Herodotus: References & Edit History

George Rawlinson (trans.), The History of Herodotus, ed. by Henry Rawlinson and J.G. Wilkinson, 4 vol. (1858–60, reissued 1984), is a classic 19th-century translation. In the 20th century many translations were published, including A.D. Godley (trans.), Herodotus, 4 vol. (1920–24, reissued 1981–82), in The Loeb Classical Library series; David Grene (trans.), The History (1987); and Aubrey de Sélincourt (trans.), Herodotus: The Histories, new ed., rev. by John Marincola (1996). Among 21st-century translations are Robin Waterfield (trans.), The Histories, new ed., edited by Carolyn Dewald (2008); Andrea L. Purvis (trans.), The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories (2009), with maps, annotations, appendices, and an encyclopaedic index, ed. by Robert B. Strassler; and Tom Holland (trans.), The Histories (2013).

Useful general works are Charles W. Fornara, Herodotus: An Interpretative Essay (1971); J.A.S. Evans, Herodotus (1982), and Herodotus, Explorer of the Past (1991); K.H. Waters, Herodotus, the Historian (1985); John Gould, Herodotus (1989); Ryszard Kapuściński, Travels with Herodotus (2007; originally published in Polish), trans. by Klara Glowczewska; and Justin Marozzi, The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus (2008).

Among the books that focus on historiography are Mabel L. Lang, Herodotean Narrative and Discourse (1984); Edith Hall, Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition Through Tragedy (1989); Donald Lateiner, The Historical Method of Herodotus (1989); Nino Luraghi (ed.), The Historian’s Craft in the Age of Herodotus (2001, reissued 2007); J.A.S. Evans, The Beginnings of History: Herodotus and the Persian Wars (2006); and Rosaria Vignolo Munson (ed.), Herodotus, 2 vol. (2013).

Other specialized studies include Thomas Harrison, Divinity and History: The Religion of Herodotus (2000), which reexamines the importance of his writing on religion; Norma Thompson, Herodotus and the Origins of the Political Community: Arion’s Leap (1996); and Rosaria Vignolo Munson, Telling Wonders: Ethnographic and Political Discourse in the Work of Herodotus (2001), which also addresses contextual issues. László Török, Herodotus in Nubia (2014), sheds new light on Herodotus’s passages on Nubia, Kush, and Ethiopia. Vasiliki Zali, The Shape of Herodotean Rhetoric: A Study of the Speeches in Herodotus’ Histories with Special Attention to Books 5–9 (2014), examines Herodotus’s language. Valuable essays are collected in Egbert J. Bakker, Irene J.F. de Jong, and Hans van Wees (eds.), Brill’s Companion to Herodotus (2002).

Close examinations of the Histories include David Asheri, Alan Lloyd, and Aldo Corcella, A Commentary of Herodotus Books I–IV (2007), trans. by Barbara Graziosi and others, rev. and ed. by Oswyn Murray and Alfonso Moreno. Emily Baragwanath and Mathieu de Bakker (eds.), Myth, Truth, and Narrative in Herodotus (2012), examines mythological elements in the Histories.