A Note on Herodotos VI. 83, and the Hybristika

W. R. Halliday

doi:10.1017/S0068245400001726

A Note on Herodotos VI. 83, and the Hybristika

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 October 2013

W. R. Halliday

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Herodotos describes the straits to which Argos was reduced by the victory of Kleomenes I. in the following extravagant terms: ᾿´Αργος δὲἀνδρω̑ν ἐχηρώθη οὕτω ὥστε οἱ δου̑λοι αὐτω̑ν ἔσχον πάντα τὰ πρήγματα ἄρχοντές τε καὶ διέποντες, ἐς ὃ ἐπήβησαν οὶ τω̑ν ἀπολομένων παι̑δες· ἔπειτα σφέας οὗτοι ἀνακτώμενοι ὀπίσω ἐς ἑωυτοὺς τὸ Ἄργος ἐξέβαλον· ἐξωθεύμενοι δὲ οἱ δου̑λοι μάχῃ ἔσχον Τίρυνθα. τέως μὲν δή σφι ἦν ἄρθμια ἐς ἀλλήλους, ἔπειτα δὲ ἐς τοὺς δούλους ἦλθε ἀνὴρ μάντις, Κλέανδρος γένος ἐὼν Φιγαλεὺς ἀπ᾿ Ἀρκαδίης· οὗτος τοὺς δούλους ἀνέγνωσε ἐπιθέσθαι τοι̑σι δεσπότῃσι. ἐκ τούτον δὴ πόλεμός σφι ἦν ἐπὶ χρόνον,ἐς ὃ δὴ μόγις οἱ᾿Αργεῖοι ἐπεκράτησαν Herodotos is given to exaggerating catastrophes. Mr. Wells has drawn attention to the fact that in 491 B.c. Argos was sufficiently populous to allow 1000 volunteers to take part in the war in Aigina. This extremity of ὀλιγανδρία which the historian depicts, must be a fiction. Even in antiquity the attention of critics was drawn to the passage.

Type: Research Article
Information: Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 16 , November 1910 , pp. 212 - 219

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245400001726 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1910

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^{page 212 note 1} Herodotos, vi. 92 J.H.S. xxv. p. 196.

^{page 212 note 2} ἐπανορθούμενοι δὲ τὴν ὀλιγανδρίαν, οὐχ ὡς ῾Ηρόδοτος ἱστορεῖ τοῖς δούλοις, ἀλλὰ περιοίκων ποιησἀμενοι πολίτας τοὺς ἀρίστους , συνψ᾿ κισαν τὰς γυναῖκας—Plut. Mul. Virt. 245, F.

^{page 212 note 3} ἐν ᾿´ Αργει τῶν ἐν τῇ ἑβδόμῃ ἀπολομένων ὑπὸ Κλεομένους τοῦ Λάκωνος ἠναγκάσθησαν παραδέξασθαι τῶν περιοίκων τινάς.—Aristotle, Politics v. 3.

^{page 213 note 1} Herodotus, iv. 3.

^{page 213 note 2} Plutarch, op. cit. 245, E.

^{page 213 note 3} Plutarch, op. cit. 245, F.

^{page 213 note 4} Cf. Herodotos' account of the taboos observed by Milesian women, i. 146.

^{page 213 note 5} Aubrey, Miscellanies, Ostenta or Portents, p. 45.

^{page 214 note 1} See Swainson, The Folklore of British Birds, pp. 36–43. Frazer, , The Golden Bough ² ii. pp. 445.Google Scholar

^{page 214 note 2} Crawley, The Mystic Rose, p. 268.

^{page 214 note 3} ίστόρηται γάρ, ὅτι τούς μέν ἄρρενας παῖδας ἐλαυθέρους ἤσκει κόμαις καὶ χρυσοφορεῖν, τὰς δὲ θηλείας ἠνάγκαζε περιτρόχαλα καίρεσθαι καὶ φορεῖν ἐφηβικὰς χλαμὐδας καὶ τῶν ἀνακώλων χιτωνίσκων Plutarch, Mul. Virt. 261, E.

^{page 214 note 4} Hollis, The Nandi, pp. 53, 58.

^{page 214 note 5} Hesiod, frag. 162 (Rzach).

^{page 214 note 6} Herodotos, i. 105, iv. 67. Aristotle, Eth. Nik. vii. 7. Hippokrates, περὶ τῶν ἀέρων 22. For the meaning of the phrase θήλεα νοῦσος cf. Eusebios, Vita Constantini, iii. 55.

^{page 214 note 7} Many instances may be found in Frazer, Adonis, Attis, and Osiris, pp. 428 sq. Van Gennep, Les Rites de Passage, p. 246. Kroeber, , The Arapaho (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. xviii, p. 19).Google Scholar

^{page 215 note 1} Schol. Lykoph. 984.

^{page 215 note 2} Herodotos says that the priesthood of the χθόνιοι θεοί was hereditary in Gelo's family because Telines, by the sheer force of his religious prestige, succeeded in restoring some victims of stasis to their native town, Gela, θῶμά μοι ὦν καὶ τοῦτο γέγονε πρὸς τὰ πυνθάνομαι, κατεργάσασθαι Τηλίνην ἔργον τοσοῦτο τὰ τοιαῦτα γὰρ ἔργα οὐ πρὸς ἄπαντος νενόμικα γίνεσθαι, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ψυχῆς τε ἀγαθῆα καὶ ῥώμης ἀνδρηίης ὁ δὲ λέγεται πρὸς τῆς Σικελίης τῶν οἰκητόρων τὰ ὑπεναντία τούτων πεφυκέναι θηλυδρίης τε καὶ μαλακώτερος ἀνήρ Herodotos, vii. 153.

^{page 215 note 3} Plutarch, Cons. ad Apoll. 112, F. Val. Max. ii. 6. 13.

^{page 215 note 4} Festus, 154. Usener, Götternamen, p. 327.

^{page 215 note 5} Plutarch, Lycurgus, 15.

^{page 215 note 6} Plutarch, Quaest. Graec. 58. There may be a connection with the priests of Herakles who wore women's clothes. In connection with this marriage custom M. van Gennep remarks ‘Le fiancé agissait tout comme les ménages de shamanes Koryak, où le mari est la femme et la femme le mari,’ op. cit. p. 245.

^{page 215 note 7} Herodotos, iv. 146, vi. 138. Plutarch, Mul. Virt. 247, B. Murray, Rise of the Greek Epic, p. 55. Cf. the story of the sons of Aipytos and the parallels in Frazer, , Pausanias, ii. p. 242.Google Scholar

^{page 215 note 8} Philostratos, Heroic. 740. Farnell, , Cults of the Greek States, iv. p. 302.Google Scholar

^{page 215 note 9} Apollodoros, iii. 4. 3, 4.

^{page 216 note 1} Hollis, The Nandi, p. 12.

^{page 216 note 2} Leviticus, xxv.

^{page 216 note 3} All fires were for nine days extinguished and new fire brought from Delos. ἐπειδὰν δὲ ἡ θεωρὶς ἐσπλεύσῃ καὶ νείμωνται τὸ πῦρ * * * * καινοῦ τὸ ἐντεῦθεν βιου φασὶν ἄρχεσθαι Philostratos, Heroic. 741. Similarly the lighting of the new fire at the Harvest Festival of the Indians, Creek ‘constituted a new period of time in their religious reckoning.’ Speck, The Creek Indians of Taskigi Town (Mem. Am. Anth. Ass. ii. Pt. 2, p. 140).Google Scholar

^{page 216 note 4} Crawley, op. cit. p. 279. He gives examples from the practices of Zulus, Kurnai, and Esquimaux.

^{page 217 note 1} Hunt, Drolls and Romances of the West of England, 2nd Series, p. 182.

^{page 217 note 2} Doutté, Magie et Religion dans l'Afrique du Nord, p. 502.

^{page 217 note 3} Lawson, Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion, p. 223.

^{page 217 note 4} ἐν μέντοι ταῖς ἑορταῖς καὶ πανηγύρεσιν οὔτε γυναικεία βλάπτει τινὰ ἐσθής. Artemidoros, Oneir. ii. 3, 84. He says above ἐσθὴς ἡ συνήθης πᾶσιν ἀγαθὴ καὶ ἡ κατὰ τὴν ὤραν τοῦ ἔτους ii. 3. 83.

^{page 217 note 5} See Warde Fowler, Festivals, pp. 271 sq.

^{page 218 note 1} Athenaios, xiv. 44, 639, V. His authorities are Karystios, (F.H.G. iv. 358)Google Scholar, Baton of Sinope (F.H.G. iv. 349), Berosos, (F.H.G. ii. 498)Google Scholar, and Ktesias. The festival at Cretan Kydonia is referred to in a quotation from Ephoros, (F.H.G. i. 242)Google Scholar, Athenaios, vii. 84, 263, F.

^{page 218 note 2} Plutarch, Parallela, 312, F, 313, B.

^{page 218 note 3} καὶ ἐν τοῖς πατρίοις ἐστὶν ἐορτὴ πιθοιγία, καθ᾿ ἤν οὔτε οἰτε μισθωτὸν εἴργειν τῆς ἀπολαύσεως τοῦ οἴνου θεμιτὸν ἧν, ἀλλὰ θύσαντας πᾶσι μεταδιδόναι τοῦ δώρου τοῦ Διονύσου Plutarch, ex comm. Hes. 35, Moralia (Teubner), vol. vii. p. 69.

^{page 218 note 4} Nilsson, Griechische Feste, p. 373.

^{page 219 note 1} Hesychios, s.vv. κορυθαλία, κορυθαλίστριαι, κυριττοί, βρυλλιχίδδει, βρυλλιχισταί, λόμβα Nilsson, ob. cit. p. 186. B.S.A. xii. p. 338.

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