Customer Reviews

The Histories, Part II: Library Edition

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4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was surprised to find the Histories to be so readable and enjoyable. I'm not used to thinking of a history book as a page-turner but the last four chapters of the Histories, which describe the Persian wars, were compelling reading. That's not to slight the first five book, which describe the world of Herodotus' time and the rise of the Persian, Egyptian and Greek Empires in fascinating detail.

Despite the rather formal language of the translation, the Histories are very engaging. Herodotus not only illuminates critical details of historical events but enlivens them with anecdotes and legends, some of this likely apocryphal. Rawlinson's translation is very good and his footnotes, despite their age, are outstanding. The best thing is that they are footnotes, not endnotes, so you won't break your fingers constantly flipping to the back of the book.

One critical missing element, however, is a map. A map of the world in Herodotus's time (such as I found online) would really make a lot of the events clearer.

In the time since I have read Herodotus, I have begun to appreciate how his Histories are the cornerstone of a classical education. The Histories are constantly referenced in western literature in everything from the Divine Comedy to the English Patient to Lawrence of Arabia to Ball Four.

If you're trying to give yourself a good foundation in history and western culture, this is the best place to start.

I am surprised to see people raving about this edition of Herodotus while conceding that the translation is a bit "formal" and that it would have helped to have "a map."

Indeed!

There are better translations - certainly more readable ones. And the three editions I own all have maps. Preeminent among available editions for the non-specialist is the Landmark Herodotus, first issued in November 2007, edited by Robert Strassler (editor of the Landmark Thucydides, and now the Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika), which is just crammed with lots of very fine maps (127, no less), helpfully placed in the text just where you need them and referenced in notes so you can easily find the places being mentioned as you go. There are also footnotes, marginal glosses, headings, a chronological summary of events, black and white pictures and photographs. A set of appendices by leading specialists provides insight from the best of current scholarship into many issues and areas about which readers may wish to know more, including religion, triremes, weights and measures, important lineages, and the like. The translation may lack the delights of a work with real literary grace but it is very easy to read and quite competent. In fairness, the literary quality seems to improve and "rise to the occasion" in the more dramatic, final 3-4 books. This edition is really indispensable. The maps alone more than justify the extra cost because you have every opportunity now to see where the places were and where things happened. It makes an immense difference. Considering all the other helpful and up-to-date materials that are included, that is an outstanding, handsome volume.

For those who, like me, prefer to read Greek with more than one translation, the David Grene and Aubrey de Selincourt versions are quite good. Both are highly readable, racy and literate. They also feature notes and a few maps, though these features are less accessible than in the Landmark. Robin Waterfield also does a good job, though I find his English prose a bit choppy. You can get these translations in paperback.

I have struggled with Rawlinson's translation: it is a tough read. Some critics assert that he captures in English more of the spirit of Herodotus' original Greek. That may be true. But if you really mean to haul your way through the entire Herodotus, and you really should because it is great stuff, do yourself a favor and read a more contemporary translation. As you are slogging along in Egypt, Scythia or Salamis, watching digressions and divagations piling up along the way, you will be glad you did.

Herodotus is called "the father of history" and this book is the reason why. It's the earliest attempt at unbiased history, and that attempt was the catalyst for those historians who followe: Thucydides, Xenophon, etc. Even the common usage of the word "histories"--meaning "inquiries"--is due to Herodotus.

This book is filled with stories of all of the people with whom Herodotus was familiar in the ancient Mediterranean world, and a remarkable number of his stories and his descriptions are still considered to be accurate. Of course, some are off a bit, and some are way off the mark, but understanding how well he did--given the information and the means of communication and transportation that were available to him--leave me in awe.
The stories are colorful and wonderful. I was often amazed at how I'd known of many of them before without realizing that they'd come from Herodotus. Still, there are some major drawbacks to reading Herodotus.

First of all, it helps to have an understanding of the ancient world that Herodotus describes. A good map would have been a helpful appendix, but Google searches and some good historical websites are great aids to understanding all of the peoples and places he describes.

Second, Herodotus' writing is not linear in the way that history is written today. His narrative is multi-leveled and sometimes circular as he describes an area or a group of people, then describes those who came before them or influenced them. If you can keep this in mind, it helps to understand why he describes what seem to be tangential topics.

If you're interested in ancient history or like colorful stories, I HIGHLY recommend reading Herodotus. I wish that I had read him earlier as he would have provided a better basis for understanding the thoughts and writings of others who followed him.

Herodotus is often called the "Father of History", but he did not write like modern historians, and he should not be read like modern historians. Herodotudus is telling a story - the story of the Persian War. His subject is large and his scope is huge: no detail is omitted. He tells not only the history of the Persian Empire, but the histories of the nation conquered by it, including Egypt and the Greek Colonies in Asia. He uses all the information at his disposal, and he sometimes voices his own opinions. One reviewer said he makes things up, but that is not exactly true. Herodotus sometimes gives multiple accounts of the same event rather than choosing one story over the other, and no doubt at other times he synthesizes multiple accounts. On some things, like the source of the Nile and the cause of its flooding, he offers his own theories. I think he is almost always truthful and honest about his sources and upfront about his histories. The book is a mix of history, tales, myth, and geography, but always good story-telling. There are times when the reading is dry, and this is not reading that everyone will enjoy. But if you are interested in ancient history or the classics in general, I think you will enjoy Herodotus.

I have this particular edition, the Everyman's Library hardback. I liked it very much. The translation is very good. The prose was relaxed and fluid, never overbearing or difficult to read. The footnotes were also excellent, explaining ancient versus modern naming for places, giving extra information from other sources, and in general explaining anything that the layman might not know.

The nine books of History by Herodotus try to be a history of the Persian Empire and its wars with the Greeks, but by telling both peoples' story, the author ends up by narrating the history of the whole world known to him. Although Herodotus is the first known "serious" historian, he is not the first "scientific" one (that would be Thucydides), due to the fact that Herodotus still believes in gods and their direct intervention in human affairs. Nevertheless, in an interesting sort of transition to "modern" history, he has doubts about the stories and legends he picks up, and then he tries to give rationalized explanations of the events he relates. Even so, with inexactitudes and mixing fact with fiction, he renders a most vivid portrait of the Ancient World, so like ours in substance and so different in form. Something to remark is how much we have inherited and preserved from the Greeks, our most influential cultural ancestors.

In Book I, H. talks about the mythical precedents of clashes between Greek peoples and Asian "barbarians". Then he tells the story of the richest man in the world, Croesus, the king of Lydia, the first man to attack and conquer the Ionians, Greek peoples inhabiting the Eastern coast of the Aegean sea. Croesus then consults an oracle asking if he should attack the powerful Persians, to which the oracle answers: "do it and you will destroy a great empire", as he does: he destroys his own empire. Thus begins the expansionist policy of the Persians. H. then goes on to tell the ancient history of the Medes, the predecessors of the Persians, and how king Cyrus takes power. Cyrus proceeds to attack practically all his neighbors, increasing his empire before dying.

In Book II, Cambises inherits the Persian throne and decides to invade Egypt, which is the subject of the whole book. Herodotus, always and thankfully the king of digression, tells us the whole story of myths, geography, habits and "recent" history of Egypt, in one of the most fascinating parts of his work. Book III tells the story of Cambises's rule, the rebellion of the Magicians, the plot of the Seven and the ascension of Darius, whose kingdom is described in the last part. Book IV relates Darius's (failed) campaign against the Scythes, peoples from the Nothern coast of the Black Sea, truly exotic, primitive and savage guys. He elaborates on the habits and strange life they live. Book V includes the Thracian and Macedonian invasions, as well as the Ionian revolt. Book VI brings us to the First Median War's first part, the expedition of Mardonius which finishes in the massive shipwreck of the Persian fleet in Mount Athos. Then comes a digression (a fascinating one) on the history of Sparta, and then the second expedition, which ends up in disaster in the battle of Marathon. In Book VII we see the start of the Second Median War. It includes preparations and the beginning of the invasion, as well as the naval battles of Magnesia and the battle of Thermopylae. Book VIII tells the end of the operations of year 480-479 B.C.: the naval battle of Arthemisius, the Persian advance through Central Greece, the evacuation and sack of Athens, the battle of Salamis (a crucial turning point of Western Culture's history), Persian King Xerxes's flight and the winter recess at Thessalia. Finally, in Book IX Herodotus talks about the military operations of the following year, the second take of Athens, the battle of Plathea, the Greek decisive victory, the Persians' escape, and the final digression over the wisdom of Cyrus.

Few books are so rich in information, stories, legends, and analysis as this one. Herodotus comes alive as a superb, good-willed historian, a hard worker. For all its depth and amplitude, his style is always quick and easy to read. He includes many a good story and has a sense of humor. It's fun to hear his admonitions and preventions like you were a man of his time, a contemporary reader. He was born in Halycarnassus, where today is South Western Turkey. Born to a rich family, they are forced to escape, for political reasons, to the island of Samos. There he decides to travel around for ten years, time during which he collected the material for his masterpiece. Almost always, he tries to give more than one account of facts, leaving the reader to decide whcih one to believe. He interviews everyone he can, compares official records and documents, analyzes the situation, and when he tells his own opinion, he is straightforward about it. Fun, interesting, educational, this book is truly a time mechine.

The Histories is sheer ecstasy and emotion, and the reader is kept attentive trough the many fascinating histories narrated by Herodotus, always keen on given the reader the most accurate version to the many stories he was told regarding some important issue. By this many accounts he begins to end the tradition of oral transmission in the Greek culture, a powerful tradition which was responsible for the preservation to posterity of works of such caliber as the Odyssey and the Iliad, from Ulysses. In Herodotus view, the written report of the many different points of view would adduce credence to the histories.

The main focus of The Histories is on the battles of the Peloponnesus war, and the chapters revolve around the feats of the Persians and Greeks for the supremacy of Europe and Asia Minor. His is a 360 degrees analysis of customs, culture and habits of war and peace of the most variegated people, being him eyewitness to many events reports. Above all, and part of the merit must be given to the excellent translation to English, Herodotus is an expert with words and narrates many pretty interesting tales in a way reminiscent of Arabian nights: the dialogues between Solon the legislator and Croesus, the richest man in the world, the customs of some people who ate their deceased kin, but not if they died sick, the battle between the cavalry of Croesus and the camel riders of Cyrus, the detailed descriptions of the customs of Egypt and the supposition by Herodotus that the Greeks inherited much of their pantheon from them, the origin of the myth of Cyrus having a bitch as a suckling mother (paralleling the myth of the foundation of Rome), and many etceteras.

I was quite surprised with the overall quality of the book and, mostly, by the many excellent ideas Herodotus gives for each and every act of the likes as Cyrus, Darius, Croesus and many more. His geographical descriptions of each and every territory he interested on, adds luster to his narrative and are not all boring, quite to the contrary, serving always as a background to some historical events he analyses. His demystifying of Greek ideal of being the center of the earth, his projection of the fulfillment of the Red Sea by the Nile water flow in the next 20.000 years gives a vague idea of the man that lies behind the book and who has a lot to teach, even if he does not say so, to future generations, also to our.

I think that every reader interested in the ideas of great thinkers of the Humanity, should take a look upon Herodotus and his Histories. I am sure he/she will not be disappointed, being the Histories, in my humble opinion, one of the 100 best books to be read.

In case classical literature still lies in your future, you can look forward with delight to a wonderful story-teller of the 5th century BC, the first known of a genre. His tales are often mythical and require decipherment to get at their historical sources, if any. In addition, however, we get the first clear view of the Fars, long before they converted to Islam, a few centuries after they had arrived in Iran, and were still extended into a large part of southern Russia, where they contended with mounted shooters called the Skyths. The Fars today have long since been amalgamated into one people. Herodotus gives some detail of the people who were there before the Fars. He also details the assault of this new Persian Empire on the Greek world and its containment via the first enthralling battle stories ever: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis.

Herodotus didn't write the dull, plodding account of Greek history that the size of this book might lead you to expect. Instead, he sowed his general narrative with humorous details and vivid, entertaining stories that bring the values and attitudes of his time to life. This is one of the most enjoyable of the Greek classics.

I first heard about Herodotus on a television program where they were discussing the Amazons. According to Herodotus Amazons lived near the Black Sea. Later historians have ridiculed Herodotus for having many "fanciful" tales but recent excavations have discovered women buried with spears etc. As the author points out Herodotus most "fanciful" tales are qualified with "I have heard" and some he doubts himself. All in all I believe that the reader will be amazed at the knowledge of the ancients rather than their lack of knowledge.

I gave 5 stars for the Everyman's Library edition of Herodotus "The Histories".

WHY?

The binding of this book is excellent and is unequaled in ANY other edition of Herodotus currently on the market (The Folio Society excepted). The pages are folded in sections and sewn into the spine (not cheaply glued in) and will withstand YEARS of use. This is the way books used to be made back in the day.

ALSO the paper is acid free and of a rich creamy texture that is a pleasure to read. Unlike the cheap paper of other editions you can read and re read Everyman's Herodotus 50 times and the paper will not rip or start to bend.

And I want to go on the record to defend the George Rawlinson translation. Some things are not meant to be dumbed down and simplified to suit the lowest common denominator. There is something to be said about reading the classics in a more formal and elegant prose style. Would you like to read Shakespeare reduced to a 3rd grade vocabulary? Or how about reading Jane Austin in Ebonics mode? See what I mean?

Do not let the weak hearted folks who crab and moan about how hard the Rawlinson translation is dissuade you from purchasing this book. ANY reasonably educated person can read this edition without too much difficulty. Yeah it is not like reading the latest vampire or zombie paperback novel but anything that is of value takes effort to appreciate and enjoy.

As far as maps go - well amazon offers several books that specialize in Classical Geography. I think Penguin books has a very nice map book series on the Grecian/Roman period.