Herodotus

Historian

Born: c. 484 b. c.e.; Halicarnassus, Asia Minor (now Bodrum, Turkey) Died: c. 424 b. c.e.; Thurii (now in Italy)

Category: Historiography

Life Only from references in his own works and occasional mention by encyclopedists such as the tenth century Suidas can details of the life of Herodotus (hih-RAHD-uh-tuhs) be obtained. Herodotus relates that his parents were Lyxes and Dryo, wealthy people of the upper class, and that his birthplace, Halicarnassus, was part of the Persian Empire until he was thirty years old. His many quotations and references to dozens of authors show the scope and quantity of his reading, and his apparent familiarity with non-Greek cultures indicates how widely he traveled in Egypt, Scythia, Asia Minor, and various Greek states.

With Historiai Herodotou (c. 424 b. c.e.; The History, 1709), Herodotus provided a detailed account of the wars of the Greeks and the Persians between 500 b. c.e. and 479 b. c.e. Interested in causation, he tried to establish strict chronology and in doing so became the first historian in the West. He includes all that he had been able to learn about earlier culture and history. The result is a colorful yet neat and serious story, presented by a master of prose style. Although he does not make much effort to see deep meaning or discuss movements or trends, he does suggest the lessons inherent in the events.

Parts of The History were written in Samos and in Athens during a period when Herodotus was in exile, probably for taking part in a revolution. His uncle Panyasis is known to have been executed as a conspirator, and later Herodotus returned to Halicarnassus to help overthrow the tyrant Lygdamis and to labor to persuade his city to join the Athenian Confederacy. When he left home permanently about 447 b. c.e., perhaps because he believed he was not appreciated, Herodotus settled in Athens where, in 445, the city voted him ten talents, a sum estimated at more than ten thousand dollars. Because it did not give him what he wanted most, citizenship, he left Athens to help

Herodotus. (Library of Congress)

Found a colony of Greeks in Thurii, now in Italy, where he lived for the rest of his life, his death occurring about 424 b. c.e. His history was not printed in its original Greek until Aldus Manutius printed an edition in 1502, divided into nine books, each named after one of the Muses. Previously, in 1474, the work had been published in a Latin translation.

Influence Herodotus earned the name “father of history” with The History, the earliest example of a secular narrative of events. Although he

Tried to test the validity of his sources, the interest rather than the veracity

Of many of the related incidents appealed to him most; therefore, Herodotus must be read with caution. For that reason, some scholars prefer the historical writings of Thucydides.

Further Reading

Bakker, Egbert J., Irene J. F. de Jong, and Hans van Wees. Brill’s Companion to Herodotus. Boston: Brill, 2002.

De Selincourt, Aubrey. The World of Herodotus. London: Phoenix Press,

2001.

Evans, J. A. S. Herodotus. Boston: Twayne, 1982.

Harrison, Thomas. Divinity and History: The Religion of Herodotus. New York: Clarendon Press, 2000.

Lateiner, Donald. The Historical Method of Herodotus. Buffalo, N. Y.: University of Toronto Press, 1989.

Luraghi, Nino, ed. The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Munson, Rosaria Vignolo. Telling Wonders: Ethnographic and Political Discourse in the Work of Herodotus. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.

Romm, James S. Herodotus. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press,

1998.

Thomas, Rosalind. Herodotus in Context: Ethnography, Science, and the Art of Persuasion. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

David H. J. Larmour

See also: Greco-Persian Wars; Historiography; Literature; Thucydides.