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The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)

Note 71 — Chapter III

Evelyn Abbott translation

Busiris was the name of several towns in Lower Egypt; we must assume that the chief town of the district of this name was the scene of the festival. How the Greeks turned the name of this town into a king Busiris who used to slay strangers, I cannot explain. Eratosthenes in Strabo, p. 802, says: "There never was a king Busiris; the story may have been invented owing to the inhospitality of the inhabitants of Busiris;" and Diodorus observes: "It was not a king who was called Busiris, but the grave of Osiris was so named in the native language" (1, 88), which is near the truth.

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