Now Let Me Tell Another Thing About The
Colchians To Show How They Resemble The Egyptians:
- They alone work
flax in the same fashion as the Egyptians, and the two nations are
like one another in their whole manner of living and also in their
language:
Now the linen of Colchis is called by the Hellenes Sardonic,
whereas that from Egypt is called Egyptian. The pillars which
Sesostris king of Egypt set up in the various countries are for the
most part no longer to be seen extant; but in Syria Palestine I myself
saw them existing with the inscription upon them which I have
mentioned and the emblem. Moreover in Ionia there are two figures of
this man carved upon rocks, one on the road by which one goes from the
land of Ephesos to Phocaia, and the other on the road from Sardis to
Smyrna. In each place there is a figure of a man cut in the rock, of
four cubits and a span in height, holding in his right hand a spear
and in his left a bow and arrows, and the other equipment which he has
is similar to this, for it is both Egyptian and Ethiopian: and from
the one shoulder to the other across the breast runs an inscription
carved in sacred Egyptian characters, saying thus, "This land with my
shoulders I won for myself." But who he is and from whence, he does
not declare in these places, though in other places he had declared
this. Some of those who have seen these carvings conjecture that the
figure is that of Memnon, but herein they are very far from the truth.
As this Egyptian Sesostris was returning and bringing back many men of
the nations whose lands he had subdued, when he came (said the
priests) to Daphnai in the district of Pelusion on his journey home,
his brother to whom Sesostris had entrusted the charge of Egypt
invited him and with him his sons to a feast; and then he piled the
house round with brushwood and set it on fire: and Sesostris when he
discovered this forthwith took counsel with his wife, for he was
bringing with him (they said) his wife also; and she counselled him to
lay out upon the pyre two of his sons, which were six in number, and
so to make a bridge over the burning mass, and that they passing over
their bodies should thus escape. This, they said, Sesostris did, and
two of his sons were burnt to death in this manner, but the rest got
away safe with their father. Then Sesostris, having returned to Egypt
and having taken vengeance on his brother employed the multitude which
he had brought in of those who whose lands he had subdued, as follows:
- these were they drew the stones which in the reign of this king were
brought to the temple of Hephaistos, being of very good size; and also
these were compelled to dig all the channels which now are in Egypt;
and thus (having no such purpose) they caused Egypt, which before was
all fit for riding and driving, to be no longer fit for this from
thenceforth:
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