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Two Herodotean dedications from Naucratis*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

D. W. J. Gill
D. W. J. Gill*
Affiliation:
Lincoln College, Oxford
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Extract

In the 1903 season of excavations at Naucratis two sherds of Athenian pottery, inscribed with the name of a Herodotus, were found. They were subsequently presented to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by the excavator, D. G. Hogarth. In this note I would like to question the supposed relationship between these two ‘signatures’ and the historian Herodotus, who dedicated part of his work to a study of Egypt.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 106 , November 1986 , pp. 184 - 187
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1986

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References

1 For Herodotus in Egypt, see especially Brown, T. S., AJP lxxxvi (1965) 60–76 Google Scholar; Lloyd, A. B., Herodotus Book II, Introduction (Leiden 1975) 61–76 Google Scholar. Armayor, O. K., JARCE 15 (1978) 59–73 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (cf. HSCP 84 [1980] 51–74 Google Scholar), is too sceptical.

2 JHS xxv (1905) 116 Google Scholar fig. 2, nos 5 and 6.

3 Bernand 706, 648 and 707, 649.

4 JHS xxv (1905) 116 Google Scholar, fig. 2, no. 5; Bernand 707, 648; CVA 1(3) pl. 14 (106) 21; ARV 2 93, 93.

5 The inscription could only be read when the cup was inverted, or it could have been dedicated after it had been broken. Some of the dedications were made on broken vases, e.g. Oxford G. 141.32 ( JHS xxv [1905] 116 Google Scholar fig. 2, no. 37; Bernand 709, 680), a foot fragment from a neck-amphora. The graffito, ΙΡ.ΑΘΣ, is written on what was the inside.

6 CVA Oxford 1(3) text 13.

7 JHS xxv (1905) 114 and 116 Google Scholar fig. 2, no. 6; Bernand 707, 649.

8 Petrie, W. M. Flinders, Naukratis i (London 1886) 55 Google Scholar; cf. Hdt. iii 4.

9 Gardner, E. A., Naukratis ii (London 1888) 65 Google Scholar.

10 BSA v (1898–1899) 56 Google Scholar.

11 BSA v (1898–1899) 57 Google Scholar.

12 JHS xxv (1905) 116 Google Scholar.

13 AA xix (1904) 192 Google Scholar.

14 JEA iii (1916) 77 Google Scholar.

15 Orient und Antike iii (1926) 13 Google Scholar; Spiegelberg, W., The credibility of Herodotus' account of Egypt in the light of the Egyptian monuments (Oxford 1927) 12–13 Google Scholar [translation by A. W. Blackman].

16 AJA lvii (1953) 193 n. 40Google Scholar.

17 CVA Oxford 1(3) text 13.

18 E.g. Boardman, J., The Creeks overseas, their early colonies and trade (London 1980) 132 Google Scholar.

19 Berlin inv. 4514 (ARV 2 76, 78; Bloesch FAS pl. 34, 4c).

20 Cf. Boardman ARFH 57.

21 Oxford 1911.617 (ARV 2 559, 152; Beazley Addenda 127; Bloesch FAS pl. 37, 2).

22 Cf. Boardman ARFH 181.

23 Leipzig T540 (part), T3599 (part), T3677, Tübingen E38, Heidelberg 22 (ARV 2 93, 91).

24 Tours 863–2–67 (ARV 2 93, 90; Beazley Addenda 84).

25 Cf. Boardman ARFH 60.

26 See Francis, E. D. and Vickers, M., PCPS ccvii (1981) 97–136 Google Scholar; cf. R. Tolle-Kastenbein, AA 1983, 573–584. With implications for the chronology of vase-painting, Francis, E. D. and Vickers, M., JHS ciii (1983) 49–67 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Herodotus' birth year is traditionally given as 484 (Aul. Cell, xv 23). This is unlikely to be correct, but most would date his birth about the 480's. Cf. Powell, J. Enoch, The History of Herodotus (Cambridge 1939) 84 Google Scholar. A possible visit to Egypt would have been expected between the Peace of Callias (449) and ‘sometime before 430’ (Lloyd [n. 1] 66). However, for the Peace of Callias in the 460's see Walsh, J., Chiron xi (1981) 31–63 Google Scholar.

28 Agora xii 12.

29 This is best shown by a workshop group from the second quarter of the fourth century, Corbett, P. E., Hesp. xxiv (1955) 172–186 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Slightly later than the Naucratis foot, Newcastle 163 (AR 1969–70, 61–62 no. 16). In Reading, no number, there is now a rim fragment from such a cup-kantharos from Egypt, presented by the Egypt Exploration Fund.

30 For a comparison between cup-skyphoi and cup-kantharoi see Agora xii fig. 6 nos. 612, 617 and 621 (cup-skyphoi) and nos. 648–650 (cup-kantharoi). Heavy-walled cup-skyphoi from Naucratis include Oxford G.139.1, G.141.41 and G.141.48.

31 Jena I (ARV 2 1515, 66 [Style C]; JHS lxiv [1944] 71, 17 and 75 Google Scholar).

32 London 1867.5–12.33 (ARV 2 1519, 21: JHS lxiv [1944] 74, 28 and 75 Google Scholar).

33 For rouletting see Agora xii 30–31.

34 Corinth C-37-211 (Agora xii fig. 6, 648 and pl. 56, 648) and C–37–212 (ibid. fig. 6, 649). Virtually identical is a cup-skyphos from the Troad, Charterhouse 89.1960.

35 Stockholm M 36.8 ( Gjerstad, E., Lindros, J., Sjöqvist, E. and Westholm, A., The Swedish Cyprus expedition, finds and results of the excavations in Cyprus ii [Stockholm 1935] 277 Google Scholar and pls. 1 and cxlii, 1).

36 Workshop links can be seen between Cyprus and Egypt. On the underside of a fragmentary Attic black-glazed bolsal from Naucratis, London 1900.2–4.17 ( BSA v [1898–1899] 56, 114 Google Scholar; Masson, O., Les Inscriptions Syllabiques Chypriotes [Paris 1961] 354, 370 Google Scholar; Johnston, A. W., Pottery from Naukratis [London 1978] 17 Google Scholar), is part of a Cypriot syllabic graffito, ka-wa?. Two identical bowls with rilled rims, though using different palmette stamps, come from Marion (Oxford 1933.1702 [T. 5]) and Naucratis (Oxford 1912.40). Two identical amphoriskoi from the workshop of Edinburgh 1885.168 come from Marion (Oxford 1890.675 [B. 4]: JHS xi [1890] 50 Google Scholar) and Alexandria ( Pagenstecher, R., Expedition Sieglin II. 3: Die griechischägyptische Sammlung Ernst von Sieglin [Leipzig 1913) 21 fig. 27Google Scholar). A cup by the Euergides Painter (Lost: ARV 2 96, 134) and one in his manner (London E28: ARV 2 98, 13) also come from Marion. For further links between Cyprus and Naucratis see Opuscula Atheniensia iii (1960) 179 Google Scholar.

37 London 1856.10–4.119.

38 The arguments are summarised by Evans, J. A. S., Herodotus (Boston 1982) 16 Google Scholar. Herodotus may have outlived the Archidamian War ( Fornara, C. W., JHS xci (1971) 25–34)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, but it is hard to accept J. D. Smart's argument that he lived to publish his history after 404 ( Phoenix 31 (1977) 251–2)Google Scholar; see now Cobet, J., Past Perspectives (ed. Moxon, I. D., Smart, J. D. and Woodman, A. J., Cambridge 1986) 17–18 Google Scholar.

39 The frequency of the name ‘Herodotus’ is well illustrated by PW viii 989–992. Perhaps a greater degree of caution is called for with regard to the prevalent interpretations of the Archedike, Phanes and Rhoikos inscriptions.

40 The price is derived from a transitional cup-skyphos from Nola, Louvre N1840, on which there is a graffito that reads, twenty-five vases for sixteen drachmae (i.e. 3.84 obol per cup-skyphos).