The Semantics of Showcase in Herodotus’s Histories

Abstract

This essay connects inventorying in Herodotus with the verb ἀποδείκνυμι. Analysis reveals that ἀποδείκνυμι in the Histories denotes physical showings but not, as often assumed, verbal demonstrations, unless they are marked by another speech term. Rather, ἀποδείκνυμι used absolutely describes specialized verbal displays made through enumeration, such as the Egyptian priests’ genealogy. Accordingly, we can reanalyze several passages involving this stem, including the prologue and its nuanced reference to ἀπόδεξις. Construed as “enumerative display,” the ἱστορίης ἀπόδεξις and the Histories as a whole emerge as a multimedia inventory that verbally conjures the visual realities of everything Herodotus has seen.