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.

as this egyptian sesostris was returning and bringing back many men of the nations whose lands he had subdued, when he came (said the priests) to daphnai in the district of pelusion on his journey home, his brother to whom sesostris had entrusted the charge of egypt invited him and with him his sons to a feast; and then he piled the house round with brushwood and set it on fire: and sesostris when he discovered this forthwith took counsel with his wife, for he was bringing with him (they said) his wife also; and she counselled him to lay out upon the pyre two of his sons, which were six in number, and so to make a bridge over the burning mass, and that they passing over their bodies should thus escape. this, they said, sesostris did, and two of his sons were burnt to death in this manner, but the rest got away safe with their father. then sesostris, having returned to egypt and having taken vengeance on his brother employed the multitude which he had brought in of those who whose lands he had subdued, as follows:—these were they drew the stones which in the reign of this king were brought to the temple of hephaistos, being of very good size; and also these were compelled to dig all the channels which now are in egypt; and thus (having no such purpose) they caused egypt, which before was all fit for riding and driving, to be no longer fit for this from thenceforth: for from that time forward egypt, though it is plain land, has become all unfit for riding and driving, and the cause has been these channels, which are many and run in all directions. but the reason why the king cut up the land was this, namely because those of the egyptians who had their cities not on the river but in the middle of the country, being in want of water when the river went down from them, found their drink brackish because they had it from wells. for this reason egypt was cut up: and they said that this king distributed the land to all the egyptians, giving an equal square portion to each man, and from this he made his revenue, having appointed them to pay a certain rent every year: and if the river should take away anything from any man's portion, he would come to the king and declare that which had happened, and the king used to send men to examine and to find out by measurement how much less the piece of land had become, in order that for the future the man might pay less, in proportion to the rent appointed: and i think that thus the art of geometry was found out and afterwards came into hellas also. for as touching the sun-dial and the gnomon and the twelve divisions of the day, they were learnt by the hellenes from the babylonians. he moreover alone of all the egyptian kings had rule over ethiopia; and he left as memorials of himself in front of the temple of hephaistos two stone statues of thirty cubits each, representing himself and his wife, and others of twenty cubits each representing his four sons: and long afterwards the priest of hephaistos refused to permit dareios the persian to set up a statue of himself in front of them, saying that deeds had not been done by him equal to those which were done by sesostris the egyptian; for sesostris had subdued other nations besides, not fewer than he, and also the scythians; but dareios had not been able to conquer the scythians: wherefore it was not just that he should set up a statue in front of those which sesostris had dedicated, if he did not surpass him in his deeds. which speech, they say, dareios took in good part.

now after sesostris had brought his life to an end, his son pheros, they told me, received in succession the kingdom, and he made no warlike expedition, and moreover it chanced to him to become blind by reason of the following accident:—when the river had come down in flood rising to a height of eighteen cubits, higher than ever before that time, and had gone over the fields, a wind fell upon it and the river became agitated by waves: and this king (they say) moved by presumptuous folly took a spear and cast it into the midst of the eddies of the stream; and immediately upon this he had a disease of the eyes and was by it made blind. for ten years then he was blind, and in the eleventh year there came to him an oracle from the city of buto saying that the time of his punishment had expired, and that he should see again if he washed his eyes with the water of a woman who had accompanied with her own husband only and had not had knowledge of other men: and first he made trial of his own wife, and then, as he continued blind, he went on to try all the women in turn; and when he had at least regained his sight he gathered together all the women of whom he had made trial, excepting her by whose means he had regained his sight, to one city which now is named erythrabolos, and having gathered them to this he consumed them all by fire, as well as the city itself; but as for her by whose means he had regained his sight, he had her himself to wife. then after he had escaped the malady of his eyes he dedicated offerings at each one of the temples which were of renown, and especially (to mention only that which is most worthy of mention) he dedicated at the temple of the sun works which are worth seeing, namely two obelisks of stone, each of a single block, measuring in length a hundred cubits each one and in breadth eight cubits.

after him, they said, there succeeded to the throne a man of memphis, whose name in the tongue of the hellenes was proteus; for whom there is now a sacred enclosure at memphis, very fair and well ordered, lying on that side of the temple of hephaistos which faces the north wind. round about this enclosure dwell phenicians of tyre, and this whole region is called the camp of the tyrians. within the enclosure of proteus there is a temple called the temple of the "foreign aphrodite," which temple i conjecture to be one of helen the daughter of tyndareus, not only because i have heard the tale how helen dwelt with proteus, but also especially because it is called by the name of the "foreign aphrodite," for the other temples of aphrodite which there are have none of them the addition of the word "foreign" to the name.

and the priests told me, when i inquired, that the things concerning helen happened thus:—alexander having carried off helen was sailing away from sparta to his own land, and when he had come to the egean sea contrary winds drove him from his course to the sea of egypt; and after that, since the blasts did not cease to blow, he came to egypt itself, and in egypt to that which is now named the canobic mouth of the nile and to taricheiai. now there was upon the shore, as still there is now, a temple of heracles, in which if any man's slave take refuge and have the sacred marks set upon him, giving himself over to the god, it is not lawful to lay hands upon him; but this custom has continued still unchanged from the beginning down to my own time. accordingly the attendants of alexander, having heard of the custom which existed about the temple, ran away from him, and sitting down as suppliants of the god, accused alexander, because they desired to do him hurt, telling the whole tale how things were about helen and about the wrong done to menalaos; and this accusation they made not only to the priests but also to the warden of this river-mouth, whose name was thonis. thonis then having heard their tale sent forthwith a message to proteus at memphis, which said as follows: "there hath come a stranger, a teucrian by race, who hath done in hellas an unholy deed; for he hath deceived the wife of his own host, and is come hither bringing with him this woman herself and very much wealth, having been carried out of his way by winds to thy land. shall we then allow him to sail out unharmed, or shall we first take away from him that which he brought with him?" in reply to this proteus sent back a messenger who said thus: "seize this man, whosoever he may be, who has done impiety to his own host, and bring him away into my presence that i may know what he will find to say." hearing this, thonis seized alexander and detained his ships, and after that he brought the man himself up to memphis and with him helen and the wealth he had, and also in addition to them the suppliants. so when all had been conveyed up thither, proteus began to ask alexander who he was and from whence he was voyaging; and he both recounted to him his descent and told him the name of his native land, and moreover related of his voyage, from whence he was sailing. after this proteus asked him whence he had taken helen; and when alexander went astray in his account and did not speak the truth, those who had become suppliants convicted him of falsehood, relating in full the whole tale of the wrong done. at length proteus declared to them this sentence, saying, "were it not that i count it a matter of great moment not to slay any of those strangers who being driven from their course by winds have come to my land hitherto, i should have taken vengeance on thee on behalf of the man of hellas, seeing that thou, most base of men, having received from him hospitality, didst work against him a most impious deed. for thou didst go in to the wife of thine own host; and even this was not enough for thee, but thou didst stir her up with desire and hast gone away with her like a thief. moreover not even this by itself was enough for thee, but thou art come hither with plunder taken from the house of thy host. now therefore depart, seeing that i have counted it of great moment not to be a slayer of strangers. this woman indeed and the wealth which thou hast i will not allow thee to carry away, but i shall keep them safe for the hellene who was thy host, until he come himself and desire to carry them off to his home; to thyself however and thy fellow-voyagers i proclaim that ye depart from your anchoring within three days and go from my land to some other; and if not, that ye will be dealt with as enemies."

this the priests said was the manner of helen's coming to proteus; and i suppose that homer also had heard this story, but since it was not so suitable to the composition of his poem as the other which he followed, he dismissed it finally, making it clear at the same time that he was acquainted with that story also: and according to the manner in which he described the wanderings of alexander in the iliad (nor did he elsewhere retract that which he had said) of his course, wandering to various lands, and that he came among other places to sidon in phenicia. of this the poet has made mention in the "prowess of diomede," and the verses run thus:

"there she had robes many-coloured, the works of women of sidon,

those whom her son himself the god-like of form alexander

carried from sidon, what time the broad sea-path he sailed over

bringing back helene home, of a noble father begotten."

and in the odyssey also he has made mention of it in these verses:

"such had the daughter of zeus, such drugs of exquisite cunning,

good, which to her the wife of thon, polydamna, had given,

dwelling in egypt, the land where the bountiful meadow produces

drugs more than all lands else, many good being mixed, many evil."

and thus too menelaos says to telemachos:

"still the gods stayed me in egypt, to come back hither desiring,

stayed me from voyaging home, since sacrifice due i performed not."

in these lines he makes it clear that he knew of the wanderings of alexander to egypt, for syria borders upon egypt and the phenicians, of whom is sidon, dwell in syria. by these lines and by this passage it is also most clearly shown that the "cyprian epic" was not written by homer but by some other man: for in this it is said that on the third day after leaving sparta alexander came to ilion bringing with him helen, having had a "gently-blowing wind and a smooth sea," whereas in the iliad it says that he wandered from his course when he brought her.

let us now leave homer and the "cyprian epic"; but this i will say, namely that i asked the priests whether it is but an idle tale which the hellenes tell of that which they say happened about ilion; and they answered me thus, saying that they had their knowledge by inquiries from menelaos himself. after the rape of helen there came indeed, they said, to the teucrian land a large army of hellenes to help menelaos; and when the army had come out of the ships to land and had pitched its camp there, they sent messengers to ilion, with whom went also menelaos himself; and when these entered within the wall they demanded back helen and the wealth which alexander had stolen from menelaos and had taken away; and moreover they demanded satisfaction for the wrongs done: and the teucrians told the same tale then and afterwards, both with oath and without oath, namely that in deed and in truth they had not helen nor the wealth for which demand was made, but that both were in egypt; and that they could not justly be compelled to give satisfaction for that which proteus the king of egypt had. the hellenes however thought that they were being mocked by them and besieged the city, until at last they took it; and when they had taken the wall and did not find helen, but heard the same tale as before, then they believed the former tale and sent menelaos himself to proteus. and menelaos having come to egypt and having sailed up to memphis, told the truth of these matters, and not only found great entertainment, but also received helen unhurt, and all his own wealth besides. then, however, after he had been thus dealt with, menelaos showed himself ungrateful to the egyptians; for when he set forth to sail away, contrary winds detained him, and as this condition of things lasted long, he devised an impious deed; for he took two children of natives and made sacrifice of them. after this, when it was known that he had done so, he became abhorred, and being pursued he escaped and got away in his ships to libya; but whither he went besides after this, the egyptians were not able to tell. of these things they said that they found out part by inquiries, and the rest, namely that which happened in their own land, they related from sure and certain knowledge.

thus the priests of the egyptians told me; and i myself also agree with the story which was told of helen, adding this consideration, namely that if helen had been in ilion she would have been given up to the hellenes, whether alexander consented or no; for priam assuredly was not so mad, nor yet the others of his house, that they were desirous to run risk of ruin for themselves and their children and their city, in order that alexander might have helen as his wife: and even supposing that during the first part of the time they had been so inclined, yet when many others of the trojans besides were losing their lives as often as they fought with the hellenes, and of the sons of priam himself always two or three or even more were slain when a battle took place (if one may trust at all to the epic poets),—when, i say, things were coming thus to pass, i consider that even if priam himself had had helen as his wife, he would have given her back to the achaians, if at least by so doing he might be freed from the evils which oppressed him. nor even was the kingdom coming to alexander next, so that when priam was old the government was in his hands; but hector, who was both older and more of a man than he, would certainly have received it after the death of priam; and him it behoved not to allow his brother to go on with his wrong-doing, considering that great evils were coming to pass on his account both to himself privately and in general to the other trojans. in truth however they lacked the power to give helen back; and the hellenes did not believe them, though they spoke the truth; because, as i declare my opinion, the divine power was purposing to cause them utterly to perish, and so make it evident to men that for great wrongs great also are the chastisements which come from the gods. and thus have i delivered my opinion concerning these matters.

after proteus, they told me, rhampsinitos received in succession the kingdom, who left as a memorial of himself that gateway to the temple of hephaistos which is turned towards the west, and in front of the gateway he set up two statues, in height five-and-twenty cubits, of which the one which stands on the north side is called by the egyptians summer and the one on the south side winter; and to that one which they call summer they do reverence and make offerings, while to the other which is called winter they do the opposite of these things. this king, they said, got great wealth of silver, which none of the kings born after him could surpass or even come near to; and wishing to store his wealth in safety he caused to be built a chamber of stone, one of the walls whereof was towards the outside of his palace: and the builder of this, having a design against it, contrived as follows, that is, he disposed one of the stones in such a manner that it could be taken out easily from the wall either by two men or even by one. so when the chamber was finished, the king stored his money in it, and after some time the builder, being near the end of his life, called to him his sons (for he had two) and to them he related how he had contrived in building the treasury of the king, and all in forethought for them, that they might have ample means of living. and when he had clearly set forth to them everything concerning the taking out of the stone, he gave them the measurements, saying that if they paid heed to this matter they would be stewards of the king's treasury. so he ended his life, and his sons made no long delay in setting to work, but went to the palace by night, and having found the stone in the wall of the chamber they dealt with it easily and carried forth for themselves great quantity of the wealth within. and the king happening to open the chamber, he marvelled when he saw the vessels falling short of the full amount, and he did not know on whom he should lay the blame, since the seals were unbroken and the chamber had been close shut; but when upon his opening the chamber a second and a third time the money was each time seen to be diminished, for the thieves did not slacken in their assaults upon it, he did as follows:—having ordered traps to be made he set these round about the vessels in which the money was; and when the thieves had come as at former times and one of them had entered, then so soon as he came near to one of the vessels he was straightway caught in the trap: and when he perceived in what evil case he was, straightway calling his brother he showed him what the matter was, and bade him enter as quickly as possible and cut off his head, for fear lest being seen and known he might bring about the destruction of his brother also. and to the other it seemed that he spoke well, and he was persuaded and did so; and fitting the stone into its place he departed home bearing with him the head of his brother. now when it became day, the king entered into the chamber and was very greatly amazed, seeing the body of the thief held in the trap without his head, and the chamber unbroken, with no way to come in by or go out: and being at a loss he hung up the dead body of the thief upon the wall and set guards there, with charge if they saw any one weeping or bewailing himself to seize him and bring him before the king. and when the dead body had been hung up, the mother was greatly grieved, and speaking with the son who survived she enjoined him, in whatever way he could, to contrive means by which he might take down and bring home the body of his brother; and if he should neglect to do this, she earnestly threatened that she would go and give information to the king that he had the money. so as the mother dealt hardly with the surviving son, and he though saying many things to her did not persuade her, he contrived for his purpose a device as follows:—providing himself with asses he filled some skins with wine and laid them upon the asses, and after that he drove them along: and when he came opposite to those who were guarding the corpse hung up, he drew towards him two or three of the necks of the skins and loosened the cords with which they were tied. then when the wine was running out, he began to beat his head and cry out loudly, as if he did not know to which of the asses he should first turn; and when the guards saw the wine flowing out in streams, they ran together to the road with drinking vessels in their hands and collected the wine that was poured out, counting it so much gain; and he abused them all violently, making as if he were angry, but when the guards tried to appease him, after a time he feigned to be pacified and to abate his anger, and at length he drove his asses out of the road and began to set their loads right. then more talk arose among them, and one or two of them made jests at him and brought him to laugh with them; and in the end he made them a present of one of the skins in addition to what they had. upon that they lay down there without more ado, being minded to drink, and they took him into their company and invited him to remain with them and join them in their drinking: so he (as may be supposed) was persuaded and stayed. then as they in their drinking bade him welcome in a friendly manner, he made a present to them also of another of the skins; and so at length having drunk liberally the guards became completely intoxicated; and being overcome by sleep they went to bed on the spot where they had been drinking. he then, as it was now far on in the night, first took down the body of his brother, and then in mockery shaved the right cheeks of all the guards; and after that he put the dead body upon the asses and drove them away home, having accomplished that which was enjoined him by his mother. upon this the king, when it was reported to him that the dead body of the thief had been stolen away, displayed great anger; and desiring by all means that it should be found out who it might be who devised these things, did this (so at least they said, but i do not believe the account),—he caused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and enjoined her to receive all equally, and before having commerce with any one to compel him to tell her what was the most cunning and what the most unholy deed which had been done by him in all his life-time; and whosoever should relate that which had happened about the thief, him she must seize and not let him go out. then as she was doing that which was enjoined by her father, the thief, hearing for what purpose this was done and having a desire to get the better of the king in resource, did thus:—from the body of one lately dead he cut off the arm at the shoulder and went with it under his mantle: and having gone in to the daughter of the king, and being asked that which the others also were asked, he related that he had done the most unholy deed when he cut off the head of his brother, who had been caught in a trap in the king's treasure-chamber, and the most cunning deed in that he made drunk the guards and took down the dead body of his brother hanging up; and she when she heard it tried to take hold of him, but the thief held out to her in the darkness the arm of the corpse, which she grasped and held, thinking that she was holding the arm of the man himself; but the thief left it in her hands and departed, escaping through the door. now when this also was reported to the king, he was at first amazed at the ready invention and daring of the fellow, and then afterwards he sent round to all the cities and made proclamation granting a free pardon to the thief, and also promising a great reward if he would come into his presence. the thief accordingly trusting to the proclamation came to the king, and rhampsinitos greatly marvelled at him, and gave him this daughter of his to wife, counting him to be the most knowing of all men; for as the egyptians were distinguished from all other men, so was he from the other egyptians.

after these things they said this king went down alive to that place which by the hellenes is called hades, and there played at dice with demeter, and in some throws he overcame her and in others he was overcome by her; and he came back again having as a gift from her a handkerchief of gold: and they told me that because of the going down of rhampsinitos the egyptians after he came back celebrated a feast, which i know of my own knowledge also that they still observe even to my time; but whether it is for this cause that they keep the feast or for some other, i am not able to say. however, the priests weave a robe completely on the very day of the feast, and forthwith they bind up the eyes of one of them with a fillet, and having led him with the robe to the way by which one goes to the temple of demeter, they depart back again themselves. this priest, they say, with his eyes bound up is led by two wolves to the temple of demeter, which is distant from the city twenty furlongs, and then afterwards the wolves lead him back again from the temple to the same spot. now as to the tales told by the egyptians, any man may accept them to whom such things appear credible; as for me, it is to be understood throughout the whole of the history that i write by hearsay that which is reported by the people in each place. the egyptians say that demeter and dionysos are rulers of the world below; and the egyptians are also the first who reported the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal, and that when the body dies, the soul enters into another creature which chances then to be coming to the birth, and when it has gone the round of all the creatures of land and sea and of the air, it enters again into a human body as it comes to the birth; and that it makes this round in a period of three thousand years. this doctrine certain hellenes adopted, some earlier and some later, as if it were of their own invention, and of these men i know the names but i abstain from recording them.

down to the time when rhampsinitos was king, they told me there was in egypt nothing but orderly rule, and egypt prospered greatly; but after him cheops became king over them and brought them to every kind of evil: for he shut up all the temples, and having first kept them from sacrifices there, he then bade all the egyptians work for him. so some were appointed to draw stones from the stone-quarries in the arabian mountains to the nile, and others he ordered to receive the stones after they had been carried over the river in boats, and to draw them to those which are called the libyan mountains; and they worked by a hundred thousand men at a time, for each three months continually. of this oppression there passed ten years while the causeway was made by which they drew the stones, which causeway they built, and it is a work not much less, as it appears to me, than the pyramid; for the length of it is five furlongs and the breadth ten fathoms and the height, where it is highest, eight fathoms, and it is made of stone smoothed and with figures carved upon it. for this they said, the ten years were spent, and for the underground he caused to be made as sepulchral chambers for himself in an island, having conducted thither a channel from the nile. for the making of the pyramid itself there passed a period of twenty years; and the pyramid is square, each side measuring eight hundred feet, and the height of it is the same. it is built of stone smoothed and fitted together in the most perfect manner, not one of the stones being less than thirty feet in length. this pyramid was made after the manner of steps which some called "rows" and others "bases": and when they had first made it thus, they raised the remaining stones with machines made of short pieces of timber, raising them first from the ground to the first stage of the steps, and when the stone got up to this it was placed upon another machine standing on the first stage, and so from this it was drawn to the second upon another machine; for as many as were the courses of the steps, so many machines there were also, or perhaps they transferred one and the same machine, made so as easily to be carried, to each stage successively, in order that they might take up the stones; for let it be told in both ways, according as it is reported. however that may be the highest parts of it were finished first, and afterwards they proceeded to finish that which came next to them, and lastly they finished the parts of it near the ground and the lowest ranges. on the pyramid it is declared in egyptian writing how much was spent on radishes and onions and leeks for the workmen, and if i rightly remember that which the interpreter said in reading to me this inscription, a sum of one thousand six hundred talents of silver was spent; and if this is so, how much besides is likely to have been expended upon the iron with which they worked, and upon bread and clothing for the workmen, seeing that they were building the works for the time which has been mentioned and were occupied for no small time besides, as i suppose, in the cutting and bringing of the stones and in working at the excavation under the ground? cheops moreover came, they said, to such a pitch of wickedness, that being in want of money he caused his own daughter to sit in the stews, and ordered her to obtain from those who came a certain amount of money (how much it was they did not tell me): and she not only obtained the sum appointed by her father, but also she formed a design for herself privately to leave behind her a memorial, and she requested each man who came in to give her one stone upon her building: and of these stones, they told me, the pyramid was built which stands in front of the great pyramid in the middle of the three, each side being one hundred and fifty feet in length.

this cheops, the egyptians said, reigned fifty years; and after he was dead his brother chephren succeeded to the kingdom. this king followed the same manner of dealing as the other, both in all the rest and also in that he made a pyramid, not indeed attaining to the measurements of that which was built by the former (this i know, having myself also measured it), and moreover there are no underground chambers beneath nor does a channel come from the nile flowing to this one as to the other, in which the water coming through a conduit built for it flows round an island within, where they say that cheops himself is laid: but for a basement he built the first course of ethiopian stone of divers colours; and this pyramid he made forty feet lower than the other as regards size, building it close to the great pyramid. these stand both upon the same hill, which is about a hundred feet high. and chephren they said reigned fifty and six years. here then they reckon one hundred and six years, during which they say that there was nothing but evil for the egyptians, and the temples were kept closed and not opened during all that time. these kings the egyptians by reason of their hatred of them are not very willing to name; nay, they even call the pyramids after the name of philitis the shepherd, who at that time pastured flocks in those regions. after him, they said, mykerinos became king over egypt, who was the son of cheops; and to him his father's deeds were displeasing, and he both opened the temples and gave liberty to the people, who were ground down to the last extremity of evil, to return to their own business and to their sacrifices: also he gave decisions of their causes juster than those of all the other kings besides. in regard to this then they commend this king more than all the other kings who had arisen in egypt before him; for he not only gave good decisions, but also when a man complained of the decision, he gave him recompense from his own goods and thus satisfied his desire. but while mykerinos was acting mercifully to his subjects and practising this conduct which has been said, calamities befell him, of which the first was this, namely that his daughter died, the only child whom he had in his house: and being above measure grieved by that which had befallen him, and desiring to bury his daughter in a manner more remarkable than others, he made a cow of wood, which he covered over with gold, and then within it he buried this daughter who as i said, had died. this cow was not covered up in the ground, but it might be seen even down to my own time in the city of sais, placed within the royal palace in a chamber which was greatly adorned; and they offer incense of all kinds before it every day, and each night a lamp burns beside it all through the night. near this cow in another chamber stand images of the concubines of mykerinos, as the priests at sais told me; for there are in fact colossal wooden statues, in number about twenty, made with naked bodies; but who they are i am not able to say, except only that which is reported. some however tell about this cow and the colossal statues the following tale, namely that mykerinos was enamoured of his own daughter and afterwards ravished her; and upon this they say that the girl strangled herself for grief, and he buried her in this cow; and her mother cut off the hands of the maids who had betrayed the daughter to her father; wherefore now the images of them have suffered that which the maids suffered in their life. in thus saying they speak idly, as it seems to me, especially in what they say about the hands of the statues; for as to this, even we ourselves saw that their hands had dropped off from lapse of time, and they were to be seen still lying at their feet even down to my time. the cow is covered up with a crimson robe, except only the head and the neck, which are seen, overlaid with gold very thickly; and between the horns there is the disc of the sun figured in gold. the cow is not standing up but kneeling, and in size is equal to a large living cow. every year it is carried forth from the chamber, at those times, i say, the egyptians beat themselves for that god whom i will not name upon occasion of such a matter; at these times, i say, they also carry forth the cow to the light of day, for they say that she asked of her father mykerinos, when she was dying, that she might look upon the sun once in the year.

after the misfortune of his daughter it happened, they said, secondly to this king as follows:—an oracle came to him from the city of buto, saying that he was destined to live but six years more, in the seventh year to end his life: and he being indignant at it sent to the oracle a reproach against the god, making complaint in reply that whereas his father and uncle, who had shut up the temples and had not only not remembered the gods, but also had been destroyers of men, had lived for a long time, he himself, who practised piety, was destined to end his life so soon: and from the oracle came a second message, which said that it was for this very cause that he was bringing his life to a swift close; for he had not done that which it was appointed for him to do, since it was destined that egypt should suffer evils for a hundred and fifty years, and the two kings who had arisen before him had perceived this, but he had not. mykerinos having heard this, and considering that this sentence had passed upon him beyond recall, procured many lamps, and whenever night came on he lighted these and began to drink and take his pleasure, ceasing neither by day nor by night; and he went about to the fen-country and to the woods and wherever he heard there were the most suitable places of enjoyment. this he devised (having a mind to prove that the oracle spoke falsely) in order that he might have twelve years of life instead of six, the nights being turned into days.

this king also left behind him a pyramid, much smaller than that of his father, of a square shape and measuring on each side three hundred feet lacking twenty, built moreover of ethiopian stone up to half the height. this pyramid some of the hellenes say was built by the courtesan rhodopis, not therein speaking rightly: and besides this it is evident to me that they who speak thus do not even know who rhodopis was, for otherwise they would not have attributed to her the building of a pyramid like this, on which have been spent (so to speak) innumerable thousands of talents: moreover they do not know that rhodopis flourished in the reign of amasis, and not in this king's reign; for rhodopis lived very many years later than the kings who left behind them these pyramids. by descent she was of thrace, and she was a slave of iadmon the son of hephaistopolis a samian, and a fellow-slave of esop the maker of fables; for he too was once the slave of iadmon, as was proved especially by this fact, namely that when the people of delphi repeatedly made proclamation in accordance with an oracle, to find some one who would take up the blood-money for the death of esop, no one else appeared, but at length the grandson of iadmon, called iadmon also, took it up; and thus it is showed that esop too was the slave of iadmon. as for rhodopis, she came to egypt brought by xanthes the samian, and having come thither to exercise her calling she was redeemed from slavery for a great sum by a man of mytilene, charaxos son of scamandronymos and brother of sappho the lyric poet. thus was rhodopis set free, and she remained in egypt and by her beauty won so much liking that she made great gain of money for one like rhodopis, though not enough to suffice for the cost of such a pyramid as this. in truth there is no need to ascribe to her very great riches, considering that the tithe of her wealth may still be seen even to this time by any one who desires it: for rhodopis wished to leave behind her a memorial of herself in hellas, namely to cause a thing to be made such as happens not to have been thought of or dedicated in a temple by any besides, and to dedicate this at delphi as a memorial of herself. accordingly with the tithe of her wealth she caused to be made spits of iron of size large enough to pierce a whole ox, and many in number, going as far therein as her tithe allowed her, and she sent them to delphi: these are even at the present time lying there, heaped all together behind the altar which the chians dedicated, and just opposite to the cell of the temple. now at naucratis, as it happens, the courtesans are rather apt to win credit; for this woman first, about whom the story to which i refer is told, became so famous that all the hellenes without exception came to know the name of rhodopis, and then after her one whose name was archidiche became a subject of song all over hellas, though she was less talked of than the other. as for charaxos, when after redeeming rhodopis he returned back to mytilene, sappho in an ode violently abused him. of rhodopis then i shall say no more.

after mykerinos the priests said asychis became king of egypt, and he made for hephaistos the temple gateway which is towards the sunrising, by far the most beautiful and the largest of the gateways; for while they all have figures carved upon them and innumerable ornaments of building besides, this has them very much more than the rest. in this king's reign they told me that, as the circulation of money was very slow, a law was made for the egyptians that a man might have that money lent to him which he needed, by offering as security the dead body of his father; and there was added moreover to this law another, namely that he who lent the money should have a claim also to the whole of the sepulchral chamber belonging to him who received it, and that the man who offered that security should be subject to this penalty, if he refused to pay back the debt, namely that neither the man himself should be allowed to have burial, when he died, either in that family burial-place or in any other, nor should he be allowed to bury any of his kinsmen whom he lost by death. this king desiring to surpass the kings of egypt who had arisen before him left as a memorial of himself a pyramid which he made of bricks and on it there is an inscription carved in stone and saying thus: "despise not me in comparison with the pyramids of stone, seeing that i excel them as much as zeus excels the other gods; for with a pole they struck into the lake, and whatever of the mud attached itself to the pole, this they gathered up and made bricks, and in such manner they finished me."

such were the deeds which this king performed: and after him reigned a blind man of the city of anysis, whose name was anysis. in his reign the ethiopians and sabacos the king of the ethiopians marched upon egypt with a great host of men; so this blind man departed, flying to the fen-country, and the ethiopian was king over egypt for fifty years, during which he performed deeds as follows:—whenever any man of the egyptians committed any transgression, he would never put him to death, but he gave sentence upon each man according to the greatness of the wrong-doing, appointing them to work at throwing up an embankment before that city from whence each man came of those who committed wrong. thus the cities were made higher still than before; for they were embanked first by those who dug the channels in the reign of sesostris, and then secondly in the reign of the ethiopian, and thus they were made very high: and while other cities in egypt also stood high, i think in the town at bubastis especially the earth was piled up. in this city there is a temple very well worthy of mention, for though there are other temples which are larger and build with more cost, none more than this is a pleasure to the eyes. now bubastis in the hellenic tongue is artemis, and her temple is ordered thus:—except the entrance it is completely surrounded by water; for channels come in from the nile, not joining one another, but each extending as far as the entrance of the temple, one flowing round on the one side and the other on the other side, each a hundred feet broad and shaded over with trees; and the gateway has a height of ten fathoms, and it is adorned with figures six cubits high, very noteworthy. this temple is in the middle of the city and is looked down upon from all sides as one goes round, for since the city has been banked up to a height, while the temple has not been moved from the place where it was at the first built, it is possible to look down into it: and round it runs a stone wall with figures carved upon it, while within it there is a grove of very large trees planted round a large temple-house, within which is the image of the goddess: and the breadth and length of the temple is a furlong every way. opposite the entrance there is a road paved with stone for about three furlongs, which leads through the market-place towards the east, with a breadth of about four hundred feet; and on this side and on that grow trees of height reaching to heaven: and the road leads to the temple of hermes. this temple then is thus ordered.

the final deliverance from the ethiopian came about (they said) as follows:—he fled away because he had seen in his sleep a vision, in which it seemed to him that a man came and stood by him and counselled him to gather together all the priests in egypt and cut them asunder in the midst. having seen this dream, he said that it seemed to him that the gods were foreshowing him this to furnish an occasion against him, in order that he might do an impious deed with respect to religion, and so receive some evil either from the gods or from men: he would not however do so, but in truth (he said) the time had expired, during which it had been prophesied to him that he should rule egypt before he departed thence. for when he was in ethiopia the oracles which the ethiopians consult had told him that it was fated for him to rule egypt fifty years: since then this time was now expiring, and the vision of the dream also disturbed him, sabacos departed out of egypt of his own free will.

then when the ethiopian had gone away out of egypt, the blind man came back from the fen-country and began to rule again, having lived there during fifty years upon an island which he had made by heaping up ashes and earth: for whenever any of the egyptians visited him bringing food, according as it had been appointed to them severally to do without the knowledge of the ethiopian, he bade them bring also some ashes for their gift. this island none was able to find before amyrtaios; that is, for more than seven hundred years the kings who arose before amyrtaios were not able to find it. now the name of this island is elbo, and its size is ten furlongs each way.

after him there came to the throne the priest of hephaistos, whose name was sethos. this man, they said, neglected and held in no regard the warrior class of the egyptians, considering that he would have no need of them; and besides other slights which he put upon them, he also took from them the yokes of corn-land which had been given to them as a special gift in the reigns of the former kings, twelve yokes to each man. after this, sanacharib king of the arabians and of the assyrians marched a great host against egypt. then the warriors of the egyptians refused to come to the rescue, and the priest, being driven into a strait, entered into the sanctuary of the temple and bewailed to the image of the god the danger which was impending over him; and as he was thus lamenting, sleep came upon him, and it seemed to him in his vision that the god came and stood by him and encouraged him, saying that he should suffer no evil if he went forth to meet the army of the arabians; for he would himself send him helpers. trusting in these things seen in sleep, he took with him, they said, those of the egyptians who were willing to follow him, and encamped in pelusion, for by this way the invasion came: and not one of the warrior class followed him, but shop-keepers and artisans and men of the market. then after they came, there swarmed by night upon their enemies mice of the fields, and ate up their quivers and their bows, and moreover the handles of their shields, so that on the next day they fled, and being without defence of arms great numbers fell. and at the present time this king stands in the temple of hephaistos in stone, holding upon his hand a mouse, and by letters inscribed he says these words: "let him who looks upon me learn to fear the gods."

so far in the story the egyptians and the priests were they who made the report, declaring that from the first king down to this priest of hephaistos who reigned last, there had been three hundred and forty-one generations of men, and that in them there had been the same number of chief-priests and of kings: but three hundred generations of men are equal to ten thousand years, for a hundred years is three generations of men; and in the one-and-forty generations which remain, those i mean which were added to the three hundred, there are one thousand three hundred and forty years. thus in the period of eleven thousand three hundred and forty years they said that there had arisen no god in human form; nor even before that time or afterwards among the remaining kings who arise in egypt, did they report that anything of that kind had come to pass. in this time they said that the sun had moved four times from his accustomed place of rising, and where he now sets he had thence twice had his rising, and in the place from whence he now rises he had twice had his setting; and in the meantime nothing in egypt had been changed from its usual state, neither that which comes from the earth nor that which comes to them from the river nor that which concerns diseases or deaths. and formerly when hecataios the historian was in thebes, and had traced his descent and connected his family with a god in the sixteenth generation before, the priests of zeus did for him much the same as they did for me (though i had not traced my descent). they led me into the sanctuary of the temple, which is of great size, and they counted up the number, showing colossal wooden statues in number the same as they said; for each chief-priest there sets up in his lifetime an image of himself: accordingly the priests, counting and showing me these, declared to me that each one of them was a son succeeding his own father, and they went up through the series of images from the image of the one who had died last, until they had declared this of the whole number. and when hecataios had traced his descent and connected his family with a god in the sixteenth generation, they traced a descent in opposition to his, besides their numbering, not accepting it from him that a man had been born from a god; and they traced their counter-descent thus, saying that each one of the statues had been piromis son of piromis, until they had declared this of the whole three hundred and forty-five statues, each one being surnamed piromis; and neither with a god nor a hero did they connect their descent. now piromis means in the tongue of hellas "honourable and good man." from their declaration then it followed, that they of whom the images were had been of form like this, and far removed from being gods: but in the time before these men they said that gods were the rulers in egypt, not mingling with men, and that of these always one had power at a time; and the last of them who was king over egypt was oros the son of osiris, whom the hellenes call apollo: he was king over egypt last, having deposed typhon. now osiris in the tongue of hellas is dionysos.

among the hellenes heracles and dionysos and pan are accounted the lastest-born of the gods; but with the egyptians pan is a very ancient god, and he is one of those which are called eight gods, while heracles is of the second rank, who are called the twelve gods, and dionysos is of the third rank, namely of those who were born of the twelve gods. now as to heracles i have shown already how many years old he is according to the egyptians themselves, reckoning down to the reign of amasis, and pan is said to have existed for yet more years than these, and dionysos for the smallest number of years as compared with the others; and even for this last they reckon down to the reign of amasis fifteen thousand years. this the egyptians say that they know for a certainty, since they always kept a reckoning and wrote down the years as they came. now the dionysos who is said to have been born of semele the daughter of cadmos, was born about sixteen hundred years before my time, and heracles who was the son of alcmene, about nine hundred years, and that pan who was born of penelope, for of her and of hermes pan is said by the hellenes to have been born, came into being later than the wars of troy, about eight hundred years before my time. of these two accounts every man may adopt that one which he shall find the more credible when he hears it. i however, for my part, have already declared my opinion about them. for if these also, like heracles the son of amphitryon, had appeared before all men's eyes and had lived their lives to old age in hellas, i mean dionysos the son of semele and pan the son of penelope, then one would have said that these also had been born mere men, having the names of those gods who had come into being long before: but as it is, with regard to dionysos the hellenes say that as soon as he was born zeus sewed him up in his thigh and carried him to nysa, which is above egypt in the land of ethiopia; and as to pan, they cannot say whither he went after he was born. hence it has become clear to me that the hellenes learnt the names of these gods later than those of the other gods, and trace their descent as if their birth occurred at the time when they first learnt their names.

thus far then the history is told by the egyptians themselves; but i will now recount that which other nations also tell, and the egyptians in agreement with the others, of that which happened in this land: and there will be added to this also something of that which i have myself seen.

being set free after the reign of the priest of hephaistos, the egyptians, since they could not live any time without a king, set up over them twelve kings, having divided all egypt into twelve parts. these made intermarriages with one another and reigned, making agreement that they would not put down one another by force, nor seek to get an advantage over one another, but would live in perfect friendship: and the reason why they made these agreements, guarding them very strongly from violation, was this, namely that an oracle had been given to them at first when they began to exercise their rule, that he of them who should pour a libation with a bronze cup in the temple of hephaistos, should be king of all egypt (for they used to assemble together in all the temples). moreover they resolved to join all together and leave a memorial of themselves; and having so resolved they caused to be made a labyrinth, situated a little above the lake of moiris and nearly opposite to that which is called the city of crocodiles. this i saw myself, and i found it greater than words can say. for if one should put together and reckon up all the buildings and all the great works produced by hellenes, they would prove to be inferior in labour and expense to this labyrinth, though it is true that both the temple at ephesos and that at samos are works worthy of note. the pyramids also were greater than words can say, and each one of them is equal to many works of the hellenes, great as they may be; but the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. it has twelve courts covered in, with gates facing one another, six upon the north side and six upon the south, joining on one to another, and the same wall surrounds them all outside; and there are in it two kinds of chambers, the one kind below the ground and the other above upon these, three thousand in number, of each kind fifteen hundred. the upper set of chambers we ourselves saw, going through them, and we tell of them having looked upon them with our own eyes; but the chambers under ground we heard about only; for the egyptians who had charge of them were not willing on any account to show them, saying that here were the sepulchres of the kings who had first built this labyrinth and of the sacred crocodiles. accordingly we speak of the chambers below by what we received from hearsay, while those above we saw ourselves and found them to be works of more than human greatness. for the passages through the chambers, and the goings this way and that way through the courts, which were admirably adorned, afforded endless matter for marvel, as we went through from a court to the chambers beyond it, and from the chambers to colonnades, and from the colonnades to other rooms, and then from the chambers again to other courts. over the whole of these is a roof made of stone like the walls; and the walls are covered with figures carved upon them, each court being surrounded with pillars of white stone fitted together most perfectly; and at the end of the labyrinth, by the corner of it, there is a pyramid of forty fathoms, upon which large figures are carved, and to this there is a way made under ground.

such is this labyrinth: but a cause for marvel even greater than this is afforded by the lake, which is called the lake of moiris, along the side of which this labyrinth is built. the measure of its circuit is three thousand six hundred furlongs (being sixty schoines), and this is the same number of furlongs as the extent of egypt itself along the sea. the lake lies extended lengthwise from north to south, and in depth where it is deepest it is fifty fathoms. that this lake is artificial and formed by digging is self-evident, for about in the middle of the lake stand two pyramids, each rising above the water to a height of fifty fathoms, the part which is built below the water being of just the same height; and upon each is placed a colossal statue of stone sitting upon a chair. thus the pyramids are a hundred fathoms high; and these hundred fathoms are equal to a furlong of six hundred feet, the fathom being measured as six feet or four cubits, the feet being four palms each, and the cubits six. the water in the lake does not come from the place where it is, for the country there is very deficient in water, but it has been brought thither from the nile by a canal; and for six months the water flows into the lake, and for six months out into the nile again; and whenever it flows out, then for the six months it brings into the royal treasury a talent of silver a day from the fish which are caught, and twenty pounds when the water comes in. the natives of the place moreover said that this lake had an outlet under ground to the syrtis which is in libya, turning towards the interior of the continent upon the western side and running along by the mountain which is above memphis. now since i did not see anywhere existing the earth dug out of this excavation (for that was a matter which drew my attention), i asked those who dwelt nearest to the lake where the earth was which had been dug out. these told me to what place it had been carried away; and i readily believed them, for i knew by report that a similar thing had been done at nineveh, the city of the assyrians. there certain thieves formed a design once to carry away the wealth of sardanapallos son of ninos, the king, which wealth was very great and was kept in treasure-houses under the earth. accordingly they began from their own dwelling, and making estimate of their direction they dug under ground towards the king's palace; and the earth which was brought out of the excavation they used to carry away, when night came on, to the river tigris which flows by the city of nineveh, until at last they accomplished that which they desired. similarly, as i heard, the digging of the lake in egypt was effected, except that it was done not by night but during the day; for as they dug the egyptians carried to the nile the earth which was dug out; and the river, when it received it, would naturally bear it away and disperse it. thus is this lake said to have been dug out.

now the twelve kings continued to rule justly, but in course of time it happened thus:—after sacrifice in the temple of hephaistos they were about to make libation on the last day of the feast, and the chief-priest, in bringing out for them the golden cups with which they had been wont to pour libations, missed his reckoning and brought eleven only for the twelve kings. then that one of them who was standing last in order, namely psammetichos, since he had no cup took off from his head his helmet, which was of bronze, and having held it out to receive the wine he proceeded to make libation: likewise all the other kings were wont to wear helmets and they happened to have them then. now psammetichos held out his helmet with no treacherous meaning; but they taking note of that which had been done by psammetichos and of the oracle, namely how it had been declared to them that whosoever of them should make libation with a bronze cup should be sole king of egypt, recollecting, i say, the saying of the oracle, they did not indeed deem it right to slay psammetichos, since they found by examination that he had not done it with any forethought, but they determined to strip him of almost all his power and to drive him away into the fen-country, and that from the fen-country he should not hold any dealings with the rest of egypt. this psammetichos had formerly been a fugitive from the ethiopian sabacos who had killed his father necos, from him, i say, he had then been a fugitive in syria; and when the ethiopian had departed in consequence of the vision of the dream, the egyptians who were of the district of sais brought him back to his own country. then afterwards, when he was king, it was his fate to be a fugitive a second time on account of the helmet, being driven by the eleven kings into the fen-country. so then holding that he had been grievously wronged by them, he thought how he might take vengeance on those who had driven him out: and when he had sent to the oracle of leto in the city of buto, where the egyptians have their most truthful oracle, there was given to him the reply that vengeance would come when men of bronze appeared from the sea. and he was strongly disposed not to believe that bronze men would come to help him; but after no long time had passed, certain ionians and carians who had sailed forth for plunder were compelled to come to shore in egypt, and they having landed and being clad in bronze armour, came to the fen-land and brought a report to psammetichos that bronze men had come from the sea and were plundering the plain. so he, perceiving that the saying of the oracle was coming to pass, dealt in a friendly manner with the ionians and carians, and with large promises he persuaded them to take his part. then when he had persuaded them, with the help of those egyptians who favoured his cause and of these foreign mercenaries he overthrew the kings. having thus got power over all egypt, psammetichos made for hephaistos that gateway of the temple at memphis which is turned towards the south wind; and he built a court for apis, in which apis is kept when he appears, opposite to the gateway of the temple, surrounded all with pillars and covered with figures; and instead of columns there stand to support the roof of the court colossal statues twelve cubits high. now apis is in the tongue of the hellenes epaphos. to the ionians and to the carians who had helped him psammetichos granted portions of land to dwell in, opposite to one another with the river nile between, and these were called "encampments"; these portions of land he gave them, and he paid them besides all that he had promised: moreover he placed with them egyptian boys to have them taught the hellenic tongue; and from these, who learnt the language thoroughly, are descended the present class of interpreters in egypt. now the ionians and carians occupied these portions of land for a long time, and they are towards the sea a little below the city of bubastis, on that which is called the pelusian mouth of the nile. these men king amasis afterwards removed from thence and established them at memphis, making them into a guard for himself against the egyptians: and they being settled in egypt, we who are hellenes know by intercourse with them the certainty of all that which happened in egypt beginning from king psammetichos and afterwards; for these were the first men of foreign tongue who settled in egypt: and in the land from which they were removed there still remained down to my time the sheds where their ships were drawn up and the ruins of their houses.

thus then psammetichos obtained egypt: and of the oracle which is in egypt i have made mention often before this, and now i give an account of it, seeing that it is worthy to be described. this oracle which is in egypt is sacred to leto, and it is established in a great city near that mouth of the nile which is called sebennytic, as one sails up the river from the sea; and the name of this city where the oracle is found is buto, as i have said before in mentioning it. in this buto there is a temple of apollo and artemis; and the temple-house of leto, in which the oracle is, is both great in itself and has a gateway of the height of ten fathoms: but that which caused me most to marvel of the things to be seen there, i will now tell. there is in this sacred enclosure a house of leto made of one single stone upon the top, the cornice measuring four cubits. this house then of all the things that were to be seen by me in that temple is the most marvellous, and among those which come next is the island called chemmis. this is situated in a deep and broad lake by the side of the temple at buto, and it is said by the egyptians that this island is a floating island. i myself did not see it either floating about or moved from its place, and i feel surprise at hearing of it, wondering if it be indeed a floating island. in this island of which i speak there is a great temple-house of apollo, and three several altars are set up within, and there are planted in the island many palm-trees and other trees, both bearing fruit and not bearing fruit. and the egyptians, when they say that it is floating, add this story, namely that in this island which formerly was not floating, leto, being one of the eight gods who came into existence first, and dwelling in the city of buto where she has this oracle, received apollo from isis as a charge and preserved him, concealing him in the island which is said now to be a floating island, at that time when typhon came after him seeking everywhere and desiring to find the son of osiris. now they say that apollo and artemis are children of dionysos and of isis, and that leto became their nurse and preserver; and in the egyptian tongue apollo is oros, demeter is isis, and artemis is bubastis. from this story and from no other aeschylus the son of euphorion took this which i shall say, wherein he differs from all the preceding poets; he represented namely that artemis was the daughter of demeter. for this reason then, they say, it became a floating island.

such is the story which they tell; but as for psammetichos, he was king over egypt for four-and-fifty years, of which for thirty years save one he was sitting before azotos, a great city of syria, besieging it, until at last he took it: and this azotos of all cities about which we have knowledge held out for the longest time under a siege.

the son of psammetichos was necos, and he became king of egypt. this man was the first who attempted the channel leading to the erythraian sea, which dareios the persian afterwards completed: the length of this is a voyage of four days, and in breadth it was so dug that two triremes could go side by side driven by oars; and the water is brought into it from the nile. the channel is conducted a little above the city of bubastis by patumos the arabian city, and runs into the erythraian sea: and it is dug first along those parts of the plain of egypt which lie towards arabia, just above which run the mountains which extend opposite memphis, where are the stone-quarries,—along the base of these mountains the channel is conducted from west to east for a great way; and after that it is directed towards a break in the hills and tends from these mountains towards the noon-day and the south wind to the arabian gulf. now in the place where the journey is least and shortest from the northern to the southern sea (which is also called erythraian), that is from mount casion, which is the boundary between egypt and syria, the distance is exactly a thousand furlongs to the arabian gulf; but the channel is much longer, since it is more winding; and in the reign of necos there perished while digging it twelve myriads of the egyptians. now necos ceased in the midst of his digging, because the utterance of an oracle impeded him, which was to the effect that he was working for the barbarian: and the egyptians call all men barbarians who do not agree with them in speech. thus having ceased from the work of the channel, necos betook himself to raging wars, and triremes were built by him, some for the northern sea and others in the arabian gulf for the erythraian sea; and of these the sheds are still to be seen. these ships he used when he needed them; and also on land necos engaged battle at magdolos with the syrians, and conquered them; and after this he took cadytis, which is a great city of syria: and the dress which he wore when he made these conquests he dedicated to apollo, sending it to branchidai of the milesians. after this, having reigned in all sixteen years, he brought his life to an end, and handed on the kingdom to psammis his son.

while this psammis was king of egypt, there came to him men sent by the eleians, who boasted that they ordered the contest at olympia in the most just and honourable manner possible and thought that not even the egyptians, the wisest of men, could find out anything besides, to be added to their rules. now when the eleians came to egypt and said that for which they had come, then this king called together those of the egyptians who were reputed the wisest, and when the egyptians had come together they heard the eleians tell of all that which it was their part to do in regard to the contest; and when they had related everything, they said that they had come to learn in addition anything which the egyptians might be able to find out besides, which was juster than this. they then having consulted together asked the eleians whether their own citizens took part in the contest; and they said that it was permitted to any one who desired it, to take part in the contest: upon which the egyptians said that in so ordering the games they had wholly missed the mark of justice; for it could not be but that they would take part with the man of their own state, if he was contending, and so act unfairly to the stranger: but if they really desired, as they said, to order the games justly, and if this was the cause for which they had come to egypt, they advised them to order the contest so as to be for strangers alone to contend in, and that no eleian should be permitted to contend. such was the suggestion made by the egyptians to the eleians.

when psammis had been king of egypt for only six years and had made an expedition to ethiopia and immediately afterwards had ended his life, apries the son of psammis received the kingdom in succession. this man came to be the most prosperous of all the kings up to that time except only his forefather psammetichos; and he reigned five-and-twenty years, during which he led an army against sidon and fought a sea-fight with the king of tyre. since however it was fated that evil should come upon him it came by occasion of a matter which i shall relate at greater length in the libyan history, and at present but shortly. apries having sent a great expedition against the kyrenians, met with correspondingly great disaster; and the egyptians considering him to blame for this revolted from him, supposing that apries had with forethought sent them out to evident calamity, in order (as they said) that there might be a slaughter of them, and he might the more securely rule over the other egyptians. being indignant at this, both these men who had returned from the expedition and also the friends of those who had perished made revolt openly. hearing this apries sent to them amasis, to cause them to cease by persuasion; and when he had come and was seeking to restrain the egyptians, as he was speaking and telling them not to do so, one of the egyptians stood up behind him and put a helmet upon his head, saying as he did so that he put it on to crown him king. and to him this that was done was in some degree not unwelcome, as he proved by his behaviour; for as soon as the revolted egyptians had set him up as king, he prepared to march against apries: and apries hearing this sent to amasis one of the egyptians who were about his own person, a man of reputation, whose name was patarbemis, enjoining him to bring amasis alive into his presence. when this patarbemis came and summoned amasis, the latter, who happened to be sitting on horseback, lifted up his leg and behaved in an unseemly manner, bidding him take that back to apries. nevertheless, they say, patarbemis made demand of him that he should go to the king, seeing that the king had sent to summon him; and he answered him that he had for some time past been preparing to do so, and that apries would have no occasion to find fault with him, for he would both come himself and bring others with him. then patarbemis both perceiving his intention from that which he said, and also seeing his preparations, departed in haste, desiring to make known as quickly as possible to the king the things which were being done: and when he came back to apries not bringing amasis, the king paying no regard to that which he said, but being moved by violent anger, ordered his ears and his nose to be cut off. and the rest of the egyptians who still remained on his side, when they saw the man of most repute among them thus suffering shameful outrage, waited no longer but joined the others in revolt, and delivered themselves over to amasis. then apries having heard this also, armed his foreign mercenaries and marched against the egyptians: now he had about him carian and ionian mercenaries to the number of thirty thousand; and his royal palace was in the city of sais, of great size and worthy to be seen. so apries and his army were going against the egyptians, and amasis and those with him were going against the mercenaries; and both sides came to the city of momemphis and were about to make trial of one another in fight.

now of the egyptians there are seven classes, and of these one class is called that of the priests, and another that of the warriors, while the others are the cowherds, swineherds, shopkeepers, interpreters, and boatmen. this is the number of the classes of the egyptians, and their names are given them from the occupations which they follow. of them the warriors are called calasirians and hermotybians, and they are of the following districts,—for all egypt is divided into districts. the districts of the hermotybians are those of busiris, sais, chemmis, papremis, the island called prosopitis, and the half of natho,—of these districts are the hermotybians, who reached when most numerous the number of sixteen myriads. of these not one has been learnt anything of handicraft, but they are given up to war entirely. again the districts of the calasirians are those of thebes, bubastis, aphthis, tanis, mendes, sebennytos, athribis, pharbaithos, thmuis, onuphis, anytis, myecphoris,—this last is on an island opposite to the city of bubastis. these are the districts of the calasirians; and they reached, when most numerous, to the number of five-and-twenty myriads of men; nor is it lawful for these, any more than for the others, to practise any craft; but they practise that which has to do with war only, handing down the tradition from father to son. now whether the hellenes have learnt this also from the egyptians, i am not able to say for certain, since i see that the thracians also and scythians and persians and lydians and almost all the barbarians esteem those of their citizens who learn the arts, and the descendants of them, as less honourable than the rest; while those who have got free from all practice of manual arts are accounted noble, and especially those who are devoted to war: however that may be, the hellenes have all learnt this, and especially the lacedemonians; but the corinthians least of all cast slight upon those who practise handicraft.

the following privilege was specially granted to this class and to none others of the egyptians except the priests, that is to say, each man had twelve yokes of land specially granted to him free from imposts: now the yoke of land measures a hundred egyptian cubits every way, and the egyptian cubit is, as it happens, equal to that of samos. this, i say, was a special privilege granted to all, and they also had certain advantages in turn and not the same men twice; that is to say, a thousand of the calasirians and a thousand of the hermotybians acted as body-guard to the king during each year; and these had besides their yokes of land an allowance given them for each day of five pounds weight of bread to each man, and two pounds of beef, and four half-pints of wine. this was the allowance given to those who were serving as the king's body-guard for the time being.

so when apries leading his foreign mercenaries, and amasis at the head of the whole body of the egyptians, in their approach to one another had come to the city of momemphis, they engaged in battle: and although the foreign troops fought well, yet being much inferior in number they were worsted by reason of this. but apries is said to have supposed that not even a god would be able to cause him to cease from his rule, so firmly did he think that it was established. in that battle then, i say, he was worsted, and being taken alive was brought away to the city of sais, to that which had formerly been his own dwelling but from thenceforth was the palace of amasis. there for some time he was kept in the palace, and amasis dealt well with him but at last, since the egyptians blamed him, saying that he acted not rightly in keeping alive him who was the greatest foe both to themselves and to him, therefore he delivered apries over to the egyptians; and they strangled him, and after that buried him in the burial-place of his fathers: this is in the temple of athene, close to the sanctuary, on the left hand as you enter. now the men of sais buried all those of this district who had been kings, within the temple; for the tomb of amasis also, though it is further from the sanctuary than that of apries and his forefathers, yet this too is within the court of the temple, and it consists of a colonnade of stone of great size, with pillars carved to imitate date-palms, and otherwise sumptuously adorned; and within the colonnade are double doors, and inside the doors a sepulchral chamber. also at sais there is the burial-place of him whom i account it not pious to name in connexion with such a matter, which is in the temple of athene behind the house of the goddess, stretching along the whole wall of it; and in the sacred enclosure stand great obelisks of stone, and near them is a lake adorned with an edging of stone and fairly made in a circle, being in size, as it seemed to me, equal to that which is called the "round pool" in delos. on this lake they perform by night the show of his sufferings, and this the egyptians call mysteries. of these things i know more fully in detail how they take place, but i shall leave this unspoken; and of the mystic rites of demeter, which the hellenes call thesmophoria, of these also, although i know, i shall leave unspoken all except so much as piety permits me to tell. the daughters of danaos were they who brought this rite out of egypt and taught it to the women of the pelasgians; then afterwards when all the inhabitants of peloponnese were driven out by the dorians, the rite was lost, and only those who were left behind of the peloponnesians and not driven out, that is to say the arcadians, preserved it.

apries having thus been overthrown, amasis became king, being of the district of sais, and the name of the city whence he was is siuph. now at the first the egyptians despised amasis and held him in no great regard, because he had been a man of the people and was of no distinguished family; but afterwards amasis won them over to himself by wisdom and not wilfulness. among innumerable other things of price which he had, there was a foot-basin of gold in which both amasis himself and all his guests were wont always to wash their feet. this he broke up, and of it he caused to be made the image of a god, and set it up in the city, where it was most convenient; and the egyptians went continually to visit the image and did great reverence to it. then amasis, having learnt that which was done by the men of the city, called together the egyptians and made known to them the matter, saying that the image had been produced from the foot-basin, into which formerly the egyptians used to vomit and make water, and in which they washed their feet, whereas now they did to it great reverence; and just so, he continued, had he himself now fared, as the foot-basin; for though formerly he was a man of the people, yet now he was their king, and he bade them accordingly honour him and have regard for him. in such manner he won the egyptians to himself, so that they consented to be his subjects; and his ordering of affairs was this:—in the early morning, and until the time of the filling of the market he did with a good will the business which was brought before him; but after this he passed the time in drinking and in jesting at his boon-companions, and was frivolous and playful. and his friends being troubled at it admonished him in some such words as these: "o king, thou dost not rightly govern thyself in thus letting thyself descend to behaviour so trifling; for thou oughtest rather to have been sitting throughout the day stately upon a stately throne and administering thy business; and so the egyptians would have been assured that they were ruled by a great man, and thou wouldest have had a better report: but as it is, thou art acting by no means in a kingly fashion." and he answered them thus: "they who have bows stretch them at such time as they wish to use them, and when they have finished using them they loose them again; for if they were stretched tight always they would break, so that the men would not be able to use them when they needed them. so also is the state of man: if he should always be in earnest and not relax himself for sport at the due time, he would either go mad or be struck with stupor before he was aware; and knowing this well, i distribute a portion of the time to each of the two ways of living." thus he replied to his friends. it is said however that amasis, even when he was in a private station, was a lover of drinking and of jesting, and not at all seriously disposed; and whenever his means of livelihood failed him through his drinking and luxurious living, he would go about and steal; and they from whom he stole would charge him with having their property, and when he denied it would bring him before the judgment of an oracle, whenever there was one in their place; and many times he was convicted by the oracles and many times he was absolved: and then when finally he became king he did as follows:—as many of the gods as had absolved him and pronounced him not to be a thief, to their temples he paid no regard, nor gave anything for the further adornment of them, nor even visited them to offer sacrifice, considering them to be worth nothing and to possess lying oracles; but as many as had convicted him of being a thief, to these he paid very great regard, considering them to be truly gods, and to present oracles which did not lie. first in sais he built and completed for athene a temple-gateway which is a great marvel, and he far surpassed herein all who had done the like before, both in regard to height and greatness, so large are the stones and of such quality. then secondly he dedicated great colossal statues and man-headed sphinxes very large, and for restoration he caused to be brought from the stone-quarries which are opposite memphis, others of very great size from the city of elephantine, distant a voyage of not less than twenty days from sais: and of them all i marvel most at this, namely a monolith chamber which he brought from the city of elephantine; and they were three years engaged in bringing this, and two thousand men were appointed to convey it, who all were of the class of boatmen. of this house the length outside is one-and-twenty cubits, the breadth is fourteen cubits, and the height eight. these are the measures of the monolith house outside; but the length inside is eighteen cubits and five-sixths of a cubit, the breadth twelve cubits, and the height five cubits. this lies by the side of the entrance to the temple; for within the temple they did not draw it, because, as it is said, while the house was being drawn along, the chief artificer of it groaned aloud, seeing that much time had been spent and he was wearied by the work; and amasis took it to heart as a warning and did not allow them to draw it further onwards. some say on the other hand that a man was killed by it, of those who were heaving it with levers, and that it was not drawn in for that reason. amasis also dedicated in all the other temples which were of repute, works which are worth seeing for their size, and among them also at memphis the colossal statue which lies on its back in front of the temple of hephaistos, whose length is five-and-seventy feet; and on the same base made of the same stone are set two colossal statues, each of twenty feet in length, one on this side and the other on that side of the large statue. there is also another of stone of the same size in sais, lying in the same manner as that at memphis. moreover amasis was he who built and finished for isis her temple at memphis, which is of great size and very worthy to be seen.

in the reign of amasis it is said that egypt became more prosperous than at any other time before, both in regard to that which comes to the land from the river and in regard to that which comes from the land to its inhabitants, and that at this time the inhabited towns in it numbered in all twenty thousand. it was amasis too who established the law that every year each one of the egyptians should declare to the ruler of his district, from what source he got his livelihood, and if any man did not do this or did not make declaration of an honest way of living, he should be punished with death. now solon the athenian received from egypt this law and had it enacted for the athenians, and they have continued to observe it, since it is a law with which none can find fault.

moreover amasis became a lover of the hellenes; and besides other proofs of friendship which he gave to several among them, he also granted the city of naucratis for those of them who came to egypt to dwell in; and to those who did not desire to stay, but who made voyages thither, he granted portions of land to set up altars and make sacred enclosures for their gods. their greatest enclosure and that one which has most name and is most frequented is called the hellenion, and this was established by the following cities in common:—of the ionians chios, teos, phocaia, clazomenai, of the dorians rhodes, cnidos, halicarnassos, phaselis, and of the aiolians mytilene alone. to these belongs this enclosure and these are the cities which appoint superintendents of the port; and all other cities which claim a share in it, are making a claim without any right. besides this the eginetans established on their own account a sacred enclosure dedicated to zeus, the samians one to hera, and the milesians one to apollo. now in old times naucratis alone was an open trading-place, and no other place in egypt: and if any one came to any other of the nile mouths, he was compelled to swear that he came not thither of his own free will, and when he had thus sworn his innocence he had to sail with his ship to the canobic mouth, or if it were not possible to sail by reason of contrary winds, then he had to carry his cargo round the head of the delta in boats to naucratis: thus highly was naucratis privileged. moreover when the amphictyons had let out the contract for building the temple which now exists at delphi, agreeing to pay a sum of three hundred talents (for the temple which formerly stood there had been burnt down of itself), it fell to the share of the people of delphi to provide the fourth part of the payment; and accordingly the delphians went about to various cities and collected contributions. and when they did this they got from egypt as much as from any place, for amasis gave them a thousand talents' weight of alum, while the hellenes who dwelt in egypt gave them twenty pounds of silver.

also with the people of kyrene amasis made an agreement for friendship and alliance; and he resolved too to marry a wife from thence, whether because he desired to have a wife of hellenic race, or, apart from that, on account of friendship for the people of kyrene: however that may be, he married, some say the daughter of battos, others of arkesilaos, and others of critobulos, a man of repute among the citizens; and her name was ladike. now whenever amasis lay with her he found himself unable to have intercourse, but with his other wives he associated as he was wont; and as this happened repeatedly, amasis said to his wife, whose name was ladike: "woman, thou hast given me drugs, and thou shall surely perish more miserably than any other." then ladike, when by her denials amasis was not at all appeased in his anger against her, made a vow in her soul to aphrodite, that if amasis on that night had intercourse with her (seeing that this was the remedy for her danger), she would send an image to be dedicated to her at kyrene; and after the vow immediately amasis had intercourse, and from thenceforth whenever amasis came in to her he had intercourse with her; and after this he became very greatly attached to her. and ladike paid the vow that she had made to the goddess; for she had an image made and sent it to kyrene, and it is still preserved even to my own time, standing with its face turned away from the city of the kyrenians. this ladike cambyses, having conquered egypt and heard from her who she was, sent back unharmed to kyrene.

amasis also dedicated offerings in hellas, first at kyrene an image of athene covered over with gold and a figure of himself made like by painting; then in the temple of athene at lindos two images of stone and a corslet of linen worthy to be seen; and also at samos two wooden figures of himself dedicated to hera, which were standing even to my own time in the great temple, behind the doors. now at samos he dedicated offerings because of the guest-friendship between himself and polycrates the son of aiakes; at lindos for no guest-friendship but because the temple of athene at lindos is said to have been founded by the daughters of danaos, who had touched land there at the time when they were fleeing from the sons of aigyptos. these offerings were dedicated by amasis; and he was the first of men who conquered cyprus and subdued it so that it paid him tribute.