Egypt Visited by the First Reporter
December 20, 2014Herodotus |
Herodotus (c. 484–425
BC), An Account of Egypt: Being the Second Book of His Histories
Called Euterpe.
Vol. 33 pp. 7-17 of The
Harvard Classics
All phases of life
were pictured by Herodotus in his history. Like a modern newspaper
reporter, he combines weird stories, scandals, and battle accounts
with descriptions of places, persons, and sights about town.
WHEN Cyrus had brought
his life to an end, Cambyses received the royal power in succession,
being the son of Cyrus and of Cassandane the daughter of
Pharnaspes, for whose death, which came about before his own, Cyrus
had made great mourning himself and also had proclaimed to all those
over whom he bore rule that they should make mourning for her:
Cambyses, I say, being the son of this woman and of Cyrus, regarded
the Ionians and Aiolians as slaves inherited from his father; and he
proceeded to march an army against Egypt, taking with him as helpers
not only the other nations of which he was ruler, but also those of
the Hellenes over whom he had power besides.
Now the Egyptians, before the time
when Psammetichos became king over them, were wont to suppose that
they had come into being first of all men; but since the time when
Psammetichos having become king desired to know what men had come
into being first, they suppose that the Phrygians came into being
before themselves, but they themselves before all other men. Now
Psammetichos, when he was not able by inquiry to find out any means
of knowing who had come into being first of all men, contrived a
device of the following kind:—Taking two new-born children
belonging to persons of the common sort he gave them to a shepherd to
bring up at the place where his flocks were, with a manner of
bringing up such as I shall say, charging him namely that no man
should utter any word in their presence, and that they should be
placed by themselves in a room where none might come, and at the
proper time he should bring to them she-goats, and when he had
satisfied them with milk he should do for them whatever else was
needed. These things Psammetichos did and gave him this charge
wishing to hear what word the children would let break forth first,
after they had ceased from wailings without sense. And accordingly so
it came to pass; for after a space of two years had gone by, during
which the shepherd went on acting so, at length, when he opened the
door and entered, both the children fell before him in entreaty and
uttered the word bekos, stretching forth their
hands. At first when he heard this the shepherd kept silence; but
since this word was often repeated, as he visited them constantly and
attended to them, at last he declared the matter to his master, and
at his command he brought the children before his face. Then
Psammetichos having himself also heard it, began to inquire what
nation of men named anything bekos, and inquiring he
found that the Phrygians had this name for bread. In this manner and
guided by an indication such as this, the Egyptians were brought to
allow that the Phrygians were a more ancient people than themselves.
That so it came to pass I heard from the priests of that Hephaistos
who dwells at Memphis; but the Hellenes relate, besides many other
idle tales, that Psammetichos cut out the tongues of certain women
and then caused the children to live with these women.
With regard then to the rearing of the
children they related so much as I have said: and I heard also other
things at Memphis when I had speech with the priests of Hephaistos.
Moreover I visited both Thebes and Heliopolis for this very cause,
namely because I wished to know whether the priests at these places
would agree in their accounts with those at Memphis; for the men of
Heliopolis are said to be the most learned in records of the
Egyptians. Those of their narrations which I heard with regard to the
gods I am not earnest to relate in full, but I shall name them only,
because I consider that all men are equally ignorant of these
matters: and whatever things of them I may record, I shall record
only because I am compelled by the course of the story. But as to
those matters which concern men, the priests agreed with one another
in saying that the Egyptians were the first of all men on earth to
find out the course of the year, having divided the seasons into
twelve parts to make up the whole; and this they said they found out
from the stars: and they reckon to this extent more wisely than the
Hellenes, as it seems to me, inasmuch as the Hellenes throw in an
intercalated month every other year, to make the seasons right,
whereas the Egyptians, reckoning the twelve months at thirty days
each, bring in also every year five days beyond the number, and thus
the circle of their seasons is completed and comes round to the same
point whence it set out. They said moreover that the Egyptians were
the first who brought into use appellations for the twelve gods and
the Hellenes took up the use from them; and that they were the first
who assigned altars and images and temples to the gods, and who
engraved figures on stones; and with regard to the greater number of
these things they showed me by actual facts that they had happened
so. They said also that the first man who became king of Egypt was
Min; and that in his time all Egypt except the district of Thebes was
a swamp, and none of the regions were then above water which now lie
below the lake of Moiris, to which lake it is a voyage of seven days
up the river from the sea: and I thought that they said well about
the land; for it is manifest in truth even to a person who has not
heard it beforehand but has only seen, at least if he have
understanding, that the Egypt to which the Hellenes come in ships is
a land which has been won by the Egyptians as an addition, and that
it is a gift of the river: moreover the regions which lie above this
lake also for a distance of three days’ sail, about which they did
not go on to say anything of this kind, are nevertheless another
instance of the same thing: for the nature of the land of Egypt is as
follows:—First when you are still approaching it in a ship and are
distant a day’s run from the land, if you let down a sounding-line
you will bring up mud and you will find yourself in eleven fathoms.
This then so far shows that there is a silting forward of the land.
Then secondly, as to Egypt itself, the extent of it along the sea is
sixty schoines, according to our definition of Egypt
as extending from the Gulf of Plinthine to the Serbonian lake,
along which stretches Mount Casion; from this lake then the
sixty schoines are reckoned: for those of men who
are poor in land have their country measured by fathoms, those who
are less poor by furlongs, those who have much land by parasangs, and
those who have land in very great abundance by schoines: now
the parasang is equal to thirty furlongs, and each schoine, which
is an Egyptian measure, is equal to sixty furlongs. So there would be
an extent of three thousand six hundred furlongs for the coastland of
Egypt. From thence and as far as Heliopolis inland Egypt is broad,
and the land is all flat and without springs of water and formed of
mud: and the road as one goes inland from the sea to Heliopolis is
about the same in length as that which leads from the altar of the
twelve gods at Athens to Pisa and the temple of Olympian Zeus:
reckoning up you would find the difference very small by which these
roads fail of being equal in length, not more indeed than fifteen
furlongs; for the road from Athens to Pisa wants fifteen furlongs of
being fifteen hundred, while the road to Heliopolis from the sea
reaches that number completely. From Heliopolis however, as you go
up, Egypt is narrow; for on the one side a mountain-range belonging
to Arabia stretches along by the side of it, going in a direction
from the North towards the midday and the South Wind, tending upwards
without a break to that which is called the Erythraian Sea, in which
range are the stone-quarries which were used in cutting stone for the
pyramids at Memphis. On this side then the mountain ends where I have
said, and then takes a turn back; and where it is widest, as I was
informed, it is a journey of two months across from East to West; and
the borders of it which turn towards the East are said to produce
frankincense. Such then is the nature of this mountain-range; and on
the side of Egypt towards Libya another range extends, rocky and
enveloped in sand: in this are the pyramids, and it runs in the same
direction as those parts of the Arabian mountains which go towards
the midday. So then, I say, from Heliopolis the land has no longer a
great extent so far as it belongs to Egypt, and for about four days’
sail up the river Egypt properly so called is narrow: and the space
between the mountain-ranges which have been mentioned is plain-land,
but where it is narrowest it did not seem to me to exceed two hundred
furlongs from the Arabian mountains to those which are called the
Libyan. After this again Egypt is broad. Such is the nature of this
land: and from Heliopolis to Thebes is a voyage up the river of nine
days, and the distance of the journey in furlongs is four thousand
eight hundred and sixty, the number of schoines being
eighty-one. If these measures of Egypt in furlongs be put together,
the result is as follows:—I have already before this shown that the
distance along the sea amounts to three thousand six hundred
furlongs, and I will now declare what the distance is inland from the
sea to Thebes, namely six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs:
and again the distance from Thebes to the city called Elephantine is
one thousand eight hundred furlongs.
Of this land then, concerning which I
have spoken, it seemed to myself also, according as the priests said,
that the greater part had been won as an addition by the Egyptians;
for it was evident to me that the space between the aforesaid
mountain-ranges, which lie above the city of Memphis, once was a gulf
of the sea, like the regions about Ilion and Teuthrania and Ephesos
and the plain of the Maiander, if it be permitted to compare small
things with great; and small these are in comparison, for of the
rivers which heaped up the soil in those regions none is worthy to be
compared in volume with a single one of the mouths of the Nile, which
has five mouths. Moreover there are other rivers also, not in size at
all equal to the Nile, which have performed great feats; of which I
can mention the names of several, and especially the Acheloös, which
flowing through Acarnania and so issuing out into the sea has already
made half of the Echinades from islands into mainland. Now there is
in the land of Arabia, not far from Egypt, a gulf of the sea running
in from that which is called the Erythraian Sea, very long and
narrow, as I am about to tell. With respect to the length of the
voyage along it, one who set out from the innermost point to sail out
through it into the open sea, would spend forty days upon the voyage,
using oars; and with respect to breadth, where the gulf is broadest
it is half a day’s sail across: and there is in it an ebb and flow
of tide every day. Just such another gulf I suppose that Egypt was,
and that the one ran in towards Ethiopia from the Northern Sea, and
the other, the Arabian, of which I am about to speak, tended from the
South towards Syria, the gulfs boring in so as almost to meet at
their extreme points, and passing by one another with but a small
space left between. If then the stream of the Nile should turn aside
into this Arabian gulf, what would hinder that gulf from being filled
up with silt as the river continued to flow, at all events within a
period of twenty thousand years? indeed for my part I am of opinion
that it would be filled up even within ten thousand years. How, then,
in all the time that has elapsed before I came into being should not
a gulf be filled up even of much greater size than this by a river so
great and so active? As regards Egypt then, I both believe those who
say that things are so, and for myself also I am strongly of opinion
that they are so; because I have observed that Egypt runs out into
the sea further than the adjoining land, and that shells are found
upon the mountains of it, and an efflorescence of salt forms upon the
surface, so that even the pyramids are being eaten away by it, and
moreover that of all the mountains of Egypt, the range which lies
above Memphis is the only one which has sand: besides which I notice
that Egypt resembles neither the land of Arabia, which borders upon
it, nor Libya, nor yet Syria (for they are Syrians who dwell in the
parts of Arabia lying along the sea), but that it has soil which is
black and easily breaks up, seeing that it is in truth mud and silt
brought down from Ethiopia by the river: but the soil of Libya, we
know, is reddish in colour and rather sandy, while that of Arabia and
Syria is somewhat clayey and rocky. The priests also gave me a strong
proof concerning this land as follows, namely that in the reign of
king Moiris, whenever the river reached a height of at least eight
cubits, it watered Egypt below Memphis; and not yet nine hundred
years had gone by since the death of Moiris, when I heard these
things from the priests: now however, unless the river rises to
sixteen cubits, or fifteen at the least, it does not go over the
land. I think too that those Egyptians who dwell below the lake of
Moiris and especially in that region which is called the Delta, if
that land continues to grow in height according to this proportion
and to increase similarly in extent, will suffer for all remaining
time, from the Nile not overflowing their land, that same thing which
they themselves said that the Hellenes would at some time suffer: for
hearing that the whole land of the Hellenes has rain and is not
watered by rivers as theirs is, they said that the Hellenes would at
some time be disappointed of a great hope and would suffer the ills
of famine. This saying means that if the god shall not send them
rain, but shall allow drought to prevail for a long time, the
Hellenes will be destroyed by hunger; for they have in fact no other
supply of water to save them except from Zeus alone. This has been
rightly said by the Egyptians with reference to the Hellenes: but now
let me tell how matters are with the Egyptians themselves in their
turn. If, in accordance with what I before said, their land below
Memphis (for this is that which is increasing) shall continue to
increase in height according to the same proportion as in the past
time, assuredly those Egyptians who dwell here will suffer famine, if
their land shall not have rain nor the river be able to go over their
fields. It is certain, however, that now they gather in fruit from
the earth with less labour than any other men and also with less than
the other Egyptians; for they have no labour in breaking up furrows
with a plough nor in hoeing nor in any other of those labours which
other men have about a crop; but when the river has come up of itself
and watered their fields and after watering has left them again, then
each man sows his own field and turns into it swine, and when he has
trodden the seed into the ground by means of the swine, after that he
waits for the harvest, and when he has threshed the corn by means of
the swine, then he gathers it in.
If we desire to follow the opinions of
the Ionians as regards Egypt, who say that the Delta alone is Egypt,
reckoning its seacoast to be from the watch-tower called of Perseus
to the fish-curing houses of Pelusion, a distance of
forty schoines, and counting it to extend inland as
far as the city of Kercasoros, where the Nile divides and runs to
Pelusion and Canobos, while as for the rest of Egypt, they assign it
partly to Libya and partly to Arabia,—if, I say, we should follow
this account, we should thereby declare that in former times the
Egyptians had no land to live in; for, as we have seen, their Delta
at any rate is alluvial, and has appeared (so to speak) lately, as
the Egyptians themselves say and as my opinion is. If, then, at the
first there was no land for them to live in, why did they waste their
labour to prove that they had come into being before all other men?
They needed not to have made trial of the children to see what
language they would first utter. However I am not of opinion that the
Egyptians came into being at the sametime as that which is called by
the Ionians the Delta, but that they existed always ever since the
human race came into being, and that as their land advanced forwards,
many of them were left in their first abodes and many came down
gradually to the lower parts. At least it is certain that in old
times Thebes had the name of Egypt, and of this the circumference
measures six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs.
If then we judge aright of these
matters, the opinion of the Ionians about Egypt is not sound: but if
the judgment of the Ionians is right, I declare that neither the
Hellenes nor the Ionians themselves know how to reckon since they say
that the whole earth is made up of three divisions, Europe, Asia, and
Libya: for they ought to count in addition to these the Delta of
Egypt, since it belongs neither to Asia nor to Libya; for at least it
cannot be the river Nile by this reckoning which divides Asia from
Libya, but the Nile is cleft at the point of this Delta so as to flow
round it, and the result is that this land would come between Asia
and Libya.
We dismiss then the opinion of the
Ionians, and express a judgment of our own on this matter also, that
Egypt is all that land which is inhabited by Egyptians, just as
Kilikia is that which is inhabited by Kilikians and Assyria that
which is inhabited by Assyrians, and we know of no boundary properly
speaking between Asia and Libya except the borders of Egypt. If
however we shall adopt the opinion which is commonly held by the
Hellenes, we shall suppose that the whole of Egypt, beginning from
the Cataract and the city of Elephantine, is divided into two parts
and that it thus partakes of both the names, since one side will thus
belong to Libya and the other to Asia; for the Nile from the Cataract
onwards flows to the sea cutting Egypt through in the midst; and as
far as the city of Kercasoros the Nile flows in one single stream,
but from this city onwards it is parted into three ways; and one,
which is called the Pelusian mouth, turns towards the East; the
second of the ways goes towards the West, and this is called the
Canobic mouth; but that one of the ways which is straight runs
thus,—when the river in its course downwards comes to the point of
the Delta, then it cuts the Delta through the midst and so issues out
to the sea. In this we have a portion of the water of the river which
is not the smallest nor the least famous, and it is called the
Sebennytic mouth. There are also two other mouths which part off from
the Sebennytic and go to the sea, and these are called, one the
Saitic, the other the Mendesian mouth. The Bolbitinitic, and Bucolic
mouths, on the other hand, are not natural but made by digging.
Moreover also the answer given by the Oracle of Ammon bears witness
in support of my opinion that Egypt is of the extent which I declare
it to be in my account; and of this answer I heard after I had formed
my own opinion about Egypt. For those of the city of Marea and of
Apis, dwelling in the parts of Egypt which border on Libya, being of
opinion themselves that they were Libyans and not Egyptians, and also
being burdened by the rules of religious service, because they
desired not to be debarred from the use of cows’ flesh, sent to
Ammon saying that they had nought in common with the Egyptians, for
they dwelt outside the Delta and agreed with them in nothing; and
they said they desired that it might be lawful for them to eat
everything without distinction. The god however did not permit them
to do so, but said that that land was Egypt which the Nile came over
and watered, and that those were Egyptians who dwelling below the
city of Elephantine drank of that river. Thus was it answered to
them by the Oracle about this: and the Nile, when it is in flood,
goes over not only the Delta but also of the land which is called
Libyan and of that which is called Arabian sometimes as much as two
days’ journey on each side, and at times even more than this or at
times less.
As regards the nature of the river,
neither from the priests nor yet from any other man was I able to
obtain any knowledge: and I was desirous especially to learn from
them about these matters, namely, why the Nile comes down increasing
in volume from the summer solstice onwards for a hundred days, and
then, when it has reached the number of these days, turns and goes
back, failing in its stream, so that through the whole winter season
it continues to be low, and until the summer solstice returns. Of
none of these things was I able to receive any account from the
Egyptians, when I inquired of them what power the Nile has whereby it
is of a nature opposite to that of all other rivers. And I made
inquiry, desiring to know both this which I say and also why, unlike
all other rivers, it does not give rise to any breezes blowing from
it. However some of the Hellenes who desired to gain distinction for
cleverness have given an account of this water in three different
ways: two of these I do not think it worth while even to speak of
except only to indicate their nature; of which the one says that the
Etesian Winds are the cause that makes the river rise, by preventing
the Nile from flowing out into the sea. But often the Etesian Winds
fail and yet the Nile does the same work as it is wont to do; and
moreover, if these were the cause, all the other rivers also which
flow in a direction opposed to the Etesian Winds ought to have been
affected in the same way as the Nile, and even more, in as much as
they are smaller and present to them a feebler flow of streams: but
there are many of these rivers in Syria and many also in Libya, and
they are affected in no such manner as the Nile. The second way shows
more ignorance than that which has been mentioned, and it is more
marvellous to tell; for it says that the river produces these effects
because it flows from the Ocean, and that the Ocean flows round the
whole earth. The third of the ways is much the most specious, but
nevertheless it is the most mistaken of all: for indeed this way has
no more truth in it than the rest, alleging as it does that the Nile
flows from melting snow; whereas it flows out of Libya through the
midst of the Ethiopians, and so comes out into Egypt. How then should
it flow from snow, when it flows from the hottest parts to those
which are cooler? And indeed most of the facts are such as to
convince a man (one at least who is capable of reasoning about such
matters), that it is not at all likely that it flows from snow. The
first and greatest evidence is afforded by the winds, which blow hot
from these regions; the second is that the land is rainless always
and without frost, whereas after snow has fallen rain must
necessarily come within five days, so that if it snowed in those
parts rain would fall there; the third evidence is afforded by the
people dwelling there, who are of a black colour by reason of the
burning heat. Moreover kites and swallows remain there through the
year and do not leave the land; and cranes flying from the cold
weather which comes on in the region of Scythia come regularly to
these parts for wintering: if then it snowed ever so little in that
land through which the Nile flows and in which it has its rise, none
of these things would take place, as necessity compels us to admit.
As for him who talked about the Ocean, he carried his tale into the
region of the unknown, and so he need not be refuted; since I for may
part know of no river Ocean existing, but I think that Homer or one
of the poets who were before him invented the name and introduced it
into his verse.
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 he also 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 meanwhile
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 then, 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 that 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.
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