many Editors, may be right; but {nomos} seems to mean the "customary
rule" which determines this form of sacrifice, the rule namely of "swift
to the swift."]
BOOK II. THE SECOND BOOK OF THE HISTORIES, CALLED EUTERPE
1. When Cyrus had brought his life to an end, Cambyses received the
royal power in succession, being the son of Cyrus and of Cassandane the
daughter of Pharnaspes, for whose death, which came about before his
own, Cyrus had made great mourning himself and also had proclaimed to
all those over whom he bore rule that they should make mourning for her:
Cambyses, I say, being the son of this woman and of Cyrus, regarded
the Ionians and Aiolians as slaves inherited from his father; and he
proceeded to march an army against Egypt, taking with him as helpers not
only the other nations of which he was the ruler, but also those of the
Hellenes over whom he had power besides.
2. Now the Egyptians, before the time when Psammetichos 1 became king
over them, were wont to suppose that they had come into being first of
all men; but since the time when Psammetichos having become king desired
to know what men had come into being first, they suppose that the
Phrygians came into being before themselves, but they themselves before
all other men. Now Psammetichos, when he was not able by inquiry to
find out any means of knowing who had come into being first of all men,
contrived a device of the following kind:—Taking two new-born children
belonging to persons of the common sort he gave them to a shepherd to
bring up at the place where his flocks were, with a manner of bringing
up such as I shall say, charging him namely that no man should utter any
word in their presence, and that they should be placed by themselves in
a room where none might come, and at the proper time he should bring to
them she-goats, and when he had satisfied them with milk he should do
for them whatever else was needed. These things Psammetichos did and
gave him this charge wishing to hear what word the children would let
break forth first, after they had ceased from wailings without sense.
And accordingly so it came to pass; for after a space of two years had
gone by, during which the shepherd went on acting so, at length, when
he opened the door and entered, both the children fell before him in
entreaty and uttered the word bekos, stretching forth their hands. At
first when he heard this the shepherd kept silence; but since this word
was often repeated, as he visited them constantly and attended to them,
at last he declared the matter to his master, and at his command he
brought the children before his face. Then Psammetichos having himself
also heard it, began to inquire about what nation of men named anything
bekos, and inquiring he found that the Phrygians had this name for
bread. In this manner and guided by an indication such as this, the
Egyptians were brought to allow that the Phrygians were a more ancient
people than themselves.
3. That so it came to pass I heard from the priests of that Hephaistos
who dwells at Memphis; 2 but the Hellenes relate, besides many other
idle tales, that Psammetichos cut out the tongues of certain women, and
then caused the children to live with these women.
With regard then to the rearing of the children they related so much as
I have said: and I heard also other things at Memphis when I had speech
with the priests of Hephaistos. Moreover I visited both Thebes and
Heliopolis 3 for this very cause, namely because I wished to know
whether the priests at these places would agree in their accounts with
those at Memphis; for the men of Heliopolis are said to be the most
learned in records of the Egyptians. Those of their narrations which I
heard with regard to the gods I am not earnest to relate in full, but
I shall name them only, 4 because I consider that all men are equally
ignorant of these matters: 5 and whatever things of them I may record, I
shall record only because I am compelled by the course of the story.
4. But as to those matters which concern men, the priests agreed with
one another in saying that the Egyptians were the first of all men on
earth to find out the course of the year, having divided the seasons
into twelve parts to make up the whole; and this they said they found
out from the stars: and they reckon to this extent more wisely than
the Hellenes, as it seems to me, inasmuch as the Hellenes throw in an
intercalated month every other year, to make the seasons right, whereas
the Egyptians, reckoning the twelve months at thirty days each, bring
in also every year five days beyond the number, and thus the circle of
their seasons is completed and comes round to the same point whence
it set out. They said moreover that the Egyptians were the first who
brought into use appellations for the twelve gods and the Hellenes took
up the use from them; and that they were the first who assigned altars
and images and temples to the gods, and who engraved figures on stones;
and with regard to the greater number of these things they showed me by
actual facts that they had happened so. They said also that the first
man 6 who became king of Egypt was Min; 7 and that in his time all Egypt
except the district of Thebes 8 was a swamp, and none of the regions
were then above water which now lie below the lake of Moiris, to which
lake it is a voyage of seven days up the river from the sea:
5, and I thought that they said well about the land; for it is manifest
in truth even to a person who has not heard it beforehand but has only
seen, at least if he have understanding, that the Egypt to which the
Hellenes come in ships is a land which has been won by the Egyptians as
an addition, and that it is a gift of the river: moreover the regions
which lie above this lake also for a distance of three days' sail, about
which they did not go on to say anything of this kind, are nevertheless
another instance of the same thing: for the nature of the land of Egypt
is as follows:—First when you are still approaching it in a ship and are
distant a day's run from the land, if you let down a sounding-line you
will bring up mud and will find yourself in eleven fathoms. This then so
far shows that there is a silting forward of the land.
6. Then secondly, as to Egypt itself, the extent of it along the sea is
sixty schoines, according to our definition of Egypt as extending from
the Gulf of Plinthine to the Serbonian lake, along which stretches Mount
Casion; from this lake then 9 the sixty schoines are reckoned: for those
of men who are poor in land have their country measured by fathoms,
those who are less poor by furlongs, those who have much land by
parasangs, and those who have land in very great abundance by schoines:
now the parasang is equal to thirty furlongs, and each schoine, which
is an Egyptian measure, is equal to sixty furlongs. So there would be
an extent of three thousand six hundred furlongs for the coast-land of
Egypt. 10
7. From thence and as far as Heliopolis inland Egypt is broad, and the
land is all flat and without springs of water 11 and formed of mud: and
the road as one goes inland from the sea to Heliopolis is about the
same in length as that which leads from the altar of the twelve gods at
Athens to Pisa and the temple of Olympian Zeus: reckoning up you would
find the difference very small by which these roads fail of being equal
in length, not more indeed than fifteen furlongs; for the road from
Athens to Pisa wants fifteen furlongs of being fifteen hundred, while
the road to Heliopolis from the sea reaches that number completely.
8. From Heliopolis however, as you go up, Egypt is narrow; for on the
one side a mountain-range belonging to Arabia stretches along by the
side of it, going in a direction from North towards the midday and the
South Wind, tending upwards without a break to that which is called the
Erythraian Sea, in which range are the stone-quarries which were used
in cutting stone for the pyramids at Memphis. On this side then the
mountain ends where I have said, and then takes a turn back; 12 and
where it is widest, as I was informed, it is a journey of two months
across from East to West; and the borders of it which turn towards the
East are said to produce frankincense. Such then is the nature of this
mountain-range; and on the side of Egypt towards Libya another range
extends, rocky and enveloped in sand: in this are the pyramids, and it
runs in the same direction as those parts of the Arabian mountains which
go towards the midday. So then, I say, from Heliopolis the land has no
longer a great extent so far as it belongs to Egypt, 13 and for about
four 14 days' sail up the river Egypt properly so called is narrow:
and the space between the mountain-ranges which have been mentioned is
plain-land, but where it is narrowest it did not seem to me to exceed
two hundred furlongs from the Arabian mountains to those which are
called the Libyan. After this again Egypt is broad.
9. Such is the nature of this land: and from Heliopolis to Thebes is
a voyage up the river of nine days, and the distance of the journey in
furlongs is four thousand eight hundred and sixty, the number of the
schoines being eighty-one. If these measures of Egypt in furlongs be put
together the result is as follows:—I have already before this shown
that the distance along the sea amounts to three thousand six hundred
furlongs, and I will now declare what the distance is inland from the
sea to Thebes, namely six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs: and
again the distance from Thebes to the city called Elephantine is one
thousand eight hundred furlongs.
10. Of this land then, concerning which I have spoken, it seemed to
myself also, according as the priests said, that the greater part had
been won as an addition by the Egyptians; for it was evident to me that
the space between the aforesaid mountain-ranges, which lie above the
city of Memphis, once was a gulf of the sea, like the regions about
Ilion and Teuthrania and Ephesos and the plain of the Maiander, if it
be permitted to compare small things with great; and small these are in
comparison, for of the rivers which heaped up the soil in those regions
none is worthy to be compared in volume with a single one of the mouths
of the Nile, which has five mouths. 15 Moreover there are other rivers
also, not in size at all equal to the Nile, which have performed great
feats; of which I can mention the names of several, and especially the
Acheloös, which flowing through Acarnania and so issuing out into the
sea has already made half of the Echinades from islands into mainland.
11. Now there is in the land of Arabia, not far from Egypt, a gulf of
the sea running in from that which is called the Erythraian Sea, very
long and narrow, as I am about to tell. With respect to the length of
the voyage along it, one who set out from the innermost point to sail
out through it into the open sea, would spend forty days upon the
voyage, using oars; 16 and with respect to breadth, where the gulf is
broadest it is half a day's sail across: and there is in it an ebb and
flow of tide every day. Just such another gulf I suppose that Egypt was,
and that the one ran in towards Ethiopia from the Northern Sea, and the
other, the Arabian, of which I am about to speak, 17 tended from the
South towards Syria, the gulfs boring in so as almost to meet at their
extreme points, and passing by one another with but a small space left
between. If then the stream of the Nile should turn aside into this
Arabian gulf, what would hinder that gulf from being filled up with silt
as the river continued to flow, at all events within a period of twenty
thousand years? indeed for my part I am of opinion that it would be
filled up even within ten thousand years. How, then, in 18 all the time
that has elapsed before I came into being should not a gulf be filled up
even of much greater size than this by a river so great and so active?
12. As regards Egypt then, I both believe those who say that things
are so, and for myself also I am strongly of opinion that they are so;
because I have observed that Egypt runs out into the sea further than
the adjoining land, and that shells are found upon the mountains of it,
and an efflorescence of salt forms upon the surface, so that even
the pyramids are being eaten away by it, and moreover that of all the
mountains of Egypt, the range which lies above Memphis is the only one
which has sand: besides which I notice that Egypt resembles neither the
land of Arabia, which borders upon it, nor Libya, nor yet Syria (for
they are Syrians who dwell in the parts of Arabia lying along the sea),
but that it has soil which is black and easily breaks up, 19 seeing that
it is in truth mud and silt brought down from Ethiopia by the river: but
the soil of Libya, we know, is reddish in colour and rather sandy, while
that of Arabia and Syria is somewhat clayey and rocky. 1901
13. The priests also gave me a strong proof concerning this land as
follows, namely that in the reign of king Moiris, whenever the river
reached a height of at least eight cubits 20 it watered Egypt below
Memphis; and not yet nine hundred years had gone by since the death of
Moiris, when I heard these things from the priests: now however, unless
the river rises to sixteen cubits, or fifteen at the least, it does not
go over the land. I think too that those Egyptians who dwell below the
lake of Moiris and especially in that region which is called the Delta,
if that land continues to grow in height according to this proportion
and to increase similarly in extent, 21 will suffer for all remaining
time, from the Nile not overflowing their land, that same thing which
they themselves said that the Hellenes would at some time suffer: for
hearing that the whole land of the Hellenes has rain and is not watered
by rivers as theirs is, they said that the Hellenes would at some time
be disappointed of a great hope and would suffer the ills of famine.
This saying means that if the god 22 shall not send them rain, but shall
allow drought to prevail for a long time, the Hellenes will be destroyed
by hunger; for they have in fact no other supply of water to save them
except from Zeus alone.
14. This has been rightly said by the Egyptians with reference to
the Hellenes: but now let me tell how matters are with the Egyptians
themselves in their turn. If, in accordance with what I before said,
their land below Memphis (for this is that which is increasing) shall
continue to increase in height according to the same proportion as in
past time, assuredly those Egyptians who dwell here will suffer famine,
if their land shall not have rain nor the river be able to go over their
fields. It is certain however that now they gather in fruit from the
earth with less labour than any other men and also with less than the
other Egyptians; for they have no labour in breaking up furrows with a
plough nor in hoeing nor in any other of those labours which other men
have about a crop; but when the river has come up of itself and watered
their fields and after watering has left them again, then each man sows
his own field and turns into it swine, and when he has trodden the
seed into the ground by means of the swine, after that he waits for the
harvest; and when he has threshed the corn by means of the swine, then
he gathers it in.
15. If we desire to follow the opinions of the Ionians as regards Egypt,
who say that the Delta alone is Egypt, reckoning its sea-coast to be
from the watch-tower called of Perseus to the fish-curing houses of
Pelusion, a distance of forty schoines, and counting it to extend inland
as far as the city of Kercasoros, where the Nile divides and runs to
Pelusion and Canobos, while as for the rest of Egypt, they assign it
partly to Libya and partly to Arabia,—if, I say, we should follow this
account, we should thereby declare that in former times the Egyptians
had no land to live in; for, as we have seen, their Delta at any rate
is alluvial, and has appeared (so to speak) lately, as the Egyptians
themselves say and as my opinion is. If then at the first there was no
land for them to live in, why did they waste their labour to prove that
they had come into being before all other men? They needed not to have
made trial of the children to see what language they would first utter.
However I am not of opinion that the Egyptians came into being at the
same time as that which is called by the Ionians the Delta, but that
they existed always ever since the human race came into being, and that
as their land advanced forwards, many of them were left in their first
abodes and many came down gradually to the lower parts. At least it is
certain that in old times Thebes had the name of Egypt, and of this 23
the circumference measures six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs.
16. If then we judge aright of these matters, the opinion of the Ionians
about Egypt is not sound: but if the judgment of the Ionians is right, I
declare that neither the Hellenes nor the Ionians themselves know how
to reckon since they say that the whole earth is made up of three
divisions, Europe, Asia, and Libya: for they ought to count in addition
to these the Delta of Egypt, since it belongs neither to Asia nor to
Libya; for at least it cannot be the river Nile by this reckoning which
divides Asia from Libya, 24 but the Nile is cleft at the point of this
Delta so as to flow round it, and the result is that this land would
come between Asia and Libya. 25
17. We dismiss then the opinion of the Ionians, and express a judgment
of our own in this matter also, that Egypt is all that land which is
inhabited by Egyptians, just as Kilikia is that which is inhabited by
Kilikians and Assyria that which is inhabited by Assyrians, and we
know of no boundary properly speaking between Asia and Libya except
the borders of Egypt. If however we shall adopt the opinion which is
commonly held by the Hellenes, we shall suppose that the whole of Egypt,
beginning from the Cataract 26 and the city of Elephantine, is divided
into two parts and that it thus partakes of both the names, since one
side will thus belong to Libya and the other to Asia; for the Nile from
the Cataract onwards flows to the sea cutting Egypt through the midst;
and as far as the city of Kercasoros the Nile flows in one single
stream, but from this city onwards it is parted into three ways; and
one, which is called the Pelusian mouth, turns towards the East; the
second of the ways goes towards the West, and this is called the Canobic
mouth; but that one of the ways which is straight runs thus,—when the
river in its course downwards comes to the point of the Delta, then it
cuts the Delta through the midst and so issues out to the sea. In this
we have 27 a portion of the water of the river which is not the smallest
nor the least famous, and it is called the Sebennytic mouth. There are
also two other mouths which part off from the Sebennytic and go to
the sea, and these are called, one the Saïtic, the other the Mendesian
mouth. The Bolbitinitic and Bucolic mouths, on the other hand, are not
natural but made by digging.
18. Moreover also the answer given by the Oracle of Ammon bears witness
in support of my opinion that Egypt is of the extent which I declare it
to be in my account; and of this answer I heard after I had formed my
own opinion about Egypt. For those of the city of Marea and of Apis,
dwelling in the parts of Egypt which border on Libya, being of opinion
themselves that they were Libyans and not Egyptians, and also being
burdened by the rules of religious service, because they desired not to
be debarred from the use of cows' flesh, sent to Ammon saying that they
had nought in common with the Egyptians, for they dwelt outside the
Delta and agreed with them in nothing; and they said they desired that
it might be lawful for them to eat everything without distinction. The
god however did not permit them to do so, but said that that land which
was Egypt which the Nile came over and watered, and that those were
Egyptians who dwelling below the city of Elephantine drank of that
river. Thus it was answered to them by the Oracle about this:
19, and the Nile, when it is in flood, goes over not only the Delta
but also of the land which is called Libyan and of that which is called
Arabian sometimes as much as two days' journey on each side, and at
times even more than this or at times less.
As regards the nature of the river, neither from the priests nor
yet from any other man was I able to obtain any knowledge: and I was
desirous especially to learn from them about these matters, namely
why the Nile comes down increasing in volume from the summer solstice
onwards for a hundred days, and then, when it has reached the number of
these days, turns and goes back, failing in its stream, so that through
the whole winter season it continues to be low, and until the summer
solstice returns. Of none of these things was I able to receive any
account from the Egyptians, when I inquired of them what power the Nile
has whereby it is of a nature opposite to that of other rivers. And
I made inquiry, desiring to know both this which I say and also why,
unlike all other rivers, it does not give rise to any breezes blowing
from it.
20. However some of the Hellenes who desired to gain distinction for
cleverness have given an account of this water in three different ways:
two of these I do not think it worth while even to speak of except only
to indicate their nature; of which the one says that the Etesian Winds
are the cause that makes the river rise, by preventing the Nile from
flowing out into the sea. But often the Etesian Winds fail and yet the
Nile does the same work as it is wont to do; and moreover, if these were
the cause, all the other rivers also which flow in a direction opposed
to the Etesian Winds ought to have been affected in the same way as the
Nile, and even more, in as much as they are smaller and present to them
a feebler flow of stream: but there are many of these rivers in Syria
and many also in Libya, and they are affected in no such manner as the
Nile.
21. The second way shows more ignorance than that which has been
mentioned, and it is more marvellous to tell; 28 for it says that the
river produces these effects because it flows from the Ocean, and that
the Ocean flows round the whole earth.
22. The third of the ways is much the most specious, but nevertheless it
is the most mistaken of all: for indeed this way has no more truth in
it than the rest, alleging as it does that the Nile flows from melting
snow; whereas it flows out of Libya through the midst of the Ethiopians,
and so comes out into Egypt. How then should it flow from snow, when it
flows from the hottest parts to those which are cooler? And indeed most
of the facts are such as to convince a man (one at least who is capable
of reasoning about such matters), that it is not at all likely that it
flows from snow. 29 The first and greatest evidence is afforded by the
winds, which blow hot from these regions; the second is that the land
is rainless always and without frost, whereas after snow has fallen rain
must necessarily come within five days, so that if it snowed in those
parts rain would fall there; the third evidence is afforded by the
people dwelling there, who are of a black colour by reason of the
burning heat. Moreover kites and swallows remain there through the year
and do not leave the land; and cranes flying from the cold weather which
comes on in the region of Scythia come regularly to these parts for
wintering: if then it snowed ever so little in that land through which
the Nile flows and in which it has its rise, none of these things would
take place, as necessity compels us to admit.
23. As for him who talked about the Ocean, he carried his tale into the
region of the unknown, and so he need not be refuted; 30 since I for my
part know of no river Ocean existing, but I think that Homer or one of
the poets who were before him invented the name and introduced it into
his verse.
24. If however after I have found fault with the opinions proposed, I
am bound to declare an opinion of my own about the matters which are in
doubt, I will tell what to my mind is the reason why the Nile increases
in the summer. In the winter season the Sun, being driven away from
his former path through the heaven 31 by the stormy winds, comes to the
upper parts of Libya. If one would set forth the matter in the shortest
way, all has now been said; for whatever region this god approaches most
and stands directly above, this it may reasonably be supposed is most in
want of water, and its native streams of rivers are dried up most.