have
no labour
in breaking up furrows with a plough
nor
in hoeing nor in any other of those
labours
which other men have about a crop;
but when
the river has come up of itself and
watered
their fields and after watering has
left
them again, then each man sows his
own field
and turns into it swine, and when he
has
trodden the seed into the ground by
means
of the swine, after that he waits for
the
harvest, and when he has threshed the
corn
by means of the swine, then he gathers
it
in.
If we desire to follow the opinions
of the
Ionians as regards Egypt, who say that
the
Delta alone is Egypt, reckoning its
sea-coast
to be from the watch-tower called of
Perseus
to the fish-curing houses of Pelusion,
a
distance of forty /schoines/, and counting
it to extend inland as far as the city
of
Kercasoros, where the Nile divides
and runs
to Pelusion and Canobos, while as for
the
rest of Egypt, they assign it partly
to Libya
and partly to Arabia,--if, I say, we
should
follow this account, we should thereby
declare
that in former times the Egyptians
had no
land to live in; for, as we have seen,
their
Delta at any rate is alluvial, and
has appeared
(so to speak) lately, as the Egyptians
themselves
say and as my opinion is. If then at
the
first there was no land for them to
live
in, why did they waste their labour
to prove
that they had come into being before
all
other men? They needed not to have
made trial
of the children to see what language
they
would first utter. However I am not
of the
opinion that the Egyptians came into
being
at the same time as that which is called
by the Ionians the Delta, but that
they existed
always ever since the human race came
into
being, and that as their land advanced
forwards,
many of them were left in their first
abodes
and many came down gradually to the
lower
parts. At least it is certain that
in old
times Thebes had the name of Egypt,
and of
this the circumference measures six
thousand
one hundred and twenty furlongs.
If then we judge aright of these matters,
the opinion of the Ionians about Egypt
is
not sound: but if the judgment of the
Ionians
is right, I declare that neither the
Hellenes
nor the Ionians themselves know how
to reckon
since they say that the whole earth
is made
up of three divisions, Europe, Asia,
and
Libya: for they ought to count in addition
to these the Delta of Egypt, since
it belongs
neither to Asia nor to Libya; for at
least
it cannot be the river Nile by this
reckoning
which divides Asia from Libya, but
the Nile
is cleft at the point of this Delta
so as
to flow round it, and the result is
that
this land would come between Asia and
Libya.
We dismiss then our opinion of the
Ionians,
and express a judgment of our own on
this
matter also, that Egypt is all that
land
which is inhabited by Egyptians, just
as
Kilikia is that which is inhabited
by Kilikians
and Assyria that which is inhabited
by Assyrians,
and we know of no boundary properly
speaking
between Asia and Libya except the borders
of Egypt. If however we shall adopt
the opinion
which is commonly held by the Hellenes,
we
shall suppose that the whole of Egypt,
beginning
from the Cataract and the city of Elephantine,
is divided into two parts and that
it thus
partakes of both the names, since one
side
will thus belong to Libya and the other
to
Asia; for the Nile from the Cataract
onwards
flows to the sea cutting Egypt through
in
the midst; and as far as the city of
Kercasoros
the Nile flows in one single stream,
but
from this city onwards it is parted
into
three ways; and one, which is called
the
Pelusian mouth, turns towards the East;
the
second of the ways goes towards the
West,
and this is called the Canobic mouth;
but
that one of the ways which is straight
runs
thus,--when the river in its course
downwards
comes to the point of the Delta, then
it
cuts the Delta through the midst and
so issues
out to the sea. In this we have a portion
of the water of the river which is
not the
smallest nor the least famous, and
it is
called the Sebennytic mouth. There
are also
two other mouths which part off from
the
Sebennytic and go to the sea, and these
are
called, one the Saitic, the other the
Mendesian
mouth. The Bolbitinitic, and Bucolic
mouths,
on the other hand, are not natural
but made
by digging. Moreover also the answer
given
by the Oracle of Ammon bears witness
in support
of my opinion that Egypt is of the
extent
which I declare it to be in my account;
and
of this answer I heard after I had
formed
my own opinion about Egypt. For those
of
the city of Marea and of Apis, dwelling
in
the parts of Egypt which border on
Libya,
being of opinion themselves that they
were
Libyans and not Egyptians, and also
being
burdened by the rules of religious
service,
because they desired not to be debarred
from
the use of cows' flesh, sent to Ammon
saying
that they had nought in common with
the Egyptians,
for they dwelt outside the Delta and
agreed
with them in nothing; and they said
they
desired that it might be lawful for
them
to eat everything without distinction.
The
god however did not permit them to
do so,
but said that that land was Egypt where
the
Nile came over and watered, and that
those
were Egyptians who dwelling below the
city
of Elephantine drank of that river.
Thus
was it answered to them by the Oracle
about
this: and the Nile, when it is in flood,
goes over not only the Delta but also
of
the land which is called Libyan and
of that
which is called Arabian sometimes as
much
as two days' journey on each side,
and at
times even more than this or at times
less.
As regards the nature of the river,
neither
from the priests nor yet from any other
man
was I able to obtain any knowledge:
and I
was desirous especially to learn from
them
about these matters, namely why the
Nile
comes down increasing in volume from
the
summer solstice onwards for a hundred
days,
and then, when it has reached the number
of these days, turns and goes back,
failing
in its stream, so that through the
whole
winter season it continues to be low,
and
until the summer solstice returns.
Of none
of these things was I able to receive
any
account from the Egyptians, when I
inquired
of them what power the Nile has whereby
it
is of a nature opposite to that of
all other
rivers. And I made inquiry, desiring
to know
both this which I say and also why,
unlike
all other rivers, it does not give
rise to
any breezes blowing from it. However
some
of the Hellenes who desired to gain
distinction
for cleverness have given an account
of this
water in three different ways: two
of these
I do not think it worth while even
to speak
of except only to indicate their nature;
of which the one says that the Etesian
Winds
are the cause that makes the river
rise,
by preventing the Nile from flowing
out into
the sea. But often the Etesian Winds
fail
and yet the Nile does the same work
as it
is wont to do; and moreover, if these
were
the cause, all the other rivers also
which
flow in a direction opposed to the
Etesian
Winds ought to have been affected in
the
same way as the Nile, and even more,
in as
much as they are smaller and present
to them
a feebler flow of streams: but there
are
many of these rivers in Syria and many
also
in Libya, and they are affected in
no such
manner as the Nile. The second way
shows
more ignorance than that which has
been mentioned,
and it is more marvellous to tell;
for it
says that the river produces these
effects
because it flows from the Ocean, and
that
the Ocean flows round the whole earth.
The
third of the ways is much the most
specious,
but nevertheless it is the most mistaken
of all: for indeed this way has no
more truth
in it than the rest, alleging as it
does
that the Nile flows from melting snow;
whereas
it flows out of Libya through the midst
of
the Ethiopians, and so comes out into
Egypt.
How then should it flow from snow,
when it
flows from the hottest parts to those
which
are cooler? And indeed most of the
facts
are such as to convince a man (one
at least
who is capable of reasoning about such
matters),
that it is not at all likely that it
flows
from snow. The first and greatest evidence
is afforded by the winds, which blow
hot
from these regions; the second is that
the
land is rainless always and without
frost,
whereas after snow has fallen rain
must necessarily
come within five days, so that if it
snowed
in those parts rain would fall there;
the
third evidence is afforded by the people
dwelling there, who are of a black
colour
by reason of the burning heat. Moreover
kites
and swallows remain there through the
year
and do not leave the land; and cranes
flying
from the cold weather which comes on
in the
region of Scythia come regularly to
these
parts for wintering: if then it snowed
ever
so little in that land through which
the
Nile flows and in which it has its
rise,
none of these things would take place,
as
necessity compels us to admit. As for
him
who talked about the Ocean, he carried
his
tale into the region of the unknown,
and
so he need not be refuted; since I
for my
part know of no river Ocean existing,
but
I think that Homer or one of the poets
who
were before him invented the name and
introduced
it into his verse.
If however after I have found fault
with
the opinions proposed, I am bound to
declare
an opinion of my own about the matters
which
are in doubt, I will tell what to my
mind
is the reason why the Nile increases
in the
summer. In the winter season the Sun,
being
driven away from his former path through
the heaven by the stormy winds, comes
to
the upper parts of Libya. If one would
set
forth the matter in the shortest way,
all
has now been said; for whatever region
this
god approaches most and stands directly
above,
this it may reasonably be supposed
is most
in want of water, and its native streams
of rivers are dried up most. However,
to
set it forth at greater length, thus
it is:--the
Sun passing in his course by the upper
parts
of Libya, does thus, that is to say,
since
at all times the air in those parts
is clear
and the country is warm, because there
are
no cold winds, in passing through it
the
Sun does just as he was wont to do
in the
summer, when going through the midst
of the
heaven, that is he draws to himself
the water,
and having drawn it he drives it away
to
the upper parts of the country, and
the winds
take it up and scattering it abroad
melt
it into rain; so it is natural that
the winds
which blow from this region, namely
the South
and South-west Winds, should be much
the
most rainy of all the winds. I think
however
that the Sun does not send away from
himself
all the water of the Nile of each year,
but
that also he lets some remain behind
with
himself. Then when the winter becomes
milder,
the Sun returns back again to the midst
of
the heaven, and from that time onwards
he
draws equally from all rivers; but
in the
meantime they flow in large volume,
since
water of rain mingles with them in
great
quantity, because their country receives
rain then and is filled with torrent
streams.
In summer however they are weak, since
not
only the showers of rain fail them,
but also
they are drawn by the Sun. The Nile
however,
alone of all rivers, not having rain
and
being drawn by the Sun, naturally flows
during
this time of winter in much less than
its
proper volume, that is much less than
in
summer; for then it is drawn equally
with
all the other waters, but in winter
it bears
the burden alone. Thus I suppose the
Sun
to be the cause of these things. He
also
is the cause in my opinion that the
air in
these parts is dry, since he makes
it so
by scorching up his path through the
heaven:
thus summer prevails always in the
upper
parts of Libya. If however the station
of
the seasons had been changed, and where
now
in the heaven are placed the North
Wind and
winter, there was the station of the
South
Wind and of the midday, and where now
is
placed the South Wind, there was the
North,
if this had been so, the Sun being
driven
from the midst of the heaven by the
winter
and the North Wind would go to the
upper
parts of Europe, just as now he comes
to
the upper parts of Libya, and passing
in
his course throughout the whole of
Europe
I suppose he would do to the Ister
that which
he now works upon the Nile. As to the
breeze,
why none blows from the river, my opinion
is that from very hot places it is
not natural
that anything should blow, and that
a breeze
is wont to blow from something cold.
Let these matters then be as they are
and
as they were at the first: but as to
the
sources of the Nile, not one either
of the
Egyptians or of the Libyans or of the
Hellenes,
who came to speech with me, professed
to
know anything, except the scribe of
the sacred
treasury of Athene at the city of Sais
in
Egypt. To me however this man seemed
not
to be speaking seriously when he said
that
he had certain knowledge of it; and
he said
as follows, namely that there were
two mountains
of which the tops ran up to a sharp
point,
situated between the city of Syene,
which
is in the district of Thebes, and Elephantine,
and the names of the mountains were,
of the
one Crophi and of the other Mophi.
From the
middle between these mountains flowed
(he said) the sources of the Nile,
which
were fathomless in depth, and half
of the
water flowed to Egypt and towards the
North
Wind, the other half to Ethiopia and
the
South Wind. As for the fathomless depth
of
the source, he said that Psammetichos
king
of Egypt came to a trial of this matter;
for he had a rope twisted of many thousand
fathoms and let it down in this place,
and
it found no bottom. By this the scribe
(if this which he told was really as
he said)
gave me to understand that there were
certain
strong eddies there and a backward
flow,
and that since the water dashed against
the
mountains, therefore the sounding-line
could
not come to any bottom when it was
let down.
From no other person was I able to
learn
anything about this matter; but for
the rest
I learnt so much as here follows by
the most
diligent inquiry; for I went myself
as an
eye-witness as far as the city of Elephantine
and from that point onwards I gathered
knowledge
by report. From the city of Elephantine
as
one goes up the river there is country
which
slopes steeply; so that here one must
attach
ropes to the vessel on both sides,
as one
fastens an ox, and so make one's way
onward;
and if the rope break, the vessel is
gone
at once, carried away by the violence
of
the stream. Through this country it
is a
voyage of about four days in length,
and
in this part the Nile is winding like
the
river Maiander, and the distance amounts
to twelve /schoines/, which one must
traverse
in this manner. Then you will come
to a level
plain, in which the Nile flows round
an island
named Tachompso. (Now in the regions
above
the Elephantine there dwell Ethiopians
at
once succeeding, who also occupy half
of
the island, and Egyptians the other
half.)
Adjoining this island there is a great
lake,
round which dwell Ethiopian nomad tribes;
and when you have sailed through this
you
will come to the stream of the Nile
again,
which flows into this lake. After this
you
will disembark and make a journey by
land
of forty days; for in the Nile sharp
rocks
stand forth out of the water, and there
are
many reefs, by which it is not possible
for
a vessel to pass. Then after having
passed
through this country in the forty days
which
I have said, you will embark again
in another
vessel and sail for twelve days; and
after
this you will come to a great city
called
Meroe. This city is said to be the
mother-city
of all the other Ethiopians: and they
who
dwell in it reverence of the gods Zeus
and
Dionysos alone, and these they greatly
honour;
and they have an Oracle of Zeus established,
and make warlike marches whensoever
the god
commands them by prophesyings and to
whatsoever
place he commands. Sailing from this
city
you will come to the "Deserters"
in another period of time equal to
that in
which you came from Elephantine to
the mother-city
of the Ethiopians. Now the name of
these
"Deserters" is /Asmach/,
and this
word signifies, when translated into
the
tongue of the Hellenes, "those
who stand
on the left hand of the king."
These
were two hundred and forty thousand
Egyptians
of the warrior class, who revolted
and went
over to these Ethiopians for the following
cause:--In the reign of Psammetichos
garrisons
were set, one towards the Ethiopians
at the
city of Elephantine, another towards
the
Arabians and Assyrians at Daphnai of
Pelusion,
and another towards Libya at Marea:
and even
in my own time the garrisons of the
Persians
too are ordered in the same manner
as these
were in the reign of Psammetichos,
for both
at Elephantine and at Daphnai the Persians
have outposts. The Egyptians then of
whom
I speak had served as outposts for
three
years and no one relieved them from
their
guard; accordingly they took counsel
together,
and adopting a common plan they all
in a
body revolted from Psammetichos and
set out
for Ethiopia. Hearing this Psammetichos
set
forth in pursuit, and when he came
up with
them he entreated them much and endeavoured
to persuade them not to desert the
gods of
their country and their children and
wives:
upon which it is said that one of them
pointed
to his privy member and said that wherever
this was, there would they have both
children
and wives. When these came to Ethiopia
they
gave themselves over to the king of
the Ethiopians;
and he rewarded them as follows:--there
were
certain of the Ethiopians who had come
to
be at variance with him; and he bade
them
drive these out and dwell in their
land.
So since these men settled in the land
of
the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians have
come
to be of milder manners, from having
learnt
the customs of the Egyptians.
The Nile then, besides the part of
its course
which is in Egypt, is known as far
as a four
months' journey by river and land:
for that
is the number of months which are found
by
reckoning to be spent in going from
Elephantine
to these "Deserters": and
the river
runs from the West and the setting
of the
sun. But what comes after that point
no one
can clearly say; for this land is desert
by reason of the burning heat. This
much
however I heard from men of Kyrene,
who told
me that they had been to the Oracle
of Ammon,
and had come to speech with Etearchos
king
of the Ammonians: and it happened that
after
speaking of other matters they fell
to discourse
about the Nile and how no one knew
the sources
of it; and Etearchos said that once
there
came to him men of the Nasamonians
(this
is a Libyan race which dwells in the
Syrtis,
and also in the land to the East of
the Syrtis
reaching to no great distance), and
when
the Nasamonians came and were asked
by him
whether they were able to tell him
anything
more than he knew about the desert
parts
of Libya, they said that there had
been among
them certain sons of chief men, who
were
of unruly disposition; and these when
they
grew up to be men had devised various
other
extravagant things and also they had
told
off by lot five of themselves to go
to see
the desert parts of Libya and to try
whether
they could discover more than those
who had
previously explored furthest: for in
those
parts of Libya which are by the Northern
Sea, beginning from Egypt and going
as far
as the headland of Soloeis, which is
the
extreme point of Libya, Libyans (and
of them
many races) extend along the whole
coast,
except so much as the Hellenes and
Phenicians
hold; but in the upper parts, which
lie above
the sea-coast and above those people
whose
land comes down to the sea, Libya is
full
of wild beasts; and in the parts above
the
land of wild beasts it is full of sand,
terribly
waterless and utterly desert. These
young
men then (said they), being sent out
by their
companions well furnished with supplies
of
water and provisions, went first through
the inhabited country, and after they
had
passed through this they came to the
country
of wild beasts, and after this they
passed
through the desert, making their journey
towards the West Wind; and having passed
through a great tract of sand in many
days,
they saw at last trees growing in a
level
place; and having come up to them,
they were
beginning to pluck the fruit which
was upon
the trees: but as they began to pluck
it,
there came upon them small men, of
less stature
than men of the common size, and these
seized
them and carried them away; and neither
could
the Nasamonians understand anything
of their
speech nor could those who were carrying
them off understand anything of the
speech
of the Nasamonians; and they led them
(so
it was said) through very great swamps,
and
after passing through these they came
to
a city in which all the men were in
size
like those who carried them off and
in colour
of skin black; and by the city ran
a great
river, which ran from the West towards
the
sunrising, and in it were seen crocodiles.
Of the account given by Etearchos the
Ammonian
let so much suffice as is here said,
except
that, as the men of Kyrene told me,
he alleged
that the Nasamonians returned safe
home,
and that the people to whom they had
come
were all wizards. Now this river which
ran
by the city, Etearchos conjectured
to be
the Nile, and moreover reason compels
us
to think so; for the Nile flows from
Libya
and cuts Libya through in the midst,
and
as I conjecture, judging of what is
not known
by that which is evident to the view,
it
starts at a distance from its mouth
equal
to that of the Ister: for the river
Ister
begins from the Keltoi and the city
of Pyrene
and so runs that it divides Europe
in the
midst (now the Keltoi are outside the
Pillars
of Heracles and border upon the Kynesians,
who dwell furthest towards the sunset
of
all those who have their dwelling in
Europe):
and the Ister ends, having its course
through
the whole of Europe, by flowing into
the
Euxine Sea at the place where the Milesians
have their settlement of Istria. Now
the
Ister, since it flows through land
which
is inhabited, is known by the reports
of
many; but of the sources of the Nile
no one
can give an account, for the part of
Libya
through which it flows is uninhabited
and
desert. About its course however so
much
as it was possible to learn by the
most diligent
inquiry has been told; and it runs
out into
Egypt. Now Egypt lies nearly opposite
to
the mountain districts of Kilikia;
and from
thence to Sinope, which lies upon the
Euxine
Sea, is a journey in the same straight
line
of five days for a man without encumbrance;
and Sinope lies opposite to the place
where
the Ister runs out into the sea: thus
I think
that the Nile passes through the whole
of
Libya and is of equal measure with
the Ister.
Of the Nile then let so much suffice
as has
been said. Of Egypt however I shall
make
my report at length, because it has
wonders
more in number than any other land,
and works
too it has to show as much as any land,
which
are beyond expression great: for this
reason
then more shall be said concerning
it.
The Egyptians in agreement with their
climate,
which is unlike any other, and with
the river,
which shows a nature different from
all other
rivers, established for themselves
manners
and customs in a way opposite to other
men
in almost all matters: for among them
the
women frequent the market and carry
on trade,
while the men remain at home and weave;
and
whereas others weave pushing the woof
upwards,
the Egyptians push it downwards: the
men
carry their burdens upon their heads
and
the women upon their shoulders: the
women
make water standing up and the men
crouching
down: they ease themselves in their
houses
and they eat without in the streets,
alleging
as reason for this that it is right
to do
secretly the things that are unseemly
though
necessary, but those which are not
unseemly,
in public: no woman is a minister either
of male or female divinity, but men
of all,
both male and female: to support their
parents
the sons are in no way compelled, if
they
do not desire to do so, but the daughters
are forced to do so, be they never
so unwilling.
The priests of the gods in other lands
wear
long hair, but in Egypt they shave
their
heads: among other men the custom is
that
in mourning those whom the matter concerns
most nearly have their hair cut short,
but
the Egyptians, when deaths occur, let
their
hair grow long, both that on the head
and
that on the chin, having before been
close
shaven: other men have their daily
living
separated from beasts, but the Egyptians
have theirs together with beasts: other
men
live on wheat and on barley, but to
any one
of the Egyptians who makes his living
on
these it is a great reproach; they
make their
bread of maize, which some call spelt:
they
knead dough with their feet and clay
with
their hands, with which also they gather
up dung: and whereas other men, except
such
as have learnt otherwise from the Egyptians,
have their members as nature made them,
the
Egyptians practice circumcision: as
to garments,
the men wear two each and the women
but one:
and whereas others make fast the rings
and
ropes of the sails outside the ship,
the
Egyptians do this inside: finally in
the
writing of characters and reckoning
with
pebbles, while the Hellenes carry the
hand
from the left to the right, the Egyptians
do this from the right to the left;
and doing
so they say that they do it themselves
rightwise
and the Hellenes leftwise: and they
use two
kinds of characters for writing, of
which
the one kind is called sacred and the
other
common.
They are religious excessively beyond
all
other men, and with regard to this
they have
customs as follows:--they drink from
cups
of bronze and rinse them out every
day, and
not some only do this but all: they
wear
garments of linen always newly washed,
and
this they make a special point of practice:
they circumcise themselves for the
sake of
cleanliness, preferring to be clean
rather
than comely. The priests shave themselves
all over their body every other day,
so that
no lice or any other foul thing may
come
to be upon them when they minister
to the
gods; and the priests wear garments
of linen
only and sandals of papyrus, and any
other
garment they may not take nor other
sandals;
these wash themselves in cold water
twice
in a day and twice again in the night;
and
other religious services they perform
(one
may almost say) of infinite number.
They
enjoy also good things not a few, for
they
do not consume or spend anything of
their
own substance, but there is sacred
bread
baked for them and they have each great
quantity
of flesh of oxen and geese coming in
to them
each day, and also wine of grapes is
given
to them; but it is not permitted to
them
to taste of fish: beans moreover the
Egyptians
do not at all sow in their land, and
those
which they grow they neither eat raw
nor
boil for food; nay the priests do not
endure
even to look upon them, thinking this
to
be an unclean kind of pulse: and there
is
not one priest only for each of the
gods
but many, and of them one is chief-priest,
and whenever a priest dies his son
is appointed
to his place.
The males of the ox kind they consider
to
belong to Epaphos, and on account of
him
they test them in the following manner:--If
the priest sees one single black hair
upon
the beast he counts it not clean for
sacrifice;
and one of the priests who is appointed
for
the purpose makes investigation of
these
matters, both when the beast is standing
upright and when it is lying on its
back,
drawing out its tongue moreover, to
see if
it is clean in respect of the appointed
signs,
which I shall tell of in another part
of
the history: he looks also at the hairs
of
the tail to see if it has them growing
in
a natural manner; and if it be clean
in respect
of all these things, he marks it with
a piece
of papyrus, rolling this round the
horns,
and then when he has plastered sealing-earth
over it he sets upon it the seal of
his signet-ring,
and after that they take the animal
away.
But for one who sacrifices a beast
not sealed
the penalty appointed is death. In
this way
then the beast is tested; and their
appointed
manner of sacrifice is as follows:--they
lead the sealed beast to the altar
where
they happen to be sacrificing, and
then kindle
a fire: after that, having poured libations
of wine over the altar so that it runs
down
upon the victim and having called upon
the
god, they cut its throat, and having
cut
its throat they sever the head from
the body.
The body then of the beast they flay,
but
upon the head they make many imprecations
first, and then they who have a market
and
Hellenes sojourning among them for
trade,
these carry it to the market-place
and sell
it, while they who have no Hellenes
among
them cast it away into the river: and
this
is the form of imprecations which they
utter
upon the heads, praying that if any
evil
be about to befall either themselves
who
are offering sacrifice or the land
of Egypt
in general, it may come rather upon
this
head. Now as regards the heads of the
beasts
which are sacrificed and the pouring
over
them of the wine, all the Egyptians
have
the same customs equally for all their
sacrifices;
and by reason of this custom none of
the
Egyptians eat of the head either of
this
or of any other kind of animal: but
the manner
of disembowelling the victims and of
burning
them is appointed among them differently
for different sacrifices; I shall speak
however
of the sacrifices to that goddess whom
they
regard as the greatest of all, and
to whom
they celebrate the greatest feast.--When
they have flayed the bullock and made
imprecation,
they take out the whole of its lower
entrails
but leave in the body the upper entrails
and the fat; and they sever from it
the legs
and the end of the loin and the shoulders
and the neck: and this done, they fill
the
rest of the body of the animal with
consecrated
loaves and honey and raisins and figs
and
frankincense and myrrh and every other
kind
of spices, and having filled it with
these
they offer it, pouring over it great
abundance
of oil. They make their sacrifice after
fasting,
and while the offerings are being burnt,
they all beat themselves for mourning,
and
when they have finished beating themselves
they set forth as a feast that which
they
left unburnt of the sacrifice. The
clean
males then of the ox kind, both full-grown
animals and calves, are sacrificed
by all
the Egyptians; the females however
they may
not sacrifice, but these are sacred
to Isis;
for the figure of Isis is in the form
of
a woman with cow's horns, just as the
Hellenes
present Io in pictures, and all the
Egyptians
without distinction reverence cows
far more
than any other kind of cattle; for
which
reason neither man nor woman of the
Egyptian
race would kiss a man who is a Hellene
on
the mouth, nor will they use a knife
or roasting-spits
or a caldron belonging to a Hellene,
nor
taste the flesh even of a clean animal
if
it has been cut with the knife of a
Hellene.
And the cattle of this kind which die
they
bury in the following manner:--the
females
they cast into the river, but the males
they
bury, each people in the suburb of
their
town, with one of the horns, or sometimes
both, protruding to mark the place;
and when
the bodies have rotted away and the
appointed
time comes on, then to each city comes
a
boat from that which is called the
island
of Prosopitis
(this is in the Delta, and the extent
of
its circuit is nine /schoines/). In
this
island of Prosopitis is situated, besides
many other cities, that one from which
the
boats come to take up the bones of
the oxen,
and the name of the city is Atarbechis,
and
in it there is set up a holy temple
of Aphrodite.
From this city many go abroad in various
directions, some to one city and others
to
another, and when they have dug up
the bones
of the oxen they carry them off, and
coming
together they bury them in one single
place.
In the same manner as they bury the
oxen
they bury also their other cattle when
they
die; for about them also they have
the same
law laid down, and these also they
abstain
from killing.
Now all who have a temple set up to
the Theban
Zeus or who are of the district of
Thebes,
these, I say, all sacrifice goats and
abstain
from sheep: for not all the Egyptians
equally
reverence the same gods, except only
Isis
and Osiris (who they say is Dionysos),
these
they all reverence alike: but they
who have
a temple of Mendes or belong to the
Mendesian
district, these abstain from goats
and sacrifice
sheep. Now the men of Thebes and those
who
after their example abstain from sheep,
say
that this custom was established among
them
for the cause which follows:--Heracles
(they
say) had an earnest desire to see Zeus,
and
Zeus did not desire to be seen of him;
and
at last when Heracles was urgent in
entreaty
Zeus contrived this device, that is
to say,
he flayed a ram and held in front of
him
the head of the ram which he had cut
off,
and he put on over him the fleece and
then
showed himself to him. Hence the Egyptians
make the image of Zeus with the face
of a
ram; and the Ammonians do so also after
their
example, being settlers both from the
Egyptians
and from the Ethiopians, and using
a language
which is a medley of both tongues:
and in
my opinion it is from this god that
the Egyptians
call Zeus /Amun/. The Thebans then
do not
sacrifice rams but hold them sacred
for this
reason; on one day however in the year,
on
the feast of Zeus, they cut up in the
same
manner and flay one single ram and
cover
with its skin the image of Zeus, and
then
they bring up to it another image of
Heracles.
This done, all who are in the temple
beat
themselves in lamentation for the ram,
and
then they bury it in a sacred tomb.
About Heracles I heard the account
given
that he was of the number of the twelve
gods;
but of the other Heracles whom the
Hellenes
know I was not able to hear in any
part of
Egypt: and moreover to prove that the
Egyptians
did not take the name of Heracles from
the
Hellenes, but rather the Hellenes from
the
Egyptians,--that is to say those of
the Hellenes
who gave the name Heracles to the son
of
Amphitryon,--of that, I say, besides
many
other evidences there is chiefly this,
namely
that the parents of this Heracles,
Amphitryon
and Alcmene, were both of Egypt by
descent,
and also that the Egyptians say that
they
do not know the names either of Poseidon
or of the Dioscuroi, nor have these
been
accepted by them as gods among the
other
gods; whereas if they had received
from the
Hellenes the name of any divinity,
they would
naturally have preserved the memory
of these
most of all, assuming that in those
times
as now some of the Hellenes were wont
to
make voyages and were seafaring folk,
as
I suppose and as my judgment compels
me to
think; so that the Egyptians would
have learnt
the names of these gods even more than
that
of Heracles. In fact however Heracles
is
a very ancient Egyptian god; and (as
they
say themselves) it is seventeen thousand
years to the beginning of the reign
of Amasis
from the time when the twelve gods,
of whom
they count that Heracles is one, were
begotten
of the eight gods. I moreover, desiring
to
know something certain of these matters
so
far as might be, made a voyage also
to Tyre
of Phenicia, hearing that in that place
there
was a holy temple of Heracles; and
I saw
that it was richly furnished with many
votive
offerings besides, and especially there
were
in it two pillars, the one of pure
gold and
the other of an emerald stone of such
size
as to shine by night: and having come
to
speech with the priests of the god,
I asked
them how long a time it was since their
temple
had been set up: and these also I found
to
be at variance with the Hellenes, for
they
said that at the same time when Tyre
was
founded, the temple of the god also
had been
set up, and that it was a period of
two thousand
three hundred years since their people
began
to dwell at Tyre. I saw also at Tyre
another
temple of Heracles, with the surname
Thasian;
and I came to Thasos also and there
I found
a temple of Heracles set up by the
Phenicians,
who had sailed out to seek for Europa
and
had colonised Thasos; and these things
happened
full five generations of men before
Heracles
the son of Amphitryon was born in Hellas.
So then my inquiries show clearly that
Heracles
is an ancient god, and those of the
Hellenes
seem to me to act most rightly who
have two
temples of Heracles set up, and who
sacrifice
to the one as an immortal god and with
the
title Olympian, and make offerings
of the
dead to the other as a hero. Moreover,
besides
many other stories which the Hellenes
tell
without due consideration, this tale
is especially
foolish which they tell about Heracles,
namely
that when he came to Egypt, the Egyptians
put on him wreaths and led him forth
in procession
to sacrifice him to Zeus; and he for
some
time kept quiet, but when they were
beginning
the sacrifice of him at the altar,
he betook
himself to prowess and slew them all.
I for
my part am of opinion that the Hellenes
when
they tell this tale are altogether
without
knowledge of the nature and customs
of the
Egyptians; for how should they for
whom it
is not lawful to sacrifice even beasts,
except
swine and the males of oxen and calves
(such
of them as are clean) and geese, how
should
these sacrifice human beings? Besides
this,
how is it in nature possible that Heracles,
being one person only and moreover
a man
(as they assert), should slay many
myriads?
Having said so much of these matters,
we
pray that we may have grace from both
the
gods and the heroes for our speech.
Now the reason why those of the Egyptians
whom I have mentioned do not sacrifice
goats,
female or male, is this:--the Mendesians
count Pan to be one of the eight gods
(now these eight gods they say came
into
being before the twelve gods), and
the painters
and image-makers represent in painting
and
in sculpture the figure of Pan, just
as the
Hellenes do, with goat's face and legs,
not
supposing him to be really like this
but
to resemble the other gods; the cause
however
why they represent him in this form
I prefer
not to say. The Mendesians then reverence
all goats and the males more than the
females
(and the goatherds too have greater
honour
than other herdsmen), but of the goats
one
especially is reverenced, and when
he dies
there is great mourning in all the
Mendesian
district: and both the goat and Pan
are called
in the Egyptian tongue /Mendes/. Moreover
in my lifetime there happened in that
district
this marvel, that is to say a he-goat
had
intercourse with a woman publicly,
and this
was so done that all men might have
evidence
of it.
The pig is accounted by the Egyptians
an
abominable animal; and first, if any
of them
in passing by touch a pig, he goes
into the
river and dips himself forthwith in
the water
together with his garments; and then
too
swineherds, though they may be native
Egyptians,
unlike all others, do not enter any
of the
temples in Egypt, nor is anyone willing
to
give his daughter in marriage to one
of them
or to take a wife from among them;
but the
swineherds both give in marriage to
one another
and take from one another. Now to the
other
gods the Egyptians do not think it
right
to sacrifice swine; but to the Moon
and to
Dionysos alone at the same time and
on the
same full-moon they sacrifice swine,
and
then eat their flesh: and as to the
reason
why, when they abominate swine at all
their
other feasts, they sacrifice them at
this,
there is a story told by the Egyptians;
and
this story I know, but it is not a
seemly
one for me to tell. Now the sacrifice
of
the swine to the Moon is performed
as follows:--when
the priest has slain the victim, he
puts
together the end of the tail and the
spleen
and the caul, and covers them up with
the
whole of the fat of the animal which
is about
the paunch, and then he offers them
with
fire; and the rest of the flesh they
eat
on that day of full moon upon which
they
have held sacrifice, but on any day
after
this they will not taste of it: the
poor
however among them by reason of the
scantiness
of their means shape pigs of dough
and having
baked them they offer these as a sacrifice.
Then for Dionysos on the eve of the
festival
each one kills a pig by cutting its
throat
before his own doors, and after that
he gives
the pig to the swineherd who sold it
to him,
to carry away again; and the rest of
the
feast of Dionysos is celebrated by
the Egyptians
in the same way as by the Hellenes
in almost
all things except choral dances, but
instead
of the /phallos/ they have invented
another
contrivance, namely figures of about
a cubit
in height worked by strings, which
women
carry about the villages, with the
privy
member made to move and not much less
in
size than the rest of the body: and
a flute
goes before and they follow singing
the praises
of Dionysos. As to the reason why the
figure
has this member larger than is natural
and
moves it, though it moves no other
part of
the body, about this there is a sacred
story
told. Now I think that Melampus the
son of
Amytheon was not without knowledge
of these
rites of sacrifice, but was acquainted
with
them: for Melampus is he who first
set forth
to the Hellenes the name of Dionysos
and
the manner of sacrifice and the procession
of the /phallos/. Strictly speaking
indeed,
he when he made it known did not take
in
the whole, but those wise men who came
after
him made it known more at large. Melampus
then is he who taught of the /phallos/
which
is carried in procession for Dionysos,
and
from him the Hellenes learnt to do
that which
they do. I say then that Melampus being
a
man of ability contrived for himself
an art
of divination, and having learnt from
Egypt
he taught the Hellenes many things,
and among
them those that concern Dionysos, making
changes in some few points of them:
for I
shall not say that that which is done
in
worship of the god in Egypt came accidentally
to be the same with that which is done
among
the Hellenes, for then these rites
would
have been in character with the Hellenic
worship and not lately brought in;
nor certainly
shall I say that the Egyptians took
from
the Hellenes either this or any other
customary
observance: matters concerning Dionysos
from
Cadmos the Tyrian and from those who
came
with him from Phenicia to the land
which
we now call Boeotia.
Moreover the naming of almost all the
gods
has come to Hellas from Egypt: for
that it
has come from the Barbarians I find
by inquiry
is true, and I am of opinion that most
probably
it has come from Egypt, because, except
in
the case of Poseidon and the Dioscuroi
(in
accordance with that which I have said
before),
and also of Hera and Hestia and Themis
and
the Charites and Nereids, the Egyptians
say
themselves: but as for the gods whose
names
they profess that they do not know,
these
I think received their naming from
the Pelasgians,
except Poiseidon; but about this god
the
Hellenes learnt from the Libyans, for
no
people except the Libyans have had
the name
of Poseidon from the first and have
paid
honour to this god always. Nor, it
may be
added, have the Egyptians any custom
of worshipping
heroes. These observances then, and
others
besides these which I shall mention,
the
Hellenes have adopted from the Egyptians;
but to make, as they do the images
of Hermes
with the /phallos/ they have learnt
not from
the Egyptians but from the Pelasgians,
the
custom having been received by the
Athenians
first of all the Hellenes and from
these
by the rest; for just at the time when
the
Athenians were beginning to rank among
the
Hellenes, the Pelasgians became dwellers
with them in their land, and from this
very
cause it was that they began to be
counted
as Hellenes. Whosoever has been initiated
in the mysteries of the Cabeiroi, which
the
Samothrakians perform having received
them
from the Pelasgians, that man knows
the meaning
of my speech; for these very Pelasgians
who
became dwellers with the Athenians
used to
dwell before that time in Samothrake,
and
from them the Samothrakians received
their
mysteries. So then the Athenians were
the
first of the Hellenes who made the
images
of Hermes with the /phallos/, having
learnt
from the Pelasgians; and the Pelasgians
told
a sacred story about it, which is set
forth
in the mysteries in Samothrake. Now
the Pelasgians
formerly were wont to make all their
sacrifices
calling upon the gods in prayer, as
I know
from that which I heard at Dodona,
but they
gave no title or name to any of them,
for
they had not yet heard any, but they
called
them gods from some such notion as
this,
that they had set in order all things
and
so had the distribution of everything.
Afterwards
when much time had elapsed, they learnt
from
Egypt the names of the gods, all except
Dionysos,
for his name they learnt long afterwards;
and after a time the Pelasgians consulted
the Oracle at Dodona about the names,
for
this prophetic seat is accounted to
be the
most ancient of the Oracles which are
among
the Hellenes, and at that time it was
the
only one. So when the Pelasgians asked
the
Oracle at Dodona whether they should
adopt
the names which had come from the Barbarians,
the Oracle in reply bade them make
use of
the names. From this time they sacrificed
using the names of the gods, and from
the
Pelasgians the Hellenes afterwards
received
them: but when the several gods had
their
birth, or whether they all were from
the
beginning, and of what form they are,
they
did not learn till yesterday, as it
were,
or the day before: for Hesiod and Homer
I
suppose were four hundred years before
my
time and not more, and these are they
who
made a theogony for the Hellenes and
gave
the titles to the gods and distributed
to
them honours and arts, and set forth
their
forms: but the poets who are said to
have
been before these men were really in
my opinion
after them. Of these things the first
are
said by the priestesses of Dodona,
and the
latter things, those namely which have
regard
to Hesiod and Homer, by myself.
As regards the Oracles both that among
the
Hellenes and that in Libya, the Egyptians
tell the following tale. The priests
of the
Theban Zeus told me that two women
in the
service of the temple had been carried
away
from Thebes by Phenicians, and that
they
had heard that one of them had been
sold
to go into Libya and the other to the
Hellenes;
and these women, they said, were they
who
first founded the prophetic seats among
the
nations which have been named: and
when I
inquired whence they knew so perfectly
of
this tale which they told, they said
in reply
that a great search had been made by
the
priests after these women, and that
they
had not been able to find them, but
they
had heard afterwards this tale about
them
which they were telling. This I heard
from
the priests at Thebes, and what follows
is
said by the prophetesses of Dodona.
They
say that two black doves flew from
Thebes
in Egypt, and came one of them to Libya
and
the other to their land. And this latter
settled upon an oak-tree and spoke
with human
voice, saying that it was necessary
that
a prophetic seat of Zeus should be
established
in that place; and they supposed that
that
was of the gods which was announced
to them,
and made one accordingly: and the dove
which
went away to the Libyans, they say,
bade
the Libyans make an Oracle of Ammon;
and
this also is of Zeus. The priestesses
of
Dodona told me these things, of whom
the
eldest was named Promeneia, the next
after
her Timarete, and the youngest Nicandra;
and the other people of Dodona who
were engaged
about the temple gave accounts agreeing
with
theirs. I however have an opinion about
the
matter as follows:--If the Phenicians
did
in truth carry away the consecrated
women
and sold one of them into Libya and
the other
into Hellas, I suppose that in the
country
now called Hellas, which was formerly
called
Pelasgia, this woman was sold into
the land
of the Thesprotians; and then being
a slave
there she set up a sanctuary of Zeus
under
a real oak-tree; as indeed it was natural
that being an attendant of the sanctuary
of Zeus at Thebes, she should there,
in the
place to which she had come, have a
memory
of him; and after this, when she got
understanding
of the Hellenic tongue, she established
an
Oracle, and she reported, I suppose,
that
her sister had been sold in Libya by
the
same Phenicians by whom she herself
had been
sold. Moreover, I think that the women
were
called doves by the people of Dodona
for
the reason that they were barbarians
and
because it seemed to them that they
uttered
voice like birds; but after a time
(they
say) the dove spoke with human voice,
that
is when the woman began to speak so
that
they could understand; but so long
as she
spoke a Barbarian tongue she seemed
to them
to be uttering voice like a bird: for
if
it had been really a dove, how could
it speak
with human voice? And in saying that
the
dove was black, they indicate that
the woman
was Egyptian. The ways of delivering
oracles
too at Thebes in Egypt and at Dodona
closely
resemble each other, as it happens,
and also
the method of divination by victims
has come
from Egypt.
Moreover, it is true also that the
Egyptians
were the first of men who made solemn
assemblies
and processions and approaches to the
temples,
and from them the Hellenes have learnt
them,
and my evidence for this is that the
Egyptian
celebrations of these have been held
from
a very ancient time, whereas the Hellenic
were introduced but lately. The Egyptians
hold their solemn assemblies not once
in
the year but often, especially and
with the
greatest zeal and devotion at the city
of
Bubastis for Artemis, and next at Busiris
for Isis; for in this last- named city
there
is a very great temple of Isis, and
this
city stands in the middle of the Delta
of
Egypt; now Isis is in the tongue of
the Hellenes
Demeter: thirdly, they have a solemn
assembly
at the city of Sais for Athene, fourthly
at Heliopolis for the Sun (Helios),
fifthly
at the city of Buto in honour of Leto,
and
sixthly at the city of Papremis for
Ares.
Now, when they are coming to the city
of
Bubastis they do as follows:--they
sail men
and women together, and a great multitude
of each sex in every boat; and some
of the
women have rattles and rattle with
them,
while some of the men play the flute
during
the whole time of the voyage, and the
rest,
both women and men, sing and clap their
hands;
and when as they sail they come opposite
to any city on the way they bring the
boat
to land, and some of the women continue
to
do as I have said, others cry aloud
and jeer
at the women in that city, some dance,
and
some stand up and pull up their garments.
This they do by every city along the
river-bank;
and when they come to Bubastis they
hold
festival celebrating great sacrifices,
and
more wine of grapes is consumed upon
that
festival than during the whole of the
rest
of the year. To this place (so say
the natives)
they come together year by year even
to the
number of seventy myriads of men and
women,
besides children. Thus it is done here;
and
how they celebrate the festival in
honour
of Isis at the city of Busiris has
been told
by me before: for, as I said, they
beat themselves
in mourning after the sacrifice, all
of them
both men and women, very many myriads
of
people; but for whom they beat themselves
it is not permitted to me by religion
to
say: and so many as there are of the
Carians
dwelling in Egypt do this even more
than
the Egyptians themselves, inasmuch
as they
cut their foreheads also with knives;
and
by this it is manifested that they
are strangers
and not Egyptians. At the times when
they
gather together at the city of Sais
for their
sacrifices, on a certain night they
all kindle
lamps many in number in the open air
round
about the houses; now the lamps are
saucers
full of salt and oil mixed, and the
wick
floats by itself on the surface, and
this
burns during the whole night; and to
the
festival is given the name /Lychnocaia/
(the
lighting of lamps). Moreover those
of the
Egyptians who have not come to this
solemn
assembly observe the night of the festival
and themselves also light lamps all
of them,
and thus not in Sais alone are they
lighted,
but over all Egypt: and as to the reason
why light and honour are allotted to
this
night, about this there is a sacred
story
told. To Heliopolis and Buto they go
year
by year and do sacrifice only: but
at Papremis
they do sacrifice and worship as elsewhere,
and besides that, when the sun begins
to
go down while some few of the priests
are
occupied with the image of the god,
the greater
number of them stand in the entrance
of the
temple with wooden clubs, and other
persons
to the number of more than a thousand
men
with purpose to perform a vow, these
also
having all of them staves of wood,
stand
in a body opposite to those: and the
image,
which is in a small shrine of wood
covered
over with gold, they take out on the
day
before to another sacred building.
The few
then who have been left about the image,
draw a wain with four wheels, which
bears
the shrine and the image that is within
the
shrine, and the other priests standing
in
the gateway try to prevent it from
entering,
and the men who are under a vow come
to the
assistance of the god and strike them,
while
the others defend themselves. Then
there
comes to be a hard fight with staves,
and
they break one another's heads, and
I am
of opinion that many even die of the
wounds
they receive; the Egyptians however
told
me that no one died. This solemn assembly
the people of the place say that they
established
for the following reason:--the mother
of
Ares, they say, used to dwell in this
temple,
and Ares, having been brought up away
from
her, when he grew up came thither desiring
to visit his mother, and the attendants
of
his mother's temple, not having seen
him
before, did not permit him to pass
in, but
kept him away; and he brought men to
help
him from another city and handled roughly
the attendants of the temple, and entered
to visit his mother. Hence, they say,
this
exchange of blows has become the custom
in
honour of Ares upon his festival.
The Egyptians were the first who made
it
a point of religion not to lie with
women
in temples, nor to enter into temples
after
going away from women without first
bathing:
for almost all other men except the
Egyptians
and the Hellenes lie with women in
temples
and enter into a temple after going
away
from women without bathing, since they
hold
that there is no difference in this
respect
between men and beasts: for they say
that
they see beasts and the various kinds
of
birds coupling together both in the
temples
and in the sacred enclosures of the
gods;
if then this were not pleasing to the
god,
the beasts would not do so.
Thus do these defend that which they
do,
which by me is disallowed: but the
Egyptians
are excessively careful in their observances,
both in other matters which concern
the sacred
rites and also in those which follow:--Egypt,
though it borders upon Libya, does
not very
much abound in wild animals, but such
as
they have are one and all accounted
by them
sacred, some of them living with men
and
others not. But if I should say for
what
reasons the sacred animals have been
thus
dedicated, I should fall into discourse
of
matters pertaining to the gods, of
which
I most desire not to speak; and what
I have
actually said touching slightly upon
them,
I said because I was constrained by
necessity.
About these animals there is a custom
of
this kind:-- persons have been appointed
of the Egyptians, both men and women,
to
provide the food for each kind of beast
separately,
and their office goes down from father
to
son; and those who dwell in the various
cities
perform vows to them thus, that is,
when
they make a vow to the god to whom
the animal
belongs, they shave the head of their
children
either the whole or the half or the
third
part of it, and then set the hair in
the
balance against silver, and whatever
it weighs,
this the man gives to the person who
provides
for the animals, and she cuts up fish
of
equal value and gives it for food to
the
animals. Thus food for their support
has
been appointed and if any one kill
any of
these animals, the penalty, if he do
it with
his own will, is death, and if against
his
will, such penalty as the priests may
appoint:
but whosoever shall kill an ibis or
a hawk,
whether it be with his will or against
his
will, must die. Of the animals that
live
with men there are great numbers, and
would
be many more but for the accidents
which
befall the cats. For when the females
have
produced young they are no longer in
the
habit of going to the males, and these
seeking
to be united with them are not able.
To this
end then they contrive as follows,--they
either take away by force or remove
secretly
the young from the females and kill
them
(but after killing they do not eat
them),
and the females being deprived of their
young
and desiring more, therefore come to
the
males, for it is a creature that is
fond
of its young. Moreover when a fire
occurs,
the cats seem to be divinely possessed;
for
while the Egyptians stand at intervals
and
look after the cats, not taking any
care
to extinguish the fire, the cats slipping
through or leaping over the men, jump
into
the fire; and when this happens, great
mourning
comes upon the Egyptians. And in whatever
houses a cat has died by a natural
death,
all those who dwell in this house shave
their
eyebrows only, but those in which a
dog has
died shave their whole body and also
their
head. The cats when they are dead are
carried
away to sacred buildings in the city
of Bubastis,
where after being embalmed they are
buried;
but the dogs they bury each people
in their
own city in sacred tombs; and the ichneumons
are buried just in the same way as
the dogs.
The shrewmice however and the hawks
they
carry away to the city of Buto, and
the ibises
to Hermopolis; the bears (which are
not commonly
seen) and the wolves, not much larger
in
size than foxes, they bury on the spot
where
they are found lying.
Of the crocodile the nature is as follows:--during
the four most wintry months this creature
eats nothing: she has four feet and
is an
animal belonging to the land and the
water
both; for she produces and hatches
eggs on
the land, and the most part of the
day she
remains upon dry land, but the whole
of the
night in the river, for the water in
truth
is warmer than the unclouded open air
and
the dew. Of all the mortal creatures
of which
we have knowledge this grows to the
greatest
bulk from the smallest beginning; for
the
eggs which she produces are not much
larger
than those of geese and the newly-hatched
young one is in proportion to the egg,
but
as he grows he becomes as much as seventeen
cubits long and sometimes yet larger.
He
has eyes like those of a pig and teeth
large
and tusky, in proportion to the size
of his
body; but unlike all other beasts he
grows
no tongue, neither does he move his
lower
jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards
the
lower, being in this too unlike all
other
beasts. He has moreover strong claws
and
a scaly hide upon his back which cannot
be
pierced; and he is blind in the water,
but
in the air he is of a very keen sight.
Since
he has his living in the water he keeps
his
mouth all full within of leeches; and
whereas
all other birds and beasts fly from
him,
the trochilus is a creature which is
at peace
with him, seeing that from her he receives
benefit; for the crocodile having come
out
of the water to the land and then having
opened his mouth (this he is wont to
do generally
towards the West Wind), the trochilus
upon
that enters into his mouth and swallows
down
the leeches, and he being benefited
is pleased
and does no harm to the trochilus.
Now for
some of the Egyptians the crocodiles
are
sacred animals, and for others not
so, but
they treat them on the contrary as
enemies:
those however who dwell about Thebes
and
about the lake of Moiris hold them
to be
most sacred, and each of these two
peoples
keeps one crocodile selected from the
whole
number, which has been trained to tameness,
and they put hanging ornaments of molten
stone and of gold into the ears of
these
and anklets round the front feet, and
they
give them food appointed and victims
of sacrifices
and treat them as well as possible
while
they live, and after they are dead
they bury
them in sacred tombs, embalming them:
but
those who dwell about the city of Elephantine
even eat them, not holding them to
be sacred.
They are called not crocodiles but
/champsai/,
and the Ionians gave them the name
of crocodile,
comparing their form to that of the
crocodiles
(lizards) which appear in their country
in
the stone walls. There are many ways
in use
of catching them and of various kinds:
I
shall describe that which to me seems
the
most worthy of being told. A man puts
the
back of a pig upon a hook as bait,
and lets
it go into the middle of the river,
while
he himself upon the bank of the river
has
a young live pig, which he beats; and
the
crocodile hearing its cries makes for
the
direction of the sound, and when he
finds
the pig's back he swallows it down:
then
they pull, and when he is drawn out
to land,
first of all the hunter forthwith plasters
up his eyes with mud, and having done
so
he very easily gets the mastery of
him, but
if he does not do so he has much trouble.
The river-horse is sacred in the district
of Papremis, but for the other Egyptians
he is not sacred; and this is the appearance
which he presents: he is four-footed,
cloven-hoofed
like an ox, flat-nosed, with a mane
like
a horse and showing teeth like tusks,
with
a tail and voice like a horse and in
size
as large as the largest ox; and his
hide
is so exceedingly thick that when it
has
been dried shafts of javelins are made
of
it. There are moreover otters in the
river,
which they consider to be sacred: and
of
fish also they esteem that which is
called
the /lepidotos/ to be sacred, and also
the
eel; and these they say are sacred
to the
Nile: and of birds the fox-goose.
There is also another sacred bird called
the phoenix which I did not myself
see except
in painting, for in truth he comes
to them
very rarely, at intervals, as the people
of Heliopolis say, of five hundred
years;
and these say that he comes regularly
when
his father dies; and if he be like
the painting
he is of this size and nature, that
is to
say, some of his feathers are of gold
colour
and others red, and in outline and
size he
is as nearly as possible like an eagle.
This
bird they say (but I cannot believe
the story)
contrives as follows:-- setting forth
from
Arabia he conveys his father, they
say, to
the temple of the Sun (Helios) plastered
up in myrrh, and buries him in the
temple
of the Sun; and he conveys him thus:--he
forms first an egg of myrrh as large
as he
is able to carry, and then he makes
trial
of carrying it, and when he has made
trial
sufficiently, then he hollows out the
egg
and places his father within it and
plasters
over with other myrrh that part of
the egg
where he hollowed it out to put his
father
in, and when his father is laid in
it, it
proves (they say) to be of the same
weight
as it was; and after he has plastered
it
up, he conveys the whole to Egypt to
the
temple of the Sun. Thus they say that
this
bird does.
There are also about Thebes sacred
serpents,
not at all harmful to men, which are
small
in size and have two horns growing
from the
top of the head: these they bury when
they
die in the temple of Zeus, for to this
god
they say that they are sacred. There
is a
region moreover in Arabia, situated
nearly
over against the city of Buto, to which
place
I came to inquire about the winged
serpents:
and when I came thither I saw bones
of serpents
and spines in quantity so great that
it is
impossible to make report of the number,
and there were heaps of spines, some
heaps
large and others less large and others
smaller
still than these, and these heaps were
many
in number. This region in which the
spines
are scattered upon the ground is of
the nature
of an entrance from a narrow mountain
pass
to a great plain, which plain adjoins
the
plain in Egypt; and the story goes
that at
the beginning of spring winged serpents
from
Arabia fly towards Egypt, and the birds
called
ibises meet them at the entrance to
this
country and do not suffer the serpents
to
go by but kill them. On account of
this deed
it is (say the Arabians) that the ibis
has
come to be greatly honoured by the
Egyptians,
and the Egyptians also agree that it
is for
this reason that they honour these
birds.
The outward form of the ibis is this:--
it
is a deep black all over, and has legs
like
those of a crane and a very curved
beak,
and in size it is about equal to a
rail:
this is the appearance of the black
kind
which fight with the serpents, but
of those
which most crowd round men's feet (for
there
are two several kinds of ibises) the
head
is bare and also the whole of the throat,
and it is white in feathering except
the
head and neck and the extremities of
the
wings and the rump (in all these parts
of
which I have spoken it is a deep black),
while in legs and in the form of the
head
it resembles the other. As for the
serpent
its form is like that of the watersnake;
and it has wings not feathered but
most nearly
resembling the wings of the bat. Let
so much
suffice as has been said now concerning
sacred
animals. |
Evans Experientialism 
