Homer on mankind, Book XXI

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Homer on mankind, Book XXI

• Lord of the Earthquake,answered the Archer-King
  Apollo, you would credit me with very little
  sense if I fought you for the sake of men, those
  wretched creatures who, like the leaves, flourish
  for a little while on the bounty of the earth and
  flaunt their brilliance, but in a moment droop
  and fade away

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Herodotus of Halicarnassus(c. 485 BC 425 BC)
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Halicarnassus, modern Bodrum
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Literature before Herodotus

• Epic poetry (Homer, Hesiod)
• Prose Geographies
• Prose Ethnographies
• Herodotus combines all threeHomers grand
  thematic sweep combined with explanatory
  geographical and ethnographic digressions.

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HerodoteanThematic Paragraph 1

• Herodotus of Halicarnassus here displays the
  results of his inquiries, so that human
  achievements (ta genomena ex anthropon) may not
  become forgotten in time, and great and
  marvellous deeds (erga megala te kai
  thomasta)some belonging to the Hellenes, others
  to the barbariansmay not be without glory
  (akleos) and for other things and especially to
  show why (dian aitian) the two peoples fought
  with each other.

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Persian Wars Events leading up

• Herodotus covers the Archaic Age of Greece
  (600-480 BC), the century before his own time.
• Covers the beginning of the 2nd great conflict
  between East and West, Asia and Europe, Greeks
  and Orientals
• First task to find the beginning of a human
  event. How does he go about this?

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Composition

• 9 Scrolls required-9 books named after 9 muses
• Ring composition- central thematic thread with
  multiple digressions and returns
• e.g. Persian king, Cambyses, decides to conquer
  Egypt and digression begins into the geography,
  races, customs, history, etc. of Egypt for all of
  Book II. Book III goes back to Cambyses
  invasion.
• Point of View is East to Westwhen did Asia first
  come into contact with Greeks

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Herodotus Sense of Aetiology

• Human revengeaction reaction of nations and
  individuals
• Human ambitionimpulse of empires and men to
  expand territory
• Cyclical nature of all human affairs
• Envy or punishment of the gods for hubris or for
  transgressions against the gods

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Techniques

• Historia he learns by traveling and asking
  questions, journalistic approach
• Candor when he mistrusts information, he says
  so he does not edit out sources
• Impartiality although Greek, he treats all
  nationalities with equal sympathy. NB, Herodotus
  on customs (nomos).

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Reactions/Reception to Hs work

• Plutarch wrote an essay On the Malignity of
  Herodotus
• Cicero called him the Father of History
• He was also known as the Father of Lies
• esp. with regard to the strange customs that he
  explains (e.g. everything in Egypt is
  backwardmen squat to urinate and women stand up)

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Significant Terms in Herodotus

• Historia
• Adikia
• Kleos
• Megala erga
• Nomos
• Isonomia
• Nemesis (ek theou)
• Tyche

• Olbios
• Eudaimonia
• Miasmos

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Persian Wars Grand Theme

• Made Athens a leader among Greek city-states and
  served to prompt the Delian League, a defensive
  alliance amongst Aegean city-states with Athens
  as the leader.
• Gave Greeks confidence in their position as
  leaders of the western Mediterranean and,
  ultimately, made Persia a refuge for ousted
  tyrants and other Greeks unhappy with their
  cities
• Discouraged permanently Persian expansion to the
  west.

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Persian Empire c. 490 BC
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Beginning with legends rationalized abduction
of women

• Io by Phoenicians from Greece
• Europa by Greeks from Phoenicia
• Medea by Greeks from Aea (Eastern)
• Helen by Trojans from Greece
• so much for the stories of Phoenicians and
  Persians (eastern folk)

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Herodotus begins historical material with
Croesus, King of Lydia

• Croesus background starts with story of
  Candaules Gyges (another problem caused by
  woman)
• Note violations of nomos
• Role of Delphic Oracle
• Gyges descendants first encroach on Greek Ionian
  cities via Miletus

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Croesus Solon exchange re Human Happiness

• Poem attributed to Solon
• The man whose riches satisfy his greedIs not
  more rich for all those heaps and hoardsThan
  some poor man who has enough to feedAnd clothe
  his corpse with such as God affords.
• I have no use for men who steal and cheatThe
  fruit of evil poisons those who eat.
• Some wicked men are rich, some good men poor,But
  I would rather trust in what's secureOur virtue
  sticks with us and makes us strong,But money
  changes owners all day long.
•  

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Solons examples of Happy Men

• Tellus, the Athenian
• Cleobis and Biton of Argos
• Man is entirely a creature of chance
• Call no man happy until hes dead.

Solon, Athenian lawgiver ca 594 BC
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After Solons departure Nemesis!

• Croesus son
• Adrastus tale
• War with Cyrus Fall of Sardis
• Croesus realization of Solons truth

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Action moves now with Cyrus

• Cyrus background Persians (mythic tone)
• Cyrus defeats Astyages and encorporates Medes
  empire
• Cyrus advances Persian empire both east and west
  Lydia, Ionian Greeks, Carians, Assyrians, and
  Massagetae