Forgetfulness as a Narrative Device in Herodotus’ Histories
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Carlos Hernández Garcés
Abstract
This study posits that Herodotus’ use of λήθη and its cognates serves a narrative purpose in the Histories. It also puts forward that an underlying conception of (good or bad) judgement as the negation of forgetfulness (ἀ-λήθεια) is operational in the text. This paper consists of a preliminary bird’s-eye view of λήθη in the literary corpus prior to Herodotus’ work and the subsequent analysis of the role of λήθη and λανθάνω in the Histories. It is divided up in three sections. In the first one I examine jointly the only two occurrences of λήθη in the Histories, which document the earliest attestations of mortals wielding forgetfulness (λήθην ποιεῖσθαι). Equivalent in form, they bring about critically dissimilar consequences depending on the rightness (or not) in the assessment of the concrete situation in which forgetfulness is exercised. Secondly, I delve into the verbal cognate λανθάνω. In keeping with the strand set by the distribution of λήθη, I postulate that failure to assess correctly a set of circumstances and being deceived by them signals ruin. Conversely, sound analysis of the context keeps individuals safe and may even bring benefits. Lastly, I inquire into the only two instances of the expression ἑκὼν ἐπιλανθάνομαι. Making one of the characters choose overtly what is to be remembered and what forgotten, in a properly historicising fashion, Herodotus makes visible his own hand in the composition of his work. In conclusion, I argue that the three cognates ultimately function as a narrative device with a threefold purpose: To buttress Herodotus’ authority over the account of past events he is shaping; To further characterise some actors’ discernment (or lack of it), to the extent of occasionally paralleling it to his own as historian; And to depict the Greeks as being on a higher intellectual echelon than the non-Greeks insofar as they use better judgement in decision-making, understood as a quality intrinsic to the kind of knowledge which has memory at its heart.
Abstract
This study posits that Herodotus’ use of λήθη and its cognates serves a narrative purpose in the Histories. It also puts forward that an underlying conception of (good or bad) judgement as the negation of forgetfulness (ἀ-λήθεια) is operational in the text. This paper consists of a preliminary bird’s-eye view of λήθη in the literary corpus prior to Herodotus’ work and the subsequent analysis of the role of λήθη and λανθάνω in the Histories. It is divided up in three sections. In the first one I examine jointly the only two occurrences of λήθη in the Histories, which document the earliest attestations of mortals wielding forgetfulness (λήθην ποιεῖσθαι). Equivalent in form, they bring about critically dissimilar consequences depending on the rightness (or not) in the assessment of the concrete situation in which forgetfulness is exercised. Secondly, I delve into the verbal cognate λανθάνω. In keeping with the strand set by the distribution of λήθη, I postulate that failure to assess correctly a set of circumstances and being deceived by them signals ruin. Conversely, sound analysis of the context keeps individuals safe and may even bring benefits. Lastly, I inquire into the only two instances of the expression ἑκὼν ἐπιλανθάνομαι. Making one of the characters choose overtly what is to be remembered and what forgotten, in a properly historicising fashion, Herodotus makes visible his own hand in the composition of his work. In conclusion, I argue that the three cognates ultimately function as a narrative device with a threefold purpose: To buttress Herodotus’ authority over the account of past events he is shaping; To further characterise some actors’ discernment (or lack of it), to the extent of occasionally paralleling it to his own as historian; And to depict the Greeks as being on a higher intellectual echelon than the non-Greeks insofar as they use better judgement in decision-making, understood as a quality intrinsic to the kind of knowledge which has memory at its heart.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- Acknowledgements IX
- Introduction 1
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Part I: The Mechanics of Memory
- Taking a Walk through Rome…: Comedic Itineraries and Early Republican Spatial Memory 19
- Quoting from Memory? Shared Knowledge in Cicero’s Book Fragments of Accius’ Atreus 41
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Part II: Collective Memory
- Memories of Glory: Poetry, Prose, and Commemoration in the Heraclidae 71
- Ovid’s Poetics of Memory and Oblivion in his Exilic Poetry 89
- The Memory of Marcus Regulus and Cannae in Plautus’ Captivi 103
- Divine Memories and the Shaping of Olympus in the Iliad 123
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Part III: Female Memory
- The Manipulation of Memory in Apollonius’ Argonautica 145
- Bound to Break Boundaries: Memory and Identity in Seneca’s Medea 165
- Audita mente notaui: (Meta)memory, Gender, and Pastoral Impersonation in the Speech of Ovid’s Galatea 193
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Part IV: Oblivion
- Ovid’s Labyrinthine Ars: Pasiphae and the Dangers of Poetic Memory in the Metamorphoses 219
- Divine Memory, Mortal Forgetfulness and Human Misfortune 247
- Forgetfulness as a Narrative Device in Herodotus’ Histories 267
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Part V: Further Thoughts
- Memory and its Discontents in Ancient Literature 293
- List of Contributors 309
- Index Rerum et Nominum 313
- Index Locorum 315
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- Acknowledgements IX
- Introduction 1
-
Part I: The Mechanics of Memory
- Taking a Walk through Rome…: Comedic Itineraries and Early Republican Spatial Memory 19
- Quoting from Memory? Shared Knowledge in Cicero’s Book Fragments of Accius’ Atreus 41
-
Part II: Collective Memory
- Memories of Glory: Poetry, Prose, and Commemoration in the Heraclidae 71
- Ovid’s Poetics of Memory and Oblivion in his Exilic Poetry 89
- The Memory of Marcus Regulus and Cannae in Plautus’ Captivi 103
- Divine Memories and the Shaping of Olympus in the Iliad 123
-
Part III: Female Memory
- The Manipulation of Memory in Apollonius’ Argonautica 145
- Bound to Break Boundaries: Memory and Identity in Seneca’s Medea 165
- Audita mente notaui: (Meta)memory, Gender, and Pastoral Impersonation in the Speech of Ovid’s Galatea 193
-
Part IV: Oblivion
- Ovid’s Labyrinthine Ars: Pasiphae and the Dangers of Poetic Memory in the Metamorphoses 219
- Divine Memory, Mortal Forgetfulness and Human Misfortune 247
- Forgetfulness as a Narrative Device in Herodotus’ Histories 267
-
Part V: Further Thoughts
- Memory and its Discontents in Ancient Literature 293
- List of Contributors 309
- Index Rerum et Nominum 313
- Index Locorum 315
