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How Credulous was Herodotos?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
Extract
This title is redolent of crambe repetita, and nobody is more aware JL of this fact than the present writer. Herodotos enjoyed an almost universally bad press from ancient critics for his alleged mendacity and gullibility, and his lack of the scientific spirit of historiography when compared with Thucydides. Modern critics, though more reasonable, have often tended to agree with this damning verdict, or at least to assume the superiority of Thucydides as unquestionable. A few years ago, however, the case for Herodotos was cogently stated by Arnaldo Momigliano in an inspiring article in History. I should like merely to set down and discuss again some examples of what Herodotos himself really says about his sources and methods, in the hope of assisting Momigliano's work of rehabilitation.
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References
page 167 note 1 Judicious remarks on Herodotos are made in How, W. W. and Wells, J., Commentary on Herodotus (Oxford, 1912), xx, xxxiv, xliiiGoogle Scholar; Glover, T. R., Herodotus (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1924), 66–75Google Scholar; Waddell, W. G.'s edition of Herodotos, Book ii (London, 1939)Google Scholar, Introduction; Myres, J. L., Herodotus, Father of History (Oxford, 1953), 17–31Google Scholar. Momigliano, 's article is ‘The Place of Herodotus in the History of Historiography’, History, xliii (1958), 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
page 167 note 2 This pamphlet is discussed by the above authorities. I would regard it as a genuine example of Plutarch's obtuseness; Boeotian stupidity may not have been so exaggerated by the Athenians! It has been very well said of this pamphlet, considered as a slashing review, that ‘the author set out to commit murder but only succeeded in suicide’.
page 168 note 1 i. 5. I refer throughout to the Oxford Text of C. Hude.
page 168 note 2 i. 19. 3. Δελφῶν ο
δα ἐγὼ οὕτω ἀκούσας γενέσθαι. γενέσθαι δὲ τάδε προστιθεῖσι τούτοισι κτλ.
page 168 note 3 i. 95. 1. ὡς 
ν Περσέων μετεξέτεροι λέγουσι, οἱ μὴ βουλόμενοι σεμνοῦν … ἀλλὰ τὸν ἐόντα λέγειν, κατὰ ταῦτα γράψω.
page 168 note 4 iii. 1–3. The Persian account involves the deception of Cambyses by Amasis, who sent Nitetis, daughter of the late king Apries, to Cambyses in lieu of his own daughter. The Egyptian account made Cambyses son of Nitetis and therefore an Egyptian himself; of this version Herodotos comments λέγοντες … οὐκ ὀρθῶς λέγουσι.
page 168 note 5 This story, ἐμοὶ μὲν οὐ πιθανός, claims that at the age of ten years Cambyses promised his mother that he would ‘turn Egypt upside down’.
page 168 note 6 The flying snakes of Arabia represent one of Herodotos' most famous anecdotes. In ii. 75 he says that he went to Buto (not the Buto of the Delta, but apparently near the Bitter Lakes; see How and Wells, and Waddell, ad loc.) to inquire about these. The snakes have been variously explained as locusts, tree lizards, or creatures of mythology. Waddell says that ‘the wings appear to be an addition from-a traveller's tale’. The editors quote Isaiah, xxx. 6Google Scholar: ‘the land of trouble and anguish, from whence come … the viper and fiery flying serpent’. But see now Hutchinson, R. W., ‘The Flying Snakes of Arabia’, Classical Quarterly, N.S., vii (1957), 100 f.Google Scholar, where Herodotos receives new and powerful support.
page 168 note 7 iii. 115. 1.
page 169 note 1 iii. 115. 2.
page 169 note 2 iii. 122. 1.
page 169 note 3 iv. 5. 1. ἐμοὶ μὲν οὐ πιστὰ λέγοντες.
page 169 note 4 iv. 11. 1.
page 169 note 5 iv. 17. 2.
page 169 note 6 On the goat-footed men he comments ἐμοὶ μὲν οὐ πιστὰ λέγοντες; on the men who sleep for six months a year, οὐκ ἐνδέκομαι ἀρχήν
page 169 note 7 iv. 36. 2.
page 170 note 1 iv. 42. 4.
page 170 note 2 iv. 45. 1.
page 170 note 3 iv. 45. 2.
page 170 note 4 iv. 77. 2. λόγος ἄλλως πέπαισταιι ὑπ' αὐτῶν ‘Ελλήνων.
page 170 note 5 iv. 81. 3. He adduces the huge brazen votive bowl at Exampaeus which he was taken to see, which purported to contain 5,000 gallons capacity and to be made of metal four inches thick, derived from a levy of arrow-heads, one from each of the population.
page 170 note 6 iv. 96. 1. οὔτε ἀπιστέω οὔτε ν πιστεύω τι λίην.
page 170 note 7 iv. 192. 1.
page 170 note 8 iv. 192. 3. ἡμεῑς ἱστορέοντες ἐπὶ μακρότατον οοί τε ἐγενόμεθα ἐξίκεσθαι.
page 170 note 9 ii. 35. 1.
page 171 note 1 Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford, 1961), 3.Google Scholar
page 171 note 2 ii. 3. 1.
page 171 note 3 Op. cit., 413.
page 171 note 4 I take this remark by Spiegelberg from Waddell, W. G., op. cit., on ii. 2. 28 (p. 120).Google Scholar
page 171 note 5 Op. cit., 3.
page 172 note 1 Tac. Ann. ii. 60Google Scholar. mox uisit ueterum Thebarum magna uestigia. et manebant structis molibus litterae Aegyptiae, priorem opulentiam complexae; iussusque e senioribus sacerdotum patrium sermonem interpretari.
page 172 note 2 Geog. xvii. 1. 38.Google Scholar
page 172 note 3 Ibid. 1. 29. Strabo's terms for these are ἱεροποιοὶ καὶ ἐξηγηταὶ τοῑς ξένοις.
page 172 note 4 Waddell, , on ii. 4. 1Google Scholar, notes that the words ἔλεγον οἱ ἱρέες recur like a refrain.
page 172 note 5 ii. 125. 6. The word used is ἑρμηνεύς.
page 172 note 6 I take this from How, and Wells, , op. cit., 414.Google Scholar
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page 173 note 2 Quoted by How, and Wells, , on ii. 124. 5 (p. 228).Google Scholar
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page 173 note 4 ii. 73. 3.
page 173 note 5 Ann. vi. 28Google Scholar. auis Phoenix in Aegyptum uenit praebuitque materiem doctissimis indigenarum et Graecorum multa super eo miraculo disserendi. de quibus congruunt et plura ambigua, sed cognitu non absurda promere libet … [on carrying its parent's body] haec incerta et fabulosis aucta.
page 173 note 6 Geog. xvii. 1. 52.Google Scholar
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page 174 note 2 ii. 65. 2.
page 174 note 3 ii. 123. 1.
page 175 note 1 e.g., i. 139–40, where he claims that Persian names indicative of physical courage all end in the letter s and adds ἐς τοῦτο δι
ήμενος εὑρήσεις.
page 175 note 2 Ancient Greek Historians (Dover Books, 1958), 69 ff.Google Scholar
page 175 note 3 See Woodhead, A. G., ‘Thucydides' portrait of Kleon’, Mnemosyne, xiii (1960), 289–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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page 176 note 1 Leg. i. 5Google Scholar; Div. ii. 110.Google Scholar
page 176 note 2 Fam. v. 12.Google Scholar
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