r stand images of the
concubines of Mykerinos, as the priests at Sais told me; for there are
in fact colossal wooden statues, in number about twenty, made with naked
bodies; but who they are I am not able to say, except only that which is
reported.

131. Some however tell about this cow and the colossal statues the
following tale, namely that Mykerinos was enamoured of his own daughter
and afterwards ravished her; and upon this they say that the girl
strangled herself for grief, and he buried her in this cow; and her
mother cut off the hands of the maids who had betrayed the daughter to
her father; wherefore now the images of them have suffered that which
the maids suffered in their life. In thus saying they speak idly, as it
seems to me, especially in what they say about the hands of the statues;
for as to this, even we ourselves saw that their hands had dropped off
from lapse of time, and they were to be seen still lying at their feet
even down to my time.

132. The cow is covered up with a crimson robe, except only the head and
the neck, which are seen, overlaid with gold very thickly; and between
the horns there is the disc of the sun figured in gold. The cow is not
standing up but kneeling, and in size it is equal to a large living cow.
Every year it is carried forth from the chamber, at those times, I say,
the Egyptians beat themselves for that god whom I will not name upon
occasion of such a matter; at these times, I say, they also carry forth
the cow to the light of day, for they say that she asked of her father
Mykerinos, when she was dying, that she might look upon the sun once in
the year.

133. After the misfortune of his daughter it happened, they said,
secondly to this king as follows:--An oracle came to him from the city
of Buto, saying that he was destined to live but six years more, in the
seventh year to end his life: and he being indignant at it sent to the
Oracle a reproach against the god, 112 making complaint in reply that
whereas his father and uncle, who had shut up the temples and had not
only not remembered the gods, but also had been destroyers of men, had
lived for a long time, he himself, who practised piety, was destined to
end his life so soon: and from the Oracle there came a second message,
which said that it was for this very cause that he was bringing his life
to a swift close; 113 for he had not done that which it was appointed
for him to do, since it was destined that Egypt should