herodotus

Mendesian district, these abstain from goats and sacrifice sheep. Nowthe men of Thebes and those who after their example abstain fromsheep, say that this custom was established among them for the causewhich follows:--Heracles (they say) had an earnest desire to see Zeus,and Zeus did not desire to be seen of him; and at last when Heracleswas urgent in entreaty Zeus contrived this device, that is to say, heflayed a ram and held in front of him the head of the ram which he hadcut off, and he put on over him the fleece and then showed himself tohim. Hence the Egyptians make the image of Zeus into the face of aram; and the Ammonians do so also after their example, being settlersboth from the Egyptians and from the Ethiopians, and using a languagewhich is a medley of both tongues: and in my opinion it is from thisgod that the Ammonians took the name which they have, for theEgyptians call Zeus /Amun/. The Thebans then do not sacrifice rams buthold them sacred for this reason; on one day however in the year, onthe feast of Zeus, they cut up in the same manner and flay one singleram and cover with its skin the image of Zeus, and then they bring upto it another image of Heracles. This done, all who are in the templebeat themselves in lamentation for the ram, and then they bury it in asacred tomb.43. About Heracles I heard the account given that he was of the numberof the twelve gods; but of the other Heracles whom the Hellenes know Iwas not able to hear in any part of Egypt: and moreover to prove thatthe Egyptians did not take the name of Heracles from the Hellenes, butrather the Hellenes from the Egyptians,--that is to say those of theHellenes who gave the name Heracles to the son of Amphitryon,--ofthat, I say, besides many other evidences there is chiefly this,namely that the parents of this Heracles, Amphitryon and Alcmene, wereboth of Egypt by descent,[46] and also that the Egyptians say thatthey do not know the names either of Poseidon or of the Dioscuroi, norhave these been accepted by them as gods among the other gods; whereasif they had received from the Hellenes the name of any divinity, theywould naturally have preserved the memory of these most of all,assuming that in those times as now some of the Hellenes were wont tomake voyages[46a] and were sea-faring folk, as I suppose and as myjudgment compels me to think; so that the Egyptians would have learntthe names of these gods even more than that of Heracles. In facthowever Heracles is a very ancient Egyptian god; and (as they saythemselves) it is seventeen thousand years to the beginning of thereign of Amasis from the time when the twelve gods, of whom they countthat Heracles is one, were begotten of the eight gods. 44. I moreover,desiring to know something certain of these matters so far as mightbe, made a voyage also to Tyre of Phenicia, hearing that in that placethere was a holy temple of Heracles; and I saw that it was richlyfurnished with many votive offerings besides, and especially there