September 05, 2007 10:06AM
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Registered: 19 years ago
Posts: 9,975
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Hermione Wrote:
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Quote
:Being human,
> Herodotus is always liable to error. He makes the
> god Mitra (Mithras) feminine (I, 131); we may
> reasonably doubt whether the walls of Babylon were
> 300 feet high (I, 178); and if he saw an
> inscription on the side of the Great Pyramid (it
> is not there now, and the sides of pyramids were
> not a place for inscriptions, at least official
> ones), it certainly did not record the expenditure
> on onions and garlic for the workders (II, 125).
> Here, on the most charitable view, he may be
> suspected both of having forgotten exactly where
> the inscription was (perhaps on a temple wall
> nearby?) and of being misinformed by a guide -
> perhaps having his leg pulled.
I take great issue with de Selincourt on this one. Suggesting that Herodotus could not tell the difference between a temple wall and the pyramid wall is a pretty serious accusation.
Also, there was a fairly common practice in the tombs of the nobles to describe how they adequately compensated the workers who built their tombs. Herodotus would not have known about this custom. There are also many offering lists in tombs in the Old Kingdom. It is possible that the two sections got crossed up by the priest, but it is more likely that this was actually a text included on the outer wall of a pyramid built for a king. Since we have no surviving outer wall texts of any significance, we really should refrain from dismissing what we do have reported simply because we do not understand it fully at this point in time (or, more accurately, at the time de Selincourt wrote his book).
After all, there are other things reported by travelers that were thought to be ludicrous at the time, but are now known to be culturally accurate and
most significant.
Anthony
You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think.
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Jon_B |
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Anthony |
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September 05, 2007 10:07AM |
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Anthony |
September 05, 2007 10:14AM |
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Hermione |
September 05, 2007 10:41AM |
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Anthony |
September 05, 2007 10:50AM |
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Hermione |
September 05, 2007 11:06AM |
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Warwick L Nixon |
September 05, 2007 12:10PM |
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Hermione |
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Anthony |
September 05, 2007 01:16PM |
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Lee |
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Anthony |
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MJ Thomas |
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Anthony |
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Hermione |
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Anthony |
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Hermione |
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Anthony |
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MJ Thomas |
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Anthony |
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MJ Thomas |
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Hermione |
September 07, 2007 09:59AM |
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MJ Thomas |
September 07, 2007 08:18PM |
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Hermione |
September 08, 2007 03:40AM |
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MJ Thomas |
September 08, 2007 06:59AM |
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Anthony |
September 10, 2007 10:25AM |
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Hermione |
September 10, 2007 11:03AM |
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MJ Thomas |
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Anthony |
September 13, 2007 06:30AM |
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Anthony |
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Lee |
September 13, 2007 12:17PM |
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Anthony |
September 13, 2007 07:53PM |
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fmetrol |
September 13, 2007 08:51PM |
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Hermione |
September 14, 2007 08:22AM |
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MJ Thomas |
September 14, 2007 04:54PM |
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Hermione |
September 07, 2007 08:23AM |
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Anthony |
September 07, 2007 08:27AM |
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Hermione |
September 07, 2007 09:54AM |
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Anthony |
September 05, 2007 12:16PM |
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Hermione |
September 05, 2007 01:59PM |
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fmetrol |
September 05, 2007 12:36PM |
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Hermione |
September 05, 2007 09:46AM |
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Anthony |
September 05, 2007 10:06AM |
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Hermione |
September 05, 2007 10:33AM |
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Ritva Kurittu |
August 29, 2007 02:41PM |
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Lee |
September 05, 2007 06:14PM |
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Anthony |
September 05, 2007 07:53PM |
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Hermione |
September 06, 2007 03:11AM |
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Hermione |
September 06, 2007 07:39AM |
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Anthony |
September 06, 2007 08:33AM |
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Lee |
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Anthony |
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September 06, 2007 11:00AM |
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Anthony |
September 06, 2007 12:34PM |
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September 06, 2007 03:01AM |
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Kanga |
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Lee |
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