Herodotus
CVSP 201
Spring 2009-10
By
Dr. Richard Smith
Here are presented the results of the enquiry
(historia) carried out by Herodotus of
Halicarnassus. The purpose is to prevent the
traces of human events from being erased by
time, and to preserve the fame of the
important and remarkable achievements
produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks;
among the matters covered is, in particular,
the cause of the hostilities between Greeks
and non-Greeks.
(1: Introduction)
1:1 According to learned Persians it was the
Phoenicians who caused the conflict.…
1:5 That is the Persian account; they date the
origin of their hostility towards Greece from the
fall of Ilium [Troy]. However, where the Io
incident is concerned, the Phoenicians do not
agree with the Persians.…
So this is what the Persians and the
Phoenicians say. I am not going to come down
in favour of this or that account of events, but I
will talk about the man who, to my certain
knowledge, first undertook criminal acts of
aggression against the Greeks.
Not even a god can escape his ordained
fate (moira). Croesus has paid for the
crime of his ancestor four generations ago.
(…) Because he misunderstood the
statement [about a great empire being
destroyed] and failed to follow it up with
another enquiry, he should blame no one
but himself for what happened. (1:91)
I will say who it was who did this, and then
proceed with the rest of the account. I will cover
minor and major human settlements equally,
because most of those which were important in
the past have diminished in significance by now,
and those which were great in my own time were
small in times past. I will mention both equally
because I know that human happiness never
remains long in the same place. (1:5)
Human affairs are on a wheel, and … as the
wheel turns around it does not permit the same
people always to prosper. (1:207)
[I am] well aware of how utterly jealous the
divine is, and how it is likely to confound us. (…)
It is necessary to consider the end of anything,
however, and to see how it will turn out, because
the god often offers prosperity to men, but then
destroys them utterly and completely. (1:32)
After Solon’s departure, the weight of divine
anger (nemesis) descended on Croesus, in all
likelihood for thinking that he was the happiest
man in the world. (1:34)
I could supply a great deal of evidence to support the
idea that the Greeks got the name of Heracles from
Egypt, rather than the other way round. (…) [I]n fact
Heracles is a very ancient Egyptian god; as they
themselves say, it was seventeen thousand years before
the reign of King Amasis when the Twelve Gods
descended from the Eight Gods, and they regard
Heracles as one of the twelve. (2:43)
I wanted to understand these matters as clearly as I
could, so I also sailed to Tyre in Phoenicia, since I had
heard that there was a sanctuary sacred to Heracles
there. (…) I talked to the priests of the god there and
asked them how long ago the sanctuary was founded,
and I discovered that they too disagreed with the Greek
account, because according to them the sanctuary of the
god was founded at the same time as Tyre, which was
2,300 years ago, they said. (2:44)
These enquiries of mine, then, clearly show that
Heracles is an ancient god. (2:44)
The Greek account of Heracles’ birth is far from being
the only thoughtless thing they say. Here is another silly
story (muthos) of theirs about Heracles. (2:45)
Now [he says] in my opinion, this Greek tale displays
complete ignorance of the Egyptian character and
customs. For it is against their religion for Egyptians to
sacrifice animals (except for sheep, ritually pure bulls
and males calves and geese), so how could they
sacrifice human beings? And how could Heracles kill
thousands and thousands of people when he was just
one person, and (by their own admission) not yet a god
either? Anyway, that is all I have to say about this
matter; I trust the gods and heroes will look kindly on my
words. (2:45)
[Egyptian priests] show in their records
that there are 341 human generations
between the first king of Egypt and this
final one… and they have a king and a
high priest for each of these generations.
Now, three hundred human generations
make 10,000 years, because there are
three generations in a hundred years, and
the forty-one remaining generations, on
top of the three hundred, make 1,340
years. So throughout these 11,340 years,
they said, no god ever appeared in human
form. (2:142)
Although in other respects I do not find the
Scythians particularly admirable, they have
come up with the cleverest solution I know of to
the single most important matter in human life.
The crucial thing they have discovered is how to
prevent anyone who attacks them from
escaping, and how to avoid being caught unless
they want to be detected. Since they have no
towns or strongholds, but carry their homes
around with them on wagons, since they are all
expert at using their bows from horseback, and
since they depend on cattle for food rather than
on cultivated land, how could they fail to be
invincible and elusive? (4:46)
When he [Darius] heard that they were
chasing a hare, he told his confidants,
“These Scythians certainly hold us in
contempt. I now think that Gobryas’ [a
wise adviser’s] interpretation of their gift
was right, and what we need is a good
plan for getting back home.” (4:134)
‘I told you about these men before … when we
were setting out for Greece. You laughed at me
then, and found my ideas about what would
happen in this war absurd, just because I take
pride in nothing so much as in trying to be
honest to you, my lord. But listen to me now.
These men have come to fight us for the pass
and they are getting ready to do just that. It is
their custom to do their hair when they are about
to risk their lives. But you can rest assured that
if you can defeat these men and the force that
awaits you in Sparta, there is no other race on
earth which will take up arms and stand up to
you, my lord, because you are now up against
the noblest and most royal city in Greece, and
the bravest men.’ (7:209)
Demaratus: “My lord, you have asked me to tell the whole
truth – the kind of truth that you will not be able to prove
false at a later date. There has never been a time when
poverty was not a factor in the rearing of the Greeks, but
their courage has been acquired as a result of
intelligence and the force of law. Greece has relied on
this courage to keep poverty and despotism at bay.”
Xerxes: “Demaratus, how could you say such a thing?
(…) Look, let’s be completely rational about this. How
could a thousand men –or ten thousand or fifty
thousand, for that matter – when every man among them
is as free as the next man and they do not have a single
leader, oppose an army the size of ours?”
Demaratus: “The point is that although they’re free, they’re
not entirely free: their master is the law, and they’re far
more afraid of this than your men are of you.” (7:102-4)
Anyone who claims that the Athenians
proved themselves to be the saviours of
Greece would be perfectly correct,
because the scales were bound to tilt in
favour of whichever side Athens joined.
(…) Not even the fearful and alarming
oracles that came from Delphi persuaded
them to abandon Greece; they held firm
and found the courage to withstand the
invader of their country. (7:139)
Fools, why sit you here? Fly to the ends of the earth,
Leave your homes and the lofty heights girded by your city.
The head is unstable, the trunk totters; nothing –
Not the feet below, nor the hands, nor anything in between –
Nothing endures; all is doomed. Fire will bring it down,
Fire and bitter War, hastening in a Syrian chariot. (7:140)
…Far-seeing Zeus gives you … a wall of wood.
Only this will stand intact and help you and your children.
You should not abide and await the advance of the vast host
Of horse and foot from the mainland, but turn your back
And yield. The time will come for you to confront them.
Blessed Salamis, you will be the death of mothers’ sons…
(7:141)