timelets | Entries tagged with herodotus

“The Persian then replied, “My friend, what has been destined to happen by the god is impossible for a mortal to avert by any contrivance, for no one believes even what trustworthy people say.
And though many Persians know that this is true, we are bound by necessity to follow our orders. The most painful anguish that mortals suffer is to understand a great deal but to have no power at all.” ”

--- Herodotus: Histories.

Timoxeinos would write a letter to Artabazos, or Artabazos would write one to him, and they would wrap the message around an arrow beneath the point, tie it to the feathers, then shoot it to an agreed-upon place. But the plan of Timoxeinos to betray Poteidaia was detected, for on one occasion when Artabazos shot an arrow to the assigned location, he missed his aim and hit a man of Poteidaia in the shoulder instead. A crowd of people gathered around this wounded man, as tends to happen in war; they at once pulled out the arrow, and when they perceived the letter, they brought it to their generals. ”

Herodotus, Histories.

They haven't invented cyphers yet.

“Artemisia advises Xerxes to return home, arguing that as King, he will still have credit for any victory that Mardonios gains, but will at home be safe from any disaster that Mardonios might suffer.”

8.102

Herodotus, Histories.

“There is nothing that travels faster, and yet is mortal, than these couriers; the Persians invented this system, which works as follows. It is said that there are as many horses and men posted at intervals as there are days required for the entire journey, so that one horse and one man are assigned to each day. And neither snow nor rain nor heat nor dark of night keeps them from completing their appointed course as swiftly as possible. The first courier passes on the instructions to the second, the second to the third, and from there they are transmitted from one to another all the way through, just as the torchbearing relay is celebrated by the Hellenes in honor of Hephaistos. The Persians call this horse-posting system the angarcion.”

Herodotus, Histories.

“..he turned to the Phoenicians and, in his extreme vexation, blamed them for everything that had happened, and he ordered that their heads be cut off so that those who had proved to be inferior should never again slander their betters. In fact, Xerxes was constantly watching to see if any of his men performed some remarkable feat. He observed the fighting as he sat at the foot of the mountain called Aigaleos, facing Salamis, and whenever he saw one of his commanders carry out an extraordinary deed, he would immediately inquire who was doing it, and had his scribes write down the name of the trierarch, his patronymic, and the city from which he came.”

Herodotus, Histories.

“... few of the Hellenes died, for they knew how to swim, so those whose ships were destroyed and who were not killed in hand-to-hand combat swam safely to Salamis. Many barbarians, however, drowned in the sea, as they did not know how to swim.”

8.89
Herodotus, Histories.

It's ok to fail, but it's not ok to screw up.

“At the time that Cambyses son of Cyrus was leading his army in Egypt, many Hellenes came to Egypt some probably for trade, others to fight in the war, and others merely to see the sights of this country for themselves.”

Herodotus: Histories.

Based on language analysis of Histories, we can surmise that Herodotus was a standup historian.

Father of History or Father of Lies; The Reputation of Herodotus Author(s): J. A. S. Evans
Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 64, No. 1 (Oct., 1968), pp. 11-17

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3296527

This is similar to Deleuze's concept of personae in philosophy, partial observer in science and artist–perceiver in arts.

Also see, Lawvere & Schanuel, 2009, pp. 308-9, wrt to idealization, beginning with the last paragraph:

"Regarding the scientific process... The idealization itself often consists of assuming that, of the many forces acting in a situation, one ‘main’ force is the only force.... this one force is gravity. Such idealization can lead to very far-reaching development of theory; in the example of gravity, it led Galileo, Newton, Jacobi, Hamilton, Einstein, and others to theory which is constantly used in terrestrial and celestial navigation.
... But the second equally important aspect of the scientific process of idealization is this: in applying the developed theory to new situations, one must constantly remain conscious of the likelihood that forces other than the ‘main’ idealized ones are also acting and sometimes becoming ‘main’ forces themselves.

“The letter said, “From Amasis to Polykrates: It is a pleasure to hear that a friend and ally is doing well, but I am not pleased by your exceptional good fortune, since I know that god is jealous. Actually, what I sincerely want for both myself and for those I care about is good fortune in one matter but failure in another, and thus a life of continually alternating fortune rather than of success in everything. [3] For I have never yet heard of anyone enjoying good fortune in all things who did not ultimately die in total disaster.”

--- Herodotus: Histories.

“The royal judges are men selected from all Persians to serve in this capacity until they die or are found guilty of some injustice. They judge lawsuits and are the interpreters of ancestral ordinances and institutions, and every question is referred to them for judgment.

So they responded to Cambyses’ question with an answer that was both just and safe: they said they had discovered no law that would sanction marriage between a man and his sister, but they had found another law stating that the king of the Persians was permitted to do whatever he wanted. [5] Thus they did not break the law because of their fear of Cambyses, but in order that they would not destroy themselves by protecting the law, they discovered another one that supported the king in his desire to marry his sister. ”

--- Herodotus: Histories.

“When they have dried the corpse, whether according to the Egyptian method or otherwise, they plaster the whole body with gypsum, then decorate it with paint to resemble the appearance of the person as closely as possible. Next they enclose it in a hollow column of crystal, which they excavate in great quantities and which is easy to work. [3] The painted corpse is visible from where it is placed in the middle of the column, and while it has every appearance of being the natural body itself, it gives off no unpleasant odor or any other unseemly effect. ”

--- Herodotus: Histories.

"Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" - One Song/Someday My Prince Will Come (Reprise)" (Watch on YouTube)

3.6. The Persians reuse the jars of imported wine to create stores of water in the desert.

Now I would like to explain something that very few people who sail to Egypt understand. Although clay jars full of wine are imported into Egypt from all parts of Hellasa and Phoenicia throughout each year, there is virtually not even one empty wine jar to be seen there. [2] Where, one might well ask, have all these wine jars gone? The answer is that each demarch must collect every jar from his city and bring them all to Memphis,b where the people of Memphis then fill them with water and transport them to the desert region of Syria just mentioned. Thus a jar makes its way to Egypt, is emptied there, and is then carried to Syria, to be deposited where all the rest of them have been stored.

--- Herodotus, Histories.

By "Syria" he means “This desert is apparently the only land route leading into Egypt. From Phoeniciaa to the boundary of the city of Gaza, the land belongs to the Syrians called Palestinians.” The Persians used this land route to enter and conquer Egypt.

“They said that the Egyptians were the first of all peoples to discover the year, by dividing up the seasons into twelve parts to total one year, and that they discovered how to do this from the stars. The Egyptians seem to me to be much wiser than the Hellenes in the way they regulate the timing of the seasons. While the Hellenes attempt to preserve the timing of the seasons by inserting an intercalary month every other year, the Egyptians divide the year into twelve months of thirty days each and add just five days each year beyond that number, and thus their seasons do return at the same periods in the cycle from year to year.”

--- Herodotus, Histories.

The calendar is an amazing invention because it lets people keep time without checking the stars; the ultimate simulator.

“This same queen also devised a clever ruse. She had a tomb for herself built in midair above the portal over the most frequented gate of the city and had this inscription engraved on the tomb: [2] “If any king of Babylon who comes after me needs money, let him open this tomb and take as much money as he wants. Let him not, however, open it unless he is truly in need. If he opens it for any other reason it will not go well with him.”a [3] This tomb remained undisturbed until the kingship passed to Darius, who thought it was just terrible not to use this gate and not to take the money that was lying there with its inscription inviting someone to take it. [4] He refused to use the gate because if he drove through it, a corpse would be over his head.a [5] When he opened the tomb, however, he found no money inside, just the corpse and an inscription which read: “You would not open up the graves of the dead if you were not so insatiable and shamefully greedy.” This, then, is the sort of queen she is said to have been."

--- Herodotus, Histories.

This is another interesting juxtaposition of fate and human agency. What would Odysseus do in this situation?

update: sections 1.178 to 1.193 describe large water engineering projects for military and civilian purposes.

“The Hellenes, in fact, adopted three of their inventions for their own use. The Carians taught them how to tie plumes to helmets, to decorate shields with devices, and to attach handles to shields. Indeed, they were the first to use shield handles; until then anyone who bore a shield manipulated it not by handles, but rather by a leather strap worn around the neck and left shoulder.”

--- Herodotus, Histories.

This is practically a recipe for industrial success in Germany and Japan after WWII.

“You could prevent them from being rebellious or a threat to you in the future by ordering the following steps: prohibit them from possessing weapons of war, order them to wear tunics under their cloaks and soft boots, instruct them to play the lyre and the harp, and tell them to educate their sons to be shopkeepers. If you do this, sire, you will soon see that they will become women instead of men and thus will then pose no danger or threat to you of any future rebellion.”

--- Herodotus, Histories.

“Of all the days of the year, one’s own birthday is held in the most honor. On this day they [Persians] claim the right to serve a larger feast than on any other day. The more fortunate among them serve the meat of oxen, horses, camels, and donkeys roasted whole in ovens, while the poor serve the meat of small animals such as sheep and goats. They eat few main dishes but consume many desserts, and the latter are not served as one course, but at intervals throughout the meal."

--- Herodotus, Histories.

Thank you Persians!

“...and changed his mind about committing a living man to the fire, a fellow human being who had been blessed with happiness no less than he. Moreover, he began to fear retribution, and to contemplate the fact that nothing is really secure and certain for human beings. So he gave orders that the fire should be extinguished at once and that Croesus and the Lydian youths with him on the pyre be brought down. The Persians immediately tried to carry out his orders, but they were unable to get the fire under control.”

--- Herodotus, Histories.