Herodotus Histories Essay

Herodotus, who recorded the things around him by inquiring people in different country, is known as the father of history in western literature. He was exiled by his native land and actually, this was an essential opportunity for writing his book The Histories. He was the first one who gives up the tradition of recording history from Homer. The Histories focuses on criticality and accuracy. His purpose of writing The Histories is to record those tremendous contributions by Hellenes and other barbarians to prevent them from fading out, which is told in proem of this book. This proem is similar to the proem of Iliad. “Rage — Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles,murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses, hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls, great fighters’ souls, but made their bodies carrion, feasts for the dogs and birds, and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end. Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed, Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles. . . .(Iliad 1.1)”. It is similar to …show more content…
In the proem of The histories, probing the root of Persian Wars and figuring out who are responsible for it are the main purpose of this book. In the first several pages, Herodotus discussed the different story of the conflict from Persians and Phoenicians. However, then Herodotus said “I myself have no intention of affirming that these events occurred thus or otherwise.” He started talking about the first man who offended Hellenes. This part reveals the same idea of probing as he mentioned in proem. In the proem, Herodotus said “Herodotus of Halicarnassus here presents his research so that human events do not fade with time.” It is obvious that Herodotus’ original intention is to inquire and probe to record those story objectively and