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A chi è rivolto
This book suits readers who love travel writing, ancient history, and a curious eyewitness. If you enjoy pyramids, mummies and old tales told with a skeptic's wink, you will feel at home.
Che cos’è questo libro
What happens if you shut two newborn babies away with a shepherd and a flock of goats, and wait to hear their first word? According to Herodotus, the Egyptian king Psammetichus tried exactly that. The children said bekos, the Phrygian word for bread, and the Egyptians accepted that another people was older than they were.
This is the second book of the Histories by Herodotus, a Greek from Halicarnassus who wrote in the fifth century BC. As the Persian king Cambyses marches on Egypt, Herodotus pauses the war to describe the land. You get the Nile, the upside-down customs, the sacred animals, the embalmers and a line of kings, all told by a mind weighing evidence.
In questo riassunto
- 1Egypt is a gift of the riverFree
- 2The Nile's flood has no agreed explanation
- 3Egyptian customs run opposite to everyone else's
- 4Egyptian gods and festivals shaped Greek worship
- 5Sacred animals and mourning rites reveal Egyptian values
- 6The priests' kings run from Min to Sesostris
- 7Cheops and his heirs build pyramids amid hardship
- 8Psammetichus and Amasis open Egypt to the Greeks
Punto chiave 1 di 8
Egypt is a gift of the river
Herodotus opens with a claim about the land itself. The Egypt that Greek sailors reach is new ground, laid down by the river over a vast stretch of time. Anyone with some understanding can see it.
His proof is physical. Drop a sounding line a day from shore and it brings up mud from eleven fathoms down. The soil is black and crumbly, unlike the sand of Libya. Shells lie on the mountains, and salt rises from the ground and eats at the pyramids.
He adds a comparison. The Acheloos river has already joined half of the Echinades islands to the mainland, and the Nile is far more powerful. If a river could fill a gulf in ten thousand years, he asks, how could the Nile fail to fill one in all the ages before his birth?
The priests add a record. In the time of King Moiris, a flood of eight cubits watered the land below Memphis. Less than nine hundred years later, the river must rise fifteen or sixteen cubits to do the same.
He also argues against the Ionian Greeks, who say only the Delta is Egypt. Egypt, he says, is all the land where the Nile floods and people drink its water.
The Nile made Egypt, so start there if you want to understand its people.
That’s 1 of 8 key points.
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About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 30,800 words
- Reading timeAbout 2 h 10 min
Questions about An Account of Egypt
What is An Account of Egypt by Herodotus about?
It is the second book of the Histories. Herodotus describes Egypt's land, the Nile, customs, religion, sacred animals and burial practices, then follows its kings from Min to Amasis, mixing his own travel observations with what priests told him.
Did Herodotus really visit Egypt?
He says he did. He names Memphis, Thebes, Heliopolis and Elephantine, describes measuring a pyramid, and walking through the upper chambers of the labyrinth. He also marks clearly which things he saw and which he only heard.
What does bekos mean in Herodotus?
Bekos is the first word that two children, raised in silence by order of King Psammetichus, are said to have spoken. The king learned that Phrygians used it for bread, so the Egyptians accepted that Phrygians were older.
Is Herodotus's account of Egypt a true story?
It mixes direct observation, reports from priests and popular tales. Herodotus says what he saw and what he only heard, and he rejects some stories as foolish. It gives a vivid picture of Egypt as the Greeks of the fifth century BC understood it.
What is the main message of this book?
Egypt is a gift of its river, and its customs, religion and history grow from that fact. Herodotus also shows how to inquire carefully: look, measure, ask different people, and say clearly where knowledge ends.
Cite this edition
Herodotus. An Account of Egypt. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-account-of-egypt.
Herodotus. (2026). An account of Egypt. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-account-of-egypt (Original work published ca. 440 B.C.E.)
Herodotus. An Account of Egypt. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-account-of-egypt.
@book{herodotus2026account,
author = {Herodotus},
title = {An Account of Egypt},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/an-account-of-egypt},
note = {First published ca. 440 BCE}
}
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