How to review Herodotus? It's much like trying to review the Bible. Most would probably say something like, "I liked the blood and guts and stories about the cheating wives of kings; the genealogies were boring." But I found the entire book utterly captivating. It's something special to be able to lose yourself in a world that's completely different from your own, that has a rich history of its own with strange characters and stranger frontiers.

Herodotus is truly a child of the world, marveling at its every wonder. To the modern reader, much of what he writes is quaintly naive (and at times pretty racist). For instance, when describing Indians (a people he located in the very northwestern part of what we now know as India), he says that they "dwell farthest to the east and closest to the sunrise. For east of the Indians lies an uninhabitable desert of nothing but sand." (3.98.2) These Indians also "have intercourse out in the open just like animals" and "the seed they ejaculate into their wives is not white like that of the rest of men, but black like their skin and like the semen of the Ethiopians." (3.101.1-2) And in describing the land of Egypt, he constantly spews wildly inaccurate exoticisms. He describes the symbiotic relationship between an alligator and a plover (bird); the alligator, who is the most vicious creature in the world, opens its mouth to let the plover eat the leeches from his gums (not true, despite the misinformation still circling today, even). There is a report of ants that are smaller than dogs but larger than foxes who gather gold out of the desert. He tells a story about a race of one-eyed men who steal gold from gold-hoarding griffins, but he discounts the story because he can't believe in the existence of one-eyed men (the eagle-headed lion, however, he has no trouble accepting.)

Herodotus's histories are great fodder for contemporary literature. I have no doubt that every story that could be told had already been told by the time of Herodotus. The influence of literature like this is most plainly seen in fantasy works; after all, the ancient Greeks lived in a fantasy world, where gods wreaked havoc and monsters resided in the shadows. George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire would never have existed without Herodotus and the works of his peers. His tyrants, whores, valiant knights, plots of political intrigue and betrayal, may very well have all been lifted right off the papyri of these ancient texts. And no one could blame him for doing so. This is good stuff.

So Herodotus is truly a child of the world, marveling at its every wonder. But if he's so gullible, can we really call this history? My answer is that I don't really care what you call it. This is better than history. It's entertaining, it's fascinating, it's educational at times. Much like the Bible, it's got a bit of everything. It's a collage of knowledge, ancient rumors, wild speculation, and bewildering stories, that's begging out to be read and enjoyed by even such a removed generation as ours.

P.S. A quick note on the Landmark edition, translated by Andrea L. Purvis and edited by Robert B. Strassler. With all these maps and appendices and copious footnotes, why would you ever read a different edition? It's well worth it to shell out a few more bones for this one.

More Infinite Jest than The History of the Peloponnesian War. Honest.

Wish I had the Landmark edition at the time. But Oxford does make nice books.

I know I made a New Years resolution to only read economics and personal investing books, but dammit I walked by this on my bookshelf too many times. And I was at Keplers the other day fondling the new Landmark edition (which weighs about 20 times my paperback edition), which got me in the mood for some nutty stories about the ancients.

This is what I call a "Godfather" book because as you read it a lot of cultural references will suddenly make sense. (I didn't watch the Godfather until relatively late in life -- like 25-ish I think. After watching it I understood what all the parodies and jokes were about.)

Anyway, The Histories is like gym class with swords. Everyone's fighting someone else over land, kidnapped daughters, misunderstood oracle predictions, etc... In between the battles we will get some background on different cultures that Herodotus encounters. Some of the details are not for the delicate -- we read about public tupping; we learn why Egyptians wait a few days before turning over female corpses to the undertakers; we learn who lies with their wife "in an unnatural way" to avoid having kids.

I recommend printing out a map and looking it over for a while before jumping into the book. There is a nice map in the wikipedia entry for Herodotus. In my paperback edition (1964, Penguin) there are only two maps, and they have some major omissions. The first book doesn't make a lot of sense if you don't know where Medes is or what part of Greece is Ionia.

I'm traveling a lot this week, so I'm looking forward to escaping into this book for a few hours at a time.

لم تكن تلك فكرتي عن (تاريخ هيرودوت) قبل قراءتي له ، كنت أطنه أكثر علمية من ذاك لكثرة ماتم الإستشهاد به و الرجوع إليه أكاديميا
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حكايات لطيفة و مشوقة على أي حال :) ، و من أكثر حكاياته التي لفتت ناظري حكاية قمبيز مع ملك إثيوبيا ...، و
(الأمازونيات)
كنموذج من النماذج الأنثوية الفريدة في التاريخ القديم

A remarkable work of history written 2500 years ago. One could legitimately argue that this is the most important history book ever written.

But quite honestly this read is a slog at best and it took me a very long time to complete. The one book of the nine that I truly enjoyed was the second one on Egypt largely because it described the land, people and its customs.

Herodotus felt that the other eight books were best spent on describing the various Hellenistic wars and battles. I can only wonder why that was. I suspect it is because Egypt was very interesting to him but for the other nations in the other books he was either already familiar with them or never visited.

I can’t give good reviews to books solely because of their importance to history.

This is the first non-fiction book ever written.

This is an amazing translation as the words appear as fresh as when they were written 2,500 years ago. The book is a mixture of history and legend, an enthralling read even when the author is describing the tribes of Libya and their characteristics. The events included are all the major battles between Persia and Greece...Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plataea.

I'm still in shock I read this book so quickly, testament to the author's engaging style.

لم أكن أظن بأن الكتاب سيكون مثيرا لي..إلا أن كتب التاريخ قديما تشابه كتب أدب الرحلات من حيث وصف الحياة الاجتماعية وطبيعة الحيوانات المدجنة والمستوحشة ونوع الأمر والثمار في كل بلاد..لذا كان الكتاب ممتعا من حيث تحقيقه لفتا لأنظاري واهتمامي.

فيه قصص هي من العجب..كقصة الخاتم الثمين الذي رماه أحد حكام الإغريق على ما أذكر في البحر،ثم يعود له الخاتم بعد تكريم الحاكم لصياد بسيط..فما كان من الصياد إلا أن أهداه سمكة كان الخاتم فيها!

أيضا سمعت قصة عجيبة كنت أظن سابقا أنها من أمراض عصرنا بسبب كثرة الفجور والخنا. فأحد الملوك ممن فيه دياثة. كان يصف زوجته لوزيره وصفا مثيرا،ثم دله على كيفية مشاهدة زوجته واضعة ملابسها. لم يكن الوزير قادرا على رفض أوامر ملكه..فلما فعل ما فعل وعرفت زوجة الملك بما جرى معها طلبت الوزير سرا وقالت له إما أن أقتلك وإما أن أكون زوجتك ونقتل الملك!..وكان لها ما كان من قتل الملك.

أيضا تحدث المؤلف عن النساء الأمازونيات..فقد اشتهرن بالقوة والصلابة،وبامتهان الصيد ورمي القوس. وقد أسرن مرة وأركبن ظهر سفينة. فتمكنّ من فك القيك وقتل آسريهن كلهم..ثم اكتشفن أنهن لا يعرفن كيفية قيادة السفينة..فدار بهن البحر حتى وصلن إلى اليابسة وعدن إلى عملهن الصيد والنهب بقوة السلاح، في قصة مطولة تزوجن خلالها من رجال معروفين بالقتال!.
قصة الأمازونيات لوحدها كافية لتأمل سلوك الجنسين في التقارب فيما بينهما..وما يفاجئ ذلك من تضارب أنماط المهام المنوطة بكل جنس..فالرجال المقاتلون لم يتقبلوا في البداية أن يرتبطوا بنساء مقاتلات..وقد احتاجوا للهجرة كي ينأوا بهذا النمط النشاز لنسائهم من بقعتهم تلك.

لم يخل الكتاب من معلومات قد أعتبرها بدرايتي البسيطة خاطئة..فمثلا زعم المؤلف أن التمساح لا يرى داخل الماء. وهذا خطأ لو أن المؤلف عنى بالتمساح ما نشاهده في عالمنا الذي نعيش فيه.

استمعت للكتاب صوتيا، وقد حفزني ما فيه إلى اقتناء الكتاب.

A wonderful start for someone looking to ease into classical primary sources. Not as dry or intimidating as Thucydides.

Hérodote, ça a été pour moi la porte d'entrée dans le monde de l'antiquité...
L'enquête, Livres I à IV
L'Enquête. Livres V à IX

Probably the most readable ancient text I've come across. Written between 400-500 B.C, it is a history (maybe the world's first history) of the Greek/Persian war. Herodotus also gave tons of background information on cultures, legends, traditions, gossip, etc of his age from Europe to Africa and the Persian Gulf to Asia. Sometimes he sounds modern in his insight and at other times he's just so gullible. For example, he believes stories of a woman giving birth to a lion and of men with no heads with one eyeball in the middle of their chests. Something else that amused me was how squeamish he was about the Bacchanal/Eleusian mysteries and rites. He had no qualms about describing brutal war and murder and rape or other things that (unlike war) make modern Americans uncomfortable like transvestites, and women leading armies. But, when it came to the mysteries, which were basically ancient people getting drunk and high and losing their inhibitions and dancing and sexing it up while worshipping gods like Dionysius, he felt too sacrilegiously offended to give details. But the climax was of course the wars. We've all seen the movie about the 300 Spartans fighting the massive Persian army, but this book has the source material. Compelling stuff that begins with a war caused by someone abducting a woman and ends with a king killing his brother because he wants his wife.

Accordingly the Psylli took counsel among themselves, and by common consent made war upon the southwind---so at least the Libyans say, I do but repeat their words---they went forth and reached the desert; but there the south-wind rose and buried them under heaps of sand: whereupon, the Psylli being destroyed, their lands passed to the Nasamonians.

I read most of this edition (as opposed to the Landmark) picking up donated food for our residential component. It is a strange time. Therefore, it was perhaps appropriate that I sat in the back of van engrossed in this tome. Vacant streets signifying something amiss. My only contact on many of these sojourns was the sudden appearance of masked figures bringing out cases of produce and other foodstuffs. I believe my foundations for approaching this were typical: largely The English Patient and Persian Fire: Tom Holland's book on Thermopylae. Coincidentally, I became aware that Holland himself had translated the Histories and I admit I find that prospect intriguing.

Despite the attempts at objectivity, it is the personalities which I find fascinating: Xerxes and Leonidas are voices for the ages, however apocryphal.

Nəhayət ki, bu lənət kitabı bitirdim, oxu-oxu bitmir.

Dünyanın bizə məlum olan ilk tarixi kitabı sayılır, Cicero buna görə Herodotu Tarixin atası adlandırırdı. Tarix oxumağı sevən biri olaraq, tarixdə fərqlənən ilk mədəniyyətlərin bir-birinə necə təsir etdiyini ilk bu əsərdə detallı şəkildə oxudum. Yunanıstanın əhəmiyyətli şəkildə Misirdən təsirləndiyini, İranın isə Yunanıstan mədəniyyətindən təsirləndiyini oxumaq təəccüb doğurdu məndə. Digər tərəfdən, bu xalqların qədim adətləri və yaşayışlarında bəzi şeylərinin günümüzdə də dəyişməməsi insanda qəribə təəssürat oyadırdı.

Ümumən 9 fəsildən ibarətdir, məncə sonlara doğru kitab sıxıcılaşmağa başlayır. Həddən artıq çox detal, nəsil ağacı insanın başını qarışdırır, daha öncə nə oxuduğunu itirirsən. Herodotun özünə aid yaxşıca gopları var kitabda, redaktor təxmini hansı hissələrdə gopladığını qeyd etmişdi, qeyd edim ki, Herodotun özündən uydurduğu hissələri onun yazdıqlarını araşdıran tarixçilər təsbit edib.

Normalda tarix kitablarının "biased" olmasından şikayət edirəm. Amma təəssüf ki, insanlıq tarixinin ilk tarix kitabı da "biased" yazılmışdı, Herodot öz yunanlığını ortaya qoymuşdu, bəzən yersiz təriflər və təsvirlər var idi. İranla müharibə dövrünün üstündə yaratdığı düşmənçilik abu-havası hiss edilirdi, bacardığı qədər aşağı səviyyədə təsvir edib onları.

Belə.