Near
This Cow In Another Chamber Stand Images Of The Concubines Of
Mykerinos, As The Priests At Sais Told Me;
For there are in fact
colossal wooden statues, in number about twenty, made with naked
bodies; but who they are
I am not able to say, except only that which
is reported. Some however tell about this cow and the colossal statues
the following tale, namely that Mykerinos was enamoured of his own
daughter and afterwards ravished her; and upon this they say that the
girl strangled herself for grief, and he buried her in this cow; and
her mother cut off the hands of the maids who had betrayed the
daughter to her father; wherefore now the images of them have suffered
that which the maids suffered in their life. In thus saying they speak
idly, as it seems to me, especially in what they say about the hands
of the statues; for as to this, even we ourselves saw that their hands
had dropped off from lapse of time, and they were to be seen still
lying at their feet even down to my time. The cow is covered up with a
crimson robe, except only the head and the neck, which are seen,
overlaid with gold very thickly; and between the horns there is the
disc of the sun figured in gold. The cow is not standing up but
kneeling, and in size is equal to a large living cow. Every year it is
carried forth from the chamber, at those times, I say, the Egyptians
beat themselves for that god whom I will not name upon occasion of
such a matter; at these times, I say, they also carry forth the cow to
the light of day, for they say that she asked of her father Mykerinos,
when she was dying, that she might look upon the sun once in the year.
After the misfortune of his daughter it happened, they said, secondly
to this king as follows: - An oracle came to him from the city of Buto,
saying that he was destined to live but six years more, in the seventh
year to end his life: and he being indignant at it sent to the Oracle
a reproach against the god, making complaint in reply that whereas his
father and uncle, who had shut up the temples and had not only not
remembered the gods, but also had been destroyers of men, had lived
for a long time, he himself, who practised piety, was destined to end
his life so soon: and from the Oracle came a second message, which
said that it was for this very cause that he was bringing his life to
a swift close; for he had not done that which it was appointed for him
to do, since it was destined that Egypt should suffer evils for a
hundred and fifty years, and the two kings who had arisen before him
had perceived this, but he had not. Mykerinos having heard this, and
considering that this sentence had passed upon him beyond recall,
procured many lamps, and whenever night came on he lighted these and
began to drink and take his pleasure, ceasing neither by day nor by
night; and he went about to the fen-country and to the woods and
wherever he heard there were the most suitable places of enjoyment.
This he devised (having a mind to prove that the Oracle spoke falsely)
in order that he might have twelve years of life instead of six, the
nights being turned into days.
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