CHAP. XVI. GREEK FABLES FROM EGYPT. 433 



those sepulchres. The rest of the Greek fancies re- 

 specting Hades are not less analogous to the present 

 practices in Egypt. The boat which carries over 

 the bodies is called ban's; and a penny is paid as 

 the fare to the boatman, who is called Charon in 

 the language of the country. There are also in the 

 neighbourhood of the same place a temple to 

 gloomy Hecate; the gates of Cocytus and of 

 Lethe, fastened with brazen bars ; and other gates 

 of Truth, near which stands the figure of Justice 

 without a head. 



'* Many other things mentioned in fable exist in 

 Egypt, the habitual adoption of which still con- 

 tinues. For in the city of Acanthus, on the Libyan 

 side of the Nile, 120 stades (15 miles) from Mem- 

 phis, they say there is a barrel pierced with holes, 

 to which 360 priests bring water every day from 

 the Nile ; and in an assembly in the vicinity the 

 story of the ass is exhibited, where a man twists 

 one end of a long rope, while other perspns un- 

 twist the opposite end. Melampus, in like manner, 

 brought from Egypt the mysteries of Bacchus, 

 the stories of Saturn, and the battles of the Titans; 

 as Dasdalus* imitated the Egyptian labyrinth in 

 the one he built for King Minos, the former having 

 been constructed by Mendes, or by Marus, an 

 ancient king, many years before his time.'* 



That the flible of Charon and the Styx owed its 

 origin to these Egyptian ceremonies, cannot be 



* The reputed dedication of a temple to Djedalus in one of the 

 islands near Memphis, which he says existed in his time, and was 

 honoured by the neighbouring inhabitants, is evidently a Greek fancy. 

 Diodor. i. 97. 



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