by Herodotus
170. Here too, in this same precinct of Athene at Sais, is the burial-place of one whom I think it not right to mention in such a connection. [312] It stands behind the temple, against the back wall, which it entirely covers. There are also some large stone obelisks in the enclosure, and there is a lake [313] near them, adorned with an edging of stone. In form it is circular, and in size, as it seemed to me, about equal to the lake in Delos called ‘the Hoop’. [314]
171. On this lake it is that the Egyptians represent by night his sufferings [315] whose name I refrain from mentioning, and this representation they call their Mysteries. [316] I know well the whole course of the proceedings in these ceremonies, [317] but they shall not pass my lips. So too, with regard to the mysteries of Demeter, which the Greeks term ‘the Thesmophoria’, I know them, but I shall not mention them, except so far as may be done without impiety. The daughters of Danaus brought these rites from Egypt, and taught them to the Pelasgic women of the Peloponnese. Afterwards, when the inhabitants of the peninsula were driven from their homes by the Dorians, the rites perished, Only in Arcadia, where the natives remained and were not compelled to migrate, [318] their observance continued.
172. After Apries had been put to death in the way that I have described above, Amasis reigned over Egypt. He belonged to the Canton of Saïs, being a native of the town called Siouph. At first his subjects looked down on him and held him in small esteem, because he had been a mere private person, and of a house of no great distinction; but after a time Amasis succeeded in reconciling them to his rule, not by severity, but by cleverness. Among his other splendour he had a golden foot-pan, in which his guests and himself were wont upon occasion to wash their feet. This vessel he caused to be broken in pieces, and made of the gold an image of one of the gods, which he set up in the most public place in the whole city; upon which the Egyptians flocked to the image, and worshipped it with the utmost reverence. Amasis, finding this was so, called an assembly, and opened the matter to them, explaining how the image had been made of the foot-pan, wherein they had been wont formerly to wash their feet and to put all manner of filth, yet now it was greatly reverenced. ‘And truly,’ he went on to say, ‘it had gone with him as with the foot-pan. If he was a private person formerly, yet now he had come to be their king. And so he bade them honour and reverence him.’ Such was the mode in which he won over the Egyptians, and brought them to be content to do him service.
173. The following was the general habit of his life: From early dawn to the time when the forum is wont to fill, [319] he sedulously transacted all the business that was brought before him; during the remainder of the day he drank and joked with his guests, passing the time in witty and, sometimes, scarce seemly conversation. It grieved his friends that he should thus demean himself, and accordingly some of them chid him on the subject, saying to him – ‘O king, thou dost but ill guard thy royal dignity whilst thou allowest thyself in such levities. Thou shouldest sit in state upon a stately throne, and busy thyself with affairs the whole day long. So would the Egyptians feel that a great man rules them, and thou wouldst be better spoken of. But now thou conductest thyself in no kingly fashion.’ Amasis answered them thus: ‘Bowmen bend their bows when they wish to shoot; unbrace them when the shooting is over. Were they kept always strung they would break, and fail the archer in time of need. So it is with men. If they give themselves constantly to serious work, and never indulge awhile in pastime or sport, they lose their senses, and become mad or moody. Knowing this, I divide my life between pastime and business.’ Thus he answered his friends.
174. It is said that Amasis, even while he was a private man, had the same tastes for drinking and jesting, and was averse to engaging in any serious employment. He lived in constant feasts and revelries, and whenever his means failed him, he roamed about and robbed people. On such occasions the persons from whom he had stolen would bring him, if he denied the charge, before the nearest oracle; sometimes the oracle would pronounce him guilty of the theft, at other times it would acquit him. When afterwards he came to be king, he neglected the temples of such gods as had declared that he was not a thief, and neither contributed to their adornment, nor frequented them for sacrifice; since he regarded them as utterly worthless, and their oracles as wholly false: but the gods who had detected his guilt he considered to be true gods whose oracles did not deceive, and these he honoured exceedingly.
175. First of all, therefore, he built the gateway [320] of the temple of Athene at Saïs, which is an astonishing work, far surpassing all other buildings of the same kind both in extent and height, and built with stones of rare size and excellency. In the next place, he presented to the temple a number of large colossal statues, and several prodigious andro-sphinxes, [321] besides certain stones for the repairs, of a most extraordinary size. Some of these he got from the quarries over against Memphis, but the largest were brought from Elephantine, [322] which is twenty days’ voyage from Saïs. Of all these wonderful masses that which I most admire is a chamber made of a single stone, which was quarried at Elephantine. It took three years to convey this block from the quarry to Saïs; and in the conveyance were employed no fewer than two thousand labourers, who were all from the class of boatmen. The length of this chamber on the outside is twenty-one cubits, its breadth fourteen cubits, and its height eight. The measurements inside are the following: The length, eighteen cubits and five-sixths; the breadth, twelve cubits; and the height, five. It lies near the entrance of the temple, where it was left in consequence of the following circumstance: It happened that the architect, just as the stone had reached the spot where it now stands, heaved a sigh, considering the length of time that the removal had taken, and feeling wearied with the heavy toil. The sigh was heard by Amasis, who, regarding it as an omen, would not allow the chamber to be moved forward any further. Some, however, say that one of the workmen engaged at the levers was crushed and killed by the mass, and that this was the reason of its being left where it now stands.
176. To the other temples of much note Amasis also made magnificent offerings – at Memphis, for instance, he gave the recumbent colossus [323] in front of the temple of Hephaestus, which is seventy-five feet long. Two other colossal statues stand on the same base, each twenty feet high, carved in the stone of Ethiopia, one on either side of the temple. There is also a stone colossus of the same size at Saïs, recumbent like that at Memphis. Amasis finally built the temple of Isis at Memphis, a vast structure, well worth seeing.
177. It is said that the reign of Amasis was the most prosperous time that Egypt ever saw [324] – the river was more liberal to the land, and the land brought forth more abundantly for the service of man than had ever been known before; while the number of inhabited cities was not less than twenty thousand. It was this king Amasis who established the law that every Egyptian should appear once a year before the governor of his canton, [325] and show his means of living; or, failing to do so, and to prove that he got an honest livelihood, should be put to death. Solon the Athenian borrowed this law from the Egyptians, and imposed it on his countrymen, who have observed it ever since. It is indeed an excellent custom.
178. Amasis was partial to the Greeks, [326] and, among other favours which he granted them, gave to such as liked to settle in Egypt the city of Naucratis [327] for their residence. To those who only wished to trade upon the coast, and did not want to fix their abode in the country, he granted certain lands where they might set up altars and erect temples to the gods. Of these temples the grandest and most famous, which is also the most frequented, is that called ‘the Hellenium’. It was built conjointly by the Ionians, Dorians, and Aeolians, the following cities taking part in the work: the Ionian states of Chios, Teos, Phocaea, and Clazomenae; Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, and Phaselis [328] of the Dorians; and Mytilene of the Aeolians. These are the states to whom the temple belongs, and they have the right of appointing the governors of the factory; the other cities which claim a share
in the building, claim what in no sense belongs to them. Three nations, however, consecrated for themselves separate temples – the Aeginetans one to Zeus, the Samians to Hera, and the Milesians to Apollo. [329]
179. In ancient times there was no factory but Naucratis in the whole of Egypt; and if a person entered one of the other mouths of the Nile, he was obliged to swear that he had not come there of his own free will. Having so done, he was bound to sail in his ship to the Canobic mouth, or, were that impossible owing to contrary winds, he must take his wares by boat all round the Delta, and so bring them to Naucratis, which had an exclusive privilege.
180. It happened in the reign of Amasis that the temple of Delphi had been accidentally burnt, [330] and the Amphictyons [331] had contracted to have it rebuilt for three hundred talents, of which sum one-fourth was to be furnished by the Delphians. Under these circumstances the Delphians went from city to city begging contributions, and among their other wanderings came to Egypt and asked for help. From few other places did they obtain so much – Amasis gave them a thousand talents of alum, [332] and the Greek settlers twenty minae. [333]
181. A league was concluded by Amasis with the Cyrenaeans, by which Cyrene and Egypt became close friends and allies. He likewise took a wife from that city, either as a sign of his friendly feeling, or because he had a fancy to marry a Greek woman. However this may be, certain it is that he espoused a lady of Cyrene, by name Ladice, daughter, some say, of Battus or Arcesilaüs, the king – others, of Critobulus, one of the chief citizens. When the time came to complete the contract, Amasis was struck with weakness. Astonished hereat – for he was not wont to he so afflicted – the king thus addressed his bride: ‘Woman, thou hast certainly bewitched me – now therefore be sure thou shalt perish more miserably than ever woman perished yet.’ Ladice protested her innocence, but in vain; Amasis was not softened. Hereupon she made a vow internally, that if he recovered within the day (for no longer time was allowed her), she would present a statue to the temple of Aphrodite at Cyrene. Immediately she obtained her wish, and the king’s weakness disappeared. Amasis loved her greatly ever after, and Ladice performed her vow. The statue which she caused to be made, and sent to Cyrene, continued there to my day, standing with its face looking outwards from the city. Ladice herself, when Cambyses conquered Egypt, suffered no wrong; for Cambyses, on learning of her who she was, sent her back unharmed to her country.
182. Besides the marks of favour already mentioned, Amasis also enriched with offerings many of the Greek temples. He sent to Cyrene a statue of Athene covered with plates of gold, [334] and a painted likeness [335] of himself. To the Athene of Lindus he gave two statues in stone, and a linen corslet [336] well worth inspection. To the Samian Hera he presented two statues of himself, made in wood, [337] which stood in the great temple to my day, behind the doors. Samos was honoured with these gifts on account of the bond of friendship subsisting between Amasis and Polycrates, the son of Aeaces: [338] Lindus, for no such reason, but because of the tradition that the daughters of Danaus [339] touched there in their flight from the sons of Aegyptus, and built the temple of Athene. Such were the offerings of Amasis. He likewise took Cyprus, which no man had ever done before, [340] and compelled it to pay him a tribute. [341]
Notes to Book Two
1. The date of the expedition of Cambyses against Egypt cannot be fixed with absolute certainty. BC 525, which is the date ordinarily received, is, on the whole, the most probable.
2. This affectation of extreme antiquity is strongly put by Plato in his Timaeus, where the Greek nation is taxed by the Egyptians with being in its infancy as compared with them. The Egyptian claims to a high relative antiquity had, no doubt, a solid basis of truth.
3. The name of Thebes is almost always written in the plural by the Greeks and Romans – Thebai, Thebae – but Pliny writes, ‘Thebe portarum centum nobilis fama’.
4. Heliopolis (‘City of the sun’) was the great seat of learning and the university of Egypt.
5. For instances of the reserve which Herodotus here promises see chapters 45, 46, 47, 48, 61, 62, 65, 81, 132, 170, and 171. The secrecy in matters of religion, which was no doubt enjoined upon Herodotus by the Egyptian priests, did not seem strange to a Greek, who was accustomed to it in the ‘mysteries’ of his own countrymen.
6. See i, 32, and note ad loc.
7. This at once proves they intercalated the quarter day, making their year to consist of 365 1/4 days, without which the seasons could not return to the same periods. The fact of Herodotus not understanding their method of intercalation does not argue that the Egyptians were ignorant of it.
8. According to the chronological tables of the Egyptians the gods were represented to have ruled first, and after them Menes; and the same is found recorded in the Turin Papyrus of Kings, as well as in Manetho and other writers.
9. Note, besides the improbability of such a change, the fact that Menes was the reputed founder of Memphis, which is far to the north of this lake; and that Busiris, near the coast (the reputed burial-place of Osiris), Buto, Pelusium and other towns of the Delta were admitted by the Egyptians to be of the earliest date.
10. See ch. 10.
11. Plinthine was a town near the Lake Mareotis.
12. The real length of the coast from the Bay of Plinthine at Taposiris, or at Plinthine, even to the eastern end of the Lake Serbonis, is by the shore little more than 300 English miles.
13. See Book v, note 69.
14. This would be more than 36,000 English feet, or nearly 7 miles. The Greek skhoinos (‘rope’), is the same word which signifies rush, of which ropes are still made in Egypt and in other countries.
15. Heliopolis stood on the edge of the desert, about 4 1/4 miles to the east of the apex of the Delta; but the alluvial land of the Delta extended 5 miles farther to the eastward of that city.
16. The altar of the twelve gods at Athens stood in the agora, and seems to have served, like the gilt pillar (milliarium aureum) in the Forum at Rome, as a central point from which to measure distances.
17. This mention of Pisa is curious, considering that it had been destroyed so long before (BC 572) by the Eleans (Pausanias VI, xxii, § 2), and that it had certainly not been rebuilt by the close of the Peloponnesian war. Probably Herodotus intends Olympia itself rather than the ancient town, which was six stades distant.
18. Fifteen hundred furlongs (stades), about equal to 173 English miles.
19. The site of Heliopolis is still marked by the massive walls that surrounded it, and by a granite obelisk bearing the name of Osirtasen I of the 12th dynasty, dating about 3900 years ago. It was one of two that stood before the entrance to the temple of the Sun.
20. The quarries from which the stone for the casing of the pyramids was taken are in that part of the modern El-Mokuttum range of hills called by Strabo the ‘Trojan mountain’, and now Gebel Mãsarah or Toora Mãsarah, from the two villages below them on the Nile.
21. That is, towards the Erythraean Sea, or Arabian Gulf.
22. That is, from Heliopolis southward, and he says it becomes broader again beyond that point. His 200 stadia are about 22 1/2 to 23 miles.
23. The nine days’ sail, which Herodotus reckons at 4860 stadia, would give about 552 English miles; but the distance is only about 421, even following the course of the river.
24. In some of these places the gain of the land upon the sea has been very great. This is particularly the case at the mouth of the Maeander, where the alluvial plain has advanced in the historic times a distance of 12 or 13 miles.
25. This signifies the natural branches of the Nile; and when seven are reckoned, they include the two artificial ones.
26. These islands, which still bear the same name among the educated Greeks, consist of two clusters, linked together by the barren and rugged Petalá.
27. That the Acheloüs in ancient times fo
rmed fresh land at its mouth with very great rapidity is certain, from the testimony of various writers besides Herodotus.
28. The Greeks generally did not give the name Erythraean, or Red Sea, to the Arabian Gulf, but to all that part of the Indian Ocean reaching from the Persian Gulf to India (as in ii, 102 and iv, 39). It was also applied to the Persian Gulf (i, 1, 180 and 89), and Herodotus sometimes gives it to the Arabian Gulf, and even the western branch between Mount Sinai and Egypt (ii, 158).
29. Herodotus is perfectly right in speaking of the tide in this gulf. At Suez it is from 5 to 6 feet but much less to the southward
30. The Mediterranean, called by the Arabs ‘the White Sea’ as well as ‘the North Sea’.
31. The only mountain where sand abounds is certainly the African range.
32. It is perfectly true that neither in soil nor climate is Egypt like any other country. The soil is, as Herodotus says, ‘black and crumbly’. The deposit of the Nile, when left on a rock and dried by the sun, resembles pottery in its appearance and by its fracture, from the silica it contains; but as long as it retains its moisture it has the appearance of clay, from its slimy and tenacious quality. It varies according to circumstances, sometimes being mixed with sand, but it is generally of a black colour, and Egypt is said to have been called hence ‘black’, from the prevailing character of its soil.