CHAPTER XXIX 



THE RING OF POLYCRATES 



In accordance with my custom of ending the Fishing of each 

 nation by a story in which fish play directly or indirectly an 

 important part, I searched for an Egyptian tale or legend. 

 The serpent Apep in the Ra myth is merely a variant of similar 

 beasts figuring in the Bel and Andromeda legends : his story, 

 moreover, lacks the stir of battle of the former, or the human 

 interest of the latter. ^ The absence of any such legend is 

 due doubtless to the bad esteem in which fish were held by 

 the priests, who in the early days, at any rate, wrote the 

 history of the country. 



As Maspero in his Coxites Popttlaires de I'ancienne Jigypte 

 (which by the by differs in The Two Brothers from the account 

 given by Plutarch) failed to provide provender, I perforce fall 

 back on a story, which, if iEgean in locale, is Eg^^ptian in effect, 

 the tale of the ring of Polycrates. 



This has been used by Cicero and other ancient writers 

 to point the moral of calling no man happy until his death, 

 and by modem to adorn many a tale of good luck, but since 

 its historical importance has often been neglected, I venture 

 to recall shortly what Herodotus sets forth. 2 



* But as one of the earliest instances of imitative magic the story is 

 notable. In the tale of Overthrowing Apep, based on the XXXIXth Chapter 

 of The Book of the Dead, the priestly directions for destroying this enemy of 

 Ra, or the Sun, run as follows : " Thou shalt say a prayer over a figure of 

 Apep, which hath been drawn upon a sheet of papyrus, and over a wax figure 

 of Apep upon which his name has been cut : and thou shalt lay them on the 

 fire, so that it may consume the enemy of Ra." Six figures in all, presumably 

 " to mak siccar," are to be placed on the fire at stated hours of the day and 

 night. Cf. Theocritus, Id., II. 27 ff., where the sUghted damsel prays, " Even 

 as I melt this wax, with the god to aid, so speedily may he (her lover) by 

 love be molten." 



« III. 40 ti. 



344 



