Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

6465

Herodotus, Histories, 8.138.2-8.138.3
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Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

6 results
1. Hebrew Bible, Exodus, 24 (9th cent. BCE - 3rd cent. BCE)
2. Isocrates, Panathenaicus, 124 (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE)
3. Plato, Timaeus, None (5th cent. BCE - 4th cent. BCE) 21e. Crit. And Solon said that when he travelled there he was held in great esteem amongst them; moreover, when he was questioning such of their priest
4. Diodorus Siculus, Historical Library, 1.23.2, 3.65.6, 40.3 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) 1.23.2.  And those who say that the god was born of Semelê and Zeus in Boeotian Thebes are, according to the priests, simply inventing the tale. For they say that Orpheus, upon visiting Egypt and participating in the initiation and mysteries of Dionysus, adopted them and as a favour to the descendants of Cadmus, since he was kindly disposed to them and received honours at their hands, transferred the birth of the god to Thebes; and the common people, partly out of ignorance and partly out of their desire to have the god thought to be a Greek, eagerly accepted his initiatory rites and mysteries. 3.65.6.  Thereupon, out of gratitude to Charops for the aid the man had rendered him, Dionysus made over to him the kingdom of the Thracians and instructed him in the secret rites connected with the initiations; and Oeagrus, the son of Charops, then took over both the kingdom and the initiatory rites which were handed down in the mysteries, the rites which afterwards Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus, who was the superior of all men in natural gifts and education, learned from his father; Orpheus also made many changes in the practices and for that reason the rites which had been established by Dionysus were also called "Orphic.
5. Athenagoras, Apology Or Embassy For The Christians, 28 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) 28. But it is perhaps necessary, in accordance with what has already been adduced, to say a little about their names. Herodotus, then, and Alexander the son of Philip, in his letter to his mother (and each of them is said to have conversed with the priests at Heliopolis, and Memphis, and Thebes), affirm that they learned from them that the gods had been men. Herodotus speaks thus: of such a nature were, they said, the beings represented by these images, they were very far indeed from being gods. However, in the times anterior to them it was otherwise; then Egypt had gods for its rulers, who dwelt upon the earth with men, one being always supreme above the rest. The last of these was Horus the son of Osiris, called by the Greeks Apollo. He deposed Typhon, and ruled over Egypt as its last god-king. Osiris is named Dionysus (Bacchus) by the Greeks. Almost all the names of the gods came into Greece from Egypt. Apollo was the son of Dionysus and Isis, as Herodotus likewise affirms: According to the Egyptians, Apollo and Diana are the children of Bacchus and Isis; while Latona is their nurse and their preserver. These beings of heavenly origin they had for their first kings: partly from ignorance of the true worship of the Deity, partly from gratitude for their government, they esteemed them as gods together with their wives. The male cattle, if clean, and the male calves, are used for sacrifice by the Egyptians universally; but the females, they are not allowed to sacrifice, since they are sacred to Isis. The statue of this goddess has the form of a woman but with horns like a cow, resembling those of the Greek representations of Io. And who can be more deserving of credit in making these statements, than those who in family succession son from father, received not only the priesthood, but also the history? For it is not likely that the priests, who make it their business to commend the idols to men's reverence, would assert falsely that they were men. If Herodotus alone had said that the Egyptians spoke in their histories of the gods as of men, when he says, What they told me concerning their religion it is not my intention to repeat, except only the names of their deities, things of very trifling importance, it would behoove us not to credit even Herodotus as being a fabulist. But as Alexander and Hermes surnamed Trismegistus, who shares with them in the attribute of eternity, and innumerable others, not to name them individually, [declare the same], no room is left even for doubt that they, being kings, were esteemed gods. That they were men, the most learned of the Egyptians also testify, who, while saying that ether, earth, sun, moon, are gods, regard the rest as mortal men, and the temples as their sepulchres. Apollodorus, too, asserts the same thing in his treatise concerning the gods. But Herodotus calls even their sufferings mysteries. The ceremonies at the feast of Isis in the city of Busiris have been already spoken of. It is there that the whole multitude, both of men and women, many thousands in number, beat themselves at the close of the sacrifice in honour of a god whose name a religious scruple forbids me to mention. If they are gods, they are also immortal; but if people are beaten for them, and their sufferings are mysteries, they are men, as Herodotus himself says: Here, too, in this same precinct of Minerva at Saïs, is the burial-place of one whom I think it not right to mention in such a connection. It stands behind the temple against the back wall, which it entirely covers. There are also some large stone obelisks in the enclosure, and there is a lake near them, adorned with an edging of stone. In form it is circular, and in size, as it seemed to me, about equal to the lake at Delos called the Hoop. On this lake it is that the Egyptians represent by night his sufferings whose name I refrain from mentioning, and this representation they call their mysteries. And not only is the sepulchre of Osiris shown, but also his embalming: When a body is brought to them, they show the bearer various models of corpses made in wood, and painted so as to resemble nature. The most perfect is said to be after the manner of him whom I do not think it religious to name in connection with such a matter.
6. Strabo, Geography, 6.1.2, 17.1.3 6.1.2. These, then, are the places on the Tyrrhenian seaboard that belong to the Leucani. As for the other sea, they could not reach it at first; in fact, the Greeks who held the Gulf of Tarentum were in control there. Before the Greeks came, however, the Leucani were as yet not even in existence, and the regions were occupied by the Chones and the Oinotri. But after the Samnitae had grown considerably in power, and had ejected the Chones and the Oinotri, and had settled a colony of Leucani in this portion of Italy, while at the same time the Greeks were holding possession of both seaboards as far as the Strait, the Greeks and the barbarians carried on war with one another for a long time. Then the tyrants of Sicily, and afterwards the Carthaginians, at one time at war with the Romans for the possession of Sicily and at another for the possession of Italy itself, maltreated all the peoples in this part of the world, but especially the Greeks. Later on, beginning from the time of the Trojan war, the Greeks had taken away from the earlier inhabitants much of the interior country also, and indeed had increased in power to such an extent that they called this part of Italy, together with Sicily, Magna Graecia. But today all parts of it, except Taras, Rhegium, and Neapolis, have become completely barbarized, and some parts have been taken and are held by the Leucani and the Brettii, and others by the Campani — that is, nominally by the Campani but in truth by the Romans, since the Campani themselves have become Romans. However, the man who busies himself with the description of the earth must needs speak, not only of the facts of the present, but also sometimes of the facts of the past, especially when they are notable. As for the Leucani, I have already spoken of those whose territory borders on the Tyrrhenian sea, while those who hold the interior are the people who live above the Gulf of Tarentum. But the latter, and the Brettii, and the Samnitae themselves (the progenitors of these peoples) have so utterly deteriorated that it is difficult even to distinguish their several settlements; and the reason is that no common organization longer endures in any one of the separate tribes; and their characteristic differences in language, armor, dress, and the like, have completely disappeared; and, besides, their settlements, severally and in detail, are wholly without repute. 17.1.3. We must, however, enter into a further detail of particulars. And first, we must speak of the parts about Egypt, proceeding from those that are better known to those which follow next in order.The Nile produces some common effects in this and the contiguous tract of country, namely, that of the Ethiopians above it, in watering them at the time of its rise, and leaving those parts only habitable which have been covered by the inundation; it intersects the higher lands, and all the tract elevated above its current on both sides, which however are uninhabited and a desert, from an absolute want of water. But the Nile does not traverse the whole of Ethiopia, nor alone, nor in a straight line, nor a country which is well inhabited. But Egypt it traverses both alone and entirely, and in a straight line, from the lesser cataract above Syene and Elephantine, (which are the boundaries of Egypt and Ethiopia,) to the mouths by which it discharges itself into the sea. The Ethiopians at present lead for the most part a wandering life, and are destitute of the means of subsistence, on account of the barrenness of the soil, the disadvantages of climate, and their great distance from us.Now the contrary is the case with the Egyptians in all these respects. For they have lived from the first under a regular form of government, they were a people of civilized manners, and were settled in a well-known country; their institutions have been recorded and mentioned in terms of praise, for they seemed to have availed themselves of the fertility of their country in the best possible manner by the partition of it (and by the classification of persons) which they adopted, and by their general care.When they had appointed a king, they divided the people into three classes, into soldiers, husbandmen, and priests. The latter had the care of everything relating to sacred things (of the gods), the others of what related to man; some had the management of warlike affairs, others attended to the concerns of peace, the cultivation of the ground, and the practice of the arts, from which the king derived his revenue.The priests devoted themselves to the study of philosophy and astronomy, and were companions of the kings.The country was at first divided into nomes. The Thebais contained ten, the Delta ten, and the intermediate tract sixteen. But according to some writers, all the nomes together amounted to the number of chambers in the Labyrinth. Now these were less than thirty [six]. The nomes were again divided into other sections. The greater number of the nomes were distributed into toparchies, and these again into other sections ; the smallest portions were the arourae.An exact and minute division of the country was required by the frequent confusion of boundaries occasioned at the time of the rise of the Nile, which takes away, adds, and alters the various shapes of the bounds, and obliterates other marks by which the property of one person is distinguished from that of another. It was consequently necessary to measure the land repeatedly. Hence it is said geometry originated here, as the art of keeping accounts and arithmetic originated with the Phoenicians, in consequence of their commerce.As the whole population of the country, so the separate population in each nome, was divided into three classes ; the territory also was divided into three equal portions.The attention and care bestowed upon the Nile is so great as to cause industry to triumph over nature. The ground by nature, and still more by being supplied with water, produces a great abundance of fruits. By nature also a greater rise of the river irrigates a larger tract of land; but industry has completely succeeded in rectifying the deficiency of nature, so that in seasons when the rise of the river has been less than usual, as large a portion of the country is irrigated by means of canals and embankments, as in seasons when the rise of the river has been greater.Before the times of Petronius there was the greatest plenty, and the rise of the river was the greatest when it rose to the height of fourteen cubits; but when it rose to eight only, a famine ensued. During the government of Petronius, however, when the Nile rose twelve cubits only, there was a most abundant crop; and once when it mounted to eight only, no famine followed. Such then is the nature of this provision for the physical state of the country. We shall now proceed to the next particulars.

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
alexandria,capital of ptolemaic egypt	Stavrianopoulou (2013), Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images, 348
alexandria	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
anacolouthon	Budelmann (1999), The Language of Sophocles: Communality, Communication, and Involvement, 50
anaxagoras	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
aristeas,character in letter of aristeas,his name	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
army,mercenary	Stavrianopoulou (2013), Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images, 348
audience	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
blending,of genres	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
blending,of topics	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
citizen	Stavrianopoulou (2013), Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images, 348
competition	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
cosmology	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
demeter	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
democritus	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
die¯ge¯sis	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
digressions,in letter of aristeas,and readership	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
diogenes laertius	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
diogenes the cynic	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
dionysus	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
egypt	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
egyptian priests	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28, 33
empedocles	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
euhemerus of messenia,his proemium	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
gorgias	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
hecataeus of abdera,in b.ar	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
hecataeus of abdera	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
herodotus	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
hippias	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
historiography,graeco-roman,subject matter of	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
identity,greek	Stavrianopoulou (2013), Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images, 348
innovation,literary,in letter of aristeas	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
isis	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
letter of aristeas,historical reliability of,as historiography	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
letter of aristeas,not a letter	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
letter of aristeas,reception of,ancient	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
literacy	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
literature,graeco-roman	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
literature,hellenistic	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
megalopolis,peloponnese	Stavrianopoulou (2013), Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images, 348
myth,of greeks in letter of aristeas	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
olympia	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
orality	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
orpheus / david / christ	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
osiris	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
philosophy	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28, 33
physics	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
piety	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
polybios,historian,view of alexandria	Stavrianopoulou (2013), Shifting Social Imaginaries in the Hellenistic Period: Narrations, Practices and Images, 348
proclus	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
readership	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
religion,,syncretistic	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
religion,and ptolemy	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
religion	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
rites	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
sentences,ambiguous or elliptic	Budelmann (1999), The Language of Sophocles: Communality, Communication, and Involvement, 50, 51
sentences,change direction	Budelmann (1999), The Language of Sophocles: Communality, Communication, and Involvement, 50
sibyl	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144
sophoclean language,ambiguous,elliptic or vague	Budelmann (1999), The Language of Sophocles: Communality, Communication, and Involvement, 50, 51
sophoclean language,clarity	Budelmann (1999), The Language of Sophocles: Communality, Communication, and Involvement, 50, 51
sophoclean language,evokes situations	Budelmann (1999), The Language of Sophocles: Communality, Communication, and Involvement, 51
sophoclean unlike gorgianic,unpredictable yet clear	Budelmann (1999), The Language of Sophocles: Communality, Communication, and Involvement, 50, 51
symposium,symposium	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
theodectus and theopompus	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 28
tradition	Lloyd (1989), The Revolutions of Wisdom: Studies in the Claims and Practice of Ancient Greek Science, 101
travelogue genre'	Honigman (2003), The Septuagint and Homeric Scholarship in Alexandria: A Study in the Narrative of the Letter of Aristeas, 33
zeus	deJauregui (2010), Orphism and Christianity in Late Antiquity, 144