Apodeixis Historı́as

Apodei as An Aggregate Primary Source Account of Greek Political History xis Historı́ Edited by E. Edward Garvin, ©2014 The purpose of a sourcebook is to allow the subjects to speak their own history and to allow the student, the reader, to gain an understanding of Greek historical literature through a selective sampling. The key word is ‘selective.’ Contained herein are passages excerpted from their contexts. Without exception, this very process produces a falsehood because both the narrative and meta-narrative are destroyed when the continuity of the composition is interrupted. Nevertheless, this seems the most expedient way to expose students to a wide range of primary source material without an onerous reading list. I have tried to keep my voice out of it as much as possible and will intervene as editor (in Times New Roman font) only to give background or exegesis to the text. All of the texts contained in frames and in Goudy Old Style font are excerpts from Greek or Latin texts (primary sources) that have been translated into English. These translations were published as print books but have since fallen into Public Domain - which means that the copyright has expired. As editor of this volume, I have copied, edited and partially retranslated these texts to bring the translations up to date. The title of this collection is adapted from the opening line of Herodotus' Histories: "The results of the research (historías) of Herodotus of Halicarnassus are herein presented for public display (apodexis)." The Greek apodexis means a 'display' or 'public presentation': The word historía, when Herodotus used it, referred to a process of rational pragmatic inquiry. With the popularity of Herodotus' publication, the word historia came first to denote the work itself, and later to denote any literary work composed of a rational inquiry into events of the past. Modern languages, English included, have adopted the term and the word 'history' now refers to the past in general, the study of the past and a literary work about the past. The title of this work is, then, a play on words: What follows is both 'history on display' and the results of various enquiries into the past. EEG 2 Sources Our primary sources rarely come to us directly; that is to say that few copies of any work date to the time of publication or even to the ancient world. Most of these texts were originally written on, and hand-copied to, scrolls of papyrus. These scrolls were held in personal collections or in libraries such as the Library of Alexandria, where scholars and scribes studied them and made further copies. Over the centuries, the task of preserving and copying the manuscripts was taken over by Catholic monasteries and Islamic libraries. Also during this period, scholars developed a system by which the ancient works were divided and numbered; sometimes by 'books', usually by sections and always by lines. The beauty of this system, once it was standardized, is that every text, regardless of format, publication or language, uses a consistent numbering system. For example, one of the excerpts I offer below is cited as Herodotus i. 56-58.1 In every publication of Herodotus’ Histories those same lines can be found in Book I, Chapters 56 to 58; whether it is a Greek manuscript, an English, German or French translation, just published or five-hundred years old. Below is an example from Homer’s Iliad, Book One, showing the English translation on the left and the Greek original on the right. [1] Sing to me, goddess, about the [1] μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος wrath of the son of Peleus, Achilles, [2] οὐλομένην, ἣ μυρί' Ἀχαιοῖς ἄλγε' ἔθηκε, [2] which brought pain upon so many [3] πολλὰς δ' ἰφθίμους ψυχὰς Ἄϊδι προί̈αψεν Achaeans. [4] ἡρώων, αὐτοὺς δὲ ἑλώρια τεῦχε κύνεσσιν [3] Many stout souls did it send, too [5] οἰωνοῖσί τε πᾶσι, Διὸς δ' ἐτελείετο βουλή, soon, to meet Hades, [6] ἐξ οὗ δὴ τὰ πρῶτα διαστήτην ἐρίσαντε [4] while the corpses of the heroes were [7] Ἀτρεί̈δης τε ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν καὶ δῖος left prey to dogs Ἀχιλλεύς. [5] and vultures, by the will of Zeus, [6] from the moment they were divided in conflict; [7] the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles.2 As you can see, a very literal translation which maintains the line numbers results in awkward English. This is most pronounced in poetry and less so in prose, but in all cases translation from one language to another involves some interpretation and even creativity on the part of the translator. For example, the following translation is not in verse, but might convey the meaning of the Greek more effectively into English: Sing to me, Muse, of the anger of Achilles, son of Peleus. That anger which brought so much suffering to the Achaeans from the very moment when Atreus, king of men, and great 1 Books are usually indicated by numbers (ie: Book 1, Book 2 etc.) but Roman numerals (i,ii,iii,iv etc.), which is my preference, are also acceptable. 2 Editor's translation. 3 Achilles first began to quarrel; that anger which sent so many young and brave souls to Hades while their corpses, by the will of Zeus, lay on the field of battle, prey to vultures and wild dogs. The Alexander Pope translation (in parts more of an interpretation than a translation) is certainly more poetic: Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess sing! That wrath which hurl’d to Pluto’s1 glommy reign The souls of mighty chiefs untimely slain; Whose limbs unburied on the naked shore, Devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore. Since great Achilles and Atrides strove, Such was the sovereign doom, and such the will of Jove!2 1 Pluto was the Latin name for Hades 2 Jove, or Jupiter, is the Latin name for Zeus. 4 The Greek Alphabet, Transliteration and Modern Spelling The development of the alphabet was a long process of simplification and specialization. The earliest writing system in the western world was cuneiform, developed by the Sumerians and used in the ancient near east for millennia. This system derived from pictographic systems but added the refinement of syllabics: instead of one symbol representing one word, a symbol could represent a syllable. The Phoenicians took this system one step further by assigning one sound to each symbol. The Greeks borrowed the Phoenician system and deleted some while adding other symbols to fit their own language more efficiently. The Greek alphabet is the first adaptation of the Phoenician alphabet in Europe but there have been many since. The Latin and English alphabets are merely two more, but later, examples. The Alphabet Herodotus v.58 Now these Phoenicians who came with Cadmus brought in among the Hellenes many arts when they settled in this land of Boeotia, and especially letters, which did not exist, as it appears to me, among the Hellenes before this time; and at first they brought in those which are used by the Phoenician people generally, but afterwards, as time went on, they changed, with their speech, the form of the letters also. During this time the Ionians were the Hellenic people who dwelt near the Phoenicians in most of the places where they were; and these, having received letters by instruction of the Phoenicians, changed their form slightly and so made use of them, and in doing so they declared them to be called “Phoenician,” as was just, seeing that the Phoenicians had introduced them into Hellas. Also the Ionians from ancient time call paper “skins,” because formerly, paper being scarce, they used skins of goat and sheep; nay, even in my own time many of the Barbarians write on such skins. The word ‘paper’ comes to English from the Greek ‘papyrus.’ Papyrus is a reed that grows only in Egypt and the outer husk, the biblos, is used to manufacture a durable sheet product that is suitable for writing. The Greeks used biblos to describe a book, and biblion a letter or smaller document. From that, English and the Romance Languages derive many words like Bible and bibliography in English and biblioteque (library) in French. There was a Phoenician trading port called Byblos and the mistaken assumption is often made that these words derive from that port because papyrus was traded through Phoenicia to Greece. But, of course, the Greeks were already calling paper biblos and the port was named for the trade that already existed, not the other way around. We take much for granted with our technologically sophisticated papers and inks, but the ancient problem was to find a product that would take ink without absorbing too little and smudging, or absorbing much and diffusing, the ink. Papyrus was, for centuries, the most cost effective product. The development of the alphabet has now been traced from Phoenician characters with some certainty. The first nineteen letters have Phoenician names, the last five are Greek inventions. The Greek alphabet reproduced below represents both Classical and Middle Age evolution. It is, essentially, the Ionic alphabet and was adopted by the Athenians (replacing the Attic alphabet) in 5 404 BC. Some of the names of the letters, such as epsilon, omicron, upsilon and omega are late additions. In classical Greek, only what we now call upper case letters were used, the lower case letters are a Medieval invention. Phoenician Greek Modern Ox Aleph Α, α ἄλφα Alpha A, a House Beth B, b βῆτα Beta B, b Throw/ Gimel Γ, γ γἀμμα Gamma G, g Camel Door Daleth Δ, δ δἐλτα Delta D, d Window/ He Ε, ε ἔψιλόν Epsilon Ĕ, ĕ Wall Weapon Zayin Ζ, ζ ζῆτα Zeta Z, z Fence Heth H, h ἤτα Eta Ē, ē Wheel Teth Θ, θ θῆτα Theta th Arm Yodh Ι, ι ἰῶτα Iota

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