How did Hecataeus of Miletus influence Herodotus?

Hecataeus of Miletus was a significant influence on Herodotus, serving as a pioneer in the fields of geography and ethnography that Herodotus later explored. As a predecessor in prose writing, Hecataeus provided a foundation for the historical and anthropological research that would define Herodotus’s own work.123

Herodotus utilized Hecataeus’s writings freely, though he notably only acknowledged his predecessor when he found occasion to complain about him. While Hecataeus produced comprehensive accounts of travel and geography—such as his Periodos gēs—he did not create a unified, organic historical narrative. Herodotus built upon this tradition, combining the ethnographic interests of earlier logographers with a cohesive narrative structure to create what is considered the first true work of history in the Western tradition.132