Herodotus Reading 1 - Summary The Histories PDF

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Summary of the first reading of Histories by Herodotus...

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Laranetto

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Daniel Laranetto Karen Rhoads Van Dyck Literature Humanities 42 11 October 2016

Herodotus Reading 1

Book 1 of Herodotus, The Histories starts with an introduction by the author in which he reveals he will explain the achievements of and hostilities between the Greeks and non-Greeks. Right from the start this informs the reader that this text was recorded with a focus on history. While previous works we have looked at, such as the epics of Homer, served mainly to tell great stories, Herodotus served to provide an explanation for why certain events occurred. This introduction although different from that found in The Iliad of Homer, “sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus” seems to serve a similar function. In book 1 the theme of fate appears again. Similar to what we have already seen, not even the gods can alter fate as Apollo explains to Croesus. The first section of book 2 that we read almost reads like a report of notes written by somewhere who visits a foreign land for the first time, taking notes on all of the foreign customs. Some of the Egyptian customs that Herodotus lists still exist in today’s society. For example, the different ways that men and females relieve themselves, doing embarrassing things in private, shaving of the body, and living with animals. In the second section of book 2, the way Herodotus tries to distinguish the truth from what Homer told in his epics is very interesting. It is quite extraordinary that someone from his time, went into such detail to discover historical facts and separate them from what had been told in popular stories....