Volume 34, Number 6 · April 9, 1987
The Father of It All
By Jasper Griffin
The History
by Herodotus, translated by David Grene
University of Chicago Press, 699 pp., $50.00
Herodotus the father of history is also called the father of lies. In the ancient world there were many who regarded him as a graceful stylist and a charming companion, but not to be taken seriously as a writer of the truth; others preferred to treat him as positively malevolent, a cynic who set out to discredit the greatest men and the supreme achievements of Greece with low and scurrilous allegations and innuendoes. The sweet-natured essayist Plutarch published a whole book, On the Malignity of Herodotus, an uncharacteristically shrill piece of writing. The historian is attacked as a 'pro-barbarian' who is cynical about the Spartans, horrid about Plutarch's own country of Boeotia—he alleges that the Boeotians were not just on the Persian side but were enthusiastic about it and did all they could to help King Xerxes—and who even minimized the number of Persians killed at the Battle of Marathon. Herodotus gave the figure of 6,400, while, as Plutarch plaintively observes, 'according to the usual version the barbarians killed were beyond counting.'
Review, 4246 words
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