ABSTRACT
The Second Book of Herodotus is clearly marked as a digression, from which the historian indicates the return to the main course of his narrative by formally resuming the thread of his story where he had dropped it. The history as a whole follows the thread of the relations between Greece and the Orient, leading up to the conflict which we call the Persian Wars. As for Egypt, it signified little in the supreme conflict; but it had been drawn into the vast Persian Empire shortly before, and therefore had a just claim to be included in the story. The Greeks had undoubtedly had some knowledge of the Land of the Nile from the earliest times, even before Home. The greater part of the matters for which Herodotus himself appeals to “the priests” relate to “ancient history,” whether regarded as real history, as respecting the kings of Egypt before Psammetichus, or concerning personages and events belonging to Greek mythology.
