bred in the lakes, and they do as follows:--When there comes upon them
the desire to breed, they swim out in shoals towards the sea; and the
males lead the way shedding forth their milt as they go, while the
females, coming after and swallowing it up, from it become impregnated:
and when they have become full of young in the sea they swim up back
again, each shoal to its own haunts. The same however no longer lead the
way as before, but the lead comes now to the females, and they leading
the way in shoals do just as the males did, that is to say they shed
forth their eggs by a few grains at a time, and the males coming after
swallow them up. Now these grains are fish, and from the grains which
survive and are not swallowed, the fish grow which afterwards are bred
up. Now those of the fish which are caught as they swim out towards the
sea are found to be rubbed on the left side of the head, but those which
are caught as they swim up again are rubbed on the right side. This
happens to them because as they swim down to the sea they keep close to
the land on the left side of the river, and again as they swim up they
keep to the same side, approaching and touching the bank as much as they
can, for fear doubtless of straying from their course by reason of the
stream. When the Nile begins to swell, the hollow places of the land
and the depressions by the side of the river first begin to fill, as the
water soaks through from the river, and so soon as they become full of
water, at once they are all filled with little fishes; and whence
these are in all likelihood produced, I think that I perceive. In the
preceding year, when the Nile goes down, the fish first lay eggs in the
mud and then retire with the last of the retreating waters; and when
the time comes round again, and the water once more comes over the land,
from these eggs forthwith are produced the fishes of which I speak.
Thus it is as regards the fish. And for anointing those of the Egyptians
who dwell in the fens use oil from the castor-berry, which oil the
Egyptians call _kiki_, and thus they do:--they sow along the banks
of the rivers and pools these plants, which in a wild form grow of
themselves in the land of the Hellenes; these are sown in Egypt and
produce berries in great quantity but of an evil smell; and when they
have gathered these some cut them up and press the oil from them, others
again roast them first and then boil them down and collect that which
runs away from them. The oil is fat and not less suitable for burning
than olive-oil, but it gives forth a disagreeable smell. Against the
gnats, which are very abundant, they have contrived as follows:--those
who dwell above the fen-land are helped by the towers, to which they
ascend when they go to rest; for the gnats by reason of the winds
are not able to fly up high: but those who dwell in the fenland have
contrived another way instead of the towers, and this it is:--every man
of them has got a casting net, with which by day he catches fish, but
in the night he uses it for this purpose, that is to say he puts the
casting-net round about the bed in which he sleeps, and then creeps in
under it and goes to sleep: and the gnats, if he sleeps rolled up in a
garment or a linen sheet, bite through these, but through the net they
do not even attempt to bite.
Their boats with which they carry cargoes are made of the thorny acacia,
of which the form is very like that of the Kyrenian lotos, and that
which exudes from it is gum. From this tree they cut pieces of wood
about two cubits in length and arrange them like bricks, fastening
the boat together by running a great number of long bolts through the
two-cubits pieces; and when they have thus fastened the boat together,
they lay cross-pieces over the top, using no ribs for the sides; and
within they caulk the seams with papyrus. They make one steering-oar for
it, which is passed through the bottom of the boat; and they have a mast
of acacia and sails of papyrus. These boats cannot sail up the river
unless there be a very fresh wind blowing, but are towed from the shore:
down-stream however they travel as follows:--they have a door-shaped
crate made of tamarisk wood and reed mats sewn together, and also a
stone of about two talents weight bored with a hole; and of these the
boatman lets the crate float on in front of the boat, fastened with a
rope, and the stone drags behind by another rope. The crate then, as the
force of the stream presses upon it, goes on swiftly and draws on the
_baris_ (for so these boats are called), while the stone dragging after
it behind and sunk deep in the water keeps its course straight. These
boats they have in great numbers and some of them carry many thousands
of talents' burden.
When the Nile comes over the land, the cities alone are seen rising
above the water, resembling more nearly than anything else the islands
in the Egean Sea; for the rest of Egypt becomes a sea and the cities
alone rise above water. Accordingly, whenever this happens, they pass
by water not now by the channels of the river but over the midst of
the plain: for example, as one sails up from Naucratis to Memphis the
passage is then close by the pyramids, whereas the usual passage is not
the same even here, but goes by the point of the Delta and the city of
Kercasoros; while if you sail over the plain to Naucratis from the sea
and from Canobos, you will go by Anthylla and the city called after
Archander. Of these Anthylla is a city of note and is especially
assigned to the wife of him who reigns over Egypt, to supply her with
sandals, (this is the case since the time when Egypt came to be
under the Persians): the other city seems to me to have its name from
Archander the son-in-law of Danaos, who was the son of Phthios, the son
of Achaios; for it is called the City of Archander. There might indeed
by another Archander, but in any case the name is not Egyptian.
*****
Hitherto my own observation and judgment and inquiry are the vouchers
for that which I have said; but from this point onwards I am about to
tell the history of Egypt according to that which I have heard, to which
will be added also something of that which I have myself seen.
Of Min, who first became king of Egypt, the priests said that on the
one hand he banked off the site of Memphis from the river: for the whole
stream of the river used to flow along by the sandy mountain-range on
the side of Libya, but Min formed by embankments that bend of the river
which lies to the South about a hundred furlongs above Memphis, and thus
he dried up the old stream and conducted the river so that it flowed in
the middle between the mountains: and even now this bend of the Nile is
by the Persians kept under very careful watch, that it may flow in the
channel to which it is confined, and the bank is repaired every year;
for if the river should break through and overflow in this direction,
Memphis would be in danger of being overwhelmed by flood. When this Min,
who first became king, had made into dry land the part which was dammed
off, on the one hand, I say, he founded in it that city which is now
called Memphis; for Memphis too is in the narrow part of Egypt;
and outside the city he dug round it on the North and West a lake
communicating with the river, for the side towards the East is barred by
the Nile itself. Then secondly he established in the city the temple of
Hephaistos a great work and most worthy of mention. After this man the
priests enumerated to me from a papyrus roll the names of other kings,
three hundred and thirty in number; and in all these generations of men
eighteen were Ethiopians, one was a woman, a native Egyptian, and
the rest were men and of Egyptian race: and the name of the woman who
reigned was the same as that of the Babylonian queen, namely Nitocris.
Of her they said that desiring to take vengeance for her brother, whom
the Egyptians had slain when he was their king and then, after having
slain him, had given his kingdom to her,--desiring, I say, to take
vengeance for him, she destroyed by craft many of the Egyptians. For she
caused to be constructed a very large chamber under ground, and making
as though she would handsel it but in her mind devising other things,
she invited those of the Egyptians whom she knew to have had most part
in the murder, and gave a great banquet. Then while they were feasting,
she let in the river upon them by a secret conduit of large size. Of
her they told no more than this, except that, when this had been
accomplished, she threw herself into a room full of embers, in order
that she might escape vengeance. As for the other kings, they could tell
me of no great works which had been produced by them, and they said that
they had no renown except only the last of them, Moiris: he (they
said) produced as a memorial of himself the gateway of the temple of
Hephaistos which is turned towards the North Wind, and dug a lake, about
which I shall set forth afterwards how many furlongs of circuit it has,
and in it built pyramids of the size which I shall mention at the same
time when I speak of the lake itself. He, they said, produced these
works, but of the rest none produced any.
Therefore passing these by I will make mention of the king who came
after these, whose name is Sesostris. He (the priests said) first of all
set out with ships of war from the Arabian gulf and subdued those who
dwelt by the shores of the Erythraian Sea, until as he sailed he came
to a sea which could no further be navigated by reason of shoals: then
secondly, after he had returned to Egypt, according to the report of the
priests he took a great army and marched over the continent, subduing
every nation which stood in his way: and those of them whom he found
valiant and fighting desperately for their freedom, in their lands he
set up pillars which told by inscriptions his own name and the name of
his country, and how he had subdued them by his power; but as to those
of whose cities he obtained possession without fighting or with ease, on
their pillars he inscribed words after the same tenor as he did for the
nations which had shown themselves courageous, and in addition he drew
upon them the hidden parts of a woman, desiring to signify by this that
the people were cowards and effeminate. Thus doing he traversed the
continent, until at last he passed over to Europe from Asia and subdued
the Scythians and also the Thracians. These, I am of opinion, were the
furthest people to which the Egyptian army came, for in their country
the pillars are found to have been set up, but in the land beyond this
they are no longer found. From this point he turned and began to go
back; and when he came to the river Phasis, what happened then I cannot
say for certain, whether the king Sesostris himself divided off a
certain portion of his army and left the men there as settlers in
the land, or whether some of his soldiers were wearied by his distant
marches and remained by the river Phasis. For the people of Colchis are
evidently Egyptian, and this I perceived for myself before I heard it
from others. So when I had come to consider the matter I asked them
both; and the Colchians had remembrance of the Egyptians more than the
Egyptians of the Colchians; but the Egyptians said they believed that
the Colchians were a portion of the army of Sesostris. That this was
so I conjectured myself not only because they are dark-skinned and have
curly hair (this of itself amounts to nothing, for there are other races
which are so), but also still more because the Colchians, Egyptians,
and Ethiopians alone of all the races of men have practised circumcision
from the first. The Phenicians and the Syrians who dwell in Palestine
confess themselves that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and
the Syrians about the river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the
Macronians, who are their neighbors, say that they have learnt it
lately from the Colchians. These are the only races of men who practise
circumcision, and these evidently practise it in the same manner as the
Egyptians. Of the Egyptians themselves however and the Ethiopians, I
am not able to say which learnt from the other, for undoubtedly it is a
most ancient custom; but that the other nations learnt it by intercourse
with the Egyptians, this among others is to me a strong proof, namely
that those of the Phenicians who have intercourse with Hellas cease
to follow the example of the Egyptians in this matter, and do not
circumcise their children. Now let me tell another thing about the
Colchians to show how they resemble the Egyptians:--they alone work flax
in the same fashion as the Egyptians, and the two nations are like one
another in their whole manner of living and also in their language: now
the linen of Colchis is called by the Hellenes Sardonic, whereas that
from Egypt is called Egyptian. The pillars which Sesostris king of Egypt
set up in the various countries are for the most part no longer to be
seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself saw them existing with the
inscription upon them which I have mentioned and the emblem. Moreover
in Ionia there are two figures of this man carved upon rocks, one on
the road by which one goes from the land of Ephesos to Phocaia, and the
other on the road from Sardis to Smyrna. In each place there is a figure
of a man cut in the rock, of four cubits and a span in height, holding
in his right hand a spear and in his left a bow and arrows, and the
other equipment which he has is similar to this, for it is both Egyptian
and Ethiopian: and from the one shoulder to the other across the breast
runs an inscription carved in sacred Egyptian characters, saying thus,
"This land with my shoulders I won for myself." But who he is and from
whence, he does not declare in these places, though in other places he
had declared this. Some of those who have seen these carvings conjecture
that the figure is that of Memnon, but herein they are very far from the
truth.
As this Egyptian Sesostris was returning and bringing back many men of
the nations whose lands he had subdued, when he came (said the priests)
to Daphnai in the district of Pelusion on his journey home, his brother
to whom Sesostris had entrusted the charge of Egypt invited him and
with him his sons to a feast; and then he piled the house round with
brushwood and set it on fire: and Sesostris when he discovered this
forthwith took counsel with his wife, for he was bringing with him (they
said) his wife also; and she counselled him to lay out upon the pyre two
of his sons, which were six in number, and so to make a bridge over
the burning mass, and that they passing over their bodies should thus
escape. This, they said, Sesostris did, and two of his sons were burnt
to death in this manner, but the rest got away safe with their father.
Then Sesostris, having returned to Egypt and having taken vengeance on
his brother employed the multitude which he had brought in of those
whose lands he had subdued, as follows:--these were they who drew the
stones which in the reign of this king were brought to the temple of
Hephaistos, being of very good size; and also these were compelled to
dig all the channels which now are in Egypt; and thus (having no such
purpose) they caused Egypt, which before was all fit for riding and
driving, to be no longer fit for this from thenceforth: for from that
time forward Egypt, though it is plain land, has become all unfit for
riding and driving, and the cause has been these channels, which are
many and run in all directions. But the reason why the king cut up
the land was this, namely because those of the Egyptians who had their
cities not on the river but in the middle of the country, being in want
of water when the river went down from them, found their drink brackish
because they had it from wells. For this reason Egypt was cut up: and
they said that this king distributed the land to all the Egyptians,
giving an equal square portion to each man, and from this he made his
revenue, having appointed them to pay a certain rent every year: and
if the river should take away anything from any man's portion, he would
come to the king and declare that which had happened, and the king used
to send men to examine and to find out by measurement how much less the
piece of land had become, in order that for the future the man might pay
less, in proportion to the rent appointed: and I think that thus the art
of geometry was found out and afterwards came into Hellas also. For as
touching the sun-dial and the gnomon and the twelve divisions of the
day, they were learnt by the Hellenes from the Babylonians. He moreover
alone of all the Egyptian kings had rule over Ethiopia; and he left
as memorials of himself in front of the temple of Hephaistos two stone
statues of thirty cubits each, representing himself and his wife,
and others of twenty cubits each representing his four sons: and long
afterwards the priest of Hephaistos refused to permit Dareios the
Persian to set up a statue of himself in front of them, saying that
deeds had not been done by him equal to those which were done by
Sesostris the Egyptian; for Sesostris had subdued other nations besides,
not fewer than he, and also the Scythians; but Dareios had not been able
to conquer the Scythians: wherefore it was not just that he should set
up a statue in front of those which Sesostris had dedicated, if he did
not surpass him in his deeds. Which speech, they say, Dareios took in
good part.
Now after Sesostris had brought his life to an end, his son Pheros,
they told me, received in succession the kingdom, and he made no warlike
expedition, and moreover it chanced to him to become blind by reason of
the following accident:--when the river had come down in flood rising to
a height of eighteen cubits, higher than ever before that time, and had
gone over the fields, a wind fell upon it and the river became agitated
by waves: and this king (they say) moved by presumptuous folly took
a spear and cast it into the midst of the eddies of the stream; and
immediately upon this he had a disease of the eyes and was by it made
blind. For ten years then he was blind, and in the eleventh year there
came to him an oracle from the city of Buto saying that the time of his
punishment had expired, and that he should see again if he washed his
eyes with the water of a woman who had accompanied with her own husband
only and had not had knowledge of other men: and first he made trial of
his own wife, and then, as he continued blind, he went on to try all the
women in turn; and when he had at least regained his sight he gathered
together all the women of whom he had made trial, excepting her by
whose means he had regained his sight, to one city which now is named
Erythrabolos, and having gathered them to this he consumed them all by
fire, as well as the city itself; but as for her by whose means he
had regained his sight, he had her himself to wife. Then after he had
escaped the malady of his eyes he dedicated offerings at each one of the
temples which were of renown, and especially (to mention only that which
is most worthy of mention) he dedicated at the temple of the Sun works
which are worth seeing, namely two obelisks of stone, each of a single
block, measuring in length a hundred cubits each one and in breadth
eight cubits.
After him, they said, there succeeded to the throne a man of Memphis,
whose name in the tongue of the Hellenes was Proteus; for whom there is
now a sacred enclosure at Memphis, very fair and well ordered, lying on
that side of the temple of Hephaistos which faces the North Wind. Round
about this enclosure dwell Phenicians of Tyre, and this whole region is
called the Camp of the Tyrians. Within the enclosure of Proteus there
is a temple called the temple of the "foreign Aphrodite," which temple
I conjecture to be one of Helen the daughter of Tyndareus, not only
because I have heard the tale how Helen dwelt with Proteus, but also
especially because it is called by the name of the "foreign Aphrodite,"
for the other temples of Aphrodite which there are have none of them the
addition of the word "foreign" to the name.
And the priests told me, when I inquired, that the things concerning
Helen happened thus:--Alexander having carried off Helen was sailing
away from Sparta to his own land, and when he had come to the Egean Sea
contrary winds drove him from his course to the Sea of Egypt; and after
that, since the blasts did not cease to blow, he came to Egypt itself,
and in Egypt to that which is now named the Canobic mouth of the Nile
and to Taricheiai. Now there was upon the shore, as still there is now,
a temple of Heracles, in which if any man's slave take refuge and have
the sacred marks set upon him, giving himself over to the god, it is
not lawful to lay hands upon him; but this custom has continued still
unchanged from the beginning down to my own time. Accordingly the
attendants of Alexander, having heard of the custom which existed about
the temple, ran away from him, and sitting down as suppliants of the
god, accused Alexander, because they desired to do him hurt, telling
the whole tale how things were about Helen and about the wrong done to
Menalaos; and this accusation they made not only to the priests but also
to the warden of this river-mouth, whose name was Thonis. Thonis then
having heard their tale sent forthwith a message to Proteus at Memphis,
which said as follows: "There hath come a stranger, a Teucrian by race,
who hath done in Hellas an unholy deed; for he hath deceived the wife
of his own host, and is come hither bringing with him this woman herself
and very much wealth, having been carried out of his way by winds to thy
land. Shall we then allow him to sail out unharmed, or shall we first
take away from him that which he brought with him?" In reply to this
Proteus sent back a messenger who said thus: "Seize this man, whosoever
he may be, who has done impiety to his own host, and bring him away into
my presence that I may know what he will find to say." Hearing this,
Thonis seized Alexander and detained his ships, and after that he
brought the man himself up to Memphis and with him Helen and the wealth
he had, and also in addition to them the suppliants. So when all had
been conveyed up thither, Proteus began to ask Alexander who he was and
from whence he was voyaging; and he both recounted to him his descent
and told him the name of his native land, and moreover related of his
voyage, from whence he was sailing. After this Proteus asked him whence
he had taken Helen; and when Alexander went astray in his account and did
not speak the truth, those who had become suppliants convicted him of
falsehood, relating in full the whole tale of the wrong done. At length
Proteus declared to them this sentence, saying, "Were it not that I
count it a matter of great moment not to slay any of those strangers who
being driven from their course by winds have come to my land hitherto,
I should have taken vengeance on thee on behalf of the man of
Hellas, seeing that thou, most base of men, having received from him
hospitality, didst work against him a most impious deed. For thou didst
go in to the wife of thine own host; and even this was not enough for
thee, but thou didst stir her up with desire and hast gone away with her
like a thief. Moreover not even this by itself was enough for thee, but
thou art come hither with plunder taken from the house of thy host. Now
therefore depart, seeing that I have counted it of great moment not to
be a slayer of strangers. This woman indeed and the wealth which thou
hast I will not allow thee to carry away, but I shall keep them safe for
the Hellene who was thy host, until he come himself and desire to carry
them off to his home; to thyself however and thy fellow-voyagers I
proclaim that ye depart from your anchoring within three days and go
from my land to some other; and if not, that ye will be dealt with as
enemies."
This the priests said was the manner of Helen's coming to Proteus; and
I suppose that Homer also had heard this story, but since it was not so
suitable to the composition of his poem as the other which he followed,
he dismissed it finally, making it clear at the same time that he was
acquainted with that story also: and according to the manner in which he
described the wanderings of Alexander in the Iliad (nor did he elsewhere
retract that which he had said) of his course, wandering to various
lands, and that he came among other places to Sidon in Phenicia. Of this
the poet has made mention in the "prowess of Diomede," and the verses
run thus:
"There she had robes many-coloured, the works of women of Sidon,
Those whom her son himself the god-like of form Alexander
Carried from Sidon, what time the broad sea-path he sailed over
Bringing back Helene home, of a noble father begotten."
And in the Odyssey also he has made mention of it in these verses:
"Such had the daughter of Zeus, such drugs of exquisite cunning,
Good, which to her the wife of Thon, Polydamna, had given,
Dwelling in Egypt, the land where the bountiful meadow produces
Drugs more than all lands else, many good being mixed, many evil."
And thus too Menelaos says to Telemachos:
"Still the gods stayed me in Egypt, to come back hither desiring,
Stayed me from voyaging home, since sacrifice due I performed not."
In these lines he makes it clear that he knew of the wanderings of
Alexander to Egypt, for Syria borders upon Egypt and the Phenicians, of
whom is Sidon, dwell in Syria. By these lines and by this passage it is
also most clearly shown that the "Cyprian Epic" was not written by Homer
but by some other man: for in this it is said that on the third day
after leaving Sparta Alexander came to Ilion bringing with him Helen,
having had a "gently-blowing wind and a smooth sea," whereas in the
Iliad it says that he wandered from his course when he brought her.