We explain who Herodotus of Halicarnassus was and why he is considered the father of history and historiography in the West.
Herodotus was the first historian of Ancient Greece.
Who was Herodotus?
Herodotus of Halicarnassus He was a Greek historian and geographer, author of the first prose narrative history of Antiquity and, consequently, father of history and historiography in the West.
Many details of Herodotus’s biography are unknown, but his work allows us to know that he was an inveterate writer and traveler, who recorded first-hand the conflicts between Ancient Greece and the Persian Empire. His writings, collected in nine different books that make up a single volume called stories (Ἱστορίαιthat is, “research”), constitute one of the main sources of information available on Classical Antiquity.
Although Herodotus’s work relies on different literary resources to tell the story of the Persian Wars (5th century BC), it does not do so in the manner of the aedas and rhapsodes, who recounted the mythical exploits of the heroes. of tradition, but aspires to a more political vision that is more attached to reality. In that sense, in his texts he reflects on his oral and written sources, allowing himself to doubt certain statements and pursue the most reliable criteria possible.
The life of Herodotus
Herodotus was born sometime around 484 BC, in the Greek city of Halicarnassus, located in Ionia, that is, the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor., in present-day Türkiye. At that time, the city was ruled by the Persians and had a diverse population, made up mostly of Greeks and Carians.
There is not much more information regarding the origins of Herodotus, nor about his training.except that he was forced to face exile, and that he used that impulse to travel through the Middle East, the Black Sea, Greece and southern Italy, while composing his stories. He is known to have visited Egypt, Libya, Syria, Babylon, Elam, Lydia, Anatolia, Greece, Byzantium and Macedonia.
His life took place between two important military conflicts of Classical Antiquity: the Persian Wars, where Greece and the Persian Empire clashed, and the Peloponnesian War, where the Greek kingdoms of Athens and Sparta fought.
During that time he lived in Athens, where he met the playwright Sophocles (c. 496-406 BC), with whom he had a great friendship, and then in Thurios, then an Athenian colony on the Gulf of Taranto, where he died. at the approximate age of 59 years.
The work of Herodotus
In their storiesHerodotus described the composition of the Persian Empire and compared it to Greece.
Herodotus’ work comprises nine different books (one for each Greek muse), in a single volume, originally written in the Ionian dialect. Throughout these nine sections, the historian tells the long history of confrontations between the Persian Empire and the Greek kingdoms, particularly in the context of the Persian Wars.
Although in his story he often resorts to digressions, dialogues and other literary devices, many of which relate his work to the Iliad From Homer, Herodotus approaches the subject from a political and even anthropological perspective. It offers the reader explanations regarding the geography, demographics, religion, customs and other key issues of the Persian Empire and also of Ancient Egypt.and establishes a point of contrast with Greek culture itself.
Herodotus’ purpose, as he himself explains it in the proem to the work, is that “time does not weaken the memory of human actions and that the great enterprises undertaken, whether by the Greeks or by the barbarians, do not fall into oblivion.” To do this, he consulted oral and written sources, to which he often refers without passing value judgments. It is common, therefore, to read in the book statements attributed to “the Persians” or simply to “some” and “others.”
Of the nine books of storiesthe first four deal with what Herodotus and the Greeks of his time considered barbarians (from Greek barbarian, a derogatory term used to refer to the Persians): describes their way of life, their institutions and their religion. The next five, however, focus on the medical wars and the enmity between the two nations.
Herodotus is known to have composed two more books: Libyan Facts and Assyrian facts, in which he addressed Libya and Assyria, respectively. However, neither of them survive today and their existence is known only through third-party references.
Importance of Herodotus
The importance of Herodotus’ work has been recognized since the times of the Roman Empire.Not only because it offers an overview of the classical cultures of the Mediterranean in Antiquity, but because it does so from a novel perspective for its time: that of a historian committed to the search for a certain objectivity in his version of the facts, and not to the heroic embellishment of the epic.
Thus, Herodotus inaugurated a field of rational study of the past, which is why he is known as the father of history.. There is, however, debate in academia as to whether or not he was really the first to do so, given that in his work he made references to Hecataeus of Miletus (550-476 BC), a previous historian to whom the works are attributed. first attempts to separate the mythological past from real history in Ancient Greece. This is, in fact, the only source that Herodotus cited by name.
In modern times, Herodotus’ work has been widely studied and appreciated. A lunar crater and an asteroid in the outer belt of the solar system have also been named after him.
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References
- Burgière, A. (1991). “Herodotus”. In Akal Dictionary of Historical Sciences. AKAL Editions, pp. 340-342.
- Herodotus. (2006). The nine books of history. Trans. P. Bartolomé Pou, SJ eBooksBrazil.
- Mora, F. (2007). Archaeologies of the Greek Past – Herodotus. Joukowsky Institute for Archeology & the Ancient World, Brown University. https://www.brown.edu/
- The Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2023). Herodotus (Greek historian). https://www.britannica.com/