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22: 178–80.

BIRDS

      NATASHA BERSHADSKY

       Center for Hellenic Studies

      In Herodotus’ Histories, birds predominantly appear in ethnographic accounts and as wonders of nature. They are also frequently associated with Herodotus’ critical method and questions of interpretation. Three strikingly fabulous narratives are connected to ARABIA: the stories of the phoenix (2.73), of cinnamon birds (3.111), and of ibises eating winged SNAKES (2.75). Herodotus’ account of EGYPT features a strong ethno‐ornithological thread: he lists birds that the Egyptians consider sacred (hawk, 2.65.5; ibis, 2.75.4; “fox‐goose,” 2.72; phoenix, 2.73), reports that their killing is punishable by DEATH (2.65.5), and identifies CITIES in which they are buried (2.67.1, 73); he mentions some birds consumed as FOOD (2.37.4, 77); finally, he describes two species of ibis (the sacred ibis, and either the glossy ibis or the northern bald ibis, 2.76) and a bird picking leeches from a CROCODILE’s mouth (2.68.4–5, cf. Arist. Hist. an. 612a20–24). This last bird is the Egyptian plover, or the spur‐winged lapwing; it is often difficult to identify the exact species to which Herodotus refers. The only instance of a bird omen in the Histories occurs in a Persian context: Darius and his companions see seven pairs of hawks slashing two pairs of vultures before their attack on the MAGI (3.76.3). In a sharp distinction from EPIC POETRY and TRAGEDY, Herodotus otherwise does not refer to DIVINATION by means of birds.

      Birds are frequently associated with the critical function of Herodotus’ discourse. Several references seem to form contrasting pairs, perhaps constituting “long‐distance” examples of Herodotus’ method of consideration of multiple perspectives. Thus, Herodotus twice refers to the motif of birds and DOGS devouring corpses, both times in the Persian context. The first is Herodotus’ remark that the Persians have a secret tradition according to which corpses first need to be attacked by birds and dogs; the Magi practice that openly (1.140). The second comes from a cautionary speech of XERXES’ uncle ARTABANUS, conjuring an image of MARDONIUS torn to pieces by birds and dogs in ATHENS or SPARTA (7.10.η.3). The fabulous stories of the phoenix and the cinnamon birds also appear to form a pair. Both are connected to Arabia, spices, and a motif of correct or mistaken weight assessment. The Arabian phoenix forms an egg of myrrh, experimentally verifies that it can carry the egg, encases the body of its dead father into it and brings it to the temple of the Sun in Egypt (2.73; Arnott 2007, 191–93). In contrast, the cinnamon birds, who build their nests from cinnamon sticks, put excessively heavy pieces of meat into their nests, which crash down (making the cinnamon sticks available to the Arabians, 3.111; cf. Arist. Hist. an. 616a6–13). Another pair of bird episodes relate to a discussion concerning the applicability of the same norms to both humans and animals. In the first case, Herodotus expresses his dislike of an argument that since birds and beasts copulate in sanctuaries, it is also acceptable for people to do so (2.64.2). Compare this with ARISTODICUS of CYME who, attempting to influence the deity, took hatchlings out of their nests at the temple of APOLLO at Didyma (see BRANCHIDAE). A voice from the inner sanctuary inquired why he was taking away the god’s SUPPLIANTS, upon which Aristodicus asked how it was possible that the god that protected the birds could confirm that the men of Cyme should surrender their suppliant to the Persians. The voice replied that his order was intended to bring destruction onto the Cymeans for asking sacrilegious questions (1.159). The ANALOGY between birds and humans opens a line of deeper inquiry into principles of communication between men and the gods.

Another narrative involving birds and ORACLES is of two black doves (rock doves?) flying from Egyptian THEBES to LIBYA and to DODONA in Greece, and announcing in a human voice that an oracle of ZEUS should be established there (2.55; compare Paus. 7.21.2, 10.12.10). Herodotus reinterprets the MYTH, presenting his ideas about metaphoric thinking and the perception of foreigners and foreign language by speakers of Greek (Munson 2005, 67–69). He proposes, on the basis of a variant story, that the oracle was founded by an Egyptian priestess who was called a dove by the Dodonaeans since she spoke a barbaric language. The human voice of the dove refers, in Herodotus’ interpretation, to the priestess’ eventual acquisition of Greek (2.57.1–2). The question of interpretation is again linked to birds in the story of a riddling gift of a bird, a frog, a mouse, and five arrows, sent by the Scythian kings to DARIUS I. Suggestively, Darius misinterprets the meaning of the bird, erroneously likening it to the horse (4.131–32).

      Herodotus draws on patterns of bird migration in his search for explanation of the NILE flood. In rebutting the idea that it is caused by snow melting upstream, he remarks that swallows and kites are resident in Egypt and Libya all year round, but that cranes migrate there every winter from cold SCYTHIA, which indicates that the lands to the south of Egypt must be warm (2.22.4).

      SEE ALSO: Ethnography; Extremes; Historical Method; Language and Communication; Metaphor; Symbols and Signs; thōmata

      REFERENCES

      1 Arnott, W. G. 2007. Birds in the Ancient World from A to Z. London and New York: Routledge.

      2 Munson, Rosaria Vignolo. 2005. Black Doves Speak: Herodotus and the Language of Barbarians. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

      FURTHER READING

      1 Collins, Derek. 2002. “Reading the Birds: Oiônomanteia in Early Epic.” Colby Quarterly 38: 17–41.

      2 Miles, M. Margaret. 2016. “Birds around the Temple: Constructing a Sacred Environment.” In Valuing Landscape in Classical Antiquity: Natural Environment and Cultural Imagination, edited by Jeremy McInerney and Ineke Sluiter, 151–95. Leiden: Brill.

      3 Pollard, John. 1977. Birds in Greek Life and Myth. London: Thames & Hudson.

      4 Thompson, D'Arcy Wentworth. 1936. A Glossary of Greek Birds. London: Oxford University Press.

BISALTES (Βισάλτης, ὁ)

      CHRISTOPHER BARON

       University of Notre Dame

      Citizen of ABYDOS, son of APOLLOPHANES. Bisaltes served as a deputy of the former Milesian tyrant Histiaeus in their freebooting activities in the HELLESPONT after the Ionian defeat at LADE in 494 BCE (6.26.1). His name may be of Thracian origin (Scott 2005, 141–42), but he is not otherwise attested.

      SEE ALSO: Bisaltia; Histiaeus son of Lysagoras; Ionian Revolt; Thrace

      REFERENCE

      1 Scott, Lionel. 2005. Historical Commentary on Herodotus Book 6. Leiden: Brill.

BISALTIA (Βισαλτίη, ἡ)

      CHRISTOPHER BARON

       University of Notre Dame

A region west of the STRYMON River in northern Greece, around and north of the Greek city of ARGILUS (BA 51 B3; Müller I, 163–64). The inhabitants, the Bisaltae, were Thracians. XERXES led his Persian invasion force through Bisaltia in 480 BCE and recruited troops there; Herodotus notes that the Thracians still in his day treat the road Xerxes marched on with great reverence (7.115). During his narrative of Xerxes’ retreat after SALAMIS, Herodotus relates a “monstrous deed” (8.116) of the Bisaltian king: he withdrew to the RHODOPE Mountains rather than “become a slave” to Xerxes and forbade his six sons from joining the Persian expedition. They ignored his command; when they returned alive from the war, he gouged out their eyes. Coinage issued by the Bisaltae, dating to the 470s and 460s, refers to a King Mosses (Greenwalt 2015, 341), perhaps indicating a period of independence after the Persian retreat until the expansion of Macedonian power under ALEXANDER I (son of Amyntas). The Bisaltae still inhabited the region, and maintained a fierce reputation, when Roman armies began to arrive in the second century BCE (Livy 45.30.3).

      SEE ALSO: Bisaltes; Creston; Macedonia; Punishment;

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