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with a god in the sixteenth degree, the same as they did to me, though I did not trace my genealogy. Conducting me into the interior of an edifice that was spacious, and showing me wooden colossuses to the number I have mentioned, they reckoned them up; for every high priest places an image of himself there during his lifetime; the priests, therefore, reckoning them and showing them to me, pointed out that each was the son of his own father; going through them all, from the image of him that died last until they had pointed them all out. But when Hecatæus traced his own genealogy, and connected himself with a god in the sixteenth degree, they controverted his genealogy by computation, not admitting that a man could be born from a god; and they thus controverted his genealogy, saying that each of the colossuses was a Piromis sprung from a Piromis, until they pointed out the three hundred and forty-five colossuses, each a Piromis sprung from a Piromis, and they did not connect them with any god or hero. Piromis means, in the Grecian language, “a noble and good man." 144. They pointed out to me, therefore, that all those of whom there were images were of that character, but were very far from being gods; that, indeed, before the time of these men, gods had been the rulers of Egypt, and had dwelt among men, and that one of them always had the supreme power, and that Orus, the son of Osiris, whom the Greeks call Apollo, was the last who reigned over it; he, having deposed Typhon, was the last who reigned over Egypt. Now Osiris, in the Grecian language, means Bacchus.

145. Among the Greeks, the most recent of the gods are thought to be Hercules, Bacchus, and Pan; but by the Egyptians Pan is esteemed the most ancient, and one of the eight called original; but Hercules is among the second, among those called the twelve; and Bacchus is of the third, who were sprung from the twelve gods. I have already declared how many years the Egyptians say there were from Hercules to the reign of Amasis; but from Pan a still greater number of years are said to have intervened, and from Bacchus fewest of

all;

and from him there are computed to have been fifteen thousand years to the reign of Amasis. The Egyptians say they know these things with accuracy, because they always compute and register the years. Now from Bacchus, who is 8 See chap. 43.

said to have been born of Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, to my time, is about sixteen hundred years, and from Hercules, the son of Alcmena, about nine hundred years; but from Pan, born of Penelope (for Pan is said by the Greeks to have sprung from her and Mercury), is a less number of years than from the siege of Troy, about eight hundred, to my time. 146. Of these two accounts, each person may adopt that which he thinks most credible; I have therefore declared my own opinion respecting them; for, if these deities had been well known, and had grown old in Greece, as Hercules, who was sprung from Amphitryon, and especially Bacchus, the son of Semele, and Pan, who was borne by Penelope, some one might say that these later ones, though mere men, bore the names of the

gods who were long before them. Now the Greeks say of Bacchus that Jupiter sewed him into his thigh as soon as he was born, and carried him to Nyssa, which is above Egypt in Ethiopia; and concerning Pan, they are unable to say whither he was taken at his birth. It is evident to me, therefore, that the Grecians learned their names later than those of the other gods, and from the time when they learned them they trace their origin; therefore they ascribe their generation to that time, and not higher. These things, then, the Egyptians themselves relate.

147. What things both other men and the Egyptians agree in saying occurred in this country, I shall now proceed to relate, and shall add to them some things of my own observation. The Egyptians having become free after the reign of the priest of Vulcan, for they were at no time able to live without a king, established twelve kings, having divided all Egypt into twelve parts. These, having contracted intermarriages, reigned, adopting the following regulations: that they would not attempt the subversion of one another, nor one seek to acquire more than another, and that they should maintain the strictest friendship. They made these regulations, and strictly upheld them, for the following reason: it had been foretold them by an oracle, when they first assumed the government, "that whoever among them should offer a libation in the temple of Vulcan from a brazen bowl, should be king of all Egypt;" for they used to assemble in all the temples. 148. Now they determined to leave in common a memorial of themselves, and having so determined, they built a labyrinth a little above the lake of Mœris, situated

near that called the city of Crocodiles; this I have myself seen, and found it greater than can be described; for if any one should reckon up the buildings and public works of the Grecians, they would be found to have cost less labor and expense than this labyrinth, though the temple in Ephesus deserving of mention, and also that in Samos. The pyramids, likewise, were beyond description, and each of them comparable to many of the great Grecian structures. Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids; for it has twelve courts inclosed with walls, with doors opposite each other, six facing the north and six the south, contiguous to one another, and the same exterior wall incloses them. It contains two kinds of rooms, some under ground and some above ground over them, to the number of three thousand, fifteen hundred of each. The rooms above ground I myself went through and saw, and relate from personal inspection; but the under ground rooms I only know from report; for the Egyptians who have charge of the building would on no account show me them, saying that there were the sepulchres of the kings who originally built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. I can therefore only relate what I have learned by hearsay concerning the lower rooms; but the upper ones, which surpass all human works, I myself saw; for the passages through the corridors, and the windings through the courts, from their great variety, presented a thousand occasions of wonder, as I passed from a court to the rooms, and from the rooms to halls, and to other corridors from the halls, and to other courts from the rooms. The roofs of all these are of stone, as also are the walls; but the walls are full of sculptured figures. Each court is surrounded with a colonnade of white stone, closely fitted; and adjoining the extremity of the labyrinth is a pyramid, forty orgyæ in height, on which large figures are carved, carved, and a way to it has been made under ground.

149. Although this labyrinth is such as I have described, yet the lake named from Moris, near which this labyrinth is built, occasions greater wonder: its circumference measures three thousand six hundred stades, or sixty schoenes, equal to the sea-coast of Egypt. The lake stretches lengthways, north and south, being in depth in the deepest part fifty orgyæ. That it is made by hand and dry, this circumstance proves, for about the middle of the lake stand two pyramids,

each rising fifty orgyæ above the surface of the water, and the part built under water extends to an equal depth: on each of these is placed a stone statue, seated on a throne. Thus these pyramids are one hundred orgyæ in height; and a hundred orgyæ are equal to a stade of six plethra; the orgyæ measuring six feet, or four cubits; the foot being four palms, and the cubit six palms. The water in this lake does not spring from the soil, for these parts are excessively dry, but it is conveyed through a channel from the Nile, and for six months it flows into the lake, and six months out again into the Nile; and during the six months that it flows out it yields a talent of silver every day to the king's treasury from the fish; but when the water is flowing into it, twenty minæ. 150. The people of the country told me that this lake discharges itself under ground into the Syrtis of Libya, running westward toward the interior by the mountain above Memphis; but when I did not see any where a heap of soil from this excavation, for this was an object of curiosity to me, I inquired of the people who lived nearest the lake where the soil that had been dug out was to be found; they told me where it had been carried, and easily persuaded me, because I had heard that a similar thing had been done at Nineveh, in Assyria; for certain thieves formed a design to carry away the treasures of Sardanapalus, king of Nineveh, which were very large, and preserved in subterraneous treasuries; the thieves, therefore, beginning from their own dwellings, dug under ground by estimated measurement to the royal palace, and the soil that was taken out of the excavations, when night came on, they threw into the river Tigris, that flows by Nineveh; and so they proceeded until they had effected their purpose. The same method I heard was adopted in digging the lake in Egypt, except that it was not done by night, but during the day; for the Egyptians who dug out the soil carried it to the Nile, and the river receiving it, soon dispersed it. Now this lake is said to have been excavated in this way.

151. While the twelve kings continued to observe justice, in course of time, as they were sacrificing in the temple of Vulcan, and were about to offer a libation on the last day of the festival, the high priest, mistaking the number, brought out eleven of the twelve golden bowls with which he used to make the libation; whereupon he who stood last of them, Psam

mitichus, since he had not a bowl, having taken off his helmet, which was of brass, held it out and made the libation. All the other kings were in the habit of wearing helmets, and at that time had them on. Psammitichus therefore, without any sinister intention, held out his helmet; but they, having taken into consideration what was done by Psammitichus, and the oracle that had foretold to them "that whoever among them should offer a libation from a brazen bowl should be sole king of Egypt;" calling to mind the oracle, they did not think it right to put him to death, since upon examination they found that he had done it by no premeditated design. But they determined to banish him to the marshes, having divested him of the greatest part of his power; and they forbade him to leave the marshes, or have any intercourse with the rest of Egypt. 152. This Psammitichus, who had before fled from Sabacon the Ethiopian, who had killed his father Neco-having at that time fled into Syria, the Egyptians, who belong to the Saitic district, brought back when the Ethiopian withdrew in consequence of the vision in a dream. And afterward, having been made king, he was a second time constrained' by the eleven kings to go into exile among the marshes on account of the helmet. Knowing, then, that he had been exceedingly injured by them, he entertained the design of avenging himself on his persecutors; and when he sent to the city of Buto to consult the oracle of Latona, where is the truest oracle that the Egyptians have, an answer came "that vengeance would come from the sea, when men of brass should appear." He, however, was very incredulous2 that men of brass would come te assist him. But when no long time had elapsed, stress of weather compelled some Ionians and Carians, who had sailed out for the purpose of piracy, to bear away to Egypt; and when they had disembarked and were clad in brazen armor, an Egyptian, who had never before seen men clad in brass, went to the marshes to Psammitichus, and told him that men of brass, having arrived from the sea, were ravaging the plains. He, perceiving that the oracle was accomplished, treated these Ionians and Carians in a friendly manner, and having promised them great things, persuaded them to join with him; and when he had succeeded in persuading them, he thus, with the Literally, "it befell him." Literally, "great incredulity was poured secretly into him."

9 See II. 139.

2

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