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-cubit pieces; and when they have thus fastened the boat together,
they lay cross-pieces 81 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 drag 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.
97. 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, 82 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.
98. 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 be another
Archander, but in any case the name is not Egyptian.
99. 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 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, 83 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; 84
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.
100. 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.
101. 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 85
except only the last of them, Moris: 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.
102. Therefore passing these by I shall make mention of the king who
came after these, whose name was 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 86 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.
103. 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 87 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.
104. 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 88 who dwell in Palestine confess themselves
that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and the Syrians 89 about
the river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the Macronians, who
are their neighbours, 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.
105. 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, 90 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.
106. The pillars which Sesostris 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 has 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.
107. 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.
108. 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 great 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.
109. 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 91
and the gnomon 92 and the twelve divisions of the day, they were learnt
by the Hellenes from the Babylonians.
110. 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.
111. 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 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 last 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, 93 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.
112. 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. 94 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.
113. 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; and 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
Menelaos; and this accusation they made not only to the priests but also
to the warden of this river-mouth, whose name was Thonis.
114. 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. 95 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."
115. 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."
116. 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, 96 making it clear at the same time
that he was acquainted with that story also: and according to the manner
in which he described 97 the wanderings of Alexander in the Iliad (nor
did he elsewhere retract that which he had said) it is clear that when
he brought Helen he was carried out 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 this: 98
"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: 99
"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: 100
"Still the gods stayed me in Egypt, to come back hither desiring,
Stayed me from voyaging home, since sacrifice was due I performed not."
In these lines he makes it clear that he knew of the wandering of
Alexander to Egypt, for Syria borders upon Egypt and the Phenicians, of
whom is Sidon, dwell in Syria.
117. By these lines and by this passage 101 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.
118. Let us now leave Homer and the "Cyprian" Epic; but this I will say,
namely that I asked the priests whether it is but an idle tale which
the Hellenes tell of that which they say happened about Ilion; and they
answered me thus, saying that they had their knowledge by inquiries from
Menelaos himself. After the rape of Helen there came indeed, they said,
to the Teucrian land a large army of Hellenes to help Menelaos; and
when the army had come out of the ships to land and had pitched its
camp there, they sent messengers to Ilion, with whom went also Menelaos
himself; and when these entered within the wall they demanded back Helen
and the wealth which Alexander had stolen from Menelaos and had taken
away; and moreover they demanded satisfaction for the wrongs done: and
the Teucrians told the same tale then and afterwards, both with oath and
without oath, namely that in deed and in truth they had not Helen nor
the wealth for which demand was made, but that both were in Egypt; and
that they could not justly be compelled to give satisfaction for that
which Proteus the king of Egypt had. The Hellenes however thought that
they were being mocked by them and besieged the city, until at last they
took it; and when they had taken the wall and did not find Helen, but
heard the same tale as before, then they believed the former tale and
sent Menelaos himself to Proteus.
119. And Menelaos having come to Egypt and having sailed up to Memphis,
told the truth of these matters, and not only found great entertainment,
but also received Helen unhurt, and all his own wealth besides. Then
however, after he had been thus dealt with, Menelaos showed himself
ungrateful to the Egyptians; for when he set forth to sail away,
contrary winds detained him, and as this condition of things lasted
long, he devised an impious deed; for he took two children of natives
and made sacrifice of them. After this, when it was known that he had
done so, he became abhorred, and being pursued he escaped and got away
in his ships to Libya; but whither he went besides after this, the
Egyptians were not able to tell. Of these things they said that they
found out part by inquiries, and the rest, namely that which happened in
their own land, they related from sure and certain knowledge.