practiced circumcision. Clement of Alexandria relates that Pythagoras was circumcised by Egyptian priests, as was Thales of Miletus. Diodorus Siculus and Xanthus of Lydia indicated that female circumcision was also a common custom in ancient Egypt. A papyrus, which was part of the Serapeum's Ptolemaios archive at Memphis and has been dated to 163 BCE, indicated that an ancient Egyptian girl, Tathemis, was scheduled to undergo it. Semitic peoples Circumcision was also adopted by some Semitic peoples living in or around Egypt. Herodotus reported that circumcision is only practiced by the Egyptians, Colchians, Ethiopians, Phoenicians, the 'Syrians of Palestine', and "the Syrians who dwell about the rivers Thermodon and Parthenius, as well as their neighbours the Macronians and Macrones". Sanchuniathon, a purportedly ancient Phoenician writer recorded by Philo of Byblos, tells the origin of circumcision as part of a myth, according to which the god Kronos circumcised himself and his allies to atone for his castration of his father Ouranos. Herodotus also reports, however, that "the Phoenicians, when they come to have commerce with the Greeks, cease to follow the Egyptians in this custom, and allow their children to remain uncircumcised." Archaeological or further literary records do not support that circumcision was truly widespread among Semites. In the case of the Phoenicians, it has been proposed that Herodotus and successors like Aristophanes might have mistaken Jews for them, as Biblical sources describe Phoenicians and other peoples like the Philistines as uncircumcised. Roman authors do not mention circumcision in Carthage or other Phoenician settlements in Africa, even although it would have added to the colourful Punic stereotype entertained in Roman literature. Other authors believe Phoenicians abandoned the practice at some point, although it might have not fully died out, as proved by Philo's record. Josephus seems to suggest that the Edomites were uncircumcised until being forcefully converted to Judaism by John Hyrcanus. It has been also interpreted, however, that up to that point they actually practiced a different kind of circumcision that was superseded by the Jewish form. Judaic culture According to Genesis, God told Abraham to circumcise himself, his household and his slaves as an everlasting covenant in their flesh, see also Abrahamic Covenant. Those who were not circumcised were to be "cut off" from their people. Covenants in biblical times were often sealed by severing an animal, with the implication that the party who breaks the covenant will suffer