Madness in Context in the Histories of Herodotus - ResearchSpace

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Madness in Context in the Histories of Herodotus

Abigail Rebecca Dawson

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in Ancient Greek Language and Literature,
The University of Auckland, 2006
ii
Abstract

This thesis is a study of the way Herodotus uses madness in his Histories. It aims
to examine the changing nature of madness depending on the context in which Herodotus
uses it. I also examine some examples of madness in the works of Homer, the Tragedians
and the Hippocratic corpus in order to illuminate the varying examples from the
Histories. This required close reading of all works in question in the original Ancient
Greek as well as examination of secondary literature on the authors and topics concerned.
Herodotus’ use of madness varies according to the context in which he uses it, so
he does not have a coherent view of madness. Madness, as Herodotus employs the
concept, is often violent, but not always physically; it may be verbal or may be used of a
person who expresses a violent idea. Sometimes it is a divine punishment; sometimes it
signals transgression against divine law. He also uses madness as a literary device to
highlight themes of the various logoi, and to reflect not only the state of the one called
mad, but the one who is using the term. His usage is similar in some ways to each of the
works of Homer, the Tragedians and the Hippocratic writers.
In conclusion, madness is a device which Herodotus uses to good effect
depending on what effect he wishes to make at the time, in a specific logos.
iii

Dedication

To Mum, Dad, Penny, Rodney, Tim, Esther, Terry and Yue, and family members
of the feline persuasion; also to friends too numerous to mention: the people who have to
deal with the underside of research and who are always there when it turns to custard. I
appreciate you all immensely and could not have done this without your practical and
moral support in all forms and however it is expressed.
iv
Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge at the outset my deep gratitude to my supervisor,
Professor Vivienne Gray, whose help has been constant and immeasurable, and whose
support has been greatly appreciated through each step of this maieutic process. It was
on her advice that I began to consider madness in its own context, as opposed to a
coherent theory. I have depended very much on her assistance and presence, have never
been allowed to become bored with my research, and have always been encouraged to
revalue, reconsider and refine. I would also like to thank Dr. William Barnes, my co-
supervisor, for his contributions.

Thanks to all members of the Classics and Ancient History Department who have
asked thought-provoking questions and offered moral and practical support. Thanks also
to Christina Robertson and Dr. Elizabeth Frood for proof-reading. Thanks to Mark
Davies for installing the Musaios programme on my laptop.
v
Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1:
Madness in Context: Cambyses 6
Madness in Context: Cleomenes 58
Chapter 2:
Madness in Context: Astyages (1.109.2) 88
Madness in Context: Tomyris and Cyrus (1.212.2-3) 101
Madness in Context: Amasis (2.173.3-4) 110
Madness in Context: Charileōs (3.145.1) 125
Madness in Context: Scyles (4.79.3-4) 135
Madness in Context: Greeks in Aegina (5.85.2) 146
Madness in Context: Ionians (6.12.3) 153
Madness in Context: Greeks (6.112.2, 8.10.1, 8.77.1; oracle, 8.140.α3) 157
Madness in Context: Timodemus (8.125.1) 173
Madness in Context: Women of Argos (9.34.1-2) 179
Madness in Context: Amompharetus (9.55.2) 185
Madness in Context: Aristodemus (9.71.3) 192
Chapter 3:
Homer 195
Chapter 4:
The Relevance of Tragedy 259
Chapter 5:
The Hippocratic Writers 290

Conclusion 306

Bibliography 309
vi
Introduction

Herodotus’ Histories are the first step in European history towards the writing of
historical accounts as we know them. Born around 484 BC in Greek-speaking
Halicarnassus, part of the Dorian hexapolis (although Herodotus chose to write in the
Ionian dialect), he was later exiled for political reasons and died around 430 BC 1. In the
proem, he calls his highly valuable account of the Persian wars against Greece a
‘presentation of inquiry’ (ἱστορίης ἀπόδεξις). This is the starting point of his work.
The account of the wars is not, however, the be-all and end-all of his work, although it

comprises a large part of it and provides a strand of unification.
Herodotus’ literary style grew out of an environment where oral presentation of
artistic works was the main form of transmitting them to a wider audience. In addition to
this, the prevailing literary culture was largely of the storytelling kind, in which the epic
poetry of Homer and others was of immeasurable influence2. So when Herodotus began
writing history, he did so under the influence of an oral literary background which did not
necessarily deal in factual events (although it was conceived that they might have been
based on actual events long past). It is therefore not surprising that Herodotus should
arrange his accounts in terms of blocks, or logoi, which had a measure of unity in
storyline, and which might then be read out to an audience as self-contained units of
work3. We should also accept that the way the results of Herodotus’ inquiry were often
presented as an interesting story is the result of this background, and his storytelling
background also affects the way he delivers his work, making use of rhetorical devices,
dramatic speeches and paying attention to characterisation, for example. To expect the
innovator of a new style immediately to write the way we read history now, centuries
after Herodotus took the first step, is to unfairly impose our own cultural and social
standards upon another culture, society and time.

1 Gould (1989: 5-8) gives a comprehensive biography of Herodotus, including likely influences on his life
and writing. See Pg. 17 for a discussion on the approximation of his birth year, Pg. 18 for approximate
death date.
2 See Dewald and Marincola (1987: 13-16) for various other influences; also Lateiner (1989: 17-26). Aly
(1921: 277) notes that in terms of Homeric influence, it was ‘just one more new colour on the colourful
palette of the Logopoios’ (…nur eine neue farbe mahr auf der bunten Palette des Logopoios). See in full
Pgs. 263-277 and 277-296 for tragic and other influences.
3 Immerwahr (1966: 19-20); see in particular Chapter 2, Style and Structure (Pgs. 46-78).
2
In his proem, Herodotus clearly states that he wishes to preserve the ‘things which
happened by the agency of people’ (τὰ γενόμενα ἐξ ἀνθρώπων) as well as the ‘great
and amazing deeds’ (ἔργα μεγάλα τε καὶ θωμαστά) of the Greeks and barbarians.
He shows from the start of his work, then, that he will not confine his work to Greeks
alone, and this stance pre-figures many discussions on other peoples, personalities,
politics, cultures, geography, animals and customs4. As Gould notes, ‘enquiry’ for
Herodotus ‘meant many things…among them and above all perhaps travel and the active
pursuit of data’5. Herodotus seeks, on the whole, to show what he has learnt and seen
firsthand; sometimes he discusses or gives an opinion on a finding, or seeks to prove the
truth of findings which are controversial; he often offers more than one version of events
or an account, and does not always say which version he favours6. In an effort to get to
the reason why certain events occurred, he goes back a lot further than the immediate
time of such an event to chart the actions of people which began the chain of events7.
Where his own knowledge is more limited, he records what his sources report, and notes
that he does not always believe what they say, but is under obligation (ὀφείλω) to record
it nevertheless; this principle, he notes, is true of his entire account8. These sources are
sometimes problematic, as they may well betray some bias themselves9.
In this thesis I have found it best to approach the Histories as a literary work
rather than a strictly historical one, and to examine the instances of madness within it on
these grounds. I therefore do not often have to grapple with the issue of whether what
was said was true or not, or whether the sources were positive or negative. In general I
examine whether there may be a literary explanation for any of these historical questions,
which are so often unknowable factors otherwise and prey to speculation10.

4 See Lateiner (1989: 13-17) for a discussion on the proem and what it promises to deliver.
5 Gould (1989: 11). See also Marincola (1987: 121-137) and Dewald (1987: 147-170) on Herodotus’
methods and presentation of inquiry.
6 See Lateiner’s list (1989: 84-90); see also Marincola (1987:137) for a table of ‘autobiographical’
statements.
7 See Gould (1989: 63-64), who also notes these personally motivated events (Pgs. 66-67); Lateiner (1989:
35-43).
8 7.152.3.
9 See Dewald and Marincola (1987: 26-35) for some of the issues involved. See Gould (1989: 24-27) on
possible linguistic difficulties with translated reports and cultural misunderstanding.
10 I disagree with Fehling’s (1989) approach and therefore do not use his work often.
3
When I first examined the way Herodotus uses madness in the Histories, I thought
it useful to explore whether the various ‘types’ of madness could be formulated into a
unified code which could be called Herodotus’ theory of madness. Unfortunately, this
unified theory could not be pressed. The more I looked at the instances of madness and
tried to fit them into a model of types, the more the model had to expand, until it was
evident that the model I had started with was not flexible enough. At that point I had to
re-think my approach, and finally decided that while a unified code did not reflect
Herodotus’ use of madness, a diverse code did. It was then that I began to examine the
instances of madness in their own context, in their own logoi, and from there began to
make some sense of the uses of madness in the Histories.
Because Herodotus tends to deal in logoi, which are then linked to each other by a
certain continuity of theme or topic of discussion, his use of madness in context becomes
very diverse11. At most we can only say that madness very often has an element of
violence in it, often enough that it should be borne in mind even if, at times, I do not
specifically point it out when discussing an example. But despite this ‘general rule’,
Herodotus still employs various forms of violence. Sometimes madness manifests itself
in physical violence, as it does in the cases of Cambyses and Cleomenes; sometimes
madness is used of people who are violent in their verbal expression or express a violent
thought, as is the case with Astyages. In this way madness seems to be used as an
abusive term of the person who speaks violently, or is simply used in argument.
In some logoi, Herodotus calls madness an illness, a νοῦσος, but in other
examples he does not; in some cases madness is clearly shown to be divine punishment
for transgression of nomoi, religious or social. In the case of Scyles the Scythian,
however, his ‘madness’ in becoming an initiate of Dionysus is not a punishment from the
gods but is the reason for his punishment by death, because ‘madness’ itself is a
transgression of Scythian custom. Madness is also used by Herodotus to show an
escalation of emotion, such as the envy of Timodemus; sometimes madness also shows a
lack of understanding on the part of the one who calls another mad, as is the case when

11 As Dewald notes (1987:148-149), the ‘rhapsodic’ nature of Herodotus’ work means that ‘the narrative
itself keeps breaking and reforming into different pieces that need to be read in different ways’. See also
Myres (1953: 70-74).