A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Saba or Saba Hamartolus or St. Saba, Se'stius, Sethon

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Sethon

（Σεθών), a priest of Hephaestus, is said by Herodotus to have made himself master of Egypt after the expulsion of Sabacon, king of the Ethiopians, and to have been succeeded by the Dodecarchia, or government of the twelve chiefs, which ended in the sole sovereignty of Psammitichus. Herodotus further relates that in his reign Sanacharibus, king of the Arabians and Assyrians, advanced against Egypt. at which Sethon was in great alarm, as he had insulted the warrior class, and deprived them of their lands, and they now refused to follow him to the war. In his perplexity he shut himself up in the temple of Hephaestus, where the god comforted him by a vision. Relying, therefore, on the assistance of the good, he collected an army of retail-dealers and artizans, and marched out boldly to Pelusium to meet the enemy. The god did not forget his promised aid ; for while the two armies were encamped there, the field-mice in the night gnawed to pieces the bow-strings, the quivers, and the shield-handles of the Assyrians, who fled on the following day with great loss. The recollection of this miracle was perpetuated by a statue of the king in the temple of Hephaestus, holding a mouse in his hand, and saying " Let every one look at me and be pious" (Hdt. 2.141). This Sanacharibus is the Sennacherib ¹ of the Scriptures, and the destruction of the Assyrians at Pelusium is evidently only another version of the miraculous destruction of the Assyrians by the angel of the Lord, when they had advanced against Jerusalem in the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings, xviii. xix. and particularly 19.35; 2 Chronicles, xxxii.; Isaiah, xxxvi. xxxvii). According to the Jewish records, this event happened in B. C. 711.

Herodotus speaks as if Sethon were king of all Egypt at this time; but we have shown in the article SABACON, that Upper Egypt at least was governed by the Ethiopian Taracus or Tirhakah, who, as we learn from Isaiah, was ready to march against Sennacherib. The name of Sethon does not occur in Manetho, and it is probable that he only reigned over a part of Lower Egypt.

1 * Sennacherib, which is the form familiar to us from the English version, comes from the Septuagint (Σενναχηρίβ). The Hebrew is Sancherib (). In Josephus it is Σεναχήριβος, in Herodotus Σαναχάριβος.

William Smith. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. London. John Murray: printed by Spottiswoode and Co., New-Street Square and Parliament Street. In the article on Soranus, we find: "at this present time (1848)" and this date seems to reflect the dates of works cited. 1873 - probably the printing date.

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A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
William Smith, Ed.

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Sethon

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology William Smith, Ed.

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Table of Contents:

Sethon

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology
William Smith, Ed.