previous next


Whether the sacred ibis really kills snakes or not is disputed; at all events the Greeks thought that it did. Cf. Diod. i. 87 (also 86) for this and other explanations of animal worship; he gives a list of creatures worshipped by the Egyptians because they were useful; cats and ibises are both mentioned as killing snakes. It need hardly be said that this explanation of animal worship is an afterthought; its origin is to be sought in the superstitions of primitive peoples (cf. 65. 1 n).

Sourdille (R. p. 251) sums up (with regard to H.'s account of the worship of animals): ‘the striking point is not the inaccuracy of the points related; a great number of them agree with what appears to have been the case; but they are too generalized, too systematized’ (cf. 67. 1 nn.).

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: