tailieunhanh - AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT

NOTE HERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor, in the early part of the fifth century, B. C. Of his life we know almost nothing, except that he spent much of it traveling, to collect the material for his writings, and that he finally settled down at Thurii, in southern Italy, where his great work was composed. He died in 424 B. C. The subject of the history of Herodotus is the struggle between the Greeks and the barbarians, which he brings down to the battle of Mycale in 479 B. C. The work,. | AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT By Herodotus Translated By G. C. Macaulay NOTE BEING THE SECOND BOOK OF HIS HISTORIES CALLED EUTERPE NOTE HERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus on the southwest coast of Asia Minor in the early part of the fifth century B. C. Of his life we know almost nothing except that he spent much of it traveling to collect the material for his writings and that he finally settled down at Thurii in southern Italy where his great work was composed. He died in 424 B. C. The subject of the history of Herodotus is the struggle between the Greeks and the barbarians which he brings down to the battle of Mycale in 479 B. C. The work as we have it is divided into nine books named after the nine Muses but this division is probably due to the Alexandrine grammarians. His information he gathered mainly from oral sources as he traveled through Asia Minor down into Egypt round the Black Sea and into various parts of Greece and the neighboring countries. The chronological narrative halts from time to time to give opportunity for descriptions of the country the people and their customs and previous history and the political account is constantly varied by rare tales and wonders. Among these descriptions of countries the most fascinating to the modern as it was to the ancient reader is his account of the marvels of the land of Egypt. From the priests at Memphis Heliopolis and the Egyptian Thebes he learned what he reports of the size of the country the wonders of the Nile the ceremonies of their religion the sacredness of their animals. He tells also of the strange ways of the crocodile and of that marvelous bird the Phoenix of dress and funerals and embalming of the eating of lotos and papyrus of the pyramids and the great labyrinth of their kings and queens and courtesans. Yet Herodotus is not a mere teller of strange tales. However credulous he may appear to a modern judgment he takes care to keep separate what he knows by his own observation from what he has merely .