Herodotus
Features Description Implications for the construction of History
Context of his life ● Born in Halicarnassos ● Sees both worlds - Greek and Persian
○ Greek city state in Persian empire ● Creates bias against the Persians and for the Greeks
○ In region called Ionia ● Allows him insight into the Persian perspective and what
● Claimed to be Greek, specifically Athenian was going on in Darius’/Xerxes court. He is able to
● Lived through the Second Greco Persian war: 484-425 account for the reasons for the First and Second Persian
BCE Wars
○ Battle of Thermopylae ● Becomes quite fond of Greek culture
○ Battle of Artemesium ○ Pro Athenian
○ Battle of Salamis ● His context around war is going to shape the content that
○ Battle of Platae he will be writing. He is able to contact people involved
○ Battle of Myclae with decisions or knew someone or knew someone
● Writes about many important people involved in those decisions
○ Thermistotles
○ Ciman
○ Mitladles
○ Aristiden
● Peloponnesian War
○ Athens vs Sparta
● No specific discipline called history that existed
○ The only thing that comes close is the Iiliad
Academic ● Studied greek ● Male opportunity to learn to read and write in Greek has
background ● Influenced by the Iiliad him come into contact with writing and material focussed
○ Stories about gods and heros on the gods, historical morals and war. This will feature
○ Stories about war heavily in his writings of the Histories
● Inlfuenced by religion ●
○ Context
■ Superstition
● Historical myths
○ Purpose is to teach a moral or a lesson
Aim of his main work ● “To preserve the memory of the past so that the
achievements of great men will not be forgotten”
● Aimed to create his own Iiliad and he focussed on
particular areas of History:
Features Description Implications for the construction of History
Context of his life ● Born in Halicarnassos ● Sees both worlds - Greek and Persian
○ Greek city state in Persian empire ● Creates bias against the Persians and for the Greeks
○ In region called Ionia ● Allows him insight into the Persian perspective and what
● Claimed to be Greek, specifically Athenian was going on in Darius’/Xerxes court. He is able to
● Lived through the Second Greco Persian war: 484-425 account for the reasons for the First and Second Persian
BCE Wars
○ Battle of Thermopylae ● Becomes quite fond of Greek culture
○ Battle of Artemesium ○ Pro Athenian
○ Battle of Salamis ● His context around war is going to shape the content that
○ Battle of Platae he will be writing. He is able to contact people involved
○ Battle of Myclae with decisions or knew someone or knew someone
● Writes about many important people involved in those decisions
○ Thermistotles
○ Ciman
○ Mitladles
○ Aristiden
● Peloponnesian War
○ Athens vs Sparta
● No specific discipline called history that existed
○ The only thing that comes close is the Iiliad
Academic ● Studied greek ● Male opportunity to learn to read and write in Greek has
background ● Influenced by the Iiliad him come into contact with writing and material focussed
○ Stories about gods and heros on the gods, historical morals and war. This will feature
○ Stories about war heavily in his writings of the Histories
● Inlfuenced by religion ●
○ Context
■ Superstition
● Historical myths
○ Purpose is to teach a moral or a lesson
Aim of his main work ● “To preserve the memory of the past so that the
achievements of great men will not be forgotten”
● Aimed to create his own Iiliad and he focussed on
particular areas of History:
