Anthony Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> He never says anything but priest in this entire
> segment.

As Lee pointed out, what Herodotus actually says is "hermêneus", interpreter or translator. The "hermêneus" might have been a priest ...

> Who else would have been able to give him a tour
> of a massive holy site?

A good point ...

> > We can
> > only presume that Herodotus and the
> interpreter
> > were doing their best ... but we don't know.
> >

> When so much else of what he reported has turned
> out to be spot on accurate, it is illogical to
> single out one or two pieces and discard them
> because we do not appreciate what they meant.
>

But a lot of what Herodotus reported isn't spot on accurate ... and Lee has raised a lot of interesting questions over the radishes, garlic and talents ...


> > On the contrary, MJ makes an excellent point.
> Who
> > was the interpreter, the "hermêneus"? Was
> he
> > actually a priest himself? And, whether he
> was or
> > he wasn't, how well and/or accurately would
> he
> > have understood the hieroglyphics of Khufu's
> era?
> >

> The texts are perfectly accurate for the context,
> Hermione.

But you haven't answered my question, Anthony. I'm not asking here about the accuracy of texts. I'm asking how well an Egyptian priest (or interpreter) in the 6th century would have understood the hieroglyphs of 2,000 years before.
>
>
> This is a clear choice. One is lying.

No, it is not a question of clear choice. As I've said several times previously, the act of lying - i.e., telling an untruth - requires an element of intention. There might have been elements of confusion or misunderstanding, or conveying incorrect information: but no one need necessarily have been lying.

> Was it
> Herodotus or the Priest? They both got everything
> else right.

But keep in mind de Sélincourt's comment about "his mis-statements on details in Egypt" being too numerous to mention ...

> I'm far more inclined to think that
> modern hacks who dismiss what these two reported
> about the pyramid are the ones drawing the false
> conclusions.

What "modern hacks"? No one is "dismissing" the account, but rather trying to evaluate it against its historical context. There are many difficulties with it ...


> Other than minor issues of translation for
> specific concept (like did he really mean
> "garlic"? Or is there an Egyptian equivalent of
> same?) There is nothing in the report by
> Herodotus of this era that is really "out there".
> Sure, there are folklore areas, such as the
> "sending to the stew" of his daughter, or the 53
> year reigns, but the nature of the things he
> reports are spectacularly accurate.
>
>
> > But either of
> > them might have been mistaken ... We just do
> not
> > know. In another post, you mentioned an
> > inscription on the outside of Menkaure's
> pyramid.
> > What does that inscription say?
>
>
>
> It was discussed here a couple months ago. Jon B.
> even had pictures he posted of it. I don't know
> if it was added by the son of Ramesses II during
> his cleanup of the plateau, though. That's not
> entirely outside my recollection, either.

Well, I found this thread - but I couldn't find anything that specifies what the inscription said ...

> However, the surface was grossly UNfinished,
> except around the entrance. There was no place to
> inscribe that particular pyramid, per se. Khufu's
> was a different matter all together.
>
>
> Either Herodotus is misreporting his statements
> that he claims to "remember well", or the priest
> who read the inscription did not read what was
> actually written.
>
> Those are really the only two options. Why read
> everything else right, but then secretly change
> the references to onions? The concept is simply
> absurd.

The point is that there might have been an element of unintentional mistranslation ...

> > He has reported a text
> that repeats itself in other tombs of the time.
> Do you suppose this was a lucky guess?

It's the sort of thing, of course, that's hardly worth reporting in a travel narrative unless he actually had seen it with his own eyes ...

Hermione
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