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Full Chapter Shaping The Geography of Empire Man and Nature in Herodotus Histories Katherine Clarke PDF
Full Chapter Shaping The Geography of Empire Man and Nature in Herodotus Histories Katherine Clarke PDF
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Dedication
Dedication
Katherine Clarke
Page 1 of 1
Preface
(p.vii) Preface
Katherine Clarke
This is a book about the Herodotean world, or rather about Herodotean worlds,
since a key proposition will be that Herodotus creates multiple worlds in his
narrative. The constructed landscape in Herodotus’ work incorporates his own
literary representation of the natural world from the broadest scope of
continental divisions, through features such as seas and mountain ranges, down
to the individual setting of specific episodes, and furthermore his own ‘charging’
of those settings through resonant mythological associations or spatial parallels.
The physical landscape of the Histories is in turn manipulated and changed by
characters within the narrative, whose interactions with the natural world on
both the smaller scale of engineering works and the large scale of imperial
campaigns form one of the subjects of Herodotus’ inquiry. The element of man’s
interaction thus adds another dimension to the meaning imparted to space in
Herodotus’ work, bringing together the notions of landscape as physical reality
and as constructed reality. Geographical space is not a neutral backdrop to be
described by the historian, nor is it even simply to be seen as his ‘creation’, but
it is brought to life as an active player in the narrative, the interaction with
which reinforces, or maybe even determines, the placing of the protagonists
along a spectrum of positive or negative characterizations.
Page 1 of 4
Preface
This book enjoyed its first incarnation as an undergraduate essay, written over
twenty-five years ago. I owe a great debt to my Ancient History tutor at St John’s
College, Oxford, Nicholas Purcell, who not only tolerated, but positively
encouraged my unconventional approach to the narrative of the Persian Wars
and oversaw its conversion into a Finals dissertation. Since then it is a topic to
which I have always wished to return, and six months of sabbatical in 2010–11,
following maternity leave, provided the perfect opportunity. Nevertheless, work
and family commitments have made the process of transforming a set of draft
chapters into a monograph a protracted one, during which a large number of
relevant new works of scholarship has appeared, forcing me to keep refreshing
my own thinking.
Many people have assisted greatly in the production of this book. Hilary O’Shea,
former Classics editor at Oxford University Press, encouraged me from the
outset, a role that was ably taken over by Charlotte Loveridge, generously
supported by Georgina Leighton. All have provided quick, clear, and helpful
advice at all stages, as well as general encouragement. I should also like to
thank my project manager, Kavya Ramu, and eagle-eyed copy-editor, Donald
Watt, both of whom provided excellent and prompt support through the
production process. In preparing translations of Herodotus for this book, I have
benefited greatly from a range of existing translations, notably A. D. Godley’s
Loeb (1920) and D. Grene, Herodotus. The Histories (Chicago, 1987). The
typescript was considered by three readers on behalf of the Press, all of whom
provided extensive comments and two of whom did so for two successive
versions of the book. Due to their anonymity, I have not been able to thank them
personally, but I should like to take this opportunity to express my warm
gratitude for their exceptionally close engagement with my work at the level of
concept, argument, and detail. Their feedback has been challenging in the most
constructive sense and has unquestionably resulted in a significantly revised and
improved monograph, for whose shortcomings I still retain, of course, full
responsibility.
Page 2 of 4
Preface
colleagues there in a variety of subjects have been the source of many a thought-
provoking conversation, quite apart from their even more deeply appreciated
friendship and support. Of none could this be said with greater warmth and
affection than my Classical colleagues, Rebecca Armstrong and Emily Kearns,
with whom I have worked for many years in the happiest collaboration
imaginable. More recently, Amber Gartrell has made an excellent and lively
addition to the College team, as has Calypso Nash. Calypso has, furthermore,
proved an exceptionally valuable research assistant, checking the ancient
references in this book with great expertise, intelligence, and attention to detail,
and spotting a multitude of errors and infelicities along the way, and providing
much needed help with indexing. Her assistance was kindly funded by the
Humanities Division of the University of Oxford and by St Hilda’s College, and
has greatly facilitated the final stages of the book’s production.
Many individuals have lent their support in various ways, from stimulating
conversations and feedback on seminar papers, to quiet encouragement and—at
decent intervals—gentle enquiries after Herodotus. More specific debts are
owed to Irad Malkin, who has on many occasions lent an encouraging ear and
offered enriching responses to my ideas. Conversations with him have always
left me eager to get back to the book, intellectually reinvigorated. Richard
Rutherford kindly provided valuable feedback on Chapter 1, while Chris Pelling
gave early versions of Chapters 2 and 5 his customarily rich and highly
productive scrutiny. Some of the material in Chapter 5 received helpful
comments from Stephanie West, Tim Rood, Rhiannon Ash, and Judith Mossman
in another context. To all of these friendly critics I am immensely grateful. I also
owe a considerable debt to Lyndal Roper, whose warm encouragement to allow
my own work to regain some priority was instrumental in bringing the project to
its conclusion. Following on from Nicholas Purcell’s inspirational teaching,
Fergus Millar, my doctoral supervisor, has not only remained a dear friend, but
also, with great generosity, retained an interest in my work, characteristically
reading and commenting on the entire finished typescript within a miraculously
small number of days. His ongoing support and encouragement mean a great
deal.
(p.x) My husband, Chris Burnand, read the entire typescript some years ago in
what I thought was a relatively finished state. His exceptionally detailed and
insightful reading at the level of clarity, logic, argument, specifics, and concept
led me to the quick realization that the work was, in fact, far from finished. In
particular, his advice that I should ‘look more carefully at who says what’ was
responsible for the development of one of the two major strands in the resulting
book, requiring a fairly fundamental rethinking and rewriting, which I believe
has greatly benefited the whole. For Chris’s support in this and so many other
ways I remain always grateful. The domestic front has also been enhanced
throughout the life of this book by the figure of Scipio. His demands for frequent
and lengthy walks around the South Oxfordshire countryside have served to
Page 3 of 4
Preface
clear the brain on many an occasion and the presence of a perpetually relaxed
and, walks aside, mostly somnolent creature whether in College or at home has
a markedly beneficial effect on the stress levels of all around. Finally, this book
has grown up alongside Charlie, the development and nurturing of the latter
mostly at the expense of the former. Charlie’s ever-demanding, but upliftingly
loving, inquisitive, and engaged character has grown to encompass a touching
and persistent interest in the progress of the book itself, a compelling incentive
to bring the project to fruition. The book is dedicated to this delightfully life-
enhancing home team.
Page 4 of 4
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780198820437.003.0001
The apparent contradiction between the title of Part I and that of this chapter
encapsulates a key tension in the study of Herodotus. On the one hand, some,
like Momigliano, who provides the chapter title,1 focus on the unprecedented
nature of Herodotus’ work and, on the other, scholars such as Robert Fowler and
Rosalind Thomas2 have brought Herodotus in from the cold, from the isolated
and unique position implied by his status as ‘father of history’,3 and
complemented this picture of ground-breaking inventor of a genre with a sense
of intellectual context and literary tradition.4 Keeping in mind the value of
thinking about Herodotus and his extraordinary narrative (p.4) in the light of
predecessors, such as Homer and Hecataeus, and contemporaries, while
Page 1 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
I have argued elsewhere that the relationship between temporal and spatial
matrices, or historical and geographical ways of thinking, is particularly marked
in certain works of ancient literature, not least those which take as their subject
a period of change in the configuration of power over territory, that is, empire.6
The phase of Roman expansion, in which the shape of the world was
dramatically altered, generated a cluster of literary works in which the new
world was redrawn. The historical work of Polybius and the geographical work
of Strabo, for example, offered differently focused representations of this world,
one ordered primarily according to time, the other to space, but both attempting
to depict the dynamic world of Roman (p.5) power as one in which space was
configured differently across time. Historical processes and events inevitably
take place in a real physical context. However, I shall argue that, like the writers
who took on the rewriting of the world brought by the Roman Empire,
Herodotus too, as a historian of Persian imperialism and one writing at the time
of Athens’ bid to alter the map of its own power over mainland Greece and the
Aegean, had a particular interest in the conception, representation, and
articulation of geographical space in his work. As I shall discuss in this chapter,
and seek to demonstrate in the later parts of this book, Herodotus’ spatial
representations go beyond the careful and vivid depiction of a geographical
backdrop and context for the narrative of his work. Rather he shapes and
‘creates’ a landscape full of meaning and resonance, a morally charged entity
with which characters in the narrative interact along a scale from positive to
negative, thereby generating a significant layer of characterization, and with it a
new level of historical interpretation.7
Page 2 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
(p.6) It seems only right to start with Herodotus’ own opening literary allusion
to Homer.9 The public display of great deeds, promised by Herodotus at the
opening of his work,10 inevitably encourages us to read his text in the light of
Homeric epic, and the challenge has been taken up by countless scholars.11 The
focus of this interest has ranged between the shift from oral poetic tradition to
written prose text, the identification of Herodotus himself with the figure of
Odysseus, the subject choice suggesting an Odyssean start to Herodotus’ work
and an Iliadic second half, and the influence of catalogue forms on Herodotus’
own presentation of large quantities of information.12 Nagy’s brief but important
contribution argues that Herodotus is not content to work within a Homeric
framework of storytelling, but competitively and ambitiously attempts to outbid
Homer with his collection of logoi, the master of oral tradition in prose, as
opposed to Homer’s role as aoidos in verse. By subsuming the epic conflict of the
Trojan War under the even greater conflict between Hellenes and barbarians,
the framework of the Histories encompasses and surpasses that of the Iliad, and
‘The history of Herodotus the logios is in effect incorporating, not just
continuing, the epic of Homer the aoidos.’13 The death of oral epic at the hands
of Herodotus is proposed also by Murray, who sees Herodotus as the heir to the
whole tradition of oral logopoioi, but argues that the writing down of these tales
in relation to a new and greater theme, as the logographos, destroyed that very
tradition.14 More positively, a similar sense of (p.7) competition and innovation,
in spite of the obvious overlaps of ethnographic and martial subject matter and
the stress on fame, is noted by Boedeker, who argues that resemblances with
Homer may have been quite a deliberate way for Herodotus to stress his Persian
Wars as the new epic.15 Perhaps a similar sense of one-upmanship underpinned
Herodotus’ striking claim to write under his own authority, following Hecataeus’
model, rather than giving first mention in his work to the inspiration of a Muse.
Or, more radically with Marincola,16 one might see Herodotus’ engagement
being not with his literary rivals, but with their actual logoi, thus erasing the
literary figures altogether. Nevertheless, Herodotus was famously celebrated in
his home town of Halicarnassus as ‘the pedestrian [i.e. prose] Homer of
historiography’,17 suggesting that this particular affinity was widely perceived,
at least during the Hellenistic period from which this inscription dates.18 At the
Page 3 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
very least, even though it is hard to know precisely how to interpret Homeric
echoes and allusions in Herodotus, as Marincola notes, ‘they certainly seem to
invest the scenes in which they appear with solemnity or at the very least
suggest a sense of something extraordinary or noteworthy’,19 or, in Pelling’s
words, the Homeric allusions bring ‘all the glamour, all the wonder of a grand
expedition on that scale, all the peculiarly visible role of the gods’.20
Homeric epic is clearly not the only poetic form to offer a backdrop or context
for Herodotus’ work.21 The fact that Aeschylus had also (p.8) chosen an
episode from the Persian Wars as the subject for a tragedy clearly reinforces the
overlap in subject matter between poetic and prose composition, and, as we
shall see, the similarities and variations between the Persae and Herodotus’
Histories bear productive exploration.22 In the field of lyric poetry, Ewen Bowie
has examined the fragments of early poetic works which he sees as
genealogically prior to Herodotus’ Histories. The precise relationship between
the development of poetic and prose versions of large-scale historical accounts is
fraught with complexity, but, as Bowie notes, ‘Whatever happened in prose
works, the extant evidence for this sort of verse suggests movement from
accounts of single poleis to an account putting together some sort of overarching
narrative—of course we do not know what sort, and it could have been wholly
mythographic—concerning several poleis.’23
We shall consider in more detail later (in this chapter and Chapter 2) the linear
perspective of the traveller through experienced space that Herodotus adopts
from time to time either in propria persona or through the eyes of characters
within the text.29 But I should like now to note the significance of periegetic
writing more generally in foregrounding certain types of mental mapping or
conceptual geography that are common in Herodotus. In spite of Odysseus’
impatience with the idea of extended journeying, his role as the first describer of
peoples and places, from the perspective of the traveller, cements his place
within this tradition of conceptualizing space, notwithstanding the obvious
differences between the world of epic myth and that of the period of the Persian
Wars and beyond.30 The worlds depicted by other periegetic writers such as
Pytheas of Massilia and Hanno of Carthage in some respects bear close
resemblance to that of the Odyssey in terms of their approaches to mapping out
space and their use of increasing strangeness to indicate increasing distance
from home. But, quite apart from the obvious methodological difficulty in using
texts, some of which are clearly later in date, to suggest anything about the
context and consequent novelty of Herodotus’ geographical thinking,31 the
nature of these ‘texts’ themselves is problematic.
Page 5 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
On the lake there was another island full of wild people. By far the majority
of them were women with hairy bodies. The interpreters called them
Gorillas. When we chased them, we were unable to catch the men, for they
all fled from our hands…We captured three women, however, who bit and
scratched those who led them and didn’t want to follow. So we killed them
and flayed them and took the skins to Carthage.
The author of this text, like Herodotus, clearly wants to give the impression of
reality. There is additionally a stated practical purpose to the voyage, to found
Liby-Phoenician cities. Furthermore, the air of verisimilitude is enhanced by the
fact that witnesses bring back (p.12) visible, tangible proofs of their
experiences in the form of gorilla skins, a means of authenticating the
ethnographic tale until it could be validated by its permanent record in an
inscription. Whether or not the journey did actually happen, in narratological
terms, the focalization is consistently that of a real traveller.
Page 6 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
The issue of reality and fiction recurs with a later example of the periegetic
genre, Agatharchides of Cnidos.35 But leaving truth claims aside, it is possible to
identify certain modes of ethnographic and spatial articulation, which again
provide comparative material for our reading of Herodotus and of his
geographical conceptions. In particular, Agatharchides’ account of the peoples
who live in southern Egypt and Ethiopia, in which he distinguishes them in
terms of their food, offers a striking form of conceptual mapping to set alongside
Herodotus’ ethnographies (§30):
In the region south of Egypt there are four main population groups: one
that lives by the rivers and cultivates sesame and millet; one that dwells
near the marshes and feeds on reeds and soft vegetable matter; one that
wanders at random and bases its way of life on meat and milk; and one
that lives on the coast and catches fish.
A ship can travel from the Maeotian marsh to Ethiopia in twenty-four days,
yet move from the utmost cold to the utmost heat, and encounter huge
cultural differences.
Page 7 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
The lands and peoples of the Arabian Gulf are envisaged and mapped out, just
like those of the west coast of Africa in Hanno’s account, in terms of the animals,
geography, people, and their customs, here particularly through diet. The Lotus
Eaters and cannibals of the Odyssey are replaced by Sesame Eaters, Fish Eaters,
and Dog Milkers, bringing the world to the mind’s eye in terms of diet. As we
shall see (Chapter 2), Herodotus’ mapping of various peoples who inhabit the
outer reaches of his world is at times framed in similar currency to that used in
the account of Hanno’s voyage or in Agatharchides’ description of the Arabian
Gulf, if not food, then other aspects of lifestyle and customs, suggesting another
mode of spatial articulation with which he is fully engaged.
(p.14) These periplus texts, in spite of the predominantly linear sense of space
associated with the coasting voyages which articulate the description,
nevertheless evoke a much broader sense of whole regions, so that the line of
the journey is complemented by the two-dimensional image of cartographic
space. In terms of focalization, these periegetic texts thus combine the viewpoint
of the traveller who experiences the landscape as he moves through it with the
more distanced viewpoint of the external spectator, de Jong’s ‘panoramic’ and
‘close-up’ viewpoints mentioned above (n. 5). As we shall see, the coexistence of
multiple angles with their complementary modes of geographical representation
is strongly characteristic of Herodotus’ narrative too.
The periegetic approach to mapping out space thus forges a close bond between
Homer and Herodotus, as well as evoking a wider tradition of geographical and
ethnographical writing which is embedded in the world of travel and mobility.38
But one obvious contrast with Homer is the claim of Herodotus to be addressing
real geographical problems. In spite of the importance for Herodotus too of
altérité and some of the forms of ethnographic mapping that we have already
identified in the world of Homer and later periegetic writers, nevertheless I shall
argue that Herodotus was at pains to find ways accurately to represent the
reality of the world on every scale from the global to the local. It is worth
recalling that, although Odysseus’ travels in Homer may strike us as fantastical
and imaginative rather than enjoying a close correlation to any specific
geographical reality, at least some readers in antiquity came to Homer’s epics
with a quite different set of expectations.39 Strabo, for example, set out explicitly
to defend Homer’s geography against the criticisms of Hellenistic scientists such
as Eratosthenes, and sought to prove the authenticity of the Homeric landscape.
This was partly with a view to establishing Homer as the first member of a
geographical genre which Strabo was attempting to retroject, and partly
because there was a certain general appeal to enhancing the prestige of a place
through credible Homeric (p.15) association.40 But, although Strabo offers an
illuminating insight into how Homer might be picked up and embraced by a
geographical tradition in a very literal way,41 it seems that Herodotus’
Page 8 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
geographical inheritance from Homer may have been more subtle and indirect
than this.
In any case, for an explicit and critical engagement with attempts to solve real
geographical problems we need to look elsewhere. Hecataeus of Miletus cuts a
figure of considerable influence over Herodotus, at the same time as being a
player within the narrative,42 an interesting double position vis-à-vis the text
from a narratological point of view. As West notes, it is hard to know precisely
what use Herodotus made of Hecataeus’ work, although there are occasional
instances of almost incontrovertible contact.43 Pearson focuses on the fact that
our fragments of Hecataeus are by no means restricted to single place names
cited by Stephanos of Byzantium, and that we can make some progress towards
a fuller understanding of what his geographical descriptions might have
encompassed, at least to the extent of knowing that he was interested in
establishing ethnographic details and relative location, often expressed in the
terms of experienced itinerary,44 just as we will see is characteristic of some
passages in Herodotus. Romm, however, notes that nothing which survives of
Hecataeus’ work suggests a developed narrative form, for which Homer is the
only identifiable model for Herodotus,45 and West is (p.16) right to stress the
difficulty in knowing quite how these two great figures in the history of
historiography, Hecataeus and Herodotus, relate to each other. In a sense, the
unease of modern scholars in gauging the literary relationship is mirrored in the
encounters between Herodotus the author and Hecataeus the historical figure in
his text. For West the problems in teasing out the attitude of Herodotus to this
great predecessor are exemplified in the difficulty of the encounter between
Hecataeus and the extreme antiquity of Egypt (2.143), a scene which she sees as
driven less by historical accuracy than by the opportunity to present it as
another Solon–Croesus-like moment in which Greek intellect and another mighty
civilization or power come into contact.46 Again, a Greek intellectual is taken
seriously in the wider world in this showcase encounter, even though Hecataeus’
display piece is ultimately exposed as trivial. It is clear that, in spite of his
criticisms of Hecataeus, Herodotus has considerable admiration for this figure.
Herodotus, arguing that it was not the Persian Wars, but Darius’ expedition to
Scythia that gave rise to Greek historiography, because it led to Hecataeus’
proto-historical enquiries on Darius’ empire and the exercise of dynamis.49 (p.
17) The possibility that Herodotus’ work too might most satisfactorily be
interpreted as a study in the abuse of dynamis, particularly within the context of
the ever-evolving imperial geography of the Mediterranean world, is one to
which we will return (Chapter 7).
But admiration does not lead to blind following, and it seems clear that
Herodotus wants to move forward from Hecataeus and build on his work. One
manifestation of this is the competitive one-upmanship in which Herodotus
engages, almost certainly in the specific instance of his depiction of the Pontic
region,50 and more generally in his handling of matters geographical. Even the
mere fact of Herodotus’ narrative containing Hecataeus as a character gives
Herodotus a certain control over his intellectual rival. Armayor suggests that
Hecataeus is subject to mildly ironic treatment by Herodotus, not least since
Herodotus has the warmonger Aristagoras arguing on the basis of the luxurious
bronze map drawn up by the peacemonger Hecataeus—a scene which is
inherently ridiculous, since all Cleomenes actually wants to know is how far
away the seat of Persian power is.51 Such a reading would be in keeping with the
playful scene examined by West (above) in which gentle fun is poked at the
wisdom of Hecataeus. Armayor questions whether Herodotus really understands
Hecataeus’ own humour and irony,52 but one could argue conversely that
Herodotus’ playful picture of the intellectual whose ideas on chronology are
mocked by the barbarians of Egypt precisely pinpoints one of the striking
insights of a literary figure who had himself claimed that the ideas of the Greeks
were laughable, and illustrates the truth of that very insight through the figure
of Hecataeus himself, now not a free speaker, but a character in Herodotus’ own
text.53
(p.18) In any case, such a picture of close engagement with Hecataeus has
various implications. Armayor’s insistence on the Ionian poetic, literary, and
intellectual scene as the context in which to find Herodotus’ sources of
information, polemical engagement, literary form, and inspiration,54 may seem
at first to sit well with the stress placed by Thomas on Ionian scientific thought
and literature as the most significant backdrop against which to read Herodotus’
work.55 Indeed Thomas herself characterizes Herodotus in part as deeply
engaged with preceding traditions, particularly through his self-styling as heir
and rival to Homer, at the same time as being in dialogue with new ideas and
theories.56 However, Thomas importantly lays a quite different stress on
Herodotus’ intellectual affiliations, steering our attention away from the late
sixth- and early fifth-century world of the pre-Socratic philosophers and of
Hecataeus himself, and more towards the mid-to-late fifth-century scene of
writers and thinkers who were contemporary with Herodotus himself, notably
the Hippocratic writers and the sophists.57 Her argument that antecedents
Page 10 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
known to us, such as the Homeric epics and the dry fragments of Hecataeus on
geography and genealogy, cannot suffice to explain Herodotus’ extraordinary
achievement seems to me convincing and exciting in that it invites a reading of
Herodotus which is (p.19) focused primarily not on how he relates to pre-
existing traditions, but on his own creativity and vibrant interaction with the
intellectual trends of his own day.58 This idea of lively and ongoing engagement
helpfully liberates Herodotus from too strictly linear a set of connections to key
predecessors, just as moving away from seeing him as the ‘inventor’ of a genre
frees up new opportunities to appreciate him and his work from multiple
perspectives.59
But the question of literary influence and sources does have a direct bearing on
arguments concerning Herodotus’ own travels. The figure of Hecataeus here
acts as a link, since he was himself deemed a ‘much-travelled man’ (ἀνὴρ
πολυπλανής), setting the model for the Odyssean historian.60 Here, perhaps, we
have a point of contact between Bakker’s polar characterizations of ‘Thomas’
modern scientific Herodotus, firmly rooted in contemporary intellectual debate’
and ‘Nagy’s conception of a prose storyteller who subsumes the preceding epic
tradition’.61 But if we are really to see Herodotus as shaped by the impact of
literary predecessors and intellectuals, then perhaps we may need to look no
further than the figure of Herodotus in the library, rather than pursuing
Herodotus the traveller and primary researcher. Armayor has argued along
these lines with regard to Herodotus’ knowledge of the Pontic region,
suggesting that apparent glimpses of autopsy are really better explained as
critical engagement with literary predecessors, such as Hecataeus.62 He
contends that Herodotus’ claims about finding the descendants of Sesostris’
army (p.20) still living around Colchis fit plausibly into a logographic tradition,
in spite of Herodotus’ claims to autopsy, and that Herodotus’ expressed
connections between the rivers Nile and Phasis can be explained in terms of
Ionian geography rather than reflecting real travel.63
Page 11 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
the world of the logopoioi to those of the poets, scientists, local historians, and
indeed contemporary politics.65 This sense of multiple contexts and the need to
carve out a niche is clearly relevant not only to Herodotus, but to us (p.21)
also, and leads us to the question of how this book might be located and what it
might offer in terms of progress.
Page 12 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
scholarly works on Herodotus. Sixty years ago, Immerwahr was already highly
alert to this aspect of Herodotus’ text.72 Many of his ideas on the Persian
transgression of natural limits, the associated moral outrage, and the near
inevitability of retribution for these acts establish a clear link between
Herodotus’ presentation of characters in his work and their behaviour with (p.
23) regard to the natural world, with hybris being manifested in relation to the
landscape as well as against people. The importance of structure and limits in
Herodotus’ narrative, not only in the physical space of Herodotus’ world, but
also more generally, has been addressed also by Lateiner.73 His discussion of key
natural limits, such as the continental divisions, and distinctions between land
and water, argues for a Herodotean landscape in which certain types of
movement will be morally transgressive.74 The theme of natural boundaries has
remained prevalent in more recent treatments. Romm again has offered a
compact but rich contribution on this topic,75 in which he frames Herodotus’
interest in the physical world, its flora and fauna, largely in terms of a battle
between divinely inspired landscape and abusive Persians, and reads the
imperial quest of Persia as a transgression of the natural order. Originally my
own reading of Herodotus chimed harmoniously with many of the observations
of the scholars noted above. However, the larger scale of a monograph allows
more flesh, greater complexity, and more angles to be built onto these
arguments. Taking into account the focalization of different key episodes in
which man interacts with the natural world reveals a greater degree of nuance
in this relationship. In particular, it encourages us to question whether
intervention in a ‘divinely ordered’ landscape is per se transgressive at all.
A considerable amount of work has been done on the specific spatial structuring
devices of Herodotus’ world, including those which depend on particular
viewpoints, such as the concept of centre and periphery. I shall assess below
(Chapter 2) how dominant or otherwise a means of articulating space this is for
Herodotus, but it is worth noting here its place within the scholarly landscape.
The important observation that the Persians themselves adopt an ethnocentric
view of the world makes (p.24) a helpful and much used starting point for
thinking about Herodotus’ own notions of centre and edge:
They honour most of all those who live nearest them, then those who are
next nearest, and so going ever onwards they assign honour according to
this principle: those who dwell farthest off they hold least honourable of
all; for they think that they are themselves in all regards by far the best of
all men, and that the rest have only a proportionate claim to merit, until
those who live farthest away have least merit of all.76
Page 13 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
A great deal of scholarly attention has been devoted both to studies of specific
peoples and places77 and to the conceptual and methodological difficulties in
pinning down Herodotus to even such broad structures as centre and periphery
in his presentation of different peoples.78 Such an approach to the Herodotean
world view is immediately reminiscent of some of the issues discussed in the
previous section on the propensity of the periegetic tradition to map out space in
terms of altérité.79 Meanwhile, the work of Hartog has proved fundamental to
the idea that Herodotus invents a new rhetoric to describe ‘otherness’,80 partly
in Greek terms and partly with an appreciation that the ‘other’ may have its own
ways of articulating its peoples and places.81 Munson’s (p.25) important study
of ethnographic discourse in Herodotus also addresses key questions of
perspective and paints a picture of complexity, differentiation, and considerable
tension between different ethnographic models in the text.82 The presentation of
Egypt in the Histories offers a case study for some of the complexities in working
out a consistent approach on the part of Herodotus even to one region, let alone
a coherent and stable picture of centre and periphery in the world as a whole.
Harrison notes the difficulty in pinning down the location of Herodotus’ Egypt—
partly distanced as the reverse of the normative Greek world and a land of
extraordinary marvels, partly the familiar breeding ground for many Greek
ideas83—a stark reminder of the inextricable link between ethnographic
description, authorial perspective, and the consequent geographical conception
and articulation of space. Our sense of where Egypt is oscillates depending on its
perceived nature. Harrison’s observation of the way in which Herodotus elevates
Egypt, thereby rejecting a crude Hellenocentric chauvinism (153), must be right,
but it is partly counterbalanced by his further suggestion that the Egyptians
have somehow turned themselves into a museum, cut off from other influences.
Thus, we may wonder how far Herodotus’ gaze can be transferred to this ‘other
worldly’ viewing point; how far his focalization can stray from the Greek.84
Purves’ overall approach is productive and enriching and is taken still further by
Rood in his important study of space in Herodotus from a narratological angle.98
Rood moves from a survey of different scales of geographical space in
Herodotus’ narrative to a more explicitly narratological analysis of the key
episode in which Aristagoras displays a map to Greek poleis in order to garner
support against Persia. Rood’s work is particularly rich in setting out the
interpretative consequences of different focalizations and articulations of space,
for example the contrasting views of Asia offered by Herodotus and Aristagoras,
Page 15 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
or the varying accounts of space and place offered by the Paeonians, seeing
these competing visions as important for understanding the imperialist themes
of the work.99 The shifting geographies associated with imperialism will form
one of the major strands of thought in Chapters 5 and especially 7.100
Purves’ eusynoptic Iliad, in which the divinely inspired poet adopts a magisterial
and lofty perch, looking down on the world from afar, lends itself to contrast
with the dominant focalization of the Odyssey through the figure of the traveller,
involved in and experiencing the world as he goes.106 As we have seen, earlier
phases of scholarly (p.30) debate have focused on the reality or otherwise of
Herodotus’ travels. But, regardless of the truth or falsity of either explicit or
implicit claims to have been to this or that place, the real or imaginary viewing
of the world through the eyes of the traveller-historian has attracted a good deal
of attention in its own right. In particular, Marincola’s study of the Odyssean
nature of historiography opens a treasure trove of insights into the authorial
persona and perspective(s) of the historian.107 Although Marincola highlights a
whole range of correspondences between the Odyssey and Greek historians,
such as the role of suffering in learning, or the lying and deception of
Odysseus,108 it is the relationship between traveller-historian and his subject
matter which is of primary interest to us here, in trying to pinpoint an authorial
perspective for Herodotus, locating him within his world. The clear connection
made in the Odyssey between travel, inquiry, and knowledge is mirrored in
Herodotus’ text through figures such as Solon and Anacharsis (on which, see
Page 16 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
Chapter 2), but also in the figure of the historian himself.109 And the Odyssey’s
great interest in peoples, places, customs, and lands makes it unsurprising, as
Marincola observes (36), that it is in Egypt, the land of marvels, that Herodotus
takes on most strikingly the narrative manner of Odysseus, presenting himself as
the primary viewer of the exotica on display there, and actually appearing as a
character in his own work.110
The Odyssean figure of the traveller-historian and its implications for the
association of travel with wisdom and for the interpretation of travellers in
Herodotus’ own text, including Herodotus himself, alights upon an important
aspect of the narrative. There is, however, a danger in overprivileging the
Odyssean viewpoint at the expense of (p.31) other, more distanced
perspectives.111 An important corrective exists in Redfield’s influential article
(noted above, n. 78) on Herodotus’ travels in search of wisdom and ethnographic
diversity, as well as natural and man-made wonders. Redfield distinguishes
carefully between the processes of tourism, in which he argues Herodotus
engages, and ethnography, with its special claims to participant observation of
the subjects.112 His study has at least two interesting contributions to make to
the question of focalization in Herodotus: first, the proposal that Herodotus
views his world from a Hellenocentric perspective, and secondly, the connected
idea that this more distanced and externalized standpoint from which Herodotus
maps out a world of oppositions, symmetries, and ordered structure is
concurrent with and even dominant over Herodotus’ touristic stance as the
Odyssean historian.113 This sense of real complexity in the multifaceted
focalization of Herodotus’ work captures, in my view, an essential feature of the
text more accurately than accounts which rely on a stark polarity between Iliadic
bird’s-eye distance and Odyssean hodological experience in the conception and
articulation of space.114 I shall argue (in Chapter 2) for a whole spectrum of
standpoints from which Herodotus views his world and encourages his readers
to do the same, ranging from the most distant survey of whole continents and
river systems, through the eyes of those who travel through and experience
those same mighty, even epic landscapes on great expeditions, down to the
viewpoint of the individual traveller, including Herodotus himself. One
contribution that I hope to make to the wider discussion of focalization in
Herodotus is this sense of a full spectrum of levels of involvement and
detachment, which both reinforces the (p.32) strongly spatial nature of any
form of authorial perspective, and also focuses attention on the rich variety of
ways in which geographical space can be perceived and articulated.115 The
multiplicity of voices in the Histories emanating from the different sources and
speakers in the text combines with the multiple standpoints of even just the
authorial voice, viewing the world from different angles and at different levels of
remove, to produce a hugely complex range of perspectives.
Page 17 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
Nevertheless, there are various ways in which this single authorial figure is
subdivided into multiple voices.120 One obvious example is the explicit
incorporation of a wide range of sources, some literary, others oral informants,
Page 18 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
still others players within the narrative whose insights and opinions are
expressed in direct speech. In this sequence, the oral informants hold an
intriguing status as both ‘sources’ and (p.34) ‘players’ within the narrative, but
can be differentiated from characters within the narrative proper, who exist in
an earlier time frame and do not interact directly with Herodotus; rather, these
oral informants are characters within the contemporary metanarrative of the
creation of the overarching logos, in which Herodotus is the protagonist.121 One
might say that the explicit presence of oral and written sources, representing a
range of perspectives, is simply the inevitable consequence of Herodotus’ very
visible process of historiē, gathering in his information and weighing it up before
the reader’s eyes. Most scholars, however, naturally assume that the explicit
assignation of views and information to particular sources, whether literary or
oral, is a deliberate choice on the part of Herodotus,122 and that it is therefore
valid to attach significance to the question of in whose ‘voice’ a statement or
view is expressed.123
Page 19 of 40
‘…there was no Herodotus before Herodotus’
The unity of Herodotus’ world, or rather the permeability of the boundaries and
divisions which provide its articulation, enjoys some notable proponents. Many
commentators have noted important overlaps between Greek and barbarian
behaviour in particular. The sharp focus of successive commentaries has been
particularly effective at teasing out such subtleties. Flower and Marincola, in
their commentary on Book 9, observe not only the increasingly despotic
behaviour of the emerging Athenian imperialists after Mycale, and conversely
the (p.37) bravery of the Persians at Marathon, Plataea, and Mycale,129 but
also the various occasions on which Persians express stereotypically ‘Greek’
sentiments.130 Bowie’s excellent commentary on Book 8 similarly stresses the
lack of clear-cut distinctions between Greeks and Persians, joining the cause for
deconstructing any neat oppositions.131 Bowie, furthermore, eloquently
Page 20 of 40
Another random document with
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The analysis of the first German shell indicated that the mustard
gas contained therein had been prepared by the method published by
Victor Meyer (1886) and later used by Clark (1912) in England. It was
natural, therefore, that attention should be turned to the large scale
operation of this method.
The following operations are involved: Ethylene is prepared by the
dehydration of ethyl alcohol. The interaction of hypochlorous acid
(HClO) and ethylene yields ethylene chlorhydrin, ClCH₂CH₂OH.
When this is treated with sodium sulfide, dihydroxyethyl sulfide forms,
which, heated with hydrochloric acid, yields dichloroethyl sulfide.
Chemically, the reactions may be written as follows:
Ethylene
It was known from the work of certain French chemists that in the
presence of such a catalyst as kaolin, ethyl alcohol is dehydrated at an
elevated temperature to ethylene. The process as finally developed by
American chemists consisted essentially in introducing mixtures of
alcohol vapor and steam, in the ratio of one to one by weight, into an
8-inch iron tube with a 3-inch core, in contact with clay at 500-600° C.
The use of steam rendered the temperature control more uniform and
thus each unit had a greater capacity of a higher grade product. The
gaseous products were removed through a water-cooled surface
condenser. One unit of this type had a demonstrated capacity of 400
cubic feet per hour of ethylene, between 92 and 95 per cent pure,
while the conversion efficiency (alcohol to ethylene) was about 85 per
cent. The Edgewood plant consisted of 40 such units. This would have
yielded sufficient ethylene to make 40 tons of mustard gas per 24-hour
day.
The English procedure consisted in the use of phosphoric acid,
absorbed onto coke. An American furnace was designed and built
which gave 2,000 cubic feet per hour of ethylene, with a purity of 98 to
99 per cent. This furnace was not used on a large scale, because of
the satisfactory nature of the kaolin furnaces.
Fig. 30.—Experimental Installation for the Production
of Ethylene by Kaolin Procedure.
Capacity 400-600 cu. ft. Ethylene per hr.
Sulfur Chloride
Since chlorine was prepared at Edgewood, it was logical that some
of this chlorine should be utilized in the preparation of sulfur chloride.
The plant constructed consisted of 30 tanks (78 inches in diameter
and 35 feet long), each capable of producing 20,000 pounds of
monochloride per day. The tanks are partially filled with sulfur and
chlorine passed in. The reaction proceeds rapidly with sufficient heat
to keep the sulfur in a molten condition. If the chlorine is passed in too
rapidly, the heat generated may be sufficient to boil off the sulfur
chloride formed. Hence water pipes are provided so that a supply of
cold water may be sprayed upon the tanks, keeping the temperature
within the proper limits.
Fig. 31.—Row of Furnaces for the Preparation of
Ethylene.
“Preparation of Dihydroxyethylsulfide—To
prepare the hydroxysulfide, the theoretical quantity of
sodium sulfide, either in the form of the anhydrous
salt or as crystals, was added to the 18 to 20 per cent
solution of chlorhydrin. After the addition of the
sulfide, the mixture was heated to about 90° to 100°.
It was then pumped to an evaporator, and heated
until all the water was driven off. The glycol was next
filtered from the salt which separated, and distilled in
a vacuum. The yield of glycol was about 90 per cent
of the theoretical, calculated from the chlorhydrin.
“Preparation of Dichlorethylsulfide—The
thiodiglycol was taken from the rail to two large
storage tanks and thence drawn by vacuum direct to
the reaction vessel. Each reaction vessel was placed
in a separate cubicle ventilated both from above and
below and fitted with glass windows for inspection.
The vessels themselves were made of 1¼ in. cast
iron and lined with 10 mm. lead. They were 2.5 m.
high and 2.8 m. in diameter. These tanks were
jacketed so that they could be heated by water and
steam, and the reaction was carried out at 50°. The
hydrochloric acid coming from the main pipe was
passed through sulfuric acid so that the rate could be
observed, and passed in by means of 12 glass tubes
of about 2 cm. diameter. The rate of flow was
maintained at as high a rate as possible to procure
absorption. The vapors from the reaction were led
from the vessel through a pipe into a collecting room,
and then through a scrubber containing charcoal and
water, through a separator, and then, finally, into the
chimney. These exhaust gases were drawn off by
means of a fan which was also connected with the
lower part of the chamber in which the reaction
vessels were set, so that all the gases had to pass
through the scrubber before going to the chimney.
When the reaction was completed, the oil was
removed by means of a vacuum, induced by a water
pump, into a cast iron washing vessel.
“The hydrochloric acid layer was removed to a
stoneware receiver, also by vacuum. A glass enabled
the operator to avoid drawing oil over with the acid.
The pan was fitted with a thermometer to the interior
as well as to the jacket. For testing the material
during reaction, provision was made for drawing
some up by vacuum to a hydrometer contained in a
glass funnel. The final test at this point read 126° Tw.
Another portion could be drawn up to a test glass and
hydrochloric acid passed through it in full view. A float
contained in a glass outer tube served to show the
level of the liquid in the vessel. The pans in which the
operation is carried on, as well as those employed for
washing and distilling the product, were of a standard
pattern employed in many other operations in the
works.
“The washer consisted of a cast iron vessel, lead
lined, and was 2.5 m. in diameter, 2 m. deep, and
fitted with a dome cover and stirring gear. Lead pipes
served for the introduction of sodium carbonate
solution and water. Similar pipes were fitted for
drawing these off by means of a vacuum. A manhole
on the cover, with a flat top, was fitted with light and
sight glasses to which were fitted a small steam coil
for keeping them clear. The washed oil is drawn off to
a distillation still, which is a cast iron vessel
homogeneously lead coated, 1.5 m. in diameter and
2 m. deep, fitted with a lead heating coil and
connected through a spiral lead condenser and
receiver to a vacuum pump. The water is distilled
from the oil at a pressure of from 62 to 70 mm.
absolute pressure. When dried, the oil is sent by
vacuum to a mixing vessel, similar in most respects
to the washing vessel, in which it is mixed with an
appointed quantity of solvent, which, in this factory,
was usually chlorobenzene but occasionally carbon
tetrachloride. The relative quantities varied with the
time of year, and instructions were sent from Berlin
on this point. Thence the mixture was passed to a
storage tank and into tank-wagons.”
Properties
Dichloroethylsulfide (mustard gas) is a colorless, oily liquid, which
has a faint mustard odor. The pure material is said to have an odor
very suggestive of that of water cress. While the odor is more or less
characteristic, it is possible to have extremely dangerous amounts of
the gas in a neighborhood without being detected through its odors. It
still seems to be an open question whether mustard gas paralyzes the
sense of smell. One can find opinions on both sides.
Mustard gas boils at 215°-217° C. at atmospheric pressure, so that
it is at once seen to be a very persistent gas. It distills without
decomposition at this temperature but is best purified by vacuum
distillation, or by distillation with steam. A still for the vacuum
distillation of mustard gas has been described by Streeter.[20]
Mustard gas melts, when pure, at 13° to 14° C. (The ordinary
summer temperature is 20°-25° C.). The ordinary product, as obtained
from the “reactor,” melts from 9°-10° C. In order that the product in the
shell might be liquid at all temperatures, winter as well as summer, the
Germans added from 10 to 30 per cent of chlorobenzene, later using a
mixture of chlorobenzene and nitrobenzene and still later pure
nitrobenzene. Carbon tetrachloride has also been used as a means of
lowering the melting point. Many other mixtures, such as chloropicrin,
hydrocyanic acid, bromoacetone, etc., were tested, but were not used.
The effect on the melting point of mustard gas is shown in the
following table:
Chemical Properties
Mustard gas is very slowly decomposed by water, owing to its very
slight solubility. The products are dihydroxyethylsulfide and
hydrochloric acid:
Detection
At first the only method of detecting mustard gas was through the
sense of smell. It was then believed that concentrations which could
not be detected in this way were harmless. Later this proved not to be
the case, and more delicate methods had to be devised. In the
laboratory and in the field these tests were not very satisfactory,
because most of them depended upon the presence of chlorine, and
the majority of the war gases contained chlorine or one of the other
halogens. The Lantern Test depended upon the accumulation of the
halogen upon a copper gauze and the subsequent heating of the
gauze in a Bunsen flame. This test could be made to detect one part
of mustard gas in ten million parts of air. Another field detector devised
by the Chemical Warfare Service consisted in the use of selenious
acid. Here again the lack of specificity is apparent, for while certain
halogen compounds did not give the test, arsine and organic
arsenicals gave a positive reaction and often in a shorter time than
mustard gas.
The Germans are said to have had plates covered with a yellow
composition which had the property of turning black in the presence of
mustard gas. These plates were lowered into the bottom of recently
captured trenches and if, after a few minutes, they turned black, the
presence of mustard gas was suspected. It is also stated that the
characteristic yellow paint on the olive of the mustard gas shell had
the same composition, and was useful in detecting leaky shell.
According to a deserter’s statement, however, reliance upon this test
resulted in casualties in several instances.
A white paint has also been reported which turned red in the
presence of mustard gas. This color change was not characteristic, for
tests made by our Army showed that other oils (aniline, turpentine,
linseed) were found to produce the same effect.
The Chemical Warfare Service was able to develop an enamel and
an oil paint which were very sensitive detectors of mustard gas. Both
of these were yellow and became dark red in contact with mustard
gas. The change was practically instantaneous. The enamel consisted
of chrome yellow as pigment mixed with oil scarlet and another dye,
and a lacquer vehicle, which is essentially a solution of nitrocellulose
in amyl acetate. One gallon of this enamel will cover 946,500 sq. cm.,
or a surface equivalent to a band 3 cm. wide on 12,500 seven cm.
shell.
The paint was composed of a mixture of 50 per cent raw linseed oil
and 50 per cent Japan drier, with the above dye mixture added to the
required consistency. In contact with liquid mustard gas, this changes
to a deep crimson in 4 seconds. Furthermore, in contact with
arsenicals, this paint changes to a color varying from deep purple to
dark green, the color change being almost instantaneous and very
sensitive, even to the vapors of these compounds. Other substances
have no effect upon the paint.
For field work, however, nothing was found equal to the trained
nose, and it is questionable if any of the mechanical means described
will be used in the field.
Physiological Action
One of the most interesting phases of mustard gas is its peculiar
physiological action. This has been studied extensively, both as relates
to the toxicity and to the skin or blistering effect.
Toxicity
When one considers the high boiling point of mustard gas, and its
consequent low vapor pressure, he is likely to conclude that such a
substance would be of comparatively little value as a toxic or poison
gas. While it is true that an important part of the military value of
mustard gas has been because of its vesicant properties, the fact still
remains that it is one of our most toxic war gases. The following
comparison with a few of the other gases indicates this:
Mg. per Liter
Mice Dogs
Mustard gas 0.2 0.05
Phosgene 0.3 ···
Hydrocyanic acid 0.2 0.1
Chloropicrin 1.5 0.8
··· 3.0
When an animal is exposed to the vapors of mustard gas in high
concentration, it subsequently shows a complexity of symptoms, which
may be divided into two classes:
(1) The local effects on the eyes, skin and respiratory tract. These
are well recognized and consist mainly of conjunctivitis and superficial
necrosis of the cornea; hyperemia, œdema and later, necrosis of the
skin, leading to a skin lesion of great chronicity; and congestion and
necrosis of the epithelial lining of the trachea and bronchi.
(2) The systemic effects due to the absorption of the substance into
the blood stream, and its distribution to the various tissues of the body.
The most striking observation about the symptoms of mustard gas
poisoning is the latent period which elapses after exposure before any
serious objective or subjective effects are noted. The developments of
the effects are then quite slow, unless very high superlethal doses
have been inhaled.
At first it was a very serious question whether or not the temporary
blindness resulting from mustard gas would not be permanent. Later,
as the depth and seriousness of some of the body burns became well
known, it was a seven-day wonder that no permanent blindness
occurred.
The reason seems to be largely a mechanical one. The constant
winking of the eyelids apparently washes the mustard gas off the
eyeball and carries it away so that not enough remains to burn to the
depth necessary to cause permanent blindness.
Due to the very slight concentrations ordinarily encountered in the
field, resulting from a very slow rate of evaporation, the death rate is
very low, probably under 1 per cent among the Americans gassed with
mustard during the war.
If, on the other hand, the gas be widely and very finely dispersed
by a heavy charge of explosive in the shell, the gas is very deadly. In
such cases the injured breathe in minute particles of the liquid and
thus get hundreds of times the amount of gas that would be inhaled as
vapor. This so-called “high explosive mustard gas shell” was a
German development in the very last months of the war. Its effects
were great enough to make it certain that in the future large numbers
of these shell will be used.
The similarity of the symptoms and pathological effects after the
inhalation of large amounts of the vapor and those following an
injection of an olive oil or water solution of mustard gas led Marshall
and his associates to conclude that in high concentrations mustard
gas is absorbed through the lungs. A further bit of evidence consists in
the isolation of the hydrolysis product, dihydroxyethylsulfide, in the
urine of animals poisoned by inhalation of mustard gas. This product is
not toxic and is not responsible for the effects of mustard gas.
Hydrochloric acid, however, does produce very definite effects upon
the animal and may cause death.
From these facts Marshall[21] has proposed the following
mechanism of the action of mustard gas:
“Dichlorethylsulphide is very slightly soluble in
water and very freely soluble in organic solvents, or
has a high lipoid solubility or partition coefficient. It
would, therefore, be expected to penetrate cells very
readily. Its rapid powers of penetration are practically
proven by its effects upon the skin. Having
penetrated within the living cell, it would undoubtedly
hydrolyze. The liberation of free hydrochloric acid
within the cell would produce serious effects and
might account for the actions of dichlorethylsulphide.
To summarize, then, the mechanism of the action of
dichlorethylsulphide appears to be as follows: