The Relationship Between Herodotus And Homer In The Histories

More specifically, what exactly Herodotus is trying to achieve when including Homer and his works. Although Herodotus highly praises Homer throughout his Histories, he also establishes critical distance, separating himself from Homer. This is likely to appreciate the genius of Homer whilst setting himself off in terms of genre; Herodotus’ Histories are the birth of history as a discipline (hence Cicero naming him the father of history). His use of Homer illustrates a kind of generosity to source material, and an openness to human experience that doesn’t codify the Peloponnesian War; it adds to the humanity of the work.

Introduction

• Thesis statement (above)
• “Herodotus’ debt to Homer is profound, and may be seen in his choice of subject, his language, his conception of his task, as well as in many occasional observations and verbal echoes” (The Histories, xvii).
• “His work defies easy categorization: like Homer, Herodotus is a world unto himself” (The Histories, xiv).
• Within his search for “great and memorable deeds,” Herodotus’ ethnographies aided in defining Greek culture and self-image (The Histories, xv).
• “… whatever his shortcomings as a historian (in the modern sense of the word), he is a story-teller of the first rank” (The Histories, xvi).
• Deemed the father of history (by Cicero) and father of lies (by Plutarch)
• This is likely because he can an affinity for work, much like that of epic poetry by Homer, but also was much different than Homer. Explains why he could be considered these two things.
• “If, however, we eliminate these preconceptions and expectations, we may be better able to see Herodotus as a complex writer, who viewed the past not exclusively through the narrow prism of wars and politics, but in the variety and richness of what human beings had sought to achieve” (The Histories, xxxiii).

Body

Examples of Herodotus including Homer and what exactly that is doing for him (how he appreciates it AND separates himself from it).

(the spaces between numbered sections indicate future intended paragraph breaks)

“In his preface he claims that he wishes to preserve ‘human achievements’ (ta genomena ex anthropon), thus distinguishing his work at the outset from epic poetry, where gods and humans both are characters and act in concert with each other” (the Histories, xiv).

An example of how he sets himself apart from Homer.

Herodotus, dissimilar to Homer, doesn’t claim to be inspired by the Muses. Yet, Herodotus’ first few lines emulate those of Homer’s world of heroes in glorious technicolor.

Homer also documented the extraordinary deeds of Greeks and non-Greeks.

Homer aided Herodotus in how to give order and structure to the narrative

Herodotus gave himself a rather extensive and daunting task: giving structure to the mass of information about the Peloponnesian War. Homer’s epics provided him with a model for such an immense task. The main aim, as Herodotus states, of The Histories is giving a structure to the underlying reasons as to why the Greek city-states defeated the Persian Empire. Like Homer, however, “he gave variety and movement to an underlying linear structure” (The Histories, xxii).

Herodotus’ many digressions may seem to indicate a lack of structure. However, few of his digression are without significance. “The ethnographies, for example, are not randomly given, but usually placed where the relevant group comes into contact with the advance of Persia” (The Histories, xxiii).

Much of The Histories is about the nature of human power; the digressions express this central theme of the rise and fall of empires.

Herodotus took, arguably, the two major themes of Homer’s epics, travel and warfare, and amalgamated them into a fluid whole.

Travel is a dominant theme in ethnographic segments of The Histories, and warfare in the historical segments.

Herodotus further uses the increasingly expansive nature of the Persian Empire to investigate the cultures of those who became under its control in the following century.

Furthermore, his Histories incorporate the historical and cultural aspects, unlike that of Homer.

Distancing but maintaining his own presence in the narrative

When it comes to the actual narrative, Herodotus is very careful about how he distances himself from the text. He often says remarks like “it is said,” but he nevertheless includes them, careful not to lessen their credibility (The Histories, xxviii). Moreover, he is careful to include all documentation of events to the best of his ability without tainting our view of it.

On the other hand, Herodotus prominently uses first person and is far from reserved in the text (xxviii). This is unique for historians, many – like Thucydides – aimed at concealing their presence in the text. “For Herodotus, he presents narrative structure and order whilst maintaining his own presence throughout it” (xxix).

Imitation

A characteristic of Herodotus’ work is imitation: “characters are presented to us as they act. This is a legacy from Homer” (The Histories, xxix). He also uses direct speech. Herodotus’ speeches, unlike Homer’s, are typically to the point and dramatic. These speeches are, by and large, invented by Herodotus: who have them a structure and flow. “These speeches mark one of the great differences between ancient and modern historiography, and yet they were a natural consequence of Herodotus’ desire to do in prose what Homer had done in poetry” (The Histories, xxix).

Presenting the war as east versus west

It would be naïve to think that Herodotus wasn’t at least in part motivated to depict the Peloponnesian War due to his appreciation of the incredible feat accomplished by “a small and cantankerous group of city-states” against the most powerful empire of that time (The Histories, xvi). The Histories is, however, more than a military narrative.

Moreover, by choosing a war that was east versus west, Herodotus deliberately emulated Homer and his narrative of the Greek-Trojan war. Much like Homer, Herodotus “records and immortalizes the actions worthy of remembrance” (xvii). These worthy actions, however, were not of heroes from long ago, like in Homer. Rather, Herodotus met the people or descendants of these heroes in Greek city-states. He is placing himself in the narrative, in the tradition. By doing so, Herodotus is claiming that the actions of the Peloponnesian Wars were every bit as worthy of importance as those in Homer’s epics.

Although Herodotus doesn’t openly dismiss Homer, he does take a swipe at him at least once. Helen of Troy, Herodotus claim, never actually arrived at Troy: the ship carrying her was rerouted to Egypt because of unfavorable weather. He further accuses Homer of changing the story to fit the categorization of epic poetry (page number).

This is an example of how Herodotus intentionally separates himself from Homer; he aims to be a reliable, accurate source.

What sets Herodotus apart is the proto-scientific way he explores the world.

• Herodotus frequently finds answers by looking at origins and beginnings.
• The search for origins runs deep in The Histories. This search introduces a means of explaining that connects contrasting Herodotean inquiry by suggesting that they have a structure and order. That is to say that the world that Herodotus, although can seem confusing or far-fetched, is ultimately coherent.
• He aims at remaining credible, considering all sides.
• Herodotus will occasionally falter and his reliability is questioned (i. e. when he defies naivety).
• For example, the gold-digging ants of India, “bigger than a fox, though not so big as a dog”;
• The Arabian winged snakes that interfere with the harvest;
• The Arabian sheep wooden carts attached to their backs because their tails are so long, to prevent their tails from dragging on the ground.
• This mythical, seemingly impossible features in The Histories not only emulate those of Homer’s Odyssey, but also exemplify his vast sources and inclusion of many sides.
• Herodotus accommodates such creatures when there is an absence of better information.

Conclusion

• Because of the broad focus, The Histories are about the world as it came to be understood and mapped out (towards the end of the fifth-century BCE).
• “What makes Herodotus unique is the range of his interests and his attempt to unite human and natural phenomena, and in so doing to discover the causal interconnection of widely disparate events” (The Histories, xviii).
• Thesis statement & what the information above leads us to conclude about Herodotus and Homer’s relationship in The Histories (aka creating his own genre, and how his use of Homer illustrates a kind of generosity to source material, and an openness to human experience that doesn’t codify the Peloponnesian War; it adds to the humanity of the work).