Hercules is certainly one of the most ancient deit-
ies of Egypt;* and as they themselves affirm, is
one of the twelve who were produced from the
eight gods, seventeen thousand years before the
reign of Amasis.
* The remark that the Egyptian is a very distinct personage
from the Grecian Hercules, is not peculiar to Herodotus; it is
affirmed by all the authors who have had occasion to speak on
the subject: Cicero gives him the Nile as his father : Nilo geni-
tus.--Larcher.