Herodotus Essays

Herodotus and Thucydides are both often referred to as the world’s first true historians. They both were truly the first to document history by writing in it a book-like medium. Both innovators in their field, the two men had extremely different writing styles and ways of formulating their information into their respective books. Herodotus and Thucydides are more different than similar when comparing their works. Herodotus and Thucydides are only similar in a couple ways. To begin, like stated

debated the reliability of Herodotus’ “The Histories”. Cicero, the well-renowned Roman philosopher described him as ‘The Father of History’ but many historical critics since have labelled him ‘The Father of Lies’. This essay will attempt to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of Herodotus’ writing as a historical source. One of the primary problems with Herodotus’ works is due to the characteristics of historical writing at the time. Roman biographer Plutarch criticises Herodotus for the sensationalism

Historians often vigorously debate about Herodotus and most things pertaining to him and his work. There is not a lot of information about Herodotus and most of our information about him comes from his actual writing itself. What we do know is that in a certain respect he is one of the earliest of all historians in the proper sense of whose work we possess. He lived during the fifth century (c.484 – 425 BC) and was born in Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, which is now modern day Bodrum in Turkey (de

today is that Herodotus was the first of these historians that wrote down what he discovered. He covered a lot on the Egyptians and the Greeks because as it turns out, their cultures are linked. The Egyptians had been around for a good couple of centuries before the Greeks were formed, but Herodotus found that there were a lot of similarities between these two ancient civilizations. For instance, they both had many gods and celebrated many of the same ones in the same ways. Herodotus believed that

entitled to a share of the booty.” This account of the people of southern Russia is observed and recorded by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, a Greek philosopher and a “Father of History” who set out to document the Persian War. In his efforts to detail this event in history, he included a vast variety of additional information, including the rituals and traditions of the Scythians. According to Herodotus’ descriptions and art found in southern Russia, it is evident that the Scythians had contact with the Greeks

entitled to a share of the booty.” This account of the people of southern Russia is observed and recorded by Herodotus of Halicarnassus, a Greek philosopher and a “Father of History” who set out to document the Persian War. In his efforts to detail this event in history, he included a vast variety of additional information, including the rituals and traditions of the Scythians. According to Herodotus’ descriptions and art found in southern Russia, it is evident that the Scythians had contact with the Greeks

How Did the Nile River Shape Ancient Egypt? The Greek historian Herodotus once wrote, “Egypt… is, so to speak, the gift of the Nile.”(Doc. E) Ancient Egypt was one of the most important river civilizations. It was located around the world’s longest river, the Nile River. The river was full of important resources. It was made up of the Black Land, the fertile lands around the Nile, and the Red Land, the dry deserts beyond the Black Land. The Nile River shaped Ancient Egypt, both figuratively and

about the elite, and created a narrative of Greek culture that revolved around heroes maneuvering through epic events; the latter told stories about the common man, and routine life. It is clear which stories were most in demand: around the time of Herodotus, when we got writing that purported to be historical and that was also colorful, it was stories about the elite that were given the most color. The elites' monopolization of color continued over the centuries, and would be familiar to us in this

There are many creation myths around the world. Creation Myths may share similarities which are known as motifs. Some myths share motifs and the culture the myths were created may be separated by oceans. How would the early civilizations have creation myths that share so many motifs. In my opinion, three of the most common or important creation myth motifs are humans take care of the earth and worship their god(s), the the gods destroy earth, and Chaos is the beginning of time. Humans take care

The 1947 play “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams tells the story of the sweet, polite, but willfully oblivious Blanche DuBois’ difficult relationship with her rough & tough brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. When Blanche loses the family plantation, she travels to the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana, to visit and temporarily live with her sister, Stella. Blanche is in her thirties and, with no money, she has nowhere else to go. Problems arise between Stanley and Blanche when

Epic poetry is basically a long narrative poem, that is based on stories that are larger than life. For instance it is about the grandeur of warriors, bravery of heroes, various Gods, kings and their kingdoms. In style and theme, it is majestic. It basically incorporates mythicism, religious affairs, legend, folktales, historical events that are of national significance. It sometimes involves events that are of universal significance aswell. National significance basically is taken in a sence that

The modern historian faces many problems when relying on Herodotos’ Histories as a documentation of colonisation in the Archaic Greek Period. Herodotos’ accounts of the origins of a polis usually have some mythical interpretation; it is this focus on the blending of supernatural and geo-political elements that makes The Histories such a valuable source of anthropological insight. The term colonisation is a dubious one; it calls to mind a population simply moving from place to place, yet the Greeks

Wealth, fame, and power, Henry Every The king of the pirates earned these and anything else the world had to offer. Henry Every was a man of many titles such as “Long Ben”, “The Arch Pirate” and most importantly “The King Of Pirates”, he operated for a total of only two years before allowing himself to retire with the biggest bounty ever put on a crew. Every earned the title "Arch Pirate" due to pulling off one of the most daring and profitable raids in history when he captured the Grand Mughal

geographer Herodotus published his magnum opus: a long account of the Greco-Persian Wars that he called The Histories. In the introductory lines of Herodotus of Halicarnassus’ this book, he says “The purpose is to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time, and to prevent the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks; among matters covered is, in particular, the cause of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks.” Herodotus makes it

It could be argued that the biggest weakness of Herodotus’ writing was the style with which he wrote. Where a modern historian deals with facts, Herodotus often dealt with hearsay and myth, intertwining them with factual observations in a way which historians today would never do. Much of this is due to the manner in which ‘History’ was conducted during his time; even Thucydides claimed that, when it came to speeches at least, it was necessary to ‘make the speakers say what, in [his] opinion, was

which acts as a medium to deliver a message from a divine entity. Herodotus speaks about oracle 's several times throughout his work; some of these times he writes about the messages they have received, and other times he criticizes them. Despite his few criticisms of some of the oracles, it is quite apparent that Herodotus, as well as the rest of the ancient Grecian world trusts them and holds them to a very high degree. Herodotus includes them in his work because he as well as the rest of the grecian

war or an aspect of a war that the Hellenic peoples fought during the time period of 403 BCE to 490 BCE. The other thing this paper needs to explore is the history and work of Herodotus vs. Thucydides. In order to accomplish both these task, it is necessary to understand who the Hellenic people were, as well as, Herodotus and Thucydides. As the research began it was discovered that the Hellenic people didn’t really represent a culture of people it represented more of a period in time where the

the greco-persian wars a very decisive battle took place on the plains of marathon in northeastern Attica. This battle was the first Persian invasion of Greece in september of 490 B.C. Most information we have on the battle is a historian named Herodotus who was a primary source of the event. It all started during the Ionian revolt where Athens and Eretria sent forces to help the Ionians. Athens succeeded in capturing and burning Sardis which is one of the important cities in the Persian empire.

One would assume that Herodotus would end his Histories with the Battle of Mycale, which marked Greece’s defeat and the end of the second Persian invasion of Greece, but he ends with three digressions from the main text. One of the digressions that Herodotus ends with includes the Siege of Sestos and the vengeance of Protesilaos. Through this digression, Herodotus maintains the theme of revenge and foreshows the future power and downfall of the Athenian Empire. The vengeance of Protesilaos shows

girl, collected a vast armament, invaded Asia, and destroyed the kingdom of Priam” (Herodotus). While conflicts and wars are considered as a political element, he socially determines happiness as one of the imperative features of history, and he devoted a big space of his book telling the story of Solon, when Croesus asks who could possibly be the happiest person in the world (Herodotus). Indeed, in that story Herodotus shows that happiness is not merely about money, as Solon named two different people