Mar 19– From An Account of Egypt by Herodotus (~430BC) translated by G. C. Macaulay
Summary: This is a much more "historical" history, in the sense that there's a lot of dates and dead guys. I feel like the previous Herodotus piece was more archeological, "this building was here, was this big, made of this material," etc. etc.
Commentary: This selection is about 1/4 a repeat of the end of the previous selection from Egypt. Some degree of overlap isn't surprising (might need to reestablish context) but that seems like a lot. On the plus side, as I read over, it did seem familiar, so I'm maintaining at least a little of what I read. I'd love to see the actual notes that Elliot (or whoever was working with him/the publisher) made while they were organizing all this. Did they just not realize it? Was the overlap the only way to get two clean sections of the right size? Did they think it was really important to learn about generational time and the role of the Greek gods in Egypt?
Being set free after the reign of the priest of Hephaistos, the Egyptians, since they could not live any time without a king, set up over them twelve kings, having divided all Egypt into twelve parts.
Why did the Egyptians need kings? Them specifically, or does Herodotus think it's part of the human condition? Why twelve?
(I should've read to the end of the paragraph before doing a quote pull. An oracle told them so.)
Psammetichos's story was interesting. Accidentally fulfills a prophecy (by using his helmet as a cup), exiled, comes back and takes the whole thing over. How many times have we seen that story in a fantasy novel or something? Makes you wonder how many authors knew his story back when the trope was being formed, vs made it up themselves or copied from elsewhere.
Now Psammetichos held out his helmet with no treacherous meaning
and
And to him this that was done was in some degree not unwelcome
I like how Herodotus always makes it sound like people don't want to be king, but then they go and conquer everyone three sentences later. "I wasn't going to be king, but I guess if I have to..." no one is just a chill king who lets the regional authorities handle things or whatever.
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