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Summary: Herodotus "The Histories"
Comment: Watch Video Here:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3G8H2WCBZ1009 The Histories (Penguin Classics)

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Summary: Required reading
Comment: Herodotus is among the most important and influential writers in world history. His Histories is at
once a unified narrative and a collection of geographical, social, and mythological data. The story
Herodotus sets out to tell is that of the Greeks and their archenemies, the Persians, and along the
way he tells the story of the whole known world, from the savages inhabiting what today is the
Ukraine or Russia, to the burning deserts south of Egypt and the gold-laden, ant-protected wastes
beyond India. Herodotus will tell a piece of his story and take off with some wild tale, perhaps
from Egyptian or Persian history.

Being the "father of history" rather than its master
or foremost genius, Herodotus may at times be clumsy and prone to endless digression, but he's never
boring. Modern historians would do well to imitate him in at least this respect--meet the reader
halfway by making them interested rather than taking their interest for granted. If you can't tell,
I've labored through many a dull but necessary book.

Herodotus's real strength is his
narrative--as I said, he's never boring, even when you wish he would stick with what he was saying
thirty pages ago. He is also remarkably balanced, often peppering his text with "or so the Athenians
say" and more often than not presenting opposing points of view before giving his own opinion. And,
of course, what makes Herodotus important is that his Histories became the well-spring of Western
history, with everyone from Thucydides to Plutarch building upon or against his work.
/>This edition from Penguin Classics is very good, if not the best compared to the translation by
David Grene. Aubrey de Selincourt's translation is lucid and easy to read. He divides the paragraphs
differently than Herodotus did in the original, which you can see by following the numbers printed
in the margins. This is by no means a problem, though I found that Herodotus's breaks were more
natural than de Selincourt's. The notes are adequate but refer too often to outside sources rather
than giving a quick summary of what the editor would like us to know. My only real complaint is that
the maps are too sparse, as several other reviewers have pointed out.

Over all,
however, this is a good way to experience the original historical work. The translation is readable
and the notes good, and even if the maps aren't detailed enough they are still better than none. If
you're looking for a fascinating look into the ancient world, Herodotus is the place to start. />
Highly recommended.

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Summary: A Few Precious Moments
Comment: I have to admit I got a chuckle out of the reviewer who said that you need three bookmarks to read
this book. Anyone who has plodded through Coral Gardens and Their Magic, however, will understand
why Claire Kramsch called anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski's (1935) work "imminently
readable."

Less amusing was the reviewer who complained of an anti-Persian bias in
Herodotus. In reviewing classical literature, it is important not to let such sentiments cloud your
vision. A review of the classics should be as much a review of the translation, the introduction,
and the notes as it is a review of the text itself. In this regard the reviewer who compared three
different translations seems to be on the right track. If the "bias" reviewer is so bothered by
Herodotus, let him read the Epic of Gilgamesh, or perhaps Attar's The Conference of the Birds,
wherein he may find more satisfaction.

Well, I have spent a good deal of time
reviewing the reviews, so let us get down to brass tacks. Herodotus was as much anthropologist as
he was geographer, historian or tourist. His descriptions of the customs of the Persians,
Babylonians, Egyptians, Libyans and Indians (as contrasted with the Greeks) are every bit as
informative as those Malinowski gives us of the Trobriand Islanders (compared with whom?), though
not always in as much detail.

As for the translation (by Aubrey de Selincourt), it
is more than "imminently readable." It seemed like something that I would write myself. Take for
example this sentence: "While he was in Egypt, Syloson had an extraordinary stroke of luck: he was
hanging about the streets of Memphis dressed in a flame-coloured cloak, when Darius, who at that
time was a member of Cambyses' guard and not yet of any particular importance, happened to catch
sight of him and, seized with a sudden longing to possess the cloak, came up to Syloson and made him
an offer for it." (iii.139)

I read the Introduction (by John Marincola) twice -
once before I read the book, and once again after I finished. Both times I found it informative,
and excellent. The notes more often than not refer to academic articles, but the explanatory notes
of historical importance made it worth the effort to use multiple bookmarks. Actually, I simply
shifted my main bookmark to the notes of the day; the maps (I wish there were more of them) were
easy enough to find every time I needed them.

I was interested more than
anything else in the oracles. The Greeks (as well as the Persians) often consulted oracles. In
Herodotus, as the notes tell us, the oracles were always correct, though humans sometimes erred in
interpreting their meaning. That is remarkable. Who, then, was Apollo? Who was Dionysus? Athena?
What gave them the power to know the future? In all there are more than 150 mentions of oracles
and 25 dreams that determined the outcome of history. Is it any wonder that St. Paul had such
problems at Ephesus with Demetrios, who sold silver shrines in front of the Temple of Diana (Acts
xix.24-28)? To the ancient Greeks, these gods were alive. They gave them practical advice on how
to live their lives. To us, they are nothing but statues, or fragments of statues. I wonder what
happened to them? Anyway, Herodotus' depictions brings them back to life, at least for a few
precious moments while we are reading The Histories.

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Summary: One of the most important works ever written
Comment: In the history of written language, few books have proved to be as important (and as entertaining)
as The Histories by Herodotus. Not only is this the first historical text ever written, it's also a
thrilling tale of adventure, intrigue, and heroism. Beginning with the Trojan War (the most
important event in history, according to the ancient Greeks), Herodotus tracks the development of
the mighty Persian Empire and its eventual clash with the peoples of Greece in the 5th century B.C.
Along the way, the reader is given a guided tour of the people and places of the ancient world. If
your knowledge of this time period is based exclusively on The History Channel and "300", reading
this book will give you a new appreciation for like in the distant past.

Be warned
though, Herodotus, at times, is more concerned with telling a good story than a true one. It seems
impossible to think that he had access to all the places and events he describes; in many cases, he
obviously either invents stories or passes along accepted myths. Furthermore, as the inventor of
the history text, he really had no idea where to begin his story or what was relevant to his purpose
(which was describing how and why the Greeks were able to defeat the invading Persians). To solve
this problem it seems, Herodotus included every source and every anecdote he had access to. To help
move the story along for the reader, I would recommend skipping over the section devoted to the
geography of Egypt (or any of the other long passages related to mountains, rivers or deserts for
that matter) - doing so will not interfer at all with the rest of the book.

This is an
endlessly diverting and dense work to read, especially if you don't know very much about ancient
history, yet it's also very entertaining and very enlightening. Herodotus' treatment of war,
politics and human behavior are still as relevant today as it was 2500 years ago. There is a reason
why this book is still read to this day, and anyone who wants to consider themselves "well-read"
needs to read this work.

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Summary: The National Geographic of the 5th Century BC.
Comment: Great read to get immersed in the 5th century BC world. Herodotus was a great story teller, whether
of mythical or real stories. Some pages are really fun to read because of the friendly tone and
plain language he uses. There are also a lot of unnecessary data -in my opinion- since he talks
about all kinds of stories and gives plenty of detail, true or not that sometimes result boring. />
The real interesting part comes in the last quarter of the book, where all the major
battles between Persians and Greeks take place. A pity he didn't dwell a little more in the marathon
and Thermopylae battles, but we get the big picture.

This is more an ethnographic study
of all kinds of tribes that populated Greece and the Near East at the time. It's quite interesting
to see what were the limitations as far as geography is concerned, the strange ideas they had about
the far and unexplored areas of Europe, their peoples, etc. The comparison of what people thought
and what really was is really amusing.

Skip the pages that you care less and enjoy the
rest. There's plenty of good reading time here. Great translation, by the way.

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