This volume is dedicated to the logos of Cambyses at the beginning of Book 3 in Herodotus’ Histories, one of the few sources on the Persian conquest of Egypt that has not yet been exhaustively explored in its complexity. The contributions of this volume deal with the motivations and narrative strategies behind Herodotus’ characterization of the Persian king but also with the geopolitical background of Cambyses’ conquest of Egypt as well as the reception of the Cambyses logos by later ancient authors. ‘Herodotean Soundings: The Cambyses Logos’ exemplifies how a multidisciplinary approach can contribute significantly to a better understanding of a complex work such as Herodotus’ Histories.
Table of Content
Alexander Schütze and Andreas Schwab: Herodotean Soundings. The Cambyses Logos
Close readings: Linguistic, narratological and philosophical perspectives
Elizabeth Irwin: Just Who is Cambyses? Imperial Identities and Egyptian Campaigns
Anna Bonifazi: Herodotus’ verbal strategies to depict Cambyses’ abnormality
Anthony Ellis: Relativism in Herodotus. Foreign Crimes and Divinities in the Inquiry
The Cambyses logos and other sources on the conquest of Egypt
Melanie Wasmuth: Perception and Reception of Cambyses as Conqueror and King of Egypt. Some Fundamentals
Alexander Schütze: Cambyses the Egyptian? Remembering Cambyses and Amasis in Persian Period Egypt
Reinhold Bichler: A comparative look at the post-Herodotean Cambyses
Geopolitical dimensions of the Cambyses logos
Gunnar Sperveslage: On the historical and archaeological background of Cambyses’ alliance with Arab tribes (Hdt. 3.4-9)
Damien Agut-Labordère: An ‘Ammonian Tale’. Cambyses in the Egyptian Western Desert
Olaf E. Kaper: The revolt of Petubastis IV during the reigns of Cambyses and Darius
Andreas Schwab: Pindaric ‘arrows’ in Herodotus: Psámmos (Hdt. 3.26). Just a sandstorm or also a rebel(lion)?
Cambyses and the Egyptian Temples
Dan’el Kahn: Cambyses’ Attitude towards Egyptian Temples in Contemporary Texts and Later Sources. A Reevaluation of the Persian Conquest of Egypt
Fabian Wespi: Cambyses’ Decree and the destruction of Egyptian temples
Joachim Friedrich Quack: Cambyses and the sanctuary of Ptah
List of Contributors
Index nominum, rerum et locorum
Index fontium
About the author
Prof. Dr. Andreas Schwab ist W3-Professor für Klassische Philologie, insbesondere Gräzistik, und DFG-Heisenberg-Professor am Institut für Klassische Altertumskunde an der Universität Kiel.
Dr. Alexander Schütze ist akademischer Rat auf Zeit am Institut für Ägyptologie und Koptologie der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.