In This Time They Said That The Sun Had
Moved Four Times From His Accustomed Place Of Rising, And Where
He now
sets he had thence twice had his rising, and in the place from whence
he now rises he
Had twice had his setting; and in the meantime nothing
in Egypt had been changed from its usual state, neither that which
comes from the earth nor that which comes to them from the river nor
that which concerns diseases or deaths. And formerly when Hecataios
the historian was in Thebes, and had traced his descent and connected
his family with a god in the sixteenth generation before, the priests
of Zeus did for him much the same as they did for me (though I had not
traced my descent). They led me into the sanctuary of the temple,
which is of great size, and they counted up the number, showing
colossal wooden statues in number the same as they said; for each
chief-priest there sets up in his lifetime an image of himself:
accordingly the priests, counting and showing me these, declared to me
that each one of them was a son succeeding his own father, and they
went up through the series of images from the image of the one who had
died last, until they had declared this of the whole number. And when
Hecataios had traced his descent and connected his family with a god
in the sixteenth generation, they traced a descent in opposition to
his, besides their numbering, not accepting it from him that a man had
been born from a god; and they traced their counter-descent thus,
saying that each one of the statues had been /piromis/ son of
/piromis/, until they had declared this of the whole three hundred and
forty-five statues, each one being surnamed /piromis/; and neither
with a god nor a hero did they connect their descent.
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