this time they said that the sun had
moved four times from his accustomed place of rising, and where he now
sets he had thence twice had his rising, and in the place from whence he
now rises he had twice had his setting; 127 and in the meantime nothing
in Egypt had been changed from its usual state, neither that which comes
from the earth nor that which comes to them from the river nor that
which concerns diseases or deaths.

143. And formerly when Hecataios the historian was in Thebes, and had
traced his descent and connected his family with a god in the sixteenth
generation before, the priests of Zeus did for him much the same as they
did for me (though I had not traced my descent). They led me into the
sanctuary of the temple, which is of great size, and they counted up the
number, showing colossal wooden statues in number the same as they said;
for each chief-priest there sets up in his lifetime an image of himself:
accordingly the priests, counting and showing me these, declared to me
that each one of them was a son succeeding his own father, and they went
up through the series of images from the image of the one who had
died last, until they had declared this of the whole number. And when
Hecataios had traced his descent and connected his family with a god in
the sixteenth generation, they traced a descent in opposition to this,
besides their numbering, not accepting it from him that a man had been
born from a god; and they traced their counter-descent thus, saying that
each one of the statues had been piromis son of piromis, until they had
declared this of the whole three hundred and forty-five statues, each
one being surnamed piromis; and neither with a god nor a hero did
they connect their descent. Now piromis means in the tongue of Hellas
"honourable and good man."

144. From their declaration then it followed, that they of whom the
images were had been of form like this, and far removed from being gods:
but in the time before these men they said that gods were the rulers in
Egypt, not mingling 128 with men, and that of these always one had power
at a time; and the last of them who was king over Egypt was Oros the son
of Osiris, whom the Hellenes call Apollo: he was king over Egypt last,
having deposed Typhon. Now Osiris in the tongue of Hellas is Dionysos.

145. Among the Hellenes Heracles and Dionysos and Pan are accounted the
latest-born of the gods; but with the Egyptians Pan is a very ancient
god, and