Preview

Cultural Bias and Structure in Herodotus

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
753 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cultural Bias and Structure in Herodotus
Herodotus' writes his Histories for Greeks. Specifically for Greeks living in Herodotus' own time. The statement of purpose which begins the work seems to contradict this hypothesis. Herodotus claims to wish to "prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time, and to preserve the fame of the important and remarkable achievements…" [Herodotus, 1.0]. The underlying assumption here is that the author is preserving these events and achievements for future generations and perhaps even future civilizations. The text however does not does not follow these guidelines. Herodotus assumes that his reader will have certain amount of common knowledge.

When discussing geographical distances, Herodotus often gives them relative to distances that Greeks would be familiar with. "The journey inland from the coast to Heliopolis is more or less as long as the journey from the Altar of the Twelve Gods in Athens to the temple of Olympian Zeus in Pisa." [Herodotus 2.7]. Herodotus assumes that his readers will have an innate feel for the Greek distances he provides otherwise he would not offer them.

Herodotus does not describe anything that Greeks are familiar with. He makes this clear by stating "I will not describe the shape of a camel, because the Greek already know what one looks like." [Herodotus 3.103]. This attitude might be entirely indiscernible if not for this statement for the simple fact that we have no idea what the ‘average' Greek knew. With this statement though we can extrapolate that all of the exotic animals, peoples, and lands which Herodotus describes are unknown to the average Greek. Herodotus does not take into account that what is common knowledge for a fifth century Athenian might not be common knowledge for a fourth century Athenian or a twentieth century American.

Herodotus organizes his work in a dual structure. The primary structure is a domino-like succession of events. Tacitly beginning with the Trojan War but more firmly beginning

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Jeremy Popkin's work From Herodotus to H-Net is a wonderful book, and it covers the topic very well. It includes necessary content, and it gives readers enough background information to help them along in the narrative, specific details about each historian he mentions to give the reader the reasons why they did things in different ways, but not enough to drown them in too many details. Popkin has a definite passion in the topic and does his best to convey the ideas to the readers, though he does make a mistake in one crucial aspect.…

    • 742 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Herodotus and Cabeza de Vaca were very influential writers in their day. They could not have been more apart in years though. Herodotus was before the birth of Christ and was one of the first writers to go into detail about events that had happened in the past. He went into great detail about wars and things like that. One of his greatest works was when he went into detail about the Egyptian culture and how they lived. Cabaza was one of the first Europeans to discover America and explore there. He and his crew were shipwrecked and taken slaves by Native Americans. Luckily Cabaza and some of his crew escaped and wandered America for eight years. He finally came in contact with his Spaniards…

    • 841 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Thucydides vs Plato

    • 2021 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Thucydides starts by talking about the history of the Athenian and Spartan relationship. Most notably he discusses how Athens became so powerful that war with Sparta was unavoidable. He also talks about his method of collecting evidence and recounting history. Thucydides says that while it is impossible to remember everything exactly as it happened, he recounted the events to the best of his ability. He was present at every event he wrote about or had reliable eyewitnesses present.…

    • 2021 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Archetypes In The Odyssey

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When looking throughout ancient mythology, each story has unique characteristics that make them their own. By looking deep into the myth, and analyzing its qualities, society can get a greater grasp of what the author was trying to portray through each God. One myth in particular is the journey of Odysseus as he traveled from the city of Troy, to his homeland in Ithaca. This story represents various interpretations such as gender sexuality, nature myth theory, and rationalism.…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Among the most renowned literary works are those of the ancient Greeks. Literary works by the ancient Greeks include historical documentation, along with tragedies based on conflicts. According to the historian Thucydides, the greatest conflict was the Peloponnesian war between the Athenians and Spartans, along with each of their allies. In the opinion of Thucydides, the Peloponnesian war was due to the growth of Athens and the fear, the growth caused in the Spartans and their allies (Thucydides, Book I, chapter I). Accounts of events by Thucydides, for Francis Cornford, are not merely historic, but rather works of art. The History of the Peloponnesian War according to Thucydides is artistic through carefully crafted speeches and captivating…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Herodotus, who many call the “father of history,” had no schooling or historical records to study as Plutarch did. The narrative he wrote consisted of stories he gathered from different lands that had been passed down from generation to generation. Also he was not biased toward the Greeks as Plutarch was (Dutton, Marchand, and Harkness, 37-39). Other ancient historians, such as Thucydides and Xenophon, wrote about events that occurred in their own time as opposed to the past. Like Herodotus, they did not have schooling or written historical records to study. Unlike Herdotus, they did not claim that gods had a hand in historical events (History.com, “Thucydides”). None of these ancient historians were educated in philosophy or rhetoric like Plutarch was. Plutarch also differed from these historians in that he was the first historian to use comparative analysis. He was also the first historian to write about the thought and behavior of his subjects, which added a new dimension to historical writing (Halkias, "Why Plutarch Matters"). Plutarch stretched the truth and distorted quotes in favor of his own arguments. He was more interested in getting his point across than being historically accurate, although his writing was undoubtedly much more accurate than that of…

    • 1621 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Odysseus is the hero of the Odyssey, The Odyssey tells of Odysseus’s 10 year struggle to return from the Trojan war to his home in Ithaca. He faces many obstacles during the war, he steps up and becomes a leader for his men and fights hard for them all.…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my thesis statement, I mentioned that Herodotus was famous and good about both the Greek military history and the Greek cultural history. I analyzed and interpreted what I read on the articles and books that I used while preparing the paper. So, I declared that Herodotus is valuable for both the Greek military history and the Greek cultural history. Do I have to choose only one of them to compare it with another one, and make one of them win at the end of the paper?…

    • 99 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Martin’s depiction of Herodotus’ life would portray that Herodotus spent much of his life traveling to learn more about the world. Martin writes about Herodotus’ accounts of traveling around the Mediterranean, visiting the various bodies of water there, and venturing too much of Mesopotamia. Everywhere he went, he asked questions about the history and customs of the various peoples he encountered, the buildings and works of art he saw, the documents he read, and the tales and legends heard. Making inquiries, recording the answers, evaluating the likelihood that they were true. In presenting his account for others to judge - these were Herodotus’s tasks as a historian informed by first-hand knowledge of his world. (Martin 3)…

    • 1967 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many areas of the film have been completely altered, For example in Herodotus The histories there is no mention at all of Leonidas’ wife queen Gorgo. In the times of aqncient Greece women were not involved in political debates within the film Queen Gorgo argues her husband’s case to send more Spartan troops to Thermopylae while he is fighting the Persians. This would not have occurred in ancient Greece as women were not considered citizens or equals to men.(Although Spartan women were regarded more highly then other ancient Greek woman) Gorgo is the only main character who is female in the film 300 and probably has such a large role in the film to either draw a female audience to the film (as a female character they can relate to, or a drama aspect of the film they can enjoy and for men there is the appeal of sex) to make it more appealing through the use of a female main character.…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Banta, Jason. Thesis – “Historical Disclosure in Herodotus: The Contruction of Greek Identity in Book II of the Histories”. Texas Tech University 1999.…

    • 1895 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Odysseus

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages

    All Greek myths are crazy adventures with all-powerful gods and deadly monsters. In Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey, the king of Ithica, Odysseus, is trying to get home to his family after a ten year war conquering the city of Troy. Odysseus encounters numerous perils during his journey home. Some of his impediments included Calypso, a god, Polyphemus, a giant Cyclopes, and the suitors. Calypso trapped Odysseus on her island for seven years because she loved him. The Cyclopes only saw Odysseus and his crew as food. Then, when he finally gets home, he learns about the suitors who have been tarnishing his home and courting his faithful wife, Penelope. Many people think Odysseus’s journey was heroic but Odysseus is, in fact, not a hero by the standard of Joseph Campbell’s “hero’s journey.” The hero’s journey is a man passage to heroism. It consists of six steps; leaving home, deciding upon a quest, overcoming obstacles, fighting an all-out battle, getting a scar from the fight, and gaining great wisdom. Odysseus is close to being a hero by completing most of the phases but because he did not learn to correct any of his flaws, he did not gain any wisdom in his journey; Odysseus is not a hero.…

    • 1250 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Herodotus Primary Sources

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The historical setting of this primary source was anywhere between the 450’s BCE, to the 420’s BCE. We are unable to pinpoint the exact time to a specific year; rather we give this range of years because this is when Herodotus was in his primed writing years. This is due to the fact that by this time in his life he had already travelled around and knew everything about the places he wrote about, more specifically in book two, Egypt and its…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Greek Myths Analysis

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Storytelling is a way to explain the unknown, provide moral and ethical guidelines, and put good and bad human interactions into context for children. With the gods, heroines, and villains in Greek Mythology, children can be taught about values, courage, treachery, weakness, and the flaws of human nature. While the myths of the Greek gods are centered in the religion and culture of the ancient times, the stories continue to be parables to teach and entertain children today. The mystery and supernatural fears of ancient Greece have been overtaken by modern times, but the fundamentals of human nature remain unchanged and create opportunities to teach in a way that captures the imaginary…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Herodotus was a Greek researcher and story teller from the fifth century BCE, and is known as the world’s first historian. He was among…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays