cladking Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've seen several translations of Herodotus' work
> but not one of them specifically says any great
> pyramid was a tomb;
>
> "The aforesaid ten years went to the building of
> this road and of the underground chambers in the
> hill where the pyramids stand; these, the king
> meant to be burial-places for himself, and
> surrounded them with water, bringing in a channel
> from the Nile."
>
> [
blog.world-mysteries.com]
> ...
From the same blog:
Quote
The Egyptians said that this Kheops reigned for fifty years; at his death he was succeeded by his brother Khephren, who was in all respects like Kheops. Khephren also built a pyramid, smaller than his brother’s. I have measured it myself. It has no underground chambers, nor is it entered like the other by a canal from the Nile, but the river comes in through a built passage and encircles an island, in which, they say, Kheops himself lies.
From Lacus Curtius, the Rawlinson version:
Quote
( Rawlinson p204) Cheops reigned (so the Egyptians said) for fifty years; at his death he was succeeded by his brother Chephren, who bore himself in all respects like Cheops. Chephren also built a pyramid, of a less size than his brother's. I have myself measured it. It has no underground chambers, nor is it entered [p431] like the other by a canal from the Nile, but the river comes in through a built passage and encircles an island, in which, they say, Cheopsº [sic, and so the facing Greek] himself lies. (II: 127) [
penelope.uchicago.edu]
The syntax here seems slightly confusing. However, as Herodotus says, Khafre's pyramid, unlike Khufu's, doesn't have any connection with the Nile. Obviously, Khufu's body didn't lie in Khafre's pyramid ...
A third version, perhaps making the point a little clearer:
Quote
Chephren imitated the conduct of his predecessor, and, like him, built
a pyramid, which did not, however, equal the dimensions of his brother's.
Of this I am certain, for I measured them both myself. It has no subterraneous
apartments, nor any canal from the Nile to supply it with water, as
the other pyramid has. In that, the Nile water, introduced through
an artificial duct, surrounds an island, where the body of Cheops
is said to lie. [
classics.mit.edu]
(See also here, [
www.gutenberg.org] [II 127] - scroll about half-way down], in Greek).
From Colavito, Jason (2021), "The Legends of the Pyramids":
Quote
No funeral island exists under the Great Pyramid like the one Herodotus described. However, unbeknownst to scholars until the twentieth century, there was in fact such a tomb at Giza, the so-called Osiris Shaft underground near the Sphinx, which archaeologist Zahi Hawass has interpreted as an underground cenotaph, or symbolic tomb, of Osiris. It featured a sarcophagus he believes was surrounded by a water-filled trench, similar to the cenotaph of the god Osiris at Abydos, which also surrounded the grave with water. Herodotus’s informants might have spoken of this Giza grave or some similar much later grave as though it were the ancient burial chamber of the Great Pyramid. (p. 12).
Hermione
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