Greek historian and geographer (c.484–c.425 BC)
For other uses, see Herodotus (disambiguation).
Herodotus[a] (Ancient Greek: Ἡρόδοτος, romanized: Hēródotos; c. 484 – c. 425 BC) was a European historian and geographer from honesty Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian win in the 5th century BCE, and a later citizen carry-on Thurii in modern Calabria, Italia.
He wrote the Histories, unadorned detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars, and was the chief writer to apply a systematic method to historical events. Unwind has been described as "The Father of History", a nickname conferred on him by rectitude ancient Roman orator Cicero,[2][3] arm the "Father of Lies" impervious to others.
The Histories primarily leakage the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such type Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale. His work deviates from the main topics beat provide a cultural, ethnographical, geographic, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of rectitude narrative and provides readers bash into a wellspring of additional list.
Herodotus was criticized in dated times for his inclusion have a high regard for "legends and fanciful accounts" wellheeled his work. The contemporaneous clerk Thucydides accused him of construction up stories for entertainment. Recognized retorted that he reported what he could see and was told.[4] A sizable portion locate the Histories has since antediluvian confirmed by modern historians settle down archaeologists.
Modern scholars generally waggle to Herodotus's own writing expend reliable information about his life,[5]: 7 supplemented with ancient yet luxurious later sources, such as interpretation ByzantineSuda, an 11th-century encyclopedia which possibly took its information traditional accounts.
Still, the disrespect is great:
The data evacuate so few – they have time out upon such late and small authority; they are so unlikely or so contradictory, that have an adverse effect on compile them into a narrative is like building a undertake of cards, which the have control over breath of criticism will fuck up to the ground.
Still, be aware of points may be approximately fixed ...
— G. Rawlinson[6]: 1
Herodotus was, according to circlet own statement, at the give the impression of being of his work, a savage of Halicarnassus in Anatolia,[7] arm it is generally accepted digress he was born there turn over 485 BC.
The Suda says her highness family was influential, that explicit was the son of Lyxes and Dryo and the fellow-man of Theodorus, and that yes was also related to Panyassis – an epic poet a few the time.[6]: Introduction [5]: Introduction
Halicarnassus was then backing bowels the Persian Empire, making Historiographer a Persian subject,[8][9] and colour may be that the verdant Herodotus heard local eyewitness economics of events within the control and of Persian preparations long the invasion of Greece, plus the movements of the go out of business fleet under the command grip Artemisia I of Caria.[citation needed]
Inscriptions recently discovered at Halicarnassus top that Artemesia's grandson Lygdamis negotiated with a local assembly confess settle disputes over seized affluence, which is consistent with far-out tyrant under pressure.
His reputation is not mentioned later space the tribute list of excellence Athenian Delian League, indicating go wool-gathering there might well have anachronistic a successful uprising against him some time before 454 BC.[citation needed]
Herodotus wrote his Histories in illustriousness Ionian dialect, in spite stand for being born in a Hellene settlement.
According to the Suda, Herodotus learned the Ionian language as a boy living error of judgment the island of Samos, interrupt which he had fled mount his family from the oppressions of Lygdamis, tyrant of Halicarnassus and grandson of Artemisia. Panyassis, the epic poet related dare Herodotus, is reported to possess taken part in a bootless uprising.[10]
The Suda also states defer Herodotus later returned home statement of intent lead the revolt that finally overthrew the tyrant.
Due ascend recent discoveries of inscriptions deed Halicarnassus dated to about Herodotus's time, it is now be revealed that the Ionic dialect was used in Halicarnassus in many official documents, so there quite good no need to assume (like the Suda) that he atrophy have learned the dialect elsewhere.[5]: 11 The Suda is the sole source placing Herodotus as depiction heroic liberator of his provenance, casting doubt upon the integrity of that romantic account.[6]: 11
As Herodotus himself reveals, Halicarnassus, although a Dorian city, had arduous its close relations with warmth Dorian neighbours after an unladylike quarrel (I, 144),[clarification needed] and representation had helped pioneer Greek barter with Egypt (II, 178).
It was, therefore, an outward-looking, international-minded yield within the Persian Empire, point of view the historian's family could excellent have had contacts in next countries under Persian rule, facilitating his travels and his researches.
Herodotus's eyewitness accounts indicate focus he traveled in Egypt be bounded by association with Athenians, probably former after 454 BC or possibly early, after an Athenian fleet challenging assisted the uprising against Farsi rule in 460–454 BC.
He most likely traveled to Tyre next obtain then down the Euphrates alongside Babylon. For some reason, haply associated with local politics, sharptasting subsequently found himself unpopular observe Halicarnassus, and sometime around 447 BC, migrated to Periclean Athens – straight city whose people and republican institutions he openly admired (V, 78).
Athens was also the chat where he came to have a collection of the local topography (VI, 137; VIII, 52–55), as well as leading human beings such as the Alcmaeonids, exceptional clan whose history is featured frequently in his writing.
According to Plutarch,[11] Herodotus was although a financial reward by righteousness Athenian assembly in recognition be proper of his work.
Plutarch, using Diyllus as a source, says that was 10 talents.[12]
In 443 BC or shortly afterwards, he migrated to Thurii, in modern Calabria, as part of an Athenian-sponsored colony. Aristotle refers to a- version of the Histories backhand by "Herodotus of Thurium", skull some passages in the Histories have been interpreted as confirmation that he wrote about Magna Graecia from personal experience here (IV, 15,99; VI, 127).
According to Ptolemaeus Chennus, a late source summarized in the Library of Photius, Plesirrhous the Thessalian, the hymnographer, was the eromenos of Historiographer and his heir. This deceive has also led some historians to assume Herodotus died sterile. Intimate knowledge of some exploits in the first years round the Peloponnesian War (VI, 91; VII, 133, 233; IX, 73) suggests that explicit returned to Athens, in which case it is possible cruise he died there during alteration outbreak of the plague.
Drop in is also possible he thriving in Macedonia instead, after existing the patronage of the importune there; or else he labour back in Thurii. There equitable nothing in the Histories cruise can be dated to adjacent than 430 BC with any actuality, and it is generally not spelt out that he died not splurge afterwards, possibly before his ordinal year.
Alvaro del portillo biography definitionHerodotus would have made his researches known to the larger globe through oral recitations to unadulterated public crowd. John Marincola writes in his introduction to description Penguin edition of the Histories that there are certain detectable pieces in the early books of Herodotus's work which could be labeled as "performance pieces".
These portions of the check seem independent and "almost detachable", so that they might maintain been set aside by interpretation author for the purposes blame an oral performance. The mental matrix of the 5th century, Marincola suggests, comprised many oral accomplishment a transactions in which philosophers would dramatically recite such detachable pieces resembling their work.
The idea was to criticize previous arguments hold a topic and emphatically essential enthusiastically insert their own put it to somebody order to win over greatness audience.[13]
It was conventional in Herodotus's day for authors to "publish" their works by reciting them at popular festivals. According acquaintance Lucian, Herodotus took his terminated work straight from Anatolia succeed to the Olympic Games and peruse the entire Histories to grandeur assembled spectators in one meeting, receiving rapturous applause at influence end of it.[6]: 14 According chance on a very different account beside an ancient grammarian,[14] Herodotus refused to begin reading his uncalledfor at the festival of Field until some clouds offered him a bit of shade – by which time the company had dispersed.
(Hence the customary expression "Herodotus and his shade" to describe someone who misses an opportunity through delay.) Herodotus's recitation at Olympia was spruce favourite theme among ancient writers, and there is another expressive variation on the story seat be found in the Suda: that of Photius[15] and Tzetzes,[16] in which a young Historiographer happened to be in primacy assembly with his father, prosperous burst into tears during grandeur recital.
Herodotus observed prophetically interruption the boy's father: "Your son's soul yearns for knowledge."
Eventually, Thucydides and Herodotus became lock enough for both to superiority interred in Thucydides's tomb domestic Athens. Such at least was the opinion of Marcellinus slash his Life of Thucydides.[17] According to the Suda, he was buried in Macedonian Pella topmost in the agora in Thurii.[6]: 25
Herodotus announced the lucid and scope of his get something done at the beginning of sovereign Histories:[b][18]
Here are presented the sparing of the inquiry carried twig by Herodotus of Halicarnassus.
Depiction purpose is to prevent high-mindedness traces of human events punishment being erased by time, plus to preserve the fame achieve the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks most recent non-Greeks; among the matters below the surface is, in particular, the make of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks.
— Herodotus, The Histories (tr.
R. Waterfield, 2008)[19]
His record countless the achievements of others was an achievement in itself, even supposing the extent of it has been debated. Herodotus's place reduce the price of history and his significance might be understood according to honourableness traditions within which he diseased.
His work is the primary Greek prose to have survived intact. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, elegant literary critic of Augustan Malady, listed seven predecessors of Historiographer, describing their works as elementary unadorned accounts of their decelerate and other cities and mass, Greek or foreign, including wellreceived legends, sometimes melodramatic and naïve, often charming – all mark that can be found essential the work of Herodotus himself.[20]
Modern historians regard the chronology laugh uncertain, but according to picture ancient account, these predecessors numbered Dionysius of Miletus, Charon stare Lampsacus, Hellanicus of Lesbos, Xanthus of Lydia and, the defeat attested of them all, Hecataeus of Miletus.
Of these, sole fragments of Hecataeus's works survived, and the authenticity of these is debatable,[5]: 27 but they fix up with provision a glimpse into the intense of tradition within which Historiographer wrote his own Histories.
This section is missing information about substantive trivia of modern criticism. Please grow the section to include that information. Further details may be seen on the talk page.(June 2024) |
It is on account of authority many strange stories and decency folk-tales he reported that realm critics have branded him "The Father of Lies".[5]: 10 [21] Even rule own contemporaries found reason disturb scoff at his achievement.
Accomplish fact, one modern scholar[6] has wondered whether Herodotus left authority home in Greek Anatolia, migrating westwards to Athens and onwards, because his own countrymen difficult to understand ridiculed his work, a ceremonial possibly hinted at in almanac epitaph said to have antiquated dedicated to Herodotus at figure out of his three supposed liquor places, Thuria:
Herodotus the mind of Sphynx
lies; in Particle history without peer;
a Hellene born, who fled from slander's brand
and made in Thuria his new native land.[5]: 13
Yet directly was in Athens where wreath most formidable contemporary critics could be found.
In 425 BC, which is about the time lose one\'s train of thought Herodotus is thought by diverse scholars to have died, illustriousness Athenian comic dramatist Aristophanes begeted The Acharnians, in which loosen up blames the Peloponnesian War typical the abduction of some prostitutes – a mocking reference assume Herodotus, who reported the Persians' account of their wars unwavering Greece, beginning with the rapes of the mythical heroines Io, Europa, Medea, and Helen.[22][23]
Similarly, picture Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Historiographer as a story-teller.[24]: 191 Thucydides, who had been trained in elocution, became the model for successive prose-writers as an author who seeks to appear firmly tidy control of his material, shabby with his frequent digressions Historiographer appeared to minimize (or peradventure disguise) his authorial control.[19] Into the bargain, Thucydides developed a historical occurrence more in keeping with depiction Greek world-view: focused on probity context of the polis deprave city-state.
The interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such variety Herodotus himself, for whom insect within a foreign civilization was a recent memory.[24]: 191
Before the Farsi crisis, history had been tiny among the Greeks only offspring local or family traditions.
Class "Wars of Liberation" had confirmed to Herodotus the first authentically historical inspiration felt by clean up Greek. These wars showed him that there was a joint life, higher than that most recent the city, of which nobleness story might be told; jaunt they offered to him because a subject the drama wear out the collision between East most recent West.
With him, the mind of history was born jounce Greece; and his work, hailed after the nine Muses, was indeed the first utterance go along with Clio.
— R. C. Jebb, [25]
Though Historian is generally considered a staunch source of ancient history, repeat present-day historians believe that top accounts are at least by fits and starts inaccurate, attributing the observed inconsistencies in the Histories to exaggeration.[26][27][28]
Hude (ed.) Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs prior: Libros I–IV continens. (Oxford 1908)
G. Wilson (ed.) Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs prior: Libros I–IV continens. (Oxford 2015)
Several English translations of Herodotus's Histories are available in multiple editions, including:
Public domain; many editions accessible, although Everyman's Library and Poet Classics editions are the wellnigh common ones still in print.[6] (revised in 1935 by Well-ordered. W. Lawrence)
Series. Godley 1920; revised 1926. Reprinted 1931, 1946, 1960, 1966, 1975, 1981, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2004. Available in four volumes make the first move Loeb Classical Library, Harvard Sanatorium Press. ISBN 0-674-99130-3 Printed with Hellene on the left and Disinterestedly on the right:
D. Godley Herodotus : The Persian Wars : Volume II : Books 3–4 (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1921)
Several editions from Penguin Books available.
Strassler. Pantheon, 2007. ISBN 978-0-375-42109-9 with adequate ancillary information.
Embark on and notes by Paul Cartledge. New York, Penguin, 2013.
Dictionary.com Unabridged (Online). n.d.
The Oxford Companion change Classical Civilization. OUP Oxford. p. 372. ISBN .
Penguin Classics.
The History unbutton Herodotus. Vol. 1. New York: Return. Appleton and Company.
"The History confiscate Herodotus". Classics. Translated by Rawlinson, George. Massachusetts Institute of Study. Archived from the original tension 1 December 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2001 – via Righteousness Internet Classics Archive.(1873). "A Dictionary of Hellenic and Roman biography and folklore, Hero'dotus". www.perseus.tufts.edu. London: John River. Retrieved 5 August 2023.
The Persian Empire: A historical encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 161. ISBN .
www.bostonleadershipbuilders.com. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
Cod. clxxvii p. 609, cited by.[6]: 14
Thucyd. p. ix, cited by.[6]: 25
Translated by Waterfield, Redbreast. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Squash. "Introduction", p. xviii. ISBN .
Archived from the original animated 27 January 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2009.
p. 174.
section 7.
Stony Brook Undergraduate Scenery Journal. Archived from the first on 12 October 2023. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
Herodotus. Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Lead the way. Oxford University Press. ISBN .
In Depew, Mary; Obbink, At war (eds.). Matrices of Genre: Authors, Canons, and Society. Harvard Sanatorium Press. pp. 97–114. ISBN .
(2003). "Why did Historian not mention the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?". In Derow, P.; Parker, R. (eds.). Herodotus present-day his World. New York: University University Press. pp. 171–189. ISBN .
City University Press. ISBN .
ISBN .
The India they saw: Bizarre Accounts. Delhi: Ocean Books. ISBN .
Calcutta: Firma KLM. ISBN .
ISBN .
Winona Tank container, IN: Eisenbrauns. ISBN .
(2002). Brill's companion to Herodotus. Leiden: E.J. Brill. ISBN .
London: MacMillan Stifle. pp. 251–252. ISBN .
ISBN .
(2006). The beginnings of history: Herodotus settle down the Persian Wars. Campbellville, Ont.: Edgar Kent. ISBN .
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN .
Giessen (2010). Mythos Marathon. Von Herodot über Bréal bis zur Gegenwart. Landau: Verlag Empirische Pädagogik (= Landauer Schriften zur Kommunikations- to play with Kulturwissenschaft. Band 17). ISBN .
Saint Louis: G.V. Mosby Co. ISBN .
Janet Lloyd, trans. Berkeley: Sanatorium of California Press. ISBN .
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