18.

Next to Canobus is Heracleium, in which is a temple of Hercules; then follows the Canobic mouth,832 and the commencement of the Delta.

On the right of the Canobic canal is the Menelaïte Nome, so called from the brother of the first Ptolemy, but certainly not from the hero (Menelaus), as some writers assert, among whom is Artemidorus.

Next to the Canobic mouth is the Bolbitine, then the Sebennytic, and the Phatnitic, which is the third in magnitude compared with the first two, which form the boundaries of the Delta. For it branches off into the interior, not far from the vertex of the Delta. The Mendesian is very near the Phatnitic mouth; next is the Tanitic, and lastly the Pelusiac mouth. There are others, which are of little consequence, between these, since they are as it were false mouths.

The mouths have entrances which are not capable of admitting large vessels, but lighters only, on account of the shallows and marshes. The Canobic mart is principally used as a mart for merchandise, the harbours at Alexandreia being closed, as I have said before.

After the Bolbitine mouth there runs out to a great distance a low and sandy promontory. It is called Agnu-ceras (or Willow Point). Then follows the watch-tower of Perseus,833 and the fortress of the Milesians. For in the time of Psammitichus, and when Cyaxares was king of the Medes, some Milesians with 30 vessels steered into the Bolbitine mouth, disembarked there, and built the above-mentioned fortress. Some time afterwards they sailed up to the Saïtic Nome, and having conquered Inarus in an engagement at sea, founded the city Naucratis, not far above Schedia.

Next after the fortress of the Milesians, in proceeding towards the Sebennytic mouth, are lakes, one of which is called Butice, from the city Butus; then the city Sebennytice and Sais, the capital of the lower country; here Minerva is worshipped. In the temple there of this goddess, is the tomb of Psammitichus. Near Butus is Hermopolis, situated in an island, and at Butus is an oracle of Latona.

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[CAS. 802]19. In the interior above the Sebennytic and Phatnitic mouths is Xoïs, both an island and a city in the Sebennytic Nome. There are also Hermopolis, Lycopolis, and Mendes, where Pan834 is worshipped, and of animals a goat. Here, according to Pindar, goats have intercourse with women.

Near Mendes are Diospolis, and the lakes about it, and Leontopolis; then further on, the city Busiris,835 in the Busirite Nome, and Cynospolis.

Eratosthenes says, “That to repel strangers is a practice common to all barbarians, but that this charge against the Egyptians is derived from fabulous stories related of (one) Busiris and his people in the Busirite Nome, as some persons in later times were disposed to charge the inhabitants of this place with inhospitality, although in truth there was neither king nor tyrant of the name of Busiris: that besides there was a common saying,

‘The way to Egypt is long and vexatious,’836

which originated in the want of harbours, and in the state of the harbour at Pharos, which was not of free access, but watched and guarded by herdsmen, who were robbers, and attacked those who attempted to sail into it. The Carthaginians drown [he says] any strangers who sail past, on their voyage to Sardinia or to the Pillars. Hence much of what is related of the parts towards the west is discredited. The Persians also were treacherous guides, and conducted the ambassadors along circuitous and difficult ways.”