He does not lay claim to understanding. On the contrary, he keeps to the shadows and has others do the talking. The others are, in this case, the learned Persians. These learned Persians, Herodotus says, maintain that the instigators of the worldwide East-West conflict are neither the Greeks nor the Persians, but a third people, the Phoenicians, peripatetic merchants. It was they who first began the business of kidnapping women, which in turn triggered this global storm. Indeed, the Phoenicians kidnap in the Greek port of Argos a king’s daughter called Io and take her by ship to Egypt. Later, several Greeks land in the Phoenician city of Tyre and abduct Europa, the daughter of its king. Still other Greeks kidnap from the king of Colchis his daughter, Medea. Paris of Troy, in turn, seizes Helen, wife of the Greek king Menelaus, and carries her off to Troy. In revenge, the Greeks invade Troy. A great war breaks out, whose history is immortalized by Homer. Herodotus paraphrases the commentary of Persian wise men: Although the Persians regard the abduction of women as a criminal act, they also claim that it is stupid to get worked up about it and to seek revenge for the women once they have been abducted; the sensible course, they say, is to pay no attention to it, because it is obvious that the women must have been willing participants in their own abduction, or else it could never have happened.
What do You think about Travels With Herodotus (2007)?
