Note 574 — Chapter XX · EGYPTIANS.

To give one example: Herodotus mentions an opinion given to him by the γραμματιστὴς (comptroller) of the property of Athênê at Sais, to the effect that the sources of the Nile were at an immeasurable depth in the interior of the earth, between Syênê and Elephantinê, and that Psammetichus had vainly tried to sound them with a rope many thousand fathoms in length (ii, 28). In mentioning this tale (perfectly deserving of being recounted at least, because it came from a person of considerable station in the country), Herodotus expressly says: “This comptroller seemed to me to be only bantering, though he professed to know accurately,”—οὗτος δ᾽ ἐμοίγε παίζειν ἐδόκεε, φάμενος εἰδέναι ἀτρεκέως. Now Strabo (xvii, p. 819), in alluding to this story, introduces it just as if Herodotus had told it for a fact,—Πολλὰ δ᾽ Ἡρόδοτός τε καὶ ἄλλοι φλυαροῦσιν, οἷον, etc.

Many other instances might be cited, both from ancient and modern writers, of similar carelessness or injustice towards this admirable author.