Ancient Historians · Part 4 · Herodotus · A2–B1
Herodotus II: Egypt
Part 4 of Ancient Historians: Herodotus travelled to Egypt and wrote a whole book about it: the Nile, the pyramids, mummies, sacred cats and crocodiles, and a king who tried to discover the oldest language in the world with two babies and a goatherd. Herodotus says the Egyptians do almost everything the opposite way from other people. The present simple for customs and habits, comparisons (whereas, unlike, the opposite of), and used to, with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
Tonight’s lesson is about a country you all know very well: Egypt, our own country. Herodotus came here about four hundred and fifty years ago, sailed up the Nile, talked to priests, and wrote a whole book about what he saw and heard.
He was amazed, Marcos. He said that the Egyptians do almost everything the opposite way from the rest of the world. Some of what he wrote was true, some was what the priests told him to impress a tourist, and some was simply wrong. Tonight we describe customs, and we check them against what we know.
Herodotus visited Egypt probably around 450 BCE, when it was part of the Persian Empire, and sailed up the Nile at least as far as Elephantine. Book 2 of his Histories is all about Egypt. He says the country is “the gift of the river”, because the Nile’s yearly flood brings the black mud that makes the land fertile, and he discusses theories about why the Nile floods in summer.
He describes many Egyptian customs, saying they are the opposite of other peoples’: women go to the market while men stay at home and weave; they write from right to left (he means Demotic script); they keep animals in their houses. He says cats are sacred, and when a house cat dies, the family shaves their eyebrows in mourning. He explains mummification, with three prices for three qualities, describes crocodiles, the pyramids and the labyrinth, and tells how King Psammetichus…
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