In his nine scrolls known as The Histories, Herodotus described the conflict between his own people, the Greeks, and the Persian Empire. While telling the story of their own civilization in conflict with another, many people would be inclined to take sides, but Herodotus strove to show each side's perspective in the struggle. In this, he was like the great poet Homer, but Herodotus innovated even further. Homer wrote his epic as if narrated by a goddess; Herodotus spoke with his own voice, and relayed his own experiences and research.
Before Herodotus, accounts of important events had been the purview of royalty, minstrels and priests. Perhaps his innovation in relaying information was partly responsible for his reputation as the "Father of Lies." Historians of classical antiquity suspected Herodotus of passing along hearsay, and perhaps even inventing tales for his own amusement.
Born the fifth century BC in what is now Turkey, Herodotus was — if his claims were truthful — a widely traveled and well-read historian, yet he passed along tales of mythical griffins, flying dragons and gigantic heroes. His account of the phoenix — the mythical bird that lives for centuries and is consumed by and reborn in fire — is considered the bird's introduction to the West, although he may have borrowed from an earlier account. Was he simply a liar? Modern finds in paleontology and archaeology suggest his claims had at least some basis in fact.
In his writings, Herodotus often digressed, sharing what he learned from interviewing those he met, and creating some of the more interesting parts of his Histories. He interviewed Scythians living near the Black Sea about their lives, for instance. He also asked them what they knew about the lives of other nomads living farther east. In some cases, Herodotus relayed information that had been through several translations yet, remarkably, modern excavations in Russia and Kazakhstan have found artifacts similar to what he described.
Regarding mythical creatures, Herodotus believed that some legends he heard preserved a kernel of genuine fact, and he played a role in spreading the legend of the griffin. Griffins, according to the nomads he interviewed, were four-legged and lion-sized, with wings and sharp beaks. What might the nomads have seen that prompted these myths? Modern paleontological digs in the region have revealed fossil skeletons of Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus dinosaurs. The nomads of his time may have seen similar skeletons eroding out of the sediments along the Silk Road. These weren't the only potential fossils mentioned in Herodotus's works. When in Egypt, he wrote, he was shown piles of "bones and spines." These may have belonged to spinosaurs, large Cretaceous reptiles with dorsal membraned spines, or to pterosaurs. And the giant skeletons of heroes he discussed may well have belonged to fossil mammals from the Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs.
Herodotus mentioned at least one unambiguous fossil find. "I have seen shells on the hills," he wrote of Egypt. He reached a conclusion that is common today: The area "was originally an arm of the sea." Herodotus also ventured into the field of geology, guessing (inaccurately) that in the recent geologic past, Egypt had been a gulf of the sea. Although he was wrong about Egypt's geology, he was right in concluding that the world we live in changes over time, thanks to natural processes.
Far from a simple father of lies, Herodotus was arguably the world's first anthropologist, recording not only the legends but also the lifestyles and languages of other cultures. He certainly didn't practice science as we know it today. What he probably did do was faithfully recount the best explanations his contemporaries could offer for fossil finds.
For more information:
The First Fossil Hunters by Adrienne Mayor
The Discovery of the Past by Alain Schnapp
Fossils: Evidence of Vanished Worlds by Yvette Gayrard-Valy
The Book of Fabulous Beasts by Joseph Nigg
Herodotus of Halicarnassus (http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodotus/herodotus01.htm)
Galileo's Commandment edited by Edmund Blair Bolles
Narrative text and graphic design © by Michon Scott - Updated November 29, 2008