Herodotus Essay, Research Paper

Herodotus Essay

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was born about 484 B.C. he died 60 years later. For the time he lived in this age was very old though by today’s standards it is not. The reason why his age was so outstanding was in his time the average man live for maybe half that because of the harsh living conditions. So with out even any of his writings of thoughts he would standout as a above average man for his time. But his age was not all that was amazing about him.

In his life Herodotus traveled a lot. Some of the places he traveled to were southern Italy, Lower Egypt, and the Caucasus. This land was in his time much of the known world, which we now call the ancient known world. I feel and so do some scholars that this is why his writings and theories were so good. With his knowledge of the world around him he had a wider view on what was going on then most of the people of that time. So now we know that he was an old traveler but what else?

His great History, which was the first major prose work in world literature. This was his view of his world during the Persian wars. When University of Chicago scholar David Grene translated this book it won Herodotus the title of “The Father of History” in ancient times. In his book he not only uses what he saw going on around him on his long walks but he told of the feelings that were inside of him. Herodotus was a very old man (by his standers) that loved to travel and write or just the plain old “Father of History”.