HERODOTUS. Study Questions.
Due October 15.
Reading Assignment: Herodotus
5.49- 125 (end of book 5) and 6. 94 140 (end of book 6). Total number
of pages in Waterfield’s translation: 50
Illustration: Monument to Athenians who fell at Marathon.
BOOK 5 QUESTIONS (beginning section 49)
0. What did Aristagoras do to try to get Cleomenes the Spartan king to
take part in the Ionian rebellion against the Persians? 5.49-51
1. Why does Aristagoras go to Athens, and why does Herodotus tell the
story of how Athens rid itself of tyrants? 5.55-57.
2. What does Herodotus say about the origin of the alphabet, and what
early examples of it does he cite? What does he call the early letters,
and why? 5.57-62, and note.
3. Why does Herodotus tell the story of the Gephyraei, and what story
does this lead him to? 5.56-62
4. How did the Athenian family called the Alcmaeonidae help to overthrow
the Athenian tyranny of Hippias? 5.62-65
5. How did the Spartans (Lacedaemonians) manage to remove the Pisistratidae
(sons of Pisistratus) from within the Pelasgian wall? 5.65
6. What did Cleisthenes of Athens do to gain the confidence of the common
people, and where did he get the idea? 5.66-69
7. What did the tyrant of Sicyon, Cleisthenes, do out of hatred for Argos
and the Argives, both in terms of Adrastus, and the names of the tribes?
5.67-68
8. How did Isagoras the Athenian attempt to counter the successes of
his rival Cleisthenes? 5.70-72
9. How did the Athenian family the Alcmaeonidae come to be cursed? 5.71-73
10. Why did the Athenians seek an alliance with the Persians, and what
was the Persian response? 5.73
11. What is a military advantage of democracy, according to Herodotus,
and what example does he give? To what form of government is democracy superior?
5.77-78
12. Why were the people of Aegina and Athens hostile to one another?
5.82-88
13. Why did the Spartans summon the former Athenian tyrant Hippias to
Lacedaemon (Sparta)? 5.90-91
14. What leads Herodotus to tell the story of the Corinthian tyrants?
What is the point of telling it? 5.92
15. What message did the Milesian tyrant Thrasybulus give to the Corinthian
tyrant Periander, and how did he give it? 5.92
16. Why did the Corinthian tyrant Periander strip the women of his city
naked? 5.92
17. What did the exiled Athenian tyrant Hippias do when the Lacedaemonians
(Spartans) sent him packing? 5.94-95
18. How did the poet Alcaeus (Alkaios) come in contact with the Athenians?
What poem of Alcaeus relates to this incident? 5.95 and note, p. 678
19. How did Aristagoras convince the Athenians to aid in the Ionian revolt
against the Persians? 5.97
20. When the Ionians captured Sardis, why didn’t they loot it? What happened
to the sanctuary of Cybele, and why was this important later? 5.101-102
21. What were two things the Persian King Darius did in reaction to the
burning of Sardis? 5.105-106
22. What happened to Aristagoras when the Ionian revolt failed? 5.123-126
BOOK 6 (beginning section 94)
23. What plans did Darius make for attacking Athens? 6.94-95
24. What act of piety did the Persian general Datis perform on the holy
island of Delos? What was his message to the Delians? 6.97
25. What omen occurred in Delos, and what did it mean? 6.98
26. Who was Miltiades? What does Herodotus say about Miltiades’ family?
6.103-104
27. What odd experience did Pheidippides have? What was the result at
Athens after the battle of Marathon? 6.105-106
28. Why didn’t the Spartans go to aid the Athenians (6.107), and what
was their reaction to the Battle of Marathon when it was over? 6. 120
29. What was Hippias’ dream, and how did he interpret it? What did his
lost tooth tell him? 6.107-108
30. Who was Callimachus, and how was ‘the future of Athens’ in his hands?
6.109-110
31. How did the Greeks win the battle of Marathon against superior numbers?
6.112-113
32. Why do you think that the Persian fleet did not land at Athens and
attack after the Battle of Marathon? 6.116-117
33. What did the Persian general Datis do as a result of his dream on
Mykonos? 6.118
34. What evidence does Herodotus offer about the innocence of the Alcmaeonidae
in the incident of the shield signal? 6.115-124
35. How did the Alcmaeonidae become so rich? 6.125
36. Why does Cleisthenes of Sicyon refuse to give his daughter Agariste’s
hand in marriage to the Athenian Hippocleides? What does this tell us about
the importance of table manners? 6.126-130
37. What did the Pelasgians on Lemnos do to the Athenians to get revenge
for their expulsion from Attica? How does their revenge backfire on them?
6.137-139
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