The father of history is Herodotus. The significance of his "History" for contemporaries and later researchers

About who is called the father of history, there are many legends and rumors. It is said that, having published his work, he achieved the recognition of history as an actual science, wrote that he was so unique a scientist that he almost left his disciples behind, point to the controversial moments in his writings and immediately refer to them during scientific discussions . Such a long memory can be earned only by truly unique scientists, who left behind the most significant research in their field. And one of such scientists was the great Herodotus, who lived in Ancient Greece in the 5th century BC, who rightly received the nickname the father of history.

Herodotus and Philosophy

The name of Herodotus was inextricably linked with history in ancient and modern science. The volume of his heritage is difficult to perceive from the point of view of modern historians, because for us the recording and analysis of historical events is a natural and natural phenomenon. A completely different worldview was with the ancient Greeks.

Among the Greek philosophers, the idea that only the unchangeable can be cognized was dominant. They emphasized the study of natural phenomena, ignoring social and historical realities. It was believed that the study of the past of mankind is a hopeless task, because the flow of time is transitory, which means that history is unknowable.

Herodotus and his "History"

Satirist Lucian describes that Herodotus achieved fame in just four days. For a long time he worked on his own work describing the past of his oecumene. The father of history lived in the sunny Halicarnassus, where he worked for a long time to collect and analyze the meager historical facts that he could collect. Having finished his work, he went to Olympia, where by that time the Olympic Games were held. There, Herodotus addressed the audience in the temple of Zeus and arranged public readings of his work there. The audience was so shocked by the knowledge and exposition of their own past that they immediately appropriated nine volumes, of which the "History" of Herodotus consisted, the names of nine muses. By the end of the competition, viewers were interested not so much in performances and sports successes of their beloved champions, as with the new pages of Herodotus' creation.

Herodotus in the Ancient World

Lukian was not a contemporary of Herodotus, he wrote his notes six hundred years after the death of the great Greek. Therefore, many details of his story raise certain doubts. It is unlikely that the father of history could publicly read the "History" before the public in its full version. All his work is longer than the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," taken together. In addition, some scholars claim that this monumental work has remained unfinished. "History" of Herodotus ends on the description of the scene of the execution of one Persian. And some chapters have survived to this day only in the form of links and marked paragraphs.

Apprentice of Herodotus is officially considered Thucydides, but the principles of his description, in particular in the History of Punic War, are fundamentally different from everything written by Herodotus. His "History of Punic Wars" is written in a completely different vein, not continuing, but rather refuting the theses of his predecessor.

Indirect confirmation of the wide popularity of Herodotus can serve as a parody of his story in the comedies of Aristophanes. Agree that it is difficult to make a parody based on little-known or unpopular books. The bust of the first researcher of past centuries stood in the famous library of Pergamon. Many years later Aristotle highly appreciated the work of Herodotus, calling him the model of an exemplary historian.

Father of history or father of geography?

The name of the father of history can easily be supplemented by different titles. The ones with which he was endowed both by his contemporaries and researchers of the future. With equal rights, he deserves the title of "father of history", "father of geography", "father of ethnography." Each of his historical stories is preceded by a short prologue, which describes the geographical position, name and customs of the people, which will be discussed. For example, describing the campaign of Xerxes to Sparta, Herodotus does not forget to mention craftsmen making honey on Mount Callateb, or to tell about wild animals that lived at that time in the forests of France. A variety of information - truthful and invented, they were described with the same thoroughness, as if offering the descendants to independently understand the intricacies of truth and fiction.

Echo of Glory

But different historical schools converge in one - it was Herodotus who became the first person who gave history the status of science, it was through the prism of his work that the ancient Roman and then medieval schools led the tradition of describing their own modernity. The discovery of his works in the era of revival gave a new impetus to the understanding of ancient culture. In the historical school of Russian Herodotus highly valued Karamzin, who achieved the popularization of ancient authors among contemporaries.