And these things I know happened to the Metapontines in Italia, two [or three] hundred and forty years after the second disappearance of Aristeas, as I myself gathering in both Prokonnesos and Metapontion discovered. The [people of] Metapontion say that Aristeas himself appeared to them in their country and told them to set up an altar to Apollo, and to stand beside it a statue bearing the name of Aristeas of Prokonnesos. For he said Apollo had come to them in their country alone among the Italiotes, as had he, who now was Aristeas, but earlier when he was following the god had been a raven. And having said these things he disappeared. And the Metapontines say they sent to Delphi to ask the god whatever the phantom of the man could be, and the Pythia told them to obey the phantom, and by obeying, things would turn out better. And they accepted this, and brought it to completion. And now a statue bearing the name of Aristeas stands beside the glory of Apollo himself, and around it stand laurel trees. And the glory of Apollo was set up within the marketplace. Now let that much said about Aristeas suffice.
Author: Herodotos
Title of Work: Histories
Location in Work: 4.15
Date of Work: c. 420 BCE
Original Language: Greek (Ionic)
Original Text:
τάδε δὲ οἶδα Μεταποντίνοισι τοῖσι ἐν Ἰταλίῃ συγκυρήσαντα μετὰ τὴν ἀφάνισιν τὴν δευτέρην Ἀριστέω ἔτεσι τεσσεράκοντα καὶ διηκοσίοισι [or τριηκοσίοισι], ὡς ἐγὼ συμβαλλόμενος ἐν Προκοννήσῳ τε καὶ Μεταποντίῳ εὕρισκον. Μεταποντῖνοι φασι αὐτὸν Ἀριστέην φανέντα σφι ἐς τὴν χώρην κελεῦσαι βωμὸν Ἀπόλλωνος ἱδρύσασθαι καὶ Ἀριστέω τοῦ Προκοννησίου ἐπωνυμίην ἔχοντα ἀνδριάντα πὰρ᾽ αὐτὸν ἱστάναι: φάναι γάρ σφι τὸν Ἀπόλλωνα Ἰταλιωτέων μούνοισι δὴ ἀπικέσθαι ἐς τὴν χώρην, καὶ αὐτὸς οἱ ἕπεσθαι ὁ νῦν ἐὼν Ἀριστέης· τότε δὲ, ὅτε εἵπετο τῷ θεῷ, εἶναι κόραξ. καὶ τὸν μὲν εἰπόντα ταῦτα ἀφανισθῆναι, σφέας δὲ Μεταποντῖνοι λέγουσι ἐς Δελφοὺς πέμψαντας τὸν θεὸν ἐπειρωτᾶν ὃ τι τὸ φάσμα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου εἴη. τὴν δὲ Πυθίην σφέας κελεύειν πείθεσθαι τῷ φάσματι, πειθομένοισι δὲ ἄμεινον συνοίσεσθαι. καὶ σφέας δεξαμένους ταῦτα ποιῆσαι ἐπιτελέα. καὶ νῦν ἔστηκε ἀνδριὰς ἐπωνυμίην ἔχων Ἀριστέω παρ᾽ αὐτῷ τῷ ἀγάλματι τοῦ Ἀπόλλωνος, πέριξ δὲ αὐτὸν δάφναι ἑστᾶσι· τὸ δὲ ἄγαλμα ἐν τῇ ἀγορῇ ἵδρυται. Ἀριστέω μέν νυν πέρι τοσαῦτα εἰρήσθω.
Reference Edition: Wilson, Herodoti Historiae
Edition Notes: For διηκοσίοισι there is a disagreement among the two main manuscript groups one of which has τριηκοσίοισι, and the disagreement cannot be resolved with complete confidence. The variant would make the number of years passed 340 instead of 240.
A proposed emendation of συγκυρήσαντα to συγκυρήσας (Schwyzer, Herodotea; Ivantchik, Datation) was not adopted by Wilson and rebutted by Ken Dowden (BNJ Aristeas T2). This emendation would move somewhat forward the implied date of the Arimaspeia by changing the sense of this text’s introduction to ‘And these things I know from having met the Metapontines in Italia two hundred and forty years after the second disappearance of Aristeas, ... .’ Besides lacking evidence, the proposed emendation is problematic because the verb συγκυρέω is rarely used to mean ‘to meet’ and when so takes a plural or group subject (see Liddell-Scott, s.v. συγκυρέω, where the closest parallel to the proposed emendation is Diodoros 20.21.3, οἰκία τραγικοῖς συγκυρήσασα πάθεσι, ‘the dynasty, having met with tragic suffering, ...’).
Source of Date of Work: Herodotos 9.73.3
Commentary:
Although this story is not drawn from the Arimaspeia, its inclusion of Aristeas flying in the form of a raven is an important indirect confirmation that the Arimaspeia featured Aristeas’ soul flying in the form of a raven (see the commentary to Herodotos on Aristeas’ account of his journey). In another story told by Pliny the Elder, which appears to be based on the Arimaspeia, the soul of Aristeas was seen flying in the form of a raven out of Aristeas’ mouth as it departed from his body in Prokonnesos. See the commentary to Pliny’s story for more on Apollo’s broader relationship to ravens.
This story does not say explicitly clear whether Aristeas was thought of as returning to life or as being deathless, but the apparent mimicking of the Arimaspeia’s flight in the form of a raven suggests Aristeas was thought to be somehow still alive. In another story about the Metapontine sanctuary told by Roman-era writer Athenaios, Aristeas during his visit said he had been in Hyperborea, which suggests he had living deathlessly there since sometime after he wrote the Arimaspeia, although it might just be a reference to Aristeas’ journey to Hyperborea described in the Arimaspeia.
The site of the sanctuary to Apollo and Aristeas was uncovered in excavations of the Metapontion’s central market area in the 1980s, and verified by the presence of a large number of bronze laurel leaves, a typical sign of Apollo worship at multiple Greek sanctuaries to Apollo in south Italy. The earliest structures of the site have been dated to the early 5th century BCE. No direct evidence of the presence of a statue of Aristeas in Metapontion has been found, but Metapontine coins of the 5th century BCE depict a statue of Apollothat is believed to be the one that Aristeas’ statue stood beside.
This text implies a very early date for the Arimaspeia, as 240 years prior to the sanctuary site’s archaeological date would put the composition of the Arimaspeia into the late 8th century BCE. That’s impossibly early but not surprisingly so, given that Herodotos (2.53.2) dated Homer and Hesiod to the 9th century BCE. If the manuscript variant that reads 340 years is correct, then Herodotos was dating thhe Arimaspeia to the same century as Homer and Hesiod. In another story, Herodotos refers to an event mentioned in the Arimaspeia that can be dated to the first half of the 7th century BCE on the basis of references to the same event in Assyrian texts.
Italia in classical Greek referred to the southern tip of the Italian peninsula, and Italiotes referred to the Greek colonists of that region. This is the region later called Magna Graecia by the Romans. In terms of the Italian ‘boot,’ ancient Italia comprised the instep, arch, ball and toe. Metapontion, now Metaponto, is on the southeast-facing coast of the boot’s arch.
The christian writer Origen told a paraphrased version of this story attributed to the anti-Christian writer Celsus, and also retold Herodotos’ version verbatim. Aineias of Gaza paraphrased this story (Aineias, Theophrastos, 63-64). Ioannis Tzetzes retold this story in verse, adding that it made no sense since the Metapontines would have had no way of recognizing Aristeas (Tzetzes, Histories, 2.736-743).
Concordance: EGEP Aristeas T4, T5a and T11b; BNJ Aristeas (35) T2; EGF Aristeas T4, T5 and T9; PEG Aristeas T2, T5, T7 and T8; Bolton, Aristeas T&F 12 and 17