Ancient Egypt Detailed in Book Two of the Histories by Herodotus

Ancient Egyptian culture has long fascinated people, especially because though there are large numbers of towering, impressive monuments that speak of a highly developed and powerful civilization, there is a marked lack of recorded information about that culture, which seemed to all but disappear. Archaeologists eventually made sense of the hieroglyphic writing thanks to the Rosetta stone, but when translated, the temple and tomb inscriptions proved to be typical government propaganda praising the rulers who commissioned them, not offering a look at the typical life and times of the ancient Egyptian. However, just as the ancient Greeks provided a key to the Egyptian language by leaving us the Rosetta stone, there is one account by an ancient Greek, the historian Herodotus, that survives to offer some insight into the living civilization of ancient Egypt.

Book Two of the Histories by Herodotus is a detailed account of Egypt: her heritage, people, and beliefs. A remarkably unbiased book for an ancient historian, Book Two, also known as Euterpe by fans of the muses, is based on testimony from original sources and from factual observation. Herodotus compensates for hearsay by giving as many conflicting versions of the same story as exist, using solid reasoning to back up his choice when selecting one version in particular with which he agrees. While some of the stories he reports are most certainly nonsensical, he is quick to point out that they are unconfirmed legend.

There was a definite caste system in Egypt in the times of the great Empires, and Herodotus divides all peoples of Egypt into seven distinct social classes: priests, warriors, cowherds, swineherds, shopkeepers, interpreters and boatmen, not necessarily descending in that order. The pharaoh and his house were not classified; one would assume that the pharaoh's family and slaves were outside the basic classes. Professions were generally inherited through birthright; if one were the son of a shopkeeper, it was presumed one would carry on in the same occupation. Not much was said of marriage between social classes, save that families of swineherds could not marry outside their class. As the pig was considered to be an abominable animal, the swineherds comprised the lowest social class; not only could they marry only within their own class, they were denied even the basic privilege to enter temples. To be born a swineherd was not a lucky thing.

The position of women in society was not clearly defined, at least by Herodotus; one can perhaps make the assumption that it was well-defined, or at least understood, and was either not remarked upon by Herodotus because he was less interested in such things, or was not fully communicated to the scholar in the first place. Conclusions may be drawn from a tale that Herodotus presents of a pharaoh who had all women slaughtered whom he had found, through a highly unorthodox process, to be unfaithful to their husbands, regardless of the husband's fidelity. Women were also not allowed a place in the priesthood, the highest class (once again, with the exception of the pharaoh), although there were some female oracles.

Herodotus actually delineates a few of the diverging roles of men and women in society; for example, he reports that women go to market and carry on trade while men stay home and weave; that men wear two garments to the single garment of women; that men carry things on their heads and women carry things on their shoulders; that daughters, rather than sons, were expected to support the parents in their old age; and that the men urinate crouching while the women stand. As most of these customs seem to be exactly contrary to those of other known cultures, we can only speculate as to whether some of them were misguided hearsay, or whether the reason Herodotus found them worth remarking upon for the Histories is specifically because they were so unusual.

Herodotus mentions only one female ruler, whom he names as Nitocris. It can be guessed that he is referring to the woman we know as Hatshepsut, the female pharaoh who ruled for 20 years after succeeding her father, Thutmose. Hatshepsut was responsible for much of Egypt's monumental architecture, the most notable being her tomb at Deir-el-Bahari; however, the concept of male rulership was so strong that not only did Hatshepsut have herself represented in paintings and sculpture as a bearded warrior, she was also noted for wearing male attire, right down to the false beard, in court.

Hatshepsut was not the only pharaoh with monumental aspirations. Herodotus glowingly describes the huge pyramids attributed to Cheops, Chefron and Mykernos (in Egyptian, Khufu, Khafre and Menkure) along with other impressive edifices constructed on behalf of the pharaohs to honor and preserve their memory. Great quantities of artwork were produced to honor deities and pharaohs (who were considered deities). The huge monuments and temples built to worship these gods and demi-gods were packed with statuary, murals, jewelry and ceramics, all dedicated to the patron god or pharaoh.

Egyptian culture in general revolved around religion. Herodotus remarked , "They are religious to excess, far beyond any other race of men." Each of the many Egyptian deities had a sizable group of priests, led by a chief priest who was succeeded by his son upon his death. Priests observed a particular lifestyle: They could wear garments only of linen and sandals only of papyrus, and although they were well-fed on sacred bread, wine, oxflesh and fowl, they were not permitted to eat fish or beans. Egyptians in general did not eat beans, which were considered to be unclean.

Priests were known to have a mania for cleanliness, which extended to such practices as shaving of all hair (to prevent lice), undergoing circumcision and taking cold baths four times a day, as well as washing of dishes and clothing, which was hardly known in other parts of the ancient world. Possibly members of the upper class (or at least some individuals) did many of these things, as well, but they were manifested most publicly in the priesthood, and so it is attributed by Herodotus to religious zeal. It should be noted, however, that the Greek scholar tends to classify most behaviour unfamiliar to him as religious, thus possibly explaining his perception of Egyptians as "religious to excess".

One practice with which Herodotus was familiar, religious sacrifice, was carried out as a sacred ritual to several different gods. The animals most frequently sacrificed were male oxen, which underwent thorough testing for purity. Oxen judged fit for sacrifice were then 'sealed', which consisted of placing a wrap of papyrus around the animal's horns and sealing it with wax or a wax-like substance. The penalty for sacrificing an unsealed animal was death, which ensured that members of the priesthood involved in inspecting and sealing the animals were certain to receive their fee, as were those who carried out the rituals of the sacrifice.

Pigs were also sacrificed, but only to gods to whom Herodotus refers as "the moon" and "Dionysus". An educated guess translates these as Bubastis and Osiris, whom Herodotus later associates with Artemis (the virgin huntress, often symbolized by the moon as her twin brother, Apollo, is by the sun) and Dionysus (god of wine and revelry), respectively, reaffirming his strong belief that the Egyptian gods were prototypes from which the Greek gods were copied. As we know the Romans pretty much lifted the Greek pantheon and myths wholesale, changing little but the spelling of names, that seems entirely possible.

Since religion was extremely strong in ancient Egypt, so, then, was the pharaoh, who was not only revered as a ruler but worshipped as a god. Church and state were one and the same, and the power of the pharaoh was absolute. This was the theory, at least; the real extent of a pharaoh's power, as that of any ruler, was his ability to use it correctly. Although it may be tempting to think of the pharaohs as a long line of carbon-copy kings, they were just as individual in their approach as anyone.

Take, for example, Psammetichos, who allowed 240,000 of his soldiers to desert to Ethiopia after receiving an impertinent reply to his attempts to reason with them; this as opposed to Sesostris, who invaded and destroyed every civilization west of Egypt up to Thrace, leaving a pillar in each town announcing that they had been conquered and by whom. Adding insult to injury, the columns in communities over which Sesostris thought victory had come too easily were inscribed with depictions of female genitalia to denote the cowardice or effeminacy of the conquered people. No doubt Sesostris was considered the more effective ruler, not despite this cruelty but because of it. The author has no comment.

Such was the state of politics; of economics, the only thing mentioned by Herodotus was the trade engaged in by the women of Egypt. From this passing mention, and in view of the standards of other civilizations of the time, it is likely that the Egyptians used the barter system, a style of trade so familiar and commonplace that Herodotus would see no need to explain it as he would the more foreign aspects of the empire.

By reading the Histories, we get not only a fairly comprehensive view of ancient Egypt but also a chance to understand the ancient Greek psyche, as well, as the evaluations made by Herodotus of the Egyptian civilization must be filtered through the typical Greek notions and possible misconceptions of the time. Although he does fall prey to a few of these misconceptions or stereotypes when dealing with his subject, on the whole Herodotus is much more analytical than most, from common people to high-minded philosophers, right down to this day.