Book Two Of Herodotus, The Histories
Essay Preview: Book Two Of Herodotus, The Histories
Report this essay
Book Two of Herodotus, The Histories
The story of Egypt by Herodotus is a compelling and mesmerizing voyage into the Ionian world but it is not his mastery of writing that is at question but rather the proposed neutrality of The Histories. Herodotus would not be the first historian I would place under a scrutinizing eye in fact I would disagree with any text by a self proclaimed non-biased historian. Men, no matter what era, write to state a point, more so a certain belief, an opinion and while Herodotus may not outright proclaim it, Book II, in fact, the entire Histories is presented to a certain degree as a reaffirmation of Greek superiority. Regardless, that does not take away any sort of power, or impressive insights that Herodotus has about Egypt or its validity, however I just simply believe that his presentation on Egypt is somewhat manipulated to improve Greeces identity and history.
Herodotus begins his description of Egyptian History, with a tale of how Egypt is the most ancient of races, second only to the Phrygians, and can trace their kings many generations farther than the Ionians or the other tribes. This story in some manner helps establish some sort of legitimacy to Egypts history, that is it is one of the fathers of the ancient races. While it is an intriguing piece of information, the motivation behind this search for legitimacy is perhaps more significant. Perhaps Herodotus sought some sort of legitimate ancestor to the Greeks, seeing that he does not heavily believe in the influences from religion or in the creation myths, it would make sense that Herodotus would want to say that the Greek people borrowed from a culture that first of all has been the focus of Greek admiration even before Herodotus and secondly more to Herodotus peculiar tastes, an empire that did not necessarily mix mortal and god as much as the Greek rulers have , claiming Gods or Demigods as their ancestors (with the Pharaohs, excluded of course). And it truly would fit that ancient Greek conception that man has his place and the Gods another and that destiny and mortality should not be trifled with. Thus what better father or predecessor to have, than such an impressive kingdom as Egypt, a kingdom that even within his era would be worthy of note. To further support his argument that Greece perhaps borrowed from the Ancient Egyptians, he puts forth the well presented aspects of Egyptian religion, a cultural strongpoint within Egypt. Herodotus had stated before he did not want religion to obstruct his pursuit of “scientia”, yet at least when speaking of the Egyptians he felt that it was necessary to point out that according to his local sources, the pantheon of Greek Gods are very similar, in fact, they were derived from Egyptian mythology, even some of the later gods as Heracles and Dionysus, Heracles being in Egypt generations before the son of Amphitryon and in fact it being the Ionians themselves who “took it from the Egyptians.”
Yet the similarities do not end there, rather Herodotus observes that a large portion of the religious traditions concerning Egypt are quite similar to the Greek traditions, such as the religious celebrations of the feast of Dionysus, the notion of religious and physical purity within temples, or that the Egyptians taught the Greeks to use ceremonials meetings, processions, and processional offerings” once again reinforcing this main goal revolving around his study of Egypt. That Egypt being the second oldest civilization is an ancestor to the “civilized Greeks”, thus effectively establishing Greece as a non barbarian race, an empire with a legitimate history, whose roots stem from an kingdom with intellectual endeavors and an advanced science as opposed to the various other tribes and empires that Herodotus continues to discuss.
However that is where he draws the fine line between Greece and Egypt. That is, while Egypt may well be an ancestor of the Ionian culture, they are still backwards in some of their ways, specifically culturally, at least in comparison to the race