Kitap 2
After the death of Cyrus, Cambyses inherited his throne. He was the son of Cyrus and of Cassandane, the daughter of Pharnaspes, for whom Cyrus mourned deeply when she died before him, and had all his subjects mourn also.
Cambyses was the son of this woman and of Cyrus. He considered the Ionians and Aeolians slaves inherited from his father, and prepared an expedition against Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , taking with him some of these Greek subjects besides others whom he ruled.
Now before Psammetichus became king of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt ,In 664 B.C., probably. the Egyptians believed that they were the oldest people on earth. But ever since Psammetichus became king and wished to find out which people were the oldest, they have believed that the Phrygians were older than they, and they than everybody else.
Psammetichus, when he was in no way able to learn by inquiry which people had first come into being, devised a plan by which he took two newborn children of the common people and gave them to a shepherd to bring up among his flocks. He gave instructions that no one was to speak a word in their hearing; they were to stay by themselves in a lonely hut, and in due time the shepherd was to bring goats and give the children their milk and do everything else necessary.
Psammetichus did this, and gave these instructions, because he wanted to hear what speech would first come from the children, when they were past the age of indistinct babbling. And he had his wish; for one day, when the shepherd had done as he was told for two years, both children ran to him stretching out their hands and calling “Bekos!” as he opened the door and entered.
When he first heard this, he kept quiet about it; but when, coming often and paying careful attention, he kept hearing this same word, he told his master at last and brought the children into the king's presence as required. Psammetichus then heard them himself, and asked to what language the word “Bekos” belonged; he found it to be a Phrygian word, signifying bread.
Reasoning from this, the Egyptians acknowledged that the Phrygians were older than they. This is the story which I heard from the priests of Hephaestus'Identified by the Greeks with the Egyptian Ptah. temple at Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis ; the Greeks say among many foolish things that Psammetichus had the children reared by women whose tongues he had cut out.
Besides this story of the rearing of the children, I also heard other things at Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis in conversation with the priests of Hephaestus;Identified by the Greeks with the Egyptian Ptah. and I visited Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes and Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis , too, for this very purpose, because I wished to know if the people of those places would tell me the same story as the priests at Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis ; for the people of Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis are said to be the most learned of the Egyptians.
Now, such stories as I heard about the gods I am not ready to relate, except their names, for I believe that all men are equally knowledgeable about them; and I shall say about them what I am constrained to say by the course of my history.
But as to human affairs, this was the account in which they all agreed: the Egyptians, they said, were the first men who reckoned by years and made the year consist of twelve divisions of the seasons. They discovered this from the stars (so they said). And their reckoning is, to my mind, a juster one than that of the Greeks; for the Greeks add an intercalary month every other year, so that the seasons agree; but the Egyptians, reckoning thirty days to each of the twelve months, add five days in every year over and above the total, and thus the completed circle of seasons is made to agree with the calendar.
Furthermore, the Egyptians (they said) first used the names of twelve godsThere is much obscurity about the “Twelve Gods.” This only appears to be clear, that eight (or nine) gods form the first order of the Egyptian hierarchy, and that there are twelve of the second rank. See Hdt. 2.43, and Rawlinson's essay (ch. 3 in his Appendix to Book II.). (which the Greeks afterwards borrowed from them); and it was they who first assigned to the several gods their altars and images and temples, and first carved figures on stone. Most of this they showed me in fact to be the case. The first human king of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , they said, was Min.
In his time all of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt except the Thebaic the southern part of Upper Egypt [32,26] (region), Egypt, Africa Upper Egypt . district was a marsh: all the country that we now see was then covered by water, north of Birkat Qarun [30.666,29.466] (salt lake), Egypt, Africa lake Moeris ,In the modern Al-Fayyum [30.8,29.316] (governorate), Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Fayyum , west of the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile . which is seven days' journey up the river from the sea.
And I think that their account of the country was true. For even if a man has not heard it before, he can readily see, if he has sense, that that Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt to which the Greeks sail is land deposited for the Egyptians, the river's gift—not only the lower country, but even the land as far as three days' voyage above the lake, which is of the same nature as the other, although the priests did not say this, too.
For this is the nature of the land of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt : in the first place, when you approach it from the sea and are still a day's sail from land, if you let down a sounding line you will bring up mud from a depth of eleven fathoms. This shows that the deposit from the land reaches this far.
Further, the length of the seacoast of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt itself is sixty “schoeni”Literally “ropes.” —of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , that is, as we judge it to be, reaching from the Plinthinete gulf to the Serbonian marsh, which is under the Casian mountain—between these there is this length of sixty schoeni.
Men that have scant land measure by feet; those that have more, by miles; those that have much land, by parasangs; and those who have great abundance of it, by schoeni.
The parasang is three and three quarters miles, and the schoenus, which is an Egyptian measure, is twice that.
By this reckoning, then, the seaboard of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt will be four hundred and fifty miles in length. Inland from the sea as far as Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis , Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is a wide land, all flat and watery and marshy. From the sea up to Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis is a journey about as long as the way from the altar of the twelve gods at Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus) Athens to the temple of Olympian Zeus at Pisa [21.65,37.65] (Perseus) Pisa .
If a reckoning is made, only a little difference of length, not more than two miles, will be found between these two journeys; for the journey from Athens [23.7333,37.9667] (Perseus) Athens to Pisa [21.65,37.65] (Perseus) Pisa is two miles short of two hundred, which is the number of miles between the sea and Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis .
Beyond and above Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis , Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is a narrow land. For it is bounded on the one side by the mountains of Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), Asia Arabia , which run north to south, always running south towards the sea called the Red Sea . In these mountains are the quarries that were hewn out for making the pyramids at Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis . This way, then, the mountains run, and end in the places of which I have spoken; their greatest width from east to west, as I learned by inquiry, is a two months' journey, and their easternmost boundaries yield frankincense.
Such are these mountains. On the side of Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya , Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is bounded by another range of rocky mountains among which are the pyramids; these are all covered with sand, and run in the same direction as those Arabian hills that run southward.
Beyond Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis , there is no great distance—in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , that is: ὡς εἶναι αἰγύπτου; so much of the Nile valley being outside Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt . But it is possible that the words may mean “no great distance, for Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt ,” i.e. no great distance relatively to the size of the country. the narrow land has a length of only fourteen days' journey up the river. Between the aforesaid mountain ranges, the land is level, and where the plain is narrowest it seemed to me that there were no more than thirty miles between the Arabian mountains and those that are called Libyan. Beyond this Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is a wide land again. Such is the nature of this country.
From Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis to Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes is nine days' journey by river, and the distance is six hundred and eight miles, or eighty-one schoeni.
This, then, is a full statement of all the distances in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt : the seaboard is four hundred and fifty miles long; and I will now declare the distance inland from the sea to Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes : it is seven hundred and sixty-five miles. And between Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes and the city called Elephantine there are two hundred and twenty-five miles.
The greater portion, then, of this country of which I have spoken was land deposited for the Egyptians as the priests told me, and I myself formed the same judgment; all that lies between the ranges of mountains above Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis to which I have referred seemed to me to have once been a gulf of the sea, just as the country about Troy [26.25,39.95] (deserted settlement), Canakkale, Marmara, Turkey, Asia Ilion and Teuthrania and Ephesus [27.316,37.916] (deserted settlement), Izmir Ili, Ege kiyilari, Turkey, Asia Ephesus and the plain of the Buyukmenderes Nehri [27.183,37.466] (river), Turkey, Asia Maeander , to compare these small things with great.
For of the rivers that brought down the stuff to make these lands, there is none worthy to be compared for greatness with even one of the mouths of the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile , and the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile has five mouths.
There are also other rivers, not so great as the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile , that have had great effects; I could rehearse their names, but principal among them is the Achelous, which, flowing through Akarnania (region (general)), Aitolia and Akarnania, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Acarnania and emptying into the sea, has already made half of the Echinades Islands mainland.
Now in Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), Asia Arabia , not far from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , there is a gulf extending inland from the sea called RedThe “sea called Red,” it will be remembered, is the sea south and east of Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), Asia Arabia : the gulf entering in from it is our Red Sea . Suppose the Delta to have been once a gulf too, then there would have been two gulfs, both running up into Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , their heads not far from each other. , whose length and width are such as I shall show:
in length, from its inner end out to the wide sea, it is a forty days' voyage for a ship rowed by oars; and in breadth, it is half a day's voyage at the widest. Every day the tides ebb and flow in it.
I believe that where Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is now, there was once another such gulf; this extended from the northern sea towards Aethiopia, and the other, the Arabian gulf of which I shall speak, extended from the south towards Syria [38,35] (nation), Asia Syria ; the ends of these gulfs penetrated into the country near each other, and but a little space of land separated them.
Now, if the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile inclined to direct its current into this Arabian gulf, why should the latter not be silted up by it inside of twenty thousand years? In fact, I expect that it would be silted up inside of ten thousand years. Is it to be doubted, then, that in the ages before my birth a gulf even much greater than this should have been silted up by a river so great and so busy?
As for Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , then, I credit those who say it, and myself very much believe it to be the case; for I have seen that Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt projects into the sea beyond the neighboring land, and shells are exposed to view on the mountains, and things are coated with salt, so that even the pyramids show it, and the only sandy mountain in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is that which is above Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis ;
besides, Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is like neither the neighboring land of Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), Asia Arabia nor Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya , not even like Syria [38,35] (nation), Asia Syria (for Syrians inhabit the seaboard of Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), Asia Arabia ); it is a land of black and crumbling earth, as if it were alluvial deposit carried down the river from Aethiopia;
but we know that the soil of Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya is redder and somewhat sandy, and Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), Asia Arabia and Syria [38,35] (nation), Asia Syria are lands of clay and stones.
This, too, that the priests told me about Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , is a strong proof: when Moeris was king, if the river rose as much as thirteen feet, it watered all of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt below Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis .Supposing this statement to be true, Moeris must have been king much more than 900 years before Hdt.: 900 years being much too short a period for a rise of eight cubits in the height of the Nile valley. Moeris had not been dead nine hundred years when I heard this from the priests. But now, if the river does not rise at least twenty-six or twenty-five feet, the land is not flooded.
And, in my opinion, the Egyptians who inhabit the lands lower down the river than Birkat Qarun [30.666,29.466] (salt lake), Egypt, Africa lake Moeris , and especially what is called the Delta—if this land of theirs rises in the same proportion and broadens likewise in extent, and the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile no longer floods it—will forever after be in the same straits as they themselves once said the Greeks would be;
for, learning that all the Greek land is watered by rain, but not by river water like theirs, they said that one day the Greeks would be let down by what they counted on, and miserably starve: meaning that, if heaven send no rain for the Greeks and afflict them with drought, the Greeks will be overtaken by famine, for there is no other source of water for them except Zeus alone.
And this prediction of the Egyptians about the Greeks was true enough. But now let me show the prospect for the Egyptians themselves: if, as I have already said, the country below Mit Rahina [31.25,29.85] (inhabited place), Giza, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Memphis (for it is this which rises) should increase in height in the same proportion as formerly, will not the Egyptians who inhabit it go hungry, as there is no rain in their country and the river will be unable to inundate their fields?
At present, of course, there are no people, either in the rest of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt or in the whole world, who live from the soil with so little labor; they do not have to break the land up with the plough, or hoe, or do any other work that other men do to get a crop; the river rises of itself, waters the fields, and then sinks back again; then each man sows his field and sends swine into it to tread down the seed, and waits for the harvest; then he has the swine thresh his grain, and so garners it.
Now if we agree with the opinion of the Ionians, who say that only the Delta is Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , and that its seaboard reaches from the so-called Watchtower of Perseus forty schoeni to the Salters' at Pelusium (deserted settlement), Shamal Sina', Desert, Egypt, Africa Pelusium , while inland it stretches as far as the city of Cercasorus,At the southern point of the Delta, where the two main channels of the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile divide, not far below Cairo [31.25,30.5] (inhabited place), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Cairo . where the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), Africa Nile divides and flows to Pelusium (deserted settlement), Shamal Sina', Desert, Egypt, Africa Pelusium and Canopus [30.5,31.316] (deserted settlement), Al-Iskandariyah, Urban, Egypt, Africa Canobus , and that all the rest of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt is partly Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya and partly Arabian Peninsula [45,25] (region (general)), Asia Arabia —if we follow this account, we can show that there was once no land for the Egyptians;