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 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 71chapter 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95chapter 96chapter 97chapter 98chapter 99chapter 100chapter 101chapter 102chapter 103chapter 104chapter 105chapter 106chapter 107chapter 108chapter 109chapter 110chapter 111chapter 112chapter 113chapter 114chapter 115chapter 116chapter 117chapter 118chapter 119chapter 120chapter 121chapter 121Achapter 121Bchapter 121Cchapter 121Dchapter 121Echapter 121Fchapter 122chapter 123chapter 124chapter 125chapter 126chapter 127chapter 128chapter 129chapter 130chapter 131chapter 132chapter 133chapter 134chapter 135chapter 136chapter 137chapter 138chapter 139chapter 140chapter 141chapter 142chapter 143chapter 144chapter 145chapter 146chapter 147chapter 148chapter 149chapter 150chapter 151chapter 152chapter 153chapter 154chapter 155chapter 156chapter 157chapter 158chapter 159chapter 160chapter 161chapter 162chapter 163chapter 164chapter 165chapter 166chapter 167chapter 168chapter 169chapter 170chapter 171chapter 172chapter 173chapter 174chapter 175chapter 176chapter 177chapter 178chapter 179chapter 180chapter 181chapter 182
This text is part of:
42.
All that have a temple of Zeus of Thebes
or are of the Theban district sacrifice goats, but will not touch sheep.
[2]
For no gods are worshipped by all Egyptians in common except Isis and Osiris, who they say is Dionysus; these are worshipped by all alike. Those who have a temple of Mendes1 or are of the Mendesian district sacrifice sheep, but will not touch goats.
[3]
The Thebans, and those who by the Theban example will not touch sheep, give the following reason for their ordinance:2 they say that Heracles wanted very much to see Zeus and that Zeus did not want to be seen by him, but that finally, when Heracles prayed, Zeus contrived
[4]
to show himself displaying the head and wearing the fleece of a ram which he had flayed and beheaded. It is from this that the Egyptian images of Zeus have a ram's head; and in this, the Egyptians are imitated by the Ammonians, who are colonists from Egypt and Ethiopia and speak a language compounded of the tongues of both countries.
[5]
It was from this, I think, that the Ammonians got their name, too; for the Egyptians call Zeus “Amon”. The Thebans, then, consider rams sacred for this reason, and do not sacrifice them.
[6]
But one day a year, at the festival of Zeus, they cut in pieces and flay a single ram and put the fleece on the image of Zeus, as in the story; then they bring an image of Heracles near it. Having done this, all that are at the temple mourn for the ram, and then bury it in a sacred coffin.
1 Mendes, Greek form of Binded, a town in the Delta where Osiris was worshipped in the form of a ram, according to monuments. Here Mendes apparently = Osiris.
2 The Greeks identified with Heracles an Egyptian god Shu (called at Thebes Chonsu-Neferhotep,ἀαγαθοδαίμων).
Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.
The Annenberg CPB/Project 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.
show
Browse Bar
hide
Places (automatically extracted)
View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.
Sort places
alphabetically,
as they appear on the page,
by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Thebes (Egypt) (2)Click on a place to search for it in this document.
Ethiopia (Ethiopia) (1)
Egypt (Egypt) (1)
Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.
hide
References (35 total)
- Commentary references to this page
(1):
- Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900), 24.710
- Cross-references to this page
(12):
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.2
- Harper's, Osīris
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ELEUSINIA
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), LUPERCALIA
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ORA´CULUM
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), AEGYPTUS
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), MENDES
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), THEBAE
- Smith's Bio, Ammon
- Smith's Bio, Heracles or HERCULES
- Smith's Bio, Isis
- Smith's Bio, Osi'ris
- Cross-references in notes to this page
(2):
- Apollodorus, Library, Apollod. 3.5
- Herodotus, The Histories, Hdt. 1.182
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(20):
- LSJ, Ἡρακλέης
- LSJ, Ἄμμων
- LSJ, Ὄσι_ρις
- LSJ, ἄγαλμα
- LSJ, ἀπό
- LSJ, ἀποδέρω
- LSJ, ἐκδέρω
- LSJ, ἐνδύω
- LSJ, ἐπιδείκ-νυ_μι ῾-νύω
- LSJ, ἐπωνυ^μ-ία
- LSJ, ἱδρ-ύω
- LSJ, ἱερός
- LSJ, κατα-κόπτω
- LSJ, κρι_ός
- LSJ, κρι_ο-πρόσωπος
- LSJ, λι_πα^ρ-έω
- LSJ, νάκος
- LSJ, νομ-ίζω
- LSJ, πάντως
- LSJ, προέχω
hide
Search
hide
Display Preferences