The Flooding of the Nile

Did Herodotus See “The Suppliants”?

2020-10-22
Aeschylus, 463 BC (The Suppliants):
  • “Where, fed from far-off snows, Life-giving Nilus flows…”
Herodotus, 440 BC (The Histories, 23 years later):
  • “The third explanation, which is very much more plausible than either of the others, is positively the furthest from the truth; for there is really nothing in what it says, any more than in the other theories. It is, that the inundation of the Nile is caused by the melting of snows.”
Whereupon we must posit that Herodotus either:
  • didn’t see the Aeschylus play “The Suppliants”,
  • slept through the key scene or
  • didn’t believe the playwright’s explanation.

Yes, Herodotus, there is that much snow in the world, though I envy you your Mediterranean climate, the mysteries to solve and the time and resources you had to go your own way and see the world as you knew it.

Directory