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 Contes Populaires de Vancienne Egypte 
(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 A2gean in locale, is Egyptian 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 modern 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.? 
1 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, Zd., II. 27 ff., where the slighted damsel prays, “Even 
as | melt this wax, with the god to aid, so speedily may he (her lover) by 
love be molten.” 
2 TII. 40 ff. 
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