2 Herodotus and Plato

For several weeks I’ve been reading Herodotus. In the third book I came across passages 80-82 that reminded me of Plato. I went on, ploughing through the third book, and came as far as 115-116, in which Herodotus, after discussing countries at the furthest limits of Asia and Libya comes to the west limits of Europe, of which he can say nothing with certainty (atrekeȏs legein). But all this time I was thinking that I should put the passages 80-82 on my blog.

What made me reluctant to undertake this task was the amount of work it involved; for it involved an introduction, which would cover a lot of ground, but which I should make as short as possible. I might begin with 61 : ‘Cambyses, son of Cyrus, after going out of his mind (paraphronȇsanti), still lingered on in Egypt; and while he was there, two brothers, who belonged to the caste of the Magi, rose in rebellion against him at home. One of them – Patizeithes – had been left by Cambyses as controller of his household (meledȏn) during his absence, and this was the one who planned the revolt. Aware that Smerdis [the younger brother of Cambyses] was dead, but that his death was concealed from all but a few of the Persians, most of whom believed that he was still alive, he took advantage of this state of affairs to make a bid for the thrown. The brother [of Patizeithes] bore a strong resemblance to Cyrus’ son Smerdis, Cambyses’ murdered brother. Besides the physical likeness, it also happened that he bore the same name. Patizeithes having persuaded this brother of his made him take his seat upon the royal thrown, and then sent out a proclamation to the troops that they should take their orders in future not from Cambyses but from Smerdis.’

61 tells the story from the point of view of Magus Patizeithes. How did it look from Cambyses’ point of view? At 62 we learn that the herald sent to Egypt found Cambyses and his troops in Syria: ‘Here he took his stand before the assembled troops and proclaimed the new order. Cambyses at once supposed that what the herald said was true and that Prexaspes, whom he had sent to Persia to get rid of Smerdis, had failed to do so, and betrayed him. He looked at Prexaspes and said: “So that is the way you carried out my orders?” Prexaspes replied: “Your brother Smerdis has not rebelled against you. I did what you told me to do, and buried him with my own hands. My advice to you is, that we catch this herald to find out who it was that sent him with this order to obey King Smerdis.” When the herald was brought in, Cambyses asked: “Did Smerdis in person give you these orders, or was it one of his subordinates?” The herald replied that since Cambyses went with his army to Egypt he never set eyes upon Smerdis the son of Cyrus; it was the Magus Patizeithes, whom Cambyses made steward of his household, who gave him the orders: “He said it was on the authority of Smerdis that I was to give the message.” Cambyses then turned to Prexaspes: “You have carried out my orders like an honest man; but tell me – who can it be who has assumed Smerdis’ name and risen in revolt against me?” Prexaspes replied: “I think, my lord, that I understand what has happened: the rebels are the two Magi – Patizeithes, whom you left in control of your household, and his brother Smerdis.”

The moment Cambyses heard the name, he realized that his dream that Smerdis was sitting on the thrown with his head touching the sky, had been fulfilled, the murder of his brother was to no purpose; in bitterness and anger he leapt upon his horse, meaning to march in all speed to Susa and attack the Magus. But as he was springing into the saddle, the cap fell of the sheath of his sword, exposing the blade, which pierced his thigh – just at the spot where he had previously struck Apis the sacred Egyptian bull.’

***

Under normal circumstances, I would now go back to the story of Cambyses and the sacred Apis. But I am afraid to do so, for in my original ‘Herodotus and Plato’, which I wrote a day before yesterday, the first two pages suddenly disappeared. What I was left with was the beginning of the third page – a snippet from Darius’ speech, which reminds me of Plato’s discussion of democracy in the Republic – which follows:

‘Nd so it goes on, until somebody or other comes forward as the peoples’ champion and breaks up the cliques which are out of their own interests. This wins him the admiration of the mob, and as a result he soon finds himself entrusted with absolute power – all of which is another proof that the best form of government is monarchy.’

Note the opening ‘Nd’. I wrote ‘And’, which in front of my eyes turned into ‘Nd’. I tried to change this intruding ‘Nd’ back into ‘And’, in vain.

I noted in my posts many interferences in my work on the computer, but this is something new.