Cultural Differences Between Greeks And Persians

Destiny Ponzo / History 1013 / October 26th 2016 /

Source 3.1: “A Greek Historian on Persia and Egypt.

What does this source reveal about the social and cultural values of the society in which it was created?

Primary source 3.1, was written by series of books called The Histories. Written by Herodotus, a young man raised in a wealthy Greek family; he doted his life travelling throughout the Persian Empire and just beyond to record what he saw in the after effects of the war between the Greeks and Persians that had recently come to pass. He spent his time collecting stories from those he met on his travels and then wrote his own opinions both on the Persians and Egyptians way of living. I thought Herodotus seemed to focus first on the Persians

First, though winning the war seemed impossible to win for the Greeks, they managed to pull it off against all odds; thus the society in which Herodotus grew up in would’ve been extremely prideful of their military power for winning. In The Histories, Herodotus describes the Persians views on manliness which corresponds with the Greeks: “in terms of manliness, manly courage on the battlefield is the greatest proof.” (139). Both the Persians and the Greeks trained their male children from young ages to be good warriors skilled in battle, able to endure hardship and to be willing to die for his city. Herodotus himself then praises this custom of the Persians: “The king does not put anyone to death for a single instance of wrong-doing, and no Persian inflicts an extreme penalty on a slave for a single instance of wrong-doing.” (139). Coming from a democratic society, it is no question to why he approves of this unique custom, believing in equality among all male citizens; women, slaves and foreigners we’re not really considered citizens. Persia’s political system, a monarchy, focused on military power through conquest, again training their boys young with specific education and rigorous training. The Greeks and Persians had many

First, he is astonished how “the woman there participate in the markets and in trade, while the men sit at home weaving on a loom.” (139). Of course this would seem very backwards from what is normal to Herodotus because in his society we was raised in, women we’re not equal to men. The women in Greek society would have no rights whatsoever, the natural idea there being that women have no role in public life and they are generally subordinate to men. They were even expected to always remain inside the home, where they can tend to their duties of the loom and watch the children. This kind of life seems again, extremely backwards in today’s time and place for us, but it was a normal way of living for most societies during the period after the wars. The Greeks and Egyptians seemed to have more differences than similarities; their views on women were on completely different sides of the