The stories of Rhampsinit are told in book 2 (chapter 121–124) and today known as
Rhampsinit and the masterthief and ''Rhampsinit's visit to Hades
. Herodotus starts the story in chapter 121 with a short introduction of the king: “After Proteus, they told me, Rhâmpsinitós'' received in succession the kingdom, who left as a
memorial of himself that gateway to the
temple of
Hephaistos which is turned towards the West.” Then he tells the two tales of king Rhampsinit:
Rhampsinit and the masterthief Rhampsinit has hoarded a large amount of gold and silver, and orders a mason to build him a secure treasure room. When building the room, the mason secretly leaves one stone loose, so that it can be removed. On his deathbed, the mason tells his two sons about the loose stone. The brothers decide to sneak into the treasury house frequently and fill their pockets with loot. After some time has passed, Rhampsinit becomes aware that his treasury is decreasing and gets upset, as the treasure room’s well-guarded door remains untouched. The king then places a large trap in the room. The next time the brothers sneak into the treasury, one of them becomes ensnared in the trap. Recognizing that he cannot escape, he begs his brother to decapitate him, so that the living brother can escape identification. His brother does so and brings his brother’s head to their mother. Rhampsinit is stupefied upon the discovery of the headless thief, realizing that another thief lives, and orders soldiers to hang the body up on a wall and to arrest anyone seen weeping or grieving near it. The thief’s mother demands that he retrieve the body of his brother, threatening to reveal the story to the king if he cannot do so. The thief uses the stolen money to procure several donkeys, which he loads with full wineskins and drives nearby the body of his brother. Upon arriving, he deliberately loosens the wineskins, causing the wine to leak onto the ground, and begins lamenting and berating his donkeys. The ruckus draws over the soldiers guarding the body, who try to calm him down. The thief acts as if he is grateful for the guardians’ help and gives them large amounts of wine. By night, the guards have passed out drunk. The thief then takes his brother’s body back to his mother, shaving one side of each guard’s face on his way out. In another attempt to catch the thief, the king orders his daughter to pretend to be a "maid" in the royal brothel. The princess is then ordered to sweet-talk every lover into telling her his most sinister deed. The master thief visits the princess, but, suspecting the ruse, he brings the right arm of his deceased brother and then tells her about his deed. When the princess tries to hold him by the arm, he releases the dead arm and flees. Embarrassed and baffled, yet impressed, Rhampsinit declares that he will not punish the masterthief and will give him his daughter in marriage if the thief will tell Rhampsinit how he accomplished his feats. The masterthief accepts the invitation, and tells his story to a fascinated Rhampsinit.
Rhampsinit's visit to Hades After leaving the royal throne to the masterthief, Rhampsinit travels alive to the underworld, which is called “Hades” by the Hellenes. There he plays
dice with the goddess
Demeter. After defeating her, the king is allowed to return to the realm of the living, and Demeter gives him a golden towel as his prize. As soon as Rhampsinit returns home, all
priests of Egypt celebrate a feast; Herodotus says that this feast was still celebrated in his lifetime. Herodotus closes his stories in chapter 124, where Rhampsinit is followed by a king
Kheops, whom the author describes as "cruel" and "evil." == Further sources about Rhampsinit ==