Herodotus

In Our Time: History

BBC

History

4.4 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2021

⏱️ ? minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer known as the father of histories, dubbed by his detractors as the father of lies. Herodotus (c484 to 425 BC or later) was raised in Halicarnassus in modern Turkey when it was part of the Persian empire and, in the years after the Persian Wars, set about an inquiry into the deep background to those wars. He also aimed to preserve what he called the great and marvellous deeds of Greeks and non-Greeks, seeking out the best evidence for past events and presenting the range of evidence for readers to assess. Plutarch was to criticise Herodotus for using this to promote the least flattering accounts of his fellow Greeks, hence the 'father of lies', but the depth and breadth of his Histories have secured his reputation from his lifetime down to the present day.

With

Tom Harrison Professor of Ancient History at the University of St Andrews

Esther Eidinow Professor of Ancient History at the University of Bristol

And

Paul Cartledge A. G. Leventis Senior Research Fellow at Clare College, University of Cambridge

Producer: Simon Tillotson

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:05.0	Thanks for downloading this episode of In Our Time.
0:07.6	There's a reading list to go with it on our website,
0:09.7	and you can get news about our programs
0:11.6	if you follow us on Twitter at BBC In Our Time.
0:15.0	I hope you enjoyed the programs.
0:16.9	Hello, to some in Rotas was the father of history.
0:19.7	To a few others, the father of lies.
0:22.1	He's been famous since the 5th century BC.
0:24.9	When you wrote about the Persian Wars in order,
0:26.7	he said, to preserve the great and marvellous deeds
0:29.9	of Greeks and barbarians, and especially
0:32.1	why they warred against each other.
0:34.5	And he covered not just politics, warfare and diplomacy,
0:37.3	but culture, ideology, geography, and religion.
0:40.4	A combination so prized by readers in the ancient world
0:43.3	that when so much else has been lost,
0:45.8	his histories are the longest single piece of Greek prose
0:49.0	to be preserved from that time.
0:51.0	And he's written with wonderful gusto.
0:53.3	With me to discuss Erolite de Zahar, Tom Harrison,
0:56.3	Professor of Ancient History at the University of St. Andrews.
	...

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