Herodotus's Work "The Histories" Is Essay

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This is perhaps another interesting aspect of Herodotus's objective level of discussion: his interests go beyond history and simple ethnography to give larger descriptions of additional themes such as geographical location. These can also help in determining and explaining the development of certain ethnography.

His objective approach can also be seen in the descriptive manner in which he goes into the people's traditions. One such example stands out in Book 1, paragraph 196, when he proceeds with an enumeration of the established customs, keen to show both religious and laical customs. His description is, again, very detailed.

One of Herodotus's clear interest on both subjective and objective levels is that for religious conceptions. However, from the way he minutely examines the different traditions, beliefs, and cults, one could point out that he simply objectively notes some of the ways that these cultures and people practice some of their religious beliefs. On many occasions, Herodotus becomes an anthropologist, studying the relevant ceremonies, oracles or dreams as they seem to influence the development of the respective people.

As a matter of assumptions, it is interesting to note that Herodotus does not believe in the divine intervention to the same degree to which someone like Homer might use the divine in his storytelling.

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Despite the fact that, occasionally, some of his storyline seems to be transposed into myth, the presence of god in the human actions or as determining elements in human action is limited. From this point-of-view, as previously stated, Herodotus simply observes the way that humans worship gods rather than the potential metaphysical problem of divine intervention.

The presence of religious objects and traditions in people's life is clear throughout the book. For example, on many occasions, the historian mentions that the respective people has an oracle that is used for a direct communication with the gods and for predictions on the future. As such, the Ethiopians "dwell in reverence of the gods Zeus and Dionysus" and they have "an oracle of Zeus established" (2.29).

The most likely prejudice that Herodotus has is in fact tied to the myths of people he describes and to the way he understands to use those myths and transform them into actual realistic underlying parts of the story he tells. It is difficult to discern, from that perspective, between his subjective and his objective levels......

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