Reference
History of Herodotus
History of Herodotus
Herodotus
| from Second Book, par
45-7: The importance of this section lies in Herod's discovery that Hercules is one of the original twelve Egyptian gods, thus establishing that there are two entities named Hercules: a Greek hero and an Egyptian God. |
| Such Egyptians as possess a temple of the Theban
Jove, or live in the Thebaic canton, offer no sheep in
sacrifice, but only goats; for the Egyptians do not all
worship the same gods, excepting Isis and Osiris, the
latter of whom they say is the Grecian Bacchus. Those, on
the contrary, who possess a temple dedicated to Mendes,
or belong to the Mendesian canton, abstain from offering
goats, and sacrifice sheep instead. The Thebans, and such
as imitate them in their practice, give the following
account of the origin of the custom:-
"Hercules," they say, "wished of all
things to see Jove, but Jove did not choose to be seen of
him. At length, when Hercules persisted, Jove hit on a
device- to flay a ram, and, cutting off his head, hold
the head before him, and cover himself with the fleece.
In this guise he showed himself to Hercules."
Therefore the Egyptians give their statues of Jupiter the
face of a ram: and from them the practice has passed to
the Ammonians, who are a joint colony of Egyptians and
Ethiopians, speaking a language between the two; hence
also, in my opinion, the latter people took their name of
Ammonians, since the Egyptian name for Jupiter is Amun.
Such, then, is the reason why the Thebans do not
sacrifice rams, but consider them sacred animals. Upon
one day in the year, however, at the festival of Jupiter,
they slay a single ram, and stripping off the fleece,
cover with it the statue of that god, as he once covered
himself, and then bring up to the statue of Jove an image
of Hercules. When this has been done, the whole assembly
beat their breasts in mourning for the ram, and
afterwards bury him in a holy sepulchre. The account which I received of this Hercules makes him one of the twelve gods. Of the other Hercules, with whom the Greeks are familiar, I could hear nothing in any part of Egypt. That the Greeks, however (those I mean who gave the son of Amphitryon that name), took the name from the Egyptians, and not the Egyptians from the Greeks, is I think clearly proved, among other arguments, by the fact that both the parents of Hercules, Amphitryon as well as Alcmena, were of Egyptian origin. Again, the Egyptians disclaim all knowledge of the names of Neptune and the Dioscuri, and do not include them in the number of their gods; but had they adopted the name of any god from the Greeks, these would have been the likeliest to obtain notice, since the Egyptians, as I am well convinced, practised navigation at that time, and the Greeks also were some of them mariners, so that they would have been more likely to know the names of these gods than that of Hercules. But the Egyptian Hercules is one of their ancient gods. Seventeen thousand years before the reign of Amasis, the twelve gods were, they affirm, produced from the eight: and of these twelve, Hercules is one. In the wish to get the best information that I could on these matters, I made a voyage to Tyre in Phoenicia, hearing there was a temple of Hercules at that place, very highly venerated. I visited the temple, and found it richly adorned with a number of offerings, among which were two pillars, one of pure gold, the other of emerald, shining with great brilliancy at night. In a conversation which I held with the priests, I inquired how long their temple had been built, and found by their answer that they, too, differed from the Greeks. They said that the temple was built at the same time that the city was founded, and that the foundation of the city took place two thousand three hundred years ago. In Tyre I remarked another temple where the same god was worshipped as the Thasian Hercules. So I went on to Thasos, where I found a temple of Hercules which had been built by the Phoenicians who colonised that island when they sailed in search of Europa. Even this was five generations earlier than the time when Hercules, son of Amphitryon, was born in Greece. These researches show plainly that there is an ancient god Hercules; and my own opinion is that those Greeks act most wisely who build and maintain two temples of Hercules, in the one of which the Hercules worshipped is known by the name of Olympian, and has sacrifice offered to him as an immortal, while in the other the honours paid are such as are due to a hero. |