Thomas Harrison
admiration for Athens (Thuc. ..). The most markedly pejorative charac-
terisation of foreign languages comes, however, from a source for the Per-
sian Wars other than Herodotus: the messenger’s account of the battle of
Salamis from Aeschylus’
Persians
. First we have the paean of the Greeks: ‘O
sons of the Greeks, come on, liberate your fatherland, liberate your children,
our wives, the shrines of the ancestral gods and
the graves of your forefa-
thers. Our struggle now is on behalf of them all.’ Then in response comes
the untidy clamour (
ῥόθος
) of the Persian tongue (-). The cries of the
Greeks are echoed back by the island rocks, as a symbol of the support of
land and sea for the Greeks, and with the result
that the Persians are in-
spired by terror (-). The Greek language then is a symbol of Greek
unity and of the Greeks’ belonging to their land; it is also a weapon.
University College, London
THOMAS HARRISON
Herodotus’ Conception of Foreign Languages
APPENDIX
REFERENCES TO FOREIGN LANGUAGES
•
Ionians do not use the same language (
γλῶσσαν
) as one another, but
have dialects (
χαρακτῆρες γλώσσης
); those cities which are in Lydia
(Ephesus, Colophon, Lebedus, Teos, Clazomenae and Phocaea) agree
in no way in their language with these (..-).
•
Does Carian derive from Caunian or
vice versa
(.)?
•
Ammonians settlers
of Egyptians and of Ethiopians, but they use a
language between both (
φωνὴν µεταξὺ ἀµφοτέρων νοµίζοντες
, ..).
•
Colchians and Egyptians: way of working linen, whole way of life and
language v. similar to one another (.).
•
Egyptians call barbarians all those who have not the same language as
them (
ὁµογλώσσους
, ..).
•
There are many Indian peoples, none of whom speak the same lan-
guage as one another (
οὐκ ὁµόφωνα σφίσι
,
..)
•
Argippaeans use Scythian clothing … but have own language (
φωνὴν
δὲ ἰδίην ἱέντες
, ..)
•
Scythians use languages and interpreters on journey to Argippaei
(.).
•
Androphagoi: nomads, wear
clothes like the Scythians, have their
own language, and are the only ones of these who eat people (.).
•
Geloni (in ancient times Greek) speak a language half-Scythian, half-
Greek (..).
•
Budini do not use the same language as the Geloni (..)
•
Sauromatae use Scythian language but
not correctly as Amazons
learned it imperfectly at first (.).
•
The Troglodyte Ethiopians have a language ‘similar’ to no other, but
sounding like screeching bats (..).
•
Atarantes are the only anonymous people of whom we know (..).
•
Eretrians, transported by Darius to Arabian Gulf, guarded their own
language (..).
•
Since the Greeks are of the same language (
ὁµογλώσσους
), they should,
Mardonius says, deal with one another through heralds rather than
making war (..b).
•
Eastern Athiopians differed not at all in form from other (Ethiopians),
leaving aside language (
φωνήν
) and hair (..).
•
Sagartians nomads, in language (
φωνῇ
) a Persian people, in dress half-
Persian, half-Pactyan (..).
•
The Athenians’ reasons for not betraying Greece (..).
•
Prophecy of Bacis: ‘when a
βαρβαρόφωνος
shall
throw a byblus yoke
over the water’… (..).