ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Herodotus, Father of History

Updated on December 19, 2017

Father of History, Father of Lies

Herodotus is known as the Father of History because he was the first of the classical writers to organise his writings into logical and subject order and also attempted to verify the veracity (or truth) of what he was writing.

Despite that, Herodotus was also called the Father of Lies by the Roman orator Cicero, because some of what he wrote was quite unbelievable. However those fantastical parts were usually written down as hearsay and not able to be verified personally by Herodotus.

Source NNDB

The Histories
The Histories

Herodotus - Early Biography

Herodotus was a Greek from Helicarnassus in Asia Minor. He was born around 484 BCE.

We know nothing about him as a child other than his parents names. They were Lyxes and Dryo. We also know that he had a brother called Theodorus and another relative called Panyassis, who wrote epic poems. These details come from the 11th century Byzantine Suda.

As a young man, Herodotus and Panyassis became involved in a plot to overturn a tyrant ruler of Helicarnassus named Lygdamis. Herodotus was forced into exile and so he and his family fled to the island of Samos.

Back in ancient times, there a number of dialects of ancient Greek. In Helicarnassus, the dialect was called DORIAN. On Samos the dialect was called IONIC. Herodotus did not learn the Ionic dialect until after he moved to Samos. Most of his writings were in Ionic as well.

The World according to Herodotus

The world according to Herodotus
The world according to Herodotus

Herodotus the Traveller

North

Technically speaking Herodotus was not an explorer - he was NOT investigating new and unknown areas. He stuck to places where Greeks had already been and settled. He was a traveller.

Some years later, Herodotus attempted to move back to Helicarnassus only to learn that he was still not wanted. This forced Herodotus to leave his hometown permanently. So like everyone else, he headed for the Big City. He went to Athens.

There were already some big names in Athens - Sophocles and Pericles and others. Herodotus was probably called on to tell stories about his home town of Helicarnassus. Story telling was in great demand, and Herorodotus seemed to be good at it. Thus he caught the story telling bug and decided to go out and find new stories and increase his knowledge. So Herodotus left Athens and began travelling.

As far as is known, he first travelled north towards the Black seas. This was semi unknown country. Greeks had settled the Mediterranean coastline to the west of Greece, as far as Marseille. Lands to the east were under Persian control and to the south was Egypt - a country that was very well known to the Greeks. So it made sense for Herodotus to look to the north.

Herodotus sailed north, past the Hellespont, and the Dardanelles, through the Straits of Bosphorus and the Sea of Marmara. He stopped at the town of Byzantium (barely 100 years old at this time) and then continued into the Black Sea. He sailed past the mouth of the Danube, until he reached Olbia - a Greek city on the Bug and Dnieper Rivers in what is now Southern Ukraine. Once in Olbia, Herodotus traveled with Greek merchants up and down the Dnieper River, even going as far as (what is now) Kiev. Thus he was able to study the Scythian people closely and accurately describe details of their culture.

Eventually Herodototus travelled further on along the Black sea coast as far as the town of Colchis (in what is now Georgia). Then for reasons of his own, Herodotus turned around and travelled back the way he came - through Olbia, across the mouth of the Danube, back into the Bosphorus, down through the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles to Helicarnassus.

Justin Marozzi on Herodotus - IQ squared Seminar dated 28th October 2010

Herodotus the Traveller

East

Around 455 BCE, Herodotus helped the people of Helicarnassus to remove the tyrant ruler Lygdamis from power. Shortly thereafter he set off on another trip - this time heading east - towards Persia and Babylon.

Herodotus' first stop was the city of Myriandrus, a Phoenician colony on the coast of (what was then) Syria not far from what is now Iskerundun. From there he travelled inland to the Euphrates River intending to follow the river downstream to Babylon.

Eventually Herodotus arrived at Babylon. He accurately described people. clothes, culture, food and he even asked about history. He asked for details concerning the capture of the city by Cyrus and the revolt under Darius in 521 BCE. Around 449 BCE Herodotus returned home to Helicarnassus. Helicarnassus is now known as Bodrum in Western Turkey.

Herodotus Histories in Latin

Herodotus Histories in Greek
Herodotus Histories in Greek

Latin translation by Lorenzo Valla,

Copied by Johannes Monasteriensis,

Frontispiece decorated by Andrea da Firenze,

Dedicated to Pope Pius II, Third quarter of the fifteenth century .

Picture Source

Herodotus the Traveller

South

By 446 BCE Herodotus was getting restless again. This time, he travelled south to Egypt, passing through cities such as Heliopolis, Memphis and Thebes. He managed to get as far as the city of Elephantine - one of the last cities still under Persian control. Herodotus never ventured into the kingdom of the Ethiopians. He relied on hearsay descriptions of their culture and people.

He then returned downstream to the mouth of the Nile. Then he headed 500 miles west to the city of Cyrene where he asked about the people of North Africa as far as the pillars of Hercules (what are now the straits of Gibraltar) but most of the stories he wrote down seem to be fanciful.

From Cyrene Herodotus went back to Tyre in Syria, and a few years later back to Athens. Unfortunately a law had been passed that prevented Herodotus from ever becoming an Athenian citizen so he left Athens and retired to Thuria (a Greek colony in southern Italy) where he lived out his days writing his book.

He is said to have died roughly around 425 BCE.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)