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The law that the Persian king should only marry from the families of ‘the Seven’ (84. 2 n.) may not yet have been passed; but Amasis knew his daughter would be regarded as a sort of captive; the chief wives were always Persian. The story that Cambyses was the son of an Egyptian princess was given by Dinon (fl. circ. 360 B. C.) and Lyceas of Naucratis (F. H. G. ii. 91; iv. 441); that of H. in cap. 1 is even more incredible; a daughter of Apries would have been at least 40 in 529 B. C.; Ctesias (fr. 8, p. 225) for once agrees with H. The story of c. 2 is due to the vanity of a conquered nation (as H. saw), claiming a share in its conqueror (cf. App. IV. 4); but all the variants are probably derived from Egyptians, who wished that their own country should have a share in suggesting its own conquest. The princess is the heroine of Ebers' famous romance, Eine äegyptische Königstochter.

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