Herodotus: Cultural Tolerance In Herodotus’ The Histories, he tours the ancient middle-east and Mediterranean areas and documents descriptions of battles, accounts of anecdotes, and expositions of culture. Herodotus is often noted as the ‘Father of History’ because his work is often referred to as the first written record of events. He is often cited for imploring cultural relativity, a way of thinking often implored by modern historians. The traditional definition holds that ethical and moral standards are relative to what a particular society or culture believes to be good or bad, right or wrong. Herodotus practices tolerance, in his writing, more than cultural relativism because, while attempting to write as objectively as possible, as a modern historian would, he does not agree with each facet of a culture as if he were part of that society. He views each culture in its own light first. Herodotus looks, not to agree with a culture, but to understand it. He will, however comment on a particular custom if he is acquainted enough with the culture that he feels he may reliably reflect rather than objectively report on it. A native of …show more content…
(I.Preface) He encounters a wealth of information to document which he selects and organizes as an objective portrait of past events and cultures. However, Herodotus writes on cultures from a different type of relativism as he enquires upon cultures he has well-experienced and finds customs he agrees with, finds disgraceful, or accepts. He first writes about a culture as objectively as possible, listing and describing distinct facets of it. As a native Greek, Herodotus formulates his opinions as he is conditioned on the Grecian moral code. His natural instinct is to reflect on a particular custom in relation to what the status quo is in his Greek culture. This is demonstrated by the Herodotus’ retelling of Darius’ social
Here, Herodotus accounts the story of Candaules’s fond passion for his wife’s beauty, thinking her the “fairest women in the whole world” and he wants to show off his wife to his trusted bodyguard. Herodotus explains how Candaules has respect for the beauty of his wife, but does not respect any of her wishes or desires upon showing herself to a stranger bodyguard.
185-196. Dillon, Mathew, and Garland, Lynda. Ancient Greece: Social and Historical Documents from Archaic Times to the Death of Socrates. Routledge International Thompson Publishing Company, 1994, pp. 179-215 Lefkowitz, Mary.
Literature has always been an immensely helpful resource when discerning cultural values in societies past and present. Through the study of noteworthy historic fictional and factual, texts we are able to distinguish parallel characteristics present through many different cultures and time periods. These distinguishing characteristics are one of the main things that help us to determine when and how a society, or world culture as a whole changes as time moves forward. When similarities are identified throughout many cultures in the same time period academics are able attach general titles to that specific time expanse. The “Heroic Age” is an example of a labeled span of time that generally maintains societal sameness throughout the period. The epic texts of Beowulf and The Odyssey are examples of culture revealing novels created during the heroic age. The texts help to prove the idea that societies maintain a basic status quo for many years because there is a 1500 year separation in the creation of the books. Despite this time difference in authorship, similar cultural ideals can be recognized throughout each novel. Both Greek and Germanic cultures emphasized the power and importance of receiving and giving gifts as a means of displaying and achieving power. Beowulf and The Odyssey share the general theme of giving, and when comparing the two, it is easy to conclude that giving and receiving is an integral part of both the Germanic and Grecian cultures of that time.
The empire is considered as “history’s more creative experiment in rule by tolerance” (Daisy Moore). Herodotus accounts that Xerxes burnt temples in Athens “everywhere they went, there was devastation by fire and sword and towns and temples were burnt”. However, this wasn’t because the Athenians followed different religions, but rather because of their actions “I am a friend of right, I am not a friend to wrong… who does harm, him according to do the damage thus I punish” (Naqsh-I Rustam inscription). Daisy Moore states that many different cultures of the empire were “respected by the Persians – they were free to compile their own histories, speak their own language and worship their own gods providing they paid taxes to the officials of the king, used the king’s coin and housed the king’s soldiers”. This highlights the method in which Xerxes’ ruled his empire, and his religious
The three aspects of this worldview often when illustrated in historical works, such as in Spartan Society, need to be understood and examined together because of the large amount of overlapping in worldview concepts. For example, the humanistic view of Lycurgus and his many great accomplishments does not only prove the emphasis of human accomplishments as seen in ancient Greek humanism, but as they are often put in contrast to the other countries and described as these ideals that the “other” cannot attain proves to illustrate the idealism present in the worldview of the ancient Spartan people. Lycurgus, as recorded in Spartan Society, also is seen in a rationalistic way of thought. Xenophon will even say, “I certainly admire him and consider him in the highest degree a wise man” (Spartan Society, 166). Lycurgus, the highest of wise men, is the leader, and the man who does not follow the ways of the “others,” but takes the high road and creates the ideal society through his many great accomplishments. The “others” or sometimes referred to as “elsewhere” is mentioned frequently in this account of this great
We have now examined Thucydides' strongest arguments for Athenian rule. It is clear that Athens had a stronger claim to rule than the Melians had to remain sovereign. We also know that Athens' claims hold up when we examine them for validity. Thucydides beliefs in Athens' claims were therefore well founded.
In this paper I wanted to get a good general understanding of cultural anthropology and how it related to Ancient Greece, so I made sure that one of my references was an overview of the subject – Cultural Anthropology, The Human Challenge. This would lay the foundation for the research. I then sought out a book on Greek culture in general – The Greeks and Greek Civilization by Jacob Burckhardt – and one about the great war between Sparta and Athens – The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan. It was through these two books where I learned most of the cultural details about Sparta, as well as some context in comparison to some of the other Greek states.
Herodotus was an interesting historian. His way of displaying a historical event such as the Persian War is different from how I expect a modern day historian to write it. He does not try to focus only on the Persian war but he goes into detail some times of the lineage of the rulers of the city-states even though that serves little relevance to the actual war. The accounts of history I am used to reading are more focused on the bigger issue and the historians do not deviate on long trains of side thoughts such as Herodotus does. Herodotus style of writing had me confused because he often would start on one topic and in the next couple of sentences move on to another topic before coming back to his main point about a paragraph down. I had to
The book written by Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, contains two controversial debates between distinguished speakers of Athens. The two corresponding sides produce convincing arguments which can be taken as if produced as an honest opinion or out of self-interest. The two debates must be analyzed separately in order to conclude which one and which side was speaking out of honest opinion or self-interest, as well as which speakers are similar to each other in their approach to the situation.
The Homeric hero lived by strict social and cultural norms that would guide his life at home and on the battlefield. His position as a hero
Herodotus and Sima Qian were undoubtedly great historians due to their substantial advancements in history writing. Thomas R. Martin concludes that the link between Herodotus and Sima Qian is their common goal to create history as a guide to the past, and that the history they create is left up to individual interpretation. Although the time period, backgrounds, and situations between the two historians were vastly different, comparing both of their work is an opportunity to view the writing of history across cultures and around the world. Their ability to write intricate and lengthy histories during the time in which they lived and under the circumstances they faced make them great historians. The way they composed their material and shared it with the world should be recognized and accounted for.
In Histories, Herodotus’ uses a variety of themes to narrate historical events and a common theme revolves around hubris. Extremely common amongst Greek literature and Greek mythology, hubris appears to be the infamous human trait. Greek mythology sees hubris as a great atrocity and results in an unrelenting punishment. The idea of hubris is that an individual with an authoritative position, a strong or influential leader, becomes extremely proud of his exceptional qualities and forms a delusion of his position to be on par with even the Gods. This blinds the hubristic individual into believing he can defy the Gods and elude ones inevitable fate. Herodotus’ Histories is no exception to containing individuals that display hubristic qualities similar to many other significant historical entities. In Histories, the theme of hubris assists the reader in making a connection between the excerpts from the end of book 1 (1-204-206) to other books and excerpts in Herodotus’ Histories.
The Epic of Gilgamesh, the Iliad, and Oedipus Rex all center on morality in terms of each character’s social behavior from the beginning to the end of the story. Gilgamesh, Achilles, and Oedipus are three central characters that embody strong qualities of strength, however carry different experiences of morality. Furthermore, all three characters hold different moral codes that are dependent on their ability to resolve the unique situations that they are in. Nevertheless, morality has ultimately impacted the character’s perception of their role in society in terms of whether or not their actions benefit someone or something. This paper will be examining the morality of the three main characters as they undergo major character transformations
Now, that Herodotus's work described the meaning of customs, I will argue against a case for moral relativism. Ruth Benedict, an American anthropologist, argues for the theory of moral relativism. Specifically, in her work “Anthropology and the
Through examining these texts, it is evident that the advantages historians have when drawing on evidence such as this is that they can easily reveal certain social and cultural values of the society from which the authors came from, just as easily as it shows social and cultural values of the society of which it was written about. The limitations for historians when collecting written evidence is that some key features of the complex civilizations written about were often left out or could be easily misinterpreted or