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The History of Herodotus: Page 11
Volume One - Book II
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31. The Nile then, besides that 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 no one
can clearly say; for this land is desert by reason of the burning
heat.
32. Thus 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 had come 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.
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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.
33. 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.
34. 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;[37a] 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.
35. 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.
36. 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 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,[38] which some call
spelt;[39] 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 practise 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.[40]
37. 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 the day and
twice again in the night; and other religious services they perform
(one may almost say) of infinite number.[41] 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 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.
38. 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:[42] he
looks also at the hairs of the tail to see if it has them growing in
the 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.
39. 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[43] 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 imprecation 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:
40, 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[44] 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.
41. 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 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 of 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[45] 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.
42. 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 into 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 Ammonians took the name which they have, for 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.
43. 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,[46] 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[46a] and were sea-faring 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.
44. 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,[47] the one of pure gold and the other of an
emerald stone of such size as to shine by night:[48] and having come
to speech with the priests of the god, I asked them how long 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[49] to the other as a hero.
45.
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[50] 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.
46. 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.
47. 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 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 the 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.
48. 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.
49. 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: but I think it most probable that Melampus
learnt the matters concerning Dionysos from Cadmos the Tyrian and from
those who came with him from Phenicia to the land which we now call
Bœotia.
50. Moreover the naming[51] 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 Nereïds, the Egyptians have had
the names of all the other gods in their country for all time. What I
say here is that which the Egyptians think 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 Poseidon; 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.
51. 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.
52. 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 ({theous}) from some such notion as this, that
they had set ({thentes}) 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: 53, but whence 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.
54. 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.
55. This I heard from the priests at Thebes, and what follows
is said by the prophetesses[52] of Dodona. They say that two black
doves flew from Thebes to Egypt, and came one of them to Libya and the
other to their land. And this latter settled upon an oak-tree[53] 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 to 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.
56. 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;[54] 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.
57. 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 had it 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 one another, as
it happens, and also the method of divination by victims has come from
Egypt.
58. Moreover, it is true also that the Egyptians were the first of men
who made solemn assemblies[55] and processions and approaches to the
temples,[56] 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[57] but lately.
59. The Egyptians hold their solemn
assemblies not once in the year but often, especially and with the
greatest zeal and devotion[58] 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 Saïs 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.
60. 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[59] even to the number of seventy myriads[59a] of men and women,
besides children.
61. 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:[60] 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.
62. At the times
when they gather together at the city of Saïs for their sacrifices, on
a certain night[61] 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 the 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 Saïs alone are they lighted, but over all Egypt: and as to the
reason why light and honour are allotted to this night,[62] about this
there is a sacred story told.
63. 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.[63] 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.
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