Significant and the Insignificant: 5 Studies in Herodotus' View of History (Amsterdam Studies in Classical Philology Series, 6) 9050632963, 9789050632966

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THE SIGNIFICANT AND THE INSIGNIFICANT

AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY EDITORS

ALBERT RIJKSBARON IRENE J.F. DE JONG

HARM PINKSTER

VOLUME SIX

PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED

1. A. Rijksbaron, Grammatical Observations on Euripides' Bacchae. 1991. 2. R. Risselada, Imperatives and other Directive Expressions in Latin. A Study in the Pragmatics oj a Dead Language. 1993. 3. G. Wakker, Conditions and Conditionals. An Investigation oj Ancient Greek. 1994. 4. C. Kroon, Discourse Particles in Latin. A Study ojnam, enim, autem, vero and at. 1995. 5. H. Dik, Word Order in Ancient Greek. A Pragmatic Account oj Word Order Variation in Herodotus. 1995.

J.E. V AN DER VEEN

THE SIGNIFICANT AND THE INSIGNIFICANT FIVE STUDIES IN HERODOTUS' VIEW OF HISTORY

1. C. GIEBEN, PUBLISHER AMSTERDAM 1996

No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. © by 1.E. van der Veen, 1996 / Printed in The Netherlands / ISBN 90 5063 296 3

To my mother and to the memory of my father

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

2

2

Introduction

2

2

The lord of the ring

6

3

The significance of the insignificant

23

4

A minute's mirth

53

5

Socles' speech to the Spartans

68

6

APXH K.AKQN: The effects of Athenian democracy

90

7

Epilogue: Darius, Xerxes and Amasis

III

Bibliography

123

Summary

130

Samenvatting

133

Indexes

136

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The present study is a doctoral dissertation which was submitted to the University of Amsterdam in March 1996. I am grateful to my Director, Professor Jan Maarten Bremer, and to Dr Albert Rijksbaron for their stimulating advice and encouragement throughout my work on this thesis. Their lucid comments and insights have saved me from many an error and the work as it stands owes much to their acumen. My sincere thanks are also due to the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO); a stipend of this Organisation has allowed me to study my subject in the healthy seclusion of the Fondation Hardt in Geneva. Like many, I think back with warmth of the hospitality extended by the Fondation. The talks and discussions with other residents at the Fondation during my stay there were very stimulating indeed; for various reasons I have to thank especially Professor Netta Zagagi of Tel Aviv-University; Ms. Christine Hunzinger and Ms. Christine Maisonneuve of Paris; Professor Allessandra Bertini Malgarini (Rome); Dr Michel Fartzoff (Besan~on) and Dr Rainer Thiel (Marburg). I further wish to thank Ms. Wijnie de Groot for correcting my English, Marco Poelwijk for his readiness to assist with the production of the indexes and Ms. Ineke Blijleven and Dr Frits Waanders for helping me to make my copy camera-ready. Finally, I acknowledge my gratitude to lC. Gieben for undertaking the publication of the work. Two of the chapters in this work have previously been published in Mnemosyne: Chapter Two has appeared as The lord of the ring in Mnemosyne 46 (1993), pp. 433-57, Chapter Four as A minute's mirth in Mnemosyne 48 (1995), pp. 129-45. The text referred to is Hude's Oxford Classical Text. It is impossible for me to express how much lowe to the support and encouragement of my parents in writing this study. It is a happy thought that my father has lived to see its completion.

I

INTRODUCTION

This study is about the uncertain status of 'the significant' in Herodotus. On the one hand, there are 'insignificant elements', by which I mean characters, objects and events which are presented in such a way as not to command the reader's respect. It turns out that more often than not Herodotus makes such elements playa major role in the story, and it is my aim to demonstrate in what way these seemingly irrelevant elements are important for Herodotus' narrative. This aspect of Herodotean historiography has been almost completely ignored by scholars', and I think this scholarly neglect is not justified, if only because it ignores the fact that Herodotus himself stresses the relevance of the irrelevant in two passages which have rightly been considered programmatic2 : 1.5.4 and 1.30-32. On the other hand, the splendour of elements which do appear to be significant turns out to be a false marker of significance, and this point too, the irrelevance of the magnificent, is part of the statement of 1.5.4 and the seminal discussion in 1.30-32. The issue in this discussion which is particularly relevant to my purpose is that Solon uses ordinary people to make a point concerning a king. When he states that divine £p£lv 'tOY aicova tvW.uxc.. 1tfYl1Vl\l, Wtro Kat 'UX1t£1vOl; ttXXoc; earot.

53

omaro Kam

The same phenomenon occurs in 7.50, where Xerxes agrees with Artabanus' saying 'chance governs man' (7.49.3: vmlCl TlV, 't'fi O"VlO1.lC&, K'I>vro, lC't/..; the twice-repeated preposition cr'6v speaks for itself In 1.122.3 there is yet another instance of firm family feeling. Herodotus puts emphasis on the warm affection Cyrus feels for his fostermother: 'he was permanently praising her and Cyno was all he talked about' (iltt 'tE m'l'mlv aivEcoV ota 1UXV'tO;, Tlv 'tt Ot ev 'tvro). All in all, it seems clear that the image we are given of Cyno and Mitradates presents them as two people whose primary concern is their family.

f4.

74 A somewhat disconcerting clash of priorities thus seems to be in evidence with Cyno. It would seem that, if need be, she is prepared to sacrifice her husband to the child, in spite of the anxiousness on display before. So Cyrus' survival takes precedence over another highly important issue in her mind: a measure of the value she attaches to the matter of raising a beautiful child.

75 This, I think, is the meaning of the phrase itft1:v oU lCalC&; flE/klUA.E~vOO> is also indicated by the fact that the former can be intensified by the prefix ava- ,'loudly' (cf. ava~), whereas the latter cannot: there is no instance of *avaOOK"j>OO>. 86 That we are indeed to see Harpagus' decision to have Cyrus killed as a case of familial piety given up for safety is particularly clear in Harpagus' speech to his wife (l.l09.2-4). Harpagns states most emphatically that he will not kill the boy (00 !pOVE\xro) j.LtV, 1.109.3), because the baby is his fI.£vot c.W]lEWl wv6I!povvro, ]«Xl mXAat IlEtvOV ltOLeUfI.£VOt mro M1\&ov &pxroElat. - This emotional response is shortsighted as well. In order to persuade the Persians, Cyrus posits a false contrast between hard work in the fields ('labour fit for slaves', 1.126.5) and comfortable leisure, with wine and the choicest foods for the taking (1.126.5~). But in reality these are not the real alternatives awaiting the Persians. For in the final chapter of the work (9.122.3) comfort and slavery are expressly associated - by Cyrus.

108 Yet in Cyrus too, the debilitating effects of power and success are demonstrated. At the end of his career he has only one view of reality left: he thinks he is not really human because of his birth (1.204.2, cf. 1.209.4 init.) and his success (ib.). That idea is already looming up at the start of his career, as he tells the Persians that he 'had been born with divine help' in order to be the king of the Persians (1.126.6), but as yet it does not take precedence; it is merely considered an asset in the plan, of which it does not affect the rational quality: that is rather stressed. So even Cyrus, although the picture of rationalism at the beginning, allows great success to warp his view of reality.

42

The significance a/the insignificant: cyrus' youth

contrast between the two poles of society, the king and the slaves, showing that the latter are capable of efficient planning and of sustaining moral standards considered normal, while the king and Harpagus fail on both counts. Used as an artistic instrument, then, the depiction of the slaves seems designed to clarity the mental disposition of a king like Astyages, and so to furnish the explanation of the way the story develops.

2 The historical junction: embodiment oj and contribution to, social reversal Little need now be said about the historical function of the unimportant in this story. Seen from the historical point of view, the significance of the insignificant is apparent in two respects. First, Cyrus comes from nowhere, so to speak, to become the founder of the Persian empire; in him the words of 1.5.4 literally come true: what was 'small' has become 'big'. Secondly, Cyno and Mitradates are of crucial, instrumental, relevance to this process, as I hope to have shown. Thus, with regard to the facts of history, Herodotus' appreciation of the importance of the unimportant is demonstrated by his making the lowest quarter of society the starting-point of £ryya ~yaAa. 'tE Kat 8roJ.l.acrm. The relevance of the irrelevant in this story is epitomised in a detail. In this story, we witness a sequence of events which ends in the foundation of the Persian empire. But the starting-point of that development is nothing more illustrious than a children's game, and the fact is strongly emphasised: the story begins with a repeated ~1tCXU;E and 1tCXi1;ovm; in two sentences, 1.114.1, and Artembares' son is