Trusting Herodotus about Ancient Women

July/August 2005 · Historically Speaking Trusting Herodotus about Ancient Women Rick Kennedy With an ear for what would keep readers reading, Herodotus listened keenly in the marketplaces of foreign towns for stories of women. Sometimes he was simply interested in women for the obvious purpose of titillation. Of the customs of the Babylonians, he was only interested in two: wife auctions (1.196) and the practice of requiring Babylonian women to have sex with strangers (1.199). When describing the upsidedown country of Egypt, with its life-giving river that flowed north, he told his readers that gender roles were reversed also, even to the point that "women urinate standing up, while men do so squatting" (11.35). ' Like any popular historian, Herodotus was not above showing his readers a good time. But these seemingly frivolous stories in fact point to serious themes. Customs that demanded sex between strangers reflected dysfunctional politics, the kind that led to war. Egyptian urination practices spoke to the complex connections of people to their geography . Indeed, he started his Histories by speculating that the chief cause of war between Asia and Europe was men's desire for women (1.1-3). And he traced the history of imperialism to a king who secredy showed off his naked wife to a favored bodyguard (1.8-11). Women, often wise, powerful, and deeply involved in die decisions made in royal households, always interested Herodotus. His stories drew from oral traditions of extraordinary women who directly influenced die most significant events of history . According to Herodotus, Queen Tomyris of Massagetae warned the Persian Emperor Cyrus against attacking her country and counseled him to be content with what he already had. Cyrus refused to listen and died fighting her army (1.206, 214). Phaedymia, die young wife of another Persian emperor, risked her life to expose a palace coup (III.6769 ). Atossa, the daughter of Cyrus and wife of Darius, convinced her husband to lead die Persian Empire against the Greeks (III. 133134 ). From his own city of Halicarnassus he Erecthion, Caryatide Porch, Athens, Greece. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [reproduction number, LC-USZ62-1 12897]. heard the heroic stories of the QueenCommodore Artemesia decisively saving her ship and crew as she led them out of the debacle at Salamis (VIII.68, 87-88). Today's historians of the ancient world certainly do not ignore women. But they cast a skeptical eye on Herodotus's stories of extraordinary women. Take, for example, the standard textbook rendition of die fall of Babylon to die Persians. Nebuchadrezzar, Nabonidus, Cyrus, and Darius usually get dieir due, while Queen Nitocris is ignored. Yet Herodotus put her at the center of his account. Why the discrepancy? Most of our historical knowledge of the event is pieced together from Herodotus, the Hebrew scriptures, and Babylonian sources. Herodotus gives us die fullest picture of the motivations, character, and decisions of those involved. The Hebrew scriptures provide information about Nebuchadrezzar ? in the years before the conquest and Cyrus after the conquest. The only mention of the conquest in the Bible is a banquet hall scene in which Belshazzar, a royal figure in charge of the city, sees die famous "writing on the wall" and then is killed as the Persian Darius takes control of the city.2 Babylonian sources say nothing of die actual conquest but add the enigmatic figure of Nabonidus, Nebuchadrezzar's successor, apparently an absentee king at the time of the city's fall. None of the sources tells us much, and only Herodotus is directly interested in die end of Babylon'sindependence. According to his account, Babylon's male leaders failed to mount a defense against die Persians. Nitocris predicted the coming danger and directed the construction of a moat around die city and various other water defenses that altered die course of the Euphrates River. Herodotus described Nitocris as a Median princess, but her name is Egyptian. Herodotus's story fits well with, and even fills gaps in, the standard story of Babylon's conquest. Herotodus, sixty or so years after the event, apparently heard the captivating story of an imported political wife who dynamically took charge during a...