Download The Historians: Herodotus and Thucydides

What is History?
The Historians: Herodotus
‘Like tears in rain’:
The Impulse to Write History
• Watch the following scene from Blade Runner, then
compare it to the first words written about writing history:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTzA_xesrL8
“Herodotus of Halicarnassus here displays his inquiry, so that
human achievements may not become forgotten in time, and
great and marvellous deeds – some by Greeks, some by
barbarians – may not be without their glory; and especially to
show why the two peoples fought each other.” (I, 1)
DISCUSSION POINT. What drives us to write history? What
drove Herodotus? Can you identify three important features
of this quote?
‘Like tears in rain’:
The Impulse to Write History
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe …” >
Herodotus’ Histories present many of the wonders of his
time – from legends and heroes to different cultures,
exotic animals and superstitions, encompassing the full
range of human life as it was then experienced.
• He sets out to preserve extraordinary achievements
and events – in his own lifetime, the defeat of a great
Persian army by small Greek poleis.
• He hopes to explain why such great events could take
place, and in doing so he will search for the truth
among the many stories and fables of the time.
• In searching for the truth, he must display fairness, or
justice, to all parties, in this case Greek and barbarian.
Herodotus: Who was he?
 Born 480s BC, in Halicarnassus (Bodrum – pictured on front page), in
Ionian Greece (now west coast of Turkey). An area of intellectual
ferment and openness; also a ‘frontier’ between Greeks and
Persians.
 Herodotus claimed to have travelled extensively – south to
Elephantine in Egypt, east to Babylon, west to Thurii in Italy, as well
as across Greece and the Aegean, particularly Samos.
 The dominant event of his lifetime – the Persian Wars – took place
when he was only a child. His adult life coincided with the period of
Athenian dominance in Greece and the high point of Athenian
culture.
 Death after 430 BC (just after the Peloponnesian War began).
DISCUSSION POINT: As a ‘Carian’ from Ionia, Herodotus was something
of an outsider to mainland Greeks. Yet, arguably this position gave
Herodotus a unique perspective on historical events and cultural issues.
How does your own social position and life experience affect your
writing/understanding of history?
Herodotus:
What influenced him to write history?
• Herodotus did not invent the ‘inquiry’ – he inherits the
metaphysical reasoning used by the Ionian Greeks: Thales,
Anaximander, Heraclitus, Hecataeus etc. and applies it to worldly
events.
• Herodotus uses the narrative and drama of Homer’s epic poems,
but the form of prose allows him to ‘follow the truth’.
• As he states in his introduction, he is driven to write history partly
as a response to the incredible defeat of the Persian invasion by the
Greeks.
DISCUSSION POINT: Do historians ever come to history purely to seek
the truth, or is there often a preoccupation that drives them? What
drives you to write history, and how does it affect your project?
Herodotus: Who was he writing for?
•
Herodotus’ work, like much ancient Greek
writing, was written to entertain a crowd at
a symposium. A symposium was partly an
intellectual/cultural gathering, with
discussions and dramatic readings, and
partly a drinking party.
•
Presumably much of this audience were
from Athens, or from settlements in its
naval empire, who enjoyed the tales of
their city’s heroism and glory, but who also
perhaps revelled in stories of faraway
places and exotic customs, helping Greeks
to define themselves.
•
Herodotus is ‘accused’ by later ancients like
Plutarch of seeking the patronage of cities
such as Thebes , Corinth and Athens, yet
this is an anachronistic attempt to discredit
him, or at least explain his bias.
Herodotus:
What did he include in his History?
• Books I-V: describe the rise of Persia, with frequent digressions:
describing the social, religious and sexual practices of various
societies (Egyptians, Scythians), describing architectural wonders
(Samos, pyramids), styles of dress, strange animals; allegories
(Polycrates, Croesus) and even technical and geographical theories
and descriptions.
• Books VI-IX: similar descriptions of the Greek world and the
escalating conflict between Persia and the Greeks (Thermopylae,
Salamis, Plataea).
• Women also play significant roles in many key scenes of the
Histories.
DISCUSSION POINT: How much does your project draw from other
disciplines – social science, anthropology/cultural studies, psychology,
gender studies, science, economics, mathematics/statistics, religion?
Could your project be improved with a more multidisciplinary
approach?
Herodotus:
Views of human nature and society
• Inclusivity of viewpoints and topics indicates a remarkable
tolerance; contradictory stories stand side by side; frequent
suspension of judgement.
• Ethnographical surveys indicate a strong curiosity: towards the
world as a whole, towards non-Greeks, towards the Greeks
themselves – defining identities.
• Characters are given multiple dimensions – Xerxes, Polycrates,
Themistocles, the Oracle at Delphi.
• Use of allegories to provide general moral points about greed, lust,
pride and power – not sanctimonious
• Ambivalent about progress
• Inclusion of humour/lighter subject matter
DISCUSSION POINT: What are your main assumptions about human
nature/behaviour, and how have these affected your project so far?
How do/will you deal with contradictory viewpoints?
Herodotus:
How does he interpret cause and effect?
• Herodotus often refers to fortune as being fickle (the story of Polycrates
and Amasis) and chance being significant in the unfolding of events.
• Herodotus also draws upon the dramatic concepts of hubris and nemesis.
Hubris: a person steps beyond the acceptable bound of behaviour in terms
of power, wealth, success, etc. Nemesis: retribution (sometimes divine)
and undoing. Occasionally the nemesis is divine, but more often it is
ascribed to ‘fortune.’
• Herodotus also searches for logical explanations to many questions and
puts forward his own theories based on reasoning. During Xerxes’ march
to Greece in 480 he frequently refers to supply depots, water supplies and
geographical features as important factors in the campaign.
• Like most other ancient historians, Herodotus sees cause and effect as
essentially a moral idea, and obviously does not consider socioeconomic
factors.
DISCUSSION POINT: When you investigate the cause of an event (in MH or
AH), how do you select which causes are the most important? (What does
this reveal about your own assumptions of human behaviour?)
Herodotus: How did he write history?
• Years of wandering, asking many questions, recording responses,
occasionally making judgements and theorising
• Including contradictory voices (polyphony)
• Utilising oral histories (logoi)
• Use of digressions – following truth in every direction
• Use of first person, conversational tone, “self-reflexive”
• References to inscriptions, artefacts; not documents
• Some ‘artful shaping’ (e.g. Arion and the dolphin)
• Research ethics and silence on sacred matters
• The first prose work?
DISCUSSION POINT: How does the form of your own project (an academic
essay) shape and/or limit the history you write? Could you use an
alternative method to present your project, and if so, how would this
change the way your history was interpreted?
OR
Is an academic essay really the best model for writing history? Why?/Why
not?
Herodotus: How important is he?
•
•
•
The first historian. The ‘inventor of the West’?
Unpopularity: “Herodotus as the father of
history had few children.” E.H. Carr. Some
ancients suspected him of naivety/gullibility,
while moderns were uncomfortable with his
inclusion of religious and fantastic elements
and his conception of cause and effect. (I
suspect many modern historians also found his
tolerance of contradictions and his ‘lighter’
touch decidedly unscientific and
uncomfortable.)
Postmodern revival – inclusive, multicultural,
polyphonic. Herodotus is back!
“Herodotus writes sometimes for children, and
sometimes for philosophers.” Gibbon
DISCUSSION POINT: Do you think Herodotus
could help you in your own
writing/understanding of history? If so, how?
Reading Herodotus
The Histories is not a ‘History of the Persian Wars’ in a
modern sense. In the first half of the book it rarely moves
in a linear pattern. Instead, it is a sprawling voyage of
discovery of the peoples around the Mediterranean,
providing information about real events, people and
places, as well as a glimpse into the imaginations,
concerns and obsessions of a range of ancient peoples.
It is not to be read quickly, but can be ‘dipped into’ at
virtually any point. Herodotus is there to teach us, and to
tempt us with the wonders of faraway places. Above all,
the Histories are there to enjoy.