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In the wish to get the best information that I could on these
matters, I made a voyage to Tyre in Phoenicia, hearing there was a
temple of Hercules at that place, very highly venerated. I visited
the temple, and found it richly adorned with a number of offerings,
among which were two pillars, one of pure gold, the other of emerald,
shining with great brilliancy at night. In a conversation which I
held with the priests, I inquired how long their temple had been
built, and found by their answer that they, too, differed from the
Greeks. They said that the temple was built at the same time that the
city was founded, and that the foundation of the city took place two
thousand three hundred years ago. In Tyre I remarked another temple
where the same god was worshipped as the Thasian Hercules. So I
went on to Thasos, where I found a temple of Hercules which had been
built by the Phoenicians who colonised that island when they sailed in
search of Europa. Even this was five generations earlier than the
time when Hercules, son of Amphitryon, was born in Greece. These
researches show plainly that there is an ancient god Hercules; and my
own opinion is that those Greeks act most wisely who build and maintain
two temples of Hercules, in the one of which the Hercules worshipped
is known by the name of Olympian, and has sacrifice offered to him as
an immortal, while in the other the honours paid are such as are due to
a hero.
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