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__sol__ 's review for:
The Histories
by Herodotus
Read in Sélincourt's translation:
It feels a little silly giving a star rating to the oldest surviving prose work in the western world, but oh well. It's tough for me to even say how much I enjoyed it. There were many extremely interesting parts and elements, and many that bored me to tears. It took me 2 years of on and off reading to finish this, mostly because book two (the history, geography and culture of Egypt) did not interest me at all. It probably took me nine months to get through that book alone. The rest was relatively smooth sailing, since I took a basic Greek history course in the past. Without that I would've needed to do a lot more background reading as I went through. The biggest stumbling block is the constant flood of names - Herodotus names just about every minor general, tyrant, diviner and more who were involved in the war he's investigating, and a lot of these people share names. I'm still not sure if there were two or three Miltiades in here, and which of them did what. Things like long geographical descriptions, lists of rivers, accounts of which city sent how many ships to the navy, all these things I probably should've skipped in retrospect.
All that said, I would recommend just about everybody read this book. It's a fascinating study in just how much and how little changes after 2500 years. All the motives, events, and tales that are related are all easily grasped and understood, but the whole social organization of propertied soldier citizens, the deep religiosity permeating every level of Herodotus' causal framework, are totally different from the modern world. What's more, his "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to history, while it can be at times plodding and distracting, just as often relates incredibly interesting bits of information. I dearly wish he could relate more concrete information about the various peripheral populations who are mentioned throughout the middle part of the book (especially their mythology and religion), his long digression on the source and nature of the Nile is fascinating (the highlight of book two to me), the story of Phoenicians circumnavigating Africa, all kinds of little parables like the downfall of Polycrates and his signet ring, Darius' loyal officer disfiguring himself to take Babylon back for his king, and dozens more. Just make sure you have a basic understanding of ancient Greek history and geography first, and make sure your copy has a map with it.
Herodotus definitely justifies the vast scope of his story, which doesn't even get to the Ionian revolt against Persia which sparked Darius and Later Xerxes' invasions until the end of book five (though the full history Egypt is a little much). The long build-up of Persian power from Cyrus usurpation of the Median empire, all the way down to Xerxes' full-strength invasion of Greece is as epic as any mythical story, with as many miracles and prophecies and incredible turns of events involved. The final triumph of the Greeks seems simultaneously unbelievable and inevitable. That it hinged on something as tenuous as the unification of the extremely fractious Greek states in Attica and the Peloponnese, and was achieved by just a few key naval decisions, shows just how chaotic human affairs can be.
Reading this also shed some light on Gene Wolfe's Soldier in the Mist, as the whole plot of that book and many smaller elements like the Neurian sailor are based on these events, and it was very fun connecting the mental dots between the two. I hope to finish the rest of the books in that series eventually.
As a last note, I've read that Herodotus has been accused of anti-Theban prejudice and a pro-Athens bias. Both sound pretty on the mark. I can't recall a single vaguely positive thing said about Thebes' conduct during the wars or any Theban, and he constantly plays up the valour of the Athenian soldiers, though he doesn't claim every Athenian is a paragon of human conduct. Themistocles is one of the most interesting figures in the work because he is at once a masterful military commander, and also a duplicitous schemer, with his ploy of alerting the Persian navy to the Greek's plans of leaving Salamis to head to the isthmus of Corinth to force an engagement.
It feels a little silly giving a star rating to the oldest surviving prose work in the western world, but oh well. It's tough for me to even say how much I enjoyed it. There were many extremely interesting parts and elements, and many that bored me to tears. It took me 2 years of on and off reading to finish this, mostly because book two (the history, geography and culture of Egypt) did not interest me at all. It probably took me nine months to get through that book alone. The rest was relatively smooth sailing, since I took a basic Greek history course in the past. Without that I would've needed to do a lot more background reading as I went through. The biggest stumbling block is the constant flood of names - Herodotus names just about every minor general, tyrant, diviner and more who were involved in the war he's investigating, and a lot of these people share names. I'm still not sure if there were two or three Miltiades in here, and which of them did what. Things like long geographical descriptions, lists of rivers, accounts of which city sent how many ships to the navy, all these things I probably should've skipped in retrospect.
All that said, I would recommend just about everybody read this book. It's a fascinating study in just how much and how little changes after 2500 years. All the motives, events, and tales that are related are all easily grasped and understood, but the whole social organization of propertied soldier citizens, the deep religiosity permeating every level of Herodotus' causal framework, are totally different from the modern world. What's more, his "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to history, while it can be at times plodding and distracting, just as often relates incredibly interesting bits of information. I dearly wish he could relate more concrete information about the various peripheral populations who are mentioned throughout the middle part of the book (especially their mythology and religion), his long digression on the source and nature of the Nile is fascinating (the highlight of book two to me), the story of Phoenicians circumnavigating Africa, all kinds of little parables like the downfall of Polycrates and his signet ring, Darius' loyal officer disfiguring himself to take Babylon back for his king, and dozens more. Just make sure you have a basic understanding of ancient Greek history and geography first, and make sure your copy has a map with it.
Herodotus definitely justifies the vast scope of his story, which doesn't even get to the Ionian revolt against Persia which sparked Darius and Later Xerxes' invasions until the end of book five (though the full history Egypt is a little much). The long build-up of Persian power from Cyrus usurpation of the Median empire, all the way down to Xerxes' full-strength invasion of Greece is as epic as any mythical story, with as many miracles and prophecies and incredible turns of events involved. The final triumph of the Greeks seems simultaneously unbelievable and inevitable. That it hinged on something as tenuous as the unification of the extremely fractious Greek states in Attica and the Peloponnese, and was achieved by just a few key naval decisions, shows just how chaotic human affairs can be.
Reading this also shed some light on Gene Wolfe's Soldier in the Mist, as the whole plot of that book and many smaller elements like the Neurian sailor are based on these events, and it was very fun connecting the mental dots between the two. I hope to finish the rest of the books in that series eventually.
As a last note, I've read that Herodotus has been accused of anti-Theban prejudice and a pro-Athens bias. Both sound pretty on the mark. I can't recall a single vaguely positive thing said about Thebes' conduct during the wars or any Theban, and he constantly plays up the valour of the Athenian soldiers, though he doesn't claim every Athenian is a paragon of human conduct. Themistocles is one of the most interesting figures in the work because he is at once a masterful military commander, and also a duplicitous schemer, with his ploy of alerting the Persian navy to the Greek's plans of leaving Salamis to head to the isthmus of Corinth to force an engagement.