Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/291

Rh an unfinished state. There is no obvious reason why Herodotus should have carried down the war between the Greeks and Persians to the taking of Sestos, without mentioning any subsequent event of it. Besides, in one place he promises to give the particulars of an occurrence in a future part of his work ; a promise which is nowhere fulfilled.

§ 4. The plan of the work of Herodotus is formed upon a notion which, though it cannot in strictness be called true, was very current in his time, and had even been developed, after their fashion, by the learned of Persia and Phœnicia, who were not unacquainted with Greek mythology. The notion is that of an ancient enmity between the Greeks and the nations of Asia. The learned of the East considered the rapes of Io, Medea, and Helen, and the wars which grew out of those events, as single acts of this great conflict; and their main object was to determine which of the two parties had first used violence against the other. Herodotus, however, soon drops these stories of old times, and turns to a prince whom he knows to have been the aggressor in his war against the Greeks. This is Crœsus, king of Lydia. He then proceeds to give a detailed account of the enterprises of Crœsus and the other events of his life; into which are interwoven as episodes, not only the early history of the Lydian kings and of their conflicts with the Greeks, but also some important passages in the history of the Greek states, particularly Athens and Sparta. In this manner Herodotus, in describing the first subjugation of the Greeks by an Asiatic power, at the same time points out the origin and progress of those states by which the Greeks were one day to be liberated. Meanwhile, the attack of Sardis by Cyrus brings the Persian power on the stage in the place of the Lydian; and the narrative proceeds to explain the rise of the Persian from the Median kingdom, and to describe its increase by the subjugation of the nations of Asia Minor and the Babylonians. Whenever the Persians come in contact with other nations, an account, more or less detailed, is given of their history and peculiar usages. Herodotus evidently, as indeed he himself confesses, strives to enlarge his plan by episodes; it is manifestly his object to combine with the history of the conflict between the East and West a vivid picture of the contending nations. Thus to the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses (Book II.) he annexes a description of the country, the people, and their history; the copiousness of which was caused by his fondness for Egypt, on account of its early civilization, and the