laughter, tears and wisdom in herodotus

Laughter, Tears and Wisdom in HerodotusAuthor(s): Stewart FlorySource: The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 99, No. 2 (Summer, 1978), pp. 145-153Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/293640 .

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AMERICAN

JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY

VOLUME 99, NO. 2 WHOLE NO. 394

LAUGHTER, TEARS AND WISDOM IN HERODOTUS

Writers often describe similar events in a similar way. In Herodotus' writing we find examples of such repetitions which form motifs in his narrative. These motifs occur in meaningful patterns and constitute one aspect of the unit of the historian's book.1 An examination of three examples of the motif 'laughter, tears and wisdom' serves here as an introduction to this aspect of Herodotus' style. In this motif two events charac- teristically occur: intense joy overcomes a character, but grief and regret suddenly intervene.

In the first of the three examples, Xerxes views a regatta of his fleet at Abydos (7.44-47). The king preens himself on his wealth and power, but then he unexpectedly weeps. When his uncle, Artabanus, questions him, Xerxes says that he has suddenly realized that in one hundred years none of his host will be alive. The second passage tells of the arrival of two messengers at Susa after the battle of Salamis (8.99). The first messenger reports that the King has conquered Athens, and the Persians rejoice at this news, but when a second messenger reaches the capital with the news of the Persian defeat, they cry out and rend their garments in sorrow. In the third example Herodotus describes a conversation at a dinner party of The- bans and Persians shortly before the battle of Plataea. Amid

R. Lattimore, "The Wise Adviser in Hdt.," CP 34 (1939) 24-35; H. Bi- schoff, "Der Warner bei Hdt." (Diss. Marburg 1932); S. Flory, "The Archaic Smile of Hdt." (Diss. Yale 1969).

AJP 99 (1978) 145-153 0002-9475/7/0992-0145 $01.00 ? 1978 by The Johns Hopkins University Press



STEWART FLORY

the gaiety of the after-dinner drinking, one of the Persians turns to Thersander, a Greek with whom he shares a couch, and, revealing that he has a premonition of disaster in the impending battle, the unnamed Persian weeps (9.16).

The anecdotes share the following features: First, joy, laughter and self-congratulation arise from gratification of the senses. Second, joy is only possible where the protagonists are ignorant of some truth. Third, regret and tears are in each case the result of reflection or understanding. Around these three basic elements cluster a number of other themes. For example, the shift from laughter to tears is always sudden and unex- pected. The protagonists, furthermore, are all Persians, whom Herodotus views with some compassion. And finally, in two of the anecdotes an interlocutor is present whose questioning of a weeping Persian elicits a pessimistic statement about the pain of human life.2

In the Xerxes anecdote the joy upon which sorrow so suddenly impinges is mindless and innocent. As Xerxes observes his army, he does not comport himself with the calm, profes- sional pride we might expect of a commander about to do battle with a vastly inferior force. Nor does he contemplate with sinister glee the suffering he will inflict upon the Greeks and the sweet revenge he will take for the Ionian revolt and his father's losses at Marathon. Looking neither forward nor back in time, he takes immediate, sensual delight in the spectacle before him. In fact, since what Xerxes watches is not a martial display but a sailing race (at,utLa), his childish, unthinking mood is appropriate to the occasion. Furthermore, the regatta takes place because Xerxes has had a sudden and childish yearning to see the size of his army and to see his ships in action: "He wished to see (tiEaOat) his whole army ... He was seized by a desire (i,Ue6O) to see (i6oaOat) a race of his ships" (7.44-45). But his joy turns to grief: EvOavra 6 ?QE 7;

EcwvrOv /axdaQiLo, kuEra 6? TOVTo ?6dxgvoE (7.45). "O King,"

2 The historicity of all these anecdotes is in doubt, though of the Theban dinner party Hdt. says that Thersander himself was the informant. The de-

scription in Polyb. (38.21.1 see A. E. Austin, Scipio Aemilianus [Oxford 1967] 282-87) of Scipio's tears at Carthage seems based on Hdt. 7.45ff. even though Polyb. himself was there, and it was he who asked the Roman general's reason for weeping. If Polyb. had not read Hdt., Scipio had.

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LAUGHTER, TEARS AND WISDOM

comments Artabanus, "how utterly different is what you do now from what you did a little while ago" (7.46).3

The Persians at Susa, like Xerxes, are only happy when they do not know or reflect upon the truth, for their rejoicing at the King's success is misplaced. Since the messengers must travel for many months from Athens to Susa, even at the very moment of the Persians' happiness, the disaster at Salamis has already occurred.4 And finally, as in the case of Xerxes, it is the Persians' understanding of the truth which brings sadness.

At the Theban dinner party joy does not turn into sorrow in exactly the same way, but there is still a striking juxtaposition. The poignant contrast here is between laughter in the background, where the company enjoys the feast, and sorrow in the foreground, where we see, in close-up as it were, the couch upon which Thersander and his Persian friend are reclin- ing. The theme of the interlocutor here echoes the pattern of the conversation between Xerxes and Artabanus and estab- lishes a sequence of tears-question-gnomic statement. The protagonist weeps in each case and must be questioned. "Should you not tell Mardonius of these things?" (9.16.4) asks Thersander. Artabanus expresses a similar astonishment and curiosity: "How utterly different is what you are doing now ..." The response in either case is a pessimistic statement of the fragility and pain of human life. Xerxes convinces Ar- tabanus that "God gives us in our lives a taste of sweetness and then in this very gift (ev avri)) proves jealous" (7.46.4). Then this unnamed Persian shares his fears with Thersander:

3 The interlocutor is also part of the wise adviser motif, but in these cases it is not the interlocutor but Xerxes or the unnamed Persian who has the wise advice. In the larger pattern, however, Artabanus does turn out to be wise.

4 Hdt. has earlier described (8.54) how Xerxes sent the first messenger to Artabanus to report his present success: TryV naQeov)aav aoV evrtQr!tirlv. Two days later (we infer) Xerxes sends the second messenger to report the present calamity: Trv nraOeovaodv ocp avoypoQuv (8.98). Placed here (8.98), the famous digression on the speed and efficiency of the Persian messenger system makes clear that the time lapse between the arrival of the messengers will equal the brief interval between their departure. Hdt. elsewhere (5.52-54) stresses the 3- month journey from Susa to the sea. Cf. Aesch. Pers. where there is only one messenger, the bearer of ill tidings, and the chorus, gloomy even before the bad news arrives, correctly predicts that there will be wailing and rending of garments at Susa (120-25 cf. 532ff).

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6Qa rovrov -robi 6atvv/eivov; HneQag xaal TOYv aroarv rTO ?i&rofev Erl TrO Toray4 aoTaroTOE8evo6evov; rovrbov rdvrTov

O6ial O6ilyov rtvog XQ6vov L6tEO6vrog' dOiiyovg; rtva rovi; :reQtyvoyevovc (9.16.3). The scene and the words recall Xerxes' more general and philosophical premonition: earu/0e ydaQ Ue ,oytodiyevov xarotlxTlQat (b; P/aXvg; e'Tr/ 6 7ra

dvOoeQWtLVogS Plo, el TOVTO)V ye E6VTOV TOaOVToV OV6elgS eg Exaroaorv ?To; n:rEQtErai (7.46.2).

But Xerxes' hundred years has by the eve of the battle of Plataea shrunk to "only a little time." And there is another and more complex gradation in the pathetic intensity of the two anecdotes. Xerxes only entertains his sad reflections for a moment: 'AQTrdaave, /ltort; gEv vvv avO&0QwoirjtrJ JrEgQ, Eovora;

roLavrrj ol'rlv uep oI 6tatLQeat Elvat, 7ravaoweOa, yr6 E xaxbv

/uEyvu)E0a xQr/or& i%XovrTc; :7rjy/araa Ev Xegai (7.47.1). Xerxes chooses the unexamined life, and so, at this early point in his march against Greece, he takes a wrong turning at one of life's crossroads. But while Xerxes quickly represses his misgivings, Thersander's interlocutor will go to face his own peril and his country's imminent defeat with full but helpless foreknowledge: _E[lve, O6 rt 6l yevEaJOat Ex roV Oeo, adGyxavov dtoroQT at dvOQ0tr ... . x. . OUrl Te 66vvr rj) v av dQvOeQrotUt avrl, tro;iAd cpOovEovra UroEvo\c xQareLtv (9.16.4-5). For this Persian, and for all men, Herodotus here implies, to know is to weep.

We can trace the reappearance of one or more of the themes established in these three 'laughter, tears and wisdom' anecdotes in anecdotes which, at first glance, differ greatly. In the story of Croesus, for example, several of these themes appear. Croesus' delight in his wealth (1.30) recalls Xerxes' delight in his army, even though Croesus does not lapse immediately into grief. And Croesus insists that Solon actually see his treasures, just as Xerxes must see for himself the size of his army-no abstract tally of numbers would suffice. This need actually to touch or measure with the eye reveals a similar weakness of intellect in Croesus and Xerxes. Croesus especially dem- onstrates this deficiency because he is unable to recognize in Solon's celebration of Tellus of Athens a symbolic and ominous application to his own case.5 Moreover, the scene of

5 See H.-P. Stahl, "Learning Through Suffering?" YCS 24 (1975) 1-36.

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Croesus on the pyre (1.86) uses both the interlocutor theme and a modification of the 'tears' element. Croesus cries out "Solon!" three times, and Cyrus, who does not understand this cry of grief and regret, asks Croesus to explain. Croesus' con- sequent restatement of Solon's warning about the uncertainty of life (1.86.5) follows the tears-question-gnome sequence.

Another and more complex example of an anecdote parallel to the 'laughter, tears and wisdom' motif is the story of the tears of Psammenitus. Psammenitus is a conquered Egyptian king, whose forbearance from weeping Cambyses tests by parading in front of him the members of his family now doomed to execution. Psammenitus maintains his composure until he catches sight, not of a member of his family, but of an old boon companion now a penniless beggar. Cambyses, puz- zled, asks why he weeps only for this man unrelated to him by blood or marriage. Psammenitus replies that the evils befallen his family are too great for weeping; not so the plight of his comrade fallen into poverty on the threshold of old age. Once again, despite differences in the substance of the story, we note the sequence: tears-question-gnome. As if to affirm the connection between this story and that of Croesus, Herodotus writes that Croesus himself was present along with Cambyses, and both Lydian and Persian wept for the plight of Psam- menitus, his family and his friend (3.14).

Cambyses is the protagonist of another story in which there are significant echoes of the laughter and tears motif (3.32). Here, Cambyses laughs, but it is another character, his wife, who weeps: Cambyses and his lady are watching a fight staged between a lion and a puppy. When the puppy begins to lose the contest, one of its fellow pups from the same litter breaks free and helps its sibling defeat the cub. At this outcome Cambyses is delighted, but his wife weeps: Tbv ye'v KaMpvzaea iS6eOata 0E60uEvov, rVv 6E naQr#tevrlv 6axevetv (3.32.2). Cambyses, himself the 'interlocutor' in this story, now asks her why she weeps. Her answer, while not exactly a gnomic statement, is full of insight. She says that the contest she has seen reminds her of the death of her brother, Smerdis, who, unlike the puppy, had no brother to help him in his hour of need. Like Croesus earlier, Cambyses has forgotten the unhappiness of his own family: Married to a wife who is also his sister, Cam- byses has recently put his own brother to death, forgetting that

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STEWART FLORY

this brother is also the brother of his wife. This anecdote also invites comparison with that of Xerxes at Abydos because in each case the barbarian king watches a sporting event. But it is consistent with Herodotus' disapproving portrait of Cambyses that the sport he watches is a cruel one and furthermore, that it is not mad Cambyses himself but his wife who is able to perceive the symbolic importance of the immediate spectacle. Thus, Herodotus is able to alter a motif to fit its particular context while he still allows it to recall other contexts.

Because Herodotus so often portrays joy as foolish or misplaced, the reader begins to see that when the author describes any character experiencing joy or pleasure, he simultaneously criticizes that character for ignorance. Joy is almost always ominous and foreshadows the unhappy end of the character who feels it.6 Herodotus regularly uses the verb r6ouat in association with characters of whom he is in some sense criti- cal.7 The ominous quality of men's joy is even more apparent in Herodotus' use of the adjective :reQtxaQr; and of the verb vieuQ4sokuat. The historian uses each of these words only once to describe pleasure that is merely intense and not excessive or misplaced (1.31, 3.22). But in all eleven other cases the em- phasis on immoderate pleasure is marked and often gruesome. Two examples serve to express the pattern: Croesus is "over- joyed" to hear that he will destroy a great empire if he crosses the Halys (1.54), and Cambyses is "exceedingly pleased" to be able to prove his sanity by shooting his arrow exactly through the heart of Prexaspes' son (3.35).8

Finally, laughter, tears, and wisdom play a role in the romantic tales Herodotus tells at the beginning and at the very end of his work: the story of Candaules' wife (1.8-13) and the

6 Donald Lateiner made this point in a paper delivered at the Dec. 1976 A. P. A. meetings in New York and forthcoming in TAPA.

7 Croesus: 1.27, 56; Cyrus: 1.156; Cambyses: 3.21, 32, 34; Darius 3.119, 130, 4.88, 91. 97; Xerxes: 7.28, 44, 8.69, 101, 103, 9.102, 109 (bis). Here and elsewhere I have used Powell's Lexicon.

8 The other exs.: 1.90 (Cyrus at the advice of Croesus); 1.119 (Harpagus at being asked to dine with Astyages); 3.157 (the Babylonians at Zopyrus' tactical advice); 4.84 (Oeobazus that Darius will allow his sons to "remain"); 5.32 (Aristagoras with the progress of his plotting); 7.37 (Xerxes at an eclipse pre- saging the defeat of Greece); 7.215 (Xerxes at Ephialtes' advice); 9.49 (Mar- donius at Plataea); 9.109 (Artaynta at Xerxes' gift).

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story of Amestris' revenge (9.108-13). Here the laughter of our motif appears as the blindness of passion. Candaules has a passion for his wife: rjdaOr r/r ; ?ovroVi yvvatx6o (1.8.1). This passion consists of a peculiar, asexual self-congratulation merely for the possession of such a beautiful wife. His delight blinds him to the possible consequences of insisting that Gyges actually behold her naked in order to confirm her beauty-the need for avroptia recalls or foreshadows Croesus and his wealth, Xerxes and his fleet. In the Amestris story too, mindless self-satisfaction precipitates the action. Xerxes is pleased,

aO[eit (9.109.1), with the gift of a cloak from his wife. His mistress, Artaynta, pleases him too: rjaOeiS 6e xai raTrvl. Ar- taynta now receives the cloak as a gift, and in her pleasure at receiving it we note the fateful word :reQtxaQrgS: r 6' nrQelaQrjs eovuaa rtb 6&Qto EcpoQe Tr xat dyda.,ero (109.3).

In neither of these tales does Herodotus literally describe for us the tears which follow upon joy, but the language of pleasure is itself sufficient to indicate his disapproval of Candaules, Artaynta, and Xerxes. Moreover, the grim prophecy which Herodotus explicitly makes in each case: XQfiv yda yevE'Oat xaxt(b of Candaules (1.8.2, cf. 9.109.2), seems now in the context of the laughter and tears motif to be less the consequence of some inscrutable fate than of a character flaw, specifically a failure of insight. Even if Candaules has a yen to violate the Lydian customs surrounding female modesty, he ought, Herodotus implies, to foresee the dangerous possibilities in the route he chooses. He fails to see that Gyges may become as infatuated with his wife as he is himself or that she may catch sight of Gyges as he slips out the bedroom door. Furthermore, Candaules has no knowledge of his wife's strong character, no understanding of how dangerous an adversary she will become if his plan goes awry. Compare his superficial knowledge of his wife-he appreciates only her appearance-with her knowledge of him! When she sees Gyges in her chamber, she knows immediately that Candaules is responsible.9 She understands

9 A papyrus fragment of an Attic tragedy telling the same story has the wife notice that Candaules' eyes are open and thus it is his composure which argues his guilt (P. Oxy. 23.2382 with bibliog.). The absence of this explanatory detail in Hdt.'s version-whatever the provenience of the story-contrasts even more sharply the mental acuity of Candaules' wife with her husband's stupid-

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Gyges too, for she knows he is too loyal to be planning a coup himself. And Xerxes, at the end of Herodotus' book, is even less intelligent than Candaules for he twice makes dangerous promises and is unable to learn from the unfortunate results of the first not to make the second. And if we compare Xerxes with Gyges, who supplants Candaules in the role of the barbarian king, we see that Gyges acted under pressure either to kill or be killed. Xerxes, on the other hand, succumbs to a domes- tic intrigue from which he could easily have escaped by saying "No" to Artaynta in the first place. Xerxes has learned noth- ing from the experience of his defeat by the Greeks and the institution of monarchy has undergone no moral or intellectual development since the days of Candaules.

Though Herodotus often criticizes his protagonists for lack of understanding, when he finally does grant them knowledge, the result is not wisdom but painful tears. Herodotus' pes- simism in this case reverses the Aeschylean maxim of :rdOei ,ubOo;. Knowledge does come through suffering to Herodotus' wise advisors, but they must play a subsidiary role in which their practical advice is more heeded than their superior knowledge of the human condition. Ta 6e /yot rnaGOjara E6vra adaQtra ,alaOuara y?yove (1.207.1), says Croesus, but these are humble words closer to the archaic nraOriara uaOr0juara "once bitten, twice shy." 0 Knowledge does from time to time ennoble Herodotus' heroes. We think particularly here of the words of the Persian banqueter, but though the sentiments might have come from an Attic tragedy, the unnamed speaker, a mere cog in the gigantic Persian machine, does not have the stature of a tragic hero. Herodotus was no doubt influenced by what he heard at the Theater of Dionysus, but he did not need to come to Athens to learn that life is short and painful. His bleak vision of human life is his own: to know is to weep.

Since knowledge and insight are usually so painful for Herodotus' characters, we might expect the historian to see in ignorance a kind of bliss. But the laughter which arises from

ity. For the Candaules story see Stahl, Hermes 92 (1964) 385-400. For the similarities between the Candaules and Amestris stories: Erwin Wolff, "Das Weib des Masistes," Hermes 92 (1964) 51-58.

10 See Lebeck, A., The Oresteia (Harvard 1971) 173 n 1.

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ignorance seems to be an example of that very gift in which (ev avTir) Herodotus has Artabanus say that god proves his jealousy (7.46.4). So god, for Herodotus, is meddlesome (raQaX(6-es) in human affairs (cf. 1.32.1) by his gift of blinding joy, and it is happiness itself which leads men into sorrow. So happiness is no consolation for pain or ignorance. What value Herodotus does see in life is implied in the comfortless notion that it is pain itself, chiefly the pain of hard work, which forges excellence. It is those nations, Herodotus says (7.102), which are cursed with poor soil and in which the inhabitants must struggle against want, which produce the best men. If the lives of Tellus, Cleobis, and Biton have value (1.31-32), it is not because they have experienced pleasure nor because they were wise-for Herodotus does not say that they were-but merely because they have completed a satisfactory struggle with life.

To these ideas, the laughter and tears motif provides the corollary that a soft life gilded with laughter can only end ill because laughter itself is one stigma of divine malevolence. If death is preferable to life (1.31.3, 7.46.4), it is so because life's pleasure is not merely illusory but actively dangerous. And when Herodotus comes to write the final sentence of his work, it is significantly the advice of Cyrus that the Persians should "live in a rugged land and be princes rather than cultivate the plains and be the slaves of others" (9.122).

STEWART FLORY AMHERST COLLEGE

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laughter, tears and wisdom in herodotus

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