The Twitter Herodotus

2.121 A wily thief tricked the Egyptian king Rhampsinitus repeatedly, e.g., stealing from a locked room, and won the hand of the princess.

2.122 Rhampsinitus later descended alive to Hades & played dice w/Demeter, then came back up. The Egyptians have a festival celebrating it.

2.123 Believe what you will. My policy is to record what I've heard. The Egyptians think the soul experiences a 3000-year cycle of rebirths.

2.124 Cheops was the 1st bad Egyptian king. He shut up the temples and worked the people like dogs, making them build a road and a pyramid.

2.125 The pyramid was built like steps, the stones lifted w/levers to the upper tiers. If I remember right, it cost 1600 talents to build.

2.126 Cheops prostituted his daughter in order to help pay for it.

2.127 Cheops reigned for 50 years and was succeeded by his brother Chephren. He built a pyramid too, but it was smaller than his brother's.

2.128 Cheops and Chephren ruled for 106 yrs combined. During that time the temples were closed & the Egyptians suffered all manner of evils.

2.129 Cheops' son Mycerinus was just. He let the people worship freely. When his only child died he buried her in a hollowed-out wooden cow.

2.130 The cow is in a chamber in the royal palace at Saïs. In another room there are twenty statues of naked women, Mycerinus' concubines.