Reproduction, Expansionism and the Nature–God Tension in Herodotus

Abstract

Focusing on Herodotus’ portrayal of snake invasions and Persian expansionism, this essay examines the divergent forms of agency and causation through which the natural and the divine act on the observable world in the Histories. The historian’s usage of physis at 3.109.1 shows that the divine counters the natural dispositions of mortals who attempt to maximize their territorial growth. This counteraction has implications for power relations and provides a new way to conceptualize the relationship between ethnographic and historical sections in the work. The snake invasions and the dynamics of Persian expansion, as Herodotus envisions them across the Histories, prompt images of density and spatial expansion, evoking the tension between the natural and the divine orders over reproduction in 3.108–9.