The Father Of History

Have you ever wondered about history? Other than flunking the history classes? Why a man is nothing but his stories, recorded in the books and preserved as history? Let, the father of history guide you.

Herodotus

History came from the word historia, from the book “Histories” by Herodotus. And Herodotus was from Greece, as was Father of Western philosophy. Both were present in the golden era of democracy.

Herodotus, the name meaning 'the gift of Hera'; Hera, being the Greek goddess of marriage and birth, the wife of Zeus; was born in Persian controlled Greece territory around 5th century BCE. From his early childhood, he developed the habit of listening to stories by eyewitnesses and looking at both sides of a dispute.

He made it his life's purpose to hear stories about the epic Greek Persian wars. He went around hearing about the war by witnesses, whisperers and started writing them in his book.

The Histories

To compose his book, he traveled wide and far from Greece to Egypt, from Persia to Africa. He recorded several stories, Greek and non-Greek, in his book “the histories”

His book ‘The histories” started with his famous words- “Herodotus of Halicarnassus, here displays his inquiries.” He was not recording history itself, but the way people saw it. He collected accounts from various sources- eyewitnesses, hearsay and tradition. He then used reason to understand what actually happened.

He is the person who wrote about the Battle of Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans battled heroicly and pushed away the forces of Persian, Xerxes. Yes, the movie 300 was real. And Herodotus traveled all over the Greece and Africa to understand this triumph of Greece over Persia, by stories.

But Herodotus' work was far from perfect. He was the first good historian after all. Being a greek, he favored Greeks more than Persians. Some of his recorded stories were inaccurate, and others bizarre, to the extent of unimaginative. How bizarre? He believed the Nile was flooded each year by melting snow in the far south but he did not understand where the snow came from in Africa, the hottest continent.

He, although believed that he was merely a tool to record memories of the people, not question it. He himself did not believe in some the stories he wrote.

Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances- Herodotus

Herodotus' Creativity, storytelling experience and way of writing the past events earned him the title, Father of History, by Roman author Cicero, and justifiably so.