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Statuette of a hippopotamus
(Louvre)
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The hippopotamus is held sacred in the district of Papremis, but not elsewhere.
This animal has four legs, cloven hoofs like an ox, a snub nose, a horse's
mane and tail, conspicuous tusks, a voice like a horse's neigh, and is
about the size of a very large ox. Its hide is so thick and though that
when dried it can be made into spear-shafts.
Note
It is usually assumed that Herodotus copied this text from the Description
of the earth by Hecataeus
of Miletus. Probably, neither Hecataeus nor Herodotus ever saw a hippo.
Representing the hippopotamus was something that appears to have been impossible
in Antiquity (cf. the animal on the this
mosaic of the Villa
Nile near Lepcis
Magna). |
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