1 COMMENTARY ON

HERODOTUS
WITH INTRODUCTION AND APPENDIXES
BY

W. W. HOW
FELLOW AND SENIOR TUTOR OF MERTON COLLEGE

AND

J. WELLS :
FELLOW AND TUTOR OF WADHAM COLLEGE

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOLUME I ( BOOKS I -IV )

OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1912
 APPENDIXES
APPENDIX I

THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF WESTERN ASIA MINOR

AND THE LYDIAN HISTORY OF H.

[Authorities. For the history and art of Western Asia Minor cf.
Perrot et Chipiez, Hist. de l'Art dans l'Antiquité, vol. v (1890 ).
On Phrygia cf. P. Gardner, New Chapters in Greek History, pp . 28
seq., on Lydia, P. Radet, Lydie et le Monde Grec (687-546 B.c .),
a most interesting book,but too ready to defendtraditional views.
For the languages cf. Kretschmer, Einleitung in die Gesch. der
griech. Sprache, and for the whole subjectMeyer, i. 472 seq.
( especially 476), and Hogarth's brilliant sketch ,‘ lonia and the East. ]
§ 1. Asia Minor is the meeting-place between East and West, the
bridge by which opposing civilizations have advanced in turn to
attack each other. Hence, as might be expected, there is a great
mixture of races in it. But, broadly speaking, the Halys is the
dividing line.
East of it the peoples are mostly Semitic ; this may be due to
direct immigration or to the influence of the great Semitic empires,
whether the Hittite,ruling from Pteria or Carchemish , or the Assy
rian from Mesopotamia .
§ 2. Asia Minor West of the Halys. But these peoples concern
the student of H. comparatively little ; it is the tribes in the western
half, with which the Greeks had come more into contact, that take
an important place in H.'s account of the relations of Greeks and
Barbarians. These tribes are especially the Mysians, the Lydians,
and the Phrygians.
They were probably akin to each other ; this was certainly the
opinion of the ancients, e.g. H., who, as a native of Halicarnassus,
was likely to know the truth (i.171. 6 n.), says that Carians, Mysians,
and Lydians were akin, and quotes ritual evidence ; and Xanthus
1 Cf. Ramsay, H. G. p. 32, where the statement is limited.
? For the Carians and the Lycians cf. i. 171 , 173 nn . ; the former were
subject to Croesus (i. 28), but neither of these tribes appear in Lydian
history so much as the more northern ones .
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 ETHNOGRAPHY OF WESTERN ASIA MINOR
( fr. 8),' using the evidence of dialect, says that the Mysians were
half-way between Phrygians and Lydians. This view is partly con
firmed by the fact that, of the few Lydian words known, some are
said to be Carian, and others Phrygian, and also by ' the most
general features of the popular worships ofWestern Asia Minor ',
e.g. the importance of the great goddess who personified the
creative power ofnature ' ? This cult is found everywhere.
$ 3. Origin of thePeoples. Invasion from Europe. Another
view of the ancient writers is now generallyaccepted as true in the
main, though a generation ago it was looked on as a mere piece of
Hellenic vanity , i.e. that these Anatolian races had comein from
the North -west. Xanthus ( fr. 5)says that the Phrygians came from
Thrace, after the Trojan war; H. says they had been neighbours
of the Macedonians' (vii.73. I n.), and also that the Bithynians
( vii.75.2) were originally Thracians. Strabo (295) says the same of
the Mysians.S
It is true that we cannot quote similar opinions about the Lydians
and the Carians ; probably their immigration had been earlier,
perhaps some centuries before 1000 B. C., as they had penetrated
further south, and so all tradition of it had been lost.
$ 4. Primitive Anatolian Population . But modern criticism
conjectures another element in the races of Western Asia, the exis
tence of which was forgotten, or never known, by the Greeks. The
tribes from the North were warriors, whoestablished themselves as
a ruling caste ; but an earlier race survived as serfs, and, in fact,
formed the mass of the population. As the conquerors brought few
1 F.H.G. i. 37 ; for Xanthus' relations to H. see Introd . p. 23.
? Perrot, v. pp. 242-3: the Greeks called her Cybele at Smyrna, Artemis
at Ephesus, Enys (Bellona) at Comana, where her proper name was Ma
(Strabo 535) . For her wide prevalence as a coin -type cf. Hogarth, Ephesus,
PP:8 330-1.
Further evidence is afforded :
(1) By myths, e.g. that of Midas and his rose garden is localized near
Edessa and Mount Bermius (viii. 138. 2 ) in Macedonia.
(2 ) Common names ; that of the Mygdones ’ round Dascyleum is
repeated in Mygdonia' on the lower Axius; so, too, there are ' Brygians '
in Macedonia ( vi. 45. 2) aslate as 493 B.C. (Bpúyou is the Macedonian
dialect form of Φρύγες , cf. Bίλιππος. )
(3) Common civilization ; musical skill and orgiastic rites are character
istic both of Thrace and of Phrygia.
For the legend of a counter-movement from Asia to Europe cf. vii.
O. I nn.
4 . It is reasonable to characterize the whole original population of
stern Asia as Proto - Armenian ' (J. H. S. xix. 49) . We have traces of
r languages in place -names ending in ' ssa ' , ' nda ', and of their matri
arcual system in the prominence of the female elements in myths and cults ;
the presence of similar place -names in Greece seems to indicate that the race
was spread on both sides of the Aegean ; cf. i. 171. I n. and Meyer, i. 476.
371 Bb 2
 APPENDIX I

women with them, they married the women of this earlier race, and
so were gradually absorbed in the nationality of their own subjects.
Súch a process has happened repeatedly in India ; such a process
is conjectured to explain the disappearance from modern France of
the race of tall, fair Gallic warriors, once so terrible to the Romans;
such a process explains naturally what was always an enigma to the
Greeks. Tradition spoke of the warlike Phrygians (Hom . Il.iii. 185);
early history knew of the famous Lydian cavalry (i. 80. 4) ; but
Lydians and Phrygians later were effeminate and natural slaves '.
To explain the puzzle, stories like that of i. 155. 4 were invented ;
the result of a gradual process is put down to the policy of an
individual.
$ 5. Results of the mixture. The blending of a race of Euro
pean conquerors with a subject population also explains the diffi
culty which modern scholars have felt in determining the race of
these Anatolian peoples. On the one hand, the survivals of their
languages seem to be akin to the Indo-European tongues ' ; and
similarity of origin is indicated by the way in which they influenced
and were influenced by the Greeks. On the other hand, it is
possible to see a clear Oriental element in their worships, their
social customs (i. 94. I ), and their myths. Even in the worship
of the Great Mother ' herself ( cf. 80 n.) , there is a blending of
Northern and of Eastern elements, of frenzied excitement and of
sensual impurity .
The mixture of conquered and conquering races will explain all
this. At the same time Radet may be right in thinking that there
had been a definite Syrian immigration into Lydia, adding a Semitic
1 Perhaps we may compare the Lydian Manes (i. 94. 3) with Indian
• Manu ' and German Mannus '. Plato (Crat. 410 A ) had already noticed
the resemblances of Greek and Phrygian . On the other hand, the longest
Lydian inscription (that recently found at Sardis, i. 84. I n.), though so
far antranslated, shows, in its terminations at any rate, that it is not akin to
Greek .
3 For similarity of customs cf, i. 35. 2 (purification ), 74. 6 ( oaths), and
4. 94 (the general statement ).
Cf. the iepódova ou at Comana, Strabo 535 .
4 Cf. the story of the death of Croesus' son, i. 36 seq ., and the frequency
of the termination ' Attes ’ in Lydian names ; cf., too, the stories of the
Amazons .
6
p. 54. Though Atys is a native Anatolian figure, he is connected with
the local god of North Syria, Ate ; but whether the cult immigration was
from Syria into Anatolia , or vice versa , is disputed (Meyer, i. 487 n .). It
has been argued that the Lydians were of Semitic race because in Gen. x.
22 ‘ Lud ' is the son of Shem ; but, even allowing this genealogy to have
any significance as to race connexion, Lud ' must stand for some tribe far
to the south -east of Asia Minor ; for he comes between ' Arphaxad '
( Chaldaea) and ' Aram ' (Syria ).
372