herodotus

festival. Hearing this Cambyses said that they were lying, and asliars he condemned them to death. 28. Having put these to death, nexthe called the priests into his presence; and when the priests answeredhim after the same manner, he said that it should not be without hisknowledge if a tame god had come to the Egyptians; and having so saidhe bade the priests bring Apis away into his presence: so they went tobring him. Now this Apis-Epaphos is a calf born of a cow who afterthis is not permitted to conceive any other offspring; and theEgyptians say that a flash of light comes down from heaven upon thiscow, and of this she produces Apis. This calf which is called Apis isblack and has the following signs, namely a white square[23] upon theforehead, and on the back the likeness of an eagle, and in the tailthe hairs are double, and on[24] the tongue there is a mark like abeetle. 29. When the priests had brought Apis, Cambyses being somewhataffected with madness drew his dagger, and aiming at the belly ofApis, struck his thigh: then he laughed and said to the priests: "O yewretched creatures, are gods born such as this, with blood and flesh,and sensible of the stroke of iron weapons? Worthy indeed of Egyptiansis such a god as this. Ye however at least shall not escape withoutpunishment for making a mock of me." Having thus spoken he orderedthose whose duty it was to do such things, to scourge the priestswithout mercy, and to put to death any one of the other Egyptians whomthey should find keeping the festival. Thus the festival of theEgyptians had been brought to an end, and the priests were beingchastised, and Apis wounded by the stroke in his thigh lay dying inthe temple. 30. Him, when he had brought his life to an end by reasonof the wound, the priests buried without the knowledge of Cambyses:but Cambyses, as the Egyptians say, immediately after this evil deedbecame absolutely mad, not having been really in his right senses evenbefore that time: and the first of his evil deeds was that he put todeath his brother Smerdis, who was of the same father and the samemother as himself. This brother he had sent away from Egypt to Persiain envy, because alone of all the Persians he had been able to drawthe bow which the Ichthyophagoi brought from the Ethiopian king, to anextent of about two finger-breadths; while of the other Persians notone had proved able to do this. Then when Smerdis had gone away toPersia, Cambyses saw a vision in his sleep of this kind:--it seemed tohim that a messenger came from Persia and reported that Smerdissitting upon the royal throne had touched the heaven with his head.Fearing therefore with regard to this lest his brother might slay himand reign in his stead, he sent Prexaspes to Persia, the man whom ofall the Persians he trusted most, with command to slay him. Heaccordingly went up to Susa and slew Smerdis; and some say that hetook him out of the chase and so slew him, others that he brought himto the Erythraian Sea and drowned him.