CONTENTS · 04 SECTIONS
REDACTED PASSAGES: HOVER OR TAP TO READ.
I. ABOUT THE BOOK
Herodotus of Halicarnassus wrote his Histories in the fifth century BC. The division into nine books, each named after a Muse, came later and is traditionally attributed to Alexandrian scholars. The author supplied the material; posterity organised the filing.
The Greek historíē means enquiry. Herodotus travelled, questioned priests, merchants and anyone else with something to report, compared their accounts, and regularly admitted that he did not believe what he was recording. Cicero called him the “Father of History”; Plutarch later wrote On the Malignity of Herodotus. Both assessments remain in circulation. The Department sees no reason why they should be incompatible.
One passage explains the difficulty. Herodotus reports that Phoenician sailors had circumnavigated Africa and claimed to have seen the sun on their right. He found this implausible. Yet when sailing west along the southern African coast, the midday sun would indeed be to the right. The detail supports their account without proving the entire voyage. Herodotus preserved evidence that challenged his own objection. Not every author extends this courtesy to the reader.
Books II and IV describe Egypt and Libya: peoples, oases, winds and routes through the desert. Book III records fifty thousand soldiers sent by the Persian king Cambyses towards the oasis of Ammon, now Siwa. According to the account Herodotus received, a sandstorm swallowed them. Their fate remains disputed.
The Department notes that a written record establishes, first of all, that somebody wrote something down. Further conclusions require further work.
II. ABOUT THE DESERT
In the 1920s and 1930s, European explorers searched for Zerzura, a legendary oasis described in Arabic sources. Their shared interest produced the informal Zerzura Club. The club’s existence was better documented than the oasis’s.
Among its members was László Almásy, a Hungarian aviator and desert explorer. In 1932, he joined an expedition with Sir Robert Clayton, Patrick Clayton and Hugh Penderel, combining motor vehicles with a light aircraft. Aerial reconnaissance revealed a green valley in the Gilf Kebir plateau. Later expeditions confirmed the vegetation. Whether they had also confirmed Zerzura depended on what, exactly, Zerzura was supposed to be.
In autumn 1933, Almásy documented the rock paintings at Wadi Sura, including the Cave of Swimmers. Some human figures appear to be swimming, although their meaning remains debated. The paintings are estimated to be between six and nine thousand years old.
The surrounding landscape was then considerably wetter. Changes in the Earth’s orbit strengthened the monsoons, helping sustain lakes, rivers and vegetation across much of what is now desert. The African Humid Period ended roughly five thousand years ago, with drying occurring at different times in different regions. The swimmers remained; the water did not.
Almásy described his explorations in The Unknown Sahara. The German edition, published in Leipzig in 1939, combined material from two earlier books. These expeditions brought aircraft into a search still informed by local knowledge, previous surveys and ancient accounts. Aviation improved the view. It did not settle what the explorers were looking at.
III. ABOUT THE NOVEL AND THE CONDITION OF THE ITEM
In Ondaatje’s novel, the patient owns an 1890 edition of Herodotus. Between its pages he keeps maps, diary entries, passages in several languages cut from other books, and a pressed fern. The volume grows to twice its original thickness.
He uses it as a commonplace book: a personal collection of knowledge, familiar in early modern Europe. Such books held quotations, recipes, sketches and calculations, arranged according to their owners’ needs. The system did not have to make sense to anyone else. This was one of its conveniences.
Herodotus thus becomes the host of another man’s archive. A work assembled from other people’s accounts acquires a further layer of testimony, this time physically inserted between its pages. The ancient text accommodates the additions. The binding has more practical objections.
On screen, the book also supplies a story. Katharine recounts the tale of Candaules and Gyges: a king arranges for his trusted bodyguard to see his wife naked, . His attempt to display a treasured possession ends by . The episode introduces the film’s concerns with desire, possession and betrayal. It is an unusually poor advertisement for showing off.
The volume also preserves the patient’s own past, through its notes and additions, and . Its swollen pages have a dramatic function. Remove the inserts and the house receives a tidier object, but a poorer witness.
IV. ABOUT THE MAN AND THE VERSION
This section discusses the character’s identity and fate.
DEPARTMENT’S CONCLUSION
The choice of book is exceptionally apt. Herodotus reminds us to distinguish between an account and the events it claims to describe.
Condition: The binding is compromised. Grounds for scepticism are abundant.
