From the editor of the widely praised The Landmark Thucydides, a new Landmark Edition of The Histories by Herodotus.Cicero called Her...
read full description
reviews
Jun 23, 2011
Sandybanks
rated it: 
What I learned from this book (in no particular order):
1. Ancient Greeks are quarrelsome and love to waste each other’s city-states for the pettiest reasons.
2. From all forms of government known to man, democracy is the best. Tyrants and oligarchs suck.
3. The Persian Empire is a mighty barbarian nation, but being cowardly, effeminate and slavish, it is eventually defeated by the quarrelsome but brave and civilized Greeks.
4. Among the Greeks, the S More...
1. Ancient Greeks are quarrelsome and love to waste each other’s city-states for the pettiest reasons.
2. From all forms of government known to man, democracy is the best. Tyrants and oligarchs suck.
3. The Persian Empire is a mighty barbarian nation, but being cowardly, effeminate and slavish, it is eventually defeated by the quarrelsome but brave and civilized Greeks.
4. Among the Greeks, the S More...
24 comments
like
(25 people liked it)
Sep 01, 2011
Trevor
rated it: 
The kids bought me this for Christmas and it is a thing of infinite beauty. I’ve been meaning to read these histories for years and never quite got around to it. I had never realised quite how remarkable this book would be.
This version of the book is the third that I now own – I’ve also got a copy of the Penguin Classics and I’ve just finished listening to this as a talking book. But I am going to make my way through this book eventually, as it is hard to focus on many of the deta More...
This version of the book is the third that I now own – I’ve also got a copy of the Penguin Classics and I’ve just finished listening to this as a talking book. But I am going to make my way through this book eventually, as it is hard to focus on many of the deta More...
13 comments
like
(10 people liked it)
Nov 06, 2011
umberto
rated it:
I think I'd like to invite my Goodreads friends to browse any Book you like, then take heart to start with Book I as the inception of the whole inquiry unthinkable to those Greek scholars at that time, but Herodotus could make it and you can't help admiring him when you read his famous preamble, "Herodotus of Halicarnassus here displays his inquiry, so that human achievements may not become forgotten in time, and great and marvellous deeds -- some displayed by Greeks, some by barbarians --
More...
12 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
Jul 07, 2010
"When the moment finally came to declare their purpose, the Babylonians, in order to reduce the consumption of food, herded together and strangled all the women in the city - each man exempting only his mother, and one other woman whom he chose out of his household to bake his bread for him."
As the British Government bludgeons the nation with its ideologically-driven 'Austerity Budget', note that the ancients had a strategy or two for surviving straitened times themselves. More...
As the British Government bludgeons the nation with its ideologically-driven 'Austerity Budget', note that the ancients had a strategy or two for surviving straitened times themselves. More...
5 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Dec 08, 2008
I absolutely adore this book! It is among my top favorites. What I'm sure most people identify it with, if they can identify it at all, is the movie 300. Yes, this book does relate the first, true story of the 300 Spartans and not with comic pictures. It is one of my favorite stories in this book (there are many: suicidal cats, burning of Athens, Croesus and Solon, etc.), but it is far from the baseness of the horribly inaccurate movie.
2 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Sep 01, 2011
Jim
rated it:
Although he is the very first historian in Western Civilization, Herodotus has something of a bad reputation for being too gullible. Current critical opinion tends to favor Herodotus's near contemporary, Thucydides, the author of an equally great history of The Peloponnesian War. And yet, as I re-read the earlier book, I was surprised that Herodotus frequently notes that he doesn't always believe what he has been told, but presents it anyhow, if only because the Greek word for "history"
More...
Mar 03, 2008
Todd
rated it: 
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 God More...
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 God More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jul 08, 2007
Anna
rated it:
One of my favorite history books. Herodotus is called the father or history or alternatively the father of lies.
Herodotus gives a historico-anthrocultural account of Greeks and non-Greeks from ca. 1200BC-440BC (including all anecdotal information). The Histories are written in a pre-rhetorical style and don't follow the rules of what is acceptable clear, legitimate prose now. Rather, Herodotus' writing style resmbles more that of the Ionian epics (ca. 500BC). His student, Thucydides, More...
Herodotus gives a historico-anthrocultural account of Greeks and non-Greeks from ca. 1200BC-440BC (including all anecdotal information). The Histories are written in a pre-rhetorical style and don't follow the rules of what is acceptable clear, legitimate prose now. Rather, Herodotus' writing style resmbles more that of the Ionian epics (ca. 500BC). His student, Thucydides, More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Sep 01, 2011
Russell
rated it:
I found this book to be totally fascinating. It was wonderful. Herodotus wasn’t just the father of history, but one of the best raconteurs of the ancient world. Oh sure, he sometimes relied on second-hand, third-hand or even fifth-hand accounts but he doesn’t ever try to purposely mislead. Quite often he stresses that the information he is relying could be wrong.
His whole purpose of the book was to tell the story of the Greek-Persian war, but he starts years before then, goes off on More...
His whole purpose of the book was to tell the story of the Greek-Persian war, but he starts years before then, goes off on More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Oct 02, 2007
Brendan
rated it:
Hegel and Marx get a lot of credit for changing the way we view the writing of history, and well they should. But Herodotus was highlighting the subjectivity of historical records well before either were born.
Here's a perfect example of how translation really does matter: the Penguin Classics edition of Histories is a very different read from this one. The Oxford translation has more humor, more self-awareness, more of an understanding that even Herodotus doesn't necessarily think More...
Here's a perfect example of how translation really does matter: the Penguin Classics edition of Histories is a very different read from this one. The Oxford translation has more humor, more self-awareness, more of an understanding that even Herodotus doesn't necessarily think More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Sep 01, 2011
Elaine
rated it:
Not for everyone, and even I could read it in chunks, but I loved it. Herodotus, the first historian, eschewed myth, which is why he was the first historian, but he wasn't above gossip and chattiness. This awesome volume has superb maps showing the places being discussed and even the routes taken by people being talked about. The notes are voluminous, and the translation is wonderful. I'm not a classicist, and don't know any Greek, but the classicists I know who do know the original, say it is t
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 01, 2011
Karl
rated it:
It only took me fourteen years to read it, but I finally finished. I originally picked this up to read because of the reference made to it in THE ENGLISH PATIENT, which at that time was my favorite film ever. I stalled reading it over the years, renewed my interest to continue when Frank Miller published 300, and then once more renewed my interest to continue when 300 the movie came out. It is quite a slog to get through it, but there are bits and pieces of stories too precious to not read this.
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Sep 19, 2007
Matt
rated it:
A truly amazing book to read. Here is a historian 2500 years ago, writing about events that happened hundreds of years before that, making an apparently sincere effort to distinguish between events for which he has some evidence, and those that are mere stories the veracity of which cannot be confirmed. He makes reference to monuments, tombs, and artefacts that "can still be seen to this day" but he is describing things lost to us millenia ago. No educated person should fail to read t
More...
Aug 06, 2011
I really enjoyed reading this book. I half expected it to be tedious and difficult to read and that its antiquity would make it inaccessible to me. In the end it turned out to be quite a pleasant read and one that was rich enough with battles and ancient mystery to make the modern day reader willing to put up with the odd difficulty. One of the hardest was to be able to read it smoothly whilst at the same time trying to read the exotic names involved. In the end I started just reading the first
More...
Dec 23, 2008
Damian
rated it:
An utterly fascinating tour of the ancient world in a surprisingly accessible style. Herodotus recounts the foundation and rise of the Persian Empire and its eventual conflict with Athens, Sparta and the rest of the Greek world.
Herodotus may be the father of history, but his style is not yet what we would call "scholarly". Rather, the Histories is made up of countless stories of the heroes and villains of his time. Amusingly enough, he always makes clear when a story seems More...
Herodotus may be the father of history, but his style is not yet what we would call "scholarly". Rather, the Histories is made up of countless stories of the heroes and villains of his time. Amusingly enough, he always makes clear when a story seems More...
Dec 28, 2011
Omar
rated it:
Herodotus considered as the father of history. According to modern scholars he was the first to write about events without giving full credit to the supernatural world, a supernatural being such as a god or God. Herodotus writes about events that lead to the Persian -Greek wars in a way as if to demonstrate that events that happens in this world are caused by mankind, not just by supernatural forces that intervene but rather by mankind's decision.
His Histories, is an inquiry of the events More...
His Histories, is an inquiry of the events More...
May 14, 2011
Stephen
rated it:
Herodotus was two things at once: an inveterate traveler whose "cross-cultural" curiosity knew virtually no limits; and second a historian whose account of the Persian War and how the Greeks withstood and ultimately defeated Xerxes' immense army is a masterpiece. Overarching all of this is Herodotus' conviction that one can never be assured that success or happiness will remain. This is so in part because we almost inevitably overstep ourselves, like Candaules requiring the affirmati
More...
Apr 14, 2011
Patrick
rated it:
“Only YOU would go around carrying a copy of Herodotus.”
What did my friend Richard Halverson mean by ‘only YOU?’
Doesn’t everyone find the big H. interesting and funny?
My summers as music apprentice at Chautauqua Opera gave me tons and tons of free time and (if you’ve ever been there, you know) opportunity to read things outside any syllabus.
While waiting for some prima donna director to mount the perfect ‘Turandot’ I spent hours buried in ‘The Historie More...
What did my friend Richard Halverson mean by ‘only YOU?’
Doesn’t everyone find the big H. interesting and funny?
My summers as music apprentice at Chautauqua Opera gave me tons and tons of free time and (if you’ve ever been there, you know) opportunity to read things outside any syllabus.
While waiting for some prima donna director to mount the perfect ‘Turandot’ I spent hours buried in ‘The Historie More...
2 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Apr 12, 2011
Bondama
rated it:
I read Herodotus in school -- in Latin, point of fact. I don't know if that really counts here, but I've lately come across him again, in my reading of Stacy Schiff's "Cleopatra, A Life" -- He was one of the many male writers who wrote about this exceptional female. When Herodotus is writing about what is principally military history, he's all right --- it's just that... well, for instance - Schiff points out in Herodotus' History of Mark Antony, Cleopatra runs away with the story, b
More...
Apr 06, 2009
Juan Pablo
rated it:
Debo hacer notar primero que sólo tuve que leer parte del libro II, y que por lo tanto la opinión que pueda hacerme del libro es bastante sesgada. Pero a pesar de eso aquí va la reseña:
La Historia de Heródoto es una crónica de viajes: en sus páginas, refleja tanto sus inquietudes antropologicas, etnográficas (toda una serie de descdripciones sobre los rituales de sacrificio y los carnavales religiosos), científicas y geográficas (incluida una disertación sobre los cocodrilos y su teoría de More...
La Historia de Heródoto es una crónica de viajes: en sus páginas, refleja tanto sus inquietudes antropologicas, etnográficas (toda una serie de descdripciones sobre los rituales de sacrificio y los carnavales religiosos), científicas y geográficas (incluida una disertación sobre los cocodrilos y su teoría de More...
Mar 03, 2009
Faran
rated it: 
This gets 0 stars, but I gave it a single star to avoid misunderstanding, as some might think I simply forgot to rate it.
It also goes in my ancient historical fiction section because it is fiction.
I don't care about the historical significance of the work, the despicable coward who wrote this propaganda was being an aggrandized self-indulger, and a liar.
That people still believe this nonsense is astounding. Never else in history have thousands of men been abl More...
It also goes in my ancient historical fiction section because it is fiction.
I don't care about the historical significance of the work, the despicable coward who wrote this propaganda was being an aggrandized self-indulger, and a liar.
That people still believe this nonsense is astounding. Never else in history have thousands of men been abl More...
Sep 01, 2011
Things I think we can learn from the ancients: "[The Persians] are wont to debate their most serious concerns when they are drunk. But whatsoever they decide on, drunk, this the master of the house where they are debating proposes to them again on the next day, when they are sober. And if they like it too, sober, they act on it; but if they do not like it so, they let it be. And whatever they debate, in preliminary fashion, sober, they give to final decision drunk."
May 16, 2011
Kenny
rated it:
Ah, the sublime egoism of the internets, where a mere mortal like me writes a review of Herodotus.
Obviously, as he is the first historian, you should read him. Even if he was boring and inaccurate, you should read him. But Herodotus is certainly not boring, and he's not as inaccurate as a lot of famous quotes from him would make you believe. It's sad, but Herodotus' reputation for inaccuracy, which he had even in the ancient world, comes largely from people stupidly misreading his greatest More...
Obviously, as he is the first historian, you should read him. Even if he was boring and inaccurate, you should read him. But Herodotus is certainly not boring, and he's not as inaccurate as a lot of famous quotes from him would make you believe. It's sad, but Herodotus' reputation for inaccuracy, which he had even in the ancient world, comes largely from people stupidly misreading his greatest More...
Jan 25, 2012
Daniel
rated it:
This book is one of those rare ancient texts which you can pick up and just read. No intro class needed, not much context needed either.
The story and the characters flow very naturally, you can read the whole thing without much explanation after you finish - one of the benefits of having a complete text!
Also some of the most memorably quirky things you'll read in an ancient text: a king who is so enamored of his wife's beauty that he feels the need to show her naked to h More...
The story and the characters flow very naturally, you can read the whole thing without much explanation after you finish - one of the benefits of having a complete text!
Also some of the most memorably quirky things you'll read in an ancient text: a king who is so enamored of his wife's beauty that he feels the need to show her naked to h More...
May 11, 2007
Steven
rated it:
This is the first swipe at a history book. Some scholars may go on about, "Thucydides blahblahblah more rigorous blahblahblah."
...but come on, people. Herodotus arguably invented prose. What more do you want from him?
Somewhere between an oral history, a tall tale, a study of military strategy (The tale of Zopyros will haunt my sleep until the day I die.), and comparative anthropology, it's engaging and entertaining.
...but come on, people. Herodotus arguably invented prose. What more do you want from him?
Somewhere between an oral history, a tall tale, a study of military strategy (The tale of Zopyros will haunt my sleep until the day I die.), and comparative anthropology, it's engaging and entertaining.
Apr 03, 2009
CaterinaAnna
rated it:
This is an unannotated Book Club edition of the 1858 Rawlinson translation. The edition tagged to this was the only similar one I could find with a picture!
I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would: thank you Michael Ondaatje, for I have been determined to read this ever since The English Patient.
The earlier books, where Herodotus describes the world and tells lots of stories are great fun, not least because of his inimitable voice: he often takes care to list More...
I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would: thank you Michael Ondaatje, for I have been determined to read this ever since The English Patient.
The earlier books, where Herodotus describes the world and tells lots of stories are great fun, not least because of his inimitable voice: he often takes care to list More...
Sep 05, 2011
Karl
rated it:
The first of all the history books, which endeavors to scientifically portray history, somewhat independently of mythology or religion (otherwise the Illiad and the Bible are the first).
Herodotus is a colorful character who meticulously labors to give us these accounts, "so that neither the deeds of men may be forgotten by lapse of time, nor the works great and marvellous which have been produced, some by Hellenes and some by Barbarians, may lose their renoun ... ."
More...
Herodotus is a colorful character who meticulously labors to give us these accounts, "so that neither the deeds of men may be forgotten by lapse of time, nor the works great and marvellous which have been produced, some by Hellenes and some by Barbarians, may lose their renoun ... ."
More...
Aug 28, 2011
Judy
rated it:
I picked up this book on the strength of its reputation as an entertaining read (and because a GR friend promoted it recently - thanks Umberto) and I have not been disappointed! What a treasure chest of historical narrative (if sometimes suspect!), remote/exotic geographical explorations, ethnographic studies, bizarre travellers' tales, enigmatic oracular pronoucements and dramatic recreations.
As well, Herodotus offers readers a chance to immerse themselves in 5th Cent.BC Greek thinking ab More...
As well, Herodotus offers readers a chance to immerse themselves in 5th Cent.BC Greek thinking ab More...
Sep 05, 2009
Martha
rated it:
As a self-taught Classics student, this is one of the few I've bought for further study, although many libraries have it. The companion is the Landmark Theucidides (sp?) which I also have.
These two books have been recently edited to include amazing maps and annotations which allow the reader to instantly have the background knowledge to puzzle out what is happening.
Herodotus spent his life in Classical Greece seeing the world and writing what he observed or heard the oc More...
These two books have been recently edited to include amazing maps and annotations which allow the reader to instantly have the background knowledge to puzzle out what is happening.
Herodotus spent his life in Classical Greece seeing the world and writing what he observed or heard the oc More...
Aug 21, 2008
Terence
rated it:
Did you know that Egyptian women urinate standing up and the men do it squatting? :-)
The inevitable factoid found in every Western Civ textbook I ever had to slog through but Herodotus was a deeper thinker and more careful author than usually given credit for and, beyond that, a master writer (both in the original Greek and in a good translation).
The inevitable factoid found in every Western Civ textbook I ever had to slog through but Herodotus was a deeper thinker and more careful author than usually given credit for and, beyond that, a master writer (both in the original Greek and in a good translation).
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
