#i love.. pigon | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aboutanancientenquiry · 2 years

Text

“BMCR 2009.07.56

The Children of Herodotus: Greek and Roman Historiography and Related Genres

Jakub Pigon, The Children of Herodotus: Greek and Roman Historiography and Related Genres. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009. 404. ISBN 9781443800150 £39.99.

Review by

Cynthia King, Wright State University. [email protected]

[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review.]

This book must have been a labor of love for Jakub Pigon and Cambridge Scholars Publishing. It has a fine bibliography and index of ancient personal names (much needed). Unfortunately, it has no introduction, and thus information about its genesis and purpose comes from the dust cover, which might well not survive cataloging in a library. From the dust cover we learn that the 22 papers in the book were originally presented at a conference on ancient historical writing in May 2007 in Wroclaw, Poland. The contributors are identified in the book; eleven are scholars from Polish universities. All the essays but one (in French) are in English. The dust jacket notes that “all Greek and most Latin quotations are translated.” Some references to German scholarship in footnotes are not translated. Also from the dust jacket: “The focus of the volume is, on the one hand, on the ancient historians’ methods of approaching the external world, especially a non-Greek (or non-Roman) world, and, on the other, on the political dimension of historical writing, especially Roman imperial historiography.”

1. In a lively paper Stephen Evans examines the evidence for and against Herodotus’ orality. “The recitation of the entire Histories would take up fifty hours,” which some consider impossible, “though actually in India or Africa it would be possible…” (11): Evans cites the work of Lauri Honko, Textualizing the Siri Epic (Helsinki 1998).

2. Klaus Karttunen examines the influence of Herodotus the Ethnographer on later classical writers. With regard to the gold-digging ants, he could have mentioned the reports about marmots in northern Pakistan who throw up rubble that does contain gold dust from their burrows (Marlise Simons, “Himalayas Offer Clue to Legend of Gold-Digging ‘Ants'”, New York Times, November 25, 1996).

3. Angnieska Wojciechowska discusses the Egyptian evidence for Cambyses’ rule there, which paints a much more favorable picture than Herodotus does. Indeed, Herodotus was so concerned to show Cambyses’ offenses against custom that he devoted a whole book to Egyptian history and ethnography.

4. Marek Wecowski believes that Thucydides shares with Herodotus the idea that “a historical work is to provide … a well-grounded insight into the human condition and human nature” (55); he calls this “paradigmatic historiography” (56). The discussion of Thucydides’ implicit attacks on Herodotus shows how much Thucydides learned from Herodotus. (I hope that his forthcoming commentary on Hippias of Elis in Brill’s New Jacoby will enlighten us about who in recent times decided to revive the scholiast’s label for Thucydides’ preface.)

5. Lynn Kozak’s title is borrowed from Hillary Clinton’s attack on General Abizaid in November of 2007 (she gives the first name as “Hilary”). Her opening shows the danger of using contemporary events, since she assumes “an ever-shrinking likelihood of a positive outcome” in Iraq. Her actual subject is an extensive and interesting comparison of the doomed military leaders, Hector in the Iliad and Nicias in Thucydides.

6. Rosie Harman restricts discussion in her paper “to the use of vision in the representation of Cyrus as an imperialist” (74) in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia. “The power of Cyrus as imperial conqueror is constructed through his control over his viewers, in the production of spectacle” (90). The Greek reader is in the position of an “ethnographic viewer gazing on exotic sights” (91), and the way in which Xenophon frames the various spectacles highlights for Greeks the problems of either resisting or submitting to Cyrus’s imperialism.

7. Bogdan Burliga discusses the narrative passages in Aeneas Tacticus’s military handbook, four of which come from Herodotus. Aeneas uses them to illustrate his advice but also to give pleasure.

8. The fragments of the little-known Hellenistic local historian Archemachus are examined by Slawomir Sprawski, who suggests that all come from the Euboika and that he probably did not write a Metonymiai.

9. Przemyslaw Szczurek examines the extensive description of Indian suttee in Diodorus (19.34.1-6). He believes that Diodorus took this description from Hieronymus of Cardia, who may well have been an eyewitness to the funeral of Ceteus in 317 BC. Ceteus commanded the Indian contingent on Eumenes’ side in the conflict with Antigonus the One-Eyed. Greek references to this custom are earlier than Indian sources, which Szezurek also examines. Diodorus’s explanation of the origin of the custom is problematic. The idea of competition among surviving widows, which does not match Indian reality, may have been influenced by Herodotus’s description of Thracian widows (5.5).

10. Strabo’s “difficult relationship with Herodotus” (159) is discussed by Johannes Engels, who provides a useful list of passages in the Geographika that refer to passages in Herodotus.

11. To the current interest in what it meant to be Greek under Roman rule, Avi Avidov adds consideration of the position of Jews. Hellenized Jews like Philo and Josephus “were marginal twice over, in that they were marginal within a marginal community”; their “utopian vision of the Roman empire… was quite irrelevant to the interests of its Gentile addressees, and quite incomprehensible to its Jewish ones” (179).

12. Nicholas Victor Sekunda uses Plutarch’s notice about the books that Alexander ordered Harpalus to send him to suggest that Alexander was planning for a personal dynasty, following the example of Dionysius of Syracuse. The most striking of these books was that of Philistus, author of Peri Dionysiou and a member of Dionysius’s government and extended family.

13. Lydia Langerwerf tackles the problem of being Greek under Rome in a study of Pausanias’s Book 4 and the Messenians. The issues of loss of cultural identity through enslavement and exile are involved in her reading of their situation. She thinks that Pausanias portrays both the Spartans and the Messenians in a negative light.

14. Martine Chassignet’s essay in French is concerned with how Hannibal and his family were portrayed in the Greek and Latin historians before Livy. The Greeks were pro-Carthaginian, nervous about Rome’s advance; those who were contemporary with Hannibal saw him as a worthy successor to Alexander. The Romans reacted to this picture and thus began their tradition of historical writing; with the exception of Cato the Censor, they wrote in Greek to reach a Hellenistic audience.

15. The aim of Jacek Rzepka’s essay is “to show, how (if ever) the Aetolians pictured their history” (220). Their claim to fame “was the successful defence of Central Greece against the Gauls under Brennus in the years 281-279 BC” (221). Rzepka presents two passages from Justin’s abridgment of Pompeius Trogus (one describing an interesting embassy of the Romans to the Aetolians in ca. 240 BC) and one a more famous passage from Polybius (5.104.10), where it is an Aetolian who warns other Greeks about the clouds looming from the west (Rome).

16. The reliability of Curtius Rufus’s account of the mutiny of Alexander’s Macedonian soldiers at Opis in 324 BC is the subject of Marek Jan Olbrycht’s paper. He finds that “Curtius’s narrative … offers a vivid and at some points unique account of the Iranians’ role and Alexander’s policies towards” them (252).

17. Kurt Raaflaub’s important paper deals with Tacitus’s negative attitude towards emperors and the principate even though he claims to write sine ira et studio ( Annals 1.1) and neque amore et sine odio ( Histories 1.1). Tacitus’s purpose, as Raaflaub’s title makes clear, is to reveal the truth about tyranny. The subject must have been quite poignant in Poland: note Raaflaub’s reference to a bitter comment from Jakub Pigon about Pliny the Younger as a “time-server” (p. 266, n. 12). I would assign this paper to students; Raaflaub translates all Latin phrases.

18. Franz Roemer’s paper is a similar examination of Tacitus. He makes interesting comparisons to the Aeneid : (1) Virgil “tells the story of Aeneas”; Tacitus “relates historical events.” (2) Virgil “outlines the historical mission of Rome”; Tacitus tries to analyze historical developments. (3) Virgil “indicates the fate of mankind”; Tacitus ponders “the best form of government” (285) and “the perilous state of the imperium Romanum“: the republic is dead, and “the principate threatens to fail for lack of a capable princeps” (286).

19. What Tacitus intends for the reader to think of Germanicus’s behavior in the mutiny of Lower Germany at the beginning of the Annals is Jakub Pigon’s subject. He shows that Tacitus’s use of the passive voice in crucial passages serves to some extent to remove blame from Germanicus’s handling of the mutiny. Because of the philological nature of Pigon’s interesting and detailed discussion, the reader needs to know Latin.

20. In a detailed analysis of the Agricola, Andrew Fear shows how Tacitus uses comparison with Julius Caesar and the Gallic Wars to highlight Agricola’s achievements in Britain. Tacitus shows Agricola as a better soldier than Caesar, but also as a “more effective imperialist” (316).

21. Agnieszka Dziuba’s discussion of brevitas in Roman historiography again requires the reader to know Latin. Her essay is an overview of authors who use brevitas, and she then focuses on three rhetorical devices used by Sallust, Velleius Paterculus, and Florus. I would have liked at least one essay devoted to Sallust in this collection.

22. Bruce Duncan MacQueen turns from Herodotus’s children to his stepchildren, the Greek novelists in particular. (I am not sure what he wants to do with Petronius and Apuleius.) He suggests that the novel comes about “when the mind turns away from society as it actually is, and imagines a society that could be” (343). His discussion of “the sequence in narratology that leads from myth to history to fiction” (347) uses the idea of process to explain the appearance of this genre, “a series of changes taking place in a rational sequence over a period of time” (346).

Authors and Titles 1. Stephen Evans, The Recitation of Herodotus (1-16) 2. Klaus Karttunen, Phoebo vicinus Padaeus : Reflections on the Impact of Herodotean Ethnography (17-25) 3. Agnieszka Wojciechowska, The Black Legend of Cambyses in Herodotus (26-33) 4. Marek Wecowski, Friends or Foes? Herodotus in Thucydides’ Preface (34-57) 5. Lynn Kozak, “Hope Is Not a Strategy”: Homer’s Hector and Thucydides’ Nicias (58-68) 6. Rosie Harman, Viewing, Power and Interpretation in Xenophon’s Cyropaedia (69-91) 7. Bogdan Burliga, Aeneas Tacticus Between History and Sophistry: The Emergence of the Military Handbook (92-101) 8. Slawomir Sprawski, Writing Local History: Archemachus and his Euboika (102-118) 9. Przemyslaw Szczurek, Source or Sources of Diodorus’ Accounts of Indian sati Suttee (Diod. Sic. 19.33-34.6)? (119-143) 10. Johannes Engels, Universal History and Cultural Geography of the Oikoumene in Herodotus’ Historiai and Strabo’s Geographika (144-161) 11. Avi Avidov, A Marginal Vision of Empire: Philo and Josephus on the Jews’ Integration into Imperial Society (162-180) 12. Nicholas Victor Sekunda, Philistus and Alexander’s Empire (Plutarch, Vita Alexandri 8.3) (181-186) 13. Lydia Langerwerf, The Messenians and their Foolish Courage in Pausanias’ Book 4 (187-205) 14. Martine Chassignet, L’image des Barcides chez les historiographes latins de la Republique: naissance d’une tradition (206-218) 15. Jacek Rzepka, Principes Semper Graeciae : Pompeius Trogus/Justinus and the Aetolian Politics of History (219-230) 16. Marek Jan Olbrycht, Curtius Rufus, the Macedonian Mutiny at Opis and Alexander’s Iranian Policy in 324 BC (231-252) 17. Kurt A. Raaflaub, The Truth About Tyranny: Tacitus and the Historian’s Responsibility in Early Imperial Rome (253-270) 18. Franz Roemer, Reconsiderations on the Intention and Structure of Tacitus’ Annals (271-286) 19. Jakub Pigon, The Passive Voice of the Hero: Some Peculiarities of Tacitus’ Portrayal of Germanicus in Annals 1.31-49 (287-303) 20. Andrew T. Fear, A Greater than Caesar? Rivalry with Caesar in Tacitus’ Agricola (304-316) 21. Agnieszka Dziuba, Brevitas as a Stylistic Feature in Roman Historiography (317-328) 22. Bruce Duncan MacQueen, The Stepchildren of Herodotus: The Transformation of History into Fiction in Late Antiquity (329-348)”

Source; https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2009/2009.07.56/

#herodotus #ancient greek classics #ancient historiography #jakub pigon #cynthia king

1 note · View note

footygirl114 · 2 years

Note

I love pigons 🐧

Birds are kinda creepy tbh 😂

1 note · View note

fat-ugly-bus-driver · 2 years

Note

I AM NOT AT ALL A BIRD . ESPCALY NOT A PIGON.

What's wrong with birds 🤕

NTONG I LOVE BIRD S. i j ust am not one .

0 notes

year2000electronics · 3 years

Text

Malcom Challender and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good Very Bad Day

(just a little goofy ficlet set after episode 2 bc i wrote day 11 when i wasnt feeling very good about myself so i think my cool and awesome sona should be able to hang out with vils cool friends :^) )

The sun shone through the crack in Malcom’s windows, and he waved off the pigons that had somehow slipped into his apartment- as they often did, with his bird-whisperer of a roommate around. He swore it was like Player let them in on purpose sometimes. He squinted, avoiding the light as he transferred himself from his bed to his wheelchair, kicking the brake back in.

...Yes, he slept in his clothes. Don’t lie! You do it too, sometimes!

Malcom made his way into the kitchen, pouring himself a bowl of cereal. He pondered to himself where his housemates had gone off to, but he decided against questioning where they went. They were more active than he was, certainly- Player, when he wasn’t feeding the birds in some park, was off using his gym membership or playing bingo with some old ladies. Darnold was probably attaching rocket boosters to things that weren’t supposed to have rocket boosters.

And they were both video game characters that had become real.

God, Malcom’s life was fucking weird.

He could at least take the day to relax- after all, he didn’t have a stream until the weekend. Summer was right around the corner, which meant he could start using all his outdoor gimmicks for streams. Neo had even suggested doing a carnival stream! How would that even WORK?!

He shrugged it off. Malcom was sure Neo had some crazy ideas in his head, anyways. That was just how the dude worked.

Malcom’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud banging on his dining room window. His head jerked up in surprise when he heard some especially loud banging. Someone was… knocking on his window? From THIS high up?!

And it was…

No.

No fucking way.

That beautifully-styled curly brown hair. That signature sleazy moustache. That suave all-black ensemble. That surprisingly sleek ship they rode.

CAPITAL M?!

They said… well, they said something. Malcom couldn’t hear them through the window.

Both of them paused for an incredibly awkward while, until eventually, Malcom quietly rolled the window down.

“As I was SAYING. HELLO, GAMER BOY! AS YOU CAN SEE, I HAVE CAPTURED YOUR PRECIOUS FRIENDS!” Mothra shouted, cackling.

Malcom was… unimpressed. All there was were a bunch of birds flying around the ship, with some of them landing near Malcom in a panic.

“Why the hell are you BACK? And second of all, is this some kinda fucked up psychological warfare to say I don’t have friends?! I do have friends, asshole! I have good traits! I know cos my therapist told me!” Malcom shouted in a huff.

“Oh- No, these are- Okay-” Capital M fumbled, hauling a giant, futuristic-looking gun out of vil’s storage compartment. “So first of all, I was just at a resort. And some… people there got me back into the groove.”

“AND SECOND OF ALL!” He posed with the gun. “BEHOLD! MY GUN THAT TURNS PEOPLE INTO BIRDS!”

“AHAHAHAHA!”

“...Birds,” Malcom said in disbelief. He looked down at the birds currently waddling around on his table. They were… unremarkable. Of course they were, they were birds!

“Yes. Birds. It’s perfect cos Player will never allow it to be changed back. Ever.”

“Ever?”

“Ever.”

Malcom snorted.

“Yeah, well, what. Are you gonna turn every world leader into a bird so you can demand ransom or something?” He said flatly.

“That’s exactly it! PREPARE FOR A GLOBAL DEBT, MALCOM CHALLENDER!” Capital M proclaimed, pointing at him.

“That is…” Her face twisted into one of mischievous glee. “Unless someone were to… stop me…? Hmmm?”

Malcom sighed. “Dude.”

“We need to get you some superhero friends or something.”

“I am a TWITCH STREAMER. I have JOBS I do for MONEY. And I have NO POWERS.”

“PAH! You have your silly stupid power of friendship, don’t you?!”

“..Besides. I know for a fact you don’t stream today,” Mothra muttered.

“...Are you following me on Twitch…?”

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, gamer-boy.”

“AND NOW I DEPART!” Capital M shouted, flying off and leaving Malcom with a lot of birds.

“Great. So, uh, who’s who?” He asked the group. “...Nevermind that, actually. No way to tell.”

It was just then his phone rang.

‘DO NOT ANSWER is requesting FaceTime…’

Malcom sighed, picking it up as a squished-together group of scientists took over his entire screen.

“Hey, Doc. Half of us got turned into birds by Capital M,” Malcom said. “You wouldn’t have anything to do with this, would you?”

The mad scientist’s face lit up. “Birds?! Oh, splendid, splendid! They really are coming back with a bang!”

“I’d GREATLY prefer it if they came back with a bang elsewhere? Maybe to the universe where people actually have powers? Like the admins, maybe??” Malcom shouted, as one of the birds let out an angry tweet.

The taller, purple scientist behind Doc guffawed. “Sorry, man. You’re the biggest dork here, so you’re easy pickings. Maybe vil just likes you.”

“It’s a great honour to have a nemesis, you know!” Harold piped up.

“AND HOW!” Doc and Sleepless both chirped.

God, they were all such a happy family. It was contagious. BLECH.

“Either way, I’m not smart enough to make an anti-bird gun. So can you guys PLEASE come over and fix this mess?” Malcom said with a sigh.

“I WOULD like to see how Capital M is doing… When we parted ways, it seemed like things were off to a good start…” Bubby mused.

“Yeah, they’re real excited about this. Just like usual, I guess,” Malcom said with a chuckle.

“Hey, is B’s service cooperating? Can we get him over too?”

The old man shook his head. “I’m afraid his feed was more like… a mosaic.”

“Damn that 2002 phone he has,” Malcom grumbled. “Oh, well. I’m sure you guys can help just fine. C’mon over.”

“Will do! We’ll bring the arsenal of weapons, too!” Tommy said excitedly.

“Like my new invention, BETTER TOASTER!” Doc yelled, holding up a toaster with mechanical spider legs and what looked like a flamethrower.

“Or the evil saxophone!” Sleepless said, and Malcom knew that was his sign to log off, as he cut them off mid-note.

“Okay, Malcom. Your friends are birds and your other friends are Saturday morning cartoon villains. Wonderful.” He sighed, sitting back in his wheelchair.

“And your OTHER other friend sure has a weird way of showing their appreciation.”

He laughed.

“Damn, I love being me.”

#hlvrv

67 notes · View notes

halfofxerxes · 5 years

Text

Mobile Dating Game: Van Hohenheim

ROUTE START: "I hope you're not looking for something serious, my long term relationship skills are ones I don't have."

ROUTE SWITCH: "Stop by again sometime, maybe without the expectations and have some fun."

MENU INTERFACE, POKE A: "Kind of in my personal space there."

MENU INTERFACE, POKE B: "Hi yes, I wasn't dozing off."

MENU INTERFACE, POKE (REPEATEDLY): "I need you to back off right now, I'm getting a little upset."

[poke again] "Listen to me, I don't like it."

[poke yet again] -screen flashes red and Hohenheim disappears until next reboot of the game-

[upon reboot] -Hohenheim gives you a dirty look until you talk to him-

MENU INTERFACE, POKE MAX ♥: "It tickles okay? Quit it."

COMPLETED SCENE, +♥: "Oh. That was a lot of fun. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, you are kind of amazing and lov-- Oh I have to go, I just remebered an alchemy experiment I left running." -exits frame only to pop back on, almost flushed- "Take me out again sometime." -exits-

COMPLETED SCENE, -♥: "I don't want to fight you. That being said, I don't think you'll be seeing me if I see you first."

GIFT (NEUTRAL): "Oh, thank you! It's a fish! It isn't? Why does it look like that."

NEUTRAL GIFTS: paintings, hand crafted items, poorly made alchemical experiments, other miscellaneous items he doesn't have strong feelings about.

GIFT (DISLIKED): I know several languages, been halfway around the world, watched civilizations fall, and I still dont have enough eloquence in my body to string together a sentence that encapsulates how much I want you to die right now.

DISLIKED GIFTS: anything soul powered, most religious iconography, military insignia, any kind of collar or chain Hoho is supposed to wear.

GIFT (LIKED):

[first time] "Oh, this-- I can't accept this. It's beautiful. Are you sure?"

[subsequent times] "Thank you. It's not easy for me to accept something so wonderful, and I'd wish you'd stop spoiling me."

LIKED GIFTS: flowers, clothing, feathers, pressed leaves, alchemic flasks, pencils, pretty rocks, soft things, cooked items

GIFT (FAVORITE):

[first time] -he immediately starts crying- "I-- I'm... Thank you."

[Subsiquent times] "More? You really want me to have this? You're not trying to butter me up are you?"

[After a bad date, first time] "I know what you're trying to do. Frankly I'm a little insulted you're trying to bribe me back into your life. What do I look like? Some dumb slave that's only good enough for you as long as you can control me?"

[-->I didn't call you a slave Hohenheim, you're reading into it too much.] "I-- Maybe I am. I don't know. I don't... You need to go. I want to be alone with my thoughts, and my anger."

[-->I wanted to find a reason to talk to you.] "Oh. Oh... I'm sorry. I got a little upset. Just... Next time don't bring me this when we have a fight."

[After a bad date, second time] ".... I." -he leaves-

[Bad date 3rd time] "Don't try to tell me that giving gifts is your love language. You could literally get me anything else instead of this, but you know me. You're trying to exploit my feelings for you and we talked about this. You want to know why this makes me so angry? You made me feel like a cheap whore who sells himself for attention and affection."

[-->Calm down, there's no need to be dramatic.] "I fucking hate you. If you don't leave right now I'm going to do something I will regret, and something you won't have to."

¬¬[passive action, do not back out of the screen or choose --> you wouldn't hurt me] "You're wrong. I've hurt better people for worse reasons, and frankly you were a fool for trusting me." -screen crackles red, restarts the game. Hohenheim only shows up in the background from now on and is no longer an option.

[--> I didn't realize I was hitting on a nerve. I don't think of you like that.] "It should have been enough to know I was upset, but I do understand. Look-- go make friends with someone else. I'll be here when you're older." -this ends the relationship with Hohenheim, but he can be romanced again if the player chooses.-

FAVORITE GIFT: Jelwery, green and blue polished stones, pigon shaped things. If not given after a bad date; Temporarily increases affection to maximum if given pigeon broaches.

GIFT (BIRTHDAY): "Oh, my birthday? Uh, I-- this is awkward... That birthdate is a forged one, I don't know what day I was born. Cake? Party? Uhm... No, I, no... Thank you? I'll keep it I guess."

PLAYERS BIRTHDAY: "I don't really understand why it's important but... Happy birthday. I made you a fish."

GIFT (RECIPROCAL): "Wait, I... I wanted... Here, just take it, you can kiss me for it later." -exits- Tagged by: @mechanicosmia

Tagging: anyone who wants to do it

#straight outta xerxes #about #dash memes #giving him favorite gifts at the end of a bad date is the only way to get a bad end. Otherwise he's pretty much good with whatever #even if you keep getting him stuff he hates he just gets... passive aggressive

3 notes · View notes