West S. Herodotus in the North? Reflections on a Colossal Cauldron (4.81) (2000)

West S. Herodotus in the North? Reflections on a Colossal Cauldron (4.81) // Scripta Classica Israelica. — 2000. — Vol. 19. — P. 15–34. DOI: 10.71043/sci.v19i.3989

Аннотация

Nearly 150 years ago J.W. Blakesley, in the introduction to his commentary, protested against anachronistic assumptions about the manner in which Herodotus gathered his material: ‘Every one accustomed to the facilities which the present time offers involuntarily attributes to any individual of the same social position with himself similar methods of effecting any given purpose — unconsciously forgetting the entirely different conditions of social existence which an interval of more than 2000 years implies’. In particular, the modem reader tends to underestimate the problems of travel. ‘The mere difficulties and dangers of locomotion were enormous. Until the time of Alexander the seas swarmed with pirates, and the land with banditti (Polybius, iii 58, 59). The only countries to which there is any satisfactory evidence of Greek visitors having resorted for the mere purpose of gratifying an intelligent curiosity are Lydia (under the reign of Croesus) and Egypt, with both of which places there existed direct commercial relations of considerable importance. Where this was the case, the interest of the states whose revenue was increased by levying duties upon the merchants would induce them to render the access of foreigners something safer.

Ключевые слова

геродот, скифы, античная география, историография древности, этнография, путешествия в античности, историческая критика источников