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.
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