Loaves in a Cold Oven: Tyranny and Sterility in Herodotus’ Histories

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Throughout Herodotus’ Histories, tyrants and despotic kings are frequently associated with sterility and failed reproduction. Monarchs are repeatedly shown both engaging in intercourse that cannot produce children, and causing the deaths of what children they do manage to produce. In addition, tyrants are surrounded by symbolic images of sterility–unrisen loaves, rotten teeth, wounded groins, and wasted crops. In associating tyranny and sterility, I argue, Herodotus is drawing on long-standing tropes in Archaic Greek thought. The images of infertility serve to underscore that tyranny is unjust, a misfortune for both subjects and tyrant, and ultimately futile and self-defeating.