Festival of the Lamps

Herodotus describes the lamps used as part of the Osiris festival in Book II, Chapter 62. He says the Egyptians called it, literally, the lamp-burning festival. This was an autumn festival like Halloween, and the dead returned in the dark to consume the offerings left out for them. The lamps were to light their way, like the luminarias or farolitos of the Mexican Día de los Muertos. Egyptian lamps are discussed in more detail in the page devoted to that subject. On this page, the text is translated phrase by phrase in an animation. The Greek is quite straightforward, and includes the subjunctive in two places, called for by an in both cases.

The animation will begin 30 seconds after this page is accessed, displaying the complete text until then. Each frame in the animation is displayed for 15 seconds, and the last frame, with the complete text, remains permanently. To repeat the animation, Refresh the page.

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Composed by J. B. Calvert
Last revised 7 August 1999