herodotus

attle then, I say, he was worsted, and being taken alive was broughtaway to the city of Saïs, to that which had formerly been his owndwelling but from thenceforth was the palace of Amasis. There for sometime he was kept in the palace, and Amasis dealt well with him; but atlast, since the Egyptians blamed him, saying that he acted not rightlyin keeping alive him who was the greatest foe both to themselves andto him, therefore he delivered Apries over to the Egyptians; and theystrangled him, and after that buried him in the burial-place of hisfathers: this is in the temple of Athene, close to the sanctuary, onthe left hand as you enter. Now the men of Saïs buried all those ofthis district who had been kings, within the temple; for the tomb ofAmasis also, though it is further from the sanctuary than that ofApries and his forefathers, yet this too is within the court of thetemple, and it consists of a colonnade of stone of great size, withpillars carved to imitate date-palms, and otherwise sumptuouslyadorned; and within the colonnade are double-doors, and inside thedoors a sepulchral chamber. 170. Also at Saïs there is the burialplaceof him whom I account it not pious to name in connexion withsuch a matter, which is in the temple of Athene behind the house ofthe goddess,[146] stretching along the whole wall of it; and in thesacred enclosure stand great obelisks of stone, and near them is alake adorned with an edging of stone and fairly made in a circle,being in size, as it seemed to me, equal to that which is called the"Round Pool"[147] in Delos. 171. On this lake they perform by nightthe show of his sufferings, and this the Egyptians call Mysteries. Ofthese things I know more fully in detail how they take place, but Ishall leave this unspoken; and of the mystic rites of Demeter, whichthe Hellenes call /thesmophoria/, of these also, although I know, Ishall leave unspoken all except so much as piety permits me to tell.The daughters of Danaos were they who brought this rite out of Egyptand taught it to the women of the Pelasgians; then afterwards when allthe inhabitants of Peloponnese were driven out by the Dorians, therite was lost, and only those who were left behind of thePeloponnesians and not driven out, that is to say the Arcadians,preserved it.172. Apries having thus been overthrown, Amasis became king, being ofthe district of Saïs, and the name of the city whence he was is Siuph.Now at the first the Egyptians despised Amasis and held him in nogreat regard, because he had been a man of the people and was of nodistinguished family; but afterwards Amasis won them over to himselfby wisdom and not wilfulness. Among innumerable other things of pricewhich he had, there was a foot-basin of gold in which both Amasishimself and all his guests were wont always to wash their feet. Thishe broke up, and of it he caused to be made the image of a god, andset it up in the city, where it was most convenient; and the Egyptians