HERODOTUS

Halicarnassus, approx. 480 - 420 B.C.

PEOPLE BELIEVE THE EYES MORE THAN THE EARS

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Famous Greek historian who was called the "father of history". He was born in Halicarnassus, a Doric colony, from an notable family. Because, due to envy, the tyrant Lygdamis killed the uncle of Herodotus, the poet Panyasi, Herodotus fled to Samos, an Ionian island, and found the joy of writing there.

In 454 he returned to Halicarnassus, and together with rebels, expelled the tyrant, but again left his homeland. In 445 he was in Athens and was a friend of Pericles. In 444 he moved with other settlers to Thuri, a city he loved so much that he stayed there permanently, wrote there and died there. That is why it is also called "Thurios". The gigantic struggle of the Greeks, and especially the Athenians, deeply impressed him. That is why he thought of writing down these facts and handing them down to posterity. But he did not limit himself to describing five or six victorious battles, instead he examined the figures who took the lead and the geopolitical reality and composition of the vast Persian empire and the peoples who had merged under its despotism.

He did the same for the Greek cities, their quarrels, their rivalries. Thus his history was intended to include every historical and geographical science of those times. It was an epic with many episodes that used them to highlight and illuminate the main ideas. That he might write such a work more thoroughly, defying expense, toil, suffering, and danger, he toured, by land and sea, remote countries, which he was about to describe. Thus he sailed the Bosphorus, toured the Greek cities, proceeded to Scythia and Colchis, then went to Cyprus, Phoenicia, Babylonia, Persia, to traverse the great Persian state, from the coasts to its capital, and to accurately describe the royal road: Ephesus - Sardis - Susa. Next he toured Egypt, admired the highest civilization of that country and all the wonders of the Nile. He also visited many Greek countries, Thessaly, Epirus, Peloponnese and overseas Great Greece. And he didn't make all these trips for trade and enrichment, but because of strong scientific inquiry · and curiosity.

Herodotus is not only the "father of history", but also the founder of geography and the greatest traveler of antiquity. Because he did not know the languages of foreign peoples, he had interpreters with him, mostly uneducated, but who somehow facilitated him. But mostly he relied on his eyes, and what he saw, he described. He asked, researched, and checked the information he was given, making a selection of the information. "I have to say what they tell me, let's not believe everything." So he also wrote things that he doubted, but which were useful for later generations.

Many times, younger travelers, ethnographers, physiographers, admired the truth and accuracy of Herodotus' descriptions. His History was divided by the Alexandrian scholars into nine books, in which the names of the Muses were given as titles: Cleo, Euterpe, Thalia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Urania and Calliope. In these books, Herodotus included all the illustrious deeds of the Greeks and barbarians over a period of 240 years.

His story begins with the injustice of the barbarians, to end in their punishment, that is, in the catharsis of the drama, and the spirit in general that governs it is the spirit of Nemesis. Sober, however, he is never cruel to his enemies, but respects the defeated, even singling out their virtues. A credulity and childlike naivety, if it reduces his prestige as a historian, however, makes him an inducement to the reader.

Works

History A - Cleio
History B - Eyterpe
History C - Thaleia
History D - Melpomeni
History E - Terpsichori
History F - Erato
History G - Polymnia
History H - Ourania
History I - Calliope

HERODOTUS

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