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.