|
Thus far I have spoken on the authority of the Egyptians and their
priests. They declare that from their first king to this
last-mentioned monarch, the priest of Vulcan, was a period of three
hundred and forty-one generations; such, at least, they say, was
the number both of their kings, and of their high-priests, during
this interval. Now three hundred generations of men make ten thousand
years, three generations filling up the century; and the remaining
forty-one generations make thirteen hundred and forty years. Thus the
whole number of years is eleven thousand, three hundred and forty; in
which entire space, they said, no god had ever appeared in a human
form; nothing of this kind had happened either under the former or
under the later Egyptian kings. The sun, however, had within this
period of time, on four several occasions, moved from his wonted
course, twice rising where he now sets, and twice setting where he now
rises. Egypt was in no degree affected by these changes; the
productions of the land, and of the river, remained the same; nor was
there anything unusual either in the diseases or the deaths.
|
|