Herodotus - ancient Greek scientist, thinker, traveler and "father of history

The works of Herodotus played an important role in the development of ancient culture. In them, Herodotus described in detail the customs of the peoples that existed in the 5th century BC, as well as the course of the Greco-Persian wars.

Herodotus, nicknamed the "father of history", is one of the first travel scientists. To write his famous "History" he traveled all the famous countries of his time: Greece, South Italy, Asia Minor, Egypt, Babylonia, Persia, visited most of the islands of the Mediterranean Sea, visited the Black Sea, the Crimea (up to Chersonesos) and the country of the Scythians . He is the author of works devoted to the description of the Greco-Persian wars, outlining the history of the state of the Achaemenids, Egypt, etc., gave the first description of the life and way of life of the Scythians.

Herodotus is called the father of history. It would be no less fair to call him the father of geography. In the famous "History" he presented to his readers the entire Old World - known, unknown, and sometimes fictional - all three of the old countries of the world that he knew. He writes: "However, I do not understand why three different names are given to the single earth." The three names are Europe, Asia and Libya meaning Africa.

Traveling around the world, the scientist refuted the idea of ​​the Greeks that the earth is disk-shaped, rises along the edges, and deepens towards the middle. Having read the works on geography and history written by the Greek Herodotus, one cannot overestimate his great contribution to science!

Herodotus - a scientist - a traveler is called one of the main pioneers of his time. He collected the available knowledge about the world in one work, presented his contemporaries and followers with descriptions of many tribes, their way of life, and customs.

From the biography of Herodotus:

Two key sources of information about the life path of Herodotus have come down to us: the encyclopedia "Court", created in the second half of the tenth century in Byzantium, and the texts of the historian himself. But some data in these sources are contradictory.

Herodotus was born around 484 BC in the Asia Minor city of Halicarnassus (however, this information is unverified, and no one knows the exact date of his birth). It is only known for sure that he was born in the interval between the Persian wars. He came from a wealthy and noble family with extensive trading connections.

The future ancient Greek historian was born into an influential and wealthy Lix family. In his youth, Herodotus participated in the political life of the people. He joined the party, which aimed to overthrow the tyrannical ruler Ligdamid, was expelled, lived for some time on the island of Samos.

A boy born in Halicarnassus, from childhood, watched how ships from distant lands come and go to the port. Most likely, this gave rise to a passion for uncharted lands, travel and discovery in him.

In his younger years, he had to leave his small homeland because of the struggle against tyranny, which nevertheless was established here. After living a little in Samos, in 464 the traveler Herodotus sets off on his long journey, whose geographical discoveries will make a huge contribution to science.

In 464, he sets off on long and numerous journeys. Herodotus dreams of learning about other, much more powerful peoples, some of which had a civilization much older than the Greeks. He, in addition, is occupied by the diversity and outlandishness of the customs of a foreign world. It was this that prompted him to study the history of the Persian wars, to conduct an extensive study of all the peoples who attacked Greece, about which the Greeks at that time still knew little.

He traveled to Egypt, Babylon, Asia Minor, Assyria, the Northern Black Sea region, the Hellespont, and also traveled around the Balkan Peninsula from Macedonia to the Peloponnese. During his travels, the historian made sketches for his subsequent creation.

At the age of forty, Herodotus settled in Athens. At that time, he was already reading excerpts from his History to representatives of the upper strata of urban society, which gave the researchers the opportunity to conclude that the outlines were written while traveling. In Athens, the historian met and became close friends with the supporters of Pericles, the commander and orator, who is considered one of the founders of democracy in Athens. In 444 BC, when the Greek colony of Thurii was founded on the site of the destroyed city of Sybaris, he took part in the restoration of the settlement from the ruins.

Returning as a young man to his homeland, to Halicarnassus, the famous traveler took part in the popular movement against the tyrant Lygdamis and contributed to his overthrow. In 444 BC, Herodotus attended the Panathenaic festivals and read passages from the description of his travels there, causing general delight.

The biography of Herodotus has survived to this day only in the form of fragmentary information, in which it is impossible to find data about the scientist’s own family, about whether he had a wife and children. It is only known that the historian was an inquisitive and sociable person, he easily got along with people and was able to show amazing perseverance in the search for historically reliable facts.

At the end of his life, he retired to Italy, to Thurium, where he allegedly died in 425 BC, leaving behind the fame of a famous traveler and an even more famous historian. Herodotus left a lot of information about the Egyptians, Phoenicians and other peoples. The place of his burial is unknown.

Herodotus' contribution to science:

Thanks to Herodotus, science was enriched by the fundamental work "History". This book cannot be called a historical study. It is an interesting story of an inquisitive, sociable, gifted man who had traveled to many places and had extensive knowledge of his contemporaries.

The "History" of Herodotus combines several components at once:

1) Ethnographic data:

The historian has collected an impressive amount of information about the traditions, customs, features of life of various tribes and peoples.

2) Geographic information:

Thanks to the "History" it became possible to restore the outlines of the ancient states as of the fifth century BC.

3) Natural history materials:

Herodotus included in the book data on historical events that he managed to witness.

Book "History" of Herodotus

In total, the work of Herodotus includes nine books.

The essay is divided into two parts:

1) In the first part, the author talks about Scythia, Assyria, Libya, Egypt, Babylonia and a number of other states of that time, as well as about the rise of the Persian kingdom. Since in the second half of the work the author intended to tell a story about numerous Greco-Persian wars, in the first part he sought to trace the milestones of the historical struggle between the Hellenes and the barbarians. Due to the desire for such unity, the interconnectedness of the presentation, Herodotus did not include in the work all the materials that he remembered from his travels, but managed with a limited number of them. In his work, he often expresses a subjective point of view on certain historical realities.

2) The second part of the work of Herodotus is a chronological story about the military confrontation between the Persians and the Greeks. The story ends in 479 BC, when Athenian troops besieged and took the Persian city of Sesta. + When writing his book, Herodotus paid attention to the whims of fate and the envy of divine forces in relation to the happiness of people. The author believed that the gods constantly intervene in the natural course of historical events. He recognized the fact that the personal qualities of politicians are also the key to their success.

Herodotus condemned the rulers of Persia for their impudence, for their desire to violate the existing order of the world order, according to which the Persians should live in Asia, and the Hellenes in Europe. In 500 BC, the Ionian uprising took place, because of which Ancient Greece was involved in a bloody war. The author characterizes this event as a manifestation of pride and extreme indiscretion.

The structure of the "History" of Herodotus:

Book One - Clio

It tells about the beginning of the strife between the barbarians and the Hellenes, gives the history of the ancient country of Lydia, the story of the Athenian politician and sage Solon, the tyrant Peisistratus, the history of Media and Sparta. In this book, Herodotus also mentions the Scythians in the context of the confrontation with the Cimmerians, and also talks about the war between the Massagetae and the Persians.

Book Two - "Euterpe"

In this part of the work, the historian decided to tell about the history of Libya and Egypt, about the pygmies and the Nasamones, about the ancient Egyptian pharaohs. Here Herodotus recounted the legend of how Psammetichus I determined that the Phrygians were the oldest people in the world.

Book three - "Thalia"

It provides information about Arabia and India, about the Greek tyrant Polycrates, and also tells about the conquest of Egypt by the Persian king Cambyses, about the revolt of the magicians, the conspiracy of the seven and the anti-Persian uprising that took place in Babylon.

Book Four - "Melpomene"

Book Five - "Terpsichore"

In this book, the emphasis is already on the events of the Greco-Persian wars. If in previous volumes the author devoted many pages to describing the ethnographic features of the peoples, then here he talks about the Persians in Macedonia, about the Ionian uprising, about the coming of the Persian governor Aristagoras to Athens and the Athenian wars.

Book Six - "Erato"

The key events from those described are the naval battle "Battle of Lada", the capture of the Carian ancient Greek city of Miletus, the campaign of the Persian commander Mardonius, the campaign of the Persian commanders Artafren and Datis.

The seventh book is "Polyhymnia".

It deals with the death of Darius and the ascension of Xerxes (Darius and Xerxes were Persian kings), Xerxes' attempts to conquer Asia and Europe, as well as the iconic battle of the Persians and Greeks in the Thermopylae gorge.

Book Eight - "Urania"

This material describes the naval battle of Artemisia, the naval battle of Salamis, the flight of Xerxes, and the arrival of Alexander in Athens.

Book Nine - "Calliope"

In the final part of the monumental work, the author decided to tell about the preparation and course of the battle of Plataea (one of the largest battles of the Greco-Persian wars, which took place on land), the battle of Mercal, as a result of which the Persian army was inflicted a crushing defeat, and about the siege of Sest.

The “History” of this ancient Greek thinker is also called “The Muses”, since Alexandrian scientists decided to name each of its nine parts after one of the Muses. Nine Muses named the volumes of Herodotus' History

In the process of work, Herodotus used not only his own memories and his own attitude to events, but was also guided by the memories of eyewitnesses, records of oracles, and inscription materials. In order to reconstruct each battle as accurately as possible, he specially visited the battlefields. Being a supporter of Pericles, he often sings of the merits of his family.

Despite the belief in divine intervention, the subjective approach and the limited means for obtaining information in antiquity, the author did not reduce his entire work to glorifying the battle of the Greeks for their freedom. He also tried to determine the causes and consequences of their victories or defeats. "History" of Herodotus became an important milestone in the development of world historiography. + The success of the historian's work is due not only to the fact that in one work he collected many facts about the peoples and events of his time. He also demonstrated the high skill of the storyteller, bringing his "History" closer to the epic and making it an exciting reading for both contemporaries and people of the New Age. Most of the facts stated by him in the book were subsequently proven during archaeological excavations.

Interesting facts from the life of Herodotus:

1. He is the first to discover the female mythical epic of the Amazons.

2. The historian explored (travelling) in detail many areas of Western Asia, Asia Minor, the islands of the Aegean Sea, the island of Crete and the coast of Syria, Phenicia, Macedonia, Egypt, Thrace, most of Greece, South Italy, Peloponnese, Sicily, the Black Sea coast.

3. The great thinker and writer of Ancient Rome, Cicero, once called Herodotus "the father of history." Since then it has been called that.

4. But it is worth noting that Herodotus can rightly be called the "father" of a whole list of other sciences. Among them - ethnography and geography especially, historical geography.

5. Herodotus took part in the founding of a pan-Greek colony in southern Italy - Furia.

6. He closely communicated with the sculptor Phidias, Pericles, the playwright Sophocles, the philosopher Anaxagoras.

7. In his youth he was expelled from the city where he lived.

8. The historian firmly believed in the existence of Rock and the gods.

9. He wrote his work "History" in the Ionian dialect. The main idea is the confrontation between ancient Greek democracy and Asian despotism.

10. Herodotus initiated travel.

11. He took part in the popular movement against the tyrant Lygdamis and was for his overthrow.

12. Herodotus identified 3 climatic zones: the northern (in Scythia), the second, located in the Mediterranean, and the third, part of North Africa and Arabia.

13. He is considered the first person to circumnavigate the entire Earth.

14. After Herodotus, the American Nellie Bye made an attempt to bypass the earth only in 1889. And she did it in 72 days.

15. A large number of facts from the "History" of Herodotus were confirmed during archaeological excavations.

Quotes, sayings, aphorisms of Herodotus:

* Since ancient times, people have wise and beautiful sayings; we should learn from them.

*If opposing opinions are not expressed, then there is nothing to choose the best from.

* In peacetime, sons bury their fathers, and in wartime, fathers bury their sons.

* If all people once brought all their sins and vices to the market, then everyone, having seen the vices of a neighbor, would gladly take their own home.

* People who decide to act usually have good luck on the contrary, they rarely work out for people who are only concerned with weighing and procrastinating.

* A truly courageous person must show timidity at the time when he decides on something, must weigh all the chances, but in execution it is necessary to be courageous.

* Do not correct trouble with trouble.

*No one can be so crazy as to want war instead of peace, because when there is peace, then children bury their fathers, and when there is war, then fathers bury their children.

*Slander is terrible because one is the victim of its injustice, and two are doing this injustice: the one who spreads slander and the one who believes it.

* Circumstances rule people, not people rule circumstances.

* If all peoples in the world were allowed to choose the best of all customs and mores, then each people, having carefully examined them, would choose their own.

* Women, along with clothes, take off shame from themselves.

*Death is a delightful hiding place for weary people.

*It is better to be an object of envy than compassion.

*Usually people dream about what they think about during the day. *People's ears are more incredulous than their eyes.

*I am obliged to convey everything that is told to me, but I am not obliged to believe everything.

*Call no one happy until he is dead.