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μιῇ: monogamy seems to have been the rule in Egypt, though Diodorus (i. 80) says rightly that all but the priests had as many wives as they pleased. Kings and wealthy men, however, had a numerous harem; e. g. Rameses II had nearly 200 children.

συνοικέει. We should have expected the participle (cf. i. 85. 1).


This lotus (Nymphaea Lotus) is to be distinguished from the Cyrenaean lotus (cf. 96. 1 and iv. 177 n.), which is that of Homer. It is of two kinds, the white and the blue; it was actually cultivated for food. Theophrastus (H. P. iv. 8) describes the method of obtaining ‘the fruit’; he, like H., compares the head (κωδύα) in size to ‘the poppy’ (μήκωνι) and the root to a ‘quince’ (μῆλον). The lotus was used in the ritual of the dead, and so became a symbol of immortality.


ἐπιεικέως, ‘moderately’; a ἅπαξ λεγ. in H. We should expect ἐοῦσα, but it and the predicate στρογγύλον are attracted loosely into the gender of μέγαθος. Stein, however, makes στρογγύλον a substantive = ‘a round body’.


ἄλλα: the Nymphaea Nelumbo of Linnaeus, known as the ‘Egyptian bean’ (cf. τρωκτά, ‘kernels’). It does not grow in Egypt, nor is it found on the older monuments; probably it was introduced by the Persians. It is represented in the famous Nile statue of the Vatican. H. is wrong in saying that the κάλυξ grows on a separate stalk, right as to its rose colour.


ἐπέτειον. H. lays stress on the ‘annual’ growth of the papyrus, because only the young shoots could be eaten; the old were too wooden. It was once so common that it is the hieroglyphic symbol of Lower Egypt; its growth was restricted later, to enhance its price (Strabo, 800), and it has now disappeared. H. only refers indirectly to its manifold uses; for these cf. 37. 3, shoes; 96. 3, sails; 7. 36, cables; v. 58. 3 n., writing material.

διαφανέϊ, ‘red-hot’; cf. iv. 73. 2, 75. 1, of the stones used in the Scythian vapour-bath; but there πυρί and ἐκ πυρός are added.

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