Social and Cultural Herodotus in Term Paper

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(Chapter II)

Herodotus admires the practical as well as the religious achievements of Egypt, however. "Now if the Nile should choose to divert his waters from their present bed into this Arabian Gulf, what is there to hinder it from being filled up by the stream within, at the utmost, twenty thousand years... Thus I give credit to those from whom I received this account of Egypt, and am myself, moreover, strongly of the same opinion, since I remarked that the country projects into the sea further than the neighboring shores," (Chapter II) He even gives Egypt this final credit, in comparison to Greek "The Egyptians, they went on to affirm, first brought into use the names of the twelve gods, which the Greeks adopted from them; and first erected altars, images, and temples to the gods; and also first engraved upon stone the figures of animals. (Chapter II)

But always Herodotus is anxious to act as a guide of morals, values, and judgment as a historian rather than simply laying out the facts. Also, although his eyewitness accounts might be accurate, many of the stories he relates were merely told to him. The memories of these people could have been faulty, and probably they had a similarly flexible attitude to the facts, to the difference (or lack thereof) between myth and history and faith. The notable religiosity of the Egyptians might mean that Herodotus' sources had an even more flexible attitude.

It might be also argued that the "Father of History" does critique his audience as well as Egypt. However he uses the difference in Egypt as a rebuke to his Greeks to make a policy statement, about his own point-of-view of where Greece should be 'going' as a nation, rather than to make an objective comparison.

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For instance, upon hearing that "the whole land of Greece is watered by rain from heaven, and not, like their own, inundated by rivers," the Egyptians observed: 'Some day the Greeks will be disappointed of their grand hope, and then they will be wretchedly hungry'; which was as much as to say, 'If God shall some day see fit not to grant the Greeks rain, but shall afflict them with a long drought, the Greeks will be swept away by a famine, since they have nothing to rely on but rain from Jove, and have no other resource for water.'" in other words, the Greeks should learn from Egyptian practices, and take care in the face of climatic change. Again, Greece is the main feature and point of comparison, rather than the ostensible subject of Egypt itself.

The strange, holy, backward and impractical nature of Egypt culture, however, is not nearly as manifest in Egyptian's own documents. In Chapter 10, the "Sea Peoples' Inscriptions: Egypt and Its Neighbors Under Ramses III," and "Ramses III Issuing Equipment to His Troops for the Campaign Against the Sea Peoples," as well as documents relating to Ramses III on the marches and battles of these wars, the Egyptians were practical political operators and military fighters, just like the Greeks. The Egyptians of course saw themselves as 'themselves,' rather than 'the other,' as did Herodotus, and Herodotus' chronicles say more, perhaps, of the Greek's own concerns and perceptions of his nation than of Egypt itself.

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