Histories

“So much for what Persians and Phoenicians say; and I have no intention of passing judgement 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; then I will proceed with my history, telling the story as I go along of small cities of men no less than of great. For most of those which were great once are small today; and those which used to be small were great in my own time. Knowing, therefore, that human prosperity never abides long in the same place, I shall pay attention to both alike.” 

After describing a series of legendary abductions of women—Io, Medea, and Helen of Troy—that supposedly gave rise to the enmity of the Greeks and Asiatic peoples, Herodotus shifts to his own inquiry into the actual origins of the conflict. In doing so, he establishes the empirical and critical attitude of his history, withholding judgement on the veracity of the mythical accounts he cites. These stories of the retaliatory kidnapping of women are significant, nevertheless, in demonstrating the role of retribution that Herodotus sees as a fundamental motive in history.

The passage also crystallizes Herodotus’ view of history as embodying the shifting fortunes of humankind. He sees human prosperity as notoriously unstable, and his project therefore embraces both the strong and the weak, large and small, in its recognition that historical significance is subject to dynamic change over time. 

“‘Look to the end, no matter what it is you are considering. Often enough God gives a man a glimpse of happiness, then utterly ruins him’ […] After Solon’s departure nemesis fell upon Croesus, presumably because God was angry with him for supposing himself the happiest of men.” 

The account of Croesus’ rise and fall demonstrates Herodotus’ belief in the role of hubris and nemesis in determining the course of human life. Solon, the semi-legendary lawgiver of Athens, told Croesus that God is envious of human prosperity and often inflicts suffering as a counterbalance. No one can claim to be truly happy before his death because one’s fortune can change instantly. Croesus suffers the accidental death of his son at the hands of a refugee he has taken into protection, and his kingdom is later conquered by the Persian king Cyrus. In the Histories, the overweening pride and arrogance of Asian potentates, such as Croesus and Xerxes, affronts the gods and invite nemesis, as seen by Greek eyes.

“The interpreters told Cyrus what Croesus had said, and the story touched him. He himself was a mortal man and was burning alive another who had once been as prosperous as he. The thought of that and the fear of retribution, and the realization of the instability of human things, made him change his mind and give orders that the flames should at once be put out, and Croesus and the boys brought down from the pyre.” 

Captured by Cyrus during the siege of Sardis, Croesus is bound on a funeral pyre. Openly bewailing his fate, he cries out the name of Solon in Cyrus’ earshot. Asked by Cyrus what he means, Croesus relates Solon’s warning to him about the nature of happiness and the mutability of human fortune. Chastened by Croesus’ words and plight, Cyrus orders the flames be extinguished and takes Croesus under his protection. Realizing that Croesus must be favored by the gods and impressed by the Lydian king’s judgment, Cyrus appeals to him for advice during the rest of his military campaigns.

“Astyages had a daughter called Mandane, and he dreamed one night that she urinated in such enormous quantities that it filled his city and swamped the whole of Asia. He told his dream to the Magi, whose business it was to interpret such things, and was much alarmed by what they said it meant. Consequently, when Mandane was old enough to marry, he did not give her to some Mede of suitable rank, but was induced by his fear of the dream’s significance to marry her to a Persian named Cambyses, a man he knew to be of good family and quiet habits […] Before Mandane and Cambyses had been married a year, Astyages had another dream. This time it was that a vine grew from his daughter’s private parts and spread over Asia. As before, he told the interpreters about this dream, and then sent for his daughter who was now pregnant. When she arrived, he kept her under strict watch, intending to make away with her child; for the fact was that the Magi interpreted the dream to mean that his daughter’s son would usurp his throne.” 

The story of Cyrus, the 6th century BCE Persian king who liberated his nation, defeated the Lydian king Croesus, and conquered the Greek cities in Ionia, Aeolia, Caria, and Lycia, is one of the most significant and famous in the Histories. This passage describes the premonitory dreams that the Median king Astyages had concerning the birth of the grandson who would eventually depose him. The story of Cyrus’ birth incorporates several motifs common in folkloric accounts of the birth of the hero. Dreams or oracles predict that a child will be born who will overthrow the established order. The king, usually the child’s father or grandfather, attempts to prevent the loss of his own power by killing or exiling the newborn, but the child is miraculously rescued and survives. In Herodotus’ story of Cyrus, Astyages’ command that his grandson be exposed to the elements is disobeyed. Upon attaining adulthood and discovering his true identity, Cyrus leads the Persians in an uprising that deposes Astyages and reduces Media to Persian dominance. The quotation exemplifies the important role of dreams and their interpretation in the Histories.

“I am not anxious to repeat what I was told about the Egyptian religion, apart from the mere names of their deities, for I do not think that any one nation knows much more about such things than any other.” 

Herodotus records many religious beliefs and practices observed by dozens of cultures in the Histories. Scholars interpret the neutrality with which he (usually) makes these observations as evidence that Herodotus is a cultural relativist in matters of religion and morals. His extensive travel and research solidified his view that while each nation believes its own social codes and religion are the best and truest, no nation’s religious beliefs or morality can be said to be superior to another’s.

“[T]he Egypt to which the Greeks sail nowadays is, as it were, the gift of the river and has come only recently into the possession of its inhabitants.” 

“Egypt is the gift of the Nile” is one of the most famous quotations in the Histories. Herodotus’ discussion of Egypt epitomizes the Greek fascination with the ancient country, particularly concerning the mysterious source of the Nile and the reason for its annual flood. Book 2 contains an extensive treatment of the geography and ethnography of Egypt, the longest digression on any nation in the Histories. Herodotus thoughtfully observes that the Nile delta is continually increasing in size due to the tremendous amount of alluvial silt deposited by the river, extending well out into the Mediterranean Sea.  

“At the place where this battle was fought I saw a great marvel which the natives had told me about. The bones still lay there, those of the Persian dead separate from those of the Egyptian […] and I noticed that the skulls of the Persians are so thin that the merest touch with a pebble will pierce them, but those of the Egyptians, on the other hand, are so tough that it is hardly possible to break them with a blow from a stone. I was told, very credibly, that the reason was that the Egyptians shave their heads from childhood, so that the bone of the skull is hardened by the action of the sun […] and the thinness of the Persians’ skulls rests on a similar principle: namely that they have always worn felt skull-caps, to guard their heads from the sun.” 

Herodotus frequently cites firsthand evidence he has gathered during his travels to support his assertions. While visiting a battlefield where the Egyptians engaged the Persian forces under Cambyses (circa 525 BCE), he claims to have seen skeletons of the casualties that remained at the site. The marvel he reports seems influenced by the contemporary Greek medical idea that climactic conditions alter the physical forms of those subject to them.

“For if anyone, no matter who, were given the opportunity of choosing from amongst all the nations in the world the beliefs which he thought best, he would inevitably, after careful consideration of their relative merits, choose those of his own country […] There is abundant evidence that this is the universal feeling about the ancient customs of one’s country.” 

Expressing the opinion that social customs and habits are universal and fundamental determinants of human behavior, Herodotus adopts a tolerant position toward the diversity of cultural beliefs. Many scholars interpret this quotation as evidence that Herodotus entertained a form of cultural relativism, developed from his broad ethnographic studies.

“In any case it does seem to be true that the countries which lie on the circumference of the inhabited world produce the things which we believe to be most rare and beautiful.” 

A fascination with the exotic permeates Herodotus’ geography and ethnography of the lands he discusses. Here, he asserts that the most distant parts of the world are productive of the most valuable and uncommon treasures—the immense deposits of gold in India, the fragrant herbs of Arabia, the amber of northern Europe, the statuesque animals of Ethiopia, among other examples.

“The Scythians say that they are the youngest of all nations […] and they add that the period from Targitaus, their first king, to Darius’ crossing of the Hellespont to attack them, is just a thousand years.” 

In contrast with Egypt, the most ancient culture known to Herodotus and the Greeks, Scythia, a territory north of the Black Sea now occupied by Ukraine, was considered the youngest. Scythia, after Egypt, receives the most extensive treatment of any foreign country in the Histories. Herodotus suggests other contrasts between the two nations—the Egyptians lived by agriculture and were sedentary while the Scythians were mostly nomadic cattle-raisers; the Egyptians had extensive records of their past while the Scythians had virtually none; and the Egyptians erected many temples and statues of their gods while the Scythians lacked these religious monuments.

“I cannot help laughing at the absurdity of all the map-makers—there are plenty of them—who show Ocean running like a river round a perfectly circular earth, with Asia and Europe of the same size.” 

The ancient Greeks believed that the world was surrounded by a circular stream called Ocean, and their maps assumed a symmetrical relationship between the continents. In this quotation, Herodotus criticizes his predecessor, the Ionian geographer Hecataeus of Miletus, whose map displayed these conventions. Based on analysis of the empirical knowledge available to him, Herodotus asserts that Europe is in fact at least as large as Asia and Libya (i.e., Africa) combined. Herodotus knew very little about northern and western Europe, and nothing about Asia east of India, though he was aware that Africa had been circumnavigated by Phoenician and Persian expeditions. 

“Thus Athens went from strength to strength, and proved […] how noble a thing equality before the law is, not in one respect only, but in all; for while they were oppressed under tyrants, they had no better success in war than any of their neighbors, yet once the yoke was flung off, they proved the finest fighters in the world. This clearly shows that, so long as they were held down by authority, they deliberately shirked their duty […] but when freedom was won, then every man amongst them was interested in his own cause.” 

The opposition of freedom and tyranny is a major theme in the Histories. This theme is embodied on the grand scale in the conflict of the Greek city-states (particularly Athens and Sparta) with the Persian empire. Within Greece itself, Herodotus contrasts the evils of tyranny, or autocratic government, in which an individual forcibly seized and held power within a city (such as Periander in Corinth), to the freedom of democracy, or isonomia (literally “equality before the law”). Herodotus strongly believes that democracy is a liberating force, incentivizing individual action, which serves the common good. In this quotation, Herodotus praises the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes in Athens after the period of the Pisistratid tyrants. Isonomia is a Greek term for popular government predating “democracy.”

“The Athenians showed their profound distress at the capture of Miletus in a number of ways, and in particular, when Phrynichus produced his play The Capture of Miletus, the audience in the theatre burst into tears. The author was fined a thousand drachmas for reminding them of their own evils, and they forbade anybody to ever put the play on the stage again.” 

In the course of suppressing the Ionian revolt, the Persians destroyed the city of Miletus, whose rulers Aristagoras and Histiaeus had been the chief instigators of the rebellion. Herodotus’ observation demonstrates that contemporary events could form the subject matter of Athenian drama. Moreover, he implies that Phrynichus’ play must have blamed the Athenians for their lukewarm support of the Ionian rebellion.

“Darius now began to test the attitude of the Greeks, and to find out whether they were likely to resist or surrender. He sent heralds to the various Greek states to demand earth and water for the king, and at the same time he sent orders to the Asiatic coast towns, which were already tributary, for the provision of warships and transport vessels to carry cavalry.” 

The customary sign of subjection to the Persian emperor was a symbolic gift of earth and water. After Mardonius’ failed campaign against Greece in 492 BCE, Darius planned another invasion the following year. Many of the mainland Greek city-states and surrounding islands, including Aegina, an island south of Athens and longstanding enemy of the city, presented the tokens of submission to Darius’ envoys.

“‘It is now in your hands, Callimachus,’ he said, ‘either to enslave Athens, or to make her free and to leave behind you for all future generations a memory more glorious than even Harmodius and Aristogeiton left. Never in our history have we Athenians been in such peril as now.’” 

Assembled at Marathon, the 10 Athenian generals were evenly split on whether to engage the larger Persian force and risk a catastrophic defeat. Concerned that the longer the Athenians delayed the greater likelihood they would be betrayed by defections among their countrymen, Miltiades argued for attack. He implored the war archon Callimachus, who held the eleventh and decisive vote, to side with those advocating attack, appealing to his patriotism, sense of honor, and desire for glory.

“The tale of the Alcmaeonidae treacherously signaling to the Persians with a shield is, to me, quite extraordinary, and I cannot accept it. Is it likely that these men, who were obviously greater tyrant-haters even than Callias […] should have wished to see Athens ruled by Hippias under foreign control?” 

Herodotus vigorously defends the powerful Alcmaeonid family of Athens against charges of treason stemming from an incident during the Battle of Marathon. The Alcmaeonids lacked the ancestral prestige of other noble Athenian clans, but numbered Cleisthenes and Pericles, Herodotus’ contemporary, among its most illustrious members. Some historians suggest that Herodotus’ defense of the Alcmaeonids reflects a personal relationship or political alignment with the family, and that he sought to protect their reputation through his publication of the Histories.

“‘And now at last I have found a way to win for Persia not glory only but a country as large and as rich as our own […] I will bridge the Hellespont and march an army through Europe into Greece, and punish the Athenians for the outrage they committed upon my father and upon us […] [I]f we crush the Athenians and their neighbors who dwell in the land of Pelops the Phrygian, we shall so extend the empire of Persia that its boundaries will be God’s own sky, so that the sun will not look down upon any land beyond the boundaries of what is ours.’” 

Prodded by his general Mardonius and the exiled Athenian tyrant Hippias, Xerxes decides to pursue his late father Darius’ objective of enslaving all of Greece. By conquering Athens and Sparta, he assumes the entire European continent will fall before the immense Persian army. Xerxes’ lofty boast epitomizes the hubris that provokes the anger of the gods. His overstepping of natural boundaries, such as the bridging of the Hellespont, and his desire to subdue the entire known world, represent for Herodotus the flagrant arrogance that inevitably meets its nemesis when the Persians are defeated by the Athenian and Spartan forces.

“‘You know, my lord, that amongst living creatures it is the great ones that God smites with his thunder, out of envy of their pride […] Often a great army is destroyed by a little one, when God in his envy puts fear into the men’s hearts, or sends a thunderstorm, and they are cut to pieces in a way they do not deserve.’” 

Alone among Darius’ advisors, Xerxes’ uncle Artabanus cautions the king to reconsider his planned campaign against the Greeks. Artabanus argues that something unforeseen such as a natural disaster or the Greeks’ destruction of the bridge over the Hellespont could doom the Persian venture. Overconfident in the immensity of his empire and armed forces, Xerxes is initially angered at what he perceives as Artabanus’ cowardice, yet has second thoughts after the conference of his advisors. Artabanus voices the Herodotean theme that pride and ostentation are punished severely by the gods. 

“‘[T]his is my answer: poverty is Greece’s inheritance from of old, but valor she won for herself by wisdom and the strength of law. By her valor Greece now keeps both poverty and despotism at bay […] [The Spartans] are free—yes—but not entirely free; for they have a master, and that master is Law, which they fear much more than your subjects fear you.’” 

Xerxes asks the exiled Spartan Demaratus whether he thinks the Greeks will dare oppose the unified Persian force, which utterly dwarfs the number of hoplites the remaining free Greek city-states are able to mobilize in defense. Demaratus’ response encapsulates most of the thematic oppositions of the conflict between the Greeks and Persians: Persian wealth and splendor versus Greek poverty; oriental slavery versus Greek freedom; the rule of Law, guaranteeing and protecting individual liberty, versus the rule of an absolute despot; valor versus fearful obedience to the Great King.

“‘Now for my plan: it will bring, if you adopt it, the following advantages: first, we shall be fighting in narrow waters, and there, with our inferior numbers, we shall win, provided things go as we may reasonably expect. Fighting in a confined space favors us but the open sea favors the enemy.’” 

Assembled at Salamis, the commanders of the Greek fleet panicked at hearing that Athens had been burned by the Persians. Themistocles was convinced by another Athenian to implore Eurybiades, the Spartan commander of the fleet, to engage the Persian fleet at Salamis, rather than retreat to the Isthmus of Corinth to protect the Peloponnese. Themistocles argued passionately before the conference of naval commanders, threatening to abandon the alliance and depart with the Athenian warships if the Greeks did not give battle. He persuaded Eurybiades that the support of the Athenian fleet was crucial for Sparta’s survival, and that the Greeks would enjoy a strategic advantage, neutralizing their numerical inferiority, at Salamis.

“‘If […] you rush into a naval action, my fear is that the defeat of your fleet may involve the army too. And put away in your heart one other point, my lord, to be considered: good masters, remember, usually have bad servants, and bad masters good ones. You, then, being the best master in the world, are ill served: these people who are supposed to be your allies—these Egyptians, Cyprians, Cilicians, Pamphylians—are a useless lot!’” 

Alone among the Persian naval commanders, Artemisia advises Xerxes against attacking the Greek fleet at Salamis. The Persian infantry enjoyed an immense advantage on land due to its overwhelming size and had just pillaged Attica, burning the Athenian acropolis. Artemisia realizes engaging the Greek fleet is risky because the Greeks are superior seamen, as they proved at the Battle of Artemisium. Another naval defeat could seriously compromise the success of Xerxes’ campaign, leaving the bridges over the Hellespont vulnerable to attack by the Greeks, which would cut off the Persian army’s means of retreat. Flattering the king, Artemisia expresses her contempt for the subject nations serving in Xerxes’ military; they are unreliable and poor fighters, unworthy of their master.

“‘I am the bearer of a secret communication from the Athenian commander, who is a well-wisher to your king and hopes for a Persian victory. He has told me to report to you that the Greeks are afraid and are planning to slip away. Only prevent them from slipping through your fingers, and you have at this moment an opportunity of unparalleled success. They are at daggers drawn with each other, and will offer no opposition—on the contrary, you will see the pro-Persians amongst them fighting the rest.’” 

The Athenian general Themistocles, fearing that he would be outvoted by the Peloponnesian commanders who wanted to abandon Salamis and sail to the Isthmus of Corinth, secretly sent an envoy to the Persian fleet professing his support of Xerxes. He encouraged the Persians to surround the Greek position, thereby hoping to force the Greek allies into a naval engagement he felt they could win. The ruse was successful; the Persians cut off the Greek fleet in the narrow straits around Salamis but were outmaneuvered by the smaller Greek vessels and suffered a decisive defeat.

”Many things make it plain to me that the hand of God is active in human affairs—for how else could it be, when the Persian defeat at Mycale was about to take place on the same day as his defeat at Plataea, that a rumor of that kind should reach the Greek army, giving every man greater courage for the coming battle and a fiercer determination to risk his life for his country?”

Herodotus reports that a rumor of the Greek victory at Plataea spread among the allies preparing to attack the Persians at Mycale on the Ionian coast; a wonder, because both engagements took place on the same day. Throughout the Histories, Herodotus sees evidence of divine workings in the course of human events, particularly in the punishment of hubris and the retributive justice visited upon the sacrilegious.