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Prolog and Epilog: Mythical History in Herodotus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2014

Nicholas Ayo
Nicholas Ayo*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
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Extract

The debate about how unified and consistent are the epic-like Histories of Herodotus is reminiscent of the form and redaction criticism developed around the Bible. The evangelical author, whose purpose is not to address posterity for a statement purely of the historical record, but rather to solicit his contemporaries in a catechetical fashion, shapes the historical deeds of the life and times of the Hebrews to suit a purpose, which includes history but is finally beyond mere history. The prophets, and their sources, are didactic; similarly Herodotus arranged his material for the purpose of highlighting the conflict of tyranny and freedom, of despotic empire and more democratic coalition. Books VII, VIII, and IX are the most elaborate and tight-woven of all the Herodotean logoi, just as the passion narratives that conclude the Gospels are the most factual and sustained narrative. The episodes prior to the climax life-death events in both the Histories and the Gospels compose a melange of fact and story, anecdote and reminiscence, pithy statement and imagined speeches, and colourful, fabulous deeds and wonders. Characters are introduced and biographies sketched: mini-dramas and conflicts among various interest groups build — all contributing to the climax and the great passion struggle. By way of introduction to these awesome events yet in the remembrances of living men, Matthew and Luke give the marvellous infancy narratives, and Herodotus presents the mythological rape stories of his prolog. And, just as the whole Bible begins with a marvellous blend of myth and history that is Genesis and ends with the epilog that is Apocalypse, so the Histories begin with the almost-out-of-memory stories of the kings’ daughters kidnapped, and end with the epilog where the ‘ghost’ of Cyrus appears and there discloses the final revelation of the inner impoverished core of Xerxes’ imperial court government.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , January 1984 , pp. 31 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 1984

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References

Notes

1. The division of the Histories into nine books devoted to the nine Muses is the work of a subsequent editor, not Herodotus, just as our five books of the Pentateuch are the work of editors much later than the source materials they organized.

2. So called by Cicero in Lam 1.1. Herodotus was called ‘father of lies’ by Vicesimus Knox at a much later date. Cornford claims he is not the ‘father of history’ but ‘the last of the Homeridae,’ because he is still enmeshed in a myth-historical perspective, albeit a skeptical one.

3. Sestos is often spelled ‘Sestus.’ I am following the Rawlinson translation in this paper whenever I quote.

4. Drews, Robert, The Greek Accounts of Eastern History (Cambridge, Mass., 1973Google Scholar).

5. Groningen, B. A. Van, La Composition littéraire archaique grecque, 2nd ed., Nieuwe Reeks, Deal LXV, No. 2 (Amsterdam, 1960Google Scholar).

6. Sinko, Tadeusz, ‘L'Historiosophie dans le prologue et l'épilogue de l'oeuvre d'Herodote d'Halicarnasse,’ Eos 50 (1959–1960), 3–20Google Scholar.

7. Ahasuerus, Esther's king, would render in Hebrew translation ‘Xerxes;’ it is not safe to rule out that Esther might have been an historical figure at the time of the events narrated in Herodotus. See Moore, Corey A., ‘The Historicity of the Book of Esther,’ The Anchor Bible: Esther (Garden City, N.Y., 1971), xxxiv–xlviGoogle Scholar.

8. Weil, S., Intimations of Christianity Among the Ancient Greeks, ed. Geissbuhler, Elizabeth (London, 1957), 34Google Scholar.

9. See Genesis 40.20-21.

10. Salome is mentioned only in the work of Josephus as a daughter of Herodias. No one knows if the woman in the gospel narrative was Salome, or if indeed she was a daughter of the Queen at all.

11. Mt. 14.1-13, and Mk. 6.17-29.

12. Myres, John, Herodotus: Father of History (Oxford, 1953), 62Google Scholar.

13. Van Groningen (n. 5 above), 70.

14. Lord, Louis, ‘The End of the Story,’ CJ 18 (1922), 73–81Google Scholar.

15. Immerwahr, H., Form and Thought in Herodotus (Cleveland, Ohio, 1966), 147Google Scholar.

16. Myres (n. 12 above), 300.

17. How, W. W. and Wells, J., A Commentary on Herodotus, Vol. II (Oxford, 1912), 336fGoogle Scholar.

18. N. 6 above.

19. Immerwahr (n. 15 above), 79.

20. Fornara, C. W., Herodotus: A Interpretative Essay (Oxford 1971), 90fGoogle Scholar.