Why did Herodotus report stories that he did not necessarily believe?

Herodotus, often called the "father of history," reported stories he did not necessarily believe because he viewed it as his duty to record the traditions of various peoples, regardless of how dubious those accounts might be.12

While he developed a reputation for credulity, he did not endorse everything he included in his work. He was an engaging narrator who possessed a deep interest in the customs of the cultures he described, and he often combined his historical inquiries with a storyteller's artistry. By documenting these diverse traditions, he aimed to preserve the remembrance of human actions and the grounds for feuds between different groups.123

Herodotus was capable of critical judgment; for instance, he explicitly dismissed certain Greek stories about the hero Heracles as "silly fables" that reflected poorly on the Greeks' own critical sense. Ultimately, his enterprise was to conduct a broad inquiry—the meaning of the Greek word historia—into the past, which allowed him to integrate both historical events and the cultural patterns or myths through which people understood their own history.24