Greece -- History -- To 146 B.C.; History, Ancient
156. This house then of all the things that were to be seen by me in
that temple is the most marvellous, and among those which come next is
the island called Chemmis. This is situated in a deep and broad lake
by the side of the temple at Buto, and it is said by the Egyptians
that this island is a floating island. I myself did not see it either
floating about or moved from its place, and I feel surprise at hearing
of it, wondering if it be indeed a floating island. In this island of
which I speak there is a great temple-house of Apollo, and three several
altars are set up within, and there are planted in the island many
palm-trees and other trees, both bearing fruit and not bearing fruit.
And the Egyptians, when they say that it is floating, add this story,
namely that in this island, which formerly was not floating, Leto, being
one of the eight gods who came into existence first, and dwelling in the
city of Buto where she has this Oracle, received Apollo from Isis as a
charge and preserved him, concealing him in the island which is said now
to be a floating island, at that time when Typhon came after him seeking
everywhere and desiring to find the son of Osiris. Now they say that
Apollo and Artemis are children of Dionysos and of Isis, and that Leto
became their nurse and preserver; and in the Egyptian tongue Apollo is
Oros, Demeter is Isis, and Artemis is Bubastis. From this story and from
no other Æschylus the son of Euphorion took 136 this which I shall say,
wherein he differs from all the preceding poets; he represented namely
that Artemis was the daughter of Demeter. For this reason then, they
say, it became a floating island.
Such is the story which they tell;
157, but as for Psammetichos, he was king over Egypt for four-and-fifty
years, of which for thirty years save one he was sitting before Azotos,
a great city of Syria, besieging it, until at last he took it: and this
Azotos of all cities about which we have knowledge held out for the
longest time under a siege.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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