304 Philip Kaplan
from their rugged territory to a richer land (9.122). Cyrus rejects the suggestion, with
the famous dictum that “soft lands tend to breed soft men.” Put at the very end of the
work, it expresses an idea that played a role in much of his preceding ethnography: lands
and the peoples who inhabit them are either soft or hard. Hard peoples may conquer soft
lands, but then run the risk of becoming corrupted by the softer environment (Redfield
1985: 109–114). At the same time, Herodotus is circumspect in attributing the cus-
toms or character of peoples to the lands in which they live (Thomas 2000: 69; Chiasson
2001: 57–8). He attributes the great health of the Egyptians and Libyans to the climate
of their land (2.77.3), but it is not clear if this characteristic is a formative or permanent
aspect of their characters (Thomas 2000: 45–6). In his treatment of the Ethiopians, who
are autochthonous (4.197), and so a product of their land, he knows of their dark skin
(3.101), but he does not resort to the explanation that their skin color is caused by their
closeness to the sun (found, e.g., in the fourth-century Theodectes [FrGrHist 113; Str.
15.1.24]). He picks up the idealizing tradition that goes back to Homer, describing the
Ethiopians as tall, attractive, and long-lived (Romm 1992: 49–60). Rather than attribut-
ing these characteristics to their general environment or to their way of life, however (he
does not endorse their claim that their age was due to their exclusive diet of meat and
milk), he credits their use of the peculiar water from a particular spring (3.22–3; 114).
In the case of the Skythians at the other end of the earth, as both Thomas (2000: 68) and
Chiasson (2001) have noted, Herodotus avoids simply attributing either their physical
character or their lifestyle to the climate and geography of the land; instead, he suggests
that their nomadism is a response to the geographical conditions of the lands north of
the Black Sea, not an inevitable product of those conditions.
Other writers more explicitly explored the role of land and climate in shaping ethnic
character. The most detailed text in this regard is the HippocraticAirs,Waters,Places
(see discussion in Isaac 1994: 60–9; Jouanna 1999 [1992]: 225–32; Thomas 2000:
86–98). Contemporary with, or slightly later than, Herodotus, and probably not writ-
ten by Hippocrates, the text articulates the view that the environment of a given land
shapes the physical characteristics of the inhabitants of that land. The text argues, not
merely that the environment of a region affects the health of its inhabitants, but that it
shapes their physical form, which in turn influences the types of diseases to which they
are subject. The author catalogues the effects of the winds and waters in each quarter
of the globe, and the deleterious effects these have on the people living there (IV–XI);
the implication is that, at the center, which corresponds to Greece, the negative effects
are felt least, while they are strongest at the margins of the world. The text makes a clear
link between the environment as a whole and the physical characteristics of the people
who live there. Its author makes a key distinction between Asia and Europe, echoing
Herodotus’ dictum about soft lands: the fertility, moderate climate, and lack of vio-
lent changes in the seasons of Asia has produced men lacking courage and hardihood
(XIII, XVI). These people are inclined to be ruled by others. His account of the Skythi-
ans (XVIII–XXII), rather than painting them as diametric opposites of the Asians or
borrowing Herodotus’ depiction of them as fierce warriors, emphasizes their moistness,
flabbiness, and lack of fecundity, all caused by their climate (Chiasson 2001). Indeed, the
text paints them as effeminate, although this is in part put down to their custom of con-
stantly riding horses. Generalizing about Europeans (XXIII–XXIV), the author notes the
great variety of physical types, due to variations of the climate of Europe. However, the