Ostrakon #1: Herakles, India, and Trade
Hello and welcome to the first of my mediocre ramblings designed to serve as both a mildly amusing distraction and a way to lower the barrier of entry for this journal / blog. They will offer you a keyhole perspective on a diverse array of topics and are all based on one afternoon’s worth of research going out from the Ostrakon of the week so please don’t yell at me if I get things wrong or miss out important aspects, but rather see those things as an invitation to tell me and others about them. My goal here is to prove how vast and wonderful the study of the ancient world is and how easily you can immerse yourself in it.
This week’s Ostrakon is a video that was part of a series called “India Unboxed” produced by Cambridge University to celebrate the UK-India Year of Culture 2017. It was the fifth in the series and caught my eye, because it cleverly moves from a plaster cast of the so-called “Farnese Hercules” (Roman spelling of Herakles) all the way to the eastern fringes of the world familiar to to many ancient Romans and Greeks. India was not the furthest connection the ancients had of what we in the West consider the East (that connection will be part of a future Ostrakon), but it was certainly one that fired up both their desires and their imagination not least through it’s connection with Heracles; Greece’s most popular mythological hero.
Speaking of desires, Alexander the Great famously styled himself as Herakles on some of his coins and as the video thematises used the stories of Herakles’ exploits in India to justify his conquests (as other would-be conquerors would do after him). Alexander of course did not conquer on his own and largely left (as those of you who have done or will do our department’s excellent “The Hellenistic World” module know) the existing bureaucracies and systems of governing he encountered in the Middle East intact which allowed his successors to not only build their kingdoms, but also guaranteed a steadier flow of both trade and information about India to reach ancient Greece and later Rome. The semi-mythical (and incredibly fun to read) stories and facts both Herodotos (3,98ff. f.e.) and Ktesias had collected about India were updated and improved on by authors that had accompanied Alexander on his quest. One of them was Megasthenes (*350 BCE — +290BCE) who wrote the most extensive account of India the Greeks had known to that day. We unfortunately do not have a surviving manuscript of his text but since he was a major source for the likes of Diodorus, Strabo, and Pliny the Elder as well as the chief source for Arrian’s Ινδική (latinised as Indica) quotations of and references to his work (us nerds refer to them as fragments) are still available to us.
It is one of these fragments of Megasthenes that I know want to turn to and end on. The fragment can be found in Arrian’s Ινδική and is too long to quote, but I invite you to read it yourself (it is chapter VIII of the Ινδική). In it Megasthenes employs a strategy familiar to students of the ancient world by describing a local Indian deity in terms that are familiar to him; he identifies the deity (probably Krishna, although other options have been suggested and the matter continues to be debated amongst scholars) as Herakles. This Herakles supposedly discovered pearls as an ornament for women in India (as the video mentions) and brought them back with him to his home. Pearls then the sources tell us were one of the most important exports of ancient India loved by wealthy Greeks and Romans alike. So much so in fact that a perceived “trade deficit” with India over luxury goods like pearls caused the occasional stir of anxiety amongst some wealthy Romans as Pliny the Elder as one of them relates to us (in his Naturalis Historia at 6,26,6 and 12,41,2).
And just like that we have a tenuous, but I think relevant link to the modern world. If you are interested in the fruits of this trade connection and trade as a valuable driving force behind cultural exchange and understanding check out the book I put into my list of further reading below! It is a catalogue of an exhibition held in the early 90’s in both New Delhi and Rome and can be found in Bill Bryson Library.
Further Reading:
Cimino, R.M. (ed.): “Ancient Rome and India : commercial and cultural contacts between the Roman world and India”. Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi (1994). Found at: Bill Bryson Level 1 937.06 ANC
Bryant, E.F.: “Krishna: A Sourcebook”. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2007). In particular p.5ff.
Andrew, N.: “The complete fragments of Ctesias of Cnidus: Translation and commentary with an introduction” (2008). PhD thesis available online
Just like that I am done and I hope you have a little more of an idea now about the sort of things I am (currently) collecting for this journal / blog. I am not looking for more than 3/4/5 paragraphs from any given entry (unless you have more of course) and would like Ostraka to be a space for you to show off your academic hobbies amongst other things. The things you research or work on when you take a break from the things you love to research if that makes any sense.
Take care :)
Do you have a suggestion for a future topic? Do you have an idea to share with your friends? Send us a message and follow the Durham University Classics Society on Twitter (@DUClassSoc) and Facebook (@DUClassics Society) to keep up with this blog and our other adventures!
