The Histories

Summary

The Histories is the first great work of prose history in the Western tradition, an inquiry (historia) into the causes and course of the wars between the Greeks and the Persian Empire. Herodotus states his purpose in the opening: to preserve the memory of great and marvellous deeds of Greeks and barbarians, and especially the reason why they fought one another. Later divided into nine books named after the Muses, the work moves outward from this question into a vast panorama of the known world. Book One begins with legendary abductions of women, then turns to Croesus of Lydia, his conversation with the Athenian sage Solon about happiness and fortune, his misreading of the Delphic oracle, and his defeat by Cyrus the Great, whose rise and conquest of Babylon follow. Book Two is devoted to Egypt: its geography, the Nile's flooding, its religion, customs, animals, embalming practices and the history of its kings. Book Three covers Cambyses' conquest of Egypt and his madness, the usurpation of the false Smerdis, the debate among the Persian conspirators over the best form of government, and the accession of Darius. Book Four describes the Scythians and Libyans and Darius' failed invasion of Scythia. Book Five recounts the Ionian Revolt against Persia, supported by Athens. Book Six describes its suppression, the madness of the Spartan king Cleomenes, and the first Persian invasion of Greece ending at Marathon in 490 BCE. Books Seven to Nine narrate Xerxes' great invasion of 480–479: the bridging of the Hellespont, the review of the vast army, the stand of Leonidas and the three hundred Spartans at Thermopylae, the sack of Athens, the naval victory at Salamis, Xerxes' retreat, and the final Greek victories at Plataea and Mycale. Herodotus' method combines what he has seen, what he has heard, and his own judgement, and he often reports multiple versions of a story, sometimes saying which he believes. His narrative is enriched by digressions, anecdotes, oracles and dreams, and by a deep interest in the customs of other peoples, famously concluding that each people believes its own customs best. Underlying the whole is a moral and religious pattern in which excessive power and arrogance are followed by reversal, and in which human fortune never stays in one place.

Top Lessons

• Call no one happy until the end

  Solon's warning to Croesus, that fortune is unstable and a life can only be judged when it is complete, frames the entire work. Human prosperity is precarious.

• Custom is king

  Herodotus records that Darius asked Greeks and Indians whether they would adopt each other's funeral customs, and both were horrified. His ethnography shows respect for cultural difference rare in his time.

• Inquiry and evidence

  Herodotus distinguishes what he saw, what he heard and what he believes, sometimes reporting stories he doubts. His method invented history as a critical discipline.

Verified Quotes

Medical Lens

Herodotus is a treasure-house for the history of medicine. He describes Egyptian medicine as highly specialized, with physicians for each part of the body, and gives the most detailed ancient account of mummification. He tells the story of Democedes of Croton, a Greek physician enslaved by the Persians who heals Darius' dislocated ankle when the Egyptian doctors fail, and later Queen Atossa's breast abscess. He reports Cambyses' madness and considers that he may have suffered from the 'sacred disease' from birth, a key early discussion of epilepsy and madness; likewise Cleomenes' madness, which the Spartans attributed to his drinking unmixed wine. He describes Scythians inhaling the vapour of hemp seeds thrown on hot stones in a felt tent and howling with pleasure, the earliest literary account of cannabis use. He mentions the Babylonians bringing the sick into the marketplace for advice from passers-by, and the Scythian 'Enarees' afflicted with a 'female disease'. Plague and dysentery ravage Xerxes' retreating army. These are reports, not verified facts, and modern diagnoses are retrospective.

• Book 1.105; 4.67

  The Scythian Enarees, men afflicted by a 'female disease', said to be punishment for plundering a temple.

• Book 1.197

  The Babylonians, having no physicians, carry the sick into the market so passers-by can advise them.

• Book 2.84–88

  Egyptian medical specialization and the three grades of embalming, with removal of brain and viscera.

• Book 3.29–38

  Cambyses' madness, his killing of the Apis bull, and Herodotus' suggestion that he had the 'sacred disease'.

• Book 3.129–137

  Democedes of Croton heals Darius' dislocated ankle and Atossa's breast growth, then escapes to Greece.

• Book 4.73–75

  Scythians purify themselves after funerals by inhaling hemp-seed vapour in felt tents.

• Book 6.75, 84

  Cleomenes goes mad and mutilates himself with a knife; the Spartans blame his habit of drinking unmixed wine.

• Book 7.12–18

  Xerxes' and Artabanus' recurring dreams urging the invasion, with a discussion of whether dreams are meaningful.

• Book 8.115

  Plague and dysentery afflict Xerxes' army on its retreat through Thrace.