How was Herodotus able to get accounts of the Battle of Thermopylae?
score:10
Firstly, your assertion that:
> It is said he recorded the last words of the Spartans "stranger go tell Sparta we lie here obedient to her laws "
is incorrect.
That is actually the wording of an inscription that Herodotus states was erected above the graves of the Spartans. In fact, Herodotus records that three inscriptions were put there (Book VII, 228). The first was dedicated to all those who died on the Greek side:
μυριάσιν ποτὲ τῇδε τριηκοσίας ἐμάχοντο ἐκ Πελοποννάσου χιλίαδες τέτορες.
[translation]
Four thousand warriors, flower of Pelops' land, Did here against three hundred myriads stand.
The second (the one you mentioned) dedicated to the Spartans:
ὦ ξεῖν’, ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε κείμεθα τοῖσι κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι.
[translation]
Go tell the Spartans, thou that passest by, that here obedient to their words we lie.
And finally one dedicated to the seer, Megistias:
μνῆμα τόδε κλεινοῖο Μεγιστία, ὄν ποτε Μῆδοι Σπερχειὸν ποταμὸν κτεῖναν ἀμειψάμενοι, Μάντιος, ὃς τότε κῆρας ἐπερχομένας σάφα εἰδώς οὐκ ἔτλη Σπάρτης ἡγεμόνα προλιπεῖν.
[translation]
Here fought and fell Megistias, hero brave, slain by the Medes, who crossed Spercheius' wave; Well knew the seer his doom, but scorned to fly, And rather chose with Sparta's king to die.
Herodotus states simply that:
ἐπιγράμμασι μέν νυν καὶ στήλῃσι, ἔξω ἢ τὸ τοῦ μάντιος ἐπίγραμμα, Ἀμφικτύονες εἰσὶ σφέας οἱ ἐπικοσμήσαντες· τὸ δὲ τοῦ μάντιος Μεγιστίεω Σιμωνίδης ὁ Λεωπρέπεος ἐστὶ κατὰ ξεινίην ὁ ἐπιγράψας
[translation]
The inscriptions and the pillars were set there in their honour by the Amphictyons, except the epitaph of the diviner Megistias; that inscription was made for him for friendship's sake by Simonides son of Leoprepes.
As to your main question,
> How was Herodotus able to get accounts of the last stand of Thermopylae if the entire rear guard died alongside Leonidas?
The answer is simply that the entire rear-guard did not die.
Many of the Thebans surrendered to the Persians when they got the chance:
As for the Thebans, whose general was Leontiades, they were for a while with the Greeks and constrained by necessity to fight against the king's army; but as soon as they saw the Persians gaining the upper hand, then, when the Greeks with Leonidas were pressing towards the hillock, the Thebans separated from them and drew nigh to the foreigners, holding out their hands and crying that they were the Persians' men and had been among the first to give earth and water to the king.
- Book VII, 233 (my emphasis)
Herodotus states that they were branded with Xerxes mark, but - although it is not explicitly stated - they presumably survived to tell their version of events:
... most of them were branded by Xerxes' command with the king's marks, from their general Leontiades downwards.
Furthermore, there would have been survivors of the invasion from the Persian side who had been present at Thermopylae .
Remember that Herodotus was born c 484 BCE, and the Battle of Thermopylae was fought in 480 BCE, just a few years later. He would have been able to ask the survivors of the battle directly, or speak to others who had done so when he was too young.
Although Herodotus' account is all that has come down to us, the story would certainly have been a part of the oral tradition of the people of Greece who lived through the Persian invasion. That traditional version would probably have been the version that he recorded in his Histories.
Upvote:4
According to Herodotus, "Stranger go tell..." is not the last words by a Spartan, but the inscription on the monument which was installed after the battle. (Book VII, 228). It is clear that Herodotus could see this monument.
Concerning other details, the battle happened during the life time of Herodotus, though he was very young. So he could interview the survivors, or people who knew the survivors, and also people who fought on the Persian side (many of them were Greeks).
More post
- 📝 A question about the definition of heresy (13th. C)
- 📝 What is the location of August Ferdinand Möbius' grave?
- 📝 How was King Henry VIII able to get syphilis?
- 📝 What did Mesopotamian beehives look like?
- 📝 Was Christopher Columbus Polish?
- 📝 How many pens were used by MacArthur to end the final chapter of World War II and where are they now?
- 📝 What specific training did members of medieval military orders get?
- 📝 Which places in the USA have been ruled by all three colonial powers, British, French, and Spanish?
- 📝 Did the Allies ever seriously contemplate a "Northern Intervention" in Russia during World War II?
- 📝 Were there any Ancient Greek theatres not built on a hill/slope?
- 📝 How did agricultural productivity change in Italy with the fall of the Roman Empire and through the early Middle Ages?
- 📝 How did Nazi concentration camp staff deal with survivors of gassings?
- 📝 What did Central America export in the early 20th century other than coffee and bananas?
- 📝 What was Gandhi's post-factum view of the Partition?
- 📝 Who are these people in this satirical cartoon of the Congress of Verona?
- 📝 How much of colonialism profit was continued post-colonialism by neo-imperialism/neo-colonialism?
- 📝 When did China start thinking 8 was lucky and 4 unlucky?
- 📝 Did the US really consider demonstrating the atomic bomb to the Japanese by "blowing the top" off of Mt. Fuji?
- 📝 Has there been any court cases regarding the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution?
- 📝 Was Marcus Marcellus faced with Viridomarus or Britomartus?
- 📝 What year was Hitler's final known painting created?
- 📝 Did the US government ever burn corn?
- 📝 Medieval physician Cornelius Shilander?
- 📝 Why did peasant serfdom last longer in Eastern Europe than in Western?
- 📝 What caused the decline of Buddhism in Japan?
- 📝 Is Rama Setu a historical proof of Ramayana?
- 📝 Why did Sheikh Mujibur Rahman refuse to negotiate on Six Points [after] the 1970 election?
- 📝 How did native Hawaiians achieve such a high literacy rate prior to the 1850s?
- 📝 The end of swords as infantrymen sidearms
- 📝 Did Japan have secret films about going into the US in the 40s?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How was Herodotus able to get accounts of the Battle of Thermopylae?
- 📝 How was the United States able to produce excellent tanks in 1942?
- 📝 How difficult was to escape from a naval battle after engaging into one during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 How was the Luftwaffe able to destroy nearly 4000 Soviet aircraft in 3 days of operation Barbarossa?
- 📝 How was the USA able to win naval battles in the Pacific?
- 📝 How was Israel able to build a powerful military within days of the formation of the state?
- 📝 How was King Henry VIII able to get syphilis?
- 📝 How was the dynamics of a naval battle in the 17th century?
- 📝 How was the naval battle of Guadalcanal affected by Japanese ships loading High Explosive shells rather than Armor Piercing?
- 📝 How was Alexander the Great able to rule so much territory?
- 📝 How was Enguerrand VII de Coucy able to keep his allegiance to both king of England and France during the Hundred Years War?
- 📝 What was the aftermath of a battle in the Middle Ages? How did wounded soldiers proceed?
- 📝 How was Takeda defeated at the Battle of Nagashino?
- 📝 How was Ivaylo's Bulgarian peasant army able to repel the Mongols?
- 📝 During the Battle of Britain, how prepared was the East Front?
- 📝 How did messages get back and forth between ship and shore during the Battle of Cherbourg?
- 📝 How was the Spartan "300" battle recorded?
- 📝 At the Battle of Augusta, how did the French learn that de Ruyter was mortally wounded?
- 📝 How was Napoleon able to take power from the Republic
- 📝 How were the Burmese able to sack Ayutthaya when it was one of the wealthiest and most powerful cities in Asia at the time?
- 📝 How was Germany able to hold itself together, while Austria-Hungary could not?
- 📝 Where did Hitler get the funds to invest in economic development programs such as the autobahn when the German economy was in a depression?
- 📝 In the Battle of the Coral Sea, how could two Japanese scouts grossly mis-identify two American ships?
- 📝 How serious was Fermat's statement about the ancients?
- 📝 How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
- 📝 Which battle was the most lopsided result in terms of casualties?
- 📝 Was the tugboat ever part of a WWII battle group?
- 📝 How popular was the Soviet Union?
- 📝 Was there an assassination attempt against Xerxes in the battle of Thermopylae?
- 📝 How likely is it that any non-Celtic language was spoken in the British Isles when the Romans invaded?