herodotus

charge and preserved him, concealing him in the island which is saidnow to be a floating island, at that time when Typhon came after himseeking everywhere and desiring to find the son of Osiris. Now theysay that Apollo and Artemis are children of Dionysos and of Isis, andthat Leto became their nurse and preserver; and in the Egyptian tongueApollo is Oros, Demeter is Isis, and Artemis is Bubastis. From thisstory and from no other Æschylus the son of Euphorion took[136] thiswhich I shall say, wherein he differs from all the preceding poets; herepresented namely that Artemis was the daughter of Demeter. For thisreason then, they say, it became a floating island.Such is the story which they tell; 157, but as for Psammetichos, hewas king over Egypt for four-and-fifty years, of which for thirtyyears 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 citiesabout which we have knowledge held out for the longest time under asiege.158. The son of Psammetichos was Necos, and he became king of Egypt.This man was the first who attempted the channel leading to theErythraian Sea, which Dareios the Persian afterwards completed: thelength of this is a voyage of four days, and in breadth it was so dugthat two triremes could go side by side driven by oars; and the wateris brought into it from the Nile. The channel is conducted a littleabove the city of Bubastis by Patumos the Arabian city, and runs intothe Erythraian Sea: and it is dug first along those parts of the plainof Egypt which lie towards Arabia, just above which run the mountainswhich extend opposite Memphis, where are the stone-quarries,--alongthe base of these mountains the channel is conducted from West to Eastfor a great way; and after that it is directed towards a break in thehills and tends from these mountains towards the noon-day and theSouth Wind to the Arabian gulf. Now in the place where the journey isleast and shortest from the Northern to the Southern Sea (which isalso called Erythraian), that is from Mount Casion, which is theboundary between Egypt and Syria, the distance is exactly[137] athousand furlongs to the Arabian gulf; but the channel is much longer,since it is more winding; and in the reign of Necos there perishedwhile digging it twelve myriads[137a] of the Egyptians. Now Necosceased in the midst of his digging, because the utterance of an Oracleimpeded him, which was to the effect that he was working for theBarbarian: and the Egyptians call all men Barbarians who do not agreewith them in speech. 159. Thus having ceased from the work of thechannel, Necos betook himself to waging wars, and triremes were builtby him, some for the Northern Sea and others in the Arabian gulf forthe Erythraian Sea; and of these the sheds are still to be seen. Theseships he used when he needed them; and also on land Necos engaged