Herodotus as the First Historian of Ideas

J. D. Noonan (University of South Florida)

Herodotus' strength as an historian of ideas lies not in the area of grand historical theory, as has sometimes been maintained, but in describing ideas that ought to be labeled decisions or judgements that have a bearing on action.  The paper argues that Herodotus' text may have been used by us as his successors in scholarship to argue that all history is an evolving of the idea or ideas of freedom, but he himself is much more cautious and does not make such a grandiose claim.  The ideas that interest him most are those which arise out of controversy and are proposals about action.  In Greek, this means that his emphasis is on γνώμη (not “proverb” here, but “decision”) and on ἀπόδειξις The bulk of the paper examines passages from Herodotus in which the privileged phrases γνώμην ἀποδείκνυσθαι / ἀποφαίνεσθαι are used.  The phrases are labeled “privileged” because of the emphasis on ἀπόδειξις in the opening sentence of his work and because of the fact that the most frequently occurring distinct direct object of ἀποδείκνυσθαι in Herodotus is γνώμην rather than ἔργα, which may refer to several different sorts of works or deeds.  It is certainly significant that Herodotus allows the phrase to occur with hexameter rhythm (e.g. καλλίστην ἀπεδείκνυτο γνώμην), perhaps as an indication that he had found it or derived it from among poetic formulae, and that he uses the phrase to reflect on his own historical judgement (e.g. the evaluation of opinions on the flooding of the Nile or the debate over the Athenians' role in defending the Greeks) as well as to emphasize the thinking of historical actors who made memorable decisions about policy.  This was an analysis of ideas that is less sweeping than may be found in some later historians but it is the necessary first step in locating thought within history, the paper concludes.