Product Description

Herodotus is not only known as the `father of history', as Cicero called him, but also the father of ethnography; as well as charting the historical background to the Persian Wars, his curiosity also prompts frequent digression on the cultures of the peoples he introduces. While much of the information he gives has proved to be astonishingly accurate, he also entertains us with delightful tales of one-eyed men and gold-digging ants. This readable new translation is supplemented with expansive notes that provide readers the background that they need to appreciate the book in depth. * Introduction * Textual Note *Bibliography * Chronology * Appendices * Glossary * Maps * Explanatory Notes * Textual Notes * Index of Proper Names

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21168 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 840 pages

Customer Reviews

Unmissable, eminently readable classic
`After the capture of Babylon, Darius invaded Scythia.' Thus commences book four of the Histories, and if these are the kind of words that set your pulse racing, your eyes going all dreamy, this book is for you.

The ancient Greek historian's famous opus has an impressive geographical and chronological spread, and this, together with its precedence over most recovered documents of its type, explains why it is regarded as so important. Herodotus relates over a century of Persian expansion, including the Egyptian and other conquests, from about 600 BC, and of Persian conflict with the Greeks, culminating in his compatriots' victories at Salamis and Platea. As it is explained in the notes and introduction, much of his account has been reaffirmed by modern historical and archaeological research, some of it over earlier condemnations, though much is also being questioned.

Indeed, intriguingly, this rings both as history as we understand it and as something else. Herodotus explicitly aims to make an objective and truthful account, unlike other chroniclers of antiquity (for example Egyptian) driven by religious, political or artistic imperatives. He traces facts to sources and steps back when sources conflict. This is familiar. But in other ways, his book is from a culture very distant from ours. Herodotus believes in oracles, in the premonitory value of dreams. It doesn't shock him that a queen might give birth to a lion, or a god strike down an army to protect a sanctuary. Hubris is always punished, and disregard for the warnings of fate, or the desecration of temples. And descriptions are inflated for effect. For example, Herodotus has five million Persian subjects crossing the Hellespont; this probably exceeded the adult male population of the Persian empire, and modern historians have the number at 100,000 to 200,000. In many ways, the Histories are myth, epic, as much as history, and they probably tell us as much about the ancient Greeks and their beliefs as about what happened in the Persian wars.

The definitive history of the persian wars
From a modern day perspective, Herodotus has little ability to write in the accepted prose that we have come to expect from modern historians. He certainly rambles, and rambles frequently. He tends to switch back and forth between periods in time and with such a large amount of words foreign to the english language that it can be hard to keep up.
But what is the point to this book? As a fan of Hellenistic history, it is not the prose that interests me but the characters and events, and there is more than enough of that to go around.
Herodotus' eye for detail is to be admired, but it must be accepted that his history does contain mythology or legends, but this is a time when history was more word of mouth than written accounts and so we have a long game of Chinese whispers.
I bought this book mainly for the stories of the great Leonidas at Thermopylae and the bravery of the lone Athenians at Marathon against the Achaemenid might.
However, there is much more than that. The tale begins with the Lydian empire, moving to the Median and then to Persian empire (perhaps not smoothly) until the famed Greco-Persian war.
For a history of the time before the classical period of Greek antiquity when the Greeks were first realising their place as a nation, there is no better or detailed account. This is the definitive article.
It's not perfect but then that's part of it's charm. As a student of history or literature there is enough here to last an academic year.

Herodotus - The Histories
Anyone interested in Ancient Greek Philosophy, History and or Travel should find this book highly enjoyable. Great price and speedy delivery on this from Amazon themselves also.