Great Books Ep 110. Herodotus - The History - Book 2 (Euterpé), Part 2. Egypt and the Sacred Life of Animals
To the Egyptians, animals were not lower creatures, but vessels of divine power.
Photo by Gemini/nano-banana1
“They were also the first to broach the opinion that the soul of man is immortal, and that, when the body dies, it enters into the form of an animal which is born at the moment, thence passing on from one animal into another, until it has circled through the forms of all the creatures which tenant the earth, the water, and the air, after which it enters again into a human frame, and is born anew. The whole period of the transmigration is (they say) three thousand years.”
~ ‘The History’ by Herodotus (George Rawlinson translation. GB6 - p. 75)
Thoughts - The History - Book 2 (Euterpé) - Part 2 (Sections 61-125)
The book continues Herodotus’s fascinating account of Egyptian life. It is like drawing a curtain, looking through a window, and seeing people 2,500 years ago, and being awed by their way of life. I was so surprised to read about the Egyptian belief that the soul goes through different animals before entering the human body. I had always thought that this concept was unique to India, especially among the Hindus. Even though different cultures may not believe in reincarnation, most humans probably don’t want to think that death is the end. They want to believe that life is continuous and that death is not an end but a transition. I recently watched the last season of Upload2 - a futuristic, thought-provoking, emotional, yet funny TV series where people upload their consciousness to a virtual world where they can live forever. Of course, like all great things in life, it is accessible only to the very rich! So, even if the scientific method were to establish firmly that there is no life after death, technology could actually make life after death possible, given the intense human yearning for it. In one of the most dramatic scenes in Westworld, the hosts jump off a cliff to die to exist forever in ‘Sublime’3, a blissful virtual world.
Most religions remind humans that human life is higher than that of an animal, that humans are the gods on Earth, that human story and struggles matter more than others and that everything on the Earth is under the dominion of humans who can do whatever we want with it - consume, kill or make extinct. Life is rare, and life is hard. Humans have explored billions of miles in the galaxy through telescopes and other devices, and have not discovered any life forms or places that can support life forms similar to those on Earth. So, when one reads a passage about people mourning for cats with shaved eyebrows, or protecting them from jumping into a fire, one feels good to know the people did and do care about other animals. To Egyptians, animals weren’t just resources - they were embodiments of gods, symbols of cosmic order, and vessels of souls. They were also protectors - for e.g., ibises fighting winged serpents to protect the land.
Herodotus’s description of the bones of serpents (“On my arrival I saw the back-bones and ribs of serpents in such numbers as it is impossible to describe: of the ribs there were a multitude of heaps, some great, some small, some middle-sized”), reminded me of “Raised by Wolves”4, a remarkable original series that I’ve wanted to rewatch, but is not available anywhere.
Many other topics came to mind when I was reading through this section -
1. Deadly religious practices
“A sharp fight with clubs ensues, in which heads are commonly broken on both sides. Many, I am convinced, die of the wounds that they receive, though the Egyptians insist that no one is ever killed.”
Many religious practices are deadly and harmful. If you’re in a position of power, do you step in to stop it or let the people continue so that you give them their religious freedom? I think the British did intervene to end the practice of Sati in India, where a wife commits suicide on the funeral pyre after her husband’s death. The government’s entering of FLDS compounds to prevent child marriages is another example that comes to mind. But I’m sure these were painful to the believers.
2. More domestic animals than wild animals
“Egypt, though it borders upon Libya, is not a region abounding in wild animals. …The number of domestic animals in Egypt is very great.”
This is probably true in the modern world, too. And I guess it is a sign of prosperity as well as the total control of humans over everything on Earth.
3. Your disease could correlate to what you eat
“they have a persuasion that every disease to which men are liable is occasioned by the substances whereon they feed”
This is such a thought-provoking, remarkably prescient statement, considering how modern science also links diet with disease. At this time, we probably have 100x more knowledge about all the food and its ingredients than the Egyptians had, but the average person still consumes more junk food than the average Egyptian, I assume. The US is blessed to have the FDA and other organizations that oversee what food ends up in grocery stores. These measures are not so strong in most other countries, which results in a lot more people getting sick.
4. A lot of doctors, but there is a shortage
“Medicine is practised among them on a plan of separation; each physician treats a single disorder, and no more: thus the country swarms with medical practitioners,”
This is so true even now. There are a lot of specialists and the country ‘swarms’ with medical practitioners, but still there is a shortage and hence the medical care is so expensive. Sometime back many famous people - Sam Altman5, Dario Amodei6, Marc Andreessen7, etc., wrote articles on their vision of AI future, which were all very inspiring. Amodei’s article had a section about how the medical practice will vastly improve with the help of AI, reduced trial time for new medicines, easier analysis of data, etc.
5. Astrology never goes out of fashion
“The Egyptians likewise discovered to which of the gods each month and day is sacred; and found out from the day of a man's birth what he will meet with in the course of his life, and how he will end his days, and what sort of man he will be”
Recently, I saw an article that Netflix has movie suggestions based on your sun-signs. Your “Zodiac Watchlist” contains a curated list grouped as “Virgos Are Always Hustling”, “Libras Play Fair in Love and War”, “Scorpios Revel in Mystery”, and so on. I’d always thought that as new generations of people come in and they understand the world better and think more rationally and scientifically, these concepts about a person’s personality being based on the month or day on the calendar would go away. But they haven’t. I wondered why a tech company like Netflix perpetuates this. I’m wondering if this was an AI suggestion based on studying people’s behavior.
6. A mention of Palestine
“The pillars which Sesostris erected in the conquered countries have for the most part disappeared; but in the part of Syria called Palestine, I myself saw them still standing”
When I read the word Palestine, it set me thinking whether it was put as Palestine by the translator or whether the land was called Palestine during Herodotus’ time? Has Herodotus mentioned Judah or Israel? I have to read more to find out.
7. Helen of Troy was never in Troy!
“It seems to me that Homer was acquainted with this story, and while discarding it, because he thought it less adapted for epic poetry”
I read about Helen being in Egypt and not in Troy for the first time in Euripides’ play ‘Helen’8. In the play, there is a phantom Helen sent to Troy with Paris, but the actual Helen was in Egypt. She was always faithful to her husband and never eloped with Paris. In Herodotus’ account, Paris and Helen landed in Egypt after fleeing from Sparta due to storms. Proteus, the king, scolds Paris and sends him away, but keeps Helen and her treasures so that her husband, Menelaus, would come and take them. So when the Greeks, not knowing all this, reach Troy and ask for Helen, and when the Trojans say they don’t have her, they don’t believe and invade and destroy it. Herodotus says that Homer knew the actual story but discarded it for dramatic effects.
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I didn’t cover everything that was mentioned - there are many sections devoted to kings who built different pyramids, about a queen who killed many of her subjects to avenge her brother, about a blind king who washed his face with urine from women and killed all the women who couldn’t cure him (since the oracle mentioned that only urine from a faithful woman could cure him), section about hippopotamus and crocodiles and then a most fascinating story about a thief who stole from king’s treasure and outsmarted him at every turn, in the end being rewarded by the king. I’m looking forward to reading the next few pages and wrapping up “Book 2 - Euterpe”, the chapter on Egypt, hopefully next week if time permits.
Image generated by Gemini - “close-up photo of a cat near the pyramid at Giza”
Sublime/Westworld - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passenger_(Westworld)
Raised by Wolves - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raised_by_Wolves_(American_TV_series)
The Intelligence Age - https://ia.samaltman.com/
Machines of Loving Grace - https://www.darioamodei.com/essay/machines-of-loving-grace.
Why AI Will Save the World - https://a16z.com/ai-will-save-the-world/
Helen by Euripides -
https://www.readgreatbooks.info/p/great-books-ep-84-euripides-helen