[606] Herodot. ii, 124-129. τὸν λέων τετρυμένον ἐς τὸ ἔσχατον κακοῦ. (Diodor. i, 63-64.)
Περὶ τῶν Πυραμίδων (Diodorus observes) οὐδὲν ὅλως οὐδὲ παρὰ τοῖς ἐγχωρίοις, οὐδὲ παρὰ τοῖς συγγραφεῦσιν, συμφωνεῖται. He then alludes to some of the discrepant stories about the date of the Pyramids, and the names of their constructors. This confession, of the complete want of trustworthy information respecting the most remarkable edifices of lower Egypt, forms a striking contrast with the statement which Diodorus had given (c. 44), that the priests possessed records, “continually handed down from reign to reign respecting four hundred and seventy Egyptian kings.”
[607] It appears that the lake of Mœris is, at least in great part, a natural reservoir, though improved by art for the purposes wanted, and connected with the river by an artificial canal, sluices, etc. (Kenrick ad Herodot. ii, 149.)
“The lake still exists, of diminished magnitude, being about sixty miles in circumference, but the communication with the Nile has ceased.” Herodotus gives the circumference as three thousand six hundred stadia, = between four hundred and four hundred and fifty miles.
I incline to believe that there was more of the hand of man in it than Mr. Kenrick supposes, though doubtless the receptacle was natural.
[608] Herodot. ii, 38-46, 65-72; iii, 27-30: Diodor. i, 83-90.
It is surprising to find Pindar introducing into one of his odes a plain mention of the monstrous circumstances connected with the worship of the goat in the Mendesian nome (Pindar, Fragm. Inc. 179, ed. Bergk). Pindar had also dwelt, in one of his Prosodia, upon the mythe of the gods having disguised themselves as animals, when seeking to escape Typhon; which was one of the tales told as an explanation of the consecration of animals in Egypt: see Pindar, Fragm. Inc. p. 61, ed. Bergk; Porphyr. de Abstinent. iii, p. 251, ed. Rhoer.
[609] Herodot. ii, 65. Diodorus does not feel the same reluctance to mention these ἀπόῤῥητα (i, 86).
[610] Diodor. i, 86-87; Plutarch, De Isid. et Osirid. p. 377, seq.
[611] On this early trade between Egypt, Phenicia, and Palestine, anterior to any acquaintance with the Greeks, see Josephus cont. Apion. i, 12.