Herodotus (c. 484–424 BCE) is called the Father of History because he was one of the first to write the kind of book now called a work of history. He wrote about the people of the eastern Mediterranean, especially about the wars between the Greeks and the Persians. He called his work an "inquiry," the Greek word for which is historia. History is what this subject has been called ever since.
Life
Herodotus was born around 484 BCE in the Greek colony of Halicarnassus in Asia Minor (in modern-day Turkey), which was then under Persian rule. His parents were wealthy, and as a young man he became involved in politics. However, he clashed with the ruler Lygdamis and left Halicarnassus. Soon afterwards Herodotus departed on the first of his journeys around the eastern Mediterranean, during which he took notes for the history he was to write.
Travels
Herodotus traveled to Egypt and the Nile, to Tyre (present-day Lebanon), and down the Euphrates River to Babylon, in present-day Iraq. He went to Scythia, north of the Black Sea, and to Greece. For some time he lived in Athens. However, around 444 BCE he settled in the new Greek colony of Thuria in southern Italy, where it is likely he worked on his notes and where he died.
Writings
Herodotus’s writings mix history, geography, and descriptions of different peoples he met. However, his methods were similar to those of a modern historian: he placed the greatest importance on firsthand sources; for example, he interviewed men who fought in the Persian wars. Of secondary importance was what he read in official court and temple documents or in long poems, such as Homer’s Iliad. He also obtained information from the writings carved on statues and monuments and from the physical remains of the past, much as archaeologists do.
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IN THIS PASSAGE HERODOTUS DESCRIBES HOW THE EGYPTIANS CAUGHT CROCODILES: They bait the hook with a hunk of pork and let it float out into midstream, and at the same time, standing on the bank, take a live pig and beat it. The crocodile, hearing its squeals, makes a rush towards it, encounters the bait, gulps it down and is hauled out of the water. The first thing the hunter does when he has got the beast on land is to plaster its eyes with mud; this done, it is killed easily enough – but without this precaution it will give a lot of trouble.
| | | THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS, BOOK 2 |
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Achievement
Herodotus’s work has been criticized. He has been accused of placing too much importance on Athenian sources and of not understanding military matters. There may be some truth in this argument, but for many readers Herodotus’s enthusiasm about what he saw and heard is more important. He had great respect for the achievements of cultures other than that of Greece. Even the Persians, the greatest enemies of the Greeks, he praised for their justice, their love of truth, their loyalty to their king, and their courage.
