The preface to Herodotus’ Histories, as evidence for the importance of the sea

Abstract

My position is that the opening sentence and the first five chapters must be regarded as the prologue which has been written with „preconceived formal concepts”. Herodotus took these concepts from rhetoric. The prologue consists of two parts. The first part is the opening sentence which gives the title and alludes to the subject and the general aim of the work. The second part of the prologue deals with the Persian, Phoenician, and Herodotean discussion of mythical origins of the conflict between Asia and Europe. In the original version, Zeus as womanizer impregnates Io, and the jealous Hera turns her into a white cow, fleeing a gadfly, who finally arrives in Egypt. Herodotus rationalizes this original myth of Io, and in his rationalized story, the sea and the ships play an important part. So the first wrong was done by the Phoenicians who abducted Io by ship, and sailed away for Egypt. Next certain Greeks landed at Tyre in Phoenice and carried off the king’s daughter Europe. According to the original Cretan myth „Europe arrived at Crete riding the back of a bull-shaped Zeus”. Herodotus rationalized this myth, too, and it is clear from the situation, that the abduction of Europe happened on a ship at sea.