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Alec Collins
Greek Thought & Literature
Kendall Sharp
Paper 2: Herodotus
Prompt 2

11/15/15

Herodotus Ladder of Balanced Rungs

While many consider Herodotus to be the father of history, an initial reading of his Histories can
easily make him seem to be a violent drunk of a paternal figure whose depredations were a barrier that
true historical enquiry just managed to overcome. Indeed, to modern sensibilities, Herodotus tales of
half-serpent seductresses, a sun blown off course evaporating great rivers, and Giant Hyperboreans living
in the far north seem less the work of a rigorous and empirical historical enquiry and more like evidence
for all the worst tendencies ascribed to the unsophisticated past. However, upon reflection, it becomes
clear that this viewpoint is gravely unjust to poor old Herodotus, because it judges him under the
standards of the present day rather than the rubric that he himself applies in his work. Given his
provenance from Halicarnassus in Greek Ionia, it is perhaps unsurprising that this rubric is the one the
Ionian Rationalists of Miletus turned to after their rejection of the Gods of Greek mythology as a valid
epistemological theory: namely, that the operations of the universe accord to the principles of balance,
symmetry, and reciprocity. Herodotus adheres to these principles throughout his work, applying them at
every level of a ladder of existence that begins with the very nature of the world, reaches its apex with the
course of human events, and covers every level in between. This consistency unifies his work under one
concrete worldview that was the best explanation Herodotus had for why things are the way they are.
Starting at the most basic level, Herodotus identifies the Ionian value of symmetry in the very
shape of the world around him. In his discussion of Egypt, he makes what is now known to be an
erroneous claim that the Nile flows through the whole of Libya and is the same length as the Ister
despite the fact that he himself admits that no one can state where the source of the Nile is (II. 34) and
therefore it is impossible that he knows its length. Still, Herodotus is inclined to accept this hypothesis the
Niles course because having its course through Asia mirror precisely that of Ister through Europe is the
most symmetrical solution. In another instance, Herodotus argues that there is gold in exceedingly large

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quantities to be found in the north of Europe, but again I have no reliable information to pass on about
how it is obtained (III.116). However, his phrasing clearly demonstrates that he has no solid information
about the mining of precious metals in this region. Still, he is assured of the validity of this claim
regarding the worlds make-up because it would create symmetry to other outermost reaches of the
world that he knows contain things which strike us as particularly attractive and unusual (III.116).
While these decisions ought to leave modern geographers puzzled, for Herodotus, the balance that he
believes governed the world makes the claims justifiable.
Herodotus next builds upon this foundation and extends the precept of balance to the life forms
that inhabits his symmetrical world. In a brief foray into biology, he notes that all timid and edible
creatures produce young in large quantities, because otherwise they might be eaten into extinction, while
all fierce and dangerous creatures produce young in small quantities (III. 108). For Herodotus, the way
the reproduction habits of predators and prey are tailored to maintain their numbers and the balance
between them is a clear example of the way the ideals of Ionian Rationalism are inherently present in the
natural world. Interestingly enough, this is one instance in which Herodotus claims and modern thought
do not come into conflict, as the Biologists who developed the theory of population equilibrium can
attest. However, these scientists would still likely take issue with the example Herodotus gives to
illustrate this principle: namely, Arabian flying snakes that kill their mothers in order to be born. Still,
despite the fantastic nature of this example, what is important to Herodotus is how it confirms the
existence of balance in the natural world.
Herodotus then extends his argument from balance in animals to symmetry in human physiology.
In his discussion of the Indians and Ethiopians, he states that All the Indian tribes I have described []
are almost as black in colour as Ethiopians. The semen they ejaculate into their women is as black as their
skin, not white like that of other men; the same goes for the semen Ethiopians ejaculate too (III. 101).
Here, Herodotus strikes a symmetry between skin and semen color that seems ridiculous. However, for
Herodotus, who had probably never met an Indian in his life, the claim creates a symmetry that accords
with the balance he finds elsewhere in the world and so does not seem implausible.

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Herodotus also extends the same reasoning from human nature to human nurture or custom.
Remarking upon the nature of Egyptian customs, he says that In keeping with the idiosyncratic climate
which prevails there and the fact that their river behaves differently from any other river, almost all
Egyptian customs and practices are the opposite of those everywhere else (II.35) and goes on to list
numerous examples that range from the supported, for example Egyptian script being right to left
(although other scripts certainly were as well), to the implausible, such as Egyptian women standing to
urinate. Despite the fact that the Egyptians probably did not do everything opposite from other peoples,
Herodotus advances the claim that they did in order to draw a symmetry between the unique geography
and hydrology of Egypt and the customs of its people.
Finally, the value system is extended from human custom to the fates of individual humans. One
example is the saga of the fall of Croesus Lydian Empire to the Persians. While most historians would
likely frame this event in terms of the economic, social, and political causes of the war and the two
armies relative strengths, dispositions, tactics, and strategy, Herodotus inquiry focuses directly on
Croesus and how his fate is an example of the universe returning to balance. There are two related ways
that balance guides the narrative. First, as the Delphic oracle explains, by the end of the story arc,
Croesus has paid for the crime of his ancestor four generations ago, who, though a member of the
personal guard of the Heraclidae, gave in to a womans guile, killed his master, and assumed a station that
was not rightfully his at all (I. 90), in line with an earlier prophecy that for the Heraclidae vengeance
would come on the fourth in descent from Gyges (I. 13). Addressing a second imbalance, the oracle
continues, Moreover [], Loxias predicted that if [Croesus] invaded Persia, he would destroy a great
empire. Faced with this, if he had thought about it he would have sent men to enquire whether Loxias
meant Cyrus empire or his own (I.90). However, the oracle implies, Croesus in his hubris assumed that
his empire was so powerful and glorious that the prophecy could only refer to the Persians, and this
excessive pride resulted in further imbalance. Both these imbalances were only rectified upon Croesus
downfall. This framing of the narrative illustrates how Herodotus views events not as the of result
inexorable historical processes or even the actions of great men but instead as a manifestation of the

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precepts of Ionian rationalism that he finds govern every other part of the world. Herodotus also
continuously extends this narrative of balance to other historical events throughout his work, finding
faults with the Persian rulers Cyrus, Cambyses, Imposter Smerdis, and Xerxes that created imbalances
which were rectified upon their eventual downfalls. On a grander scale, the arc of the entire work is an
example of this imbalance-to-balance dynamic, as the overall narrative of the Persian Wars follows first
the imbalance created by Barbarian empires aggression against the Greeks and the restoration of that
balance upon the Greeks victory over Xerxes massive army.
Clearly, the values of symmetry, balance, and reciprocity guide Herodotus inquiry at every rung
of the ladder he constructs between geography and historiography. Herodotus applies these values so
steadfastly, even at points where they do not seem to fit, because doing so achieves something that was in
his time radical: the establishment of consistent intellectual foundation for an inquiry. In finding this
foundation, it was natural for Herodotus and the thinkers he followed to turn to the ideas of balance,
symmetry and reciprocity, ubiquitous as they are in the everyday dichotomies of night and day, winter and
summer, predator and prey, water and fire, man and woman, and young and old. Though these are not the
principles that today are foundational to the inquiries Herodotus addressed 2500 years ago and therefore
Herodotus work can appear uninformed or illogical to modern eyes, in reality, without Herodotus
revolutionary application of his own consistent worldview to a broad range of fields, the idea of resting
inquiry of any sort of principles may have never gotten started in the first place. So, in the end, the father
of history turns out to be at the very least a beloved, and indeed sober, uncle of the great intellectual
tradition.