This Was The Allowance Given To Those Who Were
Serving As The King's Body-Guard For The Time Being.
So when Apries leading his foreign mercenaries, and Amasis at the head
of the whole body of the Egyptians, in their approach to one another
had come to the city of Momemphis, they engaged in battle:
And
although the foreign troops fought well, yet being much inferior in
number they were worsted by reason of this. But Apries is said to have
supposed that not even a god would be able to cause him to cease from
his rule, so firmly did he think that it was established. In that
battle then, I say, he was worsted, and being taken alive was brought
away to the city of Sais, to that which had formerly been his own
dwelling but from thenceforth was the palace of Amasis. There for some
time he was kept in the palace, and Amasis dealt well with him but at
last, since the Egyptians blamed him, saying that he acted not rightly
in keeping alive him who was the greatest foe both to themselves and
to him, therefore he delivered Apries over to the Egyptians; and they
strangled him, and after that buried him in the burial-place of his
fathers: this is in the temple of Athene, close to the sanctuary, on
the left hand as you enter. Now the men of Sais buried all those of
this district who had been kings, within the temple; for the tomb of
Amasis also, though it is further from the sanctuary than that of
Apries and his forefathers, yet this too is within the court of the
temple, and it consists of a colonnade of stone of great size, with
pillars carved to imitate date-palms, and otherwise sumptuously
adorned; and within the colonnade are double doors, and inside the
doors a sepulchral chamber. Also at Sais there is the burial-place of
him whom I account it not pious to name in connexion with such a
matter, which is in the temple of Athene behind the house of the
goddess, stretching along the whole wall of it; and in the sacred
enclosure stand great obelisks of stone, and near them is a lake
adorned with an edging of stone and fairly made in a circle, being in
size, as it seemed to me, equal to that which is called the "Round
Pool" in Delos. On this lake they perform by night the show of his
sufferings, and this the Egyptians call Mysteries. Of these things I
know more fully in detail how they take place, but I shall leave this
unspoken; and of the mystic rites of Demeter, which the Hellenes call
/thesmophoria/, of these also, although I know, I shall leave unspoken
all except so much as piety permits me to tell. The daughters of
Danaos were they who brought this rite out of Egypt and taught it to
the women of the Pelasgians; then afterwards when all the inhabitants
of Peloponnese were driven out by the Dorians, the rite was lost, and
only those who were left behind of the Peloponnesians and not driven
out, that is to say the Arcadians, preserved it.
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