Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
chapter:
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5-18chapter 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 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77-98chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92-5chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95chapter 96chapter 97chapter 98chapter 99chapter 100chapter 101chapter 102-110chapter 102chapter 103chapter 104chapter 105chapter 106chapter 107chapter 108chapter 109chapter 110chapter 111chapter 112-17chapter 112chapter 113chapter 116chapter 117chapter 118chapter 119chapter 120chapter 121chapter 121Achapter 121Dchapter 121Echapter 121Fchapter 122chapter 123chapter 124-36chapter 124chapter 125chapter 126chapter 127chapter 128chapter 129chapter 130chapter 131chapter 132chapter 133chapter 134chapter 135chapter 136chapter 137chapter 138chapter 139chapter 140chapter 141chapter 142chapter 143chapter 144chapter 145chapter 146chapter 147-82chapter 147chapter 148chapter 149chapter 150chapter 151chapter 152chapter 153chapter 154chapter 155chapter 156chapter 157chapter 158chapter 159chapter 160chapter 161chapter 162chapter 163chapter 164chapter 165chapter 167chapter 168chapter 169chapter 170chapter 171chapter 172chapter 173chapter 174chapter 175chapter 176chapter 177chapter 178chapter 179chapter 180chapter 181chapter 182
section:
This text is part of:
With c. 99 begins the third part of Book II, i. e. the history of Egypt. This divides (at c. 147) into two parts: (a) the story of Egypt as told by the Egyptians themselves, and (b) that which is based in part on the evidence of other nations, i. e. the story after the opening of Egypt to the Greeks by Psammetichus. H. recognizes the difference in the evidence for these two parts, though he does not appreciate how great it was (cf. 147 n. and App. X. 10; Introd. § 27). Μῖνα. The Egyptian form MNA left the vowel to be supplied; hence the various forms Μήνης (Manetho), Μῆνας (Diodorus), Μιναῖος (Josephus). Menes was long considered an invention, and used to be quoted as an instance of H.'s credulity; but the tomb of the king (Aha) identified with him was discovered in 1897 at Nagada near Abydos (Petrie, i. 17), and more fully explored in 1904 (King and Hall, pp. 57, 64). He seems to have united the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, and so to begin a new epoch (circ. 3400 B. C.). τοῦτο μέν: repeated in § 4 τοῦτο μὲν ἐν αὐτῷ, and answers to τοῦτο δέ at end of chapter. ἀπογεφυρῶσαι, &c., lit. ‘dammed off’, i. e. by diverting the river's course (§ 2) and ‘making it a new channel’ (ὀχετεῦσαι), he secured the site for building Memphis. τὸν πρὸς μεσαμβρίης, κτλ.: translate ‘he made with dykes the bend (which lies) to the south’. The Nile makes a great bend to the east, fourteen miles to the south of Memphis; but ‘it is impossible to say if there is any truth in H.'s tradition’ (Maspero, p. 53). Breasted (p. 37; cf. also E. E. F., Report for 1905, p. 39) accepts it, and Murray (pp. 188-9) shows that its distance from Memphis here given is very accurate.
ἔτι καὶ νῦν. H.'s words imply that the Persians were in undisputed possession of Memphis (cf. App. IX. 1). There is no trace of lakes near Memphis; H. may be misled by the Nile flood filling the canal, the Bahr Yûssûf; its dry bed can still be seen to the north and west of Memphis. But Diodorus (i. 96) speaks of the Acherusian lake near Memphis, the circuit of which city he makes seventeen miles, and Murray (u. s.) accepts this as a fact. Cf. 97. 2 for the time of H's visit. τὸ ἱρόν. This temple—that of Ptah—is most important as the probable source of H.'s information as to Egyptian history (cf. App. X. 10).
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
Purchase a copy of this text (not necessarily the same edition) from Amazon.com
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.