#& no i will not be providing further context :)))

[aboutanancientenquiry]

"Did Herodotus have Friends?

Answer by Sheila Murnaghan

Herodotus makes himself vividly present in the Histories, proclaiming his authorship in its opening words, reporting his travels and his investigations, and offering his opinions on many topics. But he does not provide the kind of personal information that would allow us to answer that question in any straightforward way. The sparse and unreliable biographical information that has come down from other sources is not much help either. We do learn about some political alliances and intellectual connections of a kind that might slide over into forms of friendship. For example, in his early days in Halicarnassus, Herodotus seems to have been part of a political faction opposed to the local tyrant Lygdamis, and this reportedly led to a period of exile on the island of Samos before the group came to terms with the tyrant and returned.

Most ancient and modern speculation about Herodotus’ possible friendships centers on the period he spent in Athens, where it is assumed that he would have mingled with the leading figures of the day. One tiny piece of much later evidence has underwritten a widely-held view that he and the tragic playwright Sophocles were particularly good friends. The first and second century CE writer Plutarch reports that Sophocles wrote a poem that began ‘Sophocles wrote a song for Herodotus/ when he was fifty-five …’ (Plutarch, Moralia 785c). This inference is reinforced by signs of mutual influence in the two writers’ works. Several passages in Sophocles’ plays appear to be directly influenced by the Histories or possibly by earlier versions performed in Athens (especially Antigone 908-15 and Oedipus at Colonus 337-45), and there are many affinities between Herodotus’ narrative and Athenian tragedy in general and Sophocles’ plays in particular. The assumption that Herodotus must also have been friendly with the brilliant Athenian politician Pericles is bolstered by the information that he joined a new colony founded in Thurii in southern Italy: this project involved participants from many Greek cities but was spearheaded by Pericles. The Histories contains a good deal of material about prominent Athenian families and their past activities, and it is easy to imagine that personal friendships played a role in Herodotus’ access to such information; similar conjectures might also be made about his investigations in other parts of the world.

Herodotus does present himself in the Histories as someone who would easily make friends: a curious, inquisitive, and empathetic person and a great storyteller. And the nature of friendship certainly falls within his extensive range of interests. He tells several stories that highlight the imperfect match between personal friendship and relations of political expediency. When the Egyptian king Amasis concludes that the Samian tyrant Polycrates is headed for a bad fall, he makes a calculated decision to break off their friendship, ‘so that when a great and dreadful misfortune overtook Polycrates, he himself would not feel the sharp grief he would for friend’ (3.43.2). When the Persian King Darius becomes alarmed that his Greek client Histiaeus is fortifying a possible power base in Thrace, he decides to neutralize him by resettling him in his own court. His excuse is that he wants Histiaeus close by as his advisor because, ‘I have come to recognize that the most valuable of all possessions is a friend who is both intelligent and loyal, and I have seen that you have both of these qualities and have applied them to furthering my affairs’ (5.24.3). Taken out of context, Darius’ words have entered the realm of uplifting sayings and appear in online quotation compendia in the simplified form, ‘Of all possessions a friend is the most precious’.

Finally, many modern readers have found in Herodotus’ work an intellectual companion with a distinct and endearing sensibility, who comes to seem like a lifelong friend. The impression that to read the Histories is also to make a friend is well described by the Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński, who took Herodotus’s text with him on his own twentieth century travels:

Even when I had not opened the Histories for years, I never forgot about Herodotus. He had been a living, breathing man once, then was forgotten for two millennia, and now, after many centuries lived anew – at least for me. I endowed him with the appearance and traits I wished him to have. He was now my Herodotus, near and dear to me, someone with whom I shared a common language and with whom I could communicate, or at least commune, almost without speaking.” Travels with Herodotus, 267"

From the site of Herodotus Helpline (https://herodotushelpline.org/did-herodotus-have-friends/ ).

Sheila Murnaghan, Alfred Reginald Allen Memorial Professor of Greek, Department Chair and Faculty Co-director, Post-baccalaureate Program in Classical Studies

found a really neat community about herodotus called the herodotus helpline that dedicates itself in part to answering people's questions about herodotus (you can submit a question to the helpline if you'd like) and it's legitimately a fascinating resource but i cannot help but fucking lose it at this one particular question the helpline answered

[velvetvexations]

scrolling on bsky when you log in once a month is absolute shit, so i don't have context, but transfeminism clique discourse (both by trfs, including *the* T/R/F, and standard transfeminist transfems who are aware that "man bad" as the end-all of your feminism is just conceding shit to the patriarchy) has melted down into the most mundane "are straight and bi women betraying feminism by sleeping with men" from... an offhand joke about how men should not be doing bdsm prompted by fifty shades of gray?

chat. does anyone have further context.

(image provided by anon off-anon)

lol what the fuck is happening over there

[valtsv]

digging your own grave and building your own tower are the same thing btw

[janitorpostman]

people who are like "oh no they ruined Caitlyn she is on the bad side now" am I the only one glad that Caitlyn's character took this turn? She was the face of the enforcers to the viewers for such a long time. She was kind, compassionate and diligent, the perfect "good cop".

But that's not a fair representation of the enforcers now, is it.

Vi and Powder were orphaned by enforcers. Kind? No.

When in order to survive, they snuck into Piltover to steal goods to sell them, it was enforcers's job to catch and punish these kids, no questions about what kinda life drove these children to do that asked. Compassionate? No.

When Vi got kidnapped arrested. She was put in prison for 6+ years, I doubt there was ever a due court process to determine whether this child was really guilty and deserved imprisonment or not. Diligent? No.

[ayyy-imma-ninja]

"Oh my ears and whiskers! It's not the time for tears!"

[georgeknightley]

extremely normal things happening on the elis james & john robins show

[sneegsnitties]

alive but gay and i want to be gay and happy not gay and sad are basically the same thing to me

[transgenderprototype]

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

been thinking about this for a few days, and I feel the need to consult the masses

[zeebreezin]

doodle for today: @capn-twitchery ‘s Twitch but they’re holding the Weasel of Woe like this

[andwhatnot1]

Even in his final moment...

ZHUGE LIANG!

[evil-mcytblrconfessions]

I was pretty neurotypical but for some reason since i watched kenadian i cannot get his blorbo out of my head

I litteraly just spontaneously created an alternate personality that is just kenadian and he loves commenting everyhting that i do like it's some sort of debunk video.

just this morning i heard him say "You should use f5 you probably missed something" while i was searching for my phone i can't

.

[silenthowls]

⸻ 𝒂 𝒉𝒐𝒔𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒏𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒆𝒔

The day is December 26th, 2016. In these moments that lead into the interrogation, the rook finds himself at odds with everything and everyone. It is a pivotal moment that will change him more than he will ever know.

When Jin Yohan was young, his father sat him down and gave him a talking to. It wasn't something he did this time, but a lesson given for posterity. "Never talk to the cops", he said. "even if you think it's right to tell the truth." As a child, he never quite understood. After all, his parents would not tell him of any of the potential shady backend dealings and insider trading that his undeveloped mind could not yet comprehend. It was an entirely preventative measure — a lesson.

It is strange how muddled his head gets as he waits his turn. He battles against morals that suddenly want to appear, knowing giving into them would betray everything he fought to be a part of. How annoying, he muses internally, leaning back in the stiff chair. He keeps his arms folded, a guard.

The grief has finally caught up to him and now he can hardly manage to breathe or speak straight. Lack of sleep and food shows clearly on his face. The rings around his eyes are red and inflamed, deep with signs of mourning and regret.

The young man had been holding back the waterworks for the entirety of Hyungseo's missing period, and it only culminates when he is told that he is dead. Just as he feared. He has barely been able to function properly since then. Everyone knows it, too. How could they not after the way he shouted and shed an embarrassing amount of tears in front of everyone?

"All of you! All of you are responsible for what happened!" he howled, his rage only spurred on by a spat between other members shortly before. Something inside of Jin Yohan snapped. The mask of sanity slips and he releases every bit of vitriolic spit they all knew he had in him. He does what he can before he's led away — before he can raise his fists and turn the tragedy into a disaster. "Mark my words," he adds as he's pulled, a sentence ( among other words ) he soon forgets when everything goes dark. "My blood will be on your hands next."

His father reminds him again of what to do the evening before the interrogation, hand firm and unwavering. It had been frequent ever since Yohan's little show at Hyungseo's funeral; despite his mother's shocking pleads to take it easy on him this time. ( And even though he thrashed with all his might, that man always ended up beating him back into submission. It never mattered how good of a fighter Yohan was. He always let him because he deserved it. It is ultimately that bastard of a father that forces leads him to give into the whims of what others want him to do. )

As he shifts in the chair, the wooden joints squeak. He rubs his cheek, then his arm, the space above his heart. Everything hurts.

However, there are some things that must be done. Withholding information isn't necessarily lying, and giving snippets of the truth isn't necessarily ratting the entire club out. Even so, Yohan needed quite the convincing to not spill every secret, every piece of information in great detail. He sits here overwhelmed, exhausted, demoralized. No amount of standing like a zombie before Hyungseo's memorial would bring him back.

The detectives finally file their way into the room one by one, gently shutting the door behind them. It is not the first nor last time Yohan would be questioned in this way. His eyes follow them until they take their place across from him.

"Jin Yohan," the man speaks first, flipping through the file he has on him. He turns the page over and shoots him a smile. It is quite obvious both of them are making their attempts to soothe his nerves. They must have heard about his little series of outbursts. "How are you doing today?"

Yohan glances at the window behind them before making eye contact. He isn't so sure of himself — his mind in ruin. "As fine as I can be," he clears his throat midway to keep his voice from shaking. If only they all could see him now. "I'm tired."

"Did you have a good Christmas, Yohan? Get any nice gifts?" The ice breaking is too obvious now.

"No... Not really." The answer is firm and cold. His eyes avert so he doesn't begin to tremble like a leaf thinking about the night before. This is an interrogation, not a therapy session. "So... what do you want to know? It's about... H-hyu...—"

"Hyungseo. That's correct. We won't keep you too long. Don't worry. It must be hard for you. We only need you to answer a few questions."

[sml8180]

Me, giving Reginald a watch that more than likely contributed to the death of somebody in the process of its manufacturing?

More likely than you think.

[wolfskullz]

not ALL men -- beach bear from the rock-afire explosion would never treat me like this

[lovebugmusings]

hmmmm orc or knotted werewolf?