Review: Herodotus: The Father of History

Herodotus: The Father of History by Elizabeth Vandiver
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I found this excellent. The first few lectures give some background, and then it delves into the Histories themselves. A more thorough way of reading this might have been to read The Histories at the same time. 

Regardless, some fascinating insight into the different cultures, the similarities of various myths, and plenty of other tidbits. 

View all my reviews

Review: The Histories

The Histories by Herodotus
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

"In peace, sons bury their fathers. In war, fathers bury their sons."

This needs to be read a lot more attentively than I did. It is a history book, but it reads a lot like mythology quite frankly (a man being saved by riding on a dolphin to safety, oracles, prophecies, etc.). Regardless, just reading it without much background (besides what I randomly already knew or had already heard of) it is certainly a collection of interesting stories. Much like mythology. 

I think I found the section on the different populations and differences between them most interesting. Also the story of the battle of Thermopylae. 

Some notes:

The Hellenes kissed each other on the mouth when greeting?

The Babylonians didn't have doctors but if someone was ill he or she went to the town square and tried to see if anyone else had had the same sickness and how they got better. 

Amazed at how much the Ancient Egyptians seem to have in common with the ancient Israelites (circumcision, aversion to pork, etc.)

"from lands which are not rugged men who are not rugged are apt to come forth"

View all my reviews