herodotus

her wealth she caused to be made spits of iron of size large enough topierce a whole ox, and many in number, going as far therein as hertithe allowed her, and she sent them to Delphi: these are even at thepresent time lying there, heaped all together behind the altar whichthe Chians dedicated, and just opposite to the cell of thetemple.[116] Now at Naucratis, as it happens, the courtesans arerather apt to win credit;[117] for this woman first, about whom thestory to which I refer is told, became so famous that all the Helleneswithout exception come to know the name of Rhodopis, and then afterher one whose name was Archidiche became a subject of song over allHellas, though she was less talked of than the other. As for Charaxos,when after redeeming Rhodopis he returned back to Mytilene, Sappho inan ode violently abused him.[118] Of Rhodopis then I shall say nomore.136. After Mykerinos the priests said Asychis became king of Egypt,and he made for Hephaistos the temple gateway[119] which is towardsthe sunrising, by far the most beautiful and the largest of thegateways; for while they all have figures carved upon them andinnumerable ornaments of building[120] besides, this has them verymuch more than the rest. In this king's reign they told me that, asthe circulation of money was very slow, a law was made for theEgyptians that a man might have that money lent to him which heneeded, by offering as security the dead body of his father; and therewas added moreover to this law another, namely that he who lent themoney should have a claim also to the whole sepulchral chamberbelonging to him who received it, and that the man who offered thatsecurity should be subject to this penalty, if he refused to pay backthe debt, namely that neither the man himself should be allowed tohave burial when he died, either in that family burial-place or in anyother, nor should he be allowed to bury any one of his kinsmen whom helost by death. This king desiring to surpass the kings of Egypt whohad arisen before him left as a memorial of himself a pyramid which hemade of bricks, and on it there is an inscription carved in stone andsaying thus: "Despise not me in comparison with the pyramids of stone,seeing that I excel them as much as Zeus excels the other gods; forwith a pole they struck into the lake, and whatever of the mudattached itself to the pole, this they gathered up and made bricks,and in such manner they finished me."Such were the deeds which this king performed; 137, and after himreigned a blind man of the city of Anysis, whose name was Anysis. Inhis reign the Ethiopians and Sabacos the king of the Ethiopiansmarched upon Egypt with a great host of men; so this blind mandeparted, flying to the fen-country, and the Ethiopian was king overEgypt for fifty years, during which he performed deeds as follows:--