It's been awhile since I read it, but I absolutely loved this book at the time, and in picking it up recently I still find it fascinating. "The Histories" culminates in Xerxes invasion of Greece, but before doing so sets the stage by providing a history of Lydia, Egypt, the Persian empire under Darius, and of course Athens and Sparta.

The book is absolutely chock-full of interesting events, culture, and perspectives that are either long gone ("Until their fifth year they are not allowed to come into the sight of their father, but pass their lives with the women. This is done that, if the child die young, the father may not be inflicted by its loss"), or just as true today, 2000+ years later ("No one is so foolish as to prefer war to peace, in which, instead of sons burying their fathers, fathers bury their sons.") It's hard to do the book justice in a review; as I flip through it there is just way too much to extract. The section on Egypt with accounts of the building of the pyramids and mummification was wonderful, as were the classic stories of the Persian invasions into Greece. By the way, forget the awful movie "300" which tells of Thermopylae, read Herodotus!

Many have drawn attention to the fact that in some cases the "History" provided is almost certainly not factual and plays between reality and lore. Herodotus is often criticized for this but I found the book all the more interesting as a result. To those who would harp on this point, I would recall Mark Twain's comment about history and question how much else of what we read as "history" is a truly objective recounting of events. :-) I am also reminded of a coincidence that occurred as I read Herodotus for the first time: I came across an article in Time Magazine that explained the discovery of the giant gold-digging "ants" he described in modern-day Pakistan, which turned out to be marmots, and indeed burrowed in gold-bearing soil.

The translation by Rawlinson is superb, as are the footnotes provided with the text. I highly recommend this particular version of the "The Histories".

One quote for the road; Xerxes while watching his massive army on the move: "'There came upon me', replied he, ' a sudden pity, when I thought of the shortness of man's life, and considered that of all this host, so numerous as it is, not one will be alive when a hundred years are gone by.'" ( )

Amazing account of the classical world. A very lively and colorful story. The amount of names and information dazzled me sometimes, but I never lost interest.

Herodotus has inspired many people after him, and I can see why. "Read the originals" is something which I beleive in (unfortunately not in the Ionic Greek though), and this is an original in every sense. ( )

I don’t read classic texts in translation very often anymore, and I could really feel that while reading through The Histories. I feel like I’ve been reading this book forever, but it’s really only been since some time in November.

Herodotus lived in the 5th century BC, in one of the Greek kingdoms of Asia Minor (Turkey). He was fairly widely traveled for his time, having been to Greece itself, Egypt, and other parts of Africa. His book relates the history of these regions, but especially the history of the Persian invasions of Greece under Cyrus, Darius and Xerxes.

Herodotus is called the father of history, but it’s a history you have to take with a grain of salt. He’s sometimes very fair in his methods – for instance, he refuses to believe in the actual existence of the Tin Isles (Britain) because he can’t find anyone that’s ever actually been there to satisfy him of their existence. On the other hand, he often resorts to here say about the various native peoples of lands he’s not actually visited.

Still it’s an engaging, if extremely dense, narrative, and manages to convey a surprising amount of personality, even through the translation. I’m definitely not going to ever need to read this again, but I enjoyed my one run through.

My one criticism of this particular addition (Penguin Classics, first published in 1954), is the introduction. I normally enjoy introductions to historic texts, but this one was a real yawn. I actually ended up skipping most of it. I’d definitely recommend finding a different edition if you’re into good contextual introductions. ( )

I finally finished reading Herodotus' The Histories and it was very, very good. It's a bit of a difficult read since it is written in a style that isn't familiar to modern eyes, but the stories are interesting even if the translator of my edition didn't believe half of them. Herodotus is known for being one of the first writers (along with Thucydides) to distinguish between what he saw himself, what he thought was evidence of reliable witnesses and spurious stories and hearsay. He talks up Athens quite a bit, (he is a native) but he's also quite willing to give a lot of credit and respect to the Spartans and their role in the defeat of Persia. I haven't seen 300, and I don't really plan to. (The comic book it was based on wasn't any great shakes.) But some of those famous lines ("Then we shall fight in the shade.") were fun to read in the original and I have a better understanding of the chronology of the war than I did previously. ( )

I have this in two volumes. I give the first a 5-star rating and the second a 3 to 4 star rating. The first was very interesting because it described the way of life in the parts of the world Herodotus had vistied as it was 2500 years ago and earlier. The second described Persian invasions of Greece during his lifetime. Very detailed, a little slow. Now I want to see the movie "300". ( )