Evaluate the approaches to History by Herodotus and Terry Deary
The ways in which the past is perceived is highly diverse and disparate. Differing interpretations are the foundation to History - a concept in which can be seen as being composed of narratives authored by Historians in order to construct the past. As with all interpretations, they are highly dependent on the Historian’s context, motivation and purpose, their methodology as well as the type of History they choose to present. As such, Herodotus and Terry Deary are both historians whose largely differing approach to history is a product of their time.
Herodotus is a Greek historian who lived in the 5th century BCE and was born in Halicarnassus, a Greek city in the region of Asia
Furthermore, unlike historians (or more accurately, logographers) before him, Herodotus sought to treat and present history as a matter of causation, an approach that was seldom used during his time. However, his work also has an underlying divine purpose - to impart moral lessons from the study of past events, a device often found used in Greek mythology. Although, his driving force behind his approach to history is generally acceptable in a modern sense, it also ultimately gives rise to a few historiographical
However, his work is written in an unstructured discursive prose, often digressing to discuss the local lore of the places he visited. The Histories was divided into nine sections by later authors in attempts to arrange his multifarious material in some logical order. Although Herodotus mostly remain true to the events that occurred in his work, it is commonly known that he has a reputation for exaggeration and embellishment as seen when he claimed that there were 2.5 million military personnel in Xerxes army at Thermopylae. However, many ancient writers are quite unreliable in regards to the size of forces at the time. In spite of this, the core of his reputation relies on the notion that his stories are reminiscent of Homer’s epics, referencing the supernatural and using language that could be derived from the Odyssey or Iliad. Cicero, a Roman orator, stated in his dialogue, De Legibus (On the Laws), that Herodotus’s work had contained “innumerable fabulous tales”. Consequently, an alternate nickname was given to Herodotus, ‘The Father of Lies’ which was conferred by Plutarch. Broadly speaking, although his methodology contains Homeric aspects, to a large extent, Herodotus remains useful to a historian studying Greek history and is still generally considered
Often through great literature, there is an epic hero. In the Odyssey, Homer tells the story of one man’s journey home from the Trojan War. The protagonist of the epic poem Odysseus is often regarded as a great hero. However, Odysseus is not quite the glorious soldier that people often see him as. Odysseus shows that he is an antihero through his pride, disloyalty, and bloodthirstiness.
The origins of historical consciousness begins with the Jews, Greeks, and early Christians according to the author. Comparing the Jewish belief in Yahweh with Greek mythology, Gilderhus states that, “Religious myths, legends, and fables preserved in oral traditions satisfied the need of ancient people to know about their origins and predecessors.” (13). Other records, such as those of ancient Egypt, Sumer, Assyria, and Hittite Empire, were reserved to bloody accounts of war and brutality. After accusing the Jewish accounts of ignoring rationality for religiosity, Gilderhus continues to comment on the historical thinking of the nation who believed in mythology. Gilderhus accredits Greece with establishing critical thinking as an important part of historical analysis in order to filter the truth from the fiction. He writes about Herodotus and Thucydides, and Polybius, honoring them as quality historical writers before moving onto Christian historians. As Christians gathered the gospels and other writings to compile the New Testament, the study of the Old Testament became very important. In order to prove Jesus as the Messiah, in depth reading of the ancient Hebrew texts was
Greek mythology is a beloved part of literature that has given humans thousands of stories to tell. From stories about deadly quests, powerful deities, to the even more famed aspect of Greek Mythology, its epic heroes. One of the many authors who took inspiration from Greek Mythology, and will serve as reference for this paper, is Hamilton, Edith. Mythology. 1988. The most well known epic heroes from Greek Mythology which Edith Hamilton writes about in her book are Hercules, Jason, Perseus, and Theseus, but the debate lies in which of these heroes is the best. To which the answer is, Theseus is the better epic hero because he possessed superior strength, intelligence, and courage, he was the most just from all other heroes,
There are numerous heroes throughout “The Odyssey,” but none of them are as significant as Odysseus. “The Odyssey” is a narrative poem written by Homer (around 800 and 600 BCE) to show the numerous adventures and experiences Odysseus goes through. Throughout the Odyssey, Odysseus a prominent Greek epic hero is on a quest to return back to his home in Ithaca; to his wife Penelope, and his son Telemachus. Just like real life, not all heroes are picture-perfect; they all have imperfections. In this case, Odysseus is sometimes insolent, and discourteous; but he is still considered an epic hero because of the many heroic qualities he endures. Odysseus proves himself to be an outstanding hero in various ways such as showing loyalty, intelligence, bravery, strength, and courage which are all some of the most momentous qualities found in a hero. If a true hero can prove they are a true hero, makes them a true hero.
However, Heroditus’ Histories briefly detail the major events of the war, and relays them as if they were historical fact. Heroditus’ account of the war differs slightly from Homer’s version, and he is well aware of this. After relating the tale of Alexander (Paris) carrying off Helen, Heroditus writes:... ... middle of paper ... ...
“Anabasis” represents the best adventure of the Greeks confronting the “barbarian” world. Through his narration in the expedition, Xenophon offers a unique insight to the ritual of the ancient Greek army. The character of the Greek generals, culture of Greek military and religion are described in “Anabasis”. However, Xenophon conceals his authorship by using third-person forms to refer to his own actions during the retreat. He presents himself as one of the most influential role in the Greek army and which a large proportion of the books are centered on him. After Book Three onwards, it was suspected that Xenophon was writing an apologia about his vital role in the expedition and to oppose his critics. He was trying to defend his criticisms over the last few books. He conveyed his royalty to the Greeks and only acted for their benefit.
Herodotus was an interesting historian. His way of displaying a historical event such as the Persian War is different from how I expect a modern day historian to write it. He does not try to focus only on the Persian war but he goes into detail some times of the lineage of the rulers of the city-states even though that serves little relevance to the actual war. The accounts of history I am used to reading are more focused on the bigger issue and the historians do not deviate on long trains of side thoughts such as Herodotus does. Herodotus style of writing had me confused because he often would start on one topic and in the next couple of sentences move on to another topic before coming back to his main point about a paragraph down. I had to
In Homer’s The Odyssey, the main protagonist, Odysseus, is trying to make his way home to Ithaca, ten years later, after the end of the Trojan War. Odysseus is portrayed as a hero throughout the epic; however, the events surrounding his heroism is with considerable help from the gods and goddess. Being a hero is defined as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Based on the play, there is evidence to suggest that Odysseus is not a hero as defined but that he relied on the help of the gods and goddess.
Herodotus and Sima Qian were undoubtedly great historians due to their substantial advancements in history writing. Thomas R. Martin concludes that the link between Herodotus and Sima Qian is their common goal to create history as a guide to the past, and that the history they create is left up to individual interpretation. Although the time period, backgrounds, and situations between the two historians were vastly different, comparing both of their work is an opportunity to view the writing of history across cultures and around the world. Their ability to write intricate and lengthy histories during the time in which they lived and under the circumstances they faced make them great historians. The way they composed their material and shared it with the world should be recognized and accounted for.
In Histories, Herodotus’ uses a variety of themes to narrate historical events and a common theme revolves around hubris. Extremely common amongst Greek literature and Greek mythology, hubris appears to be the infamous human trait. Greek mythology sees hubris as a great atrocity and results in an unrelenting punishment. The idea of hubris is that an individual with an authoritative position, a strong or influential leader, becomes extremely proud of his exceptional qualities and forms a delusion of his position to be on par with even the Gods. This blinds the hubristic individual into believing he can defy the Gods and elude ones inevitable fate. Herodotus’ Histories is no exception to containing individuals that display hubristic qualities similar to many other significant historical entities. In Histories, the theme of hubris assists the reader in making a connection between the excerpts from the end of book 1 (1-204-206) to other books and excerpts in Herodotus’ Histories.
The idea of a true hero is varied from person to person, because each viewpoint has a different idea of the personality that makes one a hero. There have been many fiction and non-fiction heroes that show different character traits, which influence people’s definitions of a hero. However, each person’s unique thought about a hero still focuses about one central idea: a hero must prove himself in order to earn his heroic status. This is the cornerstone of all the opinions about heroes because heroes have to show their heroism in order to become who they are in the end. At the beginning they are inexperienced, ordinary people who go on their adventures, and face their fears and weaknesses, but they develop greatly throughout these journeys. After comprehending what true heroism is and following it only then will they become heroes even though each of them has different traits. In the epic poem The Odyssey, by Homer, Odysseus gains the title of hero during his journey back to Ithaka, from Troy, by proving to be one. It is through his characteristics and experiences that he becomes the well developed man at the end of the book. In truth, because of his confidence, loyalty, and difficult struggles, Odysseus becomes a genuine hero to the people he defended.
Picture this: a hero of great legends who travels to the underworld and back to get directions to his home from a blind prophet. It sounds like quite an impossible journey, but that is exactly what makes Odysseus all the more fascinating. The Odyssey, an epic poem orally transmitted by Homer, a Greek poet who wrote The Iliad, had to contain some variety of attributes that Greeks valued in a person. That one embodiment of what the Greeks found intriguing in a character is Odysseus. Odysseus is known as what is called an epic hero. An epic hero is a protagonist of a story that represents the most important attributes of a civilization. Odysseus, being based in ancient Greece, is the embodiment of intelligence, loyalty, and strength.
The Classical mythology contains tales and epics of the ancient Greek and roman literatures and myths. On the other hand, Homer’s two epic poems, the Iliad relates to the events of the Trojan War while the Odyssey details Odysseus expedition after the war. Homer’s epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad present a major part of ancient history as modern fictional heroic stories. In ancient Greek, heroes were humans who were depicted to possess superhuman abilities. A key example in the classical mythology is Akhilles who is later known in Homer’s Iliad as Achilles. Achilles is he greatest hero of the Iliad whereas Odysseus is the greatest hero of the Odyssey. The greatest heroes from classic mythology and the modern fictional hero’s stories are mortal, and subject to death. The Odyssey and the Iliad marks the beginning of modern fictional literature.
John Lewis Gaddis, in his book, The Landscape of History, generates a strong argument for the historical method by bringing together the multiple standpoints in viewing history and the sciences. The issue of objective truth in history is addressed throughout Gaddis’s work. In general, historians learn to select the various events that they believe to be valid. Historians must face the fact that there is an “accurate” interpretation of the past ceases to exist because interpretation itself is based on the experience of the historian, in which people cannot observe directly (Gaddis 10). Historians can only view the past in a limited perspective, which generates subjectivity and bias, and claiming a piece of history to be “objective” is simplistic. Seeing the world in a multidimensiona...
The study of history is sometimes regarded as both an art and a science because it uses crude facts and pairs them up, on most cases, with intuition to create and accurate description of the past. In history, collection and verification of evidence must be approached with scientific foundations, or arguments that prove to be facts. When historians gain this shared knowledge, they move on to observe and use deductive reasoning by means of intuition, and thus gaining the ability to create knowledge claims in the field and explain patterns of historical behavior. Historians use a mix of science with their own interpretation to create a historical method that produces a reliable conclusion that helps explain the history of the world. Without intuition, imagination, or interpretation, historians would be left with little to no room to interpret the cold, hard and elusive facts of the distant past. On the other hand with no facts whatsoever, history would be nothing more than a made up story. Historians must test their personal knowledge, and recently acquired shared knowledge; to evaluate, validity, credibility, reliability, cultures, individuals, certainty, and