|
Photo Gallery | About Us | Terms of Use | Register/Create a Profile |
"Subsequently, when Busiris became king and his descendents in turn, eight in number, the last of the line, who bore the same name as the first, founded they say, the CITY which the EGYPTIANS call DIOSPOLIS the Great, though the Greeks call it THEBES. Now the circuit of it he made one hundred and forty stades, and he adorned it in marvellous fashion with great buildings and remarkable temples and dedicatory monuments of every other kind; in the same way he caused the houses of private citizens to be constructed in some cases four stories high, in other five, and in general made it the MOST PROSPEROUS CITY, not only of Egypt, but of the whole world. And since, by reason of the city’s pre-eminent wealth and power, its fame has been spread abroad to every region, even the poet, we are told, has mentioned it when he says:
“Nay, not for all the wealth of Thebes in Egypt, where in ev’ry hall
There lieth treasure vast; a hundred are her gates, and warriors by each issue forth
two hundred, each of them with car and steeds.”
That poet would be Homer and the historian reporting would Diodorus.
"It remains for us to speak of the deification of crocodiles, a subject regarding which most men are entirely at a loss to explain how, when these beasts eat the flesh of men, it ever became law to honour like gods creatures of the most revolting habits. There reply is, that the security of the country is ensured, not only by the river, but to a much greater degree by the crocodiles in it; that for this reason the robbers that infest both Arabia and Libya do not dare to swim across the Nile, because they fear the beasts, whose number is very great; and that this would never have been the case if war were continually being waged against the animals and they had been utterly destroyed by hunters dragging the river with nets. But still another account is given of these beasts. For some say that once one of the early kings whose name was Menas, being pursued by his own dogs, came in his flight to the Lake of Moeris, as it is called, where, strange as it may seem, a crocodile took him on his back and carried him to the other side. Wishing to show his gratitude to the beast for saving him, he founded a city near the place and named it City of the Crocodiles; and he commanded the natives of the region to worship these animals as gods and dedicated the lake to them for their sustenance; and in that place he also constructed his own tomb, erecting a pyramid with four sides, and built the Labyrinth which is admired by many. A SIMILAR DIVERSITY OF CUSTOMS EXISTS, according to their accounts, with REGARD TO EVERYTHING ELSE, but it would be a long task to set forth the details concerning them." Diodorus of Sicily
Whether its a City named in honour of Crocodiles, Wolves, Goats, Cats, Dogs, etc, each would have had its own temple and its own CADRE of priests, who according to all reports wielded as much power, if not more power, than the Kings of all Egypt. Egypt was also a strict caste society so it would be easy to infer that within every city there would have existed a hierarchy of the different castes, not unlike contemporary societies of our modern world.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This site may at times contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml |