The Proem, the Last Chapter and the Cyclic View of Herodotus' Histories

Abstract

Readers of Herodotus are inclined to presuppose that they can find the theme of the Histories within the proem. But the entire work elucidates much more than the proem has promised, that is the East-West conflict or theαιτιη of the contention. We should therefore search for the theme by investigating the whole complex of the Histories. Cyrus' statement in the last chapter is meaningfully related to the so-called second proem. Both of them expound the basic idea of Herodotus that the balanced world continues owing to Divine Providence which will cut down all that are exalted above others. This idea is expressed from a synchronic point of view in Cyrus' speech: "no one soil can produce fine fruits and good soldiers too", and from a diachronic point of view in the second proem: "the once great cities have become small; those which are now great, were formerly small." And Herodotus proposes a metaphor of a κυκλο&b.sigmav; (wheel) to explain the second, diachronically viewed aspect of the balanced world. His intent or theme is to give a full account of the universal history under the cyclic view. As to the derivation of the cyclic view of Herodotus, I suggest that it may be compared with the physical theory that the cyclic alternation of birth and death makes existence continue, (cf, Emp. DK 31 B 17. 6-13 ; PI. Phd. 72 B; PS. Arist. Pr. 916a 25ff.). In the beginning of the Histories rotates the κυκλο&b.sigmav; of Croesus, which serves as a paradigm for the rises and falls of Persian emperors, Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius and Xerxes. While the former three have their own κυκλο&b.sigmav;, Xerxes is compelled to ride on a κυκλο&b.sigmav; of the Persian empire moving downward. But the Croesus-logos is not only illustrative of four successive emperors. It provides also a determinative paradigm on which the entire work is constructed. Independent of Macan's theory of perfect triadic structure, the Histories can be divided into three uneven parts. In the first paradigmatic part (I 6-I 94), Herodotus describes from the Lydian point of view how rich Lydia invaded poor Persia and perished, using significant motifs (advisor, oracle, dream, crossing a river etc.) as indicative of up-and-down movements of the κυκλο&b.sigmav;. In the second part (I 95-Battle of Salamis: VIII 42-VIII 96), the rise and fall of Persia is explained from the rich invader's point of view. Although the starting point of the third part is difficult to define, I suggest somewhere in VIII 42-VIII 96, possibly VIII 44.2, where the change of appellation of the Athenians is mentioned. In this final part, the viewpoint is shifting increasingly to the Greeks and especially to the Athenians, and there are suggestive episodes as follows: When the Persians had been driven from Greece, there arose an opinion in Greek army that they should henceforth carry the war into the Persian territory; and Athens, now strong and wealthy, invested a wretchedly poor island Andrus and failed. As compared with the paradigmatic and illustrative character of the first two parts, the third is very implicative. But in it is concealed Herodotus' message that the κυκλο&b.sigmav;, now carrying the Athenians, is going to rotate again.