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Who was Herodotus? The title "father of history" is universally accorded to Herodotus (Ἡρόδοτος, ca 484 - ca 425 BC), who was born in Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) on the southwestern coast of what is today Turkey. At the time of his birth, Halicarnassus, although largely populated by Greeks, was governed by Persia, which was not a particularly benevolent régime.
Herodotus was born into a distinguished Greek family in the city, and apparently had plenty of money for his education, and even enough to devote much of his time to reading and travelling. "The ears," he famously said, "are less reliable witnesses than the eyes." Accordingly, he wanted to see for himself the customs of the peoples about whom he wrote, and not depend merely on rumor and hearsay. But he was also apparently a voracious reader. He is noteworthy for his obvious acquaintance with the works of many other ancient authors known to us, whom he quotes with ease and alludes to frequently.
We don't know the dates or circumstances of most of his travels, but historians believe that they occurred when he was between about 20 years old and sometime in his mid 30s, and we can imagine the young Herodotus as a bit like a modern study-abroad student, although perhaps more given to study and less to partying than his modern equivalent. (If a modern study-abroad student is likely to become a new "father of history," I have yet to learn of this person, although perhaps posterity will eventually award someone the title "tweeter of history.")
Herodotus' family was sufficiently distinguished in Halicarnassus that his relative Panyasis was executed by the Persian authorities, probably when Herodotus was about 30, and Herodotus, living in Samos (part of the Athenian Confederacy), apparently participated in at least a minor way in the movement that successfully overthrew the Persian governor. This allowed Herodotus to return to Halicarnassus until an anti-Athenian party rose to power there, and he fled once again to the more receptive world of Athens. Eventually he joined a group of Greeks sent by Pericles in 443 to found an Athenian colony in southern Italy. We know little of his life thereafter, and historians assume that he died in Italy, where is tomb is traditionally thought to remain in the town of Thurii.
Why is he the "Father of History"? Herodotus obviously was motivated to try to "get a handle on" the great events that resulted in his native town being conquered by Persians, and he was an observer and probably a participant in their expulsion. He was, in other words, self-consciously a participant in the making of the great events of his era. No doubt part of his interest today is that he wrote things down —normal people do not do that— and that we have the text of what he recorded —most ancient writings have never made it to the modern world.
But there is far more to it than that. Herodotus was determined to present more than one view. He was an inveterate reader and traveller, as we have seen, and he appreciated the fact that different people have different perspectives. He knew that if there was only one truth, it was very difficult to find, and was not necessarily what his fellow Greeks believed. He also was well aware that a lot of people are full of baloney. (Not all ancient writers noticed that, and not all modern writers depending on them do either.)
Thus, more than almost any other ancient writer, Herodotus is meticulous in differentiating his own views from those of his informants or his source texts. He was in this regard not merely the "father of history," but also of journalism and ethnography.
As a Greek, Herodotus was naturally interested in rumors of Egyptian origins of Greek cultural traits, and he took considerable pains to examine proposed associations between Egyptian and Greek religious traditions. If it is jarring to a modern reader to see Egyptian divinities referred to by Greek names, it is well to bear in mind that on the one hand Herodotus was trying to explain Egypt to a Greek reader in an understandable way, but that on the other hand he was also stimulated by a widespread sense that perhaps many of the Greek gods were in fact transformations of much older Egyptian "originals." Today many anthropologists would be inclined to dismiss such speculation as a rather XIXth-century concern. If so, Herodotus was only 2400 rather than 2500 years ahead of his time.
His ethnographic skills were formidable. The text is a traveller's account, to be sure, and shares with that genre a tendency to jump from topic to topic and an untoward eagerness for what seems exotic at the expense of any sense of how the topics may be integrated. And modern critics sniff that he probably spoke only Greek and was dependent on translators much of the time. On the other hand, it is an account informed by the same care in differentiating his own from his informants' opinions, and by the same thoughtful attention to what does and does not make sense that characterize his historical passages.
Nowhere do modern writers depend upon Herodotus' ethnographic accounts more than in our understanding of ancient Egypt. Not only was he a subtle observer, but he was also a skillful interviewer, able to elicit rich accounts even from a normally reluctant Egyptian priesthood. Egypt in Herodotus' day was in its XXVIIth dynasty, ruled by the Persians. It's most formidable ruler, Ramses II, had died over 700 years before Herodotus was born, and the great pyramids had been built more centuries before his birth than the Eiffel Tower was after his birth. The romance of the place was irresistible to most Greeks, although few were lucky enough to visit. Herodotus not only visited, he stayed, he participated, he interviewed, he nosed around, and he founded the art of ethnography.
(For a delightful and very brief book about Herodotus, see Jennifer T. Roberts 2011 Herodotus: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN: 978-0-19-957599-2.)
The present, very readable translation was done between 1858 and 1860 and has been reprinted in countless editions, especially after the expiration of its copyright. Here I have used the 1910 printing from Everyman's Library (J.M. Dent & Sons, London) as the authority. I have kept traditional section numbering. The translator generally used section breaks as paragraph breaks, but to facilitate in-class reference and on-line reading, I have inserted additional paragraph breaks. I have also added subtitles to facilitate both initial reading and returning to subjects in the course of picking up after interruption or in the course of review. (Tom Holland's more modern translation of Herodotus: The Histories was published in 2013 in the Penguin Classics series, if you would like to read the whole book. It is over pages long, but Herodotus is a very engaging writer, and the translation has won wide praise.)
Herodotus' description of Egypt dominates Book II of The Histories. Even though his broader theme is the history of the Persian wars, Book II includes a vast range of subjects, from geology and meteorology to commerce, family life, and medicine. The present selection includes §§35-99 of the traditionally numbered 182 sections that make up Book II. The portion that is required reading in this course is only §§36-39, 46-47, 63-64, 70-71, and 85-90. (This last block of sections is surely the most famous in the book, perhaps because it is lurid and disgusting. You may wish to cover your eyes as your read it.)
To help you differentiate the required from the optional material, the required bits are displayed against a background of a different color. (For quick review or for the truly wimpy, an "abbreviated version" has been provided which deletes all of the non-required material. Toggles will be found at the right of the screen in each version.)
Two interactive quizzes are available to doublecheck your understanding of topics on this reading: Quiz 1 Quiz 2.
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