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The Seventeenth Book of Diodorus: in Two Parts
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34chapter 35chapter 36chapter 37chapter 38chapter 39chapter 40chapter 41chapter 42chapter 43chapter 44chapter 45chapter 46chapter 47chapter 48chapter 49chapter 50chapter 51chapter 52chapter 53chapter 54chapter 55chapter 56chapter 57chapter 58chapter 59chapter 60chapter 61chapter 62chapter 63chapter 64chapter 65chapter 66chapter 67chapter 68chapter 69chapter 70chapter 71chapter 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95chapter 96chapter 97chapter 98chapter 99chapter 100chapter 101chapter 102chapter 103chapter 104chapter 105chapter 106chapter 107chapter 108chapter 109chapter 110chapter 111chapter 112chapter 113chapter 114chapter 115chapter 116chapter 117chapter 118
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[2]
The bodies of the
dead are carried out by their relatives, who strip themselves naked and carry spears. They
place the bodies in the thickets which exist in the country and remove the clothing from them,
leaving them to be the prey of wild beasts. They divide up the clothing of the dead, sacrifice
to the heroes of the nether world, and give a banquet to their friends.1
1 This story is not otherwise told in this connection, but is of a type which is located in northern Iran. Onesicritus (Jacoby, Fragmente der griechischen Historiker, no. 134, F 5; Strabo 11.11.3) told that the Bactrians and Sogdians threw out their sick and elderly to be devoured by dogs, but that Alexander stopped the practice. Plutarch twice refers to this institution. In Plut. De Fortuna aut Virtute Alexandri 1.5.328c, he says that Sogdians kill their parents, while the Scythians eat them. In Plut. Can Vice Cause Unhappiness? 3.499d, he reports that the dead were devoured by dogs among the Hyrcanians, and by birds among the Bactrians (also Cicero Disp. Tusc 1.45.108). For other instances cp. Strabo 11.11.3; 8; Strabo 15.1.56; 62.
Diodorus Siculus. Diodorus of Sicily in Twelve Volumes with an English Translation by C. H. Oldfather. Vol. 4-8. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1989.
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