Biography
Life
Little is known about the early life of Herodotus (heh-RAHD-uh-tuhs), the son of Lyxes and Dryo. His family fled Halicarnassus in the chaotic years after the Greco-Persian Wars (499-448 b.c.e.) and ultimately settled on the island of Samos. He traveled widely as a young man and ascertained a great deal of information regarding various lands, customs, and people. This learning enabled him to make a living as a traveling orator, reciting stories of foreign cultures to the masses.
A visit to Athens inspired him to use his learning to write a history of the Greco-Persian Wars, and in the 440’s b.c.e., he settled in Thurii to research and write this epic. He died before its completion, however, and a concluding chapter was completed by his contemporaries.
The result of this effort is a book in nine sections, written in literary Ionic, and entitled Historiai Herodotou (c. 424 b.c.e.; The History, 1709). Herodotus stated that the purpose of the study was to preserve a memory of the war, to record the achievements of the Greeks and the Persians, and to explain why the conflict began. To do this, he presented all the information available, whether he believed it or not.
The first section is a history of the Persian leader Cyrus the Great. It tells of his accession to power and his conquests and also contains geographic and ethnologic information on Persia, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. The second section is a history of Cyrus’s son Cambyses II and his conquests. Sections three through six describe Cyrus’s son Darius the Great and the opening battles of the war. Darius’s advance into Greek territory is described in depth but so too are the efforts of the Greeks to unite and repel the Persian invaders. These sections include descriptions of the famous Athenian victory at Marathon (490 b.c.e.) and of Darius’s defeat. Sections seven through nine tell the story of Darius’s son Xerxes I. His efforts to raise an army and invade Greece, the battles at Thermopylae and Salamis, and the Greek victory are described in these sections and complete the study.
Influence
Herodotus is usually dubbed “the father of history” and is considered the first person to use ethnology, geography, and intensive research to describe the actual course of past events. Although he did include numerous references to oracles, divine intervention, and fate, the factual basis of his work separated him from popular storytellers whose epics were mythological. His studies were very popular and sparked an active interest in history among other ancients, including Thucydides. His descriptions of numerous cultures also provide modern scholars with some of the best information on the ancient Near East.
Further Reading:
Bakker, Egbert J., Irene J. F. De Jong, and Hans Van Wees, eds. Brill’s Companion to Herodotus. Boston: Brill, 2002. Includes essays on Athens, oral strategies in the language of Herodotus, epic heritage and mythical patterns, the intellectual trends of Herodotus’s time, the Persian invasions, and more.
De Sélincourt, Aubrey. The World of Herodotus. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1982. This work retraces Herodotus’s literary journal based on twentieth century knowledge of his world. De Sélincourt translated The History for the Penguin Classics series.
Evans, J. A. Herodotus. Boston: Twayne, 1982. This biography covers the known facts of Herodotus’s life and clearly explains the various scholarly controversies surrounding him.
Flory, Stewart. The Archaic Smile of Herodotus. Detroit:Wayne State University Press, 1987. An analysis of literary motifs in The History, showing the tightness of its structure and the larger purposes Herodotus had in mind, beyond chronicling the Persian War.
Harrison, Thomas.
(This entire section contains 940 words.)
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Harrison, Thomas.Divinity and History: The Religion of Herodotus. New York: Clarendon Press, 2000. A study of Herodotus’s religious beliefs in divine retribution, in oracles and divination, and in miracles or in fate, seeking to show not only how such beliefs were central to his work, but also how they were compatible with lived experience.
Herodotus. The History. Translated by David Grene. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987. This translation includes a commentary that provides an excellent introduction to Herodotus. Illustrated with helpful maps.
How, Walter W., and Joseph Wells, eds. A Commentary on Herodotus: With Introduction and Appendixes. 2 vols. New York. Oxford University Press, 1989-1990. This is the standard commentary on Herodotus and provides almost a line-by-line analysis.
Hunter, Virginia. Past and Process in Herodotus and Thucydides. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982. An analysis of the first two historians, finding great similarities in their worldviews.
Lateiner, Donald. The Historical Method of Herodotus. Buffalo, N.Y.: University of Toronto Press, 1989. An important study of Herodotus’s historiography.
Luraghi, Nino, ed. The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Contextualizes the origins and development of Greek historiography through situating the early historical writings in the framework of late archaic and early classical Greek culture and society.
Munson, Rosaria Vignolo. Telling Wonders: Ethnographic and Political Discourse in the Work of Herodotus. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001. Analyzes Herodotus’s relation of the exotic and the marvelous in his histories.
Myres, John L. Herodotus, Father of History. Reprint. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1971. Myres reveals the tight and deliberate construction of The History.
Romm, James S. Herodotus. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998. An overview study of Herodotus’s dual roles as historian and storyteller.
Thomas, Rosalind. Herodotus in Context: Ethnography, Science, and the Art of Persuasion. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Examines the ways in which Herodotus established the scholarly norms for the investigation of alien cultures, not only in the ancient world but also in all eras influenced by the classics.
