previous next

The story of Democedes is skilfully introduced by H. as a link between the two main parts of his subject; it both fits on to the events which accompanied the accession of Darius and introduces the aggression against Europe. For Kirchhoff's argument as to Herodotean chronology based on it cf. Intr. § 10 (pp. 9-12). It need hardly be said that the importance assigned to Democedes is not historical; the ‘curtain lecture of Atossa’ (Macan) is a popular invention to account for events whose causes lay far deeper (cf. Introd. § 32, p. 45). H. seems to be blending a Crotoniate story with details heard at Halicarnassus (c. 138 n.), and with Persian stories as to the influence of Atossa.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: