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Herodotus and the Reconstruction of History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
Extract
In selecting for the purpose of illustrating Herodotus' conception of the proper relation of ἀπὀδεξις to ἱστορίη his account of the Lydian emigration to Italy, I have not had in mind the requirements of the Etruscologist alone. The Lydian setting of the story raises the whole question of the sources for the reconstruction of the Dark Ages of Aegean history which Greek historians, at the time of Herodotus and earlier, had at their disposal.
It is well known that from the point of view of Etruscologists this migration story, which is usually accepted by them as a genuine tradition of origin, is dated five centuries too early; and although the arguments of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, which mainly stress the total dissimilarity of Etruscan and Lydian culture, are insufficient reason for discrediting Herodotus after the lapse of so many centuries and in an age when philology was not a science, to suppose without further investigation a mistake of 500 years is not only unfair to Herodotus, but may remove whatever basis of fact the tradition originally contained.
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- Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1930
References
1 The arrival of the Etruscans in Italy is dated by Randall MacIver (Villanovans and Early Etruscans) at the end of the ninth century B.C., by Ducati, (Etruria Antica, p. 48Google Scholar) a century later. Herod, i. 7 dates the migration from Lydia at least 505 years before Gyges, i.e. thirteenth century B.C., at the latest.
2 Herod. vii. 171.
3 Herod, vii. 170.
4 Ibid. iv. 191.
5 Suidas, s.v. 
6 Hellanicus, ap. Dion. Hal. i. 28. Cf. Lycophr, . Alex. 1242–1249Google Scholar. ‘Teutamides,’ the father of their leader Nanas, is faked from Τϵυταμίδαο, ΠϵλασγοῦGoogle Scholar of Il. ii. 843Google Scholar. For the location of his kingdom between the Caicus and Hermus, cf. Strabo, xiii. 3. 2.
7 Whereas Myrsilus of Lesbos (?) follows approximately the genealogy given by Herodotus, tracing the descent of Lydus and Tyrrhenus from Manes and Cotys (ap. Dion. Hal. i. 27).
8 Herod. iv. 45: 
9 i.e. the Pessinus region. Cf. Strabo xii. 5, 3.
10 Cf. B.C.H. xi. (1887), p. 349. On the temple of Adrasteia at Cyzicus cf. Strabo, xiii. 1. 13.
11 Cf. Ramsay, , Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, Vol. ii. p. 588Google Scholar n.
12 Head, , Hist. Num. p. 565Google Scholar (
and 
), and Drexler, note (in Neue Jahrb. Phil, cxlv. (1892), p. 842Google Scholar) on a similar inscribed coin. Boethius, Inst. Mus. 20, has the name ‘Coroebus Atyis filius,’ but cf. Plut., Mus. 15Google Scholar, Xanthus ap. Dion. Hal. i. 28.
13 For Apollo Tarsenos at Pergamon, cf. Ath. Mitt. xxiv. p. 213Google Scholar; for Meter Tarsene at Kula, Keil, , Die Kulte Lydiens, in Anatolian Studies presented to Sir W. Ramsay, p. 251Google Scholar, and Musée Belge, xi. p. 133; for Apollo Tarsios and Apollo Tarseus at Kula, Keil loc. cit.; for the possible connection of all these cult-names with Tarsus, v. p. 94 and note 22 below.
14 Herod. i. 131.
15 On this subject see Eisler's work, Orpheus the Fisher.
16 Keil, op. cit., p. 250 (on worship of Anaitis and Persike Thea).
17 Herod, i. 105.
18 Id. ii. 44.
19 Id. ii. 121, 136 init. Cf. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, iv. 16, 191. The colossi have now disappeared.
20 Breasted, loc. cit.
21 Cf. e.g. Breasted, op. cit., iii. § 580, and iv., p. 3 ff.
22 T'r'sh = ‘men of Tarshish?’ i.e. of Tarsus in Cilicia. Cf. Joseph, . Ant. Jud. i. 127Google Scholar, 
(i.e. because the native word was impossible for Greeks to pronounce). 
or 
looks like another attempt (cf. above p. 92 and note 13). Cilicians are suitable ‘brothers of Kittim’ (Cypriotes) and ‘Rhodanim’ (Rhodians, , cf. Genesis, x. 4Google Scholar), and their ancestors, perhaps from further north, may well have taken part in this invasion of Egypt.
23 Breasted, iii. § 580; cf. iv. § 129.
24 Herod, ii. 142: 
25 Hence Herodotus (i. 7) supposes the ‘Maeomans’ to change their name to Lydians in the generation of the migration. The significance of the change was a controversial question later. Cf. Strabo, xii. 8. 3.
26 ‘Yarsu (?), a certain Syrian,’ on the evidence of the Harris Papyrus. Cf. Breasted, , Ancient Records, iv. § 398.Google Scholar
27 341 in Herod, ii. 142. The number 345 given to Hecataeus (id. ii. 143) who must therefore have visited Thebes before the death of Amasis, includes also the first four Saite kings. Cf. also Herod, ii. 43, 
‘to the beginning of A.'s reign,’ referring apparently to the same conversation with Hecataeus.
28 Poole, , Horae Aegyptiacae, p. 94.Google Scholar
29 According to Censorinus, a cycle ended in A.D. 139 (Petrie, , History of Egypt, p. 250Google Scholar). The preceding cycles would therefore end in 1321 B.C., 2781, 4241, 5701, 7161 …
30 Cf. Addendum.
31 Herod. vii. 171 (Cretans). The ‘third (Egyptian) generation’ before the Trojan war gives approximately the date of the destruction of Cnossus. Cf. also Hellanicus and Philistus, ap. Dion. Hal. i. 22, and for transference of Cretan tradition into Italian history, cf. Vergil, , Aeneid, iii. 142Google Scholar (famine after the Trojan war), with Herod. vii. 171.