Herodotus essays

Herodotus essays Herodotus was a Greek historian, generally called the Father of History. The work of Herodotus is the oldest surviving major Greek prose and the first history in Western civilization. He was born at Halicarnassus, a Greek state under Persian rule, in southwestern Asia Minor. After a civil war, he left his homeland for good and spent some time in nearby Ionia. Then he traveled widely: as far south as Elephantine in Egypt; eastward into Asia to Babylon; and north to the far coast of the Black Sea. He lived in Periclean Athens for a while and took part in the Athenian colonization of Thurii in southern Italy in 433. Since he referred to early events of the Peloponnesian War, he must have lived past 431. His tomb was later shown at Thurii, but it is possible that he died in Athens, where he recited some of his history. The preface of his history begins, These are the researches of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, which he publishes, in the hope of thereby preserving from decay the remembrance of what men have done. He sought to describe and explain great wars before his own generation. To Herodotus, two ways of life were opposed to one another in these wars-the freedom of the Greeks and the despotism of the Persians; nevertheless, he was so fair to the Persians that he was called in later ages friend to the barbarian. Herodotus was also deeply interested in the geography and ethnography of the lands he had visited, and he discussed the customs he found there in great deal. As he states in Book II, chapter 123, of his history, I propose to myself throughout my whole work faithfully to record the traditions of the several nations, particularly if they produced entertaining stories. His account, however, does not take up the period of myth and epic to any extent. He was skeptical of the story of King Minos thalassocracy in Crete, and he doubted that Helen ever went to Troy...