An Account of Egypt

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There are also about Thebes sacred serpents, not at all harmful to men,
which are small in size and have two horns growing from the top of the
head: these they bury when they die in the temple of Zeus, for to this
god they say that they are sacred. There is a region moreover in Arabia,
situated nearly over against the city of Buto, to which place I came to
inquire about the winged serpents: and when I came thither I saw bones
of serpents and spines in quantity so great that it is impossible to
make report of the number, and there were heaps of spines, some heaps
large and others less large and others smaller still than these, and
these heaps were many in number. This region in which the spines are
scattered upon the ground is of the nature of an entrance from a narrow
mountain pass to a great plain, which plain adjoins the plain in Egypt;
and the story goes that at the beginning of spring winged serpents from
Arabia fly towards Egypt, and the birds called ibises meet them at the
entrance to this country and do not suffer the serpents to go by but
kill them. On account of this deed it is (say the Arabians) that the
ibis has come to be greatly honoured by the Egyptians, and the Egyptians
also agree that it is for this reason that they honour these birds. The
outward form of the ibis is this:--it is a deep black all over, and has
legs like those of a crane and a very curved beak, and in size it is
about equal to a rail: this is the appearance of the black kind which
fight with the serpents, but of those which most crowd round men's feet
(for there are two several kinds of ibises) the head is bare and also
the whole of the throat, and it is white in feathering except the head
and neck and the extremities of the wings and the rump (in all these
parts of which I have spoken it is a deep black), while in legs and in
the form of the head it resembles the other. As for the serpent its form
is like that of the watersnake; and it has wings not feathered but most
nearly resembling the wings of the bat. Let so much suffice as has been
said now concerning sacred animals.



Of the Egyptians themselves, those who dwell in the part of Egypt which
is sown for crops practise memory more than any other men and are
the most learned in history by far of all those of whom I have
had experience: and their manner of life is as follows:--For three
successive days in each month they purge, hunting after health with
emetics and clysters, and they think that all the diseases which exist
are produced in men by the food on which they live: for the Egyptians
are from other causes also the most healthy of all men next after the
Libyans (in my opinion on account of the seasons, because the seasons
do not change, for by the changes of things generally, and especially
of the seasons, diseases are most apt to be produced in men), and as to
their diet, it is as follows:--they eat bread, making loaves of maize,
which they call _kyllestis_, and they use habitually a wine made out of
barley, for vines they have not in their land. Of their fish some they
dry in the sun and then eat them without cooking, others they eat cured
in brine. Of birds they eat quails and ducks and small birds without
cooking, after first curing them; and everything else which they have
belonging to the class of birds or fishes, except such as have been
set apart by them as sacred, they eat roasted or boiled. In the
entertainments of the rich among them, when they have finished eating, a
man bears round a wooden figure of a dead body in a coffin, made as like
the reality as may be both by painting and carving, and measuring about
a cubit or two cubits each way; and this he shows to each of those who
are drinking together, saying: "When thou lookest upon this, drink and
be merry, for thou shalt be such as this when thou art dead." Thus they
do at their carousals. The customs which they practise are derived from
their fathers and they do not acquire others in addition; but besides
other customary things among them which are worthy of mention, they have
one song, that of Linos, the same who is sung of both in Phenicia and in
Cyprus and elsewhere, having however a name different according to the
various nations. This song agrees exactly with that which the Hellenes
sing calling on the name of Linos, so that besides many other things
about which I wonder among those matters which concern Egypt, I wonder
especially about this, namely whence they got the song of Linos. It is
evident however that they have sung this song from immemorial time, and
in the Egyptian tongue Linos is called Maneros. The Egyptians told me
that he was the only son of him who first became king of Egypt, and that
he died before his time and was honoured with these lamentations by
the Egyptians, and that this was their first and only song. In another
respect the Egyptians are in agreement with some of the Hellenes, namely
with the Lacedemonians, but not with the rest, that is to say, the
younger of them when they meet the elder give way and move out of the
path, and when their elders approach, they rise out of their seat. In
this which follows however they are not in agreement with any of the
Hellenes,--instead of addressing one another in the roads they do
reverence, lowering their hand down to their knee. They wear tunics of
linen about their legs with fringes, which they call _calasiris_; above
these they have garments of white wool thrown over: woolen garments
however are not taken into the temples, nor are they buried with them,
for this is not permitted by religion. In these points they are in
agreement with the observances called Orphic and Bacchic (which are
really Egyptian), and also with those of the Pythagoreans, for one who
takes part in these mysteries is also forbidden by religious rule to be
buried in woolen garments; and about this there is a sacred story told.

Besides these things the Egyptians have found out also to what god each
month and each day belongs, and what fortunes a man will meet with who
is born on any particular day, and how he will die, and what kind of
a man he will be: and these inventions were taken up by those of the
Hellenes who occupied themselves about poesy. Portents too have been
found out by them more than by all other men besides; for when a portent
has happened, they observe and write down the event which comes of it,
and if ever afterwards anything resembling this happens, they believe
that the event which comes of it will be similar. Their divination is
ordered thus:--the art is assigned not to any man but to certain of the
gods, for there are in their land Oracles of Heracles, of Apollo, of
Athene, of Artemis, or Ares, and of Zeus, and moreover that which they
hold most in honour of all, namely the Oracle of Leto which is in the
city of Buto. The manner of divination however is not established among
them according to the same fashion everywhere, but is different
in different places. The art of medicine among them is distributed
thus:--each physician is a physician of one disease and of no more; and
the whole country is full of physicians, for some profess themselves
to be physicians of the eyes, others of the head, others of the teeth,
others of the affections of the stomach, and others of the more obscure
ailments.

Their fashions of mourning and of burial are these:--Whenever any
household has lost a man who is of any regard amongst them, the whole
number of women of that house forthwith plaster over their heads or even
their faces with mud. Then leaving the corpse within the house they go
themselves to and fro about the city and beat themselves, with their
garments bound up by a girdle and their breasts exposed, and with them
go all the women who are related to the dead man, and on the other side
the men beat themselves, they too having their garments bound up by a
girdle; and when they have done this, they then convey the body to
the embalming. In this occupation certain persons employ themselves
regularly and inherit this as a craft. These, whenever a corpse is
conveyed to them, show to those who brought it wooden models of corpses
made like reality by painting, and the best of the ways of embalming
they say is that of him whose name I think it impiety to mention when
speaking of a matter of such a kind; the second which they show is
less good than this and also less expensive; and the third is the least
expensive of all. Having told them about this, they inquire of them in
which way they desire the corpse of their friend to be prepared. Then
they after they have agreed for a certain price depart out of the way,
and the others being left behind in the buildings embalm according to
the best of these ways thus:--First with the crooked iron tool they draw
out the brain through the nostrils, extracting it partly thus and partly
by pouring in drugs; and after this with a sharp stone of Ethiopia they
make a cut along the side and take out the whole contents of the belly,
and when they have cleared out the cavity and cleansed it with palm-wine
they cleanse it again with spices pounded up: then they fill the belly
with pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spices except
frankincense, and sew it together again. Having so done they keep it for
embalming covered up in natron for seventy days, but for a longer time
than this it is not permitted to embalm it; and when the seventy days
are past, they wash the corpse and roll its whole body up in fine linen
cut into bands, smearing these beneath with gum, which the Egyptians use
generally instead of glue. Then the kinsfolk receive it from them and
have a wooden figure made in the shape of a man, and when they have had
this made they enclose the corpse, and having shut it up within, they
store it then in a sepulchral chamber, setting it to stand upright
against the wall. Thus they deal with the corpses which are prepared in
the most costly way; but for those who desire the middle way and wish
to avoid great cost they prepare the corpse as follows:--having filled
their syringes with the oil which is got from cedar-wood, with this they
forthwith fill the belly of the corpse, and this they do without having
either cut it open or taken out the bowels, but they inject the oil by
the breech, and having stopped the drench from returning back they keep
it then the appointed number of days for embalming, and on the last
of the days they let the cedar oil come out from the belly, which they
before put in; and it has such power that it brings out with it the
bowels and interior organs of the body dissolved; and the natron
dissolves the flesh, so that there is left of the corpse only the skin
and the bones. When they have done this they give back the corpse at
once in that condition without working upon it any more. The third kind
of embalming, by which are prepared the bodies of those who have less
means, is as follows:--they cleanse out the belly with a purge and then
keep the body for embalming during the seventy days, and at once after
that they give it back to the bringers to carry away. The wives of men
of rank when they die are not given at once to be embalmed, nor such
women as are very beautiful or of greater regard than others, but on
the third or fourth day after their death (and not before) they are
delivered to the embalmers. They do so about this matter in order that
the embalmers may not abuse their women, for they say that one of them
was taken once doing so to the corpse of a woman lately dead, and his
fellow-craftsman gave information. Whenever any one, either of the
Egyptians themselves or of strangers, is found to have been carried off
by a crocodile or brought to his death by the river itself, the people
of any city by which he may have been cast up on land must embalm him
and lay him out in the fairest way they can and bury him in a sacred
burial-place, nor may any of his relations or friends besides touch him,
but the priests of the Nile themselves handle the corpse and bury it as
that of one who was something more than man.

Hellenic usages they will by no means follow, and to speak generally
they follow those of no other men whatever. This rule is observed by
most of the Egyptians; but there is a large city named Chemmis in the
Theban district near Neapolis, and in this city there is a temple of
Perseus the son of Danae which is of a square shape, and round it grow
date-palms: the gateway of the temple is built of stone and of very
great size, and at the entrance of it stand two great statues of stone.
Within this enclosure is a temple-house and in it stands an image of
Perseus. These people of Chemmis say that Perseus is wont often to
appear in their land and often within the temple, and that a sandal
which has been worn by him is found sometimes, being in length two
cubits, and whenever this appears all Egypt prospers. This they say, and
they do in honour of Perseus after Hellenic fashion thus,--they hold an
athletic contest, which includes the whole list of games, and they offer
in prizes cattle and cloaks and skins: and when I inquired why to them
alone Perseus was wont to appear, and wherefore they were separated from
all the other Egyptians in that they held an athletic contest, they said
that Perseus had been born of their city, for Danaos and Lynkeus were
men of Chemmis and had sailed to Hellas, and from them they traced a
descent and came down to Perseus: and they told me that he had come to
Egypt for the reason which the Hellenes also say, namely to bring from
Libya the Gorgon's head, and had then visited them also and recognised
all his kinsfolk, and they said that he had well learnt the name of
Chemmis before he came to Egypt, since he had heard it from his mother,
and that they celebrated an athletic contest for him by his own command.

All these are customs practised by the Egyptians who dwell above the
fens: and those who are settled in the fenland have the same customs for
the most part as the other Egyptians, both in other matters and also
in that they live each with one wife only, as do the Hellenes; but
for economy in respect of food they have invented these things
besides:--when the river has become full and the plains have been
flooded, there grow in the water great numbers of lilies, which the
Egyptians call _lotos_; these they cut with a sickle and dry in the
sun, and then they pound that which grows in the middle of the lotos and
which is like the head of a poppy, and they make of it loaves baked
with fire. The root also of this lotos is edible and has a rather sweet
taste: it is round in shape and about the size of an apple. There are
other lilies too, in flower resembling roses, which also grow in
the river, and from them the fruit is produced in a separate vessel
springing from the root by the side of the plant itself, and very
nearly resembles a wasp's comb: in this there grow edible seeds in great
numbers of the size of an olive-stone, and they are eaten either fresh
or dried. Besides this they pull up from the fens the papyrus which
grows every year, and the upper parts of it they cut off and turn to
other uses, but that which is left below for about a cubit in length
they eat or sell: and those who desire to have the papyrus at its very
best bake it in an oven heated red-hot, and then eat it. Some too of
these people live on fish alone, which they dry in the sun after having
caught them and taken out the entrails, and then when they are dry, they
use them for food.

Fish which swim in shoals are not much produced in the rivers, but are
bred in the lakes, and they do as follows:--When there comes upon them
the desire to breed, they swim out in shoals towards the sea; and the
males lead the way shedding forth their milt as they go, while the
females, coming after and swallowing it up, from it become impregnated:
and when they have become full of young in the sea they swim up back
again, each shoal to its own haunts. The same however no longer lead the
way as before, but the lead comes now to the females, and they leading
the way in shoals do just as the males did, that is to say they shed
forth their eggs by a few grains at a time, and the males coming after
swallow them up. Now these grains are fish, and from the grains which
survive and are not swallowed, the fish grow which afterwards are bred
up. Now those of the fish which are caught as they swim out towards the
sea are found to be rubbed on the left side of the head, but those which
are caught as they swim up again are rubbed on the right side. This
happens to them because as they swim down to the sea they keep close to
the land on the left side of the river, and again as they swim up they
keep to the same side, approaching and touching the bank as much as they
can, for fear doubtless of straying from their course by reason of the
stream. When the Nile begins to swell, the hollow places of the land
and the depressions by the side of the river first begin to fill, as the
water soaks through from the river, and so soon as they become full of
water, at once they are all filled with little fishes; and whence
these are in all likelihood produced, I think that I perceive. In the
preceding year, when the Nile goes down, the fish first lay eggs in the
mud and then retire with the last of the retreating waters; and when
the time comes round again, and the water once more comes over the land,
from these eggs forthwith are produced the fishes of which I speak.

Thus it is as regards the fish. And for anointing those of the Egyptians
who dwell in the fens use oil from the castor-berry, which oil the
Egyptians call _kiki_, and thus they do:--they sow along the banks
of the rivers and pools these plants, which in a wild form grow of
themselves in the land of the Hellenes; these are sown in Egypt and
produce berries in great quantity but of an evil smell; and when they
have gathered these some cut them up and press the oil from them, others
again roast them first and then boil them down and collect that which
runs away from them. The oil is fat and not less suitable for burning
than olive-oil, but it gives forth a disagreeable smell. Against the
gnats, which are very abundant, they have contrived as follows:--those
who dwell above the fen-land are helped by the towers, to which they
ascend when they go to rest; for the gnats by reason of the winds
are not able to fly up high: but those who dwell in the fenland have
contrived another way instead of the towers, and this it is:--every man
of them has got a casting net, with which by day he catches fish, but
in the night he uses it for this purpose, that is to say he puts the
casting-net round about the bed in which he sleeps, and then creeps in
under it and goes to sleep: and the gnats, if he sleeps rolled up in a
garment or a linen sheet, bite through these, but through the net they
do not even attempt to bite.

Their boats with which they carry cargoes are made of the thorny 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-cubits pieces; and when they have thus fastened the boat together,
they lay cross-pieces 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 drags 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.

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, 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. 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
by another Archander, but in any case the name is not Egyptian.


*****


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 have 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, 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;
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. 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. 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 except only the last of them, Moiris: 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.

Therefore passing these by I will make mention of the king who came
after these, whose name is 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 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. 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 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. 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 who dwell in Palestine
confess themselves that they have learnt it from the Egyptians, and
the Syrians about the river Thermodon and the river Parthenios, and the
Macronians, who are their neighbors, 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. 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, 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. The pillars which Sesostris king 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
had 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.