Histories

Concerning Heracles, I heard it said that he was one of the twelve gods. But nowhere in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt could I hear anything about the other Heracles, whom the Greeks know.

I have indeed a lot of other evidence that the name of Heracles did not come from Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas to Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt, but from Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt to Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas (and in Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas to those Greeks who gave the name Heracles to the son of Amphitryon), besides this: that Amphitryon and Alcmene, the parents of this Heracles, were both Egyptian by descent[*](As grandchildren of Perseus, for whose Egyptian origin see Hdt. 2.91.) ; and that the Egyptians deny knowing the names Poseidon and the Dioscuri, nor are these gods reckoned among the gods of Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt.

Yet if they got the name of any deity from the Greeks, of these not least but in particular would they preserve a recollection, if indeed they were already making sea voyages and some Greeks, too, were seafaring men, as I expect and judge; so that the names of these gods would have been even better known to the Egyptians than the name of Heracles.

But Heracles is a very ancient god in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt; as the Egyptians themselves say, the change of the eight gods to the twelve, one of whom they acknowledge Heracles to be, was made seventeen thousand years before the reign of Amasis.