previous next


ἐννέα. H. here allows 540 stades (4860 <*> 9) for a day's journey; at this rate the whole distance from the sea to Elephantine up stream would be done in 6120 + 1800 <*> 540, i. e. 14 2/3 days. But in c. 175 the voyage down stream only to Sais takes twenty days.

Two explanations may be given of the discrepancy: (1) Wiedemann's (doubtfully) that H. went up stream by an unusually fast boat, a fact which would partly explain his scanty knowledge of Upper Egypt; the figure in c. 175 is that of a heavy-laden cargo boat. (2) (More probably) the figure here is a mere calculation, based on the supposed rate of ‘nine schoenes a day’; the figure in c. 175 is that of an actual voyage. Sourdille (H. E. p. 109) thinks the ‘nine days’ the official estimate for a fast government boat (cf. viii. 98 for the post system); H. has taken this as if it were the normal speed. The journey from Heliopolis to Thebes by boat usually now takes over twelve days (Stein).

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: