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Summary: the histories
Comment: the book is pretty good and thorough too. this is a good version to get.

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Summary: Readable Translation; Still Waiting For The "Landmark Herodotus"
Comment: This is a very readable translation of Herodotus' masterpiece and well worth your time. My only
complaint about this edition is that the layout of maps and endnotes requires constant flipping back
and forth while you're reading (use three bookmarks to keep track of where you are). I'd like to
see a "Landmark Herodotus" like the "Landmark Thucydides" by Strassler that included maps and
footnotes with the body of the text, but until it comes out, I'd personally recommend this
translation over some of the others I've seen, not because the others are bad, but because this one
seems more colloquial and easier to follow. As for the History itself, you'll find it absorbing and
entertaining once you get used to Herodotus' style. Highly recommended.

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Summary: Great work & a superb translation, but the end notes are ghastly!
Comment: This book is one of mankind's most important intellectual treasures. Although its nominal focus is
the rise of the Persian empire and its ferocious, myth-inspiring collision with the Greeks during
the 6th and 5th Centuries BC, it also gives us an excellent look at many other nations that
inhabited the lands from Africa to India. Through many leisurely and generally pleasant
digressions, Herodotus describes (1) their rulers and their forms of government, (2) their wars and
their social and trade relationships, (3) their beliefs, rituals and customs, (4) their important
buildings and engineering achievements, and (5) their migrations and explorations, including an
account of the first circumnavigation of Africa. Because of its exceptional intellectual richness,
this book was revered both by the ancients for whom it was written and by the many intervening
generations who carefully preserved it for us. It is a priceless legacy that any thoughtful modern
reader will enjoy.

But Herodotus's book and our translations of it are two different
things, since a translation, depending on its mix of virtues and vices, can either obscure the
original or present it almost transparently, as through a window. Fortunately, this translation by
Aubrey de Selincourt is outstanding in every respect. A work of art in its own right, it is
accurate, complete, succinct and clear. It was a great pleasure to read, and I am unaware of any
better translation for modern readers.

Sadly, this superb combination of ancient book
and modern translation is spoiled by John Marincola's Introduction and Notes. Their many defects
rise almost to the level of a literary crime, since they exemplify almost every vice that a good
annotator would avoid. They are superficial, narrowly conceived, gratuitously speculative,
offensively arrogant, and unbearably intrusive. Again and again, they illustrate poor judgment and
a breathtaking lack of scholarly temperament. Worse, they betray a deep failure to understand
Herodotus, the world he lived in, and the importance of this book, a priceless treasure he left
behind him.

In the final analysis, prospective readers face a difficult choice.
Should they purchase this superb translation and endure the distracting and often annoying nonsense
that Marincola will hurl at them from every page? Or should they settle for another, less enjoyable
translation that is better annotated? If I had it to do over again, I would avoid Marincola at all
costs. Fortunately, Oxford World Classics, Loeb Classics (Harvard University Press), and many other
publishers provide good alternatives.

Customer Rating:

Summary: And did those feet in ancient time
Comment: The simplest summary of the "Histories" by the fifth-century-B.C.E. Halicarnassian-Greek writer
Herodotus is that it is a chronicle of the Persian campaign to conquer the known world and of their
subsequent defeat by the underdog Greeks. But there is surprisingly much more to it to satisfy a
general readership. It is not just a military history but a social and natural history as well, a
virtual museum of all facets of life and death in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern lands of the
time, including observations on geography and zoology and even dipping into the most bizarre of
folklore. Herodotus's reputation as the "first" historian is endlessly debatable, but his authority
is undeniable; it's easy to see the influence his engaging style had on later historical writers
from Livy to Robert Graves. More of a bard than a lecturer, he writes to entertain as well as to
inform.

It is interesting to see on the maps that the Persian empire once covered much
of the same territory as that which Alexander the Great was to take for himself a century after
Herodotus's death. The Persians were highly skilled, intelligent, and bellicose, and their drive to
dominate the lands around them was the work of a line of kings--Cyrus, Cambyses, Darius, and finally
Xerxes--who were variably powermad, insane, bloodthirsty, and not less cruel to their own citizens
than to their enemies. They invaded both east (what is now India) and west, conquering all of Asia
Minor and forging down into Egypt and Libya; but their limited strength could overcome the
resistance of neither the Scythians, who lived in the country that is now Ukraine, nor the Greeks of
the lower peninsula, who represented a loose alliance of scattered city-states, Athens and Sparta
the most prominent.

Herodotus was a traveler and claims to have seen most of the
places he describes, so the histories serve also as a journal detailing the customs of foreign
cultures. His account of the fabulous city of Babylon, fortified by fantastically thick walls and
bronze gates and housing a curious labyrinth, is amazing but tantalizingly brief. (That he does not
mention the famous Hanging Gardens leads some modern scholars to suspect they actually might have
been located elsewhere in Assyria.) Of Egypt he discusses the mummification process, the method of
building the pyramids, the mystery of the source of the Nile. His essays on animals are quite
intriguing; for example, we learn that the Nile crocodile's favorite bird is the sandpiper because
it cleans the river leeches out of the reptile's gaping mouth. Some of his animals, though, such as
the giant ants of central Asia and the tiny winged snakes that guard the frankincense bushes of
Arabia, are difficult to regard as anything but ludicrous.

Chronological order is not
sacred to Herodotus; he is a desultory and digressive writer who jumps back and forth between
various subjects and times as he sees fit. It should be noted that what he is presenting as history
are perceptions rather than verifiable facts; he is only recording things that he has seen and that
other people have told him, although at times he tosses in a personal opinion or doubt as to whether
something truly happened as opposed to hearsay. This does not really matter if the histories are
read as literature (as I have read them), because the total effect is that of a great story with
almost the sweep of a Homeric epic, perhaps without the poetical flourishes. Two world powers
locked in a death struggle--history certainly does repeat itself.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Grene wins on the strength of the translation
Comment: By an costly combination of circumstances, I wound up recently linking three different translations
in reading through Herodotus. Here's a comparative review of each, which I'm posting for each
work.

1. Translation by G.C. Macaulay and revised throughout by Donald Lateiner;
published by Barnes and Noble Classics in 2004, but the Macaulay translation is from around
1890.

I started with this one, attracted by the extensive introduction by Donald
Lateiner. That intro was solid and revealed much that I hadn't been aware of. But the translation,
even after Lateiner's revisions, is awkward and stilted. Many of the pronoun references are
confusing, making it difficult to follow the narrative thread.

Here's about half of a
single sentence: "Now Miltiades son of Kimon had thus taken possession of Lemnos:--After the
Pelasgians had been cast out of Attica by the Athenians, whether justly or unjustly,--for about this
I cannot tell except the things reported, which are these:--Hecataios on the one hand, the son of
Hegesander, said in his history that it was done unjustly: for he said that when the Athenians saw
the land which extends below Hymettos, which they had themselves given them to dwell in, as payment
for the wall built round the Acropolis in former times, when the Athenians, I say, saw that the land
was made good by cultivation, which before was bad or worthless, they were seized with jealousy and
with longing to possess the land, and so drove them out, not alleging any other pretext: ..." />
The footnotes are generally helpful, although many only state the obvious. They are all
integrated with the text, making it unnecessary to keep paging to the back. The text is followed by
some interesting additions: A "Repertory" of English translations, a list of comments and works
"inspired" by Herodotus, further "comments and questions", an extensive bibliography, and two good
Indices with that of proper names separate from the general index.

Maps: There are
eight, all of which appear to be from the original Macaulay publication. In any case, they do not
appear to be based on the most recent cartography. The first, more extensive maps are helpful, but,
to my mind, the others are crudely drawn and lack important detail. Still, I'd give this edition a
good rating for maps, since it turns out that eight is a comparatively generous serving.
/>2. Translation by Aubrey de Selincourt in 1954; revised by John Marincola in 1972, 1996, and 2003;
published by Penguin Classics.

Disappointed by the Macaulay/Lateiner translation, I
picked this one up on the basis of the strong reputation of Penguin Classics. It has another good
introduction, followed by a limited bibliography. The translation itself is much easier to digest.

Here's how it renders the same passage as above: "The events which led to Miltiades'
capture of Lemnos were as follows. The Athenians had forced certain Pelasgians to leave Attica.
Whether or not they were justified in doing this is not clear; all I can offer are the two
contradictory accounts, that of the Athenians themselves, on the one side, and of Hecataeus the son
of Hegesander on the other. Hecataeus in his History maintains that the Athenians were in the wrong.
According to him, they had given the Pelasgians in payment for building the wall round the Acropolis
a tract of land, of poor quality and in bad condition, at the foot of Mt Hymettus; the Pelasgians
had improved the land, and when the Athenians saw it changed out of recognition and in first-rate
order, they grudged the gift and longed to take it back, until without further justification they
forcibly ejected the occupants."

The footnotes, which are more extensive and
informative than Lateiner's, are unfortunately all gathered as endnotes, necessitating frequent
paging back and forth. There's a brief Glossary, which is far from adequate. A decent Index closes
the edition.

Maps: There are only four, gathered together at the front. None of the
battle sites are represented. The maps are well-drawn, but sacrifice detail for clarity. This was
this edition's weakest aspect. It also lacks the many extras provided by Lateiner.

3.
Translation by David Grene; published by the University of Chicago Press, 1987

A friend
who owns a used book store provided this in time for the last 2 books of The History. There's a long
Introduction, with a deeper focus than the others. Grene says this about his translation: "The
English in which Herodotus comes before us should be direct, powerful, and clear but also, I think,
a little odd." I found this to be a worthy approach and one which Grene achieves in practice, with
little loss of clarity.

Here's that same passage: "Now this is the story of how
Miltiades took Lemnos. The Pelasgians had been driven out of Attica by the Athenians--whether justly
or otherwise I cannot say, only that Hecataeus, son of Hegisander, mentions it in his account and
says that it was unjustly; for, he says, the Athenians had given the Pelasgians a piece of land to
live in, under Hymettus, in payment for the wall that was at one time drawn around the Acropolis;
and when the Athenians saw this place, which had before been very poor and worthless, now well
tilled, they were seized with envy and longing to possess it and drove the Pelasgians out, urging no
other pretext against them."

Grene has both footnotes and endnotes, the latter being
longer and applicable to whole sections. There is a good Index that also attempts to provide
explanatory material. That was a good idea, but it's applied somewhat randomly and was thus more
frustrating than helpful.

Maps: There are 4 maps at the end and an additional 4 within
the text. Of the 3 editions, this is the only one to include a map of Xerxes' route, but it has a
major error. It also has the best map of Ionia.

I'd recommend Grene on the strength of
his translation. But Lateiner has the best additional material. None of the three has sufficient
maps for anyone who, like I, gets hung up on the many unfamiliar place names in Herodotus. You'll
need a companion book for a better understanding of the geography; I haven't found an ideal
solution, but both Wars of the Ancient Greeks by Victor Davis Hanson and The Penguin Historical
Atlas of Ancient Greece were helpful.

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