On the other side of the river is the city Oxyrynchus,
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and a nome of the same name. They worship the oxyrynchus, and have a temple dedicated to this animal; but all the other Egyptians worship the oxyrynchus.
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For all the Egyptians worship in common certain animals; three among the land animals, the ox, the dog, and the cat; two among the winged tribe, the hawk and the ibis; and two of the aquatic animals, the fish lepidotus and the oxyrynchus. There are also other animals which each people, independently of others, worship; as the Saïtae and Thebaïtae, a sheep; the Latopolitae, the latus, a fish inhabiting the Nile; the people of Lycopolis, a wolf; those of Hermopolis,
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the cynocephalus; those of Babylon,
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near Memphis, a cephus, which has the countenance of a satyr, and in other respects is between a dog and a bear; it is bred in Ethiopia. The inhabitants of Thebes worship an eagle; the Leontopolitae, a lion; the Mendesians, a male and female goat; the Athribitae, a shrewmouse; different people worshipping different animals. They do not, however, assign the same reasons for this difference of worship.