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‘Which is not hereafter allowed (οἵη; cf. i. 29. 2) to conceive again in its womb.’ The mother-cow was kept in a stall near the Apis stall (Strabo 807). The Egyptians thought the Apis was conceived ὅταν φῶς ἐρείσῃ γόνιμον ἀπὸ τῆς σελήνης καὶ καθάψηται βοὸς ὀργώσης (Plut. Mor. 718; cf. ib. 368).

κατίσχειν: intransitive; ‘comes down upon.’


H.'s account of the Apis is confirmed by the statues (cf. Rawlinson for picture), although Aelian (H. A. xi. 10) says that the Egyptians called it ‘insufficient’, for there were really twenty-nine signs; cf. Plin. N. H. viii. 184 for one of these ‘candicans macula cornibus lunae crescere incipientis’. Mariette (Maspero, p. 37) says ‘the beetle, vulture’ (not ‘eagle’), &c., did not really exist (cf. εἰκασμένον), and well compares the dragon, lyre, and bear seen by the astronomers among the stars. The MSS. reading τετράγωνον is usually altered to τι τρίγωνον, to make H.'s account correspond with the rest of the authorities.

In colour the Apis was ‘black’ (as H. says), not white with black spots as Plut. (I. et O. c. 43; Mor. 368), or πολύχρους (as Ael. u. s.).

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    • Pliny the Elder, Naturalis Historia, 8.71
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