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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Willard Straight 
 
3 1924 088 051 747 
 
 THE HISTORIANS 
 OF GREECE 
 
THE OLYMPIC EDITION 
 
 This edition is strictly limited to one thou- 
 sand signed^ numbered and registered sets, of 
 'which this is 
 
 8: 
 
 Number- 
 
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 Editor in Chief 
 
 Sfa0MchS^^ 
 
 Publishers 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
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Gyges and Candaules 
 
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 in the Gallery of the Louvre. Repro- 
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lEngltHlj SlUumtnatton 
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 THIS design is typical of the work of the 
 English Monks, showing the stage which 
 it had reached during the latter part of the Seventh 
 and earlier part of the Eighth Centuries. The 
 foliage ornamentation, the somewhat subdued col- 
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 teristic. The most beautiful example of work of 
 this period is a copy of the Gospels written bj' 
 Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who died A. D. 
 721. It is known as the Durham Manuscript and 
 is considered the most beautiful manuscript in the 
 collection of the British Museum. 
 
THE HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 HERODOTUS 
 
 Translated Jrom the Ancient Greek by 
 
 GEORGE RAWLINSON, M.A. 
 
 CANON OF CANTERBURY AND PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT 
 
 HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD ; AUTHOR 
 
 OF 'the FIVE GREAT MONARCHIES," 
 
 'ancient HISTORY," ETC. 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 NEW YORK 
 THE TANDY-THOMAS COMPANY 
 
Copyright, 1909, by 
 The Tandy-Thomas Company 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 GroEs AND Candaules Frontispiece 
 
 Photo-mezzotint after the Painting of Gdr6me 
 
 Illuminated Title-Page Title 
 
 Designed by Walter Tittle, after the English School 
 of the Seventh Century 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Alexander Taking Helen 26 
 
 Photo-mezzotint after the Painting by Ligozzi 
 
 Dkpbnce of a City 62 
 
 After an Etching in the Bodleian Library, Oxford 
 
 The Burning of Cresus 98 
 
 From a German Steel Engraving 
 
 A Crane for Demolishing Walls 158 
 
 After an Etching in the Collection of the Hon. 
 Oswald Bauer 
 
 Babylon 206 
 
 Reproduced from a Rare Engraving of the Paint- 
 ing by Von Neubauer 
 
 Triumph of Sesostris 288 
 
 After a Steel Engraving of the Eighteenth Century 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 THE illustrations of this work have been designed 
 to show the development of book ornamentation. 
 The earliest forms which have survived the ravages of 
 time are the illuminations of the Mediaeval manuscripts. 
 This art was the outgrowth of the work of the Ancient 
 Greeks and was in turn the source from which modem 
 book illustration has developed. 
 
 With the introduction of printing, wood cut blocks 
 came into use but were rapidly supplanted by etchings, 
 especially for finer work. This process dates from 1477 
 and held first place for centuries until superseded by 
 steel engravings and finally by modem photographic 
 processes. 
 
 Mr. Walter Tittle, who has made a life study of the 
 subject, has designed a series of title-pages for this 
 work. Each of these embodies the salient features of 
 a particular school of Mediseval illumination, thus epito- 
 mising the whole history of the art. 
 
 The illustrations also include reproductions of a num- 
 ber of rare old etchings of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and 
 Seventeenth Centuries, showing the Art of War among 
 the Ancients, a number of the finest steel engravings of 
 the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, and finally 
 some beautiful Twentieth Century photo-mezzotints of 
 celebrated paintings, illustrating the life and customs 
 of the Ancient World. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 IN these volumes the works of the three famous 
 Greek historians are presented to the public for 
 the first time in a readable and entirely intelligible 
 form. The very best English translations are ren- 
 dered available, denuded of the obscurities of scholar- 
 ship and robbed of all pedantry. Greek scholarship 
 from the point of view of the school-master simply has 
 not been considered. The heart is here without the 
 covering of confusion. 
 
 For thirty centuries the whole world has felt the in- 
 fluence of Ancient Greece, and this Influence is stronger 
 to-day for liberty and justice than ever before. It was 
 in Ancient Greece that the true universal spirit first 
 found its expression, and so has come to be known as 
 " The Greek Spirit " — the spirit of liberty which cen- 
 turies later overthrew the tyrannies of the Old World 
 and which gave us the great American Republic — the 
 spirit of progress, the spirit of art and of literature, 
 and of all that makes life worth the living. 
 
 The poetry of Homer and Anacreon, the philosophy 
 of Socrates and Aristotle, the oratory of Demosthenes 
 and Hyperides, the romance of Pericles and Aspasia, 
 the art and sculpture of the Acropolis and the Par- 
 thenon, the heroism of Marathon and Thermopylae, 
 shed a lustre of glory around this most marvellous 
 country of the ancient world and make a knowledge of 
 its history and its literature an absolute necessity to 
 
vi GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 the man who would have an understanding of the true 
 aims and purposes of life. 
 
 Scholarship is not requisite to an appreciation of the 
 actions of the Greeks and other people of antiquity as 
 told by the Greek historians; for in all of us lies the 
 deep curiosity that seeks information, and the love of 
 the beautiful and heroic that lifts us to a broader plane 
 of thought and endeavour. 
 
 While much of value has been discovered and written 
 by modern scholars, history, as recorded by the men 
 who actually lived it, must take first place. These 
 records may not be as accurate in matters of fact as 
 more recent writings, but they certainly are truer his- 
 tory ; for they tell us more truly what manner of people 
 they were among whom the authors lived. The earliest 
 forms of this history, of course, are found in the epics 
 of Homer. But of historians in the more modem 
 sense of the word, the writings of three alone have 
 descended to us through the lapse of the ages. These 
 are Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon; and it is 
 due to their wisdom and energy that humanity has 
 gained its greatest inspiration toward that progress 
 which spells perfection in the end. 
 
 Every day of our lives we are brought into contact 
 in some way with the lives of the Greeks ; and the main 
 purpose of these volumes is to give a wider opportun- 
 ity for the enjoyment in complete form of the record of 
 ancient doings. If the works of Herodotus, Thucyd- 
 ides and Xenophon had been dry and uninteresting 
 they never could have lived for twenty-three centuries, 
 but would have sunk into oblivion along with their less 
 entertaining contemporaries. It is their essential 
 human interest and readableness which has preserved 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION vii 
 
 them through the ages; and the man, be he student 
 or no, who can take up any one of these volumes and 
 read it as he would read any master-work of fact, fiction 
 or philosophy, is fortunate: for he will be entertained 
 and instructed at one and the same time as never be- 
 fore. Like all the ancient classics, these works were 
 written not to be read, but to be heard. They were 
 read aloud by their authors to the populace in Athens 
 and elsewhere; and this partly accounts for the fact 
 that in reading them we seem to hear the authors talk- 
 ing, rather than to be reading the words which were 
 written so many centuries ago. They had a story to 
 tell, and told it in a manner and style so simple and 
 straightforward that the marvel of their composition 
 has aroused the admiration of all who have come 
 after. 
 
 Herodotus was the first writer to put into enduring 
 form a description of the acts of the nations, and is 
 entitled, therefore, to be called " The Father of His- 
 tory " ; also, he was the first great traveller who visited 
 remote parts of his world in search of information. He 
 had the knack of taking interest in the right things, — 
 customs, habits, acts, — the things which have con- 
 tinued to interest people for twenty-three hundred 
 years. He wrote in a style worthy of the glorious 
 spirit of liberty which actuated his compatriots. 
 
 Thucydides was the first critical historian and he 
 sifted the evidence for his statements with the utmost 
 care. He alone among the Ancient Greeks wrote for 
 posterity; for he it was who first conceived the idea 
 that the history of the past bore a lesson for the future 
 guidance of the human race. He recorded the occur- 
 rences of his day for the benefit of future ages. 
 
viii GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 Xenophon was the first war correspondent. He 
 travelled with Cyrus and recorded his conquests in a 
 style no modern journalist can hope to equal. He had 
 the ability to give a graphic description of a battle In 
 a few words, and his narrative reads like a novel of 
 adventure. There is action and life in every line of 
 his writings. We are brought into the very camp of 
 Cyrus and made to know and love the great characters 
 of his age. Socrates and all the famous men of 
 his time were his intimate friends, and are portrayed 
 in such vivid language that they are brought to life in 
 his writings, and become to us once more men of flesh 
 and blood instead of almost mythical characters of a 
 by-gone age. 
 
 In the writings of these three men we have all that 
 has survived of the written history of Ancient Greece. 
 More than this, we have the greatest of Greek prose 
 literature, — literature which has defied the hand of time 
 and which stands for all ages as the criterion of prose 
 as Homer's does of verse. An intimate knowledge of 
 these authors is a liberal education in itself. To 
 neglect reading them is to miss one of the greatest of 
 literary pleasures. 
 
 This introduction is not intended to be critical, or 
 in any sense explanatory, the hope in presenting it 
 being solely to arouse a degree of interest in masters 
 whose actual writings are, to an almost unbelievable 
 extent, neglected by the very people who should know 
 them as they do the Bible and Shakespeare, — ^whose 
 lives will be broader and sweeter through the reading. 
 The authors themselves have told the story, and no 
 analysis is needed as an accompaniment. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 Classical Greek literature begins with Homer, and 
 ends practically, if not precisely, with the death of 
 Demosthenes. During this period Greece was free. 
 With the loss of liberty, literature underwent a change. 
 Greece ceased to produce men of genius, and this con- 
 stitutes one difference between the classical and later 
 periods. A second great difference is that whereas the 
 literature of the classical period was written not only 
 by Greeks, but for Greeks, later literature was cosmo- 
 politan; and to this change in the literature corre- 
 sponds the change in the language, which from pure 
 Greek became Hellenistic Greek. The earliest period 
 of Greek literature is, then, classical, because it is the 
 work of genius, and is due solely to Greek genius. It 
 reflects Greek life and expresses Greek thoughts alone, 
 and, like the language in which it is clad, contains no 
 foreign element. 
 
 Its development was not complicated. The various 
 kinds of literature, poetry and prose, — epic, lyric and 
 the drama, history, philosophy and oratory, — not only 
 remained true, each to its own type, but on the whole 
 developed in orderly succession. This was because they 
 were the work of different members of the Greek race, 
 whose latent literary tendencies required different 
 political and social conditions to draw them out. They 
 were evoked, one after the other, by political and 
 social changes ; and so the stages in development of 
 literature correspond with those of the nation's life. 
 
 The growth of epic poetry, the earliest form of the 
 literature which remains to us, was nurtured by a pa- 
 triarchal state of society in which the family life fur- 
 nished the literary public. Lyric, the next branch of 
 
X GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 literature, found favouring conditions in the aristocra- 
 cies which succeeded to monarchy, and in which the 
 social communion of the privileged class took the place 
 of family life, and provided a new public for literature. 
 The drama was designed for the entertainment of 
 large numbers of persons, and was a response to the 
 demands of democracy. 
 
 From this time on, literature no longer found its 
 home in the halls of chieftains, or its audience in the 
 social meetings of the few ; but when the state came to 
 consist of the whole of the citizens, literature became 
 united with the life of the state as a whole, and thence 
 forward was but one of the ways in which that life 
 expressed itself. Literary men were not a class dis- 
 tinguished by their profession from the rest of the com- 
 munity, nor was literature a thing apart from the prac- 
 tical matters of life. The orators were active politicians 
 or men of law ; and their speeches were not literary dis- 
 plays, but had a practical object, — to turn the vote 
 of the assembly or to gain a verdict. History was the 
 record of a contemporary war or of a war which had 
 occurred in the previous generations. Philosophy was 
 but a picture in words of the conversations of cultivated 
 Greeks on the great problems of life. The drama was 
 not a mere literary entertainment ; it was an act of com- 
 mon worship, in which the genius of man was devoted 
 to the glory of the Gods. 
 
 Perhaps the history of Greece has more right than 
 any of its sister-histories to excite our interest, since 
 the effects of that country and its people are probably 
 far greater, certainly more subtle and various, than 
 those of any other upon our modem life. Nobody now 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 attributes any real leading to the Romans in art, in 
 philosophy, in the sciences, nor even in the science of 
 politics. Great as Rome was in these respects and 
 much as she has influenced our institutions, every stu- 
 dent of Rome knows and confesses that this greatness 
 and influence was due to the Greeks. 
 
 The first three stages of Greek history are, so to 
 speak, isolated, and separated by two blank periods, 
 one of which has to this day remained a blank over 
 which no bridge has yet been constructed. Over the 
 second, which immediately preceded history proper, the 
 Greeks constructed a very elaborate bridge, which they 
 adorned with sundry figures recovered from vague tra- 
 ditions and arranged according to their fancy. It is 
 only after this reconstructed epoch of transition that 
 we are sure of our facts. 
 
 The first stage is that represented by the prehis- 
 toric remains — ^which, though they are plainly very 
 various in development, and therefore probably in age, 
 are yet by most of us classed together as " without 
 father, mother or descent " — discovering to us the ear- 
 liest civilization in Greek lands. What went on in 
 Greece between the epoch of this curious pre-Hellenic, 
 perhaps imported, culture and the age of Homer, none 
 of us can ever guess. But the fact that the popular 
 poetry chose for the scenes of its adventures the sites of 
 Troy, Mycenae, and Tiryns — where both the earliest 
 and rudest of these remains and those more developed 
 in architectural skill and in ornamental design have 
 been found — would seem to show that the importance 
 of these places either lasted down to the " epic " time 
 or was so recent as to hold the popular imagination. 
 
xii GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 As regards the "epic age," there are ample reasons 
 for not dating it very early. The society described 
 seems to belong to the eighth century before the Chris- 
 tian era; but it was gone before the poets wrought 
 their compositions into the famous epics, which were 
 the opening works of Greek literature. The Iliad and 
 the Odyssey may be taken as descriptive of this second 
 stage of Greek history, which was certainly separated 
 by a considerable period from the third. 
 
 This last begins with the contemporary allusions of 
 the earliest lyric poets, Archilochus, Callinus, Tyr- 
 tasus — ^none of them are earlier than 700 B. C, and 
 who more probably lived from 660 B. C. onward. In 
 the seventh century we have contemporary allusions to 
 Gyges, king of Lybia, known to us from Assyrian 
 inscriptions; we have yearly Archons at Athens, and 
 a series of priestesses at Argos; presently we have 
 historical colonies and many other real evidences on 
 which to rely. But before 700 B. C. it is not so. 
 Only some stray facts remained, as when Tyrtaeus tells 
 us that he fought in the second Messenian war, and 
 that the first had been waged by the grandfathers of 
 his fellow-soldiers. 
 
 But at last we emerge into the open light of day and 
 find ourselves in the seventh century (more strictly 
 650-560 B. C), in that brilliant, turbulent, enterpris- 
 ing society which produced the splendid lyric poetry of 
 Alcaeus and Sappho, of Alcman and Terpander, and 
 whose prose literature developed from then onward to 
 a swift culmination in the masterpieces of Herodotus, 
 Thucydides, and Xenophon. 
 
 Athens was founded about 1557 B. C. by Cecrops. 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 About 600 B. C, after the death of Codrus, the last 
 king, the city became a repubUc, the constitution of 
 which was framed by Solon. He placed the sover- 
 eignty in the hands of the people, who decided upon 
 the objects which had been deliberated upon by a 
 senate of great numbers. The magistrates, or 
 archons, were at first chosen for life, but afterwards 
 for ten years, and finally their number was increased 
 and they were elected annually. Athens reached its 
 greatest glory about the time of the Persian war, but 
 about 404 B. C. the city was taken by Lysander, a 
 Lacedaemonian, toward the conclusion of the Pelopon- 
 nesian war; her walls were thrown down and her 
 government changed, and from this blow she never 
 recovered. 
 
 Sparta, which was founded about 1516 B. C, was 
 an aristocracy, but about 884 B. C, Lycurgus became 
 the legislator of the country. He placed the authority 
 of the state in the hands of a senate, the laws of 
 which were approved or rejected by the people. There 
 were two magistrates or hereditary kings, five popular 
 magistrates or ephori (like the tribunes of Rome) who 
 were elected annually. Sparta reached her greatest 
 glory after the Peloponnesian war, when, having 
 humbled Athens and seized Thebes, Syracuse and the 
 Persians sued for her alliance. In 186 B. C. Sparta 
 was captured by Philopsemen. The walls were razed 
 and the laws of Lycurgus abolished. 
 
 There were four great monarchies of antiquity, the 
 Assyrian, the Persian, the Macaedonian, and the Roman. 
 Of Assyria we know but little. It is presumed to have 
 been founded in 2232 B. C. by Nimrod. It endured 
 
xiv GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 for about 1400 years, and from its fragments the 
 three monarchies of Media, Nineveh, and Babylon were 
 formed. The most interesting events of its history 
 were the celebrated expedition of Ninus against the 
 Bactrians and the reign of Semiramis, with whom Ninus 
 became acquainted at the siege of Bactria, where that 
 wonderful woman displayed her extraordinary genius. 
 
 The Persian monarchy lasted for about 200 years, 
 from 538 B. C. to 326 B. C. It was founded by Cyrus, 
 who, by inheritance or conquest, reunited under one 
 head the kingdoms of Persia, Media, Lydia, Babylon, 
 and Nineveh. There is much disagreement as to the 
 history of this prince, even Herodotus and Xenophon 
 being opposed to each other in the recital of many inci- 
 dents of his reign. 
 
 The Persian dominion extended from the Indus to 
 the Euxine and the Mediterranean, and from the 
 Jaxartis and the Caspian Sea to Ethiopia, Arabia 
 and the Persian Gulf. Babylon, of course, became a 
 principal city of the Persian monarchy, Cyrus having 
 made himself master of it by turning the course of the 
 Euphrates. In the time of Semiramis two magnifi- 
 cent palaces, erected on the opposite shores of the 
 Euphrates, communicated with each other by a sub- 
 terranean vault constructed under the river; and here, 
 in one of these palaces, were to be found those hang- 
 ing gardens so famous among the Greeks. Susa, 
 Ecbatana, and Persepolis were celebrated cities of Per- 
 sia and occasionally the residence of the royal family. 
 
 The chief occurrences of Persian history, exclusive 
 of the expeditions of Darius and Xerxes into Greece 
 and the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks under Xeno- 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 phon, are the incidents connected with the life of the 
 founder, Cyrus; one of which was the overthrow and 
 captivity of Croesus. 
 
 During the historical period Greece produced many 
 men of wonderful characters and talents, with whose 
 names and deeds we are familiar. All were versatile 
 to a degree almost beyond our comprehension, and the 
 character of one, Alcibiades, who plays a large part 
 in the pages of Thucydides and Xenophon, was unique 
 even for his time. A disciple of Socrates, he was one 
 of the most extraordinary men of antiquity. He united 
 in his person almost every good quality and almost 
 every bad one. He was, by turns, the glory and the 
 scourge of his fellow-citizens. Thirst for power and 
 the desire of pleasing were the predominant features of 
 his character ; and it was chiefly by means of the second 
 that he satisfied the first. To a pleasing figure and a 
 ravishing exterior he joined all the powers of the mind 
 and all the charms of elocution. The people liked his 
 courage, they admired his manners, and, in truth, taken 
 altogether, he was irresistible. Faults, which he took 
 no pains to conceal, they pardoned ; and if at any time 
 they were forced to condemn him for his misdemeanours 
 they soon hastened to recall him to their favour. 
 
 It was this temper of the populace in relation to 
 Alcibiades which induced Aristophanes to say, " They 
 hate, but cannot do without him." He pleased at 
 Athens by his gracefulness and sprightliness ; at 
 Sparta by his frugality; in Thrace by his intem- 
 perance; and in Asia by his luxury and magnificence. 
 It was Alcibiades who planned the expedition against 
 Sicily, and it has been thought that it might have sue- 
 
xvi GENERAL INTRODUCTION 
 
 ceeded if he had been placed and continued at the head 
 of it. He was, however, displaced by his fellow- 
 citizens ; but, doubting this judgment of his actions, 
 he went over to the enemy, and was the principal cause 
 of the disasters which befell the Athenians. 
 
 His country being upon the brink of ruin, he was 
 recalled. Putting himself at the head of the army of 
 Athens, he beat her antagonists by land and sea, 
 re-established her affairs, and returned to the city 
 covered with laurels. Banished a second time, he 
 entered again into the interests of Persia. Finally, 
 being equally dreaded by his friends and foes, they 
 united to destroy him. Assassins were employed to 
 set fire in the night to a cabin which merely served to 
 shelter him from the inclemency of the weather, and, as 
 he attempted to fly from the the flames, they pierced 
 him to death with arrows. 
 
 Thus perished the great, the gay, the licentious 
 Alcibiades, who, during the whole course of his life, 
 was, emphatically, all things to all men. 
 
 Among the great men of Greece we may reckon the 
 celebrated Pericles, the husband of Aspasia, that 
 remarkable woman who taught eloquence to Socrates, 
 who was well skilled in politics, and whose excellent 
 qualities, obscuring her vices, served to impress Pericles 
 with respect for her intellect, as well as to inspire him 
 with a greater degree of devotion to her charms. 
 
 Pericles governed the Athenians nearly his whole life- 
 time; not by force of arms, but by the power of his 
 genius and the force of his eloquence. No person ever 
 presented in a greater degree than he did the faculty 
 of subjugating the multitude to his will by the arts of 
 
GENERAL INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 popular seduction. By some it was said that the 
 sovereign of the Gods had confided to him the thunder 
 and the lightning; by others, that the goddess of per- 
 suasion dwelt on his lips, adorned with all her graces. 
 
 He filled Athens with the master-works of art, and 
 distributed to the multitude, in largesses or entertain- 
 ments, the riches of the republic. His reign was that 
 of the fine arts, which under him attained the highest 
 point of perfection. A difficulty in making out a fair 
 statement of his accounts, and the hope that he still 
 might be enabled to preserve his authority by a change 
 of circumstances, were the causes that induced Pericles 
 to plunge Athens into the Peloponnesian war, which 
 was as fatal to him as it was to his country. He died 
 of the plague which prevailed during the first campaign 
 of that contest. 
 
 Chroniclers tell us that whenever Godfrey de Boillon 
 entered a church splendid with painted glass and 
 painted carvings he would stand for hours gazing at the 
 saintly figures, unmindful of the passage of time, while 
 reading the sacred legends and causing the histories of 
 the saints to be recounted to him. He who enters the 
 door of knowledge opened by these volumes and travels 
 the world of the Ancients with Herodotus, Thucydides, 
 and Xenophon will emerge as from a dream- journey 
 filled with pleasure and profit, which shall remain his 
 until heart and mind have ceased to know and to 
 enjoy. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO 
 HERODOTUS 
 
 HERODOTUS, " The Father of History," was 
 bom at Halicamassus between 490 and 480 
 B. C, after the first and before the second of 
 those two invasions of Greece by the Persians of which 
 he has given us the history in a form to be appreciated 
 until the end of time. With full truth it may be said 
 that Herodotus invented history writing as we know 
 it to-day — an art beyond story-telhng, yet possessing 
 all the force of the deepest human interest. He spent 
 a large part of his life in travelling. These travels he 
 undertook for the purposes of his history, and his ac- 
 tivity, mental as well as physical, in collecting informa- 
 tion and making inquiries, historical, geographical, 
 ethnological, mythological and archffiological, was ex- 
 traordinary. His history was designed to record not 
 only the wars but the causes of the wars between Greece 
 and the Barbarians. 
 
 In these volumes Herodotus is presented to the 
 reader in his two-fold character — as the profound his- 
 torian and as the fascinating story-teller. The man 
 is to be envied who has before him the pleasure of read- 
 ing these works for the first time. The general subject 
 of Herodotus is the conflict between Asia and Europe, 
 which culminated in the Graeco-Persian wars. It is an 
 inspiration to follow his glowing account of these 
 events. Few pages of history are so well worth the 
 
INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 reading. Scenes of a magnificent drama are made to 
 pass, one after another, before us. Take the Seventh 
 Book, favoured of scholars : First we behold the prep- 
 arations against Greece with which all Asia is " kept in 
 a din " for three years ; next, the assembly of half a 
 hundred nationaUties at Sardis ; then the march through 
 Asia Minor to Abydos, the review of the innumerable 
 host, the passage of the Hellespont, the progress 
 through Thrace and Thessaly to Thermopylas. There, 
 before the rocky face of Mount Oeta, the advance of 
 the invading army is arrested : a few thousand freemen, 
 fighting in defence of their homes, withstand millions, 
 and inspire their countrymen to the later struggles at 
 Salamis and Platasa which saved Europe from being 
 overrun by Asia. 
 
 The history of Herodotus is the beginning of Greek 
 prose. In reading him we feel very strongly that the 
 style is the man, possibly because we know so little of 
 the man. In any case the character revealed by the 
 style is sympathetic in a high degree. Probably few 
 writers in any age or country have so many devoted 
 personal friends as Herodotus counts among his 
 readers. He is so simple, so frank, so talkative, amia- 
 ble and respectworthy. He wrote indeed not to be 
 read, but to be heard, like all other classical Greek 
 authors, and he read his history in public in Athens and 
 other places. But, beyond the charm of style, Herodo- 
 tus had the knack of taking interest in the right 
 things. On the one hand, he could write in a spirit 
 worthy of the glorious fight for liberty fought by the 
 Greeks at Marathon, Thermopylae and elsewhere: on 
 the other, he delighted in the manners and customs of 
 strange peoples, and in things ancient and mysterious. 
 
XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 Two characteristics of Herodotus should not escape 
 our notice — characteristics which seem almost incon- 
 sistent with each other — his desire for accurate infor- 
 mation, and his love of the marvellous. To the first 
 we owe his tours of exploration, which carried him over 
 the larger part of the known world ; to the second, those 
 episodes, founded to a greater or less extent in fact — 
 but fact handled with poetic freedom — which give to his 
 history a poetic charm. These stories, as we may call 
 them, are of the most varied character. In some, as 
 in the episode of Croesus and Solon, a moral purpose 
 is prominent ; some, like that of Polykrates, or that of 
 Aristagoras, are in large part historical; others, like 
 the tale of Rhampsinitis and the Robber, are simply 
 romances, comparable to the story of Ali Baba and 
 the Forty Thieves. 
 
 Like pearls on a necklace, these stories are strung 
 along the thread of Herodotus' narrative. They are 
 told with the utmost simplicity of language, and, writ- 
 ten as they were in the youth of the world, they have 
 traits in common with the Old Testament narratives 
 of the childhood of Moses and Joseph. Turning, as 
 many of them do, upon the sudden and terrible changes 
 in human fortune — upon the ebb and flow in mortal 
 affairs which Herodotus ascribes to the envy of the 
 Gods — they abound in sayings of a touching pathos, 
 often quoted as strikingly characteristic of the 
 author. 
 
 Dionysius, the greatest of all the Greek critics, in 
 comparing Herodotus with other writers, points to the 
 superior artistic skill which the historian displays in 
 the choice of his subject and the manner of treating it. 
 " He does not," says the critic, " confine himself to 
 
INTRODUCTION xxi 
 
 the history of a single nation or a single state ; no ! he 
 begins with the Lydian dynasty and comes down to the 
 Persian war, including in one single narrative all the 
 important transactions both of Greeks and barbarians 
 that had occurred in the interval of two hundred and 
 forty years." 
 
 Considered as a logographer, nothing can be said 
 too highly in praise of Herodotus. But then we must 
 regard him as governed by the principles of a logog- 
 rapher, blending together into one mass the various 
 materials which offered themselves to him ; here the tale 
 brought by some skipper of a merchant ship, there 
 the story which beguiled the discomforts of the caravan- 
 serai after a day's journey was over, or the details 
 which some veteran sailor or septuagenarian hoplite 
 poured out, of the doings at Salamis or Marathon. 
 The local traditions which embodied in a mythical form 
 the early history of the several states, — the popular 
 poetry which embalmed the memory of the worthies of 
 the past, — the peculiar customs prevailing at the re- 
 ligious festivals, to every one of which was attached 
 some story to explain it, — would furnish a mass of 
 materials not less valuable for his purpose than formal 
 historical documents. 
 
 Herodotus was guided by no modem spirit of criti- 
 cism in the collection or selection of his materials. We 
 must be satisfied to enjoy his work as a composition 
 of surpassing beauty and interest, reading it as a con- 
 temporary would have done. It would, however, be 
 a great error to dismiss the reader to the pages of 
 Herodotus under the impression that while his ma- 
 terials were very different from those at the hand of a 
 modern historian, his work is deficient in historical 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 value. The very phenomena discoverable in it, and 
 which take it out of the category of histories such as 
 those of Tacitus or Thucydides, will increase our con- 
 viction of the fidelity with which it reflects the current 
 opinions, feelings and habits of the time in which it was 
 written. 
 
 A candid reader who will read the history through, 
 unhampered by any theory, simply putting himself in 
 the position of a Greek of the fifth century before the 
 Christian era, will probably not doubt that the author 
 saw much with his own eyes — ^more than any other 
 man of his time. Herodotus satisfies us fully as the 
 most fascinating of Greek prose writers. He illustrates 
 perfectly the habits and feelings of the time in which 
 he lived, and awakens attention to the common motives 
 of human action exhibited in forms belonging to a state 
 of things which has long passed away. 
 
 The merits of Herodotus as a writer have never been 
 questioned. Those who make the lowest estimate of 
 his qualifications as an historian, are profuse in their 
 acknowledgment of his beauties of composition and 
 style, by which they consider that other commentators 
 upon his work have been unduly biased in his favour, 
 and led to overrate his historical accuracy. Scarcely 
 a dissentient voice is to be found on this point among 
 critical authorities, whether ancient or modem, who all 
 agree in upholding our author as a model of his own 
 peculiar order of composition. 
 
 Herodotus, by selecting for the subject of his work 
 a special portion of the history of Greece and confining 
 himself to the narration of events having a bearing, 
 direct or indirect, upon his main topic, has obtained a 
 unity of action sufficient to satisfy the most stringent 
 
INTRODUCTION xxiii 
 
 demands of art, equal, indeed, to that which charac- 
 terises the masterpieces of the imagination. Instead of 
 undertaking the complex and difficult task of writing 
 the history of the Hellenic race during a given period, 
 he sits down with the one (primary) object of faith- 
 fully recording the events of a particular war. 
 
 His work, though not finished throughout, is con- 
 cluded; and its termination with the return of the 
 Greek fleet from Sestos, distinctly shows that it was not 
 his object to trace the entire history of the Graeco- 
 Persian struggle, since that struggle continued for 
 thirty years afterwards with scarcely any intermis- 
 sion, until the arrangement known as the Peace of 
 Callias. 
 
 The real intention of Herodotus was to write the 
 history of the Persian War of Invasion — the contest 
 which commenced with the first expedition of Mar- 
 donius, and terminated with the entire discomfiture of 
 the vast fleet and army collected and led against Greece 
 by Xerxes. The portion of his narrative which is 
 anterior to the expedition of Mardonius is of the na- 
 ture of an introduction, and in this a double design 
 may be traced. The main object of the writer was to 
 give an account of the rise, growth, and progress of 
 the great empire which had been the antagonist of 
 Greece in the struggle, and his secondary aim to note 
 the previous occasions whereon the two races had been 
 brought into hostile contact. Both these points are 
 connected intimately with the principal object of the 
 history, the one being necessary in order to a correct 
 appreciation of the greatness of the contest and the 
 glory gained by those with whom the victory rested p 
 and the other giving the causes from which the quarrel 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 sprang, and throwing important light on the course 
 of the invasion and the conduct of the invaders. 
 
 Had Herodotus confined himself rigidly to these 
 three inter-connected heads of narration, the growth of 
 the Persian Empire, the previous hostilities between 
 Greece and Persia, and the actual conduct of the great 
 war, his history would have been meagre and deficient 
 in variety. To avoid this consequence, he takes every 
 opportunity which presents itself of diverging from his 
 main narrative and interweaving with it the vast stores 
 of his varied knowledge, whether historical, geographi- 
 cal, or antiquarian. 
 
 The power of Herodotus to portray female character 
 is worthy of notice. Unlike Thucydides, who passes 
 over in contemptuous silence the part played by women 
 in the transactions which he undertakes to record, 
 Herodotus seizes every opportunity of adding variety 
 and zest to his narrative by carefully introducing to our 
 notice the feminine element involved in his events. 
 
 Thomas Mathew Alexandeb. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF HERODOTUS 
 
 CLIO— EUTERPE 
 
Alexander Taking Helen 
 
 Photo-mezzotint after the Celebrated Painting 
 by Ligozzi in the Vatican Galley, Rome 
 
THE 
 HISTORY OF HERODOTUS 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 CLIO 
 
 THESE are the researches of Herodotus 
 of Halicarnassus/ which he publishes, in 
 the hope of thereby preserving from 
 decay the remembrance of what men have done, 
 and of preventing the great and wonderful ac- 
 tions of the Greeks and the Barbarians'* from 
 losing their due meed of glory; and withal to 
 put on record what were their grounds of feud. 
 1. According to the Persians best informed in 
 history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. This 
 people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of 
 the Erythraean Sea, having migrated to the 
 Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they 
 now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adven- 
 ture on long voyages, freighting their vessels 
 with the wares of Egypt and Assyria. They 
 
 1 This is the reading of all our MSS. Yet Aristotle, where he 
 quotes the passage, has Thurium in the place of Halicarnassus; 
 that is, he cites the final residence instead of the birthplace of the 
 ■writer. There is no doubt that considerable portions of the work 
 as it stands were written at Thurium, and it is possible that 
 Herodotus used the expression " of Thurium " in his latest re- 
 cension. 
 
 2 By Barbarians the Greeks meant all who were not sprung 
 from themselves, — all foreigners. 
 
28 HERODOTUS 
 
 landed at many places on the coast, and among 
 the rest at Argos, which was then pre-eminent 
 above all the states included now undeir the com- 
 mon name of HeUas. Here they exposed their 
 merchandise, and traded with the natives for five 
 or six days; at the end of which time, when al- 
 most everything was sold, there came down to 
 the beach a nmnber of women, and among them 
 the daughter of the king, who was, they say, 
 agreeing in this with the Greeks, lo, the child 
 of Inachus. The women were standing by the 
 stern of the ship intent upon their purchases, 
 when the Phoenicians, with a general shout, 
 rushed upon them. The greater part made their 
 escape, but some were seized and carried off. lo 
 herself was among the captives. The Phoeni- 
 cians put the women on board their vessel and 
 set sail for Egypt. Thus did lo pass into 
 Egypt, according to the Persian story, which 
 differs widely from the Phoenician; and thus 
 commenced, according to their authors, the 
 series of outrages. 
 
 2. At a later period, certain Greeks, with 
 whose name they are unacquainted, but who 
 would probably be Cretans, made a landing at 
 Tyre, on the Phoenician coast, and bore off the 
 king's daughter, Europe. In this they only re- 
 taliated; but afterwards the Greeks, they say, 
 were guilty of a second violence. They manned 
 a ship of war, and sailed to ^a, a city of Col- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 29 
 
 chis, on the river Phasis; from whence, after 
 despatching the rest of the business on which 
 they had come, they carried oif Medea, the 
 daughter of the king of the land. The monarch 
 sent a herald into Greece to demand reparation 
 of the wrong, and the restitution of his child; 
 but the Greeks made answer, that having re- 
 ceived no reparation of the wrong done them in 
 the seizure of lo the Argive, they should give 
 none in this instance. 
 
 3. In the next generation afterwards, accord- 
 ing to the same authorities, Alexander the son of 
 Priam, bearing these events in mind, resolved to 
 procure himself a wife out of Greece by violence, 
 fully persuaded, that as the Greeks had not 
 given satisfaction for their outrages, so neither 
 would he be forced to make any for his. Ac- 
 cordingly he made prize of Helen; upon which 
 the Greeks decided that, before resorting to 
 other measures, they would send envoys to re- 
 claim the princess and require reparation of the 
 wrong. Their demands were met by a reference 
 to the violence which had been offered to Medea, 
 and they were asked with what face they could 
 now require satisfaction, when they had for- 
 merly rejected all demands for either reparation 
 or restitution addressed to them. 
 
 '4. Hitherto the injuries on either side had 
 been mere acts of common violence ; but in what 
 followed the Persians consider that the Greeks 
 
30 HERODOTUS 
 
 were greatly to blame, since before any attack 
 had been made on Evirope, they led an army into 
 Asia. Now as for the carrying off of women, 
 it is the deed, they say, of a rogue; but to make 
 a stir about such as are carried off, argues a man 
 a fool. Men of sense care nothing for such 
 women, since it is plain that without their own 
 consent they would never be forced away. The 
 Asiatics, when the Greeks ran off with their 
 women, never troubled themselves about the 
 matter; but the Greeks, for the sake of a single 
 Lacedemonian girl, collected a vast armament, 
 invaded Asia, and destroyed the kingdom of 
 Priam. Henceforth they ever looked upon the 
 Greeks as their open enemies. For Asia, with 
 aU the various tribes of barbarians that inhabit 
 it, is regarded by the Persians as their own; but 
 Europe and the Greek race they look on as dis- 
 tinct and separate.* 
 
 6. Such is the account which the Persians give 
 of these matters. They trace to the attack upon 
 Troy their ancient enmity towards the Greeks. 
 The Phoenicians, however, as regards lo, vary 
 
 • The claim made by the Persians to the natural lordship of 
 Asia was convenient as furnisliing them with pretexts for such 
 wars as it suited their policy to engage in with non-Asiatic na- 
 tions. The most remarkable occasion on which they availed them- 
 selves of such a plea was when Darius invaded Scythia. According 
 to Herodotus, he asserted, and the Scythians believed, that his 
 invasion was designed to punish them for having attacked the 
 Medes, and held possession of Upper Asia for a number of years, 
 at a time when Persia was a tributary nation to Media. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 31 
 
 from the Persian statements. They deny that 
 they used any violence to remove her into 
 Egypt; she herself, they say, having formed an 
 intimacy with the captain, while his vessel lay at 
 Argos, and perceiving herself to be with child, 
 of her own freewill accompanied the Phoenicians 
 on their leaving the shore, to escape the shame of 
 detection and the reproaches of her parents. 
 Whether this latter account be true, or whether 
 the matter happened otherwise, I shall not dis- 
 cuss further. I shall proceed at once to point 
 out the person who first within my own knowl- 
 edge inflicted injury on the Greeks, after which 
 I shall go forward with my history, describing 
 equally the greater and the lesser cities. For 
 the cities which were formerly great, have most 
 of them become insignificant ; and such as are at 
 present powerful, were weak in the olden time. 
 I shall therefore discourse equally of both, con- 
 vinced that human happiness never continues 
 long in one stay. 
 
 6. Croesus, son of Alyattes, by birth a Lydian, 
 was lord of aU the nations to the west of the 
 river Halys. This stream, which separates 
 Syria from Paphlagonia, runs with a coujse 
 from south to north, and finally falls into the 
 Euxine. So far as our knowledge goes, he was 
 the first of the barbarians who had dealings with 
 the Greeks, forcing some of them to become his 
 tributaries, and entering into alliance with others. 
 
32 HERODOTUS 
 
 He conquered the ^olians, lonians, and Do- 
 rians of A§ia, and made a treaty with the Lace- 
 dsemonians. Up to that time all Greeks had 
 been free. For the Cimmerian attack upon 
 Ionia, which was earlier than Croesus, was not a 
 conquest of the cities, but only an inroad for 
 plundering. 
 
 7. The sovereignty of Lydia, which had be- 
 longed to the Heraclides, passed into the family 
 of Croesus, who were called the Mermnadae, in 
 the manner which I will now relate. There was 
 a certain king of Sardis, Candaules by name, 
 whom the Greeks called Myrsilus. He was a 
 descendant of Alcseus, son of Hercules. The 
 first king of this dynasty was Agron, son of 
 Ninus, grandson of Belus, and great-grandson 
 of Alcaeus; Candaules, son of Myrsus, was the 
 last. The kings who reigned before Agron 
 sprang from Lydus, son of Atys, from whom 
 the people of the land, called previously Meoni- 
 ans, received the name of Lydians. The Hera- 
 clides, descended from Hercules and the slave- 
 girl of Jardanus, having been entrusted by these 
 princes with the management of affairs, obtained 
 the kingdom by an oracle.* Their rule endured 
 
 * This would be important, if we could depend on it as his- 
 torical. The Asiatics seem to have had no oracles of their own. 
 They had modes of divination, but no places where prophetic 
 utterances were supposed to be given by divine inspiration. Un- 
 der these circumstances they recognized the supernatural charac- 
 ter of the Greek oracles, and consulted them. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 33 
 
 for two and twenty generations of men, a space 
 of five hundred and five years; during the whole 
 of which period, from Agron to Candaules, the 
 crown descended in the direct line from father 
 to son. 
 
 8. Now it happened that this Candaules was 
 in love with his own wife; and not only so, but 
 thought her the fairest woman in the whole 
 world. This fancy had strange consequences. 
 There was in his body-guard a man whom he 
 specially favoured, Gyges, the son of Dascylus. 
 All afi^airs of greatest moment were entrusted 
 by Candaules to this person, and to him he was 
 wont to extol the surpassing beauty of his wife. 
 So matters went on for a while. At length, one 
 day, Candaules, who was fated to end ill, thus 
 addressed his follower: "I see thou dost not 
 credit what I tell thee of my lady's loveliness; 
 but come now, since men's ears are less credulous 
 than their eyes, contrive some means whereby 
 thou mayst behold her naked." At this the other 
 loudly exclaimed, saying, "What most unwise 
 speech is this, master, which thou hast uttered? 
 Wouldst thou have me behold my mistress when 
 she is naked? Bethink thee that a woman, with 
 her clothes, puts oJ0F her bashfulness. Our fath- 
 ers, in time past, distinguished right and wrong 
 plainly enough, and it is our wisdom to submit 
 to be taught by them. There is an old saying, 
 * Let each look on his own.' I hold thy wife for 
 
34 HERODOTUS 
 
 the fairest of all womankind. Only, I beseech 
 thee, ask me not to do wickedly." 
 
 9. Gyges thus endeavoured to decline the 
 king's proposal, trembling lest some dreadful 
 evil should befall him through it. But the king 
 replied to him, "Courage, friend; suspect me 
 not of the design to prove thee by this discourse ; 
 nor dread thy mistress, lest mischief befall thee 
 at her hands. Be sure I will so manage that she 
 shall not even know that thou hast looked upon 
 her. I will place thee behind the open door of 
 the chamber in which we sleep. When I enter 
 to go to rest she will follow me. There stands 
 a chair close to the entrance, on which she will 
 lay her clothes one by one as she takes them off. 
 Thou wilt be able thus at thy leisure to peruse 
 her person. Then, when she is moving from the 
 chair toward the bed, and her back is turned on 
 thee, be it thy care that she see thee not as thou 
 passest through the doorway." 
 
 10. Gyges, unable to escape, could but declare 
 his readiness. Then Candaules, when bedtime 
 came, led Gyges into his sleeping-chamber, and 
 a moment after the queen followed. She en- 
 tered, and laid her garments on the chair, and 
 Gyges gazed on her. After a while she moved 
 toward the bed, and her back being then turned, 
 he glided stealthily from the apartment. As he 
 was passing out, however, she saw him, and in- 
 stantly divining what had happened, she neither 
 
BOOK I CLIO 35 
 
 screamed as her shame impelled her, nor even 
 appeared to have noticed aught, purposing to 
 take vengeance upon the husband who had so 
 affronted her. For among the Lydians, and in- 
 deed among the barbarians generally, it is reck- 
 oned a deep disgrace, even to a man, to be seen 
 naked. 
 
 11. No sound or sign of intelligence escaped 
 her at the time. But in the morning, as soon as 
 day broke, she hastened to choose from among 
 her retinue, such as she knew to be most faithful 
 to her, and preparing them for what was to en- 
 sue, summoned Gyges into her presence. Now 
 it had often happened before that the queen had 
 desired to confer with him, and he was accus- 
 tomed to come to her at her call. He therefore 
 obeyed the summons, not expecting that she 
 knew aught of what had occurred. Then she 
 addressed these words to him: " Take thy 
 choice, Gyges, of two courses which are open to 
 thee. Slay Candaules, and thereby become my 
 lord, and obtain the Lydian throne, or die this 
 moment in his room. So wilt thou not again, 
 obeying all behests of thy master, behold what 
 is not lawful for thee. It must needs be, that 
 either he perish by whose counsel this thing was 
 done, or thou, who sawest me naked, and so 
 didst break our usages." At these words Gyges 
 stood a while in mute astonishment; recovering 
 after a time, he earnestly besought the queen 
 
36 HERODOTUS 
 
 that she would not compel him to so hard a 
 choice. But finding he implored in vain, and 
 that necessity was indeed laid on him to kill or 
 to be killed, he made choice of life for himself, 
 and replied by this inquiry: " If it must be so, 
 and thou compellest me against my will to put 
 my lord to death, come, let me hear how thou 
 wilt have me set on him." "Let him be at- 
 tacked," she answered, " on that spot where I 
 was by him shown naked to you, and let the 
 assault be made when he is asleep." 
 
 12. All was then prepared for the attack, and 
 when night fell, Gyges, seeing that he had no re- 
 treat or escape, but must absolutely either slay 
 Candaules, or himself be slain, followed his mis- 
 tress into the sleeping-room. She placed a dag- 
 ger in his hand, and hid him carefully behind 
 the self-same door. Then Gyges, when the king 
 was fallen asleep, entered privily into the cham- 
 ber and struck him dead. Thus did the wife and 
 kingdom of Candaules pass into the possession 
 of Gyges, of whom Archilochus the Parian, who 
 lived about the same time, made mention in a 
 poem written in Iambic trimeter verse. 
 
 13. Gyges was afterwards confirmed in the 
 possession of the throne by an answer of the 
 Delphic oracle. Enraged at the murder of their 
 king, the people flew to arms, but after a while 
 the partisans of Gyges came to terms with them, 
 and it was agreed that if the Delphic oracle de- 
 
BOOK I CLIO ar 
 
 clared him king of the Lydians, he should reign; 
 if otherwise, he should yield the throne to the 
 Heraclides. As the oracle was given in his 
 favour he became king. The Pythoness, how- 
 ever, added that, in the fifth generation from 
 Gyges, vengeance should come for the Hera- 
 clides ; a prophecy of which neither the Lydians 
 nor their princes took any account till it was ful- 
 filled. Such was the way in which the Merm- 
 nadee deposed the Heraclides, and themselves ob- 
 tained the sovereignty. 
 
 14. When Gyges was established on the 
 throne, he sent no small present to Delphi, as his 
 many silver offerings at the Delphic shrine tes- 
 tify. Besides this silver he gave a vast number 
 of vessels of gold, among which the most worthy 
 of mention are the goblets, six in number, and 
 weighing altogether thirty talents, which stand 
 in the Corinthian treasury, dedicated by him. I 
 call it the Corinthian treasury, though in strict- 
 ness of speech it is the treasury not of the whole 
 Corinthian people, but of Cypselus, son of 
 Eetion. Excepting Midas, son of Gordias, 
 king of Phrygia, Gyges was the first of the bar- 
 barians whom we know to have sent offerings 
 to Delphi. Midas dedicated the royal throne 
 whereon he was accustomed to sit and adminis- 
 ter justice, an object well worth looking at. It 
 lies in the same place as the goblets presented by 
 Gyges. The Delphians call the whole of the 
 
38 HERODOTUS 
 
 silver and the gold which Gyges dedicated, after 
 the name of the donor, Gygian. 
 
 As soon as Gyges was king he made an inroad 
 on Miletus and Smyrna, and took the city of 
 Colophon. Afterwards, however, though he 
 reigned eight and thirty years, he did not per- 
 form a single noble exploit. I shall therefore 
 make no further mention of him, but pass on to 
 his son and successor in the kingdom, Ardys. 
 
 15. Ardys took Priene and made war upon 
 Miletus. In his reign the Cimmerians, driven 
 from their homes by the nomades of Scythia, en- 
 tered Asia and captured Sardis, all but the cita- 
 del. He reigned forty-nine years, and was suc- 
 ceeded by his son, Sadyattes, who reigned twelve 
 years. At his death his son Alyattes mounted 
 the throne. 
 
 16. This prince waged war with the Medes 
 under Cyaxares, the grandson of Deioces, drove 
 the Cimmerians out of Asia, conquered Smyrna, 
 the Colophonian colony, and invaded Clazom- 
 enas. From this last contest he did not come off 
 as he could have wished, but met with a sore de- 
 feat; still, however, in the course of his reign, 
 he performed other actions very worthy of note, 
 of which I will now proceed to give an account. 
 
 17. Inheriting from his father a war with the 
 Milesians, he pressed the siege against the city 
 by attacking it in the following manner. When 
 the harvest was ripe on the ground he marched 
 
BOOK I CLIO 39 
 
 his army into Milesia to the sound of pipes and 
 harps, and flutes masculine and feminine. The 
 buildings that were scattered over the country he 
 neither pulled down nor burnt, nor did he even 
 tear away the doors, but left them standing as 
 they were. He cut down, however, and utterly 
 destroyed all the trees and all the corn through- 
 out the land, and then returned to his own domin- 
 ions. It was idle for his army to sit down before 
 the place, as the Milesians were masters of the 
 sea. The reason that he did not demolish their 
 buildings was, that the inhabitants might be 
 tempted to use them as homesteads from which 
 to go forth to sow and till their lands; and so 
 each time that he invaded the country he might 
 find something to plunder. 
 
 18. In this way he carried on the war with the 
 Milesians for eleven years, in the course of which 
 he inflicted on them two terrible blows; one in 
 their own country in the district of Liimeneium, 
 the other in the plain of the Masnder. During 
 six of these eleven years, Sadyattes, the son of 
 Ardys, who first hghted the flames of this war, 
 was king of Lydia, and made the incursions. 
 Only the five following years belong to the reign 
 of Alyattes, son of Sadyattes, who (as I said be- 
 fore) , inheriting the war from his father, applied 
 himself to it unremittingly. The Milesians 
 throughout the contest received no help at all 
 from any of the lonians, excepting those of 
 
40 HERODOTUS 
 
 Chios, who lent them troops in requital of a like 
 service rendered them in former times, the Mile- 
 sians having fought on the side of the Chians 
 during the whole of the war between them and 
 the people of Erythras. 
 
 19. It was in the twelfth year of the war that 
 the following mischance occurred from the firing 
 of the harvest-fields. Scarcely had the corn 
 been set alight by the soldiers when a violent 
 wind carried the flames against the temple of 
 Minerva Assesia, which caught fire and was 
 burnt to the groimd. At the time no one made 
 any account of the circumstance ; but afterwards, 
 on the retm*n of the army to Sardis, Alyattes 
 fell sick. His illness continued, whereupon, 
 either advised thereto by some friend, or per- 
 chance himself conceiving the idea, he sent mes- 
 sengers to Delphi to inquire of the god concern- 
 ing his malady. On their arrival the Pythoness 
 declared that no answer should be given them 
 until they had rebuUt the temple of Minerva, 
 burnt by the Lydians at Assesus in Milesia. 
 
 20. Thus much I know from information 
 given me by the Delphians ; the remainder of the 
 story the Milesians add. 
 
 The answer made by the oracle came to the 
 ears of Periander, son of Cypselus, who was a 
 very close friend to Thrasybulus, tyrant of Mi- 
 letus at that period. He instantly despatched a' 
 messenger to report the oracle to him, in order 
 
BOOK I CLIO 41 
 
 that Thrasybulus, forewarned of its tenor, might 
 the better adapt his measuies to the posture of 
 affairs. 
 
 21. Alyattes, the moment that the words of the 
 oracle were reported to him, sent a herald to 
 Miletus in hopes of concluding a truce with 
 Thrasybulus and the Milesians for such a time 
 as was needed to rebuild the temple. The herald 
 went upon his way; but meantime Thrasybulus 
 had been apprised of everything; and conjectur- 
 ing what Alyattes would do, he contrived this 
 artifice. He had all the corn that was in the 
 city, whether belonging to himself or to private 
 persons, brought into the market-place, and is- 
 sued an order that the Milesians should hold 
 themselves in readiness, and, when he gave the 
 signal, should, one and all, fall to drinking and 
 revelry. 
 
 22. The purpose for which he gave these 
 orders was the following. He hoped that the 
 Sardian herald, seeing so great store of corn 
 upon the ground, and aU the city given up to 
 festivity, would inform Alyattes of it, which fell 
 out as he anticipated. The herald observed the 
 whole, and when he had delivered his message, 
 went back to Sardis. This circumstance alone, 
 as I gather, brought about the peace which en- 
 sued. Alyattes, who had hoped that there was 
 now a great scarcity of corn in Miletus, and that 
 the people were worn down to the last pitch of 
 
42 HERODOTUS 
 
 suffering, when he heard from the herald on his 
 return from Miletus tidings so contrary to those 
 he had expected, made a treaty with the enemy 
 by which the two nations became close friends 
 and allies. He then built at Assesus two tem- 
 ples to Minerva instead of one, and shortly after 
 recovered from his malady. Such were the chief 
 circumstances of the war which Alyattes waged 
 with Thrasybulus and the Milesians. 
 
 23. This Periander, who apprised Thrasy- 
 bulus of the oracle, was son of Cypselus,; and 
 tyrant of Corinth. In his time a very wonder- 
 ful thing is said to have happened. The Corin- 
 thians and the Lesbians agree in their account 
 of the matter. They relate that Arion of Me- 
 thymna, who as a player on the harp was second 
 to no man living at that time, and who was, so 
 far as we know, the first to invent the dithyram- 
 bic measure, to give it its name, and to recite in 
 it at Corinth, was carried to Teenarum on the 
 back of a dolphin. 
 
 24. He had lived for many years at the court 
 of Periander, when a longing came upon him to 
 sail across to Italy and Sicily. Having made 
 rich profits in those parts, he wanted to recross 
 the seas to Corinth. He therefore hired a ves- 
 sel, the crew of which were Corinthians, thinking 
 that there was no people in whom he could more 
 safely confide; and, going on board, he set sail 
 from Tarentum. The sailors, however, when 
 
BOOK I CLIO 43 
 
 they reached the open sea, formed a plot to throw 
 him overboard and seize upon his riches. Dis- 
 covering their design, he fell on his knees, be- 
 seeching them to spare his life, and making them 
 welcome to his money. But they refused; and 
 required him either to kill himself outright, if he 
 wished for a grave on the dry land, or without 
 loss of time to leap overboard into the sea. In 
 this strait Arion begged them, since such was 
 their pleasure, to allow him to mount upon the 
 quarter-deck, dressed in his fuU costume, and 
 there to play and sing, promising that, as soon 
 as his song was ended, he would destroy himself. 
 Dehghted at the prospect of hearing the very 
 best harper in the world, they consented, and 
 withdrew from the stern to the middle of the ves- 
 sel: while Arion dressed himself in the full cos- 
 tume of his calling, took his harp, and standing 
 on the quarter-deck, chanted the Orthian. His 
 strain ended, he flung himself, fully attired as 
 he was, headlong into the sea. The Corinthians 
 then sailed on to Corinth. As for Arion, a dol- 
 phin, they say, took him upon his back and car- 
 ried him to Tsenarum, where he went ashore, and 
 thence proceeded to Corinth in his musician's 
 dress, and told all that had happened to him. 
 Periander, however, disbelieved the story, and 
 put Arion in ward, to prevent his leaving Cor- 
 inth, while he watched anxiously for the return 
 of the mariners. On their arrival he summoned 
 
44 HERODOTUS 
 
 them before him and asked them if they could 
 give him any tidings of Arion. They returned 
 for answer that he was ahve and in good health 
 in Italy, and that they had left him at Taren- 
 timi, where he was doing well. Thereupon 
 Arion appeared before them, just as he was when 
 he jumped from the vessel: the men, astonished 
 and detected in falsehood, could no longer deny 
 their guilt. Such is the account which the Co- 
 rinthians and Lesbians give; and there is to this 
 day at Tsenarum, an oflFering of Arion's at the 
 shrine, which is a small figure in bronze, repre- 
 senting a man seated upon a dolphin.® 
 
 25. Having brought the war with the Mile- 
 sians to a close, and reigned over the land of 
 Lydia for fifty-seven years, Alyattes died. He 
 was the second prince of his house who made 
 offerings at Delphi. His gifts, which he sent 
 on recovering from his sickness, were a great 
 bowl of pure sUver, with a salver in steel curi- 
 
 B Various attempts have been made to rationalize the legend 
 of Arion. Larcher conjectures that he swam ashore, and after- 
 wards got on board a swift-sailing vessel, which happened to 
 have a dolphin for its figure-head, and arrived at Corinth be- 
 fore the ship from which he had been ejected came into port. 
 Clinton supposes that the whole story may have grown out 
 of the fact, that Arion was taken by pirates, and made his 
 escape from them. 
 
 The truth seems to be, that the legend grew out of the figure 
 at Taenarum, which was known by its inscription to be an 
 offering of Arion's. The figure itself remained at Taenarum 
 more than seven hundred years. It was seen by ^lian in the 
 third century after Christ. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 45 
 
 ously inlaid, a work among all the offerings at 
 Delphi the best worth looking at. Glaucus, the 
 Chian, made it, the man who first invented the 
 art of inlaying steel. 
 
 26. On the death of Alyattes, Croesus, his 
 son, who was thirty-five years old, succeeded 
 to the throne. Of the Greek cities, Ephesus was 
 the first that he attacked. The Ephesians, when 
 he laid siege to the place, made an offering of 
 their city to Diana, by stretching a rope from 
 the town wall to the temple of the goddess, which 
 was distant from the ancient city, then besieged 
 by Croesus, a space of seven furlongs. They 
 were, as I said, the first Greeks whom he at- 
 tacked. Afterwards, on some pretext or other, 
 he made war in turn upon every Ionian and 
 ^olian state, bringing forward, where he could, 
 a substantial ground of complaint; where such 
 failed him, advancing some poor excuse. 
 
 27. In this way he made himself master of all 
 the Greek cities in Asia, and forced them to be- 
 come his tributaries; after which he began to 
 think of building ships, and attacking the island- 
 ers. Everything had been got ready for this 
 purpose, when Bias of Priene (or, as some say, 
 Pittacus the MytUenean) put a stop to the 
 project. The king had made inquiry of this 
 person, who was lately arrived at Sardis, if there 
 were any news from Greece; to which he an- 
 swered, "Yes, sire, the islanders are gathering 
 
46 HERODOTUS 
 
 ten thousand horse, designing an expedition 
 against thee and against thy capital." Croesus, 
 thinking he spake seriously, broke out, "Ah, 
 might the gods put such a thought into their 
 minds as to attack the sons of the Lydians with 
 cavalry!" "It seems, oh! king," rejoined the 
 other, " that thou desirest earnestly to catch the 
 islanders on horseback upon the mainland, — 
 thou knowest well what would come of it. But 
 what thinkest thou the islanders desire better, 
 now that they hear thou art about to build ships 
 and sail against them, than to catch the Lydians 
 at sea, and there revenge on them the wrongs 
 of their brothers upon the mainland, whom thou 
 boldest in slavery? " Croesus was charmed with 
 the turn of the speech; and thinking there was 
 reason in what was said, gave up his ship-build- 
 ing and concluded a league of amity with the 
 lonians of the isles. 
 
 28. Croesus, afterwards, in the course of many 
 years, brought under his sway almost all the na- 
 tions to the west of the Halys. The Lycians and 
 Cilicians alone continued free; all the other 
 tribes he reduced and held in subjection. They 
 were the following: the Lydians, Phrygians, 
 Mysians, Mariandynians, Chalybians, Paphla- 
 gonians, Thynian and Bithynian Thracians, Ca- 
 rians, lonians, Dorians, ^olians, and Pamphy- 
 lians. 
 
 29. When all these conquests had been added 
 
BOOK I CLIO 47 
 
 to the Lydian empire, and the prosperity of 
 Sardis was now at its height, there came thither 
 one after another, all the sages of Greece living 
 at the time, and among them Solon, the Athe- 
 nian." He was on his travels, having left Athens 
 to be absent ten years, under the pretence of 
 wishing to see the world, but really to avoid 
 being forced to repeal any of the laws which, at 
 the request of the Athenians, he had made for 
 them. Without his sanction the Athenians 
 could not repeal them, as they had bound them- 
 selves under a heavy curse to be governed for 
 ten years by the laws which should be imposed 
 on them by Solon. 
 
 80. On this account, as well as to see the 
 world, Solon set out upon his travels, in the 
 course of which he went to Egypt to the court 
 of Amasis, and also came on a visit to Croesus at 
 Sardis. Croesus received him as his guest, and 
 lodged him in the royal palace. On the third 
 or fourth day after, he bade his servants con- 
 duct Solon over his treasuries, and show him all 
 
 6 Solon's visit to CrcEsus was rejected as fabulous before the 
 time of Plutarch, on account of chronological difSculties, which 
 it has been proposed to obviate by the hypothesis of the asso- 
 ciation of Croesus in the government by his father, some con- 
 siderable time before his death. There is no necessity for it, 
 in order to bring Solon and Crcesus into contact during the 
 reign of the latter. Crcesus most probably reigned from b. c. 
 568 to B. c. S54. Solon certainly outlived the first usurpation 
 of the government at Athens by Pisistratus, which was b. c. 
 560. 
 
48 HERODOTUS 
 
 their greatness and magnificence. When he had 
 seen them all, and, so far as time allowed, in- 
 spected ' them, Croesus addressed this question 
 to him: " Stranger of Athens, we have heard 
 much of thy wisdom and of thy travels through 
 many lands, from love of knowledge and a wish 
 to see the world. I am curious therefore to in- 
 quire of thee, whom, of all the men that thou 
 hast seen, thou deemest the most happy? " This 
 he asked because he thought himself the happiest 
 of mortals : but Solon answered him without flat- 
 tery, according to his true sentiments, " Tellus 
 of Athens, sire." Full of astonishment at what 
 he heard, Croesus demanded sharply, "And 
 wherefore dost thou deem Tellus happiest?" 
 To which the other replied, " First, because his 
 country was flourishing in his days, and he him- 
 self had sons both beautiful and good, and he 
 lived to see children born to each of them, and 
 these children all grew up ; and further because, 
 after a life spent in what our people look upon 
 as comfort, his end was surpassingly glorious. 
 In a battle between the Athenians and their 
 neighbours near Eleusis, he came to the assist- 
 ance of his countrymen, routed the foe, and 
 died upon the field most gallantly. The Athe- 
 nians gave him a public funeral on the spot 
 where he fell, and paid him the highest honours." 
 31. Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the 
 example of Tellus, enumerating the manifold 
 
BOOK I CLIO 49 
 
 particulars of his happiness. When he had 
 ended, Croesus inquired a second time, who after 
 Tellus seemed to him the happiest, expecting 
 that at any rate, he would be given the second 
 place. " Cleobis and Bito," Solon answered; 
 "they were of Argive race; their fortune was 
 enough for their wants, and they were besides 
 endowed with so much bodily strength that they 
 had both gained prizes at the Games. Also this 
 tale is told of them : — There was a great festival 
 in honour of the goddess Juno at Argos, to which 
 their mother must needs be taken in a car. Now 
 the oxen did not come home from the field in 
 time; so the youths, fearful of being too late, 
 put the yoke on their own necks, and themselves 
 drew the car in which their mother rode. Five 
 and forty furlongs did they draw her, and 
 stopped before the temple. This deed of theirs 
 was witnessed by the whole assembly of worship- 
 pers, and then their life closed in the best pos- 
 sible way. Herein, too, God showed forth most 
 evidently, how much better a thing for man 
 death is than life. For the Argive men, who 
 stood around the car, extolled the vast strength 
 of the youths; and the Argive women extolled 
 the mother who was blessed with such a pair 
 of sons; and the mother herself, overjoyed at 
 the deed and at the praises it had won, standing 
 straight before the image, besought the goddess 
 to bestow on Cleobis and Bito, the sons who had 
 
50 HERODOTUS 
 
 so mightily honoured her, the highest blessing to 
 which mortals can attain. Her prayer ended, 
 they oifered sacrifice and partook of the holy 
 banquet, after which the two youths fell asleep 
 in the temple. They never woke more, but so 
 passed from the earth. The Argives, looking on 
 them as among the best of men, caused statues 
 of them to be made, which they gave to the 
 shrine at Delphi." 
 
 32. When Solon had thus assigned these 
 youths the second place, Croesus broke in angrily, 
 " What, stranger of Athens, is my happiness, 
 then, so utterly set at nought by thee, that thou 
 dost not even put me on a level with private 
 men? " 
 
 "Oh! Croesus," replied the other, "tfhou 
 askedst a question concerning the condition of 
 man, of one who knows that the power above 
 us is full of jealousy, and fond of troubling our 
 lot. A long life gives one to witness much, and 
 experience much oneself, that one would not 
 choose. Seventy years I regard as the limit of 
 the life of man. In these seventy years are 
 contained, without reckoning intercalary months, 
 twenty-five thousand and two hundred days. 
 Add an intercalary month to every other year, 
 that the seasons may come round at the right 
 time, and there will be, besides the seventy years, 
 thirty-five such months, making an addition of 
 one thousand and fifty days. The whole num- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 51 
 
 ber of the days contained in the seventy years 
 will thus be twenty-six thousand two hundred 
 and fiftyj whereof not one but will produce 
 events unlike the rest. Hence man is wholly ac- 
 cident. For thyself, ohl Croesus, I see that thou 
 art wonderfully rich, and art the lord of many 
 nations; but with respect to that whereon thou 
 questionest me, I have no answer to give, until 
 I hear that thou hast closed thy life happily. 
 For assuredly he who possesses great store of 
 riches is no nearer happiness than he who has 
 what suflSces for his daily needs, unless it so 
 hap that luck attend upon him, and so he con- 
 tinue in the enjoyment of all his good things to 
 the end of life. For many of the wealthiest men 
 have been unfavoured of fortune, and many 
 whose means were moderate have had excellent 
 
 7 No commentator on Herodotus has succeeded in explaining 
 the curious mistake whereby the solar year is made to average 
 375 days. That Herodotus knew the true solar year was not 
 375, but more nearly 365 days, is clear from book ii, ch. 4. 
 It is also clear that he must be right as to the fact that the 
 Greeks were in the habit of intercalating a month every other 
 year. This point is confirmed by a passage in Censorinus, 
 where it is explained that the Greek years were alternately of 
 13 and 13 months. Two inaccuracies produce the error in 
 Herodotus. In the first place he makes Solon cpunt his 
 months at 30 days each, whereas it is notorious that the Gi'eek 
 months, after the system of intercalation was introduced, were 
 alternately of 29 and 30 days. By this error his first number 
 is raised from 24.,780 to 25,200; and also his second number 
 from 1033 to 1050. Secondly, he omits to mention that from 
 time to time the intercalary month was omitted altogether. 
 These two corrections would reduce the number of days to the 
 proper amount. 
 
52 HERODOTUS 
 
 luck. Men of the former class excel those of 
 the latter but in two respects ; these last excel the 
 former in many. The wealthy man is better able 
 to content his desires, and to bear up against a 
 sudden buffet of calamity. The other has less 
 ability to withstand these evils (from which, how- 
 ever, his good luck keeps him clear), but he en- 
 joys all these following blessings : he is whole of 
 limb, a stranger to disease, free from misfor- 
 tune, happy in his children, and comely to look 
 upon. If, in addition to all this, he end his life 
 well, he is of a truth the man of whom thou art 
 in search, the man who may rightly be termed 
 happy. Call him, however, until he die, not 
 happy but fortunate. Scarcely, indeed, can any 
 man unite all these advantages: as there is no 
 country which contains within it all that it needs, 
 but each, while it possesses some things, lacks 
 others, and the best country is that which con- 
 tains the most ; so no single human being is com- 
 plete in every respect — something is always lack- 
 ing. He who unites the greatest number of 
 advantages, and retaining them to the day of his 
 death, then dies peaceably, that man alone, sire, 
 is, in my judgment, entitled to bear the name of 
 * happy.' But in every matter it behoves us to 
 mark well the enii: for oftentimes God gives 
 men a gleam of happiness, and then plunges 
 them into ruin." 
 
 33. Such was the speech which Solon ad- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 53 
 
 dressed to Crcesus, a speech which brought him 
 neither largess nor honour. The king saw him 
 depart with much indifference, since he thought 
 that a man must be an arrant fool who made no 
 account of present good, but bade men always! 
 wait and mark the end. 
 
 84. After Solon had gone away a dreadful 
 vengeance, sent of God, came upon Croesus, to 
 punish him, it is likely, for deeming himself the 
 happiest of men. First he had a dream in the 
 night, which foreshowed him truly the evils 
 that were about to befall him in the person of 
 his son. For Croesus had two sons, one blasted 
 by a natural defect, being deaf and dumb; the 
 other, distinguished far above all his co-mates 
 in every pursuit. The name of the last was 
 Atys. It was this son concerning whom he 
 dreamt a dream, that he would die by the blow 
 of an iron weapon. When he woke, he consid- 
 ered earnestly with himself, and, greatly alarmed 
 at the dream, instantly made his son take a wife, 
 and whereas in former years the youth had been 
 wont to command the Lydian forces in the field, 
 he now would not suffer him to accompany 
 them. All the spears and javelins, and weapons 
 used in the wars, he removed out of the male 
 apartments, and laid them in heaps in the cham- 
 bers of the women, fearing lest perhaps one of 
 the weapons that hung against the wall might 
 fall and strike him. 
 
54 HERODOTUS 
 
 35. Now it chanced that while he was making 
 arrangements for the wedding, there came to 
 Sardis a man under a misfortune, who had upon 
 him the stain of blood. He was by race a Phry- 
 gian, and belonged to the family of the king. 
 Presenting himself at the palace of Croesus, he 
 prayed to be admitted to purification according 
 to the customs of the country. Now the Lydian 
 method of purifying is very nearly the same as 
 the Greek. Croesus granted the request, and 
 went through all the customary rites, after which 
 he asked the suppliant of his birth and country, 
 addressing him as follows: — "Who art thou, 
 stranger, and from what part of Phrygia fled- 
 dest thou to take refuge at my hearth? And 
 whom, moreover, what man or what woman, hast 
 thou slain? " " Oh! king," replied the Phrygian, 
 " I am the son of Gordias, son of Midas. I am 
 named Adrastus. The man I unintentionally 
 slew was my own brother. For this my father 
 drove me from the land, and I lost all. Then 
 fled I here to thee." " Thou art the offspring," 
 Croesus rejoined, " of a house friendly to mine, 
 and thou art come to friends. Thou shalt want 
 for nothing so long as thou abidest in my do- 
 minions. Bear thy misfortune as easily as thou 
 mayest, so will it go best with thee." Thence- 
 forth Adrastus lived in the palace of the king. 
 
 86. It chanced that at this very same time 
 there was in the Mysian Olympus a huge mon- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 55 
 
 ster of a boar, which went forth often from this 
 mountain-country, and wasted the corn-fields of 
 the Mysians. Many a time had the Mysians col- 
 lected to hunt the beast, but instead of doing 
 him any hurt, they came off always with some 
 loss to themselves. At length they sent ambas- 
 sadors to CrcBSus, who delivered their message to 
 him in these words : " Oh ! king, a mighty mon- 
 ster of a boar has appeared in our parts, and 
 destroys the labour of our hands. We do our 
 best to take him, but in vain. Now therefore 
 we beseech thee to let thy son accompany us 
 back, with some chosen youths and hounds, that 
 we may rid our coimtry of the animal." Such 
 was the tenor of their prayer. 
 
 But CrcEsus bethought him of his dream, and 
 answered, " Say no more of my son going with 
 you; that may not be in any wise. He is but 
 just joined in wedlock, and is busy enough with 
 that. I wiU grant you a picked band of Lydians, 
 and all my huntsmen and hounds; and I will 
 charge those whom I send to use all zeal in aid- 
 ing you to rid your country of the brute." 
 
 37. With this reply the Mysians were content ; 
 but the king's son, hearing what the prayer of 
 the Mysians was, came suddenly in, and on the 
 refusal of Croesus to let him go with them, thus 
 addressed his father: " Formerly, my father, it 
 was deemed the noblest and most suitable thing 
 for me to frequent the wars and hunting-parties, 
 
56 HERODOTUS 
 
 and win myself glory in them; but now thou 
 keepest me away from both, although thou hast 
 never beheld in me either cowardice or lack of 
 spirit. What face meanwhile must I wear as 
 I walk to the forum or return from it? What 
 must the citizens, what must my young bride 
 think of me? What sort of man wiU she sup- 
 pose her husband to be? Either, therefore, let 
 me go to the chase of this boar, or give me a 
 reason why it is best for me to do according 
 to thy wishes." 
 
 38. Then Croesus answered, " My son, it is not 
 because I have seen in thee either cowardice or 
 aught else which has displeased me that I keep 
 thee back; but because a vision which came be- 
 fore me in a dream as I slept, warned me that 
 thou wert doomed to die young, pierced by an 
 iron weapon. It was this which first led me to 
 hasten on thy wedding, and now it hinders me 
 from sending thee upon this enterprise. Fain 
 would I keep watch over thee, if by any means 
 I may cheat fate of thee during my own life- 
 time. For thou art the one and only son that 
 I possess; the other, whose hearing is destroyed, 
 I regard as if he were not." 
 
 39. "Ah! father," returned the youth, "I 
 blame thee not for keeping watch over me after 
 a dream so terrible; but if thou mistakest, if 
 thou dost not apprehend the dream aright, 'tis 
 no blame for me to show thee wherein thou 
 
BOOK I CLIO 57 
 
 errest. Now the dream, thou saidst thyself fore- 
 told that I should die stricken by an iron weapon. 
 But what hands has a boar to strike with? What 
 iron weapon does he wield? Yet this is what 
 thou f earest for me. Had the dream said that 
 I should die pierced by a tusk, then thou hadst 
 done well to keep me away; but it said a weapon. 
 Now here we do not combat men, but a wild 
 animal. I pray thee, therefore, let me go with 
 them." 
 
 40. "There thou hast me, my son," said Croe- 
 sus, " thy interpretation is better than mine. I 
 yield to it, and change my mind, and consent 
 to let thee go." 
 
 41. Then the king sent for Adrastus, the 
 Phrygian, and said to him, " Adrastus, when 
 thou wert smitten with the rod of aflfliction — no 
 reproach, my friend — I purified thee, and have 
 taken thee to live with me in my palace, and 
 have been at every charge. Now, therefore, it 
 behoves thee to requite the good offices which 
 thou hast received at my hands by consenting 
 to go with my son on this hunting party, and 
 to watch over him, if perchance you should be 
 attacked upon the road by some band of daring 
 robbers. Even apart from this, it were right 
 for thee to go where thou mayest make thyself 
 famous by noble deeds. They are the heritage 
 of thy family, and thou too art so stalwart and 
 strong." 
 
58 HERODOTUS 
 
 42. Adrastus answered, " Except for thy re- 
 quest, oh! king, I would rather have kept away 
 from this hunt; for methinks it ill beseems a 
 man under a misfortune such as mine to consort 
 with his happier compeers; and besides, I have 
 no heart to it. On many grounds I had stayed 
 behind; but, as thou urgest it, and I am bound 
 to pleasure thee (for truly it does behove me to 
 requite thy good offices), I am content to do as 
 thou wishest. For thy son, whom thou givest 
 into my charge, be sure thou shalt receive him 
 back safe and sound, so far as depends upon a 
 guardian's carefulness." 
 
 43. Thus assured, Croesus let them depart ac- 
 companied by a band of picked youths, and well 
 provided with dogs of chase. When they reached 
 Olympus, they scattered in quest of the animal; 
 he was soon found, and the hunters, drawing 
 round him in a circle, hurled their weapons at 
 him. Then the stranger, the man who had been 
 purified of blood, whose name was Adrastus, he 
 also hurled his spear at the boar, but missed his 
 aim, and struck Atys. Thus was the son of 
 Croesus slain by the point of an iron weapon, 
 and the warning of the vision was fulfilled. Then 
 one ran to Sardis to bear the tidings to the king, 
 and he came and informed him of the combat 
 and of the fate that had befallen his son. 
 
 44. If it was a heavy blow to the father to 
 learn that his child was dead, it yet more 
 
BOOK I CLIO 59 
 
 strongly aif ected him to think that the very man 
 whom he himself once pm-ified had done the deed. 
 In the violence of his grief he called aloud on 
 Jupiter Catharsius, to be a witness of what he 
 had suffered at the stranger's hands. After- 
 wards he invoked the same god as Jupiter Ephis- 
 tus and Hetaereus — ^using the one term because 
 he had unwittingly harboured in his house the 
 man who had now slain his son; and the other, 
 because the stranger, who had been sent as his 
 child's guardian, had turned out his most cruel 
 enemy. 
 
 45. Presently the Lydians arrived, bearing the 
 body of the youth, and behind them followed 
 the homicide. He took his stand in front of 
 the corse, and, stretching forth his hand to 
 Croesus, delivered himself unto his power with 
 earnest entreaties that he would sacrifice him 
 upon the body of his son — "his former mis- 
 fortune was burthen enough; now that he had 
 added to it a second, and had brought ruin on 
 the man who purified him, he could not bear to 
 live." Then Croesus, when he heard these words, 
 was moved with pity towards Adrastus, notwith- 
 standing the bitterness of his own calamity; and 
 so he answered, " Enough, my friend ; I have 
 all the revenge that I require, since thou givest 
 sentence of death against thyself. But in sooth 
 it is not thou who hast injured me, except so 
 far as thou hast unwittingly dealt the blow. 
 
60 HERODOTUS 
 
 Some god is the author of my misfortune, and 
 I was forewarned of it a long time ago." Croesus 
 after this buried the body of his son, with such 
 honours as befitted the occasion. Adrastus, son 
 of Gordias, son of Midas, the destroyer of his 
 brother in time past, the destroyer now of his 
 purifier, regarding himself as the most imf ortu- 
 nate wretch whom he had ever known, so soon 
 as all was quiet about the place, slew himself 
 upon the tomb. Crcesus, bereft of his son, gave 
 himself up to mourning for two full years. 
 
 46. At the end of this time the grief of Croe- 
 sus was interrupted by intelligence from abroad. 
 He learnt that Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, had 
 destroyed the empire of Astyages, the son of 
 Cyaxares; and that the Persians were becoming 
 daily more powerful. This led him to consider 
 with himself whether it were possible to check 
 the growing power of that people before it came 
 to a head. With this design he resolved to make 
 instant trial of the several oracles in Greece, and 
 of the one in Libya. So he sent his messengers 
 in different directions, some to Delphi, some to 
 Abae in Phocis, and some to Dodona; others to 
 the oracle of Amphiaraiis ; others to that of Tro- 
 phonius; others again, to BranchidaB in Milesia. 
 These were the Greek oracles which he consulted. 
 To Libya he sent another embassy, to consult 
 the oracle of Ammon. These messengers were 
 sent to test the knowledge of the oracles, that. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 61 
 
 if they were found really to return true an- 
 swers, he might send a second time, and inquire 
 if he ought to attack the Persians. 
 
 47. The messengers who were despatched to 
 make trial of the oracles were given the follow- 
 ing instructions : they were to keep count of the 
 days from the time of their leaving Sardis, and, 
 reckoning from that date, on the hundredth day 
 they were to consult the oracles, and to inquire 
 of them what Croesus, the son of Alyattes, king 
 of Lydia, was doing at that moment. The an- 
 swers given them were to be taken down in writ- 
 ing, and brought back to him. None of the re- 
 plies remain on record except that of the oracle 
 at Delphi. There, the moment that the Lydians 
 entered the sanctuary, and before they put their 
 questions, the Pythoness thus answered them in 
 hexameter verse : 
 
 " I can count the sands, and I can measure the ocean ; 
 
 I have ears for the silent, and know what the dumb man 
 meaneth ; 
 
 Lo! on my sense there striketh the smell of a shell- 
 covered tortoise. 
 
 Boiling now on the fire, with the flesh of a lamb, in a 
 cauldron, — 
 
 Brass is the vessel below, and brass the cover above it. 
 
 48. These words the Lydians wrote down at the 
 mouth of the Pythoness as she prophesied, and 
 then set off on their return to Sardis. When all 
 
62 HERODOTUS 
 
 the messengers had come back with the answers 
 which they had received, Croesus undid the rolls, 
 and read what was written in each. Only one ap- 
 proved itself to him, that of the Delphic oracle. 
 This he had no sooner heard than he instantly 
 made an act of adoration, and accepted it as 
 true, declaring that the Delphic was the only 
 really oracular shrine, the only one that had dis- 
 covered in what way he was in fact employed. 
 For on the departure of his messengers he had 
 set himself to think what was most impossible 
 for any one to conceive of his doing, and then, 
 waiting till the day agreed on came, he acted as 
 he had determined. He took a tortoise and a 
 lamb, and cutting them in pieces with his own 
 hands, boiled them both together in a brazen 
 cauldron, covered over with a lid which was also 
 of brass. 
 
 49. Such then was the answer returned to 
 Croesus from Delphi. What the answer was 
 which the Lydians who went to the shrine of 
 Amphiaraiis and performed the customary rites, 
 obtained of the oracle there, I have it not in my 
 power to mention, for there is no record of it. 
 All that is known is that Croesus believed him- 
 self to have found there also an oracle which 
 spoke the truth. 
 
 50. After this Croesus, having resolved to 
 propitiate the Delphic god with a magnificent 
 sacrifice, oiFered up three thousand of every 
 
Defence of a City 
 
 Showing the Undermining of the Terrass by 
 
 the Besieged and a Catapult in Action. 
 
 After an Etching of the Sixteenth 
 
 Century, now in the Bodleian 
 
 Library, Oxford 
 
BOOK I CLIO 63 
 
 kind of sacrificial beast, and besides made a huge 
 pile, and placed upon it couches coated with 
 silver and with gold, and golden goblets, and 
 robes and vests of purple; all which he burnt in 
 the hope of thereby making himself more se- 
 cure of the favour of the god. Further, he 
 issued his orders to all the people of the land to 
 offer a sacrifice according to their means. When 
 the sacrifice was ended, the king melted down a 
 vast quantity of gold, and ran it into ingots, 
 making them six palms long, three palms broad, 
 and one palm in thickness. The number of in- 
 gots was a hundred and seventeen, four being 
 of refined gold, in weight two talents and a 
 half; the others of pale gold, and in weight two 
 talents. He also caused a statue of a lion to be 
 made in refined gold, the weight of which was 
 ten talents. At the time when the temple of 
 Delphi was burnt to the ground, this lion fell 
 from the ingots on which it was placed; it now 
 stands in the Corinthian treasury, and weighs 
 only six talents and a half, having lost three tal- 
 ents and a half by the fire. 
 
 51. On the completion of these works, Croe- 
 sus sent them away to Delphi, and with them 
 two bowls of an enormous size, one of gold, the 
 other of silver, which used to stand, the latter 
 upon the right, the former upon the left, as one 
 entered the temple. They, too, were moved at 
 the time of the fire; and now the golden one is 
 
64 HERODOTUS 
 
 in the Clazomenian treasury, and weighs eight 
 talents and forty-two minse; the silver one 
 stands in the corner of the ante-chapel, and 
 holds six hundred amphoree. This is known, be- 
 cause the Delphians fill it at the time of the 
 Theophania. It is said by the Delphians to be 
 a work of Theodore the Samian, and I think 
 that they say true, for assuredly it is the work 
 of no common artist. Croesus sent also four 
 silver casks, which are in the Corinthian treas- 
 ury, and two lustral vases, a golden and a silver 
 one. On the former is inscribed the name of 
 the Lacedsemonians, and they claim it as a gift 
 of theirs, but wrongly, since it was reaUy given 
 by CrcESus. The inscription upon it was cut by 
 a Delphian, who wished to pleasure the Lacedas- 
 monians. His name is known to me, but I for- 
 bear to mention it. The boy, through whose 
 hand the water runs, is (I confess) a Lacedae- 
 monian gift, but they did not give either of the 
 lustral vases. Besides these various offerings, 
 Croesus sent to Delphi many others of less ac- 
 count, among the rest a number of round silver 
 basins. Also he dedicated a female figure in 
 gold, three cubits high, which is said by the Del- 
 phians to be the statue of his baking- woman; 
 and further, he presented the necklace and the 
 girdles of his wife. 
 
 52. These were the offerings sent by Croesus 
 to Delphi. To the shrine of Amphiaxaiis, with 
 
BOOK I CLIO 65 
 
 whose valour and misfortune he was acquainted, 
 he sent a shield entirely of gold, and a spear, 
 also of solid gold, both head and shaft. They 
 were still existing in my day at Thebes, laid up 
 in the temple of Ismenian Apollo. 
 
 53. The messengers who had the charge of 
 conveying these treasures to the shrines, re- 
 ceived instructions to ask the oracles whether 
 Croesus should go to war with the Persians, and 
 if so, whether he should strengthen himself by 
 the forces of an ally. Accordingly, when they 
 had reached their destinations and presented the 
 gifts, they proceeded to consult the oracles in 
 the following terms : " Croesus, king of Lydia 
 and other countries, believing that these are the 
 only real oracles in all the world, has sent you 
 such presents as your discoveries deserved, and 
 now inquires of you whether he shall go to war 
 with the Persians, and if so, whether he shall 
 strengthen himself by the forces of a confed- 
 erate." Both the oracles agreed in the tenor of 
 their reply, which was in each case a prophecy 
 that if Croesus attacked the Persians, he would 
 destroy a mighty empire, and a recommendation 
 to him to look and see who were the most pow- 
 erful of the Greeks, and to make alliance with 
 them. 
 
 54. At the receipt of these oracular replies 
 Croesus was overjoyed, and feeling sure now 
 that he would destroy the empire of the Per- 
 
66 HERODOTUS 
 
 sians, he sent once more to Pytho, and presented 
 to the Delphians, the number of whom he had 
 ascertained, two gold staters apiece. In return 
 for this the Delphians granted to Croesus and 
 the Lydians the privilege of precedency in con- 
 sulting the oracle, exemption from all charges, 
 the most honourable seat at the festivals, and 
 the perpetual right of becoming at pleasure 
 citizens of their town. 
 
 55. After sending these presents to the Del- 
 phians, Croesus a third time consulted the oracle, 
 for having once proved its truthfulness, he 
 wished to make constant use of it. The ques- 
 tion whereto he now desired an answer was — 
 " Whether his kingdom would be of long dura- 
 tion? " The following was the reply of the 
 Pythoness : 
 
 " Wait till the time shall come ■when a mule is monarch of 
 
 Media; 
 Then, thou delicate Lydian, away to the pebbles of 
 
 Hermus ; 
 Haste, oh! haste thee away, nor blush to behave like a 
 
 coward." 
 
 56. Of all the answers that had reached him, 
 this pleased him far the best, for it seemed in- 
 credible that a mule should ever come to be king 
 of the Medes, and so he concluded that the sov- 
 ereignty would never depart from himself or 
 his seed after him. Afterwards he turned his 
 
BOOK 1 CLIO 6i 
 
 thoughts to the alliance which he had been rec- 
 ommended to contract, and sought to ascertain 
 by inquiry which was the most powerful of the 
 Grecian states. His inquiries pointed out to 
 him two states as pre-eminent above the rest. 
 These were the Lacedaemonians and the Athe- 
 nians, the former of Doric, the latter of Ionic 
 blood. And indeed these two nations had held 
 from very early times the most distinguished 
 place in Greece, the one being a Pelasgic, the 
 other a Hellenic people, and the one having 
 never quitted its original seats, while the other 
 had been excessively migratory; for during the 
 reign of Deucalion, Phthiotis was the country in 
 which the Hellenes dwelt, but under Dorus, the 
 son of HeUen, they moved to the tract at the 
 base of Ossa and Olympus, which is called His- 
 tigeotis ; forced to retire from that region by the 
 Cadmeians, they settled, under the name of 
 Macedni, in the chain of Pindus. Hence they 
 once more removed and came to Dryopis; and 
 from Dryopis, having entered the Pelopon- 
 nese in this way, they became known as Dori- 
 ans. 
 
 57. What the language of the Pelasgi was I 
 cannot say with any certainty. If, however, we 
 may form a conjecture from the tongue spoken 
 by the Pelasgi of the present day, — those, for 
 instance, who live at Creston above the Tyrrhe- 
 nians, who formerly dwelt in the district named 
 
es heuobotus 
 
 Thessaliotis, and were neighbours of the people 
 now called the Dorians, — or those again who 
 founded Plaeia and Scylace upon the Helles- 
 pont, who had previously dwelt for some time 
 with the Athenians, — or those, in short, of any 
 other of the cities which have dropped the name 
 but are in fact Pelasgian; if, I say, we are to 
 form a conjecture from any of these, we must 
 pronounce that the Pelasgi spoke a barbarous 
 language. If this were really so, and the entire 
 Pelasgic race spoke the same tongue, the Athe- 
 nians, who were certainly Pelasgi, must have 
 changed their language at the same time that 
 they passed into the Hellenic body; for it is a 
 certain fact that the people of Creston speak a 
 language unlike any of their neighbours, and 
 the same is true of the Placianians, while the lan- 
 guage spoken by these two people is the same; 
 which shows that they both retain the idiom 
 which they brought with them into the countries 
 where they are now settled. 
 
 58. The Hellenic race has never, since its 
 first origin, changed its speech. This at least 
 seems evident to me. It was a branch of the 
 Pelasgic, which separated from the main body, 
 and at first was scanty in numbers and of little 
 power; but it gradually spread and increased to 
 a multitude of nations, chiefly by the voluntary 
 entrance into its ranks of numerous tribes of 
 barbarians. The Pelasgi, on the other hand, 
 
BOOK I CLIO 69 
 
 were, as I think, a barbarian race which never 
 greatly multiplied. 
 
 59. On inquiring into the condition of these 
 two nations, Croesus found that one, the Athe- 
 nian, was in a state of grievous oppression and 
 distraction under Pisistratus, the son of Hip- 
 pocrates, who was at that time tyrant of Athens. 
 Hippocrates, when he was a private citizen, is 
 said to have gone once upon a time to Olympia 
 to see the games, when a wonderful prodigy 
 happened to him. As he was employed in sac- 
 rificing, the cauldrons which stood near, full of 
 water and of the flesh of the victims, began to 
 boil without the help of fire, so that the water 
 overflowed the pots. Chilon the Lacedaemonian, 
 who happened to be there and to witness the 
 prodigy, advised Hippocrates, if he were un- 
 married, never to take into his house a wife who 
 could bear him a child; if he already had one, 
 to send her back to her friends ; if he had a son, 
 to disown him. Chilon's advice did not at all 
 please Hippocrates, who disregarded it, and 
 some time after became the father of Pisistra- 
 tus. This Pisistratus, at a time when there was 
 civil contention in Attica between the party of 
 the Sea-coast headed by Megacles the son of 
 Alcmseon, and that of the Plain headed by Ly- 
 curgus, one of the Aristolaids, formed the proj- 
 ect of making himself tyrant, and with this view 
 created a third party. Gathering together a 
 
70 HERODOTUS 
 
 band of partisans, and giving himself out for 
 the protector of the Highlanders, he contrived 
 the following stratagem. He wounded himself 
 and his mules, and then drove his chariot into 
 the market-place, professing to have just es- 
 caped an attack of his enemies, who had at- 
 tempted his life as he was on his way into the 
 country. He besought the people to assign him 
 a guard to protect his person, reminding them 
 of the glory which he had gained when he led 
 the attack upon the Megarians, and took the 
 town of Nissea, at the same time performing 
 many other exploits. The Athenians, deceived 
 by his story, appointed him a band of citizens 
 to serve as a guard, who were to carry clubs 
 instead of spears, and to accompany him wher- 
 ever he went. Thus strengthened, Pisistratus 
 broke into revolt and seized the citadel. In this 
 way he acquired the sovereignty of Athens, 
 which he continued to hold without disturbing 
 the previously existing offices or altering any of 
 the laws. He administered the state according 
 to the established usages, and his arrangements 
 were wise and salutary. 
 
 60. However, after a little time, the partisans 
 of Megacles and those of Lycurgus agreed to 
 forget their differences, and united to drive him 
 out. So Pisistratus, having by the means de- 
 scribed first made himself master of Athens, 
 lost his power again before it had time to take 
 
BOOK I CLIO 71 
 
 root. No sooner, however, was he departed 
 than the factions which had driven him out quar- 
 relled anew, and at last Megacles, wearied with 
 the struggle, sent a herald to Pisistratus, with 
 an oif er to re-establish him on the throne if he 
 would marry his daughter. Pisistratus con- 
 sented, and on these terms an agreement was 
 concluded between the two, after which they 
 proceeded to devise the mode of his restoration. 
 And here the device on which they hit was the 
 silliest that I find on record, more especially con- 
 sidering that the Greeks have been from very 
 ancient times distinguished from the barbarians 
 by superior sagacity and freedom from foolish 
 simpleness, and remembering that the persons 
 on whom this trick was played were not only 
 Greeks but Athenians, who have the credit of 
 surpassing all other Greeks in cleverness. There 
 was in the Pseanian district a woman named 
 Phya, whose height only fell short of four 
 cubits by three fingers' breadth, and who was 
 altogether comely to look upon. This woman 
 they clothed in complete armour, and, instruct- 
 ing her as to the carriage which she was to main- 
 tain in order to beseem her part, they placed 
 her in a chariot and drove to the city. Heralds 
 had been sent forward to precede her, and to 
 make proclamation to this effect: " Citizens of 
 Athens, receive again Pisistratus with friendly 
 minds. Minerva, who of all men honours him 
 
72 HERODOTUS 
 
 the most, herself conducts him back to her own 
 citadel." This they proclaimed in all directions, 
 and immediately the rumour spread throughout 
 the country districts that Minerva was bringing 
 back her favourite. They of the city also, fuEy 
 persuaded that the woman was the veritable god- 
 dess, prostrated themselves before her, and re- 
 ceived Pisistratus back. 
 
 61. Pisistratus, having thus recovered the sov- 
 ereignty, married, according to agreement, the 
 daughter of Megacles. As, however, he had 
 already a family of grown-up sons, and the 
 Alcmaeonideae were supposed to be under a 
 curse, he determined that there should be no 
 issue of the marriage. His wife at first kept 
 this matter to herself, but after a time, either 
 her mother questioned her, or it may be that she 
 told it of her own accord. At any rate, she in- 
 formed her mother, and so it reached her father's 
 ears. Megacles, indignant at receiving an af- 
 front from such a quarter, in his anger instantly 
 made up his differences with the opposite fac- 
 tion, on which Pisistratus, aware of what was 
 planning against him, took himself out of the 
 country. Arrived at Eretria, he held a council 
 with his children to decide what was to be done. 
 The opinion of Hippias prevailed, and it was 
 agreed to aim at regaining the sovereignty. The 
 first step was to obtain advances of money from 
 such states as were under obligations to them. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 73 
 
 By these means they collected large sums from 
 several countries, especially from the Thebans, 
 who gave them far more than any of the rest. 
 To be brief, time passed, and all was at length 
 got ready for their return. A band of Argive 
 mercenaries arrived from the Peloponnese, and 
 a certain Naxian named Lygdamis, who volun- 
 teered his services, was particularly zealous in 
 the cause, supplying both men and money. 
 
 62. In the eleventh year of their exile the 
 family of Pisistratus set sail from Eretria on 
 their return home. They made the coast of At- 
 tica, near Marathon, where they encamped, and 
 were joined by their partisans from the capital 
 and by numbers from the country districts, who 
 loved tyranny better than freedom. At Athens, 
 while Pisistratus was obtaining funds, and even 
 after he landed at Marathon, no one paid any 
 attention to his proceedings. When, however, 
 it became known that he had left Marathon, and 
 was marching upon the city, preparations were 
 made for resistance, the whole force of the state 
 was levied, and led against the returning exiles. 
 Meantime the army of Pisistratus, which had 
 broken up from Marathon, meeting their adver- 
 saries near the temple of the Pallenian Minerva, 
 pitched their camp opposite them. Here a cer- 
 tain soothsayer, Amphilytus by name, an Acar- 
 nanian, moved by a divine impulse, came into 
 the presence of Pisistratus, and approaching 
 
74 HERODOTUS 
 
 him uttered this prophecy in the hexameter 
 measure: 
 
 " Now has the cast been made, the net is out-spread in 
 the water, 
 Through the moonshiny night the tunnies will enter the 
 meshes." 
 
 63. Such was the prophecy uttered under a 
 divine inspiration. Pisistratus, apprehending 
 its meaning, declared that he accepted the oracle, 
 and instantly led on his army. The Athenians 
 from the city had just finished their midday 
 meal, after which they had betaken themselves, 
 some to dice, others to sleep, when Pisistratus 
 with his troops fell upon them and put them to 
 the rout. As soon as the flight began, Pisistra- 
 tus bethought himself of a most wise contriv- 
 ance, whereby the Athenians might be induced 
 to disperse and not unite in a body any more. 
 He mounted his sons on horseback and sent them 
 on in front to overtake the fugitives, and exhort 
 them to be of good cheer, and return each man 
 to his home. The Athenians took the advice, and 
 Pisistratus became for the third time master of 
 Athens. 
 
 64. Upon this he set himself to root his power 
 more firmly, by the aid of a numerous body of 
 mercenaries, and by keeping up a full ex- 
 chequer, partly supplied from native sources, 
 partly from the countries about the river Stry- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 75 
 
 mon.® He also demanded hostages from many 
 of the Athenians who had remained at home, 
 and not left Athens at his approach; and these 
 he sent to Naxos, which he had conquered by- 
 force of arms, and given over into the charge 
 of Lygdamis. Farther, he purified the island 
 of the Delos, according to the injunction of an 
 oracle, after the following fashion: All the 
 dead bodies which had been interred within sight 
 of the temple he dug up, and removed to an- 
 other part of the isle. Thus was the tyranny of 
 Pisistratus established at Athens, many of the 
 Athenians having fallen in the battle, and many 
 others have fled the coxmtry, together with the 
 son of Alcmseon. 
 
 65. Such was the condition of the Athenians 
 when Croesus made inquiry concerning them. 
 Proceeding to seek information concerning the 
 LacedEemonians, he learnt that, after passing 
 through a period of great depression, they had 
 lately been victorious in a war with the people 
 of Tegea; for, during the joint reign of Leo 
 and Agasicles, kings of Sparta, the Lacedee- 
 monians, successful in aU their other wars, suf- 
 
 8 The revenues of Pisistratus were derived in part from the 
 income-tax of five per cent., wUch he levied from his subjects, 
 in part probably from the silver-mines at Laorium, which a 
 little later were so remarkably productive. He had also a 
 third source of revenue, of which Herodotus here speaks, con- 
 sisting apparently either of lands or mines lying near the Stry- 
 mon, and belonging to him probably in his private capacity. 
 That part of Thrace was famous for its gold and silver mines. 
 
76 HERODOTUS 
 
 fered continual defeat at the hands of the Te- 
 geans. At a still earlier period they had been 
 the very worst governed people in Greece, as 
 well in matters of internal management as in 
 their relations towards foreigners, from whom 
 they kept entirely aloof. The circmnstances 
 which led to their being well-governed were the 
 following: Lycurgus, a man of distinction 
 among the Spartans, had gone to Delphi, to 
 visit the oracle. Scarcely had he entered into 
 the inner fane, when the Pythoness exclaimed 
 aloud : 
 
 " Oh ! thou great Lycurgus, that com'st to my beautiful 
 
 dwelling. 
 Dear to Jove, and to all who sit in the halls of Olympus, 
 Whether to hail thee a god I know not, or only a mortal, 
 But my hope is strong that a god thou wUt prove, 
 
 Lycurgus." 
 
 Some report, besides, that the Pythoness de- 
 livered to him the entire system of laws which 
 are still observed by the Spartans. The Lace- 
 dEemonians, however, themselves assert that Ly- 
 curgus, when he was guardian of his nephew, 
 Labotas, king of Sparta, and regent in his room, 
 introduced them from Crete; for as soon as he 
 became regent, he altered the whole of the exist- 
 ing customs, substituting new ones, which he 
 took care should be observed by all. After this 
 he arranged whatever appertained to war, es- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 77 
 
 tablishing the Enomotise, Triacades, and Sys- 
 sitia, besides which he instituted the senate, and 
 the ephoralty. Such was the way in which the 
 Lacedeemonians became a well-governed people. 
 66. On the death of Lycurgus they built him 
 a temple, and ever since they have worshipped 
 him with the utmost reverence. Their soil being 
 good and the population numerous, they sprang 
 up rapidly to power, and became a flourishing 
 people. In consequence they soon ceased to be 
 satisfied to stay quiet ; and, regarding the Arca- 
 dians as very much their inferiors, they sent to 
 consult the oracle about conquering the whole of 
 Arcadia. The Pythoness thus answered them: 
 
 " Gravest thou Arcady ? Bold is thy craving. I shall not 
 content it. 
 
 Many the men that in Arcady dwell, whose food is the 
 acorn — 
 
 They will never allow thee. It is not I that am niggard. 
 
 I wiU give thee to dance in Tegea, with noisy foot-fall. 
 
 And with the measuring line mete out the glorious cham- 
 paign." 
 
 When the Lacedgemonians received this reply, 
 leaving the rest of Arcadia untouched, they 
 marched against the Tegeans, carrying with 
 them fetters, so confident had this oracle (which 
 was, in truth, but of base metal) made them 
 that they would enslave the Tegeans. The bat- 
 tle, however, went against them, and many fell 
 into the enemy's hands. Then these persons, 
 
78 HERODOTUS 
 
 wearing the fetters which they had themselves 
 brought, and fastened together in a string, 
 measured the Tegean plain as they executed 
 their labours. The fetters in which they worked, 
 were still, in my day, preserved at Tegea, where 
 they hung round the waUs of the temple of 
 Minerva Alea. 
 
 67. Throughout the whole of this early con- 
 test with the Tegeans, the Lacedgemonians met 
 with nothing but defeats; but in the time of 
 Croesus, under the kings Anaxandrides and 
 Aristo, fortune had turned in their favour, in 
 the manner which I wiU now relate. Having 
 been worsted in every engagement by their en- 
 emy, they sent to Delphi, and inquired of the 
 oracle what god they must propitiate to prevail 
 in the war against the Tegeans. The answer of 
 the Pythoness was that before they could pre- 
 vail, they must remove to Sparta the bones of 
 Orestes, the son of Agamemnon. Unable to 
 discover his burial-place, they sent a second 
 time, and asked the god where the body of the 
 hero had been laid. The following was the an- 
 swer they received: 
 
 " Level and smooth is the plain where Arcadian Tegea 
 standeth ; 
 There two winds are ever, by strong necessity, blowing, 
 Counter-stroke answers stroke, and evil lies upon evil. 
 There all-teeming Earth doth harbour the son of Atrides; 
 Bring thou him to thy city, and then be Tegea's master." 
 
BOOK I CLIO 79 
 
 After this reply, the Lacedaemonians were no 
 nearer discovering the burial-place than before, 
 though they continued to search for it dili- 
 gently; until at last a man named Lichas, one 
 of the Spartans called Agathoergi, found it. 
 The Agathoergi are citizens who have just 
 served their time among the knights. The five 
 eldest of the knights go out every year, and are 
 bound during the year after their discharge to 
 go wherever the State sends them, and actively 
 employ themselves in its service. 
 
 68. Lichas was one of this body when, partly 
 by good luck, partly by his own wisdom, he dis- 
 covered the burial-place. Intercourse between 
 the two States existing just at this time, he 
 went to Tegea, and, happening to enter into 
 the workshop of a smith, he saw him forging 
 some iron. As he stood marvelling at what 
 he beheld, he was observed by the smith, who, 
 leaving off his work, went up to him, and 
 said: 
 
 " Certainly, then, you Spartan stranger, you 
 would have been wonderfully surprised if you 
 had seen what I have, since you make a marvel 
 even of the working in iron. I wanted to make 
 myself a well in this room, and began to dig it, 
 when what think you? I came upon a coffin 
 seven cubits long. I had never believed that 
 men were taller in the olden times than they are 
 now, so I opened the cofiin. The body inside 
 
80 HERODOTUS 
 
 was of the same length: I measured it, and filled 
 up the hole again." 
 
 Such was the man's account of what he had 
 seen. The other, on turning the matter over in 
 his mind, conjectured that this was the body of 
 Orestes, of which the oracle had spoken. He 
 guessed so, because he observed that the smithy- 
 had two bellows, which he understood to be the 
 two winds, and the hammer and anvil would do 
 for the stroke and the counter-stroke, and the 
 iron that was being wrought for the evil lying 
 upon evU. This he imagined might be so be- 
 cause iron had been discovered to the hurt 
 of man. Full of these conjectures, he sped 
 back to Sparta and laid the whole matter be- 
 fore his countrymen. Soon after, by a con- 
 certed plan, they brought a charge against him, 
 and began a prosecution. Lichas betook him- 
 self to Tegea, and on his arrival acquainted the 
 smith with his misfortune, and proposed to rent 
 his room of him. The smith refused for some 
 time; but at last Lichas persuaded him, and 
 took up his abode in it. Then he opened the 
 grave, and collecting the bones, returned with 
 them to Sparta. From henceforth, whenever 
 the Spartans and the Tegeans made trial of 
 each other's skill in arms, the Spartans always 
 had greatly the advantage; and by the time to 
 which we are now come they were masters of 
 most of the Peloponnese. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 81 
 
 69. Croesus, informed of all these circum- 
 stances, sent messengers to Sparta, with gifts in 
 their hands, who were to ask the Spartans to 
 enter into alliance with him. They received 
 strict injunctions as to what they should say, 
 and on their arrival at Sparta spake as follows: 
 
 " Croesus, king of the Lydians and of other 
 nations, has sent us to speak thus to you: ' Oh! 
 Lacedaemonians, the god has bidden me to make 
 the Greek my friend; I therefore apply to you, 
 in conformity with the oracle, knowing that you 
 hold the first rank in Greece, and desire to be- 
 come your friend and ally in all true faith and 
 honesty.' " 
 
 Such was the message which Croesus sent by 
 his heralds. The Lacedsemonians, who were 
 aware beforehand of the reply given him by the 
 oracle, were full of joy at the coming of the 
 messengers, and at once took the oaths of 
 friendship and alUance: this they did the more 
 readily as they had previously contracted cer- 
 tain obligations towards them. They had sent 
 to Sardis on one occasion to purchase some gold, 
 intending to use it on a statue of Apollo — the 
 statue, namely, which remains to this day at 
 Thornax in Laconia, when Croesus, hearing of 
 the matter, gave them as a gift the gold which 
 they wanted. 
 
 70. This was one reason why the Lacedsemo- 
 nians were so willing to make the alliance; an- 
 
82 HERODOTUS 
 
 other was, because Croesus had chosen them for 
 his friends in preference to all the other Greeks. 
 They therefore held themselves in readiness to 
 come at his surmnons, and not content with so 
 doing, they further had a huge vase made in 
 bronze, covered with figures of animals all 
 round the outside of the rim, and large enough 
 to contain three hundred amphorae, which they 
 sent to CrcEsus as a return for his presents to 
 them. The vase, however, never reached Sardis. 
 Its miscarriage is accounted for in two quite 
 different ways. The Lacedaemonian story is 
 that when it reached Samos, on its way towards 
 Sardis, the Samians having knowledge of it, put 
 to sea in their ships of war and made it their 
 prize. But the Samians declare that the Lace- 
 daemonians who had the vase in charge, happen- 
 ing to arrive too late, and learning that Sardis 
 had fallen and that Croesus was a prisoner, sold 
 it in their island, and the purchasers (who were, 
 they say, private persons) made an offering of 
 it at the shrine of Juno: the sellers were very 
 likely on their return to Sparta to have said 
 that they had been robbed of it by the Samians. 
 Such, then, was the fate of the vase. 
 
 71. Meanwhile, Croesus, taking the oracle in a 
 wrong sense, led his forces into Cappadocia, 
 fully expecting to defeat Cyrus and destroy the 
 empire of the Persians. While he was still en- 
 gaged in making preparations for his attack, a 
 
BOOK I CLIO 83 
 
 Lydian named Sandanis, who had always been 
 looked upon as a wise man, but who after this 
 obtained a very great name indeed among his 
 countrymen, came forward and counselled the 
 king in these words : 
 
 "Thou art about, oh! king, to make war 
 against men who wear leathern trousers, and 
 have all their other garments of leather; who 
 feed not on what they like, but on what they 
 can get from a soil that is sterile and unkindly; 
 who do not indulge in wine, but drink water; 
 who possess no figs nor anything else that is good 
 to eat. If, then, thou conquerest them, what 
 canst thou get from them, seeing that they have 
 nothing at all? But if they conquer thee, con- 
 sider how much that is precious thou wilt lose: 
 if they once get a taste of our pleasant things, 
 they will keep such hold of them that we shall 
 never be able to make them loose their grasp. 
 For my part, I am thankful to the gods, that 
 they have not put it into the hearts of the Per- 
 sians to invade Lydia." 
 
 CrcEsus was not persuaded by this speech, 
 though it was true enough; for before the con- 
 quest of Lydia, the Persians possessed none of 
 the luxuries or delights of life. 
 
 72. The Cappadocians are known to the 
 Greeks by the name of Syrians. Before the rise 
 of the Persian power, they had been subject to 
 the Medes; but at the present time they were 
 
84 HERObOTUS 
 
 within the empire of Cyrus, for the boundary 
 between the Median and the Lydian empires was 
 the river Halys. This stream, which rises in 
 the mountain country of Armenia, runs first 
 through Cihcia; afterwards it flows for a while 
 with the Matieni on the right, and the Phryg- 
 ians on the left: then, when they are passed, it 
 proceeds with a northern course, separating the 
 Cappadocian Syrians from the Paphlagonians, 
 who occupy the left bank, thus i'orming the 
 boundary of almost the whole of Lower Asia, 
 from the sea opposite Cyprus to the Euxine. 
 Just there is the neck of the peninsula, a jour- 
 ney of five days across for an active walker.® 
 
 73. There were two motives which led Croesus 
 to attack Cappadocia: firstly, he coveted the 
 land, which he wished to add to his own domin- 
 ions ; but the chief reason was that he wanted to 
 revenge on Cyrus the wrongs of Astyages, and 
 was made confident by the oracle of being able 
 so to do : for the Astyages, son of Cyaxares and 
 king of the Medes, who had been dethroned by 
 Cyrus, son of Cambyses, was Croesus' brother 
 by marriage. This marriage had taken place 
 under circumstances which I wiU now relate. A 
 
 » Herodotus tells us in one place that he reckons the day's 
 journey at 200 stadia, that is, at about 23 of our miles. If we 
 regard this as the measure intended here, we must consider that 
 Herodotus imagined the isthmus of Natolia to be but 115. miles 
 across, 165 miles short of the truth. 
 
BOOKl CLIO 85 
 
 band of Scythian nomads, who had left their 
 own land on occasion of some disturbance, had 
 taken refuge in Media. Cyaxares, son of Phra- 
 ortes, and grandson of Deioces, was at that time 
 king of the country. Recognising them as sup- 
 pliants, he began by treating them with kind- 
 ness, and coming presently to esteem them 
 highly, he intrusted to their care a number of 
 boys, whom they were to teach their language 
 and to instruct in the use of the bow. Time 
 passed, and the Scythians employed themselves, 
 day after day, in hunting, and always brought 
 home some game ; but at last it chanced that one 
 day they took nothing. On their return to Cy- 
 axares with empty hands, that monarch, who 
 was hot-tempered, as he showed upon the occa- 
 sion, received them very rudely and insultingly. 
 In consequence of this treatment, which they 
 did not conceive themselves to have deserved, 
 the Scythians determined to take one of the boys 
 whom they had in charge, cut him in pieces,' 
 and then dressing the flesh as they were wont 
 to dress that of the wild animals, serve it up to 
 Cyaxares as game: after which they resolved 
 to convey themselves with all speed to Sardis, 
 to the court of Alyattes, the son of Sadyattes. 
 The plan was carried out: Cyaxares and his 
 guests ate of the flesh prepared by the Scyth- 
 ians, and they themselves, having accomplished 
 
86 HERODOTUS 
 
 their purpose, fled to Alyattes in the guise of 
 suppliants. 
 
 74. Afterwards, on the refusal of Alyattes to 
 give up his suppliants when Cyaxares sent to 
 demand them of him, war broke out between the 
 Lydians and the Medes, and continued for five 
 years, with various success. In the course of it 
 the Medes gained many victories over the Lyd- 
 ians, and the Lydians also gained many vic- 
 tories over the Medes. Among their other bat- 
 tles there was one night engagement. As, how- 
 ever, the balance had not inclined in favour of 
 either nation, another combat took place in the 
 sixth year, in the course of which, just as the 
 battle was growing warm, day was on a sud- 
 den changed into night. This event had been 
 foretold by Thales, the Milesian, who fore- 
 warned the lonians of it, fixing for it the very 
 year in which it actually took place. The Medes 
 and Lydians, when they observed the change, 
 ceased fighting, and were alike anxious to have 
 terms of peace agreed on. Syennesis of Cilicia, 
 and Labynetus of Babylon, were the persons 
 who mediated between the parties, who hastened 
 the taking of the oaths, and brought about the 
 exchange of espousals. It was they who advised 
 that Alyattes should give his daughter Aryenis 
 in marriage to Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, 
 knowing, as they did, that without some sure 
 bond of strong necessity, there is wont to be 
 
BOOK I CLIO 87 
 
 but little security in men's covenants. Oaths are 
 taken by these people in the same way as by the 
 Greeks, except that they make a slight flesh 
 wound in their arms, from which each sucks a 
 portion of the other's blood. 
 
 75. Cyrus had captured this Astyages, who 
 was his mother's father, and kept him prisoner, 
 for a reason which I shall bring forward in an- 
 other part of my history. This capture formed 
 the ground of quarrel between Cyrus and Crce- 
 sus, in consequence of which Crcesus sent his 
 servants to ask the oracle if he should attack 
 the Persians ; and when an evasive answer came, 
 fancying it to be in his favour, carried his arms 
 into the Persian territory. When he reached 
 the river Halys, he transported his army across 
 it, as I maintain, by the bridges which exist 
 there at the present day; but, according to the 
 general belief of the Greeks, by the aid of 
 Thales the Milesian. The tale is, that Croesus 
 was in doubt how he should get his army across, 
 as the bridges were not made at that time, and 
 that Thales, who happened to be in the camp, 
 divided the stream and caused it to flow on both 
 sides of the army instead of on the left only. 
 This he eff'ected thus: Beginning some distance 
 above the camp, he dug a deep channel, which 
 he brought round in a semicircle, so that it might 
 pass to rearward of the camp ; and that thus the 
 river, diverted from its natural course into the 
 
88 HERODOTUS 
 
 new channel, at the point where this left the 
 stream, might flow by the station of the 
 army, and afterwards fall again into the an- 
 cient bed. In this way the river was split into 
 two streams, which were both easily fordable. 
 It is said by some that the water was entirely 
 drained off from the natural bed of the river. 
 But I am of a different opinion; for I do not 
 see how, in that case, they could have crossed it 
 on their return. 
 
 76. Having passed the Halys with the forces 
 under his command, Croesus entered the district 
 of Cappadocia which is called Pteria. It lies in 
 the neighbourhood of the city of Sinope upon 
 the Euxine, and is the strongest position in 
 the whole country thereabouts. Here Croesus 
 pitched his camp, and began to ravage the fields 
 of the Syrians. He besieged and took the chief 
 city of the Pterians, and reduced the inhabitants 
 to slavery: he likewise made himself master of 
 the surrounding villages. Thus he brought ruin 
 on the Syrians, who were guilty of no offence 
 towards him. Meanwhile, Cyrus had levied an 
 army and marched against Croesus, increasing 
 his numbers at every step by the forces of the 
 nations that lay in his way. Before beginning 
 his march he had sent heralds to the lonians, 
 with an invitation to them to revolt from the 
 Lydian king: they, however, had refused 
 compliance. Cyrus, notwithstanding, marched 
 
BOOK I CLIO 89 
 
 against the enemy, and encamped opposite them 
 in the district of Pteria, where the trial of 
 strength took place between the contending 
 powers. The combat was hot and bloody, and 
 upon both sides the number of the slain was 
 great; nor had victory declared in favour of 
 either party, when night came down upon the 
 battle-field. Thus both armies fought valiantly. 
 77. Croesus laid the blame of his ill success 
 on the number of his troops, which fell very 
 short of the enemy; and as on the next day 
 Cyrus did not repeat the attack, he set off on 
 his return to Sardis, intending to collect his 
 allies and renew the contest in the spring. He 
 meant to call on the Egyptians to send him 
 aid, according to the terms of the alliance which 
 he had concluded with Amasis, previously to his 
 league with the Lacedaemonians. He intended 
 also to summon to his assistance the Babylonians, 
 under their king, Labynetus, for they, too, were 
 bound to him by treaty: and, further, he meant 
 to send word to Sparta, and appoint a day for 
 the coming of their succours. Having got to- 
 gether these forces in addition to his own, he 
 would, as soon as the winter was past and 
 springtime come, march once more against the 
 Persians. With these intentions Croesus, imme- 
 diately on his return, despatched heralds to his 
 various allies, with a request that they would 
 join him at Sardis in the course of the fifth 
 
90 HERODOTUS 
 
 month from the time of the departure of his 
 messengers. He then disbanded the army — con- 
 sisting of mercenary troops — which had been 
 engaged with the Persians and had since accom- 
 panied him to his capital, and let them depart 
 to their homes, never imagining that Cyrus, 
 after a battle in which victory had been so evenly 
 balanced, would venture to march upon Sardis. 
 78. While Croesus was still in this mind, all 
 the suburbs of Sardis were found to swarm with 
 snakes, on the appearance of which the horses 
 left feeding in the pasture-grounds, and flocked 
 to the suburbs to eat them. The king, who wit- 
 nessed the unusual sight, regarded it very 
 rightly as a prodigy. He therefore instantly 
 sent messengers to the soothsayers of Telmes- 
 sus, to consult them upon the matter. His mes- 
 sengers reached the city, and obtained from the 
 Telmessians an explanation of what the prodigy 
 portended, but fate did not allow them to in- 
 form their lord; for ere they entered Sardis on 
 their return, Croesus was a prisoner. What the 
 Telmessians had declared was that Croesus must 
 look for the entry of an army of foreign in- 
 vaders into his country, and that when they 
 came they would subdue the native inhabitants; 
 since the snake, said they, is a child of earth, and 
 the horse a warrior and a foreigner. Croesus 
 was already a prisoner when the Telmessians 
 thus answered his inquiry, but they had no 
 
BOOK I CLIO 91 
 
 knowledge of what was taking place at Sardis, 
 or of the fate of the monarch. 
 
 79. Cyrus, however, when Croesus broke up 
 so suddenly from his quarters after the battle at 
 Pteria, conceiving that he had marched away 
 with the intention of disbanding his army, con- 
 sidered a Uttle, and soon saw that it was advis- 
 able for him to advance upon Sardis with all 
 haste, before the Lydians could get their forces 
 together a second time. Having thus deter- 
 mined, he lost no time in carrying out his plan. 
 He marched forward with such speed that he 
 was himself the first to announce his coming to 
 the Lydian king. That monarch, placed in the 
 utmost difficulty by the turn of events which 
 had gone so entirely against all his calculations, 
 nevertheless led out the Lydians to battle. In 
 aU Asia there was not at that time a braver or 
 more warlike people. Their manner of fight- 
 ing was on horseback; they carried long lances, 
 and were clever in the management of their 
 steeds. 
 
 80. The two armies met in the plain before 
 Sardis. It is a vast flat, bare of trees, watered 
 by the Hyllus and a number of other streams, 
 which all flow into one larger than the rest, 
 called the Hermus.^ This river rises in the 
 
 1 Sardis (the modern Sart) stood in tlie broad valley of the 
 Hermus at a point where the hills approach each other more 
 closely than in any other place. Some vestiges of the ancient 
 
92 HERODOTUS 
 
 sacred mountain of the Dindymenian Mother, 
 and falls into the sea near the town of Phocsea. 
 When Cyrus beheld the Lydians arranging 
 themselves in order of battle on this plain, fear- 
 ful of the strength of their cavalry, he adopted 
 a device which Harpagus, one of the Medes, 
 suggested to him. He collected together all the 
 camels that had come in the train of his army 
 to carry the provisions and the baggage, and 
 taking off their loads, he mounted riders upon 
 them accoutred as horsemen. These he com- 
 manded to advance in front of his other troops 
 against the Lydian horse; behind them were to 
 follow the foot soldiers, and last of all the cav- 
 alry. When his arrangements were complete, 
 he gave his troops orders to slay all the other 
 Lydians who came in their way without mercy, 
 but to spare Croesus and not kill him, even if 
 he should be seized and offer resistance. The 
 reason why Cyrus opposed his camels to the 
 enemy's horse was because the horse has a nat- 
 ural dread of the camel, and cannot abide either 
 the sight or the smell of that animal. By this 
 stratagem he hoped to make Croesus's horse use- 
 less to him, the horse being what he chiefly de- 
 town remain, but, except the ruins of the great temple of 
 CybSl^, they seem to be of a late date. Above Sardis, to the 
 east, opens out the plain, formed by the junction of the Coga- 
 mus with the Hermus, thus described by Chandler; "The plain 
 beside the Hermus which divides it, is well watered by rills 
 from the slopes. It is wide, beautiful, and cultivated." 
 
BOOK I CLIO 93 
 
 pended on for victory. The two armies then 
 joined battle, and immediately the Lydian war- 
 horses, seeing and smelling the camels, turned 
 round and galloped off; and so it came to pass 
 that aU Croesus's hopes withered away. The 
 Lydians, however, behaved manfully. As soon 
 as they understood what was happening, they 
 leaped off their horses, and engaged with the 
 Persians on foot. The combat was long; but at 
 last, after a great slaughter on both sides, the 
 Lydians turned and fled. They were driven 
 within their walls, and the Persians laid siege to 
 Sardis. 
 
 81. Thus the siege began. Meanwhile Croe- 
 sus, thinking that the place would hold out no 
 inconsiderable time, sent off fresh heralds to his 
 aUies from the beleaguered town. His former 
 messengers had been charged to bid them as- 
 semble at Sardis in the course of the fifth 
 month; they whom he now sent were to say that 
 he was already besieged, and to beseech them to 
 come to his aid with all possible speed. Among 
 his other alhes Croesus did not omit to send to 
 Lacedsemon. 
 
 82. It chanced, however, that the Spartans 
 were themselves just at this time engaged in a 
 quarrel with the Argives about a place called 
 Thyrea, which was within the limits of Argolis, 
 but had been seized on by the Lacedaemonians. 
 Indeed, the whole country westward, as far as 
 
94 HERODOTUS 
 
 Cape Malea, belonged once to the Argives, and 
 not only that entire tract upon the mainland, but 
 also Cythera, and the other islands. The Ar- 
 gives collected troops to resist the seizure of 
 Thyrea, but before any battle was fought, the 
 two parties came to terms, and it was agreed 
 that three hundred Spartans and three hundred 
 Argives should meet and fight for the place, 
 which should belong to the nation with whom 
 the victory rested. It was stipulated also that 
 the other troops on each side should retiu-n home 
 to their respective countries, and not remain to 
 witness the combat, as there was danger, if the 
 armies stayed, that either the one or the other, 
 on seeing their countrymen undergoing defeat, 
 might hasten to their assistance. These terms 
 being agreed on, the two armies marched off, 
 leaving three hundred picked men on each side 
 to fight for the territory. The battle began, 
 and so equal were the combatants, that at the 
 close of the day, when night put a stop to the 
 fight, of the whole six hundred only three men 
 remained alive, two Argives, Alcanor and Chro- 
 mius, and a single Spartan, Othryadas. The 
 two Argives, regarding themselves as the vic- 
 tors, hurried to Argos. Othryadas, the Spar- 
 tan, remained upon the field, and, stripping the 
 bodies of the Argives who had fallen, carried 
 their armour to the Spartan camp. Next day 
 the two armies returned to learn the result. At 
 
BOOK I CLIO 95 
 
 first they disputed, both parties claiming the vic- 
 tory, the one, because they had the greater num- 
 ber of survivors; the other, because their man 
 remained on the field, and stripped the bodies 
 of the slain, whereas the two men of the other 
 side ran away; but at last they fell from words 
 to blows, and a battle was fought, in which both 
 parties suifered great loss, but at the end the 
 Lacedaemonians gained the victory. Upon this 
 the Argives, who up to that time had worn their 
 hair long, cut it off close, and made a law, to 
 which they attached a curse, binding themselves 
 never more to let their hair grow, and never to 
 aUow their women to wear gold, until they 
 should recover Thyrea. At the same time the 
 Lacedemonians made a law the very reverse of 
 this, namely, to wear their hair long, though 
 they had always before cut it close. Othryadas 
 himself, it is said, the sole survivor of the three 
 hundred, prevented by a sense of shame from 
 returning to Sparta after all his comrades had 
 fallen, laid violent hands upon himself in 
 Thyrea. 
 
 83. Although the Spartans were engaged 
 with these matters when the herald arrived from 
 Sardis to entreat them to come to the assist- 
 ance of the besieged king, yet, notwithstanding, 
 they instantly set to work to afford him help. 
 They had completed their preparations, and the 
 ships were just ready to start, when a second 
 
96 HERODOTUS 
 
 message informed them that the place had al- 
 ready fallen, and that Croesus was a prisoner. 
 Deeply grieved at his misfortune, the Spartans 
 ceased their efforts. 
 
 84. The following is the way in which Sardis 
 was taken. On the fourteenth day of the siege 
 Cyrus bade some horsemen ride about his lines, 
 and make proclamation to the whole army 
 that he would give a reward to the man who 
 should first mount the wall. After this he made 
 an assault, but without success. His troops re- 
 tired, but a certain Mardian, Hyroeades by 
 name, resolved to approach the citadel and at- 
 tempt it at a place where no guards were ever 
 set. On this side the rock was so precipitous, 
 and the citadel (as it seemed) so impregnable, 
 that no fear was entertained of its being carried 
 in this place. There was the only portion of 
 the circuit round which their old king Meles did 
 not carry the lion which his leman bore to him. 
 For when the Telmessians had declared that if 
 the lion were taken round the defences, Sardis 
 would be impregnable, and Meles, in conse- 
 quence, carried it round the rest of the fortress 
 where the citadel seemed open to attack, he 
 scorned to take it round this side, which he 
 looked on as a sheer precipice, and therefore ab- 
 solutely secure. It is on that side of the city 
 which faces Mount Tmolus. Hyroeades, how- 
 ever, having the day before observed a Lydian 
 
BOOK I CLIO 97 
 
 soldier descend the rock after a helmet that had 
 rolled down from the top, and having seen him 
 pick it up and carry it back, thought over what 
 he had witnessed, and formed his plan. He 
 climbed the rock himself, and other Persians 
 followed in his track, until a large number had 
 mounted to the top. Thus was Sardis taken, 
 and given up entirely to pillage. 
 
 85. With respect to Croesus himself, this is 
 what befell him at the taking of the town. He 
 had a son, of whom I made mention above, a 
 worthy youth, whose only defect was that he 
 was deaf and dumb. In the days of his pros- 
 perity Croesus had done the utmost that he 
 could for him, and among other plans which he 
 had devised, had sent to Delphi to consult the 
 oracle on his behalf. The answer which he had 
 received from the Pythoness ran thus: 
 
 " Lydian, wide-ruling monarcB, thou wondrous simple 
 
 Croesus, 
 Wish not ever to hear in thy palace the voice thou hast 
 
 prayed for, 
 Uttering intelligent sounds. Far better thy son 
 
 should be silent ! 
 Ah! woe worth the day when thine ear shall first list to 
 
 his accents." 
 
 When the town was taken, one of the Per- 
 sians was just going to kill Croesus, not know- 
 ing who he was. Croesus saw the man coming, 
 but under the pressure of his affliction, did not 
 
98 HERODOTUS 
 
 care to avoid the blow, not minding whether or 
 no he died beneath the stroke. Then this son 
 of his, who was voiceless, beholding the Persian 
 as he rushed towards Croesus, in the agony of 
 his fear and grief burst into speech, and said, 
 " Man, do not kill Croesus." This was the first 
 time that he had ever spoken a word, but after- 
 wards he retained the power of speech for the 
 remainder of his life. 
 
 86. Thus was Sardis taken by the Persians, 
 and Croesus himself fell into their hands, after 
 having reigned fourteen years, and been be- 
 sieged in his capital fourteen days; thus, too, 
 did Croesus fulfil the oracle, which said that he 
 should destroy a mighty empire, — by destroying 
 his own. Then the Persians who had made 
 Croesus prisoner brought him before Cyrus. 
 Now, a vast pile had been raised by his orders, 
 and Croesus, laden with fetters, was placed upon 
 it, and with him twice seven of the sons of 
 the Lydians. I know not whether Cyrus was 
 minded to make an offering of the first-fruits 
 to some god or other, or whether he had vowed 
 a vow and was performing it, or whether, as 
 may well be, he had heard that Croesus was a 
 holy man, and so wished to see if any of the 
 heavenly powers would appear to save him from 
 being burnt alive. However it might be, Cyrus 
 was thus engaged, and Croesus was already on 
 the pile, when it entered his mind in the depth 
 
The Burning of Croesus 
 
 From a German Steel Engraving after a Paint- 
 ing by Von Neubauer. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 99 
 
 of his woe that there was a divine warning in 
 the words which had come to him from the lips 
 of Solon, "No one while he lives is happy." 
 When this thought sr^ote him he fetched a long 
 hreath, and breaking his deep silence, groaned 
 out aloud, thrice uttering the name of Solon. 
 Cyrus caught the sounds, and bade the inter- 
 preters inquire of Crccsus who it was he called 
 on. They drew near and asked him, but he held 
 his peace, and for a long time made no answer 
 to their questionings, until at length, forced to 
 say something, he exclaimed, " One I would 
 give much to see converse with every monarch." 
 Not knowing what he meant by this reply, the 
 interpreters begged him to explain himself; and 
 as they pressed for an answer, and grew to be 
 troublesome, he told them how, a long time be- 
 fore, Solon, an Athenian, had come and seen all 
 his splendour, and made light of it; and how 
 whatever he had said to him had fallen out ex- 
 actly as he foreshowed, although it was nothing 
 that especially concerned him, but applied to all 
 mankind alike, and most to those who seemed 
 to themselves happy. Meanwhile, as he thus 
 spoke, the pile was lighted, and the outer por- 
 tion began to blaze. Then Cyrus, hearing from 
 the interpreters what Croesus had said, relented, 
 bethinking himself that he too was a man, and 
 that it was a f eUow-man, and one who had once 
 been as blessed by fortune as himself, that he 
 
100 HERODOTUS 
 
 was burning alive; afraid, moreover, of retribu- 
 tion, and full of the thought that whatever is 
 human is insecure. So he bade them quench the 
 blazing fire as quickly as they could, and take 
 down Croesus and the other Lydians, which they 
 tried to do, but the flames were not to be mas- 
 tered. 
 
 87. Then, the Lydians say that Croesus, per- 
 ceiving by the efforts made to quench the fire 
 that Cyrus had relented, and seeing also that 
 all was in vain, and that the men could not get 
 the fire under, called with a loud voice upon the 
 god Apollo, and prayed him, if he had ever re- 
 ceived at his hands any acceptable gift, to come 
 to his aid, and deliver him from his present 
 danger. As thus with tears he besought the 
 god, suddenly, though up to that time the sky 
 had been clear and the day without a breath of 
 wind, dark clouds gathered, and the storm burst 
 over their heads with rain of such violence that 
 the flames were speedily extinguished. Cyrus, 
 convinced by this that Croesus was a good man 
 and a favourite of heaven, asked him after he 
 was taken o& the pUe, " Who it was that per- 
 suaded him to lead an army into his country, 
 and so become his foe rather than continue his 
 friend? " to which Croesus made answer as fol- 
 lows: "What I did, oh! king, was to thy ad- 
 vantage and to my own loss. If there be blame, 
 it rests with the god of the Greeks, who encour- 
 
BOOK 1 Clio loi 
 
 aged me to begin the war. No one is so foolish 
 as to prefer to peace war, in which, instead of 
 sons burying their fathers, fathers bury their 
 sons. But the gods willed it so." 
 
 88. Thus did Croesus speak. Cyrus then or- 
 dered his fetters to be taken oflF, and made him 
 sit down near himself, and paid him much re- 
 spect, looking upon him, as did also the cour- 
 tiers, with a sort of wonder. Croesus, wrapped 
 in thought, uttered no word. After a while, 
 happening to turn and perceive the Persian sol- 
 diers engaged in plundering the town, he said 
 to Cyrus, " May I now tell thee, oh ! king, what 
 I have in my mind, or is silence best? " Cyrus 
 bade him speak his mind boldly. Then he put 
 this question : " What is it, oh, Cyrus, which 
 those men yonder are doing so busily? " " Plun- 
 dering thy city," Cyrus answered, " and carry- 
 ing oiF thy riches." " Not my city," rejoined 
 the other, " nor my riches. They are not mine 
 any more. It is thy wealth which they are pil- 
 laging." 
 
 89. Cyrus, struck by what Croesus had said, 
 bade all the court to withdraw, and then asked 
 Croesus what he thought it best for him to do 
 as regarded the plundering. Croesus answered, 
 "Now that the gods have made me thy slave, 
 oh, Cyrus, it seems to me that it is my part, if 
 I see anything to thy advantage, to show it to 
 thee. Thy subjects, the Persians, are a poor 
 
102 HERODOTUS 
 
 people with a proud spirit. If then thou lettest 
 them pillage and possess themselves of great 
 wealth, I will tell thee what thou hast to expect 
 at their hands. The man who gets the most, 
 look to having him rebel against thee. Now, 
 then, if my words please thee, do thus, oh! king: 
 Let some of thy body-guards be placed as senti- 
 nels at each of the city gates, and let them take 
 their booty from the soldiers as they leave the 
 town, and tell them that they do so because the 
 tenths are due to Jupiter. So wilt thou escape 
 the hatred they would feel if the plunder were 
 taken away from them by force; and they, see- 
 ing that what is proposed is just, will do it 
 willingly." 
 
 90. Cyrus was beyond measure pleased with 
 this advice, so excellent did it seem to him. He 
 praised Croesus highly, and gave orders to his 
 body-guard to do as he had suggested. Then, 
 turning to CrcEsus, he said, " Ohl Croesus, I see 
 that thou art resolved both in speech and act to 
 show thyself a virtuous prince: ask me, there- 
 fore, whatever thou wilt as a gift at this mo- 
 ment." Croesus replied, " Oh! my lord, if thou 
 wilt suffer me to send these fetters to the god 
 of the Greeks, whom I once honoured above all 
 other gods, and ask him if it is his wont to de- 
 ceive his benefactors, — that will be the highest 
 favour thou canst confer on me." Cyrus upon 
 this inquired what charge he had to make 
 
BOOK I CLIO 103 
 
 against the god. Then Croesus gave him a full 
 account of all his projects, and of the answers 
 of the oracle, and of the offerings which he had 
 sent, on which he dwelt especially, and told him 
 how it was the encouragement given him by the 
 oracle which had led him to make war upon 
 Persia. All this he related, and at the end again 
 besought permission to reproach the god with 
 his behaviour. Cyrus answered with a laugh, 
 "This I readily grant thee, and whatever else 
 thou shalt at any time ask at my hands." Croe- 
 sus, finding his request allowed, sent certain 
 Lydians to Delphi, enjoining them to lay his 
 fetters upon the threshold of the temple, and 
 ask the god, " If he were not ashamed of hav- 
 ing encouraged him, as the destined destroyer 
 of the empire of Cyrus, to begin a war with 
 Persia, of which such were the first-fruits? " 
 As they said this they were to point to the fet- 
 ters; and further they were to inquire, "if it 
 was the wont of the Greek gods to be ungrate- 
 ful?" 
 
 91. The Lydians went to Delphi and deliv- 
 ered their message, on which the Pythoness is 
 said to have replied: "It is not possible even 
 for a god to escape the decree of destiny. Croe- 
 sus has been punished for the sin of his fifth 
 ancestor, who, when he was one of the body- 
 guard of the Heraclides, joined in a woman's 
 fraud, and, slaying his master, wrongfully 
 
104 HERODOTUS 
 
 seized the throne. Apollo was anxious that the 
 fall of Sardis should not happen in the life- 
 time of Croesus, but be delayed to his son's 
 days ; he could not, however, persuade the Fates. 
 All that they were willing to allow he took and 
 gave to Croesus. Let Croesus know that Apollo 
 delayed the taking of Sardis three fuU years, 
 and that he is thus a prisoner three years later 
 than was his destiny. Moreover, it was Apollo 
 who saved him from the biu-ning pile. Nor has 
 CrcEsus any right to complain with respect to 
 the oracular answer which he received. For 
 when the god told him that, if he attacked the 
 Persians, he would destroy a mighty empire, he 
 ought, if he had been wise, to have sent again 
 and inquired which empire was meant, that of 
 Cyrus or his own; but if he neither understood 
 what was said, nor took the trouble to seek for 
 enlightenment, he has only himself to blame for 
 the result. Besides, he had misunderstood the 
 last answer which had been given him about the 
 mule. Cyrus was that mule. For the parents 
 of Cyrus were of different races, and of differ- 
 ent conditions, — ^his mother a Median princess, 
 daughter of King Astyages, and his father a 
 Persian and a subject, who, though so far be- 
 neath her in all respects, had married his royal 
 mistress." 
 
 Such was the answer of the Pythoness. The 
 Lydians returned to Sardis and communicated 
 
BOOK I CLIO 105 
 
 it to Croesus, who confessed, on hearing it, that 
 the fault was his, not the god's. Such was the 
 way in which Ionia was first conquered, and so 
 was the empire of Croesus brought to a close. 
 92. Besides the offerings which have been 
 already mentioned, there are many others in va- 
 rious parts of Greece presented by Croesus; as 
 at Thebes in Boeotia, where there is a golden 
 tripod, dedicated by him to Ismenian Apollo; 
 at Ephesus, where the golden heifers and most 
 of the columns are his gift; and at Delphi, in 
 the temple of Pronaia,^ where there is a huge 
 shield in gold, which he gave. All these offer- 
 ings were still in existence in my day; many 
 others have perished: among them those which 
 he dedicated at Branchidse in Milesia, equal in 
 weight, as I am informed, and in all respects 
 like to those at Delphi. The Delphian presents, 
 and those sent to Amphiaraxis, came from his 
 own private property, being the first-fruits of 
 the fortune which he inherited from his father; 
 his other offerings came from the riches of an 
 enemy, who, before he mounted the throne, 
 headed a party against him, with the view of 
 obtaining the crown of Lydia for Pantaleon. 
 This Pantaleon was a son of Alyattes, but by 
 a different mother from Croesus ; for the mother 
 of Croesus was a Carian woman, but the mother 
 
 2 The temple of Minerva at Delphi stood in front of the great 
 temple of Apollo. Hence the Delphian Minerva was called 
 Minerva Pronaia. 
 
loe HERODOTUS 
 
 of Pantaleon an Ionian. When, by the appoint- 
 ment of his father, Croesus obtained the kingly- 
 dignity, he seized the man who had plotted 
 against him, and broke him upon the wheel. 
 His property, which he had previously devoted 
 to the service of the gods, Croesus applied in the 
 way mentioned above. This is all I shall say 
 about his offerings. 
 
 93. Lydia, unlike most other countries, 
 scarcely offers any wonders for the historian to 
 describe, except the gold-dust which is washed 
 down from the range of Tmolus. It has, how- 
 ever, one structure of enormous size, only ia- 
 f erior to the monuments of Egypt ^ and Baby- 
 lon. This is the tomb of Alyattes, the father of 
 Croesus, the base of which is formed of immense 
 blocks of stone, the rest being a vast mound of 
 earth. It was raised by the joint labour of the 
 tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and courtesans of 
 Sardis, and had at the top five stone pillars, 
 
 « The colossal size of the monuments in Egypt is sufficiently 
 known. They increased in size as the power of Egypt advanced. 
 The great importance of proportion is at once felt in exam- 
 ining them; for though the columns, as in the Great Hall of 
 Karnak, are so large — the centre avenue of twelve heing 69 
 feet 6 inches high, with the abacus and plinth, and the lateral 
 ones (once 122 in number) being 45 feet 8 inches high — they 
 have a pleasing as well as a grand effect. Without that most 
 important feature, proportion (now best understood in Italy), 
 they would be monstrous and disagreeable. The taste for colos- 
 sal statues is often supposed to be peculiarly Egyptian; but 
 the Greeks had some as large as, and even larger than, any in 
 Egypt, that of Olympian Jove being 60 feet high, and the 
 Colossus of Rhodes 105 feet. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 107 
 
 which remained to my day, with inscriptions cut 
 on them, showing how much of the work was 
 done by each class of workpeople. It appeared 
 on measurement that the portion of the courte- 
 sans was the largest. The daughters of the 
 common people in Lydia, one and all, pursue 
 this traffic, wishing to collect money for their 
 portions. They continue the practice till they 
 marry; and are wont to contract themselves in 
 marriage. The tomb is six stades and two 
 plethra in circumference; its breadth is thirteen 
 plethra. Close to the tomb is a large lake, which 
 the Lydians say is never dry. They call it the 
 Lake Gyg£ea. 
 
 94. The Lydians have very nearly the same 
 customs as the Greeks, with the exception that 
 these last do not bring up tlieir girls in the same 
 way. So far as we have any knowledge, they 
 were the first nation to introduce the use of gold 
 and silver coin,* and the first who sold goods by 
 retail. They claim also the invention of all the 
 games which are common to them with the 
 Greeks. These they declare that they invented 
 about the time when they colonised Tyrrhenia, 
 an event of which they give the following ac- 
 
 * It is probable that the Greeks derived their first knowledge 
 of coined money from the Asiatics with whom they came into 
 contact in Asia Minor, either Lydians or Phrygians (a tradition 
 mentioned in Pollux, 1. s. c, made the latter people the inven- 
 tors of coining). Pheidon, who is also said to have introduced 
 the jEginetan standard of weights from Asia, may have been 
 the first to strike coins in European Greece. 
 
108 HERODOTUS 
 
 count. In the days of Atys, the son of Manes, 
 there was great scarcity through the whole land 
 of Lydia. For some time the Lydians bore 
 the affliction patiently, but finding that it did 
 not pass away, they set to work to devise rem- 
 edies for the evil. Various expedients were 
 discovered by various persons; dice, and huckle- 
 bones, and ball, and all such games were in- 
 vented, except tables, the invention of which 
 they do not claim as theirs. The plan adopted 
 against the famine was to engage in games one 
 day so entirely as not to feel any craving for 
 food, and the next day to eat and abstain from 
 games. In this way they passed eighteen years. 
 Still the affliction continued and even became 
 more grievous. So the king determined to di- 
 vide the nation in half, and to make the two 
 portions draw lots, the one to stay, the other to 
 leave the land. He would continue to reign over 
 those whose lot it should be to remain behind; 
 the emigrants should have his son Tyrrhenus for 
 their leader. The lot was cast, and they who 
 had to emigrate went down to Smyrna, and 
 built themselves ships, in which, after they had 
 put on board all needful stores, they sailed away 
 in search of new homes and better sustenance. 
 After sailing past many countries they came to 
 Umbria, where they built cities for themselves, 
 and fixed their residence. Their former name 
 of Lydians they laid aside, and called them- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 109 
 
 selves after the name of the king's son, who led 
 the colony, Tyrrhenians. 
 
 95. Thus far I have been engaged in showing 
 how the Lydians were brought under the Per- 
 sian yoke. The course of my history now com- 
 pels me to inquire who this Cyrus was by whom 
 the Lydian empire was destroyed, and by what 
 means the Persians had become the lords para- 
 mount of Asia. And herein I shall follow those 
 Persian authorities whose object it appears to be 
 not to magnify the exploits of Cyrus, but to 
 relate the simple truth. I know besides three 
 ways in which the story of Cyrus is told, all dif- 
 fering from my own narrative. 
 
 The Assyrians had held the Empire of 
 Upper Asia for the space of five hundred and 
 twenty years, when the Medes set the example 
 of revolt from their authority. They took arms 
 for the recovery of their freedom, and fought 
 a battle with the Assyrians, in which they be- 
 haved with such gallantry as to shake off the 
 yoke of servitude, and to become a free people. 
 Upon their success the other nations also re- 
 volted and regained their independence. 
 
 96. Thus the nations over that whole extent 
 of country obtained the blessings of self-govern- 
 ment, but they fell again under the sway of 
 kings, in the manner which I will now relate. 
 There was a certain Mede named Deioces, son 
 of Phraortes, a man of much wisdom, who had 
 
110 HERODOTUS 
 
 conceived the desire of obtaining to himself the 
 sovereign power. In furtherance of his ambi- 
 tion, therefore, he formed and carried into exe- 
 cution the following scheme. As the Medes at 
 that time dwelt in scattered villages without any 
 central authority, and lawlessness in consequence 
 prevailed throughout the land, Deioces, who 
 was already a man of mark in his own village, 
 applied himself with greater zeal and earnest- 
 ness than ever before to the practice of justice 
 among his fellows. It was his conviction that 
 justice and injustice are engaged in perpetual 
 war with one another. He therefore began this 
 course of conduct, and presently the men of his 
 village, observing his integrity, chose him to be 
 the arbiter of all their disputes. Bent on ob- 
 taining the sovereign power, he showed himself 
 an honest and upright judge, and by these 
 means gained such credit with his fellow-citizens 
 as to attract the attention of those who lived in 
 the surrounding villages. They had long been 
 suffering from unjust and oppressive judg- 
 ments ; so that, when they heard of the singular 
 uprightness of Deioces, and of the equity of his 
 decisions, they joyfully had recourse to him in 
 the various quarrels and suits that arose, until 
 at last they came to put confidence in no one 
 else. 
 
 97. The number of complaints brought be- 
 fore him continually increasing, as people learnt 
 
BOOK I CLIO in 
 
 more and more the fairness of his judgments, 
 Deioces, feeling himself now all important, an- 
 nomiced that he did not intend any longer to 
 hear causes, and appeared no more in the seat in 
 which he had been accustomed to sit and admin- 
 ister justice. " It did not square with his inter- 
 ests," he said, " to spend the whole day in regu- 
 lating other men's aif airs to the neglect of his 
 own." Hereupon robbery and lawlessness broke 
 out afresh, and prevailed through the country 
 even more than heretofore; wherefore the 
 Medes assembled from aU quarters, and held 
 a consultation on the state of affairs. The 
 speakers, as I think, were chiefly friends of Dei- 
 oces. " We cannot possibly," they said, " go on 
 living in this country if things continue as they 
 now are; let us therefore set a king over us, 
 that so the land may be well governed, and we 
 ourselves may be able to attend to our own af- 
 fairs, and not be forced to quit our country on 
 account of anarchy." The assembly was per- 
 suaded by these arguments, and resolved to ap- 
 point a king. 
 
 98. It followed to determine who should be 
 chosen to the office. When this debate began 
 the claims of Deioces and his praises were at 
 once in every mouth; so that presently all agreed 
 that he should be king. Upon this he required 
 a palace to be built for him smtable to his rank, 
 and a guard to be given him for his person. 
 
112 HERODOTUS 
 
 The Medes complied, and built him a strong 
 and large palace, on a spot which he himself 
 pointed out, and likewise gave him liberty to 
 choose himself a body-guard from the whole 
 nation. Thus settled upon the throne, he fur- 
 ther required them to build a single great city, 
 and, disregarding the petty towns in which they 
 had formerly dwelt, make the new capital the 
 object of their chief attention. The Medes 
 were again obedient, and built the city now 
 called Agbatana, the walls of which are of great 
 size and strength, rising in circles one within 
 the other. The plan of the place is, that each 
 of the walls should out-top the one beyond it 
 by the battlements. The nature of the ground, 
 which is a gentle hill, favours this arrangement 
 in some degree, but it was mainly effected by 
 art. The number of the circles is seven, the 
 royal palace and the treasuries standing within 
 the last. The circuit of the outer wall is very 
 nearly the same with that of Athens. Of this 
 wall the battlements are white, of the next 
 black, of the third scarlet, of the fourth blue, 
 of the fifth orange; all these are coloured with 
 paint. The two last have their battlements 
 coated respectively with silver and gold. 
 
 99. All these fortifications Deioces caused to 
 be raised for himself and his own palace. The 
 people were required to build their dwellings 
 outside the circuit of the walls. When the town 
 
BOOK I CLIO 113 
 
 was finished, he proceeded to arrange the cere- 
 monial. He allowed no one to have direct ac- 
 cess to the person of the king, but made all 
 commmiication pass through the hands of mes- 
 sengers, and forbade the king to be seen by his 
 subjects. He also made it an offence for any 
 one whatsoever to laugh or spit in the royal 
 presence. This ceremonial, of which he was the 
 first inventor, Deioces established for his own 
 security, fearing that his compeers, who were 
 brought up together with him, and were of as 
 good family as he, and no whit inferior to him 
 in manly qualities, if they saw him frequently 
 would be pained at the sight, and would there- 
 fore be likely to conspire against him; whereas 
 if they did not see him, they would think him 
 quite a different sort of being from themselves. 
 
 100. After completing these arrangements, 
 and firmly settling himself upon the throne, 
 Deioces continued to administer justice with the 
 same strictness as before. Causes were stated 
 in writing, and sent in to the king, who passed 
 his judgment upon the contents, and trans- 
 mitted his decisions to the parties concerned: be- 
 sides which he had spies and eavesdroppers in 
 all parts of his dominions, and if he heard of 
 any act of oppression, he sent for the guilty 
 party, and awarded him the punishment meet 
 for his offence. 
 
 101. Thus Deioces collected the Medes into a 
 
114 HERODOTUS 
 
 nation, and ruled over them alone. Now these 
 are the tribes of which they consist: the Busge, 
 the Paretaceni, the Struchates, the Arizanti, the 
 Budii, and the Magi. 
 
 102. Having reigned three-and-fifty years, 
 Deioces was at his death succeeded by his son 
 Phraortes. This prince, not satisfied with a do- 
 minion which did not extend beyond the single 
 nation of the Medes, began by attacking the 
 Persians; and marching an army into their 
 country, brought them under the Median yoke 
 before any other people. After this success, 
 being now at the head of two nations, both of 
 them powerful, he proceeded to conquer Asia, 
 overrunning province after province. At last 
 he engaged in war with the Assyrians, — ^those 
 Assyrians, I mean, to whom Nineveh belonged, 
 who were formerly the lords of Asia. At pres- 
 ent they stood alone by the revolt and deser- 
 tion of their allies, yet still their internal con- 
 dition was as flourishing as ever. Phraortes 
 attacked them, but perished in the expedition 
 with the greater part of his army, after having 
 reigned over the Medes two-and-twenty years. 
 
 103. On the death of Phraortes his son Cy- 
 axares ascended the throne. Of him it is re- 
 ported that he was still more warlike than any 
 of his ancestors, and that he was the first who 
 gave organization to an Asiatic army, dividing 
 the troops into companies, and forming distinct 
 
BOOK I CLIO 115 
 
 bodies of the spearmen, the archers, and the 
 cavalry, who before his time had been mingled 
 in one mass, and confused together. He it was 
 who fought against the Lydians on the occa- 
 sion when the day was changed suddealy into 
 night, and who brought under his dominion the 
 whole of Asia beyond the Halys. This prince, 
 collecting together all the nations which owned 
 his sway, marched against Nineveh, resolved to 
 avenge his father, and cherishing a hope that 
 he might succeed in taking the town. A battle 
 was fought, in which the Assyrians suffered a 
 defeat, and Cyaxares had already begun the 
 siege of the place, when a numerous horde of 
 Scyths, under their king Madyes, son of Pro- 
 tothyes, burst into Asia in pursuit of the Cim- 
 merians, whom they had driven out of Europe, 
 and entered the Median territory. 
 
 104. The distance from the Palus Maeotis to 
 the river Phasis and the Colchians is thirty days' 
 journey for a lightly equipped traveller. From 
 Colchis to cross into Media does not take long — ■ 
 there is only a single intervening nation, the 
 Saspirians, passing whom you find yourself in 
 Media. This, however, was not the road fol- 
 lowed by the Scythians, who turned out of the 
 straight course, and took the upper route, which 
 is much longer, keeping the Caucasus upon 
 their right. The Scythians, having thus invaded 
 Media, were opposed by the Medes, who gave 
 
116 HERODOTUS 
 
 them battle, but, being defeated, lost their em- 
 pire. The Scythians became masters of Asia. 
 
 105. After this they marched forward with 
 the design of invading Egypt. When they had 
 reached Palestine, however, Psammetichus, the 
 Egyptian king, met them with gifts and 
 prayers, and prevailed on them to advance no 
 further. On their return, passing through As- 
 calon, a city of Syria, the greater part of them 
 went their way without doing any damage; but 
 some few who lagged behind pillaged the tem- 
 ple of Celestial Venus. I have inquired and 
 find that the temple at Ascalon is the most an- 
 cient of all the temples to this goddess ; for the 
 one in Cyprus, as the Cyprians themselves ad- 
 mit, was built in imitation of it; and that in 
 Cythera was erected by the Phoenicians, who 
 belong to this part of Syria. The Scythians 
 who plundered the temple were punished by the 
 goddess with the female sickness, which still 
 attaches to their posterity. They themselves 
 confess that they are afflicted with the disease 
 for this reason, and travellers who visit Scythia 
 can see what sort of a disease it is. Those who 
 suffer from it are called Enarees. 
 
 106. The dominion of the Scythians over 
 Asia lasted eight-and-twenty years, during 
 which time their insolence and oppression spread 
 ruin on every side. For besides the regular 
 tribute, they exacted from the several nations 
 
BOOK I CLIO 117 
 
 additional imposts, which they fixed at pleas- 
 ure; and further, they scoured the country and 
 plundered every one of whatever they could. 
 At length Cyaxares and the Medes invited the 
 greater part of them to a banquet, and made 
 them drunk with wine, after which they were 
 all massacred. The Medes then recovered their 
 empire, and had the same extent of dominion 
 as before. They took Nineveh — I will relate 
 how in another history '^ — and conquered all 
 Assyria except the district of Babylonia. After 
 this Cyaxares died, having reigned over the 
 Medes, if we include the time of the Scythian 
 rule, forty years. 
 
 107. Astyages, the son of Cyaxares, suc- 
 ceeded to the throne. He had a daughter who 
 was named Mandane, concerning whom he had 
 a wonderful dream. He dreamt that from her 
 such a stream of water flowed forth as not only 
 to fiU his capital, but to flood the whole of Asia. 
 This vision he laid before such of the Magi as 
 had the gift of interpreting dreams, who ex- 
 pounded its meaning to him in full, whereat he 
 was greatly terrified. On this account, when 
 his daughter was now of ripe age, he would not 
 give her in marriage to any of the Medes who 
 were of suitable rank, lest the dream should be 
 
 Several passages of our author seem to prove that Herodo- 
 tus wrote other histories than those which have come down to 
 us. In the 184tb chapter of this bool: he speaks of his Assyrian 
 history. 
 
118 HERODOTUS 
 
 accomplished; but he married her to a Persian 
 of good family indeed," but of a quiet temper, 
 whom he looked on as much inferior to a Mede 
 of even middle condition. 
 
 108. Thus Cambyses (for so was the Persian 
 called) wedded Mandane, and took her to his 
 home, after which, in the very first year, Asty- 
 ages saw another vision. He fancied that a 
 vine grew from the womb of his daughter, and 
 overshadowed the whole of Asia. After this 
 dream, which he submitted also to the inter- 
 preters, he sent to Persia and fetched away 
 Mandane, who was now with child, and was 
 not far from her time. On her arrival he set 
 a watch over her, intending to destroy the child 
 to which she should give birth; for the Magian 
 interpreters had expounded the vision to fore- 
 show that the offspring of his daughter would 
 reign over Asia in his stead. To guard against 
 this, Astyages, as soon as Cyrus was born, sent 
 for Harpagus, a man of his own house and the 
 most faithful of the Medes, to whom he was 
 wont to entrust all his affairs, and addressed 
 
 e Cambyses, the father of Cyrus, appears to have been not 
 only a man of good family, but of royal race — the hereditary 
 monarch of his nation, which, when it became subject to the 
 Medes, stiU retained its line of native kings, the descendants 
 of Achsemenes. In the Behistun Inscription Darius carries up 
 his genealogy to Achaemenes, and asserts that "eight of his 
 race had been kings before himself — ^he was the ninth." Cam- 
 byses, the father of Cyrus, Cyrus himself, and Cambyses the 
 son of Cyrus, are probably included in the eight. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 119 
 
 him thus: "Harpagus, I beseech thee neglect 
 not the business with which I am about to 
 charge thee; neither betray thou the interests of 
 thy lord for others' sake, lest thou bring de- 
 struction on thine own head at some future 
 time. Take the child born of Mandane my 
 daughter; carry him with thee to thy home and 
 slay him there. Then bury him as thou wilt." 
 "Ohl king," repUed the other, "never in time 
 past did Harpagus disoblige thee in anything, 
 and be sure that through aU future time he will 
 be careful in nothing to offend. If therefore 
 it be thy wiU that this thing be done, it is for 
 me to serve thee with all diligence." 
 
 109. When Harpagus had thus answered, the 
 chUd was given into his hands, clothed in the 
 garb of death, and he hastened weeping to his 
 home. There on his arrival he found his wife, 
 to whom he told all that Astyages had said. 
 " What then," said she, " is it now in thy heart 
 to do? " " Not what Astyages requires," he 
 answered; "no, he may be madder and more 
 frantic stUl than he is now, but I will not be 
 the man to work his will, or lend a helping hand 
 to such a murder as this. Many things forbid 
 my slaying him. In the first place the boy is 
 my own kith and kin; and next, Astyages is 
 old, and has no son. If then when he dies the 
 crown should go to his daughter — that daugh- 
 ter whose child he now wishes to slay by my 
 
120 HERODOTUS 
 
 hand — what remains for me but danger of the 
 fearfullest kind? For my own safety, indeed, 
 the child must die; but some one belonging to 
 Astyages must take his life, not I or mine." 
 
 110. So saying he sent off a messenger to 
 fetch a certain Mitradates, one of the herdsmen 
 of Astyages, whose pasturages he knew to be 
 the fittest for his purpose, lying as they did 
 among mountains infested with wild beasts. 
 This man was married to one of the king's fe- 
 male slaves, whose Median name was Spaco, 
 which is in Greek Cyno, since in the Median 
 tongue the word " Spaca " means a bitch. The 
 mountains, on the skirts of which his cattle 
 grazed, lie to the north of Agbatana, towards 
 the Euxine. That part of Media which bor- 
 ders on the Saspirians is an elevated tract, very 
 mountainous, and covered with forests, while 
 the rest of the Median territory is entirely level 
 ground. On the arrival of the herdsman, who 
 came at the hasty summons, Harpagus said to 
 him: " Astyages requires thee to take this child 
 and lay him in the wildest part of the hills, 
 where he will be sure to die speedily. And he 
 bade me tell thee, that if thou dost not Mil the 
 boy, but anyhow allowest him to escape, he will 
 put thee to the most painful of deaths. I my- 
 self am appointed to see the child exposed." 
 
 111. The herdsman on hearing this took the 
 child in his arms, and went back the way he had 
 
BOOK I CLIO 121 
 
 come till he had reached the folds. There, prov- 
 identially, his wife, who had been expecting 
 daily to be put to bed, had just, during the ab- 
 sence of her husband, been delivered of a child. 
 Both the herdsman and his wife were uneasy on 
 each other's account, the former fearful because 
 his wife was so near her time, the woman 
 alarmed because it was a new thing for her hus- 
 band to be sent for by Harpagus. When there- 
 fore he came into the house upon his return, his 
 wife, seeing him arrive so unexpectedly, was the 
 first to speak, and begged to know why Har- 
 pagus had sent for him in such a hurry. 
 " Wife," said he, " when I got to the town I saw 
 and heard such things as I would to heaven I had 
 never seen — such things as I would to heaven 
 had never happened to our masters. Every one 
 was weeping in Harpagus's house. It quite 
 frightened me, but I went in. The moment I 
 stepped inside, what should I see but a baby 
 lying on the floor, panting and whimpering, and 
 all covered with gold, and wrapped in clothes 
 of such beautiful colours. Harpagus saw me, 
 and directly ordered me to take the child in my 
 arms and carry him off, and what was I to do 
 with him, think you? Why, to lay him in the 
 mountains, where the wild beasts are most plen- 
 tiful. And he told me it was the king himself 
 that ordered it to be done, and he threatened 
 me with such dreadful things if I failed. So 
 
122 HERODOTUS 
 
 I took the child up in my arms, and carried him 
 along. I thought it might be the son of one of 
 the household slaves. I did wonder certainly to 
 see the gold and the beautiful baby-clothes, and 
 I could not think why there was such a weeping 
 in Harpagus's house. Well, very soon, as I 
 came along, I got at the truth. They sent a 
 servant with me to show me the way out of the 
 town, and to leave the baby in my hands; and 
 he told me that the child's mother is the king's 
 daughter Mandane, and his father Cambyses, 
 the son of Cyrus ; and that the king orders him 
 to be killed ; and look, here the child is." 
 
 112. With this the herdsman uncovered the 
 infant, and showed him to his wife, who, when 
 she saw him, and observed how fine a child and 
 how beautiful he was, burst into tears, and 
 clinging to the knees of her husband, besought 
 him on no account to expose the babe; to which 
 he answered, that it was not possible for him 
 to do otherwise, as Harpagus would be sure to 
 send persons to see and report to him, and he 
 was to suffer a most cruel death if he disobeyed. 
 Failing thus in her first attempt to persuade 
 her husband, the woman spoke a second time, 
 sajring, " If then there is no persuading thee, 
 and a child must needs be seen exposed upon 
 the mountains, at least do thus. The child of 
 which I have just been delivered is still-born; 
 take it and lay it on the hiUs, and let us bring 
 
BOOK I CLIO 123 
 
 up as our own the child of the daughter of As- 
 tyages. So shalt thou not be charged with un- 
 faithfulness to thy lord, nor shall we have man- 
 aged badly for ourselves. Our dead babe will 
 have a royal funeral, and this living child will 
 not be deprived of life." 
 
 113. It seemed to the herdsman that this ad- 
 vice was the best under the circumstances. He 
 therefore followed it without loss of time. The 
 child which he had intended to put to death he 
 gave over to his wife, and his own dead child 
 he put in the cradle wherein he had carried the 
 other, clothing it first in all the other's costly 
 attire, and taking it in his arms he laid it in the 
 wildest place of all the mountain-range. When 
 the chQd had been three days exposed, leaving 
 one of his helpers to watch the body, he started 
 oif for the city, and going straight to Harpa- 
 gus's house, declared himself ready to show the 
 corpse of the boy. Harpagus sent certain of 
 his body-guard, on whom he had the firmest re- 
 liance, to view the body for him, and, satisfied 
 with their seeing it, gave orders for the funeral. 
 Thus was the herdsman's child buried, and the 
 other child, who was afterwards known by the 
 name of Cyrus, was taken by the herdsman's 
 wife, and brought up under a diff'erent name. 
 
 114. When the boy was in his tenth year, an 
 accident which I will now relate, caused it to 
 be discovered who he was. He was at play one 
 
124 HERODOTUS 
 
 day in the village where the folds of the cattle 
 were, along with the boys of his own age, in 
 the street. The other boys who were playing 
 with him chose the cowherd's son, as he was 
 called, to be their king. He then proceeded to 
 order them about — some he set to build him 
 houses, others he made his guards, one of them 
 was to be the king's eye, another had the office 
 of carrying his messages, all had some task or 
 other. Among the boys there was one, the son 
 of Artembares, a Mede of distinction, who re- 
 fused to do what Cyrus had set him. Cyrus 
 told the other boys to take him into custody, 
 and when his orders were obeyed, he chastised 
 him most severely with his whip. The son of 
 Artembares, as soon as he was let go, full of 
 rage at treatment so little befitting his rank, 
 hastened to the city and complained bitterly to 
 his father of what had been done to him by 
 Cyrus. He did not, of course, say " Cyrus," by 
 which name the boy was not yet known, but 
 called him the son of the king's cowherd. Ar- 
 tembares, in the heat of his passion, went to 
 Astyages, accompanied by his son, . and made 
 complaint of the gross injury which had been 
 done him. Pointing to the boy's shoulders, he 
 exclaimed, "Thus, oh I king, has thy slave, the 
 son of a cowherd, heaped insult upon us." 
 
 115. At this sight and these words Astyages, 
 wishing to avenge the son of Artembares for 
 
BOOK I CLIO 125 
 
 his father's sake, sent for the cowherd and his 
 boy. When they came together into his pres- 
 ence, fixing his eyes on Cyrus, Astyages said, 
 "Hast thou then, the son of so mean a fellow 
 as that, dared to behave thus rudely to the son 
 of yonder noble, one of the first in my court? " 
 " My lord," replied the boy, " I only treated 
 him as he deserved. I was chosen king in play 
 by the boys of our village, because they thought 
 me the best for it. He himself was one of the 
 boys who chose me. All the others did accord- 
 ing to my orders; but he refused, and made 
 light of them, until at last he got his due re- 
 ward. If for this I deserve to sujffer punish- 
 ment, here I am ready to submit to it." 
 
 116. While the boy was yet speaking, Asty- 
 ages was struck with a suspicion who he was. 
 He thought he saw something in the character 
 of his face like his own, and there was a noble- 
 ness about the answer he had made; besides 
 which his age seemed to tally with the time 
 when his grandchild was exposed. Astonished 
 at all this, Astyages could not speak for a 
 while. At last, recovering himself with difii- 
 culty, and wishing to be quit of Artembares, 
 that he might examine the herdsman alone, he 
 said to the former, " I promise thee, Artem- 
 bares, so to settle this business that neither thou 
 nor thy son shall have any cause to complain." 
 Artembares retired from his presence, and the 
 
126 HERODOTUS 
 
 attendants, at the bidding of the king, led Cy- 
 rus into an inner apartment. Astyages then 
 being left alone with the herdsman, inquired of 
 him where he had got the boy, and who had 
 given him to him; to which he made answer that 
 the lad was his own child, begotten by himself, 
 and that the mother who bore him was still alive, 
 and lived with him in his house. Astyages re- 
 marked that he was very ill-advised to bring 
 himself into such great trouble, and at the same 
 time signed to his body-guard to lay hold of 
 him. Then the herdsman, as they were drag- 
 ging him to the rack, began at the beginning, 
 and told the whole story exactly as it happened, 
 without concealing anything, ending with en- 
 treaties and prayers to the king to grant birn 
 forgiveness. 
 
 117. Astyages, having got the truth of the 
 matter from the herdsman, was very little fur- 
 ther concerned about him, but with Harpagus 
 he was exceedingly enraged. The guards were 
 bidden to summon him into the presence, and 
 on his appearance Astyages asked him, " By 
 what death was it, Harpagus, that thou slewest 
 the child of my daughter whom I gave into thy 
 hands? " Harpagus, seeing the cowherd in the 
 room, did not betake himself to lies, lest he 
 should be confuted and proved false, but replied 
 as follows: " Sire, when thou gavest the child 
 into my hands I instantly considered with my- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 127 
 
 self how I could contrive to execute thy wishes, 
 and yet, while guiltless of any unfaithfulness 
 towards thee, avoid imbruing my hands in blood 
 which was in truth thy daughter's and thine 
 own. And this was how I contrived it. I sent 
 for this cowherd, and gave the child over to him, 
 telling him that by the king's orders it was to 
 be put to death. And in this I told no lie, for 
 thou hadst so commanded. Moreover, when I 
 gave him the child, I enjoined him to lay it 
 somewhere in the wilds of the mountains, and 
 to stay near and watch tiU it was dead; and I 
 threatened him with all manner of punishment 
 if he failed. Afterwards, when he had done 
 according to all that I commanded him, and the 
 child had died, I sent some of the most trust- 
 worthy of my eunuchs, who viewed the body 
 for me, and then I had the child buried. This, 
 sire, is the simple truth, and this is the death by 
 which the child died." 
 
 118. Thus Harpagus related the whole story 
 in a plain, straightforward way; upon which 
 Astyages, letting no sign escape him of the 
 anger that he felt, began by repeating to him 
 all that he had just heard from the cowherd, 
 and then concluded with saying, " So the boy 
 is alive, and it is best as it is. For the child's 
 fate was a great sorrow to me, and the re- 
 proaches of my daughter went to my heart. 
 Truly fortune has played us a good turn in this. 
 
128 HERODOTUS 
 
 Go thou home then, and send thy son to be 
 with the newcomer, and to-night, as I mean to 
 sacrifice thank-offerings for the child's safety 
 to the gods to whom such honour is due, I look 
 to have thee a guest at the banquet." 
 
 119. Harpagus, on hearing this, made obei- 
 sance, and went home rejoicing to find that his 
 obedience had turned out so fortunately, and 
 that, instead of being punished, he was invited 
 to a banquet given in honour of the happy occa- 
 sion. The moment he reached home he called 
 for his son, a youth of about thirteen, the only 
 child of his parents, and bade him go to the 
 palace, and do whatever Astyages should direct. 
 Then, in the gladness of his heart, he went to 
 his wife and told her all that had happened. 
 Astyages, meanwhile, took the son of Harpa- 
 gus, and slew him, after which he cut him in 
 pieces, and roasted some portions before the 
 fire, and boiled others; and when all were duly 
 prepared, he kept them ready for use. The 
 hour for the banquet came, and Harpagus ap- 
 peared, and with him the other guests, and all 
 sat down to the feast. Astyages and the rest 
 of the guests had joints of meat served up to 
 them; but on the table of Harpagus, nothing 
 was placed except the flesh of his own son. 
 This was all put before him, except the hands 
 and feet and head, which were laid by them- 
 selves in a covered basket. When Harpagus 
 
BOOK I CLIO 129 
 
 seemed to have eaten his fill, Astyages called out 
 to him to know how he had enjoyed the repast. 
 On his reply that he had enjoyed it excessively, 
 they whose business it was brought him the bas- 
 ket, in which were the hands and feet and head 
 of his son, and bade him open it, and take out 
 what he pleased. Harpagus accordingly uncov- 
 ered the basket, and saw within it the remains 
 of his son. The sight, however, did not scare 
 him, or rob him of his self-possession. Being 
 asked by Astyages if he knew what beast's 
 flesh it was that he had been eating, he answered 
 that he knew very well, and that whatever the 
 king did was agreeable. After this reply, he 
 took with him such morsels of the flesh as were 
 imeaten, and went home, intending, as I con- 
 ceive, to collect the remains and bury them. 
 
 120. Such was the mode in which Astyages 
 punished Harpagus: afterwards, proceeding to 
 consider what he should do with Cyrus, his 
 grandchild, he sent for the Magi, who formerly 
 interpreted his dream in the way which alarmed 
 him so much, and asked them how they had ex- 
 pounded it. They answered, without varying 
 from what they had said before, that " the boy 
 must needs be a king if he grew up, and did 
 not die too soon." Then Astyages addressed 
 them thus: "The boy has escaped, and lives; 
 he has been brought up in the country, and the 
 lads of the village where he lives have made him 
 
130 HERODOTUS 
 
 their king. All that kings commonly do he has 
 done. He has had his guards, and his door- 
 keepers, and his messengers, and all the other 
 usual oflBcers. TeU me, then, to what, think you, 
 does all this tend?" The Magi answered, 
 " If the boy survives, and has ruled as a king 
 without any craft or contrivance, in that case we 
 bid thee cheer up, and feel no more alarm on his 
 account. He will not reign a second time. For 
 we have found even oracles sometimes fulfilled 
 in an unimportant way; and dreams, still 
 oftener, have wondrously mean accomplish- 
 ments." " It is what I myself most incline 
 to think," Astyages rejoined; "the boy having 
 been already king, the dream is out, and I have 
 nothing more to fear from him. Nevertheless, 
 take good heed and coimsel me the best you can 
 for the safety of my house and your own inter- 
 ests." "Truly," said the Magi in reply, "it 
 very much concerns our interests that thy king- 
 dom be firmly established; for if it went to this 
 boy it would pass into foreign hands, since he 
 is a Persian: and then we Medes should lose our 
 freedom, and be quite despised by the Persians, 
 as being foreigners. But so long as thou, our 
 fellow-countryman, art on the throne, all man- 
 ner of honours are ours, and we are even not 
 without some share in the government. Much 
 reason therefore have we to forecast weU for 
 thee and for thy sovereignty. If then we saw 
 
BOOK I CLIO 131 
 
 any cause for present fear, be sure we would 
 not keep it back from thee. But truly we are 
 persuaded that the dream has had its accom- 
 plishment in this harmless way; and so our own 
 fears being at rest, we recommend thee to ban- 
 ish thine. As for the boy, our advice is, that 
 thou send him away to Persia, to his father and 
 mother." 
 
 121. Astyages heard their answer with pleas- 
 ure, and calling Cyrus into his presence, said to 
 him, " My child, I was led to do thee a wrong 
 by a dream which has come to nothing: from 
 that wrong thou wert saved by thy own good 
 fortune. Go now with a light heart to Persia; 
 I wiU provide thy escort. Go, and when thou 
 gettest to thy journey's end, thou wilt behold 
 thy father and thy mother, quite other people 
 from Mitradates the cowherd and his wife." 
 
 122. With these words Astyages dismissed 
 his grandchild. On his arrival at the house of 
 Cambyses, he was received by his parents, who, 
 when they learnt who he was, embraced him 
 heartily, having always been convinced that he 
 died almost as soon as he was born. So they 
 asked him by what means he had chanced to 
 escape; and he told them how that till lately he 
 had known nothing at all about the matter, but 
 had been mistaken — oh! so widely! — and how 
 that he had learnt his history by the way, as he 
 came from Media. He had been quite sure that 
 
182 HERODOTUS 
 
 he was the son of the king's cowherd, but on the 
 road the king's escort had told him all the truth; 
 and then he spoke of the cowherd's wife who 
 had brought him up, and filled his whole talk 
 with her praises; in all that he had to teU them 
 about himself, it was always Cyno — Cyno was 
 everything. So it happened that his parents, 
 catching the name at his mouth, and wishing to 
 persuade the Persians that there was a special 
 providence in his preservation, spread the re- 
 port that Cyrus, when he was exposed, was 
 suckled by a bitch. This was the sole origin of 
 the rumour. 
 
 123. Afterwards, when Cyrus grew to man- 
 hood, and became known as the bravest and 
 most popular of all his compeers, Harpagus, 
 who was bent on revenging himself upon 
 Astyages, began to pay him court by gifts 
 and messages. His own rank was too humble 
 for him to hope to obtain vengeance without 
 some foreign help. When therefore he saw 
 Cyrus, whose wrongs were so similar to his own, 
 growing up expressly (as it were) to be the 
 avenger whom he needed, he set to work to pro- 
 cure his support and aid in the matter. He had 
 already paved the way for his designs, by per- 
 suading, severally, the great Median nobles, 
 whom the harsh rule of their monarch had of- 
 fended, that the best plan would be to put Cyrus 
 at their head, and dethrone Astyages. These 
 
BOOK I CLIO 133 
 
 preparations made, Harpagus, being now ready 
 for revolt, was anxious to make known his 
 wishes to Cyrus, who still lived in Persia; but 
 as the roads between Media and Persia were 
 guarded, he had to contrive a means of sending 
 word secretly, which he did in the following way- 
 He took a hare, and cutting open its belly with- 
 out hurting the fur, he slipped in a letter con- 
 taining what he wanted to say, and then care- 
 fully sewing up the paunch, he gave the hare to 
 one of his most faithful slaves, disguising him 
 as a hunter with nets, and sent him off to Persia 
 to take the game as a present to Cyrus, bidding 
 him tell Cyrus, by word of mouth, to paunch 
 the animal himself, and let no one be present 
 at the time. 
 
 124. All was done as he wished, and Cyrus, 
 on cutting the hare open, found the letter in- 
 side, and read as follows: " Son of Cambyses, 
 the gods assuredly watch over thee, or never 
 wouldst thou have passed through thy many 
 wonderful adventures — ^now is the time when 
 thou mayest avenge thyself upon Astyages, thy 
 murderer. He willed thy death, remember; to 
 the gods and to me thou owest that thou art 
 still ahve. I think thou art not ignorant of what 
 he did to thee, nor of what I suffered at his 
 hands because I committed thee to the cowherd, 
 and did not put thee to death. Listen now to 
 me, and obey my words, and all the empire of 
 
134 HERODOTUS 
 
 Astyages shall be thine. Raise the standard of 
 revolt in Persia, and then march straight on 
 Media. Whether Astyages appoint me to com- 
 mand his forces against thee, or whether he ap- 
 point any other of the princes of the Medes, all 
 will go as thou couldst wish. They will be the 
 first to fall away from him, and joining thy 
 side, exert themselves to overturn his power. Be 
 sure that on our part all is ready; wherefore do 
 thou thy part, and that speedily." 
 
 125. Cyrus, on receiving the tidings contained 
 in this letter, set himself to consider how he 
 might best persuade the Persians to revolt. 
 After much thought, he hit on the following as 
 the most expedient course: he wrote what he 
 thought proper upon a roll, and then calling an 
 assembly of the Persians, he unfolded the roU, 
 and read out of it that Astyages appointed him 
 their general. " And now," said he, " since it is 
 so, I command you to go and bring each man 
 his reaping-hook." With these words he dis- 
 missed the assembly. 
 
 Now the Persian nation is made up of many 
 tribes. Those which Cyrus assembled and per- 
 suaded to revolt from the Medes, were the prin- 
 cipal ones on which all the others are dependent. 
 These are the Pasargadse, the Maraphians, and 
 the Maspians, of whom the Pasargadae are the 
 noblest. The Achsemenidas, from which spring 
 all the Perseid kings, is one of their clans. The 
 
BOOK I CLIO 135 
 
 rest of the Persian tribes are the following: 
 the Panthialseans, the Derusiseans, the Germa- 
 nians, who are engaged in husbandry; the Daans, 
 the Mardians, the Dropicans, and the Sagar- 
 tians, who are Nomads. 
 
 126. When, in obedience to the orders which 
 they had received, the Persians came with their 
 reaping-hooks, Cyrus led them to a tract of 
 ground, about eighteen or twenty furlongs each 
 way, covered with thorns, and ordered them to 
 clear it before the day was out. They accom- 
 plished their task ; upon which he issued a second 
 order to them, to take the bath the day follow- 
 ing, and again come to him. Meanwhile he col- 
 lected together all his father's flocks, both sheep 
 and goats, and all his oxen, and slaughtered 
 them, and made ready to give an entertainment 
 to the entire Persian army. Wine, too, and 
 bread of the choicest kinds were prepared for 
 the occasion. When the morrow came, and the 
 Persians appeared, he bade them recline upon 
 the grass, and enjoy themselves. After the 
 feast was over, he requested them to tell him 
 "which they liked best, to-day's work, or yes- 
 terday's? " They answered that " the contrast 
 was indeed strong: yesterday brought them 
 nothing but what was bad, to-day ever3i;hing 
 that was good." Cyrus instantly seized on their 
 reply, and laid bare his purpose in these words: 
 " Ye men of Persia, thus do matters stand with 
 
136 HERODOTUS 
 
 you. If you choose to hearken to my words, you 
 may enjoy these and ten thousand similar de- 
 hghts, and never condescend to any slavish toil; 
 but if you will not hearken, prepare yourselves 
 for unnumbered toils as hard as yesterday's. 
 Now therefore follow my bidding, and be free. 
 For myself I feel that I am destined by Provi- 
 dence to undertake your liberation; and you, I 
 am sure, are no whit inferior to the Medes in 
 anything, least of all in bravery. Revolt, there- 
 fore, from Astyages, without a moment's de- 
 lay." 
 
 127. The Persians, who had long been impa- 
 tient of the Median dominion, now that they 
 had found a leader, were dehghted to shake off 
 the yoke. Meanwhile Astyages, informed of 
 the doings of Cyrus, sent a messenger to sum- 
 mon him to his presence. Cyrus replied, " Tell 
 Astyages that I shall appear in his presence 
 sooner than he will hke." Astyages, when he 
 received this message, instantly armed all his 
 subjects, and, as if God had deprived him of his 
 senses, appointed Harpagus to be their general, 
 forgetting how greatly he had injured him. So 
 when the two armies met and engaged, only a 
 few of the Medes, who were not in the secret, 
 fought; others deserted openly to the Persians; 
 while the greater number counterfeited fear, and 
 fled. 
 
 128. Astyages, on learning the shameful 
 
BOOK I CLIO 137 
 
 flight and dispersion of his army, broke out into 
 threats against Cyrus, saying, " Cyrus shall 
 nevertheless have no reason to rejoice "; and di- 
 rectly he seized the Magian interpreters, who 
 had persuaded him to allow Cyrug to escape, and 
 impaled them; after which he armed all the 
 Medes who had remained in the city, both young 
 and old; and leading them against the Persians, 
 fought a battle, in which he was utterly de- 
 feated, his army being destroyed, and he him- 
 self falling into the enemy's hands. 
 
 129. Harpagus then, seeing him a prisoner, 
 came near, and exulted over him with many 
 gibes and jeers. Among other cutting speeches 
 which he made, he alluded to the supper where 
 the flesh of his son was given him to eat, and 
 asked Astyages to answer him now, how he en- 
 joyed being a slave instead of a king? Asty- 
 ages looked in his face, and asked him in return, 
 why he claimed as his own the achievements of 
 Cyrus? " Because," said Harpagus, " it was my 
 letter which made him revolt, and so I am en- 
 titled to all the credit of the enterprise." Then 
 Astyages declared, that " in that case he was at 
 once the silliest and the most unjust of men: 
 the silliest, if when it was in his power to put 
 the crown on his own head, as it must assuredly 
 have been, if the revolt was entirely his doing, 
 he had placed it on the head of another; the 
 most unjust, if on account of that supper he 
 
138 HERODOTUS 
 
 had brought slavery on the Medes. For, sup- 
 posing that he was obliged to invest another 
 with the kingly power, and not retain it himself, 
 yet justice required that a Mede, rather than a 
 Persian, should receive the dignity. Now, how- 
 ever, the Medes, who had been no parties to 
 the wrong of which he complained, were made 
 slaves instead of lords, and slaves moreover of 
 those who till recently had been their subjects." 
 130. Thus after a reign of thirty-five years, 
 Astyages lost his crown, and the Medes, in con- 
 sequence of his cruelty, were brought under the 
 rule of the Persians. Their empire over the 
 parts of Asia beyond the Halys had lasted one 
 hundred and twenty-eight years, except during 
 the time when the Scythians had the dominion. 
 Afterwards the Medes repented of their sub- 
 mission, and revolted from Darius, but were de- 
 feated in battle, and again reduced to subjec- 
 tion. Now, however, in the time of Astyages, 
 it was the Persians who under Cyrus revolted 
 from the Medes, and became thenceforth the 
 rulers of Asia. Cyrus kept Astyages at his 
 court during the remainder of his life, without 
 doing him any further injury. Such then were 
 the circumstances of the birth and bringing up 
 of Cyrus, and such were the steps by which he 
 mounted the throne. It was at a later date that 
 he was attacked by Crcesus, and overthrew him, 
 as I have related in an earlier portion of this 
 
BOOK I CLIO 139 
 
 history. The overthrow of Croesus made him 
 master of the whole of Asia. 
 
 131. The customs which I know the Persians 
 to observe are the following. They have no 
 images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and 
 consider the use of them a sign of folly. This 
 comes, I think, from their not believing the gods 
 to have the same nature with men, as the Greeks 
 imagine. Their wont, however, is to ascend the 
 summits of the loftiest mountains, and there to 
 offer sacrifice to Jupiter, which is the name they 
 give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They 
 hkewise offer to the sun and moon, to the earth, 
 to fire, to water, and to the winds. These are 
 the only gods whose worship has come down to 
 them from ancient times. At a later period 
 they began the worship of Urania, which they 
 borrowed^ from the Arabians and Assyrians. 
 MyKtta is the name by which the Assyrians 
 know this goddess, whom the Arabians call 
 Alitta, and the Persians Mitra. 
 
 132. To these gods the Persians offer sacri- 
 
 7 The readiness of the Persians to adopt foreign customs, 
 even in religion, is very remarkable. Perhaps the most striking 
 instance is the adoption from the Assyrians of the weU-known 
 emblem, consisting of a winged circle with or without a human 
 figure rising from the circular space. This emblem is of Assy- 
 rian origin, appearing in the earliest sculptures of that country. 
 Its exact meaning is uncertain, but the conjecture is probable, 
 that while in the human head we have the symbol of intelligence, 
 the wings signify omnipresence, and the circle eternity. Thus 
 the Persians were able, without the sacrifice of any principle, 
 to admit it as a religious emblem. 
 
140 HERODOTUS 
 
 fice in the following manner: they raise no altar, 
 light no fire, pour no libations ; there is no sound 
 of the flute, no putting on of chaplets, no con- 
 secrated barley-cake; but the man who wishes 
 to sacrifice brings his victim to a spot of ground 
 which is pure from pollution, and there calls 
 upon the name of the god to whom he intends 
 to offer. It is usual to have the turban encir- 
 cled with a wreath, most commonly of myrtle. 
 The sacrificer is not allowed to pray for bless- 
 ings on himself alone, but he prays for the wel- 
 fare of the king, and of the whole Persian peo- 
 ple, among whom he is of necessity included. 
 He cuts the victim in pieces, and having boiled 
 the flesh, he lays it out upon the tenderest herb- 
 age that he can find, trefoil especially. When 
 all is ready, one of the Magi comes forward and 
 chants a hymn, which they say recounts the 
 origin of the gods. It is not lawful to offer 
 sacrifice unless there is a Magus present. After 
 waiting a short time the sacrificer carries the 
 flesh of the victim away with him, and makes 
 whatever use of it he may please.® 
 
 8 At the secret meetings of the Ali Allahis of Persia, which 
 in popular belief have attained an infamous notoriety, but which 
 are in reality altogether innocent, are practised many cere- 
 monies that bear a striking resemblance to the old Magian 
 sacrifice. The Peer, or holy man, who presides carries about 
 him sprigs both of myrtle and of the musk willow; he seats 
 his disciples in a circle upon the grass, usually in one of those 
 sacred groves with which the Kurdish mountains abound; he 
 chants mystical lays regarding the nature, the attributes, and 
 
BOOK I CLIO 141 
 
 133. Of all the days in the year, the one 
 which they celebrate most is their birthday. It 
 is customary to have the board furnished on that 
 day with an ampler supply than common. The 
 richer Persians cause an ox, a horse, a camel, 
 and an ass to be baked whole and so served up 
 to them; the poorer classes use instead the 
 smaller kinds of cattle. They eat little solid 
 food, but abundance of dessert, which is set on 
 table a few dishes at a time; this it is which 
 makes them say that "the Greeks, when they 
 eat, leave off hungry, having nothing worth 
 mention served up to them after the meats; 
 whereas, if they had more put before them, they 
 would not stop eating." They are very fond of 
 wine, and drink it in large quantities. To vomit 
 or obey natural calls in the presence of another, 
 is forbidden among them. Such are their cus- 
 toms in these matters. 
 
 It is also their general practice to deliberate 
 
 the manifestations of the Godhead. A sheep is slaughtered as 
 an expiatory sacrifice, and the carcase is boiled upon the spot; 
 the bones are carefully extracted, and the peer then distributes 
 the flesh among his disciples, who creep up upon their knees 
 from their respective places in the circle to receive the share 
 allotted to them, which is further accompanied by a blessing 
 and a prayer. It is only the initiated who are admitted to these 
 meetings, and care is taken to guard against the intrusion of 
 strangers and Mohammedans. It is probably, indeed, owing to 
 the precaution which the All AUahis take to extinguish their 
 lights on the approach of strangers that they have acquired 
 the name of Cheragh kushan, or "lamp-extinguishers," and that 
 orgies have been assigned to them which were only suited to 
 darkness. 
 
142 HERODOTUS 
 
 upon aflfairs of weight when they are drunk; 
 and then on the morrow, when they are sober, 
 the decision to which they came the night before 
 is put before them by the master of the house 
 in which it was made ; and if it is then approved 
 of, they act on it ; if not, they set it aside. Some- 
 times, however, they are sober at their first de- 
 hberation, but in this case they always reconsider 
 the matter under the influence of wine. 
 
 134. When they meet each other in the 
 streets, you may know if the persons meeting 
 are of equal rank by the following token; if 
 they are, instead of speaking, they kiss each 
 other on the lips. In the case where one is a 
 little inferior to the other, the kiss is given on 
 the cheek; where the difference of rank is great, 
 the inferior prostrates himself upon the ground. 
 Of nations, they honour most their nearest 
 neighbours, whom they esteem next to them- 
 selves; those who live beyond these they honour 
 in the second degree; and so with the remainder, 
 the further they are removed, the less the esteem 
 in which they hold them. The reason is, that 
 they look upon themselves as very greatly supe- 
 rior in all respects to the rest of mankind, re- 
 garding others as approaching to excellence in 
 proportion as they dwell nearer to them; whence 
 it comes to pass that those who are the farthest 
 off must be the most degraded of mankind. 
 Under the dominion of the Medes, the several 
 
BOOK I CLIO 143 
 
 nations of the empire exercised authority over 
 each other in this order. The Medes were lords 
 over all, and governed the nations upon their 
 borders, who in their turn governed the states 
 beyond, who likewise bore rule over the nations 
 which adjoined on them.^ And this is the order 
 which the Persians also follow in their distribu- 
 tion of honour ; for that people, like the Medes, 
 has a progressive scale of administration and 
 government. 
 
 135. There is no nation which so readily 
 adopts foreign customs as the Persians. Thus, 
 they have taken the dress of the Medes, consid- 
 ering it superior to their own; and in war they 
 wear the Egyptian breastplate. As soon as they 
 hear of any luxury, they instantly make it their 
 own: and hence, among other novelties, they 
 have learnt unnatural lust from the Greeks. 
 Each of them has several wives, and a still 
 larger number of concubines. 
 
 136. Next to prowess in arms, it is regarded 
 
 » It is quite inconceivable that there should have been any 
 such system of government either in Media or Persia, as Herodo- 
 tus here indicates. With respect to Persia, we know that the 
 most distant satrapies were held as directly of the crown as the 
 nearest. The utmost that can be said with truth is, that in 
 the Persian and Median, as in the Roman empire, there were 
 three grades; first, the ruling nation; secondly, the conquered 
 provinces; thirdly, the nations on the frontier, governed by their 
 own laws and princes, but owning the supremacy of the im- 
 perial power, and reckoned among its tributaries. This was 
 the position in which the Ethiopians, Colchians, and Arabians 
 stood to Persia. 
 
144, HERODOTUS 
 
 as the greatest proof of manly excellence to be 
 the father of many sons. Every year the king 
 sends rich gifts to the man who can show the 
 largest nmnber: for they hold that number is 
 strength. Their sons are carefully instructed 
 from their fifth to their twentieth year, in three 
 things alone, — to ride, to draw the bow, and to 
 speak the truth. Until their fifth year they are 
 not allowed to come into the sight of their 
 father, but pass their lives with the women. This 
 is done that, if the child die young, the father 
 may not be afflicted by its loss. 
 
 137. To my mind it is a wise rule, as also is 
 the following — that the king shall not put any 
 one to death for a single fault, and that none 
 of the Persians shall visit a single fault in a 
 slave with any extreme penalty; but in every 
 case the services of the offender shall be set 
 against his misdoings; and, if the latter be 
 found to outweigh the former, the aggrieved 
 party shall then proceed to punishment. 
 
 138. The Persians maintain that never yet did 
 any one kiU his own father or mother ; but in aU 
 such cases they are quite sure that, if matters 
 were sifted to the bottom, it would be found 
 that the child was either a changeling or else 
 the fruit of adultery; for it is not likely, they 
 say, that the real father should perish by the 
 hands of his child. 
 
 139. They hold it unlawful to talk of any- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 145 
 
 thing which it is unlawful to do. The most dis- 
 graceful thing in the world, they think, is to tell 
 a lie; the next worst, to owe a debt: because, 
 among other reasons, the debtor is obliged to 
 tell lies. If a Persian has the leprosy he is not 
 allowed to enter into a city, or to have any deal- 
 ings with the other Persians ; he must, they say, 
 have sinned against the sun. Foreigners at- 
 tacked by this disorder are forced to leave the 
 coimtry: even white pigeons are often driven 
 away, as guilty of the same offence. They 
 never defile a river with the secretions of their 
 bodies, nor even wash their hands in one; nor 
 will they allow others to do so, as they have a 
 great reverence for rivers. There is another pe- 
 culiarity, which the Persians themselves have 
 never noticed, but which has not escaped my ob- 
 servation. Their names, which are expressive of 
 some bodily or mental excellence, all end with 
 the same letter — the letter which is called San 
 by the Dorians, and Sigma by the lonians. Any 
 one who examines will find that the Persian 
 names, one and all without exception, end with 
 this letter. 
 
 140. Thus much I can declare of the Per- 
 sians with entire certainty, from my own actual 
 knowledge. There is another custom which is 
 spoken of with reserve, and not openly, concern- 
 ing their dead. It is said that the body of a 
 male Persian is never buried, until it has been 
 
146 HERODOTUS 
 
 torn either by a dog or a bird of prey. That 
 the Magi have this custom is beyond a doubt, 
 for they practise it without any conceahnent. 
 The dead bodies are covered with wax, and then 
 buried in the ground. 
 
 The Magi are a very peculiar race, differing 
 entirely from the Egyptian priests, and indeed 
 from aU other men whatsoever. The Egyptian 
 priests make it a point of religion not to kill 
 any live animals except those which they offer 
 in sacrifice. The Magi, on the contrary, kill 
 animals of aU kinds with their own hands, ex- 
 cepting dogs and men. They even seem to take 
 a delight in the employment, and kill, as readily 
 as they do other animals, ants and snakes, and 
 such like flying or creeping things. However, 
 since this has always been their custom, let them 
 keep to it. I return to my former narrative. 
 
 141. Immediately after the conquest of 
 Lydia by the Persians, the Ionian and ^olian 
 Greeks sent ambassadors to Cyrus at Sardis, 
 and prayed to become his lieges on the footing 
 which they had occupied under Croesus. Cyrus 
 listened attentively to their proposals, and an- 
 swered them by a fable. " There was a certain 
 piper," he said, " who was walking one day by 
 the seaside, when he espied some fish ; so he be- 
 gan to pipe to them, imagiiaing they would come 
 out to him upon the land. But as he found at 
 last that his hope was vain, he took a net, and 
 
BOOK I CLIO 147 
 
 enclosing a great draught of fishes, drew them 
 ashore. The fish then began to leap and dance; 
 but the piper said, ' Cease your dancing now, 
 as you did not choose to come and dance when 
 I piped to you.' " Cyrus gave this answer to 
 the lonians and iEolians, because, when he 
 urged them by his messengers to revolt from 
 Crcesus, they refused; but now, when his work 
 was done, they came to offer their allegiance. 
 It was in anger, therefore, that he made them 
 this reply. The lonians, on hearing it, set to 
 work to fortify their towns, and held meetings 
 at the Panionium, which were attended by 
 all excepting the Milesians, with whom Cyrus 
 had concluded a separate treaty, by which he 
 allowed them the terms they had formerly 
 obtained from Croesus. The other lonians re- 
 solved, with one accord, to send ambassadors to 
 Sparta to implore assistance. 
 
 142. Now the lonians of Asia, who meet at 
 the Panionium, have built their cities in a region 
 where the air and climate are the most beautiful 
 in the whole world: for no other region is 
 equally blessed with Ionia, neither above it nor 
 below it, nor east nor west of it. For in other 
 countries either the climate is over cold and 
 damp, or else the heat and drought are sorely 
 oppressive. The lonians do not all speak the 
 same language, but use in different places four 
 different dialects. Towards the south their first 
 
148 HERODOTUS 
 
 city is Miletus, next to which lie Myus and 
 Priene; all these three are in Caria and have the 
 same dialect. Their cities in Lydia are the fol- 
 lowing: Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedus, Teos, 
 Clazomenae, and Phocsea. The inhabitants of 
 these towns have none of the peculiarities of 
 speech which belong to the three first-named 
 cities, but use a dialect of their own. There re- 
 main three other Ionian towns, two situate in 
 isles, namely, Samos and Chios; and one upon 
 the mainland, which is Erythrje. Of these Chios 
 and Erythrse have the same dialect, whUe Sa- 
 mos possesses a language peculiar to itself. 
 Such are the four varieties of which I spoke. 
 
 143. Of the lonians at this period, one 
 people, the Milesians, were in no danger of at- 
 tack, as Cyrus had received them into alliance. 
 The islanders also had as yet nothing to fear, 
 since Phoenicia was still independent of Persia, 
 and the Persians themselves were not seafaring 
 people. The Milesians had separated from the 
 common cause solely on account of the extreme 
 weakness of the lonians: for, feeble as the 
 power of the entire Hellenic race was at that 
 time, of all its tribes the Ionic was by far the 
 feeblest and least esteemed, not possessing a 
 single State of any mark excepting Athens. 
 The Athenians and most of the other Ionic 
 States over the world, went so far in their dis- 
 like of the name as actually to lay it aside; and 
 
BOOK I CLIO 149 
 
 even at the present day the greater number of 
 them seem to me to be ashamed of it. But the 
 twelve cities in Asia have always gloried in the 
 appellation; they gave the temple which they 
 built for themselves the name of the Panionium, 
 and decreed that it should not be open to any 
 of the other Ionic States; no State, however, 
 except Smyrna, has craved admission to it. 
 
 144. In the same way the Dorians of the re- 
 gion which is now called the Pentapolis, but 
 which was formerly known as the Doric Hex- 
 apolis, exclude all their Dorian neighbours from 
 their temple, the Triopium: nay, they have even 
 gone so far as to shut out from it certain of 
 their own body who were guilty of an offence 
 against the customs of the place. In the games 
 which were anciently celebrated in honour of 
 the Triopian Apollo, the prizes given to the vic- 
 tors were tripods of brass ; and the rule was that 
 these tripods should not be carried away from 
 the temple, but should then and there be dedi- 
 cated to the god. Now a man of Halicarnassus, 
 whose name was Agasicles, being declared vic- 
 tor in the games, in open contempt of the law 
 took the tripod home to his own house, and there 
 hung it against the wall. As a punishment for 
 this fault, the five other cities, Lindus, lalyssus, 
 Cameirus, Cos, and Cnidus, deprived the sixth 
 city, Halicarnassus, of the right of entering the 
 temple. 
 
150 HERODOTUS 
 
 145. The lonians founded twelve cities in 
 Asia, and refused to enlarge the number on ac- 
 count (as I imagine) of their having been di- 
 vided into twelve States when they lived in the 
 Peloponnese; just as the Acheeans, who drove 
 them out, are at the present day. The first city 
 of the Achgeans after Sicyon, is PeUene, next to 
 which are iBgeira, Mgae upon the Crathis, a 
 stream which is never dry, and from which the 
 Italian Crathis received its name, — Bura, Helice 
 — where the lonians took refuge on their de- 
 feat by the Achaean invaders, — ^iEgium, Rhypes, 
 Patreis, Phareis, Olenus on the Peirus, which is 
 a large river, — ^Dyme and Tritaeeis, all seaport 
 towns except the last two, which lie up the 
 country. 
 
 146. These are the twelve divisions of what 
 is now Achsea, and was formerly Ionia; and it 
 was owing to their coming from a country so 
 divided that the lonians, on reaching Asia, 
 founded their twelve States: for it is the height 
 of folly to maintain that these lonians are more 
 Ionian than the rest, or in any respect better 
 born, since the truth is that no small portion of 
 them were Abantians from Euboea, who are not 
 even lonians in name; and, besides, there were 
 mixed up with the emigration, Miny^e from 
 Orchomenus, Cadmeians, Dryopians, Phocians 
 from the several cities of Phocis, Molossians, 
 Arcadian Pelasgi, Dorians from Epidaurus, and 
 
BOOK I CLIO 151 
 
 many other distinct tribes. Even those who came 
 from the Prytaneum of Athens, and reckon 
 themselves the purest lonians of all, brought no 
 wives with them to the new coimtry, but married 
 Carian girls, whose fathers they had slain. 
 Hence these women made a law, which they 
 bound themselves by an oath to observe, and 
 which they handed down to their daughters 
 after them, " That none should ever sit at meat 
 with her husband, or call him by his name;" be- 
 cause the invaders slew their fathers, their hus- 
 bands, and their sons, and then forced them to 
 become their wives. It was at Miletus that these 
 events took place. 
 
 147. The kings, too, whom they set over them, 
 were either Lycians, of the blood of Glaucus, 
 son of Hippolochus, or Pylian Caucons, of the 
 blood of Codrus, son of Melanthus ; or else from 
 both those families. But since these lonians set 
 more store by the name than any of the others, 
 let them pass for the pure-bred lonians ;' though 
 truly an are lonians who have their origin from 
 Athens, and keep the Apaturia. This is a fes- 
 tival which all the lonians celebrate, except the 
 Ephesians and the Colophonians, whom a cer- 
 tain act of bloodshed excludes from it. 
 
 148. The Panionium ^ is a place in Mycale, 
 
 1 Under the name of Panionium are included both a tract 
 of ground and a temple. It is the former of which Herodotus 
 here speaks particularly, as the place in which the great Pan- 
 Ionic festival was held. The spot was on the north side of the 
 
152 HERODOTUS 
 
 facing the north, which was chosen by the com- 
 mon voice of the lonians and made sacred to 
 HeUconian Neptune. Mycale itself is a prom- 
 ontory of the mainland, stretching out west- 
 ward towards Samos, in which the lonians as- 
 semble from all their States to keep the feast 
 of the Panionia. The names of festivals, not 
 only among the lonians but among all the 
 Greeks, end, like the Persian proper names, in 
 one and the same letter. 
 
 149. The above-mentioned, then, are the twelve 
 towns of the lonians. The ^olic cities are the 
 following: Cyme, called also Phricois, Larissa, 
 Neonteichus, Temnus, Cilia, Notium, ^iEgiro- 
 essa, Pitane, Mgsex, Myrina, and Gryneia. 
 These are the eleven ancient cities of the JEo- 
 lians. Originally, indeed, they had twelve cities 
 upon the mainland, like the lonians, but the lo- 
 nians deprived them of Smyrna, one of the 
 number. The soil of ^olis is better than that 
 of Ionia, but the climate is less agreeable. 
 
 150. The following is the way in which the 
 loss of Smyrna happened. Certain men of Col- 
 ophon had been engaged in a sedition there, and 
 being the weaker party were driven by the 
 
 promontory of Mycal6, at the foot of the hill, three stadia 
 (about a third of a mile) from the shore. The modern village 
 of TchangU is supposed, with reason, to occupy the site. It is 
 the only place on that steep and mountainous coast where an 
 opening for a temple occurs; and here in a church on the sea- 
 shore Sir W. Gell found an inscription in which the word 
 " Panionium " occurred twice. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 153 
 
 others into banishment. The Smyrnaeans re- 
 ceived the fugitives, who, aftei^ a time, watch- 
 ing their opportunity, while the inhabitants 
 were celebrating a feast to Bacchus outside the 
 walls, shut to the gates, and so got possession 
 of the town. The iEolians of the other States 
 came to their aid, and terms were agreed on 
 between the parties, the lonians consenting to 
 give up all the movables, and the ^olians 
 making a surrender of the place. The expelled 
 Smyrnaeans were distributed among the other 
 States of the JEolians, and were everywhere ad- 
 mitted to citizenship. 
 
 151. These, then, were all the ^olic cities 
 upon the mainland, with the exception of those 
 about Moimt Ida, which made no part of this 
 confederacy. As for the islands, Lesbos con- 
 tains five cities. Arisba, the sixth, was taken by 
 the Methymnseans, their kinsmen, and the in- 
 habitants reduced to slavery. Tenedos contains 
 one city, and there is another which is built on 
 what are called the Hundred Isles. The Co- 
 hans of Lesbos and Tenedos, like the Ionian 
 islanders, had at this time nothing to fear. The 
 other ^olians decided in their common assem- 
 bly to follow the lonians, whatever course they 
 should pursue. 
 
 152. When the deputies of the lonians and 
 iEolians, who had journeyed with all speed to 
 Sparta, reached the city, they chose one of their 
 
154 HERODOTUS 
 
 number, Pythermus, a Phocsean, to be their 
 spokesman. In order to draw together as large 
 an audience as possible, he clothed himself in a 
 purple garment, and so attired stood forth to 
 speak. In a long discourse he besought the 
 Spartans to come to the assistance of his coun- 
 trymen, but they were not to be persuaded, and 
 voted against sending any succour. The depu- 
 ties accordingly went their way, while the Lace- 
 dsemonians, notwithstanding the refusal which 
 they had given to the prayer of the deputation, 
 despatched a penteconter to the Asiatic coast 
 with certain Spartans on board, for the purpose, 
 I think, of watching Cyrus and Ionia. These 
 men, on their arrival at Phocsea, sent to Sardis 
 Lacrines, the most distinguished of their num- 
 ber, to prohibit Cyrus, in the name of the Lace- 
 demonians, from offering molestation to any 
 city of Greece, since they would not allow it. 
 
 153. Cyrus is said, on hearing the speech of 
 the herald, to have asked some Greeks who were 
 standing by, " Who these Lacedaemonians were, 
 and what was their number, that they dared to 
 send him such a notice? " When he had received 
 their reply, he turned to the Spartan herald and 
 said, " I have never yet been afraid of any men 
 who have a set place in the middle of their city 
 where they come together to cheat each other 
 and forswear themselves. If I live, the Spar- 
 tans shall have troubles enough of their own to 
 
BOOK I CLIO 155 
 
 talk of, without concerning themselves about the 
 lonians." Cyrus intended these words as a re- 
 proach against all the Greeks, because of their 
 having market-places where they buy and sell, 
 which is a custom unknown to the Persians, who 
 never make purchases in open marts, and in- 
 deed have not in their whole country a siagle 
 market-place. 
 
 After this interview Cyrus quitted Sardis, 
 leaving the city under the charge of Tabalus, a 
 Persian, but appointing Pactyas, a native, to 
 collect the treasure belonging to Croesus and 
 the other Lydians, and bring it after him. 
 Cyrus himself proceeded towards Agbatana, 
 carrying Croesus along with him, not regarding 
 the lonians as important enough to be his im- 
 mediate object. Larger designs were in his 
 mind. He wished to war in person against 
 Babylon, the Bactrians, the Sacee, and Egypt; 
 he therefore determined to assign to one of 
 his generals the task of conquering the lo- 
 nians. 
 
 154. No sooner, however, was Cyrus gone 
 from Sardis than Pactyas induced his country- 
 men to rise in open revolt against him and his 
 deputy Tabalus. With the vast treasures at his 
 disposal he then went down to the sea, and em- 
 ployed them in hiring mercenary troops, while 
 at the same time he engaged the people of the 
 coast to enroll themselves in his army. He then 
 
156 HERODOTUS 
 
 marched upon Sardis, where he besieged Tab- 
 alus, who shut himself up in the citadel. 
 
 155. When Cyrus, on his way to Agbatana, 
 received these tidings, he turned to Croesus and 
 said, " Where will all this end, Croesus, thinkest 
 thou? It seemeth that these Lydians wUl not 
 cease to cause trouble both to themselves and 
 others. I doubt me if it were not best to sell 
 them all for slaves. Methinks what I have now 
 done is as if a man were to ' kill the father and 
 then spare the child.' Thou, who wert some- 
 thing more than a father to thy people, I have 
 seized and carried off, and to that people I have 
 entrusted their city. Can I then feel surprise at 
 their rebellion? " Thus did Cyrus open to Croe- 
 sus his thoughts; whereat the latter, full of 
 alarm lest Cyrus should lay Sardis in ruins, re- 
 plied as follows: " Oh! my king, thy words are 
 reasonable; but do not, I beseech thee, give full 
 vent to thy anger, nor doom to destruction an 
 ancient city, guiltless alike of the past and of 
 the present trouble. I caused the one, and in 
 my own person now pay the forfeit. Pactyas 
 has caused the other, he to whom thou gavest 
 Sardis in charge; let him bear the punishment. 
 Grant, then, forgiveness to the Lydians, and to 
 make sure of their never rebelling against thee, 
 or alarming thee more, send and forbid them to 
 keep any weapons of war, command them to 
 wear tunics under their cloaks, and to put bus- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 157 
 
 kins upon their legs, and make them bring up 
 their sons to cithern-playing, harping, and shop- 
 keeping. So wilt thou soon see them become 
 women instead of men, and there will be no 
 more fear of their revolting from thee." 
 
 156. Croesus thought the Lydians would even 
 so be better off than if they were sold for slaves, 
 and therefore gave the above advice to Cyrus, 
 knowing that, unless he brought forward some 
 notable suggestion, he would not be able to per- 
 suade him to alter his mind. He was likewise 
 afraid lest, after escaping the danger which now 
 pressed, the Lydians at some future time might 
 revolt from the Persians and so bring them- 
 selves to ruin. The advice pleased Cyrus, who 
 consented to forego his anger and do as Croe- 
 sus had said. Thereupon he simimoned to his 
 presence a certain Mede, Mazares by name, and 
 charged him to issue orders to the Lydians in 
 accordance with the terms of Croesus's discourse. 
 Further, he commanded him to sell for slaves 
 all who had joined the Lydians in their attack 
 upon Sardis, and above aught else to be sure 
 that he brought Pactyas with him alive on his 
 return. Having given these orders, Cyrus con- 
 tinued his journey towards the Persian terri- 
 tory. 
 
 157. Pactyas, when news came of the near 
 approach of the army sent against him, fled in 
 terror to Cyme. Mazares, therefore, the Me- 
 
158 HERODOTUS 
 
 dian general, who had marched on Sardis with 
 a detachment of the army of Cyrus, finding on 
 his arrival that Pactyas and his troops were 
 gone, immediately entered the town. And first 
 of all he forced the Lydians to obey the orders 
 of his master, and change (as they did from 
 that time) their entire manner of living. Next, 
 he despatched messengers to Cyme, and required 
 to have Pactyas delivered up to him. On this 
 the Cymseans resolved to send to Branchidse and 
 ask the advice of the god. Branchidse ^ is situ- 
 ated in the territory of Miletus, above the port 
 of Panormus. There was an oracle there, estab- 
 lished in very ancient times, which both the lo- 
 nians and JEolians were wont often to consult. 
 158. Hither therefore the Cymseans sent their 
 deputies to make inquiry at the shrine, " What 
 the gods would like them to do with the Lydian, 
 Pactyas?" The oracle told them, in reply, to 
 give him up to the Persians. With this answer 
 the messengers returned, and the people of 
 Cyme were ready to surrender him accordingly; 
 but as they were preparing to do so, Aristodicus, 
 
 2 The temple of Apollo at Branchidae and the port Penormus 
 still remain. The former is twelve miles from Miletus, nearly 
 due south. It lies near the shore, about two miles inland from 
 Cape Monodendri. It is a magnificent ruin of Ionic architec- 
 ture. Dr. Chandler says of it; " The memory of the pleasure 
 which this spot alForded me will not be soon or easily erased. 
 The columns yet entire are so exquisitely fine, the marble mass 
 so vast and noble, that it is impossible perhaps to conceive 
 greater beauty and majesty of ruin." 
 
Crane for Demolishing Walls 
 
 After an Etching of the Seventeenth Century, 
 
 now in the Collection of the Hon. 
 
 Oswald Bauer 
 
BOOK I CLIO 159 
 
 son of Heraclides, a citizen of distinction, hin- 
 dered them. He declared that he distrusted the 
 response, and heheved that the messengers had 
 reported it falsely; until at last another em- 
 bassy, of which Aristodicus himself made part, 
 was despatched, to repeat the former inquiry 
 concerning Pactyas. 
 
 159. On their arrival at the shrine of the god, 
 Aristodicus, speaking on behalf of the whole 
 body, thus addressed the oracle: "Oh! king, 
 Pactyas the Lydian, threatened by the Persians 
 with a violent death, has come to us for sanc- 
 tuary, and lo, they ask him at our hands, call- 
 ing upon our nation to deliver him up. Now, 
 though we greatly dread the Persian power, yet 
 have we not been bold to give up our suppliant, 
 till we have certain knowledge of thy mind, 
 what thou wouldst have us to do." The oracle 
 thus questioned gave the same answer as before, 
 bidding them surrender Pactyas to the Per- 
 sians; whereupon Aristodicus, who had come 
 prepared for such an answer, proceeded to make 
 the circuit of the temple, and to take all the 
 nests of young sparrows and other birds that he 
 could find about the building. As he was thus 
 employed, a voice, it is said, came forth from 
 the inner sanctuary, addressing Aristodicus in 
 these words : " Most impious of men, what is 
 this thou hast the face to do? Dost thou tear 
 my suppliants from my temple? " Aristodicus, 
 
160 HERODOTUS 
 
 at no loss for a reply, rejoined, " Oh, king, art 
 thou so ready to protect thy suppliants, and dost 
 thou command the Cym?eans to give up a sup- 
 pHant? " " Yes," returned the god, " I do com- 
 mand it, that so for the impiety you may the 
 sooner perish, and not come here again to con- 
 sult my oracle about the surrender of sup- 
 pliants." 
 
 160. On the receipt of this answer the Cym- 
 asans, unwilling to bring the threatened destruc- 
 tion on themselves by giving up the man, and 
 afraid of having to endure a siege if they con- 
 tinued to harbour him, sent Pactyas away to 
 Mytilene. On this Mazares despatched envoys 
 to the Mytilengeans to demand the fugitive of 
 them, and they were preparing to give him up 
 for a reward (I cannot say with certainty how 
 large, as the bargain was not completed), when 
 the Cymgeans, hearing what the Mytilenseans 
 were about, sent a vessel to Lesbos, and con- 
 veyed away Pactyas to Chios. From hence it 
 was that he was surrendered. The Chians 
 dragged him from the temple of Minerva Po- 
 liuchus and gave him up to the Persians, on 
 condition of receiving the district of Atarneus, 
 a tract of Mysia opposite to Lesbos, as the price 
 of the surrender. Thus did Pactyas fall into 
 the hands of his pursuers, who kept a strict 
 watch upon him, that they might be able to pro- 
 
BOOK I CLIO 161 
 
 duce him before Cyrus. For a long time after- 
 wards none of the Chians would use the barley 
 of Atarneus to place on the heads of victims, 
 or make sacrificial cakes of the corn grown there, 
 but the whole produce of the land was excluded 
 from all their temples. 
 
 161. Meanwhile Mazares, after he had recov- 
 ered Pactyas from the Chians, made war upon 
 those who had taken part in the attack on Tab- 
 alus, and in the first place took Priene and sold 
 the inhabitants for slaves, after which he over- 
 ran the whole plain of the Mseander and the dis- 
 trict of Magnesia, both of which he gave up 
 for pillage to the soldiery. He then suddenly 
 sickened and died. 
 
 162. Upon his death Harpagus was sent 
 down to the coast to succeed to his command. 
 He also was of the race of the Medes, being the 
 man whom the Median king, Astyages, feasted 
 at the unholy banquet, and who lent his aid to 
 place Cyrus upon the throne. Appointed by 
 Cyrus to conduct the war in these parts, he en- 
 tered Ionia, and took the cities by means of 
 mounds. Forcing the enemy to shut themselves 
 up within their defences, he heaped mounds of 
 earth against their walls, and thus carried the 
 towns. Phocaea was the city against which he 
 directed his first attack. 
 
 163. Now the Phocseans were the first of the 
 
162 HERODOTUS 
 
 Greeks who performed long voyages, and it 
 was they who made the Greeks acquainted with 
 the Adriatic and with Tyrrhenia, with Iberia, 
 and the city of Tartessus.^ The vessel which 
 they used in their voyages was not the round- 
 buUt merchant-ship, but the long penteconter. 
 On their arrival at Tartessus, the king of the 
 country, whose name was Arganthonius, took 
 a liking to them. This monarch reigned over 
 the Tartessians for eighty years, and lived to be 
 a hundred and twenty years o}d. He regarded 
 the Phocaeans with so much favour as, at first, 
 to beg them to quit Ionia and settle in whatever 
 part of his country they liked. Afterwards, 
 finding that he could not prevail upon them to 
 agree to this, and hearing that the Mede was 
 growing great in their neighbourhood, he gave 
 them money to buUd a wall about their town, 
 and certainly he must have given it with a boun- 
 tiful hand, for the town is many furlongs in 
 circuit, and the wall is built entirely of great 
 blocks of stone skilfully fitted together. The 
 wall, then, was built by his aid. 
 
 164. Harpagus, having advanced against the 
 Phocaeans with his army, laid siege to their city, 
 first, however, offering them terms. " It would 
 
 3 The Iberia of Herodotus is the Spanish Peninsula. Tartessus 
 was a colony founded there very early by the Phoenicians. It 
 was situated beyond the straits at the mouth of the Bxtis 
 (Guadalquivir), near the site of the modern Cadiz. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 163 
 
 content him," he said, " if the Phocaeans would 
 agree to throw down one of their battlements, 
 and dedicate one dwelling-house to the king." 
 The Phoceeans, sorely vexed at the thought of 
 becoming slaves, asked a single day to deliberate 
 on the answer they should return, and besought 
 Harpagus during that day to draw oif his 
 forces from the walls. Harpagus replied, 
 " That he understood well enough what they 
 were about to do, but nevertheless he would 
 grant their request." Accordingly the troops 
 were withdrawn, and the Phocaeans forthwith 
 took advantage of their absence to launch their 
 penteconters, and put on board their wives and 
 children, their household goods, and even the 
 images of their gods, with all the votive offer- 
 ings from the fanes, except the paintings and 
 the works in stone and brass, which were left 
 behind. With the rest they embarked, and put- 
 ting to sea, set sail for Chios. The Persians, on 
 their return, took possession of an empty town. 
 165. Arrived at Chios, the Phocaeans made 
 offers for the purchase of the islands called the 
 CEnussae, but the Chians refused to part with 
 them, fearing lest the Phocaeans should estab- 
 lish a factory there, and exclude their mer- 
 chants from the commerce of those seas. On 
 their refusal, the Phocaeans, as Arganthonius 
 was now dead, made up their minds to sail to 
 Cymus (Corsica), where, twenty years before. 
 
164 HERODOTUS 
 
 following the direction of an oracle,* they had 
 founded a city, which was called Alalia. Be- 
 fore they set out, however, on this voyage, they 
 sailed once more to Phocaea, and surprising the 
 Persian troops appointed by Harpagus to gar- 
 rison the town, put them all to the sword. After 
 this they laid the heaviest curses on the man 
 who should draw back and forsake the arma- 
 ment ; and having dropped a heavy mass of iron 
 into the sea, swore never to return to Phocgea 
 till that mass reappeared upon the surface. 
 Nevertheless, as they were preparing to depart 
 for Cyrnus, more than half of their number 
 were seized with such sadness and so great a 
 longing to see once more their city and their 
 ancient homes, that they broke the oath by 
 which they had bound themselves and sailed 
 back to Phocasa. 
 
 166. The rest of the Phocseans, who kept 
 their oath, proceeded without stopping upon 
 their voyage, and when they came to Cyrnus es- 
 tablished themselves along with the earlier set- 
 tlers at Alalia and built temples in the place. 
 For five years they annoyed their neighbours 
 
 * A most important influence was exercised by the Greek 
 oracles, especially that of Delphi, over the course of Hellenic 
 colonisation. In connection with this last passage, Herodotus 
 lets fall a remark which shows that it was almost the invari- 
 able practice to consult the oracle as to the place to be colonised. 
 Dorieus, he says, on first leading out his colony from Sparta, 
 " neither took counsel of the oracle at Delphi, as to the place 
 whereto he should go, nor observed any of the customary usages." 
 
BOOK I CLIO 165 
 
 by plundering and pillaging on all sides, until 
 at length the Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians 
 leagued against them, and sent each a fleet of 
 sixty ships to attack the town. The Phocseans, 
 on their part, manned all their vessels, sixty in 
 number, and met their enemy on the Sardinian 
 sea. In the engagement which followed, the 
 Phocseans were victorious, but their success was 
 only a sort of Cadmeian victory. They lost 
 forty ships in the battle, and the twenty which 
 remained came out of the engagement with 
 beaks so bent and blunted as to be no longer 
 serviceable. The Phocseans therefore sailed back 
 again to Alalia, and taking their wives and chil- 
 dren on board, with such portion of their goods 
 and chattels as the vessel could bear, bade adieu 
 to Cyrnus and sailed to Rhegium. 
 
 167. The Carthaginians and Tyrrhenians, 
 who had got into their hands many more than 
 the Phocseans from among the crews of the 
 forty vessels that were destroyed, landed their 
 captives upon the coast after the fight, and 
 stoned them all to death. Afterwards, when 
 sheep, or oxen, or even men of the district of 
 Agylla passed by the spot where the murdered 
 Phocseans lay, their bodies became distorted, or 
 they were seized with palsy, or they lost the use 
 of some of their limbs. On this the people of 
 Agylla sent to Delphi to ask the oracle how 
 they might expiate their sin. The answer of the 
 
166 HERODOTUS 
 
 Pythoness required them to institute the custom, 
 which they still observe, of honouring the dead 
 Phocasans with magnificent funeral rites, and 
 solemn games, both gymnic and equestrian. 
 Such, then, was the fate that befell the Phocaean 
 prisoners. The other Phocaeans, who had fled 
 to Rhegium, became after a while the founders 
 of the city called Vela, in the district of GEno- 
 tria. This city they colonised, upon the showing 
 of a man of Posidonia, who suggested that the 
 oracle had not meant to bid them set up a town 
 in Cyrnus the island, but set up the worship of 
 Cyrnus the hero. 
 
 168. Thus fared it with the men of the city 
 of Phocsea in Ionia. They of Teos did and suf- 
 fered almost the same ; for they too, when Har- 
 pagus had raised his mound to the height of 
 their defences, took ship, one and all, and sail- 
 ing across the sea to Thrace, founded there the 
 city of Abdera. The site was one which Time- 
 sius of Clazomenae had previously tried to col- 
 onise, but without any lasting success, for he 
 was expelled by the Thracians. Still the Teians 
 of Abdera worship him to this day as a hero. 
 
 169. Of all the lonians these two states alone, 
 rather than submit to slavery, forsook their 
 fatherland. The others (I except Miletus) re- 
 sisted Harpagus no less bravely than those who 
 fled their country, and performed many feats of 
 arms, each fighting in their own defence, but 
 
BOOK I CLIO 167 
 
 one after another they suffered defeat; the 
 cities were taken, and the inhabitants submitted, 
 remaining in their respective countries, and 
 obeying the behests of their new lords. Miletus, 
 as I have already mentioned, had made terms 
 with Cyrus, and so continued at peace. Thus 
 was continental Ionia once more reduced to 
 servitude; and when the lonians of the islands 
 saw their brethren upon the mainland subju- 
 gated, they also, dreading the like, gave them- 
 selves up to Cyrus. 
 
 170. It was while the lonians were in this 
 distress, but stUl, amid it all, held their meet- 
 ings, as of old, at the Panionium, that Bias of 
 Priene, who was present at the festival, recom- 
 mended (as I am informed) a project of the 
 very highest wisdom, which would, had it been 
 embraced, have enabled the lonians to become 
 the happiest and most flourishing of the Greeks. 
 He exhorted them "to join in one body, set sail 
 for Sardinia, and there found a single Pan- 
 Ionic city; so they would escape from slavery 
 and rise to great fortune, being masters of the 
 largest island in the world, and exercising do- 
 minion even beyond its bounds; whereas if they 
 stayed in Ionia, he saw no prospect of their ever 
 recovering their lost freedom." Such was the 
 counsel which Bias gave the lonians in their 
 affliction. Before their misfortunes began, 
 Thales, a man of Miletus, of Phoenician descent. 
 
168 HERODOTUS 
 
 had recommended a diflferent plan. He coun- 
 selled them to establish a single seat of govern- 
 ment, and pointed out Teos as the fittest place 
 for it; " for that," he said, "was the centre of 
 Ionia. Their other cities might still continue to 
 enjoy their own laws, just as if they were inde- 
 pendent states." This also was good advice. 
 
 171. After conquering the lonians, Harpa- 
 gus proceeded to attack the Carians, the Cau- 
 nians, and the Lycians. The lonians and^Eo- 
 lians were forced to serve in his army. Now, 
 of the above nations the Carians are a race who 
 came into the mainland from the islands. In 
 ancient times they were subjects of king Minos, 
 and went by the name of Leleges, dwelling 
 among the isles, and, so far as I have been able 
 to push my inquiries, never liable to give tribute 
 to any man. They served on board the ships of 
 king Minos whenever he required; and thus, as 
 he was a great conqueror and prospered in his 
 wars, the Carians were in his day the most fa- 
 mous by far of all the nations of the earth. 
 They hkewise were the inventors of three things, 
 the use of which was borrowed from them by 
 the Greeks; they were the first to fasten crests 
 on helmets and to put devices on shields, and 
 they also invented handles for shields. In the 
 earlier times shields were without handles, and 
 their wearers managed them by the aid of a 
 leathern thong, by which they were slung round 
 
BOOK I CLIO 169 
 
 the neck and left shoulder. Long after the time 
 of Minos, the Carians were driven from the 
 islands by the lonians and Dorians, and so set- 
 tled upon the mainland. The above is the ac- 
 count which the Cretans give of the Carians : the 
 Carians themselves say very differently. They 
 maintain that they are the aboriginal inhabitants 
 of the part of the mainland where they now 
 dwell, and never had any other name than that 
 which they still bear: and in proof of this they 
 show an ancient temple of Carian Jove in the 
 country of the Mylasians, in which the Mysians 
 and Lydians have the right of worshipping, as 
 brother races to the Carians: for Lydus and 
 Mysus, they say, were brothers of Car, These 
 nations, therefore, have the aforesaid right; but 
 such as are of a different race, even though they 
 have come to use the Carian tongue, are ex- 
 cluded from this temple. 
 
 172. The Caunians, in my judgment, are 
 aboriginals ; but by their own account they came 
 from Crete. In their languages, either they 
 have approximated to the Carians, or the Car- 
 ians to them — on this point I cannot speak with 
 certainty. In their customs, however, they dif- 
 fer greatly from the Carians, and not only so, 
 but from all other men. They think it a most 
 honourable practice for friends or persons of 
 the same age, whether they be men, women, or 
 children, to meet together in large companies. 
 
170 HERODOTUS 
 
 for the purpose of drinking wine. Again, on 
 one occasion they determined that they would 
 no longer make use of the foreign temples 
 which had been long estabhshed among them, 
 but would worship their own old ancestral gods 
 alone. Then their whole youth took arms, and 
 striking the air with their spears, marched to 
 the Calyndic frontier, declaring that they were 
 driving out the foreign gods. 
 
 173. The Lycians are in good truth anciently 
 from Crete; which island, in former days, was 
 wholly peopled with barbarians. A quarrel 
 arising there between the two sons of Europa, 
 Sarpedon and Minos, as to which of them 
 should be king, Minos, whose party prevailed, 
 drove Sarpedon and his followers into banish- 
 ment. The exiles sailed to Asia, and landed on 
 the Milyan territory. Milyas was the ancient 
 name of the country now inhabited by the Ly- 
 cians: the Milyae of the present day were, in 
 those times, called Solymi. So long as Sarpe- 
 don reigned, his followers kept the name which 
 they brought with them from Crete, and were 
 called Termilse, as the Lycians still are by those 
 who live in their neighbourhood. But after 
 Lycus, the son of Pandion, banished from 
 Athens by his brother ^Egeus, had found a 
 refuge with Sarpedon in the country of these 
 Termilse, they came, in course of time, to be 
 called from him Lycians. Their customs are 
 
BOOK I CLIO 171 
 
 partly Cretan, partly Carian. They have, how- 
 ever, one singular custom in which they differ 
 from every other nation in the world. They 
 take the mother's and not the father's name. 
 Ask a Lycian who he is, and he answers by 
 giving his own name, that of his mother, and 
 so on in the female line. Moreover, if a free 
 woman marry a man who is a slave, their chil- 
 dren are full citizens; but if a free man marry 
 a foreign woman, or live with a concubine, even 
 though he be the first person in the State, the 
 children forfeit all the rights of citizenship. 
 
 174. Of these nations, the Carians submitted 
 to Harpagus without performing any brilliant 
 exploits. Nor did the Greeks who dwelt in 
 Caria behave with any greater gallantry. 
 Among them were the Cnidians, colonists from 
 Lacedsemon, who occupy a district facing the 
 sea, which is called Triopium. This region ad- 
 joins upon the Bybassian Chersonese; and, ex- 
 cept a very small space, is surrounded by the 
 sea, being bounded on the north by the Ceramic 
 Gulf, and on the south by the channel towards 
 the islands of Syme and Rhodes. While Har- 
 pagus was engaged in the conquest of Ionia, the 
 Cnidians, wishing to make their country an 
 island, attempted to cut through this narrow 
 neck of land, which was no more than five fur- 
 longs across from sea to sea. Their whole ter- 
 ritory lay inside the isthmus; for where Cnidia 
 
172 HERODOTUS 
 
 ends towards the mainland, the isthmus begins 
 which they were now seeking to cut through. 
 The work had been commenced, and many 
 hands were employed upon it, when it was ob- 
 served that there seemed to be something un- 
 usual and unnatural in the number of wounds 
 that the workmen received, especially about 
 their eyes, from the splintering of the rock. 
 The Cnidians, therefore, sent to Delphi, to in- 
 quire what it was that hindered their efforts; 
 and received, according to their own account, 
 the following answer from the oracle: 
 
 " Fence not the isthmus off, nor dig it through — 
 Jove would have made an island, had he wished." 
 
 So the Cnidians ceased digging, and when Har- 
 pagus advanced with his army, they gave them- 
 selves up to him without striking a blow. 
 
 175. Above Hahcarnassus, and further from 
 the coast, were the Pedasians. With this peo- 
 ple, when any evil is about to befall either 
 themselves or their neighbours, the priestess of 
 Minerva grows an ample beard. Three times 
 has this marvel happened. They alone, of all 
 the dwellers in Caria, resisted Harpagus for a 
 while, and gave him much trouble, maintaining 
 themselves in a certain mountain called Lida, 
 which they had fortified; but in course of time 
 they also were forced to submit. 
 
 176. When Harpagus, after these successes. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 173 
 
 led his forces into the Xanthian plain, the Ly- 
 cians of Xanthus went out to meet him in the 
 field: though but a small band against a numer- 
 ous host, they engaged in battle, and performed 
 many glorious exploits. Overpowered at last, 
 and forced within their walls, they collected into 
 the citadel their wives and children, all their 
 treasures, and their slaves; and having so done, 
 fired the building, and burnt it to the ground. 
 After this, they bound themselves together by 
 dreadful oaths, and sallying forth against the 
 enemy, died sword in hand, not one escaping. 
 Those Lycians who now claim to be Xanthians, 
 are foreign immigrants, except eighty families, 
 who happened to be absent from the country, 
 and so survived the others. Thus was Xanthus 
 taken by Harpagus," and Caunus fell in like 
 manner into his hands; for the Caunians in the 
 main followed the example of the Lycians. 
 177. While the lower parts of Asia were in 
 
 5 There is reason to believe that the government of Lycia re- 
 mained in the family of Harpagus. The Xanthian obelisk in 
 the British Museum, which seems to have been erected soon 
 after the battle of the Eurymedon (b. c. 466), contains a record 
 of Caias (or Caiicas), the son of Harpagus, vpho appears to 
 have been the ruler of the country in the time of Artaxerxes 
 Longimanus. The deeds of the same prince are represented upon 
 the trophy-monument in the Museum, vifhere he appears as an 
 Oriental chief, aided by Greek mercenaries. The obelisk prince, 
 "Caias, son of Harpagus," must not be regarded as the actual 
 son, but as a descendant of the conqueror. Eighty-seven years 
 intervene between the conquest and the battle of the Eurymedon, 
 to which the obelisk is posterior. 
 
174 HERODOTUS 
 
 this way brought under by Harpagus, Cyrus in 
 person subjected the upper regions, conquering 
 every nation, and not suifering one to escape. 
 Of these conquests I shall pass by the greater 
 portion, and give an account of those only which 
 gave him the most trouble, and are the worthiest 
 of mention. When he had brought all the rest 
 of the continent under his sway, he made war 
 on the Assyrians. 
 
 178. Assyria possesses a vast number of 
 great cities, whereof the most renowned and 
 strongest at this time was Babylon, whither, 
 after the fall of Nineveh, the seat of govern- 
 ment had been removed. The following is a de- 
 scription of the place: The city stands on a 
 broad plain, and is an exact square, a hundred 
 and twenty furlongs in length each way, so that 
 the entire circuit is four hundred and eighty 
 furlongs. While such is its size, in magnificence 
 there is no other city that approaches to it. It 
 is surrounded, in the first place, by a broad and 
 deep moat, full of water, behind which rises a 
 wall fifty royal cubits in width, and two hun- 
 dred in height. (The royal cubit is longer by 
 three fingers' breadth than the conmion cubit.) 
 
 179. And here I may not omit to tell the use 
 to which the mould dug out of the great moat 
 was turned, nor the manner wherein the wall 
 was wrought. As fast as they dug the moat 
 the soil which they got from the cutting was 
 
BOOK I CLIO 175 
 
 made into bricks, and when a sufficient number 
 were completed they baked the bricks in kilns. 
 Then they set to building, and began with brick- 
 ing the borders of the moat, after which they 
 proceeded to construct the wall itself, using 
 throughout for their cement hot bitumen, and 
 interposing a layer of wattled reeds at every 
 thirtieth course of the bricks. On the top, along 
 the edges of the wall, they constructed build- 
 ings of a single chamber facing one another, 
 leaving between them room for a four-horse 
 chariot to turn. In the circuit of the wall are 
 a hundred gates, all of brass, with brazen lin- 
 tels and side-posts. The bitumen used in the 
 work was brought to Babylon from the Is, a 
 smaU stream which flows into the Euphrates at 
 the point where the city of the same name 
 stands, eight days' journey from Babylon. 
 Ltmips of bitumen are found in great abun- 
 dance in this river. 
 
 180. The city is divided into two portions by 
 the river which runs through the midst of it. 
 This river is the Euphrates, a broad, deep, swift 
 stream, which rises in Armenia, and empties it- 
 self into the Erythrasan sea. The city wall is 
 brought down on both sides to the edge of the 
 stream: thence, from the corners of the wall, 
 there is carried along each bank of the river a 
 fence of burnt bricks. The houses are mostly 
 three and four storeys high; the streets all run 
 
170 HERODOTUS 
 
 in straight lines, not only those parallel to the 
 river, but also the cross streets which lead down 
 to the water-side. At the river end of these 
 cross streets are low gates in the fence that 
 skirts the stream, which are, hke the great gates 
 in the outer wall, of brass, and open on the 
 water. 
 
 181. The outer wall is the main defence of 
 the city. There is, however, a second inner wall, 
 of less thickness than the first, but very little in- 
 ferior to it in strength. The centre of each di- 
 vision of the town was occupied by a fortress. 
 In the one stood the palace of the kings, sur- 
 rounded by a wall of great strength and size : in 
 the other was the sacred precinct of Jupiter 
 Belus,® a square enclosure two furlongs each 
 way, with gates of solid brass; which was also 
 remaining in my time. In the middle of the 
 precinct there was a tower of solid masonry, a 
 furlong in length and breadth, upon which was 
 
 6 The Babylonian worship of Bel is well known to us from 
 Scripture (Isaiah xlvi. 1; Jerem. 1. 2; Apoc. Dan. xii. 16). 
 There is little doubt that he was (at least in the later times) 
 the recognised head of the Babylonian Pantheon, and therefore 
 properly identified by the Greeks with their Zeus or Jupiter. It 
 is only recently that the darkness which has so long enveloped 
 the history of the Chaldaeans has been cleared up, but we are 
 now able to present a tolerably clear account of them. The 
 Chaldasans then appear to have been a branch of the great 
 Hamite race of Akkad, which inhabited Babylonia from the 
 earliest times. With this race originated the art of writing, the 
 building of cities, the institution of a religious system, and the 
 cultivation of all science, and of astronomy in particular. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 177 
 
 raised a second tower, and on that a third, and 
 so on up to eight. The ascent to the top is on 
 the outside, by a path which winds round all the 
 towers. When one is about half-way up, one 
 finds a resting-place and seats, where persons 
 are wont to sit some time on their way to the 
 summit. On the topmost tower there is a spa- 
 cious temple, and inside the temple stands a 
 couch of unusual size, richly adorned, with a 
 golden table by its side. There is no statue of 
 any kind set up in the place, nor is the chamber 
 occupied of nights by any one but a single na- 
 tive woman, who, as the Chaldasans, the priests 
 of this god, affirm, is chosen for himself by the 
 deity out of all the women of the land. 
 
 182. They also declare — but I for my part 
 do not credit it — that the god comes down in 
 person into this chamber, and sleeps upon the 
 couch. This is like the story told by the Egyp- 
 tians of what takes place in their city of Thebes, 
 where a woman always passes the night in the 
 temple of the Theban Jupiter. In each case the 
 woman is said to be debarred all intercourse with 
 men. It is also like the custom of Patara, in 
 Lycia, where the priestess who delivers the ora- 
 cles, during the time that she is so employed — 
 for at Patara there is not always an oracle — 
 is shut up in the temple every night. 
 
 183. Below, in the same precinct, there is a 
 second temple, in which is a sitting figure of 
 
178 HERODOTUS 
 
 Jupiter, all of gold. Before the figure stands 
 a large golden table, and the throne whereon it 
 sits, and the base on which the throne is placed, 
 are likewise of gold. The Chaldeeans told me 
 that all the gold together was eight hundred 
 talents' weight. Outside the temple are two 
 altars, one of solid gold, on which it is only law- 
 ful to offer sucklings ; the other a common altar, 
 but of great size, on which the full grown ani- 
 mals are sacrificed. It is also on the great altar 
 that the Chaldseans burn the frankincense, which 
 is offered to the amount of a thousand talents' 
 weight, every year, at the festival of the god. 
 In the time of Cyrus there was likewise in this 
 temple a figure of a man, twelve cubits high, 
 entirely of solid gold. I myself did not see this 
 figure, but I relate what the Chaldasans report 
 concerning it. Darius, the son of Hystaspes, 
 plotted to carry the statue off, but had not the 
 hardihood to lay his hands upon it. Xerxes, 
 however, the son of Darius, killed the priest who 
 forbade him to move the statue, and took it 
 away. Besides the ornaments which I have men- 
 tioned there are a large number of private of- 
 ferings in this holy precinct. 
 
 184. Many sovereigns have ruled over this 
 city of Babylon and lent their aid to the buUd- 
 ing of its walls and the adornment of its tem- 
 ples, of whom I shall make mention in my As- 
 syrian history. Among them two were women. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 179 
 
 Of these, the earlier, called Semiramis, held the 
 throne five generations before the later princess. 
 She raised certain embankments well worthy of 
 inspection, in the plain near Babylon, to control 
 the river, which, till then, used to overflow, and 
 flood the whole country round about. 
 
 185. The later of the two queens, whose name 
 was Nitocris, a wiser princess than her prede- 
 cessor, not only left behind her, as memorials of 
 her occupancy of the throne, the works which I 
 shall presently describe, but also, observing the 
 great power and restless enterprise of the 
 Medes, who had taken so large a number of 
 cities, and among them Nineveh, and expecting 
 to be attacked in her turn, made all possible ex- 
 ertions to increase the defences of her empire. 
 And first, whereas the river Euphrates, which 
 traverses the city, ran formerly with a straight 
 course to Babylon, she, by certain excavations 
 which she made at some distance up the stream, 
 rendered it so winding that it comes three sev- 
 eral times in sight of the same village, a village 
 in Assyria, which is called Ardericca; and to this 
 day, they who would go from our sea to Baby- 
 lon, on descending to the river touch three times, 
 and on three difi'erent days, at this very place. 
 She also made an embankment along each side 
 of the Euphrates, wonderful both for breadth 
 and height, and dug a basin for a lake a great 
 way above Babylon, close alongside of the 
 
180 HERODOTUS 
 
 stream, which was sunk everywhere to the point 
 where they came to water, and was of such 
 breadth that the whole circuit measured four 
 hundred and twenty furlongs. The soil dug out 
 of this basin was made use of in the embank- 
 ments along the waterside. When the excava- 
 tion was finished, she had stones brought, and 
 bordered with them the entire margin of the 
 reservoir. These two things were done, thp river 
 made to wind, and the lake excavated, that the 
 stream might be slacker by reason of the num- 
 ber of curves, and the voyage be rendered cir- 
 cuitous, and that at the end of the voyage it 
 might be necessary to skirt the lake and so make 
 a long round. All these works were on that side 
 of Babylon where the passes lay, and the roads 
 into Media were the straightest, and the aim of 
 the queen in making them was to prevent the 
 Medes from holding intercourse with the Baby- 
 lonians, and so to keep them in ignorance of her 
 affairs. 
 
 186. While the soil from the excavation was 
 being thus used for the defence of the city, 
 Nitocris engaged also in another undertaking, 
 a mere by-work compared with those we have 
 already mentioned. The city, as I said, was di- 
 vided by the river into two distinct portions. 
 Under the former kings, if a man wanted to 
 pass from one of these divisions to the other, he 
 had to cross in a boat; which must, it seems to 
 
BOOK I CLIO 181 
 
 me, have been very troublesome. Accordingly, 
 while she was digging the lake, Nitocris be- 
 thought herself of turning it to a use which 
 should at once remove this inconvenience, and 
 enable her to leave another monument of her 
 reign over Babylon. She gave orders for the 
 hewing of immense blocks of stone, and when 
 they were ready and the basin was excavated, 
 she turned the entire stream of the Euphrates 
 into the cutting, and thus for a time, while the 
 basin was filling, the natural channel of the river 
 was left dry. Forthwith she set to work, and 
 in the first place lined the banks of the stream 
 within the city with quays of burnt bricks, and 
 also bricked the land-places opposite the river- 
 gates, adopting throughout the same fashion of 
 brickwork which had been used in the town wall ; 
 after which, with the materials which had been 
 prepared, she built, as near the middle of the 
 town as possible, a stone bridge, the blocks 
 whereof were bound together with iron and 
 lead. In the daytime square wooden platforms 
 were laid along from pier to pier, on which the 
 inhabitants crossed the stream ; but at night they 
 were withdrawn, to prevent people passing from 
 side to side in the dark to commit robberies. 
 When the river had filled the cutting, and the 
 bridge was finished, the Euphrates was turned 
 back again into its ancient bed; and thus the 
 basin, transformed suddenly into a lake, was 
 
182 HERODOTUS 
 
 seen to answer the purpose for which it was 
 made, and the inhabitants, fey help of the basin 
 obtained the advantage of a bridge. 
 
 187. It was this same princess by whom a re- 
 markable deception was planned. She had her 
 tomb constructed in the upper part of one of 
 the principal gateways of the city, high above 
 the heads of the passers-by, with this inscription 
 cut upon it: "If there be one among my suc- 
 cessors on the throne of Babylon who is in want 
 of treasure, let him open my tomb, and take as 
 much as he chooses, — not, however, unless he be 
 truly in want, for it will not be for his good." 
 This tomb continued untouched until Darius 
 came to the kingdom. To him it seemed a 
 monstrous thing that he should be unable to use 
 one of the gates of the town, and that a sum of 
 money should be lying idle, and moreover invit- 
 ing his grasp, and he not seize upon it. Now 
 he could not use the gate because, as he drove 
 through, the dead body would have been over 
 his head. Accordingly he opened the tomb ; but 
 instead of money, found only the dead body, 
 and a writing which said: " Hadst thou not 
 been insatiate of pelf, and careless how thou 
 gottest it, thou wouldst not have broken open 
 the sepulchres of the dead." 
 
 188. The expedition of Cyrus was under- 
 taken against the son of this princess, who bore 
 the same name as his father Labynetus, and was 
 
BOOK I CLIO 183 
 
 king of the Assyrians. The Great King, when 
 he goes to the wars, is always supplied with pro- 
 visions carefully prepared at home, and with 
 cattle of his own. Water too from the river 
 Choaspes, which flows by Susa, is taken with 
 him for his drink, as that is the only water which 
 the kings of Persia taste. Wherever he travels, 
 he is attended by a number of four-wheeled cars 
 drawn by mules, in which the Choapses water, 
 ready boiled for use, and stored in flagons of 
 silver, is moved with him from place to place. 
 
 189. Cyrus on his way to Babylon came to 
 the banks of the Gyndes, a stream which, ris- 
 ing in the Matienian mountains, runs through 
 the country of the Dardanians, and empties it- 
 self into the river Tigris. The Tigris, after re- 
 ceiving the Gyndes, flows on by the city of Opis, 
 and discharges its waters into the Erythrsean 
 sea. When Cyrus reached this stream, which 
 could only be passed in boats, one of the sacred 
 white horses accompanying his march, full of 
 spirit and high mettle, walked into the water, 
 and tried to cross by himself; but the current 
 seized him, swept him along with it, and 
 drowned him in its depths. Cyrus, enraged at 
 the insolence of the river, threatened so to break 
 its strength that in future even women should 
 cross it easily without wetting their knees. Ac- 
 cordingly he put off" for a time his attack on 
 Babylon, and, dividing his army into two parts. 
 
184 HERODOTUS 
 
 he marked out by ropes one hundred and eighty 
 trenches on each side of the Gyndes, leading 
 off from it in all directions, and setting his army 
 to dig, some on one side of the river, some on 
 the other, he accomplished his threat by the aid 
 of so great a number of hands, but not without 
 losing thereby the whole summer season. 
 
 190. Having, however, thus wreaked his venge- 
 ance on the Gyndes, by dispersing it through 
 three hundred and sixty channels, Cyrus, with 
 the first approach of the ensuing spring, 
 marched forward against Babylon. The Baby- 
 lonians, encamped without their walls, awaited 
 his coming. A battle was fought at a short dis- 
 tance from the city, in which the Babylonians 
 were defeated by the Persian king, whereupon 
 they withdrew within their defences. Here they 
 shut themselves up, and made light of his siege, 
 having laid in a store of provisions for many 
 years in preparation against this attack; for 
 when they saw Cyrus conquering nation after 
 nation, they were convinced that he would 
 never stop, and that their turn would come at 
 last. 
 
 191. Cyrus was now reduced to great per- 
 plexity, as time went on, and he made no prog- 
 ress against the place. In this distress, either 
 some one made the suggestion to him, or he be- 
 thought himself of a plan, which he proceeded 
 
BOOK I CLIO 185 
 
 to put in execution. He placed a portion of his 
 army at the point where the river enters the city, 
 and another body at the back of the place where 
 it issues forth, with orders to march into the town 
 by the bed of the stream, as soon as the water 
 became shallow enough: he then himself drew 
 o& with the unwarlike portion of his host, and 
 made for the place where Nitocris dug the basin 
 for the river, where he did exactly what she had 
 done formerly: he turned the Euphrates by a 
 canal into the basin, which was then a marsh, on 
 which the river sank to such an extent that the 
 natural bed of the stream became fordable. 
 Hereupon the Persians who had been left for 
 the purpose at Babylon by the river-side, en- 
 tered the stream, which had now sunk so as to 
 reach about midway up a man's thigh, and thus 
 got into the town. Had the Babylonians been 
 apprised of what Cyrus was about, or had they 
 noticed their danger, they would never have al- 
 lowed the Persians to enter the city, but would 
 have destroyed them utterly; for they would 
 have made fast all the street-gates which gave 
 upon the river, and mounting upon the walls 
 along both sides of the stream, would so have 
 caught the enemy as it were in a trap. But, as 
 it was, the Persians came upon them by surprise 
 and so took the city. Owing to the vast size of 
 the place, the inhabitants of the central parts 
 
ise HERODOTUS 
 
 (as the residents at Babylon declare), long after 
 the outer portions of the town were taken, knew 
 nothing of what had chanced, but as they were 
 engaged in a festival, continued dancing and 
 revelling until they learnt the capture but too 
 certainly. Such, then, were the circumstances 
 of the first taking of Babylon. 
 
 192. Among many proofs which I shall bring 
 forward of the power and resources of the 
 Babylonians, the following is of special account. 
 The whole country under the dominion of the 
 Persians, besides paying a fixed tribute, is par- 
 celled out into divisions, which have to supply 
 food to the Great King and his army during 
 different portions of the year. Now out of the 
 twelve months which go to a year, the district of 
 Babylon furnishes food during four, the other 
 regions of Asia during eight ; by which it appears 
 that Assyria, in respect of resources, is one- 
 third of the whole of Asia. Of all the Persian 
 governments, or satrapies, as they are called by 
 the natives, this is by far the best. When Tri- 
 tantaechmes, son of Artabazus, held it of the 
 king, it brought him in an artaba of silver every 
 day. The artaba is a Persian measure, and 
 holds three choenixes more than the medimnus 
 of the Athenians. He also had, belonging to 
 his own private stud, besides war-horses, eight 
 hundred stallions and sixteen thousand mares, 
 twenty to each stallion. Besides which he kept 
 
BOOK I CLIO 187 
 
 so great a number of Indian hounds/ that four 
 large villages of the plain were exempted from 
 all other charges on condition of finding them 
 in food. 
 
 193. But little rain falls in Assyria,® enough, 
 however, to make the corn begin to sprout, after 
 which the plant is nourished and the ears formed 
 by means of irrigation from the river. For the 
 river does not, as in Egypt, overflow the corn- 
 lands of its own accord, but is spread over them 
 by the hand, or by the help of engines. The 
 whole of Babylonia is, like Egypt, intersected 
 with canals. The largest of them all, which 
 runs towards the winter sun, and is impassable 
 except in boats, is carried from the Euphrates 
 into another stream, called the Tigris, the river 
 upon which the town of Nineveh formerly stood. 
 Of all the countries that we know there is none 
 which is so fruitful in grain. It makes no pre- 
 tension indeed of growing the fig, the olive, the 
 vine, or any other tree of the kind; but in grain 
 
 1 Models of favourite dogs are frequently found in excavating 
 the cities of Babylonia. Some may be seen in the British Mu- 
 seum, obtained from the hunting palace of the son of Esar- 
 haddon at Nineveh. They are of small size, and are inscribed 
 with the name of the dog, which is commonly a word indicative 
 of their hunting prowess. 
 
 8 Rain is very rare in Babylonia during the summer months, 
 and productiveness depends entirely on irrigation. During the 
 spring there are constant showers, and at other times of the 
 year rain falls frequently, but irregularly, and never in great 
 quantities. The heaviest is in December. 
 
188 HERODOTUS 
 
 it is so fruitful as to yield commonly two hun- 
 dred-fold, and where the production is greatest, 
 even three hundred- fold. The blade of the 
 wheat-plant and barley-plant is often four fin- 
 gers in breadth. As for the millet and the ses- 
 ame, I shall not say to what height they grow, 
 though within my own knowledge ; for I am not 
 ignorant that what I have already written con- 
 cerning the fruitfulness of Babylonia must 
 seem incredible to those who have never visited 
 the country. The only oU they use is made from 
 the sesame-plant. Palm-trees grow in great 
 numbers over the whole of the flat country, 
 mostly of the kind which bears fruit, and this 
 fruit supplies them with bread, wine, and honey. 
 They are cultivated like the fig-tree in all re- 
 spects, among others in this. The natives tie 
 the fruit of the male-pahns, as they are called by 
 the Greeks, to the branches of the date-bearing 
 palm, to let the gaU-fly enter the dates and ripen 
 them, and to prevent the fruit from falling ofi". 
 The male-pakns, like the wild fig-trees, have 
 usually the gall-fly in their fruit. 
 
 194. But that which surprises me most in the 
 land, after the city itself, I will now proceed to 
 mention. The boats which come down the river 
 to Babylon are circular, and made of skins. The 
 frames, which are of willow, are cut in the coun- 
 try of the Armenians above Assyria, and on 
 these, which serve for huUs, a covering of skins 
 
BOOK I CLIO 189 
 
 is stretched outside, and thus the boats are made, 
 without either stem or stern, quite round hke 
 a shield. They are then entirely filled with 
 straw, and their cargo is put on board, after 
 which they are suiFered to float down the stream. 
 Their chief freight is wine, stored in casks made 
 of the wood of the palm-tree. They are man- 
 aged by two men who stand upright in them, 
 each plying an oar, one pulling and the other 
 pushing. The boats are of various sizes, some 
 larger, some smaller; the biggest reach as high 
 as five thousand talents' burthen. Each vessel 
 has a live ass on board; those of larger size have 
 more than one. When they reach Babylon, the 
 cargo is landed and offered for sale ; after which 
 the men break up their boats, seU the straw and 
 the frames, and loading their asses with the 
 skins, set off on their way back to Armenia. 
 The current is too strong to allow a boat to re- 
 turn up-stream, for which reason they make 
 their boats of skins rather than wood. On their 
 return to Armenia they build fresh boats for the 
 next voyage. 
 
 195. The dress of the Babylonians is a linen 
 tunic reaching to the feet, and above it another 
 tunic made in wool, besides which they have a 
 short white cloak thrown round them, and shoes 
 of a peculiar fashion, not unlike those worn by 
 the Boeotians. They have long hair, wear tur- 
 bans on their heads, and anoint their whole body 
 
190 HERODOTUS 
 
 with perfumes.® Every one carries a seal, and 
 a walking-stick, carved at the top into the form 
 of an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle, or something 
 similar; for it is not their habit to use a stick 
 without an ornament. 
 
 196. Of their customs, whereof I shall now 
 proceed to give an account, the following 
 (which I understand belongs to them in com- 
 mon with the Illyrian tribe of the Eneti) is the 
 wisest in my judgment. Once a year in each 
 village the maidens of age to marry were col- 
 lected all together into one place; while the men 
 stood round them in a circle. Then a herald 
 called up the damsels one by one, and offered 
 them for sale. He began with the most beau- 
 tiful. When she was sold for no small sum of 
 money, he offered for sale the one who came 
 next to her in beauty. All of them were sold to 
 be wives. The richest of the Babylonians who 
 wished to wed bid against each other for the 
 loveliest maidens, while the humbler wife- 
 seekers, who were indifferent about beauty, took 
 the more homely damsels with marriage-por- 
 tions. For the custom was that when the herald 
 had gone through the whole number of the 
 
 » The dress of the Babylonians appears on the cylinders to 
 be a species of flounced robe, reaching from their necks to their 
 feet. In some representations there is an appearance of a 
 division into two garments; the upper one being a sort of short 
 jacket or tippet, flounced like the under robe or petticoat. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 191 
 
 beautiful damsels, he should then call up the 
 ugliest — a cripple, if there chanced to be one — 
 and offer her to the men, asking who would 
 agree to take her with the smallest marriage- 
 portion. And the man who offered to take the 
 smallest sum had her assigned to him. The 
 marriage-portions were furnished by the money- 
 paid for the beautiful damsels, and thus the 
 fairer maidens portioned out the uglier. No one 
 was allowed to give his daughter in marriage 
 to the man of his choice, nor might any one 
 carry away the damsel whom he had purchased 
 without finding bail really and truly to make 
 her his wife; if, however, it turned out that they 
 did not agree, the money might be paid back. 
 All who liked might come even from distant vil- 
 lages and bid for the women. This was the best 
 of all their customs, but it has now fallen into 
 disuse. They have lately hit upon a very dif- 
 ferent plan to save their maidens from violence, 
 and prevent their being torn from them and car- 
 ried to distant cities, which is to bring up their 
 daughters to be courtesans. This is now done 
 by all the poorer of the common people, who 
 since the conquest have been maltreated by their 
 lords, and have had ruin brought upon their 
 families. 
 
 197. The following custom seems to me the 
 wisest of their institutions next to the one lately 
 
192 HERODOTUS 
 
 praised. They have no physicians, but when a 
 man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and 
 the passers-by come up to him, and if they have 
 ever had his disease themselves, or have known 
 any one who has suffered from it, they give him 
 advice, recommending him to do whatever they 
 found good in their own case, or in the case 
 known to them; and no one is allowed to pass 
 the sick man in silence without asking him what 
 his ailment is. 
 
 198. They bury their dead in honey,^ and 
 have funeral lamentations like the Egyptians. 
 When a Babylonian has consorted with his wife, 
 he sits down before a censer of burning incense, 
 and the woman sits opposite to him. At dawn 
 of day they wash; for till they are washed they 
 will not touch any of their common vessels. 
 This practice is observed also by the Arabians. 
 
 199. The Babylonians have one most shame- 
 
 1 Modern researches show two modes of burial to have pre- 
 vailed in ancient Babylonia. Ordinarily the bodies seem to have 
 been compressed into urns and baked, or burnt. Thousands of 
 funeral urns are found on the sites of the ancient cities. Coffins 
 are also found, but rarely. These are occasionally of wood, but 
 in general of the same kind of pottery as the urns. Specimens 
 brought from Warka may be seen in the British Museum: they 
 resemble in shape the Egyptian mummy-cases. These cofBns 
 might have been filled with honey, but they are thought to be- 
 long to a comparatively recent period. So many races have 
 successively inhabited Babylonia, and made use in succession 
 of the same cemeteries that there is some difficulty in ascertaining 
 to what particular age and nation the various modes of sepulture 
 that have been met with belong. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 193 
 
 ful custom. Every woman born in the country 
 must once in her hfe go and sit down in the 
 precinct of Venus, and there consort with a 
 stranger. Many of the wealthier sort, who are 
 too proud to mix with the others, drive in cov- 
 ered carriages to the precinct, followed by a 
 goodly train of attendants, and there take their 
 station. But the larger number seat themselves 
 within the holy enclosure with wreaths of string 
 about their heads, — and here there is always a 
 great crowd, some coming and others going; 
 lines of cord mark out paths in all directions 
 among the women, and the strangers pass along 
 them to make their choice. A woman who has 
 once taken her seat is not allowed to return 
 home till one of the strangers throws a silver 
 coin into her lap, and takes her with him beyond 
 the holy ground. When he throws the coin he 
 says these words: " The goddess Mylitta pros- 
 per thee." (Venus is called Mylitta by the As- 
 syrians.) The silver coin may be of any size; 
 it cannot be refused, for that is forbidden by 
 the law, since once thrown it is sacred. The 
 woman goes with the first man who throws her 
 money, and rejects no one. When she has gone 
 with him, and so satisfied the goddess, she re- 
 turns home, and from that time forth, no gift, 
 however great, will prevail with her. Such of 
 the women as are taU and beautiful are soon 
 
194 HERODOTUS 
 
 released, but others who are ugly have to stay 
 a long time before they can fulfil the law. 
 Some have waited three or four years in the 
 precinct. A custom very much like this is 
 found also in certain parts of the island of 
 Cyprus. 
 
 200. Such are the customs of the Babylo- 
 nians generally. There are likewise three tribes 
 among them who eat nothing but fish. These 
 are caught and dried in the sun, after which 
 they are brayed in a mortar, and strained 
 through a linen sieve. Some prefer to make 
 cakes of this material, while others bake it into 
 a kind of bread. 
 
 201. When Cyrus had achieved the conquest 
 of the Babylonians, he conceived the desire of 
 bringing the Massagetse under his dominion. 
 Now the Massagetae are said to be a great and 
 warlike nation, dwelling eastward, toward the 
 rising of the sun, beyond the river Araxes, and 
 opposite the Issedonians. By many they are 
 regarded as a Scythian race. 
 
 202. As for the Araxes, it is, according to 
 some accounts, larger, according to others 
 smaller, than the Ister (Danube). It has 
 islands in it, many of which are said to be equal 
 in size to Lesbos. The men who inhabit them 
 feed during the summer on roots of all kinds, 
 which they dig out of the ground, whUe they 
 
BOOK I Clio i^h 
 
 store up the fruits, which they gather from the 
 trees at the fitting season, to serve them as food 
 in the winter-time. Besides the trees whose 
 fruit they gather for this purpose, they have 
 also a tree which bears the strangest produce. 
 When they are met together in companies they 
 throw some of it upon the fire round which they 
 are sitting, and presently, by the mere smell of 
 the fumes which it gives out in burning, they 
 grow drunk, as the Greeks do with wine. More 
 of the fruit is then thrown on the fire, and, their 
 drunkenness increasing, they often jump up 
 and begin to dance and sing. Such is the ac- 
 count which I have heard of this people. 
 
 The river Araxes, like the Gyndes, which 
 Cyrus dispersed into three hundred and sixty 
 channels, has its source in the country of the 
 Matienians. It has forty mouths, whereof all, 
 except one, end in bogs and swamps. These 
 bogs and swamps are said to be inhabited by a 
 race of men who feed on raw fish, and clothe 
 themselves with the skins of seals. The other 
 mouth of the river flows with a clear course into 
 the Caspian Sea. 
 
 203. The Caspian is a sea by itself, having 
 no connection with any other. The sea fre- 
 quented by the Greeks, that beyond the Pillars 
 of Hercules, which is called the Atlantic, and 
 also the Erythrjean, are all one and the same 
 
106 JHERODOTUS 
 
 sea. But the Caspian is a distinct sea, lying by 
 itself, in length fifteen days' voyage with a row- 
 boat, in breadth, at the broadest part, eight 
 days' voyage. Along its western shore runs the 
 chain of the Caucasus, the most extensive and 
 loftiest of aU mountain-ranges. Many and va- 
 rious are the tribes by which it is inhabited, most 
 of whom live entirely on the wild fruits of the 
 forest. In these forests certain trees are said 
 to grow, from the leaves of which, pounded and 
 mixed with water, the inhabitants make a dye, 
 wherewith they paint upon their clothes the fig- 
 ures of animals; and the figures so impressed 
 never wash out, but last as though they had 
 been inwoven in the cloth from the first, and 
 wear as long as the garment. 
 
 204. On the west then, as I have said, the 
 Caspian Sea is bounded by the range of Cau- 
 casus. On the east it is followed by a vast 
 plain, stretching out interminably before the 
 eye,^ the greater portion of which is possessed 
 by those Massagetse, against whom Cyrus was 
 now so anxious to make an expedition. Many 
 strong motives weighed with him and urged him 
 on — ^his birth especially, which seemed some- 
 thing more than human, and his good fortune 
 in aU his former wars, wherein he had always 
 
 2 The deserts of Kharesm, Kizilkoum, &c., the most southern 
 portion of the Steppe region. 
 
BOOK I CLIO 197 
 
 found, that against what country soever he 
 turned his arms, it was impossible for that peo- 
 ple to escape. 
 
 205. At this time the Massagetse were ruled 
 by a queen, named Tomyris, who at the death of 
 her husband, the late king, had mounted the 
 throne. To her Cyrus sent ambassadors, with 
 instructions to court her on his part, pretending 
 that he wished to take her to wife. Tomyris, 
 however, aware that it was her kingdom, and 
 not herself, that he courted, forbade the men to 
 approach. Cjnrus, therefore, finding that he did 
 not advance his designs by this deceit, marched 
 towards the Araxes, and openly displaying his 
 hostile intentions, set to work to construct a 
 bridge on which his army might cross the river, 
 and began building towers upon the boats which 
 were to be used in the passage. 
 
 206. While the Persian leader was occupied 
 in these labours, Tomyris sent a herald to him, 
 who said, " King of the Medes, cease to press 
 this enterprise, for thou canst not know if what 
 thou art doing wiU be of real advantage to thee. 
 Be content to rule in peace thy own kingdom, 
 and bear to see us reign over the countries that 
 are ours to govern. As, however, I know thou 
 wilt not choose to hearken to this counsel, since 
 there is nothing thou less desirest than peace and 
 quietness, come now, if thou art so mightily de- 
 
198 HERODOTUS 
 
 sirous of meeting the Massagetae in arms, leave 
 thy useless toil of bridge-making; let us retire 
 three days' march from the river bank, and do 
 thou come across with thy soldiers; or, if thou 
 hkest better to give us battle on thy side the 
 stream, retire thyself an equal distance." Cy- 
 rus, on this offer, called together the chiefs of 
 the Persians, and laid the matter before them, 
 requesting them to advise him what he should 
 do. All the votes were in favour of his letting 
 Tomyris cross the stream, and giving battle on 
 Persian ground. 
 
 207. But Croesus the Lydian, who was pres- 
 ent at the meeting of the chiefs, disapproved of 
 this advice; he therefore rose, and thus deliv- 
 ered his sentiments in opposition to it: "Oh! 
 my kingl I promised thee long since, that, as 
 Jove had given me into thy hands, I would, to 
 the best of my power, avert impending danger 
 from thy house. Alas! my own sufferings, by 
 their very bitterness, have taught me to be keen- 
 sighted of dangers. If thou deemest thyself an 
 immortal, and thine army an army of immor- 
 tals, my counsel will doubtless be thrown away 
 upon thee. But if thou f eelest thyself to be a 
 man, and a ruler of men, lay this first to heart, 
 that there is a wheel on which the affairs of men 
 revolve, and that its movement forbids the same 
 to be always fortunate. Now concerning the 
 
BOOK I CLIO 199 
 
 matter in hand, my judgment runs counter to 
 the judgment of thy other counsellors. For if 
 thou agreest to give the enemy entrance into thy 
 country, consider what risk is run! Lose the 
 battle, and therewith thy whole kingdom is lost. 
 For assuredly, the Massagetee, if they win the 
 fight, will not return to their homes, but will 
 push forward against the states of thy empire. 
 Or if thou gainest the battle, why, then thou 
 gainest far less than if thou wert across the 
 stream, where thou mightest follow up thy vic- 
 tory. For against thy loss, if they defeat thee 
 on thine own ground, must be set theirs in like 
 case. Rout their army on the other side of the 
 river, and thou mayest push at once into the 
 heart of their country. Moreover, were it not 
 disgrace intolerable for Cyrus the son of Cam- 
 byses to retire before and 3deld ground to a 
 woman? My counsel therefore is, that we cross 
 the stream, and pushing forward as far as they 
 shall fall back, then seek to get the better of 
 them by stratagem. I am told they are unac- 
 quainted with the good things on which the Per- 
 sians live, and have never tasted the great de- 
 lights of life. Let us then prepare a feast for 
 them in our camp ; let sheep be slaughtered with- 
 out stint, and the winecups be filled full of noble 
 liquor, and let all manner of dishes be prepared : 
 then leaving behind us our worst troops, let us 
 
200 HERODOTUS 
 
 fall back towards the river. Unless I very much 
 mistake, when they see the good fare sent out, 
 they will forget all else and fall to. Then 
 it will remain for us to do our parts man- 
 fully." 
 
 208. Cyrus, when the two plans were thus 
 placed in contrast before him, changed his mind, 
 and preferring the advice which Croesus had 
 given, returned for answer to Tomyris, that she 
 should retire, and that he would cross the 
 stream. She therefore retired, as she had en- 
 gaged; and Cyrus, giving Croesus into the care 
 of his son Cambyses (whom he had appointed to 
 succeed him on the throne) , with strict charge to 
 pay him all respect and treat him well, if the 
 expedition failed of success; and sending them 
 both back to Persia, crossed the river with his 
 army. 
 
 209. The first night after the passage, as he 
 slept in the enemy's country, a vision appeared 
 to him. He seemed to see in his sleep the eld- 
 est of the sons of Hystaspes, with wings upon 
 his shoulders, shadowing with the one wing 
 Asia, and Europe with the other. Now Hystas- 
 pes, the son of Arsames, was of the race of the 
 Achsemenidas, and his eldest son, Darius, was at 
 that time scarce twenty years old; wherefore, 
 not being of age to go to the wars, he had re- 
 mained behind in Persia. When Cyrus woke 
 from his sleep, and turned the vision over in his 
 
BOOK I CLIO 201 
 
 mind, it seemed to him no light matter. He 
 therefore sent for Hystaspes, and taking him 
 aside said, " Hystaspes, thy son is discovered to 
 be plotting against me and my crown. I will 
 tell thee how I know it so certainly. The gods 
 watch over my safety, and warn me beforehand 
 of every danger. Now last night, as I lay in 
 my bed, I saw in a vision the eldest of thy sons 
 with wings upon his shoulders, shadowing with 
 the one wing Asia, and Europe with the other. 
 From this it is certain, beyond all possible 
 doubt, that he is engaged in some plot against 
 me. Return thou then at once to Persia, and 
 be sure, when I come back from conquering the 
 Massagetae, to have thy son ready to produce 
 before me, that I may examine him," 
 
 210. Thus Cyrus spoke, in the belief that he 
 was plotted against by Darius; but he missed 
 the true meaning of the dream, which was sent 
 by God to forewarn him, that he was to die then 
 and there, and that his kingdom was to fall at 
 last to Darius. 
 
 Hystaspes made answer to Cyrus in these 
 words : " Heaven forbid, sire, that there should 
 be a Persian living who would plot against thee ! 
 If such an one there be, may a speedy death 
 overtake him! Thou foundest the Persians a 
 race of slaves, thou hast made them free men: 
 thou foundest them subject to others, thou hast 
 made them lords of all. If a vision has an- 
 
202 HERODOTUS 
 
 noiinced that my son is practising against thee, 
 lo, I resign him into thy hands to deal with as 
 thou wilt." Hystaspes, when he had thus an- 
 swered, recrossed the Araxes and hastened back 
 to Persia, to keep watch on his son Darius. 
 
 211. Meanwhile Cyrus, having advanced a 
 day's march from the river, did as Croesus had 
 advised him, and, leaving the worthless portion 
 of his army in the camp, drew off with his good 
 troops towards the river. Soon afterwards a 
 detachment of the Massagetse, one-third of 
 their entire army, led by Spargapises, son of the 
 queen Tomyris, coming up, fell upon the body 
 which had been left behind by Cyrus, and on 
 their resistance put them to the sword. Then, 
 seeing the banquet prepared, they sat down and 
 began to feast. When they had eaten and 
 drunk their fill, and were now sunk in sleep, the 
 Persians under Cyrus arrived, slaughtered a 
 great multitude, and made even a larger num- 
 ber prisoners. Among these last was Spargap- 
 ises himself. 
 
 212. When Tomyris heard what had befallen 
 her son and her army, she sent a herald to 
 Cyrus, who thus addressed the conqueror: 
 " Thou bloodthirsty Cyrus, pride not thyself on 
 this poor success : it was the grape-juice — ^which, 
 when ye drink it, makes you so mad, and as ye 
 swallow it down brings up to your lips such bold 
 and wicked words — it was this poison wherewith 
 
BOOK I CLIO 203 
 
 thou didst ensnare my child, and so overcamest 
 him, not in fair open fight. Now hearken what 
 I advise, and be sure I advise thee for thy good. 
 Restore my son to me and get thee from the 
 land unharmed, triumphant over a third part of 
 the host of the Massagetae. Refuse, and I 
 swear by the sun, the sovereign lord of the 
 Massagetae, bloodthirsty as thou art, I will give 
 thee thy fill of blood." 
 
 213. To the words of this message Cyrus 
 paid no manner of regard. As for Spargapises, 
 the son of the queen, when the wine went oiF, 
 and he saw the extent of his calamity, he made 
 request to Cyrus to release him from his bonds; 
 then, when his prayer was granted, and the fet- 
 ters were taken from his hmbs, as soon as his 
 hands were free, he destroyed himself. 
 
 214. Tomyris, when she found that Cyrus 
 paid no heed to her advice, collected all the 
 forces of her kingdom, and gave him battle. Of 
 all the combats in which the barbarians have en- 
 gaged among themselves, I reckon this to have 
 been the fiercest. The following, as I under- 
 stand, was the manner of it: First, the two 
 armies stood apart and shot their arrows at each 
 other; then, when their quivers were empty, they 
 closed and fought hand-to-hand with lances and 
 daggers; and thus they continued fighting for a 
 length of time, neither choosing to give ground. 
 At length the Massagetse prevailed. The 
 
204 HERODOTUS 
 
 greater part of the army of the Persians was 
 destroyed, and Cyrus himself fell, after reign- 
 ing nine and twenty years. Search was made 
 among the slain by order of the queen for the 
 body of Cyrus, and when it was found she took 
 a skin, and, filling it fuU of human blood, she 
 dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, 
 as she thus insulted the corse, " I live and have 
 conquered thee in fight, and yet by thee am I 
 ruined, for thou tookest my son with guile; but 
 thus I make good my threat, and give thee thy 
 fill of blood." Of the many different accounts 
 which are given of the death of Cyrus, this 
 which I have followed appears to me most 
 worthy of credit.^ 
 
 s It may be questioned whether the account, which out of many 
 seemed to our author most worthy of credit, was ever really 
 the most credible. Unwittingly Herodotus was drawn towards 
 the most romantic and poetic version of each story, and what 
 he admired most seemed to him the likeliest to be true. There 
 is no insincerity or pretence in this. In real good faith he 
 adopts the most perfectly poetic tale or legend. There is much 
 reason to believe that the tomb of Cyrus still exists at Murg- 
 Aub, the ancient Pasargadae. On a square base, composed of 
 immense blocks of beautiful white marble, rising in steps, stands 
 a structure so closely resembling the description of Arrian, that 
 it seems scarcely possible to doubt its being the tomb which in 
 Alexander's time contained the body of Cyrus. It is a quad- 
 rangular house, or rather chamber, built of huge blocks of marble, 
 5 feet thick, which are shaped at the top into a sloping roof. 
 Internally the chamber is 10 feet long, 7 wide, and 8 high. There 
 are holes in the marble floor, which seem to have admitted the 
 fastenings of a sarcophagus. The tomb stands in an area marked 
 out by pillars, whereon occurs repeatedly the inscription (writ- 
 ten both in Persian and in the so-called Median), " I am Cyrus 
 the king, the Achaemenian." 
 
BOOK I CLIO 205 
 
 215. In their dress and mode of living the 
 Massagetge resemble the Scythians. They fight 
 both on horseback and on foot, neither method 
 is strange to them: they use bows and lances, 
 but their favourite weapon is the battle-axe. 
 Their arms are all either of gold or brass. For 
 their spear-points, and arrow-heads, and for 
 their battle-axes, they make use of brass; for 
 head-gear, belts, and girdles, of gold. So too 
 with the caparison of their horses, they give 
 them breast-plates of brass, but employ gold 
 about the reins, the bit, and the cheek-plates. 
 They use neither iron nor silver, having none in 
 their country; but they have brass and gold in 
 abundance. 
 
 216. The following are some of their cus- 
 toms: Each man has but one wife, yet all the 
 wives are held in common; for this is a custom 
 of the Massagetae and not of the Scythians, as 
 the Greeks wrongly say. Human life does not 
 come to its natural close with this people; but 
 when a man grows very old, all his kinsfolk col- 
 lect together and offer him up in sacrifice ; offer- 
 ing at the same time some cattle also. After 
 the sacrifice they boil the flesh and feast on it; 
 and those who thus end their days are reckoned 
 the happiest. If a man dies of disease they do 
 not eat him, but bury him in the ground, bewail- 
 ing his ill-fortune that he did not come to be 
 sacrificed. They sow no grain, but live on their 
 
206 HERODOTUS 
 
 herds, and on fish, of which there is great plenty 
 in the Araxes. Milk is what they chiefly drink. 
 The only god they worship is the sun, and to him 
 they offer the horse in sacrifice; under the no- 
 tion of giving to the swiftest of the gods the 
 swiftest of all mortal creatures. 
 
Babylon 
 
 Painting by Von N eubauer reproduced from a 
 Rare Print in a Private Collection in Berlin 
 
BOOK II 
 
 EUTERPE 
 
 ON the death of Cyrus, Cambyses his 
 ' son by Cassandane daughter of Phar- 
 naspes, took the kingdom. Cassandane 
 had died in the lifetime of Cyrus, who had made 
 a great mourning for her at her death, and had 
 commanded all the subjects of his empire to ob- 
 serve the like. Cambyses, the son of this lady 
 and of Cyrus, regarding the Ionian and Mo- 
 lian Greeks as vassals of his father, took them 
 with him in his expedition against Egypt ^ 
 among the other nations which owned his sway. 
 2. Now the Egyptians, before the reign of 
 their king Psammetichus, believed themselves to 
 be the most ancient of mankind. Since Psam- 
 
 iThe date of the expedition of Cambyses against Egypt can- 
 not be fixed with absolute certainty. Manetho, whose authority 
 is of the greatest importance, gave Cambyses, according to 
 Africanus, a reign of six years in Egypt, which would place his 
 invasion in b. c. 527. Eusebius, however, reports Manetho dif- 
 ferently, and himself agrees nearly with Diodorus, who puts 
 the expedition in the 3rd year of the 63rd Olympiad, or b. c. 
 525. This date, which is the one ordinarily received, is, on the 
 whole, the most probable. It is curious that Herodotus, whose 
 principal object is to trace the gradual growth of the Persian 
 power, should say nothing directly of the first four years of 
 Cambyses, omitting thereby so important an event as the sub- 
 jection of Phoenicia, which was certainly eiccomplished by him. 
 
 SOT 
 
208 HERODOTUS 
 
 metichus, however, made an attempt to discover 
 who were actually the primitive race, they have 
 been of opinion that while they surpass all other 
 nations, the Phrygians surpass them in an- 
 tiquity. This king, finding it impossible to 
 make out by dint of inquiry what men were the 
 most ancient, contrived the following method of 
 discovery: He took two children of the com- 
 mon sort, and gave them over to a herdsman to 
 bring up at his folds, strictly charging him to let 
 no one utter a word in their presence, but to 
 keep them in a sequestered cottage, and from 
 time to time introduce goats to their apartment, 
 see that they got their fill of milk, and in all 
 other respects look after them. His object 
 herein was to know, after the indistinct bab- 
 blings of infancy were over, what word they 
 would first articulate. It happened as he had 
 anticipated. The herdsman obeyed his orders 
 for two years, and at the end of that time, on 
 his one day opening the door of their room and 
 going in, the children both ran up to him with 
 outstretched arms, and distinctly said " Becos." 
 When this first happened the herdsman took no 
 notice; but afterwards when he observed, on 
 coming often to see after them, that the word 
 was constantly in their mouths, he informed his 
 lord, and by his command brought the children 
 into his presence. Psammetichus then himself 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 209 
 
 heard them say the word, upon which he pro- 
 ceeded to make inquiry what people there was 
 who called anything " becos," and hereupon he 
 learnt that " becos " was the Phrygian name for 
 bread. In consideration of this circumstance 
 the Egyptians yielded their claims, and ad- 
 mitted the greater antiquity of the Phryg- 
 ians. 
 
 3. That these were the real facts I learnt at 
 Memphis from the priests of Vulcan. The 
 Greeks, among other foolish tales, relate that 
 Psammetichus had the children brought up by 
 women whose tongues he had previously cut 
 out; but the priests said their bringing up was 
 such as I have stated above. I got much other 
 information also from conversation with these 
 priests while I was at Memphis, and I even went 
 to Heliopolis and to Thebes, expressly to try 
 whether the priests of those places would agree 
 in their accounts with the priests at Memphis. 
 The Heliopolitans have the reputation of being 
 the best skilled in history of all the Egyptians.^ 
 What they told me concerning their religion it 
 is not my intention to repeat, except the names 
 of their deities, which I believe all men know 
 equally. If I relate anything else concerning 
 
 2 Heliopolis was the great seat of learning, and the university 
 of Egypt; and that it was one of the oldest cities is proved by 
 the obelisk of Osirtasen I. of the 12th dynasty. 
 
210 HERODOTUS 
 
 these matters, it will only be when compelled to 
 do so by the course of my narrative.^ 
 
 4. Now with regard to mere human matters, 
 the accounts which they gave, and in which all 
 agreed, were the following: The Egyptians, 
 they said, were the first to discover the solar 
 year, and to portion out its course into twelve 
 parts. They obtained this knowledge from the 
 stars. (To my mind they contrive their year 
 much more cleverly than the Greeks, for these 
 last every other year intercalate a whole month, 
 but the Egyptians, dividing the year into twelve 
 months of thirty days each, add every year a 
 space of five days besides, whereby the circuit 
 of the seasons is made to return with uniform- 
 ity.) The Egyptians, they went on to affirm, 
 first brought into use the names of the twelve 
 gods, which the Greeks adopted from them; 
 and first erected altars, images, and temples to 
 the Gods; and also first engraved upon stone 
 the figures of animals. In most of these cases 
 they proved to me that what they said was true. 
 And they told me that the first man who ruled 
 over Egypt was Men, and that in his time all 
 Egypt, except the Thebaic canton, was a 
 marsh, none of the land below lake Moeris then 
 
 8 The secrecy in matters of religion, which was no doubt en- 
 joined upon Herodotus by the Egyptian priests, did not seem 
 strange to a Greek, who was accustomed to it in the " mysteries " 
 of his own countrymen. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 211 
 
 showing itself above the surface of the water. 
 This is a distance of seven days' sail from the 
 sea up the river. 
 
 5. What they said of their country seemed to 
 me very reasonable. For any one who sees 
 Egypt, without having heard a word about it 
 before, must perceive, if he has only common 
 powers of observation, that the Egypt to which 
 the Greeks go in their ships is an acquired coun- 
 try, the gift of the river. The same is true of 
 the land above the lake to the distance of three 
 days' voyage, concerning which the Egyptians 
 say nothing, but which is exactly the same kind 
 of country. 
 
 The following is the general character of the 
 region. In the first place, on approaching it by 
 sea, when you are still a day's sail from the land, 
 if you let down a sounding-line you will bring 
 up mud, and find yourself in eleven fathoms' 
 water, which shows that the soil washed down 
 by the stream extends to that distance. 
 
 6. The length of the country along shore, ac- 
 cording to the bounds that we assign to Egypt, 
 namely, from the Plinthinetic gulf to Lake 
 Serbonis, which extends along the base of 
 Mount Casius, is sixty schoenes.* The nations 
 
 •* The schoene, an Egyptian measure, varied from 30 and 32 
 to 40 stadia, according to Pliny; and Strabo distinctly says it 
 was of various lengths in diflFerent parts of Egypt. Herodotus 
 says it was equal to 60 stadia, making the length of the coast 
 
212 HERODOTUS 
 
 whose territories are scanty measure them by 
 the fathom; those whose bounds are less con- 
 finedj by the furlong; those who have an ample 
 territory, by the parasang; but if men have a 
 country which is very vast, they measure it by 
 the schoene. Now the length of the parasang 
 is thirty furlongs, but the schoene, which is an 
 Egyptian measure, is sixty furlongs. Thus the 
 coast-line of Egypt would extend a length of 
 three thousand six h\mdred furlongs. 
 
 7. From the coast inland as far as Heliopolis 
 the breadth of Egypt is considerable; the coun- 
 try is flat, without springs, and full of swamps. 
 The length of the route from the sea up to 
 Heliopolis is almost exactly the same as that of 
 the road which runs from the altar of the twelve 
 gods at Athens to the temple of Olympian Jove 
 at Pisa. If a person made a calculation he 
 would find but a very little difference between 
 the two routes, not more than about fifteen fur- 
 longs; for the road from Athens to Pisa falls 
 short of fifteen hundred furlongs by exactly 
 
 3600 stadia, which, at 600 feet to the stadium, would be more 
 than 400 English miles. The real length of the coast from the 
 Bay of Plinthind at Taposiris, or at Plinthin^, even to the eastern 
 end of the Lake Serb6nis, is by the shore little more than 300 
 English miles. Diodorus estimates the breadth of Egypt by the 
 coast at 2000 stadia; and Strabo gives only 1770 stadia from the 
 Temple of Jupiter Casius at the Serbdnic Lake to Pharos, which, 
 added to 200 stadia to Taposiris, make 1970 stadia. The real 
 distance from Casius to Pharos is about 1944 stadia, and from 
 Pharos to Taposiris or to Plintbin6 nearly 260, being a total 
 of about 2204 stadia. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 213 
 
 fifteen, whereas the distance of Heliopolis from 
 the sea is just the round number.^ 
 
 8. As one proceeds beyond Heliopolis up the 
 country, Egypt becomes narrow, the Arabian 
 range of hills, which has a direction from north 
 to south, shutting it in upon the one side, and 
 the Libyan range upon the other. The former 
 ridge runs on without a break, and stretches 
 away to the sea called the Erythraean; it con- 
 tains the quarries whence the stone was cut for 
 the pyramids of Memphis: and this is the point 
 where it ceases its first direction, and bends 
 away in the manner above indicated. In its 
 greatest length from east to west it is, as I 
 have been informed, a distance of two months' 
 journey; towards the extreme east its skirts pro- 
 duce frankincense. Such are the chief features 
 of this range. On the Libyan side, the other 
 ridge whereon the pyramids stand, is rocky and 
 covered with sand; its direction is the same as 
 that of the Arabian ridge in the first part of its 
 
 « The site of Heliopolis is stiU marked by the massive walls 
 that surrounded it, and by a granite obelisk bearing the name 
 of Osirtasen I. of the 12th dynasty, dating about 3900 years ago. 
 It was one of two that stood before the entrance to the temple 
 of the Sun, at the inner end of an avenue of sphinxes; and the 
 apex, like some of those at Thebes, was once covered with bronze 
 (doubtless gilt), as is shown by the stone having been cut to 
 receive the metal casing, and by the testimony of Arab history. 
 Tradition also speaks of the other obelisk of Heliopolis, and of 
 the bronze taken from its apex. Pliny supposes that Mitres, 
 the first king who erected an obelisk, held his court at Heliopolis, 
 and that those monuments were dedicated to the Sun. 
 
214 HERODOTUS 
 
 course. Above Heliopolis, then, there is no 
 great breadth of territory for such a country as 
 Egypt, but during four days' sail Egypt is nar- 
 row; the valley between the two ranges is a level 
 plain, and seemed to me to be, at the narrowest 
 point, not more than two hundred furlongs 
 across from the Arabian to the Libyan hills. 
 Above this point Egypt again widens. 
 
 9. From Heliopolis to Thebes is nine days' 
 sail up the river; the distance is eighty-one 
 schoenes, or 4860 furlongs. If we now put to- 
 gether the several measurements of the country 
 we shall find that the distance along shore is, as 
 I stated above, 3600 furlongs, and the distance 
 from the sea inland to Thebes 6120 furlongs. 
 Further, it is a distance of eighteen hundred 
 furlongs from Thebes to the place called Ele- 
 phantine. 
 
 10. The greater portion of the country above 
 described seemed to me to be, as the priests de- 
 clared, a tract gained by the inhabitants. For 
 the whole region above Memphis, lying between 
 the two ranges of hills that have been spoken 
 of, appeared evidently to have formed at one 
 time a gulf of the sea. It resembles (to com- 
 pare small things with great) the parts about 
 Ilium and Teuthrania, Ephesus, and the plain 
 of the Mgeander. In all these regions the land 
 has been formed by rivers, whereof the greatest 
 is not to compare for size with any one of the 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 215 
 
 five mouths of the Nile. I could mention other 
 rivers also, far inferior to the Nile in magni- 
 tude, that have effected very great changes. 
 Among these not the least is the Acheloiis, 
 which after passing through Acarnania, 
 empties itself into the sea opposite the islands 
 called Echinades,® and has already joined one- 
 half of them to the continent. 
 
 11. In Arabia, not far from Egypt, there is 
 a long and narrow gulf running inland from 
 the sea called the Erythrasan, of which I will 
 here set down the dimensions. Starting from 
 its innermost recess, and using a row-boat, you 
 take forty days to reach the open main, while 
 you may cross the gulf at its widest part in the 
 space of half a day. In this sea there is an 
 ebb and flow of the tide every day. My opinion 
 is, that Egypt was formerly very much such a 
 gulf as this — one gulf penetrated from the sea 
 that washes Egypt on the north, and extended 
 itself towards Ethiopia; another entered from 
 the southern ocean, and stretched towards Syria ; 
 the two gulfs ran into the land so as almost to 
 meet each other, and left between them only a 
 
 « These islands, which still bear the same name among the 
 educated Greeks, consist of two clusters, linked together by the 
 barren and rugged Petald. The northern cluster contains IS 
 or 16 islands, the principal of which is Dhragondra. The south- 
 ern contains only five or six: the most important are Oxid, Makri, 
 and Vr6mona. They were till lately British dependencies, being 
 included in the Ionian islands. Except Oxld, they all lie north 
 of the present mouth of the Acheloiis (Aspro). 
 
216 HERODOTUS 
 
 very narrow tract of country. Now if the Nile 
 should choose to divert its waters from their 
 present bed into this Arabian gulf, what is there 
 to hinder it from being filled up by the stream 
 within, at the utmost, twenty thousand years? 
 For my part, I think it would be filled in half 
 the time. How then should not a gulf, even of 
 much greater size, have been filled up in the 
 ages that passed before I was born, by a river 
 that is at once so large and so given to working 
 changes? 
 
 12. Thus I give credit to those from whom I 
 received this account of Egypt, and am myself, 
 moreover, strongly of the same opinion, since I 
 remarked that the country projects into the sea 
 further than the neighbouring shores, and I ob- 
 served that there were shells upon the hills, and 
 that salt exuded from the soil to such an extent 
 as even to injure the pyramids; and I noticed 
 also that there is but a single hill in all Egypt 
 where sand is found, namely, the hill above 
 Memphis; and further, I found the country to 
 bear no resemblance either to its border-land, 
 Arabia, or to Libya — nay, nor even to Syria, 
 which forms the seaboard of Arabia; but 
 whereas the soil of Libya is, we know, sandy 
 and of a reddish hue, and that of Arabia and 
 Syria inclines to stone and clay, Egypt has a soU 
 that is black and crumbly, as being alluvial and 
 formed of the deposits brought down by the 
 river from Ethiopia. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 217 
 
 13. One fact which I learnt of the priests is 
 to me a strong evidence of the origin of the 
 country. They said that when Moeris was king, 
 the Nile overflowed all Egypt below Memphis, 
 as soon as it rose so little as eight cubits, Now 
 Moeris had not been dead 900 years at the time 
 when I heard this of the priests ; yet at the pres- 
 ent day, unless the river rise sixteen, or, at the 
 very least, fifteen cubits, it does not overflow 
 the lands. It seems to me, therefore, that if the 
 land goes on rising and growing at this rate, the 
 Egyptians who dwell below lake Moeris, in the 
 Delta (as it is called) and elsewhere, will one 
 day, by the stoppage of the inundations, suffer 
 permanently the fate which they told me they 
 expected would some time or other befall the 
 Greeks. On hearing that the whole land of 
 Greece is watered by rain from heaven, and not, 
 like their own, inundated by rivers, they ob- 
 served: " Some day the Greeks will be disap- 
 pointed of their grand hope, and then they will 
 be wretchedly hungry;" which was as much as 
 to say, " If God shall some day see fit not to 
 grant the Greeks rain, but shall afilict them with 
 a long drought, the Greeks will be swept away 
 by a famine, since they have nothing to rely on 
 but rain from Jove, and have no other resource 
 for water." 
 
 14. And certes, in thus speaking of the 
 Greeks the Egyptians say nothing but what is 
 true. But now let me tell the Egyptians how 
 
218 HERODOTUS 
 
 the case stands with themselves. If, as I said 
 before, the country below Memphis, which is 
 the land that is always rising, continues to in- 
 crease in height at the rate at which it has risen 
 in times gone by, how will it be possible for the 
 inhabitants of that region to avoid hunger, when 
 they will certainly have no rain, and the river 
 will not be able to overflow their corn-lands? 
 At present, it must be confessed, they obtain 
 the fruits of the field with less trouble than any 
 other people in the world, the rest of the Egyp- 
 tians included, since they have no need to break 
 up the ground with the plough, nor to use the 
 hoe, nor to do any of the work which the rest 
 of mankind find necessary if they are to get a 
 crop; '^ but the husbandman waits till the river 
 has of its own accord spread itself over the 
 
 7 That the labour for growing corn was less in Egypt than 
 in other countries is certainly true; and in the low lands of the 
 Delta, to which Herodotus here alludes, as well as in the hol- 
 lows away from the river, near the edge of the desert, where the 
 level of the land is the lowest, they probably dispensed with 
 the plough, as at the present day, and simply dragged the mud 
 with bushes after the seed had been thrown upon it, driving in a 
 number of sheep, goats, or pigs, to tread in the grain; but for 
 other crops considerable labour was required in raising water to 
 irrigate the land; and during the summer and autumn few soils 
 require more attention than in the dry climate of Egypt. Though 
 the fields were occasionally sown, as now, by casting the seed 
 into the mud on the retiring of the waters, this was not the uni- 
 versal custom among the Egyptians, and the plough is always 
 represented in the agricultural scenes, both in Upper Egypt 
 and on the monuments about Memphis. The furrows were not 
 deep: and Diodorus and Columella say that they were contented 
 to "trace slight furrows with a light plough on the surface of 
 the land," a mode of tillage resembling the scariflcatlo of the 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 219 
 
 fields and withdrawn again to its bed, and then 
 sows his plot of ground, and after sowing turns 
 his swine into it — the swine tread in the corn — 
 after which he has only to await the harvest. 
 The swine serve him also to thrash the grain, 
 which is then carried to the garner. 
 
 15. If then we choose to adopt the views of 
 the lonians concerning Egypt, we must come 
 to the conclusion that the Egyptians had for- 
 merly no country at all. For the lonians say 
 that nothing is really Egypt but the Delta, 
 which extends along shore from the Watch- 
 tower of Perseus, as it is called, to the Pelusiac 
 Salt-pans, a distance of forty schoenes, and 
 stretches inland as far as the city of Cercasorus, 
 where the Nile divides into the two streams 
 which reach the sea at Pelusium and Canobus 
 respectively. The rest of what is accounted 
 Egypt belongs, they say, either to Arabia or 
 Libya. But the Delta, as the Egyptians afRrm, 
 and as I myself am persuaded, is formed of the 
 deposits of the river, and has only recently, if I 
 may use the expression, come to light. If, then, 
 they had formerly no territory at all, how came 
 they to be so extravagant as to fancy themselves 
 the most ancient race in the world? Surely 
 there was no need of their making the experi- 
 ment with the. children to see what language 
 
 Romans, continued in Egypt at the present day. After the 
 plough followed the hoe to break the clods; and the land having 
 been prepared, the sower was sent in, who threw the seed broad- 
 cast over the field. 
 
220 HERODOTUS 
 
 they would first speak. But in truth I do not 
 believe that the Egyptians came into being at 
 the same time with the Delta, as the lonians call 
 it; I think they have always existed ever since 
 the human race began; as the land went on in- 
 creasing, part of the population came down into 
 the new country, part remained in their old set- 
 tlements. In ancient times the Thebais bore the 
 name of Egypt, a district of which the entire 
 circumference is but 6120 furlongs. 
 
 16. If, then, my judgment on these matters 
 be right, the lonians are mistaken in what they 
 say of Egypt. If, on the contrary, it is they 
 who are right, then I undertake to show that 
 neither the lonians nor any of the other Greeks 
 know how to count. For they aU say that the 
 earth is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, 
 and Libya, whereas they ought to add a fourth 
 part, the Delta of Egypt, since they do not in- 
 clude it either in Asia or Libya.® For is it not 
 
 8 Though Egypt really belongs to the continent of Africa, the 
 inhabitants were certainly of Asiatic origin; and the whole of the 
 valley of the Nile has been peopled by the primeval immigra- 
 tion of a Caucasian race. This seems to be indicated also by 
 the Bible history, where the grandsons of Noah are made the 
 inhabitants of Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya, and Canaan; and Juba, 
 according to Pliny, afirms with reason that the people of the 
 banks of the Nile from Syene to Meroe, were not Ethiopians 
 (blacks), but Arabs. TiU a later time half Egypt was ascribed 
 to Africa, "which extended to the sources of the Nile," and 
 " the Tanais and Nile were the limits of Asia " ; but more rea- 
 sonable people, says Strabo, think the Arabian Gulf the proper 
 separation of the two continents rather than the Nile. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 221 
 
 their theory that the Nile separates Asia from 
 Libya? As the Nile, therefore, splits in two 
 at the apex of the Delta, the Delta itself must 
 be a separate country, not contained in either 
 Asia or Libya. 
 
 17. Here I take my leave of the opinions of 
 the lonians, and proceed to deliver my own sen- 
 timents on these subjects. I consider Egypt to 
 be the whole country inhabited by the Egyp- 
 tians, just as Cilicia is the tract occupied by the 
 Cilicians, and Assyria that possessed by the As- 
 syrians. And I regard the only proper bound- 
 ary line between Libya and Asia to be that 
 which is marked out by the Egyptian frontier. 
 For if we take the boundary line commonly re- 
 ceived by the Greeks, we must regard Egypt as 
 divided, along its whole length from Elephantine 
 and the Cataracts to Cercasorus, into two parts, 
 each belonging to a different portion of the 
 world, one to Asia, the other to Libya; since the 
 Nile divides Egypt in two from the Cataracts 
 to the sea, running as far as the city of Cerca- 
 sorus in a single stream, but at that point sepa- 
 rating into three branches, whereof the one 
 which bends eastward is called the Pelusiac 
 mouth, and that which slants to the west, the 
 Canobic. Meanwhile the straight course of the 
 stream, which comes down from the upper coun- 
 try and meets the apex of the Delta, continues 
 on, dividing the Delta down the middle, and 
 
222 HERODOTUS 
 
 empties itself into the sea by a mouth, which is 
 as celebrated, and carries as large a body of 
 water, as most of the others, the mouth called 
 the Sebennytic. Besides these there are two 
 other mouths which run out of the Sebennytic 
 called respectively the Saitic and the Mendesian. 
 The Bolbitine mouth, and the Bucolic, are not 
 natural branches, but chamiels made by exca- 
 vation. 
 
 18. My judgment as to the extent of Egypt 
 is confirmed by an oracle delivered at the shrine 
 of Ammon, of which I had no knowledge at all 
 until after I had formed my opinion. It hap- 
 pened that the people of the cities Marea and 
 Apis, who live in the part of Egypt that bor- 
 ders on Libya, took a dislike to the religious 
 usages of the country concerning sacrificial ani- 
 mals, and wished no longer to be restricted from 
 eating the flesh of cows.® So, as they believed 
 themselves to be Libyans and not Egyptians, 
 they sent to the shrine to say that, having noth- 
 ing in common with the Egyptians, neither in- 
 
 9 Though oxen were lawful food to the Egyptians, cows and 
 heifers were forbidden to be killed, either for the altar or the 
 table, being consecrated (not as Herodotus states, to Isis, but 
 as Strabo says) to Athor, who was represented under the form 
 of a spotted cow, and to whose temple at Atarbechis, " the city 
 of Athor," as Herodotus afterwards shows, the bodies of those 
 that died were carried. It is, however, very excusable in him to 
 confound the two goddesses, as they often assume each other's 
 attributes, and it is then difScult to distinguish them without the 
 hieroglyphic legends. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 223 
 
 habiting the Delta nor using the Egyptian 
 tongue, they claimed to be allowed to eat what- 
 ever they pleased. Their request, however, was 
 refused by the god, who declared in reply that 
 Egypt was the entire tract of country which the 
 Nile overspreads and irrigates, and the Egyp- 
 tians were the people who lived below Elephan- 
 tine, and drank the waters of that river. 
 
 19. So said the oracle. Now the Nile, when 
 it overflows, floods not only the Delta, but also 
 the tracts of country on both sides of the 
 stream, which are thought to belong to Libya 
 and Arabia, in some places reaching to the ex- 
 tent of two days' journey from its banks, in 
 some even exceeding that distance, but in others 
 falling short of it. 
 
 Concerning the nature of the river, I was not 
 able to gain any information either from the 
 priests or from others. I was particularly anx- 
 ious to learn from them why the Nile, at the 
 commencement of the summer solstice, begins to 
 rise, and continues to increase for a hundred 
 days — ^and why, as soon as that number is past, 
 it forthwith retires and contracts its stream, 
 continuing low during the whole of the winter 
 until the summer solstice comes round again. 
 On none of these points could I obtain any ex- 
 planation from the inhabitants, though I made 
 every inquiry, wishing to know what was com- 
 monly reported — ^they could neither tell me 
 
224 HERODOTUS 
 
 what special virtue the Nile has which makes it 
 so opposite in its nature to all other streams, 
 nor why, unlike every other river, it gives forth 
 no breezes from its surface. 
 
 20. Some of the Greeks, however, wishing to 
 get a reputation for cleverness, have offered ex- 
 planations of the phenomena of the river, for 
 which they have accounted in three different 
 ways. Two of these I do not think it worth 
 while to speak of, further than simply to men- 
 tion what they are. One pretends that the Ete- 
 sian winds cause the rise of the river by pre- 
 venting the Nile-water from running off into 
 the sea. But in the first place it has often hap- 
 pened, when the Etesian winds did not blow, 
 that the Nile has risen according to its usual 
 wont; and further, if the Etesian winds pro- 
 duced the effect, the other rivers which flow in 
 a direction opposite to those winds ought to 
 present the same phenomena as the Nile, and 
 the more so as they are all smaller streams, and 
 have a weaker current. But these rivers, of 
 which there are many both in Syria and Libya, 
 are entirely unlike the Nile in this respect. 
 
 21. The second opinion is even more unscien- 
 tific than the one just mentioned, and also, if 
 I may so say, more marvellous. It is that the 
 Nile acts so strangely, because it flows from 
 the ocean, and that the ocean flows all round the 
 earth. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 225 
 
 22. The third explanation, which is very much 
 more plausible than either of the others, is posi- 
 tively the furthest from the truth; for there is 
 really nothing in what it says, any more than 
 in the other theories. It is, that the inundation 
 of the Nile is caused by the melting of snows. 
 Now, as the Nile flows out of Libya, through 
 Ethiopia, into Egypt, how is it possible that it 
 can be formed of melted snow, running, as it 
 does, from the hottest regions of the world into 
 cooler countries? Many are the proofs whereby 
 any one capable of reasoning on the subject 
 may be convinced that it is most unlikely this 
 should be the case. The first and strongest 
 argument is furnished by the winds, which al- 
 ways blow hot from these regions. The second 
 is, that rain and frost are unknown there. Now, 
 whenever snow falls, it must of necessity rain 
 within five days; so that, if there were snow, 
 there must be rain also in those parts. Thirdly, 
 it is certain that the natives of the country are 
 black with the heat, that the kites and the swal- 
 lows remain there the whole year, and that the 
 cranes, when they fly from the rigours of a 
 Scythian winter, flock thither to pass the cold 
 season. If then, in the country whence the Nile 
 has its source, or in that through which it flows, 
 there fell ever so little snow, it is absolutely 
 impossible that any of these circumstances could 
 take place. 
 
226 HERODOTUS 
 
 23. As for the writer who attributes the phe- 
 nomenon to the ocean, his account is involved in 
 such obscurity, that it is impossible to disprove 
 it by argument. For my part I know of no 
 river called Ocean, and I think that Homer, or 
 one of the earlier poets, invented the name, and 
 introduced it into his poetry. 
 
 24. Perhaps, after censuring all the opinions 
 that have been put forward on this obscure sub- 
 ject, one ought to propose some theory of one's 
 own. I will therefore proceed to explain what 
 I think to be the reason of the Nile's swelling 
 in the summer time. During the winter, the sun 
 is driven out of his usual course by the storms, 
 and removes to the upper parts of Libya. This 
 is the whole secret in the fewest possible words; 
 for it stands to reason that the country to which 
 the Sun-god approaches the nearest, and which 
 he passes most directly over, will be scantest of 
 water, and that there the streams which feed the 
 rivers will shrink the most. 
 
 25. To explain, however, more at length, the 
 case is this. The sun, in his passage across the 
 upper parts of Libya, affects them in the fol- 
 lowing way. As the air in those regions is con- 
 stantly clear, and the country warm through the 
 absence of cold winds, the sun in his passage 
 across them acts upon them exactly as he is 
 wont to act elsewhere in summer, when his path 
 is in the middle of heaven — that is, he attracts 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 227 
 
 the water. After attracting it, he again repels 
 it into the upper regions, where the winds lay 
 hold of it, scatter it, and reduce it to a vapour, 
 whence it naturally enough comes to pass that 
 the winds which blow from this quarter — the 
 south and southwest — are of all winds the most 
 rainy. And my own opinion is that the sun 
 does not get rid of all the water which he draws 
 year by year from the Nile, but retains some 
 about him. When the winter begins to soften, 
 the sun goes back again to his old place in the 
 middle of the heaven, and proceeds to attract 
 water equally from all countries. Till then the 
 other rivers run big, from the quantity of rain- 
 water which they bring down from countries 
 where so much moisture falls that aU the land 
 is cut into gullies; but in summer, when the 
 showers fail, and the sun attracts their water, 
 they become low. The Nile, on the contrary, 
 not deriving any of its bulk from rains, and 
 being in winter subject to the attraction of the 
 sun, naturally runs at that season, unhke all 
 other streams, with a less burthen of water than 
 in the summer time. For in summer it is ex- 
 posed to attraction equally with all other rivers, 
 but in winter it suffers alone. The sun, there- 
 fore, I regard as the sole cause of the phenom- 
 enon. 
 
 26. It is the sun also, in my opinion, which, 
 by heating the space through which it passes, 
 
 ■ 
 
228 HERODOTUS 
 
 makes the air in Egypt so dry. There is thus 
 perpetual summer in the upper parts of Libya. 
 Were the position of the heavenly regions re- 
 versed, so that the place where now the north 
 wind and the winter have their dwelling became 
 the station of the south wind and of the noon- 
 day, while, on the other hand, the station of the 
 south wind became that of the north, the con- 
 sequence would be that the sun, driven from the 
 mid-heaven by the winter and the northern 
 gales, would betake himself to the upper parts 
 of Europe, as he now does to those of Libya, 
 and then I believe his passage across Europe 
 would affect the Ister exactly as the Nile is af- 
 fected at the present day. 
 
 27. And with respect to the fact that no 
 breeze blows from the Nile, I am of opinion that 
 no wind is likely to arise in very hot countries, 
 for breezes love to blow from some cold quarter. 
 
 28. Let us leave these things, however, to 
 their natural course, to continue as they are and 
 have been from the beginning. With regard to 
 the sources of the Nile, I have found no one 
 among all those with whom I have conversed, 
 whether Egyptians, Libyans, or Greeks, who 
 professed to have any knowledge, except a sin- 
 gle person. He was the scribe who kept the 
 register of the sacred treasures of Minerva in 
 the city of Sais, and he did not seem to me to 
 be in earnest when he said that he knew them 
 
BOOK II EUTEUPE 229 
 
 perfectly well. His story was as follows : "Be- 
 tween Syene, a city of the Thebais, and Ele- 
 phantine, there are " (he said) " two hills with 
 sharp conical tops; the name of the one is 
 Cophi, of the other, Mophi. Midway between 
 them are the fountains of the Nile, fountains 
 which it is impossible to fathom. Half the 
 water runs northward into Egypt, half to the 
 south towards Ethiopia." The fountains were 
 known to be unfathomable, he declared, because 
 Psammetichus, an Egyptian king, had made 
 trial of them. He had caused a rope to be made, 
 many thousand fathoms in length, and had 
 sounded the fountain with it, but could find no 
 bottom. By this the scribe ^ gave me to under- 
 stand, if there was any truth at all in what he 
 said, that in this fountain there are certain 
 strong eddies, and a regurgitation, owing to the 
 force wherewith the water dashes against the 
 mountains, and hence a sounding-line cannot be 
 got to reach the bottom of the spring. 
 
 29. No other information on this head could 
 I obtain from any quarter. All that I suc- 
 
 1 The scribes had different offices and grades. The sacred 
 scribes held a high post in the priesthood; and the royal scribes 
 were the king's sons and military men of rank. There were also 
 ordinary scribes or notaries, who were conveyancers, wrote let- 
 ters on business, settled accounts, and performed different offices 
 in the market. The sacred scribes, or hierogrammats, had also 
 various duties. Some, as the one here mentioned, were scribes 
 of the treasury, others of the granaries, others of the docu- 
 ments belonging to the temple, etc. 
 
S30 HERODOTUS 
 
 ceeded in learning fm-ther of the more distant 
 portions of the, Nile, by ascending myself as 
 high as Elephantine, and making inquiries con- 
 cerning the parts beyond, was the following: 
 As one advances beyond Elephantine, the land 
 rises. Hence it is necessary in this part of the 
 river to attach a rope to the boat on each side, 
 as men harness an ox, and so proceed on the 
 journey. If the rope snaps, the vessel is borne 
 away down stream by the force of the current. 
 The navigation continues the same for four 
 days, the river winding greatly, like the Ma2an- 
 der, and the distance traversed amounting to 
 twelve schoenes. Here you come upon a smooth 
 and level plain, where the Nile flows in two 
 branches, round an island called Tachompso. 
 The country above Elephantine is inhabited by 
 the Ethiopians, who possess one-half of this 
 island, the Egyptians occupying the other. 
 Above the island there is a great lake, the shores 
 of which are inhabited by Ethiopian nomads; 
 after passing it, you come again to the stream 
 of the Nile, which runs into the lake. Here you 
 land, and travel for forty days along the banks 
 of the river, since it is impossible to proceed 
 further in a boat on account of the sharp peaks 
 which jut out from the water, and the sunken 
 rocks which abound in that part of the stream. 
 When you have passed this portion of the river 
 in the space of forty days, you go on board an- 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 231 
 
 other boat and proceed by water for twelve daj'^s 
 more, at the end of which time you reach a great 
 city called Meroe, which is said to be the capital 
 of the other Ethiopians. The only gods wor- 
 shipped by the inhabitants are Jupiter and 
 Bacchus, to whom great honours are paid. 
 There is an oracle of Jupiter in the city, which 
 directs the warlike expeditions of the Ethio- 
 pians; when it commands they go to war,^ and 
 in whatever direction it bids them march, thither 
 straightway they carry their arms. 
 
 30. On leaving this city, and again mounting 
 the stream, in the same space of time which it 
 took you to reach the capital from Elephantine, 
 you come to the Deserters, who bear the name 
 
 2 The influence of the priests at Meroe, through the belief 
 that they spoke the commands of the Deity, Is more fully shown 
 by Strabo and Diodorus, who say It was their custom to send 
 to the king, when it pleased them, and order him to put an end 
 to himself, in obedience to the will of the oracle imparted to 
 them; and to such a degree had they contrived to enslave the 
 understanding of those princes by superstitious fears, that they 
 were obeyed without opposition. At length a king, called 
 Ergamenes, a contemporary of Ptolemy Philadelphus, dared to 
 disobey their orders, and having entered "the golden chapel" 
 with his soldiers, caused them to be put to death in his stead, 
 and abolished the custom. Ergamenes had " studied the philosophy 
 of Greece," and had the sense to distinguish between priestly 
 rule and religion, knowing that blind obedience to the priests did 
 not signify obedience to the divine will; but these vested rights 
 on man's credulity seem to have been afterwards revived among 
 the Ethiopians, and the expedition sent by Mohammed Ali up 
 the White Nile learnt that the same custom of ordering the king 
 to die now exists among some of their barbarous descendants. 
 The name of Ergamenes is found in the temple of Dakkeb, In 
 Nubia. 
 
232 HERODOTUS 
 
 of Asmach. This word, translated into our 
 language, means "the men who stand on the 
 left hand of the king." These Deserters are 
 Egyptians of the warrior caste, who, to the 
 number of two hundred and forty thousand, 
 went over to the Ethiopians in the reign of king 
 Psammetichus. The cause of their desertion 
 was the following: Three garrisons were main- 
 tained in Egypt at that time, one in the city of 
 Elephantine against the Ethiopians, another in 
 the Pelusiac Daphnee, against the Syrians and 
 Arabians, and a third, against the Libyans, in 
 Marea. (The very same posts are to this day 
 occupied by the Persians, whose forces are in 
 garrison both in Daphnse and in Elephantine.) 
 Now it happened, that on one occasion the gar- 
 risons were not relieved during the space of 
 three years; the soldiers, therefore, at the end 
 of that time, consulted together, and having de- 
 termined by common consent to revolt, marched 
 away towards Ethiopia. Psammetichus, in- 
 formed of the movement, set out in pursuit, 
 and coming up with them, besought them with 
 many words not to desert the gods of their 
 country, nor abandon their wives and children. 
 " Nay, but," said one of the deserters with an 
 unseemly gesture, " wherever we go, we are sure 
 enough of finding wives and children." Arrived 
 in Ethiopia, they placed themselves at the dis- 
 posal of the king. In return, he made them a 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 233 
 
 present of a tract of land which belonged to cer- 
 tain Ethiopians with whom he was at feud, bid- 
 ding them expel the inhabitants and take pos- 
 session of their territory. From the time that 
 this settlement was formed, their acquaintance 
 with Egyptian manners has tended to civilise 
 the Ethiopians. 
 
 31. Thus the course of the Nile is known, not 
 only throughout Egypt, but to the extent of 
 four months' journey either by land or water 
 above the Egyptian boundary; for on calcula- 
 tion it will be found that it takes that length of 
 time to travel from Elephantine to the country 
 of the Deserters. There the direction of the 
 river is from west to east. Beyond, no one has 
 any certain knowledge of its course, since the 
 country is uninhabited by reason of the excess- 
 ive heat. 
 
 32. I did hear, indeed, what I will now relate, 
 from certain natives of Cyrene. Once upon a 
 time, they said, they were on a visit to the orac- 
 ular shrine of Ammon,^ when it chanced that 
 
 s This was in the modern Oasis of See-Wah (Siwah), where 
 remains of the temple are still seen. The oracle long continued 
 in great repute, and though in Strabo's time it began to lose its 
 importance (the mode of divination learnt from Etruria having 
 superseded the consultation of the distant Ammon), still its 
 answers were sought in the solution of difficult questions in the 
 days of Juvenal, " after the cessation of the Delphic oracle." 
 In consulting the God at the Oasis of Ammon, it was customary, 
 says Quintus Curtius, " for the priests to carry the figure of the 
 God in a gilded boat, ornamented with numerous silver paterae 
 hanging from it on both sides, behind which followed a train 
 
284. HERODOTUS 
 
 in the course of conversation with Etearchus, the 
 Aminonian king, the talk fell upon the Nile, 
 how that its sources were unknown to all men. 
 Etearchus upon this mentioned that some Nasa- 
 monians had once come to his court, and when 
 asked if they could give any information con- 
 cerning the uninhabited parts of Libya, had 
 told the following tale. (The Nasamonians are 
 a Libyan race who occupy the Syrtis, and a 
 tract of no great size towards the east.) They 
 said there had grown up among them some wild 
 young men, the sons of certain chiefs, who, 
 when they came to man's estate, indulged in all 
 manner of extravagancies, and among other 
 things drew lots for five of their nmnber to go 
 and explore the desert parts of Libya, and try 
 if they could not penetrate further than any had 
 done previously. (The coast of Libya along 
 the sea which washes it to the north, throughout 
 its entire length from Egypt to Cape Soloeis, 
 which is its furthest point, is inhabited by Lib- 
 yans of many distinct tribes who possess the 
 whole tract except certain portions which belong 
 to the Phoenicians and the Greeks. Above the 
 coast-line and the country inhabited by the mari- 
 time tribes, Libya is full of wild beasts; while 
 beyond the wild-beast region there is a tract 
 
 of matrons and virgins singing a certain uncouth hymn, in the 
 manner of the country, with a view to propitiate the deity, and 
 induce him to return a satisfactory answer." 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 235 
 
 which is wholly sand, very scant of water, and 
 utterly and entirely a desert.) The young men 
 therefore, despatched on this errand by their 
 comrades with a plentiful supply of water and 
 provisions, travelled at first through the inhab- 
 ited region, passing which they came to the wild- 
 beast tract, whence they finally entered upon the 
 desert, which they proceeded to cross in a direc- 
 tion from east to west. After journeying for 
 many days over a wide extent of sand, they 
 came at last to a plain where they observed trees 
 growing; approaching them, and seeing fruit on 
 them, they proceeded to gather it. While they 
 were thus engaged, there came upon them some 
 dwarfish men, under the middle height, who 
 seized them and carried them off. The Nasa- 
 monians could not understand a word of their 
 language, nor had they any acquaintance with 
 the language of the Nasamonians. They were 
 led across extensive marshes, and finally came 
 to a town, where all the men were of the height 
 of their conductors, and black-complexioned. A 
 great river flowed by the town, running from 
 west to east, and containing crocodiles. 
 
 33. Here let me dismiss Etearchus the Am- 
 monian, and his story, only adding that (accord- 
 ing to the Cyrengeans) he declared that the Nas- 
 amonians got safe back to their country, and 
 that the men whose city they had reached were 
 a nation of sorcerers. With respect to the river 
 
236 HERODOTUS 
 
 which ran by their town, Etearchus conjectured 
 it to be the Nile ; and reason favours that view. 
 For the Nile certainly flows out of Libya, di- 
 viding it down the middle, and as I conceive, 
 judging the unknown from the known, rises at 
 the same distance from its mouth as the Ister. 
 This latter river has its source in the country of 
 the Celts near the city Pyrene, and runs through 
 the middle of Europe, dividing it into two por- 
 tions. The Celts live beyond the Pillars of Her- 
 cules, and border on the Cynesians, who dweU at 
 the extreme west of Europe. Thus the Ister 
 flows through the whole of Europe before it 
 finally empties itself into the Euxine at Istria, 
 one of the colonies of the Milesians. 
 
 34. Now as this river flows through regions 
 that are inhabited, its course is perfectly well 
 known; but of the sources of the Nile no one 
 can give any account, since Libya, the country 
 through which it passes, is desert and without 
 inhabitants. As far as it was possible to get 
 information by inquiry, I have given a descrip- 
 tion of the stream. It enters Egypt from the 
 parts beyond, Egypt lies almost exactly oppo- 
 site the mountainous portion of Cilicia, whence 
 a lightly-equipped traveller may reach Sinope 
 on the Euxine in five days by the direct route. 
 Sinope lies opposite the place where the Ister 
 falls into the sea. My opinion therefore is that 
 the Nile, as it traverses the whole of Libya, is 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 237 
 
 of equal length with the Ister. And here I take 
 my leave of this subject. 
 
 35. Concerning Egypt itself I shall extend 
 my remarks to a great length, because there is 
 no country that possesses so many wonders,* nor 
 any that has such a number of works which defy 
 description. Not only is the climate different 
 from that of the rest of the world, and the 
 rivers unhke any other rivers, but the people 
 also, in most of their manners and customs, ex- 
 actly reverse the common practice of mankind. 
 The women attend the markets and trade, while 
 the men sit at home at the loom; and here, while 
 the rest of the world works the woof up the 
 warp, the Egyptians work it down; the women 
 likewise carry burthens upon their shoulders, 
 while the men carry them upon their heads. 
 They eat their food out of doors in the streets, 
 but retire for private purposes to their houses, 
 giving as a reason that what is unseemly, but 
 necessary, ought to be done in secret, but what 
 
 1 By this statement Herodotus prepares his readers for what 
 he is about to relate; but the desire to tell of the wonders in 
 which it differed from all other countries led Herodotus to 
 indulge in his love of antithesis, so that in some cases he con- 
 fines to one sex what was done by both (a singular instance being 
 noted down by him as an invariable custom), and in others he 
 has indulged in the marvellous at a sacrifice of truth. If, how- 
 ever, Herodotus had told us that the Egyptian women enjoyed 
 greater liberty, confidence, and consideration than under the 
 hareem system of the Greeks and Persians, he would have been 
 fully justified, for the treatment of women in Egypt was far 
 better than in Greece, 
 
238 HERODOTUS 
 
 has nothing unseemly about it, should be done 
 openly. A woman cannot serve the priestly 
 office,® either for god or goddess, but men are 
 priests to both; sons need not support their pa- 
 rents unless they choose, but daughters must, 
 whether they choose or no. 
 
 36. In other countries the priests have long 
 hair, in Egypt their heads are shaven; elsewhere 
 it is customary, in mourning, for near relations 
 to cut their hair close ; the Egyptians, who wear 
 no hair at any other time, when they lose a 
 relative, let their beards and the hair of their 
 
 5 Though men held the priesthood in Egypt, as in other coun- 
 tries, women were not excluded from certain important duties in 
 the temples, as Herodotus also shows; the queens made offerings 
 with the kings; and the monuments, as well as Diodorus, show 
 that an order of women, chosen from the principal families, were 
 employed in the service of the gods. It is of these that Diodorus, 
 and even Herodotus, have told stories the absurdity of which is 
 sufficiently evident when we consider that queens and women 
 of the highest rank held the ofBce in the temple of Amun; and 
 it is probable that these were members of a sacred college, into 
 which they entered on the death of their husbands, in order to 
 devote themselves to religious duties. It was perhaps then that 
 they received the title of " divine wife," or " god's wife " ; which 
 from the following formula — " the royal daughter, the royal 
 wife, the divine (god's) wife, the god's mother," would refer to 
 her relationship to a king; as no office could make any one the 
 mother of Amun. The widow of Ames, however, seems to be 
 called "Goddess wife of Amun"; which would show them to 
 be spouses of the deity. They were also styled " god's hand," 
 and " god's (the divine) star." Their chief office in the religious 
 ceremonies was to sing the praises of the deity, playing on various 
 instruments; in the temple the highest of their order, as queens 
 and princesses, held the sistra; and at Thebes they were called 
 the minstrels and chiefs of the women of Amun. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 239 
 
 heads grow long. All other men pass their lives 
 separate from animals, the Egyptians have ani- 
 mals always living with them; others make barley 
 and wheat their food; it is a disgrace to do so in 
 Egypt, where the grain they live on is spelt, 
 which some call zea. Dough they knead with 
 their feet; but they mix mud, and even take up 
 dirt, with their hands. They are the only peo- 
 ple in the world — they at least, and such as have 
 learnt the practice from them — who use circum- 
 cision. Their men wear two garments apiece, 
 their women but one. They put on the rings 
 and fasten the ropes to sails inside; others put 
 them outside. When they write or calculate, in- 
 stead of going, like the Greeks, from left to 
 right, they move their hand from right to left; 
 and they insist, notwithstanding, that it is they 
 who go to the right, and the Greeks who go to 
 the left. They have two quite different kinds of 
 writing, one of which is called sacred, the other 
 common. 
 
 37. They are religious to excess, far beyond 
 any other race of men, and use the following 
 ceremonies: They drink out of brazen cups, 
 which they scour every day: there is no excep- 
 tion to this practice. They wear linen garments, 
 which they are specially careful to have always 
 fresh washed. They practise circumcision for 
 the sake of cleanliness, considering it better to 
 be cleanly than comely. The priests shave their 
 
240 HERODOTUS 
 
 whole body every other day, that no lice or other 
 impure thing may adhere to them when they are 
 engaged in the service of the gods. Their dress 
 is entirely of linen, and their shoes of the papy- 
 rus plant: it is not lawful for them to wear 
 either dress or shoes of any other material. 
 They bathe twice every day in cold water, and 
 twice each night; besides which they observe, so 
 to speak, thousands of ceremonies. They enjoy, 
 however, not a few advantages. They consume 
 none of their own property, and are at no ex- 
 pense for anything; but every day bread is 
 baked for them of the sacred corn, and a plen- 
 tiful supply of beef and of goose's flesh. is as- 
 signed to each, and also a portion of wine made 
 from the grape. Fish they are not allowed to 
 eat; and beans, — which none of the Egyptians 
 ever sow, or eat, if they come up of their own 
 accord, either raw or boUed — the priests will not 
 even endure to look on, since they consider it an 
 unclean kind of pulse. Instead of a single 
 priest, each god has the attendance of a college, 
 at the head of which is a chief priest; when one 
 of these dies, his son is appointed in his room. 
 38. Male kine are reckoned to belong to Epa- 
 phus, and are therefore tested in the following 
 manner: One of the priests appointed for the 
 purpose searches to see if there is a single black 
 hair on the whole body, since in that case the 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 241 
 
 beast is unclean. He examines him all over, 
 standing on his legs, and again laid upon his 
 back; after which he takes the tongue out of 
 his mouth, to see if it be clean in respect of the 
 prescribed marks (what they are I will mention 
 elsewhere) ; he also inspects the hairs of the tail, 
 to observe if they grow naturally. If the ani- 
 mal is pronounced clean in all these various 
 points, the priest marks him by twisting a piece 
 of papyrus roxmd his horns, and attaching 
 thereto some sealing-clay, which he then stamps 
 with his own signet-ring. After this the beast is 
 led away ; and it is forbidden, under the penalty 
 of death, to sacrifice an animal which has not 
 been marked in this way. 
 
 39. The following is their manner of sacri- 
 fice: They lead the victim, marked with their 
 signet, to the altar where they are about to offer 
 it, and setting the wood alight, pour a libation 
 of vnne upon the altar in front of the victim, 
 and at the same time invoke the god. Then they 
 slay the animal, and cutting off his head, pro- 
 ceed to flay the body. Next they take the head, 
 and heaping imprecations on it, if there is a 
 market-place and a body of Greek traders in 
 the city, they carry it there and sell it instantly; 
 if, however, there are no Greeks among them, 
 they throw the head into the river. The impre- 
 cation is to this eJffect: They pray that if any 
 
242 HERODOTUS 
 
 evil is impending either over those who sacri- 
 fice, or over universal Egypt, it may be made 
 to fall upon that head. These practices, the im- 
 precations upon the heads, and the libations of 
 wine, prevail all over Egypt, and extend to vic- 
 tims of all sorts; and hence the Egyptians wiU 
 never eat the head of any animal. 
 
 40. The disembowelling and burning are, 
 however, different in different sacrifices. I will 
 mention the mode in use with respect to the god- 
 dess whom they regard as the greatest, and hon- 
 our with the chiefest festival. When they have 
 flayed their steer they pray, and when their 
 prayer is ended they take the paunch of the ani- 
 mal out entire, leaving the intestines and the fat 
 inside the body; they then cut off the legs, the 
 ends of the loins, the shoulders, and the neck; 
 and having so done, they fill the body of the 
 steer with clean bread, honey, raisins, figs, 
 frankincense, myrrh, and other aromatics. Thus 
 filled, they burn the body, pouring over it great 
 quantities of oil. Before offering the sacrifice 
 they fast, and while the bodies of the victims are 
 being consmned they beat themselves. After- 
 wards, when they have concluded this part of 
 the ceremony, they have the other parts of the 
 victim served up to them for a repast. 
 
 41. The male kine, therefore, if clean, and the 
 male calves, are used for sacrifice by the Egyp- 
 tians universally; but the females they are not 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 243 
 
 allowed to sacrifice,® since they are sacred to 
 Isis. The statue of this goddess has the form 
 of a woman but with horns like a cow, resem- 
 bling thus the Greek representations of lo ; and 
 the Egyptians, one and all, venerate cows much 
 more highly than any other animal. This is the 
 reason why no native of Egypt, whether man 
 or woman, will give a Greek a kiss,'^ or use the 
 knife of a Greek, or his spit, or his cauldron, 
 or taste the flesh of an ox, known to be pure, 
 if it has been cut with a Greek knife. When 
 kine die, the following is the manner of their 
 sepulture: The females are thrown into the 
 river; the males are buried in the suburbs of 
 the towns, with one or both of their horns ap- 
 pearing above the surface of the ground to 
 mark the place. When the bodies are decayed, 
 a boat comes, at an appointed time, from the 
 island called Prosopitis, — ^which is a portion of 
 
 8 In order to prevent the breed of cattle from being dimin- 
 ished: but some mysterious reason being assigned for it, the 
 people were led to respect an ordonnance which might not other- 
 wise have been attended to. This was the general system, and 
 the reason of many things being held sacred may be attributed 
 to a necessary precaution. 
 
 7 The Egyptians considered all foreigners unclean, with whom 
 they would not eat, and particularly the Greeks. " The Egyp- 
 tians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an 
 abomination unto the Egyptians " (Gen. xliii. 32) ; and the same 
 prejudice is continued by the Hindoos, and by many of the 
 Moslems, to the present day. But the last have gradations, like 
 the ancient Egyptians, who looked vrith greater horror on those 
 who did not cut the throat from ear to ear of all animals used 
 for food. 
 
244 HERODOTUS 
 
 the Delta, nine schoenes in circumference, — and 
 calls at the several cities in turn to collect the 
 bones of the oxen. Prosopitis is a district con- 
 taining several cities; the name of that from 
 which the boats come is Atarbechis. Venus has 
 a temple there of much sanctity. Great num- 
 bers of men go forth from this city and pro- 
 ceed to the other towns, where they dig up the 
 bones, which they take away with them and bury 
 together in one place. The same practice pre- 
 vails with respect to the interment of aU other 
 cattle — the law so determining; they do not 
 slaughter any of them. 
 
 42. Such Egyptians as possess a temple of 
 the Theban Jove, or live in the Thebaic canton, 
 oiFer no sheep in sacrifice, but only goats; for 
 the Egyptians do not all worship the same gods, 
 excepting Isis and Osiris, the latter of whom 
 they say is the Grecian Bacchus. Those, on the 
 contrary, who possess a temple dedicated to 
 Mendes, or belong to the Mendesian canton, ab- 
 stain from offering goats, and sacrifice sheep 
 instead. The Thebans, and such as imitate them 
 in their practice, give the following account of 
 the origin of the custom: "Hercules," they 
 say, " wished of all things to see Jove, but Jove 
 did not choose to be seen of him. At length, 
 when Hercules persisted, Jove hit on a device — 
 to flay a ram, and, cutting off his head, hold 
 the head before him, and cover himself with the 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 245 
 
 fleece. In this guise he showed himself to Her- 
 cules." Therefore the Egyptians give their 
 statues of Jupiter the face of a ram: and from 
 them the practice has passed to the Ammonians, 
 who are a joint colony of Egyptians and Ethi- 
 opians, speaking a language between the two; 
 hence also, in my opinion, the latter people took 
 their name of Ammonians, since the Egyptian 
 name for Jupiter is Amun. Such, then, is the 
 reason why the Thebans do not sacrifice rams, 
 but consider them sacred animals. Upon one 
 day in the year, however, at the festival of Jupi- 
 ter, they slay a single ram, and stripping off the 
 fleece, cover with it the statue of that god, as 
 he once covered himself, and then bring up to 
 the statue of Jove an image of Hercules. 
 When this has been done, the whole assembly 
 beat their breasts in mourning for the ram, and 
 afterwards bury him in a holy sepulchre. 
 
 43. The account which I received of this Her- 
 cules makes him one of the twelve gods. Of 
 the other Hercules, with whom the Greeks are 
 familiar, I could hear nothing in any part of 
 Egypt. That the Greeks, however (those I 
 mean who gave the son of Amphitryon that 
 name), took the name from the Egyptians, and 
 not the Egyptians from the Greeks, is I think 
 clearly proved, among other arguments, by the 
 fact that both the parents of Hercules, Amphi- 
 tryon as well as Alcmena, were of Egyptian 
 
240 HERODOTUS 
 
 origin. Again, the Egyptians disclaim all 
 knowledge of the names of Neptune and the 
 Dioscuri, and do not include them in the num- 
 ber of their gods; but had they adopted the 
 name of any god from the Greeks, these would 
 have been the likeliest to obtain notice, since the 
 Egyptians, as I am well convinced, practised 
 navigation at that time, and the Greeks also 
 were some of them mariners ; so that they would 
 have been more likely to know the names of 
 these gods than that of Hercules. But the 
 Egyptian Hercules is one of their ancient gods. 
 Seventeen thousand years before the reign of 
 Amasis, the twelve gods were, they affirm, pro- 
 duced from the eight : and of these twelve, Her- 
 cules is one. 
 
 44. In the wish to get the best information 
 that I could on these matters, I made a voyage 
 to Tyre in Phoenicia, hearing there was a temple 
 of Hercules at that place,^ very highly vene- 
 rated. I visited the temple, and found it richly 
 adorned with a niunber of offerings, among 
 which were two pillars, one of pure gold, the 
 
 8 The temple of Hercules at Tyre was very ancient, and, accord- 
 ing to Herodotus, as old as the city itself, or 2300 years before 
 his time, i. e., about 2755 b. c. Hercules presided over it under 
 the title of Melkarth, or Melek-Kartha, "king" (lord) of the 
 city. Diodorus also speaks of the antiquity of Hercules; and 
 his antiquity is fully established, in spite of the doubts of Plu- 
 tarch. The Phoenicians settled at the Isle of Thasos, on account 
 of its gold mines, which they first discovered there, as they were 
 the first to visit Britain for its tin. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 247 
 
 other of emerald, shining with great brilliancy 
 at night. In a conversation which I held with 
 the priests, I inquired how long their temple 
 had been built, and found by their answer that 
 they, too, differed from the Greeks. They said 
 that the temple was built at the same time that 
 the city was founded, and that the foundation 
 of the city took place two thousand three hun- 
 dred years ago. In Tyre I remarked another 
 temple where the same god was worshipped as 
 the Thasian Hercules. So I went on to Thasos, 
 where I found a temple of Hercules which had 
 been built by the Phoenicians who colonised that 
 island when they sailed in search of Europa. 
 Even this was five generations earlier than the 
 time when Hercules, son of Amphitryon, was 
 born in Greece. These researches show plainly 
 that there is an ancient god Hercules; and my 
 own opinion is, that those Greeks act most 
 wisely who build and maintain two temples of 
 Hercules, in the one of which the Hercules wor- 
 shipped is known by the name of Olympian, 
 and has sacrifice offered to him as an immortal, 
 while in the other the honours paid are such as 
 are due to a hero. 
 
 45. The Greeks tell many tales without due 
 investigation, and among them the following 
 silly fable respecting Hercules : " Hercules," 
 they say, " went once to Egypt, and there the 
 inhabitants took him, and putting a chaplet on 
 
248 HERODOTUS 
 
 his head, led him out in solemn procession, in- 
 tending to oif er him a sacrifice to Jupiter. For 
 a while he submitted quietly; but when they 
 led him up to the altar and began the cere- 
 monies, he put forth his strength and slew them 
 all." Now to me it seems that such a story 
 proves the Greeks to be utterly ignorant of the 
 character and customs of the people. The 
 Egyptians do not think it allowable even to sac- 
 rifice cattle, excepting sheep and the male kine 
 and calves, provided they be pure, and also 
 geese. How, then, can it be believed that they 
 would sacrifice men? And again, how would 
 it have been possible for Hercules alone, and, 
 as they confess, a mere mortal, to destroy so 
 many thousands? In saying thus much con- 
 cerning these matters, may I incur no displeas- 
 ure either of god or hero! 
 
 46. I mentioned above that some of the 
 Egyptians abstain from sacrificing goats, either 
 male or female. The reason is the following: 
 These Egyptians, who are the Mendesians, con- 
 sider Pan to be one of the eight gods who ex- 
 isted before the twelve, and Pan is represented 
 in Egypt by the painters and the sculptors, just 
 as he is in Greece, with the face and legs of a 
 goat. They do not, however, believe this to be 
 his shape, or consider him in any respect unlike 
 the other gods ; but they represent him thus for 
 a reason which I prefer not to relate. The 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 249 
 
 Mendesians hold all goats in veneration, but the 
 male more than the female, giving the goat- 
 herds of the males especial honour. One is ven- 
 erated more highly than all the rest, and when 
 he dies there is a great mourning throughout all 
 the Mendesian canton. In Egyptian, the goat 
 and Pan are both called Mendes. 
 
 47. The pig is regarded among them as an 
 unclean animal, so much so that if a man in 
 passing accidentally touch a pig, he instantly 
 hurries to the river, and plunges in with all his 
 clothes on. Hence, too, the swineherds, not- 
 withstanding that they are of pure Egyptian 
 blood, are forbidden to enter into any of the 
 temples, which are open to all other Egyptians; 
 and further, no one will give his daughter in 
 marriage to a swineherd, or take a wife from 
 among them, so that the swineherds are forced 
 to intermarry among themselves. They do not 
 offer swine in sacrifice to any of their gods, ex- 
 cepting Bacchus and the Moon, whom they 
 honour in this way at the same time, sacrificing 
 pigs to both of them at the same full moon, and 
 afterwards eating of the flesh. There is a rea- 
 son alleged by them for their detestation of 
 swine at all other seasons, and their use of them 
 at this festival, with which I am well acquainted, 
 but which I do not think it proper to mention. 
 The following is the mode in which they sacri- 
 fice the swine to the Moon : As soon as the vie- 
 
250 HERODOTUS 
 
 tim is slain, the tip of the tail, the spleen, and 
 the caul are put together, and having been cov- 
 ered with all the fat that has been found in 
 the animal's beUy, are straightway burnt. The 
 remainder of the flesh is eaten on the same day 
 that the sacrifice is offered, which is the day of 
 the full moon: at any other time they would not 
 so much as taste it. The poorer sort, who can- 
 not afford live pigs, form pigs of dough, which 
 they bake and offer in sacrifice. 
 
 48. To Bacchus, on the eve of his feast, 
 every Egyptian sacrifices a hog before the door 
 of his house, which is then given back to the 
 swineherd by whom it was furnished, and by 
 him carried away. In other respects the fes- 
 tival is celebrated almost exactly as Bacchic 
 festivals are in Greece, excepting that the 
 Egyptians have no choral dances. They also 
 use, instead of phalli, another invention, con- 
 sisting of images a cubit high, pulled by strings, 
 which the women carry round to the villages. 
 A piper goes in front; and the women follow, 
 singing hymns in honour of Bacchus. They 
 give a religious reason for the peculiarities of 
 the image. 
 
 49. Melampus, the son of Amytheon, cannot 
 (I think) have been ignorant of this ceremony 
 — ^nay, he must, I should conceive, have been 
 well acquainted with it. He it was who intro- 
 duced into Greece the name of Bacchus, the 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 251 
 
 ceremonial of his worship, and the procession of 
 the phallus. He did not, however, so completely 
 apprehend the whole doctrine as to be able to 
 communicate it entirely; but various sages since 
 his time have carried out his teaching to greater 
 perfection. StUl it is certain that Melampus 
 introduced the phallus, and that the Greeks 
 learnt from him the ceremonies which they now 
 practise. I therefore maintain that Melampus, 
 who was a wise man, and had acquired the art 
 of divination, having become acquainted with 
 the worship of Bacchus through knowledge de- 
 rived from Egypt, introduced it into Greece, 
 with a few slight changes, at the same time that 
 he brought in various other practices. For I 
 can by no means allow that it is by mere coin- 
 cidence that the Bacchic ceremonies in Greece 
 are so nearly the same as the Egyptian — they 
 would then have been more Greek in their char- 
 acter, and less recent in their origin. Much less 
 can I admit that the Egyptians borrowed these 
 customs, or any other, from the Greeks. My 
 belief is that Melampus got his knowledge of 
 them from Cadmus the Tyrian, and the fol- 
 lowers whom he brought from Phoenicia into 
 the country which is now called Bceotia. 
 
 50. Almost all the names of the gods came 
 into Greece from Egypt. My inquiries prove 
 that they were all derived from a foreign 
 source; and my opinion is that Egypt furnished 
 
252 HERODOTUS 
 
 the greater niimber. For with the exception of 
 Neptune and the Dioscuri, whom I mentioned 
 above, and Juno, Vesta, Themis, the Graces, 
 and the Nereids, the other gods have been 
 known from time immemorial in Egypt. This 
 I assert on the authority of the Egyptians 
 themselves. The gods, with whose names they 
 profess themselves unacquainted, the Greeks re- 
 ceived, I beUeve, from the Pelasgi, except Nep- 
 tune. Of him they got their knowledge from 
 the Libyans, by whom he has been always hon- 
 oured, and who were anciently the only people 
 that had a god of the name. 'The Egyptians 
 diifer from the Greeks also in paying no divine 
 honours to heroes. 
 
 51. Besides those which have been here men- 
 tioned, there are many other practices whereof 
 I shall speak hereafter, which the Greeks have 
 borrowed fom Egypt.® The peculiarity, how- 
 ever, which they observe in the statues of Mer- 
 cury they did not derive from the Egyptians, 
 but from the Pelasgi; from them the Athenians 
 first adopted it, and afterwards it passed from 
 the Athenians to the other Greeks. For just at 
 the time when the Athenians were entering into 
 
 We cannot too much admire the candour of Herodotus in 
 admitting that the Greeks borrowed from the Egyptians, and 
 others who preceded them; for, as Bacon justly observes, "the 
 writings that relate these fables being not delivered as inventions 
 of the writers but as things before believed and received, appear 
 like a soft whisper from the traditions of more ancient nations, 
 conveyed through the flutes of the Grecians." 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 253 
 
 the Hellenic body, the Pelasgi came to live with 
 them in their country, whence it was that the 
 latter came first to be regarded as Greeks. 
 Whoever has been initiated into the mysteries of 
 the Cabiri will understand what I mean. The 
 Samothracians received these mysteries from 
 the Pelasgi, who, before they went to live in 
 Attica, were dwellers in Samothrace, and im- 
 parted their religious ceremonies to the inhabi- 
 tants. The Athenians, then, who were the first 
 of all the Greeks to make their statues of Mer- 
 cury in this way, learnt the practice from the 
 Pelasgians; and by this people a religious ac- 
 count of the matter is given, which is explained 
 in the Samothracian mysteries. 
 
 52. In early times the Pelasgi, as I know by 
 information which I got at Dodona, oflTered 
 sacrifices of all kinds, and prayed to the gods, 
 but had no distinct names or appellations for 
 them, since they had never heard of any. They 
 called them gods ( ^^oc^ disposers), because 
 they had disposed and arranged all things in 
 such a beautiful order. After a long lapse of 
 time the names of the gods came to Greece 
 from Egypt, and the Pelasgi learnt them; only 
 as yet they knew nothing of Bacchus, of whom 
 they first heard at a much later date. Not long 
 after the arrival of the names they sent to con- 
 sult the oracle at Dodona about them. This is 
 the most ancient oracle in Greece, and at that 
 
254 HERODOTUS 
 
 time there was no other. To their question^ 
 "Whether they should adopt the names that 
 had been imported from the foreigners?" the 
 oracle replied by recommending their use. 
 Thenceforth in their sacrifices the Pelasgi made 
 use of the names of the gods, and from them 
 the names passed afterwards to the Greeks. 
 
 53. Whence the gods severally sprang, 
 whether or no they had all existed from eter- 
 nity, what forms they bore — these are questions 
 of which the Greeks knew nothing until the 
 other day, so to speak. For Homer and Hesiod 
 were the first to compose Theogonies, and give 
 the gods their epithets, to allot them their sev- 
 eral offices and occupations, and describe their 
 forms; and they lived but four hundred years 
 before my time,^ as I believe. As for the poets 
 who are thought by some to be earlier than 
 these, they are, in my judgment, decidedly later 
 writers. In these matters I have the authority 
 of the priestesses of Dodona for the former por- 
 tion of my statements; what I have said of 
 Homer and Hesiod is my own opinion. 
 
 1 The date of Homer has been variously stated. It is plain 
 from the expressions which Herodotus here uses that in his 
 time the general belief assigned to Homer an earlier date than 
 that which he considered the true one. His date would place 
 the poet about b. c. 880-830, which is very nearly the mean be- 
 tween the earliest and the latest epochs that are assigned to him. 
 The earliest date that can be exactly determined, is that of the 
 author of the life of Homer usually published with the works of 
 Herodotus, who places the birth of the poet 622 years before 
 the invasion of Xerxes, or b. c. 1102. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 255 
 
 54. The following tale is commonly told in 
 Egypt concerning the oracle of Dodona in 
 Greece, and that of Ammon in Libya. My in- 
 formants on the point were the priests of Jupi- 
 ter at Thebes. They said "that two of the 
 sacred women were once carried off from 
 Thebes by the Phoenicians, and that the story 
 went that one of them was sold into Libya, and 
 the other into Greece, and- these women were 
 the jEirst founders of the oracles in the two 
 countries." On my inquiring how they came to 
 know so exactly what became of the women, 
 they answered, "that diligent search had been 
 made after them at the time, but that it had not 
 been found possible to discover where they were ; 
 afterwards, however, they received the informa- 
 tion which they had given me." 
 
 55. This was what I heard from the priests 
 at Thebes ; at Dodona, however, the women who 
 deliver the oracles relate the matter as follows: 
 " Two black doves flew away from Egyptian 
 Thebes, and while one directed its flight to 
 Libya, the other came to them. She alighted 
 on an oak, and sitting there began to speak with 
 a human voice, and told them that on the spot 
 where she was, there should thenceforth be an 
 oracle of Jove. They understood the announce- 
 ment to be from heaven, so they set to work at 
 once and erected the shrine. The dove which 
 flew to Libya bade the Libyans to establish 
 
256 HERODOTUS 
 
 there the oracle of Ammon." This likewise is an 
 oracle of Jupiter. The persons from whom I 
 received these particulars were three priestesses 
 of the Dodonasans, the eldest Promeneia, the 
 next Timarete, and the youngest Nicandra; 
 and what they said was confirmed by the other 
 Dodonseans who dwell around the temple. 
 
 56. My own opinion of these matters is as 
 follows: I think that, if it be true that the 
 Phoenicians carried off the holy women, and sold 
 them for slaves, the one into Libya and the 
 other into Greece, or Pelasgia (as it was then 
 called) , this last must have been sold to the Thes- 
 protians. Afterwards, while undergoing servi- 
 tude in those parts, she built under a real oak 
 a temple to Jupiter, her thoughts in her new 
 abode reverting — as it was likely they would do, 
 if she had been an attendant in a temple of 
 Jupiter at Thebes — to that particular god. 
 Then, having acquired a knowledge of the 
 Greek tongue, she set up an oracle. She also 
 mentioned that her sister had been sold for a 
 slave into Libya by the same persons as herself. 
 
 57. The Dodonagans called the women doves 
 because they were foreigners, and seemed to 
 them to make a noise like birds. After a while 
 the dove spoke with a human voice, because the 
 woman, whose foreign talk had previously 
 sounded to them like the chattering of a bird, 
 acquired the power of speaking what they could 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 257 
 
 understand. For how can it be conceived pos- 
 sible that a dove should really speak with the 
 voice of a man? Lastly, by calling the dove 
 black the Dodonaeans indicated that the woman 
 was an Egyptian. And certainly the character 
 of the oracles at Thebes and Dodona is very 
 similar. Besides this form of divination, the 
 Greeks learnt also divination by mean of vic- 
 tims from the Egyptians. 
 
 58. The Egyptians were also the first to in- 
 troduce solemn assemblies, processions, and lit- 
 anies to the gods; of all which the Greeks were 
 taught the use by them. It seems to me a 
 sufficient proof of this, that in Egypt these 
 practices have been established from remote an- 
 tiquity, while in Greece they are only recently 
 known. 
 
 59. The Egyptians do not hold a single sol- 
 emn assembly, but several in the course of the 
 year. Of these the chief, which is better at- 
 tended than any other, is held at the city of 
 Bubastis in honour of Diana. The next in im- 
 portance is that which takes place at Busiris, a 
 city situated in the very middle of the Delta; 
 it is in honour of Isis, who is called in the Greek 
 tongue Demeter (Ceres). There is a third 
 great festival in Sais to Minerva, a fourth in 
 Heliopolis to the Sun, a fifth in Buto to La- 
 tona, and a sixth in Papremis to Mars. 
 
 60. The following 'are the proceedings on 
 
258 HERODOTUS 
 
 occasion of the assembly at Bubastis : Men and 
 women come sailing all together, vast ntmibers 
 in each boat, many of the women with castanets, 
 which they strike, whUe some of the men pipe 
 during the whole time of the voyage; the re- 
 mainder of the voyagers, male and female, sing 
 the while, and make a clapping with their hands. 
 When they arrive opposite any of the towns 
 upon the banks of the stream, they approach the 
 shore, and, while some of the women continue 
 to play and sing, others call aloud to the fe- 
 males of the place and load them with abuse, 
 while a certain number dance, and some stand- 
 ing up uncover themselves. After proceeding 
 in this way all along the river-course, they reach 
 Bubastis, where they celebrate the feast with 
 abundant sacrifices. More grape-wine is con- 
 sumed at this festival than in all the rest of the 
 year besides. The number of those who attend, 
 counting only the men and women, and omit- 
 ting the children, amounts, according to the na- 
 tive reports, to seven hundred thousand. 
 
 61. The ceremonies at the feast of Isis in the 
 city of Busiris have been already spoken of. 
 It is there that the whole multitude, both of 
 men and women, many thousands in number, 
 beat themselves at the close of the sacrifice, in 
 honour of a god, whose name a religious scruple 
 forbids me to mention. The Carian dwellers in 
 Egypt proceed on this occasion to still greater 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 259 
 
 lengths, even cutting their faces with their 
 knives, whereby they let it be seen that they are 
 not Egyptians, but foreigners. 
 
 62. At Sais,^ when the assembly takes place 
 for the sacrifices, there is one night on which the 
 inhabitants all burn a multitude of lights in the 
 open air round their houses. They use lamps 
 in the shape of flat saucers filled with a mixture 
 of oil and salt, on the top of which the wick 
 floats. These burn the whole night, and give 
 to the festival the name of the Feast of Lamps. 
 The Egyptians who are absent from the festi- 
 val observe the night of the sacrifice, no less 
 than the rest, by a general lighting of lamps; 
 so that the illumination is not confined to the 
 city of Sais, but extends over the whole of 
 Egypt. And there is a religious reason assigned 
 for the special honour paid to this night, as 
 well as for the illumination which accompanies it. 
 
 63. At Heliopolis and Buto the assemblies 
 are merely for the purpose of sacrifice; but at 
 Papremis, besides the sacrifices and other rites 
 which are performed there as elsewhere, the fol- 
 lowing custom is observed: When the sun is 
 getting low, a few only of the priests continue 
 
 2 The site of Sals is marked by lofty mounds, enclosing a 
 space of great extent. Its modern name Sa, or Sa-el-Hugar, 
 " Sa of the stone," from the ruins formerly there, shows it was 
 derived from the ancient Ssa, or Sal's, of which Neith (Minerva) 
 is said in the legends to be the "Mistress"; showing that Plato 
 is right in calling Neith the Minerva of Sais. 
 
260 HERODOTUS 
 
 occupied about the image of the god, while the 
 greater number, armed with wooden clubs, take 
 their station at the portal of the temple. Op- 
 posite to them is drawn up a body of men, in 
 number above a thousand, armed like the others 
 with clubs, consisting of persons engaged in the 
 performance of their vows. The image of the 
 god, which is kept in a small wooden shrine cov- 
 vered with plates of gold, is conveyed from the 
 temple into a second sacred building the day be- 
 fore the festival begins. The few priests still 
 in attendance upon the image place it, together 
 with the shrine containing it, on a four-wheeled 
 car, and begin to drag it along; the others, sta- 
 tioned at the gateway of the temple, oppose its 
 admission. Then the votaries come forward to 
 espouse the quarrel of the god, and set upon 
 the opponents, who are sure to offer resistance. 
 A sharp fight with clubs ensues, in which heads 
 are commonly broken on both sides. Many, I 
 am convinced, die of the wounds that they re- 
 ceive, though the Egyptians insist that no one 
 is ever killed. 
 
 64. The natives give the subjoined account of 
 this festival. They say that the mother of the 
 god Mars once dwelt in the temple. Brought 
 up at a distance from his parent, when he grew 
 to man's estate, he conceived a wish to visit her. 
 Accordingly he came; but the attendants, who 
 had never seen him before, refused him entrance. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 261 
 
 and succeeded in keeping him out. So he went 
 to another city and collected a body of men, 
 with whose aid he handled the attendants very 
 roughly, and forced his way in to his mother. 
 Hence, they say, arose the custom of a fight 
 with sticks in honour of Mars at this festival. 
 
 The Egyptians first made it a point of religion 
 to have no converse with women in the sacred 
 places, and not to enter them without washing, 
 after such converse. Almost all other nations, 
 except the Greeks and the Egyptians, act dif- 
 ferently, regarding man as in this matter under 
 no other law than the brutes. Many animals, 
 they say, and various kinds of birds, may be 
 seen to couple in the temples and the sacred 
 precincts, which would certainly not happen if 
 the gods were displeased at it. Such are the 
 arguments by which they defend their prac- 
 tice; but I nevertheless can by no means ap- 
 prove of it. In these points the Egyptians are 
 specially careful, as they are indeed in every- 
 thing which concerns their sacred edifices. 
 
 65. Egypt, though it borders upon Libya, is 
 not a region abounding in wUd animals. The 
 animals that do exist in the country, whether 
 domesticated or otherwise, are all regarded as 
 sacred. If I were to explain why they are con- 
 secrated to the several gods, I should be led to 
 speak of religious matters, which I particularly 
 shrink from mentioning; the points whereon I 
 
262 HERODOTUS 
 
 have touched slightly hitherto have all been in- 
 troduced from sheer necessity. Their custom 
 with respect to animals is as follows: — For 
 every kind there are appointed certain guardians, 
 some male, some female, whose business it is 
 to look after them; and this honour is made to 
 descend from father to son. The inhabitants 
 of the various cities, when they have made a 
 vow to any god, pay it to his animals in the 
 way which I will now explain. At the time of 
 making the vow they shave the head of the 
 child,^ cutting off all the hair, or else half, or 
 sometimes a third part, which they then weigh 
 in a balance against a sum of silver; and what- 
 ever sum the hair weighs is presented to the 
 guardian of the animals, who thereupon cuts 
 up some fish, and gives it to them for food 
 — such being the stuff whereon they are fed. 
 When a man has killed one of the sacred ani- 
 mals, if he did it with malice prepense, he is 
 
 » Though Egyptian men shaved their heads, boys had several 
 tufts of hair left, as in modem Egypt and China. Princes also 
 wore a long plaited lock, falling from near the top of the head, 
 behind the ear, to the neck. This was the sign of childhood, 
 and was given to the infant Harpocrates. To it Lucian alludes 
 when he says, " It is a sign of nobility in Egypt, for all free- 
 born youths to plait their hair until the age of puberty," though 
 in Greece "the hair twisted back and plaited is a sign of one 
 not being free." The lock worn by princes was not always real 
 hair, but a false one appended to the wig they wore, sometimes 
 plaited to resemble hair, sometimes within a covering fastened 
 to one side of the head-dress. One of these, worn by a Prince 
 Remeses, was highly ornamented. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 263 
 
 punished with death; if unwittingly, he has to 
 pay such a fine as the priests choose to impose. 
 When an ibis, however, or a hawk is killed, 
 whether it was done by accident or on purpose, 
 the man must needs die. 
 
 66. The number of domestic animals in 
 Egypt is very great, and would be still greater 
 were it not for what befalls the cats. As the 
 females, when they have kittened, no longer 
 seek the company of the males, these last, to 
 obtain once more their companionship, practise 
 a curious artifice. They seize the kittens, carry 
 them off, and kill them, but do not eat them 
 afterwards. Upon this the females, being de- 
 prived of their young, and longing to supply 
 their place, seek the males once more, since they 
 are particularly fond of their offspring. On 
 every occasion of a fire in Egypt the strangest 
 prodigy occurs with the cats. The inhabitants 
 allow the fire to rage as it pleases, while they 
 stand about at intervals and watch these ani- 
 mals, which, slipping by the men or else leaping 
 over them, rush headlong into the flames. When 
 this happens, the Egyptians are in deep afflic- 
 tion. If a cat dies in a private house by a 
 natural death, all the inmates of the house shave 
 their eyebrows; on the death of a dog they 
 shave the head and the whole of the body. 
 
 67. The cats on their decease are taken to the 
 city of Bubastis, where they are embalmed, after 
 
264 HERODOTUS 
 
 which they are buried in certain sacred reposi- 
 tories. The dogs are interred in the cities to 
 which they belong, also in sacred burial-places. 
 The same practice obtains with respect to the 
 ichneumons; the hawks and shrew-mice, on the 
 contrary, are conveyed to the city of Buto for 
 burial, and the ibises to Hermopolis. The bears, 
 which are scarce in Egypt, and the wolves, 
 which are not much bigger than foxes, they 
 bury wherever they happen to find them 
 lying. 
 
 68. The following are the peculiarities of the 
 crocodile : During the four winter months they 
 eat nothing: they are four-footed, and live in- 
 differently on land or in the water. The fe- 
 male lays and hatches her eggs ashore, passing 
 the greater portion of the day on dry land, but 
 at night retiring to the river, the water of which 
 is warmer than the night-air and the dew. Of 
 all known animals this is the one which from 
 the smallest size grows to be the greatest: for 
 the egg of the crocodile is but little bigger than 
 that of the goose, and the young crocodile is in 
 proportion to the egg; yet when it is full grown, 
 the animal measures frequently seventeen cubits 
 and even more. It has the eyes of a pig, teeth 
 large and tusk-like, of a size proportioned to its 
 frame; unlike any other animal, it is without a 
 tongue; it cannot move its under jaw, and in 
 this respect too it is singular, being the only ani- 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 265 
 
 mal in the world which moves the upper jaw but 
 not the under. It has strong claws and a scaly 
 skin, impenetrable upon the back. In the water 
 it is blind, but on land it is very keen of sight. 
 As it lives chiefly in the river, it has the inside 
 of its mouth constantly covered with leeches; 
 hence it happens that, while all the other birds 
 and beasts avoid it, with the trochilus it lives at 
 peace, since it owes much to that bird: for the 
 crocodile, when he leaves the water and comes 
 out upon the land, is in the habit of lying with 
 its mouth wide open, facing the western breeze : 
 at such times the trochilus goes into his mouth 
 and devours the leeches. This benefits the croco- 
 dile, who is pleased, and takes care not to hurt 
 the trochilus. 
 
 69. The crocodile is esteemed sacred by some 
 of the Egyptians; by others he is treated as an 
 enemy. Those who live near Thebes, and those 
 who dwell around Lake Moeris, regard them 
 with especial veneration. In each of these places 
 they keep one crocodile in particular, who is 
 taught to be tame and tractable. They adorn 
 his ears with ear-rings of molten stone or gold, 
 and put bracelets on his fore-paws, giving him 
 daily a set portion of bread, with a certain num- 
 ber of victims; and, after having thus treated 
 him with the greatest possible attention while 
 alive, they embalm him when he dies, and bury 
 him in a sacred repository. The people of Ele- 
 
266 HERODOTUS 
 
 phantine, on the other hand, are so far from 
 considering these animals as sacred, that they 
 even eat their flesh. In the Egyptian language 
 they are not called crocodiles, but Champsae. 
 The name of crocodiles was given them by the 
 lonians, who remarked their resemblance to the 
 lizards, which in Ionia live in the walls, and are 
 called crocodiles. 
 
 70. The modes of catching the crocodile are 
 many and various. I shall only describe the one 
 which seems to me most worthy of mention. 
 They bait a. hook with a chine of pork and let 
 the meat be carried out into the middle of the 
 stream, while the hunter upon the bank holds a 
 living pig, which he belabours. The crocodile 
 hears its cries, and, making for the sound, en- 
 counters the pork, which he instantly swallows 
 down. The men on the shore haul, and when 
 they have got him to land, the first thing the 
 hunter does is to plaster his eyes with mud. 
 This once accomplished, the animal is de- 
 spatched with ease, otherwise he gives great 
 trouble. 
 
 71. The hippopotamus, in the canton of Pa- 
 premis, is a sacred animal, but not in any other 
 part of Egypt. It may be thus described: It 
 is a quadruped, cloven-footed, with hoofs like 
 an ox, and a flat nose. It has the mane and tail 
 of a horse, huge tusks which are very conspicu- 
 ous, and a voice like a horse's neigh. In size it 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 267 
 
 equals the biggest oxen, and its skin is so tough 
 that when dried it is made into javelins. 
 
 72. Otters also are found in the Nile, and are 
 considered sacred. Only two sorts of fish are 
 venerated, that called the lepidotus and the eel. 
 These are regarded as sacred to the Nile, as like- 
 wise among birds is the vulpanser, or fox- 
 goose. 
 
 73. They have also another sacred bird called 
 the phoenix, which I myself have never seen, ex- 
 cept in pictures. Indeed, it is a great rarity, 
 even in Egypt, only coming there (according to 
 the accounts of the people of Heliopolis) once 
 in five hundred years, when the old phoenix dies. 
 Its size and appearance, if it is like the pictures, 
 are as follows: The plumage is partly red, 
 partly golden, while the general make and size 
 are almost exactly that of the eagle. They tell 
 a story of what this bird does, which does not 
 seem to me to be credible: that he comes all the 
 way from Arabia, and brings the parent bird, 
 all plastered over with myrrh, to the temple of 
 the Sun, and there buries the body. In order 
 to bring him, they say, he first forms a ball of 
 myrrh as big as he finds that he can carry; then 
 he hollows out the ball, and puts his parent in- 
 side, after which he covers over the opening with 
 fresh myrrh, and the ball is then of exactly the 
 same weight as at first ; so he brings it to Egypt, 
 plastered over as I have said, and deposits it in 
 
268 HERODOTUS 
 
 the temple of the Sun. Such is the story they 
 tell of the doings of this bird. 
 
 74. In the neighbourhood of Thebes there are 
 some sacred serpents which are perfectly harm- 
 less. They are of small size, and have two 
 horns growing out of the top of the head. These 
 snakes, when they die, are buried in the temple 
 of Jupiter, the god to whom they are sacred. 
 
 75. I went once to a certain place in Arabia, 
 almost exactly opposite the city of Buto, to 
 make inquiries concerning the winged serpents.* 
 On my arrival I saw the back-bones and ribs of 
 serpents in such numbers as it is impossible to 
 describe: of the ribs there were a multitude of 
 heaps, some great, some small, some middle- 
 sized. The place where the bones lie is at the 
 entrance of a narrow gorge between steep moun- 
 tains, which there open upon a spacious plain 
 communicating with the great plain of Egypt. 
 The story goes, that with the spring the winged 
 snakes come flying from Arabia towards Egypt, 
 but are met in this gorge by the birds called 
 
 * The winged serpents of Herodotus have puzzled many per- 
 sons from the time of Pausanias to the present day. Isaiah 
 mentions the " fiery flying serpent." The Egyptian sculptures 
 represent some emblematic snakes with bird's wings and human 
 legs. The Draco volans of Linnaeus has wings, which might 
 answer to the description given by Herodotus, but it does not 
 frequent Egypt. The only flying creature the ibis could be 
 expected to attack, on its flight into Egypt, and for which it 
 would have been looked upon as a particular benefactor to Egypt, 
 was the locust; and the swarms of these large destructive insects 
 do come from the east. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 269 
 
 ibises, who forbid their entrance and destroy 
 them all. The Arabians assert, and the Egyp- 
 tians also admit, that it is on account of the 
 service thus rendered that the Egyptians hold 
 the ibis in so much reverence. 
 
 76. The ibis is a bird of a deep-black colour, 
 with legs like a crane; its beak is strongly 
 hooked, and its size is about that of the landrail. 
 This is a description of the black ibis which con- 
 tends with the serpents. The commoner sort, 
 for there are two quite distinct species, has the 
 head and the whole throat bare of feathers; its 
 general plumage is white, but the head and neck 
 are jet black; as also are the tips of the wings 
 and the extremity of the tail; in its beak and 
 legs it resembles the other species. The winged 
 serpent is shaped like the water-snake. Its 
 wings are not feathered, but resemble very 
 closely those of the bat. And thus I conclude 
 the subject of the sacred animals. 
 
 77. With respect to the Egyptians them- 
 selves, it is to be remarked that those who live 
 in the corn country, devoting themselves, as they 
 do, far more than any other people in the world, 
 to the preservation of the memory of past ac- 
 tions, are the best skilled in history of any men 
 that I have ever met. The following is the mode 
 of life habitual to them: For three successive 
 days in each month they purge the body by 
 means of emetics and clysters, which is done out 
 
270 HERODOTUS 
 
 of a regard for their health, since they have a 
 persuasion that every disease to which men are 
 liable is occasioned by the substances whereon 
 they feed. Apart from any such precautions, 
 they are, I believe, next to the Libyans, the 
 healthiest people in the world — an effect of their 
 climate, in my opinion, which has no sudden 
 changes. Diseases almost always attack men 
 when they are exposed to a change, and never 
 more than during changes of the weather. They 
 live on bread made of spelt, which they form into 
 loaves called in their own tongue cyllestis. 
 Their drink is a wine which they obtain from 
 barley, as they have no vines in their country. 
 Many kinds of fish they eat raw, either salted 
 or dried in the sun. Quails also, and ducks and 
 small birds, they eat uncooked, merely first salt- 
 ing them. All other birds and fishes, excepting 
 those which are set apart as sacred, are eaten 
 either roasted or boiled. 
 
 78. In social meetings among the rich, when 
 the banquet is ended, a servant carries round 
 to the several guests a coffin, in which there is 
 a wooden image of a corpse, carved and painted 
 to resemble nature as nearly as possible, about 
 a cubit or two cubits in length. As he shows it 
 to each guest in turn, the servant says, " Gaze 
 here, and drink and be merry; for when you die, 
 such will you be." 
 
 79. The Egyptians adhere to their own 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 271 
 
 national customs, and adopt no foreign usages. 
 Many of these customs are worthy of note: 
 among others their song, the Linus,® which is 
 sung under various names not only in Egypt 
 but in Phoenicia, in Cyprus, and in other places ; 
 and which seems to be exactly the same as that 
 in use among the Greeks, and by them called 
 Linus. There were very many things in Egypt 
 which fiUed me with astonishment, and this was 
 one of them. Whence could the Egyptians 
 have got the Linus? It appears to have been 
 sung by them from the very earliest times.® For 
 the Linus in Egyptian is called Maneros; and 
 they told me that Maneros was the only son of 
 their first king, and that on his untimely death 
 
 BThis song had different names in Egypt, in Phoenicia, in 
 Cyprus, and other places. In Greece it was called Linus, in 
 Egypt Maneros. The stories told of Linus, the inventor of 
 melody, and of his death, are mere fables; and it is highly im- 
 probable that the death of Maneros, the son of the first king of 
 Egypt, should have been recorded in the songs of Syria. Julius 
 Pollux says the song of Maneros was sung by the Egyptian peas- 
 ants, and that this fabulous personage was the inventor of hus- 
 bandry, an honour always given to Osiris. 
 
 «The Egyptian songs and hymns were of the earliest date, 
 and, like their knowledge of painting and sculpture, were said 
 to be 10,000 years old; but Porphyry hints at the reason of their 
 origin being attributed to Isis, for it was in order to ensure 
 respect for them that "they were preserved through successive 
 ages as the actual poems of that goddess." Some have supposed 
 their songs were of a mournful kind, and the character of the 
 Egyptians to be the same ; but the term " magis moestiores " 
 applied to them by Ammianus Marcellinus is not consistent with 
 their habits of buffoonery, love of caricature, and natural quick- 
 ness, nor with the opinion of Xenophon, confirmed by Polybius, 
 who says, of all people they were the most addicted to raillery. 
 
272 HERODOTUS 
 
 he was honoured by the Egyptians with these 
 dirgeUke strains, and in this way they got their 
 first and only melody. 
 
 80. There is another custom in which the 
 Egyptians resemble a particular Greek people, 
 namely the Lacedaemonians. Their young men, 
 when they meet their elders in the streets, give 
 way to them and step aside; and if an elder 
 come in where young are present, these latter 
 rise from their seats. In a third point they dif- 
 fer entirely from all the nations of Greece. 
 Instead of speaking to each other when they 
 meet in the streets, they make an obeisance, sink- 
 ing the hand to the knee. 
 
 81. They wear a linen tunic fringed about 
 the legs, and called calasiris; over this they have 
 a white woollen garment thrown on afterwards. 
 Nothing of woollen, however, is taken to their 
 temples or buried with them, as their religion 
 forbids it. Here their practice resembles the 
 rites called Orphic and Bacchic, but which are 
 in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean; for no 
 one initiated in these mysteries can be buried in 
 a woollen shroud, a religious reason being as- 
 signed for the observance. 
 
 82. The Egyptians likewise discovered to 
 which of the gods each month and day is sacred ; 
 and found out from the day of a man's birth, 
 what he will meet with in the course of his life, 
 and how he will end his days, and what sort of 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 273 
 
 man he will be — discoveries whereof the Greeks 
 engaged in poetry have made a use. The 
 Egyptians have also discovered more prognos- 
 tics than all the rest of mankind besides. When- 
 ever a prodigy takes place, they watch and re- 
 cord the result; then, if anything similar ever 
 happens again, they expect the same conse- 
 quences. 
 
 83. With respect to divination, they hold that 
 it is a gift which no mortal possesses, but only 
 certain of the gods: thus they have an oracle 
 of Hercules, one of Apollo, of Minerva, of 
 Diana, of Mars, and of Jupiter. Besides these, 
 there is the oracle of Latona at Buto, which is 
 held in much higher repute than any of the 
 rest. The mode of delivering the oracles is not 
 uniform, but varies at the different shrines. 
 
 84. Medicine is practised among them on a 
 plan of separation; each physician treats a single 
 disorder, and no more : thus the country swarms 
 with medical practitioners, some imdertaking to 
 cure diseases of the eye, others of the head, 
 others again of the teeth, others of the intes- 
 tines, and some those which are not local. 
 
 85. The following is the way in which they 
 conduct their mournings, and their funerals: 
 On the death in any house of a man of conse- 
 quence, forthwith the women of the family be- 
 plaster their heads, and sometimes even their 
 faces, with mud ; and then, leaving the body in- 
 
274 HERODOTUS 
 
 doors, sally forth and wander through the city, 
 with their dress fastened by a band, and their 
 bosoms bare, beating themselves as they walk. 
 All the female relations join them and do the 
 same. The men too, similarly begirt, beat their 
 breasts separately. When these ceremonies are 
 over, the body is carried away to be embalmed. 
 86. There are a set of men in Egypt who 
 practise the art of embalming, and make it 
 their proper business. These persons, when a 
 body is brought to them, show the bearers va- 
 rious models of corpses, made in wood, and 
 painted so as to resemble nature. The most 
 perfect is said to be after the manner of him 
 whom I do not think it religious to name in con- 
 nection with such a matter; the second sort is 
 inferior to the first, and less costly; the third 
 is the cheapest of all. All this the embakners 
 explain, and then ask in which way it is wished 
 that the corpse should be prepared. The bear- 
 ers tell them, and having concluded their bar- 
 gain, take their departure, while the embalmers, 
 left to themselves, proceed to their task. The 
 mode of embalming, according to the most per- 
 fect process, is the following: They take first 
 a crooked piece of iron,'' and with it draw out 
 
 1 The mummies afford ample evidence of the brain having 
 been extracted through the nostrils ; and the " drugs " were em- 
 ployed to clear out what the instrument could not touch. There 
 can be no doubt that iron was used in Egypt, though it is not 
 preserved there, nor in any other country, beyond a certain time. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 275 
 
 the brain through the nostrils, thus getting rid 
 of a portion, while the skull is cleared of the 
 rest by rinsing with drugs; next they make a 
 cut along the flank with a sharp Ethiopian 
 stone, and take out the whole contents of the 
 abdomen, which they then cleanse, washing it 
 thoroughly with palm wine, and again fre- 
 quently with an infusion of pounded aromatics. 
 After this they fill the cavity with the purest 
 bruised myrrh, with cassia, and every sort of 
 spicery except frankincense, and sew up the 
 opening. Then the body is placed in natrum for 
 seventy days, and covered entirely over. After 
 the expiration of that space of time, which must 
 not be exceeded, the body is washed, and 
 wrapped round, from head to foot, with band- 
 ages of fine linen cloth, smeared over with gum, 
 which is used generally by the Egyptians in 
 the place of glue, and in this state it is given 
 back to the relations, who enclose it in a wooden 
 case which they have had made for the purpose, 
 shaped into the figure of a man. Then fasten- 
 ing the case, they place it in a sepulchral cham- 
 ber, upright against the wall. Such is the most 
 costly way of embalming the dead. 
 
 87. If persons wish to avoid expense, and 
 choose the second process, the following is the 
 
 The blue colour of swords, and other weapons in the painted 
 tombs of Thebes, shows that the Egyptians used Iron, or steel, as 
 well as bronze; and this last was also employed by the Romans 
 and Etruscans, long after iron implements and arms were common. 
 
27e HERODOTUS 
 
 method pursued: Syringes are filled with oil 
 made from the cedar-tree, which is then, with- 
 out any incision or disemhoweUing, injected into 
 the abdomen. The passage by which it might 
 be likely to return is stopped, and the body laid 
 in natrum the prescribed number of days. At 
 the end of the time the cedar-oil is allowed to 
 make its escape; and such is its power that it 
 brings with it the whole stomach and intestines 
 in a liquid state. The natrum meanwhile has 
 dissolved the flesh, and so nothing is left of the 
 dead body but the skin and the bones. It is re- 
 turned in this condition to the relatives, with- 
 out any further trouble being bestowed upon it. 
 
 88. The third method of embalming, which 
 is practised in the case of the poorer classes, is 
 to clear out the intestines with a clyster, and 
 let the body lie in natrum the seventy days, after 
 which it is at once given to those who come to 
 fetch it away. 
 
 89. The wives of men of rank are not given 
 to be embalmed immediately after death, nor 
 indeed are any of the more beautiful and valued 
 women. It is not imtil they have been dead 
 three or four days that they are carried to the 
 embalmers. This is done to prevent indignities 
 from being offered them. It is said that once a 
 case of this kind occurred : the man was detected 
 by the information of his fellow-workman. 
 
 90. Whensoever any one, Egyptian or for- 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 277 
 
 eigner, has lost his hfe by falling a prey to a 
 crocodile, or by drowning in the river, the law 
 compels the inhabitants of the city near which 
 the body is cast up to have it embalmed, and 
 to bury it in one of the sacred repositories with 
 all possible magnificence. No one may touch 
 the corpse, not even any of the friends or rela- 
 tives, but only the priests of the Nile, who pre- 
 pare it for burial with their own hands — regard- 
 ing it as something more than the mere body 
 of a man — and themselves lay it in the tomb. 
 91. The Egyptians are averse to adopt Greek 
 customs, or, in a word, those of any other na- 
 tion. This feeling is almost universal among 
 them. At Chemmis, however^ which is a large 
 city in the Thebaic canton near Neapolis, there 
 is a square enclosure sacred to Perseus, son of 
 Danae. Palm trees grow all round the place, 
 which has a stone gateway of an unusual size, 
 surmounted by two colossal statues, also in stone. 
 Inside this precinct is a temple, and in the tem- 
 ple an image of Perseus. The people of Chem- 
 mis say that Perseus often appears to them, 
 sometimes within the sacred enclosure, some- 
 times in the open country: one of the sandals 
 which he has worn is frequently found — ^two 
 cubits in length, as they affirm — and then all 
 Egypt flourishes greatly. In the worship of 
 Perseus Greek ceremonies are used; gymnas- 
 tic games are celebrated in his honour, compris- 
 
278 HERODOTUS 
 
 ing every kind of contest, with prizes of cattle, 
 cloaks, and skins. I made inquiries of the Chem- 
 mites why it was that Perseus appeared to them 
 and not elsewhere in Egypt, and how they came 
 to celebrate gymnastic contests unlike the rest 
 of the Egyptians: to which they answered, " that 
 Perseus belonged to their city by descent. Da- 
 naiis and Lynceus were Chermnites before they 
 set sail for Greece, and from them Perseus was 
 descended," they said, tracing the genealogy; 
 " and he, when he came to Egypt for the pur- 
 pose" (which the Greeks also assign) "of 
 bringing away from Libya the Gorgon's head, 
 paid them a visit, and acknowledged them for 
 his kinsmen — ^he had heard the name of their 
 city from his mother before he left Greece — 
 he bade them institute a gymnastic contest in 
 his honour, and that was the reason why they 
 observed the practice." 
 
 92. The customs hitherto described are those 
 of the Egyptians who live above the. marsh- 
 country. The inhabitants of the marshes have 
 the same customs as the rest, as well in those 
 matters which have been mentioned above as in 
 respect of marriage, each Egyptian taking to 
 himself, like the Greeks, a single wife;^ but for 
 
 8 There is no instance on the monuments of Egypt of a man 
 having more than one wife at a time; nor does Herodotus say, as 
 has sometimes been supposed, that this was the custom of the other 
 Egyptians who lived above the marsh country. Rather he implies 
 the contrary. From the superior treatment of women throughout 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 279 
 
 greater cheapness of living the marsh-men prac- 
 tise certain peculiar customs, such as these fol- 
 lowing. They gather the blossoms of a certain 
 water-lily, which grows in great abundance all 
 over the flat country at the time when the Nile 
 rises and floods the regions along its banks — 
 the Egyptians call it the lotus — they gather, I 
 say, the blossoms of this plant and dry them in 
 the sun, after which they extract from the cen- 
 tre of each blossom a substance like the head of 
 a poppy, which they crush and make into bread. 
 The root of the lotus is likewise eatable, and 
 has a pleasant sweet taste : it is round, and about 
 the size of an apple. There is also another 
 species of the lily in Egypt, which grows, like 
 the lotus, in the river, and resembles the rose. 
 The fruit springs up side by side with the blos- 
 som, on a separate stalk, and has almost exactly 
 the look of the comb made by wasps. It con- 
 tains a number of seeds, about the size of an 
 olive-stone, which are good to eat : and these are 
 eaten both green and dried. The byblus (papy- 
 rus), which grows year after year in the 
 
 Egypt, from what we see of their social habits, and from the 
 queens being allowed to ascend the throne, it is very improbable 
 that any man had more than one wife. Diodorus says the priests 
 were only allowed one, while the rest might have any number; 
 but this is at variance with his account of the marriage contract, 
 allowing a woman the control over her husband; and, if permitted 
 by law, we may be certain that few took advantage of it, since 
 it was forbidden to the rich aristocracy, and the poor could not 
 afford to enjoy the privilege. 
 
280 HERODOTUS 
 
 marshes, they pull up, and, cutting the plant 
 in two, reserve the upper portion for other pur- 
 poses, but take the lower, which is about a cubit 
 long, and either eat it or else sell it. Such as 
 wish to enjoy the byblus in full perfection bake 
 it first in a closed vessel, heated to a glow. Some 
 of these folk, however, live entirely on fish, which 
 are gutted as soon as caught, and then hung up 
 in the sun: when dry, they are used as food. 
 
 93. Gregarious fish are not found in any num- 
 bers in the rivers; they frequent the lagunes, 
 whence, at the season of breeding, they proceed 
 in shoals towards the sea. The males lead the 
 way, and drop their milt as they go, while the 
 females, following close behind, eagerly swal- 
 low it down. From this they conceive, and 
 when, after passing some time in the sea, they 
 begin to be in spawn, the whole shoal sets oif 
 on its return to its ancient haunts. Now, how- 
 ever, it is no longer the males, but the females, 
 who take the lead : they swim in front in a body, 
 and do exactly as the males did before, drop- 
 ping, little by little, their grains of spawn as 
 they go, while the males in the rear devour the 
 grains, each one of which is a fish. A portion 
 of the spawn escapes and is not swallowed by 
 the males, and hence come the fishes which grow 
 afterwards to maturity. When any of this sort 
 of fish are taken on their passage to the sea, 
 they are found to have the left side of the head 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 281 
 
 scarred and bruised; while if taken on their re- 
 turn, the marks appear on the right. The rea- 
 son is, that as they swim down the Nile sea- 
 ward, they keep close to the bank of the river 
 upon their left, and returning again up stream 
 they still cling to the same side, hugging it and 
 brushing against it constantly, to be sure that 
 they miss not their road through the great force 
 of the current. When the Nile begins to rise, 
 the hollows in the land and the marshy spots 
 near the river are flooded before any other 
 places by the percolation of the water through 
 the river-banks; and these, almost as soon as 
 they become pools, are found to be full of num- 
 bers of little fishes. I think that I understand 
 how it is this comes to pass. On the subsidence 
 of the Nile the year before, though the fish re- 
 tired with the retreating waters, they had first 
 deposited their spawn in the mud upon the 
 banks: and so, when at the usual season the 
 water returns, small fry are rapidly engendered 
 out of the spawn of the preceding year. So 
 much concerning the fish. 
 
 94. The Egyptians who live in the marshes 
 use for the anointing of their bodies an oil made 
 from the fruit of the sillicyprium, which is 
 known among them by the name of " kiki." To 
 obtain this they plant the sillicyprium (which 
 grows wild in Greece) along the banks of the 
 rivers and by the sides of the lakes, where it 
 
282 HERODOTUS 
 
 produces fruit in great abundance, but with a 
 very disagreeable smell. This fruit is gathered, 
 and then bruised and pressed, or else boiled down 
 after roasting: the liquid which comes from it 
 is collected and is found to be unctuous, and as 
 well suited as olive-oil for lamps, only that it 
 gives out an unpleasant odour. 
 
 95. The contrivances which they use against 
 gnats, wherewith the country swarms, are the 
 following: In the parts of Egypt above the 
 marshes the inhabitants pass the night upon 
 lofty towers, which are of great service, as the 
 gnats are unable to fly to any height on account 
 of the winds. In the marsh country, where there 
 are no towers, each man possesses a net instead. 
 By day it serves him to catch fish, while at night 
 he spreads it over the bed in which he is to rest, 
 and creeping in, goes to sleep underneath. The 
 gnats, which, if he rolls himself up in his dress 
 or in a piece of muslin, are sure to bite through 
 the covering, do not so much as attempt to pass 
 the net. 
 
 96. The vessels used in Egypt for the trans- 
 port of merchandise are made of the Acantha 
 (Thorn), a tree which in its growth is very like 
 the Cyrenaic lotus, and from which there ex- 
 udes a gum. They cut a quantity of planks 
 about two cubits in length from this tree, and 
 then proceed to their ship-building, arranging 
 the planks, like bricks, and attaching them by 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 283 
 
 ties to a number of long stakes or poles till the 
 hull is complete, when they lay the cross-planks 
 on the top from side to side. They give the 
 boats no ribs, but caulk the seams with papyrus 
 on the inside. Each has a single rudder, which 
 is driven straight through the keel. The mast 
 is a piece of acantha-wood, and the sails are 
 made of papyrus. These boats cannot make 
 way against the current unless there is a brisk 
 breeze; they are, therefore, towed up-stream 
 from the shore: down-stream they are managed 
 as follows: There is a raft belonging to each, 
 made of the wood of the tamarisk, fastened to- 
 gether with a wattling of reeds ; and also a stone 
 bored through the middle, about two talents in 
 weight. The raft is fastened to the vessels by 
 a rope, and allowed to float down the stream in 
 front, while the stone is attached by another rope 
 astern. The result is that the raft, hurried for- 
 ward by the current, goes rapidly down the river, 
 and drags the "baris" (for so they call this 
 sort of boat) after it; while the stone, which is 
 puUed along in the wake of the vessel, and lies 
 deep in the water, keeps the boat straight. There 
 are a vast number of these vessels in Egypt, and 
 some of them are of many thousand talents' bur- 
 then.® 
 
 9 The size of boats on the Nile varies now as of old; and some 
 used for carrying corn, which can only navigate the Nile during 
 the inundation, are rated at from 2000 to 4800 ardebs, or about 
 10,000 to 24,000 bushels' burthen. The ships of war of the 
 
284 HERODOTUS 
 
 97. When the Nile overflows, the country is 
 converted into a sea, and nothing appears but 
 the cities, which look like the islands of the 
 Egean. At this season boats no longer keep the 
 course of the river, but sail right across the 
 plain. On the voyage from Naucratis to Mem- 
 phis at this season, you pass close to the pyra- 
 mids, whereas the usual course is by the apex 
 of the Delta, and the city of Cercasorus. You 
 can saU also from the maritime town of Cano- 
 bus across the flat to Naucratis, passing by the 
 cities of Anthylla and Archandropolis. 
 
 98. The former of these cities, which is a 
 place of note, is assigned expressly to the wife 
 of the ruler of Egypt for the time being, to 
 keep her in shoes. Such has been the custom 
 ever since Egypt fell under the Persian yoke. 
 The other city seems to me to have got its name 
 of Archandropolis from Archander the Phthian, 
 son of Achseus, and son-in-law of Danaus. 
 There might certainly have been another Arch- 
 ander; but, at any rate, the name is not Egyp- 
 tian. 
 
 99. Thus far I have spoken of Egypt from 
 my own observation, relating what I myself 
 saw, the ideas that I formed and the results of 
 
 ancient Egyptians were not generally of great size, at least in 
 the early times of the 18th and 19th dynasties, when they had a 
 single row of from 20 to 44 or SO oars, and were similar to the 
 " long ships " of the Greeks, and the galleys of the Mediter- 
 ranean during the middle ages. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 285 
 
 my own researches. What follows rests on the 
 accounts given me by the Egyptians, which I 
 shall now repeat, adding thereto some particu- 
 lars which fell under my own notice. 
 
 The priest said that Men was the first king of 
 Egypt, and that it was he who raised the dyke 
 which protects Memphis from the inundations 
 of the NUe. Before his time the river flowed 
 entirely along the sandy range of hills which 
 skirts Egypt on the side of Libya. He, how- 
 ever, by banking up the river, at the bend which 
 it forms about a hundred furlongs south of 
 Memphis, laid the ancient channel dry, while 
 he dug a new course for the stream half-way 
 between the two lines of hills. To this day, the 
 elbow which the Nile forms at the point where 
 it is forced aside into the new channel is guarded 
 with the greatest care by the Persians, and 
 strengthened every year ; for if the river were to 
 biirst out at this place, and pour over the mound, 
 there would be danger of Memphis being com- 
 pletely overwhelmed by the flood. Men, the 
 first king, having thus, by turning the river, 
 made the tract where it is used to run, dry land, 
 proceeded in the first place to build the city now 
 called Memphis, which lies in the narrow part 
 of Egypt; after which he further excavated a 
 lake outside the town, to the north and west, 
 communicating with the river, which was itself 
 the eastern boundary. Besides these works, he 
 
286 HERODOTUS 
 
 also, the priests said, built the temple of Vulcan 
 which stands within the city, a vast edifice, very- 
 worthy of mention. 
 
 100. Next, they read me from a papyrus the 
 names of three hundred and thirty monarchs, 
 who k(they said) were his successors upon the 
 throne. In this number of generations there 
 were eighteen Ethiopian kings, and one queen 
 who was a native; all the rest were kings and 
 Egyptians. The queen bore the same name as 
 the Babylonian princess, namely Nitocris.^ They 
 said that she succeeded her brother ; he had been 
 king of Egypt, and was put to death by his 
 subjects, who then placed her upon the throne. 
 Bent on avenging his death, she devised a cun- 
 ning scheme by which she destroyed a vast num- 
 ber of Egyptians. She constructed a spacious 
 underground chamber, and, on pretence of in- 
 augurating it, contrived the following: Invit- 
 ing to a banquet those of the Egyptians whom 
 she knew to have had the chief share in the 
 
 1 The fact of Nitocrls having been an early Egyptian queen is 
 proved by her name, Neitakri, occurring in the Turin papyrus, 
 and as the last sovereign of Manetho's 6th dynasty. There was 
 another Nitocris, of the 26th dynasty, written Neitakri, with the 
 usual name of the goddess Neith. It is remarkable that Nitocris 
 of the 26th dynasty lived about the same time as the Babylonian 
 queen. The name is perfectly Egyptian. The queen of Psamme- 
 tichus III, a daughter of his predecessor, had the same name as 
 the (supposed) wife of Nebuchadnezzar; and it is not impossible 
 that the famous Nitocris may have been another of the same name 
 and family, demanded in marriage by the king of Babylon on 
 his invasion of Egypt. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 287 
 
 murder of her brother, she suddenly, as they 
 were feasting, let the river in upon them, by 
 means of a secret duct of large size. This, and 
 this only, did they tell me of her, except that, 
 when she had done as I have said, she threw 
 herself into an apartment full of ashes, that she 
 might escape the vengeance whereto she would 
 otherwise have been exposed. 
 
 101. The other kings, they said, were person- 
 ages of no note or distinction, and left no monu- 
 ments of any account, with the exception of the 
 last, who was named Moeris. He left several 
 memorials of his reign — ^the northern gateway 
 of the temple of Vulcan, the lake excavated by 
 his orders, whose dimensions I shall give pres- 
 ently, and the pyramids built by him in the lake, 
 the size of which will be stated when I describe 
 the lake itself wherein they stand. Such were 
 his works: the other kings left absolutely 
 nothing. 
 
 102. Passing over these monarchs, therefore, 
 I shall speak of the king who reigned next, 
 whose name was Sesostris. He, the priests said, 
 first of all proceeded in a fleet of ships of war 
 from the Arabian gulf along the shores of the 
 Erythraean Sea, subduing the nations as he 
 went, until he finally reached a sea which could 
 not be navigated by reason of the shoals. Hence 
 he returned to Egypt, where, they told me, he 
 collected a vast armament, and made a progress 
 
288 HERODOTUS 
 
 by land across the continent, conquering every 
 people which fell in his way. In the countries 
 where the natives withstood his attack, and 
 fought gallantly for their liberties, he erected 
 pillars, on which he inscribed his own name and 
 country, and how that he had here reduced the 
 inhabitants to subjection by the might of his 
 arms: where, on the contrary, they submitted 
 readily and without a struggle, he inscribed on 
 the pillars, in addition to these particulars, an 
 emblem to mark that they were a nation of 
 women, that is, unwarlike and eifeminate. 
 
 103. In this way he traversed the whole conti- 
 nent of Asia, whence he passed on into Europe, 
 and made himself master of Scythia and of 
 Thrace, beyond which countries I do not think 
 that his army extended its march. For thus far 
 the pillars which he erected are still visible; but 
 in the remoter regions they are no longer found. 
 Returning to Egypt from Thrace, he came, on 
 his way, to the banks of the river Phasis. Here 
 I cannot say with any certainty what took place. 
 Either he of his own accord detached a body of 
 troops from his main army and left them to 
 colonise the country, or else a certain number 
 of his soldiers, wearied with their long wander- 
 ings, deserted, and estabUshed themselves on the 
 banks of this stream. 
 
 104. There can be no doubt that the Colchians 
 are an Egyptian race. Before I heard any 
 
The Triumph of Sesostris 
 
 After a German Steel Engraving of the Seven- 
 teenth Century 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 289 
 
 mention of the fact from others, I had re- 
 marked it myself. After the thought had struck 
 me, I made inquiries on the subject both in Col- 
 chis and in Egypt, and I found that the Col- 
 chians had a more distinct recollection of the 
 Egyptians, than the Egyptians had of them. 
 Still the Egyptians said that they believed the 
 Colchians to be descended from the army of 
 Sesostris. My own conjectures were founded, 
 first, on the fact that they are black-skinned and 
 have woolly hair,^ which certainly amounts to 
 but little, since several other nations are so too; 
 but further and more especially, on the circum- 
 stance that the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the 
 Ethiopians, are the only nations who have prac- 
 tised circumcision from the earliest times. The 
 Phoenicians and the Syrians of Palestine ^ them- 
 selves confess that they learnt the custom from 
 
 2 Herodotus also alludes in ch. 57 to the black colour of the 
 Egyptians; but not only do the paintings pointedly distinguish 
 the Egyptians from the blacks of Africa, and even from the 
 copper-coloured Ethiopians, both of whom are shown to have 
 been of the same hue as their descendants: but the mummies 
 prove that the Egyptians were neither black nor woolly-haired, 
 and the formation of the head at once decides that they are of 
 Asiatic, and not of African, origin. 
 
 3 Herodotus apparently alludes to the Jews. Palestine and 
 Philistine are the same name. He may be excused for supposing 
 that the Jews borrowed circumcision from the Egyptians, since 
 they did not practice it as a regular and universal custom until 
 after they left Egypt, which is proved by the new generation in 
 the wilderness not being circumcised till their arrival on the 
 plains of Jericho, though the custom had been adopted by the 
 Patriarchs and their families from the time of Abraham. 
 
290 HERODOTUS 
 
 the Egyptians ; and the Syrians who dwell about 
 the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, as well 
 as their neighbours the Macronians, say that 
 they have recently adopted it from the Col- 
 chians. Now these are the only nations who use 
 circumcision, and it is plain that they all imi- 
 tate herein the Egyptians. With respect to the 
 Ethiopians, indeed, I cannot decide whether they 
 learnt the practice from the Egyptians, or the 
 Egyptians from them — it is undoubtedly of very 
 ancient date in Ethiopia — ^but that the others 
 derived their knowledge of it from Egypt is 
 clear to me from the fact, that the Phoenicians, 
 when they come to have commerce with the 
 Greeks, cease to follow the Egyptians in this 
 custom, and allow their children to remain un- 
 circumcised. 
 
 105. I will add a further proof of the iden- 
 tity of the Egyptians and the Colchians. These 
 two nations weave their linen in exactly the same 
 way, and this is a way entirely unknown to the 
 rest of the world; they also in their whole mode 
 of life and in their language resemble one an- 
 other. The Colchian linen is called by the 
 Greeks Sardinian, while that which comes from 
 Egypt is known as Egyptian. 
 
 106. The pillars which Sesostris erected in the 
 conquered countries have for the most part dis- 
 appeared ; but in the part of Syria called Pales- 
 tine, I myself saw them still standing, with the 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 291 
 
 writing above mentioned, and the emblem dis- 
 tinctly visible. In Ionia also, there are two rep- 
 resentations of this prince engraved upon rocks, 
 one on the road from Ephesus to PhocEea, the 
 other between Sardis and Smyrna. In each case 
 the figure is that of a man, four cubits and a 
 span high, with a spear in his right hand and a 
 bow in his left, the rest of his costume being 
 likewise half Egyptian, half Ethiopian. There 
 is an inscription across the breast from shoulder 
 to shoulder, in the sacred character of Egypt, 
 which says, " With my own shoulders, I con- 
 quered this land." The conqueror does not tell 
 who he is, or whence he comes, though elsewhere 
 Sesostris records these facts. Hence it has been 
 imagined by some of those who have seen these 
 forms, that they are figures of Memnon; but 
 such as think so err very widely from the truth. 
 107. This Sesostris, the priests went on to say, 
 upon his return home, accompanied by vast mul- 
 titudes of the people whose countries he had sub- 
 dued, was received by his brother, whom he had 
 made viceroy of Egypt on his departure, at 
 Daphnse near Pelusium, and invited by him to a 
 banquet, which he attended, together with his 
 sons. Then his brother piled a quantity of wood 
 all round the building, and having so done, set 
 it alight. Sesostris, discovering what had hap- 
 pened, took counsel instantly with his wife, who 
 had accompanied him to the feast, and was ad- 
 
292 HERODOTUS 
 
 vised by her to lay two of their six sons upon 
 the fire, and so make a bridge across the flames, 
 whereby the rest might effect their escape. Se- 
 sostris did as she recommended, and thus while 
 two of his sons were burnt to death, he himself 
 and his other children were saved. 
 
 108. The king then returned to his own land 
 and took vengeance upon his brother, after 
 which he proceeded to make use of the multi- 
 tudes whom he had brought with him from the 
 conquered countries, partly to drag the huge 
 masses of stone which were moved in the course 
 of his reign to the temple of Vulcan, partly to 
 dig the numerous canals with which the whole 
 of Egypt is intersected. By these forced la- 
 bours the entire face of the country was 
 changed; for whereas Egypt had formerly been 
 a region suited both for horses and carriages, 
 henceforth it became entirely imfit for either. 
 Though a flat country throughout its whole ex- 
 tent, it is now unfit for either horse or carriage, 
 being cut up by the canals, which are extremely 
 nmnerous and run in all directions. The king's 
 object was to supply Nile water to the inhabi- 
 tants of the towns situated in the mid-country, 
 and not lying upon the river; for previously 
 they had been obliged, after the subsidence of 
 the floods, to drink a brackish water which they 
 obtained from wells. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 293 
 
 109. Sesostris also, they declared, made a di- 
 vision of the soil of Egypt among the inhabi- 
 tants, assigning square plots of ground of equal 
 size to all, and obtaining his chief revenue from 
 the rent which the holders were required to pay 
 him year by year. If the river carried away 
 any portion of a man's lot, he appeared before 
 the king, and related what had happened ; upon 
 which the king sent persons to examine, and de- 
 termine by measurement the exact extent of the 
 loss; and thenceforth only such a rent was de- 
 manded of him as was proportionate to the re- 
 duced size of his land. From this practice, I 
 think, geometry first came to be known in 
 Egypt, whence it passed into Greece. The sun- 
 dial, however, and the gnomon with the division 
 of the day into twelve parts, were received by 
 the Greeks from the Babylonians. 
 
 110. Sesostris was king not only of Egypt, 
 but also of Ethiopia. He was the only Egyp- 
 tian monarch who ever ruled over the latter 
 country. He left, as memorials of his reign, 
 the stone statues which stand in front of the 
 temple of Vulcan, two of which, representing 
 himself and his wife, are thirty cubits in height, 
 while the remaining four, which represent his 
 sons, are twenty cubits. These are the statues, 
 in front of which the priest of Vulcan, very 
 many years afterwards, would not allow Darius 
 
S94 HERODOTUS 
 
 the Persian* to place a statue of himself; "be- 
 cause," he said, "Darius had not equalled the 
 achievements of Sesostris the Egyptian: for 
 while Sesostris had subdued to the full as many 
 nations as ever Darius had brought under, he 
 had likewise conquered the Scythians, whom 
 Darius had failed to master. It was not fair, 
 therefore, that he should erect his statue in front 
 of the offerings of a king whose deeds he had 
 been unable to surpass." Darius, they say, par- 
 doned the freedom of this speech. 
 
 111. On the death of Sesostris, his son Phe- 
 ron, the priests said, mounted the throne. He 
 undertook no warlike expeditions; being struck 
 with blindness, owing to the following circum- 
 stance. The river had swollen to the unusual 
 
 * The name of Darius occurs in the sculptures, and great 
 part of the principal Temple of El Khargeh, in the Great Oasis, 
 was built by him, his name being the oldest there. He seems 
 to have treated the Egyptians with far more uniform lenity than 
 the other Persian kings; and though the names of Cambyses, 
 Xerxes, and Artaxerxes, occur on stelae, statues, or vases, they 
 are mostly records of persons who lived during their reigns, and 
 are not on any monuments erected by them in Egypt. This 
 accords with his indulgent treatment of the priests mentioned by 
 Herodotus ; and the remark of Diodorus that " he obtained while 
 living the appellation of Divus," is justified by his having received 
 on the monuments the same honours as the old kings. The reply 
 of Darius to the Egyptian priest is said by Diodorus to have 
 been, " that he hoped not to be inferior to Sesostris, if he lived as 
 long." But his mild government did not prevent the Egyptians 
 from rebelling against him; and their impatience of Persian 
 rule had before been the reason of Cambyses forsaking the 
 lenient line of conduct he first adopted when he conquered the 
 country. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 295 
 
 height of eighteen cubits, and had overflowed 
 all the fields, when, a sudden wind arising, the 
 water rose in great waves. Then the king, in 
 a spirit of impious violence, seized his spear, 
 and hurled it into the strong eddies of the stream. 
 Instantly he was smitten with disease of the eyes, 
 from which after a little while he became blind, 
 continuing without the power of vision for ten 
 years. At last, in the eleventh year, an oracular 
 announcement reached him from the city of 
 Buto, to the eflPect, that "the time of his pun- 
 ishment had run out, and he should recover his 
 sight by washing his eyes with urine. He must 
 find a woman who had been faithful to her hus- 
 band, and never preferred to him another man." 
 The king, therefore, first of all made trial of his 
 wife, but to no purpose — he continued as blind 
 as before. So he made the experiment with 
 other women, until at length he succeeded, and 
 in this way recovered his sight. Hereupon he 
 assembled all the women, except the last, and 
 bringing them to the city which now bears his 
 name of Erythrabolus (Red-soil), he there 
 burnt them all, together with the place itself. 
 The woman to whom he owed his cure, he mar- 
 ried; and after his recovery was complete, he 
 presented off'erings to all the temples of any 
 note, among which the best worthy of mention 
 are the two stone obelisks which he gave to the 
 temple of the Sun. These are magnificent 
 
296 HERODOTUS 
 
 works; each is made of a single stone, eight 
 cubits broad, and a hundred cubits in height. 
 
 112. Pheron, they said, was succeeded by a 
 man of Memphis, whose name, in the language 
 of the Greeks, was Proteus. There is a sacred 
 precinct of this king in Memphis, which is very 
 beautiful, and richly adorned, situated south of 
 the great temple of Vulcan. Phoenicians from 
 the city of Tyre dwell all around this precinct, 
 and the whole place is known by the name of 
 "the camp of the Tyrians." Within the enclo- 
 sure stands a temple, which is called that of 
 Venus the Stranger. I conjecture the building 
 to have been erected to Helen, the daughter of 
 Tyndarus ; first, because she, as I have heard say, 
 passed some time at the court of Proteus; and 
 secondly, because the temple is dedicated to Ve- 
 nus the Stranger; for among all the many tem- 
 ples of Venus there is no other where the god- 
 dess bears this title. 
 
 113. The priests, in answer to my inquiries on 
 the subject of Helen, informed me of the fol- 
 lowing particulars. When Alexander had car- 
 ried off Helen from Sparta, he took ship and 
 sailed homewards. On his way across the Egean 
 a gale arose, which drove him from his course 
 and took him down to the sea of Egypt ; hence, 
 as the wind did not abate, he was carried on to 
 the coast, when he went ashore, landing at the 
 Salt-Pans, in that mouth of the NUe which is 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 297 
 
 now called the Canobic. At this place there 
 stood upon the shore a temple, which still exists, 
 dedicated to Hercules. If a slave runs away 
 from his master, and taking sanctuary at this 
 shrine gives himself up to the god, and receives 
 certain sacred marks upon his person, whosoever 
 his master may be, he cannot lay hand on him. 
 This law still remained unchanged to my time. 
 Hearing, therefore, of the custom of the place, 
 the attendants of Alexander deserted him, and 
 fled to the temple, where they sat as suppliants. 
 While there, wishing to damage their master, 
 they accused him to the Egyptians, narrating 
 all the circimistances of the rape of Helen, and 
 the wrong done to Menelaus. These charges 
 they brought, not only before the priests, but also 
 before the warden of that mouth of the river, 
 whose name was Thonis. 
 
 114. As soon as he received the intelligence, 
 Thonis sent a message to Proteus, who was at 
 Memphis, to this effect: "A stranger is ar- 
 rived from Greece; he is by race a Teucrian, and 
 has done a wicked deed in the country from 
 which he is come. Having beguiled the wife of 
 the man whose guest he was, he carried her away 
 with him, and much treasure also. Compelled 
 by stress of weather, he has now put in here. 
 Are we to let him depart as he came, or shall 
 we seize what he has brought?" Proteus re- 
 plied, " Seize the man, be he who he may, that 
 
298 HERODOTUS 
 
 has dealt thus wicked^ with his friend, and 
 bring him before me, that I may hear what he 
 will say for himself." 
 
 115. Thonis, on receiving these orders, arrested 
 Alexander, and stopped the departure of his 
 ships; then, taking with him Alexander, Helen, 
 the treasures, and also the fugitive slaves, he 
 went up to Memphis. When all were arrived, 
 Proteus asked Alexander, "who he was, and 
 whence he had come? " Alexander replied by 
 giving his descent, the name of his country, and 
 a true account of his late voyage. Then Proteus 
 questioned him as to how he got possession of 
 Helen. In his reply Alexander became con- 
 fused, and diverged from the truth, whereon the 
 slaves interposed, confuted his statements, and 
 told the whole history of the crime. Finally, 
 Proteus delivered judgment as follows : " Did 
 I not regard it as a matter of the utmost con- 
 sequence that no stranger driven to my country 
 by adverse winds should ever be put to death, I 
 would certainly have avenged the Greek by 
 slaying thee. Thou basest of men, — after ac- 
 cepting hospitality, to do so wicked a deed! 
 First, thou didst seduce the wife of thy own 
 host — then, not content therewith, thou must 
 violently excite her mind, and steal her away 
 from her husband. Nay, even so thou wert 
 not satisfied, but on leaving, thou must 
 plunder the house in which thou hadst been 
 a guest. Now then, as I think it of the 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 299 
 
 greatest importance to put no stranger to 
 death, I suffer thee to depart; but the woman 
 and the treasures I shall not permit to be car- 
 ried away. Here they must stay, till the Greek 
 stranger comes in person and takes them back 
 with him. For thyself and thy companions, I 
 command thee to begone from my land within 
 the space of three days — and I warn you, that 
 otherwise at the end of that time you will be 
 treated as enemies." 
 
 116. Such was the tale told me by the priests 
 concerning the arrival of Helen at the court of 
 Proteus. It seems to me that Homer was 
 acquainted with this story, and while discarding 
 it, because he thought it less adapted for epic 
 poetry than the version which he followed, 
 showed that it was not unknown to him. This 
 is evident from the travels which he assigns to 
 Alexander in the Iliad — and let it be borne in 
 mind that he has nowhere else contradicted him- 
 self — making him be carried out of his course 
 on his return with Helen, and after divers wan- 
 derings come at last to Sidon in Phoenicia. The 
 passage is in the Bravery of Diomed, and the 
 words are as foUows: — 
 
 "There were the robesr, many-coloured, the work of Si- 
 
 donian women: 
 They from Sidon had come, what time god-shaped 
 
 Alexander 
 Over the broad sea brought, that way, the high-bom 
 
 Helen." 
 
300 HERODOTUS 
 
 In the Odyssey also the same fact is alluded 
 to, in these words: — 
 
 " Such, so wisely prepared, were the drugs that her stores 
 
 afforded. 
 Excellent; gift which once Polydamna, partner of 
 
 Thonis, 
 Gave her in Egypt, where many the simples that grow 
 
 in the meadows, 
 Potent to cure in part, in part as potent to injure." 
 
 Menelaus too, in the same poem, thus addresses 
 Telemachus : — 
 
 " Much did I long to return, but the Gods still kept me in 
 Egypt- 
 Angry because I had failed to pay them their heca- 
 tombs duly." 
 
 In these places Homer shows himself ac- 
 quainted with the voyage of Alexander to 
 Egypt, for Syria borders on Egypt, and the 
 Phoenicians, to whom Sidon belongs, dwell in 
 Syria. 
 
 117. From these various passages, and from 
 that about Sidon especially, it is clear that Homer 
 did not write the Cypria. For there it is said 
 that Alexander arrived at Ilium with Helen on 
 the third day after he left Sparta, the wind 
 having been favourable, and the sea smooth; 
 whereas in the Iliad, the poet makes him wander 
 before he brings her home. Enough, however, 
 for the present of Homer and Cypria. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 301 
 
 118. I made inquiry of the priests, whether 
 the story which the Greeks tell about Ilium is a 
 fable, or no. In reply they related the follow- 
 ing particulars, of which they declared that 
 Menelaus had himself informed them. After 
 the rape of Helen, a vast army of Greeks, wish- 
 ing to render help to Menelaus, set sail for the 
 Teucrian territory; on their arrival they disem- 
 barked, and formed their camp, after which they 
 sent ambassadors to Ilium, of whom Menelaus 
 was one. The embassy was received within the 
 walls, and demanded the restoration of Helen 
 with the treasures which Alexander had carried 
 off, and likewise required satisfaction for the 
 wrong done. The Teucrians gave at once the 
 answer in which they persisted ever afterwards, 
 backing their assertions sometimes even with 
 oaths, to wit, that neither Helen, nor the treas- 
 ures claimed, were in their possession, — ^both the 
 one and the other had remained, they said, in 
 Egypt; and it was not just to come upon them 
 for what Proteus, king of Egypt, was detain- 
 ing. The Greeks, imagining that the Teucrians 
 were merely laughing at them, laid siege to the 
 town, and never rested until they finally took it. 
 As, however, no Helen was found, and they 
 were still told the same story, they at length 
 believed in its truth, and despatched Menelaus 
 to the court of Proteus. 
 
302 HERODOTUS 
 
 119. So Menelaus travelled to Egypt, and on 
 his arrival sailed up the river as far as Mem- 
 phis, and related all that had happened. He 
 met with the utmost hospitality, received Helen 
 back unharmed, and recovered all his treasures. 
 After this friendly treatment Menelaus, they 
 said, behaved most unjustly towards the Egyp- 
 tians; for as it happened that at the time when 
 he wanted to take his departure he was detained 
 by the wind being contrary, and as he found 
 this obstruction continue, he had recourse to a 
 most wicked expedient. He seized, they said, 
 two children of the people of the country, and 
 offered them up in sacrifice. When this became 
 known, the indignation of the people was stirred, 
 and they went in pursuit of Menelaus, who, 
 however, escaped with his ships to Libya, after 
 which the Egyptians could not say whither he 
 went. The rest they knew full well, partly by 
 the inquiries which they had made, and partly 
 from the circumstances having taken place in 
 their own land, and therefore not admitting of 
 doubt. 
 
 120, Such is the account given by the Egyp- 
 tian priests, and I am myself inclined to regard 
 as true all that they say of Helen from the fol- 
 lowing considerations: If Helen had been at 
 Troy, the inhabitants would, I think, have given 
 her up to the Greeks, whether Alexander con- 
 sented to it or no. For surely neither Priam, 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 303 
 
 nor his family, could have been so infatuated 
 as to endanger their own persons, their children, 
 and their city, merely that Alexander might pos- 
 sess Helen. At any rate, if they determined to 
 refuse at first, yet afterwards, when so many 
 of the Trojans fell on every encounter with the 
 Greeks, and Priam too in each battle lost a son, 
 or sometimes two, and three, or even more, if 
 we may credit the epic poets, I do not believe 
 that even if Priam himself had been married 
 to her he would have declined to deliver her up, 
 with the view of bringing the series of calami- 
 ties to a close. Nor was it as if Alexander had 
 been heir to the crown, in which case he might 
 have had the chief management of affairs, since 
 Priam was already old. Hector, who was his 
 elder brother, and a far braver man, stood 
 before him, and was the heir to the kingdom 
 on the death of their father Priam. And it 
 could not be Hector's interest to uphold his 
 brother in his wrong, when it brought such dire 
 calamities upon himself and the other Trojans. 
 But the fact was that they had no Helen to de- 
 liver, and so they told the Greeks, but the Greeks 
 would not believe what they said — ^Divine Prov- 
 idence, as I think, so willing, that by their utter 
 destruction it might be made evident to all men 
 that when great wrongs are done, the gods will 
 surely visit them with great punishments. Such, 
 at least, is my view of the matter. 
 
304. HERODOTUS 
 
 121. (1.) When Proteus died, Rhampsinitus,^ 
 the priests informed me, succeeded to the throne. 
 His monuments were, the western gateway of 
 the temple of Vulcan, and the two statues which 
 stand in front of this gateway, called by the 
 Egyptians, the one Summer, the other Winter, 
 each twenty-five cubits in height. The statue 
 of Summer, which is the northernmost of the 
 two, is worshipped by the natives, and has of- 
 ferings made to it ; that of Winter, which stands 
 towards the south, is treated in exactly the con- 
 trary way. King Rhampsinitus was possessed, 
 they said, of great riches in silver, — ^indeed to 
 such an amount, that none of the princes, his 
 successors, surpassed or even equalled his wealth. 
 For the better custody of this money, he pro- 
 posed to build a vast chamber of hewn stone, one 
 side of which was to form a part of the outer 
 wall of his palace. The builder, therefore, hav- 
 ing designs upon the treasures, contrived, as he 
 was making the building, to insert in this wall a 
 
 B This is evidently tlie name of a Remeses, and not of a king 
 of an early dynasty. The first individual called Remeses men- 
 tioned on the monuments was a person of the family of Amosis, 
 the first king of the 18th dynasty. Some chambers in the great 
 temple at Medeenet Haboo, built by Remeses III, where the 
 gold and silver vases and other precious things are portrayed in 
 the sculptures, recall the treasury of Rhampsinitus; and it is not 
 improbable that these were the same king. Diodorus calls him 
 Rhamphis. Herodotus says he erected the great Propylaea on 
 the west of the temple of Pthah at Memphis, which would also 
 prove him to have reigned after the founders of the Pyramids, 
 and at least as late as the 18th or 19th dynasty. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 305 
 
 stone, which could easily be removed from its 
 place by two men, or even by one. So the 
 chamber was finished, and the king's money 
 stored away in it. Time passed, and the builder 
 fell sick, when finding his end approaching, he 
 called for his two sons, and related to them the 
 contrivance he had made in the king's treasure- 
 chamber, telling them it was for their sakes he 
 had done it, that so they might always live in 
 affluence. Then he gave them clear directions 
 concerning the mode of removing the stone, and 
 communicated the measurements, bidding them 
 carefully keep the secret, whereby they would 
 be Comptrollers of the Royal Exchequer so long 
 as they hved. Then the father died, and the 
 sons were not slow in setting to work: they went 
 by night to the palace, found the stone in the 
 wall of the building, and having removed it with 
 ease, plundered the treasury of a round sum. 
 
 (2.) When the king next paid a visit to the 
 apartment, he was astonished to see that the 
 money was sunk in some of the vessels wherein 
 it was stored away. Whom to accuse, however, 
 he knew not, as the seals were all perfect, and 
 the fastenings of the room secure. Still each 
 time that he repeated his visits, he found that 
 more money was gone. The thieves in truth 
 never stopped, but plundered the treasury ever 
 more and more. At last the king determined 
 to have some traps made, and set near the ves- 
 
306 HERODOTUS 
 
 sels which contained his wealth. This was done, 
 and when the thieves came, as usual, to the treas- 
 ure-chamber, and one of them entering through 
 the aperture, made straight for the jars, sud- 
 denly he found himself caught in one of the 
 traps. Perceiving that he was lost, he instantly 
 called his brother, and telling him what had hap- 
 pened, entreated him to enter as quickly as pos- 
 sible and cut off his head, that when his body 
 should be discovered it might not be recognised, 
 which would have the effect of bringing ruin 
 upon both. The other thief thought the advice 
 good, and was persuaded to follow it; — ^then, 
 fitting the stone into its place, he went home, 
 taking with him his brother's head. 
 
 (3.) When day dawned, the king came into 
 the room, and marvelled greatly to see the body 
 of the thief in the trap without a head, while the 
 building was still whole, and neither entrance nor 
 exit was to be seen anywhere. In this perplexity 
 he commanded the body of the dead man to be 
 hung up outside the palace wall, and set a guard 
 to watch it, with orders that if any persons were 
 seen weeping or lamenting near the place, they 
 should be seized and brought before him. When 
 the mother heard of this exposure of the corpse 
 of her son, she took it sorely to heart, and spoke 
 to her surviving child, bidding him devise some 
 plan or other to get back the body, and threat- 
 ening, that if he did not exert himself, she woxild 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 307 
 
 go herself to the king, and denounce him as 
 the robber. 
 
 (4.) The son said all he could to persuade her 
 to let the matter rest, but in vain; she still con- 
 tinued to trouble him, until at last he yielded to 
 her importunity, and contrived as follows : Fill- 
 ing some skins with wine, he loaded them on 
 donkeys, which he drove before him till he came 
 to the place where the guards were watching the 
 dead body, when pulling two or three of the 
 skins towards him, he untied some of the necks 
 which dangled by the asses' side. The wine 
 poured freely out, whereupon he began to beat 
 his head, and shout with all his might, seeming 
 not to know which of the donkeys he shotdd turn 
 to first. When the guards saw the wine running, 
 delighted to profit by the occasion, they rushed 
 one and all into the road, each with some ves- 
 sel or other, and caught the liquor as it was 
 spiUing. The driver pretended anger, and loaded 
 them with abuse; whereon they did their best 
 to pacify him, imtil at last he appeared to soften, 
 and recover his good humour, drove his asses 
 aside out of the road, and set to work to re- 
 arrange their burthens; meanwhile, as he talked 
 and chatted with the guards, one of them began 
 to rally him, and make him laugh, whereupon 
 he gave them one of the skins as a gift. They 
 now made up their minds to sit down and have 
 a drinking-bout where they were, so they begged 
 
308 HERODOTUS 
 
 him to remain and drink with them. Then the 
 man let himself be persuaded, and stayed. As 
 the drinking went on, they grew very friendly 
 together, so presently he gave them another skin, 
 upon which they drank so copiously that they 
 were all overcome with the liquor, and growing 
 drowsy lay down, and fell asleep on the spot. 
 The thief waited till it was the dead of the 
 night, and then took down the body of his 
 brother; after which, in mockery, he shaved off 
 the right side of all the soldiers' beards, and so 
 left them. Laying his brother's body upon the 
 asses, he carried it home to his mother, having 
 thus accomplished the thing that she had re- 
 quired of him. 
 
 (5.) When it came to the king's ears that the 
 thief's body was stolen away, he was sorely vexed. 
 Wishing, therefore, whatever it might cost, to 
 catch the man who had contrived the trick, he 
 had recourse (the priests said) to an expedient, 
 which I can scarcely credit. He sent his own 
 daughter ® to the common stews, with orders to 
 
 « This in a country where social ties were so much regarded 
 and where the distinction of royal and noble classes was more 
 rigidly maintained than in the most exclusive community of mod- 
 ern Europe, shows that the story was of foreign origin. The arm 
 of a dead man would have been difficult to obtain; but the mar- 
 riage of an Egyptian king's daughter with a man of low family 
 and a robber was a gross fabrication even for a Greek cicerone. 
 This and the stories of the daughter of Cheops, and of Mycerinus, 
 are as illustrative of Greek, as those in the Decameron of Boc- 
 caccio are of Italian, ideas; and the pleasure it gave the Greeks 
 to repeat such tales about kings and their daughters made them 
 overlook the improbability. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 309 
 
 admit all comers, but to require every man to 
 tell her what was the cleverest and wickedest 
 thing he had done in the whole course of his 
 life. If any one in reply told her the story of 
 the thief, she was to lay hold of him and not 
 allow him to get away. The daughter did as 
 her father willed, whereon the thief, who was 
 well aware of the king's motive, felt a desire to 
 outdo him in craft and cunning. Accordingly 
 he contrived the following plan: He procured 
 the corpse of a man lately dead, and cutting off 
 one of the arms at the shoulder, put it under 
 his dress, and so went to the king's daughter. 
 When she put the question to him as she had 
 done to all the rest, he replied, that the wicked- 
 est thing he had ever done was cutting off the 
 head of his brother when he was caught in a 
 trap in the king's treasury, and the cleverest 
 was making the guards drunk and carrying off 
 the body. As he spoke, the princess caught 
 at him; but the thief took advantage of the 
 darkness to hold out to her the hand of the 
 corpse. Imagining it to be his own hand, she 
 seized and held it fast; while the thief, leav- 
 ing it in her grasp, made his escape by the 
 door. 
 
 (6.) The king, when word was brought him 
 of this fresh success, amazed at the sagacity and 
 boldness of the man, sent messengers to all the 
 towns in his dominions to proclaim a free par- 
 don for the thief, and to promise him a rich re- 
 
310 HERODOTUS 
 
 ward, if he came and made himself known. The 
 thief took the king at his word, and came boldly 
 into his presence; whereupon Rhampsinitus, 
 greatly admiring him, and looking on him as 
 the most knowing of men, gave him his daugh- 
 ter in marriage. " The Egyptians," he said, 
 "excelled all the rest of the world in wis- 
 dom, and this man excelled all other Egyp- 
 tians." 
 
 122. The same king, I was also informed by 
 the priests, afterwards descended alive into the 
 region which the Greeks called Hades, and there 
 played dice with Ceres, sometimes winning and 
 sometimes suffering defeat. After a while he 
 returned to earth, and brought with him a 
 golden napkin, a gift which he had received 
 from the goddess. From this descent of 
 Rhampsinitus into Hades, and return to earth 
 again, the Egyptians, I was told, instituted a 
 festival, which they certainly celebrated in my 
 day. On what occasion it was that they insti- 
 tuted it, whether upon this or upon any other, 
 I cannot determine. The following are the 
 ceremonies: On a certain day in the year the 
 priests weave a mantle, and binding the eyes of 
 one of their number with a fillet, they put the 
 mantle upon him, and take him with them into 
 the roadway conducting to the temple of Ceres, 
 when they depart and leave him to himself. 
 Then the priest, thus blindfolded, is led (they 
 say) by two wolves to the temple of Ceres, dis- 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 311 
 
 tant twenty furlongs from the city, where he 
 stays a while, after which he is brought back 
 from the temple by the wolves, and left upon 
 the spot where they first joined him. 
 
 123. Such as think the tales told by the 
 Egyptians credible are free to accept them for 
 history. For my own part, I propose to my- 
 self throughout my whole work faithfully to 
 record the traditions of the several nations. The 
 Egyptians maintain that Ceres and Bacchus 
 preside in the realms below. They were also 
 the first to broach the opinion, that the soul of 
 man is immortal,'^ and that, when the body dies, 
 it enters into the form of an animal which is 
 born at the moment, thence passing on from 
 one animal into another, until it has circled 
 through the forms of all the creatures which 
 tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after 
 which it enters again into a human frame, and 
 is born anew. The whole period of the trans- 
 migration is (they say) three thousand years. 
 There are Greek writers, some of an earlier, 
 some of a later date, who have borrowed this 
 doctrine from the Egyptians, and put it for- 
 ward as their own. I could mention their names, 
 but I abstain from doing so. 
 
 f This was the great doctrine of the Egyptians, and their belief 
 in it is everywhere proclaimed in the paintings of the tombs. 
 But the souls of wicked men alone appear to have suffered the 
 disgrace of entering the body of an animal, when, "weighed In 
 the balance " before the tribunal of Osiris, they were pronounced 
 unworthy to enter the abode of the blessed. 
 
312 HERODOTUS 
 
 124. Till the death of Rhampsinitus, the 
 priests said, Egypt was excellently governed, 
 and jQourished greatly; but after him Cheops 
 succeeded to the throne, and plunged into all 
 manner of wickedness. He closed the temples, 
 and forbade the Egyptians to offer sacrifice, 
 compelling them instead to labour, one and all, 
 in his service. Some were required to drag 
 blocks of stone down to the Nile from the quar- 
 ries in the Arabian range of hills; others re- 
 ceived the blocks after they had been conveyed 
 in boats across the river, and drew them to the 
 range of hills called the Libyan. A hundred 
 thousand men laboured constantly, and were re- 
 lieved every three months by a fresh lot. It 
 took ten years' oppression of the people to make 
 the causeway for the conveyance of the stones, 
 a work not much inferior, in my judgment, to 
 the pyramid itself. This causeway is five fur- 
 longs in length, ten fathoms wide, and in height, 
 at the highest part, eight fathoms. It is built 
 of polished stone, and is covered with carvings 
 of animals. To make it took ten years, as I 
 said — or rather to make the causeway, the 
 works on the mound where the pyramid stands, 
 and the underground chambers, which Cheops 
 intended as vaults for his own use: these last 
 were built on a sort of island, surrounded by 
 water introduced from the Nile by a canal. The 
 pyramid itself was twenty years in building. It 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 313 
 
 is a square, eight hundred feet each way, and 
 the height the same, built entirely of polished 
 stone, fitted together with the utmost care. The 
 stones of which it is composed are none of them 
 less than thirty feet in length. 
 
 125. The pyramid was built in steps, battle- 
 ment-wise, as it is called, or, according to others, 
 altar-wise. After laying the stones for the 
 base, they raised the remaining stones to their 
 places by means of machines ^ formed of short 
 wooden planks. The first machine raised them 
 from the ground to the top of the first step. 
 On this there was another machine, which re- 
 ceived the stone upon its arrival, and conveyed 
 it to the second step, whence a third machine ad- 
 vanced it still higher. Either they had as many 
 machines as there were steps in the pyramid, or 
 possibly they had but a single machine, which 
 being easUy moved, was transferred from tier to 
 tier as the stone rose — ^both accounts are given, 
 and therefore I mention both. The upper por- 
 tion of the pyramid was finished first, then the 
 middle, and finally the part which was lowest 
 and nearest the ground. There is an inscrip- 
 tion in Egyptian characters on the pyramid 
 
 8 The notion of Diodorus that machines were not yet invented 
 is sufficiently disproved by common sense and by the assertion 
 of Herodotus. It is certainly singular that the Egyptians, who 
 have left behind them so many records of their customs, should 
 have omitted every explanation of their mode of raising the 
 enormous blocks they used. 
 
314 HERODOTUS 
 
 which records the quantity of radishes, onions, 
 and garhck consumed by the labourers who con- 
 structed it; and I perfectly well remember that 
 the interpreter who read the writing to me said 
 that the money expended in this way was 1600 
 talents of silver. If this then is a true record, 
 what a vast sum must have been spent on the 
 iron tools used in the work, and on the feeding 
 and clothing of the labourers, considering the 
 length of time the work lasted, which has al- 
 ready been stated, and the additional time — no 
 small space, I imagine — which must have been 
 occupied by the quarrying of the stones, their 
 conveyance, and the formation of the under- 
 ground apartments. 
 
 126. The wickedness of Cheops reached to 
 such a pitch that, when he had spent all his 
 treasures and wanted more, he sent his daugh- 
 ter to the stews, with orders to procure him a 
 certain sum — how much I cannot say, for I was 
 not told; she procured it, however, and at the 
 same time, bent on leaving a monument which 
 should perpetuate her own memory, she re- 
 quired each man to make her a present of a 
 stone towards the works which she contem- 
 plated. With these stones she built the pyra- 
 mid which stands midmost of the three that are 
 in front of the great pyramid, measuring along 
 each side a hundred and fifty feet. 
 
 127. Cheops reigned, the Egyptians said. 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 3^5 
 
 fifty years, and was succeeded at his demise by 
 Chephren, his brother. 
 
 Chephren imitated the conduct of his prede- 
 cessor, and, like him, built a pyramid, which did 
 not, however, equal the dimensions of his 
 brother's. Of this I am certain, for I meas- 
 ured them both myself. It has no subterra- 
 neous apartments, nor any canal from the Nile 
 to supply it with water, as the other pyramid 
 has. In that, the Nile water, introduced 
 through an artificial duct, surrounds an island, 
 where the body of Cheops is said to lie. Cheph- 
 ren built his pyramid close to the great pyramid 
 of Cheops, and of the same dimensions, except 
 that he lowered the height forty feet. For the 
 basement he employed the many-coloured stone 
 of Ethiopia. These two pyramids stand both on 
 the same hill, an elevation not far short of a 
 hundred feet in height. The reign of Chephren 
 lasted fifty-six years. 
 
 128. Thus the affliction of Egypt endured 
 for the space of one hundred and six years, dur- 
 ing the whole of which time the temples were 
 shut up and never opened. The Egyptians so 
 detest the memory of these kings that they do 
 not much hke even to mention their names. 
 Hence they commonly call the pyramids after 
 Philition, a shepherd who at that time fed his 
 flocks about the place. 
 
 129. After Chephren, Mycerinus (they said), 
 
316 HERODOTUS 
 
 son of Cheops, ascended the throne. This 
 prince disapproved the conduct of his father, 
 re-opened the temples, and allowed the people, 
 who were ground down to the lowest point of 
 misery, to return to their occupations, and to 
 resume the practice of sacrifice. His justice in 
 the decision of causes was beyond that of all 
 the former kings. The Egyptians praise him 
 in this respect more highly than any of their 
 other monarchs, declaring that he not only gave 
 his judgments with fairness, but also, when any 
 one was dissatisfied with his sentence, made 
 compensation to him out of his own purse, and 
 thus pacified his anger. Mycerinus had estab- 
 lished his character for mildness, and was act- 
 ing as I have described, when the stroke of ca- 
 lamity fell on him. First of all his daughter 
 died, the only child that he possessed. Experi- 
 encing a bitter grief at this visitation, in his 
 sorrow he conceived the wish to entomb his child 
 in some unusual way. He therefore caused a 
 cow to be made of wood, and after the interior 
 had been hoUowed out, he had the whole sur- 
 face coated with gold; and in this novel tomb 
 laid the dead body of his daughter. 
 
 130. The cow was not placed under ground, 
 but continued visible to my times: it was at 
 Sais, in the royal palace, where it occupied a 
 chamber richly adorned. Every day there are 
 burnt before it aromatics of every kind; and aU 
 
BOOK II EUTERPE 317 
 
 night long a lamp is kept burning in the apart- 
 ment. In an adjoining chamber are statues 
 which the priests at Sais declared to represent 
 the various concubines of Mycerinus. They are 
 colossal figures in wood, of the number of about 
 twenty, and are represented naked. Whose 
 images they really are, I cannot say — I can 
 only repeat the account which was given to me. 
 
 131. Concerning these colossal figures and 
 the sacred cow, there is also another tale nar- 
 rated, which runs thus : " Mycerinus was enam- 
 oured of his daughter, and offered her violence 
 — ^the damsel for grief hanged herself, and My- 
 cerinus entombed her in the cow. Then her 
 mother cut off the hands of all her tiring-maids, 
 because they had sided with the father, and be- 
 trayed the child; and so the statues of the maids 
 have no hands." All this is mere fable in my 
 judgment, especially what is said about the 
 hands of the colossal statues. I could plainly 
 see that the figures had only lost their hands 
 through the efi'ect of time. They had dropped 
 ofi^, and were still lying on the ground about the 
 feet of the statues. 
 
 132. As for the cow, the greater portion of 
 it is hidden by a scarlet coverture; the head and 
 neck, however, which are visible, are coated very 
 thickly with gold, and between the horns there 
 is a representation in gold of the orb of the 
 sun. The figure is not erect, but lying down, 
 
318 HERODOTUS 
 
 with the limbs under the body; the dimensions 
 being fully those of a large animal of the kind. 
 Every year it is taken from the apartment 
 where it is kept, and exposed to the hght of 
 day — this is done at the season when the Egyp- 
 tians beat themselves in honour of one of their 
 gods, whose name I am unwilling to mention 
 in connection with such a matter. They say 
 that the daughter of Mycerinus requested her 
 father in her dying moments to allow her once 
 a year to see the sun. 
 
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