Herodotus Once Removed

Herodotus Once Removed

The Father of History. The Greek writer Herodotus is often labeled “the Father of History” because he was first person to write a comprehensive account of what he knew about the present and learned about the past. Sure, other people had written histories that were less comprehensive. And the oral tradition had been strong for who knows how long. Herodotus owed much to Homer, but we don’t consider The Iliad and The Odyssey to be history books.

Herodotus’s major work is called The Histories. But the Greek word historia differs in meaning from our word history. It means “inquiry” or “investigation.” Herodotus included the results of all kinds of inquiries, not just those about the past.


Herodotus had no libraries to go to, no archives of documents. Instead, he got his information by traveling around the known world and asking questions. (He had an insatiable curiosity.) Then he would write about some past event, beginning with a statement such as “. . . this is what the Persians and Phoenicians say. I am not going to come down in favor of this or that account of events, but I will talk about the man who, to my certain knowledge, first undertook criminal acts of aggression against the Greeks.”

Herodotus believed that the Greek gods had their origins in the gods of Egypt, which, he claimed, had an older culture. Moreover, he claimed that all of Greek culture owed its origin to ancient Egypt. This must have been a controversial claim then, as it is now to some Western historians who would not want to admit that European history came out of African history.

I have always wanted to read Herodotus’s Histories but have been intimidated by its length. Fortunately, I found that I did not have to read that long tome. Instead, I have found a shorter, more readable book that entertains while it discusses and quotes from Histories.

The Once-Removed Book. There is a fascinating book out there about the world in the 500s and 400s B.C. and the world in the A.D. 1950s and 1960s. It is called Travels With Herodotus, by Ryszard Kapuściński. This Polish journalist traveled to many foreign countries during his career and seems to have taken Herodotus’s book with him wherever he went. He found that reading it helped him to relax and stimulated his intellect as well.


Kapuściński’s Travels. Kapuściński’s first trip outside Communist Poland was to India in the 1950s. This country had recently gained its independence, and the writer comments that there were refugees or homeless people everywhere. They slept on the highways. They occupied every square inch of the train stations, even the platforms. Kapuściński was frustrated because he knew none of the languages that Indians spoke. So he tried to teach himself English by buying and studying English guidebooks to India.

Kapuściński’s next trip was to Communist China, which he found very frustrating since the government guide assigned to him never let him out of sight, even at night while he slept.

His trip to Egypt had a funny/scary story about a street person who persuaded Kapuściński to visit an old mosque. The guide took him up a narrow set of stairs to the balcony of the tower, only to rob Kapuściński of all his money. Other trips in Africa included visits to Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Algeria. These trips were full of adventures, and Kapuściński’s accounts always included quotations from The Histories.