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Diodorus
Siculus
was a Greek historian who lived in the 1st century BC. Like Herodotus,
he is important in the
history of Egypt because he wrote about the techniques Egyptians used for
mummification. However, Diodorus wrote about mummification some 400 years
after Herodotus, and the state of mummification had declined considerably.
His
account still mentions the cost of three types of mummification. He gives a
fuller explanation of the steps involved in the most expensive type of
mummification. Here
are his own words:
"When a person amongst them dies, all his
relatives and friends, putting mud upon their heads, go about the town
lamenting, until the time of burying the body. In the meantime they abstain from
bathing and from wine and all kinds of delicacies, neither do they wear fine
apparel. They have three manners of burial: one very costly, one medium and one
modest. Upon the first a talent of silver is spent, upon the second twenty minae,
but in the third there is very little cost. Those who attend to the bodies have
learned their art from their forefathers. These, carrying to the household of
the deceased illustrations of the costs of burial of each kind, ask them in
which manner they desire the body to be treated. When all is agreed upon, and
the corpse is handed over, they (that is, the relatives) deliver the body
to those who are appointed to deal with it in the accustomed manner.
"First, he who is called the
scribe,
laying the body down, marks on the left flank where it is to be cut. Then he who
is called the cutter takes an Ethiopian stone, and
cuts the flesh as the law prescribes, and forthwith escapes running, those who
are present pursuing and throwing stones and cursing, as though turning the
defilement [of his act] on to Ms head. For whosoever inflicts violence upon, or
wounds, or in any way injures a body of his own kind, they hold worthy of
hatred. The embalmers, on the other hand, they
esteem worthy of every honour and respect, associating with the priests and
being admitted to the temples without hindrance as holy men. When they have
assembled for the treatment of the body which has been cut, one of them inserts
his hand through the wound in the corpse into the breast and takes out
everything excepting the kidneys and the heart. Another man cleanses each
of the entrails, sweetening them with palm-wine and with incense. Finally,
having washed the whole body, they first diligently treat it with cedar oil and
other things for over thirty days, and then with myrrh and cinnamon and
[spices], which not only have the power to preserve it for a long time, but also
impart a fragrant smell. Having treated it, they restore it to the relatives
with every member of the body preserved so perfectly that even the eyelashes and
eyebrows remain, the whole appearance of the body being unchangeable, and the
cast of the features recognizable. Therefore, many of the Egyptians, keeping the
bodies of their ancestors in fine chambers, can behold at a glance those who
died before they themselves were born...."
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