with the story which was told of Helen, adding this consideration,
namely that if Helen had been in Ilion she would have been given up to
the Hellenes, whether Alexander consented or no; for Priam assuredly was
not so mad, nor yet the others of his house, that they were desirous to
run risk of ruin for themselves and their children and their city, in
order that Alexander might have Helen as his wife: and even supposing
that during the first part of the time they had been so inclined, yet
when many others of the Trojans besides were losing their lives as
often as they fought with the Hellenes, and of the sons of Priam himself
always two or three or even more were slain when a battle took place (if
one may trust at all to the Epic poets),—when, I say, things were coming
thus to pass, I consider that even if Priam himself had had Helen as his
wife, he would have given her back to the Achaians, if at least by so
doing he might be freed from the evils which oppressed him. Nor even
was the kingdom coming to Alexander next, so that when Priam was old the
government was in his hands; but Hector, who was both older and more of
a man than he, would have received it after the death of Priam; and
him it behoved not to allow his brother to go on with his wrong-doing,
considering that great evils were coming to pass on his account both to
himself privately and in general to the other Trojans. In truth however
they lacked the power to give Helen back; and the Hellenes did not
believe them, though they spoke the truth; because, as I declare my
opinion, the divine power was purposing to cause them utterly to perish,
and so make it evident to men that for great wrongs great also are the
chastisements which come from the gods. And thus have I delivered my
opinion concerning these matters.
121. After Proteus, they told me, Rhampsinitos received in succession
the kingdom, who left as a memorial of himself that gateway to the
temple of Hephaistos which is turned towards the West, and in front of
the gateway he set up two statues, in height five-and-twenty cubits, of
which the one which stands on the North side is called by the Egyptians
Summer and the one on the South side Winter; and to that one which they
call Summer they do reverence and make offerings, while to the other
which is called Winter they do the opposite of these things. (a) This
king, they said, got great wealth of silver, which none of the kings
born after him could surpass or even come near to; and wishing to store
his wealth in safety he caused to be built a chamber of stone, one of
the walls whereof was towards the outside of his palace: and the builder
of this, having a design against it, contrived as follows, that is, he
disposed one of the stones in such a manner that it could be taken
out easily from the wall either by two men or even by one. So when the
chamber was finished, the king stored his money in it, and after some
time the builder, being near the end of his life, called to him his sons
(for he had two) and to them he related how he had contrived in building
the treasury of the king, and all in forethought for them, that they
might have ample means of living. And when he had clearly set forth to
them everything concerning the taking out of the stone, he gave them the
measurements, saying that if they paid heed to this matter they would be
stewards of the king's treasury. So he ended his life, and his sons made
no long delay in setting to work, but went to the palace by night, and
having found the stone in the wall of the chamber they dealt with it
easily and carried forth for themselves great quantity of the wealth
within. (b) And the king happening to open the chamber, he marvelled
when he saw the vessels falling short of the full amount, and he did not
know on whom he should lay the blame, since the seals were unbroken and
the chamber had been close shut; but when upon his opening the chamber
a second and a third time the money was each time seen to be diminished,
for the thieves did not slacken in their assaults upon it, he did as
follows:—having ordered traps to be made he set these round about the
vessels in which the money was; and when the thieves had come as at
former times and one of them had entered, then so soon as he came near
to one of the vessels he was straightway caught in the trap: and when he
perceived in what evil case he was, straightway calling his brother
he showed him what the matter was, and bade him enter as quickly as
possible and cut off his head, for fear lest being seen and known he
might bring about the destruction of his brother also. And to the other
it seemed that he spoke well, and he was persuaded and did so; and
fitting the stone into its place he departed home bearing with him the
head of his brother. (c) Now when it became day, the king entered into
the chamber and was very greatly amazed, seeing the body of the thief
held in the trap without his head, and the chamber unbroken, with no way
to come in or go out: and being at a loss he hung up the dead body of
the thief upon the wall and set guards there, with charge if they saw
any one weeping or bewailing himself to seize him and bring him before
the king. And when the dead body had been hung up, the mother was
greatly grieved, and speaking with the son who survived she enjoined
him, in whatever way he could, to contrive means by which he might
take down and bring home the body of his dead brother; and if he should
neglect to do this, she earnestly threatened that she would go and give
information to the king that he had the money. (d) So as the mother
dealt hardly with the surviving son, and he though saying many things
to her did not persuade her, he contrived for his purpose a device as
follows:—Providing himself with asses he filled some skins with wine and
laid them upon the asses, and after that he drove them along: and when
he came opposite to those who were guarding the corpse hung up, he drew
towards him two or three of the necks 102 of the skins and loosened the
cords with which they were tied. Then when the wine was running out,
he began to beat his head and cry out loudly, as if he did not know to
which of the asses he should first turn; and when the guards saw the
wine flowing out in streams, they ran together to the road with drinking
vessels in their hands and collected the wine that was poured out,
counting it so much gain; and he abused them all violently, making as if
he were angry, but when the guards tried to appease him, after a time
he feigned to be pacified and to abate his anger, and at length he drove
his asses out of the road and began to set their loads right. Then more
talk arose among them, and one or two of them made jests at him and
brought him to laugh with them; and in the end he made them a present of
one of the skins in addition to what they had. Upon that they lay down
there without more ado, being minded to drink, and they took him into
their company and invited him to remain with them and join them in their
drinking: so he (as may be supposed) was persuaded and stayed. Then as
they in their drinking bade him welcome in a friendly manner, he made
a present to them also of another of the skins; and so at length having
drunk liberally the guards became completely intoxicated; and being
overcome by sleep they went to bed on the spot where they had been
drinking. He then, as it was now far on in the night, first took down
the body of his brother, and then in mockery shaved the right cheeks of
all the guards; and after that he put the dead body upon the asses and
drove them away home, having accomplished that which was enjoined him by
his mother. (e) Upon this the king, when it was reported to him that the
dead body of the thief had been stolen away, displayed great anger; and
desiring by all means that it should be found out who it might be who
devised these things, did this (so at least they said, but I do not
believe the account),—he caused his own daughter to sit in the stews,
and enjoined her to receive all equally, and before having commerce with
any one to compel him to tell her what was the most cunning and what the
most unholy deed which had been done by him in all his life-time; and
whosoever should relate that which had happened about the thief, him she
must seize and not let him go out. Then as she was doing that which was
enjoined by her father, the thief, hearing for what purpose this was
done and having a desire to get the better of the king in resource,
did thus:—from the body of one lately dead he cut off the arm at the
shoulder and went with it under his mantle: and having gone in to the
daughter of the king, and being asked that which the others also were
asked, he related that he had done the most unholy deed when he cut off
the head of his brother, who had been caught in a trap in the king's
treasure-chamber, and the most cunning deed in that he made drunk the
guards and took down the dead body of his brother hanging up; and she
when she heard it tried to take hold of him, but the thief held out to
her in the darkness the arm of the corpse, which she grasped and held,
thinking that she was holding the arm of the man himself; but the thief
left it in her hands and departed, escaping through the door. (f) Now
when this also was reported to the king, he was at first amazed at the
ready invention and daring of the fellow, and then afterwards he sent
round to all the cities and made proclamation granting a free pardon to
the thief, and also promising a great reward if he would come into his
presence. The thief accordingly trusting to the proclamation came to
the king, and Rhampsinitos greatly marvelled at him, and gave him this
daughter of his to wife, counting him to be the most knowing of all men;
for as the Egyptians were distinguished from all other men, so was he
from the other Egyptians.
122. After these things they said this king went down alive to that
place which by the Hellenes is called Hades, and there played at dice
with Demeter, and in some throws he overcame her and in others he was
overcome by her; and he came back again having as a gift from her a
handkerchief of gold: and they told me that because of the going down of
Rhampsinitos the Egyptians after he came back celebrated a feast, which
I know of my own knowledge also that they still observe even to my time;
but whether it is for this cause that they keep the feast or for
some other, I am not able to say. However, the priests weave a robe
completely on the very day of the feast, and forthwith they bind up the
eyes of one of them with a fillet, and having led him with the robe to
the way by which one goes to the temple of Demeter, they depart back
again themselves. This priest, they say, with his eyes bound up is led
by two wolves to the temple of Demeter, which is distant from the city
twenty furlongs, and then afterwards the wolves lead him back again from
the temple to the same spot.
123. Now as to the tales told by the Egyptians, any man may accept them
to whom such things appear credible; as for me, it is to be understood
throughout the whole of the history 103 that I write by hearsay that
which is reported by the people in each place. The Egyptians say that
Demeter and Dionysos are rulers of the world below; and the Egyptians
are also the first who reported the doctrine that the soul of man is
immortal, and that when the body dies, the soul enters into another
creature which chances then to be coming to the birth, and when it has
gone the round of all the creatures of land and sea and of the air, it
enters again into a human body as it comes to the birth; and that it
makes this round in a period of three thousand years. This doctrine
certain Hellenes adopted, some earlier and some later, as if it were
of their own invention, and of these men I know the names but I abstain
from recording them.
124. Down to the time when Rhampsinitos was king, they told me there
was in Egypt nothing but orderly rule, and Egypt prospered greatly; but
after him Cheops became king over them and brought them 104 to every
kind of evil: for he shut up all the temples, and having first kept them
from sacrificing there, he then bade all the Egyptians work for him.
So some were appointed to draw stones from the stone-quarries in the
Arabian mountains to the Nile, and others he ordered to receive the
stones after they had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw
them to those which are called the Libyan mountains; and they worked by
a hundred thousand men at a time, for each three months continually. Of
this oppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by
which they drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a work
not much less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid; for the length
of it is five furlongs 105 and the breadth ten fathoms and the height,
where it is highest, eight fathoms, and it is made of stone smoothed
and with figures carved upon it. For this, they said, the ten years
were spent, and for the underground chambers on the hill upon which the
pyramids stand, which he caused to be made as sepulchral chambers for
himself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the Nile.
For the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty
years; and the pyramid is square, each side measuring eight hundred
feet, and the height of it is the same. It is built of stone smoothed
and fitted together in the most perfect manner, not one of the stones
being less than thirty feet in length.
125. This pyramid was made after the manner of steps, which some call
"rows" 106 and others "bases": 107 and when they had first made it thus,
they raised the remaining stones with machines made of short pieces of
timber, raising them first from the ground to the first stage of the
steps, and when the stone got up to this it was placed upon another
machine standing on the first stage, and so from this it was drawn to
the second upon another machine; for as many as were the courses of the
steps, so many machines there were also, or perhaps they transferred
one and the same machine, made so as easily to be carried, to each stage
successively, in order that they might take up the stones; for let it be
told in both ways, according as it is reported. However that may be, the
highest parts of it were finished first, and afterwards they proceeded
to finish that which came next to them, and lastly they finished the
parts of it near the ground and the lowest ranges. On the pyramid it is
declared in Egyptian writing how much was spent on radishes and onions
and leeks for the workmen, and if I rightly remember that which the
interpreter said in reading to me this inscription, a sum of one
thousand six hundred talents of silver was spent; and if this is so, how
much besides is likely to have been expended upon the iron with which
they worked, and upon bread and clothing for the workmen, seeing that
they were building the works for the time which has been mentioned and
were occupied for no small time besides, as I suppose, in the cutting
and bringing of the stones and in working at the excavation under the
ground?
126. Cheops moreover came, they said, to such a pitch of wickedness,
that being in want of money he caused his own daughter to sit in the
stews, and ordered her to obtain from those who came a certain amount of
money (how much it was they did not tell me); but she not only obtained
the sum appointed by her father, but also she formed a design for
herself privately to leave behind her a memorial, and she requested each
man who came in to her to give her one stone upon her building: and of
these stones, they told me, the pyramid was built which stands in front
of the great pyramid in the middle of the three, 108 each side being one
hundred and fifty feet in length.
127. This Cheops, the Egyptians said, reigned fifty years; and after
he was dead his brother Chephren succeeded to the kingdom. This king
followed the same manner as the other, both in all the rest and also in
that he made a pyramid, not indeed attaining to the measurements of that
which was built by the former (this I know, having myself also measured
it), and moreover 109 there are no underground chambers beneath nor does
a channel come from the Nile flowing to this one as to the other, in
which the water coming through a conduit built for it flows round an
island within, where they say that Cheops himself is laid: but for a
basement he built the first course of Ethiopian stone of divers colours;
and this pyramid he made forty feet lower than the other as regards
size, 110 building it close to the great pyramid. These stand both upon
the same hill, which is about a hundred feet high. And Chephren they
said reigned fifty and six years.
128. Here then they reckon one hundred and six years, during which they
say that there was nothing but evil for the Egyptians, and the temples
were kept closed and not opened during all that time. These kings the
Egyptians by reason of their hatred of them are not very willing to
name; nay, they even call the pyramids after the name of Philitis 111
the shepherd, who at that time pastured flocks in those regions.
129. After him, they said, Mykerinos became king over Egypt, who was the
son of Cheops; and to him his father's deeds were displeasing, and he
both opened the temples and gave liberty to the people, who were ground
down to the last extremity of evil, to return to their own business and
to their sacrifices;: also he gave decisions of their causes juster
than those of all the other kings besides. In regard to this then they
commend this king more than all the other kings who had arisen in Egypt
before him; for he not only gave good decisions, but also when a man
complained of the decision, he gave him recompense from his own goods
and thus satisfied his desire. But while Mykerinos was acting mercifully
to his subjects and practising this conduct which has been said,
calamities befell him, of which the first was this, namely that his
daughter died, the only child whom he had in his house: and being above
measure grieved by that which had befallen him, and desiring to bury his
daughter in a manner more remarkable than others, he made a cow of
wood, which he covered over with gold, and then within it he buried this
daughter who, as I said, had died.
130. This cow was not covered up in the ground, but it might be seen
even down to my own time in the city of Saïs, placed within the royal
palace in a chamber which was greatly adorned; and they offer incense of
all kinds before it every day, and each night a lamp burns beside it all
through the night. Near this cow in another chamber stand images of the
concubines of Mykerinos, as the priests at Saïs told me; for there are
in fact colossal wooden statues, in number about twenty, made with naked
bodies; but who they are I am not able to say, except only that which is
reported.
131. Some however tell about this cow and the colossal statues the
following tale, namely that Mykerinos was enamoured of his own daughter
and afterwards ravished her; and upon this they say that the girl
strangled herself for grief, and he buried her in this cow; and her
mother cut off the hands of the maids who had betrayed the daughter to
her father; wherefore now the images of them have suffered that which
the maids suffered in their life. In thus saying they speak idly, as it
seems to me, especially in what they say about the hands of the statues;
for as to this, even we ourselves saw that their hands had dropped off
from lapse of time, and they were to be seen still lying at their feet
even down to my time.
132. The cow is covered up with a crimson robe, except only the head and
the neck, which are seen, overlaid with gold very thickly; and between
the horns there is the disc of the sun figured in gold. The cow is not
standing up but kneeling, and in size it is equal to a large living cow.
Every year it is carried forth from the chamber, at those times, I say,
the Egyptians beat themselves for that god whom I will not name upon
occasion of such a matter; at these times, I say, they also carry forth
the cow to the light of day, for they say that she asked of her father
Mykerinos, when she was dying, that she might look upon the sun once in
the year.
133. After the misfortune of his daughter it happened, they said,
secondly to this king as follows:—An oracle came to him from the city
of Buto, saying that he was destined to live but six years more, in the
seventh year to end his life: and he being indignant at it sent to the
Oracle a reproach against the god, 112 making complaint in reply that
whereas his father and uncle, who had shut up the temples and had not
only not remembered the gods, but also had been destroyers of men, had
lived for a long time, he himself, who practised piety, was destined to
end his life so soon: and from the Oracle there came a second message,
which said that it was for this very cause that he was bringing his life
to a swift close; 113 for he had not done that which it was appointed
for him to do, since it was destined that Egypt should suffer evils for
a hundred and fifty years, and the two kings who had risen before him
had perceived this, but he had not. Mykerinos having heard this, and
considering that this sentence had been passed upon him beyond recall,
procured many lamps, and whenever night came on he lighted these and
began to drink and take his pleasure, ceasing neither by day nor
by night; and he went about to the fen-country and to the woods and
wherever he heard there were the most suitable places for enjoyment.
This he devised (having a mind to prove that the Oracle spoke falsely)
in order that he might have twelve years of life instead of six, the
nights being turned into days.
134. This king also left behind him a pyramid, much smaller than that of
his father, of a square shape and measuring on each side three hundred
feet lacking twenty, built moreover of Ethiopian stone up to half the
height. This pyramid some of the Hellenes say was built by the courtesan
Rhodopis, not therein speaking rightly: and besides this it is evident
to me that they who speak thus do not even know who Rhodopis was,
for otherwise they would not have attributed to her the building of a
pyramid like this, on which have been spent (so to speak) innumerable
thousands of talents: moreover they do not know that Rhodopis flourished
in the reign of Amasis, and not in this king's reign; for Rhodopis lived
very many years later than the kings who left behind the pyramids. By
descent she was of Thrace, and she was a slave of Iadmon the son of
Hephaistopolis a Samian, and a fellow-slave of Esop the maker of fables;
for he too was once the slave of Iadmon, as was proved especially
in this fact, namely that when the people of Delphi repeatedly made
proclamation in accordance with an oracle, to find some one who would
take up 114 the blood-money for the death of Esop, no one else appeared,
but at length the grandson of Iadmon, called Iadmon also, took it up;
and thus it is shown that Esop too was the slave of Iadmon.
135. As for Rhodopis, she came to Egypt brought by Xanthes the Samian,
and having come thither to exercise her calling she was redeemed
from slavery for a great sum by a man of Mytilene, Charaxos son of
Scamandronymos and brother of Sappho the lyric poet. Thus was Rhodopis
set free, and she remained in Egypt and by her beauty won so much liking
that she made great gain of money for one like Rhodopis, 115 though not
enough to suffice for the cost of such a pyramid as this. In truth there
is no need to ascribe to her very great riches, considering that the
tithe of her wealth may still be seen even to this time by any one
who desires it: for Rhodopis wished to leave behind her a memorial of
herself in Hellas, namely to cause a thing to be made such as happens
not to have been thought of or dedicated in a temple by any besides, and
to dedicate this at Delphi as a memorial of herself. Accordingly with
the tithe of her wealth she caused to be made spits of iron of size
large enough to pierce a whole ox, and many in number, going as far
therein as her tithe allowed her, and she sent them to Delphi: these
are even at the present time lying there, heaped all together behind the
altar which the Chians dedicated, and just opposite to the cell of the
temple. 116 Now at Naucratis, as it happens, the courtesans are rather
apt to win credit; 117 for this woman first, about whom the story to
which I refer is told, became so famous that all the Hellenes without
exception come to know the name of Rhodopis, and then after her one
whose name was Archidiche became a subject of song over all Hellas,
though she was less talked of than the other. As for Charaxos, when
after redeeming Rhodopis he returned back to Mytilene, Sappho in an ode
violently abused him. 118 Of Rhodopis then I shall say no more.