Historian Herodotus Research Articles

Volition's Face: Personification and the Will in Renaissance Literature by Andrew Escobedo

Reviewed by: Volition's Face: Personification and the Will in Renaissance Literature by Andrew Escobedo Frank Swannack Escobedo, Andrew, Volition's Face: Personification and the Will in Renaissance Literature ( ReFormations: Medieval and Early Modern), Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press, 2017; paperback; pp. 340; R.R.P. US $40.00; ISBN 9780268101664. In Volition's Face, Andrew Escobedo argues that premodern personifications channel energy 'as an expression of will' (p. 3). They create acts of volition as a discharge of what Escobedo terms 'prosopopoetic energy' (p. 6). Escobedo investigates why the medieval notion of the will and prosopopoeia continue to influence early modern literature. To address the complexities of his study, Escobedo reconsiders the much-studied link between personification and daemons. Through classical and Renaissance critical texts, he establishes that daemonism creates an energizing transaction between subject and external landscape. The similarities between allegory and personification are then analysed. In a fascinating argument, Escobedo states that personifications partially function [End Page 166] as character and allegorical signs. Through energizing personified traits, personifications spur literary subjects into action. Escobedo then tackles the widely explored history of the will. In an interesting twist, he discovers that ancient writers made no distinction between the will and self. Furthermore, medieval and Renaissance writers not only conceived of the will as independent, but it was also free from the cognitive processes of reason. Personifications became a part of the self over which the literary subject has no control. Little critical attention has been given to the Renaissance notion of the daemonic conscience. In the moral interludes of the Tudor period, Escobedo finds a difference between the Catholic and Protestant iterations. Catholic interludes often personify Conscience as activating the remorseful will to oppose despair through the anticipated joy of repentance. In Protestant texts, however, Conscience is separated from the will to become associated with despair. These differences in Reformed theology are further examined through the repentant will and the changing role of the conscience. Escobedo covers familiar theological ground to state that repentant Protestants have an insight into their own immoral character. His argument becomes satisfyingly more complex, when he examines a second-order act of volition countering the primary sin-driven daemonic conscience. It enables Escobedo to make a crucial distinction in Renaissance theological thought on the will. Following Conscience, the personification of Despair is examined in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene. In order to understand the original usage of Despair by these Renaissance writers, Escobedo first summarizes his previous findings on personification. He usefully recapitulates that personifications flow between 'enactment and transmission' (p. 137). Personifications can represent daemonic energy and, also, be the daemons that possess the literary character. With Spenser's personification of Despair, Escobedo notes that although Despair commits suicide, he does not die. Spenser distinguishes between suicide as an act of will, and despair as an unavoidable religious malady with its own volition. In Doctor Faustus, Escobedo discovers a different type of prosopopoeia. He argues that the play's angels and daemons do not represent a part of or influence Faustus. Instead, he consumes them. Through an exciting analysis, Escobedo states that Faustus becomes his own autonomous will. The implication is that Faustus has no insight into his own despair. His sense of self has become part of an inescapable personification. Without a mediating act of volition to counter the daemonic conscience, he has become Despair. With the history of Love overrun with personifications, Escobedo analyses Spenser's Cupid in The Faerie Queene through Platonism. He challenges the critical consensus that there are two different Cupids in Spenser's epic poem. [End Page 167] Using Plato's notion of erotic rapture, Escobedo convincingly argues for a cruel daemonic Cupid necessary to inspire a desire for spiritual beauty. In John Milton's Paradise Lost, the personification of Sin is examined. Escobedo first investigates the connection between sin and serpents in premodern literature, which surprisingly eschews the beguiling biblical Genesis serpent in favour of Herodotus's Histories. Following a fascinating chicken and egg argument over whether pride or sin came first, Escobedo notes how, in Paradise Lost, the birth of Sin from Satan's head...

Trade in the Ancient Sahara and Beyond ed. by D. J. Mattingly et al

The Maghreb Review, Vol. 43, 1, 2018 © The Maghreb Review 2018 This publication is printed on FSC Mix paper from responsible sources BOOK REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS Books reviewed in The Maghreb Review can be ordered from The Maghreb Bookshop. Our catalogue is also available on our website: www.maghrebbookshop.com TRADE IN THE ANCIENT SAHARA AND BEYOND. EDITED BY D. J. MATTINGLY, V. LEITCH, C. N. DUCKWORTH, A. CUÉNOD, M.N.STERRY AND F. COLE. CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2017, HARDBACK, £90.00 The Sahara, the world’s largest hot desert, sub-continental in scale, is a formidable obstacle to travel. But it has never been a closed barrier to human contact, either within the desert itself, or across its full width. As the title of this book suggests, the Sahara has its own settled and nomadic communities who may have long been in regular trading contact with each other, while also trafficking with peoples on the desert fringes, or even further off. For the Sahara lies between three main poles of human attraction and interaction: the Mediterranean World to the north; Egypt, the Red Sea and the Levant to the east; and the Sudan (in the broadest geographical sense) to the south. One of the main incentives to historical human contact both within and across the Sahara was trade; yet the nature, scope, scale and value of such business remains obscure. The fault partly lies with the frustrating dearth of oral and especially written sources for Saharan history in general and trade history in particular. Greek and Latin texts are few and terse. The Arabic literature of medieval geographers and travellers, and the rather later European (including Jewish) portolan charts, all cast but thin beams of light into the general gloom. Even the stores of knowledge revealed by the translation and publication of selected scraps from the Cairo Geniza reveal little of the Sahara and its trading links with the Judaeo-Islamic world of the high Middle Ages. The picture became clearer in the 19th century when the first European explorers of the Great Desert and British Vice Consulates at the mid-Saharan trading oases of Murzuk and Ghadames began to reveal something of the nature, size and value of desert trade, and particularly its mainstay, the trade in black slaves. (By projecting these limited Victorian facts and figures into the past, some historians have drawn their own conclusions about Saharan medieval, Roman and more ancient trade.) Such are some of the practical difficulties that beset the eager student of the Saharan past, and particularly the history of its internal and external trade: a dearth of reasonably reliable and wide ranging texts that are the essential the stock-in-trade of the historian. This is where the archaeologist (often prompted by the written word) comes in. His head is not so much in the clouds but, more likely, in a hole in the BOOK REVIEWS / COMPTES RENDUS 73 ground where the evidence he brings to light may well put the historian to rights, or at least suggest that he might care to reconsider some of his conclusions. Much important new evidence of the existence, nature and extent of ancient Saharan trade has been exposed by archaeological investigations of the Garamantes people of the southern Libyan province of Fezzan, roughly in the middle of the Great Desert. The Garamantes were first mentioned the fifth century BC by the Greek historian Herodotus, with references in later Classical sources. Archaeological research into the Garamantes started in the 1930s and has since the 1990s been pursued with particular vigour by David Mattingly, the lead editor of this volume. This is the first of four volumes to be published by CUP and the Society for Libyan Studies under the Sahara project of 2011-17 which was intended to advance debate on trans-Saharan trade in various specific areas. This book is thus structured to reflect three main issues of Saharan trade. One section is devoted to infrastructural matters and comparisons and contrasts between Islamic and pre-Islamic trade. A second section considers the trade in organic commodities, and particularly textiles. And a third considers how inorganic material (gold in particular) may be chemically analysed...

TARİHİ GERÇEKLER: ETRUSKLAR VE ALFABE

Etrusks lived in Etruria region of Italy, situated between the Tiber and Arno. They lived up to the (b.c) 6th century by the Romans sometimes they called Tuscia. They called themselves Rasena and disappear part of the people and culture of Etruscan in the Roman Empire. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, etrusks emigrated from Anatolia to Italy (Lidya). According to historians, the tradition of the people of other nations, the similarities noted in Anatolia. We can say that Etrusks’ origin come from East Asian and Central Asian. Some scientists approached Herodotus’ opinion hesitantly they think that Etrusks could not come from the sea migration. Therefore, the University of Turin in 2004, investigations were carried out genetic scientist again by Alberto Piazza, who lived between the VII-III centuries, taken from 80 sceleton samples belong to etrusks DNA living in Europe with a number of nations, including DNA’s as a result account it was the Etruscans genetic code near the present-day Anatolian Turks. Thus, in ancient times to today's etrusk’s emigrated from Turkey- Anatolia to Italy. There is other evidence that prove to be of the same origin Etrusklarla Turks: 1. origin wolf (wolf-HH.) There are a few people in the world, covering: etrusks, Turks, Mongols. 2. word similarities Etruscan and Turkish languages. 3. DNA tests to be the same. 4. Only in Anatolia etruskls be found in the samples of the pot handle. 5. Both languages are agglutinative. 6. Etruscan Orkhon inscriptions to be the same with labels ...

, V . ... (Intellectual Discussions About Language, Literature and Society in Athenian Culture 5th Century BC)

Russian Abstract: В работе представлен обзор взглядов на природу языка и литературы в трудах философов, ораторов и историков 5 в. до н.э.: софистов, Демокрита и Геродота. Предпринята попытка доказать, что многие теоретические положения, высказываемые этими авторами, как эстетического, так и философского, религиозного и социально-политического характера. исходно базировались на комментарии к поэтическим (прежде всего, гомеровским) текстам. При этом главной задачей было продемонстрировать внутреннюю непротиворечивость текста и последовательность авторской аргументации. В частности, оказывается, что представления Демокрита о соотношении души и разума могут быть основаны на недошедшем до нас чтении одной гомеровской строки, а концепция «закона» в «Истории» Геродота – на его оригинальном толковании оды Пиндара. English Abstract: The paper provides a review of the views on the nature of language and literature in the writings of philosophers, orators and historians of the 5th century BC: the Sophists, Democritus and Herodotus. An attempt has been made to prove that many of the theoretical positions expressed by these authors are both aesthetic, philosophical, religious and socio-political are originally based on comments on poetic (primarily Homeric) texts. At the same time, the main task of the paper was to demonstrate the internal consistency of the text and the sequence of the author's arguments. In particular, it turns out that the views of Democritus on the relationship between the soul and the mind can be based on the unknown reading of one Homeric line, and the concept of law in the History of Herodotus - on his original interpretation of Pindar's ode.

The Influence of Herodotus on the Practical Philosophy of Aristotle

The approach of this paper is a retrospective one. It is an attempt to show that many important ideas of Herodotus, a great ancestor of Aristotle, have influenced his practical philosophy. The paper focuses specially on several topics from the Histories of Herodotus, which have found a resonance in the Nicomachean ethics and in the Politics of Aristotle. The main ones in respect of the ethical theory are: the different forms of justice and the just as for example the super-human justice, the just in the family relations, the judicial just and the just in the polis or the larger human community. Book Epsilon of the Nicomachean Ethics is indebted to Herodotus in several points. In respect of Aristotles' political theory, there are two topics in the History of Herodotus which deserve a special interest: firstly, the conversation of the three noble Persians, who discuss the six basic types of political order and organization of power-and-submission in a state or city-state (in book ІІІ, 80-82); this becomes a paradigm for the next typologies of Plato (in the Republic and the Statesman) and Aristotle (in the Politics); secondly, the importance of personal freedom, the equity of the speaking (discussing?) men on the agora, and the supremacy of law for the well-being of any community and its peaceful future. The legacy of Herodotus is obvious in many anthropological and ethical concepts of Aristotle, especially in his most read and quoted ethical writing and in his Politics

“Arion”: George Eliot’s Exploration of Art and Influence after Middlemarch

By the time George Eliot made her poetic debut with the publication of The Spanish Gypsy in 1868, she had already achieved wealth and fame with five successful novels: Adam Bede (1859), The Mill on the Floss (1860), Silas Marner (1861), Romola (1863), and Felix Holt, the Radical (1866). Widely recognized as one of the era's leading writers, Eliot had established her position as a prominent novelist. Why, then, did she turn to poetry at this point in her successful publishing career? In George Eliot, Poetess, I argue that Eliot relied on the gender-specific and religiously motivated poetess persona to write poetry that promoted a doctrine of sympathy rather than orthodox religion. As a poetess with spiritual authority, Eliot could take greater risks than she could as a popular novelist. (1) Eliot's own perception of poetry's aesthetic preeminence over fiction provides evidence of another poetic aim: in 1868, she wrote that poetry had a superiority over all the other arts. (2) The cultural prestige of poetry thus offered Eliot a chance to secure a literary legacy beyond that of a popular novelist. Indeed, throughout her poems, Eliot linked herself to a great poetic tradition by invoking Dante, Boccaccio, Homer, Erinna, Sappho, and Shakespeare. Despite seeking to rank among the great artists of the age, however, Eliot also feared the corrupting power of fame and egoistic ambition. She maintained an uneasy relationship with the fame that she consciously employed to promote her work, and her poems reveal this disquietude. Scholars have noted how a number of Eliot's poems reveal her struggle with fame and ambition but have largely overlooked Arion, a little-known poem from 1873 that constitutes a fascinating example of Eliot's literary effort to address this conflict in the aftermath of MidAlemarch's critical and financial success in 1871 to 1872. (3) In Arion, Eliot adapts Herodotus's Histories, book 1, chapter 24, which tells the story of (ancient Greek poet and inventor of the dithyramb), who won fame and wealth in Italy and was forced by sailors to jump into the sea upon returning to his native Corinth. (4) Eliot's thematic and formal changes to Herodotus's story reveal her own struggle as a famous, aging artist working to compose lasting and meaningful art while grappling with the potential trappings of celebrity. After providing background concerning Eliot's poetry-writing career, I offer an in-depth examination of Arion to show how this poem indicates a maturation in Eliot's conception of herself as an artist. In addition, I offer biographical evidence to date the composition of Arion to March 1873 and explain the significance of this period by reading the poem as an expression of Eliot's struggle with artistic creation, performance, mortality, and influence after writing Middlemarch, her most famous novel. Poetry, Prominence, and Prestige Despite the crucial role that Eliot's poetic work played in the later part of her writing career, few who read Eliot today know of it. During Eliot's lifetime, her poetry sold well and received mostly positive reviews. However, after her death critics largely dismissed her poetry as inferior verse, and over time it fell out of wide circulation. (5) Until recently, scholars neglected this important part of her work--written at the height of her career--but new studies focusing on her poetry and prominence as a public figure offer a more complete picture of the author and her work as a whole. (6) From 1864 to 1878, Eliot wrote poetry regularly and, from 1866 to 1870 and 1873 to 1874, intensively. She wrote numerous poetic epigraphs to preface chapters of her novels; a handful of poetic fragments; and over twenty-five poems, including lyric poems, a sonnet sequence, elegies, hymns and ballads, verse narratives, a closet drama, philosophical dialogues, narrative monologues, and an epic-length dramatic poem. In these works, she masterfully employed blank verse, free verse, heroic couplets, and irregular rhyme schemes. …

Work, gravitational energy and the Great Pyramid

According to the Greek historian Herodotus, it took a task force of 100 000 men and 20 years to build up the Great Pyramid of Gizeh or Khufu’s Pyramid. In this work we discuss an analytical solution obtained in the framework of basic Newtonian mechanics that allows us to check Herodotus’s statement. Numerical estimates are compared to more detailed calculations. An estimation of the dietary energy intake necessary to accomplish the task is also discussed.

EDITORIAL

In a famous and oft-quoted passage, the Greek historian Herodotus tells us of a curious custom concerning the Scythians, the peoples inhabiting the steppe lands north of the Black Sea. After burying their dead, they purify themselves in a makeshift tent: “when they have set up three pieces of wood leaning against each other, they extend around them woollen cloths; and having joined them together as closely as possible, they throw red-hot stones into a vessel placed in the middle [. . .] They have a sort of hemp growing in this country, very like flax, except in thickness and height: [. . .] When therefore the Scythians have taken some seed of this hemp, they creep under the cloths, and then put the seed on the red-hot stones; but this being put on, smokes, and produces such a steam that no Greek vapour-bath would surpass it. The Scythians, transported with the vapour, shout aloud; and this serves them instead of washing, for they never bathe the body in water” (Herodotus 4.73–75).

English

The Greek historian Herodotus of the fifth century BC used the term “Dadikai” for people now known as Dards or Dardic. He placed the land between Kashmir and Afghanistan as Darada. “Darada” is the Sanskrit term used for the inhabitants of the region. In Pakistan the region is rarely called Dardistan or the people Dard, a Persian word derived from the Sanskrit “darada.” A linguistic and ethnic mystery shrouds the term Dardic. The termed was coined and used by colonial scholars. It was first used by the British orientalist Dr. Gottlieb Welhem Lietner (1840-1899). But no one in the region calls himself/herself Dard, as Dr. John Mock has noted in his paper, “Dards, Dardistan, and Dardic: an ethnographic, geographic and linguistic conundrum.” The Dard or Darada land in Pakistan includes Chitral, Swat, Dir, Indus Kohistan and Gilgit-Baltistan. The people spoke Dardic languages, one of the three groups belonging to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family of languages. The Dardic languages include Dameli, Dumaki, Gawri (Kalami), Gawar-Bati, Gawro, Chilsoso, Glangali or Nangalami (Afghanistan), Kalasha, Kashmiri, Kashtawari (Kashmir) Khowar, Miaya (Indus Kohistani), Pashai (Nuristan, Kunar, Laghman, Kapisa Nangarhar in Afghanistan), Palula, Shina, Tirahi, Torwali and Wotapuri and a variety of minor languages. The Darada people of the region are the least explored. Mainstream Pakistanis do not know about the unique identity, culture and languages of these people. No mainstream research by Pakistani scholars is available on them. The only exception was the late Dr. Ahmad Ahsan Dani who did some archaeological research in the Karakorum Range in his famous book ‘History of Northern Areas (Dani, 1989). Today the idyllic valley, Swat, is known all over the world as an Afghan or Pushtun Yousafzai society but fewer know the Dardic origin of Swat. Archeologists have since long focused their research on the popular Buddhist civilization, however, the Italian archeologists have recently pointed towards the Dardic origin of Swat. In main Swat many people think this a totally new discovery of an ‘extinct’ community in Swat which was known as Dard or Darada. They probably do not know that descendants of this unique extinct community still live in upper Swat—in Swat Kohistan—with the names of Torwali and Gawri, the two living Dardic communities in Swat. Key words: Dardic, Swat, culture, community.

Democenes de Crotona. Biografía de un médico de finales del siglo VI a. C.

La biografía de Democedes presente en la Historia de Herodotus constituye un documento esencial para conocer la situación de la medicina griega de finales del siglo VI a.C., así como el papel que los médicos desempeñaban en el seno de la sociedad. Aunque Heródoto no proporciona una datación cronológica precisa, se puede establecer una correlación cronológica aproximada de la vida de Democedes.

The Plague of Caere (c. 535 BCE): Airborne Botulism?

An unusual “plague” that occurred in late 6th-century BCE Italy, at Caere – modern day Cerveteri, located approximately 50-60 kilometres north-northwest of Rome, may have been a rare instance of airborne botulism following an atrocity on the Etruscan seashore, to judge from highly specific details furnished in the surviving account by the historian Herodotus. We have revisited the information available and compared the documented symptoms with likely causes. The hypothetical diagnosis we suggest is that of airborne botulism. In conclusion, an examination of the symptoms and possible modes of transmission in this unique event merits further consideration in the light of modern discoveries of terrorist activities and possible consequences of large-scale human disasters.

General

Twelves Voices from Greece and Romeby Christopher Pelling and Maria Wyke sounds like a title specially commissioned by this very journal, though, alas, we can claim none of the credit! The collaboration arose out of a BBC Radio 3 series on classical literature in collaboration with the Open University and should have a broad appeal. Of the twelve voices six are Greek, six Latin: for the poets, Homer, Sappho, Virgil, Horace; for the tragedians, Euripides; for the historians Herodotus, Thucydides, Caesar, Tacitus; with Cicero for the orators (and philosophers…) and Juvenal for the satirists, paired with the final ‘voice’ in the collection: Lucian (a striking sign of the growing interest and marketability of Second Sophistic and Imperial Greek authors). This is a stimulating and enjoyable read, which carries one swiftly along. It is not a didactic regurgitation of literary and cultural history (though the final section on ‘Translations and Further Reading’ gives all the references one needs for further research) but a celebration of the continuing relevance of the Classics:The texts of the ancient world can still speak, not just to us, but with us, and in a range of exhilarating and disturbing ways. They still matter, and what they talk about can still be fresh (whether empire, masculinity, nature, urbanity, madness, rationality, religious commitment and disbelief, family and friendship, desire, or death). (x)

Asia’s Europes: Anti-colonial attitudes in the novels of Ondaatje and Shamsie

This article examines the significance of a network of references in the novels The English Patient by Canadian Sri Lankan writer Michael Ondaatje, and Burnt Shadows and A God in Every Stone by British Pakistani writer Kamila Shamsie. Ondaatje’s and Shamsie’s novels explore anti-European Asian sentiment in the early to mid-20th century, with a particular shared focus upon the colonization of northern India and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Both writers draw upon the works of ancient Greek historian Herodotus, allowing a comparison of the imperialism of the ancient and modern worlds. This study was inspired by rereading Ondaatje’s The English Patient within the framework of subaltern theories by Pankaj Mishra and Dipesh Chakrabarty. Ultimately, the novels propose that an understanding of the role of historicity in imperial thinking helps to explain how historical events such as the bombing of Japan and 9/11 are linked.

La royauté à Chypre avant Alexandre

Examination of some obstacles complicating the study of the pre-Hellenistic Cypriot royal institution, particularly those found in the Histories of Herodotus. So why the Homer of History in prose (Salmacis inscr.) ignores several royal Cypriot legendary leaders as Teukros and Kinyras ? The proposed explanation focuses on the identity of the füst listeners of Herodotus and the attitude of the Cypriot kings during the second Median war.

A Genome-Wide Study of Modern-Day Tuscans: Revisiting Herodotus's Theory on the Origin of the Etruscans

BackgroundThe origin of the Etruscan civilization (Etruria, Central Italy) is a long-standing subject of debate among scholars from different disciplines. The bulk of the information has been reconstructed from ancient texts and archaeological findings and, in the last few years, through the analysis of uniparental genetic markers.MethodsBy meta-analyzing genome-wide data from The 1000 Genomes Project and the literature, we were able to compare the genomic patterns (>540,000 SNPs) of present day Tuscans (N = 98) with other population groups from the main hypothetical source populations, namely, Europe and the Middle East.ResultsAdmixture analysis indicates the presence of 25–34% of Middle Eastern component in modern Tuscans. Different analyses have been carried out using identity-by-state (IBS) values and genetic distances point to Eastern Anatolia/Southern Caucasus as the most likely geographic origin of the main Middle Eastern genetic component observed in the genome of modern Tuscans.ConclusionsThe data indicate that the admixture event between local Tuscans and Middle Easterners could have occurred in Central Italy about 2,600–3,100 years ago (y.a.). On the whole, the results validate the theory of the ancient historian Herodotus on the origin of Etruscans.

The Greek, the Roman, and the Persian King: Lope de Vega's Use of Historical Source Material for the Play Contra valor no hay desdicha

AbstractLope de Vega chose to base his play Contra valor no hay desdicha upon sources by the historians Herodotus and Justin that recount the mythical events surrounding the birth and early life of King Cyrus the Great of Persia. Through his skilful selection and intricate blending of elements from both of these sources, Lope demonstrates his shrewd understanding of the construction of an entertaining play, the act of selection itself imbuing the dramatic elements of his own invention with a greater significance. This article sheds light on the multifaceted creative process involved in Lope's manipulation of historical sources for the creation of this one play. It does so through exploring those components taken by Lope from each historical source, those which he chose not to include, and those parts of the play that are his original invention, considering the import of each of these decisions in turn.ResumenLope de Vega eligió para la base de su obra de teatro Contra valor no hay desdicha fuentes escritas por los historiadores Heródoto y Justino que cuentan los eventos mitológicos acerca del nacimiento y la juventud del rey Ciro el Grande de Persia. Por su hábil selección y compleja fusión de elementos de ambas fuentes, Lope demuestra su acertado entendimiento en la construcción de una obra divertida y el acto mismo de seleccionar infunde a los elementos dramáticos de su propia invención un significado más grande. Este artículo arroja luz sobre las múltiples facetas del proceso creativo que lleva en sí la manipulación de Lope de las fuentes históricas para la creación de esta obra. Se exploran los componentes que Lope toma de cada fuente histórica, lo que se decide no incluir, y las partes de la obra que son de su propia invención, considerando la importancia de cada una de estas acciones.

History, a Literary Artifact? The Traveling Concept of Narrative in/on Historiographic Discourse

History, a Literary Artifact? The Traveling Concept of Narrative in/on Historiographic Discourse

Radiological evaluation of the evisceration tradition in ancient Egyptian mummies

Descriptions of the preparation of ancient Egyptian mummies that appear in both scientific and popular literature are derived largely from accounts by the Greek historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus. Our reliance on these normative descriptions obscures the wide range of techniques practised, and so stifles the study of geographic, chronological, and social variations in the practice. Using published descriptions in the literature for 150 mummies and 3D reconstructions from computed tomography data for 7 mummies, this study compares empirical data with classical descriptions of evisceration, organ treatment, and body cavity treatment. Techniques for accessing the body cavity, removal and treatment of the organs, and treatment of the eviscerated body cavity vary with time period, sex, and status, and are discussed in relation to their treatment in the literature and their radiological appearance. The Herodotean and Diodorean stereotypes, including the restriction of transabdominal evisceration to the elite and cedar oil enema evisceration to commoners, are falsified by the data. The transperineal forms are present only in elites, and chemical evisceration is not apparent at all. Additionally, the dogmatic contention that the heart was universally retained in situ, or replaced if accidentally removed, is also greatly exaggerated.

“Headless Rome” and Hungry Goths: Herodotus and Titus Andronicus

This essay argues for the intertextual contribution of Book I of Herodotus's Histories to Titus Andronicus. Translated by B.R. in 1584, Herodotus’ account of the rise and fall of the founder of the ancient Persian empire, Cyrus the Great, holds topical resonances for the first audiences of Shakespeare's Roman play, resonances that the play seems to invite. Modeling Tamora on Herodotus’ Tomyris and borrowing crucial elements of plot from the narratives surrounding Cyrus, Shakespeare's most productive response to Herodotus is his adaptation of the figure of the “swallowing womb” from the well‐known Herodotean account of Tomyris’ revenge on Cyrus. Through it, Shakespeare explores the contentious and topical subjects of female rule and England's imperial aspirations. The essay further explores possible connections between Tamora and Queen Elizabeth through their shared iconography in the mold of the just avenger, Tomyris. Ultimately, I argue, the Herodotean allusions facilitate a position sympathetic to the Goths in the play, one that tackles the dominance of Roman cultural models in late‐sixteenth‐century English culture, and that responds defiantly to the vexed and embarrassing subject of Britain's own barbarian history as a colony of Rome. (J.G.)

The Politics of Possession: Edwin Long's Babylonian Marriage Market

article discusses the ways in which the Victorian-era painting The Babylonian Marriage Market by artist Edwin Longsden Long critiques ancient Greek historian Herodotus' writing on Babylon's wife auctions. author also notes how the painting differs from a description of the auction provided in historian George C. Swayne's book Herodotus. ways in which the act of marriage is depicted as a form of female slavery in the painting are explored, as well as its similarities to paintings of Asian female slave markets by French artist Jean-Leon Gerome.