Herodotus, The Histories, Book 2, chapter 175

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Amasis made a marvellous outer court for the temple of Athena¹ at Saïs, far surpassing all in its height and size, and in the size and quality of the stone blocks; moreover, he set up huge images and vast man-headed sphinxes,² and brought enormous blocks of stone besides for the building. [2] Some of these he brought from the stone quarries of Memphis; the largest came from the city of Elephantine,³ twenty days' journey distant by river from Saïs. [3] But what I admire most of his works is this: he brought from Elephantine a shrine made of one single block of stone; its transport took three years and two thousand men had the carriage of it, all of them pilots. This chamber is thirty-five feet long, twenty-three feet wide, thirteen feet high. [4] These are the external dimensions of the chamber which is made of one block; its internal dimensions are: thirty-one feet long, twenty feet wide, eight feet high. It stands at the entrance of the temple; [5] it was not dragged within (so they say) because while it was being drawn the chief builder complained aloud of the great expense of time and his loathing of the work, and Amasis taking this to heart would not let it be drawn further. Some also say that a man, one of those who heaved up the shrine, was crushed by it, and therefore it was not dragged within.

1 Apparently, Nit; also identified with Demeter (Hdt. 2.132, note).

2 Visitors to Karnak will remember the double row of sphinxes leading to the temple.

3 The island opposite Assuan; the Assuan quarries have always been famous.

Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.

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Cross-references to this page (4):
- Raphael Kühner, Bernhard Gerth, Ausführliche Grammatik der griechischen Sprache, KG 3.1.1
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), MENSU´RA
- Smith's Bio, Saitis
- Smith's Bio, SPHINX
Cross-references in notes from this page (1):
- Herodotus, Histories, 2.132
Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (13):
- LSJ, ἄνδρο-σφιγξ
- LSJ, ἀγωγεύς
- LSJ, ἐνθυ_μ-ιστός
- LSJ, εἰσέλκω
- LSJ, μονό-λι^θος
- LSJ, μοχλ-εύω
- LSJ, οἷος
- LSJ, προσωτέρω
- LSJ, πυ^γών
- LSJ, τις
- LSJ, ὑπερβάλλω
- LSJ, ὑπερφυ-ής
- LSJ, ὑπερμεγέθ-ης

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Herodotus, The Histories
A. D. Godley, Ed.

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Herodotus, The Histories A. D. Godley, Ed.

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Herodotus, The Histories
A. D. Godley, Ed.