Routledge Revivals
Herodotos the Historian
The work of Herodotos of Halikarnassos, the father of history, differs in many ways from that of modern historians, and it poses special problems to the student.
Herodotos history of the Persian Wars, written in the second half of the fifth century BC, was both the first attempt at a comprehensive history and the first lengthy prose narrative in the Western cultural tradition. There was an almost total lack of written historical evidence in Greece at the time, and the audiences who paid to hear Herodotos lectures also expected historical dramatizations, and enjoyed descriptive material and anecdotes that today would be relegated to notes.
In Herodotus the Historian, first published in 1985, K.H. Waters offers a comprehensive introduction to Herodotus background, aims, and methods. In a lively, informative style, this work offers a level-headed approach to an historian who has excited some extreme reactions and incited controversy among modern readers.
First published in 1985
by Croom Helm Ltd
This edition first published in 2014 by Routledge
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1985 K.H. Waters
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A Library of Congress record exists under LC control number: 84019504
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-74493-5 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-79829-5 (ebk)
Additional materials are available on the companion website at [http://www.routledge.com/books/series/Routledge_Revivals]
1985 K. H. Waters
Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row,
Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT
Croom Helm Australia Pty Ltd, First Floor,
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Waters, Kenneth H.
1. Herodotus, b.484 B.C.?
I. Title
938.0072024 D56.52.H45
ISBN 0-7099-3601-X
Typeset in English Times
by Pat & Anne Murphy, Highcliffe-on-Sea, Dorset
Printed and bound in Great Britain
CONTENTS
It may seem presumptuous to assert that no satisfactory book on Herodotos has been published in the last two generations. By satisfactory I do not mean either erudite or brilliant, but one which the general reader can understand, which will aid comprehension and appreciation of the vast achievement represented by the History of Herodotos.
One aspect of what is needed by the reader unfamiliar with the ancient classical world has been supplied by A. de Selincourt in The World of Herodotos, a companion to his translation of the History in the Penguin series. On the other hand quite a number of critical treatises have tended to confuse the layman while failing on the whole to enlighten the scholar. These generally seek to establish some elaborate thesis about the basic ideas underlying the History and to demonstrate it by constructing fanciful frameworks of structure or method. The most sensible general books, in English and German respectively, and the most readable, those of Glover and Pohlenz, are fifty years old.
The need for an uncomplicated, straightforward but thorough study of the many ways in which the work of Herodotos differs from that of modern historians, and the reasons for this, became very clear to me during long years of introducing it to Greekless university students.
I hope that I have identified most of the problems that beset such a group, and that in elucidating them I may also arouse interest among and prove useful to more advanced scholars at all levels.
In view of this double aim, I have endeavoured to avoid technicalities in the text, while indicating in the notes major, and especially recent, contributions on problematic aspects. Thus the pages will not be found thickly sprinkled with the names of past giants such as Macan and Jacoby, or of more recent scholars like Legrand or Immerwahr. This is not of course to deny my great indebtedness to them. Instead, where recent studies have brought more light to bear I have given references in the endnotes, which are not essential, I hope, for following my main arguments.
Herodotos should be read carefully before starting on this book; but it is not necessary to read him from cover to cover, for a random dipping will enable people to enjoy the brilliance of his narrative and the flavour of his descriptions of the exotic. Hence I have tried to avoid translating, paraphrasing or summarising the actual words of the historian save where the argument demands it. I have discarded the traditional English title Histories for the singular, since Herodotos himself used the singular in his Proem. Despite its diversity of content, the History of Herodotos is after all a unity.
K. H. Waters
Hobart 1983
The following abbreviations are employed in addition to those used for periodicals by LAnne Philologique.
F Gr Hist = F. Jacoby, Die Fragmente der griechischen Historiker (3vv Weidmann, Berlin, 192658)
ML = R. Meiggs and D. Lewis, A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1969)
Powell = J. E. Powell, A Lexicon to Herodotos (Cambridge University Press, London, 1939; Olms, Hildesheim, 1960)
HERODOTOS of Halikarnassos (later of Thurioi), historian.
Date of Birth uncertain but trad. 484 BC.1
Son of Lyxes and his wife Rhoio (or Dryo), member of a noted family. (The family may have had partially non-Greek origins, as neither name of father nor of male relative Panyassis (see ) epic poet, appears Hellenic)
Name of brother Theodoros is recorded.
Early life: no details recoverable.
As young man, reported (the Suda sv Herodotos) to have joined in opposition to tyrant Lygdamis2 and been exiled; spent some years in Samos (this appears confirmed by internal evidence in his History) but returned in coup which expelled Lygdamis (but extant inscription shows accommodation between dictator and citizen body, ML, no. 32). This would have occurred before 454 BC when Halikarnassos appears in first Athenian tribute list with no name of ruler.
Travels: internal evidence shows considerable journeying in Greek lands, E. Mediterranean and Egypt, perhaps also Mesopotamia and Black Sea where autopsy dubious.
Emigrated at or after 444/3 (date of foundation) and became citizen of Thurioi, S. Italy (Aristotle Rhet. 3.9, cf. Plutarch Mor. 604). No external evidence for dating the travels, or the first publication of his work, supposedly by recitals at (
