In the Histories, Herodotus offers an account of the events leading to the Greco-Persian Wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Greek city-states of the 5th century BC and tries to determine “the reason why they fought” (1.1). In recounting the events preceding the Greco-Persian War, the historian Herodotus places historically significant political and social events, likely containing complex causes and effects, in linear order, primarily tied together through the motif of punishment for mutual wrongdoing. Causality in the Histories is the result of what Herodotus sees as history's inherent ability to maintain balance; a certain harmony is found in the oscillating power of individuals and groups through their recurring cycles of prosperity and destruction. Furthermore, Herodotus attests to an even more consequential balance: that found between human motivation and the natural laws of destiny. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The proem to the Histories begins by recounting the kidnapping of the daughter of the king of Argos, Io, at the hands of Phoenician sailors, which supposedly ignited the conflict between the Greeks and Persians. “After that, say the Persians, some Greeks, whose name they cannot state, entered Tyre, into the Phoenician territory, and carried off the king's daughter, Europa… So far, say the Persians, everything has been for fucked up… (1.2 ). At this earlier point in Herodotus' chronicles, the balance is in place; both the Greeks and the Persians (Phoenicians) had wronged each other only once and, therefore, a complete cycle of revenge had occurred. Initiating a reverse cycle of revenge, the Greeks kidnapped the daughter of the king of Colchis, Medea, to which the Persians responded a generation later through Alexander's robbery of Helen from King Menelaus of Sparta (second complete cycle). “Up until now it was just rape on both sides, on each other; but from here on, say the Persians, the Greeks were mainly to blame. Because the Greeks, they say, invaded Asia before the Persians invaded Europe” (1.4). Concluding his preface, Herodotus leaves this third cycle of revenge initiated by the Greeks unfinished; the Persian response to complete this third cycle and the events preceding it are detailed in the remainder of the Histories. After the proem, Herodotus relies more on the personal considerations of the characters involved to offer an explanation as to why events occurred as they did. Herodotus also often relies on belief in fate, supposedly controlled by the gods, to draw clear lines of causality. Thus, after the proem another delicate historical balance is reached, this time between human free will and the will of the gods (destiny), demonstrated by Croesus' mistake against King Cyrus of the Achaemenid Empire. In the Histories, Croesus' Lydian messengers received news from the Oracle of Delphi that "...if he made war on the Persians he would destroy a mighty empire" (1.53), which Croesus did not realize was aimed at his own empire Lydian. “Croesus did not understand the meaning of the oracle and so undertook a campaign in Cappadocia, convinced that it would destroy Cyrus and the power of the Persians” (1:71). The reliance on oracles, where a priest or priestess acts as a conduit between mortals and the wisdom of the gods, introduces the notion of divine control over Croesus' destiny. The intentional ambiguity of the statement, which causes Croesus to begin the invasion, leads readers to wonder whether the gods wanted the invasion to occur. Croesus was certainly responsible for the final decision to invade and it was due, at least in part, to his ownnaivety, if he led his forces to meet the Achaemenids at the Halys River, but due to Herodotus including the oracle and the latent role of fate that accompanies it, there is an implicit understanding of the lack of human control. “So Croesus advanced into Cappadocia, for these reasons: because he wanted additional territory to what was his share but, above all, because he trusted in the oracle and because he wanted to take revenge on Cyrus, son of Cambyses, on behalf of Astyages, son of Cyaxares, who was his brother-in-law to Croesus and king of Media and had been subjugated by Cyrus” (1.73). The dominance of human free will over that of destiny in Croesus' interpretation of the oracle is unclear, suggesting that the relationship is one of harmonious balance, not pre-eminence of one over the other. However, Herodotus again chooses to use the motif of revenge in order to clarify the causal chain and maintain a sense of fairness, or balance, for the evil committed against Croesus' brother-in-law, Astyages, years earlier. After Cyrus' victory over Croesus at Sardis and the rise to power of Cyrus' son Cambyses, the setting shifts to Egypt, where Cambyses had expanded the borders of the Achaemenid Empire. At an Egyptian religious festival for the animal god Apis, Cambyses believed he was disrespected and “… was almost mad. He took out his dagger and was about to stab Apis in the belly, but he hit the calf in the thigh" (3.29). Later, Cambyses received an omen through a vision that Smerdis, which was his brother's name, "...sat on the royal throne and reached to heaven with his head" (3:64). Cambyses ordered Pressaspe, his closest ally, to kill his brother in the hope that he could maintain his position as king. As Herodotus implicitly argues, this was a foolish decision. When Cambyses discovers that he was deceived by the omen and that there was a magician named Smerdis who had usurped him while he was on campaign in Egypt, he becomes angry. As he mounted his horse to return to Susa to regain his throne, “…the cap fell from the sheath of his sword, and the bare blade pierced his thigh. He was wounded in the very place on his body where he had struck the Egyptian god Apis” (3.64). Similar to the story of Croesus' omen, Cambyses was misdirected and, in a sense, fell victim to fate. What is particularly compelling in the story of Cambyses is the unidentified revenge enacted on Cambyses, presumably by an external force (destiny) for stabbing the mule god Apis, illuminated by the location of his self-inflicted mortal wound. This union of the motives of fate and revenge is complicated only by the presence of Cambyses' free will in the ability to interpret the omen of the dream as he pleases. Please note: this is just an example. Get a customized document from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Herodotus might be suggesting that while humans had free will and were the source of accidental causes of events, fate plays an equally significant role and serves to enforce the need for revenge for history's misdeeds because, regardless of human effort, "... it is certainly not in the nature of man to be able to divert what is destined to happen" (3.65). During the Histories of Herodotus, the Persians enact their revenge for the Greek invasion of Asia, first through Croesus' subjugation of the Greek regions of Asia Minor (1.6), which completes the unfinished cycle of revenge introduced in the proem. The Athenians begin yet another cycle through their role in the Ionian revolution against the the Persian empire (7.8), to which the Persians responded through the first Persian invasion of Greece under King Xerxes in 492 BC (7.20).",.