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The Old and the Restless - The Egyptians and the Scythians in Herodotus' Histories by Robert J. Hagan

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4<br />

1. Introduction<br />

Although Herodotus is sometimes known as “<strong>The</strong> Fa<strong>the</strong>r of History,” his<br />

<strong>Histories</strong> resembles nei<strong>the</strong>r our modern histories nor those of his contemporaries <strong>in</strong> terms<br />

of form. Aristotle called his prose “<strong>the</strong> old strung-along style,” referr<strong>in</strong>g to his sentence<br />

structure; this epi<strong>the</strong>t is equally applicable to his overall narrative construction of <strong>the</strong><br />

<strong>Histories</strong>. 1 Ra<strong>the</strong>r than just writ<strong>in</strong>g a tightly-shaped history of <strong>the</strong> wars of <strong>the</strong> Greeks <strong>and</strong><br />

Persians, Herodotus creates a vast work with both short <strong>and</strong> long excursuses on <strong>the</strong><br />

peoples <strong>the</strong> Persians encounter as <strong>the</strong>y attempt to conquer <strong>the</strong> known world. <strong>The</strong>se<br />

ethnographies, remark<strong>in</strong>g on cultures as different as <strong>the</strong> Greeks, <strong>the</strong> Persians, Ethiopians<br />

<strong>and</strong> Indians, are notable for <strong>the</strong>ir <strong>in</strong>formative <strong>and</strong> enterta<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g anecdotes as well as factual<br />

details.<br />

With regard to his digressions, Herodotus devotes <strong>the</strong> most ethnographic detail <strong>in</strong><br />

<strong>the</strong> <strong>Histories</strong> to <strong>the</strong> <strong>Egyptians</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Scythians</strong>. <strong>The</strong> size <strong>and</strong> detail of Books Two <strong>and</strong> Four<br />

implicitly makes his priorities clear, <strong>and</strong> with both explicit <strong>and</strong> implicit contrast, he asks<br />

<strong>the</strong> reader to compare <strong>the</strong>se two peoples. <strong>The</strong>se civilizations are both at <strong>the</strong> edges of <strong>the</strong><br />

known world, at <strong>the</strong> edge of civilization. Like some of his contemporaries, Herodotus<br />

writes on <strong>the</strong> differences that emerge from <strong>the</strong> fact that <strong>the</strong>y are at two extremes (eschata)<br />

<strong>in</strong> space, Scythia <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> far north <strong>and</strong> Egypt <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> south. From <strong>the</strong>se spatial differences, a<br />

great many o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>in</strong>sights emerge.<br />

Some of <strong>the</strong>se are clearly factual, o<strong>the</strong>rs imag<strong>in</strong>ative constructions formed <strong>by</strong><br />

Herodotus’ sources <strong>and</strong> his own assumptions about <strong>the</strong> nature of <strong>the</strong> world. Some<br />

1 Dewald, C. (ed.) <strong>The</strong> <strong>Histories</strong> <strong>by</strong> Herodotus, xix.

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