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Φερῶς is simply the title ‘Pharaoh’ turned into a proper name (cf. its use in Genesis, pass.). The story of H. is merely ‘a satire on the truth of women’, and the town of ‘Red Earth’ (§ 3) is a purely imaginary place; Diodorus (i. 59), who tells the same tale, calls it Ἱερὰ βῶλος. Maspero (C. P. pp. xlii. seq.) points out that the tales in the papyri are equally unfavourable to feminine chastity; but, like the similar tales of mediaeval Europe, he thinks them due mainly to male unfairness.

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