Snakes with Wings and Gold-digging Ants (Great Journeys) by Herodotus

Author:Herodotus,
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141025339
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2007-02-01T00:00:00+00:00

Fish-eaters and the Crystal Coffin

It was against Amasis1 that Cyrus’ son Cambyses2 marched at the head of an army drawn from various subject nations and including both Ionian and Aeolian Greeks. His pretext was as follows. Cyrus had sent to Amasis to ask for the services of the best oculist in Egypt, and the one who was selected, in resentment at being torn from his wife and family and handed over to the Persians, suggested to Cambyses by way of revenge that he should ask for Amasis’ daughter in marriage, knowing that consent would cause the Egyptian king personal distress, and that refusal would embroil him with Cambyses. Cambyses did as the man suggested, and sent a representative to Egypt to make the request. Amasis, who dreaded the power of Persia, and was well aware that Cambyses wanted his daughter not as a wife but as a concubine, found himself in an awkward position, and unable to say either yes or no. Now there was a daughter of the late King Apries, a tall and beautiful girl named Nitetis, the last survivor of her family, and Amasis, after thinking the matter over, decided to dress her up like a princess in fine clothes adorned with gold, and send her to Persia as his own daughter. This he did; and some time later, when Cambyses happened to address her by her father’s name, she replied: ‘My lord, you do not know how Amasis has cheated you; he dressed me in gorgeous clothes and sent me to you as his own daughter – but indeed I am not; I am the daughter of Apries, his master, whom he killed when he led the Egyptians to rebel against him.’ It was these words, and the cause of quarrel they disclosed, which, according to the Persian account, brought down upon Egypt the wrath of Cam byses, son of Cyrus. The Egyptians, on the other hand, claim that Cambyses was the son of Nitetis, Apries’ daughter, and was thus a native of their own country – for it was Cyrus, they say, not Cambyses, who sent to Amasis to demand his daughter. The claim, however, is not justified by facts; for knowing as they do – none better – the laws of Persia, they could not fail to be aware, first, that Persian usage bars a bastard from the succession so long as there is a legitimate heir, and, secondly, that Cambyses was the son of Cassandane, daughter of Pharnaspes, one of the Achaemenidae, and not of this Egyptian woman. The fact is, they wish to claim kinship with Cyrus, and pervert the truth to justify their claim. There is also another story current, but not, I think, a convincing one: namely, that a Persian woman paid a visit to Cyrus’ wives, and greatly admired the fine tall sons which she saw standing by Cassandane’s side. Hearing her praises, Cassandane, who was vexed with Nitetis, said: ‘In spite of my beautiful children Cyrus treats me with contempt and gives all his attention to that woman he got from Egypt.

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