Book 17
1.40
On the other side of the river is the city Oxyrynchus,Bekneseh. and a nome of the same name. They worship the oxyrynchus, and have a temple dedicated to this animal; but all the other Egyptians worship the oxyrynchus.This fish, a species of sturgeon, received its name from the shape of the head (sharp-pointed), and was said to have been produced from the blood of the wounded Osiris. Aelian. Hist. Animal. x. 46. For all the Egyptians worship in common certain animals; three among the land animals, the ox, the dog, and the cat; two among the winged tribe, the hawk and the ibis; and two of the aquatic animals, the fish lepidotus and the oxyrynchus. There are also other animals which each people, independently of others, worship; as the Saïtae and Thebaïtae, a sheep; the Latopolitae, the latus, a fish inhabiting the Nile; the people of Lycopolis, a wolf; those of Hermopolis,Eshmoon. the cynocephalus; those of Babylon,Babout. near Memphis, a cephus, which has the countenance of a satyr, and in other respects is between a dog and a bear; it is bred in Ethiopia. The inhabitants of Thebes worship an eagle; the Leontopolitae, a lion; the Mendesians, a male and female goat; the Athribitae, a shrewmouse; different people worshipping different animals. They do not, however, assign the same reasons for this difference of worship.
