Herodotus, biography of the first historian and anthropologist

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a historian and geographer of ancient Greece, who lived between 484 and 425 BC. He is currently considered the father of the historical discipline in the West. Some even consider that it is also about anthropology.

Was the first historian who left a reasoned and structured record of events and human actions. To do this, he used a wide variety of oral and written historical sources. As we see, Herodotus was ahead of his time. Let’s delve into its history.

Biography

Herodotus was born in Halicarnassus around the year 484 BC. The Doric colony of Halicarnassus was then under Persian rule and was ruled by the tyrant Ligdamis. Herodotus’ parents were, therefore, subjects of the Persian Empire, but Greek blood ran in his veins.

When he was a child, Herodotus’ family left their homeland for Samos. While there, Herodotus established closer contact with the Ionian cultural world. According to tradition, it was on Samos that he learned the Ionian dialect in which he wrote his work. However, modern researchers have verified that this dialect was also commonly used in Halicarnassus.

Before 454 BC, Herodotus returned to Halicarnassus to participate in the overthrow of Ligdamis, son of Artemisia. The next date known with certainty from the biography of Herodotus is that of the founding, in 444-443 BC, of ​​the colony of Thurios, next to the ruins of Sybaris. It is not known if Herodotus was part of the first founding expedition, but it is known that he obtained citizenship of the colony.

Some of his biographers report that, between those ten years between the fall of Ligdamis and his arrival in Turios (454-444), Herodotus made trips to several Greek cities, in which he offered readings of his works; It is even said that he received ten talents for a reading offered in Athens, a fact that today seems quite improbable, although it shows the good reception that Herodotus had in the city.

His stay in Pericles’ Athens allowed him to contemplate the great political and cultural moment that the city was experiencing. In Athens, Herodotus was able to meet Protagoras, champion of the sophistry revolution, and Sophocles, the great tragic poet who would influence his historical work so much. Also in the period prior to the founding of Thurios, Herodotus made those trips that he tells us about in his work: it is known that he was in Egypt for four months and that, later, he went to Phenicia and Mesopotamia. Another of his journeys took him to the country of the Scythians.

All these trips were inspired by the desire to increase their knowledge and satisfy their desire for knowledge. This appears through his work as a curious, observant man and always willing to listen, qualities that he combined with a great encyclopedic and erudite training. His wanderings would continue after settling in Thurios, where he resided for at least a few years, although very little is known about this last stage of his life.

The kind of history that Herodotus did

The nine books of history is the work from which Herodotus presents for the first time what would be the historical discipline and had two objectives:

Keep in memory the events experienced by both the Greeks and the barbarians. Search and explain the causes of these events and the effects on the Greek and Persian peoples.

The events recorded by Herodotus were centered on the Persian Wars (492-478 BC). Conflict carried out by the Persian Empire and Greece, although, at times, it deviated from the main theme.

These events are captured in prose form and not in verse.. Thus, although Homer, narrator of the Iliad and the Odyssey, has a clear influence on Herodotus, he moves away from his way of writing. However, certain characteristics remain, such as the third-person narration, the use of formal and elevated language, and the commemoration of events and characters so that they do not fall into oblivion.

Another big difference between epic poetry and the historiography of Herodotus are the sources of information.. While for Homer the muse was his main source of inspiration, Herodotus entered into a process of collecting information. He had the objective of elaborating his narratives with continuity and a certain historical sense.

Herodotus, the traveling historian

Because of his great curiosity, Herodotus was a great traveler. Therefore, it was inevitable that he would put down in writing everything he saw and heard on his tours. This is clearly reflected in the method of collecting sources that he used to make his great historical work and which consisted of the following points:

Search and collection of information about what could be seen directly. He used descriptions of the geographical aspects, the most common customs of the towns visited and their most surprising particularities. In the event that he could not collect the information directly, he used the oral testimonies of natives of the places he visited. In addition, he used written sources produced by both epic poets and logographers.

Throughout his work, Herodotus explains how and where he obtained the information he uses to relate an event. In fact, he used to reflect the importance and difficulty of using various sources to make a historical account as truthful as possible. This use of direct sources, oral and written, is what makes Herodotus a milestone. That is, it marks a before and after in historiographical production.

The nine books of history

His long work, The nine history booksis divided into 9 volumes. Each one with its own themes, places and events:

In the first book he exposes the possible causes of the Medical Wars. For this it deals mainly with the kingdom of Lydia in the time of King Croesus. This was the first aggressor and inciter of the conflicts between Greece and Persia, according to the historian.In the second book he tells us about Egypt and its great wonders. The author describes the relevant geographical aspects of it and the most notable Egyptian customs. Likewise, he summarizes the long history of the country.The third book exposes the causes that incited the Persian Cambyses to attack Egypt with the aim of conquering it.. It develops what the military campaign and the personality of Cambyses were like and ends with his death and the accession of Darius I to the throne.The fourth book is made up of two large segments. The first is about Scythia (Central Asia region) and the second about Libya.From the fifth book to the ninth, Herodotus focuses on the war between the Greeks and Persians in the Persian Wars.. The fifth covers the advances of Persia against Greece, specifically in Macedonia and Thrace. Additionally, it talks about the history, geography, and culture of Sparta and Athens as they participate in the conflict.The sixth book addresses Darius’s expedition, which concluded with a Greek victory at Marathon. Likewise, in the seventh book a series of dramatic battles are exposed, such as the battle of Thermopylae. Finally, the eighth and ninth books deal with the battles of Salamis and Plataea, respectively.

The first historian and anthropologist

Due to the information collection methods he used and his long historical work, Herodotus is considered by many current historians to be the father of the historical discipline.. Thanks to the descriptions of the events that he experienced throughout his travels, we have records of one of the conflicts that marked much of ancient Europe and Asia. Descriptions that were supported by visual, oral and documentary references and not simply the author’s imagination.

However, He is not only considered the first historian, but also the first anthropologist.. This is due to the use of participant observation – a fundamental characteristic of what is known today as the ethnographic method – and his great interest in the particular customs and traditions of peoples who were not Greek.

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