Herodotus' HISTORY BOOK 2 (EUTERPE) Complete

Translated by G. Macaulay.

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12. As regards Egypt then, I both believe those who say that things are so, and for myself also I am strongly of opinion that they are so; because I have observed that Egypt runs out into the sea further than the adjoining land, and that shells are found upon the mountains of it, and an efflorescence of salt forms upon the surface, so that even the pyramids are being eaten away by it, and moreover that of all the mountains of Egypt, the range which lies above Memphis is the only one which has sand: besides which I notice that Egypt resembles neither the land of Arabia, which borders upon it, nor Libya, nor yet Syria (for they are Syrians who dwell in the parts of Arabia lying along the sea), but that it has soil which is black and easily breaks up, [19] seeing that it is in truth mud and silt brought down from Ethiopia by the river: but the soil of Libya, we know, is reddish in colour and rather sandy, while that of Arabia and Syria is somewhat clayey and rocky. [19a] 13. The priests also gave me a strong proof concerning this land as follows, namely that in the reign of king Moiris, whenever the river reached a height of at least eight cubits [20] it watered Egypt below Memphis; and not yet nine hundred years had gone by since the death of Moiris, when I heard these things from the priests: now however, unless the river rises to sixteen cubits, or fifteen at the least, it does not go over the land. I think too that those Egyptians who dwell below the lake of Moiris and especially in that region which is called the Delta, if that land continues to grow in height according to this proportion and to increase similarly in extent, [21] will suffer for all remaining time, from the Nile not overflowing their land, that same thing which they themselves said that the Hellenes would at some time suffer: for hearing that the whole land of the Hellenes has rain and is not watered by rivers as theirs is, they said that the Hellenes would at some time be disappointed of a great hope and would suffer the ills of famine. This saying means that if the god [22] shall not send them rain, but shall allow drought to prevail for a long time, the Hellenes will be destroyed by hunger; for they have in fact no other supply of water to save them except from Zeus alone.

[19] {katarregnumenen}: some Editors read {katerregmenen} ("broken up by cracks") from {katerregnumenen}, which is given by many MSS.

[19a] Or possibly "with rock below," in which case perhaps {upopsammoteren} would mean "rather sandy underneath."

[20] We do not know whether these measurements are in the larger Egyptian cubit of 21 inches or the smaller (equal to the ordinary Hellenic cubit) of 18½ inches, cp. i. 178.

[21] {kai to omoion apodido es auxesin}, "and to yield the like return as regards increased extent." (Mr. Woods); but the clause may be only a repetition of the preceding one.

[22] i.e. Zeus.

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