Syllogos - Herodotus Journal

Agariste of Sicyon and the contest for Greece

Thomas Harrison — 2024-03-22

This paper re-examines Herodotus’ account of the marriage contest held by Cleisthenes, tyrant of Sicyon, for the hand of his daughter Agariste. It focuses less on the episode’s historicity or its literary antecedents than on the story’s position in the Histories more widely, and the background knowledge of leading Athenian families that might be taken for granted by Herodotus in his readers/audience. The paper suggests a cynical perspective on the historian’s part towards both the development of Athenian democracy and aristocratic sporting competition, and argues for the importance of patterns of prefigurement across the Histories as a whole.

The Greek Embassy to Gelon (Hdt. 7.153–67) and Iliad 9

Charles Chiasson — 2024-07-05

I argue that Herodotus encourages his audience to perceive the Greek embassy to the Syracusan tyrant Gelon (7.153–67) as a latter-day version of the Achaean embassy to Achilles in Iliad 9. Similarities of form and content indicate a significant intertextual relationship between the two episodes, which are structured as speech hexads in direct discourse, comprising paired speeches between three envoys and a powerful potential ally against a formidable Eastern foe. Both Achilles and Gelon respond to their suppliants’ requests with angry refusals due to perceived disrespect, followed by concessions that lead in Achilles’ case to the prospect of his rejoining battle before Troy, but in Gelon’s case to final rejection of the invitation to embrace his Hellenic identity by joining the alliance against Xerxes. This intertextual strategy serves three important purposes: it underscores Herodotus’ framing of the war against Xerxes as a sequel to the Trojan War, similarly characterized by division among its Greek participants; it highlights the unlikeliness of the Greek victory, achieved by necessity without the aid of Gelon; and it demonstrates by contrast with Homeric epic the significance of ethnic and communal (rather than personal) identity in Greek politics both during and after the Persian War.

Ounomata and Epōnymiai:

Alaya Palamidis — 2024-11-26

This article re-examines various passages from the second book of Herodotus’ Histories concerning the origins of the divine names. It is argued that the distinction between οὔνομα and ἐπωνυμίη is not between theonym and epithet, but between a word which insists on the function of the name, to identify, and a word which highlights its etymology. When Herodotus writes that most divine οὐνόματα came to Greece from Egypt, he probably means that the Greeks first heard about the gods and learnt their names from the Egyptians, who may have learnt these names from the gods themselves. The Greeks then adapted the names to their own language, while maintaining the general ideas expressed by them. Herodotus’ statement that Hesiod and Homer gave the gods their ἐπωνυμίαι is analysed in the context of Histories 2.53. It is argued that these ἐπωνυμίαι are poetic names reflecting the characteristics of the gods and inspired by the Muses, and that the verb δίδωμι (‘to give’) indicates that they were given as offerings to the gods by the poets. Passages 2.3, on human knowledge of divine matters and names, and 2.4, about the Twelve Gods, are also discussed.

The Pursuit of Happiness?

Marco Ferrario — 2024-11-29

This paper engages with recent scholarship on Herodotus’ understanding of Persian (ideologies of) imperialism. It is suggested that the Histories offer a coherent counter-narrative of Achaemenid history as one of (successful) conquest and, ideally, never-ending expansion. Critical episodes of royal campaigns across imperial borderlands are scrutinized to prove this argument. Against the background of long-standing ancient Near Eastern conceptions of kingship and rulership as resting upon divinely sanctioned success, Herodotus’ account of Persian military failures calls into question the king’s foundational claims to authority and, with them, the very rationale of his empire’s place in the world: to bring ‘happiness for mankind’. By contrast, Herodotus crafted the Histories as an act of mimicry of and resistance to said project. He developed his masterpiece within the framework of, and as a reaction to, discourses about history and empire which, under the Great Kings, seem to have been more widespread, constructed and impactful than usually thought.

Imprint

Thomas Harrison — 2024-03-22

What Can We Know about Cambyses?

David Branscome — 2024-11-29

The Personality of Cambyses, King of Kings

Henry Colburn — 2024-11-29

Of Kings, Minds and (Hi)stories

Alessandro Piccolo — 2024-11-29

Herodotus for a New Era

Sulochana Asirvatham — 2024-11-29

Mirrors of Herodotus

Roberto Nicolai — 2024-11-29

Editorial

Thomas Harrison — 2024-11-29