What Is The Message Of Croesus

In the first section of the book, Herodotus’ moral message of history is that good fortune should never be taken for granted as it is always fleeting, because as he states in the first page “human prosperity never abides long in the same place” (Herodotus, 5). The continuing story of Croesus who gave into his greed of wanting a larger and more expansive empire is an example of Herodotus’ message, as Croesus’ empire fell to Cyrus and thus it goes back to the point that human prosperity never lasts and those men that were once great become small. Further, Solon and his poetry are useful in making an example of Croesus because Solon’s poetry conveys the message that the greed of men will be their ruin as he states in his poetry: “But as to wealth, …show more content…
Solon states that “great wealth can make a man no happier than moderate means, unless he has the luck to continue in prosperity to the end,” (Herodotus, 15) meaning that man can only be happy in death because death is certainty, however life is a series of chances for too many things to go wrong. Thus, men with good fortune should never truly count themselves fortunate because their fortune has merely been brought on my chance and can be taken away at any moment. I think that Solon’s poetry and his character in Herodotus’ both convey the same message; mortals giving into their vanities and never being satisfied with what they have are bound to be punished by the gods or have their fortunes taken away from them in their conquest for more. In addition, Solon’s character plays a useful role because he is not trying to appeal to Croesus or his sense of greed and he won’t let Croesus get away with thinking that he is indeed the happiest man for indulging in material …show more content…
“Where is the gratitude of the gods...Things that before were hateful now are dear: to die is the sweetest…But when the fire’s bright force was darting fearsomely about, Zeus brought a black cloud over and quenches the tawny flames” (Bacchylides, 40-55). Through Bacchylides, Herodotus draws the counter conclusion, that if men are not pious to the gods and as Solon also stated, give into their vanities and arrogance and only consider themselves happy with the amount of fortune they have, the mortals will be punished by the gods and have their livelihoods taken away from them. The context and message of Ode 3 acts as a prequel as to what may happen if you humble yourself before the gods but it is a prequel that is not revealed until after Herodotus’ moral message has already been