Herodotus, The Histories, Book 4, chapter 181

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I have now described all the nomadic Libyans who live on the coast. Farther inland than these is that Libyan country which is haunted by wild beasts, and beyond this wild beasts' haunt runs a ridge of sand that stretches from Thebes of Egypt to the Pillars of Heracles.¹ [2] At intervals of about ten days' journey along this ridge there are masses of great lumps of salt in hills; on the top of every hill, a fountain of cold sweet water shoots up from the midst of the salt; men live around it who are farthest away toward the desert and inland from the wild beasts' country. The first on the journey from Thebes , ten days distant from there, are the Ammonians, who follow the worship of the Zeus of Thebes ; for, as I have said before, the image of Zeus at Thebes has the head of a ram. [3] They have another spring of water besides, which is warm at dawn, and colder at market-time, and very cold at noon; [4] and it is then that they water their gardens; as the day declines, the coldness abates, until at sunset the water grows warm. It becomes ever hotter and hotter until midnight, and then it boils and bubbles; after midnight it becomes ever cooler until dawn. This spring is called the Spring of the Sun.

1 Herodotus' description is true in so far as it points to the undoubted fact of a caravan route from Egypt to northwestern Africa; the starting-point of which, however, should be Memphis and not Thebes . But his distances between identifiable places are nearly always incorrect; the whole description will not bear criticism. The reader is referred to the editions of Rawlinson, Macan, and How and Wells for detailed discussion of difficulties.

Herodotus, with an English translation by A. D. Godley. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1920.

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Commentary references to this page (2):
- W. Walter Merry, James Riddell, D. B. Monro, Commentary on the Odyssey (1886), 6.321
- Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900), 5.113
Cross-references to this page (6):
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), DIES
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), ORA´CULUM
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), SALINAE
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ATLAS
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), HE´RCULIS COLUMNAE
- Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LI´BYA
Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (25):
- LSJ, Λίβυ^ς
- LSJ, ἀγορά
- LSJ, ἀμβολ-άδην
- LSJ, ἀνα^κοντίζω
- LSJ, ἀπο-κλίνω
- LSJ, ἐπί
- LSJ, ἐπί-κλησις
- LSJ, ἐρῶ
- LSJ, κάρτα^
- LSJ, καί
- LSJ, κολωνός
- LSJ, κρην-αῖος
- LSJ, κρι_ο-πρόσωπος
- LSJ, μέσος
- LSJ, ὄρθρος
- LSJ, ὀφύη
- LSJ, πελάζω
- LSJ, θηρι^-ώδης
- LSJ, τε
- LSJ, τρύφος
- LSJ, ὑφίημι
- LSJ, χλια^ρός
- LSJ, χόνδρος
- LSJ, ψάμμη
- LSJ, ψύχω

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Herodotus, The Histories
A. D. Godley, Ed.

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Herodotus, The Histories A. D. Godley, Ed.

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Table of Contents:

Herodotus, The Histories
A. D. Godley, Ed.