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 5-18chapter 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 72chapter 73chapter 74chapter 75chapter 76chapter 77-98chapter 77chapter 78chapter 79chapter 80chapter 81chapter 82chapter 83chapter 84chapter 85chapter 86chapter 87chapter 88chapter 89chapter 90chapter 91chapter 92-5chapter 92chapter 93chapter 94chapter 95chapter 96chapter 97chapter 98chapter 99chapter 100chapter 101chapter 102-110chapter 102chapter 103chapter 104chapter 105chapter 106chapter 107chapter 108chapter 109chapter 110chapter 111chapter 112-17chapter 112chapter 113chapter 116chapter 117chapter 118chapter 119chapter 120chapter 121chapter 121Achapter 121Dchapter 121Echapter 121Fchapter 122chapter 123chapter 124-36chapter 124chapter 125chapter 126chapter 127chapter 128chapter 129chapter 130chapter 131chapter 132chapter 133chapter 134chapter 135chapter 136chapter 137chapter 138chapter 139chapter 140chapter 141chapter 142chapter 143chapter 144chapter 145chapter 146chapter 147-82chapter 147chapter 148chapter 149chapter 150chapter 151chapter 152chapter 153chapter 154chapter 155chapter 156chapter 157chapter 158chapter 159chapter 160chapter 161chapter 162chapter 163chapter 164chapter 165chapter 167chapter 168chapter 169chapter 170chapter 171chapter 172chapter 173chapter 174chapter 175chapter 176chapter 177chapter 178chapter 179chapter 180chapter 181chapter 182
This text is part of:
ἐοῦσα: concessive; for the beasts of Libya cf. iv. 191. Egypt is comparatively free from beasts, owing to the extent of cultivated land and the small amount of waste. ἐόντα agrees with θήρια understood from θηριώδης. Strictly taken the words mean that all beasts were sacred everywhere in Egypt; but this is absurd, and inconsistent with H.'s own details. The respect paid varied from nome to nome; cf. Juv. xv. 36 ‘numina vicinorum odit uterque locus’. H. quite fails to distinguish the various kinds of animal worship (Sourdille, R. p. 235 seq.): (1) animals worshipped by individuals as fetiches. Of this class there is little evidence, though no doubt such worship was widely spread among the lower classes; (2) individual animals supposed to be gods incarnate. Cf. c. 46 (the goat at Mendes); iii. 27-8 (Apis at Memphis; (3) whole classes of animals sacred to a god. Strabo, 803, distinguishes these clearly, θεοὶ μὲν οὐ νομίζονται ἱεροὶ δέ. Most of H.'s details refer to (3). For animal worship in general cf. 75. 3 n. ἀνεῖται: properly ‘are let go’; hence ἀνίημι is used either with ἱρός (as here) or without (cf. Plato, Leg. 761 C ἄλσος ἀνειμένον = ‘consecrated’). φεύγω: cf. for this reserve 3. 2 n.
The office of ‘caretaker’ of the beasts was certainly not always hereditary: H. is too absolute.
εὐχάς. The ‘vows’ are obviously for the restoration of children's health; so Diodorus (i. 83) understood this passage; he mentions the various kinds (not ‘fish’ only) of food given to the beasts, and that land was set apart for their maintenance. Rob. Smith (Kinship2, p. 179; Rel. Sem. p. 330) compares the Arabian sacrifice (‘acica’) at birth of a child, when its head was shaved and a sheep sacrificed for it; by devoting its hair it was admitted into the family.
τὸ δ᾽. The antecedent for this is τούτου understood with ἡ ζημίη. ἶβιν. Cic. Tusc. v. 27, 78 implies that it was a capital offence to kill an ibis, a snake, a cat, a dog, or a crocodile. Diodorus (i. 83 ad fin.), who was himself present, relates that Ptolemy Auletes was unable to save from death a Roman who had unintentionally killed a cat, although he and his people alike were at the time most anxious for Roman friendship.
The National Endowment for the Humanities 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.