An Account of Egypt

H >> Herodotus >> An Account of Egypt


Now the reason why those of the Egyptians whom I have mentioned do not
sacrifice goats, female or male, is this:--the Mendesians count Pan to
be one of the eight gods (now these eight gods they say came into being
before the twelve gods), and the painters and image-makers represent in
painting and in sculpture the figure of Pan, just as the Hellenes do,
with goat's face and legs, not supposing him to be really like this but
to resemble the other gods; the cause however why they represent him in
this form I prefer not to say. The Mendesians then reverence all goats
and the males more than the females (and the goatherds too have
greater honour than other herdsmen), but of the goats one especially
is reverenced, and when he dies there is great mourning in all the
Mendesian district: and both the goat and Pan are called in the Egyptian
tongue _Mendes_. Moreover in my lifetime there happened in that district
this marvel, that is to say a he-goat had intercourse with a woman
publicly, and this was so done that all men might have evidence of it.

The pig is accounted by the Egyptians an abominable animal; and first,
if any of them in passing by touch a pig, he goes into the river and
dips himself forthwith in the water together with his garments; and then
too swineherds, though they may be native Egyptians, unlike all others,
do not enter any of the temples in Egypt, nor is anyone willing to give
his daughter in marriage to one of them or to take a wife from among
them; but the swineherds both give in marriage to one another and take
from one another. Now to the other gods the Egyptians do not think it
right to sacrifice swine; but to the Moon and to Dionysos alone at the
same time and on the same full-moon they sacrifice swine, and then eat
their flesh: and as to the reason why, when they abominate swine at all
their other feasts, they sacrifice them at this, there is a story told
by the Egyptians; and this story I know, but it is not a seemly one for
me to tell. Now the sacrifice of the swine to the Moon is performed as
follows:--when the priest has slain the victim, he puts together the
end of the tail and the spleen and the caul, and covers them up with the
whole of the fat of the animal which is about the paunch, and then he
offers them with fire; and the rest of the flesh they eat on that day of
full moon upon which they have held sacrifice, but on any day after this
they will not taste of it: the poor however among them by reason of the
scantiness of their means shape pigs of dough and having baked them they
offer these as a sacrifice. Then for Dionysos on the eve of the festival
each one kills a pig by cutting its throat before his own doors, and
after that he gives the pig to the swineherd who sold it to him, to
carry away again; and the rest of the feast of Dionysos is celebrated
by the Egyptians in the same way as by the Hellenes in almost all things
except choral dances, but instead of the _phallos_ they have invented
another contrivance, namely figures of about a cubit in height worked
by strings, which women carry about the villages, with the privy member
made to move and not much less in size than the rest of the body: and a
flute goes before and they follow singing the praises of Dionysos. As
to the reason why the figure has this member larger than is natural and
moves it, though it moves no other part of the body, about this there is
a sacred story told. Now I think that Melampus the son of Amytheon was
not without knowledge of these rites of sacrifice, but was acquainted
with them: for Melampus is he who first set forth to the Hellenes the
name of Dionysos and the manner of sacrifice and the procession of the
_phallos_. Strictly speaking indeed, he when he made it known did not
take in the whole, but those wise men who came after him made it known
more at large. Melampus then is he who taught of the _phallos_ which is
carried in procession for Dionysos, and from him the Hellenes learnt to
do that which they do. I say then that Melampus being a man of ability
contrived for himself an art of divination, and having learnt from Egypt
he taught the Hellenes many things, and among them those that concern
Dionysos, making changes in some few points of them: for I shall not say
that that which is done in worship of the god in Egypt came accidentally
to be the same with that which is done among the Hellenes, for then
these rites would have been in character with the Hellenic worship and
not lately brought in; nor certainly shall I say that the Egyptians took
from the Hellenes either this or any other customary observance: matters
concerning Dionysos from Cadmos the Tyrian and from those who came with
him from Phenicia to the land which we now call Boeotia.

Moreover the naming of almost all the gods has come to Hellas from
Egypt: for that it has come from the Barbarians I find by inquiry is
true, and I am of opinion that most probably it has come from Egypt,
because, except in the case of Poseidon and the Dioscuroi (in accordance
with that which I have said before), and also of Hera and Hestia and
Themis and the Charites and Nereids, the Egyptians say themselves: but
as for the gods whose names they profess that they do not know, these I
think received their naming from the Pelasgians, except Poiseidon;
but about this god the Hellenes learnt from the Libyans, for no people
except the Libyans have had the name of Poseidon from the first and have
paid honour to this god always. Nor, it may be added, have the Egyptians
any custom of worshipping heroes. These observances then, and others
besides these which I shall mention, the Hellenes have adopted from
the Egyptians; but to make, as they do the images of Hermes with
the _phallos_ they have learnt not from the Egyptians but from the
Pelasgians, the custom having been received by the Athenians first of
all the Hellenes and from these by the rest; for just at the time when
the Athenians were beginning to rank among the Hellenes, the Pelasgians
became dwellers with them in their land, and from this very cause it was
that they began to be counted as Hellenes. Whosoever has been initiated
in the mysteries of the Cabeiroi, which the Samothrakians perform having
received them from the Pelasgians, that man knows the meaning of my
speech; for these very Pelasgians who became dwellers with the Athenians
used to dwell before that time in Samothrake, and from them the
Samothrakians received their mysteries. So then the Athenians were the
first of the Hellenes who made the images of Hermes with the _phallos_,
having learnt from the Pelasgians; and the Pelasgians told a sacred
story about it, which is set forth in the mysteries in Samothrake. Now
the Pelasgians formerly were wont to make all their sacrifices calling
upon the gods in prayer, as I know from that which I heard at Dodona,
but they gave no title or name to any of them, for they had not yet
heard any, but they called them gods from some such notion as this,
that they had set in order all things and so had the distribution of
everything. Afterwards when much time had elapsed, they learnt from
Egypt the names of the gods, all except Dionysos, for his name they
learnt long afterwards; and after a time the Pelasgians consulted the
Oracle at Dodona about the names, for this prophetic seat is accounted
to be the most ancient of the Oracles which are among the Hellenes,
and at that time it was the only one. So when the Pelasgians asked the
Oracle at Dodona whether they should adopt the names which had come from
the Barbarians, the Oracle in reply bade them make use of the names.
From this time they sacrificed using the names of the gods, and from the
Pelasgians the Hellenes afterwards received them: but when the several
gods had their birth, or whether they all were from the beginning, and
of what form they are, they did not learn till yesterday, as it were, or
the day before: for Hesiod and Homer I suppose were four hundred years
before my time and not more, and these are they who made a theogony for
the Hellenes and gave the titles to the gods and distributed to them
honours and arts, and set forth their forms: but the poets who are said
to have been before these men were really in my opinion after them. Of
these things the first are said by the priestesses of Dodona, and the
latter things, those namely which have regard to Hesiod and Homer, by
myself.

As regards the Oracles both that among the Hellenes and that in Libya,
the Egyptians tell the following tale. The priests of the Theban Zeus
told me that two women in the service of the temple had been carried
away from Thebes by Phenicians, and that they had heard that one of them
had been sold to go into Libya and the other to the Hellenes; and these
women, they said, were they who first founded the prophetic seats among
the nations which have been named: and when I inquired whence they knew
so perfectly of this tale which they told, they said in reply that a
great search had been made by the priests after these women, and that
they had not been able to find them, but they had heard afterwards this
tale about them which they were telling. This I heard from the priests
at Thebes, and what follows is said by the prophetesses of Dodona. They
say that two black doves flew from Thebes in Egypt, and came one of them
to Libya and the other to their land. And this latter settled upon an
oak-tree and spoke with human voice, saying that it was necessary that
a prophetic seat of Zeus should be established in that place; and they
supposed that that was of the gods which was announced to them, and made
one accordingly: and the dove which went away to the Libyans, they say,
bade the Libyans make an Oracle of Ammon; and this also is of Zeus. The
priestesses of Dodona told me these things, of whom the eldest was named
Promeneia, the next after her Timarete, and the youngest Nicandra;
and the other people of Dodona who were engaged about the temple gave
accounts agreeing with theirs. I however have an opinion about the
matter as follows:--If the Phenicians did in truth carry away the
consecrated women and sold one of them into Libya and the other into
Hellas, I suppose that in the country now called Hellas, which was
formerly called Pelasgia, this woman was sold into the land of the
Thesprotians; and then being a slave there she set up a sanctuary of
Zeus under a real oak-tree; as indeed it was natural that being an
attendant of the sanctuary of Zeus at Thebes, she should there, in the
place to which she had come, have a memory of him; and after this, when
she got understanding of the Hellenic tongue, she established an Oracle,
and she reported, I suppose, that her sister had been sold in Libya by
the same Phenicians by whom she herself had been sold. Moreover, I think
that the women were called doves by the people of Dodona for the reason
that they were barbarians and because it seemed to them that they
uttered voice like birds; but after a time (they say) the dove spoke
with human voice, that is when the woman began to speak so that they
could understand; but so long as she spoke a Barbarian tongue she seemed
to them to be uttering voice like a bird: for if it had been really a
dove, how could it speak with human voice? And in saying that the
dove was black, they indicate that the woman was Egyptian. The ways of
delivering oracles too at Thebes in Egypt and at Dodona closely resemble
each other, as it happens, and also the method of divination by victims
has come from Egypt.

Moreover, it is true also that the Egyptians were the first of men who
made solemn assemblies and processions and approaches to the temples,
and from them the Hellenes have learnt them, and my evidence for this
is that the Egyptian celebrations of these have been held from a very
ancient time, whereas the Hellenic were introduced but lately. The
Egyptians hold their solemn assemblies not once in the year but often,
especially and with the greatest zeal and devotion at the city of
Bubastis for Artemis, and next at Busiris for Isis; for in this
last-named city there is a very great temple of Isis, and this city
stands in the middle of the Delta of Egypt; now Isis is in the tongue of
the Hellenes Demeter: thirdly, they have a solemn assembly at the city
of Sais for Athene, fourthly at Heliopolis for the Sun (Helios), fifthly
at the city of Buto in honour of Leto, and sixthly at the city of
Papremis for Ares. Now, when they are coming to the city of Bubastis
they do as follows:--they sail men and women together, and a great
multitude of each sex in every boat; and some of the women have rattles
and rattle with them, while some of the men play the flute during the
whole time of the voyage, and the rest, both women and men, sing and
clap their hands; and when as they sail they come opposite to any city
on the way they bring the boat to land, and some of the women continue
to do as I have said, others cry aloud and jeer at the women in that
city, some dance, and some stand up and pull up their garments. This
they do by every city along the river-bank; and when they come to
Bubastis they hold festival celebrating great sacrifices, and more wine
of grapes is consumed upon that festival than during the whole of the
rest of the year. To this place (so say the natives) they come together
year by year even to the number of seventy myriads of men and women,
besides children. Thus it is done here; and how they celebrate the
festival in honour of Isis at the city of Busiris has been told by
me before: for, as I said, they beat themselves in mourning after the
sacrifice, all of them both men and women, very many myriads of people;
but for whom they beat themselves it is not permitted to me by religion
to say: and so many as there are of the Carians dwelling in Egypt do
this even more than the Egyptians themselves, inasmuch as they cut their
foreheads also with knives; and by this it is manifested that they are
strangers and not Egyptians. At the times when they gather together
at the city of Sais for their sacrifices, on a certain night they all
kindle lamps many in number in the open air round about the houses; now
the lamps are saucers full of salt and oil mixed, and the wick floats by
itself on the surface, and this burns during the whole night; and to
the festival is given the name _Lychnocaia_ (the lighting of lamps).
Moreover those of the Egyptians who have not come to this solemn
assembly observe the night of the festival and themselves also light
lamps all of them, and thus not in Sais alone are they lighted, but over
all Egypt: and as to the reason why light and honour are allotted to
this night, about this there is a sacred story told. To Heliopolis and
Buto they go year by year and do sacrifice only: but at Papremis they
do sacrifice and worship as elsewhere, and besides that, when the sun
begins to go down while some few of the priests are occupied with the
image of the god, the greater number of them stand in the entrance of
the temple with wooden clubs, and other persons to the number of more
than a thousand men with purpose to perform a vow, these also having
all of them staves of wood, stand in a body opposite to those: and the
image, which is in a small shrine of wood covered over with gold, they
take out on the day before to another sacred building. The few then
who have been left about the image, draw a wain with four wheels, which
bears the shrine and the image that is within the shrine, and the other
priests standing in the gateway try to prevent it from entering, and
the men who are under a vow come to the assistance of the god and strike
them, while the others defend themselves. Then there comes to be a
hard fight with staves, and they break one another's heads, and I am
of opinion that many even die of the wounds they receive; the Egyptians
however told me that no one died. This solemn assembly the people of the
place say that they established for the following reason:--the mother
of Ares, they say, used to dwell in this temple, and Ares, having been
brought up away from her, when he grew up came thither desiring to visit
his mother, and the attendants of his mother's temple, not having seen
him before, did not permit him to pass in, but kept him away; and
he brought men to help him from another city and handled roughly the
attendants of the temple, and entered to visit his mother. Hence, they
say, this exchange of blows has become the custom in honour of Ares upon
his festival.

The Egyptians were the first who made it a point of religion not to lie
with women in temples, nor to enter into temples after going away
from women without first bathing: for almost all other men except the
Egyptians and the Hellenes lie with women in temples and enter into a
temple after going away from women without bathing, since they hold that
there is no difference in this respect between men and beasts: for
they say that they see beasts and the various kinds of birds coupling
together both in the temples and in the sacred enclosures of the gods;
if then this were not pleasing to the god, the beasts would not do so.

Thus do these defend that which they do, which by me is disallowed:
but the Egyptians are excessively careful in their observances, both
in other matters which concern the sacred rites and also in those which
follow:--Egypt, though it borders upon Libya, does not very much abound
in wild animals, but such as they have are one and all accounted by them
sacred, some of them living with men and others not. But if I should say
for what reasons the sacred animals have been thus dedicated, I should
fall into discourse of matters pertaining to the gods, of which I most
desire not to speak; and what I have actually said touching slightly
upon them, I said because I was constrained by necessity. About these
animals there is a custom of this kind:--persons have been appointed of
the Egyptians, both men and women, to provide the food for each kind
of beast separately, and their office goes down from father to son; and
those who dwell in the various cities perform vows to them thus, that
is, when they make a vow to the god to whom the animal belongs, they
shave the head of their children either the whole or the half or the
third part of it, and then set the hair in the balance against silver,
and whatever it weighs, this the man gives to the person who provides
for the animals, and she cuts up fish of equal value and gives it for
food to the animals. Thus food for their support has been appointed and
if any one kill any of these animals, the penalty, if he do it with his
own will, is death, and if against his will, such penalty as the priests
may appoint: but whosoever shall kill an ibis or a hawk, whether it be
with his will or against his will, must die. Of the animals that live
with men there are great numbers, and would be many more but for the
accidents which befall the cats. For when the females have produced
young they are no longer in the habit of going to the males, and these
seeking to be united with them are not able. To this end then they
contrive as follows,--they either take away by force or remove secretly
the young from the females and kill them (but after killing they do not
eat them), and the females being deprived of their young and desiring
more, therefore come to the males, for it is a creature that is fond
of its young. Moreover when a fire occurs, the cats seem to be divinely
possessed; for while the Egyptians stand at intervals and look after
the cats, not taking any care to extinguish the fire, the cats slipping
through or leaping over the men, jump into the fire; and when this
happens, great mourning comes upon the Egyptians. And in whatever houses
a cat has died by a natural death, all those who dwell in this house
shave their eyebrows only, but those in which a dog has died shave their
whole body and also their head. The cats when they are dead are carried
away to sacred buildings in the city of Bubastis, where after being
embalmed they are buried; but the dogs they bury each people in their
own city in sacred tombs; and the ichneumons are buried just in the same
way as the dogs. The shrewmice however and the hawks they carry away to
the city of Buto, and the ibises to Hermopolis; the bears (which are not
commonly seen) and the wolves, not much larger in size than foxes, they
bury on the spot where they are found lying.

Of the crocodile the nature is as follows:--during the four most wintry
months this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an animal
belonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and hatches
eggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains upon dry
land, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water in truth
is warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the mortal
creatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest bulk
from the smallest beginning; for the eggs which she produces are not
much larger than those of geese and the newly-hatched young one is in
proportion to the egg, but as he grows he becomes as much as seventeen
cubits long and sometimes yet larger. He has eyes like those of a pig
and teeth large and tusky, in proportion to the size of his body; but
unlike all other beasts he grows no tongue, neither does he move his
lower jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards the lower, being in this too
unlike all other beasts. He has moreover strong claws and a scaly hide
upon his back which cannot be pierced; and he is blind in the water, but
in the air he is of a very keen sight. Since he has his living in the
water he keeps his mouth all full within of leeches; and whereas all
other birds and beasts fly from him, the trochilus is a creature which
is at peace with him, seeing that from her he receives benefit; for
the crocodile having come out of the water to the land and then having
opened his mouth (this he is wont to do generally towards the West
Wind), the trochilus upon that enters into his mouth and swallows down
the leeches, and he being benefited is pleased and does no harm to
the trochilus. Now for some of the Egyptians the crocodiles are sacred
animals, and for others not so, but they treat them on the contrary
as enemies: those however who dwell about Thebes and about the lake of
Moiris hold them to be most sacred, and each of these two peoples keeps
one crocodile selected from the whole number, which has been trained
to tameness, and they put hanging ornaments of molten stone and of gold
into the ears of these and anklets round the front feet, and they give
them food appointed and victims of sacrifices and treat them as well
as possible while they live, and after they are dead they bury them
in sacred tombs, embalming them: but those who dwell about the city
of Elephantine even eat them, not holding them to be sacred. They are
called not crocodiles but _champsai_, and the Ionians gave them the name
of crocodile, comparing their form to that of the crocodiles (lizards)
which appear in their country in the stone walls. There are many ways in
use of catching them and of various kinds: I shall describe that which
to me seems the most worthy of being told. A man puts the back of a pig
upon a hook as bait, and lets it go into the middle of the river, while
he himself upon the bank of the river has a young live pig, which he
beats; and the crocodile hearing its cries makes for the direction of
the sound, and when he finds the pig's back he swallows it down: then
they pull, and when he is drawn out to land, first of all the hunter
forthwith plasters up his eyes with mud, and having done so he very
easily gets the mastery of him, but if he does not do so he has much
trouble.

The river-horse is sacred in the district of Papremis, but for the
other Egyptians he is not sacred; and this is the appearance which he
presents: he is four-footed, cloven-hoofed like an ox, flat-nosed, with
a mane like a horse and showing teeth like tusks, with a tail and voice
like a horse and in size as large as the largest ox; and his hide is
so exceedingly thick that when it has been dried shafts of javelins are
made of it. There are moreover otters in the river, which they consider
to be sacred: and of fish also they esteem that which is called the
_lepidotos_ to be sacred, and also the eel; and these they say are
sacred to the Nile: and of birds the fox-goose.

There is also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I did not
myself see except in painting, for in truth he comes to them very
rarely, at intervals, as the people of Heliopolis say, of five hundred
years; and these say that he comes regularly when his father dies; and
if he be like the painting he is of this size and nature, that is to
say, some of his feathers are of gold colour and others red, and in
outline and size he is as nearly as possible like an eagle. This bird
they say (but I cannot believe the story) contrives as follows:--setting
forth from Arabia he conveys his father, they say, to the temple of the
Sun (Helios) plastered up in myrrh, and buries him in the temple of the
Sun; and he conveys him thus:--he forms first an egg of myrrh as large
as he is able to carry, and then he makes trial of carrying it, and when
he has made trial sufficiently, then he hollows out the egg and places
his father within it and plasters over with other myrrh that part of the
egg where he hollowed it out to put his father in, and when his father
is laid in it, it proves (they say) to be of the same weight as it was;
and after he has plastered it up, he conveys the whole to Egypt to the
temple of the Sun. Thus they say that this bird does.