he nowhere has such scruples and hesitation; although he
places also the Egyptian Hercules amongst the gods of the second rank,
and Bacchus amongst those of the third, as having had some beginning
of their being and not being eternal, and yet he pronounces those to be
gods; but to the gods Bacchus and Hercules, as having been mortal
and being now demi-gods, he thinks we ought to perform anniversary
solemnities, but not to sacrifice to them as to gods. The same also he
said of Pan, overthrowing the most venerable and purest sacrifices of
the Greeks by the proud vanities and mythologies of the Egyptians. (For
the passages referred to in this chapter, see Herodotus, ii. 48, 51,
145, 146, 171.)

Nor is this impious enough; but moreover, deriving the pedigree of
Hercules from Perseus, he says that Perseus was an Assyrian, as the
Persians affirm. "But the leaders," says he, "of the Dorians may appear
to be descended in a right line from the Egyptians, reckoning their
ancestors from before Danae and Acrisius." (Herodotus, vi. 53, 54.) Here
he has wholly passed by Epaphus, Io, Iasus, and Argus, being ambitious
not only to make the other Herculeses Egyptians and Phoenicians but to
carry this also, whom himself declares to have been the third, out of
Greece to the barbarians. But of the ancient learned writers, neither
Homer, nor Hesiod, nor Archilochus, nor Pisander, nor Stesichorus, nor
Alcman, nor Pindar, makes any mention of the Egyptian or the Phoenician
Hercules, but all acknowledge this our own Boeotian and Argive Hercules.

Now of the seven sages, whom he calls Sophisters, he affirms Thales to
have been a barbarian, descended of the Phoenicians. (Ibid, i. 170.)
Speaking ill also of the gods under the person of Solon, he has these
words: "Thou, O Croesus, askest me concerning human affairs, who know
that every one of the deities envious and tumultuous." (Ibid, i. 32.)
Thus attributing to Solon what himself thinks of the gods, he joins
malice to blasphemy. Having made use also of Pittacus in some trivial
matters, not worth the mentioning, he has passed over the greatest and
gallantest action that was ever done by him. For when the Athenians and
Mitylenaeans were at war about Sigaeum, Phrynon, the Athenian general,
challenging whoever would come forth to a single combat, Pittacus
advanced to meet him, and catching him in a net, slew that stout
and giant-like man; for which when the Mitylaenans offered him great
presents, da