After him, they said, there succeeded to the throne a man of Memphis,
whose name in the tongue of the Hellenes was Proteus; for whom there is
now a sacred enclosure at Memphis, very fair and well ordered, lying on
that side of the temple of Hephaistos which faces the North Wind. Round
about this enclosure dwell Phenicians of Tyre, and this whole region is
called the Camp of the Tyrians. Within the enclosure of Proteus there
is a temple called the temple of the "foreign Aphrodite," which temple
I conjecture to be one of Helen the daughter of Tyndareus, not only
because I have heard the tale how Helen dwelt with Proteus, but also
especially because it is called by the name of the "foreign Aphrodite,"
for the other temples of Aphrodite which there are have none of them the
addition of the word "foreign" to the name.
And the priests told me, when I inquired, that the things concerning
Helen happened thus:--Alexander having carried off Helen was sailing
away from Sparta to his own land, and when he had come to the Egean Sea
contrary winds drove him from his course to the Sea of Egypt; and after
that, since the blasts did not cease to blow, he came to Egypt itself,
and in Egypt to that which is now named the Canobic mouth of the Nile
and to Taricheiai. Now there was upon the shore, as still there is now,
a temple of Heracles, in which if any man's slave take refuge and have
the sacred marks set upon him, giving himself over to the god, it is
not lawful to lay hands upon him; but this custom has continued still
unchanged from the beginning down to my own time. Accordingly the
attendants of Alexander, having heard of the custom which existed about
the temple, ran away from him, and sitting down as suppliants of the
god, accused Alexander, because they desired to do him hurt, telling
the whole tale how things were about Helen and about the wrong done to
Menalaos; and this accusation they made not only to the priests but also
to the warden of this river-mouth, whose name was Thonis. Thonis then
having heard their tale sent forthwith a message to Proteus at Memphis,
which said as follows: "There hath come a stranger, a Teucrian by race,
who hath done in Hellas an unholy deed; for he hath deceived the wife
of his own host, and is come hither bringing with him this woman herself
and very much wealth, having been carried out of his way by winds to thy
land. Shall we then allow him to sail out unharmed, or shall we first
take away from him that which he brought with him?" In reply to this
Proteus sent back a messenger who said thus: "Seize this man, whosoever
he may be, who has done impiety to his own host, and bring him away into
my presence that I may know what he will find to say." Hearing this,
Thonis seized Alexander and detained his ships, and after that he
brought the man himself up to Memphis and with him Helen and the wealth
he had, and also in addition to them the suppliants. So when all had