Customer Reviews

Herodotus (Hermes Books Series)

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Herodotus does not need to be made interesting or enjoyable. He has always been loved and for good reason. Nevertheless, for a deeper understanding of the text and a critical examination of the features of Herodotus' style as a master storyteller, James Romm's Herodotus is a superb volume. With clarity and skill, Mr. Romm takes the reader through the Histories, always with one eye focused on the man, on Herodotus himself. This volume lives up to the foreward and the expectations set forth by Mr. Herrington, the Hermes Books foudning editor, in that foreward. The general reader will find this volume useful and enjoyable. I should not overstate, however. Romm's book does not provide what we might call a reading of Herodotus but rather it allows the reader to appreciate the Histories more by pointing out continuing themes and main features of Herodotus' storytelling. This book will be recieved well by any serious student of Herodotus, ancient history, or the classics.

This "Herodotus" is not the work of the "father of history" but a commentary on that work. Author James Romm takes a thematic approach to his explication of "The Histories". His chapters - with titles such as "From Homer to Herodotus", "The Structure of the Earth", and "Persians and Greeks" - choose certain aspects of Herodotus' treatment and subject them to further analysis and explanation.

Romm has no particular ax to grind or thesis to extol. He evidences an enthusiasm and appreciation of Herodotus without needing to take him at face value. Although there is much retracing of "The Histories" necessary to providing the right context for his discussions, Romm tries as much as possible to avoid simply retelling Herodotus.

Much of what Romm accomplishes is the pulling together of threads from various parts of "The Histories" and exposing us to aspects of the work that we might not have fully grasped in a first reading. For example in a chapter titled "The Kingdom of Culture", Romm treats the frequently evenhanded way in which Herodotus deals with other cultures. Along the way, Romm reminds us that it was only in Herodotus' day that the Greeks had begun to think of themselves as possessing a common cultural identity of their own. In Romm's reading, it was in fact the Persian invasions of Greece that both accelerated the Greek development of self-identity and their recognition of cultural variability within the "non-Greek-speaking" world, a variability which Herodotus exalts in discovering and presenting.

Romm further illuminates this cluster of ideas through his apparently deep knowledge of the history of the Greek language. In Homer, he tells us, the collective words "Hellenes" and "barboroi" do not appear. When we translate Herodotus' use of "barboroi" as "barbarians", we are perhaps giving it a modern interpretation that Herodotus did not usually intend. For him, it seldom carries a value judgment, instead simply marking the subjects as not of the Greek-speaking world. There are many such helpful linguistic insights in Romm's chapters.

Part of a series on ancient writers, this is a relatively short book, but manages to absorbingly treat many different themes. It concludes with a "Bibliographical Note" that gives useful perspectives on both alternative translations of "The Histories" and longer general studies of Herodotus.

Romm will best be read with an existing knowledge of Herodotus and his work. But it will certainly make a subsequent reading of "The Histories" yield up more of its nuances, presumptions, and purposes.

The first two reviews are excellent and cover the book well. I have just one bone to pick with Romm: on p. 12f he says, "...Milton, author of the last long epic that is still widely read (even if mainly by college students)...." I wonder why he does not mention Nikos Kazantzakis' The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel - 333,333 lines - perhaps it is the author's impression that it is "not widely read". I've read it and found it to be very powerful and inspired me to read Homer, Virgil and Joyce - no small accomplishment.

As a newcomer to the classics I found Romm very helpful in preparing me to read the Histories.