- Why do kingdoms rise and fall?
- Why do different cultures have different forms of government?
- What are the past events that shape the realities we face today?
In the ancient world, the impulse to understand such questions found expression through myth. But in 5th-century B.C.E. Athens, it took a new direction, shifting from mythical to historical explanation.
This shift was almost entirely the work of one man: Herodotus, the first Greek historian, and often called the "Father of History."
This course addresses his most remarkable achievement—his narrative account of the great Persian Wars and their causes. It considers the ways in which his work retains a mythical worldview and discusses his influence on later Greek historians.