Cultural Bias and Structure in Herodotus Essay

In reading a Little History of the World by E.H. Gombrich you realize that history seems so much less complicated when you are the one standing back and reflecting on the past. You realize how easy it is to often forget that every single new idea, religion and war was a struggle that lasted generations upon generations. History is more than just a page or a story, its our account of the world. That goes to show how short life and history is, you realize that history is always repeating, war after war, peace then war. There are good and bad periods in history and its up to us to learn from them. In a way history is much like a human being it goes through stages, learns about life, and has inner struggles or wars about their ideas and their beliefs.

The great historian, Herodotus, who is also known as the “father of history,” wrote many books on the Greek culture. Herodotus describes the cultural values of the Greeks in his detailed work, The Histories. Because the book concentrates on the Greek and Persian wars, he also writes about the values of the Persians. In his account of the Greek and Persian wars, Herodotus describes the different values of the Greek culture and the Persian culture in this famous book. From reading this work of Herodotus, it becomes clear that the values which each of these two cultures held, differed greatly.

Throughout Herodotus’ The History, Oracles, and dreams play an important role. While the gods have almost no presence throughout the book, the Oracles and/or dreams are linked to many of the major events.

    Most people think of a hero as a strong, superior, good-looking person that could never make a mistake. However, in a story called The Odyssey, a connection to real life reveals imperfections to be common in heroes. Each person has their low points and highlights, regardless of their “rank”. The author and epic poet, Homer, exemplifies our main character, Odysseus, to take on this idea of a hero throughout his writing. The time period took place in Ancient Greece, allowing Greek culture to relate to the poem. Different aspects of such culture and history may have influenced the works and creativity of Homer as well. A major point includes The Trojan War because it focuses in on Odysseus’ journey to bring Helen back home by devising a plan to destroy warriors in the city. Acknowledge this factor when reading The Odyssey, for not only evidence of heroism, but also other major points of archetypes, in which the device reflects the insights of readers in modern time and what is seen from Ancient Greek culture.

“Herodotus of Halicarnassus here gives the results of his researches, so that the events of human history may not fade with time and the notable achievements both of Greeks and of foreigners may not lack their due fame; and, among other things, to show why these peoples came to make war on one another.” Herodotus is considered one of the founders of historiography. It had long been argued that Herodotus was important for his military histories of Ancient Greece, but although his works focused on military and war he put specific emphasis on detailed factors that related more to the cultural aspects of Greek history.

The ancient hero Odysseus of the epic The Odyssey possesses numerous notable heroic traits, many of which have influenced the modern perspective of a hero in literature, real life, or otherwise. For instance, he demonstrates paragon amounts of loyalty throughout his return voyage to Ithaca, along with leadership, courage, and persistence. As Odysseus is primarily an archetype in addition to his heroic characteristics, his influences have endured the odyssey of time, and have become comparable in themselves to their prior forms present in the adventurous hero Odysseus. Although the modifications in the perceptions of Odysseus (or, generally, similar heroes of his time) and modern heroes do not differ in extremely significant or outstanding

Herodotus and Einhard write history in two completely different styles. Einhard’s style is about giving specific details, while Herodotus’s style is about giving his own personal opinions and information that he has from secondary sources. The biggest effect of the difference amongst the two historian’s style of writing is the fact that Einhard’s history of Charlemagne’s life gives information that makes it seem as if the events were realistic, while some of the events that Herodotus talks about seem conjured.

In this accessible writing, Thomas R. Martin makes a comparison of the writings of Sima Qian in historical China and those of Herodotus of ancient Greek. Primarily, the main theme of the author is to show a glimpse of the symbols of early history writing. Martin shows the related struggles that each contended with in the preparation of the historical accounts. Furthermore, it is also indicated that the two writing legends played a significant role in inventing modern notions of historical writing and the occupation of an historian. In light of this, the paper will make an analysis of the early life of two ancient writers who shaped the history of writing.

Heroes today are courageous, noble, great leaders, and daring. Ulysses holds all these virtues, along with being clever. Heroes in ancient Greece are greatly looked up upon for their bravery, cleverness, and their will for sacrificing themselves for the greater good of their men. However, not all heroes are perfect. Heroes in ancient Greece show hubris, which penalizes them because the gods do not condone vanity. In addition, to the qualities of bravery, courage, nobility, and leadership, in Bernard Evlin’s take on The Odyssey, The Adventures of Ulysses, he indicates that cleverness can be more important than other characteristics.

The advancements he made while the act of recording the past was just beginning to flourish were substantial enough to be considered still effective today. In his work called The Histories, Herodotus explores a copious amount of topics while keeping not a word impartial and remaining thoroughly unbiased. His main conflict was centered on the civilizations of the East and the West, a topic that has been illustrated over and over again by many of his successors. Although in his time technology was scarce, he took matters into his own hands and began to ask questions of the people at the places he would write about and unveil their histories, customs, artwork, and buildings.

Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey follows Odysseus on his long journey home. The Epic also includes the stories of Odysseus’ family left behind: the travels of his son, Telemachus, and how plenty, of what we would now call “home wreckers”, suitors pressured his wife, Penelope, into marrying one of them. The characters are beautifully crafted and the story is truly epic. All the elements presented can bring in any reader from any century, the Cyclops, the Gods, the trickery of Penelope, and the disguises of Odysseus, are all legendary literary hooks . There are many things to learn—about writing, about the world around us, the world ahead of us, and the past behind us—from The Odyssey. (26) It is undeniably evident that this ancient text has

In Hellenistic literature is when we can see the new intellectual way of thinking and in many ways contributed to other advancements in science, math, and architecture. With the expansion of Alexander’s empire into Egypt came a new center of literacy production in Alexandria where their library contained almost a million papyrus scrolls. This library was a great research institute and supported many great scientists and scholars and due to this atmosphere led to great work in the field of history. One example of this is the work of Eratosthenes; with all the great works that were kept in this library, Eratosthenes was able to put together a chronology of important events dating back to the Trojan War. However, one thing that the Hellenistic Age lacked was a historian that documented important events of the time as there were no historians that compared to historians of Classical Greece such as Herodotus and Thucydides. Because of this we are unable to understand the Hellenistic Age as in depth as we do Classical

Have you ever stopped to think that everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact? That everything we see is a perspective, not the truth? That’s the way Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor, viewed the world. Thucydides, an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War, would most likely agree with him. At the beginning of The History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides clearly stated his aims as a writer of history. These aims were to deliver a nonbiased recollection of the war, as well as to preserve an accurate record of it. He argued that his work was “not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last forever”. Although some critics may argue that he had a strong pro Athenian bias, I strongly believe that Thucydides succeeded at achieving his aims by providing a fair account of the war with respect to the sides involved in it.

Many people consider him the father of history; others prefer to call him the father of lies. Whatever may be your perception of Herodotus’ work, the truth is that Herodotus began a new manner of writing history in which human psychology takes a fundamental place. He was the first historian who really considered the reasons why things happen and did not limit his narrative to just facts. His book The Histories evidences all the distinctive features that he employs through his description of facts as well as the intrinsic analysis that he includes to his storyline about controversial topics like the definition of what heroes really are. Indeed, The Histories’ book 7 reveals Herodotus’ astonishing and unique view of heroism. During his

Who is a hero? How does the definition of a hero change over time? The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the “longest and greatest literary composition written in cuneiform Akkadian” (Dalley 39) and told to an audience, while The Odyssey, and Oedipus the King came many centuries later. However, they all have a hero that represents the values of the society at the time. This paper is going to compare and contrast the ideal of the hero from ancient Mesopotamia in Gilgamesh in approximately 2000 BC, The Odyssey, from the close of the 8th century BC focusing on Odysseus’ long journey home to Ithaca, and Oedipus the King written in about 430 BC and telling the story of the King, Oedipus who fulfills a prophecy.