The Histories (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

My preconception was that ancient history like this was hard to read. How wrong. This book is absolutely gripping. It is full of asides and stories that will keep even tabloid readers awake. I don't know why I read so much Greek and Persian history second-hand ... it was from the Father of History that it was most readable! I have not only been able to read about the principal wars, battles, and Kings, but been bedazzled and amused. Highly recommended.

The amazing thing about some of the books this old is just how familiar the author seems. Herodotus wrote almost 2500 years ago, but you feel that if he were transported to the middle of modern-day Tokyo, he would immediately look around in wonder and try to start a conversation with a passer-by.

Throughout the book you here the curiousity, garrulousness and elopquence of a man who has made it his love to learn as much about the world as he could, and to tell as many others about it as would listen. The book reads like a conversation - one which you can't get a word in edgeways, but would not dream of trying to.

Although not as strictly accurate in his descriptions of hippopotami and crocodiles as he would like us to believe, even the dour Thucidides does not consider it worth revising Herodotus's narrative of the Persion war. When it comes to the historical issues, Herodotus describes the various alternative histories that he has heard, and usually ventures his opinion as to which is most likely (usually the one with the least divine intervention).

If you think this may be 'out-dated', 'accademic', or 'dry', then put aside your fears. My only criticism may be that Book II about Egypt is quite a long deviation from the central story, and it appears early in the book. Nevertheless, if you are even tempted, then you should buy this book!

It was Michael Ondaatjee's The English Patient that finally pushed me to read this classic. The central character views The Histories as the essential reference in his travels around the Mediterranean. It is mentioned more than 20 times in Ondaatjee's work, including the subject quote. Clearly it borders on an obsession, so I decided to find out what all the fuss is about.

Herodotus has rightly been called the "father of historians." This account was written in the 5th Century BC, and unlike Homer's Iliad, depicts roughly contemporary times. The central theme is the Greco-Persian wars. Greece lay on the periphery of the Persian Empire, sometimes accepting its suzerainty, at other times throwing it off. Xerxes, the Persian emperor, was determined to crush the "upstart" Greek city states. The reason why people run a "marathon" today, commemorating the famous run of Pheidippides, stems from this war. The runner is mentioned in The Histories, though the classic tale that he dropped dead after announcing the Greek victory is not covered by Herodotus. Likewise, Thermopylae, of recent Last Stand of the 300: The Legendary Battle at Thermopylae fame, where badly outnumbered Greeks held the Persians for three days is covered, as is one of the most seminal and pivotal naval battles ever, the Battle of Salamas, in 480 BC, a resounding Greek victory. These events are covered more comprehensively and coherently by other historians, so why read Herodotus? I was astonished by some of the details in his account; for example that Xerxes lead an army of 5,283,220 men into Greece. A number of surprising precision, given that even with today's resources, most historians would more accurately convey a similar number as simply five million. The logistics, and the "surplus labor" involved in such an undertaking is truly mind-boggling, and worth some contemplation, which Ondaatjee would no doubt agree. On another level, there was the Greek propensity for having events foreshadowed with trick riddles from the oracle at Delphi, and Herodotus includes one in full, with the line: "that the wooden wall only shall not fall, but help you and your children." In retrospect, of course, "the wooden wall" is the Greek ships at Salamas.

Herodotus was more than a straight historian, and laced his work with philosophical insights that resonate today, for example: "...human prosperity never abides long in the same place..." (Hum!) Concerning man's fate: "But mark this: until he is dead, keep the word `happy' in reserve. Till then, he is not happy, but only lucky." Ah, to have Herodotus's wisdom in the White House: "No one is fool enough to choose war instead of peace - in peace sons bury fathers, but in war fathers bury sons." Or, "This is the worst pain a man can have; to know much and have no power to act." And could a contemporary Afghan ironically quote Pausanias, cited by Herodotus on page 529, and contemporize the countries: "Men of Greece, I asked you here in order to show you the folly of the Persians, who, living in this style, came to Greece to rob us of our poverty"?

Herodotus also claimed that Africa (which he calls Libya) was circumnavigated, from the East side to the West, at the beginning of the 6th Century BC, a most interesting speculation. In terms of his ethnographical accounts of people he never met, he seems willing to accept some rather "tall tales," which has also earned him the far less flattering title of "father of lies."

Penguin has performed a superlative job in making Herodotus's work more accessible to the modern reader, including some excellent maps of the ancient world, a solid introduction, chronologies, structural outlines, extensive notes and an index, all of which help the reader keep the story straight.

Some historians as well as others like to cite the Greek victory over the Persians, justly touted by Herodotus, as one of the most seminal events in human history, preserving Western "values" from "Oriental despotism." But Herodotus does not, perhaps because he is too contemporary, but neither do many others, cite the "law of unintended consequences." Suppose Xerxes won. Could not a "democratic virus" have then infected his whole empire, changing the way he and his successors saw the world?

Overall, it is THE classic account of the ancient world in the Eastern Mediterranean. Correspondingly, there may be far too many names and events for the modern reader to retain, or even desire to. And there are those "tall tales" that he willingly accepted. An essential read, but only 4-stars.

(Note: Review first published at Amazon, USA, on November 22, 2010)