Histories (Herodotus)

Histories

Fragment from Histories, Book VIII on 2nd-century Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 2099
Author Herodotus
Country Greece
Language Ancient Greek
Genre History
Publisher Various
Publication date
c. 440 BCE

The Histories (Greek: Ἱστορίαι; Ancient Greek: [his.to.rí.ai̯]; also known as The History[1]) of Herodotus is now considered the founding work of history in Western literature.[2] Written in 440 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that were known in Western Asia, Northern Africa and Greece at that time. Although not a fully impartial record, it remains one of the West's most important sources regarding these affairs. Moreover, it established the genre and study of history in the Western world (despite the existence of historical records and chronicles beforehand).

The Histories also stands as one of the first accounts of the rise of the Persian Empire, as well as the events and causes of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Achaemenid Empire and the Greek city-states in the 5th century BC. Herodotus portrays the conflict as one between the forces of slavery (the Persians) on the one hand, and freedom (the Athenians and the confederacy of Greek city-states which united against the invaders) on the other.

The Histories was at some point divided into the nine books that appear in modern editions, conventionally named after the nine Muses.

Motivation for writing

Herodotus seems to have traveled extensively around the ancient world, nearly all these territories were directly under the Persian Empire, conducting interviews and collecting stories for his book. At the beginning of The Histories, Herodotus sets out his reasons for writing it:

This is the showing-forth of the inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that neither what has come to be from man in time might become faded, nor that great and wondrous deeds, those shown forth by Greeks and those by barbarians, might be without their glory; and together with all this, also through what cause they warred with each other.

Storyline

Book I (Clio)

Book II (Euterpe)

Book III (Thalia)

Cambyses II of Persia capturing pharaoh Psammetichus III (Persian seal, 6th century BC)
Scythian warriors, drawn after figures on an electrum cup from the Kul'Oba kurgan burial near Kerch (Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg)

Book IV (Melpomene)

Statue of Athena, the patron goddess of Athens

Book V (Terpsichore)

Book VI (Erato)

A Greek trireme
The plain of Marathon today

Book VII (Polymnia)

Book VIII (Urania)

Book IX (Calliope)

Translations of the Histories

Manuscripts

See also

Notes

  1. Herodotus (Book II, 68) claimed that the trochilus bird visited the crocodile, which opened its mouth in what would now be called a cleaning symbiosis to eat leeches. A modern survey of the evidence finds only occasional reports of sandpipers "removing leeches from the mouth and gular scutes and snapping at insects along the reptile's body."[4]

References

  1. Herodotus (1987). The History, translated by David Grene. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-32770-1.
  2. Arnold, John H. (2000). History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. 17. ISBN 0-19-285352-X.
  3. Fehling, Detlev (1989). "Some demonstrably false source citations". Herodotus and His 'Sources' . Francis Cairns, Ltd. 5057. ISBN 0-905205-70-7.
    Lindsay, Jack (1974). "Helen in the Fifth Century". Helen of Troy Rowman and Littlefield. 133134. ISBN 0-87471-581-4
  4. Macfarland, Craig G.; Reeder, W. G. (1974). "Cleaning symbiosis involving Galapagos tortoises and two species of Darwin's finches". Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie. 34 (5): 464–483. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.1974.tb01816.x.
  5. Kim, Lawrence (2010). "Homer, poet and historian". Homer Between History and Fiction in Imperial Greek Literature. Cambridge University Press. 30-35 ISBN 978-0-521-19449-5.
    Allan, Williams (2008). "Introduction". Helen. Cambridge University Press. 22-24 ISBN 0-521-83690-5.
    Lindsay, Jack (1974). "Helen in the Fifth Century". Helen of Troy. Rowman and Littlefield. 135-138. ISBN 0-87471-581-4
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