Greek Historiographers: Pioneers in Historical Literature
Greek scholars significantly influenced historiography, blending geography and ethnography with historical writings. From Hesiod's mythical accounts to Hecataeus' critical approach and Herodotus' detailed narratives of the Persian Wars, they laid the foundation for the study of history in Greece, emphasizing truthfulness and objectivity.
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Introduction Greek Scholars made a wonderful contribution in the sphere of Historiography . They made it a very powerful branch of Knowledge like that of literature and Philosophy The Greeks being historical minded produced one of the first historical literature . Besides being interested in the genealogy of their families , the Greeks were having a deep desire to know geography and ethnography . Hence , they were encouraged to produce historical writings which were full of geographical , and ethnography information .
Hesiod , the Greek poet who was very much devoted to theology , had contributed to the writing of history . He has produced a story of the birth of Gods and their behaviour with the people . In his work , he also mentions five ages viz , Golden , Silver , Bronze , Homeric and Iron and points out that we are living in the last age which is the worst age of history . But these works of Hesiod cannot be regarded as history as it was a practical works in which imagination play major role . Actually the real writing of history began in Greece in the Sixth Century B C But , poetry was not the proper medium of writing history , Hence the rise of prose writing in India contributed a lot of the writing of history . They did not copy the established facts so narrated by the historians . On the other hand they evolved the spirit of investigation and criticism which is the real quality of history .
Hecataeus . Hecataeus of Miletus was the first historian who contributed to the writing of history amongst the Greeks . He was born in the sixth century B C in a aristocratic family of Greece . He made extensive tour of Egypt and wrote a monumental works , Travels around the World and Book of Local Genealogies . In his first book he described the Persian world and In the second one he condemned and criticised the ancient myths . He laid much stress on two fundamental principles such as the truthfulness and critical view towards the established facts . He has written very clearly I write what I deem true ; for the stories of the Greeks are manifold and seem to be ridiculous .
Herodotus . Herodotus has rightly been called as the Father of History because he established link between the Logographers and the historians. He was born 480 B.C at Halicarnassus a Dorian settlement on the sea coast of Asia Minor . He made wonderful contribution to history and anthropology . He chose the Persian Wars as the subject of his history and wrote it in such a stylish way that it looked like the history of the age and not only of the wars . Greeco , Asiatic Ralations from the reign of Croesus of Lydia ( 560 546 ) to the defeat of the Persian invaders of Greece in 178 B .C was the first significant work of Herodotus . He had described in this work , the destruction of the forces of Xerxes by Greeks and also given account of the people of Mediterranean and Asiatic world .
The special characteristic of the description of Herodotus is that he had not described anything with a coloured glasses rather he gave a fair account of everything . He praised the Persians for their bravery . But as regards the description of the military events , he is not accurate and lacks precision . There is a touch of supernaturalism in his works here and there . Actually these were not the faults on the part of Herodotus but were the usual feature of the contemporary time . Special Features of the Works of Herodotus . Herodotus holds a supreme place among the writer of history . As a story teller he could be surpassed by any one As the purpose of history is to excite interest , none could excel him in this regard . His style is easy , familiar and graceful .
Characteristics of his writings . 1. Besides writing about the political affairs , he threw light on various social and cultural practices of the time . 2. In order to construct the history he made extensive use of the evidence . 3. The tradition of introducing history of one nation to another was also started by him . 4. Legend writing was changed to history of science by Herodotus . 5. He resorted to rational view and depicted the reason as to what men have done and why he resorted to it . Weakness . In spite of being an efficient writer of history and providing it a scientific view , he had certain Weakness
