Though a Greek historian, Herodotus" views on the Persians can be considered objective despite the bad blood that existed throughout the many years of Greek and Persian battles. The Greeks and the Persians fiercely fought each other for centuries, and many ancient sources such as Homer's Iliad and the Trojan War, depict the Persians as the evil wrong doers. Herodotus however carefully analyzes the Persians through documents and oral accounts, and to a great extent gives accounts on them that reflect modern anthropological characteristics.
In his book The Histories, Herodotus writes mostly of the wars the Greeks had with the Persians, and in many cases, he looks into the perspective of the Persians" view of the Greeks. Herodotus states that he does not want to pass judgment on who is to blame and only wants to state the facts from his knowledge of why the Greeks might have been treated unjustly and for the occurrences of the many wars (Herodotus 1.4).
As most people know from Homer's Iliad, the Trojan War occurred when Paris a Persian prince kidnapped Helen, and the Greeks went to Troy to claim her. What Herodotus tells us that the Persians claimed happened is that it was the Greeks who started the unjust acts of kidnapping by taking Medea, the king of Persia's daughter. To the Persians, kidnapping was not an indirect act of war since they believed "that no young woman allows herself to be kidnapped if she does not wish to be" (1.4). Therefore the Persians believed that Helen wanted to be with Paris and that the attack on Troy was the first act of aggression that led to the Greeks being the enemies of the Persians. By giving out this information, it is obvious that Herodotus tries to be non-judgmental and tries to give both sides of the story. .
To the Greeks, the Persians were known as barbarians. If one reviews their customs and religion, he will find that they are indeed very civilized, the very opposite of barbarian.
Herodotus was the worlds first Greek western historian. ... " Herodotus grew up in Halicarnassus and later settled in Athens. ... Herodotus is known to be the worlds first western historian. ... Thucydides' approach to writing history was far more different than Herodotus'. ... Herodotus is the first historian to record the events of the Persian Wars. ...
Herodotus" work, The Histories, has become a major reference work used by historians, giving an unparalleled account of Greek history before c.420BC. Only Herodotus, of all the Greek writers, provides a historical narrative from archaic times to the 5th century BC. ... Herodotus" opening states, he would examine "especially why the two peoples fought with each other." (1.0) To that end, Herodotus describes archaic Greek tyrants and great Persian kings, giving context to and explaining the major occurrences of the war between the Greek states and Persia. ... Herodotus had a purpose in inclu...
As depicted by Herodotus, most women in the ancient world were of little importance. ... Throughout The Histories, Herodotus tells several stories in which women are mentioned. ... Throughout Herodotus" stories, women were often snatched for revenge. ... Herodotus does not write of women with the same respect he writes of men. ... The women in Herodotus" stories generally follow the tradit...
This gives us the immediate view as Herodotus the historian. ... Indeed, Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a storyteller for the sensational nature of his Histories. ... As such, it is fundamentally necessary to understand the nature and purpose of Herodotus' history in order to gain a clearer picture of the extent to which the accuracy of Herodotus' enquiry is admissible. ... In order to understand Herodotus as conforming to either an historian or a storyteller, we must look at and past Herodotus' preamble, examining the work in its entirety. ... In this instance, Herodotus&#x...
The Iliad was written famously by Homer, a Greek poet of the eighth century (estimated by Herodotus), and focuses on the Trojan War as the major conflict of Ancient Greece. ... Here there are comparisons and contrasts to be found for Greek soldiers and leaders when reading Homer's The Iliad and Herodotus' The Histories. ... The next contrast that can be made between the epic poem and Herodotus' work is how god-like the Greek leaders are portrayed by each author. ... Herodotus seems to emphasize more of the hero in his character than anything supernatural. ... Leonidas also ha...
Herodotus, the Greek historian, wrote and observed the daily lives of the Persians in contrast to the Greeks of the time. ... Herodotus noticed these social and cultural differences. ... This observation was written around 500 B.C.E by the Greek historian named, Herodotus. ... Herodotus probably felt the same way about the Greeks and the Persians. ...
Herodotus Herodotus was born in the small Ionian Greek town of Halicarnassus. ... Herodotus paid specific attention to causation. ... Herodotus was much ahead of his time. ... Although Herodotus and Thucydides wrote in a fairly similar time they have very different concepts to causation. ... This is the same idea Herodotus used to write except of course Herodotus was pro Athens. ...
Within the text of Herodotus, this term meant "a non-Greek." ... (Herodotus, pg. xxx) Herodotus The Histories is an amazing work. ... Herodotus is no exception. ... This belief is very apparent in book two of Herodotus... (Herodotus, pg. 56-57) As one can see, Herodotus is not simply relaying the customs of the Persians. ...
Herodotus gives us insight on the war with Persia. ... Herodotus believed in studying events so they would not be forgotten. ... It also seems that Herodotus's work depended a lot on mythology. ... This is one of the differences between Herodotus and Thucydides. ... Thucydides seems more the historian than does Herodotus. ...