The Histories, by Herodotus

[Adam]

The Father of History and the Father of Lies, Herodotus travelled the Ancient Greek world collecting tales of the world and how events played out. Herodotus practically invented the concept of history as we know it. The Ancient storyteller was very much an entertainer playing to his audience, so many of the stories he presents are the sexiest or most outrageous version of events, but this book still offers a unique glimpse into the world of fifth century BC.

My choice for a book by a Mediterranean author.

This will be my third attempt to get into Herodotus' Histories. I'm hoping that listening to a spoken version will be easier to progress with. Tales of gold-digging ants and pyramid construction fuelled by the lovers of a Pharaoh's daughter are unique enough to be of interest even after all this time.

[Jacqueline]

We had this book as one of our Ancient History textbooks in our last year at school. Haven’t read it in more than 35 years. My copy is still around somewhere.

[Adam]

Hearing Herodotus’ take on Egypt is beyond interesting. Not sure which parts are because of translation issues, but there are some things that you wouldn’t think about.

[Adam]

Just passed the Ionian Revolt, the original “we fight for Freedom!” battle, and it was just as much of a farce as all the others, although Herodotus was pretty evenly handed despite playing to an Athenian audience.

The tour of the known world was interesting. From the bleak lifeless reaches of the north where it is possible men might live but no one can see why to the gold-digging ants of distant India, Herodotus gathers all rumours of the distant Earth that he can and weighs in on which he believes are likely. I learnt that the three continents were Europe, Asia, and Libya. Hearing the Phoenicians circumnavigate Libya made me have to pause and mentally substitute Africa just so I wouldn’t get distracted.

The biggest issue so far is that I keep forgetting that Herodotus preceded Alexander the Young and the Restless by a good deal of time.

[Adam]

Finally finished. It had kind of a weird ending, so I’m assuming either we’re missing some parts or Herodotus decided to end it on the line that the Persians learnt their lesson that a rich environment is hard to control and that is why they decided to live in the desert.

I enjoyed moving through this. Especially Herodotus’ descriptions of the known world. It was very educational and raises several points of interest that I might need to look in to. At one point, he describes a battle that ended in the Persian defeat because of what I’m fairly certain was a tsunami (I’m not alone).

A lot of fun and definitely worth the effort.