So Then My Inquiries Show Clearly That Heracles Is An Ancient
God, And Those Of The Hellenes Seem To Me
To act most rightly who have
two temples of Heracles set up, and who sacrifice to the one as an
Immortal god and with the title Olympian, and make offerings of the
dead to the other as a hero. Moreover, besides many other stories
which the Hellenes tell without due consideration, this tale is
especially foolish which they tell about Heracles, namely that when he
came to Egypt, the Egyptians put on him wreaths and led him forth in
procession to sacrifice him to Zeus; and he for some time kept quiet,
but when they were beginning the sacrifice of him at the altar, he
betook himself to prowess and slew them all. I for my part am of
opinion that the Hellenes when they tell this tale are altogether
without knowledge of the nature and customs of the Egyptians; for how
should they for whom it is not lawful to sacrifice even beasts, except
swine and the males of oxen and calves (such of them as are clean) and
geese, how should these sacrifice human beings? Besides this, how is
it in nature possible that Heracles, being one person only and
moreover a man (as they assert), should slay many myriads? Having said
so much of these matters, we pray that we may have grace from both the
gods and the heroes for our speech.
Now the reason why those of the Egyptians whom I have mentioned do not
sacrifice goats, female or male, is this:
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 37 of 134
Words from 10217 to 10483
of 37770
