Note 212 — Chapter II
W. (William) Falconer translation
Aristotle accounts for Homer’s mentioning Thebes rather than Memphis, by saying that, at the time of the poet, the formation of that part of Egypt by alluvial deposit was very recent. So that Memphis either did not then exist, or at all events had not then obtained its after celebrity. Aristotle likewise seems to say that anciently Egypt consisted only of the territory of the Thebaid, καὶ τὸ ἀρχαῖονἡ Αἴγυπτος, Θῆβαι καλούμεναι.