Greece -- History -- To 146 B.C.; History, Ancient
180. Moreover when the Amphictyons had let out the contract for building
the temple which now exists at Delphi, agreeing to pay a sum of three
hundred talents, (for the temple which formerly stood there had been
burnt down of itself), it fell to the share of the people of Delphi to
provide the fourth part of the payment; and accordingly the Delphians
went about to various cities and collected contributions. And when they
did this they got from Egypt as much as from any place, for Amasis gave
them a thousand talents' weight of alum, while the Hellenes who dwelt in
Egypt gave them twenty pounds of silver. 153
181. Also with the people of Kyrene Amasis made an agreement for
friendship and alliance; and he resolved too to marry a wife from
thence, whether because he desired to have a wife of Hellenic race,
or apart from that, on account of friendship for the people of Kyrene:
however that may be, he married, some say the daughter of Battos, others
of Arkesilaos, 154 and others of Critobulos, a man of repute among the
citizens; and her name was Ladike. Now whenever Amasis lay with her he
found himself unable to have intercourse, but with his other wives he
associated as he was wont; and as this happened repeatedly, Amasis said
to his wife, whose name was Ladike: "Woman, thou hast given me drugs,
and thou shalt surely perish 155 more miserably than any other woman."
Then Ladike, when by her denials Amasis was not at all appeased in his
anger against her, made a vow in her soul to Aphrodite, that if Amasis
on that night had intercourse with her (seeing that this was the remedy
for her danger), she would send an image to be dedicated to her at
Kyrene; and after the vow immediately Amasis had intercourse, and from
thenceforth whenever Amasis came in to her he had intercourse with her;
and after this he became very greatly attached to her. And Ladike paid
the vow that she had made to the goddess; for she had an image made
and sent it to Kyrene, and it was still preserved even to my own time,
standing with its face turned away from the city of the Kyrenians. This
Ladike Cambyses, having conquered Egypt and heard from her who she was,
sent back unharmed to Kyrene.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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