Editing Herodotus

{{Short description|Greek historian and geographer (c.484–c.425 BC)}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use British English|date=February 2025}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Herodotus
| native_name        = Ἡρόδοτος
| native_name_lang   = grc
| image              = Marble bust of Herodotos MET DT11742 (cropped).jpg
| caption            = A Roman copy (2nd century AD) of a Greek [[Bust (sculpture)|bust]] of Herodotus from the first half of the 4th&nbsp;century&nbsp;BC
| birth_date         = {{circa|484&nbsp;BC }}
| birth_place        = [[Halicarnassus]], [[Caria]], [[Asia Minor]], [[Achaemenid Empire]]
| death_date         = {{circa|425}}&nbsp;BC (aged approx. 60)
| death_place        = [[Thurii]], [[Calabria]], or [[Pella]], [[Macedon]]
| occupation         = Historian
| parents            = {{unbulleted list| Lyxes (father) | Dryotus (mother)}}
| relatives          = {{unbulleted list| Theodorus (brother) | [[Panyassis]] (uncle or cousin)}}
| notable_works      = ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]''
}}
'''Herodotus'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|h|ə|ˈ|r|ɒ|d|ə|t|ə|s}}<ref>{{cite Dictionary.com|Herodotus}}</ref> {{respell|hə|ROD|ə|təs}}}} ({{langx|grc|{{wikt-lang|grc|Ἡρόδοτος}}|{{grc-transl|Ἡρόδοτος}}|}}; {{circa|484|425}} BC) was a Greek [[historian]] and [[geographer]] from the [[List of ancient Greek cities|Greek city]] of [[Halicarnassus]] (now [[Bodrum]], Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of [[Thurii]] in modern [[Calabria]], Italy. He wrote the ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|Histories]]'', a detailed account of the [[Greco-Persian Wars]], among other subjects such as the rise of the [[Achaemenid dynasty]] of [[Cyrus the Great|Cyrus]]. He has been described as "[[The Father of History]]", a title conferred on him by the [[ancient Roman]] orator [[Cicero]],<ref>
{{cite book |last=Luce |first=T. James |title=The Greek Historians |year=2002 |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=o7aHAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA26 26]}}</ref><ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Herodotus |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herodotus-Greek-Historian |access-date=30 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210404062047/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herodotus-Greek-Historian |archive-date=4 April 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the "[[Herodotus#Contemporary and modern critics|Father of Lies]]" by others.

The ''Histories'' primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as [[Battle of Marathon|Marathon]], [[Battle of Thermopylae|Thermopylae]], [[Battle of Artemisium|Artemisium]], [[Battle of Salamis|Salamis]], [[Battle of Plataea|Plataea]], and [[Battle of Mycale|Mycale]]. His work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, [[ethnographical]], [[geographical]], and [[historiographical]] background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information. 

Herodotus was criticized in his times for his inclusion of "legends and fanciful accounts" in his work. The contemporaneous historian [[Thucydides]] who covered the infamous [[Peloponnesian War]] in his ''[[History of the Peloponnesian War]]'' would separately accuse Herodotus of making up stories for entertainment. Herodotus retorted that he reported what he could see and what he was told.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hornblower |first1=Simon |last2=Spawforth |first2=Antony |last3=Eidinow |first3=Esther |title=The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization |year= 2014 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-101675-2 |page=372 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0awiBAAAQBAJ}}</ref> A sizable portion of the ''Histories'' has since been confirmed by modern [[Historian|historians]] and [[archaeologists]].

==Life==
Current scholars generally turn to Herodotus's own writing for reliable information about his life,<ref name=Burn-1972-Herod-Hists/>{{rp|p=7}} supplemented with archaic yet much later sources, such as the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] ''[[Suda]]'', a 10th-century encyclopedia which possibly took its information from traditional accounts. Still, the challenge is great:

{{Blockquote|The data are so few – they rest upon such late and slight authority; they are so improbable or so contradictory, that to compile them into a biography is like building a house of cards, which the first breath of criticism will blow to the ground. Still, certain points may be approximately fixed&nbsp;[...]|[[George Rawlinson|G. Rawlinson]]<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|page=1}} |source= }}

===Childhood===
Herodotus was, according to his own statement at the beginning of his work, a native of [[Halicarnassus]] in [[Anatolia]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=1873 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=William |title=A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, Hero'dotus |url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0104:entry=herodotus-bio-1 |access-date=5 August 2023 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu |publisher=John Murray |place=London}}</ref> and it is generally accepted that he was born there around 485&nbsp;BC. The ''[[Suda]]'' says his family was influential, that he was the son of Lyxes and Dryo and the brother of Theodorus, and that he was also related to [[Panyassis]] – an epic poet of the time.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|at=Introduction}}<ref name=Burn-1972-Herod-Hists/>{{rp|at=Introduction}} It is likely that Herodotus was at least partially Hellenized [[Carians|Carian]] in origin, given that Lyxes and Panyassis are Carian names.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cartledge |first1=Paul |title=The Greeks : a portrait of self and others |date=2002 |publisher=Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press |page=52}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Waters |first=K.H. |year=1985 |title=Herodotos the Historian: His problems, methods and originality |place=Tulsa |publisher = University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-1928-1}}</ref> Halicarnassus was then within the [[Persian Empire]], making Herodotus a Persian subject,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dandamaev |first1=M.A. |author-link1=Muhammad Dandamayev |title=A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire |year=1989 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-09172-6 |page=153 |quote=The 'Father of History', Herodotus, was born at Halicarnassus, and before his emigration to mainland Greece was a subject of the Persian empire.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kia |first1=Mehrdad |title=The Persian Empire: A historical encyclopedia |year=2016 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-61069-391-2 |page=161 |quote=At the time of Herodotus' birth southwestern Asia Minor, including Halicarnassus, was under Persian Achaemenid rule.}}</ref> 

[[File:herodotusstatue.JPG|thumb|upright=1.2|Romanticized statue of Herodotus in his hometown of [[Halicarnassus]], modern [[Bodrum]], Turkey]]

Herodotus wrote his ''Histories'' in the [[Ionic Greek|Ionian dialect]], in spite of being born in a [[Dorians|Dorian]] settlement. According to the ''[[Suda]]'', Herodotus learned the Ionian dialect as a boy living on the island of Samos, to which he had fled with his family from the oppressions of Lygdamis, tyrant of Halicarnassus and grandson of Artemisia. [[Panyassis]], the epic poet related to Herodotus, is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Histories of Herodotus |url=https://ia804708.us.archive.org/30/items/historiesofherod00herorich/historiesofherod00herorich_djvu.txt }}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

The ''Suda'' also states that Herodotus later returned home to lead the revolt that eventually overthrew the [[Despotism|despot]]. Due to recent discoveries of inscriptions at Halicarnassus dated to about Herodotus's time, it is now known that Ionic Greek was used in Halicarnassus in some official documents, so there is no need to assume (like the ''Suda'') that he must have learned the dialect elsewhere.<ref name=Burn-1972-Herod-Hists/>{{rp|page=11}} The ''Suda'' is the only source placing Herodotus as the heroic liberator of his birthplace, casting doubt upon the veracity of that romantic account.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|page=11}}

===Early travels===
As Herodotus himself reveals, Halicarnassus, though a Dorian city, had ended its close relations with its Dorian neighbors after an unseemly quarrel ([[wikisource:The_History_of_Herodotus_(Macaulay)/Book_I|I,144]]), and it had helped pioneer Greek trade with Egypt ([[wikisource:The_History_of_Herodotus_(Macaulay)/Book_II|II, 178]]). It was, therefore, an outward-looking, international-minded port within the [[Persian Empire]], and the historian's family could well have had contacts in other countries under Persian rule, facilitating his travels and his researches.

Herodotus's eyewitness accounts indicate that he traveled in Egypt in association with Athenians, probably sometime after 454&nbsp;BC or possibly earlier, after an Athenian fleet had assisted the uprising against [[History of Persian Egypt|Persian rule]] in 460–454&nbsp;BC. He probably traveled to [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]] next and then down the [[Euphrates]] to [[Babylon]]. For some reason, possibly associated with local politics, he subsequently found himself unpopular in Halicarnassus and, sometime around 447&nbsp;BC, migrated to [[Pericles|Periclean Athens]]&nbsp;– a city whose people and democratic institutions he openly admired (V,&nbsp;78). Athens was also the place where he came to know the local topography (VI,&nbsp;137; VIII,&nbsp;52–55) and leading citizens such as the [[Alcmaeonids]], a clan whose history is featured frequently in his writing.

According to [[Plutarch]],{{refn|Plutarch ''De Malign. Herod.''&nbsp;II p.&nbsp;862&nbsp;A, cited by.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|at=Introduction}}}} Herodotus was granted a financial reward by the Athenian assembly in recognition of his work. Plutarch, using [[Diyllus]] as a source, says this was 10 [[Attic talent|talents]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Plutarch on the Malice of Herodotus|url=http://www.bostonleadershipbuilders.com/plutarch/moralia/malice_of_herodotus.htm#26|access-date=26 January 2022|website=www.bostonleadershipbuilders.com|archive-date=18 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220118161727/https://bostonleadershipbuilders.com/plutarch/moralia/malice_of_herodotus.htm#26|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Later life===
In 443&nbsp;BC or shortly afterwards, he migrated to [[Thurii]], in modern [[Calabria]], as part of an Athenian-sponsored [[Greek colonisation|colony]]. [[Aristotle]] refers to a version of the ''Histories'' written by "Herodotus of Thurium", and some passages in the ''Histories'' have been interpreted as proof that he wrote about [[Magna Graecia]] from personal experience there (IV,&nbsp;15,99; VI,&nbsp;127). According to [[Ptolemaeus Chennus]], a late source summarized in the Library of [[Photius]], Plesirrhous the Thessalian, the hymnographer, was the [[eromenos]] of Herodotus and his heir. This account has also led some historians to assume Herodotus died childless. Intimate knowledge of some events in the first years of the [[Peloponnesian War]] (VI,&nbsp;91; VII,&nbsp;133, 233; IX,&nbsp;73) suggests that he returned to Athens, in which case it is possible that he died there during an outbreak of the plague. It is also possible he died in [[Macedonia (ancient kingdom)|Macedonia]] instead, after obtaining the patronage of the court there, or else he died back in Thurii. There is nothing in the ''Histories'' that can be dated to later than 430&nbsp;BC with any certainty, and it is generally assumed that he died not long afterwards, possibly before his sixtieth year.

===Author and orator===
Herodotus would have made his researches known to the larger world through oral recitations to a public crowd. [[John Marincola]] writes in his introduction to the Penguin edition of the ''Histories'' that there are certain identifiable pieces in the early books of Herodotus's work which could be labeled as "performance pieces". These portions of the research seem independent and "almost detachable", so that they might have been set aside by the author for the purposes of an oral performance. The intellectual matrix of the 5th&nbsp;century, Marincola suggests, comprised many oral performances in which philosophers would dramatically recite such detachable pieces of their work. The idea was to criticize previous arguments on a topic and emphatically and enthusiastically insert their own in order to win over the audience.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Herodotus |title = The Histories|publisher = Penguin Books|year = 2003|page = xii|others = Introduction and notes by John Marincola |translator-first=Aubrey |translator-last=de Selincourt}}</ref>

It was conventional in Herodotus's day for authors to "publish" their works by reciting them at popular festivals. According to [[Lucian]], Herodotus took his finished work straight from [[Anatolia]] to the [[Ancient Olympic Games|Olympic Games]] and read the entire ''Histories'' to the assembled spectators in one sitting, receiving rapturous applause at the end of it.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|page=14}} According to a very different account by an ancient grammarian,{{refn|Montfaucon's ''Bibliothec. Coisl. Cod.''&nbsp;clxxvii p.&nbsp;609, cited by.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|page=14}}}} Herodotus refused to begin reading his work at the festival of Olympia until some clouds offered him a bit of shade – by which time the assembly had dispersed. (Hence the proverbial expression "Herodotus and his shade" to describe someone who misses an opportunity through delay.) Herodotus's recitation at Olympia was a favourite theme among ancient writers, and there is another interesting variation on the story to be found in the ''Suda'': that of [[Bibliotheca (Photius)|Photius]]{{refn|
Photius ''Bibliothec. Cod.''&nbsp;lx p.&nbsp;59, cited by Ralinson<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|page=15}}
}} and [[Tzetzes]],{{refn|
Tzetzes ''Chil.''&nbsp;1.19, cited by.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|page=15}}
}} in which a young [[Thucydides]] happened to be in the assembly with his father, and burst into tears during the recital. Herodotus observed prophetically to the boy's father: "Your son's soul yearns for knowledge."

Eventually, Thucydides and Herodotus became close enough for both to be interred in Thucydides's tomb in Athens. Such at least was the opinion of [[Marcellinus (writer)|Marcellinus]] in his ''Life of Thucydides''.{{refn|Marcellinus, ''in Vita. Thucyd.'' p.&nbsp;ix, cited by.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|page=25}}}} According to the ''Suda'', he was buried in Macedonian [[Pella]] and in the [[agora]] in Thurii.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/>{{rp|page=25}}

==Place in history==
[[File:HERODOTUS(1897) p2.387 THE WORLD ACCORDING TO HERDOTUS.jpg|thumb|upright=2|Reconstructed map of the world based on the writings of Herodotus]]
Herodotus announced the purpose and scope of his work at the beginning of his ''Histories:''<ref name=Hetrod-in-Encyc-Wrld-Bio/>

{{quote|Here are presented the results of the inquiry carried out by Herodotus of Halicarnassus. The purpose is to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time, and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements produced by both Greeks and non-Greeks; among the matters covered is, in particular, the cause of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks.|Herodotus, ''The Histories'' (tr. R. Waterfield, 2008)<ref name=Waterfield-Dewald-1998/>}}

===Predecessors===
His record of the achievements of others was an achievement in itself, though the extent of it has been debated. Herodotus's place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact. [[Dionysius of Halicarnassus]], a literary critic of [[Principate|Augustan Rome]], listed seven predecessors of Herodotus, describing their works as simple unadorned accounts of their own and other cities and people, Greek or foreign, including popular legends, sometimes melodramatic and naïve, often charming – all traits that can be found in the work of Herodotus himself.{{refn|,<ref name=Burn-1972-Herod-Hists/>{{rp|page=23}} citing Dionysius ''On Thucydides''}}

Modern historians regard the chronology as uncertain, but according to the ancient account, these predecessors included [[Dionysius of Miletus]], Charon of Lampsacus, [[Hellanicus of Lesbos]], [[Xanthus (historian)|Xanthus of Lydia]] and, the best attested of them all, [[Hecataeus of Miletus]]. Of these, only fragments of Hecataeus's works survived, and the authenticity of these is debatable,<ref name=Burn-1972-Herod-Hists/>{{rp|page=27}} but they provide a glimpse into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own ''Histories''.

===Contemporary and modern critics===
{{missing|section|substantive details of modern criticism|date=June 2024}}
It is on account of the many strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics have branded him "The Father of Lies".<ref name=Burn-1972-Herod-Hists/>{{rp|page=10}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1998-9/Pipes.htm |title=Herodotus: Father of History, Father of Lies |access-date=16 November 2009 |first=David |last=Pipes |archive-date=27 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080127105636/http://www.loyno.edu/history/journal/1998-9/Pipes.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement. In fact, one modern scholar<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/> has wondered whether Herodotus left his home in Greek [[Anatolia]], migrating westwards to Athens and beyond, because his own countrymen had ridiculed his work, a circumstance possibly hinted at in an epitaph said to have been dedicated to Herodotus at one of his three supposed resting places, [[Thouria, Messenia|Thuria]]:
{{poemquote|Herodotus the son of Sphynx
lies; in Ionic history without peer;
a Dorian born, who fled from slander's brand
and made in Thuria his new native land.<ref name=Burn-1972-Herod-Hists/>{{rp|page=13}}|sign=|source=}}

Yet it was in Athens where his most formidable contemporary critics could be found. In 425&nbsp;BC, which is about the time that Herodotus is thought by many scholars to have died, the Athenian comic dramatist [[Aristophanes]] created ''[[The Acharnians]]'', in which he blames the [[Peloponnesian War]] on the abduction of some prostitutes – a mocking reference to Herodotus, who reported the Persians' account of their [[The Persian Wars|wars with Greece]], beginning with the rapes of the mythical heroines [[Io (mythology)|Io]], [[Europa (consort of Zeus)|Europa]], [[Medea]], and [[Helen of Troy|Helen]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Lawrence A. |last=Tritle. |year=2004 |title=The Peloponnesian War |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |pages=147–148}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Hart |year=1982 |title=Herodotus and Greek History |publisher=Taylor and Francis |page=174}}</ref>

Similarly, the Athenian historian [[Thucydides]] dismissed Herodotus as a story-teller.<ref name=Murray-1986-Grk-histns/>{{rp|page=191}} Thucydides, who had been trained in [[rhetoric]], became the model for subsequent prose-writers as an author who seeks to appear firmly in control of his material, whereas with his frequent digressions Herodotus appeared to minimize (or possibly disguise) his authorial control.<ref name=Waterfield-Dewald-1998>{{cite book |translator-last1=Waterfield |translator-first1=Robin |editor-last1=Dewald |editor-first1=Carolyn |year=1998 |title=The Histories by Herodotus |publisher=Oxford University Press |place=Oxford, UK |at="Introduction", p.&nbsp;xviii|isbn=9780199535668}}</ref> Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view: focused on the context of the ''[[polis]]'' or city-state. The interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory.<ref name=Murray-1986-Grk-histns/>{{rp|page=191}}
{{quotation|Before the Persian crisis, history had been represented among the Greeks only by local or family traditions. The "Wars of Liberation" had given to Herodotus the first genuinely historical inspiration felt by a Greek. These wars showed him that there was a corporate life, higher than that of the city, of which the story might be told; and they offered to him as a subject the drama of the collision between East and West. With him, the spirit of history was born into Greece; and his work, called after the nine Muses, was indeed the first utterance of [[Clio]].|[[Richard Claverhouse Jebb|R. C. Jebb]]|source=<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard C. |last=Jebb |author-link=Richard Claverhouse Jebb |title=The Genius of Sophocles |title-link=s:The Genius of Sophocles#7 |at=section 7}}</ref>}}

Though Herodotus is generally considered a reliable source of ancient history, many present-day historians believe that his accounts are at least partially inaccurate, attributing the observed inconsistencies in the ''Histories'' to exaggeration.<ref>{{Cite web |title=8 Myth and Truth in Herodotus' Cyrus Logos |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/27438/chapter/197305154 |access-date=27 September 2023 |website=Oxford Academic|date=2012 |doi=10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199693979.003.0009 |last1=Chiasson |first1=Charles C. |pages=213–232 |isbn=978-0-19-969397-9 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mark |first=Joshua J. |title=Herodotus |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/herodotus/ |access-date=27 September 2023 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Larkin |first=Patrick |date=11 March 2022 |title=Herodotus, Homer, and The Histories |url=https://you.stonybrook.edu/undergraduatehistoryjournal/2022/03/11/herodotus-homer-and-the-histories/#:~:text=He%20inflated%20these%20numbers%20for,for%20many%20students%20of%20history. |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012152047/https://you.stonybrook.edu/undergraduatehistoryjournal/2022/03/11/herodotus-homer-and-the-histories/ |archive-date=12 October 2023 |access-date=27 September 2023 |website=Stony Brook Undergraduate History Journal |language=en-US}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Columns-list|
* [[Al-Masudi]], ''known as the Herodotus of the Arabs''
* [[Herodotus Machine]]
* [[Historiography]] (the history of history and historians)
* [[Life of Homer (Pseudo-Herodotus)]]
* [[Sostratus of Aegina]]
}}

==Critical editions==
* C. Hude (ed.) ''Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs prior: Libros I–IV continens.'' (Oxford 1908)
* C. Hude (ed.) ''Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs alter: Libri V–IX continens.'' (Oxford 1908)
* H. B. Rosén (ed.) ''Herodoti Historiae. Vol. I: Libros I–IV continens.'' (Leipzig 1987)
* H. B. Rosén (ed.) ''Herodoti Historiae. Vol. II: Libros V–IX continens indicibus criticis adiectis'' (Stuttgart 1997)
* N. G. Wilson (ed.) ''Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs prior: Libros I–IV continens.'' (Oxford 2015)
* N. G. Wilson (ed.) ''Herodoti Historiae. Tomvs alter: Libri V–IX continens.'' (Oxford 2015)

==Translations==
Several English translations of Herodotus's ''Histories'' are available in multiple editions, including:
* [[Henry Cary (judge)|Henry Cary]], translation 1849: [https://archive.org/details/herodotusnewlite00hero text] [[Internet Archive]]
* [[George Rawlinson]], translation 1858–1860. Public domain; many editions available, although [[Everyman's Library]] and Wordsworth Classics editions are the most common ones still in print.<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1/> (revised in 1935 by [[A. W. Lawrence]])
* [[George Campbell Macaulay]], translation 1890, published in two volumes. London: Macmillan and Co.
* [[A. D. Godley]] 1920; revised 1926. Reprinted 1931, 1946, 1960, 1966, 1975, 1981, 1990, 1996, 1999, 2004. Available in [[Loeb Classical Library#Herodotus|four volumes]] from [[Loeb Classical Library]], [[Harvard University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-674-99130-3}} Printed with Greek on the left and English on the right:
** A. D. Godley ''Herodotus : The Persian Wars : Volume I : Books 1–2'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1920)
** A. D. Godley ''Herodotus : The Persian Wars : Volume II : Books 3–4'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1921)
** A. D. Godley ''Herodotus : The Persian Wars : Volume III : Books 5–7'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1922)
** A. D. Godley ''Herodotus : The Persian Wars : Volume IV : Books 8–9'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts 1925)
* [[Aubrey de Sélincourt]], originally 1954; revised by John Marincola in 1996. Several editions from [[Penguin Books]] available.
* [[David Grene]], Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985.
* [[Robin Waterfield]], with an Introduction and Notes by [[Carolyn Dewald]], Oxford World Classics, 1997. {{ISBN|978-0-19-953566-8}}
* Andrea L. Purvis, ''The Landmark Herodotus'', edited by Robert B. Strassler. Pantheon, 2007. {{ISBN|978-0-375-42109-9}} with adequate ancillary information.
* Walter Blanco, ''Herodotus: The Histories: The Complete Translation, Backgrounds, Commentaries''. Edited by Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013.
* [[Tom Holland (author)|Tom Holland]], ''The Histories, Herodotus''. Introduction and notes by Paul Cartledge. New York, Penguin, 2013.

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist|21em |refs=

<ref name=Burn-1972-Herod-Hists>
{{cite book
 |last=Burn |first=A.R.
 |year=1972
 |title=Herodotus: The Histories
 |publisher=[[Penguin Classics]]
}}
</ref>

<ref name=Hetrod-in-Encyc-Wrld-Bio>
{{cite encyclopedia
 |url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/herodotus
 |title=Herodotus
 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of World Biography
 |publisher=The Gale Group
 |access-date=11 March 2018
}}
</ref>

<ref name=Murray-1986-Grk-histns>
{{cite book
 |last=Murray |first=Oswyn
 |year=1986
 |chapter=Greek historians
 |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Boardman
 |editor-first2=Jasper |editor-last2=Griffin
 |editor-first3=Oswyn |editor-last3=Murray
 |title=The Oxford History of the Classical World
 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryofc00john/page/186 186–203]
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-872112-3
 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryofc00john/page/186
}}
</ref>

<ref name=Rawlinson-1859-Hist-Herod-v1>{{cite book
 |last=Rawlinson |first=George
 |year=1859
 |title=The History of Herodotus
 |volume=1
 |publisher=D. Appleton and Company
 |location=New York
}}
{{cite web
 |via =The Internet Classics Archive
|title=The History of Herodotus 
 |translator=Rawlinson, George
 |publisher=[[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
 |department=Classics
 |url=http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html
 |access-date=25 July 2001
|archive-date=1 December 2012
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121201230133/http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

}} <!-- end "refs=" -->

===Sources===
{{Refbegin|30em|indent=y}}
* {{cite book
 |last=Archambault
 |first=Paul
 |year=2002
 |chapter=Herodotus (c. 480–c. 420)
 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/multiculturalwri0000unse_n8u0/page/168 168–172]
 |editor1=Amoia, Alba della Fazia
 |editor2=Knapp, Bettina Liebowitz
 |title=Multicultural Writers from Antiquity to 1945: a bio-bibliographical sourcebook
 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group
 |isbn=978-0-313-30687-7
 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/multiculturalwri0000unse_n8u0/page/168
 }}

* {{cite book
 |last1=Asheri   |first1=David
 |last2=Lloyd    |first2=Alan
 |last3=Corcella |first3=Aldo
 |year=2007
 |title=A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1–4
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-814956-9
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Aubin |first=Henry
 |year=2002
 |title=The Rescue of Jerusalem
 |publisher=Soho Press
 |location=New York
 |isbn=978-1-56947-275-0
}}

* {{cite book
 |last1=Baragwanath |first1=Emily
 |last2=de Bakker   |first2=Mathieu
 |year=2010
 |title=Herodotus
 |series=Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-980286-9
}}

* {{cite book
 |author1=Herodotus
 |last2=Blanco |first2=Walter
 |year=2013
 |title=The Histories
 |publisher=W.W. Norton & Company
 |location=New York
 |isbn=978-0-393-93397-0
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Boedeker |first=Deborah
 |year=2000
 |chapter=Herodotus' genre(s)
 |pages=97–114
 |editor-first1=Mary |editor-last1=Depew
 |editor-first2=Dirk |editor-last2=Obbink
 |title=Matrices of Genre: Authors, Canons, and Society
 |publisher=Harvard University Press
 |isbn=978-0-674-03420-4
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Cameron |first=Alan
 |year=2004
 |title=Greek Mythography in the Roman World
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-803821-4
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Dalley |first=S.
 |year=2003
 |chapter=Why did Herodotus not mention the Hanging Gardens of Babylon?
 |pages=171–189
 |editor-first1=P. |editor-last1=Derow
 |editor-first2=R. |editor-last2=Parker
 |title=Herodotus and his World
 |location=New York
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-925374-6
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Dalley |first=S.
 |year=2013
 |title=The Mystery of the Hanging Garden of Babylon: an Elusive World Wonder Traced
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-966226-5
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Diop |first=Cheikh Anta |author-link=Cheikh Anta Diop
 |year=1974
 |title=The African Origin of Civilization
 |publisher=Lawrence Hill Books
 |location=Chicago
 |isbn=978-1-55652-072-3
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Diop
 |first=Cheikh Anta
 |author-link=Cheikh Anta Diop
 |year=1981
 |title=Civilization or Barbarism
 |publisher=Lawrence Hill Books
 |location=Chicago
 |isbn=978-1-55652-048-8
 |url-access=registration
 |url=https://archive.org/details/civilizationorba0000diop
 }}

* {{cite journal
 |last1=Evans |first1=J.A.S.
 |year=1968
 |title=Father of History or Father of Lies; The Reputation of Herodotus
 |journal=Classical Journal
 |volume=64 |pages=11–17
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Farley |first=David G.
 |year=2010
 |title=Modernist Travel Writing: Intellectuals Abroad
 |publisher=University of Missouri Press
 |location=Columbia
 |isbn=978-0-8262-7228-7
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Fehling |first=Detlev
 |year=1989 |orig-year=1971
 |title=Herodotos and His 'Sources': Citation, Invention, and Narrative Art
 |translator=Howie, J.G.
 |series=Arca Classical and Medieval Texts, Papers and Monographs
 |volume=21
 |location=Leeds
 |publisher=Francis Cairns
 |isbn=978-0-905205-70-0
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Fehling
 |first=Detlev
 |year=1994
 |chapter=The art of Herodotus and the margins of the world
 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/travelfacttravel0000unse/page/1 1–15]
 |editor=von Martels, Z.R.W.M.
 |title=Travel Fact and Travel Fiction: Studies on Fiction, Literary Tradition, Scholarly Discovery, and Observation in Travel Writing
 |publisher=Brill
 |location=Leiden
 |series=Brill's studies in intellectual history
 |volume=55
 |isbn=978-90-04-10112-8
 |url=https://archive.org/details/travelfacttravel0000unse/page/1
 }}

* {{cite book
 |last=Gould |first=John |author-link=John Gould (classicist)
 |year=1989
 |title=Herodotus
 |series=Historians on historians
 |publisher=George Weidenfeld & Nicolson
 |location=London
 |isbn=978-0-297-79339-7
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Heeren
 |first=A.H.L.
 |author-link=Arnold Hermann Ludwig Heeren
 |year=1838
 |title=Historical Researches into the Politics, Intercourse, and Trade of the Carthaginians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians
 |publisher=D.A. Talboys
 |location=Oxford
 |asin=B003B3P1Y8
 |url=https://archive.org/details/historicalresear01heer
 }}

* {{cite book |last=Immerwahr |first=Henry R. |year=1985 |chapter=Herodotus |series=The Cambridge History of Classical Greek Literature |volume=1 |title=Greek Literature |editor-first1=P.E. |editor-last1=Easterling |editor1-link=P. E. Easterling |editor-first2=B.M.W. |editor-last2=Knox |editor2-link=Bernard Knox |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-21042-3 }}

* {{cite journal |last=Jones |first=C.P. |year=1996 |title=ἔθνος and γένος in Herodotus |journal=[[The Classical Quarterly]] |series=new series |volume=46 |issue=2 |pages=315–320 |doi=10.1093/cq/46.2.315 }}

* {{cite book
 |last1=Jain |first1=Meenakshi
 |year=2011
 |title=The India they saw: Foreign Accounts
 |publisher=Ocean Books
 |location=Delhi
 |isbn=978-81-8430-106-9
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Lloyd |first=Alan B.
 |year=1993
 |title=Herodotus, Book &nbsp;II
 |series=Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain
 |volume=43
 |publisher=Brill
 |location=Leiden
 |isbn=978-90-04-07737-9
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Majumdar |first=R.C.
 |year=1981
 |title=The Classical accounts of India: Being a compilation of the English translations of the accounts left by Herodotus, Megasthenes, Arrian, Strabo, Quintus, Diodorus, Siculus, Justin, Plutarch, Frontinus, Nearchus, Apollonius, Pliny, Ptolemy, Aelian, and others with maps
 |place=Calcutta
 |publisher=Firma KLM.
 |isbn=978-0-8364-0704-4
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Marincola |first=John
 |year=2001
 |title=Greek Historians
 |publisher=Oxford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-922501-9
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Mikalson |first=Jon D.
 |year=2003
 |title=Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars
 |publisher=Univ of North Carolina Press
 |location=Chapel Hill
 |isbn=978-0-8078-2798-7
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Nielsen |first=Flemming A.J.
 |year=1997
 |title=The Tragedy in History: Herodotus and the deuteronomistic history
 |publisher=A&C Black
 |isbn=978-1-85075-688-0
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Peissel |first=Michel |author-link=Michel Peissel
 |year=1984
 |title=The Ants' Gold: The discovery of the Greek el Dorado in the Himalayas
 |publisher=Collins
 |isbn=978-0-00-272514-9
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Roberts |first=Jennifer T.
 |year=2011
 |title=Herodotus: a Very Short Introduction
 |publisher=OXford University Press
 |isbn=978-0-19-957599-2
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Romm |first=James
 |year=1998
 |title=Herodotus
 |location=New Haven, CT
 |publisher=Yale University Press
 |isbn=978-0-300-07229-7
}}

* {{cite journal
 |last=Saltzman
 |first=Joe
 |year=2010
 |title=Herodotus as an ancient journalist: Reimagining antiquity's historians as journalists
 |journal=The IJPC Journal
 |volume=2
 |pages=153–185
 |url=http://ijpc.uscannenberg.org/journal/index.php/ijpcjournal/article/viewFile/22/29
 |access-date=3 March 2013
|archive-date=1 October 2013
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001104609/http://ijpc.uscannenberg.org/journal/index.php/ijpcjournal/article/viewFile/22/29
 |url-status=live
 }}

* {{cite book
 |last=Sparks |first=Kenton L.
 |year=1998
 |title=Ethnicity and Identity in Ancient Israel: Prolegomena to the Study of Ethnic Sentiments and their Expression in the Hebrew Bible
 |location=Winona Lake, IN
 |publisher=Eisenbrauns
 |isbn=978-1-57506-033-0
}}

* {{cite journal
 |last=Wardman |first=A.E.
 |year=1960
 |title=Myth in Greek historiography
 |journal=[[Historia: Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte]]
 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=403–413
 |jstor=4434671
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Waters |first=K.H.
 |year=1985
 |title=Herodotos the Historian: His problems, methods and originality
 |place=Tulsa
 |publisher = University of Oklahoma Press
 |isbn=978-0-8061-1928-1
}}

* {{cite book
 |last=Welsby |first=Derek
 |year=1996
 |title=The Kingdom of Kush
 |publisher=British Museum Press
 |location=Londob
 |isbn=978-0-7141-0986-2
}}
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
{{refbegin|32em|indent=y}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Bakker |editor1-first=Egbert J. |editor-link1=Egbert Bakker |editor2-last=de Jong |editor2-first=Irene J.F. |editor3-last=van Wees |editor3-first=Hans |title=Brill's companion to Herodotus |year=2002 |publisher=E.J. Brill |location=Leiden |isbn=978-90-04-12060-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Baragwanath |first=Emily |year=2010 |title=Motivation and Narrative in Herodotus |series=Oxford Classical Monographs |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-964550-3 }}
* {{cite book | last1=Bury | first1=J.B. | author1-link=J. B. Bury | last2=Meiggs | first2=Russell | author2-link=Russell Meiggs | title=A History of Greece | year=1975 | publisher=MacMillan Press | location=London | pages=251–252 | isbn=978-0-333-15492-2| edition=Fourth }}
* {{cite book |last=De Selincourt |first=Aubrey |title=The World of Herodotus |year=1962 |publisher=Secker and Warburg |location=London}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=Dewald |editor1-first=Carolyn |editor2-last=Marincola |editor2-first=John |title=The Cambridge companion to Herodotus |year=2006 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-83001-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=J.A.S. |title=The beginnings of history: Herodotus and the Persian Wars |year=2006 |publisher=Edgar Kent |location=Campbellville, Ont. |isbn=978-0-88866-652-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=J.A.S. |title=Herodotus |year=1982 |publisher=Twayne |location=Boston |isbn=978-0-8057-6488-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/herodotus0000evan }}
* {{cite book |last=Evans |first=J.A.S. |title=Herodotus, explorer of the past: three essays |year=1991 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0-691-06871-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/herodotusexplore0000evan }}
* {{cite book |last=Flory |first=Stewart |title=The archaic smile of Herodotus |year=1987 |publisher=Wayne State University Press |location=Detroit |isbn=978-0-8143-1827-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Fornara |first=Charles W. |title=Herodotus: An Interpretative Essay |year=1971 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford}}
* {{cite book |last=Giessen |first=Hans W. Giessen |title=Mythos Marathon. Von Herodot über Bréal bis zur Gegenwart |year=2010 |publisher=Verlag Empirische Pädagogik (= Landauer Schriften zur Kommunikations- und Kulturwissenschaft. Band 17) |location=Landau |isbn=978-3-941320-46-8}}
* {{cite book |last=Harrington |first=John W. |title=To see a world |year=1973 |publisher=G.V. Mosby Co. |location=Saint Louis |isbn=978-0-8016-2058-4}}
* {{cite journal |last=Hartog |first=François |title=The Invention of History: The Pre-History of a Concept from Homer to Herodotus |journal=History and Theory |volume=39 |year=2000 |pages=384–395 |doi=10.1111/0018-2656.00137 |issue=3}}
* {{cite book |last=Hartog |first=François |title=The mirror of Herodotus: the representation of the other in the writing of history |year=1988 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-05487-5 |others=Janet Lloyd, trans}}
* {{cite book |editor1-last=How |editor1-first=Walter W. |editor2-last=Wells |editor2-first=Joseph |title=A Commentary on Herodotus |url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24146 |year=1912 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |access-date=26 July 2011 |archive-date=9 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111009012256/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24146 |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Hunter |first=Virginia |title=Past and process in Herodotus and Thucydides |year=1982 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=978-0-691-03556-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Immerwahr |first=H. |title=Form and Thought in Herodotus |year=1966 |publisher=Case Western Reserve University Press |location=Cleveland}}
* {{cite book |last=Kapuściński |first=Ryszard |title=Travels with Herodotus |year=2007 |publisher=Knopf |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4000-4338-5 |others=Klara Glowczewska, trans}}
* {{cite book |last=Lateiner |first=Donald |title=The historical method of Herodotus |year=1989 |publisher=Toronto University Press |location=Toronto |isbn=978-0-8020-5793-8}}
* Pitcher, Luke (2009). ''Writing Ancient History: An Introduction to Classical Historiography''. New York: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd.
* {{cite book |last=Marozzi |first=Justin |author-link=Justin Marozzi |title=The way of Herodotus: travels with the man who invented history |year=2008 |publisher=Da Capo Press |location=Cambridge, MA |isbn=978-0-306-81621-5}}
* {{cite book |last=Momigliano |first=Arnaldo |title=The classical foundations of modern historiography |year=1990 |publisher=Univ. of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=978-0-520-06890-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780520078703 }}
* {{cite book |last=Myres |first=John L. |title=Herodotus : father of history |year=1971 |publisher=Henry Regnrey |location=Chicago |isbn=978-0-19-924021-0}}
* {{cite book |last=Pritchett |first=W. Kendrick |title=The liar school of Herodotus |year=1993 |publisher=Gieben |location=Amsterdam |isbn=978-90-5063-088-7}}
* {{cite EB9 |wstitle = Herodotus |volume= XI |last= Rawlinson |first= George |author-link= George Rawlinson| pages=756-759 |short=1}}
* {{cite journal |last=Selden |first=Daniel |title=Cambyses' Madness, or the Reason of History |journal=Materiali e Discussioni per l'Analisi dei Testi Classici |volume=42 |issue=42 |year=1999 |pages=33–63|doi=10.2307/40236137 |jstor=40236137 }}
* {{cite book |last=Thomas |first=Rosalind |title=Herodotus in context: ethnography, science and the art of persuasion |year=2000 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-66259-8}}
* Waters, K.H. (1985). ''Herodotus the Historian: His Problems, Methods and Originality''. Beckenham: Croom Helm Ltd.
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
{{wikisourcelang|el|Ηρόδοτος|Ἡρόδοτος}}
{{Library resources box |by=yes |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Herodotus}}

;Online texts
* {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/herodotus}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=828}}
* {{Internet Archive author}}
* {{Librivox author |id=173}}
* [http://classics.mit.edu/Herodotus/history.html The History of Herodotus], at The Internet Classics Archive (translation by George Rawlinson).
* [https://sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/index.htm Parallel Greek and English text of the History of Herodotus] at the Internet Sacred Text Archive
* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126 Herodotus ''Histories''] on the [[Perseus Project]]
* [https://scaife.perseus.org/reader/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0016.tlg001.perseus-grc2:1.1.0-1.1.4/ Herodotus ''Histories''] on the Scaife Viewer
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150504214024/https://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodotus/logoi.html Excerpts of Sélincourt's translation]
* <!-- PLEASE see Talk Page (#28) before deleting --> {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20210411135500/https://www.paxlibrorum.com/books/histories/ The Histories of Herodotus]}}, A.D. Godley translation with footnotes ({{cite web |url=http://www.paxlibrorum.com/res/downloads/histories_5by8.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715055514/http://www.paxlibrorum.com/res/downloads/histories_5by8.pdf |url-status=usurped |archive-date=15 July 2011 |title=Direct link to PDF }}&nbsp;{{small|(14&nbsp;MB)}})

;Other links
* [https://www.isidore-of-seville.com/herodotus/ Herodotus on the Web]
* [https://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodotus/herodotus01.htm Herodotus of Halicarnassus] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301091829/http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodotus/herodotus01.htm |date=1 March 2016 }} at Livius.org
* {{Cite EB1911 |wstitle=Herodotus |volume=13 |pages=381–384 |short=1}}
* {{cite magazine
 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/04/28/080428crbo_books_mendelsohn
 |title=Arms and the Man
 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]
 |author=Mendelsohn, Daniel
 |date=28 April 2008
|access-date=27 April 2008
}}




{{Ancient Greece topics|state=autocollapse}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Herodotus| ]]
[[Category:480s BC births]]
[[Category:420s BC deaths]]
[[Category:5th-century BC Greek historians]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek political refugees]]
[[Category:Ancient Greeks in Egypt]]
[[Category:Ancient Halicarnassians]]
[[Category:Classical-era Greek historians]]
[[Category:History of Asia]]
[[Category:Historians from ancient Anatolia]]
[[Category:Historiography of India]]
[[Category:Ionic Greek writers]]
[[Category:Ancient Greeks from the Achaemenid Empire]]
[[Category:Historians from the Achaemenid Empire]]
[[Category:Historians of ancient Egypt]]
[[Category:Foreign contacts of ancient Egypt]]