STUDY QUESTIONS: HERODOTUS HISTORIES 2 AND 4
Note: The reading assignment for Wednesday, October 12, 2016 is the first 120 sections of book 2 (pp. 95-141) and the first 144 sections of book 4 (pp. 234-283) in Robin Waterfield’s translation.
I encourage you to read the rest of these books, but the following questions only cover the material assigned.
Book 2: Egypt: The Land and the People, and Importance to Greeks.
0. How did the Egyptian king Psammetichus discover who the world’s most ancient people were? What sources for this story did Herodotus consult? (2.1-4)
1. What did the Greeks learn from the Egyptians about religion and the gods? Why does Herodotus believe his sources? (2.3-4)
2. Why does Herodotus call Egypt “a gift from the river”? What fact proves this? (2.5)
3. Why does Herodotus mention the road from Athens to Pisa? How long is this road? (2.6-7)
4. Why does Herodotus believe that Egypt was once a gulf? I.e. what is his evidence for the theory? (2.10-13)
5. What is the Ionian theory with which Herodotus disagrees? What are his arguments? (2.15-18)
6. What three ancient theories about the flooding of the Nile does Herodotus mention, and what does he think of these? (2.20-27)
7. What did Herodotus learn about the source of the Nile? (2.28-35) [Europeans did not know the Nile’s source location until 1862, with the expedition of J. H. Speke and James Grant.]
8. What reason does Herodotus offer for including so much information about Egypt in his Histories? (2.35)
9. What are three Egyptian customs that Herodotus describes? What opinion does he express about any one of them? (2.36-51)
10. What does Herodotus say about circumcision, and about the habits of Egyptian priests? (2.36)
11. Why will “no Egyptian man or woman will kiss a Greek man on the mouth, or use a Greek’s knife or skewers or cooking pot”? (2.41) What modern taboo might we compare with this?
12. What international research did Herodotus do to show that Heracles is an ancient god? (2.43-45)
13. What “thougtless” tale do the Greeks tell that Herodotus says cannot be true? Why can it not be true? (2.45)
14. What did Egyptians think of pigs? What examples does Herodotus cite to show this? (2.47-49)
15. How do the Egyptians worship Dionysus? What was Melampus’ role in Dionysiac religion? (2.47-49)
16. How does Herodotus think that the Greeks got their names for the gods? (2.50)
17. Where did the Athenians — according to Herodotus — get the habit of making statues of Hermes with an erect phallus? (2.51)
18. When does Herodotus think that Hesiod and Homer lived, and what does he say their contributions to Greek knowledge were? (2.53)
19. How does Herodotus describe the Egyptian origin of the oracle of Zeus at Dodona (in northwestern Greece)? (2.54)
20. What two religious sexual taboos do the Greeks and Egyptians share? (2.64)
21. What do Egyptians do when their cats and dogs die? (2.66-67)
22. How do Egyptians honor their sacred crocodiles? (2.68-70)
23. What does Herodotus tell us about winged snakes? How did he conduct research about them? (2.75)
24. How do the Egyptians embalm their dead? (2.86-90)
25. How do Egyptians protect themselves from mosquitoes, and how is one of these methods related to the English word “canopy?” (Look it up!) (2.95)
26. What did Proteus the king of Egypt have to do with Paris (Alexander) and the Trojan War? What evidence does Herodotus give about Homer’s knowledge of this story? (2.113-120)
27. Why, according to Herodotus, did Menelaus go to Egypt after the Trojan War, and what act of impiety did he commit there? (2.118-120)
Book 4: The Scythians and King Darius’ Campaign Against Them.
Please read the first 144 sections of book 4, pages 234-283 in Robin Waterfield’s translation. I encourage you to read the rest of this book, on Libya, but the following questions only cover the Scythians and Darius’ campaign against them.
28. Where did the Scythians live? (Maps A and H). What territories are nearby? What rivers are there?
29. Why did Darius want to invade Scythia? (4.1-4)
30. What is the first of the stories about the origins of the Scythians which Herodotus tells? What is a SAGARIS? (4.5, and “Glossary of Foreign Words Used by Herodotus”, p. 743)
31. What was the unusual story of Aristeas the son of Caystrobus, from Proconnesus? (4.13-15)
32. How has archaeology given some confirmation to Herodotus’ account of Cannibals near Scythia? (4.18 and note, p. 648)
33. What does Herodotus say about the severe winters of the far north? (4. 28-31)
34. What does Herodotus say about the Hyperboreans … and Hypernotians? (4.32-36, and note p. 648-49)
35. What does Herodotus say about the earth-encircling ‘river’ Ocean? (4.8 and 4.36, and note, p. 649)
36. Herodotus calls Africa “Libya”. How does he know that it is surrounded by water, except where it joins with Asia? (4.42-43)
37. How did Darius the Persian king attempt to find out whether the Indus River flows into the sea? (4.44, and note, p. 650)
38. What does Herodotus say about the origins of the three continents Asia, Libya (Africa) and Europe? (4.45)
39. What is the most important matter in human life that the Scythians have found a solution to? (4. 46)
40. Where do the most ignorant peoples in the world live, and who is an exception to this? (4.46)
41. What does Herodotus say about Scythian religious practices? (4.59-63, and note, p. 651)
42. How do the Scythians bury their kings, and how does what Herodotus says square with archaeological finds? (4.71-72, and note, p. 652)
43. What does Herodotus say about the Scythian attitude towards adopting customs from other peoples? What examples does he give? (4.76-80, and note, page 653)
44. What preparations did Darius make before crossing the Hellespont into Europe? What does Waterfield think about the numbers of his troops, as Herodotus reports them? (4. 83-88, note, p. 654)
45. Why does Darius change his mind about dismantling the pontoon bridge? What does he decide to do instead? (4.97-98)
46. What does Herodotus say about Neurian werewolves, and how does A. Ivantchik rationalize the notion? (4.105 and note, p. 655)
47. How did the remote Budinians come to have sanctuaries to the Greek gods? (4.108)
48. Who were the Amazons, and how did they come to marry Scythian husbands? What were their customs like? (4.110-117)
49. When the Scythians saw that they could not get the allies they wanted from among their neighbors, what strategy did they adopt against Darius? What parallel with a campaign by Napoleon does Waterfield point out? (4.120-130, note, page 657)
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