The Histories

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The Histories, by Herodotus

As part of Ruth's Reading the Histories project, I took over three months to read Herodotus' Histories.  I do enjoy Herodotus, but he's not exactly easy, and the fact that my copy is a huge book that can only be read while sitting down on the couch, when I remember to pick it up, made it a very long read.

Herodotus, first known person to systematically collect information and deliberately set it down as a history (rather than having a bunch of propaganda or myth mixed in), did his best to verify what he learned.  When he couldn't, or when he is skeptical, or found several versions of events, he tells you so.  The main subject of his treatise is the war between the Greeks and the Persians, but he really only gets to that near the end.  First, he talks about everybody and everything, describing Lydians, Persians, Cimmerians, and any interesting anecdotes or history.

Herodotus' magpie brain is what I love about him.  He is just brimming with neat little stories, and since I did a lot of my reading while my daughter worked on her schoolwork, I was forever interrupting her to read anecdotes aloud.

I must confess that I did not take notes or read systematically; I just read the book.  So if you want detailed synopses, I am not your gal, but I am here to tell you that Herodotus is on the entertaining side.  I also adore the Landmark editions and wish to collect them all!  They are so alluring, with lots of maps and notes and appendices.

Now that I've finished Herodotus, it's time to tackle Thucydides.  Oh dear, this is much more daunting.  I took a couple of college courses in Classics (a perk of being a comp lit major!) and had a week to read Thucydides.  I didn't understand a word.  He is not easy, and I do not love reading boring accounts of battles, but I have my Landmark edition and I'm on page....37.  Wish me luck -- I'll sure need it.

Comments

  1. Ruth @ with freedom and booksMay 11, 2017 at 8:27 AM

    What, Jean? You were required to read Thucydides in a week???!!

    You are correct about the boring accounts of battles. It is not the difficulty of the work, but rather the challenge of staying focused.

    Well, congrats finishing Herodotus! I didn't take notes either, except for what I scribbled in the margins.

    For one thing, reading Thucydides is causing me to appreciate Herodotus. I truly preferred the side stories about cultures and people and anecdotes to this straight delivery of war, war, treaty, and more war.

    BTW, if anyone wants a detailed synopsis of Herodotus' Histories, Cleo @ Classical Carousel is the blog to see.

    ReplyDelete

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