Herodotus is a bit of a dag.
"The hippopotamus is held sacred in the district of Papremis, but not elsewhere. This animal has four legs, cloven hoofs like an ox, a snub nose, a horse's mane and tail, conspicuous tusks, a voice like a horse's neigh, and is about the size of a very large ox. Its hide is so thick and tough that when dried it can be made into spear-shafts. Otters, too are found in the Nile; they, and the fish called lepidotus, and eels are all considered sacred to the Nile, as is also the bird known as the foxgoose. Another sacred bird is the phoenix; I have not seen a phoenix myself, except in paintings, for it is very rare and visits the country (so they say at Heliopolis) only at intervals of 500 years, on the occasion of the death of the parent-bird. To judge by the paintings, its plumage is partly golden, partly red, and in shape and size it is exactly like an eagle. There is a story about the phoenix which I do not find credible; it brings its parent in a lump of myrrh all the way from Arabia and buries the body in the temple of the Sun. To perform this feat, the bird first shapes some myrrh into a sort of egg as big as it finds, by testing, that it can carry; then it hollows the lump out, puts its father inside and smears some myrrh over the hole. The egg-shaped lump is then just of the same weight as it was originally. Finally it is carried by the bird to the temple of the Sun in Egypt. Such, at least, is the story."
3 comments:
I love it - kind of in yarn-style.
I started to read Herodotus but got side tracked. I was interested as in the English Patient by Ondaatje the "patient" is reading a copy of Herodutus throughout the book. But I never finished that book either, not sure why. I saw the movie and couldnt recall the details of it....but online the story is very good.
Herodotus was called the 'Father of Lies' but he is still read for information I believe. His history are stories. I did read quite a bit of his book and it was good. But again I stopped for some reason...I must finish it sometime. And the novel.
I finished Herodotus in 2022! I am glad I read it all. It is not all as crazy as the above but I can see why people can get quite fascinated by it.
My history is or wasn't that good so I read Herodotus with a classical atlas from one of the British universities, and also started various other history books as I read it. The stories are marvelous and are a mix of "fact and fiction"... Myth and 'reality' are endlessly mixed.
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