Kitap 2
But this is how they sacrifice swine to the Moon: the sacrificer lays the end of the tail and the spleen and the caul together and covers them up with all the fat that he finds around the belly, then consigns it all to the fire; as for the rest of the flesh, they eat it at the time of full moon when they sacrifice the victim; but they will not taste it on any other day. Poor men, with but slender means, mold swine out of dough, which they then take and sacrifice.
To Dionysus, on the evening of his festival, everyone offers a piglet which he kills before his door and then gives to the swineherd who has sold it, for him to take away.
The rest of the festival of Dionysus is observed by the Egyptians much as it is by the Greeks, except for the dances; but in place of the phallus, they have invented the use of puppets two feet high moved by strings, the male member nodding and nearly as big as the rest of the body, which are carried about the villages by women; a flute-player goes ahead, the women follow behind singing of Dionysus.
Why the male member is so large and is the only part of the body that moves, there is a sacred legend that explains.
Now then, it seems to me that Melampus son of Amytheon was not ignorant of but was familiar with this sacrifice. For Melampus was the one who taught the Greeks the name of Dionysus and the way of sacrificing to him and the phallic procession; he did not exactly unveil the subject taking all its details into consideration, for the teachers who came after him made a fuller revelation; but it was from him that the Greeks learned to bear the phallus along in honor of Dionysus, and they got their present practice from his teaching.
I say, then, that Melampus acquired the prophetic art, being a discerning man, and that, besides many other things which he learned from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , he also taught the Greeks things concerning Dionysus, altering few of them; for I will not say that what is done in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt in connection with the god and what is done among the Greeks originated independently: for they would then be of an Hellenic character and not recently introduced.
Nor again will I say that the Egyptians took either this or any other custom from the Greeks. But I believe that Melampus learned the worship of Dionysus chiefly from Cadmus of +Tyre [35.183,33.266] (inhabited place), Al-Janub, Lebanon, Asia Tyre and those who came with Cadmus from +Phoenicia (region (general)), Asia Phoenicia to the land now called Boeotia (department), Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Boeotia .
In fact, the names of nearly all the gods came to Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt . For I am convinced by inquiry that they have come from foreign parts, and I believe that they came chiefly from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt .
Except the names of Poseidon and the Dioscuri, as I have already said, and Hera, and Hestia, and Themis, and the Graces, and the Nereids, the names of all the gods have always existed in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt . I only say what the Egyptians themselves say. The gods whose names they say they do not know were, as I think, named by the Pelasgians, except Poseidon, the knowledge of whom they learned from the Libyans.
Alone of all nations the Libyans have had among them the name of Poseidon from the beginning, and they have always honored this god. The Egyptians, however, are not accustomed to pay any honors to heroes.
These customs, then, and others besides, which I shall indicate, were taken by the Greeks from the Egyptians. It was not so with the ithyphallic images of Hermes; the production of these came from the Pelasgians, from whom the Athenians were the first Greeks to take it, and then handed it on to others.
For the Athenians were then already counted as Greeks when the Pelasgians came to live in the land with them and thereby began to be considered as Greeks. Whoever has been initiated into the rites of the Cabeiri, which the Samothracians learned from the Pelasgians and now practice, understands what my meaning is.
+Samothrace (island), Nomos Evrou, Western Thrace, Greece, Europe Samothrace was formerly inhabited by those Pelasgians who came to live among the Athenians, and it is from them that the Samothracians take their rites.
The Athenians, then, were the first Greeks to make ithyphallic images of Hermes, and they did this because the Pelasgians taught them. The Pelasgians told a certain sacred tale about this, which is set forth in the Samothracian mysteries.
Formerly, in all their sacrifices, the Pelasgians called upon gods without giving name or appellation to any (I know this, because I was told at Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona ); for as yet they had not heard of such. They called them godsOn the supposition that θεός meant “a disposer,” connected with θεσμός, τίθημι, etc. from the fact that, besides setting everything in order, they maintained all the dispositions.
Then, after a long while, first they learned the names of the rest of the gods, which came to them from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , and, much later, the name of Dionysus; and presently they asked the oracle at Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona about the names; for this place of divination, held to be the most ancient in Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas , was at that time the only one.
When the Pelasgians, then, asked at Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona whether they should adopt the names that had come from foreign parts, the oracle told them to use the names. From that time onwards they used the names of the gods in their sacrifices; and the Greeks received these later from the Pelasgians.
But whence each of the gods came to be, or whether all had always been, and how they appeared in form, they did not know until yesterday or the day before, so to speak;
for I suppose Hesiod and Homer flourished not more than four hundred years earlier than I; and these are the ones who taught the Greeks the descent of the gods, and gave the gods their names, and determined their spheres and functions, and described their outward forms.
But the poets who are said to have been earlier than these men were, in my opinion, later. The earlier part of all this is what the priestesses of Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona tell; the later, that which concerns Hesiod and Homer, is what I myself say.
But about the oracles in Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas , and that one which is in Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya , the Egyptians give the following account. The priests of Zeus of Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes told me that two priestesses had been carried away from Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes by Phoenicians; one, they said they had heard was taken away and sold in Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya , the other in Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas ; these women, they said, were the first founders of places of divination in the aforesaid countries.
When I asked them how it was that they could speak with such certain knowledge, they said in reply that their people had sought diligently for these women, and had never been able to find them, but had learned later the story which they were telling me.
That, then, I heard from the Theban priests; and what follows, the prophetesses of Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona say: that two black doves had come flying from Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt , one to Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya and one to Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona ;
the latter settled on an oak tree, and there uttered human speech, declaring that a place of divination from Zeus must be made there; the people of Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona understood that the message was divine, and therefore established the oracular shrine.
The dove which came to Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya told the Libyans (they say) to make an oracle of Ammon; this also is sacred to Zeus. Such was the story told by the Dodonaean priestesses, the eldest of whom was Promeneia and the next Timarete and the youngest Nicandra; and the rest of the servants of the temple at Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona similarly held it true.
But my own belief about it is this. If the Phoenicians did in fact carry away the sacred women and sell one in Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya and one in Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas , then, in my opinion, the place where this woman was sold in what is now Greece [22,39] (nation), Europe Hellas , but was formerly called Pelasgia, was +Nomo Thesprotias [20.333,39.5] (department), Epirus, Greece, Europe Thesprotia ;
and then, being a slave there, she established a shrine of Zeus under an oak that was growing there; for it was reasonable that, as she had been a handmaid of the temple of Zeus at Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes , she would remember that temple in the land to which she had come.
After this, as soon as she understood the Greek language, she taught divination; and she said that her sister had been sold in Libya [17,25] (nation), Africa Libya by the same Phoenicians who sold her.
I expect that these women were called “doves” by the people of Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona because they spoke a strange language, and the people thought it like the cries of birds;
then the woman spoke what they could understand, and that is why they say that the dove uttered human speech; as long as she spoke in a foreign tongue, they thought her voice was like the voice of a bird. For how could a dove utter the speech of men? The tale that the dove was black signifies that the woman was Egyptian Perhaps Herodotus' explanation is right. But the name “doves” may be purely symbolic; thus priestesses of Demeter and Artemis were sometimes called Bees..
The fashions of divination at Thebes [32.666,25.683] (deserted settlement), Qina, Upper Egypt, Egypt, Africa Thebes of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt and at Dodona [20.8,39.55] (Perseus) Dodona are like one another; moreover, the practice of divining from the sacrificed victim has also come from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt .
It would seem, too, that the Egyptians were the first people to establish solemn assemblies, and processions, and services; the Greeks learned all that from them. I consider this proved, because the Egyptian ceremonies are manifestly very ancient, and the Greek are of recent origin.
The Egyptians hold solemn assemblies not once a year, but often. The principal one of these and the most enthusiastically celebrated is that in honor of Artemis at the town of +Tall Bastah [31.516,30.566] (deserted settlement), Ash Sharqiyah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Bubastis +Tall Bastah [31.516,30.566] (deserted settlement), Ash Sharqiyah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Bubastis in the Delta, the “city of Pasht,” where the cat-headed goddess Pasht (identified by Herodotus with Artemis) was worshipped. , and the next is that in honor of Isis at Busiris.
This town is in the middle of the Egyptian Delta, and there is in it a very great temple of Isis, who is Demeter in the Greek language.
The third greatest festival is at Saïs in honor of Athena; the fourth is the festival of the sun at +Heliopolis [31.333,30.1] (deserted settlement), Cairo, Urban, Egypt, Africa Heliopolis , the fifth of Leto at +Kawm al-Farain [30.733,31.2] (deserted settlement), Kafr ash-Shaykh, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Buto , and the sixth of Ares at Papremis.
When the people are on their way to +Tall Bastah [31.516,30.566] (deserted settlement), Ash Sharqiyah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Bubastis , they go by river, a great number in every boat, men and women together. Some of the women make a noise with rattles, others play flutes all the way, while the rest of the women, and the men, sing and clap their hands.
As they travel by river to +Tall Bastah [31.516,30.566] (deserted settlement), Ash Sharqiyah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Bubastis , whenever they come near any other town they bring their boat near the bank; then some of the women do as I have said, while some shout mockery of the women of the town; others dance, and others stand up and lift their skirts. They do this whenever they come alongside any riverside town.
But when they have reached +Tall Bastah [31.516,30.566] (deserted settlement), Ash Sharqiyah, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa Bubastis , they make a festival with great sacrifices, and more wine is drunk at this feast than in the whole year besides. It is customary for men and women (but not children) to assemble there to the number of seven hundred thousand, as the people of the place say.
This is what they do there; I have already described how they keep the feast of Isis at Busiris. There, after the sacrifice, all the men and women lament, in countless numbers; but it is not pious for me to say who it is for whom they lament.
Carians who live in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt do even more than this, inasmuch as they cut their foreheads with knives; and by this they show that they are foreigners and not Egyptians.