An Account of Egypt

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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 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.
However, to set it forth at greater length, thus it is:--the Sun passing
in his course by the upper parts of Libya, does thus, that is to say,
since at all times the air in those parts is clear and the country is
warm, because there are no cold winds, in passing through it the Sun
does just as he was wont to do in the summer, when going through the
midst of the heaven, that is he draws to himself the water, and having
drawn it he drives it away to the upper parts of the country, and the
winds take it up and scattering it abroad melt it into rain; so it is
natural that the winds which blow from this region, namely the South
and South-west Winds, should be much the most rainy of all the winds. I
think however that the Sun does not send away from himself all the water
of the Nile of each year, but that also he lets some remain behind with
himself. Then when the winter becomes milder, the Sun returns back again
to the midst of the heaven, and from that time onwards he draws equally
from all rivers; but in the meantime they flow in large volume, since
water of rain mingles with them in great quantity, because their country
receives rain then and is filled with torrent streams. In summer however
they are weak, since not only the showers of rain fail them, but also
they are drawn by the Sun. The Nile however, alone of all rivers, not
having rain and being drawn by the Sun, naturally flows during this time
of winter in much less than its proper volume, that is much less than in
summer; for then it is drawn equally with all the other waters, but in
winter it bears the burden alone. Thus I suppose the Sun to be the cause
of these things. He also is the cause in my opinion that the air in
these parts is dry, since he makes it so by scorching up his path
through the heaven: thus summer prevails always in the upper parts of
Libya. If however the station of the seasons had been changed, and where
now in the heaven are placed the North Wind and winter, there was the
station of the South Wind and of the midday, and where now is placed
the South Wind, there was the North, if this had been so, the Sun being
driven from the midst of the heaven by the winter and the North Wind
would go to the upper parts of Europe, just as now he comes to the upper
parts of Libya, and passing in his course throughout the whole of Europe
I suppose he would do to the Ister that which he now works upon the
Nile. As to the breeze, why none blows from the river, my opinion is
that from very hot places it is not natural that anything should blow,
and that a breeze is wont to blow from something cold.

Let these matters then be as they are and as they were at the first: but
as to the sources of the Nile, not one either of the Egyptians or of
the Libyans or of the Hellenes, who came to speech with me, professed to
know anything, except the scribe of the sacred treasury of Athene at the
city of Sais in Egypt. To me however this man seemed not to be speaking
seriously when he said that he had certain knowledge of it; and he said
as follows, namely that there were two mountains of which the tops ran
up to a sharp point, situated between the city of Syene, which is in
the district of Thebes, and Elephantine, and the names of the mountains
were, of the one Crophi and of the other Mophi. From the middle between
these mountains flowed (he said) the sources of the Nile, which were
fathomless in depth, and half of the water flowed to Egypt and towards
the North Wind, the other half to Ethiopia and the South Wind. As for
the fathomless depth of the source, he said that Psammetichos king of
Egypt came to a trial of this matter; for he had a rope twisted of many
thousand fathoms and let it down in this place, and it found no bottom.
By this the scribe (if this which he told was really as he said) gave me
to understand that there were certain strong eddies there and a backward
flow, and that since the water dashed against the mountains, therefore
the sounding-line could not come to any bottom when it was let down.
From no other person was I able to learn anything about this matter;
but for the rest I learnt so much as here follows by the most diligent
inquiry; for I went myself as an eye-witness as far as the city of
Elephantine and from that point onwards I gathered knowledge by report.
From the city of Elephantine as one goes up the river there is country
which slopes steeply; so that here one must attach ropes to the vessel
on both sides, as one fastens an ox, and so make one's way onward;
and if the rope break, the vessel is gone at once, carried away by the
violence of the stream. Through this country it is a voyage of about
four days in length, and in this part the Nile is winding like the river
Maiander, and the distance amounts to twelve _schoines_, which one must
traverse in this manner. Then you will come to a level plain, in which
the Nile flows round an island named Tachompso. (Now in the regions
above the Elephantine there dwell Ethiopians at once succeeding, who
also occupy half of the island, and Egyptians the other half.) Adjoining
this island there is a great lake, round which dwell Ethiopian nomad
tribes; and when you have sailed through this you will come to the
stream of the Nile again, which flows into this lake. After this you
will disembark and make a journey by land of forty days; for in the Nile
sharp rocks stand forth out of the water, and there are many reefs, by
which it is not possible for a vessel to pass. Then after having passed
through this country in the forty days which I have said, you will
embark again in another vessel and sail for twelve days; and after this
you will come to a great city called Meroe. This city is said to be
the mother-city of all the other Ethiopians: and they who dwell in it
reverence of the gods Zeus and Dionysos alone, and these they greatly
honour; and they have an Oracle of Zeus established, and make warlike
marches whensoever the god commands them by prophesyings and to
whatsoever place he commands. Sailing from this city you will come to
the "Deserters" in another period of time equal to that in which you
came from Elephantine to the mother-city of the Ethiopians. Now the
name of these "Deserters" is _Asmach_, and this word signifies, when
translated into the tongue of the Hellenes, "those who stand on the left
hand of the king." These were two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians
of the warrior class, who revolted and went over to these Ethiopians for
the following cause:--In the reign of Psammetichos garrisons were set,
one towards the Ethiopians at the city of Elephantine, another towards
the Arabians and Assyrians at Daphnai of Pelusion, and another towards
Libya at Marea: and even in my own time the garrisons of the Persians
too are ordered in the same manner as these were in the reign of
Psammetichos, for both at Elephantine and at Daphnai the Persians have
outposts. The Egyptians then of whom I speak had served as outposts for
three years and no one relieved them from their guard; accordingly they
took counsel together, and adopting a common plan they all in a body
revolted from Psammetichos and set out for Ethiopia. Hearing this
Psammetichos set forth in pursuit, and when he came up with them he
entreated them much and endeavoured to persuade them not to desert the
gods of their country and their children and wives: upon which it is
said that one of them pointed to his privy member and said that wherever
this was, there would they have both children and wives. When these came
to Ethiopia they gave themselves over to the king of the Ethiopians; and
he rewarded them as follows:--there were certain of the Ethiopians who
had come to be at variance with him; and he bade them drive these out
and dwell in their land. So since these men settled in the land of
the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians have come to be of milder manners, from
having learnt the customs of the Egyptians.

The Nile then, besides the part of its course which is in Egypt, is
known as far as a four months' journey by river and land: for that is
the number of months which are found by reckoning to be spent in going
from Elephantine to these "Deserters": and the river runs from the West
and the setting of the sun. But what comes after that point no one can
clearly say; for this land is desert by reason of the burning heat. This
much however I heard from men of Kyrene, who told me that they had been
to the Oracle of Ammon, and had come to speech with Etearchos king of
the Ammonians: and it happened that after speaking of other matters they
fell to discourse about the Nile and how no one knew the sources of it;
and Etearchos said that once there came to him men of the Nasamonians
(this is a Libyan race which dwells in the Syrtis, and also in the land
to the East of the Syrtis reaching to no great distance), and when the
Nasamonians came and were asked by him whether they were able to tell
him anything more than he knew about the desert parts of Libya, they
said that there had been among them certain sons of chief men, who were
of unruly disposition; and these when they grew up to be men had devised
various other extravagant things and also they had told off by lot five
of themselves to go to see the desert parts of Libya and to try
whether they could discover more than those who had previously explored
furthest: for in those parts of Libya which are by the Northern Sea,
beginning from Egypt and going as far as the headland of Soloeis, which
is the extreme point of Libya, Libyans (and of them many races) extend
along the whole coast, except so much as the Hellenes and Phenicians
hold; but in the upper parts, which lie above the sea-coast and above
those people whose land comes down to the sea, Libya is full of wild
beasts; and in the parts above the land of wild beasts it is full of
sand, terribly waterless and utterly desert. These young men then (said
they), being sent out by their companions well furnished with supplies
of water and provisions, went first through the inhabited country, and
after they had passed through this they came to the country of wild
beasts, and after this they passed through the desert, making their
journey towards the West Wind; and having passed through a great tract
of sand in many days, they saw at last trees growing in a level place;
and having come up to them, they were beginning to pluck the fruit which
was upon the trees: but as they began to pluck it, there came upon them
small men, of less stature than men of the common size, and these seized
them and carried them away; and neither could the Nasamonians understand
anything of their speech nor could those who were carrying them off
understand anything of the speech of the Nasamonians; and they led them
(so it was said) through very great swamps, and after passing through
these they came to a city in which all the men were in size like those
who carried them off and in colour of skin black; and by the city ran
a great river, which ran from the West towards the sunrising, and in it
were seen crocodiles. Of the account given by Etearchos the Ammonian let
so much suffice as is here said, except that, as the men of Kyrene told
me, he alleged that the Nasamonians returned safe home, and that the
people to whom they had come were all wizards. Now this river which ran
by the city, Etearchos conjectured to be the Nile, and moreover reason
compels us to think so; for the Nile flows from Libya and cuts Libya
through in the midst, and as I conjecture, judging of what is not known
by that which is evident to the view, it starts at a distance from its
mouth equal to that of the Ister: for the river Ister begins from the
Keltoi and the city of Pyrene and so runs that it divides Europe in the
midst (now the Keltoi are outside the Pillars of Heracles and border
upon the Kynesians, who dwell furthest towards the sunset of all those
who have their dwelling in Europe): and the Ister ends, having its
course through the whole of Europe, by flowing into the Euxine Sea at
the place where the Milesians have their settlement of Istria. Now the
Ister, since it flows through land which is inhabited, is known by
the reports of many; but of the sources of the Nile no one can give an
account, for the part of Libya through which it flows is uninhabited and
desert. About its course however so much as it was possible to learn by
the most diligent inquiry has been told; and it runs out into Egypt.
Now Egypt lies nearly opposite to the mountain districts of Kilikia; and
from thence to Sinope, which lies upon the Euxine Sea, is a journey in
the same straight line of five days for a man without encumbrance; and
Sinope lies opposite to the place where the Ister runs out into the sea:
thus I think that the Nile passes through the whole of Libya and is of
equal measure with the Ister.



Of the Nile then let so much suffice as has been said. Of Egypt however
I shall make my report at length, because it has wonders more in number
than any other land, and works too it has to show as much as any land,
which are beyond expression great: for this reason then more shall be
said concerning it.

The Egyptians in agreement with their climate, which is unlike any
other, and with the river, which shows a nature different from all other
rivers, established for themselves manners and customs in a way opposite
to other men in almost all matters: for among them the women frequent
the market and carry on trade, while the men remain at home and weave;
and whereas others weave pushing the woof upwards, the Egyptians push
it downwards: the men carry their burdens upon their heads and the
women upon their shoulders: the women make water standing up and the
men crouching down: they ease themselves in their houses and they eat
without in the streets, alleging as reason for this that it is right
to do secretly the things that are unseemly though necessary, but those
which are not unseemly, in public: no woman is a minister either of male
or female divinity, but men of all, both male and female: to support
their parents the sons are in no way compelled, if they do not desire
to do so, but the daughters are forced to do so, be they never so
unwilling. The priests of the gods in other lands wear long hair, but
in Egypt they shave their heads: among other men the custom is that in
mourning those whom the matter concerns most nearly have their hair cut
short, but the Egyptians, when deaths occur, let their hair grow long,
both that on the head and that on the chin, having before been close
shaven: other men have their daily living separated from beasts, but the
Egyptians have theirs together with beasts: other men live on wheat and
on barley, but to any one of the Egyptians who makes his living on these
it is a great reproach; they make their bread of maize, which some call
spelt: they knead dough with their feet and clay with their hands, with
which also they gather up dung: and whereas other men, except such as
have learnt otherwise from the Egyptians, have their members as nature
made them, the Egyptians practice circumcision: as to garments, the men
wear two each and the women but one: and whereas others make fast the
rings and ropes of the sails outside the ship, the Egyptians do this
inside: finally in the writing of characters and reckoning with pebbles,
while the Hellenes carry the hand from the left to the right, the
Egyptians do this from the right to the left; and doing so they say that
they do it themselves rightwise and the Hellenes leftwise: and they use
two kinds of characters for writing, of which the one kind is called
sacred and the other common.

They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard to
this they have customs as follows:--they drink from cups of bronze and
rinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they wear
garments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a special
point of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake of
cleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely. The priests
shave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice or
any other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister to
the gods; and the priests wear garments of linen only and sandals of
papyrus, and any other garment they may not take nor other sandals;
these wash themselves in cold water twice in a day and twice again in
the night; and other religious services they perform (one may almost
say) of infinite number. They enjoy also good things not a few, for they
do not consume or spend anything of their own substance, but there is
sacred bread baked for them and they have each great quantity of flesh
of oxen and geese coming in to them each day, and also wine of grapes is
given to them; but it is not permitted to them to taste of fish: beans
moreover the Egyptians do not at all sow in their land, and those which
they grow they neither eat raw nor boil for food; nay the priests do not
endure even to look upon them, thinking this to be an unclean kind of
pulse: and there is not one priest only for each of the gods but many,
and of them one is chief-priest, and whenever a priest dies his son is
appointed to his place.

The males of the ox kind they consider to belong to Epaphos, and on
account of him they test them in the following manner:--If the priest
sees one single black hair upon the beast he counts it not clean for
sacrifice; and one of the priests who is appointed for the purpose makes
investigation of these matters, both when the beast is standing upright
and when it is lying on its back, drawing out its tongue moreover, to
see if it is clean in respect of the appointed signs, which I shall tell
of in another part of the history: he looks also at the hairs of the
tail to see if it has them growing in a natural manner; and if it
be clean in respect of all these things, he marks it with a piece of
papyrus, rolling this round the horns, and then when he has plastered
sealing-earth over it he sets upon it the seal of his signet-ring, and
after that they take the animal away. But for one who sacrifices a beast
not sealed the penalty appointed is death. In this way then the beast
is tested; and their appointed manner of sacrifice is as follows:--they
lead the sealed beast to the altar where they happen to be sacrificing,
and then kindle a fire: after that, having poured libations of wine over
the altar so that it runs down upon the victim and having called upon
the god, they cut its throat, and having cut its throat they sever the
head from the body. The body then of the beast they flay, but upon the
head they make many imprecations first, and then they who have a market
and Hellenes sojourning among them for trade, these carry it to the
market-place and sell it, while they who have no Hellenes among them
cast it away into the river: and this is the form of imprecations which
they utter upon the heads, praying that if any evil be about to befall
either themselves who are offering sacrifice or the land of Egypt in
general, it may come rather upon this head. Now as regards the heads of
the beasts which are sacrificed and the pouring over them of the
wine, all the Egyptians have the same customs equally for all their
sacrifices; and by reason of this custom none of the Egyptians eat of
the head either of this or of any other kind of animal: but the manner
of disembowelling the victims and of burning them is appointed among
them differently for different sacrifices; I shall speak however of the
sacrifices to that goddess whom they regard as the greatest of all, and
to whom they celebrate the greatest feast.--When they have flayed the
bullock and made imprecation, they take out the whole of its lower
entrails but leave in the body the upper entrails and the fat; and they
sever from it the legs and the end of the loin and the shoulders and the
neck: and this done, they fill the rest of the body of the animal with
consecrated loaves and honey and raisins and figs and frankincense and
myrrh and every other kind of spices, and having filled it with these
they offer it, pouring over it great abundance of oil. They make their
sacrifice after fasting, and while the offerings are being burnt, they
all beat themselves for mourning, and when they have finished beating
themselves they set forth as a feast that which they left unburnt of the
sacrifice. The clean males then of the ox kind, both full-grown animals
and calves, are sacrificed by all the Egyptians; the females however
they may not sacrifice, but these are sacred to Isis; for the figure of
Isis is in the form of a woman with cow's horns, just as the Hellenes
present Io in pictures, and all the Egyptians without distinction
reverence cows far more than any other kind of cattle; for which reason
neither man nor woman of the Egyptian race would kiss a man who is a
Hellene on the mouth, nor will they use a knife or roasting-spits or
a caldron belonging to a Hellene, nor taste the flesh even of a clean
animal if it has been cut with the knife of a Hellene. And the cattle of
this kind which die they bury in the following manner:--the females they
cast into the river, but the males they bury, each people in the suburb
of their town, with one of the horns, or sometimes both, protruding to
mark the place; and when the bodies have rotted away and the appointed
time comes on, then to each city comes a boat from that which is called
the island of Prosopitis (this is in the Delta, and the extent of its
circuit is nine _schoines_). In this island of Prosopitis is situated,
besides many other cities, that one from which the boats come to take up
the bones of the oxen, and the name of the city is Atarbechis, and in
it there is set up a holy temple of Aphrodite. From this city many go
abroad in various directions, some to one city and others to another,
and when they have dug up the bones of the oxen they carry them off, and
coming together they bury them in one single place. In the same manner
as they bury the oxen they bury also their other cattle when they die;
for about them also they have the same law laid down, and these also
they abstain from killing.

Now all who have a temple set up to the Theban Zeus or who are of the
district of Thebes, these, I say, all sacrifice goats and abstain from
sheep: for not all the Egyptians equally reverence the same gods,
except only Isis and Osiris (who they say is Dionysos), these they all
reverence alike: but they who have a temple of Mendes or belong to the
Mendesian district, these abstain from goats and sacrifice sheep. Now
the men of Thebes and those who after their example abstain from sheep,
say that this custom was established among them for the cause which
follows:--Heracles (they say) had an earnest desire to see Zeus, and
Zeus did not desire to be seen of him; and at last when Heracles was
urgent in entreaty Zeus contrived this device, that is to say, he flayed
a ram and held in front of him the head of the ram which he had cut off,
and he put on over him the fleece and then showed himself to him. Hence
the Egyptians make the image of Zeus with the face of a ram; and the
Ammonians do so also after their example, being settlers both from
the Egyptians and from the Ethiopians, and using a language which is a
medley of both tongues: and in my opinion it is from this god that the
Egyptians call Zeus _Amun_. The Thebans then do not sacrifice rams but
hold them sacred for this reason; on one day however in the year, on the
feast of Zeus, they cut up in the same manner and flay one single ram
and cover with its skin the image of Zeus, and then they bring up to
it another image of Heracles. This done, all who are in the temple beat
themselves in lamentation for the ram, and then they bury it in a sacred
tomb.

About Heracles I heard the account given that he was of the number of
the twelve gods; but of the other Heracles whom the Hellenes know I was
not able to hear in any part of Egypt: and moreover to prove that the
Egyptians did not take the name of Heracles from the Hellenes, but
rather the Hellenes from the Egyptians,--that is to say those of the
Hellenes who gave the name Heracles to the son of Amphitryon,--of that,
I say, besides many other evidences there is chiefly this, namely that
the parents of this Heracles, Amphitryon and Alcmene, were both of Egypt
by descent, and also that the Egyptians say that they do not know
the names either of Poseidon or of the Dioscuroi, nor have these been
accepted by them as gods among the other gods; whereas if they had
received from the Hellenes the name of any divinity, they would
naturally have preserved the memory of these most of all, assuming that
in those times as now some of the Hellenes were wont to make voyages
and were seafaring folk, as I suppose and as my judgment compels me to
think; so that the Egyptians would have learnt the names of these gods
even more than that of Heracles. In fact however Heracles is a very
ancient Egyptian god; and (as they say themselves) it is seventeen
thousand years to the beginning of the reign of Amasis from the time
when the twelve gods, of whom they count that Heracles is one, were
begotten of the eight gods. I moreover, desiring to know something
certain of these matters so far as might be, made a voyage also to
Tyre of Phenicia, hearing that in that place there was a holy temple
of Heracles; and I saw that it was richly furnished with many votive
offerings besides, and especially there were in it two pillars, the one
of pure gold and the other of an emerald stone of such size as to shine
by night: and having come to speech with the priests of the god, I asked
them how long a time it was since their temple had been set up: and
these also I found to be at variance with the Hellenes, for they said
that at the same time when Tyre was founded, the temple of the god also
had been set up, and that it was a period of two thousand three hundred
years since their people began to dwell at Tyre. I saw also at Tyre
another temple of Heracles, with the surname Thasian; and I came
to Thasos also and there I found a temple of Heracles set up by the
Phenicians, who had sailed out to seek for Europa and had colonised
Thasos; and these things happened full five generations of men before
Heracles the son of Amphitryon was born in Hellas. So then my inquiries
show clearly that Heracles is an ancient god, and those of the Hellenes
seem to me to act most rightly who have two temples of Heracles set
up, and who sacrifice to the one as an immortal god and with the
title Olympian, and make offerings of the dead to the other as a hero.
Moreover, besides many other stories which the Hellenes tell without
due consideration, this tale is especially foolish which they tell about
Heracles, namely that when he came to Egypt, the Egyptians put on him
wreaths and led him forth in procession to sacrifice him to Zeus; and he
for some time kept quiet, but when they were beginning the sacrifice of
him at the altar, he betook himself to prowess and slew them all. I for
my part am of opinion that the Hellenes when they tell this tale are
altogether without knowledge of the nature and customs of the Egyptians;
for how should they for whom it is not lawful to sacrifice even beasts,
except swine and the males of oxen and calves (such of them as are
clean) and geese, how should these sacrifice human beings? Besides this,
how is it in nature possible that Heracles, being one person only and
moreover a man (as they assert), should slay many myriads? Having said
so much of these matters, we pray that we may have grace from both the
gods and the heroes for our speech.