The Story of Psammenitus from Herodotus to Walter Benjamin

Abstract

Following a thread in Walter Benjamin’s ‘The Storyteller’, the article gives sus­tained attention to a comparatively understudied tale in Herodotus’ Histories, the embar­rassment of the Egyptian king Psammenitus by Cambyses at 3.14. I give an in-depth account of the literary quality of the passage, its place in Herodotus’ Histories, and its sometimes surprising legacy in Aristotle, Erasmus (briefly), Montaigne, and Benjamin himself. Central to the success of Herodotus’ story, in my account, is the tension between Herodotus’ ambiguous narrative style and Psammenitus’ ostensibly straightforward self-explanation.