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Herodotus, The Histories, Summary of Book Seven

Continued from: Herodotus, The Histories, Book VII: Part 1

Even though Herodotus does spend a lot of his time in Book VII, telling us about the fighting, it is not the only area that is important to him. He tells us about such everyday things as preparations to feed the army (118-119), about such displays of wisdom as the witty remark of Megacreon (120). He gives us descriptions of geography and customs of different lands, Thessaly (129), for example. Religion was also clearly important to this historian. Only in the Book VII, he gives us vision of Xerxes (12-14), Artabanus (17-18), prayer of Xerxes (54), and various oracles (140, 141-142).

The historian teaches us about the importance of advisors. For example, Demaratus and his role in Xerxes' succession of Darius (VII, 3), and Mardonius and his Mardonius in Xerxes' going to war against Greeks (VII, 5), etc. By this, we are shown that even in the system of one-man-rule, it is not just the one man who controls the events. There are always other human beings who have a certain (or considerable) influence on the ruler, and therefore, on the history.

Herodotus tells us that women do have influence as well. Two examples from the Book VII are Atossa and Artemisia. Atossa, the wife of king Darius, was a very important motive for Darius choice of Xerxes as his successor. Even though Darius did have other sons who were older, Xerxes' mother Atossa was a daughter of the great king Cyrus. Here, the historian openly states his own opinion in book VII, 3: "For my own part I believe that, even without this [Demaratus' advice], the crown would have gone to Xerxes; for Atossa was all-powerful." It is notable that even though Atossa's power was essentially coming from Cyrus, in this passage he says, "for Atossa was all-powerful", as opposed to "for Cyrus, Xerxes grandfather, was all-powerful".

Herodotus paints a good account of Artemisia, even though it was her grandson Lygdamis who exiled the historian from Halicarnassus. Was that because he had forgiven Lygdamis by then? Or was he grateful for the things gained during his travels (as the information needed for The Histories? Was he satisfied because Lygdamis had finally been deposed around 454 BC? Or did he simply like Artemisia because she had been the queen of his birthplace?

Herodotus also tells us about exceptional wit of some of the women. He lets us know that it was Gorgo, the queen of Sparta, who guessed the secret behind the blank wax tablets that arrived from Persia. Nobody else guessed their meaning. (VII, 239)

I think he is so interesting not only because he was trying to be entertaining, but also because he was excited about the history of the old times and he passes his excitement down to us.