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86.
There are men whose sole business this is and who have this special craft.
[2]
When a dead body is brought to them, they show those who brought it wooden models of corpses, painted likenesses; the most perfect way of embalming belongs, they say, to One whose name it would be impious for me to mention in treating such a matter; the second way, which they show, is less perfect than the first, and cheaper; and the third is the least costly of all. Having shown these, they ask those who brought the body in which way they desire to have it prepared.
[3]
Having agreed on a price, the bearers go away, and the workmen, left alone in their place, embalm the body. If they do this in the most perfect way, they first draw out part of the brain through the nostrils with an iron hook, and inject certain drugs into the rest.
[4]
Then, making a cut near the flank with a sharp knife of Ethiopian stone, they take out all the intestines, and clean the belly, rinsing it with palm wine and bruised spices;
[5]
they sew it up again after filling the belly with pure ground myrrh and casia and any other spices, except frankincense. After doing this, they conceal the body for seventy days, embalmed in saltpetre; no longer time is allowed for the embalming;
[6]
and when the seventy days have passed, they wash the body and wrap the whole of it in bandages of fine linen cloth, anointed with gum, which the Egyptians mostly use instead of glue;
[7]
then they give the dead man back to his friends. These make a hollow wooden figure like a man, in which they enclose the corpse, shut it up, and keep it safe in a coffin-chamber, placed erect against a wall.
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
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References (41 total)
- Commentary references to this page (2):
- Cross-references to this page
(4):
- Raphael Kühner, Friedrich Blass, Ausführliche Grammatik der Griechischen Sprache, Von den Adjektiven und Participien insbesondere.
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), BYSSUS
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), FULLO
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SABA
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(1):
- Herodotus, The Histories, Hdt. 7.181
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(34):
- LSJ, ἀνθρωπο-ειδής
- LSJ, βύσσινος
- LSJ, διηθ-έω
- LSJ, ἐκ-κα^θαίρω
- LSJ, ἐσεργνύναι
- LSJ, εἰσέργνυ_μι
- LSJ, εὐτελ-ής
- LSJ, φοινι_κ-ήϊος
- LSJ, κάθημαι
- LSJ, καθελίσσω
- LSJ, κα^σία
- LSJ, κατα-κλείω
- LSJ, κατατέμνω
- LSJ, κόλλα^
- LSJ, κόμμι^
- LSJ, λα^πάρα_
- LSJ, λίτρον
- LSJ, λούω
- LSJ, μυξωτῆρες
- LSJ, ὁμολογ-έω
- LSJ, παράδειγ-μα
- LSJ, παρα-σχίζω
- LSJ, παρέρχομαι
- LSJ, θηκ-αῖος
- LSJ, θυ_μί-α_μα
- LSJ, σινδών
- LSJ, σκολιός
- LSJ, σπουδ-αῖος
- LSJ, συρράπτω
- LSJ, τα^ρι_χ-εύω
- LSJ, τελα^μών
- LSJ, τρίβω
- LSJ, τύπ-ος
- LSJ, ὑπο-χρίω
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