THE HISTORIES by Herodotus – ASSIGNMENT 1 LVV4U – RSGC, 2012
Locating events
The Persian Wars themselves were two in number:
1) Darius' invasion of Attica and the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C.
2) Xerxes' invasion of Attica and the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea in 480/79 B.C.
DIRECTIONS: Read the following background.
The Greeks united to defeat the Persian armies of Darius and Xerxes despite a good deal of fighting among themselves, even while Xerxes' army was advancing southward against Athens and Sparta in 480 B.C. The majority of the Greek city-states of Asia Minor did not side with the European . The historical context behind the attack on Marathon in 490 B.C. is the Ionian Revolt of 499 B.C. to which the Athenians and Eretrians had sent a little help.
To fill in a little to help us understand Herodotus' account: the Athenians sent a mere 20 ships across the Aegean, and the men marched to Sardis (or Sardes, the capital of Lydia, and part of the Persian Empire), which the rebels were trying to take. But they were unable to be of much use (the Persians held onto the citadel and eventually regained control of the city), and decided to return home. However, while they were there, a fire burned a temple of the native goddess Cybele (pron. KIB-IL-EE). When Darius learned of the Athenian involvement, he swore revenge on Athens.
In 490 he sent a fleet across the Aegean to Marathon. Herodotus' account of the Persian Wars is more than a simple account of a war between the Greeks of Europe and the forces of the Persian Empire and Asia. It includes much information that goes beyond relating the history of the two invasions, encompassing traditions and customs about foreign peoples ("barbarians," the word Greeks used to refer to all non-Greeks), and accounts of the relationship between Greeks and barbarians from earliest tradition to the Persian Wars themselves.
DIRECTIONS: In pairs (or three in a group, as necessary) review the following using your text. Answer the questions that you can orally together. Complete as homework by individually writing a short answer to each question. Type your answers with your name and the number and letter for each answer. Complete and print with your name for Monday. Do not send electronically.
(These questions along with Assignment # 2 will form the basis for a mini-test on Herodotus. Next week we will have an oral review of the answers.)
1. Herodotus on foreign customs
Non-Greek (barbarian) customs are a major feature of Herodotus' work, in which, as mentioned above, he relates the customs and habits of barbarians. These ethnographic sections illustrate the concern with nomos, which means "law" or "custom" that is found in much archaic and classical Greek literature. Often nomos is explicitly contrasted with physis, "nature." Herodotus is implicitly taking part in a larger discussion:
a) Are people the way they are by custom (i.e. human conventions) or by nature (fixed and immutable)? Think about the nature/nurture argument one often reads about today.
b) Is there a bias to his descriptions or are they presented neutrally?
c) Does Herodotus think that the environment affects cultural practices?
d) Herodotus relates his purpose in writing history, and examines the early causes of the conflict between East and West. What is his intention in writing history?
e) To what does Herodotus attribute the causes of the East-West struggle?
2. The Origins of the Mermnad Dynasty.
After relating traditions of seizures of women by Greeks and barbarians going back even before the Trojan War (are these likely to be historical?), Herodotus states, "so much for what Persians and Phoenicians say; and I have no intention of passing judgment on its truth or falsity. I prefer to rely on my own knowledge, and to point out who it was in actual fact that first injured the Greeks" (1.5).
What significance would you attribute to this remark for understanding Herodotus' approach to evidence? Who it was in actual fact is Croesus, a mid-6th century BC king of Lydia, in Asia Minor. The story begins as Herodotus tells the story of the transfer of power from the Heraclid dynasty to the Mermnad dynasty, to which Croesus belonged. Don't worry about all the names of Lydian kings: Gyges and Croesus are most important. Think about the point of the story of Candaules and Gyges and answer the following questions.
After Gyges gains control of the throne, he sends lavish offerings to the god Apollo at Delphi, home of the Delphic Oracle, the word of Apollo conveyed by the Pythia, priestess of Apollo.
a) Why does he do this?
b) What does it remind you in Virgil’s Aeneid?
c) What importance does Delphi have in political and military affairs?
d) Why is Croesus important to Herodotus, even though he lived well before the Persian Wars which is Herodotus' main subject?
4. The Story of Croesus and Solon.
Solon was a famous Athenian lawgiver and reformer. The story of his visit to Croesus at Sardis, capital of Lydia, is likely chronologically impossible, but either Herodotus did not know this, or he was not concerned about this. In any case, think about why Herodotus includes the story of their conversation and answer the following questions.
The figure of Croesus, like Xerxes, the Persian king who attacked Greece in 480 BC, illustrates the important Greek concept of hubris, which in Herodotus means excessive behavior on the part of mortals that excites the envy of the gods, because it suggests that the hubristic person is putting himself up on their level. Croesus thinks that he is the most blessed man (the translation says "happiest," but the Greek word conveys the sense of "blessed") because of his wealth.
a) Why is Croesus wrong in his thinking, according to Solon?
b) Why does one need to wait until death to be judged happy or unhappy?
c) What values are esteemed by Solon?
d) Croesus angrily rejects Solon's words. What are the consequences? (See references to nemesis. Nemesis is a goddess who personifies retribution, and is "activated" when people are hubristic.)
e) What is the injustice that Herodotus sees Croesus as having committed against the Asiatic Greeks?
f) Why does Croesus send gifts to Delphi?
g) After Croesus is captured Cyrus (the founder of the Persian Empire) ends up agreeing to let him live. Why?
5. The Pythia of Delphi
Read carefully the Pythia's response. Think about the variety of causal explanations she gives for what happened to Croesus.
a) Was his downfall all due to his own hubris, or were there other factors, and if so what were they?
b) What insight does the answer to the above question give you into why Herodotus tells the story of Candaules, Gyges and the Queen?
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