![]() ![]() Herodotus combined the two major themes of Homeric epic – travel and warfare – into a single whole. After all, Homer, too, reported great deeds by Greeks and non-Greeks alike and preserved them for posterity. Yet his opening lines still pay homage to the world of the Homeric hero and his perpetual striving for kleos (“glory”). Unlike Homer, Herodotus no longer claims to be inspired by the Muses. Herodotus of Halicarnassus here displays his inquiry, so that human achievements may not become forgotten in time, and great and marvellous deeds – some displayed by Greeks, some by barbarians – may not be without their glory. Herodotus’ ingenuity emerges most clearly when considered in relation to Homer, who had set the benchmark and provided all writers to follow with a model for talking about the past.Ĭonsider for example his opening statement in the beginning of the book: Certain of victory, he wages war against the Persians as the oracle foretells, Croesus duly ends up destroying an empire – his own. ![]() That same king consults the Delphic oracle and learns to his delight that he will bring down a great empire. The moral is, in a nutshell: call no man happy until he is dead. There is the conversation between King Croesus of Lydia and the Athenian statesman, reformer and poet Solon, on the true nature of human happiness. Yet as soon as one pauses and appreciates the stories for what they are one cannot but marvel at the events Herodotus relates. ![]()
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