Moreover, I Think That The Women
Were Called Doves By The People Of Dodona For The Reason That They
Were
Barbarians and because it seemed to them that they uttered voice
like birds; but after a time (they say) the
Dove spoke with human
voice, that is when the woman began to speak so that they could
understand; but so long as she spoke a Barbarian tongue she seemed to
them to be uttering voice like a bird: for if it had been really a
dove, how could it speak with human voice? And in saying that the dove
was black, they indicate that the woman was Egyptian. The ways of
delivering oracles too at Thebes in Egypt and at Dodona closely
resemble each other, as it happens, and also the method of divination
by victims has come from Egypt.
Moreover, it is true also that the Egyptians were the first of men who
made solemn assemblies and processions and approaches to the temples,
and from them the Hellenes have learnt them, and my evidence for this
is that the Egyptian celebrations of these have been held from a very
ancient time, whereas the Hellenic were introduced but lately. The
Egyptians hold their solemn assemblies not once in the year but often,
especially and with the greatest zeal and devotion at the city of
Bubastis for Artemis, and next at Busiris for Isis; for in this last-
named city there is a very great temple of Isis, and this city stands
in the middle of the Delta of Egypt; now Isis is in the tongue of the
Hellenes Demeter: thirdly, they have a solemn assembly at the city of
Sais for Athene, fourthly at Heliopolis for the Sun (Helios), fifthly
at the city of Buto in honour of Leto, and sixthly at the city of
Papremis for Ares. Now, when they are coming to the city of Bubastis
they do as follows: - they sail men and women together, and a great
multitude of each sex in every boat; and some of the women have
rattles and rattle with them, while some of the men play the flute
during the whole time of the voyage, and the rest, both women and men,
sing and clap their hands; and when as they sail they come opposite to
any city on the way they bring the boat to land, and some of the women
continue to do as I have said, others cry aloud and jeer at the women
in that city, some dance, and some stand up and pull up their
garments. This they do by every city along the river-bank; and when
they come to Bubastis they hold festival celebrating great sacrifices,
and more wine of grapes is consumed upon that festival than during the
whole of the rest of the year. To this place (so say the natives) they
come together year by year even to the number of seventy myriads of
men and women, besides children. Thus it is done here; and how they
celebrate the festival in honour of Isis at the city of Busiris has
been told by me before: for, as I said, they beat themselves in
mourning after the sacrifice, all of them both men and women, very
many myriads of people; but for whom they beat themselves it is not
permitted to me by religion to say: and so many as there are of the
Carians dwelling in Egypt do this even more than the Egyptians
themselves, inasmuch as they cut their foreheads also with knives; and
by this it is manifested that they are strangers and not Egyptians. At
the times when they gather together at the city of Sais for their
sacrifices, on a certain night they all kindle lamps many in number in
the open air round about the houses; now the lamps are saucers full of
salt and oil mixed, and the wick floats by itself on the surface, and
this burns during the whole night; and to the festival is given the
name /Lychnocaia/ (the lighting of lamps). Moreover those of the
Egyptians who have not come to this solemn assembly observe the night
of the festival and themselves also light lamps all of them, and thus
not in Sais alone are they lighted, but over all Egypt: and as to the
reason why light and honour are allotted to this night, about this
there is a sacred story told. To Heliopolis and Buto they go year by
year and do sacrifice only: but at Papremis they do sacrifice and
worship as elsewhere, and besides that, when the sun begins to go down
while some few of the priests are occupied with the image of the god,
the greater number of them stand in the entrance of the temple with
wooden clubs, and other persons to the number of more than a thousand
men with purpose to perform a vow, these also having all of them
staves of wood, stand in a body opposite to those: and the image,
which is in a small shrine of wood covered over with gold, they take
out on the day before to another sacred building. The few then who
have been left about the image, draw a wain with four wheels, which
bears the shrine and the image that is within the shrine, and the
other priests standing in the gateway try to prevent it from entering,
and the men who are under a vow come to the assistance of the god and
strike them, while the others defend themselves. Then there comes to
be a hard fight with staves, and they break one another's heads, and I
am of opinion that many even die of the wounds they receive; the
Egyptians however told me that no one died. This solemn assembly the
people of the place say that they established for the following
reason: - the mother of Ares, they say, used to dwell in this temple,
and Ares, having been brought up away from her, when he grew up came
thither desiring to visit his mother, and the attendants of his
mother's temple, not having seen him before, did not permit him to
pass in, but kept him away; and he brought men to help him from
another city and handled roughly the attendants of the temple, and
entered to visit his mother.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 13 of 37
Words from 12464 to 13526
of 37770
