The "history" of Herodotus - the famous ancient Greek scholar and traveler - is rightfully considered the world's first scientific historical work. Gathering in his trips extensive material on the origin, geography, mythology, everyday life and customs of various peoples, he wrote a fundamental essay, which to this day serves as one of the main sources of the history of the ancient world. The reliability of many information presented by the Greek author on the pages of a nine-volume work was repeatedly confirmed by archaeologists, ethnographers and geographers of subsequent generations.
The predecessors of Herodotus: logographers
It is believed that the origin of history as a science occurred precisely in ancient society. Before that, people also tried in various ways to describe events that took place earlier (a number of Bible books, various annals and chronicles serve as examples). These works, which preceded scientific historical works, are called "historical descriptions."
Long before Herodotus' History was written, ancient Greek historical prose was represented by the works of logographers - authors who combined the presentation of real events with the myths, legends and geographical descriptions of the places that were discussed. The first logographer is considered to be Cadmus from Miletus, who lived in the VI century BC. Today's science also knows the names of Hecateus of Miletus, Akusilaus of Argos, Charon of Lampsak, Xanthus of Lydia.
The works of these authors were characterized by an art form. Although they were written in prose, many imitations of Hellenic poetic speech were preserved in them. The sources for the logographers were epic legends and lyrics, local chronicles and annals, their own observations, as well as the stories of travelers, merchants, sailors who traveled far away. The chronological constructions on which the logographers relied were very inaccurate, but it was they who were the first to use the lists of kings and officials in the description of historical events , introduced the concept of "century", equal to one hundred years or three "generations". Paying considerable attention to myths and genealogy, they also processed rich historical material, significantly delved into various ethnographic and geographical aspects. Nevertheless, the main thing for them was not the search for historical truth, but the art of verbal expression, so the works of logographers are still not considered scientific, but narrative fiction.
Herodotus: biography
The first work, which is considered to be historical, was created by the Greek scientist and thinker Herodotus. History has preserved not so much information about the biography of this great man.
The period of his life is considered to be 484 (5) - 425 years BC. He was born in the Dorian city of Halicarnassus (in the west of Asia Minor) in a noble and wealthy family. In his youth, he took part in the political struggle of the aristocracy against the tyrant ruler, did not succeed in this and, along with many others, was forced to go into exile.
At first, Herodotus settled on the island of Samos - one of the most influential and richest Ionian islands, controlling the entire western part of the Mediterranean Sea. An intelligent and educated young man soon learned the history, language, and political system of this land and could very well have stayed on Samos - however, he preferred to go on traveling further.
Herodotus Travels
Herodotus plans were to write the history of the Greco-Persian wars. He wanted to reveal the secrets of the strength of the Persian army - to understand how exactly this multinational and multilingual army could interact so successfully. Desiring to tell something that other scientists did not know and did not say, he himself spent a lot of time traveling - observing, thinking, describing, communicating with people.
At first he went to Cyprus and to Tire, where he spoke with the priests, then he traveled to the south - to Gaza, from where he went to Egypt. Having descended along the Nile to Siena, he headed to the Red Sea to learn, hear and see with his own eyes as much as possible about the world around him - after all, Herodotus was striving for this.
The history of his travels continued in the East: the scientist covered a huge distance from Libya to Assyria, Babylon and Ecbatana. After that, he returned to Asia Minor, then heading to the Hellespont and the lands of the Northern Black Sea Region, along which he proceeded up to Olbia, the colony of Miletus. He visited Herodotus and the Greek cities in the Balkans. He confirmed his wanderings with the names of people whom he saw in those places. In 444 BC, he went to the Olympic Games in Athens, where he publicly read out his works. For this, he received from the Greeks a huge reward for those times - ten talents (about three hundred kilograms of gold).
After this event, he took an active part in the founding of the colony in Furies by the Greeks. Impressed by the culture of this people, he became an ardent supporter of their state system, accepted citizenship and remained living in the colony. It was in the Furies, somewhere between 430-425 BC, that he died, leaving behind the only, but the greatest work, the very first scientist-historian known to mankind - Herodotus.
History: Summary
The scientist combined the results of his work into one voluminous work, written in a lively, colorful language, confirming the author’s extraordinary level of skill in the genre of fiction. The researchers established the time for the creation of the essay only approximately: between 427-421 years BC.
The “history” of Herodotus, as we know it today, consists of nine books and (formally) a separate introduction. Each of the books is entitled in honor of one of the ancient Greek muses. The division of the text into books occurred later as a result of processing the work by grammars of Alexandria. The introduction contains information about the name of the author of the work and reveals the main goals of his work.
The work of Herodotus tells of the Greco-Persian wars and customs of ancient peoples. It contains a lot of information about the history of ancient countries (Lydia, Media, Egypt, Persia, Scythia), their relations with the Greeks and with each other. Combining the description of events with his thoughts on the foregoing, the “father of history” Herodotus for the first time critically regarded the sources on which he relied on when writing his work, and also systematized the facts. To describe the vast geographical and anthropological digressions, he primarily used the observations made by himself.
"History" of Herodotus: meaning
The work of Herodotus caused an ambiguous attitude among those who followed in his footsteps while continuing to develop historical science. Some called the great author "the father of history", others accused him of lying, finding inaccuracies and misinterpreted events in the work.
However, many scientific studies carried out centuries later, and, first of all, archaeological discoveries, have proved that most of Herodotus' judgments set forth in his "History" turned out to be true. And today his work is of great value, not only in the historical, but also in the artistic, cultural, literary sense, which makes Herodotus one of the most interesting ancient authors.