Waiting for Solon: Audience Expectations in Herodotus ∗
Histos () – WAITING FOR SOLON: AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS IN HERODOTUS ∗ Abstract: In this article, I focus not so much on what Solon actually says and does in his conversation with Croesus, but on what Herodotus’ readers, as well as Croesus himself, think Solon might say or do. I argue that Herodotus uses analogous episodes, those of Gyges, Candaules, and Candaules’ wife, of Arion and Periander, and of Bias/Pittacus and Croesus, to shape readers’ expectations of Solon’s conversation with Croesus, but he then subverts many of those expectations within the conversation itself. In so doing, Herodotus emphasises the programmatic function for the Histories of much of what Solon tells Croesus. Keywords: Herodotus, Arion, artistic patronage, audience expectations, Candaules, Croesus, Seven Sages, Solon cholars have long recognised the programmatic quality that the encounter between Solon and Croesus (.– ) has for Herodotus’ S Histories .1 Croesus’ importance alone for Herodotus’ work cannot be underestimated. In a sense, Herodotus begins the Histories with Croesus; he follows the story of Croesus and the Lydian Mermnad dynasty from its beginning with Gyges’ murder of Candaules all the way to its conclusion with Croesus’ defeat by the Persian king Cyrus. Croesus also occupies a primary position in the Histories as the first in the line of great eastern imperialists that culminates with the Persian Xerxes. On the one hand, the Solon–Croesus episode foreshadows Croesus’ impending downfall. On the other hand, the episode reflects many of Herodotus’ chief thematic concerns: the conflict between East and West and the clash between different cultures in general; the mutability of human fortune and the gods’ jealousy of human excess; the wise advisor motif and the challenge of acquiring knowledge.
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